I had my first Thursday off in a while (well, apart from that wee three week holiday I just had in NZ!). I was working at Soka University every Thursday, but their semester finishes quite early and I have no more Thursday classes. Yay!
I got so much done today:
I posted thank-you / congratulation messages to:
- Yoshiko's parents for the present of lovely clothes that they gave to Rai
- Mr. Nishi in Beppu who chairs the Oita Prefecture New Zealand Friendship Association and got onto NZ's New Year Honours List (I met him many times when I lived in Beppu and often went to his house for barbecues and to watch rugby - he couldn't speak a word of English - or, for me, intelligible Japanese - but he is a great guy)
- Maki and Garreth's twin boys Sean and Kieran (sp?) - born in the middle of last year!
A New Year's card to Randy in Beppu, whom I saw at Yoshiko's wedding and had a great time catching up with.
Plus some administrative stuff - airpoints membership for Rai and a subscription to O (Oprah) magazine for me.
I also tried to check out Seiji's student loan status...have a feeling we should pay off his loan while the exchange rate is good...he owes about $10,000 which would be nice to be rid of.
I bought lots of things at the 100 yen shop for Seiji (medical masks because the poor man has a terrible cold) and for me (hooks to hang my coat and umbrella on at work, and other exciting things like that).
I realised that bookshops in Japan don't sell gift cards like in NZ - they have special stationery shops for that. It was quite a hassle because the two bookshops I went to only had a very small range of cards....something they should reconsider! (similar to post offices here which sell hardly any packaging at all, and no envelopes as far as I can tell - crazy!).
I am still interested in business stuff....and doing an MBA...info here and here.
I enjoyed looking at the Benesse website today - I thought it would be all Japanese and painful to read, but they have an excellent English website. The company is truly huge and has HEAPS of information. I requested their annual report and may even buy some shares.
I also looked at the ABC childcare group in NZ. Their parent company in Australia seems to have gone bankrupt (or whatever companies do - should probably learn that word before I start an MBA!), but the NZ part is fine apparently - shares are incredibly low (or worthless possibly) and I'm guessing won't be for sale if the parent company goes down...I cheekily asked them for an annual report as well.
I did a bit of research on Suzanne Paul (a potential mentor??!!)..I was surprised to learn that she won season 3 of Dancing with the Stars. Things you miss when living in another country : )
Plus, watched and enjoyed Rocky 2 with Seiji with morning and a bit of Summer of Sam good Spike Lee stuff with the sexy and under-rated John Leguizamo.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
hi!
ReplyDeletehello from manila, philippines. am very sorry to attempt to contact you via a comment at this blog post of yours which i found via a google alert for "beppu." tried pulling your email from your profile but there was none.
i am an incoming grad student at ritsumeikan asia pacific university (starting this april 2009) and i am trying to explore the possibility of doing a homestay (long-term, 1 or 2 years) with a japanese family at beppu. and the first step is to find and contact a family and ask if they would consider such an arrangement. may i ask if i can email you for more on this? thank you very much and apologies for this comment.
(eljoma.ilmpi@gmail.com)