We've got the Axe -- Berkeley wins "Big Game"!

I went to my first Cal (Berkeley) Football game yesterday which was nothing less than the 109th installment of the yearly"Big Game" against Stanford. I was a beautiful day at memorial stadium (which happens to be right next to the Haas business school on campus) and most importantly we won! It was a fun day out and a good way to not think about final- tests and -papers for a while... After the game we decided to act like undergrads and storm the field, which resulted in the lovely shot above of my Japanese buddy Jun and I with one of the Cal players - Go Bears!

Title Mania: VP of International

All, it is with great joy that i share with you the fact that I have accomplished one of my goals in life: becoming "VP of International" -- International Student Affairs that is :-)

Over the past week we have had elections for the MBA Student Association and I challenged myself to run, which included writing a formal platform and (gulp!) presenting it infront of 500 people (ok - in reality probably only 200 showed up, but trust me, that was plenty!) -- I can't tell you how much I learned to appreciate the public speaking class we took at the beginning of this semester!

Anyway, I ended up coming out ahead of no less than 6 other candidates and feel quite honored that apparently a majority of the Haas student body trusts me with a decent budget and the welfare of the international student population.

Shut Up and Sing

Went to the dixie chicks concert last friday and it was fantastic!

Free Speech Cafe - Amen

I keep discovering new and exciting things around campus, berkeley and the general bay area. Today I came across this little nugget of architectural and ambience joy on the UC Berkeley Campus, the UC Berkeley Free Speech Cafe. I have about a million pages of homework to get through today (chicago trip taking its toll...) and the joy of being able to study on a teak benched outdoor patio, partially shaded by pine trees from the california indian summer sun is almost overwhelming - long live berkeley - amen.

Viva Chicago & Welcome Fall B Semester

Just got back from the yearly Netimpact Conference at the Kellogg Scool of Management in Chicago - where we had a whale of time, both during the conference itself and on Saturday night where a Chicago native classmate took us out for some Halloween fun (hence the lovely get up seen in photo above!).

Netimpact is an organization of b-school students interested in making a positive social impact - in short people who want to make money while doing good at the same time.This is something I am pretty interested in at the moment and luckily something that is taken quite seriously here in Berkeley. For those who are all about the details: "double/triple bottom line ventures" is what really interests me personally - that is you only consider your company successful if it delivers: monetary value, social value and environmental value (hence the 3 bottom lines). Expect environmentally friendly iPods (or the like) made by well fed people in developing nations to be built by Maiken-Inc. in the very near future...

Other than that - we finally finished our Fall A semester! Done are Statistics, Micro Economics, Organizational Behavior & Leadership Communication. I won't go in to the details of how busy we were and how much our final weeks sucked - the very brief version is that it was a bitch - but hey it is done and I feel confident that i passed all my classes!

So, next up and already in full swing are: Accounting (homework for which I should be doing right now :), Corporate Finance (I'm finally learning what the bean counters do all day!), Marketing (fun stuff like selling 3 wheel scooters in India) and Leadership (how-not-to-be a micro manager among other things...)

In other good news, I have been admitted to Haas' International-Business-Development Program meaning that I'll get to go on a 3-4 week consulting gig 'someplace-in-the-world' next spring - check the website above for past projects and countries, they include places like Zambia, Madagascar & Tahiti (but also Finland & Germany) - I wont know until January where I get to go to, but still quite exciting.


On this note, back to accounting and hopefully more updates soon!

Berkeley!

Photos from home, school & life in Berkeley:

The Rose St Chateau: My room is the one window you can see on the (US) second floor to the right. Lots of green everywhere.

Enter the castle...

Dining room, access to deck, kicthen, living room from here.

Kitchen - this is where life, good food and great conversations happen.

My current room, I'll be moving downstairs in a few weeks when roomie Alberto returns from Mallorca, and other temp roomie Odile goes back home to France - you get the idea: there are lots of interesting people (coming & going) in this place. Also notice my new cat Shadow, he sort of comes with the room.

My favorite afternoon study spot - the deck.

Jane, my 'landlady', on the deck.

The roof deck, overlooking the bay.

Ok, time to go to school, this is from our first day of Orientation Week, when we had our class of 2008 photo taken - hooray.

Entering the Haas buildings from the east.

More Haas.

The UC Berkeley campus campanile.

View of the Haas School from said Campanile (in front of the stadium).

View of the SF Bay from said Campanile.

Campus sunset view of the Golden Gate bridge.

Pictures from Denmark

A few shots from my trip to Denmark this summer. I spent most of my time with my (extended) family while there: my mother had invited our '19 closest relatives' to share a week a vacation home on the Danish north sea coast with us, as her way of celebrating her 60th birthday. We were blessed with wonderful weather and lots of fun family times.

Enjoying a Danish Hot Dog during a brief Copenhagen stint - Note the Danes claim to have invented the Hot Dog, maybe that is why it has such a Danish name... hmmm...

The world famous canals of Nyhavn (Copenhagen) - My great grandfather had a restaurant (or bar, that is still debated among family members -- I am leaning towards the bar version...) just a few yards from here. If only he had kept it... (this place is now one of the most expensive places in CPH to own/run a business).

Danes love icecream - this is one of the favorites: three scoops of ice cream, smothered in whipped topping, jam and a cream puff thingy.

Copenhagen harbor navigation aid.

Danish Queen Margrethe's Yacht "Dannebrog" - this shot is from Sønderborg (close to where my parents live) which the Queen traveled to as part of her summer vacation. I did she her, however she was ant-sized in my pictures, due to the distance.



We've hit the beach in northwestern Jutland (Danish Northsea) - this is what a tiny, traditional Danish beach resort looks like.

Ahhh, beach.

Heading out for a sunset walk.





Shopping time - "Palmer" are my favorite Danish candies, and they are not easy to come buy. I found just one store selling them in the 3 weeks i was there, hence the photo documentation.

Mom chilling at the cabin.

The Møller-Hansen Family dressed up and ready for my mother's formal celebration dinner, which was a fish and seafood buffet, needless to say, it was delicious.

A tad bit of 'culture': on the way out of the country we made a brief stop a the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde - this is (was) a real Vikingship, made around year 750-800.

More facts about the good old vikings.

Finally, this is Kronborg, the castle in Helsingør/Elsinore where (according to Shakespeare) Hamlet lived (the real princess Hamlet or Hamled, if he did in fact exist, most likely lived in Jutland, roughly 1000 years before this castle was build...)

Danmark Dejligst

My cousin Sofie and I and another very famous young lady in Copenhagen on July 16th 2006.

To the Nicest Guys in East Asia... Thank You!

I realize that i have forgotten something very important so far: posting a shout out to the two "Nicest Guys in East Asia"*: Masaki from my house in Chiba and Makoto, an AMZN friend.

Masaki, thank you so much for making sure that not only I but also my, much too big & heavy, luggage made it back from Japan...

Makoto, thank you so much for making sure that I never felt entirely lost in translation, for giving me the chance to eat Fugu and for showing me the Shinto prayer ropes (I am now perfectly equipped for my future endeavors.)

You're both great people and friends, who helped make my time in Japan very special, thank you!!


*thank you Masaki, for kindly providing your own 'title'... :)

Hola California!

Posting a brief update to let you all know that I have arrived safe & sound in my temporary Orange County home. The weather here is gorgeous, 80 degrees and sunny, which has been adding quite a bit of joy to my otherwise chore filled week: I have been trying to get everything sorted for school start/my move to Berkeley and I am quite please with the progress, as you can see I am a real California resident now with both a CA license and new plates for the Super Focus (which of course from know on will be known as the Super Cali Focus...).

I already miss Japan terribly and I am having the strangest jet-lag/withdrawal symptoms such as craving Granola at exactly 3.30 in the afternoon (which is 7.30 AM in Japan, my standard breakfast time there...) and almost crying in the deli section of the local Vons at the sight of their take-out Sushi (unfortunately un-related to Japanese Sushi...) On a side note, I am sure that Mini Stop combini store chain management has called a special emergency conference to discuss why sales in the northern part of Chiba-ken are suddenly falling drastically.

Another fun little activity of mine here in the OC has been dogsitting my sister's dog Jackie (that's her right here). She's a fun and slightly crazy little dog. I have been keeping up on my running schedule and for anyone looking to spice up their work outs I can highly recommend adding a 2 year old Jack Russell and a wild life running trail...


Finally, I have of course been doing due diligence when it comes to following the Soccer Worldcup and I have on several occasions gotten quite the kick out of knowing that while I am watching the games here, my friends in Japan, Denmark, Germany, UK, Ireland, Seattle, Brazil are watching as well. For the Germany-Argentina quarter finals, I joined my sisters housemate Chris as he headed to Huntington Beach's German Village "Old World" for an 8AM soccer party that included plenty of beer, sausages and happy Germans. Alas, after today I guess we will no longer be going back there for the final, which means that I'll also be missing out on the Dachshund Race oh well... :)

Next up is brief trip to Berkeley to look for housing -- no idea how that is going to work out yet, but, I am out-of-control excited about being going to check out the place that will be my home for the next two years, so stay tuned, more news to come!

Counting Down & Moving On (almost!)

It is official, the count down has started, for real: I'll be leaving Japan in less than 60 hours and it is time to start packing and stop blogging... Mentally I am trying to get myself into gear for the dmv appointments, tax returns, insurance phone calls, apartment searches and other 'fun activities' that starting next week will take the place of my daily Japanese classes. What an amazingly strange thought at this point!

My plans for the next few weeks are: Sunday June 25th leaving Japan and heading to my temporary home at my sister's house in Orange County, CA (-- while there I'll hopefully get everything taken off of in prep for school starting in August), on July 11th heading to Denmark for some quality time with the extended family (-- this will be the first time since *1997* that I spent over 3 weeks in my country - unbelievable!), August 4th back to the US and August 7th, ta-da!, school starts in Berkeley with "Math & Communications Camp". So yes, there is much more fun to come. I am not sure at this point how much I'll be able to maintain the blog during this time, but I do hope to be able to post an update now and then, so don't forget to check in, ok?!

What will I miss about Japan?

The language classes - adding new little pieces to the puzzle everyday continues to be great fun and it makes me feel "grrr" to have to put the pause on for a while. Luckily my friends at Japanese Pod101 are bound to keep me entertained until I can take back up my studies (hopefully later this year).

The fun people I've met & the "Matsudo J&F Soccer lounge".

THE FOOD, THE FOOD, THE FOOD ($1 kaiten sushi never being out of reach for example)

*Big* city life, little dramas and great discoveries awaiting around every corner

24h 'Kombinis' on every other corner

Trains that go everywhere at any time, 20 times an hour.

Talking toilets (ok, just kidding).

The Love & Hate List (i.e. these things can be annoying, but I know I'll miss the anyway)

Jingles everywhere - the vegetable song in the produce section of my supermarket, the fun little tune announcing the arrival of a train, the fake bird noises indicating (to the blind) the location of the stairwell.

The cheerful army of "Irashaimase!" sayers greeting my upon entrance to any given store, not once, not twice, but up to at least 50 times (and probably longer, but I've always had to leave the store at this point).

Girls in Maid-Costumes, walking with their knees bend inwards, because they think it is cute

What I look forward to giving up...

Overcrowded trains, random people sleeping and snoring happily on my shoulder.

"Mushiatsui" = Hot & humid weather

Japanese style toilets

What I am looking forward to back home...

A few select, good foods: Red wine (ok, technically not food I guess...), Blue Cheese, Chocolate, a nice little steak from El Toro Meats & Danish hot dogs, of course!

Hanging out with the family, first in the OC & since in Denmark

Being re-united with my 2 boxes of shoes (although this will take another little while I fear)


With this, I'll leave you for a little while - Ja Mata & see you later...

More last minute fun...

Squeezed in 'just one more' little last minute activity today -- a photography exhibit at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography featuring a British photographer named Michael Kenna, presenting the black & white landscapes he has captured in Japan over the last 4 years or so. The show was *amazing* -- you can check out these images on display on his website. This one was my favorite shot: "Fierce Wind" quite dramatic...

サッカーワルドカップ - Soccer World Cup!

Today's honorable random mention goes to... The FIFA Soccer World Cup. As you may have noticed the soccer world cup slogan is something like "uniting people as friends" - I don't know if that is actually working out in Germany, but in Matsudo, Chiba-ken, Japan it has been a huge success: in my dorm there are a lot of soccer fans, from all over the world. From the landlord, who gladly puts up multiple projectors when Japan is playing, to the folks from Burma who have taught me that soccer in fact used to be quite popular there until the military junta decided to redirect all funds towards guns, to the Indian guy cheering for Iran due to the ethnic ties between India and the Middle East... It's a riot. Every night the soccer fans congregate in front of our shared big screen TV to watch the days highlights and games, with people dropping out as the night drags on (the last game of the day is on at 4AM Japan time...) in the hallways the Konbanwas have been replaced by "Which game are you watching tonight?" and "have you heard that Team X beat Team Y?", alliances change quickly and sympathies are with which ever resident's team is playing tonight.
Japan, much too everyone's dismay, has struggled so far, loosing to AU and playing a 0-0 tie with Croatia. Friday 4AM will be the deciding match for everyone's darling: Japan will be meeting Brazil in Dortmund and half of J&F House will be getting up very early to cheer them on. The odds are not looking too favorable, but even the Brazilian residents have agree that Japan should- and deserves to win this one: it will be much more fun for all of us if they stay in the game...

Nihon Minka-en

... And in the spirit of checking off "things-to-do" on my list, I also finally made it out to the Nihon Minka-en -- an "Open-Air Folk House Museum, [it] is an attempt to recreate 24 historical buildings from 15 different prefectures, dating from the late 17th to the early 20th century." I've been meaning to go for quite a while, but the recent start of rainy season has complicated matters a bit - whenever I've had time to go, it has been raining. Last Sunday was no different but I decided to bite the bullet since i really wanted to see this place and I was not disappointed (albeit somewhat wet).
It's quite impressive to see the detail of the craftmanship that went into these places, the regional differences in the building designs (steep roofs in regions with lots of snow for example) and it also helped me understand certain Japanese customs, such as the "always taking your shoes off when entering a home" for example: as you may be able to see in the second image, a lot of the houses were laid out in such a way that the first space/area you reach when entering was used for everything from horses, to storage and general dirty-work - whereas the living quarters were on a slightly elevated area off to one side -- with this layout in mind, it makes complete sense that one would shed the outdoor + dirty area shoes before stepping up onto the living area space, right?! At least this is now my personal theory, which may of course be completely off :)
While at the Minka-en, I also enjoyed a serving of Sansai Soba -- Soba noodles with "Mountain Vegetables". I think I described the mountain vegetables, aka young fern, before, but I've tried adding a picture as it really is quite a pretty, albeit unusual veggie.

Tea Ceremony - Dozou!

Finally made it to a traditional tea ceremony last week - the WLE crew took us to the Imperial Palace Hotel and it was a fun afternoon...

Tokyo Bizarro

As I may have mentioned before one of my favorite things about Tokyo are the many strange and totally un-expected sights and events one seem's to come across here. The last in this series was last week's dinner at Zakuro a Turkish/Persian restaurant close to Niporri Station. I have chosen the Nippori area for my weekly get together with Yoriko, because i wanted to check out the temples and old shopping streets located in the area. We did that and then set out for a place to get some dinner, stumbling on Zakuro which had been mentioned with one-line in my Time-Out guide book as excentric. It was so indeed, not so much because you sit on the floor, while feasting on an enourmous amounts of (delicious) middle eastern food, while watching/listing to Turkish pop music video clips and finally being entertained by a (thai looking) belly dancer, but mostly due to the manager who runs the place as an interactive Persian comedy, dressing people up in local garb, match-making across table and force feeding persian cotton candy to the guests - very very amusing.

Girl's Day(s) Out

Wrapping up yet another mad Tokyo week, while waiting for the Soccer World Cup opening game to kick off at 1AM Tokyo time (-- it's great to be in Japan during soccer world cup, as they are as excited about it as any EU country 'back home' could be.) With only little over 2 more weeks left in Japan i have once and for all given up on the idea of even experiencing some quiet time while here, Tokyo just doesn't lend itself to relaxation very well and I am equally determined to enjoy every minute of this wonderfully mad place and -pace, even if it means to occasional train coma. Fortunately being completely passed out on the train is the standard here, snoring and drooling even doesn't seem to phase anyone...

My German friend Christine took left again this morning after about 10 days packed with new fun adventures, taking me through another few items on my 'things I must still do' list (which however keeps growing continuously :). We kicked off her visit with a half day trip that took us from Asakusa (old Tokyo the way you'll see it portrayed in movies and guide books), via a Sumida River boat cruise to Odaiba, the futuristic home of building's like the famous Fuji Terebi Biru as well as Tokyo's artificial beach (and the Tokyo Big Sight where the Design Festa from a few weeks back to place).



Last Saturday was Christine's Birthday, so in the spirit of general girlyness we spent the bulk of that day cruising through the lovely little streets and shops of Daikanyama, which continues to be my favorite part of Tokyo. On a side note, the funny thing is that Daikanyama is surprisingly underrepresented in all guide books and I have even met several Tokyo-ites who have never been there, despite the fact that it is just so wonderfully quaint. Quoting the above linked website: "Tourists flock to the big-name glitz of the Ginza strip and the teenage circus of Harajuku. Locals head to the quieter streets of Daikanyama. A low-rise neighborhood chock-full of quirky boutiques and sidewalk cafes, Daikanyama often encloses leafy hidden courtyards within its clusters of shops and homes." perfect, just perfect.
Our plan was to finish off the birthday celebration with a visit to the New York Bar in the Park Hyatt, which is the one Scarlett Johanson & Bill Murray hang out in in Lost in Translation (I have been 'saving' this one for a special event, given the $30 cover they charge just to enter, being a central feature in an Oscar winning movie does pay off I guess...) However we never made it that far, due to a great restaurant recommendation Christine had received from Misao, Amazon.co.jp's PR manager: Cube Zen features seating, literally in concrete cubes as longs as very nice Japanese fusion cooking & I'd highly recommend to anyone looking for a cool place to have dinner in Tokyo.

Next up was a Sunday day trip out to Hakone a little mountain resort about 90 minutes outside of Tokyo famous for it's proximity to Mt.Fuji and it's hot springs. We did the "Hakone Free Pass" loop, which basically means that you buy an 'all-you-can-eat', bus, train, gondola, boat pass that takes you through everything worth seeing while there. We were lucky that the initially overcast weather cleared up enough for us to be able to enjoy the great Fuji views and overall this really was a beautiful trip/loop - my only regret being that we weren't able to stay over night and enjoy the hot springs and maybe even do a bit of hiking, something I've been missing a bit as of late.



Christine went to Kyoto on Monday & Tuesday, so our next joint adventure was a Wednesday 7AM trip to Tsukiji, yep, that's the fish market. While getting up at 5 in order to make it there was a bit of a drag, I have to say that this was definitely a sightseeing highlight for me. The market is huge and very very busy. It's an active market and not a tourist attraction and we almost got ourselves run over many times, by cars and little transportation devices buzzing about at a completely maddening speed in what to me seemed like total chaos. But, we got to see an amazing amount of very interesting fish & see food and were even treated to sampling fresh tuna belly - cut right there and served to us as finger food to be dipped in a big jar of soy. Best sashimi I ever had.Another fun aspect of the market was the language spoken. Among the variations of Japanese are the versions spoken by men and women respectively - Tsukiji is definitely a man's world - it was very fun listening to. A few notes on the photos included here (I have another 20 in case you happen to be looking for funky fish images :) -- the first one shows a couple of the fish market dudes getting ready to cut up some nice big chunks of frozen tuna (the pinkish things seen on the wheelbarrow). And the next one, well, that would be breakfast!