My Work

I work for a famous Japanese company which manufactures electric appratuses. Actually, I am not a member of that company, but my company sends me there and makes me sit for twelve hours or more per day to make a help file of the software which our section has been developing since the last October. The software is used for making settings of a motion controller CPU. A motion controller CPU controls many servo motors which become power sources for moving conveyors, robot's arms, elevators, or any movenments in mechanical systems. A software's help file must cover all basic setting procedures. I have to capture picures of each setting everytime the software is changed for upgrading, downgrading, or any change in procedure and appearance. I wake up at 6:45a.m. and get a 7:14 train and begin to work at 8:30 and finish at 21:45. The time when I arrives home is around 23:00. At the end of April, the software must be released to the predetermined market. To meet the deadline, most of us work on saturdays. Well, I remember I was hired as a translator. However, Japanese companies do not make a contract that restricts workers' duties.

Classical Music and Me

I began to practice violin when I was four years old. It was not my will. My father wanted his child to learn playing an instrument. Violin is selected for portability and his arbitorary notion on violin. I went to class on each Tuesday with my mother. The teaching method was called "Suzuki method" which is famous for education of children to be talented and at the same time notorious for the poor instruction of basics of music. The dogma of this method was "every child grows, and the teaching method is only one (suzuki?)". Teachers all believed all the students could play the vilion at some level as they speak their native language. Thanks for this method, I can play Dovolzak's Humoresque, Bach's Concerto, or other tunes without notes. However, I can't read notes and understand violin sounds with do-re-mi or C-D-F. I even didn't know there's the same tone between violin and piano which was called one of the sound names (do-re-mi). I thought violin sound and piano sound were totally different. I continued to go to class for almost ten years. One day, I rejected going to class since my capacity was full with high school studies. Practising the vilolin was nothing but agony. But my ears became rather sensitive against classical music after quitting the lesson. Mozart's No.40 symphony, Beethoven's No.6 symphony, or Chopin's piano improvisation were comfortable and impressing on my ears when I listened to them at the music class at high school. I began to collect classical music CDs. I couldn't believe historically valuable music was cheaper than modern J-pops. I owned more than 200 CDs by the time I graduated from high school. After entering a university, I met a guy who practised the violin, prefered classical music, read Murakami Haruki. He and I became good friends one minute after we first met each other.

She is not here anymore...

She gave me a mild smile. She always apologized me and thanked me. I loved her way of saying such words. But it was me who should've said such words. I didn't take her call because I hated a cell phone. I lost many opportunities to hear her voice which can never be heard now. It echoes in my brain but does not sound. There's no day when I don't remember her. When I think upon some girl, I remember her. When I think about a lot of things I could have done for her, I regret I didn't talk more and spend more time together with her. I miss her. I miss her kindness.