October 28, 2011

この数日のできごと

今週は仕事関係など色々な方とじっくりお話する機会が多くて、とても充実した一週間でした。職場の先輩方と遠方のお客様へインタビューをした行き帰り、お客様であるベテランの経営者の方、本社のダイバーシティ担当役員。それぞれから仕事や考え方について学べた気がします。いかに人を育てるか、信用を築くか、自分で道を切り開くか。
本当に有り難うございます。もっと聞き上手になりたいです。
そして水曜日は10年来(もっと?)の友人であり勝手に人生の師と仰ぐ先輩とご飯。わたしが温めている計画についてまた色々アイデアを貰いました。計画を話すたびに皆さんにいいアドバイスを貰い、本当に実現できそうだなあという希望で一杯です。
そんなわたしも最近ではスモールビジネスのマーケティングのお手伝いをボランティアでしたり。今は頼んで下さるのが嬉しいので、まずは何でもやる意気込みでいます。
やっぱり人の繋がりが物事を動かすなあ、と思うこの頃。家に籠りがちの自分も、色々な方と話す機会を作らなければと思っています。
たまには日本語で。

October 27, 2011

Chicago

This is the second batch of my Chicago photos.  In fact, I took tons of photos in Chicago.  The city was so beautiful.
A lot of people recommended the architectural boat tour, and I did join it.  The tour is run by Chicago Architectural Foundation and the guides are all volunteers.
A wonderful tour.
I wanted to check out the names of the buildings I saw, but well, hope one day you will get on the boat and figure them out yourself. ;) 

The thing is, the old and new buildings, they all have stories. Contexts. The reason why they look like they do.  And the reasons are, unlike in Japan, not something solely governed by the unseen lines in the air (height regulation and such), but the city's history and design motifs and people's lives.  They are very well educated group of architects, indeed.

There are the classical ones,
... and the quite unique ones,
and the ones that reflects them on their surfaces.







And, Mies' masterpiece.






So many buildings have great textures and details.  Even Seven Eleven is housed in a historic building.


The other thing I loved was that the lower parts of the buildings are parking lots (like below).  So, you don't see vast open concrete surfaces in the city center.

And some pretty alleys and balconies.  I'd LOVE to live in this corner room...!!!!!!




October 12, 2011

Alternative Life

People say fall is the season for eating. I would say it's the season when you think about your food.

Because my grandparents used to live in one of the largest fruit production regions, we used to receive boxes full of apples, oranges, pears, cherries. I never thought that was anything special. Your grandparents always send you something (that's what I used to think).
Now I miss those boxes so much, especially the cooking apples.


I ordered a box of apples, my favorite kind, for the first time, directly from a farmer in that region. Then I realized, this is a new generation of consumption style. Surely, a lot of people are already been doing it - buying your food directly from producers.  But it's a revelation.  You don't have to go to the farmers' market, but you can cherry pick everything you eat through online shopping if you are really into it.

I also realized, you can play a far greater part in preparing your food.
For example, I started making my own yogurt (I ended up buying a yogurt making machine for just under $20, extremely useful).

Home made granola is the next?



This particular kind of apple does not last very long.  It's only available in October every year in Japan, and you have to eat them fast.  I tend to bake the most in October due to this very reason. 
The easiest is, of course, jam.



There was a jam recipe with apples and carvados (apple liquor from France), but carvados was really hard to find.  I ended up improvising with leftover red and white wine and spices, so it tastes like the cooked apple in vin chaud.

And the next is, naturally, a tart tatin.  I tried this recipe from Smitten Kitchen the second year in a row.  It's definitely my most favorite, although I don't follow the instruction too strictly.



It turned out soooooooooo good, I could not believe it myself.  It tastes divine, and I am not exaggerating!


And, I learned how to make other kinds of confiture, for example, with grapes.




Beautiful, beautiful purple.

But you see, I am not much into "cooking".  Rather, I am obsessed with "bottling" now.  Baking is also like science experiments and it's fun.  When it comes to "eating", it's less important for me at this moment.  I just want to make something.

As a result, I have plenty to eat at home these days, I really don't want to go out to eat.  If I had time, I will bring lunch to work.  Dinner at home is the best.

Wish I can work from home.

October 11, 2011

One Dream Down


It was like a dream.
I'd never imagined that one day I would be seeing this painting in person.

I've been holding back most photos from my Chicago trip, in the hope to do some background checking and researching first.  Well, be realistic.  I am not a professional writer, and I hardly have such time.  So here they are, Chicago photos.

Let me first tell you, I am a huge O'Keeffe fan.  She is the only artist I've ever read a full biography of.  I own several books on her, and have seen most of her work in those books.  And this piece is my #1 favorite... (I prefer her landscape and abstract paintings than flower motifs)...  it was right there, on the wall of a big staircase.


Many of you may know, O'Keeffe lived in Chicago area while she was young. She used to study at Chicago Art Institute before she met Stieglitz and became famous.  So when I asked a security staff lady where I might find O'Keeffe paintings, no wonder she knew exactly where to find them.

I wonder how their life together had been.  I understand very well why O'Keeffe didn't wanted to stay in NYC for too long.  On the other hand, Stieglitz was a city person, didn't wanted to move out of New York.


This black cross is another of my favorites.  It's such a powerful painting, like no other.



They have more extensive collection of O'Keeffe painting on display than any other museums I've ever been to (I'm sure the O'Keeffe Museum has more, of course.  Love to visit there one day).  The museum itself is marvelous.  Wonderful curating work.


(Some random works that I liked there.)


October 07, 2011

整頓

今日の自分へのタスクは「書類の整理」。
小さなようで、大きなタスク。つまりは頭の整理です。

出版社やコンサルから転じて今の会社で働き始めて4年を超えました。
未だに慣れないのは、大量の資料の処理です。
考えてみると、出版社時代は毎号ごとに(つまり毎月)要らない資料は捨て、コンサルではプロジェクトごとに捨てます(取っておいてはいけない)。ところが、事業会社では資料がどんどん降り積もって行きます。プロジェクトも1年とか、永続的にとか、兎に角ずっと続きます。

プロジェクトならまだいいのですが、マーケティングとして種まきしている分野の資料はどんどん膨らみます。最初は「カスタマーエクスペリエンス」などというざっくりしたタイトルのフォルダに放り込んでいくのですが、気が付いてみるとテーマの中でも内容が様々あって、非常に雑多なフォルダになって行きます。知識がたまってくるとサブテーマ、さらにその下層のトピックが出来上がってくるのですが、この辺りで一旦頭の整理をしないと、資料が一向に片付きません(捨てるものも含め)。

このサブテーマ出しはつまり、頭の整理。さて。

そして今気が付いたのですが、自分のブログの過去の投稿を探そうと思っても全然見つかりません。検索にも引っかからない。これはつまり、整理が必要なのかも。

October 04, 2011

Bottled Everything.


After returning from the 2 weeks trip to the States, and a few weeks of quick bites during the busy working hours before that, I got tired of eating fast food and even dining out.  I got tired of lunch boxes, either.
It was that moment when I saw this article in a Japanese magazine, which describes how to make about a dozen of different bottled food.  They are simple marinated ginger, onion, tomatoes, some cooked pork, and such. But when you combine them together, you can easily fix a few dishes for your supper rather quickly.




From left to right, marinated onion slices (used 3 different vinegars), marinated ginger, and sesame oil with ginger.


OK, I needed more bottles.  Thus I decided to go bottle shopping on Sunday. 
There is a street in Tokyo where you can find many many wholesellers of kitchen tools.  The street is about a mile long, all restaurant-related shops.


Bottles and some tools that I bought that day.  Right when I bought the baking mold, I discovered that butter is nowhere to be found in supermarkets.  Oh well.

Anyway, I made those bottled food until late on Sunday night.  It was fun.  I think I was just fascinated by the idea of bottling food than by the act of cooking itself.