Almost end of the program, thanks to everyone!

This is almost the ending of our program, I just got off the last lecture we have for the whole program. We discussed some stuff we go through those days, however, all my thoughts are “wow, it’s almost end”. As Dr. Sarah said, someone from last year said they did learn a lot during the program. Since, I went another program in London during winter break, compare with that study abroad program, I did learn more business stuff in this program.

Not matter the supply chain strategy in each companies, or their global perspectives influences me a lot, I may not tell what exactly the changes, but I would say this program would helped me a lot in the future. I am impressive the way Japanese doing business with so many respect. Since I did not have any idea about Alumni before, when I came here and attend so many Alumni’s’ corporation and they helped us a lot on the program, I feel so warm about the relationships go through more than 50 years. I think that is the Spartan spirit. Personally, I have no idea of the back to community until I went to States, but with the experience in this program, I would say the power of back to community is infinite, you can influence so many people in a positive way which is great.

Thanks to everyone who put their efforts in this program, I really enjoyed the time I spent here in Japan. This is the greatest program I ever joined in Michigan State. We have great team, great TA and most important, we have the most nice instructor. Thanks to Dr. Singer and Dr. Okuno, thanks for every efforts you put to this program and helped us studying and having fun in Japan. Thanks to the blog assignment that we can look back sometime and always can pick up the good memories we had in Japan.

A day in Hiroshima

We spent 2 and half hours to get to Hiroshima through high speed train. Because we went there, I know Hiroshima from the Flyboys and other readings, the thin man A-bomb there. The first idea of Hiroshima for me is while they still have radiation there. However, I never thought of how much the damage and people lives they pay for the war. Although, we talked about it yesterday night during the class, the truth is more than my expected.

I rent an audio machine in the museum, which gives me more experience and more shocks. The first time, I got into the museum, I saw many of the mushroom cloud picture taken by the time US army throw the bomb. Later, I walked through a hall way which destroyed during the A-bomb and the museum stuff is show up. Because I used the audio machine, I can heard almost every stories about different exhibitions. Each exhibition is from a person who live or died (most of them are died) during that period. Most of them are student who helped the government to move the building in order to hide from the potential bomb attacks. It’s super sad for me to hear a story like the girl died because of the A-bomb and her dad was finding her everywhere and he tried so hard but he cannot find any of her body expect some clothes. There are so many sad stories there, but this is a war, my country also suffered from Japanese army, there is no right or wrong but pity normal people who is not part of army.

When I think about the two A-bomb that US army threw during World War II, I would not only think about Japan and US war, but also the whole World War II. I did not mean those Japanese people are deserved it because they did not show humanity during the war, but those two bomb speed up the ending of World War II. In my opinion, it might not be the best way, but it was one of the suitable way during that time. If US did not show the A-bomb at that period, more Chinese people would die during the war and also in Europe, more people would die.

I always think, war is war, we cannot tell a war is collect or not, but we have to remember the history, we have to learn from the history. Some kind of weapons cannot use anymore, just like A-bomb which US used and bio-chemical weapons which Japanese used in China. I am so lucky that I live in a peace world, I hope we would not have any World War again.

R.I.P

Free day in Kyoto

Yesterday we went Kyoto for a free day. I like the culture environment there, all the old temple, the museum and transitional Japanese dress on the street. However, because of the time limited, we only went two temple during free time, the Kiyomizudera Temple and Fushimi Inari Shrine. After this visit, I really want to spend more time in Kyoto in the future, although I do not have a religion in Buddhism, I am interested in the Buddhism culture and history.

The Kiyomizudera Temple is an amazing place, because during the time they built it, they do not use any nail to make the temple stable. This impressive me a lot. Also, because of the location of this temple, we can see the most part of the Kyoto city when we get top of the temple, this is really beautiful. I did some pray when I was in Kiyomizudera Temple, because someone said this place is one of the place that when people pray, the dream would come true in the future. Later we went to Fushimi Inari Shrine, this is a place with lots of red gates there. It's a pretty place. However, because we get there at 2:50 which means we do not have enough time to explore it, so we just went to the famous gate place and got back. 

This is an interesting one day trip. Because I am interested in Buddhism and I visited lots of temples when I was in China, this makes me want to explore Japanese Buddhism, since Japanese buddhism is came from China thousand years ago. I may not can explain in English really accuracy. All the pray ways are different from China, during the many years developing, Japanese have their own pray way for Buddhism. Although the Buddha named same in Chinese, the Buddha figures are different in details. I think I have to look up more historical books when I get back to China to found out how those difference happened during the history. I really discovered a lot in this free day.

（Kiyomizudera Temple）

（A man is drawing Kiyomizudera Temple)

(Fushimi Inari Shrine)

(Fushimi Inari Shrine)

Hikone Castle and Tea Ceremony

Today, we went to the Hikone Castle around JCMU, it's a beautiful place, however I was a little disappoint about it. Because expect the wooden building, there is nothing inside, I thought there would be more old stuff inside. However, the windy is nice on the top floor of the castle. By the way, the museum is closed today because of the renewing some part of it. This is sad that I did not learn more about the castle. And compare with the castle stuff in China or EU, they would have a lot of history stuff in the castle to show people what this looks like and how people live in the castle. However, in the Hikone Castle, I did not see a lot of history stuff that I am interested in, although the castle is beautiful.

After the castle, we went to the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. This is a nice experience for me, and it's the first time for me to attend this kind of tea ceremony. The most impressive thing is we have to do “bow” a lot. This is also the first time I drink a traditional Japanese green tea, it's tasted great and I like it. However, the tea ceremony process is really different from the process for Chinese tea. And the tea temperature really scared me, it was so hot and it's much hotter than the Chinese traditional tea I tried before. In Japanese tea ceremony, each time we got our tea, we should say thank you to the person serve us the tea and do a “bow” for that and later say I will drink before you to the person next me and say to the person who already have the tea that I will join you now, for both we should do a “bow”.

All those experience is great and I really enjoy the time in city Hikone which for me is like a traditional Japanese countryside.

（This is the symbol of Hikone Castle, it's so cute）

(This is the Hikone Castle)

(This is how they make the Japanese green tea)

Through about different for now

We just arrived at JCMU today, as this point, we stayed in three different place in Japan right now, the great Tokyo area, Hokkaido and now the Kansai area. I feel those three place is quite different. In Tokyo area, it feels more like a big city and more international. You can see people from different culture walk around in Sinjuku, Shibuya and other famous place. I saw so many tall buildings in those area, however, when I was in Hokkaido, I did not see so many tall buildings. Also, when I got off the airport today and on the way to JCMU, I did not see a lot of tall buildings.

Another part, although the manager of skiing resort said, Hokkaido area is more international than Tokyo, I did not feel that expect the hotel has many kind of food from other countries. The more I stay in Hokkaido are, the more I feel Hokkaido is a traditional Japanese area. The biggest hot spring hotel we stay, has the traditional type of Japanese room. It has tatami in the room and we sleep on the floor, it’s a nice experience, although I do not want to do this again. For my opinion about Kansai area right now, I think this is also a traditional Japanese area. The street looks just like I saw in Japanese movie and in my expectation about Japan.

During the bus to JCMU, we talked about TOTO case, and I talked with my friend who is here for 5 years. I talked her about the high technology in Japanese toilet, she told me her bath has so many buttons and features. The host teach her about 30 minutes about how to use all the features which scared me. She said the Japanese people really care about the cleanness of toilet, because the more clean of the toilet, the luckier they can get. As a result, I think this is also may be a reason for Japanese people use so many high tech stuff in toilet, but Americans did not care a lot about toilet. 

(Nice sunset in JCMU, it's nice to be here, a such quite place. l love the sunset!)

Hot spring

When we were in Hokkaido, we stay and visited two hot spring resort. The first one is more like skiing resort, however, this is more summer time, so there was not snow there, which made the lower occupancy rate. The manager told us, the hotel have higher occupancy rate in winter time, there are lots of visitors and locals come here, they ski there and have hot spring after ski. Those years, because Hokkaido has the best snow around Asian area, there are more and more international visitors came, include China, Austria, Europe country and United States. This impressive me a lot, I knew there have some great skiing place in EU and US, but people from those place still came to Hokkaido. During summer time, this resort is mainly for hot spring and their small amusement park. 

The second hotel is the largest hot spring resort in Hokkaido or Japan area. They have a crater near hotel this impressive me. This is the first hot spring I went in Japan, I am impressive, I went one of the largest hot spring in China before, which is a little bit smaller than this. This one have around 7 different hot springs and also have indoor and outdoor. I did not went the outdoor one, since when I went to the hot spring was already night time, however, Nathan told me, the outdoor hot spring is really nice , you can see the mountain view there and feel the nature. I remember the manage told us, some Japanese people came here and have hot spring after them get here and have dinner then go to hot spring, then go to sleep, when they get up, they go to hot spring and then have breakfast, have hot spring and have lunch later, then go back to hot spring until they check out. This really impressive me, I did not know Japanese people love hot spring so much.

Later, I searched a little bit, because in Hokkaido, the agricultural is the largest industry which means, during snowing time, farmers have nothing to do, and because it's cold, so they would spend a lot of time in hot spring. As a result, hot spring is part of Hokkaido culture and Japan culture.

I would say it's really comfortable in hot spring, but it's a little awkward as naked. 

Ainu Culture

We visited the Ainu museum this morning, "Ainu" is an Ainu word means human. Right now, Ainu means the indigenous people of Hokkaido with their own culture and language who lived in Hokkaido, the northern part of Japan's Tohoku region, southern Sakhalin and Chishima Island. The Ainu people used to hunting and fishing for live and they also trade with other races from the Honshuu Island or mainland. This is interesting to me, because Ainu is similar to some Chinese indigenous people and I always like to know different culture.
The most culture I want to know is how they treat birth and death. The Ainu believe although the birth of a child was considered as a happy occasion, there is no any special celebrations for birth. They believe, a newborn child does not have much resistance after the birth which means if parents dress up their child and congratulate the birth, the bad spirits would do something bad and the child would fall sick. This is interesting, because of my experience, most of culture would celebrate the birth of child, however Ainu is different from those culture.
However, the death of Ainu is similar with other cultures. Ainu people believes that when a person died, his soul would go to another world beyond death and he would live a similar life as he dead before. As a result, other Ainu people alive would buried something for the dead people, so they would not suffer any type of inconvenience in the world beyond death. This is similar to most cultures, when people dead, others would buried stuff or burn stuff for the dead person.
I would say this is always interesting for me to learn how the birth and death of a different original culture. This way would help me think more about human's birth and death and learn why human is alive. This experience helped me learn about where I am came from and where I would go in the future.

(The Statue of Chief)

After Tokyo

Since we are on our plane to Sapporo, I want to write some of my thoughts about Tokyo and Japan so far. We stayed in Tokyo for a week, visited 9 corporations, watched baseball and Sumo, attend Alumni dinner and enjoy the Japanese culture here. Right now, when I watched back, I am so impressive, we did so many stuffs in this week and learned so many.

As I said in one of the pre-lecture when we were in East Lansing, one of my reason I want to come Japan is because their innovation in supply chain. As a result, I observed every day to see how Japanese people lived and how the companies operated here. I feel everyone focus on their own jobs and walk so fast, people keep using every minutes effectively. Japanese came out the just-in-time in the first place, I think this has a reason for that, they do not have so many natural resources as US or China, so they have to make sure every pieces of material should be fully usable and they should keep a low inventory rate on hand, because they do not have so many land to hold those inventories.

Another thing, is the politeness of Japanese people. Every companies we went can feel that. Everyone would say hi to you, not matter they knew you or not. This also can be felt in different shops and restaurant, this make me feel the service level is really different compare to US and China.

Before I came, I thought Japan should be similar as China, however, most of the details is quite different, and those small facts if we can learned and used in Chinese business or life, there would be an improvement. I think this is why I attend different study abroad program, learn different culture and combine them, then improve myself.

(This is an interesting photo I had when I walk around the city, this shows how Japanese people make every inch useful)

Free Day!!!

Yesterday is our free day in Tokyo and the last day for program in Tokyo, and I met with my best

friend. She came to Japan in 2011 when we were still in high school, so she is I Japan for

around 5 years. Because of the difference between Japan and US, we did not meet each other

for two years. Normally, in most part of world, student graduate during summer time among

May, June and July. However, in Japan, student graduate in spring, and their summer vacations

begin around August.

I also discussed about the different time of graduation with Keiichi Higuchi when we did the

warehouse tour. We discussed why there are less Japanese students go abroad for college. He

told us because of the different graduation time, most of big companies will hire new employees

in spring, as a result, when students graduate in May and back to Japan would be very hard to

find a job.  I also talked with the Chinese girl from Higuchi's company, she said she was jealous

about us that we can go a short term study abroad program. When I asked why she did not go a

similar program as we are doing, she said, in Japan, it's hard because most of vacation time is

different with other countries' school vacation, as a result, most of the program is exchange

program for one year or two years.

The graduation time is also one of my worry right now, it's hard to find a full time job for

international student in US, as a result, I am looking for some opportunities back China.

However, through my research so far, it's also hard for us, we won't be able to go a career fair in

Chinese universities, because, at that time, we are still in US. Another weakness for us is that

some of Chinese students they already work with the firm in the last semester, but we did not

have any internships or co-ops with any Chinese companies before we graduate. But we have

language advantage and global perspective which is helpful for us to find a job in a global

company located in China.

(Since, my friend is architecture design major, we saw a lot of special architectures yesterday.)

Day in Akihabar

    Yesterday, because of the rain, I did not go to Kamakura which I really want to go since one of

my favorite cartoons is based on a school there and many of the cartoon scene. However, I do

not want to go there with a rain, I might will go after the program if there is a nice sunny day.

We went Akihabar, and walked around there. Akihabar was famous because they sale a lot

electronic products, after that some of the cartoon products would sale in that area. I watched a

lot of Japanese comic and cartoon when I was in middle school and high school. Personally, it's

kind of like dream that I can go there one day. I saw so many nice comic character models

there, however it's much more expensive than I thought.

     Akihabar would be a culture stuff for particular Japanese. I have heard before, in Japan, there

are so many Otaku, which means some 20-40 age men who crazily love cartoon or comics and

there don't go out for normal social network. I did not believe that a lot, I mean people I'm that

age should work hard for themselves for their family, however, Otaku spent most many on comic

and comic products, this is quite impossible for me.  However, when I got there, see all the big

post on the wall and middle age men take picture to the new character models, I found it might

be true that Otaku is exist.

      We went a maid cafe at Akihabar, which is also the outcome of Otaku culture. I felt a little big

awkward there, the waitress dress like a maid in Japanese cartoon and speak with a infant

sounds. The most impressive thing I notice is there was a group of seven Japanese people and

they seems like in age of 50s. This is unacceptable for me. I don't know how to describe it but

it's strange for me.

    Since yesterday, I didn't spend a lot of time there, I would go there again after the program.

(Akihabar)

Localization of Global Companies

Those days, we visit two Disney companies, originally, I thought they are one company and different department. However, because of the culture difference and history of Disney land, Disney Resort is not directly in charge of Disney land, which is impressive me a lot. Tokyo Disney corporation is really different compare with US Disney. Their major customer is adult women which is children and family in US. Because of the different major customers, Tokyo Disney opened a new type merchandise shop in order to meet the needs of adult women. We saw a video in Tokyo Disney, the adult women said they love the shop so much and this shop is different compare to other Disney shop in Japan and I heard when the shop came out, some customer come to the shop from 500 miles away. This shows a big success for Disney did some localization work when they in a different culture.
For Disney Land, the Disney Resort cooperate with a local company called Oriental Land Company which bought the land and built the Disney Land, they are the runner of Disney Land. This fact impressive me, I thought Disney Land are all owned by Disney. However, because of some history and local company can helped Disney to know well the local market. This is a big success for Disney, right now they have a large market share in Japan.
Following the case study we did, and the Coca-Cola I talked with my Uncle, I found the localization is really important for a global company, not matter those companies I mentioned or KFC  and McDonald in different part of world. This helped me build a idea of how international companies doing business in different culture. I this would help me in my future career.

Official First Day

       It's the first day that we started our program in Japan, we met at 4 clock in the morning. However, because of the jet lag, all of us met in the lobby on time which is really important in Japan culture and all of us did not break the tradition which is great. Nathan told me that today would be a long time and I found that we spend around 13 hours for those company tours.
       The most impressive I learned today is about the efficiency for Japanese business. We did three corporate visits today, Tsukiji Fish Market, Kawasaki-Rikuso Transportation and Tuna Processing Plant. The first two companies of those are using just-in-time philosophy which is developed by Japanese company in many years ago. Since I am a supply chain major and I am done with all the basic supply chain class, so at this point, I really want to discovery why Japan also has great supply chain ideas and has high efficiency in supply chain.
       For the Tsukiji Market, one of the reason for just-in-time, 7 top wholesales would sale all the fish for that day, this is the requirement form government. Since the market is owned by Tokyo government. compare to China or some part of USA, Japan has the advantage of efficiency supply chain because of all the society has the JIT philosophy, from worker to manager to government. For KRT, their food business require a JIT philosophy everywhere because of the time limited of food. As a result, they have a great work in forecasting and with a safety stock based on different food to help decreasing inventories.
       Although today is tired and I almost fall in sleep many times, I really like today's visiting. I did learn a lot and reviewed a lot material of supply chain. I cannot to wait for tomorrow, have chance to talk with Disney, one of my favorite companies.

Back Home

After I almost got involved a car accident, I got my flight delay later. My flight is from ORD to Hong Kong and then fly to Shanghai. However, because of the delay of the flight from Hong Kong to Chicago, my flight delayed an hour. If it's one hour, it's not that bad. Before I leave US, my friend told me there would be a huge storm with thundering, I don't think that would be a big deal, since when I was driving, the weather was so nice. However, things got worse after I got on the plane after one hour delay.


The captain told us because of the air traffic control, we had to wait for few minutes. Few minutes, right, sound not too bad. However, the weather changed so quickly, huge wind and huge storm, I can feel the plane was shaking. After that I heard the thundering on Friday, which gave a sense, we won't fly in a short time. 


However, because of the delay, I had time to read The Sushi Economy before we flew. It's a interesting book. I read the first part at that time, and I was thinking is that because those part is talking about the Tsukiji Fish Market, so we need to read this before we departure. After I checked the syllabus, just like what I thought. I like this way, do more research before we arrived a new place. 


The time I arrived at Hong Kong was 10 in the night and my previous flight should departure at 9:15 which means I might have to change a flight. After I got off the plane and ask officer in Hong Kong, they told me the flight was flown already and there was no any flight that time to Shanghai. I felt so bad at that time, I really want to stay home for one more night. However, because of those delay, I have to stay one night around air port and leave to Shanghai in the next day morning. 


I would say I went through such a bad day, almost got a car accident, got delayed and have to stay one night in Hong Kong instead of home, nothing can be more worse than this, hopefully, my luggage would be in Shanghai correctly, if not, I would not have enough dress when I in Japan, 


Safe trip everyone! 

Safe travel !!!

Today, I will leave US and head back to China. I felt a little homesick when I drive to airport. I do not think this is a good time to get homesick, since I will stay just one day in home and leave to Japan. I think I might get some homesick in the beginning of the program, and later on, I will be fine.

Since, I flight from Chicago, I rent a car from Lansing and drive to Chicago. When I was only 80 miles to go, I almost got into a car accident because of my careless. This scared me a lot. Because one of the highway which I usually would go was closed, so I was looking at the sign and tried to figure out which way should I go. At the same time, the truck in front of me was slowing down which I did not realize and I was keeping my gas on a constant rate. When I realize I am too close to the truck, I push all my power to break, if I realized that later than 1 second, I might not be able to be in Japan anymore. Later, when I drive on the high way, I kept my speed around 60 Mph. I was so scared that I cannot feel my leg and feet. It is the first time in my life that when I was driving and almost get crashed.

This blog is not related to the class material, however, I think it is one of the important part for me in this program. I am glad that I am safe and did not get into a car accident. I would say, all of we should be careful when we driving. I was just distracted for only few seconds, but if there was one more second I was distracted, something bad would happened on me.

Hope everyone has a safe trip to Japan and back home.