Notes From The Tiger’s Cave

Popped into my local supermarket last night to buy some more of those cheap Kirin “Aki Aji” (Autumn Taste) beers that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post. As I was loading a few cans into the basket I noticed that there was a price label stuck onto some of the cans…

Usual price of beer in my supermarket: 215 yen

Autumn Taste beer price: 208 yen

Price tag stuck on side of beer can: 138 yen…  :shock:  :grin:

It was strange because there was no big notice pointing out the low price deal. I checked the can again to make sure it wasn’t the dreaded “happoshu” (mock beer) that people who love their wallet more than their palate tend to drink… No, it was “honto no beeru” (real beer)…

I put three of the cans into my basket and went to the check out. Sure enough, the beers went through at 138 yen each. Bargain!

Back at home, when I poured one of the beers I noticed that it was darker than yesterdays’ brew. A second look at the can revealed the reason: I had bought SAPPORO’s “Aki Raku” (”Autum Happiness”) beer and not Kirin’s “Aki Aji” (”Autumn Taste”) beer.

It was a perfectly good beer, so why was it being sold off at such a big discount and without any fanfair?

Obviously, someone had screwed up!

The beer cans look very similar and even the name is similar - Autumn This and Autumn That. Whoever was responsible for ordering new stock must have mistaken Aki Raku for Aki Aji and is now breaking rocks somewhere in Hokkaido.

Meanwhile, I had three very enjoyable beers for the price of two! Now that is Autumn Happiness!

Sapporo’s Aki Raku Beer. Excellent value at 138 yen a can!

David Hurley
Free Business Websites

You know that autumn is coming soon, despite the cloying heat of the dog days of summer in Japan when the shelves in the beer section of your local Japanese supermarket fill up with Kirin’s special autumn season brew, “Aki Aji” or “Autumn Taste” beer.

The brew has a higher malt content than the standard range of Kirin beers, and slightly higher alcohol content (6%) and so it is said to offer a refreshing change that is in tune with the change in season that will soon be upon us.

The cans are decorated with red maple leaves, which are symbolic of autumn in Japan - “red leaf viewing” is almost as popular in autumn as cherry blossom viewing in spring.

The “RICH TASTE OF AUTUMN, LIMITED BREW” was on offer at only 208 yen for a 330ml can (compared to around 215 yen for a standard 330ml can of Kirin beer) so it was really too good to resist! But then, I’m a sucker for seasonal beers. Sapporo’s Fuyu Monogatari (Winter’s Tale) is another beer that I look out for towards the end of the year.

Producing seasonal, or limited season products is a great way to refresh your customers’ interest in your products and to bring in new business. Japanese beer breweries understand this concept very well. The seasonal beers do not replace the regular beers but are sold alongside them.

The same concept can be applied to pretty much any business and Internet marketing is no exception. Successful Internet marketers are always looking out for new ways to repackage their products or for new products to offer to their customers. One of the best ways to encourage someone to buy something is to warn the prospective customer that the offer is only available to a limited number of people, or only for a limited amount of time.

This becomes even more effective if the customer can see a countdown timer on the sales page, or a timer that gradually INCREASES the price every few minutes so that you’d be “crazy” not to jump in while the price is still low!

Right now, for example, I’m offering to install HTML and/or Wordpress websites, complete with unique content, completely free of charge - but I can only do that for a limited number of people, and only for a limited period of time, depending on how many Aki Aji beers I’ve drunk…  :lol:

David Hurley

Free Business Websites

I spent the summer holidays relaxing with family and friends in Miyazaki Prefecture on the south-east coast of Kyushu, Japan, and I think I caught a glimpse of “the good life” while I was there!

My wife, my daughter and I flew down to Miyazaki on a local flight from Hiroshima and were met at Miyazaki Airport by a good friend of ours, Neil, a self employed Japanese-English translator who never has to commute to work because he deals with his clients almost entirely by email and can therefore live wherever he likes.

Live Where You Like When You Work Online!

It didn’t take us long to discover why Neil chose to live on the coast of Miyazaki. Beautiful beaches, a pristine ocean, fine scenery, a warm climate, cheap property and an easy-going pace of life all make Miyazaki a fantastic place to live.

On the first day we drove down the coast to go camping by the ocean at Nichinan and visited the stunningly located Udo Shrine the next morning (photo, left).

While my wife, daughter and I visited the shrine, Neil stayed in the car and fired up his laptop to work on one of his translation projects.

Another day, we stopped off at Starbucks in Miyazaki City (yes, Miyazaki is quite “civilized”!) and Neil worked quietly on his laptop while we drank our coffee.

The great thing about setting up some kind of online business is that once the business is established you can do it from anywhere! Since setting up his translation business, Neil has lived on three of the four main islands of Japan. Of course, he could live anywhere else in the world that has an Internet connection if he wanted to, but Japan is his “thing”.

You Can Do It Too!

If you’d like to get started with an Internet business so that you can live in your dream location, but don’t know how, I can help! I’ll take you through the process of setting up a website - in fact, I’ll do it for you using an economical web hosting package to set you up with a Wordpress blogging platform. If you already have a business idea I’ll also get you started by posting some unique content on the site. Also, I’ll stay with you to help you develop your Internet presence and take a step towards the dream of total freedom from having to commute to work…

I’ll Set Up Your Website - Free!

And the great news is, I do everything FREE of charge so there is really nothing to stop you getting set up with a home-based online business. There are no hidden tricks or anything like that. Your only expense will be for a domain name and web hosting, but I have found one of the best deals on the Internet to keep your start-up costs to a minimum, to say nothing of the hundreds of dollars you’ll save when I set up your website 100% free of charge :grin: … It is a very straightforward process. Find out more about my Free Business Websites offer by clicking the link.

Here’s to a great autumn!

David Hurley

Free Business Websites

I am currently on holiday with my family in Miyazaki Prefecture. Miyazaki Prefecture lies along the south-east coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four major islands. Miyazaki is a rural prefecture with a long straight coastline along the Pacific Ocean and a subtropical climate, which means that bamboo is in plentiful supply.

There are mountains and volcanoes farther inland in the Kirishima volcanic zone.

Miyazaki is also the birthplace of the Japanese gods and the home of the emperors of the Yamato dynasty.

There are three famous “mingei” (folk-art) products that are associated with Miyazaki Prefecture, which would make excellent souvenirs of a trip to the region.

1. “Shio Tego” (salt basket). Miyazaki is famous for its production of bamboo baskets. The “shio-tego” is a small basket designed for carrying salt (”shio”) that has been garnered from the ocean.

The basket is made of tightly woven bamboo strips in the form of a cone. A fairly long handle across the open mouth of the basket allows it to be hung up while the salt dries.

As the salt dries, the moisture seeps out of the bottom of the basket through the point of the cone and it is collected in a cup, or in a specially attached section of bamboo. The moisture is called “nigari” in Japanese, also known as “bittern” in America.

Nigari is valued in Japan as a coagulant used in the production of tofu, or bean curd, a popular Japanese dish.

So the basket performs a triple function of (1) storing salt, (2) drying it, and (3) delivering a supply of nigari for use in tofu making.

2. “Nobori-zaru” (Climbing monkey): A small banner is attached to a bamboo stick. A papier-mache monkey (saru) is attached to the bottom of the banner with a piece of string, and its arms are made of a single piece of thin bamboo or paper and the pole is passed through the inside so that when the wind blows the banner, it pulls the monkey who appears to “climb” (noboru) the pole.

The monkey is very decorative. It carries a dancing drum and a “gohei” (shinto priestly wand) on its back and wears a nobleman’s decorative hat.

The toy is traditionally presented to parents of newly born baby boys.

3. “Uzura-guruma” (Quail car): Quail (uzura) are a popular species of bird in Miyazaki, where they migrate to from Hokkaido during the autumn and winter. The “uzura-guruma” is a rather crudely made wooden toy bird that “moves” on two wheels. The bird sits upright on its tail and wheels. There are two basic designs, one small and colourful, which represents the male of the species, and one larger and less colourful, which represents the female.

These toys are sometimes given to pregnant women as good luck charms.

All three Miyazaki folk-craft items discussed here have an unique history of their own to tell and come with an authentic atmosphere of “traditional Japan”.

David Hurley

Japanese-Games-Shop.com

The BBC’s Julian May has produced an excellent - I want to say “beautiful” - radio programme for the Heart and Soul series about the bronze temple bells - bonshou - of Japan. The programme captures the physical and symbolic power of these bells and I strongly recommend that you listen to it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p006dg47/Heart_And_Soul_Japans_Buddhist_temple_bells/

David about to strike the bonsho, Nagasaki, Summer 2007

A bonsho bell differs from English church bells in several important respects. Firstly, a bonsho has no clapper. It is suspended from a wooden frame struck directly by a “ramrod” tree trunk that is swung on a couple of chains by the bell ringer.

Some of the biggest bonsho weigh more than thirty tons, and the biggest bell in Japan, the Rengein Tanjyoji Temple’s Flying Dragon bell - hiryu no kane - on the southern coast of Kyushu, weighs 37500kg or 82000 lbs. On a clear day it can be heard on an island 30 miles across the sea.

The Flying Dragon bell was cast in Kyoto in 1977, but the oldest bell mentioned in the programme was cast 1,225 years before, in the year 752, so temple bells can be expected to have a long life.

However, during the Second World War most of Japan’s temple bells were taken by the government and melted down for war materiel. Only 500 bells remained in place by the end of the war, but a few thousand of those which had been impounded had not yet been destroyed and some of them were returned to their temples. Since the end of the war bell makers have been busy casting bells for temples all over Japan. It must have been a terrible thing in war-ravaged Japan to have no opportunity to hear the sound of a temple bell.

The sound of a bonsho has three components. The impact sound - daoon. The great reverberation set up - oshi. The final tailing resonance - ookuri. There are also overtones as the form of the sound waves expand and contract - baion.

For those who are willing to listen, the tone of a bonsho changes with age and the season, and with the spirit of those who strike it. Sadly, however, many people fail to appreciate the beauty of the bronze temple bells. Nowadays, some people think the best thing to do is to strike them as hard as they can, and the resounding tone rings out the sound of their egotism. Then there are others who complain about the “noise” of the bells. As one Japanese monk observed on the Heart and Soul programme, “Those people must be a bit strange because the bells have been there much longer than they have and will still be there long after they have gone.”

Casting a large bell in bronze is a risky operation with a 50/50 chance of success or failure. In the Heart and Soul programme Ikko Iwasawa who runs the foundry which cast the Flying Dragon bell explains the process as a new bell is being cast and Buddhist monks pray for its success. Their recitation of the sutras is considered to directly contribute to the successful casting of a bronze temple bell, and after listening to this programme you may come to believe that too.

Spring twilight gathers in the mountain village,

arriving there to find, as the vesper bell booms,

scattering cherry petals.

 When I set up this (somewhat neglected of late) blog I chose the name “Notes From The Tigers Cave” as a reference to the Japanese proverb

Koketsu ni irazunba koji wo ezu.

Literally: If you don’t enter the tiger’s cave, you won’t catch its cub.

I happened to come across this extract from Awakening To The Tao by Liu I-Ming as today’s reading in Andrew Harvey and Anne Baring’s book, The Mystic Vision: Daily Encounters With the Divine:

“The Tao is as deep as can be - who is willing to pursue it closely? If you don’t go into the tiger’s lair, how can you catch its cub? If you don’t wash out the stone and sand, how can you pick out the gold?

“…carefully seek the heart of heaven and earth with firm determination. Suddenly you will see the original thing; everywhere you meet the source, all is a forest of jewels.”

David Hurley

The most common form of Japanese mahjong is called “riichi maajan” (commonly rendered in English as “reach mahjong”). Like many other things, mahjong did not originate in Japan, but the Japanese imported it (from China) and then set about improving and perfecting the game. The result was “riichi mahjong”.

Riichi mahjong has several features which are absent in the original Chinese game. For example, in the Chinese game, everybody tosses their discard tiles into the centre of the table, but in the Japanese game you have to line up your discards in an orderly row in front of you. Your discard row provides the other players with useful information about what you are doing with your hand. Also, you cannot complete your hand with another player’s discard tile if the tile is the same as one of your own discarded tiles. This adds a dimension of calculation to the game that is absent in the Chinese version.

In addition, in the Japanese “riichi” game a player can “buy the right” to complete his hand on another player’s discard by paying 1,000 points and declaring, “Riichi!” Once you have declared “riichi” you cannot change your hand, so when it is your turn, if you have declared “riichi” and you don’t need the tile that you take from the wall, you have to discard it no matter how risky it may be.

So why would you want to go “riichi”?

Because you may have a hand that is ready to complete, but which lacks any special combinations (called “yaku” in Japanese). Building “yaku” into your hand gives you the right to go out on another player’s discard tile and also increases the value of your hand.

So, if you do not have any “yaku”, you might want to “pay for a yaku” by declaring “riichi” in the hope that someone will discard the tile you need.

Here are some other reasons why you might declare “riichi”:

1. to increase the value of your hand. You may already have one or two “yaku” in your hand, and one or two bonus tiles. By declaring “riichi” you may be able to get your score up into a higher bracket and earn more points if you go out.

2. to gain access to the “ura dora”. At the beginning of every hand of mahjong a tile (”mekuri-pai”) is turned over in the tile wall to indicate a random “bonus tile”. The bonus tile is the “next one up” in the same suit as the “mekuri-pai” - so if it is the 3-of-Coins, then the bonus tile will be the 4-of-Coins and so on. If you declare “riichi” and complete your hand, you can also use the tile underneath the “mekuri-pai” (i.e. the “ura dora”) as another bonus-indicator.

3. to frighten the opposition. Maybe your hand is not worth much, but it can sometimes be an effective strategy to bluff by declaring “riichi”. Maybe the other players will be afraid of giving you the tile you need and so will be forced to break up their hand in order to discard “safe” tiles. (Note, this tactic can backfire if not used with discretion…)

4. to take advantage of “kan”. Sometimes players declare 4-of-a-kind combinations. This is called “kan”. When a “kan” is declared, the player takes a tile from the back of the wall and adds it to his hand (to make up for the tile that was melded to make “kan”). When this happens, another “mekuri-pai” is turned over. Now, if you declare “riichi” and complete your hand, you will be able to check two “ura dora” tiles for potential bonus points in your hand. This increases your chances of getting a “lucky” high score. It can also be intimidating to the opposition if you declare “riichi” in response to somebody else’s “kan”.

5. to psychologically “crush” an opponent who has just declared “riichi”… This is a risky move, but it is often worth holding back a “riichi” declaration until somebody else declares “riichi”. By immediately declaring “riichi” after another player has declared, you deflate the impact of their declaration - and if you go out first the other player may feel that the luck is not with him, and how you FEEL in mahjong can be crucial to winning or losing…

These are just some very basic tactics for declaring “riichi” in Japanese mahjong. Mahjong is an intensely fluid game and therefore very tactical. If you want to improve your game it is essential that you learn to be observant and flexible in your approach. Even something as simple as declaring “riichi” is fraught with tactical implications depending on the particular situation at the moment when you are ready to declare.

The Book Of Five Rings was written by the samurai sword master Miyamoto Musashi while living in a mountain cave shortly before his death in 1645. The book book is essentially a guide for those who want to learn how to use a sword, but it can also be used, in Musashi’s words, as “a guide for men who want to learn strategy”.

Musashi’s Book Of Five Rings quickly became one of the most important books for students of kendo (the way of the sword), but because of its double-edged quality, it has also found its way onto the bookshelves of leading Japanese businessmen who applied its teachings to business strategy.

So, who was Miyamoto Musashi, and what is the unique appeal of his book?

Musashi was born in 1584, towards the end of the Warring States period. The Tokugawa Shogunate was established by Tokugawa Hideyoshi in 1603 when Musashi was just nine years old. The Tokugawa Shogunate ushered in a new period of stability in Japan and the disbanding of provincial armies. A lot of samurai, including the young Musashi, found themselves out of work and those who lacked land holdings wandered Japan as “ronin” or “masterless samurai”.

Many of these redundant samurai gave up the sword and became artisans, but Musashi and others devoted themselves to the study of kendo and set up fencing schools, often sponsored by local lords as places where their sons and retainers could train.

Musashi, however, chose to wander Japan devoting himself to the perfection of his sword technique. Perfection of technique was his sole obsession; he did not marry, did not take any care over his appearance, seldom took a bath so as to avoid being surprised without his sword.

Musashi fought on the losing side in the Battle of Sekigahara against the Tokugawa Shogunate and evaded the victors who hunted down and killed any survivors they could find. He then went on to win more than sixty duels and became a legend in his own time before he had reached the age of thirty.

Musashi was renowned for his “two sword” technique in which he trained himself to fight with a common short sword in one hand and a samurai long sword in the other. So powerful was his technique that in his prime he fought his duels with a wooden sword and still came out victorious.

Musashi’s prowess was not limited to sword-fighting, however. He also applied his technique to painting in accordance with his teaching, “Study the Way of all professions” and achieved some striking results that survive to this day.

In The Book Of Five Rings, Musashi divides his teaching into five “books” (actually, they are more like short chapters), which reflect the “Five Great Things” of Buddhism: earth, water, fire, wind, void. The teachings are written in a direct style, which can be understood on several different levels and therefore appeal to all ranks of kendo students.

Also, Musashi explains that his teaching can be applied to individual cases and also to grand strategy because “The strategies makes small things into big things, like building a great Buddha from a small model”.

In The Wind Book Musashi criticizes those kendo schools that fix upon one aspect of sword-fighting, such as using a long sword. It is not that he is against long-swords, but he is against the rigidity of basing your whole strategy around the length of a sword, for example, because each case requires its own particular solution or response. It is this flexible quality of the book along with its direct style that has made it so uniquely appealing to modern Japanese businessmen and to anybody else seeking to master all aspects of their profession.

Musashi’s The Book Of Five Rings is therefore a classic book of kendo sword-fighting, of grand-strategy, and also an excellent manual for success in the cut-throat world of modern business.

David Hurley
Best Internet Marketing Strategies

Which is the best place in the world to start a new business?

According to Ejovi Nuwere, it’s right here in Japan!

And that is especially true if you are a Johnny Foreigner.

Japan is smaller in surface area than California, but has 127 million
consumers and over four million companies. Lots of those companies are
busy importing gear from all over the world. Almost half a billion dollars of goods
are imported every year.

Of course, the Japanese are also keen on modern technology, with nearly 90 million hooked up to the Internet and over 100 million mobile phone users.

So, whether you want to export to Japan from your country, or whether you are an ex-pat living in Japan, there are lots of opportunities for you if you know - and here is the rub - how to do business with the Japanese.

For those of us foreigners who live in Japan, one of the keys is to take advantage of the fact that we ARE DIFFERENT from our hosts. Accepting that obvious fact and working with it - taking advantage of our differences - can give foreigners a great business advantage, or so argues Terrie Lloyd in the video below, talking to Ejovi Nuwere manager of Japan Jump Start.

Terrie Lloyd is the CEO of Japan Inc Communications KK. Read his story HERE

David Hurley

Best Internet Marketing Strategies

Back in February I took my daughter on holiday to England. I call it a holiday, but I spent the first couple of days clearing my books and accumulated clutter. I wrapped and packed 21 large cardboard boxes and asked a shipping company to ship them to Japan.

I found the shipping company on the Internet at http://www.shipit.co.uk/ . They offered a collection service and charged just under 800 quid to ship the boxes plus a William Morris carpet from mother’s house in Yorkshire to Kobe Port.

It was up to me to get the boxes (and carpet) from the warehouse in Kobe port to my house in Hiroshima.

I chose shipit.co.uk on the strength of their claims to take good care of packing, and also on the strength of the testimonials.

The lorry arrived in good time - always a bonus in England - and was gone in less than 10 minutes.

We then went away on our holidays to Blore Hall in the Peak District and I forgot about my boxes - after all, they were not due to arrive in Japan until the end of April or beginning of May…

One month later, back in Japan, I received notification that my boxes were still in England and that I would shortly have to pay warehouse charges. It turned out that I had missed an e-mail advising me that I had requested insurance but not paid for it.

When I saw that I would have to itemize every single packed item I decided not to bother with insurance at all since I had not written down a comprehensive packing list.

All that remained was for me to pay by credit card and, one month late, the goods were on their way. Meanwhile, there was a lot of news on BBC World about Somali pirates so I would not have been surprised had I never seen my goods.

Then, at the beginning of the month, I got a fax in Japanese informing me that my goods had been unloaded at Kobe and that I had a week in which to remove the said goods from the said port. There was also some disagreement between the authorities at Kobe and Shipit.co.uk as to whether or not I needed to present a Bill of Lading. Getting that sorted out took a few days.

The next problem was finding a shipping company to pick up and deliver the goods, oh but before that could be done there was a customs check, and also I had to pay 12,000+ unloading fee. But who to pay it to? I spent the best part of three mornings on the phone trying to organize everything, and the Mrs was assisting on the phone and Internet in the evening.

A week later someone put me onto a friendly chap called Mr Kurihara who seemed to know all about my case (I guess I was getting quite well known in his office as the private individual who was bringing 21 boxes of BOOKS for personal use through Kobe Port, which is used almost exclusively for the import and export business…).

Mr Kurihara laid out a plan of action in which he would estimate the cost of dealing with my case and would then go ahead subject to my approval. He turned out to be totally reliable and a few days later I paid the landing fee and the boxes passed through customs, onto a delivery truck and arrived at our house on Saturday morning, several hours ahead of schedule, for a total cost of 95,000 yen (I was expecting the cost to go as high as 150,000).

I was out when the boxes (and carpet) were delivered. The wife told me that there was just one delivery man who unloaded everything and piled it up in our genkan. Here’s a photo of the scene:

I have since discovered that the Japanese shipping company Kuroneko (Black Cat) has an office in London and that they ship goods back to Japan for Japanese tourists, so I guess anybody in England wanting to ship goods to Japan should telephone them first… It might save you a lot of hassle with the Kobe Port Authorities. If anybody has any legit stuff stuck in Kobe Port, drop me a line and I will put you in touch with Mr Kurihara!

David Hurley
Free Business Websites