During Japanese Golden Week Holiday

In the Japanese Golden Week Holiday last year, I went to Monterey, California and played golf at Pebble Beach Golf Links with my friend. Early this year we talked about playing golf overseas this year again, but air ticket was too expensive this year. So we changed our mind to play in Japan and booked Horai & Nishinasuno Country Club on May 4 and 5, staying one night at the lodge.

On the other hand, I had to prepare for trip to Vietnam during Golden Week Holiday. I wrote a lot of music CDs to my laptop. I kept 380 CDs, about 5,000 songs in my laptop at that time. (I didn't listen to so many CDs in Vietnam.) I bought digital camera already. I bought Callaway's travel bag for my caddy bag. During holidays I almost finished to prepare for Vietnam and remaining were cloths and some daily necessity only.

This blog is about my staying in Vietnam from May to July this year, but I'm sorry I'm still in Japan. I will leave Japan for Hanoi maybe next post. Wait for a while. Thank you.

May 2, 2006 diary

I wrote this post on May 2, 2006 to my blog in Japanese.

I changed my job in April this year, I had to go to Vietnam for business trip. I had to prepare for my new assignment in Atlanta, U.S.A. So I was putting my affairs in order. I closed my email account in NTT Communications, and got free-mail like yahoo!mail or Gmail. I closed CITIBANK account in Japan (actually I didn't made any deposit on this account). I also closed accounts in a securities broker. On May 2, I made a cash refund on my commuter passes. I cancelled my cell phone on NTT Docomo as well, because I had to go to Vietnam for 2 months and after coming back to Japan, within 2 month or so I would leave for Atlanta.

At that time it seemed I gave up public life and would be a hermit.

In Aizu Wakamatsu

I was in Aizu Wakamatsu from Apr 20 to 21. I heard about life in Hanoi from one of stuff who had been in Hanoi for some time. Firstly, regarding golf, Factory Director was golfer so it was no problem for me to bring golf club. It was planned to live in 3 beds room apartment with co-workers. But I was told that there was no Internet connection. That's out of the question. I strongly asked to install ADSL in the apartment. Of course they agreed. I surprised later that I didn't hear about my job in Hanoi.

firehills visits Aizu Wakamatsu City

On April 20, 2006 I went to T Co., Ltd. in Aizu Wakamatsu City, where I learned mould business and injection machines because subsidiary in Hanoi, Vietnam was under control of this company in Aizu Wakamatsu. Aizu Wakamatsu is very famouse for hot springs but I had no time this time. While I was in Shinkansen, I was listening to Toshiba MP3 player "gigabeat". At that time I was listening albums according to alphabetical order. "Into the Music" by Van Morrison, "Into the Purple Valley" by Ry Cooder, "Island" by The Band, I remember. I had thousand of thoughts about Atlanta when I heard "Georgia on My Mind" of The Band. Yes I will go to Atlanta for new assignment around October this year.

HP nx4300 and CASIO EXILIM EX-Z600

I bought B5 laptop, HP JAPAN nx4300 and 6.0 mega pixels digital camera, CASIO EXILIM EX-Z600 in early May before I went to business trip to Vietnam. I planned to go to Atlanta for next assignment after Vietnam and I will need PC and digital camera in near future, so I decided to buy. I have an all-in-one printer of HP, my son has a HP desktop and laptop, I have a friend working for HP, so I'm a fan of HP. I used to use SONY's CYBER SHOT and CANON's KISS DIGITAL, but this time I chose high quality compact digital camera very carefully checking spec of several models of CASIO, SONY or CANON. Both nx4300 and EX-Z600 were good choices at that time, I believe. They worked very hard in Vietnam.

La Squall, Vietnamese restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo

On April 14, I went to have a dinner with my friends at La Squall, Vietnamese restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo. I had two bottles of 333, one of best selling beers in Ho Chi Minh and Nep Moi, sticky rice spirit. I liked Nep Moi at this time. Later in Hanoi, I liked it much more drinking on the rock of Nep Moi everyday. I can tell you this story later.

firehills bought a new suitcase

I had used a suitcase for a long time, which I bought in 1989 when I had a new assignment in Hong Kong. This suitcase had traveled from and to Japan, Hong Kong, Sebu Island in Philippines, Bali Island in Indonesia, Singapore and United States for 13 years and the lock was finally out of order. So I gave it up after coming back from United States in 2002. I bought a new one for long business trip to Vietnam. It was relatively large. When I packed it up, it seemed to have more than 20KGS. In Tokyo International Airport, I had no problem even if I had a golf bag as well. Total weight was maybe more than 30KGS. However when I came back from Noibai International Airport, it caused a trouble when I checked in. I can tell you this story later.

firehills went to Embassy of Vietnam

On April 10, 2006 I went to Embassy of Vietnam in Japan to get the visa. It is in a quiet resident area of Shibuya, 10 minutes walk from Yoyogi-hachiman station of Odakyu Line. Their website said that it was necessary to bring a guarantee letter from the sponsor in Vietnam to get business visa. But when I made a phone call to them, they told me that letter wasn't necessary, passport and photo were enough and visa would be issued immediately. There were 3 consulate stuff there and they issued my visa in just 20 minutes without any letter as they told me. I got a 3-months, multiple visa. Issuing fee was JPY10,000.

firehills was asked to go to Vietnam

At last I start this blog. Sorry to be late.

I remember that I was asked to go to Vietnam by my boss at the first day on April 3 when I entered my company. "First day", but I had been in this company for 2 years, and I expected my new assignment would be on abroad, so when I was asked to go Vietnam I wasn't surprised to hear that. Anyway, my boss asked me to go Vietnam only for 2 months and go to United States next.

Our company has a newly established factory in Noi Bai Industrial Zone in Hanoi, Vietnam. I go there to help accounting and general administration of the factory. Between 1989 and 1996 during my stay in Hong Kong, I have been to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Philippines and Indonesia for business and just sightseeing, but this is the first time to go to Vietnam. Factory Director is Japanese and 2 more Japanese are from Japan. So I didn't worry about. My biggest concern was whether I would bring my golf bag or not. I didn't know at all about golf courses in Vietnam at that time.

My 70 days in Hanoi, Vietnam

This is my memory of 70-days long business trip to Hanoi, Vietnam from May 2006 to July 2006. I will update very soon. See you.