Week of July 17th

July 18th 2006

Howdy to Josh and Jon, it was good to see you in Gifu this week.

I finished another book this week. It was written by the President of Monitor group, and was about the Japanese financial revival, he called it a renaissance. It was very interesting. He said that we need to be Modern Samurai that are strong with the sword and pen. It was very much a different take that what was written in the “Inside the Kaisha book.” I can’t say which argument I agree with more, and despite their conflicting paths, they actually came to similar conclusions about Japanese business. I would definitely suggest this as a read.

My work in CRM continues much the same as before. I update credit reports, file rating reviews, and spread financials. All good things that I’m glad I had the experience to do. I think that it will help in the future.

We had a great dinner tonight with the Regional head of Credit Risk Stefan Boecker. We went to a really expensive feeling Italian place that Akemi Yamaguchi (the office staff secretary) has connections with. I ordered what I was going to have last Friday.

I started off with a trio of appetizers. Melon with smoked salmon, a foie gras mousse thing, and a salad with raw ham. It was all very tasty. Then I skipped the wine, but really enjoyed the assorted meats and cheese platter. The meats were amazing, sausages, a bit of meat cut from the smoked leg of a dear, really tasty pepperoni, more raw ham, and a couple of others. Then I had a great pasta, that was a bit small for how much I wanted to eat, and a piece of fish that had bacon on it. Wow, that was an amazing taste. Finally, I had a cr?me brule and a piece of chocolate mouse cake for dessert. Amazing. Amazing that it was only like 40 dollars a person. I guess I would have felt like I was really getting my money’s worth if I drank wine. Some people had four or five glasses. But then some didn’t drink really any as they had to go back to work when it was done.

More interesting than the food was the conversation. Thomas is a great guy and I have had fun working with him. He basically offered me a job in CRM, I don’t know if he was serious, but he said that he thought I would be good in the position if I wanted it. I like the people that I work with. I like the hours and the pay that I would get. But I don’t know if I love the work. It is interesting in some respects, but it just isn’t what I’m looking for.

July 19th 2006

Brad came back today. I think that he was glad about the things that happened with everything, except that the FSA was prematurely contacted. The concern seemed to fade after we talked with Mitch, who although a bit perturbed, didn’t really seem to think that this was a really big deal. We tried to follow up with Tom Kimura (Head of Legal) and Itoh-san (Head of Compliance) I guess we will try to get them on another day.

I guess that Hondo-san is pretty anxious to get everything sent off because she will be taking off for Holidays at the end of the week. Honma-san doesn’t want to make the FSA wait, Brad wishes we had never contacted them, and we are trying to get a hold of the decision makers to find out what we are supposed to do. Good stuff.

Today’s lunch and learn was from Finance by the CFO John Killian. He is the guy that Evan interviewed with when he was in the running for the internship. Really nice guy. He took the last couple of minutes talking about career paths. He said several times that we should fine something that gets us up in the morning, something that we can really get interested it. I’ve never been a real morning person, and ORM/CRM doesn’t really get me up in the morning, but I really agree with him. The times when I was best able to get up in the morning, when I was on the junior high volleyball team and we had practice at 6:30, and when I was a missionary, I think I was really intellectually and physically stimulated by the work that I was doing. Maybe banking, maybe law, maybe engineering will be what gets me up in the future, I don’t know, but I agree with John, that is the job that I will become the most successful doing and also the one that I will enjoy doing the most is the one that gets me up in the morning.

July 20th 2006

Brad is out of town again today. There is a Risk Workshop in Taiwan. I heard on the news this morning that there was a Typhoon headed toward Taiwan, supposedly it will touch down sometime in the morning tomorrow. I guess it will be interesting weather.

Today was full force work on the stuff for CRM. I am getting faster at the data assimilation and it is paying off. So I got quite a bit done. I did a report for Armin as well. Armin and Thomas and Marco are all Germans. It’s good, I was worried there weren’t any Germans in Deutche Bank.

I didn’t mention yesterday as I wrote the entry before I left work, but we had a fun trip on the Sumida River last night. We were on a boat with a big room and a long table. On the table was some amazing sashimi, tai, ika, chutoro, sake, and some other things. We had bowls of soup, a piece of grilled fish, and amazing tempura. I didn’t drink and when one of my coworkers asked, and I refused, another person said “Sake ga nomareru hito mitai noni…” I’m not sure what that really meant. We wandered out into the bay by Odaiba, and then watched the Disney land fireworks. It was a lot of fun. I wish Kimi could have gone. However, it was really expensive, and I don’t think that they would have just let her go for free. I had a lot of good talks with the people at the reception. It was a lot of fun. I talked a lot with Kawashima Yoshitaka-san. He is a really sharp kid going to the Sloan School. Really nice guy too.

July 21st 2006

Well, I came in and sat down and was immediately shocked when Brad stood up. The Taiwan Risk workshop was canceled due to inclement weather, but Brad was unconvinced of the severity. I guess the typhoon swept through the southern half, and on the satellite he showed me, it really wasn’t reaching the Northern half. I guess the regional COO didn’t have a good experience, and he cancelled the workshop. Brad said he favored giving him a glass of scotch and holding the conference as planned. So I guess he gets to go back in a couple of weeks.

We finally resolved the OR-loss thing. In the end, I think it will not be as big of a deal as previously thought, at least not until the next FSA inspection.

Kimura-san was the one who eventually figured everything out. He is a very hands-on guy. It worked out well.

We also had a lunch and learn today that we rescheduled from another day. It was by Guillaume Sakuma-san, from ECM. I liked his style and he candid way of addressing issues. I got in contact with him to sit at someone’s desk in ECM and he was quick to respond. I like the work that they do. It is very interesting.