re-evaluating my career path and positive changes

I was recently contacted by a local head-hunter for a bilingual Japanese executive assistant position for a microchip technology company, and I have been doing alot of evaluation in terms of *the ideal career path* to help me not only grow as a person, but being able to serve others.

When I think about what I seek in career, the most important aspect when making a career decision which is to serve people remains the same even after many years of different career experience.

And lately, I realized how it is very important for me to help my family before serving the people in the society. Sure, the balance is the key, but I feel I have been too self centered, being interested in my personal progression (well, that was the stage of life that I was going thru), and not thinking too much of what I could have done to help my own people.

I became interested in the catering/event manager position in the restaurant business, because I thought that it would hep me cultivate the path to opening a restaurant here in North America.

As you may already know, my family has a family restaurant business that has been running over 80 years in Japan, and because of that, I was able to come overseas at the age of 15 to study English. Unfortunately at the moment, no one is to continue the business over there (all of their daughters are here in N. America), so I have been hoping to establish a new root but in the same industry to continue our family tradition. And in my mind, I was picturing myself to open the business in the next 3-5 years.

But recently, I got a wake up call.

If I do not get to help my parents now, I am not even sure if what I am doing right now will lead me to get where I need to be in 3-5 years.

So what is it that I need or want to do right now?

I want my parents to give some of their responsibilities to me. They still look after my youngest sister who goes to high school in Vancouver, BC.

Because of that they continue to work, although they would (I think) like to retire and try something new and exciting (they are very eager and mentally young adults who started snowboarding after turning 50! And my dad is training to become a snowboarding instructor! Yes, I got my humble personality from my dad ;) ), and I know that they deserve to explore their life more while they are physically healthy and young!

So I have been thinking: if I get the bilingual executive assistant position, I will not only get to see my family during international business trips (which I know bring them some good happy times), but help my dad by supporting my youngest sister financially even a little bit...

And if I do get to start helping my family now, I may get a better understanding of my own self and the purposes of my life better, which will definitely help me in terms of turning my own dreams come true, you know?

And guess what!

I heard from the head-hunter yesterday and I am now offered the position by beating up another candidate with much stronger career background!!

How did I do it?

Well, there was a pdf file that summarized the company profile (and their products) in their website.

I used the given information and made a presentation of it, but in the language of Japanese to show my translation skill (as well as my presentation skill).

I knew that I had to make a great impact during the second job interview, and although I was busy with my current job responsibility, I stayed up until 4am to complete the presentation file and brought the file burned onto a cd-rom to the job interview this past Wednesday!

Needless to say, the president and the executive were impressed with my initiative and my eager attitude.

And I was told that they really like my diverse career background (have worked for manufacturing, educational and hospitality industry) and my humble, determined and responsible personality! :) And so they decided to hire me as their team member! YES!!! YES!!! YES!! I did it! :)

So yes, it is official that I am going to work as a bilingual Japanese executive assistant starting next Friday! And this is very exciting to me, because I feel that I have finally obtained a career that I can be very proud of and have the potential to grow (as a career woman) and at the same time allow me to help my own people!! (yes! Finally!!)

So although the idea of leaving my current company suddens me a little (people were very nice and generous), I feel that this will cause a good change for my family and myself.

You know, things have been kinda difficult for me since last fall losing my personal identity.

I literally had to learn how to live from the scratch.

But because of that, I can appreciate the each given day as a gift,

And it makes me super happy to know that I really mean things that I speak right now, being truly truthful to my own life philosophy and appreciating all that is given to me from the bottom of my heart. I feel that because I learned how to appreciate the life in an ultimate way, all these lucky things are arriving in my life.

So I just wanted to give my people my wonderful news and share my immense positive energy that is fuelled in my body and soul!

Thank you so much, guys (you know whom I referring to!) for being there for me and being such a great support and inspiration.

I promise that I will continue trying to inspire you guys in everything that I do in my life :)

Peace and love! thanks so much for reading!

making up for tomo's b-day and some precious video clips from my childhood!

today was my day off! yes! gotta do my things while I can. This is the lesson I learned after obtaining my current job as a catering/event manager for a company that has a few different operations at the air canada center.

anyway, Oct 19th was my really good friend, Tomomi's b-day.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spend the day with her to cerebrate it, because of my tight schedule at work, so I tried to make it up for it tonite.

You know the horseradish crust salmon dish that I made the other nite for Ilya turned out soo great?! I tried it again because I thought Tomomi deserves to try it!

This time better photos were taken, so here we go:



Tomomi's friend, Minori came over so our little b-day cerebration make up turned into a girl's time off eating tasty food and watching this dvd that i recently received from my dad full of old video films that he recorded of my sister and my childhood.

I am uploading some clips online, so not all of it maybe available right at the moment, but here we go: enjoy watching a little kumi run around places :)

1. this clips shows my oldest memory ever in my life-dressing up in special costume for my little brother's funeral when I was 2-3, I lost my little brother by an accident. I remember seeing my family crying sooooo much, and I had no idea what really happened, but I knew something very upsetting and sad happened. So I cried very hard with my family too. It was very hard to let him go, but he is always with us in our heart and soul. I think of him when I do my cardio and try to live my life as fulfillingly as I can for myself and for him also. In this clip, you see my older sister and myself wearing the special costume with a special make up on. You will also get to see an typical Japanese living room setting in the background. I am so glad that my dad filmed and kept this. I think that he bought the video camera to actually record this event.
   
2. of me at the age of 3 wearing kimono with my sister
   
3. dancing in kimono at the age of 3!!! LOL
4. run little kumi run
5. playing with my grandma's brother (haccho-ji no oji-chan)
6. elevator girl in training I grew up in the suburb, so when my grandma took me to huge department stores in tokyo and saw the elevator ladies assisting people to get on the elevator, I was inspired! and instantly wanted to become one. Apparently, I put my pre-school hat on my head, wore my first pair of groves and pretended to be one by the sliding door of the living room. Here you will see a little Kumi very hesitated first but proudly representing the youngest elevator girl exist in the world :)
7. entry to an elementary school: after returning from the first day at my school

sweet sound, sweet energy vibrating into my body, giving me big smiles on my face

http://grooveparlor.com/index.htm

Please listen to Cordell Johnson: http://grooveparlor.com/audio/grooveparlor/cordelljohnson-wickerparkfunk.ram

I just can not get enough of his shite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The way I put it: "if you listen to his music, your wildest dreams will come true (by Pedro)" ;)

Mad respect, love, and appreciation go to Cordell Johnson! Woo HOO!

ilya's b-day

my roommate, ilya took a day off from work, so I was able to spend his b-day morning with him. Thusly, i made a b-day breakfast for him and myself...




























wishing you the bestest wishes for such a sweet-heart, Ilya. May your new chapter be fulfilled with loads of happiness, joy, peace, excitement and growth :) Peace and love, Kumi

cerebrating ilya's b-day

Today was my day off yes!!!
I went out last nite and had a fabulous time with Nozomi and people that I became friends with.
Everyone was sharing such great vibes with me, and I had such a blast!!

Anyway, I came home around 4am and went to bed like 5am, so I did not wake up until afternoon. LOL But after working for 6 days straight, I really needed the sleep and relaxation in my bed. LOL

I went to take care of some errands and got a delicious looking chocolate cake from my neighbor bakery cafe that is very popular among posh looking young and old ladies. Well, they do sell some fancy desserts (not cheap), and I have tried some of their tarts and shortbread cookies, and I must say that I do love their fine elegant tasting sweets. So I decided to get a cake for my roommate, Ilya's b-day from that shop. I said "we deserve to try something much fancy from the shop! LOL".

Then my roommate and I had a cup of tea and shared a tart. It was delicious. My god, I should have taken a photo of the tart. It was a fig tart, and it looked soo pretty too! Anyway, it was a perfect tasting dessert for my day off. :)

I then went to a nearest postal office to get my percel from my sister who was recently back in Japan and brought some of my winter clothings for me.

The percel was HUMONGUS. I am very thankful for my family for their support in sending me my winter gear. Anyway, while the postal officer went in the back to get my stuff, this old gentleman who bought over 100 dollar worth of postal related products stuffed some of the stamps arranged on the counter into his bag (stealing).

So when the office returned, I was like: "Excuse me, sir (to the officer). Is this thing for sale? Cause I saw this gentleman putting a couple of that into his bag while you went to get my percel".

The officer looked at the gentleman sharply and proceeded to check his bag that was on the counter.

"You have not paid for this yet, so would you like to make a payment right now?"
The gentleman: "Urm, well, not at this time". and he just disappeared.

"What a loser. I mean, you were showing off your bills from your wallet, and you decide not to pay for a thing when you fail to get it for free? Give me a fucking break". I thought. (haha, I sound such a bitch). LOL

I just thought it is such a pity how there are people who try to get everything that they maybe able to, in a given scenario like that. Speaking of this, this incidence just reminded me of the hurricane Katrina hitting Texas and causing a major flood in the city, because I saw some young kids stealing things from the department stores etc. on one of the internet news.

When I saw that, I felt: "Wow, these kids who were left behind in the city unable to leave must have had no chance to actually own anything like that before...yeah, let them touch those things at least one time in their life time"....

And this thought hit me: "am I being such a racist by having different kind of opinions and reactions towards people from different class??" Yes, I think so. And I felt guilty for realizing my own false (rich shall not steal, but poor a'right, cause they have no choice!??).
I just wanted to post a note about it.

Anyway, I then went to buy a few things at the mall, went to the gym and did my 1 hour cardio, bought some grocery and came home to make a special dinner for my roommate who has a b-day on Oct 24th (tomorrow).

Since I would be stuck at work until late at nite, I had decided to make a great dinner for him tonite. Plus, it was my day off, so I thought I deserve to do something I truly enjoy as well.

:)

So here we go, these are a few photos of things that I prepared. Since we had a late dinner (my roommate did not come home until late, as I never told him abou the dinner), we had only two dishes, but it was just very fulfilling in many ways. :)

Horseladish Crusted Salmon:


It was absolutely delicious!
I will make it again! The bedding for salmon is dilled cucumber and carrot, which actually matched with the salmon very much. I made Grain Mustard Sauce (lemon juice, butter, olive oil, sour cream, dijion mastard, dill, chive, salt, black pepper and sugar) and it was just perfect. Something light but just right. I was very pleased with this dish as it brightened the flavour of each ingredients that I used, and they all played a magic in a plate. I felt that this was such a magical dish, and it was just perfect for my roommate's b-day (pre-) cerebration.

I also made butter-mushroom-rice, rosemary potatoes and sauteed broccoli and carrot. The photo is kinda blurry, but they tasted fine too :)


We had a shot of Russian Liquor along with our supper, and shared a fig tart that I had purchased from the fancy cafe. I bought my favorite, Aveda tea (comforting) in the late afternoon, so we had a cup of its tea with the tart.

Tonight I truly spoiled myself by spending time doing things that I truly enjoy (cooking and making someone feel happy and special), and fulfilling myself with the colorful and flavourful meal. I really hope that one day, I can bring my cooking skills one step higher than where it stands right now. Although I used to and am still interested in having my own restaurant in future, for now, I just hope to have more personal time to manifest my own creativity and passion in cooking by hosting friends for nice meals like this in near future :)


Thank you for reading!