I love business trips to Japan. One of the greatest perks of being an owner’s representative at a Singaporean shipping agency is the expectably great number of business trips overseas and the opportunity to meet people at every port in Asia. This is all well until I saw my pay slip!

I sometimes envy the waiters who work at Denny’s. They probably earn more than I do!

But I still love my work and my people especially my Japanese agent. My agent’s head office is located in Nagoya. I have to say Nagoya people are super cute and very gentle. Yohei is super cute and I wish Mr K is my boss. Mrs Y is a beautiful street punk. She reminds me of my high school days because at school I had a gentle punk who looked after me at school. Punks and yakuza may appear scary, but they can be the most honest and the nicest people in the world, and I love them.

There is one thing I discovered during this business trip — in this industry, I was not the only one who always failed school exams and had to attend extra curriculum during whole summer holidays as a result. For six years back in school, I missed out on summer breaks.

During my time at Teikyo University of Junior and High School, I always came second from the last at class. I used to play truant, spending my afternoons at Denny’s or the amusement park with K (who came third from the last) during Mathmatics and Chemistry classes. As a result, my school could not issue school report to me by the end of Year 12. In usual circumstances, a blank school report meant there is no way of graduating senior high school and thus zero chance of enrolment into any university. Today, I still have the blank Year 12 school report hanging in my father’s den for memory. The day I was issued the blank school report, I am really thankful for the educational system at Teikyo, where passing Kindergarten is a ticket of guaranteed steady advancement all the way up to University.

Now at 31, I have to say what I did have to go through at school is largely irrelevant to my career. K who came third from the last at school is working as dentist today. I establish cargo movements between Japan and Australia, which is no easy task.

October business trip was successful plus I found a very cute Japanese bear. I can not wait to go next overseas business trip in search of cute bears.