Goodbye Granny

My grandmother died yesterday peacefully at home. She had been having heart trouble for about ten years, but I didn't expect that she would go so soon. Yuki and I both feel very bad that we never got a chance to introduce her to her great-grandson.
It felt strange at the time, but now I'm glad that I took this video at Easter this year, my last with her.

New Job 新しい仕事

I left Nagano last week to start work at Panasonic in Osaka. It was tough to leave, as I'll be living in a dormitory away from Yuki and Yul for probably about three months, only being able to go back maybe one weekend in a month.
My first day was on Wednesday, the same day that Panasonic changed its company and brand name in Japan. While it has always been known as Panasonic around the world, the company's name since it was founded 90 years was actually Matsushita Electric Industrial Company, and most of its products were sold under the brand name National. The President of the company gave an address that was broadcast live at all Panasonic offices in Japan and recorded and broadcast with subtitles in all the international offices. It is a very emotional time for all of the employees, because the Matsushita and National names were so well respected and have been around for so long, but they are also excited about being united with their international partners under a single name.
On Wednesday afternoon, the new employees' welcoming ceremony was held. Japanese companies generally hire mostly new graduates, and they all start April 1st. Panasonic usually has about 2000 new employees start April 1st, but on October 1st there were only thirteen. The October cohort is made up mostly of people who went to foreign universities that end at times that make it inconvenient to start in April. The ceremony was made up of the thirteen new employees, as well as about two hundred others who had started between April and September, mostly mid-career entrants. I was chosen to make a short speech on behalf of all the new employees, and was therefore assigned to sit in the front row, directly beside the president. I wasn't nervous about the speech, but sitting beside the boss of 300,000 people on my first day of work made me feel a bit nervous, but everything went well.
For the first two weeks, all of the new employees are together at the head office for a general training period, where we have been learning about the company's history, way of doing business, employee programs, etc. After October 16th, we will separate and go to visit and work at various factories and shops as well as taking more training within our specific companies and departments. Finally, at the end of December, I will start my actual job. I don't really have much idea what I will be doing at this point. All I know is that I will be working in Sales and Marketing at the largest of the Panasonic companies, Panasonic AVC Networks, which makes mostly audio-visual equipment and cameras.
So far we have learned a lot about where the company has been and where it's going, and a lot about the way each employee is expected to behave and produce, and it's all very exciting. I'm eager to start actual work and help produce results.
Paul

10月1日にパナソニックで勤める初日でした。長野を出て、3ヶ月ごろは大阪の寮に住むことになってる。由紀と悠流から離れて、本当に悲しいけど一生懸命頑張りたいと思う。10月1日は会社にとっても大きいな日でした。長い歴史を持つ松下電器の社名とナショナルのブランドをやめて、全てがパナソニックになりました。そんな大きいな日ですので、社長が社員の前で話してくれた。生放送で全国のパナソニック社員が観てて、字幕付き録画で全世界の社員も観ました。ですが、僕はその話の時に社長から10メーターぐらい離れた所で見ました。
その午後、入社式がありました。僕は新入社員の代表としてスピーチすることになったので、一番前の席に座っていた。そのすぐ隣に社長が座っていたので少し緊張したうまくいきましたし少しだけ社長と直接話すことが出来ました。何十年働いてもそんなことは二度とないかも知れないことに感動しました。
年末までは本社で教育を受けてるから実際の仕事の内容はまだわからないですが一応、パナソニックグループの一番大きい会社、パナソニックAVCネットワークス社で営業・マーケティングをすることになります。場所は大阪だと思うけど変わる可能性はあります。今は会社の歴史や考え方について勉強していて、非常に面白いです。松下幸之助の名前はカナダなどで全く知られてないけど日本では松下電器と別に関係ない人でもよく知ってて尊敬するのであんな人が作った会社で働けることはすごく嬉しいです。「会社が公器」という考え方で働くとお金ばかり考えないで本当に社会をよくする商品を作るように頑張って、仕事は楽しく出来ると思います。
本当の仕事が始まる頃にすごく楽しみにしています。
ポール

Yul Update ユウルあっぷでーと

A month has passed already since Yul's Omiyamairi and our last post, and so much has changed. His neck has been getting continuously stronger, and he's now able to hold his head up by himself for a long period of time. While last month he always wanted to be held sideways, he now only wants to do that when it's time to sleep. Other times he likes to sit upright on someone's lap or leaning against something. He's also just started to use his hands for something other than waving aimlessly around, trying to grab his toys or our hands and faces. The other big change has been his voice. He now laughs a lot and lets out very strange, high-pitched screeches that sound like a strange bird. A short video is attached at the top, although being two weeks old already, it doesn't show a lot of these new actions. You can see the translation of the lyrics to the song by going to the video's page on youtube and clicking more info.
お宮参りに行った日記からあっという間に一ヶ月経ちました。悠流は毎日すくすく育っています。最近は首の力がついてきて、首が据わるのもあとちょっと　という感じ。前はずーっと寝転がっていたけど、首が強くなってきたおかげで、ソファーや誰かの膝の上になら、支えがあれば座れるようになりました。まだ首はグラグラして安定はしてないけど、、、。寝てるより、座っているほうが好きみたいです。目もよく見えるようになってきたみたいで、人の顔を見ると、ニコニコします。テンションの高いときには、誰かが話しかけたりすると、ものすごい高い声で叫ぶようになりました。なんかの動物の鳴き声みたい。表情が出てきたので、ますます可愛くなってきました。。。