Found at Milan exhibition hall: a pink paper toy designed by Nagao Tomoko, a Japanese artist who was born in Nagoya in 1976 and who worked and lived in Milan.
She also does painting, sculpture...

To discover her artwork, visit her website here.

My secret about Nagao Tomoko's paper toy: it talks...
Yes yes, it does.

Welcome to the second European module of the Executive Training Programme Japan 2009 !

After Paris, we decided to have a bit of Italian sun, food and business expertise. So here we are, at the nice SDA Bocconi, testing our ability to adress a proper Business Plan and our marketing skills, with many "Ciao", "Grazie mille", "Allora" and "Avanti !".

SDA Bocconi

Our ten-days module at Bocconi consisted in overviews of Business plan components, Keiretsu, Corporate governance, East Asian Development model, international Marketing, Diversity management, Law attitudes, Finance, Marketing in Asia, Japanese business etiquette and Lean production.
Led by the charismatic Carlo Filippini, this part of the programme was more an introduction to the topics than a a true formation. But for the ones of us who did not study Economics before, it was a nice start.
Everyday, we had classes in amphitheatres and could use the "boxes" for our group work on IKEA business plan. Modern and comfortable, SDA Bocconi was the most convenience place to get an insight into the Business and Management components.

Once again, we received a full student package, SDA Bocconi branded...

Fashion, Furniture, Food and Ferrari

On Saturday, even if the sun was in week-end too, I walked to the Duomo. There, an unexpected crowd was celebrating an event that I didn't understand; trying to escape to the street salers - a blond tourist-like lonely girl is apparently an popular target - I also snubbed my own pals who were crossing the piazza !
Together we walked across the Galleria, visited to the official Ferrari shop, went to the exhibition of Samurai armures, and had an Italian ice-cream. Too hard.

Pals, Pasta, and Pizza

We can't say that we were starving at the university: tea, coffee, orange juice and croissants have been our best friends during the whole stay. In addition, we had a nice welcome buffet the first evening and were invited to the Japanese restaurant in the middle of the week. But it didn't prevent us to run at the pizzeria as soon as classes finished...

Food creates links. The best way to know people better : share the pizza of friendship...

(Click to enlarge)

Next step : London, kanji and cie !

Just have a look at this lovely CM of young French singer Berry, called "Mademoiselle", a word which smells like Chanel, which sounds like Patricia Kaas, which looks like Sandrine Bonnaire... This is our privilege : the word "Mademoiselle" always suits us, French girls, perfectly.

Tokyo sanpo
His name is Forent, he is French, he portrays Tokyo through funny and strange details picked up on the streets of the capital. The result is surprising and deadly original. I am just so jealous I didn't have the idea before him. Aaaargh....

On this page you can "build your Japanese street" : 5 meters wide, bicycles, electric cables... everything you saw on the street in Tokyo ! Japan addicts will love it.

CHAVOUET, Florent. - Tokyo Sanpo : promenades à Tokyo. - Picquier, 2009. - 206 p. : ill. en coul. ; 196*270 mm. - ISBN 978-2-8097-0076-3 : 22 €.

From March 11th to 15th, as every year, Asian movies invade Deauville. Sis' and her friends, totally involved in Asianstudies, couldn't meet the opportunity to have a look at it, and I followed them from Le Havre to the pretty seashore town of Deauville.

The best of the eventwas definitely the little flags of the various Asian countries represented through the festival, floating on the streets. And for the movies...

Morning : Claustrophobia, Ivy Ho (Hong-kong)
In a car, three men and two women from the same marketing department are driving through the urban night. It's late,   the driver drops the passengers one after another. For the last woman, he tries to make her quit her job. Then, we go back in time and try to understand their relation, their personnalities, their stories.
Result : I don't get anything to Asian movies. My problem is : is it because it is obviously not an "obvious" commercial and easy-scenario movie, or is it because of the cultural gap ? Are there some references, some signs, some keys which make it clear for the Chinese public, and not for me ?
At least I understood the title. Cars, restaurants, narrow open-space offices, roofs : you can't escape in this Hong-kong landscape.

Afternoon : Members of the funeral, Jin-Yeon Kim (Korea)
Someone is dead. Dad, Mum and daughter are assisting to the funeral of a young boy who tried to write a novel - or was he writing the scenario of their lives ?...
Same comment than above, in spite of some amazing scenes at the beginning of the movie, especially the flash-back to the mother's youth, where she tried herself to be a writor. After that... I still don't get the point.

Fortunately, even me, poor Barbarian, is able to appreciate the fine esthetic of Asian movies. Every second seems to be made of poetry, actresses are pure beauties... It make me feel I entered an alien world where beautiful and mysterious people developped some indeed ways of communication and I am condamned to just watch them from far.

パリのETPは終わったからパｰチｲをして美味しい日本料理を食べてよく話した。前のETPのAlumniも来てくれて面白かったです。
また再来週、三ランで !　楽しみ。

ETP Paris is over !

After a long, long last day at Sciences-Po, we finally get out the building for the last rays of light on the capital. Everyone is already planning the next trips - searching, booking - and a few of us had to leave earlier to catch a plane.
Anyway, when we reached the premises of Sciences-Po, Saint-Guillaume Street, climbed to the top floor with a view on the roofs, and discovered the nice dishes waiting for us, we really felt as we had achieved the first step to Japan...

See you soon in Milan !

ETP PARIS

27th EU ETP Japan began at Sciences-Po University, Paris, on Monday 2nd March 2009. All Sciences-Po premises for ETP courses are situated in Saint-Germain-des-Pres, one of the most elegant area of  "Rive Gauche" (Left Side). Opening ceremony, presentation and lectures took place at Maison de l'Amerique Latine, Maison de la Chimie and CERI - 3 prestigious and comfortable places reserved for ETP Japan and Korea use. Internet acess codes were provided for the participants to keep connected during the breaks, as well as free access to Sciences Po library. In addition, we could enjoy every morning some coffee, tea and French croissants kindly offered by Sciences Po ! Details matter, details matter...

PROGRAMME

Paris module aims to propose socio-cultural data, observations and interpretation on various aspects of Japan and the Japanese society. We had a documented insight into the current international relations in Asia; we overviewed security problems in the region; the Japanese point of view on history; crucial Edo period; Japan and Korea partnership; Shinto, Bouddhisme and Confucianism ; Japanese conception of aesthetic and happiness; Japanese concept of luxury; politic in Japan; Yakuza issues; financial world; contractual relationships in Japan; female condition; manga, literature and mind... Led by Jean-Marie Bouissou who has been living 15 years in Japan, the lectures programme was at the same time wide and precise in my opinion. The  goal of general understanding let us think of some scenes or situations that we could experience in Japan by ourselves, and which found a new meaning through the different speeches.

LECTURERS

Our main teacher during ETP Paris was definitely Jean-Marie Bouissou, who ran lectures every day. Then, we listened to many specialists of Japanese topics such as Claude Meyer, Françoise Nicolas or François Godement.

Above : JM Bouissou, C. Meyer, F. Nicolet and F. Godement

Click here for a TV debate with C. Meyer and F. Godemont

In addition, we had the opportunity to listen to the two voices on the Japan/Korea relations : Noke Masaki and Lee Whoo-Kheon, from the Japanese and the Korean embassies, also joined us at Sciences-Po to talk about past, present and futures links between the two countries. Totally fascinated by the thorny issues of the Japanese army's crimes towards Chinese and Korean people during WW2, which had been exposed to us for the whole day, the assistance remained quiet and breathless when the two representants of Japan and Korea crossed their ways between the two lectures on the same topic; after so much analysis of the hot-potatoe, for two seconds, we would not have been surprised to see them burst into insults... of course, the two gentlemen shook hands and smiled to each other in a very diplomatic attitude, and everyone got his breath back.

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT

Regarding to the organization of ETP, we received many documents about the Training as a whole, including a detailed internship application procedure. To keep informed of the news and documents provided, a website has been devised for every ETP participants. I was impressed by such an effort of professionalism from a French school; so if we are able finally, why don't we do this way all the time ?...

On the opening day, we could also meet two former ETP participants (from 5th and from 26th programs) who emphasized how helpful and thrilling their ETP experiences have been. As a result we couldn't wait for it to begin ! Let's ETP right now !

MAIN TOPICS

From my point of view, the main conclusions of this socio-cultural modules were related to :

- the degree of dependance of North-Asia region (Japan, China, Korea) towards the external markets (USA and EU), and the necessity to organize the region to gain more strengh in front of these markets' failures and crisis such as the current financial crisis

- the difficulty to reach this goal because of historic perception gap, but also because of the double pressure to exist in front of the Western World as well as in front of each other.

- the importance of the link between "the things" and "the people" in Japan - between nature and humans, between producers and goods - and the involvement of people, spirit, mind in any doing.

VISIT OF GUIMET MUSEUM

On Saturday, we were proposed a guided tour of Guimet Museum of Asian arts. For Japan, most of the pieces have been sold to the Europeans during the banishment of bouddhism at the beginning of Meiji period, to focus on Shinto, the original  religion of Japan. Then, many paintings have been transmitted to French collectioners through the Deutsh who were the only Europeans to deal with Japan for a long time.

The art pieces were gorgeous, and the guide's explanations were totally linked to the contents of  Science-po courses regarding Shinto and Buddhism.

I discovered unexpected information about how some part of Japanese katana (swords) had inspired our French Art Nouveau ; after seing it became obvious to me.

To conclude, ETP in Paris started well !

Here a sample of ETP J mates : Ramune, Renaud, Stephen, Seraphina, Valentina and myself !

27th Executive Training Programme in Japan (ETP J27) began today !

I couldn't wait it to open finally and to discover my new mates' faces.
According to the data provided to the students, ETPJ27 Participants are a mix of French (8), Spanish (4), Italian (3), Bulgarian (3), Hungarian (3), Latvian (3), Slovakian (3), German (2), Sweden (2), Deutsch (2)... Around one third of us are women, which is not bad for an executive group ; 88% are from small or medium sized companies and two third of us are single. For France, Renaud, Veolia, Arkema, Hermes and Cartier are represented.

I can't resist to show you the material offered by Sciences-Po team to each of us !

Here there are : Sciences-Po branded bag (he he), Student package, Blue book to guide us to Japan, Waseda University leaflets, Internship handbook, ETP branded cards holder, Jean-Marie Bouissou's book about Japan, Sciences-Po paper block and Waseda pen ! I didn't expect such a survival equipment !

After that we finally signed the official agreement. No step back now !

I especially enjoyed the presence of Jusuke Ikegami, our programme coordinator at Waseda, who is going to follow our progression regarding to the internship and tutorials. For the Korean team, Sunmee Choi delivered an exceptional presentation of Yonsei, so cheerful - and so exhausting, by advance !

ETPJ27 CALENDAR

2nd March 2009 : Paris / Sciences-Po / Socio-cultural component

23th March 2009 : Milan / Bocconi University / Business & Management component

20th April 2009 : London / SOAS / Japanese language courses

15th June 2009 : Tokyo / Waseda Daigaku / Japanese Business & Management practices, Japanese language

30th November 2009 : Internship in a Japanese Company

March 2010 : Graduation

Here is my coming year ! In order to prepare ourselves to hard working, we had champagne and petits-fours in the beautiful room of Maison de l'Amerique Latine... Life is hard, really.

See you  soon for the feedback of Paris module !

It's not new, but have a look at this CM of Noir Desir, one of the main French rock band. The anime starts in Paris (Mother country ? Symbole of childhood?), then moves to Japan with their success story (Dream of glory ? Symbole of young adult age ?) and finally the dream becomes a nightmare (Desillusion ? Loss of innocence ?). End of the story in Japan : strange destiny for the band who sang "A day, in France" (Un jour en France)... Japan, a possible future, a possible death ?...

Follow Mr Lafcadio Hearn, one of the first Citizen of the World, who discovers the late XIX Century archipelago.

Sublime immersion dans l'archipel de la fin du 19ème siècle sur les pas de Lafcadio Hearn, un des premiers "Citoyen du Monde". Surprise : le monde entier a changé, mais les notes du voyageur ressemblent comme deux gouttes d'eau à nos impressions du troisième millénaire...

Il écrit en 1890. Il y a presque 120 ans. Il avance dans un Japon à peine industrialisé, artisanal, mal connu des quelques étrangers qui s’y sont installés ; il joue les pionniers en pousse-pousse, il parvient à se faire inviter au creux de temples où jamais aucun occidental n’a été toléré… Et pourtant, ses impressions concorderaient parfaitement avec celles d’un voyageur de 2008, de façon si troublante que l’on finit par entrevoir, en creux de ce recroisement presque trop exact pour être réel, ce qu’on pourrait appeler l’âme même du Japon.

Hearn évolue dans un décor sans gratte-ciels, sans mobiles, sans écrans géants ; mais il est comme giflé par l’architecture urbaine, par la façon dont l’écriture s’incruste dans l’espace de la ville, par les messages iconiques qui peuplent les rues. Comme nous, son œil est captivé par la finesse des pieds des femmes japonaises et par le charme faunien des tabi - comme nous, il parle beaucoup avec les mains avec les habitants, mais rencontre soudainement un Japonais à l’anglais aussi parfait et raffiné qu’inattendu - comme nous, il est béat face au contenu miraculeux des boutiques, à la légèreté des prix, et s’inquiète de l’Occidental qui devra rentrer au pays avec des cargaisons de shopping - comme nous, il assume avec amertume le manque patent de courtoisie de ses compatriotes insensibles à la grâce qui les entoure quand il aperçoit, sous les célestes cerisiers en fleurs, un panneau écrit en anglais : Défense d’abîmer les arbres…

Comme nous, il ressent sans pouvoir tant que cela le justifier le lien profond que le Japon et les Japonais vous enfoncent dans le cœur.

Est-ce l’étonnante modernité du regard et de la plume de Hearn, ou la magie du Japon elle-même, qui nous fait douter de la véracité de la date indiquée – 1890 ? Les deux hypoyhèses sont probables, quand on se renseigne d’une part sur la biographie de Hearn – d’origine anglo-saxonne, il s’exile des Etats-Unis après voulu, contre la loi, épouser une femme noire ; périssant d’ennui aux Antilles, il finit par rejoindre le Japon où il fonde une famille avec une Japonaise… - et quand on a fait l’expérience, d’autre part, du pays qu’il dépeint.

Pour ceux qui douteraient encore que le Japon soit moderne sans être occidentalisé, Ma première journée en Orient est le livre rêvé pour finir de s’en persuader.