Figaro Coffee

When having a cup of local coffee at Figaro, I always feel cozy. This coffee shop is something quite different from well-known coffee shop chains, such as Starbucks, Seattle's Best and Coffee Bean, where some customers feel good only because of the brand value.

I had an opportunity to read an article about the founder of Figaro Coffee, and I would like to share it with you.

Pacita Chit U. Juan, the founder of Figaro, whose small coffee kiosk started at the Glorietta 1 in Ayala Center, Makati in 1998.  As of now, people can see many of its branches here and there, and Figaro already has opened it door to foreign countries. I was inspired by this woman founder who is advocating everyone to be an entrepreneur.

1. Entrepreneurs should be tenacious 
2. Business is not just about mkaing money
3. Start small
4. Love what you do
5. Don't be afraid of failures you encounter in your life
6. Be responsible and accountable
7. Grab an opportunity that comes to you

She mentioned that the Philippines really needs to an education that urtures Filipinos to be entrepreneurs, which will definitely contribute to the county's economy through creating its own local brands. 

English Village in Japan

As for now, Tokyo metropolitan government has been overhauling an establishment of "English village" for the sake of strengthening Japanese children's English abilities, aiming for 2020 Olympics that will be hosted by Japan. They are planning to put some facilities where children can have an opportunity to interact with native-speakers of English.

Korea has already done with a similar project ahead of Japan. However, some facilities in the English village in Korea are already closed due to financial problem. Tokyo metropolitan government will cautiously proceed with the English-village project, considering its disadvantages as well.

A kind of race-discriminating policy

I went to a bookstore after class. Since the book that I wanted was not available in the bookstore. I asked a staff member whether it was available at any branch. Fortunately, she found it available at a branch of Global City so I asked her to deliver it to the branch where I was. However, she seemed puzzled and she said, "Since the book whose author is a Filipino, we can not deliver it up to this branch". I was like.."What is she talking about?" At the time, I was with my boyfriend so he asked her why it was impossible, and she answered back, "Because it is company policy". He and I were totally surprised with the answer, at the same time, we found it rather crazy. It means that the company is really ashamed to deliver books written and published by Filipino authors. Or the staff member might have just felt too lazy to ask another branch to deliver the book, and just told such a lie to us. But if it is really the company policy, it's totally ridiculous.

BABY METAL: J-pop and heavy metal fusion band

Baby Metal, a J-pop and heavy metal fusion band, is becoming a great sensation across the world and fascinating a lot of fans. It is a three-girl group composed of: SU-METAL, YUIMETAL, and MOAMETAL. Generally speaking, J-pop is either considered unique music or totally different from Western and American music. Hence, it takes some time to get accepted, especially by Westerners. The band's success can probably be attributed to the fact that, in order to familiarize those kinds of people with J-pop, they fused their music with heavy metal which actually originated in England.

Usually, I am not a big fan of Japanese idols at all, such as AKB48, ℃-ute, and E-girls. But I can tell that Baby Metal seems to stand out more than those idol groups in terms of their performances. And their music is not half-hearted, meaning, they were able to assimilate heavy metal music well, which fascinates even core heavy metal fans, like that of Metallica, Iron Maiden, and so on. All of the band's members specialize in that kind of music, and no doubt well-skilled. The most remarkable thing about the combination of Japanese idol music and heavy metal is that three some similarities: there is a change in melody, and both genres of music are strong and simple, according to Marty Friedman, who is a famous American guitarist. 

Come to think of it, the fusion of J-pop and heavy metal was not just a miracle, but inevitable, and Baby Metal nailed it!

The poorest region in Osaka

Tokyo was names as the safest city in the world by The Economist, the world news magazine, with Osaka coming in a respectable third. 

 I doubt whether the magazine company investigated all regions in Osaka because there is Airin-chiku, which is known as the poorest and the most dangerous region in Japan. If they had known this fact, Osaka wouldn't have been ranked even within the top ten. Why is it so dangerous? 

This is because:

• 4'069 out of 30'000 are street people in the region
• So many day workers who can not be identified
• Even policemen stay away from the region
• A lot of street people collapse during the winter period because of sever coldness
• Sometimes, there are dying people on the street
• Many warning signs, meaning, the inhabitants don't follow rules
• Some people are going crazy because of starvation
  
  

If you research Airin-chiku (あいりん地区) on the internet, you will know more about the reality by looking at the pictures. It is also true that the city government of Osaka makes efforts to hide the existence of the region not to disgrace the other ones in Osaka. 

Customer service in the Philippines

The thing that I can not stomach about the Philippines is customer services. Especially those who grew up in an advanced country might have been upset with it as lease once when doing groceries. I often go to Land Mark, the nearest shopping center from my condo, and buy ingredients, but I feel stressed most of the time because: 

• Falling in line, as it is already a long line
• Cashier are not well-trained and they don't even apologize when committing a mistake
• There is not place where customers can put or place carts and baskets
• Too many employees in one place! It causes traffic
• Paying by credit/debit card, it takes time (it should be faster than paying by cash)
• Some cashiers can not handle a problem alone, and need to call a manager

I came to appreciate my country because its services are always smooth. I am trying to think that I am being challenged as to how much I can be grateful for my country. For further development in the Philippines, they need to do something about their customer services. I hope it gets improved while I am staying here.

Invisible poverty

To my surprise, one of six Japanese children is suffering from poverty at the moment. They are living the below the living standards that the Japanese government set. However, the poor that the Filipinos imagine are quite different from the ones in Japan. It seems like they are living a normal life; they have a place to stay and sleep, and they can eat meals somehow. Most people probably don't notice that they are actually suffering from poverty. With parent's low income, one of six children can not go to a college/university and end up looking for a job, even it is not right time for them. Most of those children have single-parent families. Some single mothers are having a hard time to allocate their money to child-raising because of their financial problem. No one gives them a hand or　even hear their voices because of the invisible poverty.