As my students and I have walked around Kyoto and Tokyo, we’ve seen many people wearing surgical masks. I asked our guide today why people wore those and he told me it had nothing to do with pollution. It was because people have allergies or they are getting sick. He also mentioned that in times of a health issue spreading through the region, people will wear one to protect themselves...
I got a chance to talk to our tour guide, Akira Sato in Kyoto. He sings country and western in a band and his stage name is Slim Sato. Enjoy!
We conducted 12 qualitative interviews at Doshisha University over the 3rd and 4th. Each interview lasted roughly one hour and had two students, one translator and one interviewee. We worked hard to help interviewees relax since they were outnumbered 3 to 1. Luckily for us, it seemed as though everyone knew one another – translators/interviewees – and that seemed to help. I’ve...
I received an email from Carol Johnson the marketing chair at Daniels College of Business. She asked me if I would follow up with someone who had emailed her. His name was Dax Hamman. Now you have to understand that Daniels Profs get a lot of emails from “the outside world†– especially Carol – asking for help or some assistance. So I was somewhat skeptical. I looked up his profile and...
We arrived in Osaka today a little after 4pm. We flew in on the new Boeing 787. This is an amazing plane! Power supply for my laptop. Recharger for my iPhone and windows that dim to your preferred brightness. I got so much done that I wanted them to take a couple more laps around the earth. When we got in, I think we all underestimated the fact that we have zero language skills when it comes to...
The first half of the course was spent defining the mobile landscape and how consumers were using it. The last part of the class had us reviewing Japan. That is to say, reviewing Japan’s economy, government, culture and tech. In summary, things are very complicated and are tied to the past and the need to embrace the future probably more so than any other country in the world. We also had two...
This was the first class I’ve ever taught where I had students that weren’t necessarily there to learn about the subject. They were there to go to Japan first and the class was a second consideration. This meant that my delivery of the material changed. I felt obligated to sell them on why the material was important based on their area of focus. I’m not sure if they noticed it, but it felt...
This may be the longest post in the history of the Internet. It may break it. Ideally this would have been done the day I taught the class but this quarter was exceptionally busy. In fact, the last time I was that busy was during grad school while working a full time job. I was a human piñata this quarter. But below is an outline of what material I covered during the class. Intro – The first...
Along with qualitative data, my goal was to collect quantitative data in the form of a survey. Developing the raw questions was relatively easy but refining them to a point where anyone could take the survey with ease, took some doing. I didn’t have much experience in this level of refinement and was too close to the subject to refine it. I enlisted Dr. Baack (Nope. That’s not him on the...