Craig Atkinson

Wow, it has been a while! Welcome to the future. Let’s party like it is 2007.

For me, it has almost been a year since I came to Japan. It is kind of ironic really that my blog died just shortly after arriving here. With most people I’ve read online, it is the exact opposite. Blogs become communication tools which are used to send back messages describing amazing adventures and display beautiful pictures taken while traveling abroad.

I am really enjoying myself with my life in Tokyo and feel I am making very good progress on a number of goals. My work is extremely challenging and I find it extrodinarily interesting. Plus it has a very liberal expense account and travel budget with a lot of access to senior people in my industry. I am working very hard learn and gain the ability to do some big deals. I really feel like it was awesome luck that such an opportunity basically landed randomly in my lap. However, as my boss likes to say, luck is only where opportunity meets preparation. I am still in preparation mode but close to achieving my first objective and I know my team has a lot of confidence in me. We are financial recruiters doing headhunting in the front office of investment banks and hedge funds throughout Tokyo and the rest of Asia. That is about all I can say. You know I have to protect those trade secrets from prying eyes and all that.

For a while I was living in the suburbs outside Tokyo and traveling over 3 hours a day to work and back. After 4 months, that routine got very tiring and I moved with Mizue to a very small but expensive apartment in Meguro which is very convenient to my work. I also have the healthy benefit of starting and ending my day off with a 15 minute walk to the subway, but from there it is only 15 minutes and three stops further into the office. Mizue started a job this past April for a Japanese franchising company but quit in October as it was just not a very good fit for her. Plus the travel was further than me and at least 3 hours to her office and back. Then on top of that her days were very long once she got there. Since December, she is working for an American technology company and only a quick 25 minute bus trip away from the office. She is enjoying the new position very much and it should be a very good company to grow her career in.

I just found my friend Matt’s new blog and he has such a great concept that I couldn’t help but copy it. I really have felt guilty about letting things stagnate, but I guess it isn’t the first time. My first blog goes back to Sept 1999 and my blogger account is userid #8159 from when I joined in Feburary 2000. One of these days I will dig out the archives and republish everything, but for now let’s just put that on the to-do list for 2007.

Here is Matt’s concept and I am looking forward to implementing it for this year:

This blog will serve the following purpose:

• Provide an outlet to share my life’s purpose, goals, the person I strive to be and hold me accountable to them
• Allow me to express my views and opinions on internal areas that are valuable
• Offer a way to improve my writing by writing often

So here is to the setting of goals, the sharing of experiences and even more importantly, to the achievement of success. Let each of us can find our own way!