スノーフレイク株式会社・snowflake

It was an amazing long and hot summer this year. As it was only my second summer in Japan, I cannot compare much to previous ones. But friends and also the media reported about the longest hot summer since weather reporting began in Japan.

I've been told, that usually after the O-bon festival around mid August it should get colder. But this year, we have even in September temperatures well over 35℃. Amazing!

Another sign of summer ending is when taifuns are starting to hit Japan. Some of them already appeared in southern parts of Japan this year, like the islands of Okinawa or Kyushu. But the biggest island of Honshu might see a taifun later this week.

But the strong winds this morning on my way to office had also a good effect on the panorama, as due to the hot weather we hardly could see Fuji-san this summer, the wind cleared the sky now. So this morning I had a good view over the Tokyo Bay towards Yokohama and just behind the majestic shape of Fuji-san.

Let's enjoy the remaining days (or still weeks?) of this amazing 2010 summer.

The initiative to establish German Houses of Science and Innovation (DWIH) in strategic partner countries was jointly started by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany.

The German research and science funding organizations together with the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry are responsible for the implementation of the five houses throughout the world, located in New Delhi, Moscow, New York, São Paulo and Tokyo.

snowflake launched the new website of the DWIH Tokyo: www.dwih-tokyo.jp

The German House of Science and Innovation Tokyo will celebrate its kick-off on October 6, 2010 with a forum held at Roppongi academyhills 49 in Tokyo. The website currently contains the forum programme, details about the workshop sessions and also has a form to register for the event.

But there is much more to come... the DWIH team is using the TYPO3 CMS now to enter lots of content in 3 languages (Japanese, English and German) for the final and full version of the DWIH Tokyo website.

We have completed the first training session, and I am looking forward to visit the team again this week in Tokyo for the next TYPO3 training.

As a new member of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Japan, I was invited to attend the 28^th Annual General Meeting. It was my first AGM, therefore quite excited to go and join the meeting held at the Hilton Tokyo. Beside many members of Swiss companies here in Japan also His Excellency, the Ambassador of Switzerland to Japan, Mr. Paul Fivat was attending the meeting.

Before the official start, it was nice to exchange business cards and have a chat with Swiss business people in Japan. Some are here for over 25 years with lots and lots of knowledge, contacts and experience doing business in the Japanese market, but also a few newbies like me. It was great to talk some Swiss German anyway.

After the official part with various reports, the voting for the budget 2010 and for new members to the Executive Committee, there was a fine dinner with Swiss wine from Morges. It was a great evening in Shinjuku.