rickcogley

Yes, I think they are. I use the name Kogure since it sounds like Cogley well enough, and because when I got my first bank account in 1987 (still have it), they insisted I get a hanko stamp for it. I could not afford a custom one, so I got one that was "close enough" and had the kanji 木暮. My wife hated those so we never use them any longer. Anyway, I introduce myself like "Kogure desu" etc on the phone, and when I meet people, sometimes they are surprised, having thought I am a Japanese.

There's so many advantages to being able to speak the language, for sure.

Indeed, it is! On languages, I have my hands full with Japanese so, I have not learned more than a smattering of other languages.

eSolia is the second business I was with from the start. The first one was a PC training business called PTS, started in 1992, which was successful before training became a commodity. I was the CIO there and one of the owners. Then in 1999, I started eSolia with a couple others.

At the time, you needed at least 10MM JPY (about 100K USD) in the bank to be able to start a kabushiki-gaisha business (you can do it with less now). We paid a lawyer to draw up the incorporation papers, and basically just bootstrapped the whole thing. We did not even have desks at first, and were operating out of a super cheap place in north Tokyo, with our stuff on cardboard boxes. We got a lead on a company going out of business, and got to get some furniture to use, from them. We paid a dollar a desk or something plus shipping, because it needed to be some nominal fee to make it legit in the eyes of their auditors. Mind you, this furniture was stuff from the 70s. REALLY old. But, it worked for us for a while.

I remember I could not even get a phone line. NTT's (the local 800 lb telecom gorilla) argument was, the company was not established, so, there was no way to know if I could pay or not. I had to become a red-faced gaijin and yell a little (in Japanese), then they relented and let me get my phone lines.

I live in Yokohama, and work in Tokyo. So, "Greater Tokyo".

Jealous of the "vacance" for sure! The teams we work with always include people in Europe, and, there's usually some tension when people take long vacations smack in the middle of a project. Not sure for every company but, it's happened enough that I think it's got to be a super important part of the culture there.

it's closed, it appears.