Saturday, April 07, 2007

A Blog On the Japanese Economy

I found a blog on the Japanese economy. I'll read it carefully.

You Can Do It

Yutaka Horiba, a professor of Tulane University, is my old teacher of the Graduate School, Osaka University and he cheered me up: "You can do it!"

I'm very happy with his words of encouragement. There is certainly a big risk in studying in the US because the degree of PhD from the US grad school doesn't necessarily guarantee a good job to me.

I'm worried about my future career; One professor of Osaka University told me not to go since it is too difficult to get a good job. And he told me as an example that one of his friends who was about 50 years old and had once got the PhD from Johns Hopkins University did still a part-time job in Tokyo, Japan. I think his story is right and I should try to understand what he wanted to say to me.

However, I feel like this worry will encourage me to do my best there. Of course, I should think about what I will be able to do in the future to make a living. And I should look for what I can do every time I think about my future.


One famous comedian in Japan always says that an anxiety about our future gets us to go ahead. I think so and my anxiety will work on me positively. It should not be a waste of time to try. And it should not spoil my life, I guess.

If I fail the preliminary exam and the assistantship for my grad study from the grad school, I will go back to Japan and give up studying economics and trying to get a PhD. In this case I will look for another job in Japan.

Let's go to the US! Before that, I'll plan ahead. I need a good plan.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Colder Wisconsin

I can see it is now colder in Wisconsin than in Osaka, Japan. Wisconsin is, as I've said before, the place I am going to for studying economics.

The weather of Wisconsin is certainly different from that of Osaka. I think that the first thing to do is to know it correctly. The weather is very important for the people living or expecting to live there.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Sakura

The cherry trees are in full blossom now in Japan. Today I went to the park with my friend to see the cherry blossoms out. It was a clear, mild and a little cloudy spring day in Osaka. I could feel it was getting warmer and warmer day by day. Spring has been coming here.

How do you like Sakura? If you have some money, I would like you to go and see Sakura in Japan. You could enjoy it and feel the spring and the mind of Japan.

*The picture shows the Wakayama Castle in spring, which can be seen here. Wakayama is located down to Osaka. Sakura is the Japanese word of a cherry blossom.

Today is the April Fools Day

Oh, I found that today is the April Fools Day. I have to say that it is not a false that I go to the US this fall.

* This is not, what is called, the Cretan Paradox.

Two Schools Accept Me

As mentioned before, I am going to the U.S. graduate school this fall; I've applied to the following schools and I've just received their replies at last:

(1) The University of Hawaii at Manoa: Rejected

(2) The University of South Carolina, Moore School of Business: Rejected

(3) Binghamton University, State University of New York: Accepted

(4) The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Accepted

The University of Hawaii is certainly attractive. But it is only the warm weather that lures me. It seems to have less professors and students with the similar intellectual interest to mine than SUNY and UWM.

Of two schools that can accept me, I hope for a grad study at UWM because I think it will meet my special interest on international finance and currency issues. I hear it is very cold there in winter. It is a worrisome point to me. I will need to be used to the cold.

* The topic of this column was recently released in the post of the previous column. There I talked about my application to grad schools with MVPY, an admirable regular commentator recognized by Harvard professor Greg Mankiw.