Balleggs’ Hanami 2018

Hello!
Did you manage to go for Hanami this year?

 

As the weather switched back and forth between spring and winter, and by the very strong wind, this year’s Hanami season was shorter than ever…

 

But at Balleggs, we’ve managed to go for a company-wide Hanami in Yoyogi Park.
It’s the big park by Harajuku station 🙂

 

Here’s the group picture we’ve taken…can you spot some familiar faces from the Shinagawa team?

Usually if it’s a corporate Hanami, the graduates, interns, or any of the younger employees are sent out of office early to prepare, and save the space for everyone.
For us, our lovely graduates and few other employees were in the park to man the space since morning, so that the rest of the company can arrive in the afternoon after work!

 

 

How long did the party go for?

 

 

……………. About 5 hours of games, laughter, chat, and lots of food & drink 🙂
Great bonding time with the new members (a.k.a. graduates) of our company….

WELCOME TO TEAM BALLEGGS!!!!!!!

 

 
Written by Otoha

Hina Matsuri ? – Celebration for girls!

March 3rd is one of the many special days in Japanese culture.
Unlike the other national holidays, this is a special day to celebrate girlhood <3

 

How is it celebrated then?

 

「ひな祭り」の画像検索結果

 

Well, every girl has her own set of dolls called “Hina Ningyou (雛人形)”.
Her family will arrange the doll set around March 3rd, and wish for the happy marriage in their daughter’s future.

 

Every doll set will have at least 2 dolls – “Odairi-sama” and “Ohina-sama” – the prince and the princess!
The doll set can get larger and larger depending on how much money you can spare at the birth of your daughter, but especially in a city like Tokyo it is more of a spacing issue lol

「ひな祭り」の画像検索結果

 

So if you grew up in an urban apartment flat or the “Japanese mansion” flat, there’s absolutely no shame in having just the prince and princess, or perhaps just a couple more groups of servants or musicians.

「雛人形」の画像検索結果

 

In our Global Division office in Shinagawa, we are celebrating with a very simple set of just the prince and princess – BUT IN DISNEY STYLE!!!
(it’s really important as we have few girls who are not married yet…lol)

 

Pop in to our shop, even just to say hi to us or to Prince Micky and Princess Minnie 🙂

 

Written by Otoha

Japanese business manner ②Nomikai rule

When we have company Nomikai, a business drinking party, there is a rule on which seat to take.
 
The basic rule is,
 
・A person in a highest position of the group, ① takes the seat further away from the entrance.

・A person in a lowest position of the group, ⑧takes the seats closest to the entrance.
 


The reason is,
 
When in the position closest to the entrance, it is easy to make order and serve out all the drinks and foods for the group.
This means he/she will be the busiest person in the group.
In Japan, commonly speaking, the person in a lowest position works harder on this kinds of trival duties or tasks for higher person, so she/he should take the busiest position!
 
Enjoy your Nomikai in a proper way :))
 

Japanese business manner ① Elevator

We have rules everywhere in Japan.
 
How to bow, how to exchange the business card, how to dress,,,etc.
 
Today, it is about how to ride an elevator…

To be more specific, it is not the way, but where to stand, in the elevator when you are not alone.
 
See this picture below.
 

 
This shows where to stand, depending on which position you are among the members in the elevator.
 
①→ highest  
②→2nd highest　 
③→2nd lowest　 
④→lowest  
 

The lowest person should stand in front of a console to use it for other members(push the floor button and keep the door open when other members are getting off).

 

Don’t let the highest person to do it, it is considered very rude,, !!

 

It sounds like a tiny rule, but behaving with these tiny rules will bring you so much advantage to live in Japan.

 

Top 3 good service agents for this year.

We won a prize as good customer service agent for foreigners in Japan!
realestate.co.jp, made a survay on foreign customers, and we were chosen as Top 3 good service agent for this year.
 
Thank you very much 🙂
 
We’ll keep on trying to make our customers happy
as much as possible through the provision of good service and apartment!
 

 

 

How to read Japanese room layout?

When you look at a Japanese room layout, it must be a bit difficult to understand what means what.
 
This time I am going to explain how to read it when you actually search an apartment!
 
This is one of the apartment information sheets, as an example.
 

 
On the right side you see the images, and this is the room lay out I am going use this time.
 

 
This is a one studio type room lay out image, and what it is showing are,,,
 

 
To give you more specific images,, these are the pictures for each

Kitchen
 

Bath tube and shower
 

WC
 

Wash stand
 

Washing machine place
 
These are what it is showing and it will make your room hunt easier to have this knowledge before you start! 🙂
 
We are always willing to explain thse details, ask us freely if you have any question!