I’ve got three Twitter feeds/accounts/names/whatever you call them. One is just me (CarolinePover), one is connected with the Ask Caroline series and is in Japanese specifically for Japanese women (CaroNeeSan), and one I, along with the rest of the Being A Broad team, use (BABBeingABroad).

I struggle a bit with Twitter and honestly, I often don’t know what to write. The BAB one is fine—there are always interesting events we are organizing, or recommendations to share with other foreign women in Japan. I haven’t quite found my focus for the CarolinePover one yet, but I think once this carolinepover.com site is live, I will link my blog to it.

Recently I was trying to find a focus for the Japanese one that would still be in line with the Ask Caroline concept, but would be more useful than me just sharing my opinions or experiences on Japan. I finally came up with a great idea, and I am thoroughly enjoying myself as I write it! Every day I put a women-specific word in Japanese, along with the word in English, and then an English sentence giving an example of how to use that word. I’m actually having quite a lot of fun coming up with the sentences. Here is what I have done so far:

• 鍼治療 [acupuncture] “I’m going to try acupuncture for my irregular periods.”
• 出産休暇 [maternity leave] “I’m on maternity leave at the moment, but I’m really looking forward to going back to work.”
• 月経／生理 [period] “I am feeling a little bit sensitive at the moment because my period is due.”
• 膀胱炎 [cystitis] “I need some cranberry juice. I’ve been having so much sex that I got cystitis!”
• 露出狂 [flasher] “I just saw a flasher in the park. I told him he had a very small penis.”

I’m trying to make really useful phrases that are mildly amusing but also empowering. And definitely the kind of phrases that can be shared with other women. You can follow me at CaroNeeSan, and feel free to suggest any more Japanese women’s words I can translate. I’m surprised by how many Japanese words I am learning!

Last night’s Being A Broad career seminar was great! Each month we ask three foreign women working in a specific industry to share their experiences and advice with other women who are hoping to get into the same industry. Last night was “Being A Food Broad”, so we heard from one restaurateur, one cooking teacher, and one freelance food writer.

Traci Consoli told us all about how she set up creative hub The Pink Cow ten years ago, and gave lots of useful advice to anybody thinking of setting up their own business, regardless of industry. I’ve known Traci since before her Pink Cow days and she’s just as friendly, honest, and approachable as she was back then … I would highly recommend anybody interested in the restaurant business to pop down to The Pink Cow and have a chat with Traci while attending one of the many community-focused events they hold.

Next up was Petra Laptiste, who is setting up various projects that promote the food, travel, and culture of Trinidad and Tobago. She told some wonderful stories and is a perfect example of how you need to be passionate about everything you get involved with. She’s organizing a trip to the carnival next March, which will cost about ¥350,000 all inclusive (yes, that’s flights and accommodation as well as everything else!). And for an extra ¥60,000 you also get a couple of REAL carnival costumes just for you. For any single foreign women in Tokyo, it sounds like a trip like that could be just what you need if you’re feeling a little bit “neglected.”

And finally Melinda Joe, food journalist, who may be most familiar because of her writing at bento.com. Melinda shared stories of growing up with restaurateur parents, and how this helped develop her palate. She gave some excellent advice for aspiring writers, regardless of topic, and some very specific advice to aspiring food writers to help them look at the whole food experience and start writing about it step by step. Her recommendations for food and sake sommelier classes were very helpful, and she clearly loves indulging in both(!) but there isn’t a hint of the wine snob about Melinda at all.

It was such a warm and relaxed get-together, yet very informative and inspiring. Big thanks go to our wonderful speakers.

Next in our Career Seminar Series is “Being A Life-Coaching Broad” on September 24. Sign up by emailing dee@being-a-broad.com.

The printer delivered the Ask Caroline proofs yesterday, which I always find quite an exciting stage in the production process. I feel like such a publishing geek because I actually get a little thrill from seeing the barcode on the back of the book. My printer always makes the barcode for me—I just give him the ISBN and those digits magically transform into this beautiful symbol, so the first time I see the barcode is when the proof arrives.

When you get a printer’s proof you need to check the colours very carefully. And it always looks different from how it looks on your screen or on a print out from your own home/office printer. If you have worked with a photographer on any images then it is advisable to get the photographer to check the colour too. I popped over to David Stetson’s yesterday to show him how his fantastic cover shots turned out. He is so funny—he was really happy with them but he suggested that the printer decrease the magenta ink by 3%. That’s what a complete and utter professional and perfectionist will see and it is definitely worth working with someone like David for something as important as a book cover.

Aside from a teeny bit too much magenta, the cover of the Japanese edition of Ask Caroline was perfect. For the English edition however, I had used blue—the number one enemy colour for printers, and the most difficult to get right. So I had to remake the entire cover for the English edition and cheat a bit so that the blue would come out how I want it. I’ll get another proof today so fingers crossed it works this time!

Then there is the inside to check—the inside of both books is two-colour, so I had to go through a very thorough colour chart to pick the exact colour that is supposed to go all the way through. Usually inside proofs come with blue ink instead of black, but for some reason these came in bright pink instead of the red I have going all the way through the book. I shall be sure to use pink for a future book in the series as it looked great in pink!

The inside pages are always a bit grainy but it’s always best to double check. I’ve worked with this printer for ten years and I love the quality of their books so I know that the finished product will look amazing. I always get a bit tearful when Hirano-san turns up with the first book off the press—it is such an amazing feeling.

Nearly there now!

I might be officially addicted to making websites with WordPress. For someone who has been a bit of a technophobe and found the creation of websites to be something akin to brain surgery, I cannot believe how much I am enjoying using WordPress.

I made a new website last weekend. The Being A Broad website has long been a source of frustration to us—it’s out of date and we don’t have access to all the pages so can’t update most of it. The discussion board is excellent, however; full of great content, lots of happy and supportive users, and reflective of everything I have always wanted Being A Broad to be. We’ve been considering various options for redevelopment for almost a year but everything relied on an expert in web design to get us to where we wanted, and in most cases, were far too expensive for what is essentially a community service, to be able to afford.

Then a few months ago I made the Japan School News website using WordPress and could not believe how easy it was! Kristi and I revamped the Alexandra Press website using WordPress, and then I made another one for Ask Caroline, then this site you’re on right now. All the sites I made before weren’t too complicated, and I knew that the BAB one was going to be, but I just couldn’t resist any longer and had a great time experimenting on the weekend. The basics are all there on this temporary site. We just need to add in some of the text that goes with the top menu options, and then put the remaining 57 issues of the magazine online! The entire content of all the magazines, from the very first one in 1997, will all be online. We are so excited about it. The difficulty is going to be working out how to migrate all that discussion board data into the new system, but it looks like there will be some new forum options coming out next month so there might be an easy way to do it in the not-too-distant future.

Several times a month, I get a phone call or an email from a small business owner, or freelancer/consultant, asking me for recommendations on people to hire to make their website for them. Usually they are technophobes too, so think that the only solution was to hire someone—just how I used to think. So if you are looking at ways you can create a great website for your business, this is what I have learned through using WordPress, and why I would recommend it:

• It’s unbelievably simple to use. If you can use Word then you will be able to use WordPress. I promise.
• Installation is really easy if you find a provider with a one-click installation of the basic WordPress template. I use Bluehost, which I know can be a bit slow, but the one-click installation is so convenient that I can overlook it’s lack of speed. One tip: if you purchase your domain name through someone else, like GoDaddy, you have to wait 60 days before you can transfer it to Bluehost. If you have an old domain name then there’s no problem in transferring it. But if you’re creating a new domain then just buy it through Bluehost.
• It’s perfect for the non-designer. There are loads of templates available all over the internet, some for free but most for a ridiculously affordable price. I tend to buy templates from Theme Forest. One tip I learned recently—only buy templates that are WordPress 3.0 ready.
• Anybody can update it. One of the most annoying things for me with past websites has been the inability for myself or anyone working with me, to update the sites without the assistance of a technical person. And even if I was theoretically able to update the site, it would be so non-user-friendly that I would come out in a rash the moment I’d login. Now, all of us can update any of the sites, at any time.
• You don’t need any html knowledge. There are all sorts of cute icons that you simply click when you want to make text bold, add a bullet point, insert an image, adjust alignment, etc. etc. If you do know a bit of html then you can adjust the viewing settings and get a bit fancy, but honestly, you don’t need it at all.
• Troubleshooting support is always available. Each template comes with support documentation, and the template creator is often available to offer support. When you buy your template be sure to check out user comments on how helpful the creator is. Failing that, there are some technical support people around at very reasonable prices. I work with a couple of people, depending on the site, and would be happy to provide introductions.

Before you know it, you may find yourself addicted to WordPress too!

We heard from that major book distribution company yesterday—they want a ¥800,000 deposit before they will consider working with us. I know that the publishing industry in Japan is one of the most closed industries in the world but this is ridiculous.

The reasoning for wanting the deposit doesn’t make any sense at all. They place an order, you send them the books on a consignment basis, they send them out to the bookstores, they close the accounts on those particular books within five months, and then return the books to you and pay for what was sold two months later. The risk seems to be with the publishers, who could have stock unnecessarily tied up in outlets but not selling, and the bookstores, who could have space taken up by books not selling. What risk do the distributors take? No money changes hands for seven months, during which time unsold books are returned. And payments are only made if the books are actually sold. It seems very odd to me.

As a publisher in Japan, is it really sensible to tie up cash in a deposit to a book distributor? I wonder how many small publishers lost their deposits with Yohan’s demise. I have heard of a business practice in Japan where companies collect deposits in order to make their bank balance look healthier—is this part of that practice?

Needless to say, I’m not going to do it. I have a ten-year strong distribution network that has worked very well in the past, selling about 8000 copies of the Being A Broad book in total (in Japan you are considered to be doing well in publishing if you manage to sell 500 copies!). When that book first came out all the bookstores refused to work with me except Tower Records in Shibuya. After the BAB book became a number one bestseller there and other bookstores could see how much marketing I was doing, it wasn’t look before all those other stores opened up to me. With Tim’s own distribution network, between us I am confident that we will do just as well without playing with the big boys, will have better control over inventory, won’t have to wait seven months to get paid, and won’t need to worry about losing ¥800,000.

One of my staff just popped her head around the door to my office and asked if she could borrow one of my nice tops for a meeting she hadn’t planned on having today—of course I don’t mind at all. Something like this happens on a daily basis where I am reminded of how much I love running a business from home. Here are some of the reasons:

• Clothing: I can wear what I like, as can my staff. If any of us has a meeting with a client then we’ll put on appropriate business attire, but for the most part, we all wear whatever is comfortable to us. For me, sometimes that even means wearing something that looks a bit more like pyjamas, going without a bra if it’s an all-girls day, and not worrying about hair if the dogs want a bit of a cuddle. And as was the case on Tuesday last week when Katy and Makoto turned up completely soaking wet, there’s a wardrobe of stuff they can borrow while their clothing is in the tumble dryer, as opposed to sitting round in uncomfortable wet clothes and possibly catching a cold.
• Travel: I don’t have to spend time travelling from my home to my office and back again (which in the current heat is a godsend!). We live in a big old Japanese house, and one of the rooms upstairs is turned into an office where I work alongside either Makoto or Victoria, and one of the rooms downstairs functions as another one where Katy and sometimes one other person works. Everybody else (Dani, Chris, Carole, Satomi, Dee, Stephanie, and the writers) work mostly from home. So getting to work doesn’t take very long for me at all!
• Dogs: I love my dogs. I love having them around me whenever I can, and look forward to times when my husband is away so I can have Tommy and Sandie in the bed at night. I would never have got them if I had to leave them at home all day alone. When I had an office I used to take Tommy to work with me every day and he slept under my desk quite happily. We got Sandie when I was off sick—I was unhappy and not being able to work and Richard thought she might cheer me up as well as give me something to focus on. As I got better, two was definitely too much to handle in an office, but at home, it is a different thing altogether, and I love having them as part of my work life as well as my non-work life.
• Lighting: After my strokes I became a bit sensitive to light, especially the fluorescent light you find in most offices. (To be honest, quite a few of the things my body became sensitive to after the strokes made me wonder just how good for you certain lights, smells, and noises really are.) I work right in front of the window that overlooks our garden, so I work mostly in natural light. If I need to use lighting then the bulb gives off a gentle glow rather than a harsh glare.
• Focus: I find it so much easier to focus working in this kind of environment. Having run my business from an office between 2002 and 2008, I know that an office environment brings about so many interruptions and distractions that, to me, don’t seem to be there at home. People often say they couldn’t work from home because they wouldn’t be able to focus, but I’m a very motivated person, so I don’t find that to be a problem at all. If anyone is thinking about running a business from home and consider themselves to be a very motivated person, I would definitely tell them to go for it!

These are just some of the few reasons that I love running a business from home in Japan. Some might wonder whether Japanese companies would take you seriously—I’ve never had a problem with that. Recently I had three Japanese men traipse up the stairs, past our bedroom and bathroom, and my dressing room, to my office with two dogs leaping around, where we sat down and discussed various printing options for a project. None of them seemed particularly concerned—if anything they seemed quite charmed! And if certainly didn’t affect our business relationship.

I think the main reason I enjoy running a business from home is because it allows me to be me. I don’t have to pretend to be something I’m not because I am in an environment that I am completely comfortable in. The people who work for me tend to be people who are comfortable working in an unusual work environment, able to motivate themselves, and appreciate the opportunity to be themselves when working.

And there aren’t many jobs where you are greeted by wagging tails every day!

Take a look at Fabio’s amazing colour! Sin Den did such a wonderful job, as always!

Fabio and I had a good chat about the Ask Caroline official launch party on September 23rd. Throughout the venue, there will be tables/booths/stations of female-owned or –oriented services or products. Party guests can sample products or get advice from the women staffing the tables (did I mention that it is entirely a women-only party?!) and we are hoping for a nice balance of the personal and the professional, and the serious and the silly! The party’s theme is celebrating all things female, fun, and fabulous!

Sin Den will have a table at the party—their female staff will be there with styling tools so partygoers can have their hair styled quickly, or even get an updo. Have you ever turned up to a party and got your hair done there?! It’s going to be so much fun!

I’m off to the hair salon today to have my hair changed from dark brown (pretty much my natural colour) to red again. I love playing around with the colour of my hair—I’ve had bubble gum pink stripes before, cherry red stripes for Christmas, and I’m usually one shade of red or another underneath all the stripes. I’ve been a close match to my natural colour for some months now, but I’m going back to red to celebrate the Ask Caroline release!

Finding a good hairdresser for Western hair in Japan can be a foreign woman’s number one nightmare. Japanese hair is very different to the many kinds of hair non-Asian people have, and most Japanese hair stylists don’t know how to handle it. Cutting needs are different, and our hair doesn’t respond to colouring the way that Japanese hair does. Everybody has a hair disaster story, and it’s not uncommon to hear tales of green hair appearing when the foils come off. Then there’s the blow-drying, styling, and apparent obsession with making your hair as flat as possible, whereas we tend to like our hair with a bit of body.

Of course not all Japanese hair stylists or salons are like this. Watanabe Hair in Omotesando is known for taking very good care of Western hair, and having staff that speak excellent English. A quick read of the hair discussions on the Being A Broad forum shows a lot of recommendations: the Hayato Omotesando salon is popular among women with African American hair, and Tsukuba ladies like J-Cool. Tony and Guy in Hamamatsu is popular in Nagoya; in the Kansai area, Craive in Shinsaibashi comes recommended. And there are a few foreign hair stylists working in Japan too—Dan at Shape in Akasaka is a huge hit with his foreign clients, as is Howard at Golds in Azabu-juban.

As for where I will be spending the four hours it takes to deal with my mop(!), that will be at Sin Den in Gaienmae. Sin Den was possibly the first salon in Japan that specifically catered to Western hair, and has been a popular choice among foreign women for many years. They have Japanese, Italian, and Russian staff, and everybody speaks excellent English. They have rescued many a hair disaster in their time, and do a wonderful job of making you feel fabulous.

Fabio, work your magic!

Makoto is always asking me if she can stay a bit late, just to get something or other done. She knows my philosophy about working late and knows I will always say no! But she has been brought up in a culture where what I might consider to be long working hours, are acceptable. I’ve had similar issues with other staff over the years—when I was recovering from my strokes and working from home I would frequently call up the office at 7pm and tell anyone there to pack their bags and go home! They knew that my philosophy was: if you can’t get your work done within a reasonable time frame, then either you have too much work or you’re not doing your job properly—both of which can be easily dealt with, with a bit of support from me.

Most newcomers to Japan find the working hours incredibly long. Whereas my friends in the UK usually finish work at 5pm and are home to have dinner and spend time with their family, most of my non-teaching (and some teaching!) friends here are usually out of the house for 12 hours a day. My husband works for a British company in Japan but Japanese working hours apply, and he is rarely home before 8:30pm, and we never eat before 9pm. Girlfriends of mine with children live the life of a single mother for five days a week—the working hours in Japan are tough on families.

It’s not always just the working hours, but also the mandatory company get-togethers. It’s not really the done thing in Japan to invite partners to company social events, even for Western companies where it would be perfectly acceptable in our home countries. I can’t understand why more bosses don’t invite partners—surely if you expect your staff to work long hours and cut into private time, wouldn’t you want the opportunity to make the partner feel good about the company and the people within it? When I had a larger staff, with about 20 people, we used to finish work one hour early on a Friday night, and head off to Paddy Foleys. For that one hour until 6pm, all staff had to be there, but after 6pm, they could all go home or partners or friends could come and join us—most of the time people chose the latter and we would always end up having really good fun nights out, that included the people that were important to my staff. For me it wasn’t so much about getting staff’s partners on board, it was more that I respected their private time and just wanted them to feel welcomed if they chose to spend it with their partner’s colleagues.

The foreign community’s networking and social calendar is extremely active in Tokyo—on a weekly basis, I usually have two or three events to attend in the evening. These events can finish at 9 or 10pm, and can be quite tiring after a long day at the office. And then if you have to get up early to go into the office the next day it is easy to see how some people get burned out in Tokyo. For years I’ve had a system whereby if you attend a networking event in the evening, then you don’t need to come in until a certain time the next day. For example, if you go to a networking event until 9pm and you would usually finish work at 6pm, then you wouldn’t need to come in the next day until 1pm instead of 10am. Again, I think it is about respecting people’s private time, and being responsible enough to ensure your staff get enough time to relax.

One factor mostly affecting Japanese employees is the culture of not leaving the office before the boss. I often dealt with this when I had a mostly Japanese staff, who wouldn’t leave until I had, even if they had nothing to do, and they got used to me kicking them out if I wanted to work late! I’m not sure if it’s an urban myth, but everyone in Tokyo knows the story of the Western shacho who said goodbye to all his Japanese staff every night, then hid on the top floor for half an hour until they left, so he could return to the office and finish off his work without knowing that he was keeping them all there. I’m sure there’s more than a bit of truth in that story!

My company has always had working hours of 10am until 6pm (although early birds have chosen a 9am until 5pm schedule), and there is a lot of flexibility. Even if you are running a business in a country where it is acceptable to work long hours, attend lots of social occasions without partners, and spend very little time with family during the week, I think as a boss there are a lot of little things that can be implemented, that make a big difference. And making a difference in the working lives of the people around me is one of the reasons I love running my own company.

I’m looking for a variety of customized merchandise for the official Ask Caroline launch party on September 23^rd and have come across some companies that I thought might be useful:

• Mojoprint is a company I’ve worked with for years now. I used to print the Weekender with them, and currently print Being A Broad and Japan School News, as well as all my business cards, posters, and our personal Christmas cards. I’ve also done a calendar with them. I really like working with them—if there is ever an error in the data, or somehow a line appearing in the wrong place, they pick it up and give me a call just to check. Their staff have such a good eye for detail, and everybody speaks English. They are based in Osaka but have an office in Tokyo, and Daniel travels to Tokyo frequently. I think I might try out their sticker printing.
• Sweatshop Union is another company I’m looking at, and have worked with before. I once got a t-shirt printed as a leaving present for a member of staff, and I had about a hundred bags customized for one of the Weekender golf tournaments that I organized. The quality was excellent, and again, the staff speak English. I think I’ll get some more customized bags from them, and actually I might need a couple of t-shirts soon for something completely different.
• Yesterday I had lunch with Jon Yoneoka from Pikkles, and he highly recommended print100.com for a great price, free delivery, and excellent service. We like the look of their notepads and paper folders so will look into those.

Hopefully with a combination of all of the above, we’ll have some lovely goodie bags for our 250 guests on the 23^rd of next month!