Spencer
Wolfe

Nissan Leaf

This exact vehicle is the reason we bought our first EV (electric vehicle) company car. Four years ago, Autobacs, a leading car parts store/automotive chain in Japan gave us a Nissan Leaf as a loaner car while they fixed our ICE (internal combustion engine) car. The Leaf was like driving a radio controlled toy car with such peppy acceleration and ease of use. It was fun to drive.

When it came time to get another company car we looked at Nissan and Tesla EVs. The Tesla was somewhere around 400,000 JPY (or around $4000 USD) more expensive. We opted for the Tesla for two reasons-

1. We concluded that Tesla was stronger on the software side of things over Nissan
2. Tesla is a customer so we like to support those who choose our products.

We made an excellent decision. In the three years since acquiring or first test, we have seen Tesla constantly updating their software (12-15 times). Our ICE cars navigation systems never got updated once you drove them off the lot. Most importantly, the range of the vehicle is still 500+km.. three years later. As we looked at the car the other day, the Autobacs executive mentioned that the vehicle (pictured above) is lucky to get 100km on a full charge.

Electric cars are great, but if you haven't got a solid charging network behind them stick with gasoline. Our Teslas have been all over Japan transporting our engineering team doing service on Japan's best communication service provider (CSP) CIRCLE Cloud Communications.

Great to see people developing useful products like Tesla.

Exciting first day for Tean BQF (AINEO) at the Back Office Expo in Tokyo Big Site.

Our team is demonstrating our CIRCLE Microsoft Teams integration and cloud-based phone services. Please stop by and say hello!

Just about 4 years ago we saw fuel prices in Japan rise. It was an unnecessary rise but not caused by anything in Japan. It was caused by political leadership that came into office in the United States that had no clue of basic economics.

Rising fuel prices led to rising food prices (it costs more to get it to your table now) as well as overall transportation. What caused it? The new leadership (2020) in Washington DC decided that gas and oil companies in America were ‘evil’ and that they were going to do everything they could to make business life difficult for the American companies that currently fuel our lives. Therefore American oil production dropped and global supplies went down raising the costs of doing business even for us in Japan.

People are sometimes apathetic about voting. However this is a perfect example of how important it is to get competent people into political office.

The common problem globally for the last few years has been the same for people from many nations... challenged governments. Many politicians are self-serving, dictatorial, or even outright inexperienced in leadership. If you are living under a dictator, which much of our brothers and sisters around the world are doing, you're stuck with whomever is leading your nation. However, if you have freedom and can vote in fair and free elections, then you have a voice.

Vote for people that will represent your values and vision for the future. In an ideal world, whomever you vote into office will be under term limits (not in office for more than 6 to 8 years).

Don't forget to vote! Your nation needs you!

When our team was looking to build a new Tokyo sales office space, being on a street that was the center of a festival from the Edo period (1603 to about 1868) was not exactly on the list. To our pleasant surprise, Oct 19 and 20th of every year we have the Bettara-chi festival in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. I think we'll just call it the "Odenmacho Matsuri".

One website describes it-

The area’s proximity to the Edo Shogunate made it a thriving commercial district, and hotspot of circulation for a variety of crafts and products such as Kimono materials, seafood, and paper. (there is a paper merchant that still continues to be in business today!) Every year on October 20th, the “Ebisu “Assembly” - A merchant’s gathering to wish for good business and family safety - is held.

The original festival was only on October 20th, but the market that consistently emerged the day before, on the 19th to sell tools for the annual event, slowly merged with it to make a bigger festival. Somewhere along the way, pickled daikon radish -- the Bettara-zuke -- came to be sold at the street stalls, and gradually became the focus of the festival.

I’ve been out at the golf course a lot recently. Even take my titanium. Just usually on the outside… as they say cycling is the new golf

If you ever talk to your customers, you need to be on Japan's best phone service, CIRCLE. Taken advantage of our Summer specials here.

• Microsoft Teams Integration- Use your existing Japan numbers (or new native CIRCLE numbers) with your MS Teams Apps!
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You can reach the bright partner service team online here or via telephone at +81 3 4520-8639.