This month I celebrate ONE YEAR of writing this blog since July 2022.🎉

If I reflect back I remember hesitating to write a blog, thinking for a long time “I don’t have anything to write about” and “what would I write that would be of interest to anyone” … but I just started writing, as I do get up to quite a few interesting things each month, and maybe a smidgen of what I do as a businesswomen in Japan is just a little bit interesting.

I took the leap to write as part of the revamp of my website branding colours and layout and my website designer Sarah Moon (SEO Marketing and Business Strategy Consultant) said blogs are awesome things for business owners to do so with her encouragement I kicked it off. Sarah created the blog graphic and this has made everything easy and Laura, my executive assistant, magically puts it all together for me (thank you Laura!!).

I’m glad I did start the blog as I now have built a habit through consistency and I have a record of what I have done, that I can look back on, which is all mine - no social media platform can delete it - and it’s super interesting to see the development of activities over the months. Thank you to everyone who reads this blog to the end and sends me little notes about what they liked. I really appreciate you following and being in my orbit.

In other news these are some wrap-up highlights from my month of July 2023! 

• This July was a tale of two cities.
  I spent half in the sweltering heat of Tokyo and half in a blast of cold chill back in Christchurch. I travelled back for my mum’s big 90th birthday and whilst the weather was chilly we made many warm memories and had a lot of celebrations. It was good to feast upon fish and chips, cheese scones with melted butter, and some nice Pinot Noirs and IPA beers! I even had some totally delicious sashimi at Kinji Japanese Restaurant. The salmon was utterly superb! Thank you Kinji san!

• I put my artistic skills to the test at Artbar 🎨 earlier in the month.
  You basically turn up with an intimate group of friends and the instructor guides you on a theme art piece. You work with her while drinking wine (I can confirm imbibing helps one’s artistic ability a LOT!) and complete the painting in your own style and with your own creativity based on the basic techniques the instructor teaches. Remarkably my beach scene came out rather well! I actually painted it horizontal but ended up liking how it looked vertically. I love ArtBar’s mantra ~  0% Judgement, 100% Fun ~ as you can see which is on their wall to remind you as you paint.
  
  The best bit I like about my finished artwork is the little sand bar which reminds me of creating the space to take a rest on a busy day, to breathe before tackling the swim back to shore or contemplating the high tide ahead in the rest of the working day. ArtBar was huge fun and I totally recommend them. Artbar are conveniently located in various parts of Tokyo.

• FIFA Women's Football World Cup kicked off - literally - in New Zealand when I was there. It was remarkable to see the Kiwi women's team beat the Netherlands only to have the same done to them by the Phillipines team. Christchurch is hosting the Nadeshiko Japan women’s football team.
  
  Back in Tokyo I attended a celebration of women and the FIFA World Cup at the NZ Embassy at the end of the month with many of the wonderful women guests from the Jandals in Japan Podcast also attending

• Mentoring to get you a Board seat and Women Lawyers Retreat
  I continued to receive inquiries in the last month about my coaching/mentoring offering for female lawyers who are aiming for getting on Boards. I also received inquiries about the Women Lawyers Retreat. One space became available for the Autumn retreat in October so if you are interested in joining this or in the mentoring please get in touch with me at admin@catherineoconnelllaw.com. 

Community events coming up

• Last call to join the Privacy Law Roundtable from 4pm this Thursday August 3rd. This is for in-house legal counsel who would like to learn from their peers about how they handle Japan and cross border privacy and data matters and what to do when you find yourself in breach of privacy law, amongst other topics. Get in touch with me for more information at admin@catherineoconnelllaw.com. 
  

• I will be speaking as a KeyNote speaker at a Webinar this week for Global Chamber also on Thursday August 3rd at 8am Japan time. Catch up on the latest business and legal hot topics and tips from me and three other speakers for 60 minutes. Information here and sign up here.
  

Lawyer on Air Podcast
I released TWO episodes of the Lawyer on Air Podcast 

• Aya Saito featured in Season 6 Episode 3 with the theme of “Embracing the Career Journey and Enjoying the Challenges” 

• I welcomed back Legal Recruiter Alkis Kotzampasis in Episode 5 of Season 6, who gave us an update on the legal hiring market in Japan and we also speak about landing board roles in Japan as lawyers with this episode: “From Briefs to Boardrooms: How Lawyers Can Climb the Corporate Ladder in Japan”

  If you are enjoying my podcast episodes, I would love you to take just a few minutes of your time over this holiday break to leave me a rating on Apple podcasts, and write a short review so more people can hear about the podcast after reading your words to encourage them to do so. Drop us a quick email to tell us which episode you liked and why to: admin@catherineoconnelllaw.com 

Jandals in Japan Podcast

• Together with co-host Jayne Nakata we released another two new episodes of the Jandals in Japan Podcast. 

• It was the Catherine and Jayne show for Episode 34 “If you were starting over in Japan, what would you do?”  We explored opportunities for the future of our work within the Japan and New Zealand community, and we talked about what we might do if we were to come fresh to Japan (or return to NZ) armoured with all the knowledge and experience contained inside ourselves now.

• In Episode 35 we picked up our conversation with Mel Barber from NEC in New Zealand talking about with her episode entitled “NEC Today: Working at a Japanese Company in Aotearoa New Zealand”

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And finally… 

At my Mum’s 90th birthday she gave an off the cuff mini speech. She used to be a telephonist (switchboard operator) back in Australia as her first job out of school. Using the manual switchboard she connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks, to connect caller number 1234 to caller number 5678. 

Obviously this was a job needing customer service skills, the ability to work well with others, and a lot of patience with the ability to remain calm. All the skills we need to have in our work today.

Now my mum has an iPhone she can’t do without. She learnt how to use it over covid lockdowns. It’s utterly amazing to think she can send WhatsApp chats and photos, play Wordle, and check things on Google at the age of 90.

She remarked in her speech how amazing it is to have seen the phases of development of telephone technology over the years since her telephonist days, and I think it is cool how she has tackled learning a new gadget like the iPhone at this ripe old age. 

Good on you mum, I’m proud of your tenacity and patience to learn new tech! I wonder what tech I will be trying to master when I am 90 years of age?

That’s all from me for this month. See you in August.

Catherine