Written on October 26, 1989 [Permalink]

October 21

Picked up the two photographs from Chujitsuya that I ordered earlier in the week - or I should say, tried to. The order had been misunderstood at the lab in Tokyo, and the images had been cropped too much, making them very difficult to use for making a hanshita. They guys at the photo counter were very good though, and offered to have it redone (I hope not at their expense). There's no rush for these, as I'm getting wise in my old age, and ordering long before I need them.

Reading back through these notes, I see that I forgot to mention that a Mr. Sato in Hachioji called last week after seeing the Asahi Shimbun article, and asked for details. I sent a sample pak, and he called back today and signed up. I had been keeping track of how many customers we now have, but I seem to have lost the thread... Checking my records now, I see that we stand at 17.

Another phone call later on - a ghost from the past - Mr. S in Kobe! He's the gentleman who asked for prints, and then neither paid for them nor returned my letters. He apologized for the 'delay', saying that he had been out of the country for the summer ... He said that he would be making his payment, and asked to be brought up to date. Sounds good, but I think I'll wait for the payment to come in before I send any more prints. He also asked about buying extra sets for resale in his antique shop, and asked about a discount. This is something that I'd like to avoid if possible. I certainly don't expect him to try and resell prints for nothing, but neither do I want to get into the business of selling them one by one, on a wholesale basis. I demurred for the moment, and promised to let him know later.

October 22

Met Mitsuyama-san, the leader of the local hanga circle, at the Kominkan, to discuss the coming festival. I had the print set with me, and it was the first time he had seen them (I haven't been attending their usual 'meetings' because of English classes). When I laid them out on the tables for viewing, I turned out the ceiling lights, and just let the diffused light from the windows come in. The prints look great when seen that way, and he signed up!

Mr. Yamashita, the cardboard company president, dropped round to pay for his most recent print (he was out when I dropped it off last week). We chatted for a while, and he asked how many subscribers we now had. I told him, and he made some comments about 'We'll see if we can't increase that a bit ...' I'm not sure what he means, but I assume that he intends to show his prints around, to see who else is interested. Actually, I had expected that we would have had more 'referrals' by now, and there actually doesn't seem to have been any, other than Terakado-san, who was turned on by the Sakazakis.

October 23-24

Carving, carving, ... and finished the kimono pattern. Looking back, I see that I started it on October 2nd! This is crazy - three weeks for something that would take a real carver a couple of days at the most. This print is now officially 'late', as the first customer in line to receive it should have got it on the 23rd. I don't think he cares much, or even realizes that I have been sending them on the same day each month ...

Spent a couple of hours at YomuYomu, a local bookstore, checking over magazines, and selecting which ones to send the next flyers to. If I want to get something into the New Year Issues, now is the time to get going. Mailed off a few flyers, along with a letter to the Tokyo Journal, following-up on last June's (?) contact.

October 26

Before the afternoon classes, brought all the financial bookkeeping up to date in a new binder. Last week I did the customer shipping records, and now the cash book is all set up in a matching binder. All those years I spent hanging around in that music company back in Canada taught me something about business bookkeeping ... I think!