Picture of the day


愛犬ボーボーの写真。カワイイ～！

Are you interested in a USD$15M dance class?

１７億円のダンスクラス興味ありますか？

This woman of HSBC private banking in Hong Kong paid $15M for latin dance class but ended up being insulted by the dance teacher. So she is asking for a refund of $7M. I am not really interested in whether the truth is on her side or not but it makes me wonder if someone could be that rich and pay that insane amount of money for dance class...... Make my dance class looks pretty cheap now.

香港にあるＨＳＢＣ銀行のえらいさんが１７億円のダンスクラスを契約したけど、　先生とうまくいかなくて、　途中契約を破れて、　８億円の賠償金を請求しました。　事実かどうか分からないけど、　でもダンスのため１７億円も払うのは初めて聞いたね！そうんなにダンスが好きなのかな？？？？

(Quoted from Mingpao news)

匯豐銀行亞洲私人銀行服務行政總裁王以智向英籍拉丁舞老師追回學費案，法庭判決王勝訴，取回6259萬元。

法官的裁決指出，王以智支付的為預支拉丁舞學費，而她已停止向兩名被告學舞，故沒有理由不可取回學費，他們沒權扣起該筆費用。

王以智喜愛跳拉丁舞，數年間向一對英籍夫妻檔拉丁舞世界冠軍豪擲6000萬元，預支未來8年的舞蹈學費，並計劃與男舞王搭檔出賽3場國際拉丁舞賽 事。然而，王指稱被男舞王威迫利誘才預支巨額學費，而在04年兩次公開表演練習中，男舞王更當眾喝罵她，雙方決定解約，但對方拒絕歸還6000萬元預支學 費，她於高院向對方索償。

然而，被告Mirko Saccani及Gaynor Fairweather反指雙方訂立的是1.2億元10年訓練合約，由於王單方面終止合約，屬違反合約，故向王反索償5600萬元學費餘數。

年約60歲的王以智，於美國大學畢業後任職電腦程式員，70年代投身銀行業，起初任職紐約CitiBank，約20年前轉職匯豐銀行私人銀行服務部，現職亞洲區行政總裁。

賃貸の諸事情

I have finished moving my apartment. Last weekend I had returned the keys to my landlord. But before you can do that they will come and check for damages. This is what the apartment looked like right before I return it. I have cleaned the house exactly like nobody was living there before.

先週部屋を渡した。　オーナーさんと立会いして、　部屋をチェックして、　鍵を渡した。　きれいに使ったし、傷もないし、敷金はそのまま返します。　

渡すまえに、かなり掃除しましたけど、　それにしてもクリーニング代を40000万円くらいチャージしてしまった。　

In Japan you have to pay for restoration fee to restore your rented apartment back to a "new" state. It is such a silly rule that I think is never heard of anywhere else in the world. Anyway, since I have used the apartment carefully and luckily there was no damage. I don't have to pay any restoration fee. But I still have to pay a cleaning fee of about 40000 yen (which was already spilt in half with the landlord). Make you wonders where did your rent actually go. Consider that you have to pay the following already when you moved in the flat:

2 months of rent as deposit (refundable)
2 months of rent as key money (non-refundable)
1 month of rent as commission (to agent)

There is a "renewal" fee of 1 month of rent when they renewal your rent contract (probably for a higher rent) after 2 years.

In case of my new apartment I negotiated the key money down to 1 month of rent and used a half priced agent that only charge 50% of the rent as commission. Think carefully if you want to rent an apartment in Japan.

わざと部屋を傷つけたときに修理代出すのは当然だけど、普通生活に部屋に傷つけることはある程度避けられないと思う。　汚れも同じだと思う。　礼金、家賃も払ったし、　そういう汚れは家賃に含まれてるでしょう。　１００％現状回復は不可能じゃないですか？　外国人にとってよくわからないことですね。　

いったい私払った家賃どこにいっちゃっただろう？

I discovered this near my old apartment.....
面白い発見！



it won't hurt even you hit the pole..
ぶつかっても痛くないだろう。　みんなさんも試してみて・・・