Depaul Travel

Tokyo is not a city for the hurried tourist making a quick stopover en route to other destinations in Japan. Tokyo comes as a real surprise to most travelers. Much more than a city, it is a completely different world.

When visitors to Japan first arrive at Narita International Airport, they often experience immediate culture shock. Signs point the way in Kanji (Japanese characters), but most tourists can’t read them. Without a few helpful signs in English, it would be easy to get quite lost.

At first sight, Tokyo itself is crowded, loud and not especially beautiful. The air quality is not particularly good. Men wearing white gloves shove people inside the regional transit cars in order to fit more people inside, and most Japanese respond with a blank stare when spoken to in English.

Tokyo can be hard to negotiate and travel around town can be stressful – but it is also a unique and exhilarating experience.

Kagemusha, the Shadow Warrior.

Prior to 1456-1457, there is very little salient knowledge available about the city of Edo, Tokyo’s predecessor. With the building of the Edo Fortress during these years in the mid-fifteenth century, the city on Hibiya Bay gained in importance.

The greatest advance, however, came in 1653, when the shogun Tokugawa leyasu established his centre of government here. Director Akira Kurosawa staged the life and work of this prominent, powerful shogun in his 1980 film Kagemusha – The Shadow Warrior. George Lucas did not shoot the backdrop of the film, but he spun the threads, so to speak.

In his novel Shogun, writer James Clivell also painted a portrait of the most imposing figure in Japanese history. Ieyasu is considered the founder of modern Tokyo, even though the city did not take its official name or become the “Capital of the East” until the emperor moved there in 1868.

Beginnings of Western influence.

The population of the city is said to have already exceeded a million at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Edo was not only the capital city under the Tokugawa shogunate, it was also the economic centre of Japan. The end of the shogunate is closely connected to the history of Edo, and by association, Tokyo. The balance of power changed under the Meiji emperors. Shogun Yoshinobu Tokugawa, who was rather weak with regard to the West, especially the United States, abdicated in 1867 and left Edo to the emperor.

But the actual goal of sealing Japan off from the West was never implemented by the shogun’s adversaries, headed by the emperor. In fact, just the opposite occurred: a very active period of modernization based on the Western model began.

Destruction and rebuilding.

In Tokyo, European-style houses were built right in between traditional wooden houses. Some of the most famous examples are the houses on Ginza Street, which were built from red brick in order to create more European surroundings for foreign residents of the capital. In spite of everything, such changes were mainly superficial. The city plan and homes of the native Japanese remained closely tied to the Edo tradition of the Shogun Era. But that changed in 1923, the year of the Great Earthquake, measuring more than 8.0 on the Richter scale.

The earthquake itself and the fires that resulted from the it reduced nearly all of Tokyo to ruins. However, destruction has always represented an opportunity for change in Japan. Tragically, the Second World War came quite soon after the earthquake, signaling yet another period of devastating destruction.

The new development of Tokyo began after the end of the Second World War, and literally began on top of debris and ashes. On the basis of new technologies, a modern Tokyo cityscape consisting of skyscrapers, steel and concrete emerged. Special construction methods had to be used, because Tokyo lies in one of the most active earthquake zones in the world. Earthquakes are nothing out of the ordinary here, and smaller tremors can be felt in the city almost daily.

You probably already know what social networking is. Basically, social networking is simply making contacts and communicating in various ways. Social networking often utilizes mass-communication methods such as mailing lists, bulletins, and other ways to distribute quick information throughout an informal group of people.

The internet has greatly facilitated social networking. People can quickly, conveniently, and cheaply communicate with others. People can use their computer to store contact lists, and then can contact these people through various mediums from instant messengers to email, most of which is either free or very cheap. Additionally, online social networking has been even further amplified by social networking websites, such as MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook.

Activists need to take note of these changes and utilize the new methods of social networking. Activism relies heavily on organization and coordination, which in turn relies heavily on social networking. The most powerful activism is that which is decentralized, and the new technology of the internet has made it very easy for decentralized movements to start.

Activists can help empower themselves by taking advantage of social networking as much as possible. When going to meetings and other events, activists can share contact details, including email addresses.

Additionally, activists can meet up with each other through the internet. After activists make contact with each other online, they can send each other information about upcoming events and issues. Usually it does not require any more work, as simply adding someone to a certain list can result in them getting all of your updates, bulletins, emails, or such.

One of the great aspects of social networking is that it can be used to recruit more activists. The ability to use social networks and contact lists to disseminate information means that activists can now much more easily raise awareness about issues. For example, sending emails or posting on internet message boards is much cheaper and much more effective than printing out flyers. As more people know about a certain issue or social problem, more people will be willing to get active about it.

Older activists and non-tech-savvy activists may not be as familiar with the newest methods of social networking. It is important that tech-savvy activists show others how to use the internet and technology to facilitate the networking between activists. It is also wise to keep tech-savvy activists well-informed, since they have the most power to spread information throughout the internet and utilize online social networking mediums.

Remember to use new social networking methods to facilitate your activist endeavors. Whatever you do, good luck and have fun!

Running an MLM business is far from an easy task. While the potential rewards are tremendous, the effort that must be put in is certainly not a walk in the park. One of the most difficult facets of running your own business is creating a steady traffic flow in order to generate sales. Here are some tips for what you can do to increase the amount of leads you have, and create a heavy online presence for yourself & dominate your Network Marketing & Direct Sales Business.

Interacting and networking is crucial when it comes to MLM lead generation. The more people see your name and become familiar with your knowledge and expertise on a particular topic the better. Social sites have certainly taken over the way businesses promote and market today. For this reason, it is crucial you get into social sites and make a name for yourself.

Web sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have become the number one way to connect with others. You are far more likely to generate an MLM lead by talking to someone and getting to know them than you are having a banner that someone can click on. This is not to say banner advertising will not work, but it is vital you understand the importance of interacting and exposing yourself in social sites as much as possible. A few other social sites to consider are Linkedin, Gather.com, Hubpages, Kiwibox, Classmates.com and a very popular European social site is Netlog.

Another form of marketing that has catapulted over the past few years is video marketing. With more and more businesses and web sites including video, it is crucial you include this in your arsenal of marketing. The great thing about video marketing is that you can use graphics and pictures to display your expertise in a topic to help create leads for your MLM.

While video marketing is on the rise, article marketing continues to be one of the most efficient marketing techniques to create leads. The key is to write several articles a week and submit them to as many article directories as possible. This allows you to display your expertise to millions of people while creating numerous backlinks. And thanks to keyword optimization usage in your articles, you can climb up in the search engines for specific keywords.

The last tip to help you create MLM leads is to develop a blog or post in other people’s blogs. Again, networking and interacting with people in casual manner can do wonders for your business. If you have the time, setting up a blog of your own and posting in it a few times per day can help put you on the map. Just know that it requires constant maintenance to have any kind of success with a blog of your own.

Obtaining your own domain name for your blog is essential to the success of your blog, you must own the name of your blog in order to be taken seriously in this industry. The best avenue to take when obtaining your blog is to purchase your domain name from GoDaddy.com and have HostGator host your blog with the WordPress service. This will cost you less than $20. Having a WordPress blog is by far the best choice when creating your new blog. There are a few places online to get into the blogging community and bring attention to your blog. A few of them are LiveJournal, imeem, and MyOpera.