On the work side, I've had a lot of stuff to do recently. Some great things happening, but some not so great, too. I cannot currently say that I'm 100% happy with the situation.

I wish I had more trust and a bit more decisional power. If I were given more power, the first thing I'd do would be to give myself a raise 8) ..no, really !
Sounds lame but it's important. I think that my current position is potentially very formative (I consider that very important), so I would like to invest extra time on it, but at my age I have to start worrying about getting more money and if my day job doesn't provide enough, I'll have to start looking for alternatives, second jobs, different jobs, whatever.
Let's not even start talking about job mobility in Japan. Work places are very static, especially for a foreigner with limited Japanese language abilities working in the game business. But, I want to stay in Japan so, in a way or another I have to find a way to have fun, improve my career and my paycheck, too 8) ..not easy but I'm very confident I can achieve pretty much anything, if I focus in the right direction (where ? 8)

Recently, I've been given more and more responsibilities, which is exciting ! However the management side of things tends to distract me from the actual coding/research, which is still where I have to give my best. Then there is the business travels, the health checks, the PCs setup, tons of emails in Japanese to read, and my Japanese itself, with the reading skills which are possibly worsening... aaaaaaahhhhhhh !!!!!
Being able to collaborate and communicate is an essential skill, but as a seasoned developer, sometimes I feel I should just be trusted because I can't be a "PowerPoint-man", a "business-travel-man" and still being the lead coder in a "new" team.
As I said before, I try to stay off the trends as much as I can. Not getting my head into some mainstream trend in real-time 3D is very important. Creativity is what will set anyone apart, and trends kill creativity.. so, do worries at work.

..eventually everything will fall in place. But right now I'm paying the price: Sunday I spent my day in the office working practically alone. Not so much because there is no time in the long term, but more because I don't have everyone's confidence just yet, which frankly it sucks 8(

mooooooooooooo

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