PIMS

Praying to the God of Business in Tokyo

It is autumn in Tokyo - finally! - after a long, hot and steamy sauna-summer. We had a holiday in Japan today, and I took the opportunity to take a walk in Nerima, a town in the northwest of the city.

Diving into the labyrinthian entertainment and restaurant district I soon had lost myself, when I suddenly stumbled on a Shinto Shrine dedicated to the God of Business. This little shrine (see photograph, and click to enlarge) is quite simple for being the House of the God of Money, but there it was, anyway, waiting for a prayer for fortune.

The geeks are the gods of Internet business

At a Shinto Shrine, the procedure to follow is simple:

1. Walk up to the place where you see a few very thick ropes hanging from the ceiling.
2. Shake one of them to rattle a bell hanging from the rope.
3. This should alert the God, but to be extra safe, always complete step 4 as well:
4. Clap you hands twice, and..
5. Press them together, and bow your head in a silent prayer (don't forget this part).

There is as a matter of fact one step you should do before 2, but I got in trouble there, so I guess I had suppressed it: throw some coins into the box under the ropes (this is called investment in the business world). The trouble was, all I could find in my purse was two one yen coins, which is the equivalent of roughly nothing in most currencies. I threw them in there anyway, which will probably upset not only the God, but the priests as well (probably more than the God, who is bound to be rich anyway, and lead a life full of virgins and good food and wine and all the rest of it).

To many businesses, large and small, doing business on the Web seems incomprehensible, something that needs to be taken cared of by the geeks - expensive geeks. They are the gods of Internet business. All you can do is send a silent prayer for success, and shell out the money.

We at PIMS are setting out on a new journey: to give you an understanding of this business in human language, and at a human cost. This is why we will teach you the very simple, yet powerful system used to publish this page, and educate you in the "mysterious" ways business works on the Internet.

Admittedly, we can't do this for two yen. But we will do it for very reasonable money, without compromising quality.