Heaven, Hell, and in Between

About the Book

This is a story of a woman who is bilingual and bicultural. After college she literally bulldozed her way to higher rungs on the corporate hierarchy in a male dominated business environment of advertising in Japan. She has her stories of how she got there, giving tips on how women trying to rise higher on the corporate ladder where not just "glass" ceilings exist, but "concrete" ceilings.

She also describes her observations on the cultural, political and economic differences and upheavals of the recent times as well as developments between the US and Japan, and her observations of other countries in Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Asian countries as far as India, countries where she traveled on business and her vacations with her husband. And how she is today, when she decided to become a writer after she turned sixty-five.

She has shown that there is life after retirement, that there are other ways to pursue development of a "second" career. Though pessimistic at times, she always relied on her optimism to achieve fulfillment. The book is full of hope, both yet unachieved and those achieved.

About the Author

Mariko Sekine left Yokohama, Japan, at age 7. She grew up in New York City and San Francisco. She was back in Japan after high school; after college, she joined McCann Erickson-Hakuhodo, a major advertising agency in Tokyo, and went to Budweiser Japan and Bates Japan, a smaller advertising agency. Later, she became a Day Trader. She wrote her autobiography from the perspective of Japanese growing up in the West to become a professional career woman. She weaves cultural, historical and economic events that have affected so many lives around the world. She lives in Tokyo with her husband.