Kampai Kyoto

The last two days in Kyoto were spent enjoying the beautiful scenery and learning more about Japan's rich cultural history. We visited several palaces and temples, including the "old" imperial palace, which was beautiful and fascinating. We were lucky enough to just make the tour, and I'm glad we did. There was a significant amount of history and traditions to be learned. One of the most interesting things for me was that there were several different gates by which you could enter the palace. One was just for the empress, one was for more common people, another for visiting heads of state, and yet another for the emperor himself. As you can imagine, there were many gates!

For lunch one day we visited a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Prepared sushi goes slowly by your table, and you can take what you would like to eat. They charge by the plate, and almost the entire process is automated. This sparked an interesting discussion as to if this eating style could ever work in the United States. We concluded that it would be unlikely because people would have concerns about sanitation, and be more likely to try and not pay for sushi that they ate.

While in Kyoto, we also went to a traditional tea ceremony, where we made tea for each other. This was challenging because making this tea is a multi-step process, which included whisking a powder until it became frothy using a wooden whisk. Some of us were better than others at making the tea. I tried to think if there was any type of ceremony as intricate as the tea ceremony in the United States, but nothing came to my mind. Visiting a country with literally thousands of years of history is fascinating for me, because, as we know, the United States is not very old at all. Due to the age of the U.S. we have a distinct lack of traditions and traditional ceremonies. Experiencing the rich culture of another country is an amazing experience. As my time in Japan wrapped up, I found myself marveling at the strong unity of the Japanese people and the uniqueness of their culture and traditions.

Kyoto

On Monday, we said goodbye to Toyko and took the highspeed train to Kyoto. It was by far the smoothest train ride I have ever taken, and the fastest. We reached speeds in excess of 150 miles per hour. It was a fast ride, in my opinion, comparable to flying, only with more legroom. There were some interesting things that we passed in the countryside, including lots of rice paddys. The weather was rainy for the first time we've been here, so it was a good day to take the train. After arriving in Kyoto, we ate some lunch at the main train station and traveled to our traditional hotel. The floor is made of tatami mats and we are sleeping on futons on the floor. There is a distinct lack of chairs and we must remove our shoes at the door of the hotel. The doorways are low and some of the group members must be very conscious when walking. All of the doors slide and are made of the "rice paper" style. The owners of the hotel are grateful for our business because the tsunami has really hurt tourism.

The other interesting thing about Kyoto are the school children. Apparently, one week out of every year the school children travel to Kyoto to learn about the country's culture. These children are curious about us, and several have approached us to ask questions. We are planning to do a lot of sightseeing and cultural learning here, and I'm looking forward to it.

Our traditional beds

Tokyo Giants

On Sunday, we went to a Toyko Giants game. Although baseball is supposedly America's Past time, the Japanese have made some significant improvements. For example, you can bring anything that you would like food or beverage-wise into the game. If your drink is in a bottle you must pour it into a paper cup provided by them and then bring it to your seat. As a result of this policy, the markup on park food over any other store is only about 50 to 150 yen. This is in sharp contrast to American stadiums where the markup is much higher. It is also interesting to note that fans do not cheer derogatorily in Japan. When a team is at bat, their fans cheer positively, and the opposing fans watch, sometimes acknowledging a great play by the other team. This is not the case at any professional sporting event in the United States, where fans will defend the honor of their teams and fight to the death.

By far the most interesting part of the culture for me, however, was the fact that at the end of the game, the stadium was just as clean as when we first entered. Nobody left trash lying around their seats and some even picked  up the trash of others. As most of you probably know, this would NEVER be the case in the US. There would be trash EVERYWHERE and nobody would think to pick up the trash of their neighbors. Overall, it was a fascinating study in culture and a great game of baseball!

view from our seats, right down the third base line

Mt Fuji

Mt. Fuji was very impressive. We drove about three hours outside of Tokyo to reach the foothills and do some walking and photography. We had traditional Japanese box lunches and enjoyed the beautiful views. After that, we traveled another two hours to a green tea farm to see how green tea was grown and processed. It was fascinating. There are three harvests a year, and the processing plant only runs about 4 months of the year, remaining dormant for the rest of the year. Keiko’s wonderful family accompanied us on this journey and we were able to taste some of the delicious green tea afterwards. 

After a long and traffic filled bus ride back to Tokyo, we all went to a Karaoke palace. It was interesting because we had a private room where all of us could relax. They brought us delicious food, including whole soybeans which are eaten much like an American would eat peanuts. It was a great experience and I learned why so many Japanese people love Karaoke. Keiko’s family are all excellent singers and very kind people, and a great day was had by all.

Old Tokyo

Today we woke up early to go to the Tokyo fish market. We arrived around 5 am to find that they are still not allowing tourists into the fish market due (for some reason) to the Tsunami. Although we did not get to see the Tuna auction, we did see quite a bit of fish, and we had sushi for breakfast. I know that all of you are thinking this means I had raw fish, I did not. I had some pretty good veggie sushi, including some with fermented soybeans. I ordered the sushi and the chef looks at me, and confirms that I do indeed want the soybeans. I said that I would try it. It actually wasn’t bad; quite sticky, but not bad. Afterward, the chef asked me how I liked it. When I said it was decent, he laughed and called me a celebrity, saying that even he did not like it. Others enjoyed such delicacies such as melt in your mouth fatty tuna and almost live prawn. It was quite an experience. 

After that experience, we had a business meeting with American Express. This was quite informative and gave us a chance to compare and contrast specifics of American and Japanese consumers. For example, most Japanese do not carry any sort of balance on their credit cards, and have a better sense of what they can and cannot afford. They also prefer “busy” websites. For example, almost nobody in Japan uses Google to search, because the clean homepage is not what they want. They prefer the Yahoo! homepage which is COVERED with news, ads and photos.  To me this was fascinating because almost everyone else in the world prefers the Google page. 

For the rest of the day we traveled to the Edo museum which covered Tokyo’s history up to current day, and I learned that the Rickshaw was a Japanese invention. After that we traveled to the “old Tokyo” and saw actual Rickshaws you could ride in for 3,000 yen (pretty expensive, around $40). There were many vendors and a temple where you could get your fortune. A few Japanese people asked to take my photograph, which was the first time this has happened. I thought it would have happened before now, because I stick out like a sore thumb, but most Japanese people are too polite to ask. We ended our night with some delicious Vietnamese food. Tomorrow we are headed to Mt. Fuji!

Stereotypes busted (May 19, 2011)

As we have been traveling around Tokyo, I have noticed several previous stereotypes I had are now busted. For example, I thought that everyone in Japan would be short. This is definitely not the case. Most people are around my height and most of the men are about average height for America. There are some very short people, but there are also some very tall people. This has been eye opening for me. I was also under the impression that Tokyo had many more foreigners than I have actually seen. Although some of this may be a result of the Tsunami, we have heard that most people who left have returned. There are significantly less foreigners than I expected, and not as many Japanese people as I expected speak English, or are willing to speak English. We have been told that this is a result of the shame that Japanese people feel when they make a mistake. They are afraid to speak because they do not want to misspeak. This is a sharp contrast to the American adage of “just give it your best” or “fake it till you make it.”

Today we also had  several interesting meetings. We met first with a corporate finance professor from a Tokyo university. His insights into the Japanese culture, economy and post Tsunami Japan were enlightening and created great discussion. It was great to have an honest discussion and exchange of ideas. After this, we met with the US Japan chamber of commerce president and had a very spirited discussion covering a multitude of business topics, including some very interesting personal stories. To conclude our business day, we visited Itochu, a very large Japan based, international conglomerate, where were spoke with  employees around our age and learned a lot about the corporate culture in Japan, and the average work day, which runs from about 9am to about 9 or 10pm. Personally, I could never imagine working five 12 hour days, but apparently this is the norm in Japan. To conclude our day, we went to the Shibuya district which is the Tokyo that is most often portrayed in the movies. It was crowded and full of trendy shops, clubs, and food. It was great, but we did not stay out too late because we are getting up at 415 am tomorrow to go to the fish market!

Soy Presso- coffee juice box type beverage that can be bought in many convince stores

Panda Snacks (May 18, 2011)

Today I woke up to Russ saying “hey guys, I think we need to get up.” It was 8am and we were set to meet in the lobby at 815 to travel to Intralink. We had to rush like mad, but we still made it on time. Intralink was interesting because it was a private consulting firm which helps firms enter the Japanese market. It was perfect to have this meeting after the JETRO meeting the previous day because it gave us a contrasting viewpoint and facilitated great discussion. This is also where I first learned that as a foreigner (Gajin) the Japanese will tolerate us, and accept that we do not follow their cultural norms, and won’t be offended. The other side of this tolerance, however, is that, no matter what, we can never be Japanese. It does not matter how long one has been here, how fluent one speaks the language or how well one can use chopsticks. A Gajin will never be fully accepted as Japanese. This is in stark contrast to the American view that anyone can be American. As long as you follow the process, learn the language and the customs, you will be accepted into the culture.  

In the afternoon, we went to NTT DoCoMo which is the largest mobile service provider in Japan. They have about 50% of the market share. We were given a tour in perfect English and had the opportunity to see some advanced cell phone technology. The coolest thing at DoCoMo was the future simulation. One student (Russ) designed a Kimono with a dragon and cherry blossoms in 3-D. This was amazing because  Russ was literally touching the air in front of him and moving parts of the design, much like you see in the movies.

After DoCoMo, we visited the Electric city (Akihabara). There were lots of stores selling components to computers and hundreds of other electronics. We visited a 7 story arcade were Jeremy lost his star wars chopsticks L and a Pachinko parlor, which was louder than a rave. Midafternoon, I found some delicious panda-shaped snacks that made my day. Each panda had a separate emotion face and was uniquely delicious. For dinner we had some really good tempura and wandered around a little more before we headed back.

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 PACHINKO PARLOR, SO LOUD!!!!