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!!!!