Work trip to Tokyo, Japan - 30th July to 3rd August 2008

Off to Tokyo, for the first stop on a quickfire work tour involving 3 countries. The flight from Terminal 5 was a very strange one - despite being "overnight" (leaving at 2pm and arriving the following day at 9am), it didn't get dark outside at any point. This was presumably because we were flying over the Arctic, where it just didn't get dark, then only flying south towards Japan once the sun had come up there. Most strange, and it made the time between sleeps seem like a very long day indeed!

On stepping off the plane, I was immediately struck by how hot and sticky it was, temperatures getting close to 30 degrees (even at 9am), and no wind whatsoever, which meant that the hot air seemed even more muggy than it otherwise would. I got through immigration in 2 minutes flat (take note US Immigration!), and was amused that, when the immigration agent stapled my departure form into my passport, he put the staple right through a stamp from China. I am still wondering whether that was just a coincidence.

After a while waiting and trying to decipher confusing stuff, I managed to get onto a bus into the city - which I was told would take 100 minutes - a reminder of how big Tokyo is. Pretty quickly on the way into the city, memories of my previous trip, a few years ago, came flooding back. Tokyo goes on forever, and so it takes ages to get across the city. We mostly drove along elevated expressways which were about 5 or 6 stories off the ground, so we got a great view of all of the smaller streets at ground level. My hotel continued the theme of excellent views, with my room on the 23rd floor providing an great birdseye look at the area of Shibuya, which I was right on top of.

One thing I remembered from my last trip, and was quickly reminded of, was how Tokyo is simultaneously very familiar (and similar to somewhere like London) in lots of ways; but completely, bewilderingly different in many other ways. You get the subway to work, just as you might do anywhere, and that is fairly normal. Then, you see the biggest TV screen ever, advertising something weird, and you realise that you are a long way from home! It sounds very strange to say so, but Tokyo has a really distinctive smell, that you catch wind of quite often.

Clearly, Tokyo is a very highly sophisticated and developed place, populated by people with sophisticated (and often expensive) tastes. Starbucks and McDonalds are the norm here, part of people's daily life in a very globalised city, rather than just a rare foreign novelty. In fact, American influences are everywhere, and are pretty deeply ingrained in Japanese life - you often see American brands that I've never seen anywhere outside America. I guess this is partly because of the US influence on the post war history of Japan - but when you are here, the level of Japanese influence on America also becomes apparent. Many things look "the same as in America" - because they were made in Japan or by Japanese companies, and exported there.

During this trip, I was in the office for a couple of days, and got taken out for lunch on both days. The first time, we went to a small noodle house, where our orders were taken by a 90 year old woman on a PDA, then wirelessly transmitted to the kitchen. That pretty much sums up how all pervasive technology is in Japan - they use it everywhere, and everybody from small kids to old women seem comfortable using it. Before this meal, I thought I was OK with chopsticks, but I always get woefully left behind by my colleagues in these situations - they had finished by the time I had got going. The second day, we went to another Japanese place, where a tray with various food on it arrived - pictured here. I recognised 3 things on it - rice, cucumber, and ice cubes. Nevertheless, I had a go at everything, and it made for a pretty good lunch.

Although Japan can be very confusing at times, the big bonus is that the language barrier is nowhere near as high as it could be - technology sees to that. Strangely for a city where 33 million people live (or maybe precisely because of that), you can live most of your life without having to speak to another human being - machines will take you a very long way. Vending machines are everywhere, and will sell you coffee, cigarettes, Coke and subway tickets. But, like in the restaurant pictured here, you can also order whole meals using a machine. In this place, you pick what you want from the pictures on the menu, put your money into a machine and press the right button - then take a ticket, go inside, and sit at the bar with your ticket in front of you. A few minutes later, somebody puts your food in front of you - all without saying a word. Most strange, but it does make the whole experience much easier!