Tokyo, Japan

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A Buddhist Temple outside of Tokyo.

My first trip to Japan was a business trip that included stops in Amsterdam and Tokyo. At the time I was working for a big four accounting firm. The client was a software company located in San Francisco California’s Silicon Valley. My responsibility was to go to the Europe and Asia subsidiaries to look at controls they had in place to ensure that the company was in fact receiving all the royalties they were due for licenses issued.

After leaving Amsterdam, I flew to Hong Kong by flying over Russia and China, a twelve hour flight. There was a short layover in Hong Kong and then I flew for another eight hours to Tokyo. Arriving in Tokyo's Narita International Airport was a much greater language challenge than Amsterdam. The customs information to be completed was thankfully in both Japanese and English. However, due to security concerns and Japanese immigration procedures, customs took about an hour to clear.

After going through customs and picking up my luggage, I quickly found an ATM and picked up some Yen. Then using a tour book that explained about the JR (Japan Railway) Narita Express Train to downtown Tokyo and a helpful person at the travelers’ information desk; I was able to navigate the airport, purchase a train ticket at a ticket office in the Narita terminal, and then locate the correct train to the Tokyo station.

The trip to downtown was about an hour on the train. Sitting on the train I couldn’t understand the announcements, but there was a scrolling English language sign that indicated the various train stations. A Japanese mother with a small boy sat across from me on the train and even though I didn’t speak any Japanese, the boy kept laughing and talking to me. I just smiled and said hello. My stop on the JR Express was the Tokyo station where I was able to grab a taxi to my hotel the New Otani Hotel. When I entered the taxi I just said "New Otani Hotel" and the driver said "Hai" (Yes) and we were off. Evidently, even though he didn’t speak a word of English, he knew my hotel or at least I hoped he did. One word of warning about taxis in Tokyo is to be careful opening the door. The driver opens the passenger door automatically and if you reach to grab the door you can end up with a smashed hand. I only made that mistake once.

Flower Arrangement in the lobby of the New Otani Hotel

Arriving at the hotel, I was greeted by ladies in kimonos that bowed and welcomed me to the hotel. I checked in and was up to the room in a flash. I showered and waited for a call from Catherine, my wife. Catherine was flying in from San Francisco so we could spend the time together in Japan. Very shortly, I received the call from Catherine (thank God for cell phones). She had also grabbed a taxi and let me know she would soon be at the hotel. I ran downstairs and was very happy to have her with me. After some rest we went out on the town for dinner.

The gardens at the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo.

The accommodations at the Hotel New Otani included an American style breakfast and you could look out at the hotel's ten acre Japanese garden that has waterfalls and ponds. On a clear day, when you got off the elevator on the way to our room you could see the Tokyo skyline and off in the distance Mount Fujiyama. The main hotel in Tokyo opened in 1964, to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics and I remembered seeing the hotel in an old Cary Grant film made during the 1964 Olympics.

Another view of the gardens at the New Otani Hotel.

In the mornings, as I got ready for work, I watched Japanese Television that had a show of puppies playing with classical music in the background, nothing else no commentary, just the puppies playing for about half an hour. I don’t know why, but I found it to very peaceful and entertaining. Catherine was especially helpful on this trip because her mother was Japanese and Catherine had heard some spoken Japanese when she was growing up. As a result even though she doesn’t speak or read Japanese she could use a Japanese phase book and correctly pronounce the words.

My wife Catherine flew from San Francisco, California to meet me in Tokyo, Japan

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Tokyo, Japan - Part III

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The famous dog Hachiko that I wrote about in Japan Trip Part II.

That weekend Catherine and I took a tour that included a bus trip to Mount Fujiyama (Fuji) and then a bullet train ride back to Tokyo.

Catherine and Me on Mount Fuji.

Mount Fuji is the tallest volcano in Japan

Mount Fuji

That's me on Mt. Fuji.

On Mt. Fuji

The trip to Mount Fuji was a true highlight. I have wanted to go ever since I studied Japanese culture in the third grade and saw a picture of Mount Fuji. We took a bus to near the top of Fuji, but it was foggy and we couldn't see the top of the mountain. Then all at once the clouds cleared and there she was in all her snow capped beauty.

Catherine at the gardens of the Japanese Imperial Palace with plum trees blossoming in February.

The next day we went to the gardens of the Imperial Palace. The Imperial Palace is the residence of the Emperor of Japan. The palace is off-limits but its grounds are open to the public. The plum trees were blooming while we were there and we enjoyed our tour. That day we also went to the Ginza district which is the shopping and entertainment district.

Catherine at the Imperial Concert Hall in the Imperial Palace gardens.

Catherine and I then flew home together and I was glad to have her with me and even though I had a great time on the trip, I was very happy to be home.

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Tokyo, Japan - Part II

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A Buddhist temple in Asakusa Tokyo.

On Monday, I went to work at the Shibuya-ku district and Catherine went with me. My client in Japan had faxed me hand written directions and a map to the office. However, in Tokyo there are no street signs and the buildings are numbered in a random fashion. So you start with the Ward or district a large section of the City. Tokyo is comprised of 23 Wards. In my case the Ward I was looking for was Shibuya-Ku. This gave me a general idea of where the address was. The District is further subdivided into subsections called Chome. The first number of the address is the Chome, or subsection of the District within the Ward.

Now this is where it gets a bit complicated. The problem is that the buildings are not numbered sequentially. Actually, they're numbered in the order in which they were constructed. Given the amount of destruction and aggressive development that Tokyo has witnessed over the past 75 years, it's extremely unlikely that any adjoining buildings in the City were built consecutively. This addressing scheme means that even if you know the system like a native, there is still no way to find addresses on the first try. Usually you'll spend a lot of time wandering around an area, looking at maps and wondering which direction is north. It's all a process of trial and error, and if it's any consolation, the Japanese don't seem to understand the system either. Ask strangers on the street for help finding an address and there's a good chance that no two people will agree. Well, anyway I spend some time looking for the building where I was working and when I finally found it, I said goodbye to Catherine. She went out for the day and I went to work.

Plum trees blooming in February on the Imperial Palace Gardens

A CPA from our Tokyo office worked with me because she spoke English and Japanese and could translate for me. We all exchanged business cards the first day when we met, which in Japan is quite a process of formally presenting your business cards with both hands and bowing to one another. So I would tell the Japanese CPA the questions I wanted to ask our clients. She would translate the question for them, listen to their answers, and then translate back to me. Often I would ask a question, she would have an extended conversation with the clients and then provide a very brief answer back to me. If you have ever seen the movie "Lost in Translation", the experience was very much like Bill Murray's experience with the director of the commercial he was making.

At noon the client took me to lunch at a Japanese restaurant and by that night I was quite exhausted and ready to relax a little. I met back up with Catherine and we found an Italian restaurant with really good food. One of the cooks was Italian and spoke English so we were able to order using him as our translator.

Catherine and I at a Shinto Shrine outside of Tokyo.

The next day Catherine was exhausted and I made the trip to the office alone. But not before she gave me a Japanese lesson on how to let the taxi driver know where I was going. I practiced saying “Shibuya-Ku made onegai shimas”. I went to the hotel lobby grabbed a taxi, being careful to let the door open automatically, and repeated my Japanese directions to the driver. Once again the response “Hai” and we were off, I hoped to the right location. Sure enough I was dropped off right at the train station across the street from my office. Just a word about crossing the street in Tokyo, when the light changes the streets are so crowded that you have to cross the street with the crowds whether you want to or not, or else you will be run over.

Catherine ringing the bell

That day for lunch I grabbed a bento lunch box. Bento box lunches are very popular among both Japanese kids and adults. People take them to work, to school, on picnics, and so on. Half of a typical bento consists of rice, and the other half consists of several side dishes made with such ingredients as vegetables, meat, fish, and eggs. Well I easily purchased the lunch in a mall in the building where I worked. I left the mall thinking I would find a place to sit outside and eat. Well there was no place to sit. I didn’t dare sit on the building steps for fear of being run over. In front of the Shibuya-Ku train station across the street from where I worked there was a short wall that was specifically built so you could lean against it. So I leaned and ate my lunch.

In front of me as I ate my lunch there was a bronze statute of a dog. I later found out that the dog's name was Hachiko. He is Japan's version of the faithful dog. Hachiko's master, a professor at Tokyo University, would take the dog with him every morning as far as Shibuya-ku Station on his way to work, and Hachiko would go back to the station every evening to greet him on his return. One day in 1925 the professor failed to appear, he had died of a stroke. Every evening for the next seven years, Hachiko would go to Shibuya-ku and wait there hopefully until the last train had pulled out of the station. Then the dog also died and his story made the newspapers. A bronze statute of Hachiko was installed in front of the station, funded by thousands of small donations from readers all over the country.

The present version is a replica, the original was melted down for its metal in World War II, but it remains a familiar landmark where young people in particular arrange to meet. I was also later told that perhaps the real reason the dog continued to go to the train station was that people felt sorry for the dog and would feed him there. That night I met Catherine and she told me she also saw the same dog statue on one of her daily outings. She then told me the complete story about the dog, which I was unaware of until she told me.

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