Japan

Konichiwa,

I'm probably spelling that wrong, but I may never know. I have reached the home stretch of my journey. This is my last stop. Sendai is a place of about a million people that is roughly 2 hours by bullet train north of Tokyo. It is about an hour by bus from Miyagi which is where our plant is, but apparently this is where we stay (I haven't determined why yet; perhaps there are no decent hotels in Miyagi). The weather is considerably cooler than Hong Kong (which was between 24 - 28 the whole 9 days I was there), however, since there is little here that is in English, I have yet to find a weather forecast that has the actual temperature in a language that I can understand. I am required to wear my jacket and gloves though. I also bought myself a scarf this evening. I think it might get up to the low teens during the day, but it's definitly cool. Probably like Vancouver weather in November.

When I said that China was the most different place that I had been, I wasn't lying, but I had not yet been to Japan. Japan is much more 'civilized' than China (in so many ways), but it's not that: the culture is completely different. In several ways, they're more western than other Asian countries I've been to, but I think that's because Japan is developed and the other countries I've been to are still 'developing nations' for the most part (this is why we have plants there). The people here have retained their culture though. In the other countries, it's almost like they want to become like the west (and still eat their own food). In Japan, it's like they've adopted what they want of western culture but only where it doesn't affect their own. And let's face it, much of our technology comes from Japan.

They are, by far, the most polite people I've met. Even on the streets. Even in the trains and the train station (and I was in Tokyo station during rush hour on Monday evening). They took me out for tempura dinner on Wednesday night. You would all be very proud of me. I ate everything that was served to me, even the raw oyster (which is somewhat tricky with chopsticks). It was a place where the cook is in the room with you and cooks it right in front of you. You would not believe what I've eaten (and with chopsticks no less). Some of it was actually quite good (I shouldn’t say that, it was probably all very good because it was clearly a nice place, I’m just not used to the food). I also had a fair amount of sake because the Japanese apparently like to drink. I could not keep up with them, but they kept re-filling my glass when it got close to empty. They commented that I could drink; I mentioned my heritage. I did not point out that I needed it to wash down some of the food and I had no water for that purpose. I did mention that I wished I had brought my camera, and three of them brought out their camera-phones! They all carry two phones. One for work and one personal (these are the camera phones).

Tomorrow (Saturday here) they are taking me to see some temples. I think that's awfully kind of them (despite the fact that the president of the company told them to during our opening meeting; they were planning it already). The SCM director, two purchasing managers (one of whom is bringing his 5-year-old daughter) and our interpreter are all coming. I think it will be quite the excursion.

Have I mentioned that Japan is the only place I've been to where I need an interpreter? They don't speak English here. Of course, they know more English than I know Japanese because they take English classes at work, but they don't like to speak it because they don't want to make mistakes. It's not easy to make a presentation through an interpreter: you have to stop every few sentences. This throws me off my rhythm, but what the heck, I was just presenting to the president of the region and his senior staff!

Oh well, that's all for now,
Sayonara!
Lesle