The Land of the Rising Sun

Finally!!! At last I have had the opportunity to work in Japan! Japan has never before been part of my territory, and in other companies I have worked for Japan has been completed separated from the rest of APAC from an organizational perspective. Luckily, my current company doesn’t have any consultants in Japan, so when there is a need for onsite consulting I am the one they will send.

The Imperial Palace in Tokyo

Since this was my first time in Japan I decided to stay a couple of extra days to do some sightseeing and take some photos, so I flew over already on Friday night and arrived in Nagoya early Saturday morning. My customer is based on Nagoya, which luckily is located along the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line with high speed trains running from Osaka to Tokyo. Along the same line you will also find Kyoto, and the train ride from Nagoya to Kyoto is only about 30 minutes. Hence, when I arrived in Nagoya I jumped on a train to Kyoto to see one of the more cultural cities of Japan. I was planning to stay one night in Kyoto, and at the train station I met an American gentleman who was there for business just like me and who offered to help me find my hotel since he knew the area rather well. We ended up spending the rest of the day together since we both were alone. On Saturday we walked around in Kyoto to see the Imperial Palace and some of the temples, and on Sunday morning we took the bus to the Rokuon-ji temple complex to see the quite famous Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji). In the afternoon my American friend was meeting a colleague, and I jumped on a train to Tokyo to get a glimpse of the Japanese capital.

Sushi restaurant in Nagoya

Tokyo was quite different from what I expected. The city is huge, but very modern and it actually reminds me more of an American city than any Asian city I can think of. However, there is an interesting mix of old and new buildings, and one of the most interesting attractions is the Imperial Palace (yes there is one in the old capital Kyoto and another one in the new capital Tokyo). I spent one night in Tokyo before I headed back to Nagoya on Monday afternoon to meet my Japanese colleague who was working with me on site to translate etc. One of the real challenges in Japan is of course the language, and unfortunately my Japanese is worse than their English, so I was very happy to have someone with me who could translate. Another challenge is the traditional and very strict etiquette in Japan. Growing up in a dojo I already know quite a bit about the Japanese culture, but knowing how to behave on customer site is a quite different thing.

I have now completed the first week of my project, and tomorrow morning I am flying home to Singapore. It has been a great experience to work here, and I have enjoyed seeing the beautiful temples, meeting the kind and polite people and eating great food. I think will miss this fantastic country, but luckily I am going back in a few weeks to complete the project. It is something I am really looking forward to. 🙂