{"id":182,"date":"2008-11-18T00:47:18","date_gmt":"2008-11-18T05:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/?p=182"},"modified":"2008-11-18T11:46:04","modified_gmt":"2008-11-18T16:46:04","slug":"roo-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/2008\/roo-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Roo in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was in Japan<\/a> last week for business. \u00a0While we had been talking about the possibility of going for a while, I found out\u00a0less than 24hrs before getting on a plane (Jenn was very understanding). \u00a0This was my first time across the Pacific Ocean,\u00a0and with a 14hr leg (single flight) in my trip, I set a new personal record for being stuck on a plance (in economy no\u00a0less). \u00a0The time delta was 14hrs meaning that at 7am in Japan, it was 5pm the previous day at home.<\/p>\n

I was staying in Tokyo, near Shinjuku<\/a> at the Hyatt Regency<\/a>. \u00a0It turns out this was very close to the Park Hyatt<\/a> that was\u00a0featured in the movie Lost in Translation<\/a> (which if you haven’t seen, is a good movie). \u00a0The Hyatt was a nice hotel,\u00a0certainly meeting western standards for space.<\/p>\n

Since I was there for business, I was a little concerned about making the right first impression. \u00a0I found a few<\/a> links<\/a> that helped me not feel like a total idiot. \u00a0Generally the Japanese people feel very polite, the bowing really struck me. \u00a0The general care they take presenting you\u00a0with a bill is quite nice, it is done similar to the business card exchange which is very ritualized.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the company we were visiting is a little less traditional and tends to style itself after a Silicon Valley\u00a0business. \u00a0One thing that I would try to do for another trip is make sure I have a few small token gifts from Canada to\u00a0share with my hosts.<\/p>\n

Since the employees of the company were Japanese, we were using a translator. \u00a0While some of them did speak English, there\u00a0was a varying level of abilty with the language. \u00a0Since I don’t speak any Japanese the translator was a huge help. \u00a0Anyone\u00a0who has head me speak knows how quickly I can go – this won’t work with a translator. \u00a0It took some getting used to,\u00a0breaking ideas down into short snippets that could be translated without losing any of the technical content (just because\u00a0they don’t speak the same language, doesn’t make them simpletons).<\/p>\n

On day 3 I noticed that the translator was fixing my errors in naming folk by adding -san<\/a>, \u00a0and I was honoured to hear Andrew-san a number of times. \u00a0I’ll go out\u00a0on a limb a little here as I don’t know, but it also seemed to take a little time to break down some of the trust barriers\u00a0– this may be a cultural issue, or just the standard technical problem of everyone is an idiot until proven otherwise. \u00a0By\u00a0the afternoon of the 3rd day we were all jamming at the whiteboard discussing issues, and it was clear that there was understanding (both ways) even\u00a0without translation.<\/p>\n

We had dinners out as a group (without the translator) and there were enough folks with both English and Japanese on both\u00a0the customer and IBM side to help things go smoothly enough, they were also especially helpful in instructing us how to\u00a0eat dinner as many of the dishes were unfamiliar. \u00a0We ate in restaurants with low tables but with a cut-out below for your\u00a0legs, we also removed our shoes<\/a> before entering the eating area. \u00a0While the food\u00a0was unfamiliar, it was all good. My best guess after the fact is that the meal was ichij\u016b-sansai<\/a> style. \u00a0The soup was cooked at the table and I couldn’t help but compare\u00a0it to a DIY meal such as fajitas<\/a> (which I always want a discount on as I’m doing part of the worK).<\/p>\n

It was cool to see that Bunnie<\/a> was in Japan at the same time, and blogging about both food and some of the neat things to\u00a0see in Japan<\/a>. \u00a0Unfortunately I didn’t have time to explore some of the things he talked about, but it did help me get my\u00a0head around the culture a little more. \u00a0In the little time I did have free, I did a little souvenier shopping – while I\u00a0could navigate the subway and the stores, the language barrier was significant. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to find a\u00a0100 yen shop<\/a> (dollar store), but did explore a few of the 10+ story department stores<\/a>. \u00a0I ended up buying a few things at a shop on the 45th floor of the\u00a0Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office<\/a>s \u00a0which gives an amazing\u00a0view of the city. \u00a0In the elevator ride down it was a pretty tight right with about 8 other people, but none of them were\u00a0above the level of my shoulder – Japan isn’t built for people who are 6 feet tall.<\/p>\n

I had been told that McDonald’s<\/a> was “the same, but not the same – you have to try it”. \u00a0The menu certainly had some unfamiliar selections on it such as\u00a0Ebi Filet-O (shrimp burgers). \u00a0When I got to the airport the food\u00a0selection was pretty limited but there was a McDonald’s so I figured why not? \u00a0The double Big-Mac and fries, tasted the\u00a0same (or possibly better) than the ones I’m used to. \u00a0I did also eat out of one of the ubiquitous vending machines, the\u00a0ice cream was very good.<\/p>\n

While I was there the weather was mostly overcast, but around 10C to 15C. \u00a0During the day I’d forego having a jacket which\u00a0made me stand out in crowds. \u00a0Generally the Japanese were bundled up in jackets as it was considered “cold”, but as I was\u00a0primarily in the office (24C), subways and stores I found it hot if I had a jacket on. \u00a0It did cool off in the evenings,\u00a0and many of the commuters had very long trips (1hr+) which might have required more variation in clothing. \u00a0In the evenings I did wear a jacket, I’m Canadian – not crazy.<\/p>\n

It was a good trip, but I’m really glad to not be on a plane and staying close to home for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was in Japan last week for business. \u00a0While we had been talking about the possibility of going for a while, I found out\u00a0less than 24hrs before getting on a plane (Jenn was very understanding). \u00a0This was my first time across the Pacific Ocean,\u00a0and with a 14hr leg (single flight) in my trip, I set … Continue reading “Roo in Japan”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,15,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-travel","category-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}