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This trip could be characterized as a "business misadventure", and the following text is excerpted from my day-to-day journal as events unfolded. Read on...
April 8 I'm in Japan this week (four days of meetings, and one day of relaxation before flying home). It's springtime here, and warm. After arriving last night I checked into the hotel (the Sheraton at Yokohama Station) and went for a walk. Hungry but not wanting to sit in a smoky place, I got on the train and went one stop up the line to Sakuragicho and the Minato Mirai area, where we have often stayed. Inside the huge Queens Square mall I went for dinner (salad and pizza with a glass of wine) at a small Italian place near the Pan Pacific Hotel. This particular restaurant doesn't have the greatest food, but it's good enough, and the "outside seating" (which is really inside the mall but is outside the confines of the small restaurant with its token non-smoking area) is a nice place to sit and read, or to watch the stylish people walking by. For reading material on this trip I have a novel called "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami. A good read, sort of reminds of me of J.G. Ballard.
Looking quite corporate/GQ while waiting for a train to somewhere
April 12 This has certainly been an interesting week... I'm sitting here in my hotel room on a nice spring day in Yokohama. I should be out enjoying the weather, exploring the waterfront and the parks and looking at the last of the cherry blossoms before flying home tomorrow. Instead, I'm sitting here trying to determine (via phone and email) if I still have a job. I came to Japan a week ago, along with a few other marketing/technical/executive types to visit prospective customers and investors. I wore a nice suit, gave brilliant (well, they seemed brilliant) presentations and ate lots of food. The fact that it rained every day didn't bother me, nor did the fact that I was traveling with someone who is something of a pain in the ass (not that he's a bad guy, he's just not a good traveler and complains too much, and he talks in a loud voice about people he sees on the subway, as though they're exhibits in a zoo: "She's typing email on her phone in Japanese, do you see that? That must be difficult..."). The week went by fast... eight or nine customer visits over the course of four days, lots of rushing about on trains, in cars and in taxis.
Bob attempts to wow 'em at a large Japanese telecom company ("pay no attention to that man behind the curtain") On Friday night it was over -- time to relax. Dinner with the recently hired COO of the company and with staff members from the Japan office. Drinking in the bar at the Sheraton, the COO teaching everyone his favorite table-slapping drinking game, plenty of laughing. Some hints that changes were in the works, depending on the results of a board meeting in the morning... When I woke up in the morning I got the news from my annoying companion, who I had met for breakfast: 50% of the company had been laid off, including most of the Seattle staff. Oh. I went for a long walk with Katsumi (a local friend), and he helped me buy art supplies for Satomi. I went back to the hotel and checked email again: rumors flying via personal email accounts but nobody in charge has yet tried to contact me. Hmmm. I can't access the corporate network. I think I'll go look at the cherry blossoms. Maybe I can find some ice cream. Or a cold beer.
The next day, and a very long walk April 13 It seems I do still have a job (for now). Picking up from the previous posting... I left the hotel at around 3:00PM on Saturday and started a long walk. I made my way through Chinatown, to Motomachi, down to the waterfront and through Yamishita Park. I found ice cream at Landmark Place. I listened to live jazz outside the newly opened "Red Brick Warehouse" shopping complex (a very impressive pair of old brick warehouses that have been restored and updated to contain trendy shops and restaurants -- it was opening weekend and the line to get in stretched for half a mile or more). I watched street performers at the waterfront and had lunch in a small bakery.
Tall ship Nipon Maru at Minato Mirai
When the sun went down I got hungry again and found a familiar sushi bar. I started with a large bottle of beer, then had ten or so pieces of fish and ordered sake to finish it off. The sake was terrific, and left me lightly buzzed. I walked back toward Sakuragicho Station, stopping for a while to listen to a very loud, but very good punk rock trio playing amazing instrumentals with a drum kit, bass and lead guitar.
I believe I was drunk when I took this photo
I did my best not to think about work, but eventually I went back to the hotel and checked the day's emails, gathering from the rumor grapevine that I was still employed, but was one of only a handful of staff left in Seattle. (Two-thirds or more of the Seattle staff appears to be gone -- it will be a lonely place on Monday). On Sunday I checked out of the hotel, stashed the luggage at the front desk and took another very long walk. The rains of the past week had given way to sunshine and it was a beautiful day. At noon I returned to the Sheraton, picked up the bags and caught the Narita Express to the airport. During the hour-and-a-half journey on the train I watched the outskirts of the city roll past. Families were out, in every small park and vacant lot, enjoying the spring weather and playing baseball games, or flying kites, or picnicing, or practicing with their golf clubs, or working in their gardens. I listed to Soul Coughing on my headphones while we rolled through Tokyo and Chiba. ("True dreams... of Wichita...". A great and obscure band, but now broken up.) The flight back home was bumpy, but tolerable. I enjoyed my book, which was getting increasingly surreal, and suffered with the bad airplane food. It was great to see Satomi and Julian waiting for me in baggage claim. What a nice family.
The park near Yokohama Stadium
A Japanese biker swap meet (but of course!)
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