Adventures in Japan (Work)
Posted on 21 April 2009 | No responses
Back in 2004, I took a business trip to Japan. While away for a total of 4 weeks I wrote this random collection of notes. They were not meant to be much more than simple emails to my friends and family, so don’t expect fine art. Some are pretty amusing, others are just odd, and still others are a bit sad. Just a note, I no longer work at AMANO. I now hang my hat at audible.com part of the Amazon family. A much cooler place to work, but less trips to Japan.
Work. That was the main goal behind this trip and we did lots of it. Just in case you are not in the know, I am a computer programmer and I work for a company called AMANO CINCINNATI. The company is originally Japanese and our new product was actually designed in Japan. So before we can take over the project, we need to learn from the masters that originally created it. Thus the trip to Japan.
And now we bow our heads…. 12 – 13 –04
In the office a bit early this morning. They start playing classical music about 8:15, then it goes into the little morning work out (I’ve only heard it, never seen it. I guess it’s mostly for the factory workers). At 8:30 we do the morning meeting. Which means we march up to Pay station central (3 floors up in the building next door) and have one of the higher up talks at us for a few minutes. It’s usually brief and I never understand a word of it. I consider it almost like a morning prayer. I just bow my head and wait until everyone says something. Then I head back to my desk. Hiro generally lets me know if something important is said. Meetings don’t start until 10. So I generally have time to tinker with one of my work related projects. At some point I usually hit one of the many many vending machines for either some Mt. Fuji water or some of that coffee in a can stuff. Coffee in a can isn’t as bad as you might think, but it’s not really all that good either. It’s always very warm, which is the nice thing, since its generally freezing in the office. Everyone smokes, so they leave the windows open. And since it is winter, it does get cold (oddly enough). Dang smokers.
More on the Schedule 1-12-04
So I know I have mentioned this before, but it still amuses me to some degree. The schedule here is just so different. We get here early and the music kicks in for the morning work out. Its not modern music mind you, it sounds like something from a movie in the 30s. Like someone, somewhere, starts everyday by putting one of those really thick old records on the phonograph and lets it crank. I try not to giggle every time I hear it. There’s someone going through the workout too. I think its just stretching, but I still haven’t seen it. I could stretch. I certainly could use it. I’m really looking forward to get back into my work out routine, but that’s an aside for a different email.
So after the morning workout, the tone rings for the morning meeting to start. It’s less of a tone and more of a short jingle. It works on the same concept that everything here in Japan has its own theme music. Its one of 4 tones during the day. There’s the “run to the meeting tone”, the “run to the lunch room and eat as fast as possible tone”, the “you should be back at your desk and working tone (or lunch is over)” and my fav, the “you could leave work if you are a lazy bum tone” which goes off at 5:15 to mark the end of the day. No one every pays attention to this. Generally people don’t start leaving until about 7. But its nice of the office to remind you, that you could leave….if you wanted to be fired.
Morning meetings or the prayers as I have labeled them (see past emails) are generally short. But its the mad dash to them which takes the most effort. Everyone one runs to one meeting area. well there are probably others that I don’t see, its a big place. But the one place is of course on the top floor of a building so everyone dashes up the stairs and though the maze that is the Amano office compound. Once arriving to the meetings most people are generally short on breath. Which ok cause its a short meeting. Someone says 5 or 6 words, and then we all dash off back to our separate areas. Just enough time to breath so you can run again. It occurs to me that this is a good way to stay in shape. We really need this back in the US. Plus more stairs.
The first of these short meetings was the worse. Arriving here on the first day, I had let my guard down after meeting the president and all the higher ups, I thought I was in the clear. But during the meeting all eyes turn to Harry and I. Apparently its proper tradition to introduce yourself to the (large) group. Harry, prepared for this, rattles off a short introduction of himself in Japanese. Me on the other hand, caught of guard and scared to death of public speaking, managed a hello. In English….That was it. Luckily the meeting moved ahead anyway. And I haven’t again had to interact. That’s good. That’s the way I like.
Adventures in Japan (Travel)
Posted on 21 April 2009 | No responses
Back in 2004, I took a business trip to Japan. While away for a total of 4 weeks I wrote this random collection of notes. They were not meant to be much more than simple emails to my friends and family, so don’t expect fine art. Some are pretty amusing, others are just odd, and still others are a bit sad. It’s also fairly entertaining to see how little I knew about Japanese food at the time. So pour yourself a glass of plum wine and read on.
Introduction:
Being that this was a business trip, I didn’t really get to much time to travel and look around. However, on the weekends and a few nights we dashed off on one wacky adventure after another.
Tokyo. First Impression. Big 12-11-04
We had fun kicking around the Tokyo area. Its a much more interesting area of Japan. Kinda like Times square but a whole city. We did the temples, which was neat. I have lots of pics. But we ended up spending most of the time just wondering around the big city. We did lots of shopping and saw lots of interesting things. So many people! And the subway system is huge, I can’t make heads or tails of it.
We ended up at this huge mall complex, which I think it was made to confuse. Its a massive 4 floor maze. I’ve seen bigger malls, but none this baffling. There was no store I had seen before (except star bucks damn you star bucks!), that was cool, but nothing that I could afford. It was kinda like shopping at the short hills mall, but much more expensive. I saw a set of scissors, 200 bucks. A record player …15,000! Not yen, American dollars. It was nuts. I spent 110 bucks on dinner. Still it was interesting. Very pretty at night.
So speaking of dinner. I had squid, It’s not so bad, but you can’t look at it. Looks really nasty. Also had snow crab and this Korean dish. Now the Korean dish was really good but we had to cook it ourselves! Now I had to pay a lot for this meal, I would at least like it to be cooked. They bring it on this big grill and you do it yourself. Tasty but different. It comes as this big stack of raw beef and onion. Kind of like a tasty pyramid. Also had Indian food for lunch. Chicken curry and non (Nan?), it was nice to use a fork again.
The Arcade: A geeks home away from home 12-12-04
Finally after much searching I have found my first decent Japanese Arcade. It was much more of challenge then I thought it would be. Most “Arcades” here are mostly slot machines (pachislo and pachinko). Lots and lots of slot machines. Japanese people love them. At least here in Yokohama. Tokyo might be different. The actually traditional arcade is a bit more rare, but they are still around. They have a different look then the American ones. They are sit down machines, not like a big fancy cabinet like San Fran Rush just a little bench. And they all have ash trays, cause everyone here smokes like a fiend.
Anyway, here they have the normal rhythm games (guitar, drum, even turn table),Virtual Fighter, Guilty Gear XX, plus the latest street fighter vs (the one that just came out for ps2 like last month). I did find some very cool old school shooters, but none of them had English names (or even some English characters) so I could tell what I played. I did get to play Raiden Fighters 2 which is like 9 years old. Still was a good time though. Plus there’s some new Gundam game, which might be decent, if you can figure out the controls. But they come in banks of 6 and you can play with a large group. Vs games here are a bit different. Instead of standing next to some one ,at say Street fighter, you sit directly across from them. You have your own screen and everything. I actually played some street fighter like this. Took me a few moments to realize that I was actually playing a real person. An interesting way to do it. The coolest game I’ve seen so far is kinda like a 3d Diablo clone called the Quest of D. 4 people play it at once. There’s a joy stick , 3 buttons , and a touch screen. So when you kill a monster you have to tap the screen to pick up items and such it dropped. Its also has a card system, so you can create a character and reuse it every time you play. You can buy extra cards for upgraded weapons and such. The kids I was watching had whole stacks of cards, it almost looked like they where playing magic. The action though is all hack and slash. It was very cool. And if I could read Japanese I would certainly have tried to play.
So thats my report so far. At least from the arcade front. I probably wont get another chance to roam around looking for arcades again, since they keep trying to make me actually work. Maybe on my next trip here, next month. I need to bring more money though, Japan is crazy expensive. Some things are literally twice as much as they are in the States. Its nuts.
Shin Yokohama: A day in the Rain (no date)
So this morning I over slept. I mean by a lot. It was past 10 when I finally woke up. And past 11 by the time I got downstairs. I guess I really needed the sleep since I didn’t wake up once. The weather was miserable, so I decide to switch up my plans a bit. Instead of doing the Bullet train thing I decided head off further into town on foot. I’m not sure why I did this. It was cold and damp. But I did it anyway. So I walked about 2 miles from the hotel, just generally checking out the area. I found some cool shops along the way. It was away from the Tourist centers so it was more normal Japanese. Prices where much more reasonable, and I came very close to picking up a new digital camera. Its was 4 mega pixel camera about the size of 3 of my fingers and it was just under 300 bucks. Really just a neat little gadget, but I behaved. I had MacDonald’s for lunch since it was simple. I wanted a meal that was cooked and didn’t stare back at me. It was ok, still a bit different from home. They had a sandwich called the Grand royal. It had this odd tangy ranch like dressing on it, but it was good and not as greasy as I thought it might be. Also it was easy, cause I could just point to the picture. In an interesting twist most people can read English here, just not speak it. So there an interesting way to communicate if need be. One of the Indian programmers let me in on that secret. Very handy to know. Anyway, I tried a few of the local coffee shops. None where so interesting. They seem to be trying to clone Starbucks (which is all over here like some disease) and not doing a good job of it. Your better off drinking the can coffee that comes out of the vending machines. That doesn’t taste so great, but the amount of caffeine packed into is impressive. I played some new and different stuff at the local arcade. That was nice. Pricey though, 100 yen per game (1.00 dollar). So I didn’t play to much. I did find the new version of street fighter to mess with.
After wandering all day, I ended up back at the hotel around 5:30 and had dinner there. Not to bad. Dinner was about 20 bucks (although it was very small) which include beer. I wanted good old fashion red wine, but I got beer. Ah well. I’m beat now.
Japan is nice I suppose, but I’m starting to get home sick.
Yokohoma Harbor Area: Where Tourists Go 12-15-04
We were off wondering though the Harbor area of Yokohoma. You know I went though 2 huge malls and not one toy store? Yeeesh, what does a person have to do to buy toys around here. But we did find some cool other stuff. We ate at Hard Rock Yokohama (they all speak English there). Remind me never to have my birthday there. Cause not only do you have to hear the waiter announce your name over the loud speaker, your suppose to clap along with the rest of the place to this terrible rock version of happy birthday. Yeesh. No thanks. The food was ok. The beer was 10.50 and my dinner was 17 bucks (I had the shredded pork). Harry actual ask me if I wanted another drink. No thank you. Course that was the only place we’ve seen that had American beer.
Anyway we found a cool train shop (600 bucks for a model engine!) and bunch of American chains. We even went to Snoopy town. Found some Charlie brown chop sticks. Nice…. After that we wonder down by this really cool amusement park (which was closed, bummer) and then down to the harbor, where we saw “Ground Angel” . Some Artist project that projects Art of angels in the middle of this giant court yard. It seem kinda silly to me. But what ever. I did pick a CD (a steal for 25 bucks, no its not a double CD). Mostly cause it had a cool ninja guy on the front. And I felt I should bring something back from japan. Anyway my feet are killing me. And it’s late, so I gotta get me some sleep.
2009 Editors Note: That CD turned out to be a decent deal as I still listen to it on a regular basis.
Mt Fuji or bust 12-16-04
Harry and I are on a quest to see Mt Fuji before we leave. We’ve failed every time so far. We managed to get on to the roof of our hotel thinking that perhaps there at least, it would live up to the name Fuji view. However many buildings have been built after the hotel and they completely block the view. So we tried at the office. Went to the top floor of the highest building in the complex. But that again was block by massive buildings. So answer me this? How the frell is some one suppose to see Godzilla coming? I mean really… Don’t people plan these things out? Heck he could be taking a nap 4 blocks from here and I would never know.
Yokohama: Lands of Arcades, Toys shops, and strip joints 1-19-05
It had been a point of discussion at dinner for several days in a row. What would we do for Saturdays site seeing? The issue was Harry had been to pretty much all the site seeing spots that Hiro knew how to get too. Plus the weather was suppose to be snowy and cold. I guess as some point Hiro had decide to simply take up shopping. Easier for him, and it would keep us some what out of the weather (thinking back on this we where actually outside in the rain and the snow a lot, so the plan didn’t work out so well). Hiro had notice the Gundam models I had pointed out at the Tokyo temples (yes they sell Gundam at temples, why wouldn’t they) and decided to take us to shop that specialized in plastic models. A hobby shop if you well. Harry was excited about the idea. This meant he could get a few more gifts for back home and a few new models to assemble. This suited me fine. Considering that one of my original goals was to come home with new toys from Japan, that you couldn’t get in the US. A fine goal. One that had almost completely failed on the first trip. So it was set, that for the lack of something better we would go toy shopping, I’m sorry, plastic model shopping in down town Yokohama.
Saturday morning came, and I woke up at a decent time. I spent a few hours watching Japanese cartoons, most of which where sponsored by toy companies. So Takara sponsored the new Galaxy Force Transformers, Capcom sponsored Viewtiful Joe and Rock man Neo. On every commercial break there was a constant stream of commercials from the company that sponsored the show. This was ok for Capcom, who has a bunch of products, but Takara only had one, and they repeated it constantly. I couldn’t understand a word that was being said, but that didn’t really matter. Cartoons are generally pretty easy to understand in any language. It’s part of their magic.
That day it was in fact snowing, and raining, and just being generally miserable out. A perfect excuse to break out my new umbrella that I had gotten at the 100 yen store a few weeks back on the first journey to Japan. Now as an aside, I never had an umbrella my entire adult life. It was always just one more thing to carry, and I had my trusty rain coat. Well here in Japan, I had no rain coat, and I was walking every where. So I thought I would join the civilized world and get one of those new fangled umbrella inventions. Progress!
Japan: It’s all about the trains 12-17-04
I have my express train ticket to the train station. They have 3 speeds of train. Normal (which is pretty fast, this comes in Local and Express versions), Express version, and super alpha express extreme (2). So yes that means you have a Normal Express, Express, and Super Express. The super express is the bullet train and can hit about 150 (we figure. They don’t really work in MPH here). Tomorrow we take the express train. It will be interesting to see how that rates in the whole scheme of things. It’s about an hour and half ride to the airport, which is a bit north of Tokyo. Well kinda North west if I understand correctly. So if the bullet train can get us to Tokyo in 15 minutes (it can’t hit top speed due to noise restrictions in that area, an amazing thing, cause I’ve heard that thing pass, if that’s the quiet mode, I would hate to hear the normal mode) where does that put this train? I’ll try and work out the math. It should be pretty quick though. Since the local trains seem faster then the ones back home.
SO no Mt. Fuji. Its just impossible. There are far far to many massive buildings in the way. Oh and Godzilla, but I cant see him either. I hear the area around Mt. Fuji is nice. Its not a City like there, more like a suburb AKA like NJ. So there is lots of buildings and people, just low to the ground. Sounds nice…well nicer. I can’t imagine living in the city like Yokohama. The amount of people would drive me mad. Even if it is WAY cleaner here
Adult Day (no its not that you perv) 1-10-05
So I found out all about Adult day yesterday. I actually think it’s the holiday that takes place at the beginning of Mulan. Kids in Japan are considered adults at age 20 (so they can drink, smoke, and vote). So on adult day everyone one who is 20 years old dresses up (at least the girls all wear the tradition dress, I’m not sure what the boys do) and go through a special ceremony where they become adults. When we where wandering around yesterday (train hoping) we saw many girls all dressed up in the traditional
Japanese Dress). It was a bit like Halloween.
Adventures in Japan (Food)
Posted on 21 April 2009 | No responses
Back in 2004, I took a business trip to Japan. While away for a total of 4 weeks I wrote this random collection of notes. They were not meant to be much more than simple emails to my friends and family, so don’t expect fine art. Some are pretty amusing, others are just odd, and still others are a bit sad. It’s also fairly entertaining to see how little I knew about Japanese food at the time. So pour yourself a glass of plum wine and read on.
Introduction:
The food here in Japan is, in a word, interesting. Not to say its bad… its not. It’s just very different then what I’m used to. I sent reports almost every day of my latest culinary experience to my wife. 2009 Editors Note: The sauce of legend is most likely Tonkatsu sauce, but I’ve never found any in the US that was nearly as good.
Enter the Sauce:
Breaded Pork chops for lunch with rice and cabbage. MMMMmmmm Matt like. The Japanese have this very tasty sauce (which they call “Sauce” believe it or not). It’s like a cross between barbecue and soy. Its looks like soy, but its much better tasting (tangy). It’s very good on fish and pork. It must have another name, but how do I figure it out? It’s a puzzle.
I like booze and chocolate 12-8-04
Wednesday looks like nice weather with a strong chance of meetings followed by heavy drinking in the evening. We’ve done so much drinking I swear I’m in a frat. It’s just crazy. I had chicken skin and liver for dinner. As well as Japanese “Vodka” which has no taste and no burn, its really just there to get you drunk, a stealth booze if you will. Also some kind of fish. I really can’t tell the fish apart. They all kinda taste the same, unless its sushi. Then I can tell. Also I had a giant radish, which actually tasted ok (for a radish). I realize that I could never live here. They have no chocolate! Well very little. Kinda sad. You would think that this would make them healthier, but between the drinking and smoking, I’m pretty sure they’re still pretty unhealthy. Luckily there is still the American chocolate. I can always get me a snickers.
Broccoli-san 12-15-04
It’s was a normal lunch, well as normal as the Japanese lunches get anyway. A chicken soup of sort, with a cream base and lots of veggies. At first glance it seemed safe then Dish choice #2, fish with several unknown slimy items on the side. But there was more going on than I first suspected.
I began to eat my prepared lunch as usual (my usually approach with food here is to eat first and never ask questions later). But then I notice a familiar shape. The vegetable that must not be named! Its hideous green trunk with its drier fuzz like branches was all over my soup like little evil tree shaped land mines, Just waiting for me. For the last few weeks I had not seen a slimy green trace of the veggie that must not be named. But here it was, and in full force. Apparently it had followed me to the land of Godzilla and cartoons about Ninja School girls. Is there nowhere that is safe from its evil world domination schemes! Luckily I was equipped with the latest in Chop stick technology (brown plastic simulating wood, only the best here) I was able to pick my way though the mine field of a soup. And now I know it’s out there…. waiting….
<insert dramatic music here>
The other “Hard Boiled” 12-16-04
So I think we had the Japanese version of spaghetti and meatballs for lunch. The meatballs where ground beef with a hard boiled egg in the middle (minus the shell, duh). It was ok. I put more of that “Sauce” on it, which helps a lot (it was REALLY dry). I still really like that stuff. Maybe I can find it in the super market and I can do some chemical break down or something.
Of Mackerel and Tuna 1-10-05
Baked Mackerel (that white fish) with a side of tofu mixed with beef(an odd mix, but whatever). A salad (with mini croutons), miso soup (heavy on the sea weed today), and of course rice.
The 2nd choice (which I passed on) was scrambled eggs mixed with chicken and pork with bamboo shoots. I thoughts the eggs might have milk in them. And we’re not quite back into dairy products after last nights stomach rebellion.
I’m trying to decide what fish I like, and what I don’t. I don’t like salmon much, but mackerel is good. There’s another random white fish I’ve had fried a few times which is tasty as well. Sadly there is no English translation for it. That happens a lot (see example “Sauce”). I know I like shark and Tuna. Maybe I can define a few more before I go home. Seems like a reasonable quest. Its better then my “see a real live ninja” one.
That is all… for now. Carry on…
God save the fish 1-11-05
So today’s lunch was an odd one, but was almost seafood free, which is unusual. Barbecue chicken served over white rice, shredding egg, peas, and sea weed. The soup was an egg based. The fact that it wasn’t Miso was a bit of a letdown. I like Miso soup. Still it was ok. It seem like it would be less food, but somehow I felt pretty full when I was done. Which is good, cause I was hungry and if yesterday was an example, its going to be a long time before I eat again.
The other option was a baked fish. It looked like leftovers from yesterday. While I like fish, the idea of day old fish didn’t interest me. The lack of a truly odd and or gruesome aspect to my lunch is a bit disturbing. That means I’m heading for a really gruesome dinner. Well if my usually luck holds. Perhaps this trip will be different
Extra gruesome edition.1-12-04
Today we had the still beating hearts of baby puppies with a heaping side of cute monkey brains.
Mmmmmmm.
Ok ok not really. I’m just trying to make up for yesterdays poor performance. Its all a ratings game after all. What I really had for lunch was fried shrimp. But not like you would normally have fried shrimp. This is Japan, they do it different here. This fried shrimp seems to have been created by rolling a large number of shrimp together, smashing it down into a patty, then frying it. It ends up looking like a pork chop. But its shrimp. Really. All pink and shell fish like inside. I checked. This was served with a curried potato. This is green and also fried. Its tastes good, kinda like twice baked, if it was twice baked, fried and then green. Thinking back on that sentence, it doesn’t make much sense. I’ll move along and pretend it didn’t happen. There was also a salad, miso soup (heavy on tofu), and rice.
Now as an aside, another mission of mine this time around (yes from the hunters guild) is to gross out the Japanese people with their own food. How you ask? It seems there are set ways things are meant to be eaten. Mixing things out of orders disturbs the people of the land of the rising sun. This makes me happy. For example, today there was tarter sauce. Which is good. But the “sauce” sauce is awesome. Unsure what to do, I combine them. The general response… “I think that it tastes baaad”. It helps if you read that last line like the big muppet from “Labyrinth”. Yeah the “Smell baaad” guy. I think that’s a bunch of bonus XP for sure.
The other choice for lunch will remain unnamed. I looked at it for some time. I could not comprehend. It was just a large bowl of stuff I did not recognize. Like my brain saw it, but fail to translate it. I could look right at it, and still couldn’t see it. It was like it was a SEP. I asked Hiro. He stammered around a bit. But then shrugged and said he didn’t know. I think it was a very tiny UFO. That must be it.
Moooo 1-13-05
Ok, get this, start out with a cow. Take all the muscle off the bones…now pay attention this gets tricky, then grind said muscle into something like ground turkey. Then flatten out into a small round serving, lets call it a patty. Its almost like …like a hamburger! But to make it even weirder add some onion! Ok ok so it’s just a hamburger. But the side dish , now that was crazy. Its hard even to explain it! See you take potatoes… and you ..smash.. them… up. Add a bit of milk…. and …ok ok it was just mashed potatoes. They did add some pickles though, that’s a little off. And the hamburger was served with brown gravy. There was also an egg, cooked into the shape of a star. I don’t know why, I don’t ask questions. We again had Miso soup (with sprouts of some sort added) and rice. Cause you have to have rice. It is where they add the pills that keep the people from asking to many questions about the weird star eggs.
The second dish was fish soup. White fish with white veggies with a clear broth. <Yawn> It is like the interesting monster came and sucked anything remotely interesting out of the lunch. It was so boring; I got sleepy looking at it. In fact I’m drinking coffee right now. Just to stay awake. From seeing the soup…. really.
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