After arriving at my hotel (the Strings Intercontinental in Shinagawa), I had a quick dinner with a couple of colleagues and then went to bed to try to adjust to the time zone. The adjustment came fairly quickly. I was up around 7am the next morning feeling well rested. I had a quick webchat with Katie and the kids (we were able to do that most mornings).
My first meetings didn't start until 10am, so I decided to go for a short excursion in Tokyo since we wouldn't have much down time in Tokyo. I somehow managed to get on the right train (thanks to a Japanese commuter that helped me buy the ticket) to make it to Harajuku (sort of a youth fashion district). The area was quiet that morning, but there was a nice park and the Meiji Shinto shrine nearby so I enjoyed a quiet stroll. I was able to see the Shinto shrine and walk a bit in the park before heading back to Shinagawa.
While the park was nice and the shrine was beautiful, the most memorable moments of that morning for me were standing in Shinagawa station watching thousands of commuters pass by. I was the lone American heading in the opposite direction of this sea of commuters - it was a bit surreal.
The rest of that was a series of business meetings with our Japanese hosts. I won't bore anyone with much detail. We were there to talk with their senior management about some of the changes happening to the electric markets in the United States as we transition from central generating plants to distributed generation resources and smart grid technologies... see I put everyone to sleep already.
After a full day of meetings, we had an hour to spare before dinner so we went for a brief exploration of the Akihabara district. It's somewhat analogous to Times Square, if Times Square were more digital and Japanese. I think this area is sort of a reflection of what Americans view as "strange" in Japan. Maid cafes (I can't even explain it, look it up), huge arcades, young guys going crazy for random AKB48 girls in the street (again, very weird and hard to explain - it's the pinnacle of J-pop culture weirdness from my limited perspective). Again, a somewhat surreal experience.
My first meetings didn't start until 10am, so I decided to go for a short excursion in Tokyo since we wouldn't have much down time in Tokyo. I somehow managed to get on the right train (thanks to a Japanese commuter that helped me buy the ticket) to make it to Harajuku (sort of a youth fashion district). The area was quiet that morning, but there was a nice park and the Meiji Shinto shrine nearby so I enjoyed a quiet stroll. I was able to see the Shinto shrine and walk a bit in the park before heading back to Shinagawa.
While the park was nice and the shrine was beautiful, the most memorable moments of that morning for me were standing in Shinagawa station watching thousands of commuters pass by. I was the lone American heading in the opposite direction of this sea of commuters - it was a bit surreal.
The rest of that was a series of business meetings with our Japanese hosts. I won't bore anyone with much detail. We were there to talk with their senior management about some of the changes happening to the electric markets in the United States as we transition from central generating plants to distributed generation resources and smart grid technologies... see I put everyone to sleep already.
After a full day of meetings, we had an hour to spare before dinner so we went for a brief exploration of the Akihabara district. It's somewhat analogous to Times Square, if Times Square were more digital and Japanese. I think this area is sort of a reflection of what Americans view as "strange" in Japan. Maid cafes (I can't even explain it, look it up), huge arcades, young guys going crazy for random AKB48 girls in the street (again, very weird and hard to explain - it's the pinnacle of J-pop culture weirdness from my limited perspective). Again, a somewhat surreal experience.
After a bit of strolling in Akihabara we went to dinner at a somewhat traditional Japanese restaurant. I don't think this is necessarily a common dining experience any more, but there were sort of garden pathways inside the restaurant separating small rooms where a group of six or so could sit for dinner. You entered and took off shoes, and sat on these little seats on the floor to eat. This particular restaurant had a focus on tofu, so every dish featured tofu in some form. I'm not a huge fan of tofu, but I tried everything. Nothing was crazy, but there were definitely some things I enjoyed more than others.
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