Big in Japan

A kind of last minute business trip. That’s one reason why I like my job: flexible for traveling? Yes! Japan? Hell, yes! (I would have moved the world to go 🙂 ). Last minute and still enough time to organize Amazon orders being delivered on time to bring to German colleagues living in Japan. And plenty of chocolate in the suitcase for the new colleagues.

The last time it snowed in Tokyo was 2 years ago, and again on the day of my arrival! Highways were blocked. Busses didn’t run. Trains were significantly delayed… and I packed the wrong clothes… forecast was sunny 15C degrees. Everyone was surprised about the sudden weather change, myself included.

I’m once more impressed about Japan: besides, everyone being so very polite here… they are so mindful & resourceful: the meeting room light switches automatically off when everyone is outside the room and you change the sign from “occupied” to “available” – how smart is that? Drinking water is available for free, everywhere. Little toddler seats are available in each toilet cabin. How our customer is organized (from registration process to meeting room – very impressive). The little robots serving food in restaurants. People standing without holding on rails in subway w/o falling over when train brakes (they must have special shoes…). That camera system when leaving paid parking areas. For table reservations you put your mobile phone on table top (like Germans reserving sun loungers with towels…). Nobody worries anyone could steal the phone… everybody trusts everybody. You eat in one of those nice little restaurants inside a mall, you naturally clean up your table after you are done with a wet wipe provided there! Generally, it’s amazing how clean it is everywhere. You can only own a private car if you have parking (no blocked streets by cars). It’s nice to see how things run in Japan and how nicely people interact with each other! And me? I offered elderly people to go first inside the subway and my seat 🙂 we may not be able to talk to each other but a smile is the same language in any country.

Long days. Tiring days. Exciting days. Great food. Great colleagues. Great country. And most importantly, I successfully was hiding my tattoo. Yeah!

Oh and happy Chinese new year! It’s the year of the Dragon!

Next challenge accepted: finding the way back to the airport. A huge thank you to the Japanese man speaking English and helping me to get the right train ticket! I’d be still there standing around the ticket machine without you! Nobody said it would be easy 😃

Arigato 🙏

Huge thank you to all the colleagues making this a memorable successful trip! Hope to see you again soon! Arigato!