At the end of my last post, having already completed some of Day 2 officially, I dove into a pile of email that had accumulated during US hours (when we wake up here, the US is ending the day before and this typically means a good hour or two of email responses for me), and then we headed into the office. We hailed a cab at the front of our hotel, gave them the address, and we were off!
One thing that I find very interesting in Tokyo is the varying levels of streets here. That may sound sort of weird, but you have the street-level traffic, you have one raised level of traffic heading in a single direction, and a level even higher than that perhaps merging the opposite way as roads elevate, weaving in and out of buildings ,highways, and thoroughfares. This seems entirely normal and is all over this part of town.
See what I mean?
The cab ride only took about ten minutes, and dropped us off in an alleyway where I attempted in vain to match the name of our company to a building nearby. Eventually we’d wander to our left, and then our right, before deciding we’d go around the front of the building behind us… and found our way into my company’s Japan offices. We headed to the 10th floor, where we were greeted by our local management team and ushered into the office. We were early, both wanting to become acquainted both with our peers and our the office prior to our customer meetings. We were walked from office to office to say hello to the leadership team, and then shown our own conference rooms where we would be spending the next two days on our “off time” (when there were no customers scheduled). We asked to meet the team, and we were told that we would do so during lunch. We had planned on finding a local spot nearby… but with our visit in mind the company had bought food for us, and for the team, so that we could have a good kickoff conversation.
We sat down with the leadership first, discussed the next two days and the plans we had for the customer visits, and then the team came in just as lunch did. I was both glad to have lunch, and dismayed by the boxes that were brought to the conference room. In the middle of downtown Tokyo… the boxes read “Deli Sandwich” on the side. It would end up being roast beef, with french fries as a side dish. It was good, don’t get me wrong (and free food is free food!), but I was in the middle of a brand new culture… is this what I was to expect from the next few days? From a culinary perspective, this was just about as safe as you could play it! We ate the sandwiches, which actually were quite good, talked and joked with the team, showed them my bungee video (it’s company-famous at this point!), and then headed to our first customer meeting of the trip.
Having never been to Japan, and never interacted on a business level there either, I’d have a lot of new experiences over the next two days. The first was nearly immediate upon arrival in the corporate conference room where we met our customer. It’s essentially a “show floor”, with a great deal of white sleekness and refrigerators to provide guests with water and bottled green tea. My colleague and I grabbed water, and headed into the conference room. Wanting to split the table, I took one side while my colleague to the other, and soon he was ushered rather hastily to the same side as me. As part of the traditions of the culture, it was normal for one business to take one side of the table, and the visiting business representatives to take the other. In addition, the local business (whomever is hosting the meeting) typically will take the side closest to the door, regardless of room layout. You can read more about business etiquette in Japan here if you want, I read this and others and still felt under-prepared for what was to come. I realized as soon as the customer came into the room that I was a fish out of water.
Immediately after putting down their bags, our visitors came around the table and promptly presented their business card to me. They introduced themselves, discussed their role and their title, and ensured I had both hands clutching their business card before they let go. Hoping this was the right thing to do (it ended up being so), I returned the same greeting after fishing a business card out of my suit coat. I’d brought about thirty business cards, and I hoped I’d have enough. This company alone had brought six individuals to the meeting, and individual greetings were shared with each one following the same ritual of greeting each other quietly, slighting bowed, accepting each other’s business cards, and bowing even more slightly as you backed away from each other. Some would throw in handshakes at the end… it all just depended on their company, our relationship with their company, and their willingness to accept our greetings.
All in all, this was a very formal and comfortable way to be introduced to this custom, however I wish I, like my boss who traveled with me (my colleague, above), had thought to have my business cards printed in Japanese on one side, and English on the other. If I ever get the opportunity to go back… I’ll be sure to have this done! In general we were probably offensive at times without realizing it, and I spent some of my day wondering if I should really be crossing my legs, glancing from person to person, and how much time looking at the screen versus looking at the presenter was appropriate as our translators worked between the teams and ensured we understood one another. It was a bit harrowing, but I’m glad to have done it. It’s just one more new experience in my book!
When the day was over, and the customer meetings ended, we headed back to our hotel’s complex (it’s part of a larger business park with restaurants, shopping, etc.,) and both decided we’d head down for dinner around six thirty. By six, I was feeling the jetlag and elected to grab dinner a bit sooner. We had heard there was a restaurant with traditional Japanese food on the third floor, and we decided on that after we heard it bordered an outdoor Japanese garden as well, and had some great views. The entire experience would be somewhat of a letdown, unfortunately, but not for lack of trying! The garden was walled off by glass that was highly reflective, so the only good picture I could get is what you see below. The food (I ordered a fatty tuna steak, expecting I would get some raw fish like sashimi, but seared) ended up being nearly fully cooked and contained bones of so many varying sizes I was afraid to finish it for accidentally eating one. My boss ordered vegetable tempura, which was a safe and delicious option he did rather enjoy, and we wrapped up the night both feeling the effects of our thirteen hour plane ride, and the four hour delay it took to get off the ground. The best part of dinner, hands down, was the bib they placed over my suit-coat that they hung on the chair next to me. It protected it from any possible splash from the table, and got a good laugh out of both of us.
A hanging picture on the wall of the restaurant where we had dinner.
The Japanese garden we couldn’t really see or access.
I headed back to my room in a bit of a fog, and I hadn’t even had a drink that night… the tiredness was all-consuming. I slept early, and slept well, that night.
