The last few days have not been as excited as the ones last week, but that’s somewhat expected given the true reason for the trip here in Tokyo. It was great to get some time to tour, but I’m here first and foremost for work. Sunday, I caught up on blog posts primarily for this site and then spent half the day working on content for work the next day. I’m delivering training all week, and I have felt under-prepared each day even though I spent a great deal of time on the presentations I’ve been giving. Overall, the guys here are just consuming the content very quickly! It’s a good thing, but it adds stress to me to come up with additional topics, deeper discussions… and more areas on which to expand. It’s been a busy few days!
That said, there were some times I was proud, so I’ll share those here as well:
– Monday night (11/5), I was supposed to head out to dinner with a team from work but had to cancel, and with that in mind I wandered out on my own, hailed a cab, and made my own way back to the hotel without assistance.
– This morning (11/6), the cab that was taking me to work got a little lost. Seeing the train nearby, and knowing we were in generally the right area, I told him that was okay and just to let me out where we were. I paid, stepped out confidently, and then began walking in what I thought was the right direction. My confidence waivered a bit here and there, but since Google Maps wasn’t working for me I figured the worst that could happen was that my assumption was wrong and the next “major street” I’d find myself at wouldn’t be the one I thought, at which point I could try to grab another cab. It would turn out that I was right, actually spot-on. I turned the corner I thought I should and walked right into work. Small parts of Tokyo are starting to feel familiar by foot and memory… and that’s kinda cool all on its own!
– We had ramen for lunch today. Wow! This was some amazing ramen. I… it was fantastic. I don’t even know what else to say except I love the food here. I love it!
– On Friday night when a few coworkers and I went out, they discovered that I really enjoyed the chili powder that we had with the meal. Today (11/6), I got presented some as a gift! The presentation of the box and wrapping was fantastic, and I feel like I’m gaining some friends here overall. I’m looking forwarding to building and maintaining some relationships here in Japan longer-term.
Tonight we have dinner planned later in the evening. If I remember right, tonight is a sushi meal, so I’ll report on that once we’ve eaten!
