Tokyo Training Week

Greetings from Japan!

I arrived here in Tokyo Monday evening and it's been non-stop since! Lots of adventures already as I was able to bring some colleagues from the US to Japan with me to help with a week of training of the Japan and Korean teams as well as meetings with Finance partners. Since there are concentrated pockets of activity rather than scattered adventure, I'll provide a day-by-day recap vs. a play-by-play one. Enjoy!

Sunday/Monday -- departed/arrived on time, then spent two hours on the Friendly Airport Limosine trying to get through the rain and traffic to our hotel. Enjoyed Beef Bawl (yes, not "Bowl") with Chris Kemp, Justin Bross and Tae Kyu Kim in Shinjuku whereby you order your meal from a vending machine, then get served inside the cafe. Love this concept. Crashed hard.

Tuesday -- excellent day of training followed by an evening of work. Went to the office @ 8AM Tuesday morning, ate lunch in, and was in meetings until 6PM. Made it back to the hotel, collaborated with Justin, Chris and Hillary until midnight, with only a slight break for a traditional Japanese dinner nearby. Crashed hard.

Wednesday -- excellent day of training followed by an evening out with the teams! Enjoyed GONPACHI in Roppongi, the restaurant that inspired the Crazy 8s fight scene in Kill Bill (yes, I've enjoyed it before). Followed dinner with another adventure @ ICEBAR where we again donned our parkas, braved the -5 degree C bar, and enjoyed making a memory. Same as the first time, ICEBAR didn't disappoint and I think everyone had a great time! Oh yeah, crashed hard.



Oh yeah, and afterward on our way back through Shinjuku I also just happened to introduce Justin & Gloria to the best thing on the planet: PRINT CLUB!

Thursday -- Thursday was a split day for the US gang as I left Justin & Chris to work with the teams on functional training and met the finance teams -- seemlingly across all of Tokyo -- with Hillary. We met Mitsuaki and Reiko at dinner later, however, at Ninja Akasaka -- an excellent ninja-themed restaurant near the office. It was an awesome dinner altogether; I'm not going to lie. We had to trek through a maze, basically, to get in, and sat shoe-free on the floor to enjoy our evening. And did we ever! From creative ways to enjoy numbchuck crackers to our drink package to Magic Ninjas, we had a blast altogether.

Oh, Avid Reader, but that was just the beginning of our evening! After Ninja dinner, we made our way to Shidax in Shibuya to enjoy true Japanese-type, private room KARAOKE! It may have been the most fun evening in Japan I've had yet... and I've had some crazy fun adventures! Toru was in a particularly festive mood and special shout-outs to Justin who stole the show with his rendition of Lionel Richie and to Hillary who demonstrated her mad Kanye West skillz.

And of course, being near the entertainment mecca of Tokyo, I couldn't help but drag everyone into PRINT CLUB to memorialize the evening with more photographic evidence and neon pens! Last night, crashed hard.

So, all in all a great trip altogether. Today (Friday) was a good one as well, having wrapped up the week, spent some time enjoying Harajuku and Shibuya, getting some down time to catch up on email, and having just returned from a great yakisoba dinner with Hillary, Gloria and Justin. It's off to hit the hay now, however, as there's a weekend to enjoy starting tomorrow. So, crashing hard.

Best to you, Avid Reader. I apologize for the long delay since early September posts!