March 1, 2006
I am on the bullet train again heading from Nagoya to Hiroshima. The distance we are traveling is somewhere around 450 miles. We’ll be on the train for about 3 hours. It’s kind of exciting when we pass a train heading in the opposite direction. There is a loud “whoosh” and the train rocks side to side from the blast of air.
It has been rainy and cold the entire day. It’s odd – I checked the weather forecast for the week and it said that it would be partly cloudy most of the time, but the rain doesn’t seem to want to end. We were joking with Steve today that he brought the rain with him from Seattle.
We started the day by having breakfast with my division’s VP of Asia Operations and some other executives and sales people from our Asia Businesses. This made for a working breakfast with discussion of future business strategy. It was interesting to learn more about how going to market in Asia differs from the US and most other places in the world.
Since our customer appointment was not until after lunch we had some spare time in the morning. We checked out of the hotel – loaded our bags into the Toyota Noah we have been driving around in - and headed down to Starbucks for some coffee. We spent the rest of the morning catching up on work at the office of our local distributor.
Today we had … McDonald’s for lunch. Any hope for losing a few pounds while I am here is steadily dwindling. Sigh.
This afternoon we went and did a demo of our new tools at Kawasaki. They will be building portions of the new Boeing 787 along with some other aircraft. The factory, like the Misubishi facility the other day, was not heated. It was quite cold – I would guess somewhere in the mid-40’s.
Last time I was in Japan, in 2002, I spent the entire time in Yokohama and Tokyo. Yokohama is a very close suburb of Tokyo - so close it could be considered connected to the city. At the time, since I was in a suburb of such a large city, the number of houses and the density of the population didn’t really stand out to me. Now having traveled from Tokyo to Nagoya and now south to Hiroshima I am finding the population density amazing! It's as if you took the outlying neighborhoods of a large American city and repeated them endlessly for as far as the eye can see. It’s very much like a city that never ends. My guidebook says that because Japan is mountainous 76% of the population lives along the coast. According to the guidebook some foreigners are shocked at how it seems humanity has touched every corner of the island. It is quite incredible.
On a lighter note, as you might have guessed Christophe is from France and speaks English with a French accent. At dinner last night we were talking about music and he asked if we liked “China Train”. Steve and I couldn’t figure out what he meant. Then he started singing.. “Dum, dum, dah, dah, dah, dum, dum..” We laughed and realized he was talking about Shania Twain. We have been giggling about that all day. Today Christophe asked me if I had schwing-gum. It took me a minute…ah… chewing gum… It’s great everyone has a good sense of humor. It makes a long trip like this much better. We tease each other endlessly and are learning how to insult people in many languages. Look out world – here we come!
Here are today's pics..
Christophe and his suitcase the Queen Mary. When we were at the plant today he told me he left his winter coat in the Queen Mary. I couldn't help but laugh.
I am on the bullet train again heading from Nagoya to Hiroshima. The distance we are traveling is somewhere around 450 miles. We’ll be on the train for about 3 hours. It’s kind of exciting when we pass a train heading in the opposite direction. There is a loud “whoosh” and the train rocks side to side from the blast of air.
It has been rainy and cold the entire day. It’s odd – I checked the weather forecast for the week and it said that it would be partly cloudy most of the time, but the rain doesn’t seem to want to end. We were joking with Steve today that he brought the rain with him from Seattle.
We started the day by having breakfast with my division’s VP of Asia Operations and some other executives and sales people from our Asia Businesses. This made for a working breakfast with discussion of future business strategy. It was interesting to learn more about how going to market in Asia differs from the US and most other places in the world.
Since our customer appointment was not until after lunch we had some spare time in the morning. We checked out of the hotel – loaded our bags into the Toyota Noah we have been driving around in - and headed down to Starbucks for some coffee. We spent the rest of the morning catching up on work at the office of our local distributor.
Today we had … McDonald’s for lunch. Any hope for losing a few pounds while I am here is steadily dwindling. Sigh.
This afternoon we went and did a demo of our new tools at Kawasaki. They will be building portions of the new Boeing 787 along with some other aircraft. The factory, like the Misubishi facility the other day, was not heated. It was quite cold – I would guess somewhere in the mid-40’s.
Last time I was in Japan, in 2002, I spent the entire time in Yokohama and Tokyo. Yokohama is a very close suburb of Tokyo - so close it could be considered connected to the city. At the time, since I was in a suburb of such a large city, the number of houses and the density of the population didn’t really stand out to me. Now having traveled from Tokyo to Nagoya and now south to Hiroshima I am finding the population density amazing! It's as if you took the outlying neighborhoods of a large American city and repeated them endlessly for as far as the eye can see. It’s very much like a city that never ends. My guidebook says that because Japan is mountainous 76% of the population lives along the coast. According to the guidebook some foreigners are shocked at how it seems humanity has touched every corner of the island. It is quite incredible.
On a lighter note, as you might have guessed Christophe is from France and speaks English with a French accent. At dinner last night we were talking about music and he asked if we liked “China Train”. Steve and I couldn’t figure out what he meant. Then he started singing.. “Dum, dum, dah, dah, dah, dum, dum..” We laughed and realized he was talking about Shania Twain. We have been giggling about that all day. Today Christophe asked me if I had schwing-gum. It took me a minute…ah… chewing gum… It’s great everyone has a good sense of humor. It makes a long trip like this much better. We tease each other endlessly and are learning how to insult people in many languages. Look out world – here we come!
Here are today's pics..
Christophe and his suitcase the Queen Mary. When we were at the plant today he told me he left his winter coat in the Queen Mary. I couldn't help but laugh.
Nagoya at night.
The bullet train.
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