Days one and two in 東京

Interestingly, the app seams to regard my trip as starting today on October 2 because I could not get anything uploaded yesterday on the 1st. I will just combine both days into today. Yesterday was the nearly 14 hour flight out of Washington Dulles to Tokyo Haneda. Exiting Haneda airport is relatively uncomplicated. I recommend the Tokyo monorail to the terminal station at Hamamatsucho, and then taking a Japan Rail (JR) train to wherever one wants to go. I went to Tokyo Station, and it being well after dark, elected to taxi to my hotel, the Nishitetsu Inn Nihonbashi. By the way, “bashi” means bridge. The Nihon Bridge is at the center of Nihonbashi, hence the name. Regrettably, I was too far from my favorite Yurakucho restaurant, Roboto, and I was definitely dragging from the trip, so I did not make it to the restaurant. Instead, of course, right around the corner, there is an excellent grilled eel shop, where one can grab a very nice quick dinner, provided one enjoys, eel, cucumbers, and draft beer.

This morning on October 2, I set out to explore the route to Tokyo Station by foot. This involved, a quite enjoyable conversation with members of the hotel’s front desk crew to explain how to walk there. No problem. I went beyond the office where I was slated to go around noon today and proceeded on to walk around a part of the imperial palace. Returned to the hotel, got dressed in formal looking clothes and proceeded to the Tokyo office of the SOEI Patent firm. Japan has gone less formal in office stress over the years, especially in the summer months. I brought a rather old Hagar (is that brand still in existence) summer cotton suit for my office visits. If I were riding horseback at midnight, no one would have any idea that it was a Hagar. At SOEI, I met a longtime colleague-client, Yoshiki Kuroki, and another colleague of his. We visited the office of the firm founder, Yoshiki Hasegawa to discuss his upcoming retirement after 40 years with the firm, this coming December. Kuroki and the other two vice presidents all have agreed to step back from their managerial responsibilities this year to let younger people step up to the plate. So this is a time of great change for their firm. The place that.Kuroki chose for lunch was outstanding. Japanese and French fusion, wow does that lead to both beautiful and wonderful dishes. All three of us stopped to snap photos of some of the several courses. I’m not sure how these guys could go back to work after that meal! Tonight it is off to dinner with Sachiko Okunuki and Koji Kazuno of Atago IP. I wonder if I can update this footprint later tonight to include pictures of them along with those that I am attaching now. We’ll see.Read more