Japan International Aerospace Exhibition

I have had an interest in working internationally for a long time and always enjoy learning about new cultures. I even considered the JET programme to teach in Japan at one point. But I always knew I loved Colorado and my amazing partner, family, and friends there, and that it would always be home to me. So, having this opportunity to work in Japan with my company, and still come back home afterwards was a possibility I never thought real, and am extremely grateful and lucky to be able to experience it. This first week was focused on working with our Japanese tradings partner as well as a 4 day stint at the Japanese International Aerospace Exhibition at Tokyo Big Sight. The team here had arranged all of the meetings and opportunities at the show and my role was to serve as the BCT Rep. This was a bit intimidating, both from a cultural and work perspective. There are small intricacies to Japanese business like card exchanges (meishi), greetings, who sits where in the room, etc. And from the business side, I needed to pitch BCT and our capabilities to titans of Japanese industry. Luckily on both fronts, I couldn't have had better mentorship from my lead out here and our trading partners. They were all so helpful in the cultural and business sense, and extremely personable and a riot to be around (and not to mention super talented). It was remarkable how our trading team could take my technical word salad of a rambling sales pitch, understand it, translate it, adapt it for the specific customer and meeting, and then deliver it all within seconds.
I had a blast at the show, and enjoyed learning about various companies and cool tech. I was also happy to learn my efforts to learn intro Japanese were noticeable and could tell it was appreciated by whomever I introduced myself to (even if it only got me through the intros). I'm inspired to keep learning when I get back home! Throughout the show I often had quick breakfasts and lunch at the show, but after each day went around places nearby for sightseeing and food.
My favorite day though was the public one, where more families came to see the exhibits. I got to show lots of small kids a satellite and get them excited about space. One small boy in particular had a NASA hat and shirt on and wanted to work with NASA someday. When I told him in (broken) Japanese that I had worked with NASA on a project, he got super shy and hid behind his mom. He came back around when I had a sweet holographic sticker for him though. It was a really heart warming experience, and I hope that even if only by a small amount I helped inspire him to follow that dream in the future.Les mer