Arrival in Japan

As we approach Japan, we fly past Oita, where I first visited as a young engineer working for Siemens and its cooperation partner Toshiba. Back then, the world was different, Japan was booming, but maybe more importantly, for me personally,  I was exposed to a totally different culture and business world. Our Japanese colleagues  liked to eat , drink, sing, and dance after work,  typically calling it a day when half were sleeping. I suspected I was taken along by the Siemens directors because they had difficulty dealing with that, rather than my technical skills. So I ate, drank a lot, sang and danced. The whole set up did however hugely benefit my career, as I fell into the role of intermediary between the companies,  which was partially technical,  but importantly I was a sort of linguistic and cultural bridge as my German and Japanese colleagues had shall we say communication issues.

When I moved to Pharma, I also came to Japan on multiple occasions.  (Last one, I had a project in Fukushima before our partners were hit by disaster) Japan changed, but Japan remained very, very unique. So today, after a gap of nearly 10 years, I am excited to go back.

The kids are super excited,  but for entirely different reasons.  G R A N D P A P A is flying in to join us. Indeed, I can relax a bit here, since Bernard and his travel agent have arranged everything. No transfers for me to set up, no hotels to book, no days to plan. Everyone can also enjoy fixed prices, cleanliness,   wonderful and safe food, and so on.

The wheels have just gone down,  so that’s two minutes to landing.  Excited 😊.

 Hmmm 1st steps rather difficult. Entry is not one but 3 queues despite filling out over 150 pages, and then the taxi. We have to take 2 as they actually follow safety rules here 😁, but woh the price $250 and that with a weak yen. We shall have to live off bread and water if we have more of that. The next step goes better with 2 haircuts (Flo and Oscar) costing $53 in total. About 1/3 of Geneva price. Flo's cut is really the top 💇‍♀️

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