Shane’s Japan Trip Report Day 12

Day 12: Doing Business in Japan

Today’s main event was “eigyo katsudo.” That’s Japanese for making “sales calls.” In other words, I went to visit my biggest client, which also happens to be the company I used to work for. Now, doing business in Japan just doesn’t happen without first putting on a business suit, which for me presented a problem, because the last suit I owned I purchased about 10 years ago, and hadn’t worn it since my last eigyo katsudo here three years ago. I’ve grown a bit since then (all muscle!) so that suit no longer fits me. Thus, I purchased a brand new suit while I was in Niigata.

So in the morning, I put on my brand new suit, which I will probably not wear again until the next time I’m in Japan, and for one day only, I joined the ranks of Japanese salarymen lining up for the rush hour train.

Actually, I was fortunate that my sales call took me to Yokohama, in the opposite direction of Tokyo, and so the train wasn’t all that crowded.

Meeting Japanese Clients

My client’s office had recently relocated to a newly constructed office building near Yokohama Station, and it was a quite impressive place. As usual, I entered the company reception lobby, and there was a uniformed female security officer bowing and greeting every employee and guest who entered the lobby with a bow and a “ohayo gozaimasu.”

Like many IT companies, security is thorough. You can’t get to the elevators without passing through a set of guarded turnstiles, and in order to do that you need a pass. I announced my arrival at the reception desk and they already had a guest pass ready for me. A few minutes later, a rep from the office came down to greet me and take me upstairs. Sorry, no pictures allowed!

I was led to a sales staff meeting where I did “aisatsu,” or a formal greeting. Then I sat and shot the bull with a couple OL (office ladies) for a few minutes until the staff involved with processing the translation work I send and I gathered in an office to go over various mostly inconsequential tidings.

Usually my sales call with this company ends right there, but this time I was invited to lunch, and so I gladly accepted. I left the office and drank a soy matcha latte for a half hour or so until the two female staff members, their boss, and even Hiranaka, the assistant office manager, all came down and we made our way to an upscale Chinese restaurant in an adjoining building.

It was nice to actually have a chance to make casual conversation with these people with whom to date I had only ever had formal communications with. In so doing, I felt like I succeeded in the most important goal of eigyo katsudo in Japan, which is to form and reinforce relationships on a human level. I hopefully sealed the deal by picking up the check at the end. Considering that this company has largely funded my laid-back SoCal existence for the past 10 years, I felt it was a very small gesture of appreciation, as well as a very good investment for future business dealings.

Preventing Terrorism in Japan

After we parted ways, I made my way back to Yokohama Station, which was buzzing with police and tightened security due to the APEC conference taking place at nearby Minato Mirai. So tight is security that police forces from throughout the country have been brought in. The running joke is that if you’re in the Minato Mirai area right now, don’t ask the police for directions because there’s a better than average change that they won’t have a clue. While we were in the Minato Mirai area over the weekend, we saw police forces from Akita and Kumamoto prefectures.

With APEC now underway, security has been tightened even more, to the extent that vending machines and coin lockers in and around the train station have been taped off, and even the Ferris wheel in Minato Mirai and other nearby attractions have been suspended for fear of a terrorist act. I suppose it might be a good idea to avoid the Minato Mirai area for the next week, although we are going to meet a friend in nearby Yamate on Thursday.

Anyway, I made my way past the heightened security, boarded the train, went home, and changed out of my suit and into my comfortable jeans and T-shirt. After a brief nap, I headed over to McD’s to check my email, but for some reason I couldn’t get a Wi-Fi reception, so I read a little and made my way back home. On the way home, I came across this amusing sign advertising real estate:

Today Oba-san made us some delicious ebi chili (shrimp with chili sauce), oden, and about five more side dishes.

After dinner we were stuffed, so we decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood, and then went to Excelsior Cafe (a Japanese Starbucks knock-off) for some tea before we headed back home. Back home, I watched K-1 Kickboxing and an interview by Beat Takeshi with former Japan prime ministers Abe and Aso which was pretty interesting. And that was pretty much it for today.

Proceed to Shane’s Japan Trip Report Day 13–>