Japan 2011

Ok, so I somewhat failed at keeping my blog up to date with my daily routine while in Japan.  The last couple days there were our busy days and by the time I got back to the hotel, I just wanted to skype Lindsey.  Even if we were only able to speak for 10 minutes before I went to bed, and she went to work, it made a world of difference.

Ok, so let's see, where did I leave off.  Oh right!

So Wednesday we got picked up at the hotel by one of our customers, he's the one that I do business with.  Dad basically gave me his contract and let me take the reigns.  I'd say I'm doing a good job so far, it's a relitively small contact, but you have to start somewhere, right?

So he picked us up, and we started to drive up north. Three pretty serious car accidents within a 10km stretch on the road had us delayed by an hour and a half.  Traffic sucks no matter what country you're in.

Once we got through that, we met up with two of his customers, it's a family business so it was father and son, chatted with them for a bit and basically just introduced ourselves, and showed them some product we had and were trying to sell.

An hour or so meeting and we were done.  Dad and I went outside, and it's like.. countryside.  Fields with different plants/veggies.. Nice to see and to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life (though I do love city life!).  There was one crop right across the street that we were looking at and couldn't figure out what it was,  so we went up closer to it and still couldn't figure it out.  So once our guy came out with the son, we asked them.  I forgot what type of crop it was, but that isn't the point.. the point is.. they said that they had to replant everything in this area because all the radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster basically made all the plants not healthy for human consumption.  Dad and I gave each other one of the "uhh, wtf?" looks and asked just how close we were.  Turns out we were still like 300km away.  But the fact that the radiation traveled that far and did that much damage, a bit scary.  So if I all of a sudden start to glow at night time or grow a third eyeball, I'll know why.

So yeah, finished off there and started to head back.  Went into Yokohama (which is basically right beside Tokyo, but it's such a concrete jungle that you don't know where one city begins, and the other ends).  Had a meeting with our guy and just went over everything.  Manage to sell him the remaining inventory I had set aside for him (yay me!) and then we left for dinner.

He questioned us as to whether we ever had Fugu before.  Neither dad nor myself had ever had it, but it's always been on my "must eat" list ever since seeing the simpsons episode.  So we decided to try it out.  Both dad and I were expecting like one plate of fugu sashimi... wrong.  EVERYTHING was fugu.  Fugu sashimi, Fried Fugu, Barbeque Fugu...the entire 5 course meal was fugu (minus the ice cream).  Even when dad ordered a hot sake, it came with bbq'd fugu fins in it.  Overall, it really wasn't anything special.  Didn't have much of a taste.  I guess people are just inclined to want to eat it because of the danger factor.

Either way, I'm glad I tried it, and it's something to check off the list.  Won't go out of my way to have it again, but wouldn't decline if I was offered some more.

Thursday :

Caught an 11:00am flight up to Sapporo from Haneda.  Upgraded our seats to business class.  Makes the flight a bit easier, plus you get lunch on board.  Was only $60 per seat to upgrade, so why not!

Landed and took the bus to the hotel just ouside of downtown Sapporo.  Just relaxed for an hour or so before meeting up with Dad and our agent in the lobby.  Had a very, very brief meeting before going to our clients office.  These guys are our biggest contact so we always want to make sure we stay in their good graces.

Had a meeting with them and went over a few things, told them what kind of inventory situation we had and before you knew it, they bought it all.. at more than what we were expecting.  No complaints from us!

Went out for dinner to Sukiyaki.  Basically it's like a pot with some broth in it and you cook your own meat/veggies and then dip it into a raw egg and eat it.  Strange, but the combination of the sweet egg (Egg's are different in Japan than here) with the flavour of the broth and the taste of the food was absolutely fantastic.  Quite a delicious meal.

Then the drinking started.  These boys like to drink.  I stuck with my sake for the night, I woudn't say I was drunk, I doubt I could even say I was all that buzzed, but the next morning my head was hurting..  Sake gives you the type of hangover that wine does.  Though you don't feel drunk while drinking it, it gives you a pounding headache in the morning.  Lucky for us our flight out of Sapporo back to Tokyo wasn't till 2:20pm so I was able to relax a bit and just take it easy.

Got to the airport and bought like.. $200 worth of Sapporo cookies.  They're delish! 

Long flight back home in economy because our upgrades didn't go through, brief layover in Vancouver before flying to Calgary where Lindsey's roommate picked me up. 

I'm currently sitting on Lindsey's bed, enjoying my life (minus the fact she's at work right now :( ).

Blog post to follow on the Calgary/Banff adventure!

Overall, Japan trip was worthwhile.  Sold everything we had to sell and ate some good food.  I love that city and the people, so polite.  Can't wait to head over there with the girl and be able to show her around.. maybe take her to disneyland if she's lucky ;)