This and that

Thursday, September 11.
A frustrating day of mistakes, all mine. I ate at the student cafeteria and chose a noodle option. Turned out I ordered luke-warm udon.

I tried out the Titech gym, which truly was a return to the old days of gym rooms instead of recreation centers of the type that A&M has. This was a weight room where people went to exercise, not to socialize, just like the old gym at A&M. One irritating difference were the barbells. Most gyms I’ve visited have racks of barbells sorted by weight. At the Sheraton Miyako gym, the Oakwood Roppongi gym, and the Titech gym, the barbells are bars with weights that you put on or take off. The advantage of this system is that little space is needed. Instead of a rack of twenty barbells of five different weights, four bars and a set of weights provide the same service. The disadvantage is you spent far more time than you want changing weights with the requisite screwing and unscrewing of the weight holder.

While waiting outside the Indian takeout tonight at Meguro, I looked up and down the street and saw literally scores of restaurants, ramen shops, bakeries, and drinking spots. Restaurants are buried in basements, prominently placed on the ground level, and occupy entire food floors in multi-story buildings. Train stations usually have department stores that have basement food floors with a range of prepared food.

Forgot to mention from a Shibuya Sunday visit: At one department store’s food floor, we saw our first $42 mango. Food at those prices is obviously for a gift where the presentation (this was a very big, flawless mango) was more important than the actual fruit. Similarly, we’ve seen melons (including the square watermelon) for $20-30 and pineapple for $25. All very elegantly presented, but a world away from the fruit and veg we buy at prices higher than the States but not outrageously higher. The exceptions are the grapes, which are also far, far better than any grape we’ve had in the States.

Friday, September 12
We had lunch with Deborah Hayden, a New Zealander, at the Grand Hyatt Oakwood restaurant in Roppongi Hills. She exemplifies the dash, adaptablity, and ability of many of the expat business folks we have met here.

Lisa accidentally took 200,000 instead of 20,000 yen out of her account. I suspect we will use it much more quickly than we expect or desire.

The Fulbright package arrived by messenger tonight as promised. I was impressed by the duplication of earlier material, out-of-date material, and material that would have been very useful months ago.

Both Deborah and some other tech folks I've met mentioned the Japanese penchant for customized equipment and services, especially computer software, that drives costs up, reduces the potential for compatibility, and keeps productivity down. This is not just an inter-firm but intra-firm problem. Each office or division insists its needs are unique so standard software will not do. It’s also a demonstration of the importance of long-term relationships over costs. This situation may be generational; the younger (less than 40) employees realize that their firms have to change or else Chinese and Korean companies will overwhelm them. According to an IBMer, the five biggest firms control only 50% of the computer market, a significantly lower percentage than other countries.