First Two Weeks in Tokyo

So I am finally getting around to writing my first blog, I am sure you have all been anxiously awaiting this moment. I have now spent about two full weeks and Tokyo and it has been quite an experience. The culture here is completely different than the United States or even Europe. Japan given the fact that they are an island have been able to keep a lot of the influences from the western world out. The city itself is super clean and quiet. The city is huge but the horn honking and most other noises that you here in large cities don’t happen very much here. It is interesting that you can’t smoke on most public streets but you can in all restaurants. In addition they are a very polite culture with a number of customs that take some getting used to. For example we got reminded of the following shortly after our arrival....

As a rule you may not enter our working space via the reception corridor ie by passing the meeting rooms. If clients are present please be respectful and don't engage in conversation around them or in the elevators as this is not considered appropriate. Do not eat in the elevators or when walking through the passage ways.You should not enter any meeting room that has not been reserved for you. Typically if a client is going down the elevator and is being seen off by PwC people you should not get in the elevator but hang back and take the next. ...

Some other cultural differences I have learned, are not to blow your nose in public and you should never fill your own glass from a pitcher at the table, someone should do it for you, you can fill everyone elses up but not yours. Also you are not supposed to open cab doors yourself.

Work has been a little bit more difficult to given the language barrier, the familiarity with English for most local people is not that strong, overall I think they understand English more than they let on, however they are not very confident in their ability to use it.

I have been busy at work but have been able to experience a little bit of the city on the weekends. The first weekend I was here we went out for my birthday to an area called Rapongi, this is a section of Tokyo where a lot of the foreigners hang out. We had dinner at a Korean barbeque and went to a karoke bar. Karoke is very popular here however it is different than in the US, the karoke bars here have a number of private rooms where you sing. So only the group you come with hears you, I think this makes it more enjoyable.

The Sunday after my birthday I walked around the area where I am staying and went to a park not far from here, it is just great looking around a people watching, below are some pictures of the park and a small video of a couple of the concerts that were going on.

I also went to a baseball game on Sunday evening, while it was not as crowded as I expected it was great to experience all the chanting and traditions that go on at the games, essentially either sides fans chant the entire time when their team is up to bat. They also have beer girls that carry around mini kegs on their back and fill up your beer (of course I had to have one, see picture below).


This weekend I went and walked around again this time I took a cab to youi yomi park where there were a lot of people hanging out. There happened to be some sort of rock and roll dance show going on so there were a bunch of people dressed up like people from the movie Greece, there were a ton of people around so it was a lot of fun. There also was some sort of flower festival and I saw some local dancing. Again see the pictures below.



The food has been great, it takes some getting used to but I am quite good with chopsticks now. The sushi rolls that are common in the US are not as common here, if you want sushi it is just the seafood on top of a ball of rice, but there are lots of other options to choose from. The strangest thing I have tried thus far has been beef tounge, it tased like a chewy steak so was not all that bad.