Colin McGuire

10 Minute Just Cut, Curry Doughnuts and other Culinary Delights

Well this week has been interesting so far.

Alex and I decided to go for a haircut at ‘10 minute just cut’. This is a fairly organised process starting with purchasing a ticket from the machine then sitting in an ordered queue. The haircutting itself is as high tech as I’ve ever seen, they vacuum clean your face with a huge attachment to get rid of those annoying post cut loose hairs. The haircut itself went better than expected when you consider my lack of Japanese and my hairdresser's lack of English. Lots of gestures and buzzing noises by me seemed to get my point across and I emerged with quite a nice haircut for 1000 yen. Alex wound up with a nice side parting which actually suited him quite well... I’m not sure what they made of red hair!

I also tried my first curry doughnut. It is actually sweet and crispy on the outside but when you bite in you are treated to a delicious meat curry. I decided to treat it as a desert; I’m still not sure if that was the correct classification, I’d appreciate your opinions.

Last night my group had a mini night out. We went to nice small restaurant packed with other work groups enjoying cheap food and lots of beer. I was lucky enough to sample some interesting food including chicken cartilage, raw pig trotter and pig brain... quite a treat I'm sure you will agree. The brain was actually not too bad, although it makes your mouth very dry after eating it. Not sure if it would catch on back in Glasgow. I had a very nice night though and we shared some nice stories and drank a lot of Sake, beer, plum wine and what I think was a mix of brandy and whiskey. For some reason Japanese people enjoy (yes enjoy) buying me drinks. In the picture from left to right is Takahashi-san, Nishikawa-san, Eriku-san, Tamiya-san, me and Kogure-san. Thank you all for a wonderful night!

Work has been fairly uneventful. I have received a couple of completed questionnaires I will process on Monday but apart from that I have just continued my research. Today I visited the Kawasaki plant with Hamada-san to speak with an Intel alliance team member, Ichiko-san about his job. It was an interesting meeting and I found out quite a lot about how the companies interact and maintain their relationships.

There was a possibility of me being able to sit in on a meeting between a UK telecoms company and Fujitsu about network requirements which would have been interesting. Unfortunately the company has had to postpone the trip so I think I will miss it. I am a bit disappointed as there would have been some important (VPs and Ps) people there and I am curious as to how these meetings work.

Still no plans this weekend. I will post about it once it has happened... I’m sure it will be memorable.

Colin

A Quiet Weekend in Tokyo

Well, what a nice relaxing weekend it has been.

On Friday after a not too stressful day at work, Alex, Leonor and myself attended a meeting of the Fujitsu intergr8 organization. This consisted of a presentation about the group which has been formed to aid integration of international worked in Fujitsu. During the presentation they launched their website and gave a rundown of their plans which sounded very interesting although not really relevant to us as we are just temps. We did get some free M&Ms though.

Afterwards we wondered around Ginza and there was some sort of event going on with lots of food and drink stalls as well as entertainment. We saw the Japanese equivalent of line dancing when we came across a stage with dancers and a drummer surrounded by a revolving mass of synchronized, dancing Japanese.

On Saturday we went to see the spectacular fireworks at Asakusa. Now let me give you a couple of statistics pulled from the website; 20,000 fireworks, 1hr10min and an expected crowd of 980,000. Crazy eh?  Alex, Leonor, Euan and myself went along to watch. Firework watching etiquette in Japan appears to consist of getting there early and putting down some tarpaulin on the ground to mark your space or simply writing your name and drawing some borders using gaffer tape. We arrived about 4 hours before the show and walked around trying to find a spot but didn’t have much luck. Just when we were struggling Alex and Euan managed to find a place right beside the launch site with an amazing view as a family had just vacated their spot! We were very lucky and enjoyed the fireworks with some nice beers. It was a very nice atmosphere too.

Nice pictures eh? P.S notice the smiley face?

Anyway things to look forward to this week:
Wednesday night my division is going out for dinner which should be fun.
Thursday I am going to Kawasaki to see my division's presence there.

As well as being quite productive at work today I also got quizzed on brands of short bread and received an email entitled 'Native check please!'  asking me to check some English so it has been a fun day. Roll on Wednesday.

Colin

1 down 3 to go - BI & CPM Presentation

Today I completed my first of four assignments; researching business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management (CPM) software and presenting my results. The task was created by Nakamura san and Hamada san who work with the German enterprise software firm SAP.

Today’s presentation was the combination and climax of 8 days of lots of googling and figuring how to work Japanese language office. I got to use a huge plasma screen TV to display my slides which was fun.

The presentation went OK although I think I spoke a little fast and some people couldn’t understand me entirely but were too polite to say anything even though I requested it at the start. My audience was also a lot more conservative with questions than I have experienced previously. I managed to get my main points across OK though and I think I was pretty much bang on my 30 minute target.

The feedback I received was pretty promising with Nakamura san giving my 95 out of 100... which is nice. I will try to speak slower next time I present here though - possibly in a weeks time.

Now I have finished my first project I am not sure what I will do tomorrow. I spoke with Kogure san who is involved with the CISCO group I will be working with over the next two weeks and he gave me an insight into what I will be doing. My project has 2 parts:

1.  Researching unified communications and its applications

2.  Kogure san is responsible for the Asia Pacific subsidiaries and he is keen to roll out an intranet website to provide information for these subsidiaries. I will be speaking with them to find out what sort of information they need and I will write a report about it.

It will be nice to do a project which involves talking with people as although I found researching BI and CPM very interesting, constantly googling can be a bit monotonous.

Anyway, a nice relaxing night for me tonight I think and a well deserved beer!

Colin

Gopachi, Karaoke and Nikko

Well, what an interesting weekend it has been.

On Friday night the Saltire interns were invited to join Phil Carmichael, Stephen Baker, Frank Boyle and Raymond Prendergast at Gonpachi. Now Gonpachi was the restaurant featured in the ninja fight scene in Kill Bill so you can guess it is something special. All I can say is... fantastic! It had a lovely atmosphere and the food was fantastic, have a look at the picture. Phil, Stephen and Raymond were very nice to chat with. Phil gave Alex and myself a PDA to use to access the net which has proved very useful... Thanks Phil!

After dinner all the interns went to try some Karaoke in Roppongi and wow, Japanese karaoke doesn’t disappoint. Voice activated disco lights, wireless English song choosing device and a vast selection of classics added up to a fantastic time. Afterwards we had a few drinks including some jars of Sake which cost about a pound (yes I said jars) and managed to stumble back into the dorms at about 7.30am...

After a nice sleep on Saturday, Alex and myself managed to make it into Shibuya and have a quick look around the famous crossing (picture is included in my first post) and a big record shop. We then walked to Roppongi to meet Ewen and Zhanar for dinner. Dinner was an interesting experience... after sitting around for about 40 minutes waiting for our food we realised that my 'a la carte' anchovies and radish was a condiment we thought was free and for dipping had been sitting on the table the whole time and Alex's Kimchi (another condiment) had got lost in translation. We also got caught out having to pay for starters we didn’t order and wondered away good humored, but slightly poorer and a little peckish... nothing 7-11 can’t handle though.

The next morning the same group of us met to visit Nikko. The train left from Asakusa so we had a little time to wonder around the senso-ji and the Nakamise-dori shopping street.

Nikko is famous for its shrines and being a holiday weekend was absolutely mobbed. When we arrived we first luckily managed to sort out some accommodation before hitting the temples. Although busy the park around Tosho-gu was very nice and the temples were what you would expect. I also got to see my three monkeys which I had hoped to see, representing the 'Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil' from Tendai Buddhism. The only problem we had was the weather turned against us and we got soaked through.

Luckily the accommodation turned out to me a lovely Japanese style hotel. We got to try on some yukatas and enjoy a nice bath in the evening, followed by some plum wine, green tea and a night on a Tatami mat. The room was very nice though.

 

The next morning the weather wasn’t much better - very misty. Unfortunately it stayed like that the rest of the day and our 40 minute bus ride to Chuzenji-ko was in vein as all we could see of the famous Kegon falls (90m high waterfall) was white mist. We did hire some rowing boats and tried rowing through the mist on the lake. We stopped in the middle and had a lovely a picnic involving 7-11 cakes and muffins and the remainder of the plum wine.

 

Anyway, not sure what is happening this week. Workwise my presentation is on Friday so that is a milestone. Will keep you posted.

Colin

Fujitsu Subsidiary Conference and Pichinko!

Yesterday I was invited last minute to meet with another member of the Global Alliances team, Mamada san, who is responsible with working with Intel to attend a portion of the Asia-Pacific region subsidiary conference. This involved representatives from Fujitsu China, Singapore, and Australia ect. talking about the work they are doing, the markets and the problems and challenges they are facing. It was very interesting to here what Fujitsu are actively doing and the different problems that emerge in different cultures and the different solutions required. Hearing about the competition Fujitsu face in each area reminds me of trench warfare on several fronts with small pushes from each side, quite interesting.

I also got a nice view of the Tokyo tower from the 30th floor as well...

On the way out from the office one of our colleagues stopped Alex and myself asked if we wanted to come for some drinks and food with him and some friends. We found this strange as we had barely spoken to him but it illustrates perfectly the Japanese friendliness and good will. We had a lovely meal with him involving sting ray, Japanese pizza, decomposing Soy beans and Sake! mmmmm. Afterwards we were taken to try some Pachinko which is the Japanese gambling craze. Basically you buy some metal marbles and then try and ping them into a hole and if you do the machine decides whether to give you money or not... I lost 1000 yen in about 2 minutes so I wasn’t so lucky. One of the men we met said he made 80,000 yen in one night which is quite reasonable! It is very very noisy and a nice smoky atmospohere. Have a look at this video:

Pachinko! 

Today I got some decent work done on my presentation and learnt a lot about the BI marketplace and the recent activity which has gone on. Abu san took Alex, Lenor and I for a very nice lunch at a Japanese buffet. There we were introduced to a translator at Fujitsu, Hyodo san, who was very interested in talking to us about Europe - she had lived there for several years. Afterwards she sent a very flattering email saying how much she enjoyed meeting cultured, intelligent people. As you can guess I was very happy to hear this!

Anyway, Speak to you soon

Colin

Tokyo, Fujitsu and Strange Tasting Noodles

Well I arrived in Tokyo after a grueling 12 hour flight from Heathrow to 30 degree heat and 75% humidity... nice! Straight after arriving we met Ms. Miwa Tomoda at the Hotel Pacific to have a shower and lunch at TGI Fridays before being whisked off to meet with our boss Otani San at Fujitsu. All of the people we met were very friendly but we were a bit tired so we were glad to eventually get back to our rooms. We also met another intern, Lenor, from France who is working with Alex.

My room is in the Fujitsu company dormitory (not like those lucky Ropongi girls!)  about 50 minute commute to work in Nakahara. It is a quiet area but a bit far out. The rooms are OK with all you need apart from internet access which is kind of annoying. The facilities include a communal kitchen/living area and bathroom with a traditional Japanese bath which shall be nice (not had time to try it yet).I do have aircon and a nice balcony though overlooking a fantastic aircon unit and car park - picture postcard! Pictures are below:

After a nice sleep on Friday Alex and I went to Akihabara - the electronics city and had a look around and played some arcade games - Japanese drumming, guitar hero and some Half-Life 2 multiplayer arcade - great fun! After wondering around the center of Tokyo looking at some fantastically tall buildings (pictured below) we went to Ropongi to meet the other interns (Euan, Zack, Bahariah and Zhanar) and Frank Boyle - soon to be head of SDI Asia. We had some nice drinks and food before heading back home. Unfortunately the trains had finished by then so we wondered around Kawasaki for a while before getting a taxi for 40000 yen, a wee bit steep as he got lost. We did meet a guy from NASA who trained astronauts though which was kind of interesting!

On Sunday Alex and I went to Ginza and visited some of the big department stores before going to the over-excited, neon, hubbub that is Shinjuku. We met Euan there and visited the Observation deck of the Metropolitan Government building before eating some noodles - funnily enough which had a bit of an unpleasant 'uriny' taste - I guess I had to choose something bad eventually!

Today was my first day of work. I found out what exactly I will be doing in Global Alliances. I will spend two weeks with different members of the team each working on projects with them. My first task is to investigate Business Intelligence systems and present my findings about the marketplace, trends and the technology in two weeks. Should be interesting. Everyone in the group is very friendly yet busy and has been more than helpful.

Lenor, Alex and I were taken by Akira San to a Fujitsu exhibition of future technologies which was very interesting. We got to meet the robot Enon, experience ip9500 HD video, palm vein reading technology as well as Fujitsu's vision of constantly monitoring everyone's health and offering advice. It was interesting.

The building housing the Fujitsu HQ is simply amazing - a picture is below - it is the nice curvy one. We are on the 23rd floor - it is a pretty good view! The surrounding area is stunning too... what a place to work.

I am looking forward to getting on with my work and learning more. Lots of visits and meeting appear to be set up for me so hopefully I will learn a lot.

Anyway, Ill post again in a few days,

Colin

The Evening of Departure

Well, it is Wednesday night, only 12 hours before I leave.

I still can’t quite believe I will be in Japan on Friday morning. I am sure it will sink in once I step off the plane and see the Sushi bars, Japanese symbols and Tokyo rail network info at Narita airport (see picture below). Hopefully this time I’ll have a bit more luck at deciphering it!

I spent 2 weeks travelling through Japan on the tourist Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto-Hiroshima route back in May 2007 so I have a little idea of what life in Japan is like. This is one of the reasons I was so excited about the possibility of experiencing actually living and working in Tokyo and the bonus of learning from a company like Fujitsu is just... well... amazing.

I feel strangely not nervous at all. Before going to Singapore and my work experience last summer at Rolls-Royce I felt a bit anxious, unsure of what would happen; but this time I feel excited and ready to go. I have only 2 concerns really (well, I’m not even sure if you can call them concerns):

1. I still have very little information about my job, all I know is some sort of market research and general office work... which is a little vague and does not sound all that exciting. I am confident I will end up doing something challenging and worthwhile and will push to get given more interesting work if I have to.
2. I am living in company dorms... mmm... this sounds very exciting as I have read lots of interesting things about how companies train new recruits to be better people by teaching hygiene and social etiquette... I could do with some of that!

Anyway, I can’t wait to see Shinjuku, Harijuku and Roppongi again. Sitting above the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world and just people watching last year was a real highlight and I hope to experience more like that. I will leave you with some pictures I took last year of the crossing I mentioned above, the golden temple and the prince of Japan in Kyoto... hopefully I can top that this time :).