Monday January 23rd 2023 - First day in the office - Japan trip for work, day 2 - About 2 miles of walking

I won't drone on too long today. The first day going into the office was good. My coworker, Yukie, is also visiting from the US and she is a delight.  We chatter on endlessly, she seems to enjoy talking about almost anything.  Since I otherwise am saying as little as possible here it's refreshing to have somebody who can and will converse easily.

We headed to the office at about 8:30 am, prime commute time. The number of people getting on and off the trains, up and down the escalators and especially marching into the Gate City complex where the office is was overwhelming.


 

The office is in an immense mall/office space thing that is the size of a Vegas resort.  2 Tokyo office coworkers joined us for lunch and we went to a lovely Chinese restaurant.  We were seating at a large round table that could have seated 7 or 8 and the room we were in only had 2 tables. The layout of having many rooms each with a handful of tables was interesting.  The menu was setup in 'sets' meaning you got this entree, this soup or noodle bowl and desert in each set.  I had spicy tofu and a beef/noodle soup that seemed almost Thai flavored to me.  The desert was a delightful vanilla panna cotta.  It was a surprisingly hearty luch, I had no desire to even snack for hours. 

The offices are modern and sleek looking.  There were only about 2 dozen people working on-site in the space that is built for about 100.  It sounds like remote work is here to stay for our Japan colleagues just like it is for the US.  There really wasn't much to do because it was Sunday in the US so nobody I would normally interact with was online and none of the actual implementation tasks we have planned were scheduled for yesterday.

Yukie volunteered to take me up to Shinjuku to shop for a jacket.  We went through the famous and chaotic Shinjuku crossing or Shinjuku scramble. Other than the train station and crossing there weren't actually too many people around since we left work early.  I was able to find a smart black jacket that fits.  The staff were very helpful and I had to try on about 5 jackets to find something that fit me.  Some things at the store were in JP sizes, some were international. Some were too small and some were too big.

We took a 90 minute break back at the hotel then dined at a Korean BBQ place here near the Shinagawa Prince hotel.  Dinner was delicious especially the spicy chicken, kimchi and cheese dish.  The Korean fruity beverage was potent at 13% alcohol and surprisingly a big bottle.  I was glad I didn't try to get through it alone.

Tuesday should be a busier day at work.

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