business trip

after a 3 hr long weekly group meeting last tuesday-it`s usually on mondays, so only 3 people decided to nap this time including the group leader- i made the mistake of noticing an office poster with an exotic fish on it advertising some tokyo event last week.

my boss explained it was for `internepcon`...no clue what that meant. he and this other boss of mine-too many bosses in these japanese companies, still dont understand what some of them do if anything-decided that i should go to this event on a business trip. both agreed it would be fun and interesting. they started making plans while i learned more from this website and flier my boss gave me. after about 5 minutes of searching really hard i stopped looking for the reason why they thought this would be a fun business trip for me. and when my boss, after already making plans for us to go to tokyo, excitingly asks in japanese if ill go, i thought about saying, in english, i`d rather do labwork all day friday than play hooky and go to tokyo for free.

that was some really great advertising...the website headline: `japan`s largest exhibition featuring all lines of materials, equipment and technology for electronics manufacturing` ...what does that have to do with a yellow striped fish? the displays will probably be really superhightech and futuristic at least, and the conference is invitation-only for company reps primarily, so i feel special. plus if i get bored at that exhibition there are 5 more electronics conferences going on in the same building. fiber optics, ic packaging, fuel cells, wiring boards galore.

it probably would be really fun and interesting if i were a hardcore electronics geek or atleast still considering a future career in engineering but since neither is the case ill probably enjoy the trip mostly because...i love train rides, ill see some other foreigners in tokyo if not at the exhibition, i get to `dress up` meaning no chemical-stained lab pants, and have lunch at a restaurant instead of a cafeteria. and it`s company-paid.

---------------

turns out i was right. one part of the trip included riding at the very front of this computer-operated train. no conductor, great views of tokyo and tokyo bay, it`s own tracks under the famous rainbow bridge. coming back we went by `sea bus`, reminded me of the penns landing ferry, and stopped at this great book/music district in tokyo. we went inside the largest bookstore (8 floors of books, and a restaurant or coffee shop or 2 on each floor). i was all excited-they had one huge floor of all english books including new arrivals, classics, and current bestsellers in the u.s.　if i wasnt with my boss i wouldve stayed forever, or atleast until they closed, or made a stop at as many of the other bookstores as possible. i was just scooping up books and had to put some back because i didnt have enough cash on me (japan should use credit cards more). if i had 100 dollars on me i wouldve probably spent 97 of it (i had $60). already read 2 of my new purchases (the bell jar, the five people you meet in heaven) on 2 different weeknights. we also stopped at this famous bakery in ueno that sells potato-apple pies. yum!

oh yeah the exhibit. there were robots and fuel cell bikes and things like that. and a few foreigners because of the handful of western and singapore/chinese/indian companies. werent many women at all other than exhibit `hostesses` passing out fliers or just there to attract male customers sometimes (even canon did it). i met some coworkers from my last trip in japan. got to pass out my hitachi japanese business cards. tokyo big site, the hall name, from the outside reminded me of something holl/gehry might have designed except it was still very functional. there were so many people and 1000+ different companies you could hardly move sometimes. we sat in on one of the tech presentations and my boss dozed off for a good 10 minutes while i feigned interest because we were sitting up front. i was really tired and really bored until we left. cant wait to go back to ochanomizu (the book district).