What a busy week. Lots of work. The Senior VP of our division was in town this week from the States, so there were lots of meetings and stuff. He took us all out for dinner on Thursday night to a nice Thai restaurant called ROI on the top floor of a building near our office overlooking the city. The bathrooms had windows from floor to ceiling. I'm sure people with telescopes approve. I had to be home by 11:30 PM for a conference call with New York and London, but they ended up not calling me at 11:30 PM, so then I thought it must have been 12:30 PM because daylight savings started in the US, but they still didn't call, so I thought ok maybe it's 1:30 PM I guess, but they still didn't call, so I went to bed. Friday I arrive to work to find out that the traders wanted one of my projects to go into production over the weekend, so they could come in on Monday morning and use it. So there was a lot to do with synchronizing the project between New York, London, and Tokyo. I ended up staying at work until 8 PM. Afterward, my colleague Noriko invited me to dinner with her and her friend, Rei, at a Korean place nearby. This is the kind of restaurant I could not go to alone because there are no pictures on the menu and no English. It's amazing what kind of great places are hidden everywhere in this city. There was nothing more than a door in a basement to signify that this place even existed. But it was super good and nicely layed out. I get nervous when I have to take off my shoes because I don't want to slip and eat it on the wood floors. This place has those tables where you sit on a cushion on the floor and your feet drop down below the floor into a little pit underneath the table. Apparently Noriko knew the owner fairly well, we were treated very kindly. She brought us things we did not order. We had some kind of soup that is considered comfort food in Korea and some pizza-like seafood thing and some noodles and some bam buk ja which is a drink she explained is known for its "vitality" qualities. The story goes that a 90 year-old man and 70 year-old woman met one night long ago over some bam buk ja and blah blah blah she ends up pregnant. It tastes kinda like strawberry liqeuor with a little NyQuil zing. Not the greatest, but she gave it to us to be nice. Noriko and Rei knew each other when they went to the same international school in Japan, then they both went to the States sometime in high school, then they both went to college at Syracuse. Noriko has lived all over the world: Japan, the US, Singapore, Africa, England. We went out afterward and they were thinking about doing karaoke because Rei said Noriko has a good voice and that they were in a band in high school, Rei played bass and Noriko sang. Awesome! But we couldn't find a place that wasn't already packed so we just went to some other place and I proceeded to display my sweet 80's dance moves much to their amusement. Today I went to the Mori Art Museum and observatory on the top two floors of my office building (click the robot below for pics). I wish I were allowed to take photos from inside the museum, it was really cool. They had full scale models of New York, Tokyo, and Shanghai. It made me a little homesick. I could see my old office on Cortlandt Street, even my office in Jersey City, and both of my old apartment buildings on E 18 St and E 7 St. The views of Tokyo from the observatory were awesome. It's so different from New York, which is more vertical. Instead it's similar to cities in Europe where there are buildings everywhere but most of them are about 4 stories tall. But the size of Tokyo is much larger than any city I've ever seen. It just goes and goes. I took some photos, I wish it would have been a clearer day then I could have seen Mt. Fuji. Tomorrow we have our party at Yoyogi Park for Ohanami, which is observed during the spring time to celebrate the sprouting cherry blossoms. It is huge in Japanese culture. Everyone goes to the parks and has picnics with friends and family under the cherry blossoms.
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
