Been away in Tokyo and Hong Kong last week for a Sales Training Program. Marketing trains, Sales gets trained. Sales, as a result, are supposedly better prepared in their specialized markets; Marketing gets to travel; everybody is happy.
At least, that is how it’s supposed to work… in theory. In practice, everything has its kinks.
Well, for one thing, I wish airport -shuttle companies would ask me if I was traveling international, and schedule their pickup times accordingly. Some stupid dispatcher put me down for domestic, which made for a fairly hair-raising experience in making the flight out of San Francisco to Tokyo. Just made the boarding gate by the skin of my teeth (which, last time I checked, was non-existent anyway… the skin, the skin, not the teeth, stoopid).
Two movies in the flight; high point: Cameron Diaz making out in a bathtub… um, yeah, I did say bathtub. Thank god for small mercies.
Japan requires all visitors to fill in a disembarkation card, and hand it over to Immigration & Customs upon arrival. I dutifully handed my card over to a Japanese immigration official who looked at it, looked heavenward and said something in Japanese that seemed disturbingly like: “God, give me strength. Why do I always end up with these guys!” Then he turned to me and said in English, “PRease do nor fiRR in penciR, pRease fiRR onRy in ink”, and sent me back to redo the form over.
Anyways, it is like a twelve-plus hour flight to Tokyo, and, add to it the seventeen-hour time difference, one ends up losing an entire day traveling in that direction, and also ends up in one’s hotel at some unearthly United States hour like 2:00AM. I have nothing against Japanese customs, but I could do with a little less bowing when I’m trying to check-in at a hotel dog-tired at 2 in the morning… and I don’t care if it’s daylight.
WeRcome to Tokyu!
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