Onion Slices

Not to get too much into my trip to Japan (I’ll write more about that later), I just experienced one of the most surreal moments in my life. After dinner, I stopped at the huge shopping mall across the tracks from my hotel and picked up some gifts. As I was bumming around, the store closed, so I was making my way out. As I was leaving, many employees were bowing to everyone and saying (I suppose), “have a good evening! Thanks for stopping by!” This was not the part that was odd…

To make my way back to my hotel, I figured that I needed to pass through the cosmetics section, and as I made my “lumbering gaijin bear” way through the section, I was surrounded by ladies, all about shoulder-high to me, bowing and saying, “thanks for being slow, jerk” (I know that this wasn’t what they were saying, but I felt it) As each lady stopped what she was doing, and made her way over to the aisle to bow to me, I felt like I was in a movie. When someone is polite to me, I try to be polite back, so I was nodding my head, making eye contact, and grinning like an idiot because I KNEW that I should just look down and hurry by, ignoring them.

That moment behind me, I stopped at the Krispy Kreme shop next to the door of my hotel and picked up a “Muscat Shell” seasonal donut for breakfast tomorrow. I have NO idea what it’s going to taste like…

Edit: I had the option just now to upgrade one leg of my flight to Business Class. For $524.00 and 25,000 miles. I REALLY would love to upgrade but a) I don’t have the money to spare and MORE IMPORTANTLY (since I could spend 3Sharp’s or Microsoft’s money), I want to save my miles for a trip for Julie and me to go somewhere around the holidays!

Edit Part II: So, yes, the shopping mall is 14 (FOURTEEN) stories of awesomeness, with a 7 story bookstore next door. Too bad I don’t speak Nihon-go… As far as the other link about the “Muscat Shell” I have no idea what the guy’s blog says. It’s just one of only two refrences I could find before I stopped caring! I’m still going to eat it!

These are some pictures from dinner last night. My two bosses, two guys from Microsoft Japan, and I went out for sushi. I have a whole post planned just about food, but I thought that Julie would love to see the sushi bit a little early! Love ya, and I miss you (see, I told you I would put it on my blog…)

This was the crab and seaweed and pickle starter:

These were the three oysters that were ordered (I passed on these):

On to the main course! (We all got the same thing. Also, I forgot to take the picure until after I had already started on the unagi!):

Here’s one of the table (before):

Here’s one of the table (after):

(That little bit left is some egg and horseradish)

Recently, my brother left the company that we both worked for (and he started) for a new opportunity. He’s totally excited about the new work, and I’m totally excited for him! I don’t know all the details (heck, I barely know ANY of the details), but it was really awesome to see him as excited as he was when he was telling me about what he was going to be doing. I honestly everyone should wake up excited to go to work every morning. If you’re not, do some deep soul-searching and decide if that’s really what you want to be doing. (Total side note: I’ve been approached a couple of times with people who want my resume/to hire me, but I haven’t left because I don’t feel it’s time yet. It is right on the cusp of being that time, but it’s not there quite yet…)

Well, with him leaving the company and me being the IT person, it’s been a bit odd to be taking all of his cool tech toys back. I have gotten a couple of boxes so far, and the problem is that all the stuff he’s sending falls into one of the following categories:

1. Cool stuff I want. Seriously, some of this stuff is pretty cool! One of the “toys” is an iPhone 3Gs. I have the older model, and I would love a chance to upgrade, but I feel a bit odd about doing that if I’m going to be looking for a new job soon. I mean, I would hate to use it for a couple of months and then give it back (even though I WOULD. Curse my ethical behavior!!!)
2. Cool stuff nobody wants. There are a couple of things that he’s sent back that we really have no use for. From camcorder microphones to Apple laptop video dongles, no one in the company can really make use of it.
3. Cool stuff that EVERYONE will want. This is another serious issue. He sent back a couple of AWESOME monitors, and I’m almost sure that everyone’s going to want one. Also, if I offer them to the partner’s there might be some competition as to who’s got the biggest resolution or something.

With those three categories in mind, I have some plans. For the first category, I’m planning on using the things that I can, and offering to purchase them from 3Sharp, as I get money. The second category is pretty easy as well; I’m just going to put it on a shelf and keep it hanging around, just in case. The third category will be fun, since we’re planning a 3Sharp Foosball Tournament. Maybe the 24in monitor will be the prize for 1^st palce?

I find it kind of funny that it usually takes me two or three tries to log into any system other than a couple that I use every day. I have so many passwords floating around; I’m never sure which one I use where. It’s not that big of a deal, but it makes me smile quite often when trying to remember what I’m logging into.

On to the fun news!

Well, it looks like I’ll get to be a world traveler again! This time, instead of Germany (part of a high school exchange program), I’ll get to beat the streets of Japan! One of the things that I do at my company is build demos for some of our customers. This is quite a bit of fun, but it’s been stressful, too. Once the demo is built, we usually will end up supporting it for the actual show where it will be done, so I’ve gotten to take some fun trips. I’ve been to Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas and San Jose. This time, however, I’ll be getting to go to Yokohama, Japan!

Just a little bit of background on the demos part.

What normally happens is that we are contacted by a group that wants to do a demonstration of a product at a large trade show. What we then do, is build a back-end server environment, and some client machines, and start to hash out a script and a “click-path.” Once we have an idea of what the script and click-path will be, we start to clean things up, and we have the presenter do the clicks over and over and over and over, ad nauseam. The reason for this (well, the STATED reason) is so that the presenter can get comfortable doing the demo, and not have pauses or gaps in the talk-track while he or she is looking for where to click. The REAL reason for this is so that the presenter learns NOT to click on anything else. Most of the software that we end up showing off is fairly fragile and can crash, or hang, or blue-screen for very little (or no) reason at all. It’s best for everyone if the presenter is always in the habit of sticking to the script. So, once everything is finalized, we package up all the servers and clients, ship them to the show location, hop on a plane and do the demo! It’s a little more complicated than that, but the quick explanation will do for now (:

Doing demos is one of the many things that I do at my company and it’s one of the things that I DO enjoy doing, but I would NOT want to do it all the time. It is amazing how much stress is induced from even a short little 5 minute demo. Most people don’t know it, but those 5 minutes are a battle ground and it takes a LOT of people to get something that the presenter will want to show off.

Back to the “Going to Japan” part.

So, this is totally cool! I’m VERY excited about this! I’ll be flying into the Narita airport, outside of Tokyo, and then heading over to Yokohama for the show. I’ve learned a little bit of Japanese, but there are some more important things that I’ve learned.

• Take a hand towel of my own. Most restrooms do NOT have a way to dry hands. Also, carry toilet paper. Some restrooms will NOT have any.
• Few 3-prong power outlets. Make sure I have several 3-to-2 adapters.
• Pack light! There isn’t much space around, (especially on the trains) so it’s better to have small bags.
• Business cards, business cards, business cards. Treat them with admiration and have a ton.
• Take shoes that are easy to slip on and off!
• Cash is KING. Apparently, many businesses only will take cash, so I had better get some before I go.

One of my friends recommended the Kwikpoint products, and I can guarantee that I’ll be ordering one, tomorrow. Not being able to communicate is not normally a big deal to me, but since this is for business, I want to make sure I can be understood!

All in all, I’m VERY excited to go. I really want to take a couple of extra days to look around and be a tourist, but I’ll have to see what I can manage (: