Japan: Day 2 - 26.2.2008

Second day and first morning in Tokyo. We walked today to the office which takes about 20 minutes. This was really the first time I had a chance to feel the Japanese culture around me. The street are amazingly clean and even the truck shine. I was also quite amazed how little traffic there is on the streets compared to for example Paris. I heard that local people use the metro and the train just because there is not parking space downtown Tokyo.

The breakfast was quite amazing. I was escorted to my table and my coffee was served to the table. The selection of breakfast items ranges from fresh fruit juices to blueberries and strawberries. Of course there was also a lot of fresh fruits and local Japanese breakfast cuisine with more western items, like corn flakes. Quite yummy!

Japan is a wonderful place, part 2:

3) Smoke or get fined - You are not allowed to smoke on the streets in Tokyo. There are designated smoking areas on the street that you can smoke in, otherwise you might face a fee of 40 euros!

4) High-tech restaurants - I've worked in the restaurant business so I noticed that the waitresses have wireless PDA-like devices that they take the orders with. The order goes directly to the kitchen, and the food comes out really fast. All waitresses (including breakfast waiters!) have ear-peaces and radio, so they can communicate with each other all the time. This is really cool :)

Japan: Day 1 - 25.2.2008

So here I am, on the other side of the globe. The world feels really small when you can quite easily fly here and use the Internet as from home. But nevertheless I am 8000km away from home.

The first day has been quite tough. Almost no sleep in the plane, via the hotel directly to the workplace. We started working at 11am local time and it is not 12pm and I am back at the hotel finally, hopefully, getting some sleep.

First of all, I want to say how I miss my Sanna. It is really hard to be for the first time away from the one you love. But I guess I have to do my job...

Japan is a wonderful place, part 1:

1) Canned coffee - Hot coffee, in a vending machine, from a metal can. Yes, it's all in Japan! This is how the local employees have their coffee break. They take something from the vending machine (costing about 100 yens) and having a cigar. And yes, even the coffee (with and without milk and/or sugar!) is from a vending machine. Fascinating, yet frightening.

2) Electronic toilets - I arrived into my hotel room and I could not figure out how to use the toilet. Wow! That's a new one! In the toilet, there was a large remote control with some rather frightening looking symbols and maybe luckily none of them worked when I pressed them. Ok, I then realized that the toilet is flushed beside the bowl itself... I was so reliefed that it actually worked.


I will continue to list odd things from this wonderful culture :) But I love the people, they are so friendly! The city is a large metropol but it is so clean that Paris should be ashamed of itself.

But now some sleep - after 30 hours or so.

Tokyo, Here I come!

I never thought that I would visit Tokyo, at least yet in my life. Nevertheless, on my winter holiday to Paris, I got a telephone call. It was my boss that asked if I wanted to go to Tokyo the week after I get back from my holiday. After a brief moment of thinking, it was a no-brainer - of course I will go to Tokyo when flight and hotel is payed!

Going to Tokyo is not like hopping on the train and visit Helsinki. Or even Paris, which is only a 3 hour flight away. I leave tomorrow, Sunday 24.2., and will be there all week. I will try to post something every day to this blog about my journey! :)