I'll be on the west coast, Tokyo is almost directly opposite on it's east coast, maybe a couple hours.

It's been about 10 years since I've been to Japan.

Drink some Saki.. <-- not quite, but close.

Go to a large public park on a Sunday to watch the Elvis impersonators and take the train to Akihabara to see the latest in electronics.

They have nice public zoos.

Fujiyama is always a treat.

Have fun Felix ... Ed

Golf.
Bring money, but be prepared to be pampered more than you have ever seen..

Rich

Did you have Fugu last time?

I will be there next spring, so I have time to save up $ and courage.

Well I hear you can spend a hell of alot of money on very little while you stand

in your one foot by one foot square thats alotted to you. Take the train and go

hiking, watch out for the hornets.

Oh, man Uozu? There ain't nothing to do in Uozu.

Since it's on the coast there in Toyama, there's some pretty decent sushi/sashimi to be had if that's your thing. Right now is hotaruika season (firefly squid-they're quite proud of them in that region), so you should be able to catch a ride on one of the fishing vessels. They leave late (Midnight IIRC), and arrive back around 5 or 6 am, so probably not a good idea if you'll be working. Otherwise, there's not much else to do except go drinking.

It's a pretty long day flying in to Narita and heading off to Uozu. I used to do it fairly regularly, and it was pretty much 21-22 hours from getting on the plane to walking through the door of my apartment. It's about 5 hours from Narita to Uozu assuming you arrive at the right time, and catch the right trains. Figure on JPY120000 each way. They should take credit cards at the JR counter. Using an ATM is the cheapest way to get yen, but once you get outside of the airport, it can be a bit of a challenge to find an ATM that'll take a US card, so stock up there.

My favorite place in Japan was Kyoto. Much more fun than Tokyo. Lots of excellent temples, bars & places to eat. People in Kyoto will treat you like a king there too.
Tokyo is such an international city that they are extremely used to seeing people from all over the world. Going to Kyoto on the other hand will make you feel like a rock star.

Japan is one of my favorite places, I could totally live there. Instead of saki, try the shochu!! It's usually impossible to find here in the states.

I totally agree with you on everything you said. I've been to Japan 4 times now and I can't get over how fun it is. When I go to Japan, I usually don't have much time to fool around, so I am unsure of what the good happenings are.

You can check the hotels for brochures to see what tourist attractions are around though.

Get on the transit, and climb Fuji! Experience like no other! My wife and I liked to pack a small bag (food, clothes etc) hop a train, and go where ever we felt. It was very cool the things we discovered. Pick up "let's go Japan" they have awesome suggestions.

While doing the tourist trap shops just below Kyoto Temple, sales person in a small shop asks "can I help you?" I pick out some things and comment "Your English is really good." "Yeah well I'm a UCLA grad" he says. Love those kinds of encounters in foreigh lands.

Andys

Hey Adam,

Did you work at M********a? If I don't make any progress with them, I'll have NO time to do anything else but

I have lived in Okinawa during the Vietnam years as a child but the corp culture is very different...

On my second week, not much time for leisure the work schedule has been grueling as predicted. I had this weekend free but am still not well enough from a bug I caught. Going to a japanese hospital was an experience. With no scheduled appt, I was able to see a Dr., get an xray, bloodwork, and anti-biotics within 3 hrs all for ~$150.

The people and society are distinctly different and I'm still trying to find the common ground. Everything takes so long for decisions to be made and to translate any type of communication. Even with translators, the information gets miss-interpreted. If I have to come back I want an American who speaks Japanese, not a Japanese who speaks a little English...

Here's a car I saw on the street, it sounded like a mid-engine V8. Anyone know what it is?

Click to view attachment

No matter where ya go, there is always a good geisha to take car of your body ailments. Its a tradition in Japan you know.

No sight of Geisha's here.

How about loose local bar wenches? Hello, you make saky saky ?

Thats an MVS Venturi, from mid '90s.
its mid engined , with a 2.8liter Renault V6.
MVS was a small French manufacturer and designed the Venturi to compete with the 911 and Ferrari 328.
This particular car looks like the limited edition for racing called the "Trophy"

Unbelievable, I'm still here after my management said I need to stay another week while they took Memorial Day off.

Mentality here is archaeic, the customer doesn't "approve" my departure this Friday. The local director is insistent I cannot leave too. It's going to be interesting tomorrow, my manager and GM said I can leave. If my management caves, they may "ask" me to stay to next week. After I , I will see some of you at the Parts Heaven Meet this Sunday.

Went to Japan twice for buisness. What ever I needed they would do without question. Would not let me carry my luggage, toolbox, ect.
Had to carry my toolbox( 55lbs) up five flights of stairs. The guy was maybe 100lbs and refused to let me carry it.
Very different from Korea. Over there they look at you like "You going to pick it up"

David

Sounds like you're having a bit of culture shock. I lived there for three years and I can tell you first hand that you CANT apply the same mode of thinking as you do on these shores. As a matter of fact, I found that if I flipped my thinking 180*, I usually had a much easier time dealing with stuff and things went smoother. Seriously, I just did EVERYTHING backwards from how I normally did them and I got results.

The interesting thing is the syntax of the Japanese language is exactly backwards from the syntax of the English language. Training yourself to talk backwards was hard but thinking backwards was REALLY hard to do.

We've had multiple problems with our equipment and software so they expect us to stay here on site until it is fixed. The problem is a memory limitation because they use our software like it was not designed so it is a very tough problem to solve. They are very logical and believe we should have a logical plan. They've been very upset because we've been too abstract and haven't been cooperative with us to do the little fixes to determine the larger fixes. I've come to understand their requests and am frustrated because it's a catch 22 situation, they want more information and our teams are revealing less to avoid commitment. I've asked for the sw director to come and explain because I'm tired of flapping my gums and getting them upset.

We call this place the Toyama triangle because strange things only happen here with our tools and our on site people are "trapped" for weeks.

I like that, think "backwards"

Felix,

Toyama is a famous place in Japan for the pharmaceutical business and ancient medicines. I am sorry to hear you got ill. I have been to the hospital in Osaka. I have made over 150 trips to Japan during my lifetime. I trust the quality of the system, however I can speak Japanese. Good luck! Go to Tokyo.........

Dan

Dan,

Did you hear about the milliion dollar gold bath tub that was recently stolen from a resort hotel? I guess they thought no one could carry off a 200 lb gold tub...

I hope you're doing well,

Felix

Well geez that's a novel concept. "fix it right" keep working till it is fixed. That is what they paid for.

Wife and I would like to go back. Once we had a hot water heater break. Called the landlord, 1 hour later 2 guys show up rip out old one put in new (WAY better) one. install was perfect, they cleaned up after themselves. They got an interpeter to come up and show us how it worked and they would not leave till it was perfect.

We need more of that here.