Japan to Boston - Day 15

We got in so late (5:30 AM) that we did not do much on the final day.  We checked out of the hotel and took the shuttle bus to the airport before spending most of a day on an airplane.  I can't say enough how fun the trip was and how gracious I am to Joonhaeng for hosting us in Korea, the CLFM students for hosting us in Shanghai, and for the 11's who planned the rest of the trip.

Japan - Day 14

Last full day in Japan and the weather could NOT be nicer!  As was the case last year (in Easter Europe), March is not the best time to visit some places from a weather point of view.  Most of the trip has been cold and rainy but today was spectacular.  So what do you do on a beautiful spring day in Japan?  Well, if you are lucky you spend the day admiring cherry blossoms…and this is what we set out to do.

• Bottom right: I found Dr. Pepper in a vending machine.

First we headed to the Imperial Palace to walk around the garden.  You can only go inside the palace on two days during the year, and this was not one of those days, but the gardens are always open.

• Top left: Look at the stone work...no mortar.

Next we headed to the electronic district of Tokyo to check out the stores.  None of us were in the market to buy anything, but it is pretty cool none the less.  Imagine a Best Buy on steroids crammed into ¼ of the same space…then add lots of flashing lights and excited/screaming advertising.

• Top and bottom right: These girls got pissed when I took pictures of them, but that did not stop me.  You dress up funny in public and I'm going to take your picture.
• Bottom left: Apparently they don't have trash cans in Asia.  I carried that Dr. Pepper can for a couple of hours.
• Bottom middle: Victory!  Not only did I find a trash can, but a recycle can.

After that we headed to the Tokyo museum which has an awesome lane of cherry blossoms.  We knew none of this at the time.  We were heading to the museum because someone in our group was reading the New Yorker (obviously a hippy) and he read about a tea house there that we should visit.  When we got to the museum area we were blown away with the cherry blossoms and the number of people celebrating outside.  It felt like the fourth of July in the US.  We headed to the museum and the hippies went to the tea ceremony and a few of us went in the museum.

• Bottom right: The picnic looked fun.

• Bottom left: I love samurai swords.  This one was from the 12th century.

After the museum we just wandered the area for a little while.  The festive atmosphere was just too good to leave.

• Bottom left: Everyone was taking pictures of the cherry blossoms.
• Bottom right: Worst case of Asian Plush that I have ever seen (I only recently learned about this term but apparently many Asians turn very red when they drink).

• Bottom right: This dog loved to eat cherry blossoms.

Next we stopped into a sushi shop so the boys could get a snack (I don't eat sushi) and a drink before dinner.  Then we headed to dinner (taking a few pictures along the way).

• Bottom left: At the end of the day, I am American...which means I have to insult foreign cultures and their works of art.

Dinner was an event and a half.  The place does not typically take English speakers but someone in our group had their mother (who speaks Japanese) call all over town to find a place that would take us.  The dinner setup was fantastic.  It was all you can eat and all you can drink (beer and sake) for 2 hours.  Since only one person in our 28 person group spoke Japanese, dinner took about three hours…but they did not charge us extra.  The end result was a group in quite good spirits…so it was time to go clubbing.

• Top right: I was more than full.
• Bottom left: Steak.
• Bottom right: Pork.

From 3-27-10 Tokyo

• Sake Bombs!  After this, we did a round with everyone there.

We stayed in the club until about 3:30 AM and since it is a Tokyo tradition, after a quick bite to eat, we took the first subway home (5 AM) with hundreds of our new best friends.

Japan - Day 13

Today was our final plant trek and it was to Hitachi and their facilities where they build nuclear power plants.  For the first time this trip we got the tour we wanted!  Hooray!  Hitachi spent almost the entire day with us and gave us a tour at a pace that allowed for questions and with people capable of answering them.  Well done.

We spent the morning getting an overview (in powerpoint form) about a number of the things that they do, especially the engineering and project management.  It was easy to see why they have such an impressive track record on big projects.  We also talked a bit about nuclear energy and I really hope the US gets over its NIMBY (not in my back yard) and embraces new nuclear plants.  Hitachi hopes for this as well. ;-)

After Hitachi we had a two hour bus ride back to Tokyo (hitting rush hour traffic as we expected to).  Luckily for us (and unluckily for our bladders) they gave us beer for the ride.

• Bottom left: Never turn down free beer even if you don’t drink…cause your friends will want your beer.  Also, Hitachi had sanitary paper hats for the hardhats so naturally I wore that for the rest of the day...and the people at the rest stop may have thought I was Muslim with the hat and the beard.
• Bottom right: As was the case last year, those with smaller bladders struggle on buses without bathrooms.

Once we got back into town we headed out for dinner.  Once again coordinating dinner took forever (despite our best efforts to coordinate on the busride) but eventually we made it and I had the best ramen (noodles in water) that I have ever had.  After dinner we were debating what to do and most people were “tired” and went home like a bunch of bums.  I understand that it has been a long two weeks but it was Friday night in Tokyo…time to party.  Six of us went bar hopping but we were not very successful at our endeavor.  We elected to go out near our hotel so we could walk home (subway stops at 12:30) but most of the bars in the area were more like restaurants…but not exactly.  They all serve food, but not a full meal, and this can get expensive if you just want to try a place out for a drink and then move on.  They definitely got mad when we said that we did not want food.  It also gets tough on me because I can only drink so many Cokes before I just don’t need any more caffeine or sugar.  We made it home by about 3 AM (I had a date with JP at 5 AM to go to the famous Tokyo fish market where vendors from around the world purchase their sushi) and it was definitely bedtime.

• Top middle: We went up a free observation building for a night view of the city.
• Bottom middle: I never got pushed into a subway but I got to see the other side get pushed in.

Japan - Day 12

Today we visited the holy grail of manufacturing (according to all of the classes that I’ve taken in school) Toyota.  Similar to the first auto tour of this trip (but not to the same extent) the tour was a bit short and we did not have a chance to ask many questions.  We got the typical window tour (it was actually a catwalk above the floor) tour with a PR person (which does not allow for operations questions).  Despite this, the tour was nice and it was impressive to see the floor.  People all over the factory were certainly moving at full speed.

The better part of the day came at lunch (which was like all of the other company meals in Asia, very classy).  During lunch we got a Q&A with a Sloan alum and he was quite candid with us.  It was refreshing to hear someone discuss the mistakes that Toyota has made and where he thinks the company is going.  We could not take any photos on the tour (standard for most companies), but we got to hang out in their showroom area and take pictures to our heart’s desires.

• Top left: A classy meal filled with things that I don’t eat.
• Bottom mid-left: This chair was weird and I don’t get it.
• Bottom right: They had a trumpet playing robot…I don’t know why.

After that we took the bullet train to Tokyo.  The departure and arrival were…interesting…because we purchased a group ticket, so all 50 of us had to go through the entry and exit gate at the same time…which meant we had to stick together as we went through one of the biggest stations in Tokyo.  Like I said…interesting.  After that, things went well.

We got to our hotel easily enough and then headed out to dinner…which was also…interesting…because everyone decided that they could not read a single guidebook or ask the hotel reception desk but instead they had to get a recommendation from one of the two students who had been to Tokyo before.  So we once again had to try to organize and unofficial event with 35 people, which never works and always takes forever (took us an hour to get out of the lobby).

• Top left and middle: Tokyo had amazing markers for blind people.  You could get around every subway and many public places by following the textured tile path.  The paths even walked up to the blind assistance ticket machine.  Best system for the blind that I’ve seen.

After dinner we went out to see the city.  We went to the busy area of Tokyo, Shibuya.  If you’ve ever seen a movie clip of Tokyo and they show “that” intersection (like Times Square in New York) where people cross in any direction at a crosswalk (so people are crossing cattycorner) then you know Shibuya.  It was raining that night and only a Thursday so it was not as busy as it can be, but it was fun either way.  After a walk around the area, we caught the last subway train back to the hotel.

• Top left: More than 180 degree view of Shibuya.
• Bottom left: Even the Don (our program director) came out with us (only for one drink, but he’s a good sport).
• Bottom right: I never got the story of why this dog is well know, but everyone else was getting a picture so we joined in.

I noted as we walked around (and everyone agreed) that I have never felt as safe in New York, even the nicest areas, as I did in Tokyo, even the sketchier areas.  Tokyo just felt safe.  It was bright and people did not hassle you…everyone was just so darn polite.

China to Japan – Day 11

This was our last day in China and with the CLFM students.  We started the morning with a case competition with teams mixed between CLFM and LGO students.  Overall it was a fun event, but I wish we had more time for the case because some of the CLFM students needed more time to read the case (it was in English and to be honest it was not the best written case).  This prevented some of the CLFM students from really participating.  Hopefully the next time we do this they factor that in when picking a case.

• George, me, Kal, and Nina...my hosts from CLFM in Shanghai

After that we hopped on a plane to Nagoya Japan.  By the time we got checked into our hotel it was quite late and there was NOTHING around the airport, so some of us took the time to do some laundry and then went to bed.

• Top left: Look at the legroom you get in economy on an Asian airline.
• Top right: The rooms in Japan...a bit small.
• Bottom right: Stewart found the pajamas that they leave on the beds in Japan...it was not awesome for everyone else.

China - Day 10

We started the morning by driving to a Caterpillar plant that was also located in “Shanghai” (so about an hour drive).  Caterpillar is a new partner company of the LGO program so it was exciting to see one of their facilities.  We started the day with a Q&A with the plant manager who had quite a bit of experience as an Ex-pat in China, so that was an interesting perspective to get.  Next we toured the factory and overall the tour and facility were quite impressive.  I should be impressed with the size of the work they were doing but when you’ve seen a Boeing airplane rolling down an assembly line, it is really hard to top that. ;-)  The most surprising/interesting thing was the workforce there.  Most of the workers I saw were young (Caterpillar discussed their strategy of hiring young people out of technical school and supplying additional training) but I was even MORE surprised by the number of women we saw working in the factory.  From what we saw in the car facility the day before (and the discussion we had after that with the CLFMs about women in the heavy manual labor workforce in China) I get the impression that what Caterpillar has is pretty unique.

After we got back to the hotel I went with a group to the general shopping market that is underground and mixed into a subway station.  You could buy any and everything here from golf clubs to remote control cars to shoes and clothes.  This was the stereotypical market with people yelling broken English at you as you walk by to try to get you into their store.  Just about every store there had a duplicate store within a couple of booths so it was very easy to compare prices and try to get the best deal.  You just walk into a store and play the game where you go back and forth on prices.  The throw out the little English they have like “good quality” and “special price” and then you type numbers into a calculator.  Typically you can walk away with an item for 1/5 or even 1/7 of where they start.  A good place to start you opening bid is 1/10 of what they type in, mostly because it is easy math, and of course this is followed by ridiculous faces and exclamations of “impossible”.  The next big key is to not give up a ton of money on the first one to two exchanges.  The other key is to always start walking away after 2+ rounds.  Then you get the “name your price” and “final offer” prices (which of course are never final).  Usually they chase you down in the aisle (where you are being yelled at to enter an identical store) with a moderately low number in the calculator.  At this point it becomes a game of how much you are willing to pay.  I saw a number of occurrences when they would not come down, even 5 Rambos, from their calculator in the aisle price (and sometimes you get an F-you as they walk back to their store) but I also saw people take off another 20% from that price.  I feel like after you get a couple of store “chase you down” price you can maybe get 90% of that price, but not always.

In the end I bought a pair of shoes and grossly overpaid for them (despite the fact that I have all of these great observations from numerous transactions of people in my group).  When I finally saw something I wanted I was a bit time constrained and really I gave up $15 just because I was tired of haggling.  I paid for the convenience of my time. :-)  Either way I did better than in the US and it was fun to argue with this girl in broken English.

One other interesting thing to note is the way the people in the store will run off to another booth if they don’t have what you need.  For example, when I saw the shoes that I wanted they did not have my size so the girl’s sister ran off to another store (and I saw this numerous times because these were small shops with very little room for inventory).  First she came back with a pair in a different color to confirm my size and then she went off again to find the same size in the right color.  I am curious (and I have no idea which it is) if the store that I am dealing with a) bought those shoes from another store, b) shares inventory with another store, c) agrees to give the other store a cut of what they made off of me, or d) some other arrangement that I have not thought of.  It would be interesting to know because if they bought the inventory from another store I, the buyer, would have much more bargaining power because they do NOT want to carry that inventory.  It is all fun to watch and think about.  As someone in business school who often talk about running people selling widgets and all of the financial workings of the business, it would be really cool to get the actual number from this store (how much did my shoes really cost?).

After the shopping, we met up with the CLFM and LGO students for dinner and karaoke.  The party started a little slow because people were eating so myself and a few other individuals had to supply the singing (I subscribe to the philosophy that if you can’t sing good, sing loud).  It was funny for a while because there was a large group of CLFM student there in the beginning so we went back and forth between English and Chinese songs and when each group had their song on the classmates would sing along and the other group would kind of stand there (because they had NEVER heard that song before).

Eventually we transition from beers to shots and things went how so many LGO parties go.  Downhill fast! ;-)

Eventually the CLFM students trickled off (except for 5 hard-core party-ers…and to be fair to them, many have families at home and have schoolwork due later this week) and the LGOs took over the song list.  We got kicked out of the big party room so we transitioned to a smaller room.  As the pictures and videos (coming soon once I get better internet) show, a good time was had by all.

China - Day 9

Today was our first official plant tour for the 2010 International Plant Trek and the company was Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC).  We could not take any photos inside and I have not gotten a copy of the group yet but I did snap a few photos in the lobby.

Unfortunately, the actual plant tour was kind of weak.  The tour was just a quick walk through final assembly and we went as one big group of 70.  The speakers would make comments in Chinese and one of the CLFM students would translate.  Both speakers would speak into a microphone which broadcast out of the portable speakers that they were carrying, but overall it was difficult to hear and not a very thorough tour.  Overall it lasted maybe 30 minutes.  To be fair to SAIC this is not too different from the tours we had on some of the international plant tours last year.  It is often difficult to get companies to understand that we are VERY interested in operations and want a thorough tour, not the quick “look at my pretty factory” tour that you give to executives.  Its fantastic that they opened their doors to us, I just wish we could have had more time on the floor.

The one thing I saw that I really liked was a movable floor unit for adding the motor into the car.  At a number of the car plants that I have toured the cars either move slowly down the assembly line and the floor where the operators stand move with the cars (so it is stable as they work) or the cars move forward and stop, the operators work, and then they move again.  Here they had a slow moving line without a moving floor.  Instead, they had a robot controlled (I believe it followed a magnetic strip on the floor) platform that moved under the car, lifted the motor into the car (allowing the operators to attach the motor to the car) and then it moved out of the assembly line after which another motor was added to the platform.  What I love about this setup is the flexibility.  If you build a large crane arm to load motors into the car, you can never change where that step happens or the type of motor/car combination.  With this mobile platform, if you wanted to change the location or style you just change platforms.  Beautiful!

After the tour we headed to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) campus (where the CLFMs go).  My CLFM hosts and I visited the recreation area to play a little badminton.  On Sunday, I was talking a little table tennis smack to some of the Chinese students when we were discussing which sports we played.  I was fully aware that they would destroy me, but everyone loves a little fun competition.  Unfortunately, they did not have paddles at the school so we settled on badminton.  It was fun either way.  The last time I played badminton I must have been 13 years old and it was a pretty casual game.  This is not the way they play.  Apparently, the objective of badminton is to hit the birdie as hard as you can…which gets quite tiring after a while.

• Bottom right: George drew me a map of how to get back to the hotel.

After I got back to the hotel I met up with some people who were on their way to the market to pickup their custom made suits and shirts and decided to tag along so I could see the market. It was amazing!  They all purchased clothes from a building that was three stories tall and each story had ~100 booths that all made custom tailored clothes.  If you did not like the price at one booth, you walked one booth over and ordered the exact same thing.  Depending on the quality of material you wanted, you can get a suit for 500 Rambos (the word we use instead of RMB which you always see and which actually stands for renmimbi...and could also be abbreviated CYN for Chinese yuan) or $74 and shirts were 80 Rambos or $12.  The shirts were fun too, because they had 10+ options for the collars, buttons, cuffs, cut, etc. and you could mix and match materials and styles.  I kind of wish I had gone shopping, but I would have had to sacrifice my first day there and I wanted to see the sights more.  Pretty cool either way.

After everyone settled their clothes fittings (checking the fit of suits with one sleeve or pants that were not quite finished) we headed to dinner.  We went to this large mall and ate traditional Chinese food in a room that overlooked the river.  I love/hate the negotiating in China...because while it is fun to watch it can be tiring.  When we walked into the restaurant we were told that we could only sit in the window room if we spent 1500 Rambos on our food bill.  We said sure because that’s about $22 a person (10 person group).  Once we sat down, we discovered that we could not even order enough food to get to 1500 Rambos.  I ordered two of everything I wanted (as did others) and when we tallied it up we were at about 650 Rambos.  After our CLFM students yelled back and forth with the staff they agreed to include the alcohol on our 1500 minimum bill (of course the finance nerds in group debated whether the restaurant held a call or a put option, these are stock trading terms, over us).  When the final bill came it was about 1300 Rambos and they let us leave at 1300 instead of 1500 so we did not have to order dessert that we had no intention of eating (why would you have 5 star dessert when there are McDonald's McFlurrys just one floor below?)

China - Day 8

We met up with our CLFM hosts from the day before at 8 AM so we could drive to “Shanghai” (I’ll explain later).  The only negative about meeting this early is that we got to sleep about 3.5 hours before that….but otherwise we were excited to go!

The reason I put “Shanghai” in quotes is that we drove on a highway away from the city for about 1 hour to visit this small rural village…and technically we were still in Shanghai.  After a little confusion and some help from a dozen little old ladies (see pictures below) we made it to breakfast.

• Top middle: Here you can see us passing a car by driving on the shoulder.
• Top right: The morning bike rush in a rural village.
• Middle left: We stopped and asked one lady for directions and every woman there started yelling at the same time.  Straight out of a movie.
• Bottom right: Probably the best dumplings I have ever had.

After breakfast we headed to the cities’ museum.  The most memorable things in the museum were the long wooden dragon and the incredibly large statue carved out of one incredibly large tree.

• Top right: You’ve got to smell these trees…apparently they are popular for luggage because of the smell.

Next we crossed over the villages well known bridge and then walked along the river and then canal on our way to the garden.

Then we toured a traditional garden.

• Bottom left: Here we are taking the bull by the horns…literally.

Next we took a canal ride back to the center of town for lunch and shopping.

• Bottom right: The shopping market was nuts!  Just tons of stores and lots of crazy bargaining and shouting going on.  Apparently a scene in Mission Impossible 3 was filmed in this area…but I have not confirmed that yet.

After we got back to the hotel we ran out to McDonald’s for a quick dinner and headed to bed early to make up for the sleep we missed the night before.  This often happens on plant trek where we party too hard one night and then relax on the next night.

China - Day 7

We met in the lobby nice and early and divided into small groups.

• Middle: Caffeine good.

Each group was led by multiple CLFM students who would take us around the city based on our preferences of what we wanted to see (shopping, historical, or modern).  We elected to do a mix of modern and historic sights.

We started out at The People’s Square which is a small park surrounded by museums and the main government building.

Next, we headed to an old market area and walked through on our way to a famous garden.

• Top middle: Our first (the picture with me and this girl's boyfriend is on another camera) of many encounters with Chinese people who just want to take a picture with foreigners.  I don’t really understand why.
• Top and bottom right: Holy crap they have DQ (my all-time favorite) in China. I had to have some.

Then, we went to the tallest building in Shanghai and headed to the top.  The building had an awesome walkway at the top with glass floor panels that let you look out into the city.  It was a little foggy (actually smoggy) but it was still a nice view.

After that we headed back to the hotel to prepare for our river boat trip.  The boat trip was a couple of current students/alumni from MBA programs in Shanghai (including the CLFMs) and us mixing on a boat.  We were told that we had to prepare a cultural dance and since America has no culture this was quite difficult.  We elected to do the Electric Slide.  We met in the lobby before the tour to practice the dance and had everything planned out.  Well it turns out that the Chinese students did not really prepare anything.  They had one guy play a traditional instrument and it was while we were mixing with students.  After two hours of mixing (with an open bar) we were ready for something else so we decided to kick it up a notch and dance anyway.  We started with a little Electric Slide, transitioned into a little Cupid Shuffle, and then finished with the song Tonight’s Gonna be a Good Night which involved us jumping and regular dancing.  After that we just kept the dancing and music going.  We had B-rad rockin the Iphone playlist and it was hot.  A fist pump battle between Jeremy and myself definitely broke out and when Cotton Eyed Joe came on Jeremy and I introduced the Chinese to a hoedown.  The Chinese students mostly stood to the side and watched (one girl continued to try to network in the middle of the dance floor) but we did not care, we had a good time.

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

From 3-20-10 Shanghai

After they kicked all of us off the boat and we got back to our hotel we went out for food.  My group was hammered (open bar on the boat) and we somehow found a hot-pot place with absolutely no English menus and no one who spoke English.  The pictures tell the story which involved the employees laughing at us for most of the meal.

• Top left: Jeremy selecting random items on the menu to throw into our hot-pot
• Top middle: Confirmation that the random things we ordered is correct (followed by laughing)
• Top right, middle left, middle middle: Discovery that our chop stick/napkin pack contained plastic gloves
• Middle right: The hot-pot arrives
• Bottom left: The food we ordered arrived…what is it…so does it go in the pot…which side of the pot…is it done cooking…where we eating after this?
• Bottom middle: Me embarrassed by Anuj…story to follow

So after trying the random things we ordered, a table near us had a large plate of meat and normal vegetables delivered…and this excited us greatly.  Anuj chased down our waitress and brought her to their table and pointed at the things we wanted…so in the end we had fun and a great meal.  After that went to a club and got in sometime around 4 AM…and the sight-seeing cars were scheduled to arrive at 8 AM…