Departures

It’s been a marathon work week, and I depart Tokyo with aching hands, tired eyes, and a formidable to-do list that should keep me burning the midnight oil well into April… A lot happened over six days of non-stop meetings, and processing all that stimuli and all those conversations is going to take some time. It’s a little disappointing that my first visit to Japan was almost entirely spent in a conference room, but that’s the nature of business travel, and although I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to get out, I still soaked up a lot. The uniqueness of Japanese culture is too pervasive to escape, even if you’re spending all your time with gaijin. Still, it’s a bit disheartening to be in a place you’ve dreamed about for years, without the time or energy to explore it. But I suppose the temples and tourist traps and gadget fairs and cosplay gals are not going anywhere anytime soon, so I’ll just have to check them out the next time I come through...

In truth, I was unprepared for this week. There was a lot more work than usual this quarter, and after four months in laid-back Chiang Mai, the wake-up calls each morning got harder and harder to answer. The unexpected snow mid-week also made me realize how spoiled I’ve become by Thailand’s year-round sun. 3 inches of freezing slushy white snow coming down from the sky did a number on me, and choosing to walk to work that day without adequate layers left me hurting. It's rather passe to complain about the weather, and I try not to do it often, because honestly, who wants to hear it? And I’m not some poorly constituted wanker incapable of dealing with cold weather; I lived in Chicago for a dozen years and loved every minute of it. It's just that winter transforms my skin into something loud and ugly and painful. What's smooth and brown at its best suddenly turns leathery, red, scratchy, and rough like sandpaper, as if all the water has evaporated from my pores, leaving them parched and yearning for sunshine. When it happens, as I bundle myself deeper into my coat, I find myself hearing a deep voice from the ancestral memory that rises up from my subconscious and says, “hey dumbass, your blood’s not from around here. Go someplace warmer and eat some fried fish.”

Sigh... So I leave Tokyo with that voice still echoing through my head. As I get older I'm acutely aware of the fact that it's getting harder to adapt to new places, and harder to learn new languages. The people here are more reserved than in the other parts of Asia I've spent time in, and it was hard to connect with anyone on a personal level. That's becoming quite normal for these trips, though. I write not to capture the human connections and friendships that I've built, but to gather my impressions, so that I can revisit them once I make it back here, to remember what I felt the first time around. Because it's getting harder to remember... With that in mind, let me leave you with this poignant passage from the book Nicolas Menat gave to all of the delegates in our welcome pack. This is in the first few pages, and summarizes succinctly one of the reasons why so many of us write, even if it is of little use to anyone but ourselves... It's a compulsion... We fear the erosion of our experience...

 

“The sad truth is that what I could recall in five seconds all too soon needed ten, then thirty, then a full minute-like shadows lengthening at dusk. Someday, I suppose, the shadows will be swallowed up in darkness. There is no way around it: my memory is growing ever more distant from the spot where Naoko used to stand-ever more distant from the spot where my old self used to stand. And nothing but scenery…returns again and again to me like a symbolic scene in a movie. Each time it appears, it delivers a kick to some part of my mind. “Wake up,” it says. “I’m still here. Wake up and think about it. Think about why I’m still here.” The kicking never hurts me. There’s no pain at all. Just a hollow sound that echoes with each kick. And even that is bound to fade one day. At the Hamburg airport, though, the kicks were longer and harder than usual. Which is why I’m writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I’m made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.”

Haruki Murakami – the opening pages of Norwegian Wood

Tokyo Skyline TimeLapse

Japanese Business Culture

Here's an interesting quote from Forbes about Japanese business etiquette.
"According to Global Business Culture, a consultancy, the top three tips to doing business in Japan are “relationships drive business,” “it is important to show respect,” and “try to be diplomatic at all times.” These concepts are the cornerstones of a business culture that is based on consensus-building."

There's a great site here detailing some of the guiding principles for doing business in Japan. Good read.

"Wa - The most valued principle still alive in Japanese society today is the concept of 'wa', or 'harmony'. The preservation of social harmony dates back to the first constitution in 604 AD and the teamwork needed when living and working on collective farms. In business terms, 'wa' is reflected in the avoidance of self-assertion and individualism and the preservation of good relationships despite differences in opinion. When doing business with the Japanese it is also important to remember the affect of 'wa' on many patterns of Japanese behaviour, in particular their indirect expression of 'no'.

Kao - One of the fundamental factors of the Japanese social system is the notion of 'face'. Face is a mark of personal pride and forms the basis of an individual's reputation and social status. Preservation of face comes through avoiding confrontations and direct criticism wherever possible. In Japan, causing someone to lose face can be disastrous for business relationships.

Omoiyari - Closely linked to the concepts of 'wa' and 'kao', 'omoiyari' relates to the sense of empathy and loyalty encouraged in Japanese society and practiced in Japanese business culture. In literal terms it means "to imagine another's feelings", therefore building a strong relationship based on trust and mutual feeling is vital for business success in Japan."

Anime Highlight 1

If you've never seen any Japanese Anime, you're missing out on an incredibly rich body of work that is unlike any art form the rest of the world has to offer. Check out this trailer for the movie Paprika, directed by the late Japanese master Satoshi Kon, who passed away in 2010. There's a bending of reality that happens in these stories that's really quite stunning, and opens up vast realms of possibilities that few other narrative forms explore. This is an amazing movie.

Japanese TV Commercials

Found a YouTube accounts that showcases interesting Japanese TV commercials each week. I can't wrap my head around any of these. But they're still entertaining....

Gonpachi

Looks like we're headed to dinner tomorrow at Gonpachi, the restaurant featured in the sick Crazy 88 last stand scene in Kill Bill Vol.1. A couple of my colleagues already ate there yesterday. Looking forward to it.

Cake-mouflage by LB/Singapore

Here's a great design piece produced by Leo Burnett Singapore for a patissier who specialized in cakes for celebrations. They constructed a cake box to keep the cake hidden from view. Nice work for a small local client.

Cake-mouflage from Katherine Khor on Vimeo.

Hallmark "Mother Bird"

This spot was created by Leo Burnett/Chicago. I worked for a dozen years at LB/Chicago, and have seen tons of schmaltzy Hallmark ads over the years. This, however, speaks to me. I love that instead of casting the usual suspects, they chose to use animation to tell this story.

OK, maybe the GPC doesn't hate puppies

A couple days ago I posted an amazing film produced by Leo Burnett Chicago that the panel scored low. Today they rated the following campaign very highly. If you're a dog lover, it's hard not to get on board with a horde of adorable puppies, a John Cleese voiceover, and dogs that are trained to assist people in need. Have a look at this campaign from LB/Sydney...

Dinner @ Jinroku: Teppanyaki Artistry

Ate a really tasty dinner last night with Rosalie at a local Teppanyaki, recommended to us by the hotel concierge. Jinroku isn't really a high-end spot, but the food was fantastic and the chefs weren't slouches with the spatulas. The up-close perspective of the grill was really interesting, as well, as I saw the chefs preparing Okinomiyaki, a savoury pancake that's about 2 inches thick and has meat in it, a bunch of veggies, and shaved bonito flakes on top. Apparently it's Osaka-soul food. Might have to come back to try one, as I didn't see them making it till we already put in order... Apparently you can put any number of ingredients into this concoction...

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

As I drift off towards an exhausted sleep I offer up a few scenes from one of the great Japanese monster movies of the 1960's, Mothra vs. Godzilla. Classic.

Kaku: Profile of a Tokyo B-Boy

If you've ever seen footage of the Japanese team throwing down at the World B-Boy championships, you know that Japan has hip hop cred to spare. Check out this little video profile of B-Boy Kaku.

At the base of Tokyo Tower

Picture courtesy of Mark Tutssel

Dinner @ Tokyo Shiba, Toufaya Ukai

Ate a splendid and interesting Japanese meal with the other 20+ GPC delegates at a restaurant called Tokyo Shiba, Toufaya Ukai. The land is right at the base of Tokyo Tower, an incredible structure that could hold its own against Paris' Eiffel Tower. There's a great review of the place below, sourced from here. Another blogger writes an apt description of some of the special dishes offered at this restaurant here.
"Today we introduce to you "Tokyo Shiba Tofu-ya Ukai", which respects Japanese taste and produces it excellently... One of the advantages of this restaurant is its good location. It's located just at the foot of the Tokyo Tower, the symbol of Tokyo. When you stand in front of the gate of the restaurant, you can see the big Tokyo Tower behind the restaurant... If you enter the gate of the restaurant after being fascinated by such splendid view, you'll find a narrow upward stairs. After you go up the stairs and go through the wall, you'll be struck by the Japanese traditional styled building. It's built under the concept of "Edo" culture. There is dreamily impressive contrast between "Edo" styled building and Tokyo Tower. Inside of the "Edo" building, there is a Japanese traditional waiting room, and ahead of it, there are the big Sake (Japanese wine) barrels that were moved from Yamagata prefecture. You are invited to Edo era, as if you slip back in time to the old ages.
As the name of the restaurant is "Tofu-ya" (bean curd restaurant), they serve us the Japanese dishes based on Tofu. Every course starts with Goma (sesame) Tofu. It's soft and mild and smooth texture, and the taste of it is very sophisticated. This daintiness arouses our expectation for the following dishes. Among them, "Age-Dengaku" (deep fried Tofu) is impressive. It looks just like an ordinary deep fried Tobu, but when you bite it, you feel crispness of the surface and the softness from the inside. According to the staff's explanation, Tofu is sliced thicker than the ordinal so that the softness could be remained. Furthermore, after deep-fried, it's roasted one by one on the charcoal fire at the court garden, this labor can create the crispness of the surface.
Tofu that boiled with soymilk and soup stock, Yuba (soymilk paper), Sashimi (raw fishes) and meat dishes that vary from course to course, each dishes create typical Japanese taste, mild and delicate, and offer us a peaceful satisfaction.
After you enjoy the dinner, it may be good idea to walk around the court garden. The old tree aged more than one hundred years, the ponds where carps are swimming, the beautiful Japanese garden, all those amenity spaces will gives you another peaceful satisfaction."

LB/Tokyo does J-Pop: Namie Amuro's "What A Feeling"

This music video was produced by Beacon Tokyo a couple of years ago for Vidal Sassoon. J-Pop star Namie Amuro sang a remix of the 80's hit "What A Feeling" and collaborated with a bunch of fashion designers, choreographers, and hair stylists on this video. I love this track. I first heard it in 2009 and dropped a remix of it on a Chicago dance floor that summer and promptly watched my dancefloor evaporate in a hurry. :-) So I like J-Pop. Sue me. This is pretty slick.

The GPC Hates Puppies

Sigh. This commercial, produced by Leo Burnett Chicago to run during the Westminster Dog Show, only scored a 6 on our 1-10 scale. Apparently this panel of judges is oblivious to the universal appeal of puppies to the target audience. Sigh. If you've ever loved a dog, this speaks to you.

Docomo NTT "Touch Wood"

We saw this spot today in the midst of a showcase on Japanese creative work. This commercial which won a bunch of awards throughout the world last year. What I didn't know until today, though, was that this ad was not for a mobile phone, which I initially thought, but for mobile phone covers constructed of or repurposed wood. Instead of your plastic smart phone cover, this celebrates sustainability in the most drawn out piece of music I've ever seen committed to camera. Have a look. This piece perfectly embodies the almost fanatical attention to detail Japanese artists put into their work. Craftsmanship is revered here.

Kawaii - The Unbearable Cuteness of Being

Learned a new Japanese word today: Kawaii. What does this mean? Here's a paragraph from a great Time Magazine article on Kawaii fashion in Japan:
Kawaii, an adjective usually mistranslated as simply "cute," has become much more than a word. It is a state of mind for Japanese teens, a modifier that means cool, bitchin', groovy, killer and I-love-it all rolled into one, then squared. For a clothing label trying to crack Asia's burgeoning teen fashion industry, business these days boils down to the quest for kawaii. Asian teenagers tend to wear today what Japanese teens wore a few minutes ago. And unlike the fashion industrial complex in the West, in which top designers and magazine editors dictate what's hot, Japan's teen fashion industry revolves entirely around what Tokyo girls say is kawaii.

This word is also used to describe Japanese toy culture and drawings and all kinds of other things that fall under the umbrella of "cute." Here's a tumblr feed called Kawaii World showing how this aesthetic manifests in Japan... how much cute is too much?It appears that the Japanese have a much more evolved understanding of "cuteness" than the rest of us. But not to be outdone, I offer up the following photo from cuteoverload.com. I'd like to think I can hold my own in a cute-off.

Tokyo Map

So where am I, exactly? What is now Tokyo was once tidal pools and salt marshes, but the area has been inhabited for 10,000 years. This city was once called Edo, but didn't become the seat of the country's power till 1600. Now it's home to 13 million people, with another 20 million people in the greater metropolitan area. Lordy. Sitting in a hotel room in Shinagawa, I can't even figure out which way is east. Maybe this map will help...


View Larger Map

Seppuku & Samurai

If you've never read about Bushido, the code of the Samurai, it's a really fascinating and incredible study of a set of principles that comprise the unique mentality of feudal Japan's most revered warriors. I first read the book in my early 20s after it was recommended to me by a martial arts teacher. If you're not inclined to wade through a moral treatise urging you to meditate on death constantly, you could check out any of the countless classic Samurai movies directed by Japan's resident film master Akira Kurosawa to get a sense of how the code manifests in person. I'm personally partial to Seven Samurai, but all of his movies are pretty awesome. If you don't like foreign films you could even watch Jim Jarmusch's weird take on it, where Forest Whitaker stars in the quirky movie "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai". It's hilarious and wonderful and really strange all at once. But I digress...
I bring up Bushido because I wanted to mention the practice of Seppuku briefly... It blows my mind, and I think it reflects profound insights into Japanese civilization, and how deeply these people believe in honor and character. Seppuku, or Harakiri, is a Japanese Samurai tradition of committing ritual suicide by disemboweling yourself with a blade. Samurais live by a very strict code of honor and discipline, and this form of suicide was practiced and endorsed if it became impossible for a Samurai to uphold his honor. Rather than living with the shame of defeat at the hands of an enemy, Samurai warriors would commit suicide by cutting their stomachs open with a blade. I've never come across any other culture with such an aversion to shame, or with such a willingness to embrace death if it sustains the honor by which one lived one's life. Have a look at the movie clip below. Not the best clip, by any means, and there are plenty of others on YouTube that are more focused on the ceremonial aspects of Seppuku, but this is a pretty dramatic visualization of it. There's something really compelling about Japan's history, and the ancestors of the people here who made this nation such a formidable power. I revere any people who hold themselves to higher standards, even if it means taking a blade to their own belly...

Beacon Tokyo's Recent Work

I spent the bulk of the today in a crowded conference room on the 14th floor of an office building in Shinagawa. One of the reasons my company is here this week is because our Japanese office routinely produces some really amazing work. Below are two examples. In the first piece below, Beacon was asked to helped launch Nike's flagship store in Fukuoka. They responded by creating an interactive retail display called NikeID Generator, which scanned the clothing of customers and generated customized Nike shoes in response. Have a look - it's perfectly tailored to picky fashionistas who want customized, bespoke shoes based on their own unique look.


In this next campaign, Beacon was asked to help promote Yubari City following the city's bankruptcy in 2007. They crafted a brilliant promotional campaign called "No money but love" which helped revitalize the city. This idea helped generate millions of dollars of revenue for a city struggling under old debts after their mining industry collapsed. Have a look, it's marketing dedicated to happily married people, and it was recognized as one of the best promotional campaigns in the world of 2009.

DJ Kentaro

Check out DMC Champion ('02) DJ Kentaro throw down. Kentaro is a hip hop DJ out of Tokyo, with some mad vinyl skillz.

Gin No Sara Sushi

Here are a couple of my favorite Japanese commercials from a Sushi chain called Gin No Sara. I wish my company had a client with a sense of humor this twisted.

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami

Nicolas Menat, the President of Beacon Tokyo (LB/Japan), dropped a little gift into our welcoming package. Awaiting us at the hotel was a new copy of Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood. It's always a pleasure to discover new authors, and I look forward to reading this.
From Book Reporter:
NORWEGIAN WOOD is a simple story, simply told, with an emotion and quiet retrospection characteristic of Murakami's trademark style, especially in works like SOUTH OF THE BORDER, WEST OF THE SUN. First published in Japan in 1987, it is this novel that propelled him into the forefront of the literary scene and made him Japan's biggest-selling novelist. His characters are unpredictable and quirky as they share poignant insights into growing up in the late'60s, losing loved ones and accepting undeserved tragedies of youth.


Read more about Murakami's latest book, 1Q84, here at the Telegraph:
With novels read in more than 40 languages, Kyoto-born Haruki Murakami is probably the most popular of those authors whose names bookmakers list each year prior to the award of the latest Nobel literature prize. His best-known work, Norwegian Wood (1987), which traces the love life of a Japanese student in the late Sixties, won him such fame in his home country that he fled to Europe and the United States in search of anonymity.

Red Eye

Caught the red eye from Chiang Mai to Seoul, got into Incheon before dawn, and then at 8 am I got on a 2 hr puddle jumper to Narita. Arrived in Tokyo bedraggled and cramped, unexpectedly shivering and unprepared for the last vestiges of winter that I really should have seen coming. The winds caught me off guard and reminded me of why I got out of Chicago after a dozen years of hibernating for 6 months every November. Thailand's spoiling me with sun all year round. Jumped in a limo bus and took a long, winding ride till I was finally deposited in Shinagawa at my hotel.
I wanted to sleep today, but I had work to do, things to finish before the conference starts tomorrow, and countless e-mails to send that I should've finished weeks ago. Sigh. No rest for the wicked. Met up with old friends and briefly wandered through the lovely sculptured garden tucked away behind the hotel. Still the anxiety looms. This is going to be a marathon work week, and the scope of it could wreak havoc on me if I wasn't prepared. I'm probably not prepared, to tell the truth. But that's never stopped me before! The beautiful thing about having your back up against a wall is that you have no choice but to deliver. Sometimes getting rid of the inner dialogue does wonders for your work ethic....

I'll leave you with my first impression of Japan. This was next to the toilet in my bathroom, the Toto Washlet. You've got to hand it to people who've used their ingenious tech-savvy minds to design heated crappers with rotating bidet nozzles that clean off your nether regions with carefully targeted streams of water. I wonder how many engineers it took to craft this marvel of modern technology...