Kyoto

First thing's first.... I have wrote a lot recently about the evil empire that is named "Starbucks".... but I would never wish anything tragic to happen such as a bomb in a bathroom in San Francisco. I pray that there is no future instances of this and the evil person will be caught.

Work was a learning experience today. There is a constant language challenge that I am not used to being a factor. It's one thing to discuss weather or travel where minor details can be miss understood but the point of the story is still communicated. In a technical discussion, it's a different matter. There were multiple instances where we had to write out or draw out what we were trying to communicate. Or where a word was miscommunicated or lost in the translation. This is definitely the most difficult trip I've had to make in my 5.5 years for IBM but I'm always up for the challenge!!

Before I go on, I thought about something.... most of my family and friends know details of what I'm doing here... but in case I'm on some blogging search, I better leave out details with why I'm here other than "I'm here working as an employee of IBM". Need to be more careful about that I suppose... this includes comments made to my blog please;) I did change my post from a couple of days ago.

I've been doing some reading about Kyoto that I'd like to share.

Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan between 794 and 1868. It is now considered the cultural center of Japan with its rich history and how it visually depicts what we in the West see as depicted Japan on TV. There are 1600 Buddhist Temples, 400 Shinto shrines, palaces, many gardens and museums. And for those in the interest of current movies, Kyoto has the most Geisha in all of Japan.

There are 1.5 million people in Kyoto but there are many tourists year round in Kyoto. It has also become a central location for many businesses that are developing their influence in Japan.

I'm trying to get to some of the temples after work this week. I can't post pictures (till I win on ebay) but I will post links when I find them. Here's the first one that I'm trying to get to... it's called the Kinkaku-ji Temple (or Golden Temple):

Oh, and back to the Sumo wrestling... it's not chalk that gets thrown in the ring by the wrestlers, it's salt that is thrown to please the gods. It's rather interesting how much of Sumo is based on tradition both in ritualistically actions as well as traditional costumes and awards. I still find it funny how they strut for up to four minutes in order to attempt to break the concentration of their opponents. Right now is the first of six tournaments for the year in Tokyo that I see on TV. I knew it had to be important when it's on two of the 11 channels that I get!

I have more change today than one person should ever carry in their pockets. I have 35 coins (all gathered today) that come to about $10 US total. I need to be quicker at finding the coin I want since I now always have exact change! I also rode the subway a couple of times today between all of the offices. Lunch was actually more of a Chinese lunch that Shibai-san took me to. It was very good. I could eat rice at every meal. I am going to try one of the hotel restaurants for dinner tonight!

Oh and a note to all of you thinking of traveling for business sometime... make sure you have business cards before going to Asia. I never had issues traveling to Europe for work without business cards, but I am definitely embarrassed not having any while I've been meeting people today. I requested some last year but IBM shot down my request for $7.50 last year. I will not let this happen again. Shibai-san hooked me up with some printout business cards that I was able to use today. He's extremely kind and helpful. He works for IBM here in Japan.

Hope y'all have a good Tuesday! I'm off for dinner, then maybe a swim, then read more about Siddhartha and his transformation into Buddha and his teachings!