Tokyo First Impressions and Interactions

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Tokyo: First Impressions and Interactions

Standing shoulder to shoulder on a midday train, I saw the first few skyscrapers before the endless cityscape of the largest city in the world slowly revealed itself on all sides. Tokyo is a densely populated and complex environment, and the subtle functionality in every aspect of the city has amazed me. The Japanese culture is bounded by respect and holds guests in the highest regard. This reaps benefits like the fact that you do not see much trash in its streets or crime in its neighborhoods. Tokyo is an amazing place and I'd love to take you through my first 24 hours here.

When I first stepped onto the monorail leaving Haneda Airport, the first thing I noticed was the silence in public. There was little to no talking on the trains and a vast majority of the people I saw were on their own and dressed in formal business attire. It is also an older population, so I was shocked by how many of the elderly were still out working and moving around. I felt like a fish out of water, but I eventually made it to our hotel in Ikebukuro, albeit a little late, after a few missed stops and help from random civilians.

My roommate Joey and I hustled our way to our first dinner as a group at Kyushu Kurodaiko, and the food was out and ready when we arrived. We enjoyed some yellowtail sashimi, Nichinan chicken, lotus root skewers and a hotpot (I had never had any of this before). And it was all amazing! But the people on the group flight had been up for almost 24 hours straight so mostly everyone crashed immediately after dinner. I decided to go for my first walk around the city around 10 p.m. I expected a quiet stroll around empty streets but was surprised to find every Nishiikebukuro Park bench and every inch of the Global Ring in the center of Ikebukuro filled with hoards of locals sitting and laughing in circles. The business people were off from work, the students were done with school, and this city of solitude during the day had morphed into a new city at night.

The next morning, we had our first stop of the day at Nitto Denko Corporation's Discovery Center. Nitto Denko is an extremely large company with a vast catalog of products that they sell directly to companies. So, they are used to giving the company's representatives an extensive and impressive exhibition of their many innovative products. They treated us no differently. We walked through hallways decorated with orange and navy-blue balloons and were welcomed with an introduction to the company. Then we toured their center and got to enjoy hands-on science experiments showing off their newest inventions. All in all, it was an incredibly unique and exciting experience. We exchanged gifts and said goodbye; one visit was now in the books.

Our next stop was lunch at a café in the Grand Fresa near Musashino University, where some students met with us and shared a bit about their lives. A student named Malo sat at our table and we leaned on Google Translate to ask and learn about his background. After lunch, we headed to Uniqlo City and were given a quick tour of their brand-new headquarters, which had the most beautiful interior of any corporate building I'd ever seen.

Finally, we headed back to Musashino University to discuss a Uniqlo case study that we had all read and prepared beforehand. The students at Musashino were extremely friendly and spoke great English. I was partnered up with Framke, another student on the trip, and we talked with four Musashino students about their lives and our prompt for the case study. One of the students we met, Khalid, was Bangladeshi and grew up going to American schools in Saudi Arabia before moving to Tokyo for university (He said he speaks 6 languages!). At the end of our time there, we exchanged gifts and I got to say a few parting words thanking the students and professors for the experience.

Hearing stories like Khalid's and Malo's are some of the best moments of the trip. I thoroughly enjoyed my first 24 hours in this new place and immersed in this culture that is so drastically different from my own. It has been a special experience thus far and I can't wait for the rest of the journey.

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