In Japan

This month starts a series of regular trips to Tokyo, Japan. I will probably be making the trip every couple of months. I have been to Japan before, but it has been at least fifteen years since I was last here. While I enjoyed my first trip to Japan, I was only here for two days. This time I get to spend an entire week and really get the chance to see the city.

There are several things that stand out relating to technology. First is the quality of the Internet service in the hotel. I have no problem using Skype to talk to my family back home. Yesterday we did a video conference for about 30 minutes and it didn't cost me a dime. While my iPhone has the ability to work all over the world, I have turned it off after hearing horror stories of people traveling internationally and getting phone bills worth about the same amount as a new compact car. Skype works great and so that is how I am communicating with my wife and kids.

The second thing that stands out is the quality of public transportation. I arrived into Haneda airport at 11pm on a Saturday evening. I got through customs, changed some money, and caught an express train to Shinagawa where I am staying. The train left exactly on time, was clean, and easy to figure out. This is a sharp contrast to the poor public transit system in the Bay Area. Last night I was with a group of coworkers and we missed our train by mere seconds. Not more than 5 minutes later, another train came along. In the Bay Area, we would have been stuck anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes waiting. Furthermore all the signs were in both Japanese and English, which made it easy to get around. The best part about the public transportation here is that it is affordable. It cost $5 to get from the airport to the hotel whereas the Bay Area would have cost over twice as much for the same distance.

Now that I am over my jet lag, I get to spend the next couple of days in the office. I will be interested to see what other technological differences I notice between here and back home. So far Japan has been fun and so I hope I am not disappointed.