I heart Tokyo. I always expected that I would; I read more Haruki Murakami during my college years than most people ever will, and my "History of Japanese Pop Culture", while rather fluffy compared to some of my other classes, was also one of my favorites. But, even though I've barely had a chance to explore, it's living up to expectations so far.
I spent almost all of today at the conference that I'm attending. I continue to be jaded when it comes to the conference, but despite my jadedness, I was still able to finish the big boss's slides to her satisfaction today. I successfully woke up and made it to breakfast with her and one of her directors this morning to go through the deck one last time, and then I made the final edits before her talk. It went v. well, and she was happy with the slides (although she's already making rumblings about redoing the whole deck for the conference we're going to in two weeks, just as I suspected she would -- so the next two weeks will be a repeat of the last two weeks, although I won't be jetlagged at the conference since it's in San Francisco). However, it says something rather strange about me that I was happier when she complimented my dress than when she complimented some of my slides -- maybe it's because I'm secure in my intellect but am always looking for validation for my taste? Or maybe it's because my priorities are totally in the wrong place, which is clear since I seem to enjoy shopping too much to make any major life changes. Regardless, the dress is pretty awesome -- Katie, it's the wrap jersey dress from Boden USA that I mentioned a few weeks ago, and almost everything I ordered from there has been great.
Anyway, the conference was a smashing success. Afterwards, I was deadly tired, but I decided to rally and go out for the arranged dinners around Tokyo. They split the conference across several restaurants that they rented out. My restaurant was Gonpachi Ginza, which served sushi and unlimited drinks. I only had a diet coke (although they later told my table mates that they don't serve diet coke, so either they lied to them, or they gave me a regular coke without telling me), since I was in no mood to get obliterated, but the sushi was great. I also caught up with a girl I knew in Hyderabad years ago; it turns out that she left the company several years ago, moved to Bombay to work for a startup, and that startup was recently acquired by my company, so she's back on the payroll. It would be so strange to make the decision to leave a company, only to get sucked back in months or years later -- but she seems to be taking it in stride.
I was totally done with making small talk around nine p.m., and I debated taking an exorbitantly expensive taxi back to the hotel (which would have been fine, since I would have expensed it). But instead, I walked a few blocks down the street to see a bit of Ginza at night -- it is an incredible display of lights, people, and ultraluxury stores, and while I wouldn't want to spend much time there, seeing it at night was amazing.
I've been taking some pictures, and I will post them someday, but you're going to have to wait -- right now, I desperately need to sleep. Goodnight!
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