Wed, Feb 5, 2008: On an early morning bullet train ride back from Osaka to Tokyo, awake and groggy, and so sitting and writing, trying to describe yesterday.
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We're trying to work with some regional Japanese banks with to expand our distribution in Japan. And so this meeting was lined up with this regional Japanese bank in Osaka. My team had asked me to join this meeting as well, since it looked like we had a good shot at trying to get the deal, and their seniors were also making time for the meetings. So off I troop to Osaka.
The meetings in this bank's office are what I've now gotten used to. Plenty of bowing. Formal setting. Clearly assigned seating around the boardroom table etc etc. It is of course conducted all in Japanese, so impossible to do without my interpreter. The same sense of watching a movie with subtitles, where after the first ten minutes, you forget that everything is actually happening in a language you don't understand. Lots of questions, and animated chit-chat. No indication of whether or not a deal could happen. Formal closure to the meeting with bowing and all. And we break then to meet a few hours later at dinner.
~~~~~~~~~~~
We're trying to work with some regional Japanese banks with to expand our distribution in Japan. And so this meeting was lined up with this regional Japanese bank in Osaka. My team had asked me to join this meeting as well, since it looked like we had a good shot at trying to get the deal, and their seniors were also making time for the meetings. So off I troop to Osaka.
The meetings in this bank's office are what I've now gotten used to. Plenty of bowing. Formal setting. Clearly assigned seating around the boardroom table etc etc. It is of course conducted all in Japanese, so impossible to do without my interpreter. The same sense of watching a movie with subtitles, where after the first ten minutes, you forget that everything is actually happening in a language you don't understand. Lots of questions, and animated chit-chat. No indication of whether or not a deal could happen. Formal closure to the meeting with bowing and all. And we break then to meet a few hours later at dinner.
And then it starts to get more interesting at dinner!
Dinner is in a traditional Japanese restaurant, (exactly what you would expect, with a separate room with a bamboo sliding door and all) for the 10 of us. There's no way to tell if there were more people eating at the restaurant at all. We're seated tatami-style on the floor around a low table. I'm hosting the dinner, so I`m seated in the centre on the Citi side of the table, across from Hitoshi-san, the head of their side (who thankfully is bilingual, even though I have my interpreter with me). It is a roomful of Japanese men in suits, and with the exception of me, all in their late 40s or 50s. Plenty of sake, shochu, biru (beer) flows, along with stuff like strawberry wine (tastes better than it sounds). About 17 courses of food, of course, served by kimono-clad ladies. Some grilling on the table also. Most of it delicious. The conversation tickles me no end. Relatively well-informed Japanese, these are. After I use up my few conversational gambits about why I'm enjoying Japan, I'm asked for my opinion on all kinds of things. From world economy (easy enough to mouth some platitudes) to Indian culture (tougher than I would expect!). Suddenly I am being asked a question about why the Mohenjodaro civilization collapsed (their hypothesis: Indian civilization then was very advanced and had invented nuclear bombs which wiped it out!) And THEY brought up Mohenjodaro, not me! Then they ask me why Indians are all good at math (do our parents teach us as babies?) and ask me if I can do 99x99 in my head. I awe them with my response ... `yes of course ... thats (100-1)x(100-1)' which of course I avoid actually calculating!!
Dinner is in a traditional Japanese restaurant, (exactly what you would expect, with a separate room with a bamboo sliding door and all) for the 10 of us. There's no way to tell if there were more people eating at the restaurant at all. We're seated tatami-style on the floor around a low table. I'm hosting the dinner, so I`m seated in the centre on the Citi side of the table, across from Hitoshi-san, the head of their side (who thankfully is bilingual, even though I have my interpreter with me). It is a roomful of Japanese men in suits, and with the exception of me, all in their late 40s or 50s. Plenty of sake, shochu, biru (beer) flows, along with stuff like strawberry wine (tastes better than it sounds). About 17 courses of food, of course, served by kimono-clad ladies. Some grilling on the table also. Most of it delicious. The conversation tickles me no end. Relatively well-informed Japanese, these are. After I use up my few conversational gambits about why I'm enjoying Japan, I'm asked for my opinion on all kinds of things. From world economy (easy enough to mouth some platitudes) to Indian culture (tougher than I would expect!). Suddenly I am being asked a question about why the Mohenjodaro civilization collapsed (their hypothesis: Indian civilization then was very advanced and had invented nuclear bombs which wiped it out!) And THEY brought up Mohenjodaro, not me! Then they ask me why Indians are all good at math (do our parents teach us as babies?) and ask me if I can do 99x99 in my head. I awe them with my response ... `yes of course ... thats (100-1)x(100-1)' which of course I avoid actually calculating!!
The conversation only from time to time touches on the deal we're looking to do. Each time to give us some candid point of feedback. Finally when I'm too stuffed, the dinner is done.
My secretary had told me that if the evening winds up too early, its a bad sign. So far so good. Now its time for the after-dinner drinking to start! Some bowing ensues to finish the dinner ritual, and off we all are to a bar. Its a little bar with just the ten of us there (including my interpreter!).
Drinks are flowing pretty quickly. Suddenly I realize its a karaoke bar. Second drink down, and up pops one of the guys from the other side, picks up the mike, and starts to sing. Its some peppy Japanese pop song, so the singing is accompanied by dancing also!! Wow. This is clearly the let-your-hair-down-and-REALLY-
A few minutes and another two drinks later, I hear "TS-san will know Elvis" followed by "TS-san can sing Are You Lonesome Tonight?" And suddenly a mike is thrust is my hand, and I am singing. Suitable baritone for the song, and external coolness. Thank god I`ve had many drinks already. My inner singer is quite pleased actually after the first few lines, and the adulation of the masses (yes, ok, its out of politeness, I know) helps it along. Eventually, all ten people sing, some many times over. One guy sings a Japanese cover of a Ricky Martin song (oh yes, with the dancing). Another sings a sombre Japanese ballad. No one sings particularly badly. I forget I'm looking at aging Japanese regional bankers. More drinks, and I even do "All My Loving". The bonding is clearly part of the whole deal. Of course its all in Japanese, but a combination of alcohol, the interpreter (who's also getting drunk), wild gesticulating, and some broken words - I can follow along now. At this point in the proceedings, its ok for one of my guys to yell over the music "we have to sign the deal in 90 days!" which is met by a round of cheers ("Kampaay!") on all sides.
The drinks and the jolliness continue for a long while and then thankfully its time to start the multiple bowings again, and for me to retreat back to my hotel room.
Feels like we may get the deal.
A few minutes and another two drinks later, I hear "TS-san will know Elvis" followed by "TS-san can sing Are You Lonesome Tonight?" And suddenly a mike is thrust is my hand, and I am singing. Suitable baritone for the song, and external coolness. Thank god I`ve had many drinks already. My inner singer is quite pleased actually after the first few lines, and the adulation of the masses (yes, ok, its out of politeness, I know) helps it along. Eventually, all ten people sing, some many times over. One guy sings a Japanese cover of a Ricky Martin song (oh yes, with the dancing). Another sings a sombre Japanese ballad. No one sings particularly badly. I forget I'm looking at aging Japanese regional bankers. More drinks, and I even do "All My Loving". The bonding is clearly part of the whole deal. Of course its all in Japanese, but a combination of alcohol, the interpreter (who's also getting drunk), wild gesticulating, and some broken words - I can follow along now. At this point in the proceedings, its ok for one of my guys to yell over the music "we have to sign the deal in 90 days!" which is met by a round of cheers ("Kampaay!") on all sides.
The drinks and the jolliness continue for a long while and then thankfully its time to start the multiple bowings again, and for me to retreat back to my hotel room.
Feels like we may get the deal.
Hi TS....
ReplyDeleteStumbled across your blog..and enjoyed a browse through...apart from your adventures, you still write so well!
shraman