Tonight I’m supposed to go to the Pacific Club AGM – instead I’ll stay at home and be a hermit. It seems like more fun being antisocial tonight. Especially since yesterday, I had spent my time at the Social Empire Wine Tasting at Taylorwood Wines and tomorrow I’m going to Sekoya’s concert at the Railway Club and Saturday Night, James Bond and the Sunday, Fast Company COF. It’s non-stop so might as well pick and choose where I want to stop.
Let’s back up to my trip to Japan, though. There’s lots to tell so I’ll start there. Firstly, I discovered a new grape drink, the Canada Dry Cabernet Sauvignon. Not just your average grape juice either. It was darn good and so if you’re ever in Japan, check out their ‘Cab sparkling non-alcoholic beverage which would be sold next to their Ginger Ale, etc.
Last Thursday and Friday, SIDC, one of our portfolio companies, hosted Pacsec, a Japanese security conference at the Royal Park Hotel. Thursday afternoon, I broke away before lunch to meet a friend, Takaoka-san of NKE, at the Imperial Hotel. I arrived a little early so I did some window shopping at the Imperial Hotel (Teikoku Hotel as it is better known by the locals). The food selection at the hotel appeared to be top notch.
Upon my friend’s arrival, I was given the option to go check out a tempura place in the hotel or to go to a good sushi restaurant. I opted for the latter since I was looking to go for something a little healthier. We went to a great place known as Dai San Harumi. The owner/chef, Harumi-san’s third place (tel: 03-3501-4622). We had a wonderful Omakase Sushi lunch – very tasty.
Thereafter, we went for tea at the Dai Ichi hotel. I bid my goodbye then returned to the conference. That evening, Takaoka-san invited me out to meet with his friend, Eric Gan, co-founder of eAccess Japan and former Managing Director for Goldman Sachs Japan but Eric was going to be busy having two dinners so he asked Michael Korver and Hasegawa-san of Global Venture Capital Inc. at the new Grand Hyatt in Roppongi. After our brief chat, Michael and Hasegawa-san were on their way off to other meetings. Takaoka-san informed me that we were going to go check out a hostess club. Earlier in the day, the discussion turned to hostess clubs and my thought on the matter. I enjoy intellectual conversation and have not been able to find that anywhere in Japan. In our discussion, we discussed the very high-end Ginza Club in which no-one escapes without paying handsomely ($3000+ in an evening minimum). I wasn’t up to such a venue but Takaoka-san convinced me to go to this place he knew which required his retinal scan to get in. I was thinking, ‘ok great’, one staff’s month salary blown on an evening of fun with some chicks I hardly know but I was surprised in the place he took me. Firstly, Giselle Strata as it is known, was quite elegant inside. Secondly, it wasn’t busy. I enjoyed looking at their internal decorations – they had some very realistic synthetic trees downstairs in the club and the floors had synthetic leaves in one of the walk areas. The setting was good. We sat and spoke to approx. 5 girls since the place wasn’t busy. The conversation was good, most of the ladies were educated and world-travelled and the drinks were reasonable. Total damage, $300. Thereafter, I bid my goodbyes to Takaoka-san and returned to my home base in Shibuya.
Friday, I had lunch near Tokyo Opera City with my friend Walter of Digital Investor. I always enjoy my time at Tokyo Opera City. They have the National Opera Centre, a couple great art galleries, good eats, central location (Hatsudai station on the Keio line), plus it was my old office in 1999 – 2000. One of my favourite pieces of interest is the statue that sits below the 54 story Tokyo Opera City. It sings recorded opera all day and has a mechanical jaw that opens and closes at a steady rate. I suspect that as part of a scavenger hunt for SIDC’s future security conferences, we should look at changing the music on that beast. They moved the statue prior to me taking the picture on the right to put up a huge Christmas tree (three stories high). This is the first time they’ve put up the tree since 2000. Last time, it caught on fire. Perhaps it’s a sign of the market coming back? Perhaps it’s a sign of me coming back to Japan. We’ll see in either case.
After lunch, I returned to Pacsec. The event was very informative and the highlight of the day was when Ejovi Nuwere, a security analyst who completed an audit on the Japanese Social Security System, JyukiNet, who was to give a talk on his findings with JyukiNet, was censored by the Japanese government. The long story, put short, was that the government was concerned about sensitive information leaking into the community which would cause additional damage to Jyukinet. Ejovi and his supporters at the conference were quite vocal about the government’s decision to ask Ejovi to change his presentation to their liking so they decided to protest vocally and online. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone tries to take JyukiNet down in the next couple weeks either. Sadly, this marks the end of any prospects for Ejovi and his compadres if they ever want to work in Japan.
That evening, festivities in Roppongi ensued. Not much to report there other than drinking, smoking, drinking, drinking and more drinking.
Saturday evening, Ken and I went out to the other side of town for a reasonable dinner with some girls he knew. They were fun to hang out with. I learned a bit more about their lifestyle and made new friends along the way. The ladies had to cut the eviening off early since one of the girls, Megumi, had to go to work early so Ken and I decided to go hang out and drink in the Shinjuku Kabukicho area. We started at the Hub, decided to wander a bit, got harassed by the Nigerians who wanted us to come to their peeler bars (of which I am not fond), and enjoyed a Mos burger.
I decided that we needed to get closer to home since the Nigerians were overly annoying so we tried one of my old haunts, the Bulldog. Upon entering, we found that they were packing up but one of SIDC’s directors, Kawahara-san, recognized Ken and decided that we were now going to hang out. Apparently we stumbled into a situation where annually, there is a festival in Japan or Matsuri as Kawahara-san announced. The festival name was Torii No Ichi and Kawahara-san was going with the owners of the bar to the festival in Kabukicho. Ken explained to me that the festivities may go all night – I was thinking, oh great – another Saturday night going all night in Japan. Go figure, we were taken back to Kabukicho by cab. (more dialog below)…
Jim showed up at some point in time to bail us out as he knew that I had to prepare for my flight back to Vancouver and that Ken was way past his bedtime.
The highlight of the trip was that we got to experience a Japanese festival or what I like to call another reason to drink and eat. All evening, the Bar’s mama-san and their group fed us beer, booze and food. Who would have thought? Your mama-san buying you drinks for the evening!
The next day, Sunday, my final day in Japan, I decided to wander. First, I went to my favourite Ramen joint. The place features a healthy Ramen but I couldn’t really discern what was so healthy about the place but the food is distinctive. Their Ramen is tasty, their Gyoza is dynamite – to the point where I’m sitting here right now wondering if I should go out to the Ramen place around the corner. On the way to the Ramen joint, I came upon a small milk delivery scooter for Megmilk. Couldn’t resist taking the picture. 
Now I’ll have to scan my Rolodex for Meg’s to harass 
After the late lunch, I decided to go through Shinjuku and Akasaka to do some shopping. I came accross some performance art happening in the street in Shinjuku – no idea what it was about and visited my old haunts in Akasaka like the Hotel New Otani. I’m sad to say that they’ve closed the Louis Vuitton store in the New Otani. I can only guess that their sales figures went up when I was actually living in that hotel but when I left, they probably had a hard time getting rid of their stock. I went for a beer at Bar Capri in the New Otani and dropped into Kato’s to see what they had on the menu. Kato is very progressive – he’s delivered Fugu on the menu and has a huge Sake selection. Probably the best dinner spot in the whole of Akasaka.
The following day, I returned home. I decided that rather than taking the airport limousine out to Narita, that I’d ride the Narita Airport Express Train. The train is marginally cheaper ($0.60), more time to navigate, doesn’t have elevators to the platform (I had to carry my bags up the stairs) but is quite a bit faster and I was able to acquire and enjoy a couple chu his (alcoholic beverages) for the journey. Final pictures are of my trip back home on the Narita Express and the flight on JAL. Apparently in December, they will announce the ConneXion by Boeing service – in flight Internet service.
