Konichiwa, Mat-to des

(Hello, I am Matt) Hi from Tokyo! I arrived on Sunday and enjoyed a dinner with my colleague Yuichiro and his wife Yuiko. We went to the area of Shibuya which met my Tokyo expectations of crowds and neon. At the Shibuya crossroads there were no less than four different huge TV screens amid all the advertising and lights.

On Monday afternoon I had my first experience of presenting at quarter pace due to everything I said needing to be translated. It really does feel like the translator is probably saying what he thinks you should have said! It took some getting used to but now that I've done three customer meetings, I'm feeling a bit more comfortable. It's just quite hard to get through much material in an hour.

The train and subway system here is amazing. Lots of different lines criss-crossing the city and each other. I've spent several hours each day travelling to customer meetings, usually with 2 or three line changes along the way. It feels like things are very spread out. Luckily the railway signs are also in English, unlike what I see in almost all of the shops and restaurants.

I've eaten a variety of Japanese foods, including sushi, sashimi, tempura, tori suki, ramen and other things I can't remember the name of. It's all been very yummy and generally better not to know exactly what I was eating.