INSEAD Blog by Zanat0s the INSEAD(er) @ Tokyo ! The Biggest among INSEAD MBA blogs. Insead is over, blogging not.

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the gaijin in the bus

original at
http://zanat0s.typepad.com

I am sitting in the bus and it is full. There is a free seat next to me. Nobody though is sitting down.....

It is so strange. It is like i am not there. They do not look at me. anyway let them stand. /way from the white gaijin.

cheers!

A brief description of Tokyo nightlife. What am I missing?

Tokyo Vs Singapore Nightlife

This is an indirectly INSEAD related topic(but only limited to Singapore campus since fonty has no nightlife). I have been in Tokyo for quite some time and my opinion regarding nightlife has been formed.
When one person, especially young one, compares different cities regarding work one of the most important factor is the quality and availability of Nightlife. All work no play makes john a dull boy(did I get this correctly?). Nightlife includes places to go and enjoy a dinner, bars to talk, clubs to drink and everything else that belongs to the night.Most people suggest that Tokyo has one the best nightlife if not in Asia then in the world. Maybe! I personally I do not agree. I think Singapore and Hong Kong is better in this section. Lets start by discussing Tokyo.

Tokyo first of all is a very big city, but most places are small, or the big ones are outside Tokyo(like Ageha). An overview of available places to go out in Tokyo include: Bars, Clubs, Specialised bar, Hostess clubs, red light places and karaoke. The major areas to go out are: Roppongi, Shibuya, Shinjuku-Kabukicho and others which I do not know.

Roppongi is close to where all the bankers/foreigners work. It is a sleazy place with a lot of people trying to lure you to their bars. There are a lot of places where foreigners go after work. Heartland and A971 are the most known ones. Roppongi is also full with hostess clubs or other kind of specialized bars. Like S&M bar, Geisha bar, Schoolgirl Bar. Everything can get what he or she wants. There were also some clubs in Roppongi but they were closed down. I do not know why. In Roppongi a lot of bars close at 05.00 AM on weekends but some go up until 08.00 AM. For most foreigners the first time they visit Roppongi bars or clubs they will think they are in the western world(with so many foreigners going there, hard to miss it). Of course there are also a lot of advertisers with tities bar or special "bars". NEVER go there they will skin you alive.

Shibuya is more Japanese oriented with a lot of love hotels(places to meet somebody better for a short time), Clubs who are focused on trance and go on until 10.00 AM, bars to enjoy drinks and more pink places. The crowd is younger and more unique. Shibuya is full with shibuya-girls; the Japanese girls with orange/dark blond hair girls who love getting an artificial tan and wearing ultra low skirts/shorts. There is a club next to my place where sometimes I go have a drink after work on my own so I can clear my head and relax. While I am going there regularly I feel like the SUPER outsider. I am the only non-japanese in that place and believe me it feels VERY strange.
Shinjuku is a crazy place. This is where all the crazy things happen. Though I have never been there that is what I have heard. The red light district is there and is supposed to cater to any kind of desire a human being may harbor.

SO what is unique to Tokyo? Japanese love to get drunk. If you think the british and Irish drink wait till you meet Japanese. One expat once told me Japanese drink because they need to escape their daily life. Who knows? Definitely though if you walk after midnight you will bump into the salarymen getting drunk all around Tokyo. Karaoke places are a very famous choice to go out and have a good time. It is not my cup of tea so I will go to the main point immediately.

Hostess clubs. Hoestess clubs are places where mostly guys go and women come and talk to them. By the way it is freaking expensive, one hour may cost 100 Euros and more per person(not including drinks, which are overpriced). Women come and talk with the clients, mostly listen to them. Laugh to what they have to say and keep them company. No there is NOTHING else included, Nothing. Japanese seem to love this kind of entertainment. Me, being a foreigner, I do not understand why I have to pay to talk with somebody while she Is getting paid to make me feel better. That is fake and shallow. But that is just me. They do not cater to me. The client is a Japanese salary man(sometimes older). The same clubs exist for women called Host clubs. I once had an offer to become a host(that is a compliment meaning I am good looking!). I should have accepted that hour if one takes into account the hourly earning a good and interesting host can make just by laughing and smiling.

Members clubs/bars are places where mostly guys go and pay an entrance fee, a service charge, a table charge and the price for a drink. I did that only once and It was my mistake I didn’t ask for all the details in advance. A drink at a members’ club cost me 7200 Yen, just a drink! As I learned to my detriment negotiating in Japan doesn’t work. At those places you can be introduced to other women(they will say they are single but most probably employed by the bar). If they introduce women to you, you have to buy them at least 2 drinks. I have never done this before but I am more than certain that they are “directed” to order/select the most expensive drinks on the menu. Personally I do not want to find out.

Going out in Tokyo can be very painful. I am lucky since I am situated “close” to the places I go out. My cab fare is no more than 1500 Yen to 2400 Yen. Those not very lucky, who live where only the train has access to(unless they want to splurge on a taxi) have to stay out until 5.00 AM when the subway starts running again. The first month when I was living outside Tokyo I had to crush at peoples’ places unless I wanted to party non stop. One time specifically I went home at 08.00 AM since my first train started at 07.00 and it took around 1 hour to reach my door.

I have found some places in Tokyo where mostly foreigners go and I join them for a drink, other than that Tokyo is not my Cup of tea when it comes to nightlife.

Singapore & Hong Kong are amazing on the other hand. First of all the weather makes the people more willing to go out. There is a charge that Singapore is too small and not enough of places. That is not true there are many places and they are concentrated; Clarke quay and Boat quay, Suntech, Mohammed Sultan! Yes there are limited places compared to Tokyo but they are bigger and closer to each other, better atmosphere, bar hoping is feasible, not so sleazy(with the exception of Attica). Easy to meet people and friends there since it is so much concentrated. Sentosa is one of the best places to go which I will do ASAP as I visit Singapore. HK is a more elite place. It is very small so all the nice places are members clubs mostly to avoid regulations and to have a loyal crowd that makes a strong community. My HK experience is a bit limited, I will try to update after my next trips.

That was a long post! I hope I will start enjoying Tokyo nightlife more in the near future. And that is a brutal FACT!

Zanat0s out!

My adventures in Japan! little Zani!

Enough about MBA articles, today I will let you know some of last month’s events. Start from today. At our company, a Japanese one, we hold a morning meeting every day. Each day a manager is making a speech about who he is, what has he done and his role in the company and the performance of his department. For the ones unfamiliar with Japan the above mentioned is something typical so do not freak out. Yesterday I was informed that I would be today’s speaker.
At the beginning It didn’t register to me and played it cool. Cool it wasn’t. I have spoken to crowds before I have made presentations not in my native language countless times. But if you told me last year that I would be standing in front of 203 Japanese, all of them staring at me and waiting for my speech in Japanese, I would have called you crazy. But it happened and I felt overwhelmed. I am sure I made some mistakes because I could hear the insatiable laughter going on during my speech. I didn’t know what was louder the beating of my heart which was getting faster or my voice.
Work has been ok I am just finishing the initial report for a project and presenting on Xmas, a working day. Last week I got a taste of Japanese hospitals. I got extreme gastroenteritis due to a viral infection. It was sad development. I was throwing up in my place for 3 hours. My boss then got worried and took me to a hospital. I was flagger basted. The place was majestic, the waiting area included armchairs and classical music to help you soothe. If I am not mistaken they played Mozart and Debussy. Of course since I was sick I didn’t get to listen and enjoy but at least it made the waiting easier.
I got treated within 4 hours but still I hadn’t recovered. The ward had some of the most relaxing beds I have ever slept on. The nurses were almost too good to be real. I got some medicine during my exit and went home where I finally relaxed after 1.5 month. I slept on Friday for more than 12 hours at night. It was a great chance to recharge my batteries.
Tomorrow I am getting my furniture and my place will be finally inhabitable. I hope the situation turns for the better. On Wednesday I was invited to a Brazilian party and I wanted to go so much but when I entered my place at 19.00 I thought it was a great chance to relax. It was the first time I came home before 23.00 so I couldn’t resist. I sat down and watched a movie and read some books. My loss, the party was fantastic, so I heard.
Expect some pics soon along with some interesting posts about MBA. Also congratulations to a Singaporean friend of mine who got admitted to INSEAD. I hope I was helpful enough.

Insular Japanese! No place to get decent gadgets!

Ok Japan is too Japanese. I guess that Japan is among the best, if not the best when it comes to electronic gadgets. I may appear a bit too eclectic but I spent this weekend searching for a place to sell Philips A/V.
Guess what! I couldn’t find it anywhere. I am not saying that you cannot get Philips in Tokyo, but at least in Akihabara and in all the major electronic stores they didn’t have it, nor did they have LG or Samsung. What was even more terrifying was that the sales people didn’t even know about Philips. They were surprised when I enquired about it and they even trying to tell me that I am wrong and that Philips doesn’t exist otherwise they would have it in their stores. One even told me that their shops carries only major “international” brands and Philips is too small for them.
Hmm! Some reviewing is required. Philips is Europe’s biggest consumer electronic products company by far. It is a dutch company and its products the last years have been sweeping awards(especially design ones). It is one of the biggest produces or LCD screens in the worlds, along with Samsung and LG( 2 korean firms).
I found out the hard way that the Japanese domestic market is really insular and the big guys treat it like their own back yard. In japan this clubby atmosphere permeates almost every industry.
I making this assumption in 2007. If Japan continues this road, its companies like Sharp, Toshiba, Hitachi, Panasonic and others will lose their way and end as smaal(according to global standards) electronic companies. Japanese companies are not at the foremost when it comes to LCD, Koreans are. Japanese betted on Plasma(which proved to be a wrong decision, although I am a plasma fan). In cameras Japanese are still unrivaled(even though you cannot get any non-japanese cameras). In computers and other gadgets they are hopeless. Mp3s, remember the iPod! Video players, has anyone heard about Archos? Mobile phones, Nokia anyone?
If you know where to find Philips products in Tokyo let me know!

Zani out!

Time Management! Not a luxury but a basic need

Time management. It sounds so simple but it isn’t. Time management requires good prioritization skills along with a good ability to organize. A 24 hour day is not enough for everything. I haven’t met a person who has time to spent. It is all about resource allocation and choices made. Most economists call this the opportunity cost.
When we go to the cinema to watch a movie we not only have to pay 7 Euros but also invest/spend 2 hours of time. One person could work during this hours, or eat something or meet friends… Whatever.
It is very important therefore to minimize dead time. Dead time is waste, nothing but waste. Examples of waste: commuting, waiting in line(something which is common in Asia), talking about the same issue more than 10 mins(not discussions, but telephones). My opinion is that everything must be done As Fast As Possible, no later. A second gone is a second which won’t come back . I prefer sometimes to do something fast but get the main idea correct than to spend 10 times the effort and look out for every detail. This is like a double edged sword definitely.
Managers though are good at managing their time. It is a skill which get acquired through years and practice. At insead they would give us so much work that one had to prioritize and make trade-offs. It was a real life situation. Managers must have the intuiton to know how much time an activity might require.
I am writing this because in Japan I have encountered a lot of wasted time and I am trying to minimize it. On Sunday I was talking with a person on the phone for the same subjects for over 25 minutes. In the end I probed him by saying “ok what have we produced after 25 mins of discussing over the phone and was it worth it?”. He realized he was going to far and apologized. Next time I will be stricter over the phone. This specific person has a tendency to do EVERYTHING very slowly and thoroughly. It gets on my nevers. Our approach is completely different. I was a boy scout too but I wouldn’t be so controlling. This person loves Micro-managing which makes him a bad manager, but he doesn’t realize, or if he does he doesn’t want to change.
Anyway I am having a tough time finding time for everything. What really requires most time and effort are keeping in touch with friends? Therefore friendships are difficult to hold on but one shouldn’t give up. I am trying my best but it is not enough.
Hmm hi everyone I hope you are doing fine! Do not forget me.

Zani out!

Mobile phones in Japan!

What about getting a phone in

Japan

? First of all there is no SIM cards, the world’s biggest invention regarding the mobile phones. Most foreigners make the mistake of thinking

Japan

has the most advanced mobile phones and networks. Correction

Japan

has the world’s best Networks(3G) and services for them. Their mobile phones are all the same(clamshells) which flilp and close, have a mediocre camera and monolingual.

It is even worse since the consumers here are a facing an oligopoly. In

Europe

, this fantastic continent(in some issues at least), consumers have the EC to protect them and foster competition. Therefore Europeans enjoy the privilege of either buying a service, a subscription to a carrier. The carrier will provide then a SIM card, so simple but yet so advanced. This SIM card can be used with ANY handset in EUROPE, ASIA*excluding of course

Japan

* and in maybe in

USA

(not the forefront of mobile phones).

So a European can get a subscription to a Carrier(Vodafone) and buy/select any handset they want. Japanese have to prove to the world that they can complicate things more than they have too. In

Japan

you do not mobile subscriptions. You buy phones which are also your mobile phone number. So if you like a specific phone you can get it only from a specific carrier and you cannot change provider. If you visit DOCOMO’s page(the bully monopolist) you will see that all the phones look exactly the same with the same trivial features. What does that mean? It means no Cool NOKIA phones, no iphone, no PRADA phone, no nice HTC Windows mobile phones. But hey if you are a crazy Japanese willing to watch TV on your mobile phone and flip it every 5 seconds you will be very satisfied.

Also Japanese mobile firms provide you with GREAT variety…………………………………………………………………………… in colors of course! A consequence of this huge offer in models(imagine 3 companies offering like 10 or 15 different models each) means that when a truly useful phone is out it will snapped by the users in NO time! Do not make assumptions that defy reality.

Japan

may have the technology but not the policies which can lead to innovation.

OH here is the funniest part; you cannot send SMS to other users in

Japan

. Only to your friends.

Discussing on the phone!

One last question why are Japanese so bad at learning English? I mean even the ones who speak English will give you a headache sometimes since you will be lost in translation. While I am making some phone calls it takes me an average a lot of time to get an answer which is probably useless to me!

I will ask/ inquire about A and then after 5 minutes I will get an answer regarding B! What is even worse though is asking whether you can do something different (flexibility) and they suddenly black out. Singaporeans are the same in this aspect though. One day I was talking on the phone for half an hour for an issue that wouldn’t have taken more than 5 minutes. Since then though I learned what I should do and what not to.

Here is my advice, when talking with Japanese on the phone say yes or “I understand” to everything he or she says. Moreover when you communicate it is more practical to do something else at the same time so you can save important time. I read emails, reply to them, read the news, sign forms(tons of them in

Japan

), sign forms( you cannot imagine what I am talking about) and maybe eat something while I am at it.

Like I explained in my previous post Japanese have an innate ability of looking at a situation/procedure finding out the minimum time they can accomplish it and then try to do a judo move by elongating its duration. Even the simplest things become a burden, like a phone call! The worst of this whole saga? It is considered normal.

The Snail called Japan, a *paradise* for foreigners!

A piece of advice for people going to work abroad(especially

Japan

) get used to bureaucracy. Here is a brief description of my adventure until now. I am a bit frustrated and I need to relax and vent off my emotions.

From the start this has not been an easy procedure. Japan an incredible country(with good and bad connotations). Most people will relate

Japan

with efficiency and organization. At best I would say they are incredibly ignorant. They make a comparison between

Germany

and

Japan

due to their punctuality. Yes both of these countries are punctual. But Punctuality may differ. For example to get your German Visa or let:s say the card that lets you work and stay in Germany the whole procedure(from beginning to the end) will last no more than 1 month. The major difference is　that one can take care of his business while in Germany.

1. Visas: EU citizens and some other nationalities do not need a visa for

Germany

. If you do need a visa, you have to apply in your home country (visas are never issued in

Germany

). Visa applications take some time and the type of visa will affect your residency rights, so choose accordingly.

2. Residence registration: In the first week after arrival, you have to register at the local residence registration office ( Einwohnermeldeamt).

3. Residence permits: Everybody staying in

Germany

for more than 3 months must officially obtain a residence permit (including EU citizens). After completing your residence registration, you need to apply for your residence permit at the local immigration office ( Ausländeramt).

4. Work permit: Once you have your residence permit, you can apply for a work permit at your local labor office (Arbeitsamt). EU citizens do not need a work permit to work.

Germany

is a bureaucratic country and bureaucrats love documents. Be prepared to fill in many forms, take them to different offices, have them stamped numerous times and spend a lot of time waiting in line. Before leaving home, you may find it essential or useful to get:

·    a passport valid for the entire period to be spent in

Germany

·    if going to study, a notification of university admission or confirmation of application

·    proof of financial resources

·    visa (not a tourist visa), if applicable

·    originals and certified (!) translations of your birth certificate, secondary school leaving certificate, possibly academic qualifications and your insurance documents. Certifications can be made at German diplomatic and consular missions.

·    confirmation of health insurance cover or, for students from the European Union, a European health insurance card

·    book of vaccination certificates, if you have one. Check at the German diplomatic presence in your home country whether you need any vaccinations

·    an international driving license if you need one (EU citizens do not)

This seems daunting right? But it is nothing, NOTHING compared with the Japanese procedure. I had to wait more than 45 days in

Greece

in order to take my Work permit(which I needed it before I entered

Japan

), then I had to go to my OWN’s country embassy(that makes no SENSE) apply for a VISA which takes 4 days. Then one is ready to enter

Japan

. But wait not everything is over yet. The foreigner(who will be FINGERPRINTED and photographed, in case he is a terrorist) will need to register to the city council to get his alien registration card. This takes exactly 21 days, no less no more. Of course these 21 days are awful because one can do nothing during these 21 days. Renting an apartment(which is very important I hope everyone can realize that) is impossible as is the ability to get a phone in

Japan

. Both require a Bank account(for obvious reasons). But wait in order to get an account a residence permit is required. Strange heh? 21 days which pass by very slowly.

To put things into perspective let me inform the readers that the same procedure in

Singapore

can be in less than 2 weeks(total). I got my residence permit in

Singapore

in less than a day.

Singapore

is an extreme example I will confess. What about

China

?

China

is not synonymous with efficiency as

Japan

is. So in

China

I got my 1 year visa within 4 days(1 day would be also possible provided I paid an exorbitant price). While in

China

I had to register to the local municipality which was easy, fast and efficient. The only snug was I had to do it again after the 30 first days since my work permit wasn’t ready.

My point in

Japan

everything can be on time. The sad part is that the time required will be extremely long even if there is no reason behind this. There is actually no logic in

Japan

. A procedure has to take 21 days just because they say so. One procedure may only actually need 3 days. No matter what though, the applicant will have to wait days. This is how things work in

Japan

. Get used to it! I am trying.

I WANT AN APARTMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GRR! *(&(*&^! meaningless, but it is starting to affect me. Every place i  find has a big minus which makes the decision making worse!