“Can I have it my way”?!--- Eating in Tokyo

What am I going to eat while I’m in Tokyo, Japan? That was a question I was thinking before I got here. I don’t eat too much raw fish and I’m very selective when it comes to sushi and other meals. I knew they had some of our traditional fast food restaurants located in Tokyo but I wasn’t sure of how the quality of there food would be and was the preparation of the food the same as back in America. Some of the fast food/restaurant chains that found their way into the Japanese market are McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Denny’s, Outback, Subway, and Starbucks. I had the opportunity of eating at 3 of those six places.
KFC was the first up for the test on the first night of our arrival. It was very difficult communicating my order with the cashier so I used the method of pointing at the menu. Slapz was the first to order and receive his food and we he got it his three pieces of chicken I did not like the look of it. His leg piece still had the small foot at the end and we cut that off in America, and the coloring of the skin was little off. The menu was a watered down version of our traditional KFC menu with less selection and everything comes with fries. I eventually ordered and got over the look of the chicken because I was starving. My meal was a 3 piece and fries, and the taste was actually satisfying. The chicken was fresh and tasted the same, as it should which surprised me.
McDonalds is the most frequent seen and well-accepted fast food chain in Tokyo. They have the same menu as in America with a few exceptions of some different style burgers that satisfy the Japanese culture, such as teriyaki, pork, and some sort of crab/fish burger. I ate McDonalds at least once every day and sometimes twice including breakfast. Recipe and preparation was very similar to the U.S McDonalds because the taste of my favorite selections tasted the exact same. Everything is served a lot faster and fresher than some orders I have received back home. I was very satisfied with McDonalds all over Tokyo and the many times I ate there. I ate enough so when I get back to the States I will to break from eating there for a while.
Burger King was also very satisfying the one time I ate there. This chain does not have many locations through out Japan but our Hotel had one in the Mall connected to our hotel. The Whopper was prepared well and did not upset my stomach like the ones I receive back home. Subway also had many locations throughout Tokyo and the last night we discovered one in the Mall area. I was very hungry and a subway sandwich sounded very satisfying and that it was. They have some different selections that American subway’s but the freshness of their vegetables and bread was very present in the taste but a lot more expensive.
Those were my restaurant experiences in Tokyo Japan and I happy to say I was able to “have it my way”!!

MSU Alum Making “major moves” in Japan

Today we got to visit Kuehne + Nagel a French company whose Business model includes warehousing and shipping freight around the Globe. We had the pleasure of a presentation by Scott Smalley, the General Manager of contract logistics division of the company. What stood out to me was that he was a Michigan State University Alumni. He started out at Lansing Community College and did a work study program through LCC in Tokyo many years back. Then he transferred to MSU after two years at LCC, graduated and moved to Tokyo, Japan where he has established a great life. One of Kuehne + Nagel’s warehouses that they help manage is BMW Japan and we had the opportunity to witness there operation. There are a lot of MSU alum here in Tokyo doing great things and I think its very important that our University does more to recognize international alumni doing great things. We had the opportunity a few days ago to participate in the annual MSU alumni dinner in Tokyo, where we met several people doing business overseas in Japan. That gave me a great feeling to know how well represented and recognized our school is in these international job markets. If I ever decide to do business overseas now I have a network to look up and see if they have opportunities for me.

Early bird gets to “Sea” –“Food”—Visit to Tsukiji Wholesale seafood/tuna market

The learning objective of the first week here in Tokyo was to get a view of how certain businesses operate and their supply chain methods. Dr. Ross divided the class into teams and assigned us certain points to analyze when we visited these companies and my team’s focus points were physical distribution, how product is moved, and logistics and warehousing. Early Monday morning around 4am we were able to get a hands on experience with one of Tokyo’s most important business operations, the distribution of Fresh/Frozen Tuna and other fresh seafood.
Business begins early in this operation we were up moving around the city at the crack of dawn. Back home I fall asleep around 4am sometimes so it was culture shock for me to be up moving around the city that early. The usually busy streets of Tokyo were very calm at this time in the morning and it felt like we were the only group of people making move.
Tsukiji is a face paced 24 hours 7 day a week operation where seafood is auctioned, bought, and distributed all over Japan. Our class was given the opportunity to witness some of these auction operations. The most intriguing operation was the auctioning of Tuna. Each fish is auctioned off separately in this warehouse. Wholesalers spend a period of time to inspect the quality of each Tuna and that gives them a base of how much to pay or its value. The Tuna is divided into two categories Fresh and Frozen. Frozen is more of a commodity and purchased in large orders at a lower price. Fresh Tuna has a lower demand but is placed at a higher price. The auctioning is very intense and the auctioneer communicates with the bidders through hand signals and a loud projected voice. This facility also has a market that consist of around 700 individually owned booths that sale fresh seafood to customers coming through the market. Individual markets manage these booths. If a creature is in the sea its is caught and eaten in Japan. I seen everything from squid to eel provided at this market, which fits right into the diet of the Japanese culture. They want the freshest products when they eat so it only makes since to eat the most natural creatures the sea can provide. I personally could not adapt to the fresh taste of the foods over here or their choice of the creatures they choose to eat. Squid, snails, sea urchins, and raw varieties of fish are animals that I could not digest into my system, the smell and the taste mad my stomach turn every time but I eventually adjusted to it.

“Harajuku” makes you want to just “throw it all in the bag”!!

Shopping, High fashion, Bright lights, and busy streets is what makes up to be considered Tokyo’s famous shopping district. I love fashion and I enjoy shopping for new clothes, so my first question for Tokyo was, where is the best place to shop? The answer I received weeks before my arrival was Harajuku! I was instantly impressed with the selection and style of clothing store/shops this area had to offer. Name almost any high-end fashion brand in the U.S and they had it here. The sizes of the stores of some of these top brands were very impressive. I was excited to find one of the brands that I’m loyal to, Ralph Lauren Polo. The size of this store was massive. The first floor consisted of some of the most expensive men clothing that Ralph Lauren has to offer, with the second floor being women’s. The presence of the building stood out on the street because of the size and lighting. Another top brand located in this store was Nike, and they had a store designed like no other I have seen in the US. Bright colors, lights and shoes were located everywhere. I found it very unique that the top floor of the store was designated for customers to come in and design their own type of Nike shoe.
As we traveled further up the block I noticed the designer stores were more of the most expensive brands we find in our high-end malls in the US, designers such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, and Dior. The design of these stores were incredible and I couldn’t help but to stop into Gucci and Loui to see what type of products that had to offer different from the U.S. There wasn’t much difference but each store was larger that the ones I have seen with them having two floors allowed them to have many different designs of products to choose from.
Harajuku is an area designed for shopping, and it reminded me of a massive outdoor shopping mall. There are small alleys of specialty shops and boutiques where I found exclusive shoes and clothing that you cant find in the U.S. Before I arrived to Tokyo I thought I would discover a huge price diffrence in clothing compared to America. My reason for thinking that was because a lot of products are made here in this country that we receive in America. But that’s not that case, clothing and shoes are priced the same as in the States. The first day in Harajuku we didn’t have much time to explore and shop do to time constraints of the program but we gained knowledge of the railroad system later that night from our professors and by just studying the map for a few minutes. After we understood the system we traveled back to Harajuku the next day on our own and it was a successful trip there without getting lost.

Japan “Cribs”- Historic Farm/ distribution housing

The visit to the “Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum” gave us a historic view of each house and what goods/services each house provided to Japan in the early 1800s-1900s. Traditional Japanese architecture is well known around the world for its beauty and functionality. To conserve the valuable historic creations from the past, the city of Kawasaki began to relocate these historic houses from all over Japan to Minkaen in 1965.
The Museum gave us a view of 25 historical buildings and an explanation of how the houses were designed and built. There was also an illustration of the lifestyle of the people who lived in them. Many of the housing were used for distribution of goods whether it was fish, equipment, or services for the people. The Supply Chain aspect of each house was very unique and tailored to the design of the house. Some buildings had designated areas where particular functions of their business took place. Those areas were used for exchange of goods/services such as fish, equipment, natural resources that families needed, or products that were created inside of the house. I enjoyed exploring through each house and the set up of the museum made it an adventure for our group as we walked around to each site. We also had the opportunity to capture each moment on the trail with our cameras allowing me to give you a view of the unique design of each home

“I’m on top of the world” !!! 60 floors up

When I first arrived in Tokyo I was very excited about viewing the city, its structure of buildings, and the lighting at night. The first official meeting we had gave me a perfect view of the city.
We all gathered on the 60th floor of our hotel known as the “observation deck” where we were able to view the entire city from one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo. “This is the most massive and busiest cities I have ever witnessed” was my first thought and I instantly became intrigued by the facts about the structure of the city given to us by Dr. Londo. The city looks like about 5 of the major US cities all on one massive landmass, to paint a picture in your head.
Tokyo alone currently holds approximately 12 million citizens. With that many people wonder, “how do they fit that many people in one city?”, well its done in Tokyo and very efficient. There are hundreds of skyscrapers located all throughout the city, residential housing, and business operations. From the observation deck everything looked close together with not much space for travel. But the innovated people of Tokyo have developed a very effective transportation system. Expressways wrap all around and throughout area, but to save space the infrastructure of these roads are elevated above ground saving miles of space.
Another view of the city that stood out to us all was the abundant amount of railroads moving through the city. Tokyo has one of the busiest subway/train systems in the world. Subways are the main source of transportation for the common citizen. When you enter these train stations it is packed with people moving with a purpose, moving at a fast past, and usually moving around to handle business, whether its work, school, shopping, eating, or just out to have fun. I found it very innovated that majority of these train stations have shopping centers located throughout them. These shopping centers are owned by the railroad companies, bringing in millions of dollars to their corporation. It makes it very convenient for the Japanese citizen to have access to these goods (i.e. groceries, clothing, fresh foods) while they travel home from work.
Keeping their city clean is a major part of the culture here in Tokyo and other parts of Japan. In America we let are waste (trash) bury underground and let it deplete into the environment. Here in Tokyo they burn their trash because it is not much natural land spaces to just bury it underground. This method can become very expensive and dangerous to the air quality because the smoke is released from tall smoke stacks located throughout the city. Littering and spitting on the ground is frowned upon in this culture. I have a habit of spitting and littering back home in the states and when I did that here I got a few “dirty looks”. When u look around you see no trash on the grounds but you see a lot of recycle bins located on the streets and in every restaurant.