|
 "Kanpai!"
Over Spring break, 27 members of the MSB community broadened their horizons culturally and professionally on Japan Trek. The 6-day event focused on three things: culture, business, and food.
Our trip began in Tokyo, where we explored the various urban districts that comprise Tokyo proper. From Tokyo we traveled to Inuyama Hotel, a Japanesestyle hot-spring, which should have been extremely relaxing... buuuut the group was shocked to learn that bathing suits were not welcome in the bathing area - OMG MSB!!
After experiencing the 1,256th annual Buddhism "Omizutori Festival" at the Todai-ji in Nara, where sparks from giant flaming balls were showered onto the crowd of onlookers from atop the Buddhist temple, our final days in Japan were spent in Kyoto, which was Japan's capital city for 1,000 years.
We also learned about business. At SONY headquarters, MSBers were treated to a VIP showroom and listened to alumni from Georgetown present the company's global strategy.
We visited the operations room at Japan Railways, where the engineers ensure the 125 mile per hour "Bullet train" is no more than 0.2 minutes delayed..ever! We also visited Toyota, where we saw Toyota's just-in-time delivery system at the Tsutsumi assembly plant, which manufactures 1,500 cars every day.
Of course, what trip abroad would be "culturally expansive" without eating new (strange) food? Japanese food is terrific: syabu-syabu, horse sashimi, and....? Yes please! We ate sushi for breakfast at the Tsukiji fish market. Then, we even dressed in Kimonos at Enkai (a traditional dinner party).
The experience was too much to describe in this short article. If you want a good idea about how much fun this trip was, please visit MSB Japan Trek '08 on Facebook" Memories of the trip will certainly last a lifetime, and for that we are eternally grateful to have shared such an experience with each other.
By Hamada Shigenobu, MBA '09
|
