Asia Perspectives Tour: Day 24 – 26; Tokyo, Japan (#OldMeetsNew)

"Be impatient with actions and patient with results" - Naval Ravikant

Day 24 – 26 was spent exploring Amazon’s Haneda office (HND 10 & 11), Bank of Japan Currency Museum, Imperial Palace Tokyo, Lunch and dinner with friends, Senso-ji Temple, Shibuya Scramble Crossing, teamLab Planets, Tokyo Port Museum, Tokyo SkyTree Tower, Tokyo Stock Exchange, and traveling back to USA.

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1.??? Amazon’s Haneda office (HND 10 & 11): Paid a working visit to Amazon’s corporate office in Tokyo (HND 10 & 11). Besides the scale and impact Amazon delivers for our customers in Japan and worldwide, I was also impressed by how big reward points are in Japan – a customer gets points from the purchase of an item and those points can be applied towards the purchase of products and services on Amazon.co.jp

2.??? Bank of Japan Currency Museum: Visited Bank of Japan Currency Museum to learn more about the history of coins in Japan (7th – mid-12th century), inflow of coins from overseas (mid-12th to 16th century), era of Yen / Bank of Japan (late 19th – 20th century), and topical issues of money in the current and future world. It was fun carrying JPY ￥100million (~USD $700,000) in replica bills (it weighs ~10kg!).

3.??? Imperial Palace Tokyo: We visited the Imperial Palace, Tokyo – the main residence of the Emperor of Japan (literally “ruler of heaven”)[1]. The Emperor of Japan – a symbol that unites all Japanese, is the direct descendant of the Sun goddess Amaterasu and is said to have been mythically founded in 660BC (2,683 years ago).

4.??? Lunch and Dinner with Friends: We had lunch and dinner with a few friends of ours in Japan. I appreciate them for sharing their culture, learning from them, and sharing their time with us. I got to eat Wagyu and gyutan (cow tongue). ?

5.??? Senso-ji Temple: It was a spiritual experience visiting Senso-ji Temple (Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist temple completed in 645). I got to say a few prayers for a life filled with impact to humanity.

6.??? Shibuya Scramble Crossing: The world’s busiest pedestrian crossing with as many as 3,000 people crossing at a time is Shibuya crossing[2]. Personally, I’ll say half of the 6pm pedestrians where tourist like me crossing back and forth multiple times to make memories! The experience was worth it!

7.??? teamLab Planets: I will call this #NewTokyo. teamLab Planets is an entire body immersive art facility that utilizes digital technology to dissolve the boundary between self, others and the world. You need to visit here to appreciate the experience.

8.??? Tokyo Port Museum: I explored the Tokyo Port museum to appreciate the role Tokyo port played in Japan’s economic recovery. One interesting thing I learned was that some sections of the present day Tokyo port is reclaimed land during the Meiji Period.

9.??? Tokyo SkyTree Tower: One gets an impressive perspective of Japan’s skyline (and even Mount Fuji) from Tokyo SkyTree Tower – the world’s 3rd tallest structure at 634m (or 2,080 ft)[3].

10. Tokyo Stock Exchange: A Stock Exchange reflects the vibrancy and resilience of its underlining economy. We decided to visit Tokyo’s Stock Exchange ($5.82 trn market capitalization and 5th largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization as of Dec 22, 2023) to explore its electronic trading and 4 bronze statues that greatly contribute to a vibrant economy – industry, commerce, agriculture and communication / transportation.

11. Return to USA: Having spent the last 27 days exploring multiple Asian cities and gaining diverse perspectives, we arrived the USA. As leaders, learning never stops – I’ll keep striving to be better tomorrow than I am today, implement learnings from #AsiaPerspectivesTour and to deliver for our customers. ?

Next Perspective: Implementing Learnings from #AsiaPerspectivesTour and #ContinuedLearning. Learning never stops!

[1] Emperor of Japan or Tenno (literally “ruler of heaven”) ?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_of_Japan

[2] Shibuya Crossing is the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya_Crossing

[3] Tokyo Skytree tower is worlds 3rd tallest structure as of 2023 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_structures