| A while back I was a PM and worked trade shows for the company I work for. During one of our international shows back in 2008 I think it was I had a Japanese fellow come up and start asking questions in slow, precise english. I answered a hand full of questions and then he started asking about customization of the product for his purposes. Mondainai! I told him. (no problem!). He was stunned. We chatted in Japanese for a brief moment before my vocabulary for pleasantries expired. Traded business cards properly and he was off. The next year I had already left the tradeshow when one of my co-workers called and said this same fellow was asking for me. Turn the car around and get back to the convention to make sure I visited with him again before he left. The next year he brought an entourage. The next year we were doing a formal RFP to sell products to the Japanese military. In 2012 we worked the contract and delivered and installed evaluation equipment. Now we are working on budgetaries for the production run coming soon. This never would have happened if I hadn't been exposed to the Japanese through Z Clubs and Nissan and understood the formal and informal aspects of the culture. I spent about 2 months of 2012 in country during 4 trips, seeing it in a different way than I had before with the Z Clubs, Tetsu and the CraZies over there. Of course I made time to visit with the CraZies that got all this started for me... I figured I would share a little of what I did last year and the beginning of this year with tt.NET even if it's not all Z related. First of all, I have a company repping us over there, so we're not dealing directly with the Japanese government. Good deal for us because they really made the contacting part as simple as international military programs could go. The better part is 'Tom', my agent there is kick ass. We have a great time working together. I traveled up and down most of the eastern seaboard in 2012 visiting his company HQ and going to places to talk to other potential customers with him. This took me as far south as Hiroshima and up to Tokyo area, then the CraZies are in Tokyo and up to Utsunomiya/Nikko to the north. Trip 1 
Riding the bullet train to the Akashi area to see their HQ. The snow was so bad on the way back out the train had to stop on the tracks, we almost missed our flight home.
The big boss at HQ treated us to REAL Kobe beef in Shin Kobe and a stay at a luxury resort he owns part of. It was insanely nice.
This was F*CKING AWESOME! The big boss says he prefers Texas beef though, we're still trying to string together a visit to Dallas for him. He rarely gets away from the west coast when he's in the States.
Trip 2 
We had been talking about baseball a lot with Tom. Normally for the Z club trips, you're over there in the late fall and the baseball season is over with. It was completely crazy to see how much the Japanese are into baseball traveling over there through parts of the season. Every schoolyard and floodplain had kids playing ball. Well, during one of the trips I got Tom to take myself and a co-worker to a game. We saw the Chiba Marines vs. the Tokyo Giants. Quite a few Texas Rangers have been through the Marines' system over the years. So that was of interest when researching the teams. The game was fun to watch, particularly for the crowd. I liken it to NCAA spirit, but amplified with booze (yes!).
Nothing wrong with cute Japanese girls with pony kegs on their backs serving brew. Much better than the crusty guy who sticks his fingers in your beer while pouring the can out. The 4 major brands were represented in the park and each was wearing their corporate colors. I did have to look hard for a corny dog at the concession area though...
I've gotten pretty good at navigating the trains to get from place to place. I wish we could have something like the shinkansen (bullet trains) in the US, particularly the green cars (like business class on airplanes). I would so do that over flying a lot of the time. Anyway, I can move unsupervised which makes life easier on Tom and Tetsu. Tetsu just shows up at the train station in Utsunomiya instead of having to drive all the way down to Tokyo and then back up to Narita to get us from the airport. Anyway, at some point Tetsu commented that next time I was in Japan I should bring Kobe beef from Kobe. I got Tom to buy a kilo of quality real kobe beef and have it delivered to the hotel in Chiba where we were staying during that trip. Moving beef in a bag full of ice on the trains was comical along with my luggage, but I got it done before it melted and made a mess. You should have seen the look on Tetsu's face when I handed him the bag and explained what was in it! Gotcha!! Something else we miss on the fall Z club trips are the cherry blossoms. This happens for a couple weeks in the spring and travels from south to north. I had this trip perfectly planned to be there for the height of the bloom, but the trip got delayed and I missed it by about a week. Yasu, Hideo and Kaz were determined to show me some freaking cherry blossoms anyway. So we headed up north to Lake Chuzenji and found the last couple blossoming trees in the high region. 
Hideo verifying these are cherry blossoms.
Me after driving Hideo's car back to Ultimate Z at speed. Everything Hideo has is LHD, so it was easier for me to drive.
Tetsu had asked me if I was interested in going to Tsukuba Circuit to race before this trip. I said yes, of course! I thought he meant watch racing. He did not... I packed my 'happy shoes' (driving shoes), gloves, fire suit, etc. in my suitcase for the trip. Turns out one of the stages of the Z Challenge was being run the weekend I planned to be up there and they had a 'open' class for people to drive for fun that wasn't part of the challenge series (of which I think there were 6-7 series going on at the same time). This was not point to pass, this was wheel to wheel. Great, while this is fun this level of risk is borderline for me in a foreign country. Here's what was stacked against me:
1. Not my car
2. Car is a new 370Z
3. Car is Tetsu's personal 370Z
4. Car is RHD
5. Car is uninsurred at the time
6. I had only backed the car up into the shop to change the oil and check tires the night before. I had never been in a forward gear in the car until I pulled out onto the track... Anyway, I had a blast. I spent quite a bit of time driving the track on Forza 4 in the game room at home just so I wouldn't be lost out there before going over. It definitely helped considering everything else that was ass-backward for me while driving. The first session was a goof. Tetsu has some special VDC killer on the car I couldn't find, so I was poking around the track while the car was arguing with me about traction control and wouldn't pivot at all. While I've certainly driven RHD cars before, trying to race one is a completely different situation. You can't concentrate on driving the car, you have to concentrate on not getting into a wreck. In the open class I was probably in the slowest car there. I had to watch my mirrors constantly for prepared RX-7s and whatnot and just get out of their way. 
The track announcer thought I was funny out there as well during my first session. I don't like to drive with the windows up. Less glass for safety and it was balls hot out there. I found out this is against track regulations but since I was the only Gaijin (foreigner) and playing nice with the faster cars they didn't black flag me until the last lap. The corner workers were holding up their boards with writing on them to roll up my windows while I was out there, but it was in Japanese so I couldn't read it. The track announcer though this was great sport, so there was running commentary about my windows, my inability to read Japanese and my slowness. The track director was super polite about it and I made it a non issue the rest of the day. I was slowest best lap on the board during the first session because of the VDC thing, I wasn't with it off! 
Zinji is one of Tetsu's customers. At this stage of the series he was points leader and pole position for the stock Z class.
He got rubbed in the first corner and dropped to 6th. I think he said he had finished the series 3rd overall in later discussions. He's a naturally talented driver. He didn't have a whole lot of track time under his belt before the series started.
Yasu actually doing some work!
I had never been to a Japanese supermarket. I went with the ladies and Ryohei (Hoover) to buy stuff for dinner once we figured out reservations to go wherever they wanted to take me was not going to work for the amount of people involved. Very interesting to see odd vegetables and whatnot there. I like the 4 wheel steering drift shopping carts they had there. Very maneuverable!
Farewell dinner. 
The guy in the middle is Etsu. I hadn't seen him since my very first trip over in 2001. He was the karting champion on our last day challenge race on that trip. He hasn't changed a bit and is still crazy as ever. It was really nice to see him.
This was right after the Yu Darvish trade, but before he played with the team. While the Japanese were sad to see their top player go to the Big Leagues in the States, it was interesting to see their coverage of him. It seemed like every morning on 'Good Morning Japan' there was a report, even if he wasn't pitching. Somewhere I have a picture of Ranger Manager Ron Washington's face on the TV over there with some kanji next to it. I had to have Tom translate it. It was the night after Yu pitched to Ichiro the second time and Ichiro got the best of him. The reporters were concerned Washington was going to bench Yu, but Washington said Yu is still a starter, it's one game out of the season. The attitude of the talking heads cracked me up. So serious at first and then soooo happy! It was also entertaining to step off the plane in Narita and see Ranger's gear at the shops there in the airport. I was wearing my Ranger's hat out of habit and got a lot of smiles.
Reliving Tsukuba on PS3
When we were leaving for the grocery store the night before, Masako backed into one of the security poles at Ultimate Z. Tetsu was upset with her but quickly got over it when he accidentally turned the car into the garage wall at their home later that night. We fixed the pole with a strap and the wagon.
Trip 3 Tom and I took my coworkers on the Hato bus tour in Tokyo. Tokyo Tower added some glass floors to the observation deck. 
Bride at a hotel garden wedding.
Outside the Emperial grounds in Tokyo. They only open the gates here once a year for the public to go in. You can tour the East Garden most of the year which I've done previously.
I enjoy Asahi beer over there, this is their HQ. The golden sperm is supposed to be a flame on an Olympic torch or something. For safety reasons they could not stand it up. The office building looks like a mug of beer. Tokyo Skytree is in the background. I hadn't been over since 2005, so Skytree is new to me. I haven't been in it yet. It had it's grand opening when I was on my 2nd trip of 2012 I think. Looks cool at night with the colored lighting.
Tom isn't completely Japanese culturally. He grew up in Canada and went to college in the states. He loves to grill. It seems like we have done every type of grilling for dinner over there now. Yakiniku (Korean BBQ) is my favorite type and we did it every chance we got.
View from work.
Hostess bar time! This particular evening ended very poorly for most everyone involved.
Some random restaurant near the train station in Kisarasu. This seems typical of Japan, small shops and restaurants that are mostly empty. I have no idea how they stay in business with so little commerce. This place served Miyazaki beef and I have to say I though it was tastier than Kobe. Tom says Kobe is good, but while it is the best marketed and most recognized there are better types of beef in Japan. He might be right based on this meal.
MOSburger. Probably the best chain hamburger in Japan as told to me by Japanese and Gaijins on the street out front. Compared to every hamburger besides McDonalds (which I try to avoid) I've had over there they are right. Makes me think of shotguns though.
Trip 4 During my last trip over I arrived a couple days ahead of my co-worker in order to meet Mr. K for his New Year's Party in Tokyo. Since I can run the trains, I just worked my way from Narita to Shinjuku in Tokyo where the party was. K was quite shocked to see me when I opened his car door and assisted him out since he was first there. BTW, for 103, he was doing very well. 
Tetsu getting a club flag signed in the green room. I gave him a gift of a self driving toy car. One that follows a line on the paper track. He enjoyed playing with it.
I represented the US Z Clubs and passed along a message from Mad Mike. My speech was short and not in Japanese!
Testsu, Kats, myself, Hideki, Mrs. K and Mr. K.
Afterwards, Tetsu had a surprise for me. We had talked about the Deltawing on an earlier trip... 
It was a lot larger than I though it was from pictures.
Eating at the Skiji Fish Market on the bay. Some of the best sashimi I've ever had. Place was super noisy. Every time someone came in or out the chefs would yell out to them.
Skytree at night
The next day we drove back into Tokyo (Chiba) to the New Year's Meeting Car Show on the bay. All the cars here were (supposed to be) older than 1980. 
At a rest stop. We saw the same cars at the car show later on.
The parking lot had amazing cars in it before even getting to the show.
What's wrong with this picture?
There was a Shelby-Asia semi truck parked outside, WTF? This was in the show.
I'm not sure what this was, but it looked cool.
American muscle in Japan.
I've never seen so many Lotus Europas before. There were like 20 of them there.
I think this was a kit car, not authentic.
More Europas
A real live Toyota GT2000! Amazing!
Hardtop Miata in the parking lot.
And then this thing 
Well done CF body on this Lotus. Once I got in the van and was leaving the show I saw the Body Shop Happy advert in the show's program. Appearantly this car holds some record at Tsukuba Circuit.
Since the show was for older cars, there were no Z32s in the show, but there were some in the parking lot.
Get back to Ultimate Z and Tetsu shows me this gondola thing he made and wants me to take the inaugural ride from the top of the office to the back of the shop on the 'Ultimate Monorail'. There wasn't enough Asahi around to make that happen. I asked for a tow strap and I used that to ride back and forth. Yes, rednecks exist everywhere. We got Masa to make the next pass. I think this has become a 'thing' to do at Ultimate now.
The farewell dinner.
Shinkansen to Nagoya from Tokyo goes right by Mt. Fuji.
I was introduced to Nagoya spaghetti my first trip with Tom. It's awesome. Tom took us to the birthplace of Nagoya spaghetti. I had to mark the location with my GPS so I can get back there in the future.
Tom grilling some more.
Yeah, this is a nightly thing with Tom.
Sex.
Nagoya is also known for chicken wings. Basically lemon pepper baked wings with a little extra Japanese something in there. Very tasty. There was also a special technique for eating them properly.
See a pattern here?
I hadn't done any sight seeing in Nagoya before, just business meeting stuff. So last day of the last trip we went to Nagoya Castle. The woodwork restoration going on there is amazing.
Look! over there! *steals sword and runs*
Nagoya is also known for hitsumabushi, an eel dish. The eels were alive when we walked in, then BBQ'ed and served with soup with rice in it. If you eat sushi/sashimi, think unagi. This restaurant was the first for this style of food and appearantly where celebrities go to eat. They have a limited number of plates for lunch so you have to get there early and wait in line outside to try to get a seat. We got lucky because the line was pretty long when we showed up, but we got in and had a nice lunch before making that 12 hour flight home.
Anyway, those are the highlights I can share at least. Japan is like Las Vegas. Some things just have to stay there, but I have photos if I need them later on!
Later
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SZR: Finally catching up on my travels to Japan. - 
