Monday,
July 12
The
Kansai is the name of the region in the south of Japan, where the cities of
Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, and Nara are located. About 22 million people live in the
region, and it seemed like all of them were living in our street! Kansai
airport is actually a man-made island (see picture), just outside of Osaka. When we arrived,
we were pretty amazed how shiny and new everything was, and that was mainly due
to the fact that everything was indeed, recently built. You take a bus to the city,
which, in normal traffic, takes about 45 minutes, but we were well advised to
expect a two-hour ride. On our way, we were amazed how everything we
passed looked rather industrial, and the economy around here is built around to the
vast harbor area. Miles and miles of
concrete buildings, apartment high-rises (which usually are company dorms). No
wonder the gross product of the Kansai Region is larger than Korea, Taiwan,
Hong Kong, and Thailand combined! Anders Tjernlund quickly calculated that if
this were an independent nation, its economy would be the eighth largest in the
world.
We
settled in at the Tokyu Hotel, in the heart of Osaka. All of us, eager to
explore the City, went out that night, and the largest group wound up joining
Sebastian to one of his favorite restaurants. The place accommodated about 16
people, so with 13 of us in the restaurant, we more or less monopolized the
entire place. It was basically a long bar, with chairs placed along a
Teppan-Yaki bar. Teppan-Yaki is the kind of cuisine that is prepared on heated
plates. We enjoyed a great serving of Japanese food, the recipe of which Andy Shogan
memorized, so we could go back to the U.S. and open franchise outlets. Some of
us started business plans for a franchise that night...
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