Busy travel week between various negotiations and meeting Sharon for a long planned trip to London – this only came up over the prior week. Going to four of the great cities of the world in a week provides quite a contrast, three cities were similar with nice people and modern facilities but one city was more of a challenge. More malfeasance was attempted against me and suggested to me in 12 hours in NYC than the prior 2 years combined everywhere else. Maybe it was some reverse culture shock.
In Tokyo, we met a customer as a social call. Japanese trading houses deal in many different industries and at one time they had tried art collecting/trading in the 1990’s but ended up “stuck” with paintings and exited the business. In their conference room, they had original art from Manet and Turner. After I was looking and asked about those pictures, the gentlemen took me to another conference room where this picture was displayed – this is a picture of the postcard as photos were not allowed. It is a Botticelli from the 1500’s. Not something you see in an office everyday….my guess is that investment paid off.
Had a potentially sad translation issue last week – it was announced in the Monday management meeting that the son of one of our employees had drowned in a diving accident the prior weekend. At lunch all the Expats were very sad and we ran into a close friend of the father and we asked what we should do – he said nothing, son got out of the hospital today and would be back at school Tuesday. We were in shock – to “drown” means to take on water. To die from drowning is known as “drowned to death”. Although it was serious enough to put the kid in the hospital, it was a very happy ending.
From Week 94 – NYC, Seoul, Tokyo, Seoul (again), London. Posted by JC Travels on 10/30/2015 (10 items)
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