It`s funny where life takes you isn’t it?
One minute I am dreaming about making a big internet sports business the next thing I am in Japan.
Well the trip to Japan was all in the aid of developing the business, you see Marcelo our chief information officer and creator of all Navsports great functionality has moved to Japan.
One would say that distance when it comes to developing an online business is no problem, but I say unless you can talk eye to eye then things are sure to fail.
Marcelo is married to a fantastic woman and her parents just happen to live in Japan, Marcelo told me months before that he was moving, so I had plenty of time to organize a business trip with Navsports other director Mark (my brother).
We arrived on November 21st for a ten day trip. It turned out to be a great journey. Marcelo and his wife Telma chaperoned us all over Japan, without Telma`s grasp of the Japanese language we would have seen only a quarter of what we saw.
We travelled daily, using the super efficient local rail system and the awesome bullet trains (270kms hr) for longer distances to places like Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto, Hamamatsu and Tokyo.
At night we would work on the site.
We achieved so much in Japan, getting the site online and strengthening our friendship.
I must tell you the things that really stood out for me was the amount of vending machines (they are everywhere), the amount of restaurants (again they are everywhere) the urban sprawl (not much open area) and the most striking thing was how polite and respectful the Japanese people are.
I will never forget my trip to Japan; it was really special made even more special because of the people I shared it with.
Bye for now…Stewart
