Jeez! I get it. Bill Gates is retiring. I know! I don’t need every story in the news to be about it. This is just really crazy!

I was on the freeway this morning on the way to work when I saw a truck. It was a produce truck, but that’s not the point. It had arrows painted on the back indicating the way to pass the truck. To the left it had an arrow saying “Passing Side” and to the right it said “Suicide.”

I was amused.

In my youth I spent many hours playing on the escalators in the mall where my parent’s pizza store was. I would get into trouble and mall security would escort me back to the pizza store and my mom would yell at me. Rinse and repeat and that made up a large part of my childhood. Had I known then what I know now, my childhood could have been a lot better.

What a crazy two weeks. I spent a week in Japan, and last week was our Mid-Year meeting.

There are two company meetings every year. One in January called Kickoff and Mid-Year. The mid-year meeting lasts three days and is filled with smaller meetings and companywide meetings spanned across the days. The evenings were filled with dinners. One dinner was a competition similar to Iron Chef. That was a ton of fun.

As fun and effective as the meetings were it was really tiring for me. Especially with the drive I have to endure going each way.

Now it’s back to the grind and hopefully I can get some work done.

So the inevitable happened. I bought a coke. It tastes just about the same, but instead of hissing when I open it, it pops!

So I have been wandering the halls of the office building in Tokyo and noticed that it looks like something out of star trek! All the walls are metal, and modular. It seems that each panel opens up to some kind of compartment, and maintenance doors are hidden well.

So here I am, partially fulfilling a life-long dream. Partially because its not a personal visit and because I am not sharing it with Shib. Otherwise a very interesting trip so far.

I came here to do some stuff for work. I will be here for 5 days.

I get off the plane to the knowledge that there has been a major stabbing in Tokyo earlier in the day. Great. I take the two hour bus ride into Tokyo and find out my hotel room is a glorified closet. Apparently that’s how things roll in Tokyo though so its cool. I found it funny that for the first time in a hotel I am forced to be organized because there isn’t enough floor space to just toss my junk everywhere.

Its raining. Its hot. Its humid. Other than that its great!

I think its amazing how dense this place is. The buildings come right up to the roads and expressways. Roads are going in, and out, around, through, and even under buildings. While on the bus I saw a lane in the middle of the road suddenly disappear underground. It reminded me of the holes in that game where you try to maneuver the marble around the maze.

People seem to be shaken up quite a bit about the stabbing. Coming from LA it seems amazing since a stabbing wouldn’t even make the news.

Here is a picture of the room. I am standing at the window while taking this picture. You can see part of a desk on the right, and the twin size bed. That’s about all there is to the room.