Innovation #1, I liked in Japan

A much needed accessory for the toilet.

Impressions of Storage and Service in Japan

Most of the time, I was a tourist in Japan. But once in a while I also had serious discussion with whoever spoke better English than my Japanese or put up with an interpreter who only translated selectively! Some discussions were about population trends, storage market and opportunities and service nuances. Whether it was Sapporo, Kyoto or Tokyo, I was surprised and impressed that most Japanese, I talked to, considered issues with worldwide perspective instead of what is good for Japan unlike some other places.

Storage professionals seem to be as much in demand in Japan and APAC as in North America. I wish I had some Japanese language skills, I would have easily skipped my return flight. ;-)

I also heard similar sentiments about Hitachi storage as I hear in North America about its mindshare and footprint. Main difference being that most comments in Japan were directed not at HDS but at Hitachi's disk drive unit. HGST may be the better known entity in Japan than HDS. Where is storage on its list of priorities at Hitachi? Chime in if you desire. And, what's up with everyone wanting to discuss HDS with me?

I was particularly impressed with the level of service extended to customers in Japan. I don't think I have experienced such service dedication anywhere else. One individual from auto industry put it nicely "Here you get better service because it is ingrained culturally. In US, you get good service because people get paid for it." Just makes me wonder why HDS is generally thought of as "great hardware, ok software, poor service" company.


Promotional display for ASUS-Lamborghini Golden Edition laptop in Akihabara area of Tokyo. If you are in the area, try visiting Yodobashi Camera, a huge discount electronic store. I haven't seen anything like it on this side of Pacific.

Thanksgiving in Kyoto

I hope my readers had wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I spent my thanksgiving in Kyoto enjoying fall colors at Kiyomizudera temple and eating Puffer fish, a Japanese delicacy, for dinner.

I enjoyed my visit to wonderful Japan. It was also a nice break from laptop, cell phone, Internet, email and blog.

Now it is time to get back to storage.

Trip to Japan

Continuing with the theme of reasons for light blog activity. Last few weeks, we were working out the details of visit to Japan next month.

Here are details of our trip,

Nov. 19 - 21 Tomakomai, Sapporo.
Nov. 22 - 23 Kyoto, Osaka.
Nov 24 - 26 Tokyo.

Even though, most visitors to my blog are based in US, there are some visitors from Japan too. If you are one of those readers from Japan, ping me. And if you are located in any of the cities on our list, we will be happy to say hello in person, time permitting.

I get the impression from a recent Wall Street Journal article How Demon Wife Became a Media Star And Other Tales of the 'Blook' in Japan that blogging is huge in Japan.

Blogs are even more popular in Japan than in the U.S. ... An estimated 25 million Japanese -- more than a fifth of the population -- are believed to read blogs.

It will be great to build some connections in Japanese blogging world. The Pleasures of Finding Things Out! And meeting readers in person all over world.

Note: If earlier you noticed a Google Map Test post, I was trying to include Google Map in my blog post. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it work. And after fiddling with the API for few hours, it wasn't worth wasting my time anymore.