The Working Part of Leisure

Shanghai Skyline

 Usually I try and stay away from the topic of work but sometimes work and play manage to turn into one and on those rare occasions it’s worth documenting.  

Through work I have found myself in China on what’s turning out to be almost a monthly basis. A trip to Chengdu was my first, followed by a tour of the North on my second and then recently a week long winemakers tour with stopover’s in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing

Dom, managing director in Beijing,
Marcelo Papa, Chief Winemaker for Casillero del
Diablo & me! At the Great wall on the day of the
Championship League match....
We don't have to talk about how that day ended. 

Great Wall

Once finished with China and the tour I was able to make a brief stopover in Singapore, quickly kiss my husband hello and goodbye before turning around and jumping on a plane heading for Japan. 

Japan is beautiful.

The people are polite and humble and the food fantastic.  Like everyone else, having watched this country in the news so closely the last few months I was eager to see first hand how the country was recovering. Although I didn’t venture anywhere near the devastated areas I did manage to spend a brief amount of time in Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Osaka and Takasaki; each spectacular in its own way.

I was in Japan to lead seminars and tasting on one of our global brands called Casillero Del Diablo and Japan for all its positives does have a few quirks. One of those quirks are its toilets. The Japanese as a whole are a very polite culture and go out of their way to make sure that their guests are never put into situations where they might be easily embarrassed or run the chance of losing face. Incidentally they also expect the same common courtesy from you which is something one should be mindful of and why it so important to be caught up on Japanese customs and cultures when doing business. 

But back to the subject of the Japanese toilets, as these are not your standard flush and go devices. Japanese toilets tend to have a lot of buttons and further enjoyment options. Seat too cold? Not a problem. In Japan the toilet often has a seat warmer option. Don’t want people to hear you pee? Just hit the music button and a 90 second classical music piece is piped out in your stall for enjoyment pleasures.

Now we’ve all seen enough Simpson’s episodes to know that just because a button is there doesn’t mean it needs to be pushed. This should be especially noted when you can see all the instructions are in another language and you have a stand up presentation to do in less than 10 minutes.

If Seinfeld ever kicks up again, I could write a fantastic episode based on personal experience. For as I sat in my Japanese stall with my pants at my ankles admiring the buttons, I thought it would be a great time to push a few. I pushed one button that looked like a sprinkler and after a couple of seconds of nothing happening I decide to peer down and see what was happening, only to see an R2D2 type device getting ready to fire. Fire it did. Straight between my legs and perfectly aimed into my pants. I was now in a bit of a panic and, trying to make the continual water stream from my toilet bowl stop, I decided that the obvious solution was to hit the button repeatedly; this only seemed to infuriate the R2D2 creature and add more pressure. Finally, after a few choice words, I managed to get a handle on the situation and turn the water off; leaving the problem of the wet pants. All I can say is I have never been so relieved to see a podium in my life.

Typical Japanese "westernized" tolet

Later that week I also had another encounter which involved a toilet seat warmer. Instead of being turned off, was turned all the way up to scalding hot. One would think that an international hotel would provide English directions (they don’t)

My love for Japan was perhaps sealed when on my last night in Tokyo my gracious guest took me to a bar called Abbey Road to see a Japanese Beatles cover band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9THG8YQJQI&feature=related

Let me reiterate this A JAPANESE…..BEATLES……..COVERBAND.