TravelBio

Dog walking in Yoyogi Park Last blog post I wrote about my apartment, so this time around I thought it would be a good idea to expand out into my neighborhood. I live in an area of Tokyo called Yoyogiuehara, which is located within Shibuya-ku in central-western Tokyo. Before I moved to Tokyo and was searching for apartments from my parents' house in Ohio, my two main consideratons were location and price. Tokyo is a massive city with about 9.5 million people living in the city itself and over 35 million in the wider metro area. Most places are within walking distance of a metro stop--the city's public transit system is one of the largest in the world, with almost 10 million passengers riding the two metro systems every day (this doesn't even include buses or inter-city trains). But depending on where you live, it can take you well over an hour to get to the city center by train. Some of my colleagues commute one and a half hours each way to work! Map of the 23 w...

Japan, and Tokyo in particular, is known for its cramped quarters. Much of this simply stems from a lack of physical space. Japan's 126 million people reside in a country of some 378,000 square kilometers (146,000 square miles), less than the size of the US state of Montana--which has 1 million residents. At 333 people per square kilometer, Japan is the 24th most densely populated country in the world, just ahead of Sri Lanka and behind the Philippines. Many of the more densely populated countries are micro-states or small islands, like Monaco and Singapore. Still, Japan's 24th place ranking is somewhat misleading. Mountain ranges run through all the major islands, and in total, 73% of the country's land area is mountainous. The vast majority of the population is concentrated along the coasts, plains, and valleys. As of 2010, over 90% lived in cities, with 80 million people in urban areas along the Pacific coast of Honshu, the largest island. Topography of Honsh...

Morning rush hour in Tokyo As I mentioned in previous posts, I'm currently working in Tokyo for a company called Mizuho Leasing. Mizuho Leasing provides financing for a range of products, including industrial machinery, medical equipment, ships, and airplanes. Our customers (the lessees) lease the products for a set period of time, after which they often have the option to purchase them outright. I won't get into the nuts and bolts of financial leasing, partly because I'm no expert myself, and also because that's not what I do day to day. I work--well, technically intern--in the International Department, which oversees our company's affiliated offices in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Many of the two dozen or so employees in our department speak English well and some have worked internationally, but I am the only non-Japanese employee. (left: view from our 13th floor cafeteria) Posing at my desk with my protective equipment b...

I moved to Japan at the end of August to start work for a company called IBJ Leasing, now Mizuho Leasing. I'm in the International Department, which has about two dozen employees and oversees operations at our affiliated offices in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Within our Department, I am the only foreigner; in fact, there are no other native English speakers in the entire company! View from Mizuho Leasing's website ( https://www.mizuho-ls.co.jp/en/index.html ). The company is mostly focused on the domestic market, but they have several offices in Asia and are growing internationally Map of central Tokyo; the office is between Tokyo Tower and the Imperial Palace, near the border of Chiyoda and Minato wards Most of the westerners who live in Japan are either English teachers or they were sent here by an international company. The others--and there aren't that many--who are working at local companies likely are living here long term. They might...

At a park near my apartment in Tokyo on Saturday. On a normal weekend it'd be busier, but the city certainly isn't empty If you take a look at the official statistics of cases by country, you may be surprised to see that Japan is nowhere near the top of the list. As of today, April 5th, Japan has reported 3,139 cases. Japan was one of the first countries to identify a case of the virus outside China, all the way back in mid January. To top it off, the government has refrained from any significant quarantine or lock-down measures. I just started working remotely part of last week, but still went into the office on Tuesday and Wednesday. On both days, the metro was full--well, certainly not as packed as a typical morning rush hour in Tokyo, but all the seats were taken and many more passengers were standing. There was no way I could have kept a two meter / six foot gap recommended by social distancing. When I left the office for food, restaurants were still open and ther...