My time in Shanghai has now come to an end and it was with mixed emotions I left for Japan a few weeks ago. I already miss all of the new friends and colleagues I met in Shanghai and also the city’s fantastic selection of good restaurants, bars, nightclubs, etc. However, Tokyo has turned out to be just as amazing as I thought it would be and I cannot lie about how much I love the fresh air, blue sky and not-so-crowded-streets of Kawagoe.

Visit to Pearl Tower in Shanghai, China

Visit to Pearl Tower in Shanghai, China

In my last post I promised to tell you more about Tokyo and I will, but before I do that I would like to give a few conclusions on some things I have learned about living in China. First, I present to you some basic survival tips:

  1. Learn Chinese. Or to be honest, English knowledge in Shanghai is a lot better than I expected but in many situations it’s still useful to know some basic Chinese (taxis, local restaurants, room service, spying, etc. etc.) If you insist on speaking English, try to speak slowly
  2. Become best friends with Yahoo and Baidu Maps. Don’t rely on always having a working VPN (or any Internet connection at all for that matter)
  3. Get used to carefully check the streets before crossing, even if you have a green light. I cannot count all the times I was a millisecond from being run over by a scooter running against a red light
  4. Don’t trust anything that is suspiciously cheap – if a glass of whisky costs 20 RMB, it probably isn’t whisky

On a more serious note I would say that one big difference I have noticed during meetings and discussions is that people don’t tend to speak up and ask questions as much as in Sweden. Quite often I got the feeling that people counted on me to be the one leading the meetings. Of course, this might have to do with that in all the meetings I attended we only spoke English, and a lot of people I met in China had a tendency to underestimate their English skills. Another thing some of you might already know, is that people in China don’t like to say “no” or “I don’t know” which might lead to somewhat confusing situations, particularly when asking for directions. At one occasion, this caused me to run an extra lap around People’s Park looking for a restaurant, and those of you who have been to Shanghai knows that this is not a small park…

Old warehouse street in Kawagoe, Japan

Old warehouse street in Kawagoe, Japan

But coming back to Japan: At the moment, I live and work in Kawagoe, a small and quiet city in the outskirts of Tokyo. I am pretty much the only Westerner in this area (can count the other ones I have seen so far on one hand) so it feels really exotic to live here. In addition, people’s English skills outside the company are very limited and there is usually not much information provided in English so I have had to seriously sharpen my problem solving skills to get around. Sometimes it actually helps knowing some Chinese characters since many of them have the same meaning, but different pronunciation, in Japanese.

However, Kawagoe is only a 50 min train ride from central Tokyo so of course I take every chance I get to visit this Asian metropolis during the weekends. It really is an enormous city, especially for a Swede, but the few parts of the city that I have had time to visit so far have left me feeling very impressed. The food, the shopping, the parks, the nightlife, the art and culture – Tokyo really has it all!

Tokyo Tower, Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, Snowy Kawagoe, Mount Fuji seen from the high speed rail, Meju Jingu Temple

Tokyo Tower, Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, Snowy Kawagoe, Mount Fuji seen from the high speed rail, Meju Jingu Temple

Otherwise I spend the weekdays at the office in Kawagoe, working on my different projects. I have also had the opportunity to participate in supplier visits in different areas of Japan. During my second week here, I got to join some experienced colleagues in rapid plant assessments at two supplier sites, something that felt very interesting for me and which I learned a lot from. After hearing so much about lean production, 5S, Kaizen, etc. during my university studies, I was extra excited about seeing how (or if!) it actually works in the country where these concepts were born. Of course, it also feels pretty good when you get the opportunity to ask challenging questions to a Japanese CEO.

The next time I write here, I will be back home in Sweden again, working on my last assignment which will be within Brands & Marketing with focus on the Automower. Although I look forward to coming home and going back to my normal life again (there is no place like home, right?), I feel very grateful that I had this opportunity to live and work in China and Japan. It has truly been an amazing experience and I feel that I have grown a lot, not only professionally but also personally. Moreover, I have been lucky enough to meet so many wonderful people and I sure look forward to seeing everyone again in the future!

Lisa Barrehag
Global Trainee Sourcing