Paddling Along

The next few days were filled with meetings. I was finally feeling familiar — not just with my immediate associates at Itochu headquarters or CTC, but with the subsidiaries like CTC Financial engineering. We were all struggling to anticipate where these networked opportunities would take us. I felt some employees were clueless. Others, like Moriyama-san from this subsidiary, were sharp fellows. They’d figure out what fit the Japanese market.
Before I left Tokyo, I had one last dinner with Hayashi-san. It was always good to see his smiling face. I enjoyed the mutual respect.
After meeting at his NTI office, we went to an unusual restaurant in Roppongi. It looked more like a small music venue or academic hall, with tiered, semi-circular sections facing the center stage, which was itself the kitchen. After ordering, we received food on the end of a paddle that stretched from the kitchen like an impossibly long arm. Quite the delivery system! The food and conversation were nourishing.
I came to see my experiences as unique to the place. An arena-style restaurant didn’t need replication in the U.S. Like leaving the interesting rocks and plants of a national park in place, I would take away only photographs. Sushi on the end of a paddle, Hayashi-san’s face just behind: I blinked my eyelids to capture the image on my retina, tucking it away in my memory.