During the week of course work was the priority; we nevertheless had some good opportunities in the evenings to get to see a bit of town and also (thanks to our hosts) had a superb introduction into the variety of Japanese food – from the well known sushi and sashimi to shabu-shabu (Japanese-style hotpot with thinly sliced beef), tempura, unagi to the diversity of Hokkaido cuisine.

Already a couple of times during this year work had brought me (back) to some interesting places – and now it was back to Tokyo.

This time – having learned my lesson from the Singapore trip – I already made it to the destination (i.e. into Tokyo Narita) on Saturday evening, essentially to allow for an additional day to adjust for the timezone difference (which in retrospect this was a good decision, as I barely slept in my first night and was tired all day on Sunday).

Saturday evening I started, where my Tokyo ventures had also started back in 2008 – Asakusa and the Senso-Ji temple.

On Sunday the weather clearly showed that a typhoon was nearing – it was raining all day with rain and wind getting heavier in the course of the day. I had a very early start, making my way by subway to the Zojo-Ji temple; from here I continued to the imperial garden. With the weather conditions deteriorating, I decided to visit the national museum of modern art. For lunch I met back with the rest of the folks at the hotel (two more colleagues from Europe plus our Japanese host). For the afternoon we were basically left with indoor options – while the others went for some relaxation, I ended up in a shopping mall for a look around.