Life & Living:  My 1st trip to Japan — Tokyo, circa 1985. #Travel

I’m 37 and working at AT&T Network Systems, leading strategic planning.  Network Systems was AT&T’s then $10B networking equipment and software business.  We’re exploring some deal with Fujitsu.  It’s right before Xmas. 14 hours non-stop in a sawed off 747 from Kennedy to Narita.  I have 5 lasting memories:

1. Who said everything in the Bell System was standardized?  The AT&T “Long Lines” guys were in 1^st Class.  We’re in Business Class.  As an operating company guy from western Maryland, I’m not surprised and thrilled to not be in Coach.
2. Run DMC was on the same flight.  The Japanese Customs agents didn’t know what to make of them. 
3. We stayed at The Imperial Hotel which was decorated for Christmas.  Ladies in beautiful kimonos pushed the buttons for you in the “self-service” elevators and bowed as the doors closed.
4. We took the bullet train to a small town that had unpaved streets and Fujitsu’s state-of-the-art, world-class factory making telecom switching systems.  During the week, the General Manager (the top guy) lived in the dorm with the workers.  He was a “week-end warrior,” having left his family in Tokyo so his children could attend better schools there.
5. In a dick contest at a fancy dinner in a traditional Japanese restaurant, my Fujitsu counterpart essentially “dared” me to eat a raw sea urchin topped with a raw bird’s egg.  I wolfed that bad boy right down.