Today was a big day; the first of three or four days in the Six Apart KK office, the reason for our trip to Tokyo. And I had no idea what to expect. After breakfast, we began the short walk to the office. We left at 9:40, needing to be there by 10. Google said 5 minutes. We got there only 10 minutes late.

A sign near our hotel

Once we finally found the office and got up to the Six Apart floor, we walked in and were greeted by Nob I think. He showed us a small conference room that would be our office for the week, and explained he would introduce us toward the end of the weekly Monday morning meeting, in about an hour. Our room had windows overlooking the office cubicles and was pretty comfortable.

Eventually we were called into the main room, and we each gave somewhat awkward introductions for ourselves, and then everyone cheered and clapped. Then we went back to our room and began working, unsure if anything specific was planned for the day.

After a while we were taken around the office to meet everyone, especially the Movable Type team, which was much smaller than I expected. Everyone was very nice, though, and three of them spoke decent English. We got a preview of the new features of the next version of Movable Type, and then the team took us to lunch.

The venue was a place we never would have found on our own. Inside what looked like an office building, we took the elevator up a few floors, and then behind a dark, sliding door was a narrow hallway leading into a restaurant. We were led into a small room with a sunk floor and benches around a little table. It was a delightful experience!

Lunch with the Movable Type team at すみやき料理 はやし

We all ordered the same thing, a chicken and egg over rice dish called oyako donburi, which literally means “parent and child.” Kind of weird, but it tasted delicious. The Japanese all ate their meals quite quickly and completely, leaving Aaron, Dan and I struggling to finish. We suspected this was because they didn’t eat breakfast, but they claimed they did!

Having lunch with some engineers from Six Apart, makers of Movable Type

すみやき料理 はやし

Then we walked back to the office to finish some work.

All directions at once, as usual

Random characters carved into the tiles

Coming back from lunch with the Movable Type team

We didn’t stay very late, and headed back to the hotel somewhat earlier than everyone else. Taking a recommendation from Nick, we headed to Harajuku to check out some shops on Takeshita Street, which supposedly is a fashion district where new styles are tested. It ended up being wonderful; exactly what I was hoping to find when we went shopping at Shibuya. Takeshita Street has a bunch of stores with mens clothing and mostly everything I found was cheap! I wanted to buy everything!

Face mask at Takeshita Street

Takeshita Street

Aaron and Dan wanted food, so we found a place that seemed appetizing to Aaron. I forgot what it was called, but I got a weird little avocado salad and an ice cream bread thing. It was delicious!

Many times I heard a Japanese person say “Please wait a minute” when I would say “Hold on”

Then those two wandered around while I shopped, and once stores started closing around 9 or 10, we returned to the hotel.

Stand here

Entries in this series:

• Arriving in Tokyo alive, discovering delicious noodles
• Exploring Sensoji Temple, lively Shibuya
• Nattō is gross, but I want to move to Tokyo
• Meeting Six Apart, buying some clothes (what else?)
• Cultural barriers, meeting a yo yo champion
• Saying goodbye, for now