Just as i did a year ago, i decided to discover another part of the world, unknown to me, again. This year, I wanted to go to the capital of Japan for 3 months and this time I was going to bring a  small whatchado-videocamera.

It took me a week, to realize: I am actually in Tokyo and I am really experiencing everything, things I only knew from TV-documentaries, pictures and commercials. An incredible city!

My idea, to come here some day and to stay for a couple of months was so clear, that it didn’t differ much from reality- Except that reality has more details…way more details!

On the first three days, I had to convince myself in constant monologues: „You are in Tokyo, you are in Tokyo! Believe it already!“ Then I usually shook my head and started smiling from ear to ear. The japanese passengers in the train moved two seats away from me.

Here are three strange things about Tokyo, chosen by chance, which I want to list about my impressions so far:

1) In Tokyo’s trains it’s not common, but still legal to have a conversation with somebody. Although this person has to be physically present in the train. If your conversation partner is not in the train, but on your phone, you are violating the ban on cell phones, which is indicated in every train. So refrain from talking on the phone and use Internet and SMS instead. People are trying to sleep for god’s sake!

2) Sick of shrinking your clothes? Then you will love Japan! Washing machines come with only one temperature option: COLD.

3) In dance-clubs – you know, the places where people go to dance on a Saturday night – it’s forbidden to dance. If you still move to the music, a staff member will use clear body language, to politely ask you to dance more „calmly“. If you feel like a rebel and keep on dancing, a professional and way more experienced staff member might show up and he won’t be so polite anymore. He’ll stare at you fiercely and clench his fists, until you feel really tired and prefer just to stand.

After i adopted to the specific characteristics of this city, i was ready to get started and got our first whatchado-Interview.

Ever heard of a Paid Search Strategist? Me neither. This young man with dark hair on the picture, that’s one of those. Masami Kobayashi is his name, 24 and he knows: „If you want to be successful in this job, you have to be ready to work 60 hours/week.“ He loves his job, because after our interview (it was a sunday and bucketing down) he said, that he will evaluate statistics for one of his clients until midnight. The client didn’t even ask for it. I asked him: “Why are you doing this?“. His response:“I love this work. I want my clients to feel comfortable“.

I for one, really hope to meet more interesting people like Masami and to introduce them on whatchado. Till then, sayounara and have fun with the video.




and stay tuned for the upcoming Tokyo interviews, till then say what Cha Do