International Entrepreneurship
An Analysis of Two Countries

Introduction

            Our journey to South Korea and Japan was to explore the differences in entrepreneurial activity.  We have learned from the GEM report that Korea has a 14% activity rating while Japan has the lowest in the world with a 1.8% rating.  Our job is to study these two cultures by meeting people from all walks of life.  We are scheduled to meet business leaders, government officials, and people on the street. 
            Our data collection will be broken into three parts.  Each group was required to develop, translate, and disperse their own version of an entrepreneurial questionnaire.  These questions went to the people we met on the street or in shops while exploring the city.  The second way we would gather information was by formal business speakers set up by our professor. The third and final experience was for each individual group to find and interview an entrepreneur in each country.  You will find the information we collected below.

Introduction to Korea

            We started our project in Korea by hitting the streets and interviewing people about entrepreneurship in their country.  We separated into three different locations in order to get a better test group.  Each group member had from 4-5 questionnaires to assist with the interview process.  We approached both people on the street and people behind the counters in different businesses in order to get a more complete view. 
There were a few issues that came up while we were working.  First, we had to make sure that our questions could translate into Korean.  We also weren’t sure if we would have any success with people on the street.  Everything we had heard was that the Asian community is very conservative and may be unwilling to speak to a foreigner.  We couldn’t have been happier to find that we were well accepted and even sought after.  When one person was doing our survey, a couple of others would come over with interest to do it themselves.
            Each questionnaire had 43 questions ranging from simple demographic questions to the more complex entrepreneurial percentages.  The questions we asked were also to get a better feel for the interviewee.  We needed to make sure that our demographic did not just focus on one age group or sex.  As best we could we split the interviews between the sexes.  Below are some of the statistics that we came up with.

Personal Characteristics
           
            Sixteen of our interviews are with working professionals that included all of our 5 age groups that started at 18 and finished with 65+.  Of these age groups 75% fell within the ages of 18-44 and 90% were born in the Republic of South Korea and 55% were married. 
            Our education statistics have 80% of our participants with at least 2 years of higher education.  Of the people that have advanced education 45% have 4 year degrees.  An interesting fact came up in our research; we found that 85% of those we spoke to thought that there were more men than women entrepreneurs. 
            A couple of other statistics that we thought were very interesting are that about 50% either liked being there own boss and 50% did not like to take risk.  The latter statistic was much higher than we assumed.  With such a conservative culture we thought the numbers for risk would be much different.  We were very pleased to see that Koreans are much more open than originally presumed. 

Business Characteristics

            We had many preconceived notions about Korean business from our teachings.  Some were right on and others were incorrect.  Needless to say we learned a lot about how to do business in this society.  Here are some of the facts that we came up with in our interviews.
            The amount of people that knew someone that created and works a business is 85% while only 40% actually owned their own company.   We believe that amount of people that owned their company was a little higher since we interviewed people in shops in Itawan.  This city is lot like China town in New York City.  Almost everything is negotiable and is a place that is visited frequently by the U.S. Armed Services stationed in Korea. 
            Statistically we found that Koreans believed that entrepreneurs were between 35 and 64 years of age with the largest age segment, 35%, between 55-64.  One would suggest that this statistic shows that they believe Entrepreneurship to be for people who are at or near retirement age.  The data also shows that 40% thought that creating new enterprises was on the rise.
            The most surprising numbers that we accumulated came from the question, “What exactly does success mean to you?”  We found that 55% thought that growing the business meant that they were successful while only 45% thought that making a profit was their marker for success.  This would have us believe that Koreans care more about doing a good job than they do about making large sums of money.  Do not think that any of these people would not want to be wealthy; they just have a particular view on how to reach a wealthy state.

Financing Characteristics

            Financing was a tough question for our prospective business leaders, many of which were not quite sure how to obtain money to create their own business.  However, the largest segment of answers showed that 35% had anywhere from W500,000-$1,000,000 Won to use for financing.  A factor we believe comes from the average age of those interviewed.  In the same regards, these people thought, 75%, that a bank loan was the best way to get money for their future endeavors.
            When asked if the government assisted with the creation of new business, 45% thought that the government could do more.  They were also unsure, by 40%, if there were venture capitalists to assist, but 70% said that would like to start their own business regardless of venture capital.

Entrepreneurial Interview
             
We were honored and privileged to interview Changsuk Lee.  Changsuk was the perfect guest; he was polite, informative and very willing to answer all of our questions. He has his undergrad from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea in Metallurgical Engineering, while his post grad work was done in France.  Before he created his own businesses he worked for Boeing in Seattle and Merrill Lynch in London. 
The interview flowed easily and comfortably.   We were quite surprised by the amount of information about our topic that Changsuk provided.  Immediately he challenged our Japanese number of 1.8%.  He made it quite clear that he felt that number was much too low.  He also told us about the shift in the Asian market.  His belief is that Korea, now the 11th largest economy in the world, would be the 6th or 7th in the next 5 years.  He also believed that much of the market in this region would transfer to China instead of the incumbent Japanese market.  Eventually, Changsuk believes, the entire world economy will be affected by the Chinese and not the Japanese or the Americans.   He believes that the outgoing nature of the Korean people make them especially entrepreneurial.

Introduction to Japan

We began this part of our trip much the same way we began in Korea.  We entered Tokyo and went straight to work.  We found from the very beginning that this culture was much different from the one we just left.  We tried to get people to take our survey to get statistical data but found it much more difficult.  Instead of people swarming to see what the American students were doing, we found that we would have to work much harder to get the information we eagerly anticipated.
            Once again there was a language barrier that we had to fight through.  First was the word entrepreneur.  We will speak to this issue much more in our conclusion.  However, some of our more personal questions did not translate well into Japanese and a few had to be reworded.  We also ran into a culture that was not accustomed to having strangers from other countries stop to ask them questions.  Once we straightened out our translation problem we went right back to work meeting new and interesting people.   We adjusted our thinking and went to several different café’s to drink some coffee and work our way in to meeting people.  The biggest lesson about the Japanese was that they prefer to meet in a personal setting.   This new strategy worked very well as we completed all or our surveys.  Below are some statistics we produced.
           
Personal Characteristics
           
            Our interviews included 70% working professionals with the largest percentage, 70%, coming from the age group 18-24.  Most of our participants, 90%, were born in Japan and 65% were single.  This is a much different segment of individuals than our first group of surveys as 75% of our group did not own a business.
            Educationally we had 60% of our subjects who had at least a 2 year degree with a 50-50 split between 2 and 4 year certificates.  They also believed, by 75%, that an entrepreneur was between the ages of 25 and 44.  Finally 50% of those questioned had thoughts of starting their own business.

Business Characteristics

            The amount of people from our survey that thought it was hard to break into the Japanese business sector was 60%.   While a resounding 75% knew someone who owned their own business, while 55% thought that entrepreneurial activity was increasing in their country.  We also found that 45% of those interviewed thought that entrepreneur’s owned at least 7% of the businesses with the rest over the 15% mark.  These last statistics were quite different from our original estimates.
            Statistically we found that the Japanese believed that entrepreneurs were between 25 and 44 years of age.  They felt that largest age group, 40%, was between 35-44.  This shows that the Japanese are assumed to start much younger in the quest for personal ownership.   The data also shows that the need to start a business and the opportunity to create was about a 50-50 split amongst those interviewed.
            Once again most surprising numbers that we accumulated came from the question, “What exactly does success mean to you?”  We found that 35% thought that growing the business meant that they were successful while 35% thought that breaking even was their marker for success.  The final 30% thought that making a profit was their key to success.  We learned that the Asian culture’s idea for success appears to be different from those of western cultures like the United States.  It is much more important in these countries for a person to save face by not failing than it is to become wealthy.  

Financing Characteristics

            Financing was again a tough question for our prospective business leaders.  We had varied answers to personal savings being a major factor of investment in ones own company.  The most, 25% had a least $5,000 USD to help themselves start.  Over 70% of those who participates thought that bank loans were the best way to start.  This is a little peculiar since the banking in Japan is still recovering from a 10 year below average market.  Venture capital was also a way that 50% thought they could begin working on their own.
            When asked if the government assisted with the creation of new business, 75% thought that there was some level of government assistance to gain capital but also thought the government could do more.  Even thought most thought that bank loans were the way to go, 50% said that would like to start their own business regardless of how they funded it.

Entrepreneurial Interview

            For our Japanese interview we were lucky enough to question the President and CEO of ChangeVision, Kenji Hiranabe.  Kenji is the founder of the company but his financing came from his previous employers.  He has a software engineering background and helped in the development of their founding product.
The company develops software specializing in UML, unified modeling language.  The company was founded on January 22nd, 2006 and already has over 100,000 users of their software.  Changevision has both a 3 year plan and a 5 year plan.  If they are successful enough they would like to sell the company outright to investor within 3 years.  If they need a little longer to increase equity, their 5 year plan has them going public on one of the Japanese stock exchanges.  Their marketing is both internet and periodical based.  They have offices in a few cities in Japan and an office in China.  They are considered a business to consumer company or a B2C. 
           
Conclusions
           
            We started with the belief that Korea and Japan were drastically different in their entrepreneurial activity and what we learned was quite a bit different.  We were told by the GEM report that Korea had a 14% activity rating with Japan having a 1.8%.  Through our vast array of sources, speakers, government officials, and everyday people, we learned that these numbers were far from accurate.  We learned that while these two countries are far apart on the world economy market, they were very much alike in their entrepreneurial fervor.  
            Here are a few country characteristics that we were privy to.  Koreans consider themselves an open society.  They have 267 Universities that contribute to entrepreneurial activity.  There management philosophy is that good people insure a good company.  They believe the people will follow by virtue not by power.  They also think that success is part of progress and that a company should pay for a job not the person who does the job.  Lastly, they are a tight knit community that believes in trust and loyalty from members and customers.
            Japan has a much more closed society that is still being governed by older generations that believe it should stay closed.  There are no real university incubator systems to help entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial programs.  There is no real support from public or private investors but there seems to be some talk about the future of these types of investors.  The biggest emerging Japanese market is in the manufacturing of video game consoles and the software for them.
            Besides the surveys that we spoke about previously, two speakers gave us more insight on our thesis than anyone else.  It just so happens that one was from Korea and the other Japan.  Mr. Inkwan Cho of Korea and Mr. Iwao Tomita of Japan gave us the most insight into our research.
            We found out from Mr. Cho that the Korean market was not nearly as mature as the Japanese market but it was quickly growing.  Since there is a lack of venture capital in Korea, most funding is done through the Business Incubator program run by the government.  Of the $70 million dollars invested in this market for new ventures the government supplies over 40%.  He also spoke about the two largest companies in Korea, Samsung and LG.  He believes that there is too much dependence on their supply chain thus limiting the growth of outside sources.
            Many of the speakers and interviewees from Korea believe their people to be more individualistic than the Japanese.  Our interview with Chansuk and our speaker Mr. Cho both feel that their countrymen are more spirited and often more willing to be different.  This leads them to believe that they are much more suited to be entrepreneurs.  Another reason is that unlike Japan, Korea does not offer lifetime employment to its workers.
            Mr. Tomita gave us a very different insight.  Though he believes that Japanese people are more rigid in their beliefs, he feels that times are changing.  Over the next 10 years he thinks that his people will become much more individualistic.  He believes that Japan should be the leader of the Asian business market.  He also believes that they must lead the way for Asia.  He told us that the Japanese government needs to get more involved in helping create new business.  The venture capital is even lower in this country than the previous.
            From Mr. Tomita, we learned that the Japanese banking system is in need of a drastic overhaul.  His goal for the near future is to create a governing body much like the SEC in the United States.  He doesn’t think that the government does enough to police the companies that are already large and prosperous.
            What we learned as a group from all of our speakers, including those above, is that these two countries are not very far apart in their approach and percentage of entrepreneurship.  We believe that Mr. Tomita hit the nail on the proverbial head when he told our group that the word “Entrepreneur” in Japan means a very large and successful organization like Toyota.  The Japanese do not believe they are entrepreneurs by merely starting their own company.  They believe that they must be large and powerful to be successful and consider themselves entrepreneurs.  From the surveys and the speakers, we feel that these two countries are much closer to 20%-30% entrepreneurial activity than the numbers provided to us by the GEM report but have very different ideas and methods for achieving entrepreneurial success.

Today is our last day in Tokyo.  After a quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant we set out to meet with our entrepreneur.  Gabe, Fekade, and Jason had scheduled a meeting with Kenji Hiranabe for 9am this morning at his office. We took a short ride on the subway, and then walked a few blocks to the Shinjuku-Mitsui building located in downtown Tokyo.  Kenji is the President and CEO of a software company called ChangeVision.  The company produces a software package that is similar to Microsoft Visio, but is not yet available outside of Japan.  ChangeVision was founded in January of this year, but there are already more than 100,000 users in Japan using their software.  The company has several offices in Japan, and one in China.  They are currently attempting to enter the market in China, and would also like to find a distributor in the United States.  The company has a 3-year plan with an exit strategy of being sold to another company or a private investor.  If that doesn’t happen, they also have a 5-year plan to take the company public on the Japanese Stock Exchange in order to boost their equity.  We interviewed Kenji for about an hour, documenting the entire event with the digital camcorder.  He left us with the following parting words regarding operating your own business, “talk with people with honesty”, “consistency is the most important thing”, and “talk with people with your heart”.  At the end of the interview, we presented Kenji with one of our GSU Asia Study Trip shirts, took several still photos of him with our team members, and thanked him for his time.

When the interview was over, we walked back to the subway station and made our way back to the hotel.  We spent the rest of the morning working on various deliverables, and preparing to leave for Kyoto.  At 2pm, the entire group boarded the bus and left for Tokyo Station.  The station was massive and filled with a literal sea of people, but we finally made our way to the boarding area for the train.  The train was the Shinkansen series 700, more commonly referred to as the “bullet train”.  This particular model train is capable of reaching a top speed of 187mph.  On the inside the train is very comfortable and spacious.  When riding it, you get no sense of its speed except for the landscape that is flying by in the window.  The trip from Tokyo to Kyoto is about 320 miles, but it only takes 2 hours and 20 minutes.

After arriving in Kyoto, we took a short ride into the center of town to spend the night in a traditional Japanese dwelling at the Ryokan Inn.  The rooms featured traditional style seating and beds, raised and padded floors, sinks and bathrooms that are separated, sliding wooden doors to separate sections of the room, and period wall coverings.  The rooms also featured many modern amenities such as; electricity, running water, air conditioning, telephones, and small televisions.  The sleeping arrangements were large pads that are placed on the floor during the night, and then folded and stored in closets during the daytime.  The pads are very comfortable, and I got one my best nights of sleep on the trip during the night we spent here.

After settling into the hotel and resting for a while, we decided to go out and explore the local area for a bit.  There is a large shopping area that was only about a block from the hotel that we walked to.  The shopping area encompassed many city blocks, and had stores with about any type of item you might be looking for.  We spent several hours looking around the various shops, and then got some dinner before heading back to the hotel.  Shortly after returning to the hotel, I went to bed.  The schedule has been pretty hectic, but we are having a wonderful time and everyone is still in great spirits.  Tomorrow we leave for Osaka, which will be the final day of our trip before we return to Atlanta.  Until then…

JETRO’s main goals are

1. Promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) into Japan
2. Assisting Japan’s smaller firms
3. Facilitating economic growth in developing countries
4. Helping foreign firms enter the Japanese market
5. Supporting the economic revitalization of Japan’s regions
6. Helping Japanese firms expand overseas and aiding efforts to protect intellectual property
7. Supplying Japan with foreign economic information

At JETRO, Mr. Dai Higashino, a Japanese economic adviser, made the first presentation. He explained to us Japan’s experience with bubble economy resulted in an excess of employment and capacity.

Mr. Dai Higashimo explained the reason for the low entrepreneurial activity in Japan.

1. The mechanism linking capital and technology did not exist.
2. Start-up cost is very high
3. Sources of financing were scarce.

For example, stock companies were required to have 10,000,000 paid in capital. Between 2003 and 2006, a series of laws were enacted to make it easier for entrepreneurs. Mr. Higashimo also mentioned that a major in Entrepreneurship does not exist in Japan although some business schools offer courses in Entrepreneurship.

A question was asked about Japan’s declining population of Japan and its impact on Entrepreneurship in Japan. Mr. Higashino mentioned that there are three critical inputs to any economic activity.
1. Labor Input
2. Capital
3. Productivity
In the absence of an increasing labor source and scarce capital, Japan’s focus has been on increasing productivity as critical part of maintaining its competitiveness. To this end, the Japanese government has been concentrating on increasing productivity through science research and development as well as development of human resources.

Another question was asked about bankruptcy and its effect on Entrepreneurship in Japan. Mr. Higashino explained that owners guarantee the capital of their company and if a company goes bankrupt, it would be extremely difficult for the owner to try a second time. There is also a social stigma attached to the owner of a bankrupt company as failure. Therefore there is a huge pressure to have a successful company. This pressure dissuades a lot of people form considering entrepreneurship.

The next speaker was Mr. Shigeru Kuwabara of the Invest Japan Business Support Center (IBSC). He briefed us on Japan’s ICT Market. Japan’s ICT market is concentrated in four areas. These are

1. Communications infrastructure. E.g. Optical fiber, xDSL, etc
2. Game machines. E.g. Nintendo, PlayStation
3. Software. E.g. Game, cartoons, animation, etc
4. Hardware manufacturing. E.g. Mobile phone, CDMA, etc

There are six IBS centers in Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe and Fukoka. These centers “develop foreign investment promotion plans, identify promising foreign firms to invest in Japan, and provide information and consultation to suit the individual needs of foreign companies.”  The IBSCs provide a business library, free staff support, meeting rooms, and office space for foreign companies interested in creating a company in Japan. There have been over 200 companies that have used the free facilities of IBSCs.

Mr. Kuwabara mentioned that Japan’s banking system and the investment climate are not conducive to entrepreneurs. But the new corporation law of may 2006 goes a long way in remedying the problem faced by entrepreneurs. 

A question was asked about women entrepreneurs and Mr. Kuwabara said that women entrepreneurs are more prevalent in the ICT market than other fields. He also commented that Koreans are a lot more aggressive about business while the Japanese are more conservative.

During lunch, Jim met one of the tenants of JETRO, Jason Reese from bambooinc.com, and invited him to talk to the class. He told us about his experience in Japan and how he uses guerilla marketing to sell the yellowtail wine from Australia. He graciously offered a bottle of yellowtail wine to the class.

After Jason’s presentation, Eric did a presentation on Korean and Japanese music. He gave us interesting perspective on Japanese Rap and how the Japanese rappers have incorporated the US style. Ramesh followed by talking about Japanese and US business practices.

The next scheduled speaker was David Mori, an expatriate entrepreneur from Vancouver Canada. He is the founder of EnglishOK! as well as the “Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo”, a non-profit organization. He gave us the following statistics, which contradicts the central point of our thesis for this class:

1. There are 6.2 million companies in Japan
2. 5 million of them have less than 10 employees
3. 98% of all businesses are small businesses
4. 90% of new businesses fail.

Mr. Mori contends that the level of entrepreneurship in Japan is in the 10-15% range rather than the 2% that was given by Babson College. The difference he thought may be explained by how entrepreneurship is defined in the US and in Japan.
Mr. Mori also gave us an explanation of the old and new corporate structures in Japan.
Old

• Kojin Jigyo – Private company
• YK – Yigan Kaiso (Limited Liability)
• KK – Kabushiki Kaisha (corporation)

New ( as of May 2006)

• GK – Godo Kaisha
• JSKK – Jotoseiga
• KKK – Kokai Kabushiki Kaisha (Public, similar to previous KK, three directors and one auditor, reporting and compliance required)
• YSJK - Yugen Subinin Jigyo Kumiai (Limited Liability partnership)

Mr. Mori talked about financing a company in Japan. The most common way of financing a small company was from savings and/or family and friends. Bank loans are not common at all for startups and angle groups are not very active in Japan. Venture capital exists and is very aggressive but it is geared towards small to medium sized companies that are IPO candidates.

The parting advice Mr. Mori gave us was to understand the culture and to network. Networking is key to doing business in Japan.

The last speaker for the day was Mr. Eric Williams of REIA (Representatives for Exporters and Importers in Asia), an YK company. He was the perfect example of how networking creates opportunities. He said that REIA was possible because of his personal relationships with manufacturers and his location in Japan and Asia.

The day ended with a great dinner at the American club of Tokyo. Our host was Mr. Iwao Tomita, founder of Deloitte Touche and Tohmatsu. He earned his MBA from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. He then sent up the Tokyo offices of Arthur Young & Co following a year of management training in New York. In 1968, he set up the first nationwide audit corporation, Tohmatsu Awoki & Co. In 1975 he became a board member of Touche Ross International. When Deloitte Haskins & Sells and Touch Ross merged in 1989, he was appointed to the Board of Governors for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, then later as a senior partner and finally his present position.

Mr. Tomita reinforced Mr. Mori’s point that there are a lot more entrepreneurs in Japan than what we believed at the beginning of this course. Mr. Tomita defined entrepreneurs as people who found a company and turn it into big business. The examples he gave were Sony’s founder Akio Morita and Honda. If indeed entrepreneurship is defined as creating a major corporation, the number of entrepreneurs will be low as the Babson college survey shows. But if all the small shopkeepers and pop and mom stores are included, as is done in the US, then the 2% figure given by the survey is too low. As David Mori said, the percentage of entrepreneurs in Japan may be in the 10%-15% range.

We are still in Tokyo today.  We started out the day with a western style buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  It consisted of bacon, sausage, pancakes, potatoes, eggs, milk, and coffee.  We all enjoyed our breakfast and spoke about the previous days events and what still lies ahead of us.

After breakfast we met at the tour bus and headed out to begin our new day.  We took a short bus ride to the other side of Tokyo to visit the Meiji Shrine.  The shrine is dedicated to the souls of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken.  Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shoken in 1914.  After the deaths of the Emperor and Empress, the shrine was constructed to venerate them.  Their souls were enshrined on November 1, 1920. The original shrine was destroyed during World War II.  The shrine that exists today was completed in October 1958.

When our tour of the Meiji Shrine ended, we walked down to the Harajuku District.  This is a large shopping / tourist type area that draws large crowds on the weekends.  There is also a large contingent of local youths that frequent the area to express themselves.  They wear colorful clothing, various accessories, and sport some very interesting hairstyles.  They seem to lean pretty heavily toward punk rock / gothic theme.

Next we took the bus back to the hotel.  When we arrived, everyone went up to their rooms to rest for a while.  At 2pm all of students gathered in the hotel lobby for a class meeting.  After the meeting our group spent the next four hours working on some of the deliverables for the trip.  We finally decided that it was time to take a break and get some dinner.

We headed down to the subway station and jumped on a train bound for the Shibuya District of Tokyo.  Once there, we agreed to eat at the Hard Rock Café.  I had the bacon cheeseburger, and it was very good, plus some chicken tender appetizers that I would highly recommend.  After we finished eating, we stopped by the Hard Rock Café store to pickup a few souvenirs to take back home with us.

We headed back to the subway to catch a train back to the hotel at this point.  After arriving back at the hotel, everyone said goodnight and retired to their rooms.  When I got to my room, I sat down at the computer, checked my e-mail and made some notes about the days events.  As I finally lay down in bed, I thought to myself what new and interesting experiences await us tomorrow…………

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us…

Today are lucky and honored to have the opportunity to add a blog from one our loved ones.  David requested that his pregnant wife tell us how she has been coping with her husband being 10,000 miles away and we are lucky enough to share such her experience with our readers.  

“David asked me to write a little about this study abroad trip from the perspective of a loved one.  Usually I am thrilled when David is out of town; I get the house to myself for a few days.  But this trip is different.  He is much too far away, and for much too long.  I’ll admit that I cried when I dropped him of at the airport on Saturday, but I will blame that on the hormones from being pregnant.  Don’t get me wrong, I am very excited for David.  This trip is an incredible opportunity and I know he has been looking forward to it for along time.  The first day was the toughest; I wasn’t sure when I would get any type of communication from David.  The flight was very long, and I worried the entire time.  It was very reassuring when I received an email on Sunday morning letting me know that everyone arrived safely in Seoul.  Then I began to wonder if David was enjoying the trip.  Was everything living up to his expectations?  Was he having a good time?  Getting enough sleep?  I am glad that it has been a hectic week at work for me, so I haven’t had too much time to worry.

I spent Monday being obsessed with email; I probably checked it every hour.  Then I would check the website to see if there were any updates and I carried my cell phone with me everywhere – just in case David called.  By Monday evening I signed up for an alert on my cell phone whenever a message from David arrived in my inbox so I could give the computer a break until I received an alert.  Every time I have looked at the clock this week, I immediately do a mental conversion of the time so I will know what time it is in Korea or Japan (luckily they are the same).  I have enjoyed checking the website itinerary to see what the group is doing at any given time.  Currently it is 3:30 AM in Tokyo, so everyone is probably asleep.  I know that when David called me at 8:30 this morning Atlanta time, that he had just gotten back to the hotel after having dinner with John Evenson, CEO of the Catus Group.  I even know what he probably ate for dinner.   I have found the website very helpful and I have really enjoyed reading each group’s blog so I feel like I am getting a taste of what everyone is experiencing.  I check the website a couple of times a day to see if there are any new pictures or if any of the blogs have been updated.  I have also enjoyed the emails I have received from David since at this point I am anxious to hear every detail of his trip.    The few phone calls I have received have been like sacred moments and I savor every word just to hear the sound of David’s voice.  The calls are way to short, but I am happy for every second that we can talk.

Yesterday was pretty scary after the news broke of the foiled terrorist plot against planes from London to the US.  I immediately began to wonder how much international news David was able to get while in Seoul; and how much of it would be in English.  I also wondered what effect this would have on the trip.  Were the airports in Asia taking the same type of precautions as the US, England, and the rest of Europe?  The story was making the news here only about 12 hours before the group was leaving for Tokyo.  Then I prayed that the terrorist weren’t targeting any planes in Asia.  I was overjoyed to get a phone call from David this morning and to know that he had the same strict security at the airport for the flight from Seoul to Tokyo and that everyone is now prepared for the security for the flight home. David didn’t seem worried, but I also know that he wouldn’t tell me if he was.  I guess he figures that I will worry enough for the both of us.  At this point, David has been gone nearly a week and I am ready for him to come home where I will know he is safe.  I miss him terribly and Thursday cannot come fast enough….”

THANK YOU SAMI!

Today is Saturday here in Tokyo and we are set for our day of exploring.  We got started about 9:00 am and quickly learned that we are in Japan during the mass exodus.  As it would seem we are here during their summer break.  We were supposed to head to go on boat ride but since there were so many people on the express way it would have taken 3 hours to get there and 3 hours to get back.  None of us were up for that long a drive.

Since there is so much to see here in Japan, we did the next best thing.  We went to Kamakura to see what I think is the largest Buddha statue in the country.  It was something to see!!!  Some of the group immediately went shopping, which seems to be quite a past time with this crew, and the rest of us enjoyed the sites and serenity of the surround grounds.

The wooded garden surrounding Buddha was beautiful and enchanting.  There were prayer stones in every corner with other monuments filling the walkways.  In the far back corner was a souvenir shop where a couple of us purchased gifts for our loved ones.

After leaving Buddha, we took a short trip to the Meiji Shrine in Harajuku.  We walked toward the shrine and came to a place where we were told people come to bless the vehicles they purchased.  A little further up the road we hit the stairs to the shrine.

Once in this place of worship and prayer, we were given instructions on how to pray ourselves.  The procedure is to clap throw in an offering, clap twice, make a wish and then bow twice.  David and Allison decided to give a go.  We threw in 10 yen each, clapped twice, made our wish, and then we bowed twice.  We both hope it all works out…

After the shrine the four of us, Jason, Fakade, Allison and David split up and went our separate ways.  Each of us had different things to purchase so on we went to shop in the city beneath the shrine.  We all ate and drank and shopped for almost 2 hours before heading back to the bus. 

This pretty much completed our day.  Once back at the hotel in Tokyo, we were given time to catch up on our academics.  Time well spent for our team…

Korea was breath of fresh air, but the time has come and we all must travel to the land of the rising sun, Nippon (Japan).  We awoke very early due to the recent possible threats of terrorism across seas to make sure we had enough time.  While some scrambled to last minute pack others ate breakfast before we reached the airport.  Our group was then split momentarily as was group 2 because Gabe and Adrian had to take a separate flight.  As shown below even in leaving Korea the Asian Hospitality was still present w/ Gabe making friends with some very friendly flight attendants. (Picture Below)

When we were landed and the groups were all made whole again we were ready to embark on a new journey into the land of the rising sun, with the help of our guide Kaneko-San.  As we traveled to the hotel we could do nothing more but take in the beautiful landscape of this new and mysterious land.  Before we reached the hotel we still all made time to do some sight seeing and take some amazing pictures (some can be seen on our front/home page).  Once back at the hotel we all got freshened up and ready for our dinner and meeting with entrepreneur John Evensen CEO of the Cactus Group.  (Picture Left: Listed from left to right, Gabe Heslop, John Evensen, Jim Beach, Nick Tilford, and Dave Poppel)

We listened to him talk about his business as an entrepreneur, Japanese business culture, and he even took the time to answer many of our questions, all while we enjoyed a delicious authentic Japanese meal.  (Picture Below, Yummy!)

When the dinner was all said and done we were not only enlightened but also full (for the most part).  Our First night in Nippon was great and we were all grateful to be able to enjoy the experience together.