5/21

Woke up bright and early today and got a taxi ride over to the Tsukiji fish market. The actual market was closed, but we were still able to take in the general hustle and bustle of the atmosphere. Vendors lined the streets and it was interesting to see the fresh catches of familiar seafood as well as some things that we had never seen before (like Joe trying a sample of random street food only to find out that it was kimchi and beyond what he could handle... hilarity ensued). The highlight of the morning was a sushi breakfast, which isn't a new concept to me, but the selection was much more broad than anything I had ever tried stateside. I truly enjoyed the fatty tuna and wanted to broaden my horizons so I tried some other foreign options such as octopus.

After we returned to the hotel and showered we went to our final business meeting of the trip. The meeting with American Express was very professionally done. We learned about the direction that American Express was attempting to go in the Japanese market and learned about the industry as a whole in Japan. I found it very interesting to find out that the Japanese are very adverse to debt, and will go out of their way to keep debt levels low, even in the short term. This lack of debt creates an interesting task for American Express in how they positioned themselves in the Japanese mind and stay competitive in a foreign market. Also I was not surprised to find out about mobile banking and mobile financials being so large in Japan and it makes me think how it will paint a picture for America's future.

Next we went to the Edo museum and attempted to see a sumo match. The sumo match didn't happen, but the Edo museum was still very impressive. The history of the country was so deep and colorful that there was no shortage of exhibits to see.

That night we went to the Asaksua district and wandered the streets in a very tourist fashion. The area was filled with trinkets and certainly attempted to appeal to the tourists (which worked for us getting gifts for home).