Today was thankfully a late start. I had breakfast at the usual place after a shower and then got in to some work. I went to the stand up sushi restaurant in the station for some lunch about 1145. I knew you had to pay to go in the station even if you were just shopping, but i thought i could just go in and it would work it out on the way out, and charge my Suica. However i got the red gates that closed on me so i had to go through the manual gates. I later found that Mikiko has had the same problem in the past so it’s not even well written for Japanese people.

We all met at 12.30 and walked to the train station. It took two trains and about an hour travel time to get to Mukuhari Messe, for the Interop exhibition. We were there with Enplug so had exhibitors passes. I got to have a good look around though which was interesting. Some amazing things in digital signage. I had a beer break in the middle though to relax a bit.  At 5.00 we went to see Nanxi’s presentation on Enplug, which finally gave me a chance to see what it was all about.

After the presentation we all got in a bus which Teru had organized-and when i say all, i mean all the people he had arranged for the Enplug

stand and i think investors and people in his other business’s. So it was a full bus. That took us to a reception room where Teru spoke for a bit and then Nanxi gave her presentation again. We then got to eat and drink and be merry.

I met one of the original Konami people from when Sportskeep was initially installed in Japan.  He is no longer with Konami but still knows people in the industry so I’m hoping that turns in to a business lead.  He doesn’t speak English (just a few words) but he has a friend / colleague who is an English teacher, so hopefully she will be able to assist with making things happen.

Once we had finished we were all given some Sake in a gift box, which Mikiko later told me was very good quality sake.  Unfortunately because I brought just a small suitcase, I couldn’t fit it in to bring it back home.  I ended up giving it to Mikiko to give to a friend of hers who she thinks would appreciate it.  We then went back to the hotel and had a few drinks in the lounge at reception.  It was then time to call it a night.

I had a bit of a chat to Nathan (Mark’s son) about how Enplug could integrate with Datascore.  Something to think about…