One of the key events I was in Japan for, was the Sportec exhibition. The Sportainment Leisure team, comprising of Mark, Jack and Mikiko, were coming to Japan for their twice-a-year meeting with Konami, to co-incide with it. Brett wasn’t wasting his money coming – Konami continue to take, take, take, but never pay, but the knowledge they want comes from Brett. So he took a stand and said they can pay to have him come. He was very busy back in Melbourne anyway, with events that were unfolding at Tullamarine, so it worked out best all round.
Datascore had previously produced a glossy brochure for our product. In the weeks leading up yo Sportec, Kaoru translated it to Japanese for us. She wrote the replacement text on her computer, and we sent it to the publishers to put into the document. It didn’t come out too well – formatting was shocking. So I downloaded a trial version of Corel, and was able to tidy it up. Kaoru was also able to revise the wording in places. We took the document to Kinkos and had it printed on glossy paper, so we had something to give people. I can’t read the text at all, but it’s a very professional looking document, and was a good experience for Kaoru.
Kaoru and I went to Shinagawa Prince on Sunday 18th November, where we met Mikiko, so we could do some work on Japanese translations in Datascore. Mikiko reviewed the brochure, and we ended up spending more time chatting than working. But we got through a bit, before Mikiko had to go to another meeting at 7.00. Kaoru and I went to Tokyo tower, which we hadn’t been to before. We had a fantastic view of the Shinagawa area from the top.
Monday, Mikiko and I continued work on translations, and Kaoru left for work. Jack and Mark arrived, but were tired so had a nap, before the 3 of them went to a meeting at Konami. I didn’t bother wasting my time at it – I had a lot of Fitgenes work to do. So I spent the afternoon on that, and caught up with the team for dinner, which was at Gonpacchi. After dinner, Jack, Mark and I went for a massage. It was great to lay down and relax, and it was a fairly hard massage. I felt nice and loose afterwards, but next time, it’s not the sort of thing I want to do after a big meal and a few drinks.
Tuesday, the guys had more meetings at Konami, and I spent the day working in the hotel. Late afternoon, Jack and I had a chat to discuss the Fixi license agreement. Then it was back to Gonpacchi for dinner. Dai-san joined us for dinner tonight, to give the guys a chance to catch up om what he has been up to.
After dinner, Mikiko, Mark, Jack and I went to Billboard – a stage in Roppongi area, and saw The Manhattans – a US band, which had nice, chill out music. It was a very enjoyable night out. Walking around Roppongi afterwards, Jack decided he needed a new suitcase. So we went in to a “cheap” but good quality store. I ended up buying a new one at the same time. It was about $250 but the same thing in Australia would cost a lot more.
Wednesday morning, Kaoru came to the hotel and we had breakfast together. I packed up (by pure luck, my old suitcase fit in my new one, so I only had the one bag to carry out) and checked out of the room, leaving my bag at reception. We then met up with the others, and caught the train to Sportec.
Sportec was held at “Big Site” – which was in a different area of Tokyo to where I had been before. The exhibition centre was gigantic, and had several different exhibitions in it. We met Dai-san there and he arranged our passes. We had to give business cards to get in, so Kaoru got one from Mikiko and just gave them that.
Because Kaoru didn’t have long, before she had to leave for work, she and I looked around on our own. Saved us getting stopped while Mark talked to some exhibitors. Inside I had a few hats on. I was a stadium owner to one exhibitor, developer to another, business owner at a 3rd… And Kaoru was my translator at all of them. So I managed to get a bit of information while I was there.
I caught up with the guys after saying goodbye to Kaoru, and we walked around a bit more. Mark and I had a go of an amazing game they had there. Made up of 4 cameras and 4 projectors, it was basically air hockey, but you played it with your whole body. Moving your arms and feet moved your “blocker”. Then we had a game of “breakout”, or “arkenoid” (depending on your era). It was quite enjoyable, and while not a serious sport, it certainly had us moving.
I was going to leave the guys after we had lunch, as I had a 2 hour train trip home, and had to pick my suitcase up on the way. But by the time Mark and I had finished discussing some aspects of the Fixi agreement, I decided to stay for their meeting with Wellbe (Dai-san, Ishihara-san and Otto-san). After that we went in to the Sportec Private (invitation only) party with a few guys from a council stadium that Wellbe wanted us to talk to, so had a few beers in there and watched some Japanese cheerleaders try to work the crowd up, not having any idea what they were saying.
The council guys had to leave – not sure what was going on there as we never really ended up talking to them. So we went for dinner and met up with some other people. This is where things turned interesting – some of them were involved in genetic research. I was asked to give a demo of Fitgenes, which I had been talking to Mark and Jack about. The guys there were very excited, especially when they saw reference to at least one Gene that looked familiar. They were interested in knowing more, but as I hadn’t spoken to the Fitgenes guys about this, I didn’t want to go too far. However with some preparation before my next trip, there could be an interesting marry here.
Eventually we left, and caught a taxi back to the hotel. I said goodbye to the guys, picked up my suitcase(s) and caught the train home. I arrived at Fujisawa station about 11.30, and Kaoru was waiting for me there. So we went home via Mister Donut for ¥100 donuts. It had been a long and enjoyable few days. We didn’t know if there was anything positive from Datascore’s perspective, but possibly a new door has opened.