Today the weather had gone bad. It was raining as I went across for breakfast. I bumped in to Mark at the café so we had a chat over breakfast. We got back to the hotel about 9.45 and Kaoru was already there (15 minutes early). So she came up while I got myself organised for the day. The plan was to spend the morning with her, and then I had to go to Nishifunabashi for training with them – Brett was going to Ginza to spend some time with them. So I packed what I would need for the afternoon in my backpack (including my laptop), and we were off.

We caught the train to Shinjuku and walked around the business centre. We went up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office where we would have been treated with a fantastic view of Tokyo, were it not for the rain and clouds. We walked around mainly underground to keep out of the rain – the station was HUGE. We had some lunch, and then had to part again, as Kaoru went to work, and I went to Nishifunabashi.

The train trip took me about an hour, which gave me some time to collect my thoughts and write some of my blog. I got to the stadium and started work on things. This included updating their player login application, and getting their skmember file to the new laptop (which was another failure – the version they gave me was no good). I then went through the full process of the integration, which included touching on the new functionality. I spoke to the guys about my plans to go to Fuji tomorrow and they thought it would be no good due to the weather. So I opted against it, figuring it will be there next time.

I left the stadium around 6.00 and made my way back to the hotel. Once there I put on good clothes and joined the guys for drinks on the 39th floor. We left there about 9.15, by which time I was getting quite hungry, and the beer was going down too well. Brett and I discussed what we had experienced, and came to the conclusion that we need to eliminate any reasons the stadiums could have for NOT using Datascore. And one of their concerns (which I can sympathise with) is that nobody can help them if they have any problems. We decided that if we’re serious about the Japanese market, we were going to have to increase our investment, and send me to stay for 2-3 weeks; I can be at the stadiums whenever there are games and make them feel loved. We don’t want to look back and say “we were so close to cracking the market but just didn’t do enough”, so agreed to the investment.

There was a group of about 10 of us, and surprisingly we could not find a restaurant in the hotel that could take us all. So it was off go Gonpachi, as that turned out to be the only option open to us! Another fantastic meal, with lots of drinks. As it was my first trip to Japan, I was told I had to go out with Ishihara. Brett came along as well, but none of the others were game. The things we do when representing the company! It was a very long night, which concluded with Brett and I getting back to the hotel after the sun got up. So luckily I hadn’t booked our Fuji trip!