As the I/T manager, it was my responsibility to go to Japan and perform the yearly dog-and-pony show about our ERP implementation. I'd be the only one going - left to the wolves by my skittish Japanese manager. The implementation had been rocky, but successful. Not so successful that my boss wanted credit - in the eyes of the Japanese, it wasn't successful unless it was perfect. And we'd been far short of perfect. The meetings had been detailed as a "learning experience" for our mother company, as they were in the process of implementing the same system. I suspected that I was just being setup for the failure aspect and that "learning experience" was just a euphemism for "tell us what you did wrong." The Japanese could be harsh.

Three days and an 18-hour flight later and I was in Tokyo. My host was my counterpart - the ERP implementation manger for our mother company. He was an older man, maybe forty-five or so and had deep gray hair. He had a classic Japanese look - squinted eyes, wizened expression, a thoughtful stare. I felt like everything I said or did was being measured somehow. I bowed deeply in deference to him - the only concession I planned on making to Japanese culture. To my surprise, he returned the bow as deeply as I had, indicating that we were "equals." Had he bowed just a little, I would have known that he considered himself a superior to me.

As we got into his car (a luxury in Japan) he spoke to me. "Dave-san, you will be my guest during your stay. The hotels are, well, not very good for Americans." He smiled broadly as I laughed. I had been worried about my accommodations, particularly since I hadn't been allowed to set them up myself. I knew from my pre-work on Japan that most hotels were little more than sleeping tubes, doled out at $400 a night. The hotels Americans were used to, say a basic Holiday Inn room, would run a $1000 or more a night in downtown Tokyo. I thanked him for his hospitality and we drove to his house just outside of Tokyo. As we pulled up to the house, my jaw was slack in surprise; He had a beautiful house, very large by Japanese standards on at least five acres of land. The large trees in the front yard were cut in classic bonsai style and the drive wound through beautiful gardens and even a small pond and finally we reached the house. He smiled at my response and said, "Nice, yes?" I nodded dumbly. "It's my wife - her family is, how do you say it, loaded." He beamed at me, proud of using American slang. I laughed out loud and smiled back at him. I decided that Tatsudi, or "Tom" as he told him to call me, was okay.

The flight had left me disoriented with severe jet-lag. Tom showed me to my room, a spacious affair with it's own bathroom, and left me to catch up on my sleep. I collapsed onto the bed and was asleep before I knew it - my shoes still on.

I awoke still feeling groggy. I was disoriented at first, not remembering where I was. I opened my eyes slowly, squinting against the bright light coming through the bamboo blinds. I turned my head to the left and to my extreme surprise there was a young girl standing there, at the foot of my bed. She was small, with huge round eyes and jet-black hair that was cut short, barely touching her shoulders. She started when she saw me looking at her and scampered out of the room quickly. I sat up quickly and yelled, "Wait!" but she only looked over her shoulder and smiled as she darted out of the room and closed the door quickly behind her......(cont)