Here are some pictures and recollections from my trip to Tokyo during my client development trip taken nearly two weeks ago (argh, I'm so behind). As I mentioned in a previous post, I was gone for two nights this time, and it was pretty terrible to be away from home for that long.
All in all, my colleagues and managed to line up a good series of meetings for the two days that we were in town and they went well. I had a speaking role in almost all of the meetings, which was great, considering we were meeting principals and partners at the highest echelons of the various divisions. One of the best feelings from those meetings was realizing that I had a seat at the table, presenting as one of the client-facing representatives from my firm, and that I had enough experience or subject matter expertise to be trusted to speak freely. It was an exhausting trip, as these trips always are, but it was nice to have that engagement.
It struck me during those meetings, as it always does during meetings of this kind, that I was, in the course of meeting 19 business and legal team members over four meetings, one of only two women in the room at all times (the other being a counsel from my firm), with the notable exception of the women (never men!) who entered unobtrusively to serve the tea. This led me to thinking about the mental and emotional load that all minorities (and I use that term loosely to mean any person in a situation where they become the outlier or the "other") carry - which the majority simply doesn't have to by virtue of being the default. Even just the fact that it's so obvious to me that I am the "other" in the room when compared to everyone else - I really doubt anyone other than me even noticed this demographic.
It was my first time staying at the Shangri-la, which was not bad, though a little bit of a walk from the office (and not a very pretty walk, as it entails cutting across the railroad tracks).
Here are some pictures of my room:
Here were my early morning views on this metropolis!
I enjoyed a quick sushi lunch on one of the days between meetings - fresh seafood from Hokkaido at the bar:
And on another day, a surprisingly tasty cold soba dish with seasonal eggplants, wild vegetables and shallots - it was impressively delicious for how plain it looked.
Finally, a point on flowers - I sure do love how the Japanese arrange their flowers. This was just a simple arrangement for the hotel lobby, but it's so artful and pretty. Everything, and I truly mean everything, in this country is performed and executed with diligence, pride, attention to detail and the utmost care.
All in all, my colleagues and managed to line up a good series of meetings for the two days that we were in town and they went well. I had a speaking role in almost all of the meetings, which was great, considering we were meeting principals and partners at the highest echelons of the various divisions. One of the best feelings from those meetings was realizing that I had a seat at the table, presenting as one of the client-facing representatives from my firm, and that I had enough experience or subject matter expertise to be trusted to speak freely. It was an exhausting trip, as these trips always are, but it was nice to have that engagement.
It struck me during those meetings, as it always does during meetings of this kind, that I was, in the course of meeting 19 business and legal team members over four meetings, one of only two women in the room at all times (the other being a counsel from my firm), with the notable exception of the women (never men!) who entered unobtrusively to serve the tea. This led me to thinking about the mental and emotional load that all minorities (and I use that term loosely to mean any person in a situation where they become the outlier or the "other") carry - which the majority simply doesn't have to by virtue of being the default. Even just the fact that it's so obvious to me that I am the "other" in the room when compared to everyone else - I really doubt anyone other than me even noticed this demographic.
It was my first time staying at the Shangri-la, which was not bad, though a little bit of a walk from the office (and not a very pretty walk, as it entails cutting across the railroad tracks).
Here are some pictures of my room:
They have the window between the bathroom and the bedroom, which I always rather enjoy. 
I like what you said here about otherness. Living in Tokyo taught me that, as empathetic as I might have previously thought myself to be, there is just no substitute for experiencing, really living, otherness. While I have experienced being the only women in meetings frequently, Tokyo was the first place I experienced being the only American (and also the only white person) in meetings or other gatherings. There are many more layers to that experience than I previously imagined.
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