There was quite a quick turnaround from our last side trip with
only one night in Kameoka before leaving for Nara. Nara was the first
permanent capital city in Japan and houses all kinds of cool historical
sites. This morning we caught a train to Nijo, which is like 2 local
train stops away from Kameoka, to visit the Shoyeido incence factory and
talk with its CEO. You might remember Shoyeido from when I made my own
incense at the start of the trip.
This factory was actually
pretty neat to tour. What we watched being made was stick incense.
Everyone who worked their was highly skilled and dedicated to diligent
quality control of the product. Each step of the process had been
refined over the course of hundreds of years.
After the factory tour we sat down with Masataka Hata, the CEO of Shoyeido, to talk about his business and life experiences. He was probably the most interesting speaker I had listened to out of all of our company visits. Masataka Hata spoke of how after finishing school he trained in all of the levels of his family’s company. This gave him perspective of how to run the business. During this time he also traveled a lot, even spending a year of school abroad in London.
It was interesting to listen to him talk of communicating with younger generations to share information critical to society. You can always pass down the hardware and technology but the skills and information need to be taught.
After
we finished at Shoyeido we hopped back on a train and headed for Nara.
Once in Nara we took a tour of Sharp Electronics. This was purely a tour
for us to see entrepreneurial activity of the 20th century in Japan, so
we didn’t get a chance to talk to anybody other than the tour guide.
After the factory tour we sat down with Masataka Hata, the CEO of Shoyeido, to talk about his business and life experiences. He was probably the most interesting speaker I had listened to out of all of our company visits. Masataka Hata spoke of how after finishing school he trained in all of the levels of his family’s company. This gave him perspective of how to run the business. During this time he also traveled a lot, even spending a year of school abroad in London.
It was interesting to listen to him talk of communicating with younger generations to share information critical to society. You can always pass down the hardware and technology but the skills and information need to be taught.
After our tour we headed back to Nara to check in to the hotel. The
hotel was very traditional; all the rooms were tatami rooms and the
bathrooms were communal. Tomorrow we have another full day visiting
temples and shrines. Talk soon.
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Read more from Stephanie at http://stephsadventuresabroad.tumblr.com/
Find out more about the U of A International Business in Japan program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/wcobjapan
Read more from Stephanie at http://stephsadventuresabroad.tumblr.com/
Find out more about the U of A International Business in Japan program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/wcobjapan
