Celebrity Stalkers

After my latest brush with someone famous (QT as he now likes me to call him!), I recon I'm being spied on by the rich and famous. Clearly all celebrities like to hang out in hotel lobbies and airport lounges around the globe - maybe they like the attention. So far to-date I've 'bumped' into the following !!

Ant & Dec (Wembley watching NUFC get beat)
Jason Donovan (Heathrow BA Lounge)
Alan Shearer (Melbourne - and I even spoke to him !)
Alan Hansen & Martin O'Neill (Heathrow Terminal 5 Lounge)
'The Cure' (Auckland Airport Lounge)
Rick Stein (Singapore Airport Lounge)
Quentin Tarantino (Westin Hotel, Tokyo)

Who's going to follow me around next ?!? QT sharing my hotel is certainly up in the celebrity stakes than two short Geordies from Byker Grove, so its all good!

Days 4 & 5 Reservoir Dogs

Well, the holiday, er .. I mean.... business trip is over in Japan. The last two days back in Tokyo have been hard at work and more meeting and greeting (very important in Japan). The last two nights have been a continuation of the culinary experience the likes of which are unheard of in my normal diet. I feel like I've eaten half of the sea. My omega 3 levels must be sky high ! I've been staying at The Tokyo Westin - which is without a doubt the most luxurious (and expensive) hotel I've ever stayed in !! Which leads me to a surreal experience tonight on the way out of the hotel. The man in the picture (for those who have been living on Mars for the last 10 years) is Quentin Tarantino - and I almost walked straight into him at the hotel as he was leaving. If I'd of been 1 minute earlier (and not in the process of trying to find the loo) my camera would have been out to prove it. Quite a strange way to round out a very interesting week !

Day 3 - Himeji Castle & Aioi

Well today started as planned as per the picture - a very early breakfast followed by a quick trip to Himeji Castle before the day started. It's great to see something completely different to Tokyo and much more historic & traditional. After the quick visit it was another short train ride down to our factory in Aioi which is completely remote area in rural Western Honshu - dramatically different to Tokyo. At lunch we went out with the local management team to a resturant high up on a hill overlooking the sea. It was a full traditional Japanese lunch, sitting on the floor with a short table and sushi to eat and being served by girls in full traditional dresss - quite an amazing experience, nothing like any meal I've had before. Another bullet train ride back to Tokyo tonight has rounded off the day. This beats working for a living ;-)

Day 2, Nagoya

The Tokyo sightseeing day over, today I've travelled south from Tokyo to Nagoya to visit a gum factory and distribution centre. Glamourous eh ? The highlight was travelling on the 300 Km/h bullet train down to Nagoya, through Kobe (big earthquake in 1995) and then on again to Himeji where I'm staying tonight. That thing is pretty impressive - beats the good old British Rail 125 hands down ! That train stops in Hiroshima which I'd be pretty keen to go to - just not on this visit due to time contstraints unfortunately.

Tomorrow its up early to have a look at Himeji Castle which was built in 1333 and is the grandest feudal castle remaining in Japan (think 'The Last Samurai' with Tom Cruise!)- before going on to work.

Tokyo Calling!

Hello from Japan! This week, Mr Cadbury has taken me for my first ever visit to Japan (Tokyo). I'm here to spend a week learning the business and I'm obviously going to make the most of seeing as much as I can. On first impressions Tokyo is just bloody huge. 33m people live in the greater city and its just hard to describe how vast the place is. Today (Sunday) I've taken in the Central Tokyo area but in reality just scratched the surface, covering the Imperial Palace gardens, Ginza shopping district and Tokyo Tower. Its like nothing I've seen before - and hard to describe on a blog! The next few days will be interesting as I do my first bullet train ride down to Nagoya and then Aioi to visit some of our sites here - it's a hard life!