Hi everybody,
I think, if I remember right, this is my third blog entry…. I know, I know you all have been waiting for that.
Well, some of you know, some of you don’t, I was in asia for about three weeks to see three different countries with three different cultures,  in three different time zones (not counting my own). My company Bosch sent me to China, Japan and India to give some trainings to the people there and to coordinate some projects.

You think asian countries are all the same, let me tell you these three different countries couldn’t be any more different…

China:
I was a few days in Suzhou where Bosch has a production plant. I tried various different types of food some spicy some just weird like frog legs. After the first couple days I also master eating everything with chop sticks.
Suzhou is about two hours away from Shanghai and is growing like crazy. My favorite was “The Master of the Nets Garden“, which the picture below is from. The weekend I spent in Shanghai, where I had a collegue from Bosch, who lives in Shanghai, show me around. Having a local “tour guide” was great, she showed me stuff that you usually as a tourist don’t see. She brought me to a restaurant in Shanghai, where I had my first chinese “Ox Tounge”. And for all who want to try something chinese, drink boiled coke with ginger. I know, I also thought disgusting, but it’s actually not bad.
Renaissance Hotel in Suzhou

The Eton Hotel in Shanghai

Japan (Yes the toilets are high tech):
In Japan I was in Tomioka for the week. First, I was quite disappointed because Tomioka is a really small town and there is not really anything to do (especially that it was raining). There is a silk factory which was always closed when I got out of Bosch, and it was just to wet to just wander around. Surprising for me is that japanese people are not really good in english. Even in the hotels you have to speak really slow and with simple words. I tried to ask where the next bank is to get some money…. They were not able to tell me how to get to a bank. One night, my collegues had a farewell party for another german so they took us both to a restaurant in Tomioka. It was one of those where you sit on the floor on cushions and you have these really low tables (now I am wondering did they not have chairs so they made the tables so low or did they have the low tables so they got rid of the chairs??? Anyway enough philosophy).  In the middle of the table is the stove thing where everybody throws the food on cooks it and eats it right from there. After the 5th course I stopped counting but there were a lot. The last one was Okonomiyaki, which is kind of a pan cake, that you also make right on the table. It was very yummy! So if you get the chance, try it out. With all that food we had of course “Sake“, japanese rice wine. Japanese are not strong drinkers but really like to drink, which usually leads to a very funny evening. They also had beer and some other alcoholic drink made out of potatoes. It is japanese tradition, that you don’t fill your own glass, but you always fill your neighbours. The hard part is that as soon as your glass gets half empty someone next to you fills it up again and after a few hours, you have no idea how much you actually drank.

The weekend I spent in Tokyo. Tokyo is also worth a visit and if you are up for it try out one of the capsule hotels. I didn’t have to stay in one, I was in the Ueno Parkside Hotel in Tokyo. Generally speaking, hotel rooms in Japan are really small, as you might see in some of the pictures.
One thing that you cannot miss in Tokyo is the places with Pachinkos, they are everywhere. They are games, that are a little bit like slot machines but with balls. Otherwise a saw a few shrines and temples.

And if you are still wondering about the toilets please watch this one here:

India:
I also have some pictures in here from the Aiport in Singapore and from the Airbus A380, which I was flying with from Tokyo to Singapur.  I never had a better flying experience than with the A380 flying business class, they have a bar, the seat is so big I could share it with another person and BIG screens

In India, I was in a city called Bangalore or Bangaluru. Some people call it the silicon valley of India. There is a lot of IT companies. The people there are really friendly and their hospitality rocks! The collegues there spent every night showing me stuff taking me out for dinner and so on. I saw a temple there but I was not allowed to take pictures. I still took one looking throught the wall (it’s that golden thing picture). But otherwise it was really shocking how they have the rich and the poor so close to each other… But my favorite was the animals in the middle of the streets.

Unfortunately I only saw india from the inside of taxis or at night, so no good pictures…

There you go this was my business trip in November 2009.