After a long day of travel Saturday I got to the hotel showered, ate (Tebasaki, a local dish of spicy fried chicken and sinus clearingly good) and went to bed. Yesterday I had a couple of hours of work to get done, but aside from that I got to play tourist.

I looked at a map, checked the train timetable and was soon bound for Kyoto. I’ve been to Kyoto before, but that was sometime in the early 90’s. Relative to the 1200 year history of the town it’s not long, however this is Japan and nothing stands still for long.

It’s no secret that I really enjoy Japan, its got a very interesting history, ranging from almost total isolation to controlling a significant part of Asia and most of the western Pacific (abet briefly). It’s a country of interesting contrasts, full of tradition and the old trying to stay relevant with the constant renewal that goes on.

The short version is that Kyoto was the home of the emperor from 784 to 1869. There were times when the influence of the imperial family waned, but for a majority of that time the country was ruled from Kyoto. The city was largely spared during the war and many of the imperial palaces and castles are still (relatively) intact. The history of the city is fascinating and really deserves more time than I could devote to it in just one day.

It was a cold morning, but the skies were clear and the sun was out as I emerged from the subway into the park around the Imperial Palace. While entry to the palace itself needs a little more prior planning than I’d put into this trip, the gardens surrounding the palace are open to all.

The Palace is still run by the Imperial Household and has a role in some of the events around the investiture of a new emperor. The grounds are immaculately kept and make for a great place to wander on crisp morning.

It’s about a half hour walk from the palace grounds to the Nijo Jo Castle. After spending the previous day sitting on an airplane, the exercise was welcome. When you think of the stereotypical Japanese castle, Nijo Jo is exactly what you are envisaging. It’s big, the walls high and the moat formidable, but the Ninomaru Palace in the center of these defenses is wonderful to walk through.

As you enter the palace itself you have to take off your shoes and put on a pair of slippers that come in one size for me, too small. But it’s so worth it, the palace is impressive and does a good job in showing how the Shoguns lived and the power they held. At times this power was greater than the emperor and castles like this were built in an attempt to solidify the power. The history of Kyoto is rich and I need to go book shopping when I get back home.

From Nijo Jo I wandered to Ryoan-Ji. It’s a temple that dates back to the 14^th century and contains the rather well known garden where 15 rocks are carefully places among a sea of sand. It’s absolutely stunning close up. In December there are not many tourists and the place was quiet. The atmosphere is very serene and the effect of the garden is very difficult to describe, it is a wonderful place to sit and contemplate. It really is a unique setting that I spent a surprising amount of time in. It’s a really special place.

Final stop of my day was perhaps the ultimate contrast to a quiet meditative garden, it’s the city market in Nishiki Street. Any food you could ever want can be found here. Tiny dried fish (and taste better than they look), strange fruit, beautifully marbled Kobe Beef and octopus fried and presented on a stick to eat were all present, The street is narrow, only a few feet in places and teaming with people (some of who were enjoying the octopus on a stick) both looking and buying.

This really is an incredible city that gives a brief taste of what Japan is about. There is a rich and deep history that is in stark contrast with modern buildings like the immense train station. It’s a fascinating city, and I wish I had more time to spend here.

I’m working hard this week in Japan, there is a lot to accomplish and it’s going to be tough to get everything done. This trip to Kyoto, even if it is just for a day makes it all worth while.

Tonight was dinner at the Japanese restaurant in the hotel, a very good Japanese restaurant.

It actually turned out to be a very formal meal. There were five  of us dinning this evening and we had a waitress (that’s not the correct term, but I’ve no idea what is) that was dedicated to our table. Akemi poured the drinks and stood at the head of the table waiting for the next glass to be half empty, or the next course to arrive. I understand there is some tradition to this, that in Japan women have typically be subservient to some extent. She tried to explain the culture behind this and her role in the restaurant, but this was a little uncomfortable.

She was dressed in a very traditional kimono and in addition to the serving the food provided a commentary about what we were eating and the traditions behind it. The meal excellent, certainly top 10 ever, and could be the top non-steak meal I’ve had.

There were nine courses, it was the restaurants tasting menu, in total we were eating for almost two hours. Each course was wonderfull, the presentation perfect, all accompanied by Akemi explaining the food, its preparation, the correct way to eat it and its relevance to the region.

There was fresh miso, shabushabu, sashimi, and so on, and so on. All accompanied by small glasses of saki designed to accompany each course. While the food was unquestionably excellent, the education that went with it really made the experience.

I wonder what positions are open in Japan with in the company, I could handle eating like this every week or so…

I’ve done a few trips on trains recently; Everett to Seattle for a football game was rather a nice and low stress way to get to the game. Other than in airports and subways it was the first time I’ve ridden a train in the US in about 20 years, and that was between Boston, New York, Washington DC and my one long Amtrak “adventure” from Washington DC to Miami.

The year before I travelled down the East coast I got spent part of a long summer travelling around Europe, almost exclusively by train. Look at a map of Europe, draw a large triangle with corners in Budapest, London and Barcelona and that was about my range.

I racked up a lot of miles, a few nights on the train and my Thomas Cook European Train Timetable book was starting to get a little tattered. Fast, efficient and takes you right into the city centre. What’s not to love about this?

Oh, and then there is the people you meet, call it “local colour”. Always interesting and at it’s best wonderful.

I recall one trip from Zurich to Budapest I shared with a couple of Irish brothers, running through Munich station with just 3 minutes to make our connection. The Thomas Cook Timetable said it was possible and it was, just. The night was spent sitting up on the train with two drunk Hungarians who kept giving us some clear local firewater out of a series reused Grolsch bottles. No idea what we were drinking, but by god it was potent. It was a memorable night despite they not speaking English and none of us spoke Hungarian.

On another trip I discovered a beautiful narrow gauge line that ran from Domodossola in Italy to Locarno in Switzerland. I was travelling from Geneva to Locarno. I ended up going the long way round that went up and down and over the mountains. Stunning views and by taking the slow scenic route, lots of afore mentioned local colour that makes travelling so worthwhile.

Today I rode the Shinkansen from Nagoya to Kyoto, It’s about 135KM from Nagoya to Kyoto, and today the train covered that in 36 minutes.

I’ve said before that one of things l love about Japan is that it’s clearly somewhere very, very foreign, but not difficult in the way other places can be. I take some of that back today. This morning finding the right train and having the right ticket, I’m sure it was my fault, but it was not as straightforward as it should have been. Nagoya train station has 5 train lines (and over 20 platforms), some of which are privately owned, running through there. It’s a big station and today was a little confusing.

I have a set of instructions for getting to work tomorrow morning (I need to get the train from the same station); they are 32 pages long and lavishly illustrated. After today I understand why. It took a few attempts and a little help, but eventually I got the right ticket and at the third attempt the right platform.

The Shinkansen is quite something, even sitting there at the platform it looks fast, and it’s a perfect example of form following function. At one time I used to take the train the work in England, on time was arriving with in 10 minutes of so over a 15 mile journey. The Tokyo to Osaka line (that I was on) was less than six-seconds late over a few hundred thousand journeys. British rail gets thrown into chaos because there are leaves on the line…

I said Nagoya station was big, I take it back it’s got nothing on Kyoto station. That was huge, the main hall is about the biggest indoor space I’ve ever seen, and it’s seriously impressive.

Today, watching suburban and rural Japan  (not much of the rural I’ll grant you) flash past reinforced one of the reasons I so enjoy taking the train. It is unique in the way it give access to a small slice of the world in a way no other form of transport can.

The train journey I’m probably most familiar with is the trip into London Waterloo from Guildford. Once on the train we get to sit, relax and stare out the window, Over those 40 minutes we may pass horse racing in progress, cricket, football, an aircraft museum, one of the oldest race tracks in the world, we see the Post Office Tower, Battersea Power Station, the Houses of Parliament and the home of the British secret service and a selection of architecture that includes former Royal Palaces, Victorian row houses, some of the most brutal building ever put up to the clean lines of the ultra modern.

Driving a car typically means too much frustration, certainly driving into London would produce little other than a series of impressive bursts of swearing. Yeah, when there are leaves on the line or the wrong sort of snow and my train is delayed, I may get frustrated, the difference is in a car it’s guaranteed to happen.

Days like this give those stressful days with all the bad stuff and accusations a more healthy perspective. It’s been an up and down week. Rough at times and wonderful in other moments, both personally and professionally; it’s nice to be around people who look after what they need to do. I’ve a lot of confidence in the people around me, and that feels rather good. I have a really good life, and this week helped with appreciating both that and the people I have around me. Thanks.

The last week at work has been tough, but ultimately rewarding when it all goes right. Getting to a place where I can really rebuild my career has been hard, but the deeper I get into this job the more I see that everything really is coming together. It’s exciting to be the part of something this big and believe I make a difference.

Moving to a “getting excited by the little things” side note: the Delta Lounge at Narita has a really nice line in fresh sushi, internet and so on (the sushi was really good). But it also has the best beer dispenser I’ve ever seen. It takes the glass, tilts it for the perfect pour and then at the end sets it upright to made a head just the right size. Very cool, wonder if Amazon has anything similar… Talk about the Christmas present that keeps giving.

It’s a couple of years since I was last in Tokyo, and that was incredibly rushed. I love this country. There is no question it’s a very foreign place when compared to home, but it’s straightforward enough that traveling through is not difficult the way it can be in Asia.

I’m still overly excited about the whole beer dispenser thing, there is time for one more before my next flight…

Lotus is an old and storied name in F1, it’s history at the top level goes back to 1958, they raced out of Kettering Hall untill insolvency caught up with them at the end of 1994. During that final season they went through a series of pay drivers partnering Johnny Herbert for most of the year and for the first time in 36 years failed to score a single point during the season.

It was sad to see such a famous name missing from the pitlane when 1995 opened. In ’92 and ’93 Team Lotus used Cosworth engines. The company sent most of the customer engine team to enjoy a couple of late nights in Norfolk getting cars ready. It was all very rushed and last minute, in the pre-season there is never enough time and 1992 was no different.

The first time the Cosworth powered Lotus-102D turned a wheel was at Snetterton with Johnny Herbert driving. It was just a quick shakedown on a very cold morning in Norfolk, we were just swimming in the glamour of F1!

Note: at some time before Kyalami we did run a car on the test track at the Lotus cars factory at Hethel. I think it was with the second car (Mika Hakkinen) the following day, but it could have been the day before we ran at Snetteron to do a systems check.

Anyway, after his first couple of laps Johnny Herbert returned to the garage, opened his visor, looked at the gaggle of Cosworth guys and said “It’s OK, but could we put the Juddies [Judd Engines from the previous year] back in?”

And 10 days later Johnny Herbert took the same car to 6th place in the opening race of the year at Kyalami in South Africa.

Fast forward to today and we are in the heart of the 2010/11 silly season. Todays’ big announcement was there will be two “Lotus” teams entered next year after Lotus Cars purchased a part of what was once the Renault GP team. This will be called “Lotus-Renault” and unveiled a really pretty and very retro black and gold car today.

Last year the Mike Gascoine led “Lotus Racing” joined the grid, they had a decent year and were clearly the best of three new teams. Never scored any points, but were constantly ahead of Virgin and HRT (rarely has a team had a worse name).

So we have “Lotus Renault” and “Lotus Racing”… And neither team is related to the other. To further the confusion both teams are looking to run some form of black/gold livery.

It now gets a little more complex. The original GP team from 1958 to ’94 was known as “Team Lotus”, the label was owned by David Hunt (F1 champions Jame’s brother) after the original GP team went out of business.

And one more thing, both are Malaysian owned.

He finally sold the rights to the name a few months ago to the owner of what was called “Lotus Racing” (the Mike Gascoine led new team for last year).

So next year we will have two teams called Lotus, with cars that are planned to have similar colour schemes on the grid next year… Oh yeah, that’s not going to confuse people. Should all this come to fruition it’s the commentators and journalists I feel sorry for. On Speed TV in the US Bob Varsha had trouble spotting Red Bull from Toro Rosso at times last year, and they ran different colours.

It’s good to see Lotus cars back in F1, the Lotus-Renault partnership has some history with Ayrton Senna getting his first ever wins in one.

Today is mums birthday; it’s been a somewhat tough day. I spoke to dad this morning and no question he feels it more than anyone today. He was planning on going to the crematorium where her ashes were spread, but was not up to it, I think that added to what he felt today.

I miss mum, and it’s mostly the small things that keep on reminding me how much. I really do get a moment of surprise when dad answers the phone, for 40 years it was mum, it still does not feel right.

Love you mum.

As a PM here is what I believe

I believe in…

• The church of the Project Charter
• Defined deliverables
• Listening to the experts
• Small teams with big white boards
• Understanding where value is added by the process
• Old fashioned, but effective to-do lists
• Pain is there to remind you what you did wrong next time you try it
• Post-it notes, many, many post-its in different colours
• Having the right numbers is some times less important than having the same numbers as your boss
• Recognizing everyone who makes a contribution
• Talking to the experts who understand the product
• Never betting against Microsoft
• Define then execute works best
• A bulletproof change management process
• Leaving the exec’s wanting more
• TPS works because of the people
• Speaking plainly, clearly and as a team
• Short presentations
• Sharing the credit
• Hardware guys will blame the software
• Software guys will blame the hardware
• That there is no such thing as perfect code or hardware design
• Visibility can be both good and bad, managing it is important

Yesterday at lunch a friend announced the ski season is here and wouldn’t it be fun to go play in the snow at Steven Pass today… In the style of my mother, it was more of a statement than a question.

I’ve tried it a few times; a few years ago at a particularly good result at a rally in Canada I won a snowboard, boots, bindings and so on from Burton. To the more “snow proficient” it would be a really nice prize and is about the biggest thing I’ve ever won from the inside of a rally car and a nice change from the usual plastic trophy. A reflection on both my ability and the level of prize giving at rallies.

Many years ago (’93 I think), I was lucky enough to spend a Christmas in Switzerland and on Boxing Day left Locarno to go to San Moritz. My first (and to date only) experience of staying in a proper ski resort, and I was starting with a big one.

Prior to actual first contact with the slopes I actually took this whole skiing thing rather seriously at the time and had taken a series of skiing lessons on the upturned toothbrushes of a dry ski slope in Guildford after my race season was over. The dry ski slope was actually at my old secondary school, I’d skied a couple of times them during PE lessons when I was 12 or 13, but it was never really much more than falling down with no grace, but shed loads of style!

The lack of grace had not changed, and the falling over part never got old, but I got to the point where I could stand up and actually make it down the nursery slope. A long way from competent, but hopefully not actively dangerous to those around me.

Than we got to San Moritz, this is many, many magnitudes bigger than any ski slope I’ve ever seen. I’m going to humiliate myself, and I’m going to do it with many, many other people watching.

I remember my first time off the ski lift. I hit the bunny slope, and then I got up and tried again. That getting up and trying again part was one of my mistakes that morning.

Once I’d got the whole staying upright thing sorted, off I headed down the easy slope. I’d guess it was probably about 105 miles per hour, being a biker I tried to slow down by doing what comes naturally to me, shifting my weight back.

You don’t lean back on skis, that’s a bad idea and I discovered two things happen. First, you pick up more speed, then you loose all steering. It’s not going to end well at that point. I can still remember the laughing as I pulled myself out of the snow bank with snow down my neck and packed into my ears.

I tried, I really did, but discovered over this few days that skiing was not for me, but I’m happy to have provided Lili and many others lots of entertainment.

So, to answer the opening statement, no it would not be fun to go skiing at Steven Pass this weekend.

San Moritz was a lot of fun. It’s a beautiful part place with a lot going on. Horse drawn sleighs to restaurants high in the hills, roads closed in the evening so hundreds of people can sled to the next village down the hill, watching bobsleighs on the Cresta run and taking a few days before the race pre-season started the following week. It was a good time, thanks.

I’ve been told I’m a little late to this particular party, but better late than never I guess.

Last Wednesday the Black Keys (along with a few others) played WaMu Theater in Seattle as part of the “107.7 The End” pimped Deck the Hall Ball.

The Black Keys were really good, very polished. Somehow it’s the first time I’ve really heard their music, let alone seen them play; they put on a great show. The lead guitar and singer is the insanely talented Dan Auerbach, he led the whole place with deep guitar led blues/rock. Really impressive set from a band I think should have known more about.

This is what live music is about.

When I was offered a ticket the band that caught my eye on the lineup was Jimmy Eat World. Saw them a couple of years ago (supporting Bare Naked Ladies I think) in Everett. They put on a very solid set at WaMu Theater, have some good original stuff and seem to be having fun on stage.

I did not make it for some of the earlier bands, but caught The Presidents of the United states playing an unannounced set. Again a band I’ve seen a couple of times and are fun to watch, but don’t seem to change it up much. The headliner for the Deck the Hall Ball was Broken Bells, a solid group that my iPod has a passing acquaintance with. A good show, unfortunately they had to follow the Black Keys, and that was tough on them.

A fun night out with some great music, and once I got home Apple made more money out of me via iTunes. Best  buy was “Brothers” by the Black Keys, it’s really good.

Seattle has a vibrant and very deep theater and music scene. I have talked about music before, and there is much to talk about, but I’ve not mentioned the theater too much.

Tonight I got taken to one of Seattle’s smaller venues, the Open Circle Theater on 2^nd Avenue in Seattle, close to a couple of my favorite music venues, Tulas Jazz Club and The Crocodile.

At the moment they are running a homegrown play “The Judy Garland Christmas Special”. I can’t praise this highly enough, wonderful, over the top and incredibly funny. It’s 1963 and it’s the story behind Judy Garlands Christmas Special with her family. Including Liza Minnelli.

The first half is a “re-imagining” of the rehearsal with a drunk and belligerent Judy. After the intermission they show a recording of the 1963 Christmas special with drunk and belligerent Judy providing a running commentary over the showing.

It was a great night out. The steak at the Buenos Aires Grill was excellent, the theater wonderful, very inventive and very funny