Make sure to check out this 5 part series and learn more about the other amazing destinations the Real Estate Around the World trip landed this year, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Prague and Rome, and Dublin.
Today marks our departure from our first stop on the Real Estate Round the World tour. While excited to start on the next leg of our journey, Tokyo has been a favorite.
Tokyo started off with us facing our biggest challenge so far…jet-lag. While some of our group had the ability to power through, others of us were out pretty early. While jet-lag isn’t fun, it allowed us the opportunity to explore the city at different times and see different parts. This included 4:30 a.m. sushi runs which proved to be a highlight of the trip for me. The city was quiet and its was light which made it fun to discover the different street vendors.
While in Japan we had the opportunity to meet with two companies: Costco Japan and Be Good Japan. Did you know that there are 26 Costco’s in Japan and that they have a whole department dedicated to fish and sushi? Yeah, neither did I. Costco Japan was gracious enough to host us at one of their locations and talked to us about their operations and development. While talking about one of their recent developments, we learned that for a 16-acre site it is normal to contract up with 65 land owners to complete it. While Costco Japan’s operations run similar to the United States, they have some unique processes to better meet customer needs.
We also met with Be Good Japan, which runs share houses across Tokyo. Share houses can have upwards to 24 tenants who share a community kitchen, laundry room, and shower. We all thought this would be a great way to build out dorm rooms as everyone gets their own room but are still able to participate in a community.
Our last morning in Tokyo, we were able to go on a bike tour around the city. During the tour, we were able to visit Tokyo station, ride through residential neighborhoods, visit one of the biggest sumo wrestling arenas and see some new areas of the city. The bike tour was the icing on the cake – we capped off our first stop, were able to see many different sides of Tokyo and have gained a better understanding of their culture. Now on to Hong Kong!
