I started my career at a large commercial bank in Japan. Shortly after I received the offer, the HR manager asked me which department I wished to work in. Naturally, I told him my preference: the venture capital division.

WRONG ANSWER!

I was sent to a different department, without receiving an explanation for that decision. I later discovered that the correct answer should have been a similar response to this:

I am constantly surprised by the number of people preferring to interact via e-mails and phone calls over video conferencing, especially when communicating and collaborating with their global colleagues.

• “When I work from home I’m in my pajamas and don’t want to wear make-up”
• “I feel uncomfortable to ask someone who’s at home to turn on his/her camera. ”
• “E-mails are better because everything can be documented.”

Last December, I brought an American friend of mine to a hot spring. We decided to go for a luxury experience and went to a high end ryokan, a Japanese-style inn.

Here, you get to enjoy amazing food and hot springs experience in a wonderful atmosphere: a tourist magnet. Dinners at a high end ryokan are a relaxed, luxurious affair, where several different courses are brought to your room one by one, giving you the opportunity to savor and appreciate each dish fully and in peace.

You may not believe it, but there is a word for "google it, you dumb ass" in Japanese: it’s pronounced "gu-gu-re-ka-su (#ggrks)."

The implied message of the word is this:
You’re cutting corners if you ask someone a question you can find an answer to later on and that you may even pass for disrespectful, as by doing so you’re wasting someone’s time.

“I don’t know why my boss in Dublin (Ireland) always starts our video conference by telling me what she did during the weekend. Why can’t we just dive into the meeting without wasting time?”

Many Japanese complain to me about how they don’t understand why their non-Japanese colleagues love small talk so much. "I have no problem when we’re talking about work" they say "but when it comes to small talk… I don’t know how to carry on the conversation and it’s a real pain.”