jwanheah

こんにちは! 

My maiden trip to the land of the rising sun was a 14-day adventure with 14 entrepreneurs from varying industries led by Dato Seri Michael Tio, his 14th study tour. #dsmtst14

“Hah? You’ve never been to Japan?!” Was the shocked response from my boss Dato Seri Michael Tio (DSMT) as we were sipping Spanish wine over dinner one night. “You must go to Japan and experience it.” he added. “One day la, one day i’ll make it there” i replied.

Thats right, over my X decades of life, i’m grateful for having had the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world but somehow Japan seems to just evade me. Whilst young and travelling with the family, we headed west more often than to the east and when i started working, we either couldn’t afford it when we wanted to go or when we could we had plans to go elsewhere.

Like many good things that have happened in my life, stars aligned and i got a call to join the 14th instalment of the famous DSMT Study Tour. (read about my first DSMT Study Tour experience here, the 6th Study Tour back in 2016). Like the 13 study trips before this, The DSMT Study Tour 14 is a trip planned and managed personally by Dato Seri Michael Tio himself (i don’t know where he finds the time and energy!), and this trip was themed “Sustainable Entrepreneurship Journey“.

A self drive adventure that took us to Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido, and Tokyo which also included an exchange study programme at Osaka University, a corporate tour of Mitsui Fudosan’s latest modern warehouse concept and a tour of Kobe city’s Air Liquide hydrogen station for vehicles (not to mention the 5 onsens!).

DSMT study tours are something i’d like to label as ‘Social Learning’. Social because when you’re travelling overseas in a group, its all about socialising! Seeing the same group of people 24/7 for 14 days and interacting with the same people throughout the trip makes for great opportunities to learn from each other and to foster good relationships.

Whilst there are always a couple of days spent in formal classes at a University, a day for corporate visit, and some nights of sharing by Dato Seri Michael Tio, a lot of learning takes place over daily interactions with fellow study tour members throughout the trip. In-depth conversations take place over drinks, meals, during the long daily car rides, and as we switch room mates every night, it gives us the personal space to have good conversations. When we indulge in ‘getting to know you’ conversations, it sparks further questions and discussions that allows us to learn about another industry, the challenges we face, growth plans and more. Things that every entrepreneur faces and/or needs to do that can benefit from a 3rd party non-industry perspective, sans the bias views developed from limitations experienced in the same industry, questions asked can spark new ideas or develop solutions that we didn’t think of before. Those curious questions can be very helpful.

Lets see where i went and what i did on my maiden trip to the land of the rising sun

OSAKA:
We took a MAS red eye flight from KLIA to Kansai Airport in Osaka, with DSMT as our tour guide he flew economy with us. Yes, as owner of a billion ringgit company and with his Platinum Enrich status along with over a million miles in his account, he flies economy with us! Too often you see people who have made a little money flying business class only, DSMT always stresses that one should always be humble. To walk his talk and drive this value into other entrepreneurs, he ensures that everyone is treated equal during his study tours, your titles/status and wealth do not get you any special treatment, in fact everyone has to help each other during the trip irregardless of your title or wealth. (ever had a Dato Seri carry your bag and queue to buy train tickets for you?)

Arriving in the morning at Osaka, we pick up our cars and head to Fushimi Inari Shrine. Insta famous for its red Torii gates, over 10,000 of them line the path up the hill to the peak. Little did we know, at 233 metres high this uphill walk was an introduction to an epic hike that loomed in the days ahead.

After checking in to our first of many onsen hotels, the Kyoto Arashiyama Onsen Kadnesho, we took a short walk over to Arashiyama 嵐山 or better known as the bamboo forest. Only made it as far as the bustling street leading to Arashiyama as it started to rain. The street is dotted with various restaurants and cafes and was filled with tourists of course. But you’ll never be short of choices for some matcha or snacks, and the occasional skimpily dressed hot bodied rickshaw puller flying past you. These chiseled bod dudes in short tights are literally running with their passengers up and down the street!

A night of high balls, sake, introductory round of sharing by everyone, we then called it a night. The next morning we headed back to check out Arashiyama, this time in much better weather before heading over to Kinaku-Ji aka Golden Palace, then onwards to lunch at the Kuromon Ichiba Market and a night out in Dotonburi.

OK! That was the first couple of days in Japan and i’m going to skip to some of my highlights from the trip from here on and include a list of everywhere we went at the end of this post.

The next couple of days were spent in Osaka University which is one of the top universities in Japan. With the current global focus on The United Nations SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals), we had the privilege of attending a Transformation Sustainability Leadership Workshop that is a very effective workshop in driving the SDG message through to participants. A gamified workshop that enabled us to clearly understand the impact our individual and business actions have on the world. It clearly showed how the constant pursuit of your individual goals can affect the world we live in and how it eventually leads to your loss! And then along the way as we learn how to work with each other, we all gain. Another lecture we attended was on bioplastics and visited a lab in the university too. We also had the honour of witnessing DSMT receiving his extension certificate as collaborative professor of Osaka University.

Nights in Osaka were nights to remember! Marcus found a 40-year old tiny bar in an alley that served up some awesome ginger high balls. Needless to say, we made friends with the owner and were there every night! We also took over another small bar for Marcus’s birthday!

HOKKAIDO:
We spent the bulk of our trip driving round Hokkaido visiting all the must see spots, onsen every day and night and an epic hike up Mount Niseko Annupuri on an unmarked trail! Actually there was no trail.. more on that later.

Hokkaido is a picturesque place, offering scenic views and lovely Japan hospitality. With majority of the journey out in the countryside meant we were constantly on nice open winding roads surrounded by views only Japan can offer. We did hit some traffic on certain stretches, it didn’t help that we landed smack during Japan’s golden week!

Whilst travelling round Hokkaido, here are some of the sights i found rather interesting.

• checked out an icebreaker docked at Road Side Station Ryuhyo-kaido Abashiri, never seen an icebreaker up close before so it was rather interesting to catch a glimpse of one.
• Dinner at Shin Furano Prince Hotel offered a serious spread! and the architecture of the dinner hall was quite impressive.
• Ningle Terrace at Shin Furano Prince Hotel was quite cool. Little artisanal shops with craftsmen working on arts and crafts.
• Asahikawa Ramen Village was nice, a small block of shops that were all serving ramen!
• The views from Akan-Mashu National Park Bihoro Pass was very nice!
• Hilton Niseko serves up some really good food! and their 1-hour ‘all you can drink’ package was awesome!
• LAWSON is awesome for snack food!

Every DSMT Study Tour incorporates a hike of some sort. Some of the hikes have been slightly challenging whilst most are walks in the park. This trip though… we arrived at the foothill of Mount Niseko Annupuri and we were greeted by an empty car park. Actually, it was a car park covered in over 3-feet of snow! Which also meant the trail head (and the entire trail!) was snowed over. After some deliberation, we decided to just walk on the snow (no trail) to take some pictures. Some how or rather, we were continuously egged on to take a few more steps for better shots and lo and behold before i knew it, we were on the path of no return. We had walked up a near vertical snow slope that made turning back impossible. The higher we got, the steeper it got too, and we were literally on all four clawing our way up. Trying our best to find grip in the snow! FYI, i didn’t bring a jacket nor any water as i was on the assumption that it was a short walk to just take some pictures! To top it all off, when we reached the top, a thick bush greeted us. Some kind bamboo-ish plant that grows thick and dense. We had to literally push and scramble to get through the bushes and back onto the hiking trail! Words cannot explain this challenge. Hats off to my bro Marcus for hacking a path for us, and DSMT for keeping calm and composed throughout the hike (have a feeling he was probably panicking in his heart!).
The reward though, some magnificent views of the mountains.

TOKYO:

From the mountains to the city of Tokyo. Had my second earthquake experience! All our phones beeped in the middle of the night seconds before the hotel shook for a good 5-seconds! What an experience! Made my Tokyo visit memorable! especially shouting at my room mate Sean to turn off his alarm, hahaha!
Another unique Tokyo experience planned for us was the dinner on a boat that took us round Tokyo Bay, offering up a different view of Tokyo.

My maiden trip to Japan was truly a unique and memorable experience. Made some good friends, learnt a lot, savoured some amazing food, and had an epic adventure that will be remembered for a lifetime. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to DSMT for inviting me to join this study tour, どうもありがとうございます! and big thanks to all the study tour members who made this trip what it was! Makin’ Memories!

Here’s a list of all the places we visited (hope i didn’t leave any out)

• OSAKA
• Arashiyama
• Fushimi Inari Shrine
• Kinkakuji Temple
• Kuromon Ichiba Market
• Dotonburi
• crab sake and crab everything at Kani Doraku
• HOKKAIDO
• Lake Akan
• Akan-Mashu Nationsl Park Bihoro Pass
• Higashimokoto Shibazakura Park
• Ryu-hyo Glass Museum
• Lake Saroma
• Asahikawa Ramen Village
• Chateau Furano
• Farm Tomita, Nakafurano Hokkaido
• Biei Ikoigamori Park
• Shirogane Blue Pond
• Furano Cheese Factory
• Tomakomai Fish Market
• Jigokudani aka Hell Valley
• Mount Niseko Annupuri
• Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery
• Otaru Canal
• Sapporo Bier Garden

Thank you for reading!