You thought I was kidding when I said I would do an entire podcast about toilets, but you were wrong. Here’s what Japanese toilets taught me about the auto industry.

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Konnichiwa, boys and girls. Today I’ll do my final podcast about my trip to Japan. Previously I’ve covered a dozen marketing and cultural observations about Japan and why Japan is the king of customer service. So if you haven’t seen those yet, check ‘em out.

But another thing that really struck me was the Japanese bathrooms.  Don’t worry, I’m going to keep the language, um, out of the gutter, but when I started thinking about how to broach this topic, somehow the US auto industry came to mind, which of course, is going down the toilet.

But along the way, think about how the topics I discuss apply to ANY business.

So let me rant about five things involving toilets, and cars…

1)    Evolution
Think about the toilet in your apartment. Think about the toilet at your office. Think about the toilet at your parent’s house. Think about the toilet you had when you were 5 years old. What do they have in common? EVERYTHING. They’re exactly the same.

For me, with the exception of my unrenovated 60s era apartment in Seattle in which the toilet was a bright canary yellow, every single one was basically the same, a white ceramic bowl with a white ceramic cover with a white lid.  OK, maybe at my mom’s house there’d be a furry blue cover or a red and green one with Santa on it during the holidays, but they were all the same.

Which is why it’s so striking when you go to Japan, because the toilets are unlike anything you’ve ever seen. They seem so evolved. I’ll talk about how in a second.

Now lets compare cars from the US and Japan.

I’m not going to rip the US car industry and say that they’ve never evolved, but look at something like a Jeep Cherokee from the 80s compared to now. Are they really that different? Now pick a Japanese care and do the same thing.

You want a rant about car evolution? Listen, I don’t know if it was a Japanese company or an American company that finally figured this one out, but how about accidentally leaving your lights on and draining your car battery.

How many of you are nodding your head right now, shuddering about the time you left the lights on in your car, went into a friend’s house or the football game or whatnot, and when you came out, your lights were on, and your battery was dead.

Really? We couldn’t figure this one out? Not a single engineer for years and years and years and years spoke up and said, you know, there’s really no need to have your lights stay on, why don’t we make it so that when you shut the car off, it shuts your lights off?

What happened to that guy? Did he get fired on the spot?  Did they lock him in a basement in Flint, Michigan?  Really? You mean to tell me that no one thought this was a good idea?

Think about that… think about how many thousands of lost productivity hours there were from people that couldn’t get to work. Think about all the dangerous situations people were put in stranded at night in a parking lot. Think about all the nice couples having brutal fights as the frustration mounted. Think about all the annoying announcements in department stores ‘Would the owner of a blue Plymouth Reliant, license plate 147-PFH please return to your car, your lights are on.’

My theory is that there was a powerful mafia organization built around Sears Diehard batteries and the jumper cable industry.

Wouldn’t it have been nice if all American cars evolved past that 20 years ago?

And two quick ones: when I was in high school in the 80s, we had our standard American cars, but my friend’s family bought a Subaru station wagon. And I was struck by two things on the dashboard. First, the heat controls were nice, round, clearly marked dials that you could twist easily, not difficult sliding levers.

And second, the hazard lights were simply a triangle on the dash that you pushed. Press once, the hazards were on. Press again, they were off. On American cars, you sometimes had to do a 2-step process to turn on the hazards, and sometimes it was located under the steering column. Again, really? They’re HAZARD LIGHTS. Who thought, well, if someone needs the hazard lights, it’s probably a stressful, emergency situation. Let’s hide the switch and make it difficult to engage!

2)    Mechanical breakdowns
Ever have to unjam a stopped up toilet? Is there any greater fear – any greater fear? – then when you’re at your rich friend’s house and they have like 6-ply, 300-thread count Egyptian-weave toilet paper and you flush and it starts to get stuck and the water is rising and your heart stops because it looks like it might overflow? Ever use a snake? Or a plunger? Or deal with a plumber? Or have to take the cover off to inspect the ball and chain mechanism? Or have a toilet keep running forever? Not good times.

My point is? Shouldn’t we have figured this out by now?  According to wikipedia, toilets were invented in 2800 BC.  Shouldn’t plumbers be out of business? I can’t say for sure that the newer Japanese toilets work any better, but just check out the video on TheHopkinsonReport.com. They’re at least trying. They’ve got a freaking vortex going.

As far as mechanical breakdowns for cars, the story has been told many times. Now don’t write me angry emails… I don’t have JD Power and Associates on retainer to fill my head with data. But I think most would agree that although the US has made great strides and some companies and some models have caught up in quality, Japanese cars consistently had fewer mechanical problems than US cars over the years.

3)    Customer service

Let me say three words and tell me what images it conjures up: Used. Car. Dealer.  What about bringing the car to the shop? What about dealing with mechanics? What about your confidence level that you’re getting a good deal when buying a car?  Few people rave about the history of customer service in the US auto industry.

And hey, I can’t speak to the car buying experience in Japan, but when every single customer interaction in the entire country for me was a good one? I’ll take my chances that car shopping isn’t too bad either.

So what about the buying process for toilets? In the US, how does one even buy a toilet? Well, you’re either dealing with the folks at Home Depot – if you can get someone to come to aisle 17 – or you’re dealing with a general housing contractor. Hmmm… do they fall above used car dealer or below?

But in Japan? I am horribly embarrassed to say that on my vacation, I took a tour of the Toto Toilet Headquarters. HEY! It was recommended in the freaking Lonely Planet guide next to museums and other attractions!

Demo video of high-tech, green, Japanese toilet from Jim Hopkinson on Vimeo.

And you know what? It didn’t disappoint!  It was like an IKEA, but 10 times better.  They had kitchens and sinks and bathrooms with LCD TVs in the tub.  Granted, there were no Swedish meatballs, but…
•    They had before and after makeovers showing how their products could increase efficiency in your house
•    A team of three attractive Japanese girls giggled, laughed, and bent over backwards giving me a rundown of products in their catalog
•    A man dressed like a scientist gave me a personal tour or their newest models
•    At the end of the mini tour, they gave out free gifts!

4)    Going green
You don’t have to be Al Gore to know that American auto companies fought vigorously against hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles over the past few decades in favor of giant gas-guzzling SUVs that padded their bottom line. Just think of the leadership position they’d be in right now if they were forward thinking. Instead, when I hear the word ‘Hybrid,’ I think Toyota Prius. They’re way ahead and we’re playing catch-up.

As far as toilets go, I know there have been advances in basic US toilets which use fewer gallons of per flush and thus conserve water. But, I’ve also heard that they aren’t as strong, so sometimes you have to flush twice, thus not saving water at all. I’ve also heard stories of people paying off contractors to get the ‘old kind.’

But I do know this.  In the demo the guy gave me in Japan, the new model shoots the water around in a Bermuda-triangle-esque vortex, and they had some fancy meter hooked up that measured the force of the flush. Put it this way, hold onto your iPhone because if you drop it by mistake, it’s never coming back.

5)    Technology
In the auto industry, I have to applaud both sides of the globe for the advances in the past 25 years. Cars can be driven longer and longer, they break down less, and antilock brakes, crumple zones, and airbags are saving lives.

But in the bathroom, it’s a different story.

In the United States, I feel we’ve taken a giant leap backwards. I don’t know whose fault it was, but it has been decided that no American can be trusted to simply turn on a faucet, turn it off when we’re done, and use enough paper towels to dry our hands.

TheHopkinsonReport.com looks at High Tech Control Panels on Japanese Toilets from Jim Hopkinson on Vimeo.

Oh no. We must all be treated like idiots and punished. We’re forced to succumb to some crazy dance where we have to wave our hands in front of infrared sensors, push a knob and wash our hands in 3 seconds flat, dry our hands with half a sheet of gauze, or blow cold air on our wet hands before wiping them on our pants. It’s really quite sad.

— OK, stop the podcast. This is unprecedented. I recorded this podcast on a Tuesday night, and was editing on a Wednesday night, and I was still so fired up about this, I plugged in the mic and added even MORE ranting. Does NO ONE see a problem with this? Does anyone care? I challenge ANYONE … ANYONE! … to show me an automated system that does the following 4 things perfectly
1) as soon as I wave my hands a single time at the sensor, the water immediately turns on
2) the water is the right temperature and comes out hard enough to wash the soap off, but not so hard that it splashes
3) as soon as I wave my hands a single time at the dryer sensor, a paper towel immediately comes out
4) The paper towel I get is substantial enough to dry my hands in a single use – I don’t have to get another sheet, and I don’t have to wipe my hands on my pants
— OK, back to the podcast

But not in Japan.

•    Let’s start with every toilet having a heated seat. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like heated seats in their car. Why not have it in the john?
•    How about an electronic control panel on the wall instead of that clangy metal knob
•    How about an electronic sensor that will automatically raise and lower the seat. That argument between men and women has been around since the dawn of time. Not anymore.
•    And the water jets? Don’t knock it till you try it.
•    So when you read about other options such as auto flushing, blow dryers, deodorizing fans, and artificial flushing sounds, it sounds like you’re comparing a brand new, top of the line 2009 Infiniti or Lexus to a 2001 Pontiac Aztec.

So in the end, what did we learn here? I covered:
•    Continually evolving your product
•    Maintaining product quality
•    Superior Customer Service
•    Operating in an environmentally friendly way
•    Keeping up with new technology

What I’m trying to get across, is that it doesn’t matter if you’re making Toto Toilets or Toyota Tundras, these qualities are necessary for ANY business to succeed.

So in the end, was I able to do an entire podcast about toilets? You bet your ass I was.

This is my second podcast taking a look at marketing and pop culture trends in Japan. Find out why Japan is the king of customer service, and why the US may never catch up.

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Konnichiwa boys and girls. Think about a time recently when you received great customer service. Maybe a store clerk helped you find a size. Or a waiter or waitress gave you great recommendations and kept your coffee cup full. Or more likely, maybe an outsourced customer service rep managed NOT to hang up on you or transfer you 4 times while answering your billing question.

Now imagine a magical land where the phrase ‘The Customer is Always Right’ actually means something.

Well, from my short experience, that magical land is in Japan.

Our fairytale starts at the Ritz-Carlton in Osaka. Now before you break out your Homer Simpson voice and say ‘oohhhh … the Ritz-Carrllllton,’ let me tell you that the friend I was traveling with has 2 things going for him. Number one is some kind of platinum membership club card because he travels a lot for business, and number two is the gift of persuasion.

So when he came back from the front desk grinning ear-to-ear, I wasn’t surprised to hear that he somehow wrangled the $1,000 Japanese suite for $140 ea. per night. Just now I looked at the cost of the Red Roof Inn in Midtown, and the rooms start at $140 per night. I’ve been forced to pay twice that amount to attend out of state weddings, even heeding the dire warnings of the bride: ‘They’re holding a block of rooms for us! We get a discount! But you need to book ASAP!!!’ We were going to stay in a traditionally-styled, authentic Japanese room – well, except for the fact that there was a Ferrari dealership in the lobby.

But I’m not telling this story because of the high level of service at the Ritz-Carlton. It was what you would expect. What shocked and impressed us so much, was that we received Ritz-Carlton level service in every facet of our trip, from taxi drivers to souvenir salespeople.

Let me run through some examples:

The Norm Peterson
• Let’s start with the entire staff at restaurants shouting ‘welcome’ in Japanese when you walk in the door. Everyone stops what they’re doing. And everyone yells out a greeting. Does that ever get old? Well, did Norm from Cheers ever tell the bar to shut up when they shouted his name upon entering? I don’t think so. I don’t know the literal translation of what they were saying, but it FELT like ‘Welcome to our establishment good looking American tourists, we are honored to have you here, are happy to serve you, and thank you in advance for your patronage.’ Oh, and the warm towels they bring you right away? Can we get those here as well?

Contrast to some typical scenarios in New York, where the first words exchanged are ‘Is your party all here and ready to be seated? Because if everyone’s not here you’re going to have to wait outside until they all get here. I don’t care if they just texted and are 2 blocks away, you all need to be here. Next!’

The Subway Sprinter
• Now in addition to every single person we asked at a train station for directions being incredibly clear and helpful, there’s the Subway Sprinter. At the very end of my trip, I took my last subway ride to Shinjuku station before getting on the bullet train to the airport. But I still had some money left on the transit card. So I darted in to the travel information office to see if I could redeem it. Now in most cities, my guess is that once you’ve bought it, you’re stuck with it. There’s not much of a market for used passes. but I figured I’d ask.

As it turns out, the woman was more than happy to refund my money. She started the process but came back and said she was very sorry, but there was a problem. She tried to explain that I must have used the pass incorrectly when leaving a station, and that there was another step. With the language barrier, we went back and forth trying to figure it out. I told her to do whatever she needed to do… deduct the maximum, whatever. It turned out was only $6 and, showing her by tapping on my watch, we were starting to get pressed for time, so if it was going to take too long, I’d just leave it.

But she said she could take care of it … gave me the ‘one moment’ sign… and walked past me back into the crowded station back toward the check in point. But what made my jaw drop, was that she start RUNNING through the crowd. Physically running. She was back in 30 seconds flat and handed me my money with a huge smile.

In New York? Not so much. I’ve had my sister visit, and we’re loaded down with my crying 2-year old nephew, a suitcase, an umbrella, a backpack, a baby bag, and a stroller, and try to get the person in the booth’s attention while we’re trying to get through the turnstyle and they’ll squawk some indecipherable directions ‘Swipe the card at the turnstyle, then open the buzzer door!’

One Moment Please
• Ask someone in Japan what this English phrase means, and they’ll probably loosely translate it to ‘You’ve stumped me… Don’t move. I’m going for backup.’ This happened to us several times. For example, we’d check into a hotel. We’d ask about the cost, they’d answer. We’d ask for a dinner recommendation. They’d think about it, pull out some lists, and give a suggestion. But then we’d ask for a lounge-type bar where locals hang out that might have a TV. You’d see their mind working. They’re thinking like crazy. But then it comes… ‘One moment please.’ And then they’d run to the back for more help. Same in a store or restaurant. Question 1, fine. Question 2, fine. But something not in their wheelhouse? You get the ‘One moment please,’ and then they sprint to find someone that might speak better English or can better answer your question.

They never said ‘I don’t know.’ They never shrugged their shoulders and said ‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying.’ And they never just pointed you in another direction and said ‘Go ask him.’

That’s a wrap
• Even the tourist traps have ultra service. At the end of a tour of a shrine, it brought you to this nice area with a few shops with things for sale. I decided I would buy this one type of item for several friends and family members, and there were many options to choose from. First, the girl behind the counter spent almost an hour helping me out, telling me the meaning of each piece, and giving recommendations. That was nice. Once I bought them, they spent another 15 minutes individually wrapping each item, sealing them with Japanese stickers, and labeling each one with my friend’s names so I wouldn’t mix them up. That was a bonus. Then, they threw an additional item at no cost. Again, unexpected. And to top it off, the girl then spent 10 minutes writing out a list of her favorite pubs in the area that we should visit.

Taxi Cab Confessions
• The cab drivers wore tuxedos, and their cabs were always immaculately clean. Let me repeat that. Some cab drivers wore cleanly pressed military-style uniforms. Some wore suits and ties. And some cab drivers wore TUXEDOS! The cab drivers in New York don’t even wear deodorant!

Cab drivers in Japan from Jim Hopkinson on Vimeo.

How can we compete?
• So you might wonder, can US companies compete with this level of customer service? If you were running a business, wouldn’t you love to have your customers come away with the same feelings that I experienced in Japan? I hate to say it, but I’m not sure it’s possible.

Sure, there are exceptions you hear of in every industry, such as high end hotels or Nordstrom in retail or Zappos.com online. But the reason I think it will be difficult is because in Japan, the entire culture is rooted in this way of life, not just individual store training programs.

There’s a CVS drugstore one block from my old apartment that I would go to quite often. Whenever I’d buy something, the person would give me back my change and I’d say Thank You. Then one day I thought to myself, wait a minute, shouldn’t they be thanking me? I just bought something. And from that day on, I always paid attention to see if they would say Thank You as they handed me my receipt. Different days, different hours, different employees. Barely ever a Thank You.

Putting on the Ritz
• So while the picture I’ve painted may appear that New York is soulless – it is not– and I’m sure there are amazing tales of hospitality from Alabama to Alaska, let me start and end with the Ritz. As I mentioned, we were only paying a little more than $100 to stay at le crème de le crème, and the service was flawless. But then we went down a notch in Tokyo and stayed at a smaller, out of the way hotel, also for about $100 a night. But guess what? The service was equally flawless. They jumped through hoops to accommodate us.

And finally, we went to a traditional Japanese guesthouse (Ryokan) for the same price. This was a lower end choice we got at the last minute. You guessed it. Flawless. They had our names on a sign welcoming us, gave out toys to the couple with small children checking in before us (check out the video below), and as we were finishing dinner, an older woman in a traditional Japanese dress came into our room (you can see her in the video). She introduced herself as the wife of the hotel owner, and bowed down and began profusely thanking us for choosing their hotel. I swear, it felt like she was almost ready to cry as she said thank you thank you thank you.

Japanese Hotel Owner Greets New Guests from Jim Hopkinson on Vimeo.

I thought to myself, geesh, we’re just one group giving you just $100 for one room, not $1,000,000 gift to save your hotel from bankruptcy.

But to her, there wasn’t a difference.

—————————–

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes so you’ll automatically download upcoming topics about the land of the rising sun. Just go to iTunes and search Hopkinson Report. Follow me at Twitter.com/hopkinsonreport

Thanks for listening, and sayonara.

What do you think of when you think of Tokyo? Bright lights? Electronics? Robots? Lots of advertising?

Here are 12 things you might not know about Japan.

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Konnichiwa boys and girls! I was recently lucky enough to cash in some frequent flier miles and visit Japan. Along the way I took notes, giving me some pretty cool content to bring you 3-4 episodes on Japanese marketing and pop culture. While many of the things I saw were what I expected, there were quite a few things that took me by surprise.

Could Tokyo possibly be bigger, brighter, and bolder than New York City? Lets find out.

Here are the Tokyo 12.

1. Advertising Equality
If you picture parts of downtown Tokyo as one giant, brightly-lit neon television commercial, you’re not far off. For example, thousands of people cross intersections near Shibuya Station as billboards and LCD screens tower above them, pushing Coca Cola and cell phones. You’re a long way from Kansas.

But is it any different from New York or other major US cities? Not really. While the JR subway line might have little advertisements on the hanging straps and a small TV monitor in each car, I’ve seen the entire subway car on the shuttle from Grand Central to Times Square or giant city buses wrapped in advertisements. There was definitely lots of advertising, but at a level was about what I was used to.

2. Electronics Letdown
One of the must-see side trips on my list was a visit to Akihabara, or Japan’s ‘electronics town.’ I was prepared to see 3D television sets, $500 laptops I could fold up and put in my pocket, and of course, a land of robots. I couldn’t wait to bring back some type of secret gadget that no one in the US had even heard of yet. At the next party, everyone would gather around and marvel at this piece of next generation technology and ask, where can I get one of those? To which I’d smugly reply, it’s not available in the US.

So it was to my disappointment that the stores were more WalMart than Wired. In fact, it reminded me of the not so glamorous electronics vendors here in New York. The ones that tourists go to, but not residents. iPods? Same price as the Apple store down the block from me. Digital cameras? Talk to me when you can beat Amazon.com’s price. And Robots? We had to trek up four flights of stairs to get to the one building out of 50 that had robots, only to find the decent ones priced at hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

3. Baseball Blooper
If this isn’t a missed marketing opportunity, I don’t know what is. Since it was late October, Japan’s version of the World Series was going on, pitting the Yomiuri Giants vs. the Seibu Lions. I asked some people what I thought was a simple question… Hey, where could I buy a hat from one of the teams? Silence. People were stumped.

Seriously? If this were Boston in October, you couldn’t go 15 minutes from Pittsfield to Portland without seeing a Red Sox logo on every man, woman or child, be it on a hat, shirt, onesie, or tattoo. What kills me is that you can buy a NY Yankees hat in Japan in 12 different colors. But a Giants hat? You have to go to the Tokyo Dome. A Lions hat? About 20 minutes away at their stadium. Really? No one has thought of selling these in the city? Imagine if the only way a 7-year old boy from upstate New York could get a Yankees hat was if his Dad brought him the team store in the Bronx.

4. Sky high restaurants and bars
Here’s another difference in the way establishments market themselves vs. the US. Whether it’s bars on Bourbon Street or a Subway in strip malls, we make it pretty easy to poke your head in, see if you like what you see, and make your decision. Maybe it’s because I’m not a local, but don’t expect to find a cool bar or restaurant via foot traffic in Japan. Many of the pubs and restaurants are located high above street level, hidden in back alleys or behind unmarked subterranean doorways. You don’t know what you’re getting until you’ve hoofed it up 5 or 10 floors. Then again, that makes it that much cooler when you stumble upon a gem.

5. Cell phone chatter
Everyone in Japan has a cell phone, right? They use them to talk and text and play games and open their garage and pay their mortgage and cure baldness. But here’s the shocking thing they don’t do. They don’t talk on them incessantly. It took me awhile to notice what wasn’t happening. Thousands of people weren’t talking on them while they walked. They weren’t taking calls at dinner. They weren’t yelling over other conversations in a bar. They even adhered to the no talking signs on above-ground subways! I actually cringed when I landed in NY and the second the wheels hit the runway every person powered up their phone and began a conversation during the 3 minute process of unloading the plane. We could learn something here.

6. Celebrity vending machines
I wasn’t really sure exactly what else people would be buying from vending machines in Tokyo, now that I can buy an iPod from one here at a Macys. Do they have more vending machines in Japan? Yes. They have soda and drinks and types of food. They also have a giant photo of Tommy Lee Jones on them. But were people buying chocolate soufflés or getting their shirts dry-cleaned at them? Uh, no.

7. Thin is in
Nine. That’s about the number of overweight people I saw in 8 days of traveling. Single digits. Country of 128 million people. And to be honest I’m not sure it was that high. Oh, and zero would be the number of obese people I saw.

Look, maybe I missed the ‘Houston, Texas’ of Japan, and there were a lot of people smoking, which surely isn’t healthy. But I didn’t see lots of ads for Weight Watchers or the Zone Diet or 8 minute abs. With reportedly 1 in 3 Americans obese and 2 of 3 overweight, it was stunning to realize that I can’t recall seeing a single person that made me think, hey, maybe he should lay off the fatty tuna at the sushi counter next time. I don’t know where all the Sumo wrestlers were hiding, but this was one healthy country.

8. Men’s Fashion (Speaking of Tommy Lee Jones)
Their fashion could be described as the same, but different. Picture the scene… waves and waves of businessmen pouring out of the subway in crisp dark suits like an enormous casting call for the movie Men in Black. It seemed that 9 out of 10 men of all ages I saw during the day, from executives to office workers to students, rocked a dark suit and crisp white shirt. Always impeccable. Never sloppy. No baggy jeans. No sideways hats. No oversized t-shirts.

Japanese Men in Black from Jim Hopkinson on Vimeo.

So how did they distinguish themselves? One way was the shoes. Another is their hair. Without the diversified hair shades of blond, brown, and red, the cut and style becomes more dramatic. A 50-foot monitor at Shibuya’s busy crossing hypes ‘Moving Rubber’ hair gel (my friend bought some and we weren’t sure we’d ever seen such a substance). Some of the hairstyles I saw could be classified as pompadours, spikes, and the 1990s Jennifer Aniston look. But it did set them apart.

9. Women’s Fashion Wonders
In a word, stunning. Like the men, most of the women, from students to store clerks, seemed to follow a ‘standard uniform’ for fall. That was dark sweaters and jackets, skirts, knee-high socks and boots.

And they definitely like their brands. Several areas we were in had high end shopping, from Ralph Lauren to Louis Vuitton, as well as plenty of boutique shops. It’s interesting how major brands transcend different cultures. And again, the style was impeccable. Check out the photo I took of a group of girls all wearing the same outfit, but differentiating with their crazy shoes.

10. No Japanese spoken here
My last comment on fashion is that it was nearly impossible to find a single shirt with Japanese writing on it. At first it was just casual browsing, trying to find something authentic. But at the end of the trip, I was in full-scale tourist mode. Yes, I want to be the dorky – um, I mean cool – guy that has a t-shirt with Japanese writing on it to be different. Look, it’s not like I’m getting a tattoo that I think means ‘inner peace’ and it actually means ‘bean curd.’ I just wanted something that had Japanese writing.

But it got to be ridiculous. Yes, I know Japanese like fashion with English sayings. But I was in Japan, and I couldn’t find ANY shirts with Japanese writing. NONE. Nothing with their native language on it! Can you imagine shopping in New York or Boston or San Francisco and only finding shirts written in Italian or German? See the photo of me at a high-end department store holding up a $63 shirt with University of Pittsburgh on it!

11. At your service
The level of customer service is unprecendented. Astounding. Shocking. Breathtaking. And, worthy of it’s own podcast. Stay tuned.

12. Royal Flush
All I can say is that the Toto Toilet company should immediately be given a US Government contract to replace all the toilets in the entire country. A new law will make it illegal to install anything but their models. Yes, they’re that good. And yes, I am going to do an entire podcast about toilets.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes so you’ll automatically download upcoming topics about the land of the rising sun. Also follow me at Twitter.com/hopkinsonreport.

Thanks for listening, and sayonara.