It has been on my wish list for such a long time to visit Japan and I finally got the opportunity to do so recently, thanks to Google. I have always been drawn into the anime/manga scene because of the super cool art style 
, the stranger-than-strange humour 
and the blow-your-mind epic story lines 
! And thereās that odd mix of modern vs traditional aspects when you think about Japan so itās always been so alluring!
So, in this #ExploreJapan series, I just wanted to share some of my observations of Japan and I hope that you will find them fascinating or informative. Why a series? Well, I feel like I could write a small book just to describe my whole trip but that would take me a very long time so it made sense to break it down into several posts that you can enjoy in more snack sized bites!
But letās start off first with a massively huge thanks to Google for inviting the Connect Moderators to Japan to share our thoughts, opinions and suggestions with the engineers and product managers to help improve and grow the Local Guides program! It was an invaluable series of sessions that were informative and useful for both parties; Iām genuinely excited to see whatās going to happen in the coming months! You can also read our group statement here.
The official Google event started on the 18th October evening with a welcome reception and then two full days (19th and 20th) of discussions etc at the Google Office in Shibuya, Tokyo. I modified my travel plans to arrive a bit earlier so that I could explore more of Japan at my own expense and so I was in Japan from the 11th to the 22nd October.
- 11 - Osaka
- 12 - Day trip to Hiroshima
- 13 - Universal Studios Japan (located in Osaka)
- 14 - Osaka
- 15 - Kyoto
- 16 - Kyoto
- 17 - Fujikawaguchiko
- 18 - Tokyo (evening reception by Google)
- 19 - Tokyo (full day at Google Tokyo office)
- 20 - Tokyo (full day at Google Tokyo office)
- 21 - Tokyo
- 22 - Tokyo
And I think Iāve had a reasonably good travel itinerary for the 11 days in Japan. You can follow this series as I share my experiences and donāt forget to follow me on my YouTube channeltoo. I somehow managed to capture 933 GB of photos/videos 
and Iām still trying to sieve through them all to figure out what needs processing to share online! Wish me luck!!
By the way, none of the attendees can share anything that were discussed during the Google event but I can share some personal titbits:
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It was really nice to be able to see in person as many of the Connect Moderators as possible. Unfortunately, there were a few who could not attend because of personal reasons or issues with the visa applications. I just wanted to give these folks a big, big hug because they were greatly missed but not forgotten! We will figure out a way to meet up one day!
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The welcome reception was held at Teppen Otokodojo Shibuya. It is an Izakaya style restaurant and the food was really good! The staff was super awesome too and they sang a āHappy Birthdayā style song for @PaulPavlinovich . We certainly had a great time catching up with everyone!
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After the welcome reception, we went to the famous Shibuya crossing to do a mini-dance; you can watch the video on TikTok here. Huge thanks to @LuigiZ for this fantastic mini-event! We certainly drew a lot of attention from the passing crowd. And quite ironically, we were dancing not too far away from a banner that was letting the public know that no Halloween gathering was allowed at the crossing! We didnāt actually notice it at first but once we did, we decided to change the plan a bit and to do the dance at a single spot rather than whilst crossing the crossing!
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After that, we ended up at Rainbow Karaokefor a couple of hours of deep soul searching, to draw out our inner singing divas! As you can tell by now, it was quite a bit of a blast for the first night and the Connect Moderators who are new to a Google event and new to meeting some of the long-time moderators certainly got to experience the full force! Thanks to @Jesi for getting this organised!
https://youtu.be/h-Qb-bgxD7w -
The first full Google day was just as intense but in a different way. We got to meet a few Googlers to talk about hush hush stuff. @JanVanHaver and I got to moderate a panel of three Googlers to ask them questions from the Connect Moderators. We also joined in the Contributor Conversation with the local Tokyo Local Guides and that was really cool to meet them. Shout out to @YasumiKikuchi (you can read his recap here), @Anzu , @TsukuruTamaki ā¦who Iāve met before at past Connect Live events! After the Contributor Conversation, Google laid out a buffet dinner for us all!
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Now, you would think that that was the end of the first day or that we couldnāt possibly have the energy for anything more! Well, you guessed wrong! Post Google dinner, we met up with other Tokyo Local Guides at Italian Bar & Trattoriafor another dinner with them!! Another shout out to @Yucco , @ken_jp and @Izumi (who was also at the Contributor Conversation). I believe it was Anzu and Jun that put this dinner event together so, arigato gozaimasu!
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Second Google day was filled with more chats/discussions followed by a walking tour to Harajuku in the afternoon before finishing up with dinner. It was definitely a more subdued day but we capped it with a visit to Tokyo Tower. I think that at this point, we were all mostly running on fumes and most of us still had a day or two left in Japan so we were definitely pacing ourselves!
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With regards to the numerous sessions with Google, in a nutshell, we all shared feedback to Google whether it was from our own experience or from the community, we talked a lot about the program and the community, and how to move it forward. Obviously, I canāt go into any level of details about it but it was a very fruitful time.
So, thatās about it really! Do stay tuned for more posts to come! Thanksā¦ And as always, I look forward to your comments/questions! I have roughly filtered my photos down to 352 images so Iāll spread them out amongst the posts that I plan to write! 
If youāre on mobileā¦ sorry for the many photos in this post!!
The #ExploreJapan series:
This series is based on my 11 days exploring Osaka, Kyoto, Fujikawaguchiko (Mt Fuji area) and Tokyo. It is my very first visit to Japan 
and I hope to share the experiences that I had with all of you!
- First introduction post (this post)
- Fujikawaguchiko
- Kyoto
, but Iām sure Those who couldnāt come are very sad. Iām sure we will see you and your amazing work in much better and better organizations from now on. Congratulations. 
Nonetheless, itās definitely great to meet in person and I look forward to your travel posts! 
Moreover, I only found out about seeing you again two days ago through social networks. Since we were not informed of this, we could not suggest a list of sightseeing spots in Japan to you. It felt like the day passed very quickly! 
I checked your schedule and it looks like you covered all the major places you definitely want to visit.
Sociologically, while Japanese people tend to feel that the West is more advanced than Japan, there seems to be a social stereotype that Japan is superior in terms of spiritual culture. 
?