Note: Links to all of four Japan factory tour posts and the various lessons from those tours can be found here.
Just a brief note this morning as I'm leaving for Japan in a few minutes! I'll be arriving tomorrow afternoon after an 11 hour plane ride from San Francisco, then joining the other participants in the Gemba Research Japan Kaikaku Experience. If I'm lucky this will be just like last month's trip to Switzerland, which had exactly the same time change from the U.S. west coast (8 hours, opposite direction), where I experienced no jet lag in either direction! I wish I knew how I pulled that off, especially since I absolutely cannot sleep on planes. I think resetting my watch the instant I get on the plane, scheduling my arrival for late in the day, getting some sun as soon as I arrive, then going to bed at a normal hour has something to do with it.
This weekend we'll have the two standard posts: Examples of Excellence on Saturday and the YouTube Factory Tour of the Week on Sunday. Then beginning on Monday I'll write about some of the experience in Japan. The JKE schedule is full and I've heard that internet connections may not always exists at the "authentic Japanese hotels", so be patient.
Off to Japan!