Honeybuns in Tokyo!
Halloo,
Well-.what a week Charlotte, Matt & I had over in Tokyo. We met some amazingly lovely people whilst we were over there especially our interpreter, Mazumi Davies. She was an absolute star & took us out on the town to meet her Japanese friend & her Scottish friend Clare. We spent one intriguing night eating endless traditional Japanese Bean curd desserts & sweetmeats washed down with-neat Vodka.I think this was a funky take on the traditional Japanese tea house.It was fascinating to learn how they tend to shy away from refined sugar & prefer to use crushed beans & fruit syrups instead.We definitley have some ideas for our new sweet range to be launched next year.
The whole trip was intended to be exploratory & a great opportunity for us to pick up on new trends in packaging, design & health foods. We were pleasantly taken aback about how ‘kerrrrazeee’ the Japanese (ladies in particular) went over our cakes.It was really motivating & morale boosting, particularly as we were one of the smallest businesses there. We just stood by our stand handing out endless samples & chatting away. We had been over warned (in my opinion) about how rigid & formal the Japanese business people behave. We did not find this at all really. Obviously you get the same weirdo power player buyers anywhere in the world but they were very much in the minority.
Our fellow British stand holders were generally ace too. Alan from Tyrell’s crisps is perhaps the friendliest & knowledgable person in export on the planet- amaaaaazingly helpful & kind. Tim from Pukka Herbs & Simon from Twisted Juices made us laugh a lot.Tim is the dude of the herbal tea world & seemed to have a cure for anything-..we just wondered if you sorted your sore head out on your flight home Tim Timeney Tim Tim Teroo?!
My intolerance of consultants (only when they are aloof & superior) reared its ugly head & was the only downer on the trip.In stark contrast to us chatting directly to Japanaese customers/ wholesalers/ importers who were down to earth & ‘real life’- one particular UK consultant had his head sooooo far up his own bottom it had to be seen/heard to be believed.
I was too honest/aggressive in my typical ‘tourettes-honesty confrontation’ of his behaviour which I’m not proud of. I definitely have issues about being looked down upon & I get frustrated when I’m forced to listen to consultant double speak instead of straight forward normal words.
I’m going to try & figure out just why I get so uptight when faced with this behaviour & see if I can turn a dignified cheek next time-I need to be far less free range about what I’m thinking & feeling- especially in a business context.
Charlotte & Matt were the best ambassadours of Honeybuns you could care to wish for. Charlotte was pulling chaps of all nationalities left right & centre. There was a particularly uncanny resembelance between a certain Iranian pistachio nut agent & Borat. He was very friendly & had his eye on Charlotte-all very amusing & helped speed the time on the stand up considerably.
We are now firing off e-mails (social & business) to all the contacts we made out there & we are on a mission to convert them to sales as soon as posiible.
Life back at Naish Farm has seemed to have run like clock work. The team are formidable in terms of organisational skills & common sense. Everything looks so up & together & tidy too. I’m really proud of our team.
Animal wise- by the way, the Japanese LOVED our obsession with anything lame/aged & furry- the ‘A Team’ are all good. With this recent chilly weather Sam & Joan are tucked up in their barn with rugs back on again. Diesy’s hips are shot to buggery & he’ll need some more drugs for mobility again this week we think. The cold weather really aggravates them. We all cuddled up in front of a roaring fire last night & Peggy was wearing her Vivienne Westwood inspired Union Jack T shirt- very Tokyoite!!!
See you soon,
Emm xxxxx
