This morning I arrived to Japan and this is my first visit to this amazing country. It has always been a dream of mine to visit this country of ninjas, samurais and other exotic stuff that filled my imagination during my younger years of roleplaying, martial arts and ninja movies. It is about to be the experience of a lifetime visiting lean companies such as Toyota and Fujitsu in the company of “Mr and Mrs Lean”, Tom and Mary Poppendieck, Henrik Kniberg and a dozen other lean enthusiasts. We’ve already had a great time with gyoza and beers for lunch, a picnic in the Yoyogi park and a wonderful night out with social dining at a korean restaurant.

Tomorrow morning we are going to visit Fujitsu to learn about their implementation of the Toyota Production System in software development. Later this week we will visit Totyota twice and among other things meet the Chief Engineer of the Lexus, go to Agile Japan and visit some other agile and lean companies in Japan. I hope I will find the time to write about our experiences on this blog.