IT’S been some time since I last traveled to Tokyo for business reasons. If I remember correctly, it was for business presentations to the president of the Asia group of Coca-Cola in the early 2000s, and it included having a lovely dinner at the Tokyo residence of James Chestnut who headed the regional operations (and was previously CFO in Atlanta).
That dinner’s highlight was the uncorking of a champagne bottle using a samurai sword.
We were booked at the Four Seasons and on the day of the presentation by the Philippine team I had gone to the gym early in the morning. On the way back to my room I encountered the Asia group head of Public Affairs (my functional boss) who I greeted warmly. “Someone’s chipper this morning,” he said. To which I replied: “I am excited to present to Mary!” My boss stopped in his tracks, looked at me, and exclaimed “You must be mad!”
His reaction should tell you what kind of a reputation our Asia boss had — “dragon lady” as we called her.
My boss turned out to be far too pessimistic. I survived that presentation to her — but almost didn’t survive a second encounter in Port Douglas, Australia where she threatened me in front of the whole Asia Group leadership with a pink slip — but that is a different story altogether that some “old” Coke hands still talk about his day.
It was thus with extreme joy that I welcomed the news from NAC President and CEO Dennis Zamora that he wanted me to accompany him, NAC Vice Chairman Patricia Riingen and NAC VP Koichi Ishihara to a business meeting in a Tokyo with Sumitomo Metal Mining President Akira Nozaki and his team. I would now have a chance to be “reunited” with Tokyo, but more importantly I would get a unique opportunity to meet and engage with the top bosses of SMM.
‘While the rest of our trip was excellent — including trips to the Asakusa Shrine, the Tokyo Skytree and the Meiji Shrine — it is the thought of Masateru that I bring home to Manila with mixed emotions because she sacrificed herself so I could gorge on excellent Matsusaka beef.’
I cannot detail here the matters that were discussed in the meeting, especially since both our companies are publicly listed. But I’d like to talk about the excellent dinner that Nozaki-san hosted, and how Masateru made it all so special.
We dined at Tsukiji Sato, a hidden gem of a restaurant which you can Google. They serve the Matsusaka beef, meat from Japan’s black cattle, and the most expensive steak dinner of this beef, I am told, costs $300+ per person.
The restaurant consumes five heads of cattle per month. They’re ordered at around 3-years-old, matured for another month more, before their supreme sacrifice. The cattle are sliced open at their left shoulder to check for oiliness and then cut up, left side first. Only after the left side of all the five heads of cattle are consumed are their right sides cut up.
Caramba, the meat was so tender and the marbling so exquisite. We were served four slices each from three parts of the animal, and lucky for me neither Patricia nor Charmaine Ang-Zamora (who joined us for dinner and who is the better half of Dennis) could finish their share. I ate it all.
Before I forget: before the specialty was served, we were shown a “birth certificate” of the specific head of cattle we were going to enjoy. That’s how we learned that her name (it was a she) was Masateru, born on 14 February 2019 and a descendant of “champion” stock — the certificate had her family tree! It also had her nose imprint — apparently the cattle’s nose is like our fingerprint — it is unique.
While the rest of our trip was excellent — including trips to the Asakusa Shrine, the Tokyo Skytree and the Meiji Shrine — it is the thought of Masateru that I bring home to Manila with mixed emotions because she sacrificed herself so I could gorge on excellent Matsusaka beef.
Now that she is in cow’s heaven, I hope Masateru realizes that she did not die in vain.
(Thank you to Nozaki-san, and to the rest of the SMM leadership: Nobuhiro Matsumoto; Yusuke Niwa; Masaru Takebayashi; Daisuke Miyabe; Kenichi Tsuda; as well as to Yasusuke Sakata and Ryoma Sato. And I was lucky to have Koichi Nakamura, who is based in Manila, as my travel companion from Manila and back.)
