1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 446 Neon
Since it can be called the lost forty years, the economy of the island nation in the early 1990s was naturally extremely prosperous. As the largest city in the island nation, Tokyo's level of decadence and infrastructure is absolutely second to none in the world.

Rows of tall buildings;
Colorful outdoor LED screens can be seen everywhere;

Vending machines have already begun to be deployed on a small scale;

Advertisements for various laptops and LCD TVs that appear in sight from time to time;
The extensive subway lines and the occasional modern light rail subways painted light red on the ground;

A large crowd of people poured out of the subway entrance, all of them were brightly dressed office workers and fashionable women...

Ok……

Even if you don't like the island country, you have to admit that today's Tokyo, except for the fact that the roads are really narrow (Tokyo doesn't even have many four-lane roads) and the car styles and clothing are a bit old-fashioned compared to later generations, its overall feeling is basically the same as that of China's first-tier cities during the period of 2013-2015.

I have to say that it is indeed a bit outrageous to be compared with the construction level of a certain infrastructure maniac more than 20 years later.

………………

Since an invited Chinese cultural exchange group has come from afar to visit, as the host and strategic partner of Dahua Company, Sankyo Co., Ltd. will naturally give them a high-level reception.

The economic level and per capita GDP largely determine a region's business values ​​and consumption concepts.

Therefore, just like the business receptions in later generations, the reception group headed by Suzuki Jiken did not invite these "country bumpkins" from afar to have a steak, which everyone in China was proud of at that time, in the bustling main city of Tokyo, nor did they invite them to Chinatown to eat a "Chinese luxury cuisine" that was quite famous in the island country but has actually changed a lot. Instead, they drove for nearly an hour and brought Yang Mo and others to a courtyard in Meguro district that looked somewhat ordinary from the outside, and had an extremely expensive kaiseki meal.

"Mr. Yang, Minister Mu, the ancestor of Mr. Xi Jian, the owner of this restaurant, was a chef for Kimito Saionji. He particularly liked Chu crabs... You two might as well try them and see if they suit your taste."

After taking the hot towel handed out by the store owner himself, Suzuki Jiken first bowed to express his gratitude to the store owner who was about fifty years old, and then turned to look at Yang Mo and Miss Mu.

Although some kaiseki restaurants later liked to use the omakase method, allowing guests to sit at the kitchen counter and watch the chef's skills up close, and then eat as the food is cooked, it is obvious that this was not the mainstream in the early 1990s.

Therefore, according to the principle of equality, Yang Mo and his party were divided into several private rooms, and Suzuki Jiken and another director received Yang Mo and Miss Mu;
The rest, such as Song Wenxuan, Zhuo Mali, Yan Laoxi and others, were received by several ministers;

The rest will be received by the section chiefs.

It can be said that the island nation's extremely strict hierarchical concept is fully demonstrated in such occasions.

Yang Mo looked at the pitiful crab claw on the plate that had been steamed red, and nodded with a smile. He didn't know much about seafood, so he picked up the crab claw of the Chu crab and gently peeled it along the carefully cut marks on it...

Suddenly, plump and snow-white filamentous crab meat appeared before my eyes.

Without paying much attention to other people's looks, he picked up the chopsticks, pried all the crab meat into the bowl, and then poured some crab vinegar on it.

"Well, that's good, Senior Manager Suzuki, thank you for your hard work!"

Yang Mo savored the sweetness of the crab meat melting in his mouth, then, following the introduction of the Mediterranean old man, he took a sip of the crab miso prepared by the store owner and nodded with satisfaction...

Many Chinese people's perception of sushi is limited to "eating raw food", but in fact, in the cuisine of Kaiseki, there are many dishes that cook the ingredients before serving, and the Chu crab claws in front of you are one of them.

The crab claws are fresh and the crab miso is strong.

It has to be said that the dishes chosen by Suzuki Jiken were indeed chosen with Yang Mo's Chinese stomach in mind... Although this guy is a rough eater, as long as he can eat it, he is fine and can't tell whether it is good or bad.

Seeing that Yang Mo was drinking the crab miso, Suzuki Ciken breathed a sigh of relief. He was afraid that Yang Mo would be like many Chinese people who were eating Japanese food for the first time and would not be able to accept something like miso soup... If the owner had not refused, he would have actually wanted to remove the crab miso and only serve a dish of crab vinegar.

After Yang Mo took the first bite, as Suzuki Jiken gestured, Mu Liya picked up the crab claws in front of her plate, gently broke them, dipped them in vinegar, and put them into her mouth with her left hand, looking elegant and skilled.

But it was obvious that for Sankyo Corporation, Yang Mo was the distinguished guest who really needed to be received with all their heart; in ordinary occasions, if there was a peerless beauty like Miss Mu present at the banquet, then no matter who it was, they would take the opportunity to find some reasons to ask about her well-being, but now, no matter how graceful Miss Mu's posture was, the two directors of Sankyo Corporation did not even glance at her once.

"Boss Yang, this is our signature dish, steamed conger eel with rice... The simplest dish is the hardest to master. It is so simple that it is almost ordinary, but the fun lies in the extraordinary in this ordinariness... There are many misunderstandings about Kaiseki cuisine. In fact, it is not just about looking at the dishes."

The director who was in charge of the reception together with Suzuki Jiken was called Fumida Takashi. As the managing director of the financial business division, when it came to introducing food, he sounded like a philosophical young man.

Yang Mo looked at the slightly browned pieces of roasted eel in the bowl, then looked at the maximum one tablespoon of rice underneath, and couldn't help but twitching his forehead.

Damn, it takes more than ten or twenty minutes to wait for a dish, and what was served is not even enough to fill the gaps between your teeth. Are you planning to starve people to death in the restaurant?
"This is another signature dish of this restaurant, shrimp taro... In Tokyo, shrimp taro is also called Kyoto taro, named after its silvery shrimp stripes. The production is extremely low, and it is a special food for high-end restaurants. It is rarely circulated on the market... Kaiseki cuisine has its own unique food philosophy. This shrimp taro is crispy on the outside and soft and glutinous on the inside. Its preparation is not complicated, but the control of the heat requires perfection. One second more and it will be bitter, and one second less and it will be messy. It is really impossible to do it well without more than ten years of practice."

Looking at Xun Tiangui boasting with an intoxicated look on his face, Yang Moqiang resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Damn, although I know that since the island country entered the era of asset bubble, in order to make it easier to rip off the suckers, all kinds of stories have started to be told, such as the so-called "Sushi Body", "Yakitori Immortal", and "Rice Immortal" in later generations, which were all hyped up step by step.

but……

You are the executive director of a big company after all, aren't you ashamed to brag about such an ordinary fried taro ball?!
"Boss Yang, Minister Mu, this is the hot rice fish tea, which is known as the hidden menu in Kaiseki cuisine. It can only be made by experienced cooking masters, and it is not enough for Mr. Xi Jian to make it unless there are distinguished guests... Boiled turnip shrimp and mushrooms, sprinkled with grapefruit peel, and topped with Chu crab from Tamba, Kyoto. The small dish contains the essence of male and female crabs, crab roe, crab paste, crab meat, crab legs and crab claws, and the taste is three-dimensional; after the impact, it is an elegant steamed dish. Chef Xi Jian replaced the sweet sea bream skin with fried rice, which not only enriched the taste of the fish meat, but also added fragrance. All the elements are naturally combined to make such a bowl of hot rice fish tea with infinite mysteries."

Yang Mo couldn't help but rub his forehead.

Now he finally understood why a few years later, a classic food anime work like "Cooking Master Boy" appeared, which was exaggerated to the point of being almost fantasy.

Damn it, they always talk about "secrets". Have the Japanese people become so immature nowadays?
………………

Although the serving speed of dishes was extremely slow at such a high-end banquet, it must be said that the scenery looking out from the deliberately opened shoji screens in the private room on the second floor was still very nice.

The cherry trees, with their branches sticking out like red apricots blooming outside the wall, shade the streets with lush greenery. In addition, the buildings in the yard have some old Tang Dynasty style and the courtyard layout is full of oriental aesthetics, which really makes people feel happy.

This is no wonder. Although Meguro Ward is close to the center of Tokyo and has convenient transportation, it is home to the Meguro River, a famous cherry blossom viewing spot. In addition, it is full of restaurants and quiet residential areas, lacking a noisy environment. Therefore, it is very popular with some artists and wealthy people. It can be regarded as an area in Tokyo where the old hipsters and hipsters gather... and since a high-end kaiseki restaurant can be opened in such a place, the environment will naturally not be bad.

After eating intermittently for nearly three hours, this high-end banquet that looked good but tasted bad finally came to an end. Yang Mo, who was still half hungry, refused Suzuki Jiken's offer to send them back to their hotel on the grounds that he wanted to enjoy the scenery of Tokyo. After noting the name of the hotel, he strolled leisurely in the sunset.

Of course, Yang Mo was not the only one who was still not full after three hours of torture. There were also many people who planned to take the opportunity to buy something to fill their stomachs later. Therefore, in the end, the number of people in this temporarily formed sightseeing group was as many as five.

So, as soon as the Sankyo bus was out of sight, everyone soon had a box of extremely expensive octopus balls in their hands.

"Ah~Ah~Ah~! He dared to charge us 1000 yen for just six fried dumplings from a roadside stall...Why didn't he just rob us!?"

Tugou looked at the six delicate octopus balls in the delicate little paper box, and after using a bamboo stick to poke the thin layer of wood fish flowers on top, he felt so heartbroken that he couldn't breathe.

Bao Shuxian, who unexpectedly showed up in this cultural exchange group, poked a meatball in his mouth with a look of despair: "Yingying, just be content. Prices here in Tokyo are like this... these meatballs that are neither salty nor sweet are very expensive, but compared to the kaiseki meal that cost more than 10 yen per person but didn't eat anything, it's much more cost-effective!"

Although he seems to have disappeared from the public eye, Bao Shuxian, who has actually been engaged in various brand overseas work in the past six months, undoubtedly knows more about the various conditions in the island country than most Chinese people.

"What!!"

"10 yen!?"

"Per capita!?" "Just those few pieces of shit!?"

Classmate Tugou jumped up and screamed as if a snake had bitten him on the butt, with a look of disbelief on his face.

Bao Shuxian shrugged and said, "You'll get used to it. Prices in Tokyo are extremely expensive. Kaiseki cuisine is also known as aristocratic cuisine. It is said that a Kaiseki meal for two or three people will cost 10 yen. The meal just now cost yen per person, which is an underestimate."

Classmate Tugou almost popped his eyes out again.

Yang Mo, who was standing by, heard this and looked at Bao Shuxian with some surprise.

In fact, generally speaking, the price level in Tokyo forty years later will be similar to that of Tokyo today. If the purchasing power parity is introduced, it will even be lower. Therefore, the price that Bao Shuxian just estimated will not be very different... In later generations, if two or three people have an authentic kaiseki meal, it will cost 300,000 or 400,000 yen.

It’s just that this is Bao Shuxian’s first time to visit the island country. Even though there is a large amount of market data to reflect some situations before, this guy can talk about some situations in the island country at will, which shows that he has done a lot of serious research in his daily life.

Thinking of this, Yang Mo clicked his tongue a few times, and then asked with a sigh: "I don't know why the people of this island country are so rich. They eat food that costs 100,000 yen per person. They eat it whenever they want."

Bao Shuxian looked at him strangely: "Boss, are you pretending to be ignorant when you know the truth?"

"Companies in this island country have been spending money like crazy in the past two years, waving money around to buy land and companies, even Columbia Pictures and the Empire State Building in America;"

"Inside, these island companies are eager to spend money to kill their own employees... Let alone a kaiseki meal costing only 10 yen per person. As long as you meet the company's hospitality regulations, spending million yen on important guests is not a big deal!"

Bao Shuxian shrugged and said, "Don't think this is nonsense. In May, a trading company under our unit had a small batch of Chinese medicine extracts stranded at the port for a day because of a local special fleet dispatch error. As soon as Tsumura Co., Ltd. received a call, they immediately rented two helicopters to transport the extracts back... In fact, the extracts were protected by insulation measures, so it would be fine even if they were left for another three to five days. Tsumura Co., Ltd. rented these two helicopters because they had too much money to burn!"

At this point, Bao Shuxian pointed to an empty bus that just passed by, and then pointed to two young people who were hailing a taxi: "See, nowadays in Tokyo, almost no one takes the bus. It is said that for people here, taking the bus is a very shameful thing... Even if you don't have a car, you have to take a taxi to work or go out on weekdays, so as not to be looked down upon."

Tugou felt that his worldview had been greatly impacted: "Take a taxi, that's so expensive!"

Bao Shuxian laughed: "Of course, taxis in our country are already very expensive, but I heard that taxis in Tokyo are even more expensive... As for how expensive they are, I don't know, but they are definitely much more expensive than in our country."

"But they don't need to worry about this... I heard that Sankyo Co., Ltd., like other large island companies, provides subsidies for employees' travel, and the subsidy standards are basically the same. Depending on the level, each person gets about 30 million yen a year. In addition, there are travel subsidies, accommodation subsidies, telephone subsidies, clothing subsidies, etc. With so many subsidies, they don't even take a taxi seriously!"

This is the truth. The island country in the 1980s and 1990s was magical. Not only did each company have profit indicators and investment indicators, but they also had various spending indicators... Take transportation subsidies for example. If it were placed in later generations, it would basically be equivalent to an ordinary employee's annual salary level, but at the moment, it is just a normal operation.

Of course, students who have worked in corporate financial and tax planning or corporate management know that the reason why a company is so lavish is not so much about rallying people's hearts or retaining talent. The tricks involved... are not something that can be told to outsiders.

Watching Bao Shuxian continue to vividly describe the various bizarre phenomena and urban legends on the island country, Yang Mo smiled and continued to eat the meatballs in his hand.

"Hey, Yang Mo, it seems that Mr. Xuntian was a little too proactive towards you today?"

Miss Mu considerately took the empty box from Yang Mo's hand, then looked around for a trash can while asking with a hint of sarcasm.

Indeed, Xun Tiangui's enthusiasm and eloquence in the private room today had clearly exceeded the standards of a business reception.

And Suzuki Jiken's attitude of almost adding fuel to the fire undoubtedly shows that there is something fishy going on here.

Yang Mo smiled disapprovingly: "He told you right away that he is the executive director in charge of finance and capital operations. Why is he so enthusiastic about us? Isn't the situation clear enough?"

"And don't forget, although it was indeed me who asked Sankyo Co., Ltd. to expand the scale of this cultural exchange event, the original plan was just to get Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Tsumura Co., Ltd. to join... So, the sudden appearance of Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical, two pharmaceutical companies that are not much smaller than Sankyo Co., Ltd., on the list of organizers is enough to explain the problem."

Just like the middle school-style words such as “All below the immortals are ants” that often appear in later online fantasy novels, there are actually similar sayings in some industries in the island country.

Take the medical community of the island country in later generations as an example. There has always been an unofficial saying that "everything else except the top ten is nothing."

The “top ten” are naturally the ten largest and most influential pharmaceutical companies in the island country.

Compared with the third-ranked Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (formed by the merger of Sankyo Co., Ltd. and Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.), Otsuka Pharmaceutical, which ranks right behind, is a bit off the mark and does not have the potential to dominate before its Nutraceuticals-related businesses (functional nutritional medicines, which are quite different from health products) are fully developed, but its strength is still there after all;

As for Fujisawa Pharmaceutical, as mentioned earlier, it is one of the two predecessor companies of the famous Astellas. Although its strength is obviously not as strong as its other predecessor company "Hara Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical", it should definitely not be underestimated.

Suddenly, there are two more pharmaceutical companies whose strength is not much weaker than Sankyo Co., Ltd. Isn’t the implication obvious enough?
You have to know that the capital market is, after all, just a large amusement park built on the basis of currency.

The reason why currency is called currency is that in order to have currency, you must first have goods.

This is the subtlety of Chinese characters. Just two words can clearly describe the underlying relationship between industry/resources and finance/capital.

So, you understand why Fumida Takashi is so enthusiastic about Yang Mo, and even as a managing director, he is willing to act as a commentator with a full of second-year mentality throughout the whole process, right?

Seeing Yang Mo's indifferent look, Mu Liya couldn't help but sigh, but turned around and looked at Zhuo Mali who was smiling all the time: "Sister Zhuo, I have to say that your wide network of contacts really makes me admire you... If this trip to the island country can be successfully concluded, Sister Zhuo, you should be credited with the first merit."

Obviously, Miss Mu believed that Sankyo Corporation's unexpected enthusiasm, as well as the sudden emergence of Fujisawa Pharmaceutical and Otsuka Pharmaceutical, were all targeting the technology of transition metal chiral catalysts.

Although she and Yang Mo had a clear division of labor on this trip, and these things had nothing to do with her directly, everything is interconnected. If she wants her plan to achieve results as scheduled, she will certainly rely on the support and coordination of a series of island companies such as Sankyo Co., Ltd. in all aspects. Therefore, the more important the bargaining chips on the Dahua Company's side, the greater the price these island companies need to pay, and the greater the help to her plan.

Upon hearing this, Zhuo Mali just smiled reservedly. Due to her work, she was familiar with the progress of chiral catalyst technology in various countries. She knew very well that although her friend's transition metal chiral catalyst technology, which was temporarily one step ahead, was very attractive to major pharmaceutical companies, this attraction was not absolute;
Therefore, these island pharmaceutical companies are obviously unusually enthusiastic, and they are not coming for this technology... at least not entirely for this technology.

and so……

Thinking of this, Zhuo Mali looked at Yang Mo calmly.

She didn't know what kind of agreement Yang Mo finally reached with Sankyo Co., Ltd., and this cautious guy never revealed a word to anyone. Therefore, she knew most of Miss Mu's plan to go to the island country, but she knew nothing about Yang Mo's purpose.

Yang Mo seemed to be completely unaware of Zhuo Mali's glance. He noticed that his wife was still carrying the paper box, but couldn't find a trash can to throw it in. He immediately laughed and said, "There are so few trash cans in this damn place. There is a convenience store in front. Let's go there and buy something to fill our stomachs... and ask for a garbage bag to put these boxes of food in. I guess unless we go back to the hotel, we probably won't see any trash cans along the way."

Hearing that Yang Mo, a wealthy man who paid for his own meals, was going to buy some more food to fill their stomachs, Tugou and Bao Shuxian cheered immediately... To be honest, with the appetite of people from Qi and Lu, they would have to eat at least five people's worth of food to barely fill their stomachs in this island country.

Yang Mo saw that everyone was in good spirits, and he immediately laughed: "When you first arrive in a foreign country, no matter what your physical condition is, you still have to adjust to the time difference, so that you can maintain the best energy to deal with the subsequent work; so tomorrow we will all take a day off, eat whatever you want, and report it to me later for reimbursement... Of course, if you can't stay idle in the hotel, you can also join me in a group to go out for a walk, and by the way, go to see how our previous preparations in the island country are going."

Eh?
Preparation work before the inspection?
Could it be... ?
Tugou and Bao Shuxian looked at each other and suddenly became excited.

"I want to go tomorrow too!"

Classmate Tugou raised his hands high, his eyes shining brightly.

"Boss, count me in. To be honest, I haven't seen a lot of the things we made... Take me to see what those things that are said to cost no less than 15 yen per person look like tomorrow!"

Bao Shuxian has a bumpkin expression on his face...

(End of this chapter)