Hoff Tour

Hisayo worked hard in New York City. On tour she occasionally need things pointed out to her. In this case it was Jim McAlear!

Serena made the trip to Dailan a lot more fun. Thanks for the River Cafe cookbook, Serena.

Dailan 1995

Labels: Canon

Fund managers needed some quiet moments to think about PEG rates.

The Golden Era, but only a few more years before the Japanese asset bubble burst.

One of the main pastimes on a tour was eating in the weekend ryokan or at Ashiya Steak House in Kyoto.

The perfect 'Pataphysical combination of Jermyn Street shirts and novelty eyewear from the Universal Toy Company of Wichita, Kansas.

You can count on Jim!

Robin Griffiths brought a few key institutions to Japan to show them what an investor visit to Japan can be. It was the beginning of a legend.

On the first tour I put together at James Capel, Karen Baldwin came along in her new role as a fund manager. We were probably in Nara where a fellow had his trained birds. I can't remember what the trick was, but it put a smile on Karen's face. Good enough!

Can you imagine what it was like to be on the peak of "203 kochi", the spot the Japanese bombed to pieces in 1905 to drive the Russians out of Manchura, with a group of international Japanese equity fund managers looking to see what the business prospects were for Japanese corporates in China ninety years later?

In 1983 the Hoffster arranged a trip in the fall to Korea for Grieveson Grant's clients to see what was going on pre-Olympics. The somber picture does not tell the story of what transpired. All came away from the trip with a deeper understanding of what goes on in Korean affairs.

Hanafuda was one of the ways to keep the troops in control in the ryokans. This night in Nara was a particularly memorable one!

Rohm was always a popular visit. They were in Kyoto, convenient for travel and tourism. They liked the formal visits, with some factory tour time, that could be shown off to other unlucky investors who merely bought their shares and could never visit Kyoto. Don't we look professional in this shot? Except for that bozo McAlear up on the top row!

The tours were never the same after Hisayo sent Jim McAlear on one and Jim sang karaoke in Oregon with CJ on the Sea of Japan coast. After that he was addicted and regularly came back with cat toys, masks, noses, hats and noise makers. Ha! He thought the tour was for fun!

I think this fellow was from the largest Irish fund management company. His secretary told the London sales person that he didn't eat fish. Ha! I asked the Ryokan to get a Big Mac and to serve it when the Kaiseki fried fish course was served. Have you ever seen the Irish eat their Big Macs with chopsticks before?

One of the weekend pastimes for the tour was to visit famous gardens in Japan. The Korakuen Garden in Okayama was a popular one, especially if you got the weather right. This day was a particularly nice one. Don't we all look happy!

Sometimes on tour we needed protection from the companies we were visiting!

One of the most loved features of the Hoff Tour was the weekend. After the first week of seminars, dinners with speakers, company visits all day, on and off the bus, late nights in Roppongi, hurried lunches, being out of touch with the market and your portfolio, all a fund manager wanted to do was rest. So we would often go to traditional ryokans in Kyoto or some remote part of Japan for the hot baths, plush futons on tatami mats, and a group kaiseki dinner.

Dinner was fun because of all the different dishes which come through the course of the meal.

But this dinner was different. Jim brought along a box full of Groucho Marx glasses and a bunch of animal noses. We all had had our baths, so the routine was to wear the ryokan yukatas to dinner. Everyone put on the glasses and the serving ladies put on the animal noses. It was a scream! Jim made me wear a captain's hat, and he had one for himself. Robin looks like Peter Sellers, don't you think?

The mama san for the Hiiragiya Ryokan sent me a special note afterwards saying how much they loved it. Lots of pictures get taken at these ryokan's kaiseki dinners, but never one like the Hoff Tour!

Dear Friends

Today I initiate the Hoff Tour of Japan blog. This is a backward looking blog. It will contain details of Hoff Tours from the first Grieveson Grant tour through to the last Hoff Tour.

I will be inserting photos, itineraries, company data, anecdotes and all the other stuff to make the Hoff Tour rememberance a pleasant one.

This first photo is of me with Emile and Jim Bogin. Emile used to work for Jim McAlear at Columbia in Portland (more about that Jim in later postings) and came on several tours. A couple years ago Emile called me up and we had him over to the house in Shimo Uma for nabe. Bogin was also in town for company visits so we had a nice little reunion.

Yours,

Paul Hoff