The guy at Dentsu Inc. with the longest commute

Hello, my name is Yasuharu Sasaki. I have been working at Dentsu Network in New York since September 2011.

When I first arrived, there wasn't even a desk for me, which must have caused you some concern. Thanks to your help, I got a desk right away, though...

But then, perhaps because the rumor "Sasaki doesn't have a desk" started circulating on its own in Tokyo, another desk was set up for me at the Tokyo office starting this October 2012.

Working in Japan. I think I must have left the excitement of travel around here somewhere... Can't find it...

Long story short, I live in New York and work at the New York office, but somehow I also have to commute to the Tokyo office. It takes an hour from my crappy New York apartment to JFK Airport, then a two-hour wait at the airport, a 14-hour flight, and roughly two hours from immigration at Narita to Shiodome. That's 19 hours from home to the office. I'm probably the guy with the longest commute in the entire company.
How did things get this messed up...? Well, it's actually because of Sasaki's mission.

Originally, I was assigned here with the mission to "export Japan's wonderful digital creative work to the world." But to export it, you need to prepare the "wonderful digital creative work" product itself. I can't just sit around in New York waiting for what everyone in Japan is working so hard to create. I can't just eat steak all the time. Sasaki, you need to do it yourself.

So, I started this new job, essentially like a traveling salesman: creating something myself in Tokyo and taking it overseas.

Of course, commuting daily is impossible with modern science. I avoid unnecessary trips, but I still have to make the round trip about once a month. The time difference is tough, but what's sadder is that my "traveler's spirit" seems to have vanished somewhere... Going to the airport doesn't excite me anymore. Going through immigration feels like passing through a subway turnstile. I seem to have left that sense of travel excitement somewhere around the Bering Sea.

But I don't mind being cooped up on a 14-hour flight to plan things. Plus, getting fresh updates from both New York and Tokyo isn't bad. It's pretty tough, but I'll try my best. And through this column, I hope to share global and digital topics with you.
Thank you all for your continued support!