Traveler
Weekly update 8/28/2022 to 9/3/2022 #136
Planes, trains, and the automobile industry. Wait, I don't think that is how the saying goes, but before I venture around this thought, let me share some of my week as the mayor (abroad) of the best smalltown in America.
A little over a week ago, I departed for an economic development trip to Japan with Jackson County Industrial Development Executive Director Jim Plump. While Jim has been many, many times in his 38 years on the job, this was my first trip. We had planned on going in 2020 before the summer Olympics in Tokyo. Scratch that due to COVID 19. Fast forward to 2021, we were working on plans when numbers ticked up again, and we were forced to cancel. Now here we are in late 2022, and we were able to get here and according to one Japanese executive we were the first Indiana delegation to visit since the start of COVID.
Many are aware that Seymour and Jackson County have several Japanese companies. Did you know that these companies employ around 3500 in our area? They also have announced three planned expansions with investments of over $70 million in 2022. These numbers didn’t just happen overnight. They were the hard work of individuals like Jim and organizations like the Jackson County Industrial Development Corporation and my predecessors in the mayor's office dating back to Mayor Bailey in the 1980’s. That hard work is relationship building. When you sit down halfway around the world and listen as a photo is brought out to share a story from a visit to Seymour over 15 years ago, you can’t help but smile and realize friendships can be built across oceans and language barriers.
Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this trip for me. Food was my biggest worry going into it. When I ran for mayor, I wasn’t excited about traveling halfway around the world where the meat was more than likely going to be seafood, and the potatoes, well I wasn’t sure what they would be. What I can tell you from a hotel room in Nagoya, Japan, though, is that the meat usually was a form of seafood. The potatoes were french fries served with breakfast, but seldom seen on a menu after that. I am proud to say that I tried everything that was placed in front of me during our many-course meals, which are the standard in Japan. Some items were better than expected, and a few I didn’t go back for a second bite. Meeting so many new-to-me faces that are involved in several different industries, though, more than made up for my fears. Getting to share stories of family and friends bridged the cultural gaps as we learned from and about each other.
As I could sit and write page after page about various pieces of this trip, I will get back to where it started. Planes carried us around the world in eight days so that we could visit with old friends and sit down for the first time with new ones. Trains carried us up and down Japan to several locations for the same reason. They also gave us a chance to join the Indiana Economic Development Corporation Japan Office team members as they introduced new companies to what Seymour and all of Indiana has to offer. In the opening I said automobile industry, but I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge how we discussed much more than just one industry. Sometimes those conversations were with companies that are diversified into other areas, and sometimes they were with companies in other areas all together. Yes, in case you are curious, I took some chances to enjoy this trip with a traveler's eye. I walked many blocks of Tokyo to see what I could see. I enjoyed a short bike ride arranged by a former Seymour resident now back home in Japan. I snapped many pictures and even recorded some of my quotes of the day for future use. Today, I leave you with this quote from Chef Andrew Zimmern, "Please be a traveler, not a tourist. Try new things, meet new people, and look beyond what's right in front of you. Those are the keys to understanding this amazing world we live in."