Designer Times
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39. Tokyo Disneyland

To design Tokyo Disneyland, WED Imagineers would have to learn a different culture and think in metric dimensions. All the departments in WED, the business units at Walt Disney Productions, and Operations at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World would absorb all they could about Japan and metrification. Consultants were brought aboard to teach us Japanese history, culture, and business decorum. We were aware of the "ugly American syndrome" when our US personnel tried to negotiate with Japanese counterparts only from the American viewpoint. Disney was prepared to work from a position of understanding Japanese thinking.

I enjoyed these culture lessons including our visits to several local Japanese restaurants to get ready for our adventures in Japan. Dave Schweninger, with his MAPO Audio-Animatronics Supervisor background was placed in charge of scouting Japanese industry to identify potential ride and show manufacturers. Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) would have virtually all the rides and shows manufactured in Japan except for some very exceptional Disney items which we would furnish to TDL. Dave and I traveled extensively in Japan in November 1979 to tour a variety of Japanese companies.

Oh did we have a good time! I love sashimi and Asian veggies. Dave could stay right with the best Japanese after-hours hosts during what was politely called "the drinking hour". Everywhere we went, we were treated like visiting royalty. What manufacturer would not want to help build a Japanese Disneyland? Meeting the staff of these companies was always a formal affair, unlike American informal joshing about. First we all exchange business cards holding them by both top corners so that the words are upright and facing your host, and with a slight bow. Next come name introductions allowing your hosts to call you in a Japanese-pronouncible moniker......I was always "Bobba-San", too many "R's" in Gurr.

Then the hostess girls serve hot green tea as some printed materials are exchanged. I loved the factory tours where I was amazed at the advanced equipment and the hospital-clean shop floors. The guys who showed us around wore white gloves. This meant that they did not work by touching product, but worked as managers. Afterwards the company always presented Dave and I with small beautifully wrapped gifts, given very sincerely in a formal manner. Every factory visit followed the same format whether it was the giant Matsushita Works in Osaka or a tiny steam locomotive plant way up north in ski country.

Another Japanese sales custom is that negotiations during the daytime business hours are quite formal, almost always going thru the company translator, usually a very cute young lady. This gave both parties a useful time to formulate a thoughtful question and answer. But look out at the end of the day! One guy in particular at Yamaha Ship would look at his watch and declare...."Ah so, drinking hour". These guys would instantly become all palsy-walsy as they whisked us off to their favorite Ginza Club. Seems all big business has a club membership where money is not used, just a monthly invoice sent to the company.

Now, here's where the real negotiations take place. You get sized up with your drinking ability while engaged in rapid discussions about the project. All the while, everyone is distracted by the beautiful Geisha Girls in formal attire placed at everyone's side. (the girls seemed to always have their own business card too". It was explained that when two companies are wooing each other's business, it is like a marriage courtship. Both parties must become comfortable with each other before any contracts can be thought about.

Dave and I returned to Glendale and spent the next (18) months gathering up all the ride and show documents as well as the lists of Disney-furnshed items. During this time I think I must have signed around 4,500 design documents which were forwarded to the selected Japanese manufacturers. Supporting this documentation was a massive effort to duplicate existing WDW and DL drawings and produce as-built drawings of older or modified park rides and shows.

I returned to Tokyo in May 1981 and worked at the TDL site office for a month to give final approval to each company's ride and show equipment working drawing packages. When we gave the Japanese our US dimensioned drawings using US manufactured parts, they re-engineered everything in metric and specified Japanese purchased parts and materials. They would bring in large bound books of drawings every day for me to review. I had to either approve as drawn, suggest detail changes, or ask them to return with extensive revisions. This was so we could transfer all the lessons that we had learned from Walt and ensure that the Japanese would build TDL Walt-perfect.

I think these were my most enjoyable Disney days......mentoring Walt Disney's ideals to an eager group of folks who would go on to build a fabulously beautiful and successful Japanese Disneyland. Our daily negotiations were great fun. Every company was assigned a date to meet with Bobba-San. The interpreter would usually not be needed once the company's staff found that I was very easy going and enjoyed their attempt at speaking English. Unlike in the USA where the senior guys do all the talking while the junior guys sit in the back row, Japan is different. The young guys and I do all the talking....the old guys sit in back with their eyes closed (Japanese manner of listening intently). One cannot say "no" directly.....too offensive. One must dance laterally until they see that the answer really is no. A yes is typically given as "so-so". Sometimes I would speed up the meetings by exchanging a "so-so" with the old guys, by-passing the juniors. Also it was fun to add a bit of humor just to see how much English the old guys knew (quite a bit).

The return to WED found the Imagineers deep in the problems of EPCOT, not the joy I found at TDL. I opened my mouth inappropriately in a staff meeting only to find myself with a new invitation about a month later. "Seek a career in another company". A few days later, GurrDesign, Inc. was founded. Marty Sklar put it this way as he introduced me at the 1999 Themed Entertainment Association Awards banquet in Beverly Hills to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award; "Bob says we fired him, we say he quit, either way, it was time for him to leave".

oOo

Next month: Exit Disney - Enter GurrDesign, Inc.