Japan Day 9 P1

We will walk past this place everyday, as it was just 2 streets from our apartment. Needless to say, we frequent this place quite often during our stay in Tokyo.

24hr shop that provided us with hot piping food at reasonable prices. Lots of patrons frequent the place even when its close to midnight.

Our 1st official breakfast in Tokyo - beef bowls! No more bread as we couldn't find any bakery near our apartment. Leecher had a fun time separating egg yolk from egg white and pouring it over his beef bowl.

Arrived at Tokyo station for more sightseeing. Tokyo station, the main intercity rail terminal in Tokyo & the busiest station in Japan in terms of no. of trains per day. It is the starting point and terminus for most of Japan's Shinkansen and is served by many local and regional commuter lines of Japan Railways as well as the Tokyo Metro network. The whole complex is linked by an extensive system of underground passageways which merge with surrounding commercial buildings and shopping centres. We almost got lost trying to find the right way out from the station.

Due to our profession, we embarked on the Banking & Finance journey today. We first visited Tokyo Stock Exchange (東京証券取引所) ,, which is the 2nd largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, second only to the New York Stock Exchange.

Exchanging for the Visitor Pass at the entrance.

TOPIX (Tokyo Stock Price Index), the weighted average index of the share prices of about 1700 stocks listed on the First Section of the market, is the main indicator calculated and announced by the TSE to communicate the movement of the overall market. TOPIX not only shows the movement of the market, but is also used as a benchmark by institutional investors and others.

I wonder if the traders inside feel as if they are in a gigantic fish tank with onlookers looking curiously at them. The market center is divided into 4 sections:

• TOPIX futures, TOPIX Options & Equity Options
• JGB futures, JGB, Options on JGB futures
• Stocks, Convertible bonds, ETFs, REITs
• Grasp and Analysis of market conditions

So depending on where you sit, you will be assigned to do one of the above accordingly.

As with every stock exchange in the world, there will be a bell to signal trading has began. In recent years, the ringing of the trading bell was glamorized by asking celebrities & significant people to grace the podiums. I vividly remembered watching an ep on SATC in which Sarah Jessica Parker, aka Carrie Bradshaw, decked in a shimmery dress and a pair of chunky Miu Miu's graced the podium of NYSE to trigger the opening bell.

Picture with the mascot as we make our way out to the next destination.

P2 to be continued in the next post ~