Traveling the World While Working #4 Uzbekistan

Since our founding in 1999, we have been committed to enabling each and every one of our employees to reach their full potential without being restricted by location, time, or living environment.

Together with our employees, we have realized a variety of work styles, including full-flexibility, full-remote work, support for balancing work with childcare and nursing care, and, in recent years, nomadic work both in Japan and overseas. By enabling employees to fulfill both their work and personal lives, we are able to influence each other positively and contribute to improving the productivity and quality of work of the entire organization.

In this series of articles, we will share on how our employees are exploring and implementing their own unique ways of working.

Introduction

Hello. My name is Sakamoto, a global consultant with the Singapore office.
I have started my long-cherished nomadic work since last year, visiting two to three countries a month to experience life and work in those places.
In this blog, I will be writing a series of articles on how to balance work and private life, the culture of the countries I visit, and interaction with the local people through my nomadic work experience abroad.
In this fourth installment, I will share my nomadic work experience in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

About the Republic of Uzbekistan

Following my previous visit to Argentina, this time I visited the Republic of Uzbekistan, located in Central Asia. While Uzbekistan is 1.2 times the size of Japan, its population is only about a quarter of that of Japan.

I went to Tashkent, the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. Tashkent, which means "city of stones," has been a crossroads on the Silk Road for more than 2,000 years. It is the largest city in Central Asia, and as the gateway to Central Asia, it is served by a variety of international flights.

Visit Samarkand

From Tashkent, I took a 3-4 hour train ride to Samarkand. Samarkand is an ancient city that flourished as a strategic point on the Silk Road and was reduced to ruins by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Today, the city is a fusion of modernity and the past, and many of the blue ruins were built from the 14th century onward as the capital of the Timurid Empire.

Timur is said to have admired Genghis Khan.

On the train, I was working while looking out over the vast expanse of land, and on the way there I became friends with an old man sitting in front of me and we had a great time together. The other man only spoke Russian, so I used a translation app to communicate with him. This drained my phone battery considerably, but I had a spare battery so it was not a problem. I always carry a spare battery because you never know when and where things might happen, not just for work but also sightseeing.

As a result of the introduction of translation tools in our company, meetings with overseas companies have become more efficient and time-saving than before. Translation apps and tools have become indispensable in our professional and personal lives.

In Samarkand, I toured the ruins, and to be honest, I was not very interested in the ruins. However, the people of Uzbekistan love anecdotes and stories, and it was very interesting to hear the stories associated with each site. Incidentally, I heard that many of the stories are not true, but I found the very existence of such stories fascinating and fashionable.

Legistan Square, meaning "place of sand," is a square in Samarkand, the ancient capital of Uzbekistan. Three madrasas (seminaries) stand here.

Shahi Zinda Mausoleum Necropolis (Mausoleum Complex)

Local Experience: On the Road from Samarkand to Tashkent

On my way back to Tashkent from Samarkand, I stopped at a night fish market, a common sight in rural Uzbekistan. I prefer this kind of local experience to visiting archaeological sites. I tasted dried fish at the market and then returned to Tashkent.

More than 90% of the people in Uzbekistan are Muslim and cherish their holy book, the Koran. I visited the Hast Imam Library in Tashkent, where its oldest Koran is kept.

For lunch, I went to eat ragman, which is very popular among the locals and not visited by tourists. Lagman is a popular tomato-flavored noodle dish in Central Asia, consisting of lamb, vegetables, chili peppers, and other ingredients cooked in a broth with tomato paste and served over noodles.

This dish, which I also mentioned in the Kazakhstan section, was the best dish I had in Uzbekistan, and I visited it because I found a restaurant where all the Google reviews gave a 5-star rating, plus it was near the Hast Imam Library. It was by far the best ragman I have had in the Central Asian countries I have visited.

After lunch, I walked around the old town of Tashkent, enjoying conversations with people on the street using a translation app.

Tashkent Attractions

In the morning, I enjoyed my favorite activity of eating and drinking at the largest market (bazaar) in Central Asia.

I used buses and subways for transportation. Subways in Uzbekistan, the former Soviet Union, are very beautiful and famous. Incidentally, the theme of the station in the image below is "culture," and there were many reliefs of famous cultural figures from the former Soviet Union and Uzbekistan.

I went to many amusement parks in Central Asia that are free to enter and are frequented by locals. What surprised me was that despite being a Muslim country, couples were holding hands, hugging, and kissing in public.

For lunch I had bread and profiteroles, the national dish. Bread is sacred and there are various table manners, such as not placing it directly on the table or turning it over. Plov is the national dish that is always served at banquets, etc. It is a luxurious pilaf made with plenty of onions, chickpeas, and raisins.

I also went to Independence Square. Uzbekistan was partitioned in 1924 to form the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, an independent republic within the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan declared its independence on August 31, 1991 as the "Republic of Uzbekistan.

Looking only at Western media, there is a strong impression that the Soviet era was disastrous, but the dozen or so people I spoke to there said that the Soviet era had its good points and bad points as well. Many said that people were warm and there was a sense of community back then. However, they said there was no freedom. I was surprised to hear people say that although there is freedom now, the sense of community and the warmth of the people has diminished, perhaps due to capitalism.

After visiting the various sights, I went to the cemetery and was surprised to see that faces were carved on the headstones.

Night in Uzbekistan

There were also some surprises about the nightlife. Alcohol is supposed to be prohibited in Islam, but in Uzbekistan, due to the influence of the former Soviet Union, people do not pray much and drink alcohol. In the spirit of following the local custom, I drank vodka and went to places where many people gather at night.

What was interesting was that there were many ping pong tables and many people were playing ping pong while enjoying drinks and food from the stalls.

Uzbekistan Business Insights

My impression after visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is that despite the differences in culture and national identity, there is a common language and similar culture.

Since I have the impression that Japanese products are not very popular except for cars and industrial products, Ii felt there was an opportunity to sell throughout central Asia through e-commerce. Since the average annual income is about 200,000 yen, Ii thought it would be better to target the wealthy people in central Asia instead of selling only in Uzbekistan.

The next country is Kyrgyzstan!

My experience in the largest city in Central Asia was invaluable. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare and used the time waiting for my flight to Kyrgyzstan to get on with my work.

I can't wait to see you in Kyrgyzstan. I will share more about my nomadic work there in my next blog. I will continue to talk about my experiences in my new environment and the balance between work and private life, so stay tuned!