Harper Irwin

The above include pictures of activities we did during the day! In the afternoon after the presentations we visited the tax-free offices at the Shibuya Scramble Square Mall and Hikarie. Picture 1: outside Shibuya Scramble Square Mall. Picture 2: View from Shibuya Scramble Square Mall. Picture 3: Hachiful Shibuya meets Akita store.

The next presentation in the afternoon was regarding the store tours conducted on the previous day, my presentation material included: memorable experiences of the tour, comparisons between Shibuya and Perth as well as suggestions for improvement. I approached the next presentation that afternoon similarly to the website analysis with Japanese translation, trying to use hand gestures, body language and facial expressions. As mentioned in my previous blog, I do have work experience within fashion-retail so at the beginning of my presentation I shared how my perspective on the store tours at the department stores includes not only a customer but as someone who works within the fashion-retail space at home. Based on the engagement through my presentation I think the Tokyu staff really appreciated my perspective which I am so happy about. Upon reflection, I’m very beyond grateful for this experience, one of my concerns going into the internship experience was not doing tasks which were in my field of study. However the website analysis is very much up my alley, as I got to incorporate some of my web design and digital marketing knowledge in my presentation, not only this but I have knowledge in fashion, clothing and cosmetics since I work within that area part-time at the moment and I also love doing makeup and playing with fashion as a hobby. Additionally, all the staff were so kind, polite and friendly making my first internship experience so memorable, when presenting I felt so heard like they actually appreciated what I had to say, which when giving presentations (in my experience) is very rare. Additionally, the staff even mentioned they liked and wanted to implement one of my suggestions in my presentation, (in my presentation for suggestions for improvement, I suggested adding icons under the price of food items in the food show, this way visitors with allergies like myself can easily understand what ingredients are in the item. Additionally, language barriers wouldn’t be an issue since if icons or pictures are used the all visitors from any country can understand) which I was so shocked and it made me feel so honoured how they truly wanted to hear our opinions, the attentive listening they displayed during the presentations was clear and just it was super nice to feel heard by not only the staff we were usually surrounded by but also the higher management which took time out of their busy schedule to listen to our presentations.