The acts varied, including a foreign dance, a song and a mock TV game show among others and everyone joined in. The idle members of the department sat back with beer, sake and whiskey and laughed and clapped equally to each skit. The team building, I realised, was in the preparation, not in the activity itself. Only one act stood out, getting a genuine response. The gaijin executives were all taught a Japanese tongue twister by each of their secretaries and were brought on stage to repeat them at increasing speed.