That Time I Was Big in Japan
On February 14, 2013, while most people were celebrating Valentine's Day, I was boarding a plane in San Francisco bound for Tokyo. My destination: TITOKYO, a gathering of the local Titanium developer community.
This was only about five months into my job at Appcelerator. I had moved to California the previous July, started in September, and by February I was already flying across the Pacific to represent the company as Platform Evangelist. Talk about being thrown into the deep end.
It was a true tour de force. I left on Thursday, landed Friday evening, gave my talk on Saturday, and by Sunday evening I was already back on a plane. Thanks to time zones, I even landed back in San Francisco earlier that same day.
This was actually my second time in Japan—but my first during the winter. I had no idea how cold it would be. In true rookie fashion, I showed up with nothing but a basic jacket, completely unprepared for Tokyo's winter chill.
After the event we went out for dinner, and the night stretched on with food, conversation, and that unmistakable Tokyo energy. At some point, though, my body gave out. Jetlag, travel, the adrenaline of the talk—it all caught up with me. I wasn't even really talking anymore, just sitting there, totally subdued. Eventually, I said my goodbyes, slipped out, and started the walk back to my hotel.
I'll never forget that walk—shivering all the way down the Shibuya alleys, neon lights reflecting on the wet pavement, until I finally reached the Cerulean Tower. It felt like a scene from a movie: exhausted, cold, but with this quiet sense of accomplishment that made it all worth it.
For those 48 hours, I was living a different reality. My name and face were on the conference site, my bio translated into Japanese, and I was introduced to a room full of developers as Appcelerator's Platform Evangelist. I had the chance to talk about Titanium, mobile development, and the power of bridging technologies—while bridging cultures at the same time.
So yes—on Valentine's Day 2013, while the world was exchanging flowers and chocolates, I was big in Japan. And I'll always treasure that memory—jetlag, thin jacket, and all.
Here's what I presented
https://speakerdeck.com/ricardoalcocer/appcelerator-alloy-deep-dive-titokyo-2013
The book I was promoting that trip eventually became its own three-year war with Manning Publications.
The teaching impulse that put me on that Tokyo stage started years earlier in Puerto Rico.
The "sharing ideas as part of the culture" goes back further — magic lectures in the 90s shaped how I write books too.
📬 Enjoyed this article?
Subscribe for the stuff that doesn't make it onto the blog — half-finished ideas, what I'm reading and listening to, behind-the-scenes notes, and the occasional rabbit hole. No spam, just things worth your time.