(I produced this column by correcting and supplementing my own tweets. I chose to leave my sentences in the way I had tweeted, thinking it was important to keep that momentum.)

I’m in Istanbul now. A private meeting for the World Economic Forum’s Community of Global Growth Companies (GGC) will take place in this city today. I’m scheduled to serve as a discussion facilitator at the meeting. The weather in Istanbul is fine. The morning sun rising above a mosque is blinding.

On the flight to Istanbul, I saw the full moon. I mistook it for a round light bulb at first. From a small airplane window, the perfectly round moon looked very near. Its brightness and size had to be seen to be believed. The airplane made a turn as I was lost in admiration. With the turn, the Mediterranean reflecting the glow of the dawn and the streets of Istanbul extended below my eyes.

As I look out my hotel window, I can see ships endlessly traversing the Bosporus Strait in both directions. I went for a dip in an outdoor swimming pool. My goggles glittered in the strong sunlight as I swam backstroke. Two little birds came to the edge of the swimming pool to greet me. Flowers fenced the pool. This place could be mistaken for a tropical paradise. I swam and finished my work. It’s time to attend the meeting now.

I reluctantly left my seat halfway through the GGC private meeting, which began at lunch time, saying goodbye to a friend who joined the conference shortly before 6 p.m. Leaving the meeting venue at the top floor of a hotel, I stopped for a moment to enjoy the panoramic view of Istanbul. I looked down at the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace on the European side of the city, and out onto Istanbul’s Asian sections on the other side of the Bosporus Strait. And now, I’m in a car traveling to the airport.

I ended up leaving Istanbul on the day I arrived. It was my first visit to Istanbul in 12 years. Last time, I had the opportunity to visit the major sightseeing spots. Turkey is establishing a central position in this region now. From conversations I had with Turkish people, I could sense how their country has grown. Many business managers took part in the GGC meeting from the Middle East and Europe. I thought Turkey was making the most of its advantageous position at the intersection of Asia and Europe.

My flight has arrived in Zurich. It’s 11 p.m. local time. I’m not feeling too jet lagged. The reason may be that I’ve traveled gradually westward from Thailand, where the time is two hours behind Japan, to Turkey, six hours behind Thailand, to Switzerland, where the time is one hour behind Turkey. I’ve felt a drop in temperature, too, as I’ve moved northward. There will be no more conferences for me to attend on this tour. I will be meeting investors from tomorrow. I must switch my way of thinking.

After finishing an appointment with a local investor, I found time to kill and went to the Kunsthaus Zurich. The museum had a large collection of paintings and sculptures by Edvard Munch, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Edouard Manet, Marc Chagall, and Auguste Rodin. I have taken an interest in the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler, and oohed and aahed in front of a painting by Pablo Picasso. “I’d love to express something as wildly as this,” I said to myself. “What I’m doing is nothing, compared to this.”

Unlike artists, businesspeople like myself cannot express their ideas through paintings and music. For people in business, our very life becomes an artwork. Rather than creating something conventional, I want to make my life a wild and far-out piece of work that nobody has ever conceived of before. The painting by Picasso taught me that I had a long way to go before I fulfill that aspiration.

I waited in vain for a flight out of Zurich. The flight I was scheduled to take was cancelled because of a strike. I’m now scheduled to fly out on a different plane in three hours. I’ve gotten used to hiccups like this. I’m now thinking of going to an airport bar with my travel companions.

Yoshito Hori