Saturday: On the way home

Two last images before I head out (I might send something more from Narita, unsure though). First, from my hotel window, the kids in a local elementary school lined up for gym class. Nice uniforms, eh? Right out of My Neighbor Totoro! And around the corner, tucked under a high-rise, a small temple/shrine. One never knows where one will encounter one of these.

So that is the Winter/Spring 2011 Tokyo trip. Exhausting but exhilarating, which for me sums up Japan in its entirety anyway. Glad to have come, but sad to have been away so long, especially with Ian's tonsil troubles... but I'll be home tonight, thanks to the miracle of time zones (assuming flights are on time).

With a boatload of Pinky!

Saturday: Bamboo Grove

As you all know I love ornamental grasses and none are more impressive than bamboo, especially in large groves. So I spent quite a bit of time near this one. Amazing.

Saturday: packing up

Before heading to the 2-hour Narita bus ride I walked around the area closest to the hotel, which includes a park centered on the famous Budokan concert hall. Spring is creeping closer! See this flowering plum, which attracted many admirers.

...and same angle at night.

Fuji in the day....

Click on the pic to see it in better resolution.

Friday: Conference ends

Well it was a loooong day Friday, on the 26th floor of a tower at Hosei University. Many presentations, including my stellar one (of course...). The only bonus was a very clear view of Mount Fuji! See also Professor Fujimoto speaking, whose air is getting wilder, and then a view out the same window as the conference ended: Tokyo at night.

Thursday: with a clear day comes Mount Fuji

I have rarely, in all my visits here, been able to glimpse the famous mountain, as even on otherwise sunny days haze can obscure it. And the mountain is not close to the city, so even in this photo one must enlarge the picture (click on it to do so) to see the mountain in its glory. It reminds me of Mount Shasta in its symmetry, which makes sense because both mountains are volcanoes. Anyway, here is the peak which is the national symbol!

Thursday: Tokyo has a Ferris Wheel?

Well I never knew... but, out by the famous Tokyo Dome is this amusement park!

Thursday: Early Spring in Tokyo

On the walk over, a few vivid flowers.

Thursday: Welcome to Tokyo University!

The famous Red Gate to the University, where our conference is today.

Wednesday: Toyota, Nissan, and.... Pinky!

Well I did tell you posts would become more boring on plant tour day. And that turned out to be very true: we were barred from taking photos at any one of the three plants, and the few photos I did sneak are stuck on my Japanese cell phone with no way to load them onto this laptop! Dang it. But anyway...

The day started cool and rainy and ended clear and cold (40 degrees?) with wind. We all (two dozen people?) piled into a bus for a trip first to a small Toyota plant (one that specializes in short runs of various models), which was cool. Then another 1.5 hours to visit a supplier plant, that made EDM equipment (you can look it up if bored): they did have cool toys like pure tungsten ingots. For the chemist among you (you know who you are, Ian!), they had on hand vats of these two cool Mad Scientist chemicals: strontium hydroxide octohydrate and (trade name) Dowex MD "mixed ion exchange resin." Hope nothing blows up! Then Bento on the Bus and another 1.5 hours to Yokohama, and Nissan's main engine plant. Many cool machine tools but for the exotic car fans among you (you know who you are, etc.), we saw the shop where every Nissan GTR engine is hand-built by elite craftsmen. Bizarre clean room, electric wrenches (versus typical air-powered tools, which "might let in dust"), Nissan's most qualified workers, etc. Each guy builds an entire engine himself, 375 steps. Then they run 'em for an hour to break them in... you could see the exhaust headers glowing red. Nice.

Then another hour and home to hotel. Whew.

Now, why, would you ask, is there a photo of a strange Japanese candy on this page? Well, fans of Pinky (you know who you are, Natalie!) know that I was in search of same here. I looked in 7-11s, in Lawson's, in Sunkus, in Family Mart, in AM/PM, in subway stations, repeatedly, and.... no Pinky! But tonight, on my evening stroll, I passed a dumpy grocery store and said to myself "Might as well check;" and there, lo and behold, was... PINKY! Three flavors!

Mission accomplished, I can go to sleep now. Tomorrow is Conference Day 1, at Tokyo University. THIS time I will bring my camera!

Love to all... Dad

Wednesday: Dad Shows Off

Just finished visiting Central Motor Works (I am sure you all know ALL about that factory!) and am on the bus with some 20 people off to next plant (2nd of 3). Exciting stuff for a factory rat like me (technical term). Actually very inspiring to see Toyota at work.

But this post is about showing off, so here goes. Sitting on bus, with laptop, with Japanese miracle-portable-wifi box, I am online while moving. To prove it, a photo of my bento box lunch provided on bus. Which I already ate. I would give a small fortune to find the same kind of food in the USA: not a close approximation, but the real thing! Yum!

Tuesday part 8 - Conclusion

It would not be a trip to Japan without showing an advertisement of slightly dubious intent. If any of you can figure this one out, let me know! Okay, that's it for now, off to bed for me before a long day tomorrow, which includes a trip to a Nissan plant in Yokohama (as well as two other factories).

Tuesday part 7 - Shopping

While I haven't found any Pinky yet (I will keep looking!), I have visited some shopping areas in search of a few things. Here for example is the latest T-shirt assortment from Graniph... a different look for them. And also a store which to me looks like it was MADE for Ian, though I wonder if the Japanese are aware of the slightly doofy connotation of "duffer"!

Tuesday part 6

Well we all remember Japanese vending machines, but I think I never saw one like this. There may be a good reason they are so rare, but regardless, here it is (especially for Ian) -- a machine that vends French fries and hotdogs?! I was too chicken to try it!

Tuesday part 5 - Architecture

Something old and something new here. No, no photo of the Prada Building, that is perhaps too familiar, but one of my favorite other buildings, the Audi showroom... and one old favorite, the incredibly-narrow octopus snackbar we all remember!

Tuesday part 4 - Park and Pup!

Okay, out and about again. First, a beautiful but slightly creepy in a Gothic sort of way local park... eerie trees! And then, especially for Natalie, a puppy checking me out from his pet store window. I asked if he wanted to go to Pittsburgh but he seems not to speak English. You can click on any of these photos to seem them larger.

Tuesday part 3

Okay, classic Japanese gizmo. What is this black block of plastic, next to my (not working in Japan) Blackberry, to show its size? A portable Wifi router! Yup, for $30 a week while I am here, this thing turns on and bingo! - instant Wifi node. I have used it already and it works flawlessly and fast. Should let me connect while on the bus to the plant tours. This exists in the USA, too, but I have not seen one so small and so cheap marketed there.

Tuesday part 2

Near the hotel is the controversial Yasakuni Shrine, Japan's foremost war memorial and, some would say, one that does not provide an accurate view of the country's responsibility in World War II. But the main gate, a gigantic steel torii, is very imposing.

Tuesday

Since on Wednesday I will be visiting car plants and on Thursday and Friday in all-day conferences, posts then may be quite boring! To make up for that in advance, I will post quite a few photos from my free time today. I got out and about a good bit, though mostly in light drizzle. But Spring is on the way here, earlier than in Cleveland, as this flowering plum (cherries are still a month away) and daffodils will attest!

Monday Night

Just a quick post to show the night-time view out my hotel window, classic Tokyo night-time skyline.

Arrival

Well, 14 hours later and 3 episodes of 30 Rock (I had to take a little break!) later, touchdown in Narita, 3 PM on Monday. Cool, light rain. Immigration, Customs, Narita Express to Tokyo Station, then cab to hotel. This one is sort of near the Imperial Palace, near Tokyo University. Probably two miles from (e.g.) Harajuku. Not much to say yet since tonight I'll just have dinner and sleep: tomorrow I will get out and about. But, to persuade you I actually am here, a welcome-to-Japan photo of the national symbol of commerce-- the wild and crazy vending machine!

Taking off

The great sage Confucius is said to have created the ancient proverb: "A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a trip to Newark." Even today we must all agree on the great wisdom of this saying. And so this morning Mom and I headed off to Hopkins Airport for a 6:30 departure to Newark. (Thanks Ida: but I know you preferred driving in the dark to the airport to just lying around sleeping or resting or whatever.) The highlight of my flight was the cat under the seat next to me: a young lady returning from Cleveland to Boston was escorted by her very well-behaved black cat Margarita.

No photos in this blog post since I think you all know what Newark Airport looks like, across the highway from the big Ikea store. The next post may be more interesting, as I think it will be from Narita Airport. Stay tuned!

(By the way, how did Confucius know about "miles," which presumably were an English measure? A true sage indeed!)