Tech mecca

Craig:

On a global scale, Japan is probably most known for their technology.  Japanese electronics and automobile technology account for a massive percentage of the world market.  Most of you probably have at least one, if not many, of Japan’s products in your own home.  You might be reading this blog on a piece of Japanese technology right now.  Fuji, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Hitachi, and Toshiba are all major players in Japan’s electronics world with companies like Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, and Subaru each contributing vitally to the automobile industry.  During our one week in Japan, Bridget and I got to see a lot of these technologies at work. 

One of the first places we explored was the Sony showroom.  If you like technology, this would be your heaven.  Seven floors of big screen HDTVs, mp3 players, cameras, laptops, sound systems and all the accessories one could hope for occupied a good two hours of our time.  We got to see the latest in 3D TV technology which will probably be on the market soon.  I don’t know if I could watch TV with glasses on for more than five minutes but I am sure they will sell like hotcakes when they are available. 

Not far from the Sony showroom was the Nissan showroom.  They had on display the latest in zero emission cars.  The car on display was big enough for one person and was totally self sufficient through the use of solar power.  It didn’t look like I would be able to fit in it but very cool anyhow. 

Nissan Showroom

 Japan does well at incorporating technology into everyday living.  You can get anything out of a vending machine…flower arrangements, beer, shoe shines, DVD players to name just a few. 

Flower arrangement vending machine

 automatic shoe shine machine

Instead of a simple flush lever, the toilets come with several selections of water spray and noise makers to use while you are doing your business.  All come at the touch of a button.  Bridget was particularly fond of the heated toilet seats. 

 Parking cars and bicycles is even made simpler with automatic elevators, pulley systems, and multi level storage systems which enables mass storage of things in small spaces. 

Seven story parking elevator

Even outside the city of Tokyo, the technology still thrives.  Our favorite fish tank in Hakone turned out to be a TV fish tank where a flat panel TV is used to project a fish on the front side of the tank. 

TV screen fish tank

 At the Venus Fort shopping center, the ceiling changes colors as the day goes by.  At times it looked real enough that you  could be shopping at an outside mall.

Venus Fort ceiling (day)

Venus Fort ceiling (sunset)

Close by Venus Fort was the Toyota showroom where we got to see the improvements and innovations being made in relation to handicap people. 

Toyota showroom

 I was very impressed with the trumpet playing robot. 

 It was not until the ride to the airport when we left that I saw the coolest thing.  Sanae’s car had a mini TV screen in the dash.   The GPS mapping system will tell you a ridiculous amount of information.  It shows on the screen the next exit and what the signs will look like when you get to that exit. 

 It also gives you an estimated time of arrival for that exit based on your current speed and driving conditions.  It was pretty accurate as well… its prediction of our arrival at the airport junction of 40 minutes was spot on.