240710's blog: "Life of a Traveling Man"

Today was fun, we have been dubbed the "American Pit Crew" today. We performed the things we were taught yesterday, and pretty much had to disassemble and reassemble the robot, in under 30 mins. We managed to do it about 20 minutes, multible times. We learned some new stuff too! Other than that not much else going on! By the end of training we should be dubbed "American Masters". We hope to earn that title, but it will be hard. We've only done the easy stuff so far. Hell we haven't even gotten to how the robot works, or how to control it!!! Oh well. Dinner was good, lots of food though! That's one thing I love here, you will not go hungry eating in the hotel, resturaunts, or even in the Toyota lunch rooms...holy shit the amount of food you get!!! I was planning on shedding a few pounds, guess thats out!! LOL... Well that's about it for tonight, will write more tomorrow! I know the weekdays are pretty boring, but isn't that how it always is, unless you are on vacation? Later Gators, -Fred Jr.

Well Day 2 was fun too!! We are learning about the preventative maintenance of the robot! It is cool as hell to actually be “hands on” now. I am definitely glad I was hired into this position, it is a dream job, and you know the type, the 1 in a 1,000,000 type of job that only seems to come once in a lifetime! So far things are going well, there is a definite language barrier, but it is weird because even though our instructor doesn’t speak English, and we don’t speak Japanese, we can understand him about 60% of the time. Of course we have someone translating for us, but to not physically understand what someone is saying, yet conceptualizing the meaning behind it and being right is very cool. So far everyone has been great over here, everyone we meet, whether we understand them or not (and visa versa), has been extremely nice. They offer help at every turn. So I had the hotel do my laundry, and let me tell you it was fantastic! Everything was individually wrapped, pressed (even my socks and underwear), folded, and the shirt collars were slightly starched (perfectly). I think I am going to have to bring my wife here to learn how to do laundry (LMFAO and duck before I get hit), just kidding hun, you do a great job too! I was actually surprised at the condition it came back in. Usually a hotel laundry service charges extra for pressing, and starching, and they don’t individually wrap all of you clothes! After work (training) we went to the hotel bar for a while, had dinner, and now we’re just hanging out. Okay well that’s about it for tonight, not much else exciting happened today (well nothing I can tell do to confidentiality agreements). Anyways hope you all have a wonderful day or night depending on where you are. Later, -Fred Jr.

Sorry I didn’t blog about Sunday yesterday, but with the problems on LC I was having major issues just trying to log in. Sunday was a good day. We went sight seeing around Toyota City again, did some more shopping, ate more food, and hung out with Goto. He will be going back to the US tomorrow, so we just took it easy. Our crash course in “Japanese Survival Training” (as Goto puts it) has officially ended. Although we speak very little Japanese (about three phrases … LOL), we can now get around by bus, train, and subway, shop, and get food in restaurants. We also have figured out how to say “Another Round” in the bar (<-very important). So anyways like I said Sunday was a relaxing day. Well today was a GREAT day!!!! We started training on the Toyota Partner Robots. It was kind of slow in the morning; going over organization details and stuff, but that is to be expected. However, this afternoon was cool as hell. We went to Toyota Hall, which is by the corporate headquarters; it is a museum type place where people come to learn about Toyota and their history. You also learn about concepts coming out, and stuff like that. Anyway, the cool part was that we got to see the partner robots in action. We watched a performance being set up, then the actual performance, then the shut-down, which will be part of our jobs when we get back to the US. Or main jobs will be in development, but the first couple of months we will be doing performances at a few places. The other REALLY COOL thing is that we actually got to ride in an I-Unit ( you can see a video of it here ). OMG was it fun. We then went through Toyota Hall viewing all the cars and displays. One of the cool things there is that you can actually sit in some of the cars, and test functions such as heads up displays and such. After that we went back to the building that we are training in and did some more work. After work we came back to the hotel, and had dinner. I am thinking about going down stairs and getting a massage, and maybe going to the bath house, or sauna. It definitely would be relaxing. Oh yeah I just wanted to point out that during the week my blogs might not be all that. Not much to say when I’m in training, especially since most of it I can not talk about. But I will at least try to put something up everyday! Hope you are all doing well, -Fred Jr.

Okay well we survived “Subway and Train training.” We even had a “test” We took the train to Toyoshi where we switched trains to go to Nagoya. We had a lot of fun in Nagoya, big shopping area! Our first stop in Nagoya was Osu Kannon temple. It was originally situated in Osu-go, Nagaoka village in the domain of Owari, which is presently Hashima city in the Gifu prefecture. This temple was very beautiful. After visiting Osu Kannon we went to the shopping district. The first part I would compare to a flea market, it was indoors with many vendors packet close together. Then we headed to the “department store” area, lots of fancy shops!!! While we were in this area Goto-san received a call, saying he needed to come home quickly, so he asked us if we could manage with out him. He pointed us to one more area, which was the underground area. Wow you wouldn’t even imagine all the shops and stuff that were beneath the city! It was really amazing. Made malls in the US look small!! At that point Goto-san left us to fend for ourselves. We walked around for a while, and then we caught the train back to Toyota City!! That was fun, but we managed to make it back safely! At the hotel, we went into the bar and drank a lot. Jim and David had beer, while I drank sake. We got pretty hammered, or as Jim puts it pissed…After that we went back to our rooms, and in my case I took a shower, and then went to bed. And that about summed up yesterday. I will try to blog about today later tonight! Later, -Fred Jr.

Today began “Survival Training in Japan,” led by Goto. I had a traditional Japanese breakfast, Jim had a westerner/Japanese breakfast, and David just had a westerner breakfast. Then Goto took us to Toyota head quarters where we met A LOT of people. Of course the language barrier was there, many of the people we met did not speak English, and of course we don’t speak Japanese (trying to learn!!), but it was fun. We saw several Toyota Partner Robots (the whole reason we’re here), the labs where they’re worked on, and different parts of the Toyota factory. After that we had lunch, again traditional Japanese (for all of us), then after lunch we were introduced to EVERYONE, by standing in the front of a room, while Goto told everyone our names, and positions, and that we were from Toyota in the United States, here for training. Then we went to another Toyota plant in another city where we saw the “prep” area before shows. That was cool, they even demonstrated one of the robots playing a trumpet, and kind of dancing. After that we went to Nagoya, to the Toyota museum. Again they had the Partner Robot there, and we watched another demonstration. That was really cool!!! Goto happened to be speaking with the attendant, and mentioned he invented several of it’s systems, and that we were here for training, she was very excited that she got to meet him, and us!!! If you ever visit Nagoya, I suggest going to the Toyota Museum, you can easily spend the whole day there, and admission is only 500 Yen. We only had about 2 hours before closing, so we rushed through it. But it covers the history about Toyota in extreme detail. Did you know that Toyota was originally a textile loom manufacturer? In fact Sakichi Toyoda was the inventor of the automatic loom. And his son Kiichiro Toyoda came to America to sell the patent of the Type G automatic loom, and saw all of the automobiles. When he went home, he got permission from Sakichi Toyoda to start making automobiles (which many people thought he was crazy). Just imagine if Kiichiro Toyoda took the advice of everyone who said he was crazy, Toyota would probably just be a loom manufacturing company. Then we went out to dinner at a sushi bar. Excellent food, and boy did we eat a lot. One of the cool things about some of the restaurants in Japan is that the food is on a conveyor belt, and you just pull what you want. Of course this could lead to high costs, but it was only 2500 Yen for 4 people. Another cool thing is that a lot of places you eat, the dished are color coded for pricing. So they can tell the price right away. After dinner we came back to the hotel, at which time I decided to write this entry! Tomorrow we learn about riding the subway, trains, and buses! That should be very interesting. I am learning a bunch about how Yen work here too. It seems the average price range is 100 to 500 Yen for most items. The problem is, in places like restaurants, it is extremely easy to spend a lot, especially in one that you just grab and eat, and pay at the end. I do have to say I love the fact that there are no cents here, everything is single from 1 to whatever Yen you need, but no .01 or whatever Yen. Okay well that’s about it for tonight!!!! I am gonna post some pics in the Japan album now….so be sure to view them as well!!! Later, -Fred Jr.

Well I made it to Japan!!! I definitely suggest traveling World Business Class if you fly overseas. To start off, you get to enter the plane first, then when you take your seat you get a drink, in our case it was a choice of Beer, Water, or Champagne (I had the beer of course). Then the seats, OMG they massage you, they turn into beds, the have their own TV's with like 17 different movies you can choose from (I watched The Sentinel, X-Men Last Stand, Nacho Libre, and Little Nemo). Then the food; Dinner for me was Curry Chicken and sides, Then dessert was Ice Cream and fruit, then for breakfast (yes it was backwards) I had a ham and swiss omelet. Plus all the alcohol you could drink. Which I did!!! As far as turbulence, it wasn't to bad, we got knocked around a little, but I slept through all that. When we got to the airport, we went through customs without a hitch, then Goto (pronounced GO - toe) met us and took us to Toyota City. We stopped at a grocery, to pick up a few supplies, and then came to the hotel. It is nice, SMALL rooms, but decent. As soon as we put our bags in our rooms, Goto took us for a tour of the hotel, showed us the spa/sauna then we stopped at the bar/lounge and drank Sake to toast our arrival. Overall the flight here wasn’t bad. But if you’re a smoker, don’t expect to get a smoke in until after you’re out of the airport. We connected in Detroit, and I had to run half way around the terminal to smoke. Well it is 10:30 PM JST Thursday Night, so I am going to hit the sack. Goto wants to get an early start tomorrow. Have to meet the Big Wigs, and then go sight seeing before training starts on Monday! I plan on getting lots of pics and posting them in an album. I will get more detailed when I am not so tired (stayed up to help reduce Jet Lag). Later everyone, and hope you all are well!!!