A Trip To JAPAN

                                I was sent to Sanyo , Japan for 10 months training during 16 jan 1999 till 31 october 1999. When I landed at Narita airport . weather was extremely cold about 1 degree celcius . I was scared a bit as how would I sustain such hostile weather. Fortunately I had all my warm clothes with me . Our group was welcomed by Mr. Toba , SLTI Chief Planner. He took us company apartment by SANYO bus . On the we had a breakfast . I ate soba , a kind of plain noodles with little spice and salt . My aprtment building was very nice , equipped with all facilities . We had a separate living room for each one of us . We had a common kitchen , dining room and a TV room on each floor.

                             At workplace initially I had a communication problem as very few Japanese can speak good English . People live a high quality life . Almost everybody owns a car . One can find latest audio- video products here.

                            I observed that Japanese engineers are very sincere and hardworking . Most of them do overtime work . Usually they work for about 12 hours each day .I went to Tokyo twice . it is very busy place ,people running from one place to another.I saw latest electronic products like palmtop computers, huge televisions, digital still camera , digital video camera , music system etc. in Akihabara electric town . I visited Ginza town where one can see a lot of old monuments, Imperial Palace , traditional Japanese souvenir shops . I also enjoyed watching combination of Shinto and Buddhist shrines in Nikko. It was snowing when we visited Nikko. For the first time in my life , i saw a lot of pure white snow spread all over the land . I t was wonderful seeing frozen waterfall and a frozen lake .I took a ride on a snow boat .Here car is a common mode of transport . Almost 95% people possess car . Some houses have multiple cars, one for each member in family. I could see many models of cars . Toyota is no.1 car maker followed by Honda,Suzuki, Nissan , Subaru .

                          Vegetearian Indian Food is a big problem in Japan .All Japanese are basically non vegetarian . They eat a lot of beef,meat and sea foods . So vegetarian people find it very difficult to manage with food . I had a cooking facility in my apartment . I used to cook on weekends and everyday evening. Afternoon lunch i used to take in company canteen . They used to make fried rice(a lot of oil) and potato curry, sometimes spaghetti . We were 14 Indian engineers there .

                         Japanese ladies are very slim and active. They are very conscious about their looks . Inspite   of being a developed nation , very few Japanese ladies are engineers.Many of them do a low level job like receptionists, language interpreter . Also there is sex discrimination here. In case of Man and woman doing same job , women get paid much less compared to man .

                       I visited Tokyo Disneyland along with 2 Japanese colleagues. It is a wonderful place . This time Donald Duck was main character . We saw his Parade singing a song GO! GO! GO ! WACKY DACKY DONALD with with many dancing cartoon and Donald himself riding on a big car accompanied by other dancers. I took a lot of pictures of this parade . I took a ride in 3 types of jet coasters . One was a sand mountain train taking a spiral rounds around a sand mountain . This was not so scary . Another was SPLASH MOUNTAIN where at one point there was freefall with 70 degrees slope . And you are supposed to laugh as a picture will taken when you are falling down . I was really scared when jet coaster went through 70 degrees vertical slope . In my photo I saw that I was holding front bar and my eyes were closed . Last one jet coaster was SPACE ROCKET . This was a very fast one even at turns SPACE ROCKET . This was a very fast one even at turns . One could see lot stars and really gets a feeling that he is moving through space . Disneyland was crowded with many people . For every attraction we had to wait for about 40-50 minutes .My favorite attraction was MICRO-ADVENTURE . It is basically 3-D theatre with motion platform . A small movie which has characters from movie HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS was shown . This time Doctor shrinks audience with his machine and I really felt that I was shrunk . Also some of scenes like attacking Python , lion were really scary . In one scene lot of mice rolls on floor. In one scene lot of mice rolls on floor.I felt that some of mice were moving around my legs .We took some photos . I bought some cookies for my DSP section . It was really difficult to find a car as I could see hundreds of car in car parking lot . I remarked that it is necessary to attach so kind of flag on car to find it easily . It was a long , tiresome drive back to apartment . It took about 3.5 hrs. to reach . We had a few traffic jams on the way . But Hagiwara-San drove at 140 km/hr to make up for traffic jams .

                     My farewell party was held in Japanese style restaurant and in Japanese style . Special food was ordered for me. I ate Tempura , some sea food and a little beer after lot of persuation by japanese guys . I was accompnied by Miss Keguchi , a very attractive lady from my department . Other Japanese Engineers praised me for my work and requested me to continue same style of work in future . After Party all of us went to KARAOKE where all japanese sang a song . I sang a indian song without music .

                    I think I really enjoyed my japan trip . I am going to miss all Japanese colleagues in india .I am in touch with them through emails .