I - Chi - Ro

I am not sure why I have a sudden fever for writing blogs again when I am on the road. But, since I have not blogged in a log time, it probably is a good thing. I am in Japan again. This time I have returned for a second year to a meeting of a group trying to promote internet-enabled measurement systems that can use technology like net cameras and sensors like ours, to gather data for the farmer, the purchasing stores, or the general public on how the crop was grown and managed. The concept is intriguing; I am sure that, in theory, it would be great to get a website off your package of organic spinach and check the camera history to make sure the farming practices, as well as its progress to your table, were all within your own personal acceptable limits. But how often would you really want to do that? And what could you learn from a 10-min play by play snapshot history of your vegetables. Or even a soil moisture or humidity history? And how much are you willing to pay for the privilege? As I said, this is the second year we have attended a business conference on the subject. From our end, we are mostly trying to support the project by supplying sensors for their systems. So, from our point of view, the success of the project is not particularly key to our own survival. However, I continue to be somewhat frustrated that they cannot see that some of the implementation decisions are moving the project in the wrong directions: too expensive and too labor intensive. Plus, in what other country besides Japan would a beautiful Net camera sitting on top a post in a field last five minutes? Here, I could leave my computer sitting on a sidewalk and come back later to find someone taking care of it and waiting for my return. That is one reason I love Japan and enjoy returning so much. But I am not sure it makes good business sense for the rest of the world. Still, I think that the general idea has a lot of potential and I am hoping they can work some of the bugs out.

Sorry, just some business rant. I would like to hear Scott's thoughts on the future of it. I am guessing that he could really help out since he could actually express his concerns in the right language.

Last night we had dinner with the deputy mayor of our host city. During our stay here, we signed a letter of cooperation between our (not his but one in the city) companies and this was a follow-on congratulations where, he pointed out, we were not supposed to talk business, but other topics. Which left me thinking...what other topics? These evenings are typically a major slog. Trying to have small talk between people who don't know each other is fine, for 10 or 20 minutes, but after a while, I just run out of stuff to say. To make it worse jet lag hits right at 8 pm every night so trying to put one syllable in front of another is a major challenge. So, at times like these, I go to the old standby. Ichiro. I have to tell you that it really helps being a Mariners fan and knowing something about Ichiro. He has single-handedly carried me through 5 to 6 courses on many occasions. And he did not let me down here. Turns out the deputy mayor was a BIG baseball fan and knew all the history of Ichiro and Kenji. He also liked F1 racing, which I know a little about too. Still, for a 3+ hour dinner, even through an excellent interpreter, I was happy to be finished.

As usual, on this trip, we were bitten by the yen bug. I never know how much money to get when I come here. Generally, I end of changing a pile of cash back into greenbacks at the airport on the way home, and cringe as I stare into the satisfied grin of the bank teller as I get pennies on the dollar for my cash. Since this trip was extremely short, and we had breakfast at the hotel and lunch at the conference, I exchanged about about $60, with my standard, inexcusable logic that I could always pay by credit card or get more money from a bank in the city if I needed it. Wrong as usual. After paying $8 for a orange juice in the airport (not my choice) and $45 for dinner on the second night (not my choice; cash only; mostly went for the 10 gal of sake and 20 gal of beer imbibed by the participants), I was woefully out of cash for the $20 lunch then next day. Furtive attempts to cajole money out of the local ATM went as scripted: lots of Japanese word which I don't understand and my card unceremoniously spit back out of the machine. So, I continue to ask myself. When I can get cash from the lowliest hovel in Bangkok or Nanjing, WHY CAN'T I GET MONEY IN THE MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED NATION IN THE WORLD!!!! AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH CREDIT CARDS?!! Sorry...some latent stress coming out. I think you get my point. In the end, I was able to pull through, but not without much worried discussion from our hosts. Next time, I will exchange over our entire checking account. Maybe we should suggest to the mayor of our host city that, in addition to other tourist amenities (fast boat from airport, beautiful city, hot springs), he could be the first city in Japan to offer ATMs that foreigners could use. They'd come here in droves (Matt's idea, see his comments below).

I will leave you with a few pictures of our our field trip. We are standing by representatives from two other companies that are supporting the project. The other picture shows the observation point on top of pole with its internet connection off in the distance (red tower).

Matt's Thoughts: So here’s my 2c from this recent visit to the land of the rising sun. And, lest you think this is some sort of snarky catch phrase or display of national hubris, it is NOT A MYTH. I can verify that it is indeed, the land of the rising sun, because the sun is actually rising even as I speak! So it’s the real deal. The first 2 days of this meeting were very informative, I came along mainly to touch bases with our distributor here, who came to attend as well and who only recently started selling our environmental research instruments. There were a few snoozer presentations dealing with wireless networks and TCIP protocols, but overall very interesting. One aside, for some reason the Japanese presenters love to prepare slides that show these elaborate cycles and inter-related parameters, each represented by a cute icon or illustration. So you have several pictures scattered throughout the slide (a house, a factory, a cow, computers, etc.) and then a tangled network of lines and arrows pointing from one to the other (more often than not most of them pointing back at each other), and the end result is you are more confused after they’ve explained it than you were before.

The real puzzler was Sunday’s field trip, where we were bussed for over 3 hours to listen to a brief lecture, then transported to 3 different sites to view the installations “first hand”. I guess it was in case we didn’t believe the endless parade of pictures of the installations that we had previously seen. Our Swiss colleague said it best to me under his breath, “The real question of the day is why are we driving out to see these sites when we can see the actual images from the sites in real-time?” This is the whole idea of these installations, real-time, high quality images and environmental data. I told him if you asked the organizers they might have a nervous breakdown so he’d do best to keep it to himself. So then another 3-hour ride back, during which I fought motion-sickness induced by my engrossed reading of “Rough Stone Rolling” and amplified by the enormously high seat backs in front of me. The most beneficial thing that came out of the day I think was Colin’s brainstorming with Hans and Georges. That and the fact that I managed to score a stuffed “Totoro” for Olivia, who loves Miyazaki’s movies, especially “my neighbor Totoro.” Needless to say, my stomach was still a bit iffy when we arrived home. Then off again to the aforementioned fancy dinner with the deputy mayor, and several courses of for the most part, very decent Japanese food. For my part, I could have done without the pickled sea cucumber, which not only had a very odd flavor, but had the consistency of shoe rubber. Our host actually warned us to be careful not to chip our teeth, and he was not joking. I’m a bit ashamed to admit but I was actually fantasizing about the McDonalds only 100 yards away, and how a quarter pounder with cheese would taste right now, albeit the Japanese version. I should count my blessings, at least it was not squid guts (refer to Colin’s post from last year).