Technology Review: Ketai

The technology that intrigued me the most and I belive a lot of other people on our trip were the mobile phones of the Japanese.  These phones, also known as Ketai, can do unimaginable things that would excite, intimidate, and astonish an average American citizen.

While most look square and very bland on the outside, when they open up and show a display of a movie or TV show they are extremely sleek, sexy and beautiful.  Every Ketai that we saw had a screen that appeared to be LCD and high def.

One example I can give is when our group was at sumo we witnessed these Ketai in action.  We were sitting up in the nosebleed section far from the main mat and it was difficult to see unless you zoomed in with your camera.  Within ten minutes of sitting down ten or so Japanese people, ranging from school students to businessmen, pulled out their Kaitai, whipped open the screen, pulled out an antenna and watched the sumo match as it was happening right in front of us.  Since it was difficult to see the mat they could watch instant replays streamed live to their mobile devices.

This type of technology has not reached the States yet and it will be a while before it does.  In Japan they have had Super 3g for a while now and are working on a 4g network to be released within 2 years, while the US is just getting Super 3g with the new iPhone 3gS.  The reason Japanese technology is so far ahead of US and Western civilization is because Japanese culture revolves around technology.  Nearly everything the people in Japan do has to do with technology.

Japanese cell phones can also have software installed into them that relates to the Suica card.  A Suica card which was invented by the JR Rail station, is used to get in out of out subway and train stations.  A holder of the card can put on up to 2000 Yen ($200) and recharge it at a station when the balance is low.  The JR Rail Research and Development Center in collaboration with several cell phone companies such as NTT Docomo, SoftBank, and KDDI have created a way to put a certain software in the Ketai in order for the phone to replace the actual card.  Japanese Ketai holders will no longer need an actual Suica card as long as they have the updated software on their mobile devices.

The fact that the phones can now be used just as easy as an actual subway pass saves a lot of money and time for the citizens of Japan.  No longer does a person have to spend the time to pull the card out of their wallet or purse as long as they have their Kaitai handy.

The last thing that surprised me most was the fact that almost everyone had a cell phone.  7 year olds sitting on the subway and people well into their 80s walking down the street all had cell phones.  It was surprising if we saw someone without.  It is amazing that the mobile market saturation rate is so high in Japan while in the US we struggle to get cell phones out to everyone.

It would be nice to see this type of technology not only come to the United States, but to be universally adopted.  The Japanese seem to have an edge up on the world in the aspect of mobile devices and hopefully the world will follow suit.

The Last Day :(

This blog post is the last post I am required to write for the class.  I may or may not update the blog more in the future depending upon how proactive I am feeling.  I hope you all enjoyed reading it and I still have many pictures and videos to share with everyone!

The last day of the trip we had 3 site visits to amazing companies.  The amounts of different technologies that we have seen on this trip make the US look obsolete in the technological department.

The first company we visited was a game company called INIS.  They made the game called Lips for the XBOX 360, and just announced a sequel to that game at E3.  What was so astonishing about this game company is that most of the employees are American.  They gave us a presentation in English, which was nice for a change.  It was cool to see American College Graduates actually working  in the heart of Japan.

The next company we visited was D3 Publishing.  They have created hundreds of games both for the Japanese market and American market.  They create cross-platform games that make them millions of dollars.  They said their mobile market is growing the quickest in Japan because so many people have mobile phones.

Dolby: Japan was the last company we visited.  It was one of the best presentations of the whole trip.  They made us to wear masks during the visit but it was worth it because of the different inventions we got to see.  They created vertical surround sound, a gaming communication system, and an LED TV that shows perfect black unlike our LCD TVs now that have a low shadow in the background.

It was a great end to the trip and we all went out at night after the site visits.  It was all coming to an end and we realized it so we needed to go out with a blast.  We went to a few bars, hung out and met some really cool people.  I am glad this trip went so well and it was the best experience of my life.

Waseda and Akihabara

We went to Waseda University in BFE, Japan to visit another group of students that we were going to give surveys and talk to for a couple of hours.  We ended up meeting with 2 different classes, one that was very good at English, and one that was not so good at English.  The group that was good was very fun to talk to but the group that didn’t have good English speaking skills were hard to communicate with in any way.  It was a very different cultural experience because we knew the language barrier was so large.  It is tough to talk to people that you know you want to communicate with, but can’t.  It is frustrating to say the least.

After we had a fun time meeting with these groups of students we had the rest of  the day to do whatever we wanted.  Jon and I filmed some more footage of people eating, and tried to figure out what we needed to do for the film.  After figuring out film stuff, we headed to Akihabara again to play some more arcade games.  The Japanese players once again owned all of us and we realized that we were not as pro as we thought we were.

It was a pretty cool day and all but it was nearing the trip and we realized that we were starting to get tired and missed home.  By this time I knew I loved Japan but I knew the trip was only 17 days long so it wasn’t like I was going to be there forever.

This blog will hopefully be something to look back on and re-experience everything all over again.

Homework and Baseball

We started off the day with some of the worst news ever.  Homework.  I was not very happy about the amount of stuff we had to do. Within the next 20 days.  A 3 page single spaced paper, which is equivalent to a 6 page regular double spaced college paper was probably the worst news of my life while I was in Tokyo.  Along with that we had to enter in data for the research that Dr. C made us do while in Japan.

After this dreaded news I knew it was going to be a long month of June filled with homework and procrastination.  It is college though, and you do homework in college, so I figured I would get it done eventually and enjoy the rest of my summer.

We finished up our class time and we were ready for the baseball game.  We went to see the Tokyo Giants play and it was quite an experience.  Throughout the whole 9 innings everyone cheered and were excited.  It was quite different then going to a Tigers or a Cubs game in the US.  I am glad we got to go to the game, as it was one of the highlights of the trip.

After this roller coaster of a day we visited another University in Tokyo and had more free time to film and go to back to Akihabara to play some more Street Fighter IV.

Second Free Day

After the fun filled day with John I had a bunch of work to do and a lot of games to play.

My film partner, Jon, and I had a bunch of work to start doing.  We had to start filming as soon as possible in order to have enough film for our documentary on food and culture in Japan.  We already had a bunch of film from the days before at places we ate, but we needed some narration.  We asked Chris Kneale aka “Powder” to give us some good footage of him eating at a place across the street from our hotel named Nakau.  We got the shot and filmed Corndog and Seth Rogan too.  It was a good film day but it was not the end.

Powder, Dillon, Seth Rogan, Corndog and I went to play some Street Fighter IV at the local arcades in Akihabara.  I played the best Street Fighter player in the world after waiting in line for 20 minutes as he beat 15 people ahead of me.  I got demolished by most of the people at the arcade but it was fun to play a bunch of Japanese kids at video games.

It was a pretty long and not very exciting day, but I was glad I got the experience at the arcade.  Even though it was very smoky and packed, it was fun to see how many people actually go to arcades every day of the week.

The next day was filled with class time, and a Tokyo Giants baseball game!

Day with John

I got in touch with John before I went to Japan and we figured out plans to hang out.  Dillon, Jason and Roman all came along for the day to hang out with John.

We met John in Shibuya only after we hung out in HMV for an hour and a half.  It was the biggest music store I have ever been in, and I could have spent the whole day there just listening to techno.  After hanging out in HMV we met up with John in front of Shibuya 109.  It is one of the most popular landmarks in Tokyo so we figured it would be a great place to meet.

We found John there and decided to grab a bite to eat.  We went to rotating sushi which wasn’t half bad.  It wasn’t the best sushi we had in Tokyo, but it was a cool experience to grab sushi as it went by you on a plate and just eat as much as you wanted to pay for.

After sushi we went to Ikebukuro, which is a popular hangout spot for college kids in Tokyo.  We went to a place called the English Hub where we had a few drinks and waited for John’s friends to get there.

When his friends got there we went  to a Japanese style bar and got a bunch of food and drinks.  It was quite expensive and Dillon and I were laughing because we didn’t know how we were going to pay for it.  John’s “Girlfriend” who didn’t speak a word of English got up and paid for the dinner.  It had to have been over $200 and we were all astonished and amped.

After dinner we went to Karaoke which was only 600 Yen ($6) for a whole hour.  We had a fun time singing and laughing the night away.  After the hour was done it was 11:15 and we only had 15 minutes to make it to Shibuya and make it home to the hotel.  We made the last train at Shibuya after sprinting to these different locations.  I was glad we made it back to the hotel even if it was the last train.

The next day was our second free day and we did a bunch of filming and hanging out in Akihabara again.

Back to Tokyo!

After the great night hanging out with Greg and all the guys we went to NHK’s Broadcasting headquarters, Osaka-Jo castle, Den-Den town and then back to Tokyo.

At NHK Broadcasting we got to sample a bunch of different technologies you would see on TV, such as the blue screen, recording studio, and the actual sets.  It was an alright visit compared to the rest of the site visits, but nothing to be too excited about.

After the visit to NHK we went across the street to Osaka-Jo Castle.  We didn’t go inside because Dr. C said it was not as historically intact as Himeji Castle was.  We did eat some horrible octopus balls there though.  They were not very good at all, and it almost made Dillon throw up.  It was fun to try new food though!

After the visit to Osaka-Jo our group split up and some people headed back to Tokyo, while a bunch of us headed to Den-Den town.  Den Den town is a smaller version of Akihabara.  There was a cool Gundam store there though where I picked up my little brother some mini Gundam kits.  It was cool to go check out the area, but we were all tired and wanted to head back to Tokyo within a few hours.

On the way to Tokyo we played a lot of Mario Kart on the DS.  It was a 3 hour ride there because we stopped at every stop from Osaka to Tokyo, but it was entertaining.

We got to Tokyo and everyone was tired so we headed to bed for the night.  The next day was our first free day and I got to hang out with John Fodrocy, Dillon, Jason, and Roman all day.