Mag Lev and Rolling Stock Yard

As it currently stands, the Shinkansen operations between Tokyo and Osaka have reached an almost perfect level of operation. There are no delays (.5min/train/year), the trains are running at their top speed for the tracks (270km/hr), and the maximum number of trains per hour are used during many times of the day. In order for JRC to expand and improve their services, they have been researching a superconducting maglev train since 1962.

Since the projects inception they have made great strides and now have a full passenger version that can travel over 500km/hr! Here is the history and the principles behind the train if you want some further reading: Superconducting Maglev. On its proposed new line, this train will cut travel time Tokyo-Osaka from 2.5 hours down to 1! There are still tests to be run, and a huge amount of lines to lay before the train will be operations, however. If everything goes to plan, you will be able to ride the mag-lev in 2025.

For the second half of the day we traveled to one of the rolling stock yards. This is where trains go for their scheduled maintenance, as well as for nighttime storage. We donned hard hats and got a close up look at train maintenance. As with most of their operations, the maintenance is done frequently and thoroughly. Here are a few pictures:

Operations Fun + Trip Planning

Today we had a series of lectures from the Shinkansen Operations Division, which deals with train scheduling, passenger facilities, car operations, and customer satisfaction. The coolest fact that we learned was that it would take over 550 Boeing 747's to carry the same number of passengers each way as the Shinkansen does every day. It's the equivalent of 24 jumbo jets taking off at every hour of the day to travel between NY and DC in the states. The train does it with around 200 departures over 17 hours. Thats a lot of people. About 400,000 round trip every day.

We had lunch at a buffet style restaurant on the top floor of a local office building. It had a great view, and was the most filling meal I have had since I got to Japan. Yum.

In other news, I am starting to look into a side trip for when the program is over. I am officially done the night of July 24th, and my flight home is currently not until the 29th. That only leaves a few days to travel, but I also have the option of changing my departure date depending on seat availability. Here is what I was thinking:

1. Go to Hong Kong. I have enough FF miles to get there, and Edson has a friend that lives there. This option would be very cheap if we could stay at his place.

2. Go to Korea. I can easily reach it with FF miles, and probably do business class if I wanted to burn through all of them. Korea is the shortest international flight which is a major plus.

3. Go to Okinawa. I would want to go here just for the diving. There are supposed to be some great reefs and tropical beaches. Theoretically, this would use the least amount of miles but the lady at American Airlines said that she couldn't find any flights available during my dates. I could check again or spend a few hundred traveling there.

4. Go to Hawaii. I don't really have enough miles, and it doesn't make much sense to travel to Hawaii and back to Japan for my flight. But Hawaii is still cool.

5. Go somewhere else. Again, I theoretically have enough miles to get to many other places according to the AA website. I don't know if this is true though because the miles numbers weren't exactly correct on the flights I did check. Anyway, I know I could go to Mongolia for sure as well as maybe the following: Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Guam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Saipan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.

Send me an email or leave a comment below if you have any suggestions or ideas for what I should do. If you have been to any of these places, or think I should go to North Korea on a secret mission to disable their nuclear program and prevent "a thousand-fold retaliation", let me know as well.

Osaka

Our grueling work week started this Monday at 11am, when we had to meet at the office with bags packed for an overnight. Edson and I were almost late, but had just enough time to grab an iced coffee out of the work vending machine. Vending machines are all over the place in Japan, by the way. I may dedicate a post to pictures of all of the vending machines some time.

We traveled to Tokyo station to begin our assignment: travel to Osaka via the Shinkansen train, and then return via one of the national airlines. The purpose of this exercise was to compare the two competing modes of travel in terms of speed, comfort, amenities, and overall experience. The Shinkansen took about 2.5 hours, and was a very enjoyable and uneventful ride. I forgot to bring my headphones, so I was sans music for the entire trip.

Once in Osaka, we checked into our hotel and set our to explore the city. Osaka is the third largest city in Japan, and one of the top 20 global cities in the world. Although many Japanese companies have moved their headquarters to Tokyo, Osaka is home to many big names like Panasonic, Sharp, and Sanyo.

Our first stop was the Osaka Castle, a huge building that was first built in the late 1500's. Like most things in Japan, it had to be reconstructed after WWII, but it retains much of the original material. It is a huge impressive building.



We then went and had dinner at a local restaurant and tried the local specialty of okonomiyaki. It sounds fancy, but is really just fried food on a stick. I had some beef, pork, cheese, and ice cream. Wash it down with a beer and you could swear that you were back in Wisconsin. The picture below is the area that we ate in. There was another tower similar to the Tokyo tower, but we did not go up in it.



After dinner we took the train down to Dōtonbori, a major hangout and shopping area. The more time I spend in Japan, the more I am convinced that shopping is the national pastime. There are nice clothing stores EVERYWHERE, and the youth culture seems to revolve around the shopping areas. This area was pretty impressive, with a high density shopping area centered around a pedestrian mall. This shot is of a famous bridge and neon billboards.



Our last stop was the floating garden, but we had to rush back to get to it before it closed. The floating garden building is perhaps the single coolest building that I have ever been to, as you might be able to tell from the pictures. The building consists of two main towers, which are connected on the top levels and have two escalators traveling across the gap in between them. The top connected levels have a 360 degree view of Osaka, and an open rooftop where you can walk around. I told Nicole I want to have our wedding here, so everyone book your tickets to Japan.



We had a second dinner at a local fast food restaurant, where I helped a Japanese girl with her English homework. This morning we regrouped after breakfast and took off for the airport. The flight back was faster than the train, but the overall travel time was about the same when you factor in getting to and from the airports. You still need to start at the train station (unless you want to pay a ton for a taxi) when you are taking a flight, and there are no security hassles or waiting for a flight with the Shinkansen. If I were to plan a trip to Osaka on my own, I would probably take the train.

It is now pouring rain, so I am staying in my room listening to music and downloading movies to watch. Tomorrow we are heading back to Tokyo Station for a lecture on Shinkansen Operations.

Movie Day

Sunday was pretty uneventful. I spent most of the day just relaxing in the apartment. I did find out that one my my neighbors owns a Lamborghini, which is in a parking garage down the street. There is also a second bowling alley down the street from us.

Mike, Edson and I went to the new Star Trek movie in Roppongi because they were having half price tickets that day. We ate dinner at a bagel store, and then bought more food at the theater. Tickets were $10, but food prices were much more reasonable than in the states. The theaters also have reserved seating, which was pretty cool. It was a really nice cinema and the movie was really good.

Today we are heading to Osaka to learn about stategies for competing with the airlines.

Fishing with the Chairman

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but when we met with Chairman Kasai he told us that we should go fishing while in Japan and offered to set it up. We thought he was just being polite, but it turns out he was serious. He set up a net fishing trip for us in Nagoya on July 21st, and told us that he will be joining us if his schedule allows for it!

I thought it was really cool, but didn't really comprehend how big of a deal it was until we were talking to the marketing guys over dinner. They were astonished that we not only met him, but that we were going on a recreational excursion with him. He is so high up in the company that most employees have never met him, and most that have only did so when hearing him speak on a company related topic. I think that I am going to pick up a copy of his book and read it before our trip so I have something intelligent to discuss with him.

So I've got that going for me...

The rest of the week...

So I haven't written for a few days due to a combination of busy days and extreme laziness. Here is what I have been up to the past few days:

On Wednesday we had to be in the office very early. Very early means 8:45 in case you were wondering. We had lectures from the marketing division and safety division that took up most of the day. Both lectures were pretty much what you would expect for marketing and keeping rail transportation safe. The airlines are their biggest competition, and they pride themselves in a flawless safety record since their launch. For lunch we ate at Denny's again, but this time I ordered a more Japanese meal.

Thursday was an adventure to Nagoya, a large city about 1.5 hours away from Tokyo on the train. This was our first trip as regular passengers on the bullet train. Compared to an airplane there was a lot more leg room and the seats reclined further. We were excited to try out the wireless internet on board (I wanted to listen to the Brewers' game), but we found out that you had to be a subscriber to Japanese cell phone service in order to get a password.

Once in Nagoya, we took a 40 minute bus ride to JR's Technical Research Institute. This is another James Bond-esque facility where they improve on and create new materials and trains. Apparently JR had a lot to do with the invention of the photo catalytic air purifier, and now use them in the smoking cars on their trains. It was a cool facility, but we were not able to take any pictures while we were there.

On Friday we had another brief lecture from the marketing department, where we learned about the IC cards used in Japan. IC cards are basically pre-paid cards that you can reload with money in any of the train stations. The cool part about them is that you only need to hover them over the entrance gate, and your account will automatically be debited. Every train company has their own version, and many are compatible. This means that if you own one, you never need to stop and buy a train ticket or adjust a fare. Some Japanese cell phones are equipped with them now, eliminating the need for a physical card. You can even use them on many vending machines and in stores!

We spent the rest of the day traveling around Tokyo testing out our IC cards. We were able to take JR trains, the subway, private rail, the monorail, and a bus with the same card. Pretty amazing cooperation between so many companies. During our excursion we got to see a lot more of the city, as well as Toyota's giant showroom. After work the marketing guys took us to dinner at a alleyway restaurant where many people gather after work. They did the ordering for the table, which turned out to be pretty interesting. We had chicken cartilage, chicken skin, chicken hearts, and chicken liver...pretty much everything except the meat of the chicken. It really wasn't as bad as I expected, and went well with a cold beer. I watched a movie and turned in early that night.

This morning we left the apartment building at 6am, and took a short trek to the Tsukiji fish market, one of the largest in the world. The market was absolutely insane, with trucks, fish, and people running all over the place. There were hundreds of fish, muscles, and even a few turtles for sale. The first picture is giant tuna, and the second is a mix of different fish (and octopus) on display.




After the fish market we went to have breakfast at the train station. We were going to eat fresh sushi at the market, but there was a huge line in front of every restaurant in the area. We then took a walk through a park and over to the Imperial Palace grounds. The palace is only open 2 days every year so we could only take pictures from the outside. The grounds were very impressive, with lawns that looked like they could have been at a world class golf course.




I am currently taking the rest of the afternoon easy in the apartment. Maybe I will make some rice and curry for dinner. After dinner I want to go to one of the bars or restaurants with a cool view of Tokyo. Next week we are doing our first overnight trip, where we are heading to Osaka by train and then flying back in order to compare the two competing modes of transportation. We also have a lecture from the Operations Division and get to check out the new Maglev train!

Advertising

We got a crash course in marketing today, with a lecture on advertising in and around the trains and stations. The rest of the day was spent traveling to different stations around Tokyo to compare advertising locations and content. We also stopped at one of Japan's most famous ad agencies and toured their museum. This was pretty cool, with print ads dating back to the Edo period and modern tv ads in the same place.

After the museum we had lunch with the ad guys, and continued on our city tour. We checked out ads on the different Tokyo trains, as well as the metro and some of Japan's most famous attractions.

At the end of the day the ad guys presented us with miniature models of the Shinkansen to take home with us. I can't decide whether I should keep it in the box as a gift, or open it and drive it around the room.