7 Reasons Why Japanese Trains are Different

One of my favorite posts from Muza-chan.

7 Reasons Why Japanese Trains are Different

Future sushi chefs in Japan?

This is a little freaky but also pretty cool. I love robots.

Twitter to become bigger in Japan

From TechCrunch:

Twitter is moving to grow in Japan. Softbank Mobile announced 13 new models in their cell phone lineup and all of them will come installed with Twitter. With these phones, you will be able to access Twitter via a pre-installed app or widget on the homescreen. According to the TechCrunch post, the Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son is a big fan of Twitter so this makes sense. Even more so since Masayoshi Son went to San Francisco at 16 where he finished high school and later graduated from the University of California Berkeley. He believes Japan is ready to become a Twitter country and Japan may already be number two in the world.

You can see a line-up of all of the 13 Twitter enable Softbank phones on the TechCrunch post.

Are you ready for the toilet of the future?

Wikipedia Commons

Are you ready for the toilet of the future? - Innovation- msnbc.com

Not Japan, but America. Japan already has the toilets of the future. This article from MSNBC talks about how futuristic toilets from Japan are starting to trickle (pun intended) into America and the impressions some American's have of these technological toilets.

From the article:

“You walk into a bathroom in Tokyo and the toilets are like the captain’s chair on the Starship Enterprise,” says Kim Terca.

Terca says she found Japan’s smart toilets both “hilarious” and somewhat perplexing, since not all toilets offer the same snazzy features — including a special deodorizing feature that she says she never figured out.

Mary, a 53-year-old business consultant from Manhattan, says the special sound effects were what threw her for a loop. “I went to see my client and had to use the bathroom and as soon as I sat down, there was this sound,” she says. “In retrospect, I realized it was a rainforest or some nature sound to give you your privacy, but at the time it sounded like applause." (MSNBC)

I had my own interesting experience with a Japanese toilet during one of my visits several years ago. While sitting on the toilet I accidentally pressed one of the buttons on the panel and I received quite a wet surprise.

You don't speak Japanese? Call Google

The Los Angeles Times has an article on the newest advance of the Google Translate technology.

Google has developed a phone application that can listen to speech and provide translations in a computerized voice for English, Mandarin, and Japanese. The application runs on Google phones using the Android operating system. According to the article, the Times tested the application using several speakers of Mandarin and Japanese and the opinion was that, although not perfect, the application works surprisingly well for basic phrases. The application can translate to and from a total of about 50 languages into text but currently the only languages that it recognizes spoken words are English, Mandarin, and Japanese.

It is interesting how Google's translate computer programs are getting smarter. According to the article:

Google trains its computers to translate by constantly feeding them examples of a text that occurs in two or more languages. Many official United Nations documents, for instance, are carefully translated into the languages of member countries. Looking at those "parallel" documents, Google's translation system can deduce the way many words and phrases are translated. And the more examples it gulps down, the smarter it gets.

The idea of a Star Trek-like universal translator is coming. Maybe they will even eventually include Klingonese.

For Japan's cellphone novelists, proof of success is in the print - latimes.com

For Japan's cellphone novelists, proof of success is in the print - latimes.com: "One teenager who wrote a three-volume novel on her phone has gone on to sell more than 110,000 paperback copies, grossing more than $611,000 in sales."

Now we know why some people are constantly on their keitai and never look up, they are busy writing a novel.

iPhone blowing up worldwide, big in Japan after all

iPhone blowing up worldwide, big in Japan after all: "iPhone blowing up worldwide, big in Japan after all"

It's about time. My feeling is that the old "flip phone" with the small screen and no keyboard is so outdated. I was wondering why so many people in Japan are still using what I feel are archaic flip phones. While in the United States and elsewhere, most people have moved away from those phone and to devices such as the iPhone and the Android with bigger screens and a functional keyboard. I understand the Japanese phones are pretty advanced with many features such as built in payment features, train transit passes, and sophisticated cameras. But the old flip phone style with the small screen and no keyboard seems so old.

End your social networking life with Seppukoo

If Facebook is taking over your life, a new website is offering you a way out.

Seppukoo.com offers ritual suicide for Facebook users’ virtual profiles by deactivating their account. If you’re willing to end it all, the site will feature a RIP memorial page on its site and sends the page to all your Facebook friends.

The site is named after the Japanese samurai act of "seppuku” or ritual suicide by plunging a sword into their stomach.

"As the seppuku restores the samurai's honour as a warrior, Seppukoo.com deals with the liberation of the digital body," the site says.

The design and layout of Seppukoo.com is strikingly similar to Facebook – the exception being that Seppukoo is red and gray, while Facebook is blue and white. Another small point of differentiation: Seppukoo features paintings of sword-wielding samurai.

To take the final step, you simply type in the same information you use to log onto your Facebook account including e-mail address and password. (The site says it does not save the information.) Then choose one of six templates for the memorial page and compose your “last words.” After that’s entered: curtains. The profile is deactivated. (If you want back on Facebook, just log in and your account is reactivated.)

Friends can still write on your memorial page. Also, you get points for recruiting others to commit "seppukoo" and follow you into the virtual netherworld. The site keeps score and lists the point leaders.

Reported from the LA Times

Google Translate

Google's translation feature is pretty cool and it has been getting better. But it's translations are far from perfect of course and often can be pretty funny. Here are some Google translations from the City of Nikko website about suspicious persons. The following are descriptions of various suspicious person's.

1. Male, age late 30 early 40 years old, 165 centimeters tall, thin build build, tanned, lean face, the wind seemingly humble worker wearing pants Dabodabo.

Maybe he moves like the wind but I don't know what Dabodabo looks like.

2. Male, age 50 years old place, 165 centimeters tall, medium build, light blue short-sleeved shirt, black pants, wear glasses with grizzled hair is in short.

At least it didn't say "grizzled hair is in HIS shortS."

3. Man, age about 20 years earlier, slim, white T-shirt, black pants, a white man with a towel covering his head, riding a bike of unknown color.

I was in Nikko last week but at least I didn't have a towel on my head.

4. Male, 165 centimeters tall, plump-type, black-framed glasses, wearing a disposable paper mask, long pants, an unknown color, black umbrella, carrying a plastic bag

Half of Japan wears paper disposable masks. Good luck finding this guy.

iPhones for the Warring States Period

If daimyo lords from the Sengoku or Warring States period of Japan carried iPhones, they probably would have carried them in these:

According to the Los Angeles Times article, in Japan, a set of the above handmade cases is being offered for the phone. Each case is covered in a special lacquer and gold dust. The most likely warlord to have carried one of these would have been Toyotomi Hideyoshi and probably the least likely would have been Uesugi Kenshin and his heir Uesugi Kagekatsu. Hideyoshi was very fond of things gold, he even had a gold tea room.

The five designs were inspired by the Sengoku period which ran from the 15th to the 17th centuries. In one of the cases you can see a faint outline of a warrior in black. Each case takes about a month to produce and comes with a booklet describing its historical context.

The cases are offered by SoftBank BB and they cost about $1,000 each.

The original article comes from the tech site CrunchGear.

Webcam of Nikko's Shinkyo Bridge

Here is a link to the Shinkyo bridge webcam in Nikko Japan. I like to visit this webcam periodically. It is nice to see the bridge and see what the weather is like in Nikko.

Shinkyo bridge is one of the most historically famous bridges in Japan. A couple of years ago it was completely refurbished. It is a red vermillion lacquered bridge and belongs to Futarasan Shrine in Nikko. The bridge was dedicated as a World Heritage site in 1999.

The legend of the bridge is that in 766 the founder of Nikko, Buddhist monk Shodo Shonin, attempted to cross the Daiya river but could not. He prayed for help and was answered when a Buddhist god appeared and released two snakes. The snakes then formed the bridge allowing Shodo Shonin to cross. Hence the name "Snake Bridge."

It is possible the bridge was formed as early as the late Nara period (710-794). Through much of its history, only samurai generals or court representatives could cross Shinkyo. Commoners had to cross the river by a nearby temporary bridge. In 1902, the bridge was washed out in a flood and rebuilt in 1904.

Japan: Automation Nation?

Below is an interesting article from Newsweek. It asks the question of why Japan, a nation of robots and automation, has so many people working in what seems to be unnecessary and redundant positions. Positions such as elevator operators or department store greeters. Years ago when I first visited Japan, I also was surprised to see gas station attendants and elevator operators. I just figured that Japanese appreciated this type of special service or that the average Japanese person did not want to pump their own gas.

Japan: Automation Nation?

The world's most efficient economy still employs lots gas station attendants and elevator operators. Why?

Daniel Gross

Newsweek Web Exclusive

Jun 30, 2009 | Updated: 12:01 p.m. ET Jun 30, 2009

More than any other country in the world, Japan is a case study in the triumphs of human engineering. Every Japanese manufacturer prides itself on energy efficiency and zero-landfill waste policies. The train and subway stations are models of precision and the application of information technology. Late last week, I visited Toyota's astonishing Tsutsumi auto plant, near the car company's headquarters in Toyoda City. With a capacity of 400,000 vehicles per year—this is where the Prius is made—it's clean, bright, full of erector-set conveyor belts, and thinly staffed. The welding shop is like a scene from The Terminator—a thicket of robots extend their arms, moving large pieces of metal and blasting them with shots of heat. (The section where robots stamp "Obama '08" and "NPR" bumper stickers on the hybrid vehicles must have been around the corner.) On Monday, I visited a small company in Osaka that hopes its cardboard, female-shaped robot will garner a share of the mannequin market. The engineers also demonstrated a robot that can dance and act and a third that can identify whether people are men or women ("You are a beautiful lady!") and guess their ages (inaccurately, it turns out).

And yet, while traveling around Japan with a group of journalists, I've also continually encountered what seem to be exquisitely engineered inefficiencies. There are a large number of people whose jobs seem to be standing around and calling out greetings and gesturing the way to enter stores, restaurants, hotels, and office buildings. Walk into a midrange hotel, and a swarm of bellmen and desk clerks worthy of a Four Seasons springs into action. At the Takashimiya department stores, two women flank each bank of four elevators, pushing the call button. Parking garages in Tokyo feature a half-dozen uniformed parking attendants who call out greetings and farewells. When we visited the Japan Iron and Steel Federation, we saw three women on their hands and knees working on stains. (What, there's no robot that specializes in stain removal?)

Everywhere you go, there seem to be human redundancies, people spending valuable time doing things that don't need to be done or that could easily be done by a single person. At a luncheon for about 20 at the Nippon Press Center, we were waited on by a half-dozen waiters, as if we were aristocrats. Even rarely visited government agencies have multiple press officers. Visit a company or a government agency in the United States, and you're likely to get key data and presentations on memory sticks or CDs. Here, we've been buried in paper everywhere we've gone—laboriously printed out and handed out with great ceremony. When I went to a police station (a lost passport scare; don't ask), it took 30 minutes to impart a small amount of information, which the officer dutifully wrote down on a sheet of paper. There was no computer in sight.

A lot of the human inefficiencies have to do with Japan's high regard for politesse and manners. Social and business transactions take time because of the need for extensive greetings and farewells. Technology here seems to be for moving people, goods, and information—not for completing human transactions. And with universal health insurance and a national pension program, there's a dignity to low-level service jobs in Japan. It could be that the inefficiencies have something to do with a societal desire for full employment. Japan would prefer to have its citizens in make-work jobs than not working at all. For much of the postwar glory years, Japan's unemployment rate was in the 2 percent range. Even now, amid a deep global recession, it's at about 5 percent.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/204656

310 mph Shinkansen

Below is an article from the Los Angeles Times about the future of high speed trains in Japan. I really wish the United States would build these types of trains, especially between crowded cities such as San Diego and Los Angeles. In California, they are proposing to build a high speed train line between LA and San Francisco. However, the "highspeed" train my not even top 200 mph, while Japan is already working on trains that will travel over 300 mph. If California wants to get people to use cleaner trains rather then dirty airliners, the trains need to be faster.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-bullettrain24-2009mar24,0,2177731.story

From the Los Angeles Times

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Japan: Blurring the line between bullets and trains

It's not enough that trains run on time in Japan -- they've got to break land records. In 2025, the country plans to be traveling by rail at 310 mph.

By John M. Glionna

March 24, 2009

Reporting from Nagoya, Japan — This is a nation addicted to speed.

And to ride Japan's super Shinkansen, or bullet train, is to zip into the future at speeds reaching 186 miles per hour.

From Nagoya to Tokyo, the scenery whizzes past in a dizzying blur as the sleek engine with its bullet-like nose floats the cars along elevated tracks -- without the clickety-clack of the lumbering U.S. trains that make you feel as though you're chugging along like cattle to market.

These days, Californians dream of a future with high-speed elevated rails that would link Southern California and Las Vegas in less than two hours, or L.A. and San Francisco in just over 2 1/2 .

Japan, meanwhile, will soon have a class of train that could make the trips in less than half those times.

This is a nation where it's not nearly enough that the trains run on time -- they've got to break land records. And even that's not enough.

By 2025, a network of bullet trains connecting major cities is to feature magnetically levitated, or maglev, linear motor trains running at speeds of more than 310 mph.

Developed for use during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the Shinkansen trains were the brainchild of Hideo Shima, a government engineer who died a decade ago at the age of 96. Over the years, the trains have signaled Japanese prosperity, a gauge of just how far this technology-crazed culture has come and where it's headed.

Designed to traverse Japan's mountainous terrain, the trains use tunnels and viaducts to go through and over obstacles rather than around them. They travel on elevated tracks without road crossings and apart from conventional rail. An automated control system eliminates the need for signals.

Officials boast that on average the trains are less than half a minute late each year, which includes delays caused by earthquakes, typhoons and snow. During the line's 45-year history and transport of 7 billion passengers, there have been no deaths from derailment or collisions.

An E-5 series of train scheduled to take to the rails in 2011 promises speeds of nearly 200 mph, improved suspensions and a car-tilting system to make the ride more comfortable on curves. Power-reclining shell seats in first class will provide what engineers call a "peaceful and soothing time during your travels."

Amtrak, eat your heart out.

But Japan isn't stopping there.

The trains planned for 2025 will reduce the travel time between Tokyo and Nagoya to 40 minutes from about 90 minutes. At that speed, commuters could go from L.A. to the Bay Area in just over an hour. Rail officials say as many as 200,000 passengers could use the line daily.

Still, the Shinkansen isn't perfect.

The trains often cause a rail version of a sonic boom as they emerge from tunnels. That's because they enter so fast that they create a bubble of air pressure that is pushed along until they emerge.

The trains remain in stations for only two minutes -- not a moment more or less -- before easing out and quickly gaining speed. By the time they reach top velocity, the world has begun to change. There's no tooth-jarring shudder as when jets lumber down the runway. This ride is smooth. The turns are gentle, peaceful, even serene, though every once in a while a passenger is awakened by the boom of a train passing by or exiting a tunnel.

For the most part, you don't realize you're traveling faster than almost any other man-made land vehicle until you look out the window and see the scenery passing by so fuzzily that you think you've lost your glasses.

For most of the ride you settle into your seat, buy a beer or coffee from the passing snack cart and realize once again that you're not in America anymore.

john.glionna@latimes.com

Japanese seek to scrap Google's Street View

A group of Japanese journalists, professors and lawyers demanded Friday that the US Internet search giant Google scrap its "Street View" service in Japan, saying it violates people's privacy.

Google launched Street View in the United States last year, providing pictures of panoramic all-around street-level views at locations on its online maps.

The service was expanded to 12 major cities in Japan in August and six cities in France in October.

The group said it sent a petition to Google's Japanese subsidiary, demanding an end to the Street View service in Japan.

They wrote that Street View "constitutes violent infringement on citizens' privacy by photographing residential areas, including community roads, and publishing their images without the consent of communities and citizens."

They complained that via the Internet, Street View was distributing private information "more easily, widely, massively and permanently than ordinary cameras and surveillance cameras do."

Local municipalities in Tokyo and Osaka have already appealed to the national government to take action against the site.

The Google Japanese unit earlier said it was blurring the faces of people seen in Street View scenes by special technology and that it would delete the pictures of people and buildings upon request.

Japan has stricter protections on privacy in public than in the United States, with Japanese able to stop their pictures from being used against their will. 

AFP

 Violent infringement on citizens privacy?  A bit extreme I think.  I like the street view.  Since people are out on a public street, it should not matter.  Just don't pick your nose out on a public street, especially if you see a vehicle with a camera on top of it.

Japan's Maglev Train

Japan has been working on a Maglev train system for several years. I love the idea of Maglev for many reasons including the higher rate of speed versus non-maglev and it's a good alternative to polluting jetliners for short to medium distances. For trains to compete against air travel in the United States, one of the factors that should be considered is speed. I think maglev is the best system to offer that.

I only wish California would realize that. They are proposing to build a non-maglev high speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles by 2030 but it is proposed to have only a top speed of 220 miles per hour or about 350 km/hour. The Japanese maglev is expected to have top speeds over 500 km/hour or about 310 mph, almost 100 miles per hour faster then the proposed California system.




Here are some facts from Japan's Railway Technical Research Institute website (RTRI) about Japan's maglev train being tested in Yamanashi Prefecture:

Maglev, a combination of superconducting magnets and linear motor technology, realizes super high-speed running, safety, reliability, low environmental impact and minimum maintenance.

Research and development of Maglev has been underway at RTRI of JNR since 1970. After fundamental tests in the laboratory to verify the feasibility of high-speed running at 500 km/h, the construction work of a 7-km test track began in Miyazaki Prefecture in 1975. The manned two-car vehicle MLU001 registered a speed of 400.8 km/h in 1987. And the latest vehicle MLU002N, which debuted in 1993, was running on the Miyazaki Maglev Test Track.

A landmark for Maglev occurred in 1990 when it gained the status of a nationally-funded project. The Minister of Transport authorized construction of the Yamanashi Maglev Test Line, targeting the final confirmation of Maglev for practical use.

The new test line called the Yamanashi Maglev Test Line opened on April 3, 1997 and is now being used to perform running tests in Yamanashi Prefecture. In the same year, the Maglev vehicle MLX01 in a three-car train set achieved world speed records, attaining a maximum speed of 531 km/h in a manned vehicle run on December 12, and a maximum speed of 550 km/h in an unmanned vehicle run on December 24. On March 18, 1999, MLX01 in a five-car train set attained a maximum speed of 548 km/h. On April 14, 1999, this five-car train set surpassed the speed record of the three-car train set, attaining a maximum speed of 552 km/h in a manned vehicle run.

In March 2000, the Maglev Practical Technology Evaluation Committee of the Ministry of Transport of Japan concluded, "the JR-Maglev has the practicability for ultra high speed mass transportation system". The Committee also pointed out the necessity of further running tests for the following purposes: (1) Confirmation of long-term durability and reliability, (2) Cost reduction of its construction and operation, (3) Improvement of the aerodynamics of vehicles for environmental impacts. The technical development of the Maglev has been in the second phase since fiscal 2000. On December 2, 2003, this three-car train set attained a maximum speed of 581 km/h in a manned vehicle run.

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A new Shinkansen Maglev line has already been proposed for several years to be completed in 2025. It is called the Chuo Shinkansen, bypassing the Tokaido Shinkansen, and will travel from Tokyo to the Chukyo region and Osaka.

As the cost of gas continues to rise and the the threats to the environment become more real, I home people in the United States (and elsewhere) come to realize the benefits of high speed rail versus airline travel.