Let’s just say we were totally blown away by Toyota.
We made a visit to Toyota’s museum and factory as our class excursion.
At the museum, we saw a robot blow a trumpet. He had lips and lungs like human.
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Also saw how cars were made at toyota but unfortunately, no photos allowed!
All cars were custom made, as in customers would choose their preferred colour, steering wheel, etc. Thus, all the cars would have a data tag with all the information and workers would proceed to assemble the cars according to the data tag. Toyota named this production method as Just In Time, and according to my classmate, Toyota is supposedly the pioneer in this kind of production line and rivals had tried to imitate this production line with little success.
Workers work in a conducive environment where heavy parts were mostly handled by robots. In this way, elderly and women could also work in toyota factories. We could see that workers have to work in focused and efficient manner most of the time.
In the morning, workers would enjoy a 10 min break every 2 hours. Lunch time 45 min. In the afternoon, concentration slacks, thus workers would enjoy a 10 min break every 1 and a half hour.
Lots of details were incorporated in the production line to ensure smooth production. The factory that we visited produced about 500 cars per day! Truly a world class company. I am most impressed with Toyota’s vision to invent a car that would be able to prevent accidents on the road in future, as it would be able to sense movements of other cars nearby.
Model of what goes on in the factory. The cars move along a conveyor belt, and workers work on both sides of the belt.
However, according to our teacher who is a FI fan, toyota’s racing car is still not quite there yet.
This is a car designed for showcase at the previous Aichi Expo.
No steering wheel, operated by moving the two “mouses”, and is run by battery. Definitely very cool.
I shall let my photos tell the story, hopefully they are good enough!
actually they are not, so you better make a trip yourself…
猿沢池、very hot day, just nice for the tortoises to suntan, hahaha
deers roam free at nara parks. they have become the symbols of nara… as you can see
however, don’t think they are tame just from their kawaii (cute) faces… once you purchased their food to feed them, they would charge at you…. hehheheh. the little boy was almost running and jumping around just to feed them.
this is the gate to todaiji…
東大寺 a must visit in nara. just follow the crowds! the main attraction is the huge wooden Buddha statue housed in the temple. it was awesome! one of the top 3 largest Buddha statues in Japan. (i think)
東大寺
二月堂
二月堂
view from 二月堂
二月堂
on the way to 春日大社、note the lanterns lining the streets
We did a last min trip to Nara. It was my third trip to this beautiful place.
This time, Nara managed to surprise me, with the simplest tool, lights.
Lights were everywhere, quietly, in the parks, outside small restaurants and shops, along the long, narrow lanes…
It was almost too romantic to be true.
I had never stayed in Nara, but we stayed a night at a small inn. The lady owner was so pretty I couldn’t stop looking at her. heheheh. She was also fluent in English and very helpful.
I have more photos of Nara in the day, but let’s enjoy Nara in the dark first…
