Study tour Climax – 02/3/'14
Today we set out to find some cosplayers! Cosplayers are, mostly younger people, which set out to play their favorite manga character. These cosplayers really go the full nine yards when dressing up and every detail is taking care of. Unfortunate it was winter and the weather was not that good, resulting in the absence of cosplayers. We walked to several well-known places in Harajuku , like parts of yoyogi park, but did not see any manga imitation. So slightly disappointed we were wondering around the streets of Harajuku where there is a 200 meter queue for a popcorn restaurant.
After harajuku we travalled to akihabara to visit electric city. We were told that some there would be some cheap Apple products and indeed some of us purchased an Apple TV for 75% of the European price. After visiting the giant electronics shops in Akihabara we gathered at our hotel to go out for diner.
Diner was going to be served in a so called ‘robot restaurant’. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we did know that there were robots and beautiful girls involved and that we were not allowed to wear sunglasses, have tattoos or get drunk. This show turned out to be, by far, the most epic show and climactic spectacle we visited in whole of Japan.
When we got to the restaurant there was a robot band playing live music while we were waiting to get our tickets. This first waiting room contained several million LED’s and almost as much mirrors. After we got our tickets we went to the second waiting room, where drinks were served. This had even more LED’s and shiny objects all over the place. We had a beer and because of the chaos a large group inherently imposes we managed to get a free beer at our table. This evening was the last evening of Wim, so he gave a really inspiring speech. Now it was time to enjoy the robot show. We went down and got a Bento box, which contained some fish and meat, and took place on one side of the room. The show began and was a show full of hot girls and robots trying to tell a story. The show even contained kung fu panda riding a cow and a mermaid riding the back of a shark, which at his turn ate the robot enemy. The show lasted about 1,5 hour and was completely filled with action and live music.
In short: we couldn’t wish for a better closure of our study trip than a show about robots and scarcely dressed women. We can look back on a very successful study tour where we managed to get on time at almost every company, even when we used local trains and busses for the first time, and where we saw a wide variety of different companies and institutes. This was only achieved by a dedicated group of young engineers that were motivated to get the most out of a study trip to japan.
By: Ingo stijntjes