Day 2 at Yamato lab.. what a great place. I really enjoyed seeing the place, learning what they do.. and above all, meeting the people.
Here’s a model of the site.. just waiting for Godzilla to stomp through it..
My first meeting was with Akiko-san.. she does natural language processing.. and everything else as far as I can tell
After that good conversation. I met with my old friends Cheiko-san and Hero-san.. Cheiko-san is the only IBM fellow in Japan. Cheikosan, who’s blind, runs the research group here that works on accessibility.. I’ve known her and Hero for years… it was the first time I got to visit them at their home site.. really nice catching up..
She let me play with her wireless braile thingy.. it’s very. very cool. It’a amazign to wath her use it..
she uses this to move around the internet. Her group creates tools to help make the interent more visible to site and hearing impared folks. We tlaked about ways to engage students in helping make webites more accessible by crowdsourcign.. a very cool idea.. been thinking about it all day since we talked..
Next stop was a meeting with the new(ish) all folks with less than 12 years experience with IBM.. good hearing their thoughts.. 
Then .. I gave a talk to the entire lab.. and visitors form the nearby software lab.. it was really great getting a chance to talk with all these smart folks ! My original talk was going to be very boring.. luckily Miwa-san and Akiko-san did an intervention last night and prompted me to change my talk to a mix of fun (40%) and boring.(60%) . I’m really glad I changed it.
here is the entire lab as seen by pickle ligh
hey miwa-san stole my coat !
Here’s katayam-san.. .. he is my kind of nerd.. we had the *best* talk about mmwave radio.. I think the best word for nerd here is ‘otaku’.. it means a person with and unnaturally deep focus on something very spefic.. aka . a nerd like me.. !
then.. Miwa-san had organized a movie making exercise. It seems the lab here is doign a remake of ‘engineering paradise’ japanese style !
Here’s our remake of one of the scenes in the movie.. when all the non-old people surround the old guy..
Lab direcotor Noly-san even joined the dance !
next scence was at the Go table.. it’s a gam elike checkers only 10000000000000000 times more complex..
then a moment of levity ..
THen.. down to the Tatami room for a tea service.. . It was wonderfull.. Here’s Akiko-san.. in her.. very beutiful tea service outfit.. It was a wonderful expereince.. She made tea for all of us. I leanred how to turn my bowl just so.. and drink the dark green tea.. really interesting.. and relaxing.. (except for my knees !)
I felt so honored to be able to participate in this tea service.. The people here are such wonderful hosts. !!!!!
.. and they have such cool socks !!!!
then back upstairs in teh ‘must smile’ elevator..
then back out into town for dinner. it was rush hour.. so many people !!!
..
We went to a small sushi resturant near where we ate last night.. Tonight’s dinner started with kani miso…
(whihc I think translates ‘crab guts’) yum
then squid guts (I kid you not !).. very good !
then young yellowtale..
then ‘cousin of eel ‘ ? (maybe dogfish ?)
then…. .. ebi. ika, maguro, hamachi, toro
and.. we had 3 ebi.. where most people (I’m told) only get 2 !
the two otaku’s
another great dinner.. I relaize.. I have no pictures of everyone at dinner.. including gracious host Noly-san.. (sorry abotu that).. it was another memorable dinner.. I use the word ‘
memorable’ loosley.. because by course 6 I thin the saki had affected my memory ! We left around 9:30 since I had a work call at 10..
Katayam-san helped me find my stop
what a GREAT visit!. The people here are so gracious, smart and funny. This is the part of my job I love the best..
OK.. gotta pack now.. more tomorrow !
kumbawa folks.. kumbawa sam
-me