Saturday, April 30, 2005

Travel to Japan for World Expo 2005

The Aichi Expo Japan is actually the biggest expo all the year 2005.. a place for global exchange. Build on approx. 158 hectare land in NAGOYA EASTERN HILLS (Nagakute town, Toyota city and Seto city)
I wasnt have much time to explore all the pavilions here at the expo as we only had 1 day to visit the expo and we had to visit and benchmark to Toyota Japan and many of suppliers companies there as well as to visit both Toyota Automobile & Commemorative Museum --two of the must visited place when u r in Japan-- very interesting as you can get many information about cars since the first ever made and u can try to make a miniature car yourself start from pressing the body of the car yourself then put the parts one by one till become a car and ... interesting!
Back to the Journey..
We arrived at Kansai International Airport Osaka at 6.20 am, the weather was chill and fresh.. it was April but too bad that we missed the hanami or cherry blossom. Nothing we did as that time was a national holiday in Japan. Me with 40 persons supplier's Top Management went to visit Universal Studio...sounds strange --we had no choice to come on holiday coz we didnt kno that Toyota Japan had booked the hotel for Toyota Indonesia during this time, we couldnt changed the schedule as they had made it since last year and hotel in Nagoya especially had fully booked until September 2005-- they r older people but having tour to such kind of place but anyway...they were really enjoyed when experienced all of those tv stuffs such as Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Terminator, E.T etc etc and it was really nearest to the real..sooo much different of course w Dunia Fantasi we have here in Jakarta but i still like to go to Dufan. We went to visit some temples and did shopping as well there. We stayed at Swissotel Nankai Osaka...a very good hotel situated in the heart of Osaka city upper the shopping mall. At night, Me and my collegues went to Hardrock cafe Osaka accompanied by Mr. Takahashi the president of PT. Denso Indonesia which supplied air condition and installment to Toyota Indonesia...very special as he helped us to find the way to go there by subway only Yen 200 (we didnt want to take taxi...very very expensive there)
The next day (Still on National holiday in Japan) we left early morning for Kyoto by bus. It was only 2 hours from Osaka to Kyoto just like to go from Jakarta - Puncak. It's true, Kyoto is like an old city but i absolutely amazed by its ancient temples and places.. we went to some temples, took picture and shopping at the very famous place...Ninenzaka and Shannenzaka. The real mochi you can get here..fresh from the oven.
The third day early morning we headed to Nagoya by Tokaido Shinkansen and arrived in Nagoya we were picked up by Toyota people then directly headed to the Expo in Aichi. About 1,5 hours by bus to go there. Arrived at the expo we directly headed to Toyota Pavilion..in front of our pavilion was hundreds of people queuing to get the ticket to this pavilion. After Toyota, we finally spread out... I went to visit Hitachi, JR pav, JICA wonder wheel pav, almost all countries pavilions; australia, india, thai, phill, etc etc and finally Indonesia pavilion.. we talked to the indonesian people who were in charge there..nice and they were seems happy to see us. Many japanese there as that day they presented Bali dancing inside the pavilion. And finally me, my direct boss Willy san and Pak Dee one of the manager in Toyota went back to the hotel before the others by taxi. I couldnt believe that we had to pay Yen 11,000 almost 1 million rupiah from the expo to the city of Nagoya.. anyway, office paid it.
Back to the hotel in Nagoya city....
Go to this hotel was just like go to the train station the MARRIOT ASSOCIA hotel where we're stayed is upper the train station. Right in front of the hotel is a famous shopping mall where you can find any electronic stuff there at BIKU Camera or BIC is the name of the place. I was excited shopping there as i bought the newest Wordtank touch screen(Japanese electronic dictionary) for Yen 34.000 and got a lot of points from it which i could exchanged the points with the new iPod mini with only add Rp. 300,000 to get it. sooo excited w it :-)
And the great thing that made me really feel excited and proud of my braveness and yet soo fun was when i was experienced..went to another biggest shopping mall in Nagoya myself using subway and i couldnt believe it that i've made it to reach there without get lost. I amazed the very first time in the most strange place i could finally conquered it.. that's fun! to explore any new place by yourself. i do love travelling.. mostly asian country i had visited.
Anyway, the rest of the most time in Japan was spent and filled with soooo many benchmarking visits to Toyota Suppliers which were all the mother company of Toyota's suppliers in Indonesia. We visited those companies, saw and learned how they have been implementing the great system in their plant.. what a full of knowledge tour and such a great experience for me.
At the last night after farewell dinner in the place which was located near the Nagoya Tower.. Me and 3 of my bosses went around exploring again the heart of Nagoya city where you can see all the young people whose still wearing work uniform standing anywhere on pedistrian street as that day was Friday and all the coffee shop was full of people..what a nite life
Several night i was trying to find a bar or cafe with live music but never found any.. just to get to know the nite life here. Hardrock cafe and all bars were all closed at 11 pm :-( and all shopping mall closed at 8 pm. But at this last night here i finally found a British pub which stand right next to the Hardrock cafe which i was never realize it the nights before..silly. This British pub was full of foreigners, the drink was not bad but at least open till 2 am, there's no live music but still just better than Hardrock cafe.
And the next day me and all the participants left Nagoya for return back home thru Central Japan Int'l Airport in Nagoya which was just opened in February 2005 special for this Aichi Expo. This time, I didnt allowed to stay longer and have some day off just to go to another city exploring like before when i went to benchmark to some other countries...

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