ThinkTwisted

Today was a quiet day in Utsunomiya. We had to ride a bus to work, as the facility is outside the city a good bit. We got on the bus at 7 am (right on time, as always). The drive to work took approximately 55 minutes. We only travelled maybe 15 miles, but the traffic was bumper to bumper the entire way. I was told this is always the case. The lights are not timed to allow traffic to flow at a good clip. We were passed by bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles the entire ride.

We arrived at the facility, which houses the main R&D branch for my company. The facility is enormous. I mean big, really really big. I found it interesting that parking was not really an issue. There were several large parking garages on the campus. There was a parking lot exclusively for two wheel vehicles. One side for bicycles, stacked two high. The other side is for motorcycles and scooters.

Utsunomiya was very close to the Great East Japan Earthquake (9.0 magnitude) that hit in 2011. Most of the buildings had already been repaired, but the severely damaged buildings were still being fixed. In some areas there are people working at desks in the hallways with power and network cables strewn across the hall because their normal office space is still under construction. The main cafeteria was destroyed and is being remodeled. We went up to the nicer cafeteria, which had just completed construction. It was beautiful. Without a doubt, the best cafeteria I have ever seen at a company. Two walls were floor to ceiling windows with an awesome view of the surrounding mountains. Everything was very sleek and modern, with complementary (but terrible) coffee to boot. Japan is not good at coffee. We had a meeting in the cafeteria in the morning, and stayed for lunch.

Lunch in the nice cafeteria was expensive, but probably be best food I’ve had in Japan. There was a cream potato chowder that was excellent, grilled steak bits (tough), grilled wide noodles, grilled onions, grill asparagus, grill potatoes, rice, and REAL SALAD! The salad made me very happy, I had been craving one for at least a week. It was small, but Oishii (Japanese for delicious). There was also grilled beef patty was filled with a cream cheese. It was unusually, but good. Cost was 900 yen (10.80 USD)

After lunch, we had a meeting with battery experts and were able to tour many of the test labs. I was able to see a lot of equipment I was familiar with from previous jobs, however it was virtually brand new, I’m guessing because the old equipment was destroyed in the earthquake. It was nice to see all the technologies and met the designers behind our vehicle design.

For dinner we went to “chicken taco” as my companions call it, because we can’t pronounce the Japanese name and their main dish is chicken tacos. I of course had to get the chicken tacos. I was surprised when it came out that it was real chicken breast, which is very unusual for Japan. Japanese people like fatty meat. They seems to be much more concerned with the texture of food rather than the taste. The chicken tacos were served with a house made salsa with kiwis and a block of cream cheese. They were good. They had a bottle of pure MSG that can be sprinkled on your food like salt. I tasted, it was very strong and unusual taste. I had a good laugh at some of the menu items which included “cacktails” and friend chicken with bone.

On the way back to the hotel, we passed the singing gyouza. Since Utsunomiya is famous for gyouza there is a statue made out of Ohya-shi stone, but we are unsure why it is a person that appears to be singing. The Utsunomiya area is the only place in the world with Ohya-shi stone, which is volcanic in nature. The stone is beautiful, a tan color with a slight gold hue and little dark bronze pockets. It is