Day 15: Omron

Thursday March 10th, 2011 by Celine Vincent

After all the cultural sights we saw yesterday, it was again time for a corporate excursion. Omron had an entire day prepared for us at two different locations, both some distance from Kyoto. We had had a chartered bus at our service and left Kyoto for the day. From our bus, we even got a glimpse of the beautiful nature in the Japanese countryside.

The first location we visited was the Kusatsu plant, where we were welcomed and introduced to Omron. Furthermore, we were shown around the production floors by someone who had worked for Omron in the Netherlands. He even surprised us with some Dutch! As some of us had visited the Omron plant in Den Bosch a year before coming to Japan, it was interesting to compare the two factories. A fantastic lunch (or should I say: four course meal) had been prepared and we made the interpretor work hard when we were given some time to ask our questions to the managers of the plant.

In the afternoon, we were invited to the Keihanna Innovation Center. This R&D facility is located at the center of Kyoto, Osaka and Nara. We were given a short introduction of Omron and a tour around the new and enormous building. Housing only 200 researchers, it was designed to create the most pleasant working atmosphere, but it also housed some impressive cleanrooms. A presentation about face recognition techniques and some time to ask our questions concluded the program.

In the evening, the study tour committee once again treated the participants to a diner in an izakaya, a traditional Japanese restaurant. Here, more than half of us decided to go for the unlimited drinks option, already nicknamed ‘adje toko’ by some. Let us hope they are not too tired for the bicycle ride through Kyoto, which is planned for tomorrow.