Day 21: Kansai power

Wednesday March 16th, 2011 by Rick van Kemenade

Today we had our final technical excursion. This time we visited KEPCO, the utility company that manages the power network in the Kansai region. We listened to presentations about the company and about the cooperation with its partner companies. At the end of the excursion we got a look into the actual control room of the Central Load Dispatch Centre, which looked very impressive.

Afterwards, we went to the Umeda sky building where everybody was free until the end of the day. The building has a very interesting shape; two towers that are connected by a walking deck and floating escalators at the top. From the top floor we got an impressive view of the Osaka area. In the basement was a typical 20’s style hallway, where many participants enjoyed lunch.

In the evening a rather large group visited a karaoke bar. We found it just as hilarious as in the Netherlands. In Japan, karaoke means that you are in one chamber with a group of about ten people. You put on songs with a device which was only in Japanese. It took some getting used to, but finally we could control the device well enough to put on the songs we wanted to sing. Good spirit and fresh drinks made for a very enjoyable evening.