FRED MANTEGHIAN BLOG

When JVC graciously invited me to Japan to the CEATEC show as their guest, I only hesitated for an instant before saying yes. I've gone to a lot of shows this year, but the opportunity (and desire) to see Japan was too strong. The twenty-eight hour trip from my home in Connecticut to our hotel in Tokyo was taxing and the three hours sleep I managed before I awoke at 3:00 AM local time with a sudden desire to check my mail have put me a little on edge on my first full day here, but I've seen plenty to write about already, so let me fill you in.

First of all - Japan. What a clean country. The airport was spotless and the Japanese people are the most accommodating and polite people in the world. We were discussing this on the way back from lunch and I related an incident I'd witnessed on the bus trip from the airport to the hotel. A Japanese man saw a pen on the bus, a bus used by hundreds of people that day, and he picked it up. He inspected it, clicked it to see if it functioned properly and then, satisfied that it was a perfectly acceptable pen of decent if undistinguished pedigree, placed it in the mesh pocket of the seat in front of him, the top half clearly exposed. He didn't pocket it, he didn't drop it back on the ground. Maybe someone would come back and look for that pen some day. He put it where it belonged.

That's the other thing about Japan. Everything is where it belongs. And it is clever too. The British would say it's "brilliant" I think. Even the hot air driers in the rest rooms at the airport are better designed than anything I've seen in the States. The hot air shoots down, works its way around your hands, hits a back plate and comes back at you from the other side. Much faster drying times and less electrical use.

Brilliant.

Everything here is so clever. I needed an iron and ironing board last night to iron some shirts that had become creased in the suitcase during travel (yeah, I know, my mother would be so proud of me - especially after a 28 hour trip!), and room service brought me a compact combination ironing board with detachable iron. It heats up in its base, you pull it out and iron a bit. While you're flipping your shirt around on the board, you put the iron back in its base to heat up some more. The directions were printed in Japanese, but I figured it out, engineering degree not withstanding.

While the ironing combo wasn't a bilingual dewrinkler, most of signage is Japan contains both the English and Japanese words. For a country and culture that is forever being accused of being xenophobic, this is remarkable and makes getting around easier for anyone who partakes of our tongue. Just something to keep in mind the next time someone in Pioria stands up at a town meeting and demands the ballots for the next election only be printed in English.

Of course, sometimes that signage is amusing too. The speed pass lane on the highway has a sign that says "ETC". I'm not sure where that came from (Update: I looked it up - it means Electronic Toll Collection, duh!). The ETC system is a marvel of engineering, though, as the gate actually lifts lickity quick as you bear down on it at 30 kph! Toro toro (and I'm not ordering fatty tuna).

CEATEC, a cross between CES and CEDIA, is held annually in Makuhari, about 25 km outside of Tokyo. Magahuri is an up and coming city based on a convention center and ball park. What else do you need?

Well, how about some electronics?