My YSEP Adventure in Japan (ようこそ)

Factory Study Tour (7) : Nippon Steel Kimitsu Work

2010-07-27T19:14:00.001-07:00

The third factory study tour in this semester was held in Nippon Steel Kimitsu work area. This company has core business in steel manufacturing and its derivatives. Nippon Steel is well known as one of big companies within Japan due their ability to supply steel demands for other parties. The products exist of several types from plates, pipes, tubes and many more.

Same like other FST, at first we heard the presentation and short introduction of Nippon Steel from boards. After that we continue to have factory tour and visit the site process. We saw how huge the area of Nippon Steel that need us to ride bus to move from one site to another site, maybe this is the biggest company site during the FST programs.

The trip in general consists of 2 types of site, the production and process site and the recycling plant. The production and process site contain of step production to produce steel. From this view we have good experience how it is work. In another side, in recycling plant, we saw the garbage process to perform recycle garbage in this company.

The most interesting part was when entering the process rolling of steel products. In this section I saw the rolling process that deliver the plate steel from it basic form and manage it into other form or advanced one. The process take slowly and noisily which show us it really a hard process. We have opportunity to saw it quite close that made us could felt the very hot temperature applied into process. Work in hundred or a thousand degree Celsius, made the steel very very hot that able to shape it. I amaze with this hot temperature, even the closest gap between me and that process was maybe 50 meters but I really felt hot.

At the end, we went back to the campus and we got to have a break in the middle of trip.

Factory Study Tour : Toshiba 京浜事業所

2010-05-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

Toshiba is well known as reputable electric manufacturer in Japan and within the world. Products from Toshiba are spread out from the small part with low voltage and low power consumption into products that employ higher voltage and higher power consumption. From notebook, household appliances into electric machinery and generator are some products of Toshiba with high quality warranty.

Fortunately this semester, we have a chance to visit one division of Toshiba Company as the second FST. It is one branch of Toshiba that located in Keihin Product Operation (京浜事業所). This division is focused on the manufacturing of Thermal Nuclear and Hydro Power Generator. As small notes, the similarities between these kinds of generator are laid down on how the machine could process water that could be uses as the main source energy to generate electricity. However, the process and the technical aspect constraint from both types are different.

At the beginning of FST, we saw presentation from Toshiba board explaining Toshiba Company and their activities. After that, we were divided into two groups and start the tour. Each group has guided to travel around the factory to see the production process and factory environment. We visit two areas, and the next tour we also have the same tour yet in different production.

During the tour we saw from step by step production process of generator. It was started from assembling the small part to build another part of generator into build the whole generator. We also saw additional process involve in the process that enable the quality control into the production process. It is obviously important to make sure the generator will have good quality when it complete and ready to sell on the market.

When we finished the tour, we gathered and have discussion session. In this section there were many questions into the board about Toshiba and all aspect related with it. One of the questions was questioning about the efficiency of the machine. As on the tour, the guide says the turbine machine produce from Toshiba has high efficiency that could achieve 99% efficiency. This value is amazing, since one of the biggest problems in the electrical machinery as well as in engineering aspect has laid down on the efficiency of a system or machine. But, for me it still amazing (if you don’t want to say unbelievable) a machine has very high efficiency.

After discussion session, at the end of the FST we have photo session with the boards of Toshiba before leaving and back to school.

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Place to Visit in Tokyo :Yamanote Line - Tokyo Station (1)

2010-05-23T04:20:00.001-07:00

After several months living in Tokyo, currently I know some places that categorized as must-seen-or-visit in this city. Despite there are some places I haven't visited yet, but for sure it will be my future destination.

Through the list, regardless I went it by myself or as a bunch of friends, it has attract me for a lot of exceptional things. It could be for the buildings and skyscrapers or maybe for the unique structure into the outstanding "crazy" people spreading on that area. Fabulously, it gave me a good perspective and of course experience through this city as well.

Okay, let's start the list :

1. Yamanote Line

To tell the truth, this city has really good well management for their public service, tourism guide, into transportation. Amazingly, they can combine it into a piece of remarkable system that make connection one into another. Regardless what the reason or background, but the fact that appear, it make you able to visit a lot of cool place in this city without asking for direction or even talk Japanese a litle bit (this also one of the reason why my Japanese improve slowly).

In this case, I want to talk for one of the most popular line in this city and could be the most crowded. This line is called Yamanote Line (山手線). This Line become most popular as well as most crowded since this line had been build to connect several famous places in town. This line has loop circuit, which mean if you have a lot of free time, you can stay on the train as this train will passed the seem-look-alike station couple of time.

Some of the famous place that link with this line is really a lot. Moreover, you can say every station in this line has great temptation to stop for a while. But in this article, I just want to write several of them, mostly the place I have visited before.

a. Tokyo Station (東京駅)

In this station, you might think it is the central station in Tokyo (due to it's name has the same name as the name of the city), but to be honest it is not the place where everything happen. But, the fact has shown, this station categorized as one of the busiest station as many line as well as trains operate in this station. We could say, if you want to travel around Japan using train, than it could be one of the options to get to, especially using Shinkansen, as this station has ability to transfer all train direction facing on the line of Japan.

Talking another aspect from this station, it is also pretty close to the imperial palace, the place of Japanese emperor which the symbol of Japan. But, don’t expect that you can go to Tokyo Tower, which is one of Tokyo symbol, from this station. If you want to visit Tokyo Tower from this station, it would keep such a long way to get on there.

The most interesting part from this station is the structure of it.

*This article was aimed to share of my opinions for several places in Tokyo

Japan Folk House Museum (日本民家園)

2010-05-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, (水), May 19, me and 5 of my friends (include Laras Ayu P, Rojin Hojian, Milad Siami, Alexandru-Christian Cozub-Poetica, Antti, and Kanan).

It was rainy but it didn't stop us to visit this museum since we have planned it before.

My opinion for this museum, it gave me brief description about varieties of Japanese house around Japan.
Here are some picture I took in the place :

The First FST on Spring Semester : Nissan Company

2010-05-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

At the first trip of FST on the spring semester, we were visit Nissan Company. Nissan Company is one of the famous car and automobile manufacturer in Japan as well as in the world.

At the beginning of the tour, we were listening for the presentation about Nissan and what currently they do. With a new challenge to reduce air pollution and dependencies on fossil fuel, Nissan has focused to produce car and automobile based on the Electricity Vehicle (EV). It means the car would utilize the electric power as the source of energy and to push aside the conventional car using fossil fuel. This concept has strong desire in accordance to tackle environmental issues that facing the world.

However, to produce and divest electric vehicle on the market it need big effort. This would be related with the current technology implemented in the car into the supporting facilities to make sure electric vehicle has reliable operation. Nissan Company has seen this obstacle as their challenge to improve their concept on electric vehicle. As an example, Nissan developed new technology on the batteries that has been the main problem occurred on the size and duration. With new batteries technologies, it can reduce the size of batteries and increase the duration. Another example was relying on the supporting facilities. Similar like conventional car, electric vehicle also need recharging for their fuel but with different source, electric vehicle need electric charge for recharge.

After listening for the presentation, the next section was the company tour. During this tour, we were divided into three separate groups and watched several demonstrations. It was interesting because we can show several technologies directly from Nissan. Through this tour they also describe technology that they called “Safety Shield” which is one of the breakthroughs for safety riding.

One of the most interesting was the robot simulation. In this simulation, we watched several robots walk together in a loop circuit without striking the barrier and another robot. The robots also can maintain their speed and distance subsequently made line. This simulation was aimed to show us the new research result from Nissan that would be implemented on the next car they would produce. It implemented kind of artificial intelligent to the car to keep safety on the road.

At the end, we have small party that was organized by Nissan board. This party was really enjoyable and warm.

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Japan-The Strange Country (English ver.)

2010-03-24T04:40:00.000-07:00

Found a good video describing Japan based on Foreigner perspective. Despite there could be many disagree for the content, but we can see it as good perspective to understand Japan itself.

Japan-The Strange Country (English ver.) from Kenichi on Vimeo.

Inspiring Indonesia Visit Indonesia 2010

2010-03-01T01:49:00.000-08:00

If you want to know Indonesia deeply, please look for a while in this video. I guarantee, you will get attracted into :)

YEJ Farewell Party

2010-02-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

It seems, already long time for me not writing in this website. Due to my activities and focus on several things I should do, so I am prefer not to write as much as I can. However, that is not the main reason for, as well as my individual blog also has the same condition. Maybe because I can not maintain my mood to write. Okay, alibi is not the answer for all this question, but recently I am really enjoyed the situation and what I get in Japan.

Nevertheless, in this post I want to share the farewell party of YEJ Students that only stay for just ~6 months. Yeah, time goes by and we not notice it. My hope, we can remind each other for what we have done and learn during this program. I wish also, someday I want to visit all of your countries to meet you guys. Just remember the "password" to identify our groups....."YSEP 2009" lol

Okay, this is the video performance at the last formal YEJ party :

Tour of Ebara Corporation in Fujisawa District

2010-01-22T16:16:00.000-08:00

For many centuries people are dealing with the term of energy in area of utilization and managing energy into their life. As the term energy is commonly related with the utilization of natural resources, the discussion on how to utilizing natural resources in appropriate way also takes a big portion to be discussed. This situation has encouraging the research and technology development into higher level.

Talking about energy and how people try to utilize and manage it into their life are something interesting and endless. From this point of view in the practical way we can see many companies and industries were established. They try to implement the technology with aims to achieve better output that can help human life. Due to the natural resources as the main resources of energy on this planet will be decrease from time to time, the proper way of technology implementation are substantial.

This situation is also encouraging us as a student to understand and start thinking for the condition in the future. Therefore from the Factory Study Tour we have valuable experience to visit some companies that active in the energy sector field. From this trip, we were considered of the matter that also triggers our spirit to think for the future.

Had visited the Sodegaura terminal as the terminal for LNG supply for Tokyo, which also the largest LNG terminal in Japan, as the third trip we went to Ebara Corporation in Fujisawa district. The trip was held on the January 19th and it was the first FST in this year. This trip also becomes the last trip for this semester.

Ebara Corporation was established in the 1920 and has the first plant in the Shinagawa area, Tokyo. This company is operating as manufacturer of fluid transfer machinery and become one of the top companies around the world. With the strength position as manufacturer of the pumps, compressor, and chillers production this company also able to expand their business into some countries as of made this company as a multinational company.

The first activities when we arrived at the office were presentation about Ebara Corporation and Ebara profile from the boards. In this presentation, we also saw a small demonstration of basic pump operation. Using basic principle of Mechanical Physics of force called centrifugal forces, the pump has been designed to capable flowing the water that flow in the pump into the desired direction. Instead controlling the direction of the water, the pump is also able controlling the speed and pressure of the water. By controlling this parameter we can manipulate water flowing to reach our desire. Simple and seems like having basic similar laboratory experiment as in the Senior High School.

The next activities after the presentation were company tour. Different with others FST activities, in this trip we were eligible to took pictures inside the company. However, due to the some restriction and company rules we were prohibited took pictures in several places. During the company tour we saw production and assembling process to build the pump machines and others machines which been guided of one Ebara staff. The guide along the tour also made some interactive activities by asking participants to did small part of process production by pushing buttons and touching some parts of the machines.

After the tour completed, the next activities were Q&A section. During this session many participants asking question about Ebara Corporation and also for energy issues. For each question the boards were answered enthusiastically. However the boards answered some questions in Japanese language which almost all of us did not understand. Fortunately the answers were translated and repeated in English (thanks to our FST translator Mr. Yusuke) that make us understand, include me.

From my point of view, this trip was gave us brief explanation of water energy management and utilization. Moreover this trip was also able opening my mind as well as broadening my knowledge on several water problems. Within many problems, water shortage issues are concerned as one of the major problems for the future years. Several countries such as in Europe, Asia, and Africa will face water deficiency and need to find solution. One of the solutions for this problem is by involving the water management to distribute the water from the sea or other sources into countries which need it, despite it will take a long distance. This solution will use water pump machines as the important role. This condition will be a good environment for the pump companies like Ebara Corporation to develop their business.

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Commencement address by Steve Jobs at STANFORD University : 'You've got to find what you love'

2009-12-26T20:57:00.000-08:00

Great Commencement Address by Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios. It motivated us to rethinking again what we have done and what we want to do in our life. Enjoy it and be a better man/woman :D

VERY MOTIVATING & INSPIRING ^_^

Akhmad Syaiful Hidayat

http://www.akhmadsyaiful.blogspot.com/

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I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

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you can see the video in : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA
It very awesome ^_^

Roppongi Illumination in Tokyo Midtown

2009-12-25T19:14:00.000-08:00

Tokyo has a lot wonderful things :D

Sodegaura Terminal Trip of Tokyo City Gas System

2009-12-21T01:50:00.000-08:00

The third Factory Study Tour (FST) was held on December 8th, 2009. In this trip we were went to the Sodegaura Terminal which one of the Gas terminal in Tokyo City Gas system. The Sodegaura terminal is actually located in Tokyo bay the sea side of Chiba Prefecture and operating for the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) receiving terminal. This trip was ran with aims to gave basic understanding about gas system in Tokyo as well as the basic knowledge about LNG itself for the participants.

In Japan, LNG is one of the most important primary energy in many sectors, such as industries, transportations and houses. For industries, the gas is used to be one of the main energy for industries operation as well as for electric generation besides oil, and coal. On the transport section several cars and buses were built to use LNG as their fuel. Meanwhile, for houses the gas has various functions from cooking, water heater, floor heater, and so on.

Operated since 1973, Sodegaura terminal starting to be one of the most important and the largest LNG terminal in Japan (it also predicted to be the largest in the world). This terminal and also other terminals are playing significant role in Tokyo gas system to ensure the gas distribution of Tokyo area. These terminals categorized as receiving terminal are the starting point to receive the gas from outside Japan and then send it to the City Gas system. All the process are operated automatically and controlled remotely to keep the safety of the labor as well as keep the effective and reliable quality control.

Sodegaoura terminal is interconnected to the system called City Gas. This system was enabling the LNG to be distributed for city consumption through pipeline in high and medium pressure. In case some problems or disaster appear, this system is able to keep safety by stopping and blocking the gas flow then followed with other actions. Safety is become major point in this sector due to Japan has already known as the country with many earthquake appears every years.

Before sending LNG to the system, Sodegaura terminal has takes some action through gas process flow to ensure the gas quality. The operation is also converting the form of LNG from liquid to gas in the process of vaporization involving sea water. In addition to use sea water, the conversion section is also reused the warm waste water to perform the efficient and optimum in the design and operation of the system. After the LNG was converted to gas, then the gas is distributed using pipeline, tank truck, or ship tankers.

During this trip, aside from the information of Sodegaura terminal and the city gas system, we were also had explanation (or could be I can said it “Jikken” or experiment) about LNG itself and a trip around Sodegaura terminal. In the LNG explanation we were saw the demonstration using various kind objects to bring a clear perspective of LNG safety and showing the operation temperature of LNG. It was nice to know that the temperature operation of LNG is very cold (lower than -2000 C) that can make flower and rubber ball become frozen and fragile. Meanwhile, in the trip section we were saw the infrastructure of Sodegaura terminal contains of some interesting parts which one of the most was the in-ground LNG tank. These tanks are used to keep LNG before it will be sent to the system, and these tanks also have symbols to show the origin of LNG. As my country, Indonesia is one of the suppliers for Sodegaura terminal, there also one Indonesia in-ground tank with “Orang Utan” picture as the symbol was paste on the surface, nice.

From this trip it was give me short and brief information about the gas system especially for Sodegaura terminal. Despite Japan has lack natural source as LNG source but this country can optimize and utilize LNG in many sectors by importing it from other countries. It was also wonderful knowing that several equipments in our houses for cooking and heater are came from LNG and connected to the huge system of gas distribution. However, due to the time constraint we didn’t have many things to explore from this company. Afterward the trip was over and we were back to campus brought our experience in mind.

TOJ Class Party

2009-12-09T23:56:00.001-08:00

On December 11, after the last presentation in TOJ class finally we have set the party. The party itself, in my opinion, was not kind of big party, it just like small party to strengthen the connection between the class participants. Moreover the party make a warm connection among the students especially this class which consist of various students from many countries.

In this party each student were expected to bring some food or snack and also drink to share with each other. Although there were no obligation to bring specific foods which belong to the typical or traditional foods of student countries, but many students brought it. It was very nice, because I can tasted some typical foods or snack, as an example the chocolate from Finland, candy from Germany and others food from various countries include my country Indonesia.

We were made one of our traditional food of Indonesia called “Martabak Telur” or in Japanese maybe it could be called “マルタバコ　テルル” in this party. This kind of food maybe similar with Pizza from Italy but it is different for the ingredients and cooking processes. The ingredients were dominates by flour and egg (たまご) that mix and blend together with some “special” spices. After mix and blend the ingredients than the next step was to cook it and this was the final step, look simple right? yup, it is very simple because you don’t have to be a professional chef to make it, but you might be to understand how to cook it properly. So, if you want to learn or make “Martabak Telur” by your own self, what you need to do is just contact me, simple right?

*(but after that I need to contact my friend who made this food, because I also can’t make by myself) :p

Looking Closer to the Leader of Tires Manufacture: Bridgestone Company

2009-11-25T05:20:00.001-08:00

Tires become one of the important parts in a car and other vehicles due to its main function to keep them on the ground. While keep the car on the ground, it also has another function that very important such as to control the direction of the car, make progressive acceleration and breaking, reduce for over vibration, and etc. All of these great functions of tires are only obtained by a small area of tire that has the same size as a box of tissue paper.

In correspond with this, on the November 10 we, students who took the Factory Study Tour (FST) classs, are gone to the Bridgestone Company as the second trip in this semester. It takes approximately 1 and a half hours to travel into that place using bus from O-okayama campus. Along the journey we were saw some companies and industries in Japan that located near with Bridgestone Company. One of these companies was TOSHIBA which I hope to visit it for the next trip.

Bridgestone is a big tires company that produces tires for automobile and other vehicle as well as their derivative. This company become the leader and holds the biggest market share in Japan and the world for tires production. The history of the name Bridgestone was taken from the name of its founder Shojiro Ishibasi (Ishi = Stone, Bashi = Bridge) which has started from making tabi Japanese traditional socks.

When entering Bridgestone Company, we were welcomed from the management and staff in a warm acceptance. The first thing we did were to heard some introduction and speech from Bridgestone board and watched a film of Bridgestone profile. After that we were divided into 2 big groups to saw the Bridgestone museum and production process.

In the trip to saw production process of tires, we were passed the biggest tire on the world that located in this company. It also become the symbol for this company due to it's size and also to showed that they can make a very big tire in the world. Unfortunately I can’t take a picture of me in front of that tire due to the time we had.

Then when we arrived in the process production area we were asked to make a line. It has a function to keep our safety during the tour because their many carriers traveling around. Inside the process area we were saw a lot of machines to produce and make tires. But the first thing that amazed me was the smell inside it. Although they said the smell is not hazardous but honestly the smell was very sting (my opinion). I wonder how the worker able to keep their work in this area for maybe 10 hours each day. Anyway, this process production area was gave me a real visualization for tires production. This process was started from the raw material processing continue with some processes until the step that I like the most: heating process. In the heating process, the green tire was pressed and shaped in very hot temperature to make the shape and channel on the tires. After several time the tire was come out from the heating machine and then continue to the final step and packing.

The next places that we have visited were the museum of Bridgestone Today. In this museum we can see many things related with tires technology and knowledge behind them. As an example we can see a miniature that showed how many layers that build a single tire and some basic simulation of tire technology. But the most beautiful things and most attracted me was the Formula 1 car belongs to Ferrari whose driven by Philipe Massa. This very awesome to saw a historical car in front of your eyes directly that was previously we can only saw it on television screen. The second things that I like very much were when we showed the new technology from Brigestone for a building to keep it strong and dynamic when earthquake or disaster appears. This technology was named Multi-Rubber Bearing equipment that plays as a seismic isolator for building.

After that we were getting back to the presentation room to heard some another explanation and discussion about Bridgestone and their future. Finally it was closed by photo together between the students and Bridgestone board. Then we were gone back to O-okayama campus and that was the end of enjoyable and happy FST. Thank you

HONJO BOSAIKAN FACTORY STUDY TOUR

2009-10-25T23:27:00.000-07:00

My first experience of Factory Study Tour class was visited Honjo Boikan (Life Safety Learning Center) in Tokyo. This place was established with aims to strengthening people from disaster that can come up anytime and anywhere. It took about one hour from O-okayama campus to this place and along the trip we can saw some good spots around Tokyo. The first activities after we arrived in this place were watched a 3D movie that explain about disaster and explanation for safety action. After that we were divided into several groups consist of 15 people each group to follow another activities and did some simulation.

Inside the building there were several simulation gaining audience understanding of first action when disaster showed up. The first simulation we took were simulation of earthquake disaster. In this simulation we were step up into a machine simulator that shakes very hard (maybe 3.0 Richter scale) and we must kept our head and body under the table for safety. We complete this task perfectly and safely since we were followed the safety instruction for this simulation.

The next simulation was fire extinguish simulation. In this simulation we must turn off fire with fire extinguisher. Every participant must took a fire extinguisher in their hand. Fortunately, the fire was a "digital" fire not an original fire so we didn't have to be scared of its flame. The simulation showed the "digital" fire was on the big screen television and we must turn off the fire by spraying the fire extinguisher onto this screen. But before we ran to the screen we must shout "FIRE" in Japanese language (KAJIDA) to warn other people in the real condition.

The simulation of Wind and Typhoon disaster were become the next simulation. This is one of my favourite simulations because we were faced up with artificial typhoon disaster. We must used a coat to prevent our self from getting wet because in this simulation we were hit by strong wind and water same as a real typhoon (but in low level than the real typhoon of course). I was choose to stand up in the front of the line where the highest impact was hit.

The last simulation was the "fogging room" simulation. Why it is called "fogging room", because in this simulation we were entering a room full of fog and in this simulation we must get off that room as fast as we can. Like playing in the labyrinth we must found out the exit door (follow the sign) to escape. Maybe, it took several minutes in that room and honestly the smell is very sting and disgusting.

Finally, after followed some simulation and explanation for safety action, we are went to campus again. But, honestly it was very great experience following this program. Because from the experience that we have took from this place, we can take the right action to face disaster when it was showed up (but I hope it will not occur during my period in Japan).

Welcome

2009-10-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Thank you to visit my website. In this website I will publish my recent activities and stories during my YSEP program. Please, feel free to explore it and enjoy ^_^

Warm Regards,

Akhmad Syaiful HIDAYAT
YSEP Students from University of Indonesia