On March 29, 2006, I went to Nagoya with the purpose of visiting Toyota's main factory in Toyota city which is located in the suburbs of Nagoya.
From Nagoya it took 1 hour to get to Toyota city where Toyota's headquarters were located.
Sign indicating the South Gate of the Toyota factory.
Main gate to the main Toyota plant. Honsha means headquarters.
Coming from crowded and densely populated Tokyo, I was surprised to see the suburban nature of Toyota city. Reminded me of North America.
Toyota's old headquarters building which I think now is used as a training centre.
Toyota's technical centre.
Toyota's new headquarters.
Statue of the founder in front of the new headquarters.
Me in front of the Toyota headquarters building, guy on street that I asked to take a picture didn't know how to take pictures...(i.e., use zoom)
Arriving at the visitor centre which is located right next to the headquarters building. All visitors to the factory tours must meet here.
The main hall of the visitor's centre.
Lets see who is visiting the Toyota plant....People's Republic of China Nagoya Consulate, JET Program Participates, Various Organizations, and me, a lowly undergraduate student...
The visitor count.
At the main hall, they displayed 3 conceptual products, the Toyota Partner Robot, the i-Swing and the i-Foot.
The Toyota Partner Robot was supposed to be some sort of helper robot product that they are developing for the future? The robots on display were developed for the 2005 Aichi Expo held near Nagoya. Only the trumpet playing robot was demonstrated here. According to them, the robot has mechanical lungs which it uses to blow the trumpet.
A video that I captured of the trumpet playing robot.
The i-Swing and i-Unit, some kind of personal mobility vehicle. Both of them are kind of similar.
The i-Unit had some cool changing LEDs.
Only the i-Unit was demonstrated and I captured the videos of the demonstration below.
The i-Foot was displayed but there was no demonstration.
Also in the visitor's centre was a giant showroom displaying all of Toyota's Japan lineup.
Some sports car that I had never seen before called the "Mr S".
Car prices in Japan are not so high.
Toyota's hybrid technology.
Toyota's motorsports efforts.
Another concept car, this one is for disabled persons I think.
The futuristic steering wheel.
After seeing all these things in the visitor's centre, it was time for the guided tour of the plant. We had to board a tour bus and then we were driven to another nearby plant which took about 30-40 minutes from the visitor's centre. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed, so if you want to see how your Toyota car was made, you have to come to Toyota, Japan to see for yourself!
After the plant tour ended I took the train to Kyoto on the next leg of my trip. I ended up arriving at night and wondered around the Karawamachi, Gion area.
The Pontocho area of Kyoto, it is famous because of its preserved "traditional architecture" of entertainment and restaurant facilities.
Maruyama Park in Kyoto with lit up sakura trees.
1 comments:
Nice pictures! Like you, I really like toyota cars, they're just too nice. Is that car in one of your pics have the capability to turn the tires 90 degrees? That's pretty cool!
Post a Comment