Tuesday, May 21, 1991
We visited Sony on Tuesday morning. The night before we put together the slides we would use to brief them on the IOC-U and on the Fileserver. We met Yamada-San at the train station and continued taking the train to Yokohama, arriving at Sony at 9:55.
Riding on trains in Japan is interesting. I typically pass the time practicing with a deck of cards in my hands. In most places in the world I expect to gather a crowd of people to watch, but in Japan on the trains I am almost totally ignored. I think it has to do with both the culture (regarding etiquette on trains) and age. Younger people seem much more likely to smile and make contact with me when I am performing than older. Other interesting features of trains is that most of the men wear blue or grey suits and white socks. Also, most people sleep on the train.
There were about six Sony people in the meeting, including a manager for the ID-1. We talked about the IOC-U, Fileserver and HSI-50 and what would be needed to develop an ID-1 interface to the IOC. I suggested that they look at the HSI-50 Starter Kit manual. The meeting was very productive and lasted over two hours, which Yamada-San said was a good indicator of Sony’s interest.
I had watched the news Tuesday morning and was concerned with the election violence in India.
Tuesday afternoon we visited Toshiba, for a first presentation call. The meeting was good, but in Japan it is difficult to gauge first visits. Their application dealt with Synthetic Aperture Radar and they were interested in the Alaskan SAR system. I talked a little about that application and the JPL Magellan application.
KBK is suffering from the same problems we are, a general downturn in the Japanese Government spending. They do have well qualified prospects and as money begins to become available they should be able to close business. They are very excited about our new products, but need better selling tools and training on those products.
While walking to the office we passed a fruit and vegetable stand. I took a photo to show how expensive melons are here. One melon cost $24.00.
Tuesday evening, I hear about the assassination of Gandhi in India. Talking with Larry Wade, my boss in Portland, I also learn that the students expectations are for an advanced class, which I am unprepared to teach. The combination of those two factors prompts us to decide to cancel my trip to India. The question now is whether or not I continue on around the world, or return from Tokyo to Portland. I call Doreen and have her check out the options. She gets back with the news that to cancel my round the world ticket and re-ticket for Portland to Tokyo back to Portland costs the same as keeping my existing ticket. So I decide to continue on to France for a holiday. It’s a sacrifice, but I’ll be stoic about it.