Itinerary
Our Itinerary is now completed! This year’s mission will be really busy, with about one to three visits per day. The visits we managed to appoint universities and businesses are well diversified and will give us a broad view of the engineering profession in Japan.
Upon arrival
The first two days will have a slower pace. Saturday upon arrival, we will get the chance the discover Tokyo and the surroundings, while recovering from jetlag. There is a thirteen hours time difference with Montreal.
april 18th
Officially, the mission is set to begin on Monday the 18th of April. The first visit will be made to the Quebec delegation in Tokyo as we look forward to thanking them for their participation in this mission. They have helped us communicating with some companies and gave us some valuable advices.
In the afternoon, we will be heading towards the cilty of Yokohama to go visit the Mitsubishi Minatorimai Industrial Museum. There, we will get to discover a little on japanese technology, more specifically in the following six themes : aerospatial, oceans, transports, everyday life discoveries, environment/energy and the quest for technologies. This museum has been recommanded to us by the Quebec delegation in Tokyo, being a staple in technology!
april 19th
The 19th of April is set for the entire day. We are going to visit Olympus. We wil get the chance to discover the installations of this manufacturing giant in the optical field, whose lenses are renowned for cameras and the medical field.
april 20th
During this day, we will get the chance to discover the japanese installations of our sponsor Atlas Copco. This facility specialises itself in the production of air compressors, like the one in Montreal. As it is a swedish company, it will be interesting to observe if the originating country values have an influence on the japanese business code of conduct, which could be considered quite far from each other. Indeed, most of the time the Japanese have an important hierarchy to observe, as opposed to Sweden where the hierarchical distance is very little.
This is going to be a well filled day, for the day schecule will follow with a visit of the Cirque du Soleil installations in Tokyo. The numerous visual prowesses can be even more well achieved with the work of many engineers and technicians. Quite a bit of automation is required to handle the scenes, the decors and other wonderful effects. Viewing the show will also be an immense pleasure! We hope to get a glimse on how this entreprise from Quebec set itself in this part of the world and how multiculturalism impregnates the entreprise’s culture.
april 21st
On Thursday, April 21st, we have set in our schedule the Honda Research Institute. In the scientific research center, we will acquire some knowledge on their two primary fields : Intelligence Science and Nano Science. There, we will get to see robots, artificial intelligence, design innovations and more state of the art technological feats, such as how work on plants genome can be done.
During the afternoon, we will be heading to the Shimuzu Kensetsu Institute, a japanese construction company. This firm is part of the five most important construction firm in Japan and is also in the world’s top 20. Notably, they have built the Olympic stadium that served in the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and will serve again in 2020. Their presence can be seen worlwide.
april 22nd
April 22nd is the day we are going to visit Japan airlines and CAE where we will get the chance to participate in a flight simulation in one of their sophisticated flight simulator
During the afternoon, some students will go to Waseda University and take part in a fair for internationnal students. Meanwhile, the rest of the group will be visiting the multinational IBM. They will get the possibility to discover some practices that are unique to Japan of this world leader in technology.
April 23rd and 24th
On Saturday, we will be leaving for Kyoto. The journey will be set aboard the Shinkansen, the highspeed japanese trains. We will be enjoying this week-end as we wish, some may relax, visit temples and the surroundings of the ancient nipponese capital, or discover Japan’s nature.
April 25th
We will go to the city of Osaka, located at a few kilometers of Kyoto. There, we will visit the company Osaka Gas. This company works in the sector of energy and natural gas.
April 26th
During this day, we will visit le technical center of the company Toyo Tires, located at Itami. We will get the chance to discover multiples aspects of this multinational company’s engineering for the manufacturing of diverse rubber products and tires. Some insight might be gained through the discovery multiple machines and software used.
april 27th
On Wednesday the 27th of April, a visit will take place to Kyoto University. ÉTS’ professor François Blanchard and researcher at Kyoto University, as well as Tanaka-seinsei will have the kindness to welcome us to their laboratories and to make us visit the university.
april 28th
On Thursday, April 28th, we have planned a visit to the Kawasaki Museum. We will be able to see the transport related technologies from a Japanese enterprise.
April 29th
During the mission’s last day, we will visit Kyoto, guided by Annick Corbeil, who lived there for two years, and also by François Blanchard. During the evening, we are going to the enjoy a unique japanese experience. We are going to attend a show that is part of Japan’s cultural roots, the Miyako Odori, first show of the Maikos, Geikos apprentices, or known as Geishas.
This completes our itinirery for the 2016 mission. We truly wish to thank all these enterprises whom generously accepted to meet us and share their knowledge and their culture. We also thank everyone who have helped us to make these visits possible and thus contributed to the mission’s success!