toyota city

here we are in nagoya, a city of 2 million people. just outside is 'toyota city', home to toyota global HQ. we have spent the last 2 days meeting with toyota's UAE team & touring various facilities. we've been to 3 or maybe 4 museums/commemorative halls/exhibition halls to learn about the toyoda family and the transition of the company from an automatic looming company to an automotive one. it was actually more interesting that i thought that it would be, the first time. after that it was terribly repetitive.

we also went to a car factory. i think dad took us to a GM factory before we got our suburban. it's no wonder that toyota dominating the world auto scence, none of their employees were asleep on the floor (sorry GM janesville ...).

last night we did the ukai fishing. i think i mentioned it a few days ago ... the fisher holds 12 birds on a rope around their necks and lets them catch the fish. once they have one he pulls them into the boat and collects the fish. we went out and had dinner on our boat, and then watched them go fishing some more. they were collecting fish for the imperial palace. it was majid's birthday yesterday, so there was cake. we got him a collection of crazy japanese things that you can find in a japanese convenience store, including tiny underwear and cartoon pornography. i think he appreciated the gesture (who wouldn't)? but he's not very emotive.

let's see ... it's early thr morning here, we have to spend abouut 7 hrs of our day today traveling,
first to another car factory (to put it bluntly, they're the worst. not interesting in the least). and then we check out of the hotel tonight and go back to osaka. which reminds me, right now i am checked into 3 different hotel rooms: nagoya, osaka, and dubai. crazyyy shit, huh?

okay i have to run and catch a train. more pics coming soon.