factory plants visit.

We went for a 工場見学 (factory visit) last two days. ENEOS, Tosoh, Mitsui Chemical and Tokuyama. All of them are situated outside Hiroshima; in Yamaguchi-Ken, so we had to stay one night at a hotel.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the plants, I was so disappointed. I mean, they all just look the same!! Why can't take pictures one?? Blergh, these high-profile people.

So I hope this can paint you some picture.

The factories I went to look something like this.

The main point of visiting these plants, I think is to give us a rough image of what it'd be like working as an engineer. Go to work in the morning, put on the hideous green uniform (depends on where you work, apparently green and blue are the most popular one), do some desk work - calculating things - until someone call you up to the plants to check if there's any problem, go back to have meetings and discussion, revisit the plants again, eat, go home. And Japanese people usually go home at 10 - 11 pm. AT NIGHT. Poor Japanese women.

I know that Tun Dr. Mahathir created this 'Dasar Pandang Ke Timur' for a reason - for us to learn how Japanese work, their work ethics, and how they became so successful among all the countries in the world and bring back the attitude to Malaysia - but I find this workaholic ethic hard to follow. There's more to life than money and work, I believe. An average of almost 100 Japanese people killed themselves each day last year. Depression was identified as the main factor in around a fifth of cases, followed by physical illness and debt. And you wonder why suicide rate in Japan is the highest? Exactly.

It's good to work and contribute something back to your country, but getting enough rest and entertainment to keep us sane is important too.

But if there's one thing I learn from this trip, it's how committed they are to their own task.

This visit was actually given free by the companies; the talks, the seminars and the plants' observation - all handled by them, but I have no complain. They treated us well from the start of the talk up till the walk around the plants - we were treated like VIPs! I was so impressed I'm actually thinking of applying for a job at one of the factories we went..HAHA.

Day 1 - ENEOS and Mitsui Chemicals, Iwakuni.
Day 2 - Tosoh and Tokuyama, Yamaguchi.

We stayed at this hotel/ryokan in Yamaguchi, situated near the sea. They have 和室 (Japanese-style room) and 洋室 (western-style room) with no shower, because apparently we have to take bath with others at  温泉 (hot springs). Hot springs are highly popular in Japan, which comes in many varieties; indoors and outdoors, gender separated and mixed. Hot springs are supposed to have a relaxing effect on your body and mind, as they dissolve minerals in the water which provide different health benefits.The only problem is, they enjoy taking bath in hot springs naked.

Seeing other women (middle-aged, even!) naked is definitely NOT FUN.

I had trouble sleeping that night.

It was such a loss because I think the tradition is actually refreshing. If only they wore clothes while in the pool. And no we took bath at this special shower area they have for visitors who want private bath, thank God!

The dinner was awesome, though. The food just kept coming I had a hard time finishing them all.

Yummy fooddd

Full and happy

After dinner we had karaoke session, as usual. One of my classmates went to the front and sang Tsubomi. I think he was drunk.

After that, there was a second party (first party was the dinner-and-karaoke thing) in one of the rooms at the hotel but we refused to go as the activities were mainly drinking and getting drunk.

So we had a gossip session instead.

But all in all, it was a good trip :) It's nice to get to know their traditions better. Except the naked part.

One thing - remember to choose a suitable flat if you were to walk around plants/factories. I have to say goodbye to my Charles & Keith flats :(