Medieteknik och Informatik

Hosei University, Faculty of  Computer and Digital Sciences at Koganei Campus http://cis.k.hosei.ac.jp/en
We were very happy to be able to visit the Hosei University and got a very friendly  welcome from the several members of the staff including Professor Rebecca Fukusawa, Director of Exchange Overseas Student Program and Professor Shuichi Yukita, Dean of the Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences and Ms Keiko Mae, International Center Representative.

In one of the large computer rooms we met Professor Vladimir Savchenko and Professor Satoru Fujita who both gave us an interesting insight to their aims in education and different research areas.

As an example of this Professor Fujita invited us to try his very new indoor GIS application at http://flab.k.hosei.ac.jp/masala

It seemed very interesting and I will certainly try, but will probably need some help with the Japanese language when I do.

After a very pleasing visit to the university some of us took up on the recommendation to go to the nearby park. It was a lovely idea! Pictures will be published shortly.

The Swedish Embassy in Tokyo www.swedenabroad.com/tokyo
The day started with a visit to the Swedish Embassy were we met Dr Anders Karlsson, Science & Technology Counsellor from the embassy, and some graduate students from the Keijo University. Anders  Karlsson greeted us and gave us a picture of his area and ways to cooperate between Swedish and Japanese educational and research interests. Arina Stoenescu and Martin Jonsson from Södertörn gave a brief presentation of who we are, our education and research, and also some facts about being a foreign student in Sweden and at Södertörn University.

Presentation enclosed as pdf

The whole week we have been given excellent help and guidance by two members of  the embassy’s staff, Mr Shigeyuki Naito and Ms Mika Arai, who has also taken great part in arranging our visit and planning all our activities during the week.  Thank you very much for all your kind help! Arigato gozaimass!

Ubiquitous Networking Research Center
Professor Ken Nakamura gave us an interesting presentation of the very long history and the very active present of this research center, devoted to the development of open standards  used in ubiquitous networking, including the operating system TRON. Todays technology focused on active and passive RFID techniques but also on other kinds of tagging and we were given several powerful presentations of the techniques in practical use.

Two examples from tagging locations to improve every day life in Tokyo was also mentioned:

• Ginza district
  www.tokyo-ubinavi.jp/index_en.html
• The garden of Hamarikyu
  www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/TOPICS/2010/ftk24100.htm

Digital Human Research Center www.dh.aist.go.jp/en
This center is part of AIST - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. We met Dr. Masaaki Mochimaru, Deputy Director and several of his collegues. They presented us to the aims of the center and several of the ongoing research projects and gave  us a very interesting tour of the laboratories.

National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation Miraikan www.miraikan.jst.go.jp/en
The day ended with a visit to this museum and a try-out of their analogue hands-on model of the Internet using black and white marbles to simulate the binary code.

Foton: Ingemar Björling

Polygon Pictures www.ppi.co.jp
In the morning we went to a production company called Polygon Pictures  and were very kindly received and entertained by the Vice President of Techology, Leo Hourvitz, who also showed us around. Very interesting to hear the history of this company and a little about the terms they work under today, both in Japan and the rest of the world.

Digital Hollywood University www.dhw.ac.jp/en
In the afternoon we visited one of the very few company owned universities in Japan, The Digital Hollywood University, with both bachelor’s and master’s degree for Digital Creators. A very interesting visit to a university with a lot similarities with our own experiences in teaching. We were given a warm welcome  and a presentation by Ms. Yoshimi Tamiya, Cheif International office and also met one of the founders and two teachers for a Q & A.

Summer school in Tokyo
In the summertime (July 26-Aug 6 2010)  they host a summer program called Cool Japan which gives you the posibility to experience producytion sites of games and anime and a lot of other local specialties connected to youth culture and more. Read all about it www.dhw.ac.jp/summer-program2010

Our visit will eventually also lead to a blog post at www.sugiyama-style.tv?

Since the University is situated in the middle of the technology district Akihabara it was a very suitable spot for the last scheduled activity today. Jon and Ulf were very happy to find and buy a very old Nintendo Game Console to our collection.

Foton: Ingemar Björling