IP: Tokyo Diary #1

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

I arrived in Tokyo on Wed 29 Nov after a long and uneventful flight from 
Chicago. I make record time through Japanese Immigration and met Hiro 
HASHIZUME . We had a slow ride into Tokyo with the usual traffic mess one 
finds in Tokyo all hours. I stayed at his new house in west Tokyo.  It has 
been featured in several architecture magazines and is wonderful. I 
delicious blend of Japanese and modern.

On Thursday am I was picked up by a car for the trip to NTT DoCoMo Labs 
near Yokohama . It took us close to 3 hours due to Tokyo traffic. I had a 
brief but impressive tour of the Labs. It has 800 engineers and scientists 
and is focused on wireless. Most are aiming at 3G but about 20% are 
starting work on 4G and some small amount on 5G.. They are in the process 
of doubling the physical size and person power of the Labs. At a time when 
the US labs are going down, this one is on its way up.

After a "French" lunch at a nearby "French Country Inn" I was driven to NYY 
DoCoMo's Headquarters in Tokyo and met with Keiji Tachikawa Pres and CEO 
for 10 minutes either right before or after the press conference on their 
ATT purchase. He is an insightful person who asked what I thought of the 
Lab and other more focused issues.

I then went back to Hiro's for a home made Soba dinner -- from scratch.

Friday I went to the new National Institute for Informatics (that word 
again) and gave a talk and heard  about their planned version of Internet 2 
-- same problems and maybe missed opportunities. After the NII I visited 
eputy Director General Yoshikai of MITI  Our 1/2 hour meeting turned into 1 
and 1/2 hours.

Some observations. Japan is worried that they are slipping further and 
further behind the US in communications., at least networking. They are 
piling money at it again with the same hazy focus from what I can see and 
hear as the 5th generation computing (not everything however). I am told 
that the Prime Minister make a point of saying that IP V6 will be the key 
to Japans rise in networking. Well maybe , I was not convinced but .. Long 
discussion followed in the meeting.

Saturday I wen to the Akihabara. Crowed and it's usual great place. I 
looked at camera, mp3 players and computers. Prices are less that the USA.

I bough a 9 hour dictation unit -- small!!. and a MP3 convertible watch . 
NEAT and styled for the mod generation. -- or is it generation Z.. I will 
report more on this latter.

Today I went to the cameral area and saw nothing very exciting but crowds .

Time to nap




Dave Farber

In Tokyo, my cell phone is +81 (0) 90 4964 2242






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