Every Wednesday someone in my laboratory is responsible to cook something for the 20 or so members, and today was my turn. The simplest dish I could think of was ratatouille, which only required chopping up a variety of vegetables and stuffing everything in a boiler. Sadly, I was not able to enjoy my own cooking because at 12:30 I boarded a chartered bus heading for Sony's Kisarazu production facility.

Over the past few months I have been coordinating this event with Toru Iwasaki, the head of operations for the facility. There were 40 or so other engineering graduate students who also joined the factory tour.

The bus ride to Kisarazu was interesting in that it was my first chance to ride through the 9.6 kilometer tunnel underneath Tokyo Harbor. And this was no ordinary tunnel: it was constructed in a straight line such that the tunnel looked infinite. Of course, it wasn't hard for me to imagine what would happen if a serious earthquake struck Tokyo: the tunnel would be swallowed under the tremendous pressure of the ocean, and I would suffer a very, very miserable death. (No matter what my Japanese friends/colleagues argue, there is no way the tunnel can withstand such tremendous pressure - it will yield somewhere.)

After emerging from the tunnel there was a small rest area where everyone climbed out to use the bathroom. A couple of friends and I jumped a cordoned-off area and climbed a staircase that rewarded us with a great view of the surrounding ocean. From six or seven stories up, the ocean currents were plainly visible, and they have always been fascinating to see from afar.

As we were leaving there was a funny moment when a young Japanese boy saw us and surprisingly commented, "DAME!," which means something like "That's bad!" I guess it wasn't so much the comment as the look of shock on his face: breaking the rules so ostentatiously is not something a Japanese person would normally do.

Upon reaching the facility, we were given time to explore the lobby area, where various electronics were on display, including: Play Station 3 consoles, video equipment, various flat screen televisions, cameras, headsets, and so on. The gold Play Station to the left was (supposedly) the 10,000,000th to roll off the production line, which is fairly impressive. What impacted me more is the knowledge that the original Play Station was released on the market nearly 15 years ago! It certainly does not feel like it has been that long though, does it?

Before touring the manufacturing and packaging parts of the facility we were treated to a 30 minute presentation detailing the operations of the facility. The more notable facts I have jotted down are the following: 1,500 employees work at the 60,000 square meter facility, and annual sales are over 2.7 billion US dollars. Current production includes: Play Station3, HDD/DVD recorders, Blu-Ray Disc players, Blu-Ray Disc recorders, Optical Disk Drivers, Home Audio Products, and CS Tuners (I have no idea what these actually are.)

As for the actual tour of the facility, cameras were strictly forbidden. As such, my recount of the technology probably interests very few people in the world, so I will refrain from too much elaboration. However, it is certainly worth mentioning that the automated process whereby a motherboard is assembled was unlike anything I have ever seen. There were over a dozen massive machines that turned a green silicone board into one of the most complex computing systems known to mankind in a matter of minutes. (It is no exaggeration to say that it was a proper Japanese experience in that it is exactly what one would imagine a hi-tech assembly process would look like, with robotic arms whizzing around and pinpoint accuracy underlining every movement.)

The tour was followed up by a 30 minute Q&A session with the heads of all the departments, but most of the answers were asked to be kept confidential. By far the highlight of the afternoon was when Toru Iwasaki came out to say hello. I was sitting in the back of the bus, completely oblivious, when people began calling me to the front. I popped out was greeted by Iwasaki-san who kindly posed for a few photos with me.