#vinayrevankar

Today was our last day in Japan, and it was packed with events. In the afternoon we had our final presentations for the Automotive class. I presented on a type of network system called CAN which is used to allow communication between different types  of electronic sensors. These can be all the way from the rear view camera all the way to the LiDAR systems in today’s autonomous cars. The presentations went from 1:30pm all the way until 5pm. Right after was the farewell party hosted by the NUSIP staff. We had some amazing food served by the university and after all of the students gave short speeches regarding their time in Japan. The party was bittersweet. It reminded me of all of the memories I made in these 6 weeks with some of the most incredible people I have met. Its hard to imagine that all the friends I made in these 6 weeks will be thousands of miles away from me the next day. Some of the students are already planning to visit the US sometime soon and all of us in the US are planning our whole reunion, given that it happens in the US. This whole experience would not have been possible without the University of Michigan (The University of Michigan actually started this entire program. The Dean personally flew to Nagoya University and asked if they could start this program for international students)! So with that being said I would like to thank the entire IPE program for this once in a lifetime opportunity as well as Nagoya University for offering such a great education in these 6 weeks. I will post some of my pictures from the farewell party below, and I hope that you enjoy. Thanks for tuning into my blog posts, and this is Vinay Revankar, signing off!

This was the strangest dish on the table but also the most delicious. It was prawn meat topped with mayonnaise and the head portion was stuffed with egg

Here is me with the three Japanese Sensei who taught me and everyone else an incredible amount of Japanese in these six weeks. Tanoshikatta desu! (I had a very good time!)

Here is Rui-san and Takaya-san, the tutors who drove me and others to the Ryokan last weekend. They were incredibly helpful during the entire study abroad and I hope to meet them again, either in Japan or the USA!

And of course, I cannot forget the amazing people who I met during the entire journey. This is not everyone of course, but I hope we can all see each other in the near future. Mata aimasho! (Lets meet again!)

Vinay Revankar

Computer Science Engineering

For out last weekend in Japan, a couple of us from the NUSIP program went and stayed at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese hotel. We drove up there with two of our tutors, Rui-san and Takaya-san. The drive was about 5 hours, so we stopped at a tourist village called shirakawa. We ate authentic soba noodles while we were there. Soba noodles are traditional japanese noodles made from buckwheat flour. Its hard to find traditionally made soba noodles in Nagoya! Later we saw the entire village from a cliff not too far away. It was an incredible sight and the weather was perfect.

The restaurant in which we ate our soba noodles. Instead of chairs, we were given little cushions to sit on. It really was the full experience!

The view of the village from the cliff. It was not a barren cliff and had shops and tourists walking by. This is by far one of the best pictures I have taken in Japan!

When we arrived at the Ryokan and ate dinner, we watched the World Cup Semifinals and played cards until late into the night. The Ryokan rooms were very different from any other kind of hotel. There were no beds; instead you had to pull out a thin mattress from a closet and sleep on that on top of the bamboo floor. It was interesting to put myself in those shoes and see how traditional Japanese people lived back in the day.

This is a panorama of the room I took in the night. Me and another NUSIP student slep with out two tutors as seen in the picture. On the left is Rui-san and the right is Takaya-san. They were amazing during the entire trip and made the experience so much better by translating most of our questions. And we were able to improve their English as well so it was a win-win! 

When we came back from the Ryokan, we thanked both Rui and Takaya profusely for their driving and letting us experience another aspect of Japan. It was sad that it was our last weekend together, but it was one of the best weekends here in Japan.

Vinay Revankar

Computer Science Engineering

As my time here in Japan comes to an end, I would like to dedicate this blog to one of my favorite topics: food in Japan. Food in Japan is one of a kind. They have a mix of many american foods such as pizza dumplings and ice cream in a pouch plus many other foods from international countries. And here’s the best part: EVERYTHING TASTES AMAZING!!! Nagoya is famous for its fried chicken dishes, and I have never tasted better fried chicken anywhere else in the world. That includes KFC. There were of course many other dishes I have tried throughout these 5 months. Below are some of the best dishes I have tasted:

This dish is called Katsu-don. Its a pile of rice underneath a chicken cutlet and then topped with egg and seaweed flakes. It is a very common dish throughout Japan and is very delicious. 

This is restaurant ramen. Not only is it known for its presentation, its very savory and can easily fill you up. Underneath all of those pork slices is a lot of ramen noodles and to the top of the bowl is dried seaweed. 

These three types of sushi came from a conveyor belt! The conveyor belt runs next to each table and you pick which ever sushi you want and then pay for it at the end (they mark the prices based on the color of the plate). Top left had a bunch of seafood while the top right was grilled corn. The bottom was scallop and was easily my favorite sushi there!

There were so many types of dishes that I tried and I wish I could try even more of the Japanese delicacies. Ill have to use my time well next week!

Vinay Revankar

Computer Science Engineering

Next Friday, I will be getting out of the bed which I have slept in for these 6 weeks for one last time. I will be heading out early at 10 am to catch my flight in the afternoon. Me leaving Japan seems so far away but I know it will come out of nowhere when I start to pack my luggage and say my goodbyes to the incredible people who I spent these 6 weeks with. 

Throughout these weeks, I have seen so many of Japan’s attractions yet it seems like a fraction compared to the rest that I have missed. From Nagashima Spa Land to the factory visits, I believe I have experienced an incredible amount of Japan’s rich culture. I also surprised myself by learning enough Japanese where I can get around town and order food by myself on a daily basis. Immersion really is the best way to learn a language!

As the program draws to a close, so do our Japanese and Automotive classes. In the Japanese class, we have already taken our oral and written tests. The oral exam was very casual and easy; we had a basic conversation with our sensei on ordering food at a restaurant and how we liked our time in Japan. The written test was harder mainly because of the numerous irregular phrases there are in Japanese. Tomorrow I have my final presentation where I will be presenting on my experience at the Suzuka Circuit. It will also be our last Japanese class here. Then next week we will have our final presentations for the automotive class; my topic for this will be embedded computing systems inside autonomous vehicles. I haven’t done any research yet, so I need to start doing some as soon as possible!

The thought of leaving has its pros and cons. I can’t wait to finally be able to read what I am eating or even what I am walking around! But at the same time I know I will never get the experiences I had here in Japan anywhere else. 

Here is a picture of all of NUSIP touring Nagoya University’s automotive research lab this week. They have the world’s first 4K driving simulator!

Vinay Revankar

Computer Science Engineering

Thursday morning, everyone in NUSIP left on a bus for Tokyo. It was a 5+ hour bus ride so along the way we stopped at some museums. 

First, we stopped at the Suzuki museum. Suzuki is famous for its compact vehicle and motorcycle manufacturing in all across Asia. We got to see a timeline of their motorcycle production as well as a concept offroad model.

Suzuki’s offroad concept car. They are unsure as to when they plan for it to reach production. 

Here is a lineup of some of the motorcycles Suzuki mass produced in the late 1900′s

Next we stopped at the Yamaha museum, another vehicle company famous for its motorcycles. They had a simulator which taught you how to shift gears on a motorcycle. It took me some time to learn it but once I got it, it felt incredible. It got me thinking of buying a motorcycle because of the incredible designs they had at the museums!

Yamaha’s concept self driving motorcycle. It will be fully electric and can even balance itself!

Here is Nick, one of the Michigan students in NUSIP, learning how to shift gears on the driving simulator

One of my favorite designs at the Yamaha museum! Maybe one day I will be able to ride it for daily use!

Once we got to Tokyo, we all split up into groups to see the attractions we wanted. There is no way any one can see all of Tokyo in a single day, let alone a week. There were so many places to see and things to experience that we could only choose the most reasonable one to do in a day. 

I went with a couple of guys to Odaiba, a small peninsula full of shopping malls and incredible sights. We went to the shore where you could see all of Tokyo from a distance. Next we went inside the shopping malls and walked around for a bit. Tourists who have their passport on them can shop tax-free which is important because sales tax is 8% in Japan. Afterwards we came back to the dorms and rested because of how much walking we did. And yet there was so much more to do. Some people went to the famous anime shops, some went go-karting on the actual streets of Tokyo (yes this is a thing), and others saw the famous intersection in Shibuya. 

All of the buildings beyond the body of water is Tokyo. 

Here is a picture of the five of us that went to Odaiba. It was the ideal spot to see all of Tokyo from a distance.

Vinay Revankar

Computer Science Engineering

Instead of blogging about another event or activity, I thought I would use this blog to reflect on how the coursework is going as well as my thoughts on being more than halfway done with this program.

So far the coursework has not been much of a challenge. For the automobile class, we must write a report or summary after each lecture and send it to the professor by a certain date. Some of these deadlines are almost a week away from the date of the lecture, but some are 1-2 days after as well. The reports take around 30 minutes since they only have to be a page in length and they can be on any topic from the lecture. That may not seem like a lot, but most days classes are from 9 am to 4:30 pm with a lunch break; The only time we get to complete homework is during the evening, and many of us are out exploring the city. Time management definitely plays a role even studying abroad. For the Japanese class, the homework takes a little bit more work, but it’s more creative. For example, one of our assignments was to go to a grocery store and ask one of the staff members where we can find a certain food or item. We then have to write down what they said to us and reflect on how the conversation went. It seems intimidating at first, but it becomes quite enjoyable overtime because the staff is incredibly friendly and they really go out of their way to help customers. 

We have also learned a huge range of topics in the automobile class. One lecture was regarding crash safety and how engineers construct the front chassis of vehicles in order to prevent the engine from entering the passenger cabin in a crash. Another lecture discusses the types of embedded systems present in today’s cars such as ACC and ADAS (one of my favorite lectures because of my major) and how autonomous cars will need faster processing units in order to increase their level of autonomy. I’ve learned an incredible amount of autonomous vehicles and what kinds of steps we need to take in order to make roads and highways  one day driverless.

Halfway through the program, I am beginning to realize how little time we all have to explore Japan. We already have trips planned for our last two weekends and the weekdays are filled with classes and then going out and exploring different parts of the cities. Even with all of this time, there are still many things I will not be able to complete off of my checklist. 

In addition, I’ve met some incredible people from all across the world at this program. It is amazing to see so many people from so many backgrounds come together and learn how to have fun with another in a completely foreign environment. 

TODAYS DRINK - the drink doesn’t have a name to it, but it’s basically blueberry flavored water. And like most fruit flavored drinks in Japan, they taste amazing. You cannot get these in the vending machines, they only exist in the convenience stores, or konbini in Japanese

Vinay Revankar

Computer Science Engineering

These past couple of days have been crazy! There have been so many events happening in such a short amount of time and its given me some incredible experiences

Yesterday, Nagoya University hosted a International party for all of its international students. They served food and even had a live DJ. A small group from our program went and we met so many people from across the world. I met a couple of guys who were originally from India, but have been in Nagoya studying engineering for over 5 YEARS. I met many other people from many other places such as France, Kenya, etc. It was an incredible feeling meeting other international students who were not part of our program but were still associated with the university. It was a bit challenging at first to walk up to people and introduce myself, but it became much easier after each conversation.

Today, we went to the Nagashima Spa Land and spent the entire day there. The Nagashima Spa Land is basically a combined theme park and water park. We all got up early and took an hour long train / bus ride there; getting up early was definitely worth it. Nagashima Spa Land has some huge rides, including the longest ride in the world (Steel dragon 2000). Our average wait time for rides was only 20 minutes because there were barely any people in the park. We managed to ride almost every ride within six hours!

The view from the Ferris Wheel at the Nagashima Spa Land!

Vinay Revankar

Computer Science Engineering

This week, all of us in NUSIP were driven down to the Mitsubishi Motors Okazaki Plant for a factory wide tour. The plant was enormous; there were multiple buildings including a museum and almost half of the structure was covered by two racing tracks which the employees use strictly for testing. The total area was approximately 1 million square meters!

As similar to the previous tour at Yokohama Rubbers, none of us were allowed to take photos for confidentiality. The Okasaki plant builds three models, the Outlander, the Outlander Phev, and the Eclipse Cross. They showed us the five main stages in building these cars: stamping, welding, painting, assembly, and inspection. 

The part of the tour which surprised me the most was the amount of automation involved in the entire process. The employees were mainly assembling the components together. All of the painting, sealing, and transportation of parts was done by robots! It was incredible to see all of the automation working together seamlessly.

After the tour we were able to visit the museum and see some of Mitsubishi’s most historic and iconic vehicles. 

This car was Mitsubishi’s as well as Japan’s first mass produced car. It was called the Model A (sounds a lot like a car with a similar build hmmmm) and was made in 1917.

The Lancer Evolution VI is one of Mitsubishi’s most famous models, and has won numerous awards both on and off the track for Mitsubishi.

TODAYS DRINK!!!!

Today’s drink is called Ramune. It literally translates to lemonade in English, and that is exactly what it is. Its Japan’s own version of lemonade and it comes in an iconic bottle. There is no cap or lid to the bottle. Instead, a glass marble is at the top of the glass bottle which you push into the bottle using a temporary lid. It was really refreshing!

You can see the marble towards the top of the bottle, suspended by the pinch in the glass. There is no way to close the top of it!

Vinay Revankar

Computer Science Engineering