14 November 2015
Looming rain
Visiting the Toyota factory in Nagoya
As I correctly predicted, rain was not just looming, it was actually raining.
So I thought I had better go see some looms and find out why Toyota went from making fabric on automated looms to making cars.
As it turns out, Toyota started in Nagoya, there is actually a large suburb called Toyota, but the original factory is quite near the main station, and is now The Toyota commemerative museum of industry and technology.
Turns out this is an excellent place, with most of the exhibits being demonstrated by highly excited presenters.
Toyota, stareted by Mr Toyoda, got rich by making the worlds first fully automated loom. They still make these today, I know cause I saw lots of them.
At some point, one of Mr Toyodas sons went on a study tour to look at looms, and was surprised at how many cars there were on the roads compared to Japan.
Basically at the same time he returned to Japan, the great Kanto earthquake occurred and destroyed all the railroads, and Toyota saw their opportunity.
The museum goes into great detail about quality, safety, innovation and all those other buzzwords. I thought it was great.
I might add to this, that Paris is the only place I have ever been to in my life where I was concerned for my safety whilst wandering around the streets.
This is the original Toyota factory where they made their first looms.
And here it is, the worlds first fully automated loom for turning cotton balls picked by slaves into fabric.
We now get a history of looms. I learnt of water wheel powered ones, mules that walk around in a circle, steam powered.
The little old men that show them working love their job.
Room full of looms, dont worry, we are nearly finished saying loom.
Megaloom.
Between the loom museum and car museum, I was treated to a brief steel forging presentation. This had actual red hot molten metal pressed into a conrod.
The robot band played me off.
Now we get to learn about the history of the car part of the Toyota company.
This included examples of every engine, transmission, steering rack, brake system and suspension system they have ever produced.
The surprising thing is how long engine designs last, some that were first used in the 50's were still in production in the late 80's.
The giant thing in the glove box is not a cd player, or a laserdisc player, its a fax machine, in case you need a fax whilst out on the road.
If you read about westerners working in Japan, they will usually tell a story about how they cannot believe their office still sends and receives hundreds of faxes each day, with a girl employed whos job it is to run around distributing them as they come in.
This is the first ever Toyota car, the model A1. They employed efficiency techniques even with the naming.
I got to see automated welders.
Then robotic welders. At which point I learnt that Toyota also owns Daihatsu and Denso.
I was excited, thats for sure.
The gift shop features a series of Toyota themed curry mixes.
Back outside, and its still raining, slightly.
So I headed into Cafe Pronto for a toasted sandwich and cup of tea. This was really nice, and very cheap. I think one half was peppered pork, whatever that is, and the other was potato salad which was delicious.
And then as I arrived back at my hotel, right over the road a kind of massive flea market was underway. Hordes of people were busy staging an umbrella fight.
This is the local fashion runway catwalk extravaganza. There was lots of clapping and jumping up and down in time with Lady Gaga.
Traditional Japanese costumes.
Presumably, the highlight of todays festival. At some point shirtless men will push this through the streets and run people over to appease the earthquake gods.
But first, an actual band of clowns. Their goal, to play as out of tune and out of time with each other as possible. They truly were masters of their craft.
Cactus in a cube was pretty cool.
The local school band however, were terrible. They had 3 false starts at the one song. As in they actually stopped and apologised and tried again, 3 times!