Alright, time for Part 2 of my Aomori-Tokyo Trip. I’m going to do a one event per post thing, so they’ll be four parts total. And today, I’m continuing my Aomori adventure, with a presentation at Aomori Public University.

I’m totally digressing here, but I made so many mistakes with Aomori Public University’s name. It’s 青森公立大学 (Aomori Kouritsu Daigaku), but on Facebook, I had it as 青森大学(Aomori Daigaku). Apparently, there is an Aomori Daigaku, so…. whoops. Huge mistake. And to make things worse, I was uploading photos for the official zemi page.

Anyway, we had a joint study session with Kogure sensei’s zemi, and I must say, all their topics sounded more fun then ours. They’re subject is 地域みらい (the future of the region), so quite a few of their presentations were about Aomori prefecture and how tourism can be boosted.  Since I didn’t actually get to tour Aomori, I guess this was a sort of virtual tour? Another topic they covered was how technology can be taught to the elderly and handicapped – and they didn’t just present, they actually went and helped teach a class. Respect. On the other hand, my zemi is about Information Technology, so our topics were “MVNO”, “Netflix and other SVOD” and “Industrie 4.0” (That one’s mine).

The schedule for the day went something like this: Presentations, break for a tour of the school, and then more presentations, and end with a BBQ! My presentation was in the later half, so let’s start with a few pictures of the school!

First up, my room for the night! I was housed in this really awesome room, and apparently, it only cost 3000 yen!

It feels bigger than my apartment.

And there was a proper toilet too!

My teacher’s room was washitsu, but equally awesome. When he saw it, he was all “Maybe we should do this every week.” If it was more convenient, I would totally be up for it.

The guys were in 2 “apartments”, each a 2LDK. I even saw something from the Nebuta festival near their rooms!

This is where our study session/BBQ/rooms are.

It’s so beautiful!

I think this is the outside of my room.

So one thing I noticed about Aomori University is that it’s really in the middle of nature. That, and the buildings are really beautiful (the ones I saw, anyway)

If I remember correctly, this is the art centre.

 They even had artwork lying about.

Please don’t ask me what this means though.

After a quick tour of the school, we went to see the teacher’s office. And he has so many cool phones! (This is his area of speciality – he actually gets asked about the history of phones in patent cases)

There was a Doraemon phone:

One that looked like a toy car:

And a lot more! And not only were there phones, there were tons of cool gadgets, like Nekomimi:

Sadly, not batteries could be found.

 And this cute little robot that’s supposed to be educational:

It was such a fun room!

After the tour, it was time for presentations! I was way nervous, and didn’t have enough time, so… you can imagine what happened.

Me: Speaking way too fast

If you’re curious, my friend presented about the basics of Industrie 4.0, and how Japan is adapting to it. My part was about Singapore’s Industrie 4.0, and China’s version, called “Made in China 2025”, and was just released recently. After a slow start, I’m starting to enjoy the topic, but it doesn’t mean it becomes easier to explain ><

The last item of the day was the BBQ, which was fun. I had a good time talking to the students at Aomori university. It turns out that they choose their zemi in year one! Just goes to show how different public universities can be(:

Oh, and if you’re wondering how the BBQ went, here’s a photo:

Perhaps the grill knew we needed light?