Hackathon Keio Media Design style

　　　Friday we had a chance to experience something new in Japan. We decided to take part in a Hackathon. Term hackathon stands for an event, where people of different background (business people, programmers and designers) come  together for a day or a weekend and work on an innovative tech startup idea.This is a first event related to startups I am attending in Japan. And it was really interesting to see how Japanese culture fits startrups or coding culture. 

　　　The hackathon started on Friday evening at 6 p.m.. It was a bilingual event. There were a few foreigners attending, some of them didn't speak Japanese. While on the other hand not all Japanese participants spoke good English. The event started with introduction of the company ChatPerf (partner of the hackathon). Check out their website, pretty interesting product. http://chatperf.com/ It is a startup based in Tokyo. They have created a small device for iOS products that adds dimension of smell to user experience. The only drawback of it is that you have to manually input a cartridge with smell to the device. However possible applications of the idea are various. 

Images source http://blog.wishscope.com/特集ページ/2348/

      

       The goal of he weekend was to come up with an app for ChatPerf sent device. The main organizer of the event, ChatPerf representative was speaking most of the time in English. The first speaker he invited was presenting in Japanese, however he was talking about very interesting startup ideas. He has mentioned a company called Neurowear (http://neurowear.com/news/index.html). It is a Tokyo-based startup with a range of amazing products. Their core idea behind all of the products in to connect your brain waves to external devices for some purposes. I suggest you to have a look at those projects on their website, they are really impressive! Here are few videos. 

 

       After the speaker was done, we were supposed to start with networking. There were around 40-50 participants, our goal was to walk around the room and present our skills in order to build a team with others. Here Japanese specifics got involved. People stood up gathered in a big group but didn't know how to start and what to do... This lasted for a while. The the organizers remembered, that they forgot to announce the main topic of the hackathon: "Fun and Party game for Chatperf". Then we had to take initiative to our hands in order to form teams. Finally we were able to form 6 teams of 4-5 people with a coder, designer and business person in each team. 

      Than brainstorming session in each team started. Organizers have distributed Red Bull to everyone. Seems like Red Bull is not only associated with extreme sports, but also with Tech and startup events. The evening was over approximately at 10 p.m. and we were exited to start next day in approximately 12 hours. 

      Next day we had 6 hours to work on our idea, presentation, design and code. The presentations were scheduled for 4 p.m. By that time we were able to finalize our idea, product concept and our designers and programmer finished the app. 8 guests were invited to the event to judge. After the presentation, one winner were chosen. The winning team has done a great job and deserved the first prize. They received an offer from ChatPerf to continue working on their app and try to commercialize it later. Their idea was the following: an app for iPad used in restaurants and bars which have iPad (tablet) menus. Visitors are invited to play a game for a bonus. They are offered to guess a smell of a meal (multiple choice question). If they guess, they receive a discount on an item. 

      Our team JASS finished second. We were offering a smell guessing set with 12 smells and an app. Users guess smells while sitting around a table in a group. Whoever doesn`t guess correctly, has to do something (drink, for example). There are certain level of complexity, special "skunk" event and other surprises. We felt like that could become a nice present and an entertaining way to play in a big group (built around smell). 

    Overall it was great experience! Very fun weekend =) Here are a few illustrations of our idea and pictures from the event. 

Team JASS

Photo by Joerg Weisshaar

Hackathon participants

Photo by Koti Tsubouchi

Everything has a purpose or "the purpose"

     Exposure to a different set of classes here in Keio School of Media design has and still is shaping my thinking. I now ask myself more questions "why" and "what is the reason for that".

     It has been almost two months living in Japan. Time is just flying by! The more I look around and think, the more I discover. Many things that seemed strange in the beginning now seem to have logic behind them. Not all, but a lot more, that 2 months ago during those first days. 

     A few things are now clear. One of those I wanted to write about is umbrellas, just like this one: 

     Majority of Japanese people carry those around on a rainy day or when it is expected to rain in the morning. It is hard to find statistics, but it seems like 90% of Japanese have long umbrellas rather than short portable ones. I have asked my Japanese friends a few times about this issue but didn't have a proper answer. I never attempted to search for an answer in the Internet - but no luck. Finally I found a person who was able to figure out the logic. Satoru-san, our professor at KMD, has said that long umbrellas are stronger. It rains heavily during rainy season with very strong wing, thus umbrellas need to handle severe weather conditions. This actually makes sense. =) But why are most umbrellas are white and transparent? Satoru-san has come up with an assumption, that the material they are made of is the cheapest one. Which is also a strong assumption. 

       Overall in Tokyo situation with umbrellas is very interesting. You can buy umbrella for less than a euro and it will last. Many organizations and places have umbrellas in a special basket near the door, so people can simply use it. Some people leave their umbrellas in such boxes near a supermarket for others to use on a rainy day. When entering a building, you can often leave your umbrella at a special umbrella stand. Sometimes near entrances to offices and supermarkets you can find a machine where you insert your umbrella and it covers it with plastic (puts it in plastic bag) so that you don't spread water everywhere. Near entrances to some electronics stores you can find people giving you a plastic bag to put your umbrella while visiting a store. 

Kanji: logic and magic

     I have already mentioned Japanese Kanji in some previous posts. Once again, kanji are charachters used in Japanese language, they were borrowed from Chinese. 

      As once a week I have a Kanji class, all the time I discover something new. Until this moment I was always attempting to find logic that would help me memorize characters better. Sometimes it works, but often doesn't. For example this kanji means "alcohol"

this means a "person"

this means "fire"

 this means "oil"

 this means "sea"

  Graphics of those kanji relate to the meaning behind them. 

     However more complex kanji comprising of other smaller kanji exists, making it more difficult to memorize. For example this kanji  means "week": 

     The last category that I have uncovered is kanji that to me make no sense at all (to this moment). For example this one means "big" 

and this one means "dog"

 Is there a logical connection? The connection I am looking for is not there. However logic is still there: dog is a relatively new word in Japanese and when creating a character for dog they had to readjust some other character. This is how our kanji teacher explained relation of those two. But everything has a meaning and its purpose, we just need to search better to find it! 

Trip to snow monkeys

This weekend a very exciting travel was ahead of us. We were going to see famous snow monkeys and check out traditional Japanese onsens (hot natural springs with healing powers). 

SHINKANSEN

The place we were going to was located not far from Nagano.

source: http://nanotube.msu.edu/nt06/location.html

To get there from Tokyo, there are few options: either take shinkansen (high-speed train) or a local train. Japan is famous for its railroads and fast trains, thus we have chosen a shinkansen as a means of transportation. 

The trains goes up to 320 km/hour and is a very pleasant experience. It takes 1 hour 45 minutes to get to Nagano and costs 8000 yen (65 euro) one way. Generally speaking, trains and transportation are expensive in Japan.

Different types of shinkansens in Tokyo area. source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JR_East_Shinkansen_lineup_at_Niigata_Depot_200910.jpg

The first thing that happened to us (as usually) in the first 5 minutes of ride: one friend travelling with us spilled a beer on a floor. Getting a paper towel was impossible, so he had to get out one of his t-shirts in order to whipe the floor. I guess it seemed pretty fun for Japanese people to watch that.

 Views from the ride

LOCAL TRAIN FROM NAGANO 

To get to our hotel, we had to take another one hour ride with a local train to Yudanaka station. After looking at the timetable, we understood, that the train was leaving soon and we had to hurry up. We got the tickets from the ticketing machine and attempted to enter the station. The station manager stopped us and took our tickets. We were not sure, what was going on. He gave us back the money at the amount that we have paid at the machine and has also given us a ticket with a stamp. Only after arriving at destination we figured out, why he did so. 

We have purchased a ticket to express train, which was only 100 yen more expensive than a local train. But as we have taken a local train, we had to get those 100 yen refunded. Japanese people generally will never take more money from you that is stated and will never try to rip of.

 Local train ride

View around Yudanaka station

HOTEL

At Yudonaka station we were picked up by the hotel owner by car. The hotel was approximately 5 minutes ride from the station, in the famous onsen area.

http://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/matsuya.en.html

The place is done is traditional Japanese style. We were welcomed with tea by the owner's wife. She was wearing traditional Japanese kimono. Upon entry to the building, we were asked to take of the shoes, place them in the box, and put special slippers for the inside. By the way, when you enter the room, you need to take those of, when entering washroom you need to put special toilet slippers on.

 reception

 welcome drink

The room we got is shared for 4 people: mattresses on the floor, low Japanese table,tea. In addition to the room, we have also received traditional Japanese outfits - kimono. We got a crash course in putting those things on: you usually have underwear under, women keep bra on. You put the main kimono on, for guys left side on top of the right, for girls the other way around. Then you put a special belt on: guys put the red side on top, girls green side on top. Than you put special jacket, not to get cold. The best part of the outfit, of course, are wooden slippers. It is really funny but difficult to walk in those.

 Room

 Clash of cultures

Sumo fight

ONSENS

The area around hotels is very famous and in the right times seem to attract lots of tourists (there are approximately 30-40, or even more, hotels). We were lucky enough not to see a single tourist on the street, which made our experience even more Japanese.

In the hotel we received a map of public bathhouses in the area as well as restaurants. Additionally we also received a towel and a key to all those public bathhouses (onsens). There were 12 different onsens available for us, each one is supposed to have different temperature and different minerals in the water, and each one heals different things. 

After having a large ramen for dinner, we headed to our first onsen. The places are open from 6 p.m. till 10 p.m. every day. There are special rules on how to use public bathhouse. Women and men are separated. Everyone is naked at the place, but you are supposed to cover your "treasures" with a towel. After you enter the bath, you put a towel on your head and when you come out you cover your "treasures" again. Before coming in, you need to spray yourself with some water and get used to the temperature in the bath. Bath temperatures varied from 50 to 72,5 C. 

All the 12 onsens that we visited this evening were empty and we could enjoy the privacy fully. Once we have met a very old woman entering an onsen. I am afraid to make a guess about her age. 

Sometimes it took us quite a long time to get used to the temperature and be able to get in the water. Interesting thing was that depending on some factors, same water temperature in different onsens would feel differently. 

Overall it was a very pleasant traditional experience. The road between onsens was full of temples and shriens, as well as all hotels in the area was built in a traditional Japanese way. 

SUSHI PLACE

Sitting in a 70 degree water makes you hungry quite fast =). After visiting all onsens, we headed towards one and only sushi restaurant in the area. It seemed like they were already closing when we arrived. The old guy greeting us at the entrance has asked another guy inside: Gaijin-san.....blahblahblah..... The other one said it was ok and they let us in. 

We sat at a traditional low Japanese table and ordered a few hot Japanese sake and a few Asahi beers for a chase. 

The guy serving us was quite old but very hospitable and energetic. When he heard that I could speak a little bit of Japanese, he got really exited. We ordered a huge sushi set, then another one, then a small one on top... Sushi were delicious and fresh, sake was warm and nice and the whole experience of coming to this place was very traditional. It seemed they didn't expect foreigners to come that evening, but as we appeared, they were happy and hospitable. 

They even put our shoes in order, facing the other side, so that it is comfortable to put them on when leaving. 

The place was supposed to be open until 12, we stayed until 12:40 or so. Thanked for hospitality and left. 

Right outside of the restaurant we have met two Japanese guys who were quite tipsy and thus happy to see the foreigners. We had a talk in Japanese-English about how life at Yudanaka was, gave them a few cigarettes and headed to the hotel for some rest before a trip to the show monkey park next day. 

SNOW MONKEYS PARK

This morning we had to get up quite early and it wasn't really easy to be honest. Breakfast was served at 8. It was a very nice traditional breakfast with many small meals on many little plates. 

After breakfast I went to take a shower. Shower room was shared, it was big and wooden with a hot natural bath in the middle. I attempted to go in but couldn't - it was simply too hot... Only later asked the hotel owner, how hot was the bath - turned out it was only 50 degrees... 

At 9 we checked out, took a picture with hotel owners and headed to the monkey park. The hotel owner was so nice to give us a ride to the place.

The park itself was located around 4 kilometers away from our hotel in the mountains. It was quite chilly today with rain. We got dropped off at the park entrance, thanked for hospitality and headed to see the wonders. 

As I have mentioned, it was raining. But if you would take a glance higher to the mountains, maybe 300-400 meters higher - it was snowing there. Such a contrast. 

Entrance fee to the park itself was 500 yen. As soon as we entered we saw the monkeys, big and small, old and young. The monkey tribe in that area consists of approximately 160 monkeys, who come down to the hot springs during the day and go sleeping back up to the mountains. They seem to be absolutely neutral to the presence of people around. Every monkey was busy with something: some were sleeping, others playing, swimming in a bath, giving massage, posing for a camera, chasing each other etc. Some Japanese visitor left his umbrella on a rock and in a few seconds an agile monkey got a hold of it and attempted to steal it. The rules of the park prohibit to take food and plastic bags in, otherwise monkeys will steal it from you. 

Overall it was a wonderful experience and we spent more than an hour looking at monkeys. Here are the pictures you can enjoy: 

But not only were we looking at monkeys, but also at the visitors. I was impressed by the sizes of the cameras of some tourists...

WAY BACK

On the way back from the park we decided to take a walk around the village and see the temples and other attractions. Here are few pictures of the area, I really recommend to visit this place if you have a chance.