Morning
Afternoon
Night life
Today, we woke up early since the last company we planned to visit was a two hours bus ride away if there was no traffic. At 6:50, we were ready to leave by bus to our destinations. First, we went to Asahi Kasei, Platform Laboratory for Science and Technology (PLST in short), where we visited their central lab close to Mt. Fuji. Asahi Kasei uses chemistry to make a variety of products on the inquiry of their customers. For example, they provided cellulose fibers that are used in UNIQLO. After a nice introduction by the company (and shameless promotion by Dr. Garcia to join the company),we had a lab tour around the company.
Because the company was located near fuji. It would be a miss to not enjoy the local scenery. Because mount Fuji is way too big for an untrained Japie to hike, it was decided to go to Hakone national park, located next to mount Fuji. On a good day, you would be able to see the mountain from Hakone national park, however the cloudy weather decided otherwise (hope you saw it on the bullet train). Although mount Fuji didn’t show itself, that didn’t mean that Hakone was lacking in the viewing department. The park consisted of multiple cable cars providing great views of the mountains and the streams of sulfurous gas erupting from the ground. Some daring participants even tried a black egg, which is an egg cooked in the hot volcanic gasses of the mountain.
Then, we went to for a final dinner with the whole group in Japanese style, which means sitting on the floor, and sore legs :P. First, there was some misunderstanding about vegetarian dishes, that were luckily resolved by prof. dr. Nagajima. During the dinner we had unlimited drinks, something that proved to be quite common compared to the Netherlands. One of the consequences of unlimited drinks is that you keep less track of what you ordered, because of this you ended up ordering two rounds of lemon sours instead of one. Normally this would be no major problem. However, if you are questioning whether the first round of sours was a bad idea, then the second round of sours was most definitely a bad idea.
After having a very nice dinner, some Japies (and professsors) who figured a bad idea is a good idea, went to a nearby karaoke with unlimited ice cream (and alcoholic beverages
The room we visited had a nice view of the Tokyo Skytree and was reserved for until 5 AM (for only about 18 euro p.p.) The Japies sang their hearts about, starting with of course the Dutch anthem. About 2 AM, all Japies returned to their rooms to prepare for their free day. Funnily enough, not so much vomits as the day before.
Written by: Maurits Mulder & Henry Kwan
