January 12
The day began early, with breakfast at 7. After that, Debra and I went for a walk through Tokyo. We found, or rather, wandered into a wonderful little park in the heart of town. Therein, surrounded by trees, pigeons and waterfalls, we walked and took photos and meditated within this isle of nature's beauty hidden within man's creation.
Once we returned to the hotel, we set out for the Sony Showroom. To my eyes, the showroom was a very classy place. I was impressed by the elegant and tasteful design that Sony had selected, and especially liked how the electronics and computers on display seemed to fit naturally into the environment. Sony showed off their new electronic dog, the Aibo. I found it cute, with its song and dance and miniature light show, but I still prefer the fuzzy real thing. But for those in apartments, or with allergies, an electronic dog can at least provide entertainment if not feign love. I use the words "feign love" deliberately, because I wonder if computers will ever be able to love (as postulated in the strange and fascinating movie Artificial Intelligence). Humans may react to the typical signs of how love appears to them, and we are beginning to build machines that are capable to sensing when humans express the typical signs of love (so that we can react to them, presumably), but as all of our machines are as of yet not fully self-conscious (whatever that means, one wonders if we ourselves are at times), it cannot be said that they feel love. A case in point is Robby, a robot at MIT's AI lab that imitates human facial expressions. If he is smiled at, he smiles back. If he is frowned at, he will frown back. Curiously, most people tend to smile at him; very many even describe him with the word "cute." Returning to the subject of the Aibo, I seem to remember Debra calling it cute.
Sony showed us their newest home theater line of products, including an incredibly large and thin plasma TV. This screen is less than six inches thick but more than 40 inches diagonally. However, it is still insanely expensive in Japan, and I do not think that the latest model is even available stateside.
Sony also showcased their newest laptops, expounding on their VAIO line of products by continuing to integrate multimedia into computers. Some of these laptops were impossibly small, which meant at least to me that my fingers wouldn't fit on their keyboards. Some had built in video cameras. We also played with a pen-input screen LCD that was calibrated amazingly well. It would be a joy to be able to Photoshop or to simply draw using such a tool, but for now expense is prohibitive. In ten years however, it may even be popular. There is so much to look forward to life.
After Sony, we went to eat lunch at a small Japanese restaurant near Akihabara. It was a cozy establishment and we ordered noodle soups. I sort of poked at my meal, perhaps because I wasn't exactly sure at what everything was (and also because I don't really have a taste for seafood, which might be because I saw a fish eye – still attached to the dead fish – when I was very young). An important cultural difference was pointed out however: in Japan, it is considered polite to slurp up noodles and soup – it expresses that the slurper thinks the meal tasty. So we ate lunch accompanied by slurping.
With lunch finished, we set out for Akihabara and wandered around the aisles and displays of electronic devices. The prices were a good bit higher than those in the States, but the designs were immeasurably better. Incredibly thin CD players, barely thicker than a stack of a few discs, hundreds of different cell phone cases (I even saw some that had fuzzy animals surrounding the phone, not to mention cell phone pajamas). So even though the prices were higher, the products were much more stylish – perhaps part of the cause of the higher prices.
Once we came back from Akihabara, we ate dinner and watched Runaway Bride, a fairly funny movie. Then, after a short conversation that stretched long, we went to sleep, excited and looking forward to the promise of an amusement park on the next day.