Hello! Here is my recap of my first week in iSEED Japan (a little bit overdue haha). We have started EDES 200 and EDES 301. In EDES 200, we learned about different electrical engineering components and did a lot of practice with the Arduino. This really helped me start to get an idea of what kinds of projects we could do for our final project in a couple weeks. In EDES 301 we had a lot of interesting discussions about the differences in engineering between Japan and America. In particular, we talked about the Galapagos effect because of Japan’s prolonged period of isolation. A lot of these solutions were behind the scenes, but the discussion really opened my eyes to notice more and more differences in the rest of the week. For instance, we talked about how different addresses are here. So on websites, oftentimes addresses are accompanied by a map, which shows how to get somewhere in relation to a nearby convenience store or school.
For Thursday and Friday, we were assigned various places to visit and write about. My favorite one of these place was the Lovot Cafe. 
(sorry I can’t figure out how to turn the photo)
I think the concept of pet robots is very unique and representative of the future for technology. These pets were fun to interact with, and I could understand why people who may be lonely or too busy for a live pet could benefit a lot from this product.
Another spot we had to visit was the Toto Showroom. I was very impressed by the variety of toilets and all the features they offered. I think this is such a stark difference from America, where the standard toilet, with no features, it normalized in homes. Here, even public toilets are more advanced. I am so jealous. The toilets here have a much greater emphasis on comfort and cleanliness. Overall, they are just designed with much more thoughtfulness for the user. There are many accessibility features that are available.
(Sorry again these are still horizontal)
We had other locations to visit that were also quite interesting. After completing the homework, I spent the weekend exploring Japan. I went to Shibuya and also visited Asakusa.
