Wednesday was yet another day filled with amazing and unique experiences for me; it seems like its going to be like that for most of this trip. We shot in the Kawasaki factory, which was yet again a fantastic thing to get the opportunity to do. We spent several hours shooting on the final assembly line for their motorcycles, and I think that I actually got the more fun job this time. Andy was operating the main camera, following a vice-president around the line as he explained the different functions of the factory. I got to roam around (with trusty Shu at my side to make sure I didn’t die) with the B camera shooting whatever the hell I wanted to shoot. I felt the entire time like I was actually in the movie Baraka, if you have seen it then you will know the sort of environment we were in. It was my first time inside an assembly line and it impressed the hell out of me.

The Kawasaki motorcycle assembly line is pretty cool- they have multiple models and different colors and accessories coming down the same line at the same time, so there is this system in place wherein each bike has a barcode on it that tells a computer which parts need to be installed at each station. A bunch of trays containing parts unlock and little red bulb light up to tell each worker what parts they should pull out and attach to the bike. If they grab the wrong part, the system automatically stops the line and alerts a supervisor, who comes over to make sure that the bike is not being built incorrectly. If there is a problem they try to fix it, if they can’t they pull the bike off the line and start again. Such mistakes are so rare that they have very little downtime and its rare that a bad bike comes off the line. My favorite little thing in there was that all of the forklifts and carts play different simple songs (twinkle twinkle little star, 3 blind mice, etc) to let you know they are moving around you. Each vehicle has its own song, and they play it using the same type of speakers ice cream trucks must use in the States. So there is the crowded, chaotic assembly line with a bunch of ice cream truck sounding vehicles driving around. It was as surreal as it was awesome. It was such an honor to be allowed inside this factory, and to shoot whatever I wanted was heavenly. I think I got some really killer footage.

After we finished with Kawasaki we bid Shu and our other host from Kawasaki, Mr. Ishikawa, a tearful goodbye (not really, but we really are going to miss having Shu around) and got onto the bullet train for Hamamatsu, where we met our Yamaha handler, “Turbo”. We are staying in yet another huge hotel tower, with an amazing view of the city, and this time we are here for a few days so we can keep our things unpacked for a little bit and only haul camera gear. After checking in, Andy and I set out from the hotel to try and find food- our first expedition without a translator nearby to help smooth over any confusion. We found what seemed like a food court at a mall (it was late and most places we tried were closed), and stumbled through ordering what turned out to be Korean potato soup. The menu was completely in Japanese with no pictures, so we just guessed, and it turned out great. I think we are getting comfortable here, we are still useless at speaking Japanese, but I feel a lot less like a stranger in a strange land. Thursday and Friday we are shooting with Yamaha.