Yahoo Japan, the biggest search engine in Japan on Internet. To think that it wins over Google is insane, but what Ogawa-san told me, it seems to be true. Japanese people use more Yahoo than Google to browse the web. This weekend we visited Yahoo Japan company, which was this massive skyscraper with a fast-speed elevator that made your ears go numb as it traveled to the highest floor possible for visitors to enter. There we stood near a window that revealed most of Tokyo as far as my eye could see, it was magnificant. This was my first time in a skyscraper, and boy was it amazing. You have to understand, I come from Finland, where we don't have tall buildings, nor can our Näsinneula (Observation tower in Finland) hold a candel to any skyscraper in Japan.
This is not the top floor of the skyscraper we were in, but it was tall enough for me to get excited, for it was my first visit to a skyscraper.
On this floor there was a robot with full A.I function which enabled people to talk to it in Japanese. The robot literally talks to you back with pretty good inteligence for a robot, telling you what you wanted to know, like day's weather or things about Yahoo Japan company. The screen attached to the robot's chest allows you to navigate the data you recieve from the robot, whether it is the day's weather or something completely else. I keep mentioning the weather because that was the only thing I could see the robot do besides speaking random Japanese that I couldn't understand clearly, but Ogawa-san explained me the rest.
What was amazing about this robot was its natural way of speaking, in robotic-voice of course, but still natural-sounding. Its hands moved around not by random, but according to the subject it was talking about, like a real human being. So when it felt down about something, instead of throwing its hands around randomly, it clearly chose a gesture of looking sad. Also, if it felt confused, it instead chose a gesture of such, but this never seemed to be the same (pre-programmed). Obviously I understand how programming works, and this robot could easily have more than one similiar gestures installed in its data-base for certain type of emotions, but when you spoke to it, it didn't feel like that - it felt like you spoke to an intelligent being that had a limited capacity of understanding different subjects.
This robot didn't change my life or anything, it wasn't that amazing, but I think it is very good first step towards true A.I for our generation to witness. Yes, I really do believe that I will witness the era of androids and such, because we have already learned so much within few decades, and this robot is a proof of it. Mankind can truly achieve the level of artificial intelligent that we see in movies, and it won't be a thing of a distance future, but rather something that we get to enjoy, probably within few decades from now, maybe around 2050.
This robot costs around 10,000€ and is now being sold in Japan. You can teach it to tell about your company for customers, so when the customers enter the establishment, they can ask the robot about things regarding the company, like what they do, what their services are and how much they cost, etc. And yes, this robot can move around freely, but for that moment it was attached to a cable for charging.
I am sorry, that I don't have any other meaningful pictures of Yahoo Japan, there was a lot of people around us that were trying to enjoy their time, and I saw it best not to bother them by taking pictures with my super loud phone camera that I can't turn silent. But to describe you how the rest was, behind the robot you see above this text, was a floor full of youthful people doing work on their laptop. They had come to this place to relax and enjoy calm quietness where they could work in peace while taking advantage of the floor's great cafeteria.
The floor had its own kitchen with full furniture and kitchen appliance for anyone to use freely. Anyone could just enter the kitchen area and start coocking themselves and for others anything that the fridge held inside it. Next to this kitchen was a cafeteria where anyone could get one free drink per day, but other than that they have to pay if they want anything else. Even so, the cafeteria was very cheap. I was not that fortunate to order anything good, because the menu was in Japanese, and I thought I had ordered a normal expresso like in any coffee shop, but instead I got this tiny cup with less than 30ml coffee inside it that tasted like death, no kidding. My friends instead got what they wanted, a giant cup of orange smoothy. I was literally laughing my ass off, because I know the guy at the casher asked me: "Is small size okay?" but I could not believe their "small" meant like the smallest size you have ever seen someone drinking - you could literally spit in a cup and that's exactly the kind of amount I recieved from them, I know it sounds disgusting, but just for the sake of demonstration I had to say it. Forget the small size pizza in Japan, this was literally the smallest food/drink that I have seen thus far being served.
That feeling when someone takes a picture of you when you are still trying to find a good pose...
In Yahoo Japan, I learned about the company and what they do. Finds out, that they do much more than just provide a large search engine service. Yahoo Japan's office is a huge place for random people to enter and do work there for themselves while enjoying the benefits it offers for collaboration and expensive equipments you are allowed to use freely as you see fit.
I was very fortunate to learn about Yahoo Japan and visit their office with the help of Ogawa-san who brought us there. It allowed me to understand large businesses better, and how providing free space for anyone to enter and work in will open new possibilities for collaboration and finding new talents that can help the company grow.
I know it looks disgusting, but believe me, it's like the best food that I have ever eaten in my life, and I freaking LOVE IT! <3
After the Yahoo Japan experience, we head back to the office, but before that we grabed something to eat. Ogawa-san introduced me to Japan's Porklet Curry rice. When first it came to the table, I thought it looked a little bit disgusting (I mean, look at it! I know what comes first in your mind when you see it...), but the moment you actually take a bite of it, your opinion about it changes completely - It tastes like heaven!
If there is a food I will miss most when going back to Finland, I KNOW for a fact that it will be this one without having to taste any other new foods, it is just that good! I guess you can not judge a book by its cover, eh? If you go to Japan, please, try this one, you will fall in love with it instantly, I just know it!