The group began the day on a bullet train going from Tokyo to Taken. The train lived up to expectations and moved almost effortlessly and gracefully. (You’d have to Map Quest the distance but it was only a 45 minute ride.) We took a taxi to the Company’s Headquarters and were warmly greeted by the founder and president Mr. Masamoto and seven of his top managers and leaders. Introductions followed with business card presenting and then the group got down to business.
We were given a tour of their manufacturing building and the on-site gasifier demo unit. After that we had a couple hours of Q&A, observed the start up of the gasifier, a break for lunch, more Q&A, monitoring of the now in-process gasification process, more Q&A, a short video presentation, and ended the day with a final round of Q&A. Mr. Masamoto and his staff answered all of our questions and made an effort to be as transparent as possible. At the end of the day, all of the employees (around 60) lined up to see us off.
We will continue the Q&A Wednesday. Tomorrow we will take a bus to see customers that are using the patented equipment. We will also meet with one of the companies we would like to attract to Cleveland. The translator will join us and will go with us to explain the customer’s application. I’m sure more Q&A will follow. Our group is asking a lot of questions.
