独り言

Today, I went to the lunch meeting of the Seattle Executive Association for the first time in a while. I woke up at 7 a.m. this morning, but I felt sleepy. After taking a shower to wake myself up, I managed to arrive at the office by 8:40 a.m., but I still felt sleepy even while at work. Later, I drove to Seattle and back, and when I sat down at the office, I found myself dozing off without realizing it. The jet lag from Japan isn't as easy to recover from as it used to be. I need to reduce the number of trips to Japan, or my body won't be able to handle it.

 

Today's lunch featured string beans presented in a stylish manner. It was interesting to see Americans doing this kind of thing too. I was somewhat impressed. This lunch was served at the Washington Athletic Club (WAC) in downtown Seattle as part of the Seattle Executive Association's lunch event.

なぜロッカーの写真を撮影したのでしょうか？

ロッカーとは何でしょうか。コインロッカーは、そこの場所を借りて一時的に荷物を預ける場所です。コインロッカーができる前は手荷物預かり所のようなものが駅にはありました。それが自動化されてコインロッカーになったわけです。これは言い換えれば、手荷物預かり所がDXしてコインロッカーになったということが言えます。

今回の日本出張で感じたのですが、DXという言葉が多く使われています。DXだけではありません。もう一つ多く使われている言葉がAIです。DXとはアナログのものを自動化することによって尽力を減らすことと、利便性を高めることが目的です。このコインロッカーは、すごくDXを説明するのにわかりやすい事例だと思って撮影しました。

では、このコインロッカーをもう1つ先のDXに進めたらどうなるでしょうか。これがものではなく、データだとしたらどんなサービスができるでしょうか。そういうものに市場があるのでしょうか。一時的にデータを預かるサービスは必要なのでしょうか。そんなことを考えていました。皆様の意見を聞かせてください。

Why did I take a photo of lockers? What are lockers exactly? Lockers, specifically coin lockers, are places where you can temporarily store your belongings by renting a space there. Before the advent of coin lockers, there were facilities similar to baggage storage rooms at train stations. They were automated into coin lockers. In other words, you could say that baggage storage rooms underwent digital transformation (DX) and became coin lockers.

During my recent business trip to Japan, I noticed that the term DX is being used frequently. It's not just DX; another term that's commonly used is AI. DX aims to reduce effort and increase convenience by automating analog things. I thought that these coin lockers are a very straightforward example illustrating DX, so I took a photo of them.

Now, what if we were to take these coin lockers one step further in terms of DX? What if, instead of physical items, we were dealing with data? What kind of services could be offered with such a concept? Is there a market for such things? Are services for temporarily storing data necessary? These are the kinds of thoughts that crossed my mind. I'd love to hear your opinions on this.

Which breakfast do you prefer?

I've tried both, and they were both delicious. I feel like Japanese breakfast offers better value, but when I want something lighter, I might prefer Western-style breakfast. I know it's not fair to compare with America, but in Japan, both options seem to cost about the same as a cup of coffee in the States. I hope Japan stays this way.