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  • This is a day in the life of a Japanese Space Engineer.

  • This is Takashi, 32 years old with a wife and son living in Tokyo, and he's just waking up for work.

  • This is Takashi's wife, Haruka, she works full-time as an I.T consultant and since both of them work full-time

  • which is becoming more common in Japan these days, they help each other out with the morning chores

  • Like she prepares breakfast while Takashi takes care of their son.

  • So the first thing Takashi does every morning is to pack his son's bag for Hoikuen

  • Which is Japanese for nursery school. His son is four years old and attends nursery school on the weekdays while Takashi and Haruka work

  • Oh and that's his son, Kei-kun! His name is Kei, but the word Kun is usually attached to the end of a Japanese boy's name.

  • Oh, wow, it seems like he has a lot of energy this morning

  • In japan there's an old custom called Teishu Kanpaku

  • Which basically means a husband

  • madly rules the household but I guess Takashi's family is not the case. Gender equality is becoming more acknowledged in Japan as younger families

  • tend to help each other out. Like them!

  • Oh, he's being the Otobansan at his nursery

  • Only one person is selected each day to be responsible for making sure everyone gets food before eating

  • He loves the job some when at home he wants to do it all the time

  • Oh, no, I think he's freestyling it now

  • Even on a busy weekday morning they make time to have breakfast together as the rest of the day is spent away from each other

  • You always eat bread for breakfast?

  • While Takashi's wife is helping Kei-kun finish breakfast Takashi tidies up the room and puts away the Japanese futon into the Oshiire

  • A traditional Japanese closet specifically designed for futon. Believe it or not about 47% of the population

  • of Japan, sleep on a futon meaning half the country sleep on the floor countries

  • Like Japan with limited space in the house are able to maximize the floor space

  • By putting away the Japanese style mattress in the morning in order to re-purpose the space for the day

  • Would you be able to sleep on the floor in your country?

  • Now it's time to help Kei-kun to change into his day wear

  • Oh nice he has his own style. I like it

  • Before Takashi goes to work, it's his job to take Kei-kun to Hoikuen. Buckle up, Kei-kun!

  • So Takashi rides an electric Japanese mamachari style bike to take caicoon to nursery school

  • It's super common for most families with children in Tokyo

  • Since many don't own cars, but still need a way to transport their kids back and forth when trains and buses are not an option

  • Now he's ready to go to work taking care of his son before work is sometimes a hustle but he enjoys every minute of it

  • Takashi needs to work by train just like most everyone else in Tokyo for him

  • It's one hour door-to-door with one train transfer in between which is pretty average in Tokyo

  • He uses the commute time to check his urgent work emails and review reports from last night

  • Takashi like many other Japanese use the commute time to be efficient like reading up on news or studying new language on their smartphone

  • But of course there are many others that use the time to catch up on their sleep i'm back with another day in the life

  • It is super hot outside, but we're doing this. Anyway Takashi's train should be arriving right now. There it is

  • Good morning. What time did you go to sleep last night? It's super hot today, isn't it?

  • Oh, wow, you can see Tokyo Sky Tree from here that's pretty dope

  • It's almost 10 a.m. Are you late?

  • So Takashi works as a Space Engineer at Astroscale a growing venture company with about 80 employees in the Tokyo Headquarters

  • They are one of the only companies who develop satellite technologies to clean up debris in space even partnering with Jaxa

  • Japan, Aerospace Exploration Agency for missions

  • Takashi normally works at his own desk with monitors

  • But because of COVID-19 he prefers to sit at the lounge when he comes to the office

  • In fact these days that 70 to 80 of the Tokyo office are working from home on any given day

  • takashi also works from home most days

  • But there are times like today where he needs to work on hardware which requires him to be physically in the office

  • So, what are you working on right now?

  • Now he's attending a weekly internal meeting every member updates what's going on with each project

  • Currently they're working on a project called elsa d short for end-of-life services by astroscale demonstration

  • A spacecraft designed to remove failed satellites from orbit kind of like a car removal service in space and it's scheduled to launch

  • Later this year

  • Now they're heading to the clean room to work on the lcd satellites

  • Before entering the clean room Takashi needs to suit up to minimize the chances of introducing outside debris

  • And dust which could impact the operation of the satellites and even alter their testing results

  • And as a final precaution, he gets into the air shower to remove any remaining debris or dust on the suits

  • So they just went inside of the clean room, unfortunately, I can't go inside myself but here's some footage that it would look like inside

  • Oh they're back

  • So, what's this?

  • Apparently, they also connect the vacuum pump to it to simulate the pressure in space. Have you ever put food in there?

  • Finally he gets a break

  • What's the most enjoyable part of working here?

  • So Takashi has another video conferencing this is probably more than what he would have normally but since staff are working remotely

  • It's the easiest way to communicate these days, especially when reviewing project documentation together

  • So these days a lot of meetings are done remotely, which they're doing right now, but it might take some time

  • So while they're doing that, let's explore the space pun intended

  • This is a scaled model of the Elsa D satellites

  • The blue wings are the solar panels which power the satellite itself and the gold sheets around the center body works as heat

  • Insulation the bottom magnet picks up the space debris and once picked up it shuttles it to a lower

  • Altitude in the atmosphere and burns them up both and this one came before the lcd its job was to observe

  • How much space debris was out there sensors that are housed inside catch small space debris

  • And then it estimates a total amount of space debris out there

  • So I was actually planning to show you guys around this place

  • But a lot of the places I actually don't get access to for example right behind me is the mcc mission control center

  • And they won't let me inside because there's top secret stuff going on there. But oh, well, let's go find Takashi

  • The building across the street is part of their office as well. I guess that's Tokyo real estate for you

  • And now they have some time to prepare and discuss the technical points with a big meeting later this afternoon

  • Finally lunchtime they regularly eat at restaurants

  • But they're in a rush today to make their off-site afternoon meeting so they decided to pick up lunch from the supermarket instead

  • Whoa, he got the soba and niggy toto don set great choice

  • Now takashi and his colleagues are heading out to meet gitai a Space Robotics Company to have a technical discussion about using their

  • technology on future space to removal projects

  • Wow, they're taking off their shoes before entering the office this must be a very Japanese Company

  • Since it's his colleague's first time meeting they exchanged meishi also known as business cards

  • Which is still a major part of Japanese business culture. There are certain manners on how to give and receive the cards

  • Which is one of the first things you learn when you work in a Japanese company, for example

  • When there are multiple people like today you exchange cards

  • One by one in order the person with the highest position to the person with the lowest position

  • Oh and it looks like they made a 3D printed model of the arm that they're working on at this point, though

  • It's probably classified information. So this meeting looks like it's going to take some time

  • Let's try to explore this place since we didn't get to explore Takashi's office

  • So just right behind me it looks like they have a bunch of different spare parts to build everything it's so cool

  • So this room is completely empty right now and to be honest with you

  • I don't really know what's behind me. But it looks pretty interesting

  • Let me know in the comments if any of you know what it is or what it does

  • Oh, that guy's working on something. Let's ask what he's doing

  • Can you show me what the machine looks like?

  • Wow! You have a working model and it's connected to VR goggles. Oh, it's controlling the robot over there

  • That's next level stuff. And of course it can pick stuff up

  • Excuse me. Can I ask what you're doing?

  • Can you show me?

  • I see the arm takes those pieces and puts them together like that

  • Well that was unexpected. But I think it's time to go back to the meeting to see what's going on

  • Oh, perfect. Just in time. Looks like they're finishing up

  • Wow! that was quite long. So are you going back to the office now?

  • What's in the bag

  • As he takes math and japanese kimono classes after his nursery school

  • Kumon schools originated in japan to help supplement kids education by giving them 30 minute assignments every day

  • Nice he doesn't have a fever so he can go to the classroom

  • Kei kun usually stays a bit longer

  • But because of the pandemic he only gets his homework checked and then picks up new ones to minimize his stay there

  • Yay, finally home

  • What are you going to do now?

  • While Haruka prepares for dinner takashi does a little bit of work

  • So Takashi plays tamiya mini four-wheel drive race cars with Kei kun when he has time

  • In fact Takashi used to play with it when he was a kid and just like dad keikun is into cars and machines

  • So it's perfect for their father and son time. It's pretty amazing how he manages his work schedule and family time in Japan

  • Whoa dinner's ready. That looks pretty good

  • And of course dinner wouldn't start without Kei Kun's caisona

  • So after dinner and taking their baths they all spend time by taking turns playing their favorite PS4 game together Dragon Quest Eleven

  • So it looks like this is what they do at the end of the day

  • They're probably going to finish off around 10 o'clock because that's when Kei Kun's goes to sleep

  • And then his parents will probably go to sleep around 12 o'clock

  • So that's pretty much a day in the life of aJjapanese Space Engineer

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This is a day in the life of a Japanese Space Engineer.

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