The Honda Years: My job consisted of Technical Training material development and graphic design at Honda's HSS and HSY offices in Wako Shi Saitama. I want to say that the best thing about working for what may seem as the best job on earth, was not the long hours (Itai!) or the green tea, but being surrounded by people who new everything about Honda. When I say everything I mean Honda Japan shifts its workforce around every 3 years to get everyone well rounded in all areas of the company. While this causes a few drawbacks in specified applications, it's instilled to promote communication within all levels of production. Being the only white guy in my department made this a very challenging experience. Being around people who remember working on the 1972 Civic and telling me how they had to swap motorcycle parts over to make the CVCC engine work was not something I could ever experience back home. Or meeting engineers who remember the heydays of the Lotus 99T Honda with Ayrton Senna, and having part in that era which culminates Soichiro's influence in Motorsports. One thing Ill never forget is how the older guys spoke of a once great company when the old man (Oaji) was around. Now it seems Honda's old ways have been dropped and been replaced by the American bottom line. Which brings me to this point; I am by nature a true Honda enthusiast in that I respect what Soichiro was trying to accomplish through Motorsports as a passion. I not only respect Honda as an acclaimed engineer but also as one of Japans most revered national heroes (Voted man of the Century with Ibuka Sony, for outstanding contributions to Japan). Some of the work I did can be seen on the current American Honda WBT (Web Based Training) network, as 2D, 3D animation. I helped write and design the overseas training modules and technical information guides for the H13 Jazz/Fit, EP Civic/Civic Hybrid, CL Accord and DC Integra to name a few, so it's fair to say, I know a little about these cars. I also worked on the Service Manuals, which is what overseas companies such as Helm's, Mitchell and Haynes transfer their information from. I have to admit, I had to learn a lot of this as I went along, and doing meetings in Japanese over technical data wasn't easy to say the least. Our department also had to take TOS (Test Only Service) car info from Tochigi R&D and translate it, which was interesting because we where able to see TOS cars and perform troubleshooting procedures on such systems as CAN protocol (Control Area Network). The nice part about working in Wako Shi is that not only are the Honda Service centers located there, but so is R&D for Honda Chemicals, HRC, Aerospace and other main offices for other Honda divisions. And close by in Asakadai is Honda PPT, and Motocycle R&D, which is pretty top secret and I wasn't allowed access because I'm a gaikokujin….oh! and Mugen. After all the long hours of meeting amongst the strictest of automotive deadlines, 3 years at HSY was enough. Its hard to put into words the experience that goes along with all this, and Im sure I did a real crappy job, so feel free to email me any questions and I'll do my best to get back to everyone.

Hard At Work:
These are various pictures of our office on Hyw 254 in Wako Shi, which just happens to be a 5 minute bike ride down the street from Mugen. This department was Kenshu shurio, Technical Training Information for Overseas Markets.

The Honda Whites:
When I visited other departments such as the training center HSS (Honda Service Shirako) I had to sport the Honda Whites. I wore them with pride... that, and I didnt have a choice.

Its very rare to see inside pics of Honda Technical Centers for security reasons, this was illegal at the time. I asked the project supervisor and he said "muri, muri, muri, demo...". Anyways being the only white guy at Honda had its advantages.

The last picture here is of me on my last day at Honda in October 2003. These are all people I had major projects with, and learned the most from. Some of these people worked on development of the NSX at Tochigi back as early as '86.

Printed Material:
We published 1/3 of training materials for Honda Japan. Mostly S/M (Shop Manuals), which accouted for 20% of my job. I was mostly in charge of designing and creating technical training information from Tochigi for all overseas "Genpos" (head offices). Some of this information never got into the translated materials, so I had privilege to classified engineering data.

Saitama central:
Many of Honda's operations are located in Wako and Asaka in Saitama Japan, which is just North of Tokyo on the Tobu Tojo Train Line. Most people refer to it as the "Wako Basho", as the main city is Wako-Shi. Honda chemicals is just north of the station and not far are 2 service centers and the most famous being Honda R&D on Hwy 254, which is where my office was located. HRC and Motorcycle R&D, as well as PPT (Honda Power Products Training) are located in Asaka. Foreigners are not admitted in the R&D labs but I was able to visit most of these offices over 3 years.

HSS (Honda Service Shirako):
The best thing about my job was going to HSS and writing new model information modules.HSS is where all the "TOSS" cars ended up and where alot of the cut models are stored. Every new model comes in pre production as a "TOSS" vehicle, which goes to HSS for training design purposes.

I had to work on many "TOSS" vehicles to design the training material for all new components and functions. The most difficult newly released car was not the Hybrid Civic, but the EU Accord (CL), because of its CAD system. The NSX Type R was the most interesting, because we needed to understand all the physical dynamics of wind drag, flow fields and aero efficiency.

Honda Cut models:
HSS and HSY and all training divisions of Honda have cut models of various mecanical components in order to facilitate new model information media. We had to get a few cut models made up for the CVT when writing the new training modules for the Fit/Jazz.

The cut models are very expensive but are necessary for creating training modules and end up saving the company money in the long run.