Seth and Howie

      At McDonald's Around the World

An incomplete history of the many McDonald's visits by Seth and Howie, and a long list of their friends.

Seth and Howie at McDonald's


IROS 2013 - Tokyo

As you may recall, the tradition of Seth and Howie at McDonald's began in Japan. In 2013, we returned to Japan, for IROS 2013. The conference venue was in Odaiba (a strange little Island in the Tokyo Bay). Happily, there was a McDonald's within a five minute walk of the conference center. Strangely, we did not encounter many of our colleagues there. Their loss!

To the left - we pose with the Japanese flat Ronald McDonald. Flat Ronald is the one in the middle.
As usual, Howie makes a new friend.
Peace out, Japanese McDonald's.
Big Fry. Medium Fry. Small Fry.
But who knows which is which, and who is who is who is who?
Ever the scholar, Howie takes a moment to catch up on reading in the McDonald's reading room. Howie, in the golden arches, arches, arches, arches.
Howie slipped back for a second visit, and brought along Cecile Huet, famous Head of Sector from the European Commission. And now our colleagues are surely jealous.


London, June 2013


Howie was back in London, for the 2013 Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics. We found a nice McDonald's, not so far from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

To the left, you'll find Big Ben and the Victoria Tower, the largest tower of the Palace of Westminster (aka, the Houses of Parliament).

Below and to the left, you'll find the nice man who took the photo, as he boards a bus for Clapham Junction, imortalized by Squeeze in this song. (It's kind of a sad song, maybe you shouldn't listen.)


Howie is becoming very well known in London. Below, a group of young women photographers snap photos of a Howie discourse. They seem to really dig him. I'm pretty sure that some of thse photos were published later in the Daily Mail.