croaker- if it's boring, skip down to the pics, links, and other good stuff

2006-12-11T17:52:00.000-05:00

And so my time here comes to a close.

In about 29 hours, my jet lagged self will sit itself down in a bed at the holiday inn. I doubt I'll sleep much, as that will be noon Osaka time.

This blog is drawing to a close as well. There will be a few more posts of stuff I never managed to get up here (mino, farwell party's, karaoke, along with a handful of other things), but that will be more to put all my thoughts in one place than anything else.

So in closing, I'll leave this with 'things I'll miss'. Alot of these won't make sense to someone who's never been here, so if you're curious, just ask me and I'll tell you at least a mildly interesting story :)

I'll miss:
Doors that push open.
Trains.
Katsudon.
The bakery across from the post office with the super nice people.
Hot chocolate out of the vending machine, that is indeed hot.
raiding the fare adjustment boxes.
singing and breakdancing like no one was wathing them.
sushi ro.
japanese maples. there's no color they don't turn.
kyoto.
my labmates. all twenty of them.
engrish. 'hair is fiber'
living in the future.
convenient convenience stores.
heated seat toilets.
souvenirs.

I'll miss a few phrases, too:

"I will try"
"maybe,,"
"so des ne"
"victory!"

in closing, I'd like to ask anyone who's reading this to add a final quick comment,, I'd appreciate it,, so I can have a record of everyone who read my Japanese story.

Thanks all- be back with you guys soon*,

joey

*by soon, I mean I leave 1:15 P.M. tuesday (local time), and get into columbia around 10:15 p.m. tuesday (local time). The time change creates the illusion that there won't be nearly 24 hours of airplanes/layovers :)

2006-12-10T08:41:00.000-05:00

Kobe Beef.

I'm trying to come up with a way to explain this. I could say that it's the best meal that I've ever had. I could say that I will never have meat of this quality again. I could say that this changed the way I think about food, and that it was a nigh religious experience. I could say that it was a hundred dollar meal that was worth every penny of a hundred dollars.

And while all those things would be true, none of them really describe the meal I was served this afternoon. Words fail to translate into appropriate feeling and flavor. I can only say that out of any culinary niche you may encounter, this is unique, and I encourage anyone who is ever in Kobe to prepare their palate, fork out a lot of money, and take this experience into your life.

2006-12-07T18:40:00.000-05:00

This is Dennis, from Belarus. We met on a bus tour the international student office here sponsored about a month ago.

Last night we went out to the bar* and talked politics over good drinks. That's definitely something I've missed here,, all the great discussions I have,, none of the people I have them with are available to me here. It was a great night, and it was so insightful to meet someone from the other end of the world, and see firsthand the political views and landscape that is only otherwise available to me through secondhand and thirdhand media reports. I think he felt the same, that is was insightful to talk to an American about their views, rather than try to guess what it meant that the american government is now split between two parties. He's a wonderful and generous guy, to boot- great company.

I'll miss him when I go.

* it is 'the bar', rather than 'a bar', because it's far and away the cheapest. Most of the staff there is also very forgiving to people that don't speak Japanese.

This last picture doesn't have anything to do with anything,, it's just from the bus tour. It's supposed to look amazing at sunset (if you have the right angle, the sun sets right in that little cave), but it was still pretty cool at midday.

2006-11-15T04:48:00.000-05:00

If anybody knows how to post movies (mpeg files) on blogspot, I'd really appreciate the info. You'd also get to see footage of a 15 foot whale shark, crabs that look like the monsters in a B science fiction movie, and some amazing cool jellyfish.

and penguins.

2006-11-15T00:05:00.000-05:00

Kyoto. I came back here to see more of the temples and parks I missed last time. The leaves are changing, and they are beautiful. It's difficult to describe just how well this city combines the natural with the historical and cultural. My pictures really aren't doing the place justice.

I started out at the park where I had ended up last time, just south of the museums in eastern Kyoto. I headed north east to Shoren-in temple/gardens.

Next, I walked near the zoo toward the old aqueduct, which was pretty cool. Then I headed into Nazen-in, which had one of the more impressive gardens I've seen so far.

After that I wandered a bit, and I'm honestly not certain what this next temple was,, something zen-like, but beyond that I'd have to look at a map to remember. Impressive, nonetheless.

Then I went up 'the philosiphers path', a 2 kilometer walkway along a canal. It had been misty/raining off and on most of the day, so unfortunatly alot of my pictures are dark,, sorry about that.

My final destination was Ginkaku-ji, the silver pavilion (except that they never actually got around to covering it with silver). But shiny metal or no, the grounds around the pavilion were amazing- and meticulously well kept.

Not much written in this entry, but the pictures speak for themselves. Or they would, had it been a little less rainy and they'd turned out a bit better. Hopefully I'll have pictures up of the aquarium soon (which was amazing), but for now I'll just put a ton of autumn leaves on the blog. It's funny, in America if you see dozens of Japanese maple trees in a town it's impressive. Here there are hundreds,,,

2006-11-14T03:40:00.000-05:00

Hiroshima. I went there with Tim and Chris weekend before last. It's strange to think about. 60 years ago America dropped the first atomic bomb to end WWII. Now, americans come here as tourists.

They've built a park around the epicenter of the blast,, beautiful really. There are various monuments and statues, but the most well known is the 'a-bomb dome', one of the few structures that remained standing within one kilometer of the blast. They've left it mostly untouched (with a few reenforcment beams included now to assure it will remain standing). It's a powerful statement, ruined among the well kept grounds of the park.

There was also the children's peace monument, dedicated largely to Sadako Sasaki, who died of lukemia before she was able to finish making 1000 paper (oragami) cranes. Now there strings and bags of paper cranes throughout the entire park. We saw this school group come to the monument while we were there,, they were singing something at the monument. I don't know what it was,,, I would assume it was some kind of dedication of some sort (if I ever figure out how to post video on this site, I'll put it up).

There was also this flame in the center of the park (and it was placed in a much more astetically pleasing fashion than this camera angle would suggest). If I read the signs right, it's supposed to burn until the last nuclear bomb is dismantled (they take the peace thing pretty seriously at the park). There's also copies of letters written by the mayor of hiroshima in protest of every nuclear test since 1969.

They had two main buildings at the park. The first was an underground memorial to the people that died in the blast and subsequent fires/radiation. They had, among other things, a digital catalog of everyone that died (minus the korean's brought over for manual labor) that you could access, as well as several first person accounts that had been written about the day. The other was the museum, where they had detailed information about the whole thing- development of the bomb, why it was used, how Hiroshima was selected as the final target, and a large emphasis on how the city (and individuals) coped after the attack. Among other things, they had copies of american memos and meeting minutes discussing the bomb's development/use, roof tiles that had quasi-melted as a result of the blast, and miscelaneous other stuff.

One thing that was of particular interest to me was two tabletop models of the city, before and after the blast (including a red marker suspended from the ceiling that showed the detonation point).

I've heard other people talk about how strange it was to be an american touring the museum. For me though, it wasn't that strange- after 3 minutes it was like I was living in a history channel documentary, a place rather familiar to me.

But what was strange, as I toured the site, was the pressing realization that it was not the number of people killed that made the site unique- on the contrary, compared to every other theatre in WWII, the death toll is par for the course. Casualties (also known as dead people) are comparable to the conventional bombing raids on Tokyo and the like. Hell, compared to soviet and eastern europe civilian deaths, this is a drop in the bucket.

The site is unique due to the manner in which these people died. And because of their response to the event. So very many more have passed in events of equal or greater loss, with no memorial to remember their name. I do not write this to downplay the loss that occured in Hiroshima; on the contrary, I would only put the rest in proper perspective against this powerfully sobering backdrop. I think the builders of the peace park here would affirm that.

2006-11-12T09:29:00.000-05:00


13	TENNESSEE (7-3)	14
11	ARKANSAS (9-1)	31
RECAP \| BOX SCORE \| PLAY-BY-PLAY
Pass: J. Crompton (TENN) 16-36, 172, 2 TD Rush: D. McFadden (ARK) 30-181, 2 TD Rec: M. Monk (ARK) 8-139, 2 TD

Wait- that's not Japan!

But there's no way I can pass up an opportunity to talk about football this week. It gives me an excuse to mention that Texas lost.

2006-10-31T03:09:00.000-05:00

Kyoto. This place is fast becoming my favorite.

I left early in the morning, and planned on seeing most of the temples on the east side of town. However, going to Kyoto with an agenda is a bit like going to willy wonka's chocolate factory and planning on getting the everlasting gobstopper. You have all these great intentions, but then you pass the lickable wallpaper. How do you not stop to see lickable wallpaper? You follow that down to the chocolate river, which of course you have gawk at, so you try the 7 course meal bubble gum next, and then the fizzy drink,, and next thing you know it's 7:00, the sun went down an hour ago, and the gobstopper shop closed at 5:00.

In any case, I'll most likely head back again- the leaves will peak soon, which will be nothing short of amazing.

I started out at Kennin-ji, one of a great many temples in the city. Apparently there were several university students there kind of hosting the place for the day. I met some students from the calligraphy club that were exhibiting their work. The one in the picture is titled "the flow of time"*

Next, I mean to head north, but I got well, distracted. The streets had some amazing shops, much better than the standard tourist fare. I mean the standard stuff was there, but with more flavor; for example, they didn't just have ceramic shops- they had the people right there in the store making the pottery.

When I finished looking around (and being sad that the geisha I saw were just tourists that had paid to dress up, not the real thing), I found myself in front of Kiyomizu-dera (another temple thing). Now the temple itself was fairly impressive, but what was much more noteworthy was the scenery surrounding it- the temple is nestled in a wooded hillside, and the grounds contain beautiful trails that go below and above the temple.

At this point I was pretty lost (I had never intended to go south in the first place), so I tried to backtrack a bit. I finally got somewhat re-oriented, but I kept getting distracted by miscellaneous cool stuff.

The next place I went was Kodaj-ji (another temple- I sense a trend), founded by Kita-no-Mandokoro in memory of her husband. The place was pretty amazing.

Next, I went to Maruyama park (it would be more accurate to say that I still didn't know where I was, and I kind of wandered into the park). The place was just beautiful (and had food, which was sounding really good at this point). There was a street performer there,, he juggled, performed a few magic tricks, and if the crowd was any indication, had alot of good jokes.

ThenI went to Chion-in (although I didn't realize where I was until I looked it up later). It was constructed in the memory of a buddhist monk who apparently fasted to death. That sounds a bit over the top, but the grounds themselves were very nice (including a ginormous front gate, and a bell that takes 17 monks to ring).

After this, I went to the museum of modern art. They had recently acquired a collection of Edo era paintings which was pretty amazing, which was good because the rest of the museum reminded me how much I dislike 'modern art'.

After this, I found a coffee shop that had a string quartet- three violins (or maybe a viola or two, not sure), and a cello. They were excellent- I stayed until they stopped playing. But the music of the evening wasn't over.

Meet Taiga. Taiga played last year in a club in New York. He's going to the philidelphia jazz festival next year. Taiga is 8 years old, and Taiga is pretty amazing (ok, so he wasn't the best percussionist I've ever heard, but he was solid. And he's 8.) This little jazz group was playing next to the subway station,, a pleasant ending to a wonderful day.

*or something like that. There were significant language barrier issues between us, but their patience and kindness made up for it.

2006-10-28T09:50:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday I went just south of Kyoto to Fushimi-Inari Taisha, the shrine of many tori that was used in memoirs of a Geisha. When I was on my way there, I was expecting something well,,, smaller. What I found was an entire wooded hillside crisscrossed with paths of tori (the little orange things) stretching over 4 kilometers. The scenery was beautiful. I'd never seen a bamboo tree before. I mean sure, I'd seen bamboo, but not a living 40 foot tall pole- that was pretty cool.

To get here though, I had to go through the Kyoto JR rail station- this was a first. This building is pretty amazing in and of itself- the place is maybe 200 yards long, and 11 stories high,, full of places to shop and eat. I've tried to capture a bit of it here, but I really can't adequately convey the open air feel of the place. But in any case, I loved it.

Now the trip started to become noteworthy as I was thumbing through my handy Japanese guidebook. I was looking through it on the way to Kyoto, and it listed all the major festivals held in the region. As I read, I realized the Kurama fire festival was the evening of October 22. Now I didn't know what this would be exactly, but this was a no brainer. Fire festival. In 8 hours. 45 minutes away.

unfortunately the pictures didn't turn out that well in the dark, but yes- that is a 10 foot torch on parade. There were several. Then they threw them all in a bonfire, and carried this big shrine thing around with other fire implements. It was as awesome as it sounds (and more, they were doing this cool chant thing all the while,, really set the mood).

But anyway, this ended around 10:10. Now unfortunately, Kurama is a small city north of Kyoto. It is serviced by a single 2 car train every 10 minutes or so. I don't know how many people were trying to get out of Kurama that night, but I do have two pictures that illustrate the point pretty well (see the big red face in the first picture? I'm standing right in front of it when I took the second picture- that's the rest of the line).

I made it back to Kyoto around 11:45. By the time I managed to change lines and get on the right train, it was maybe 12:10. Now the trains stop running around 12:30, which meant I was able to make it about 3 stops to the outskirts of Kyoto by the time they kicked me off. The trains started running again around 5:00, so I had alot of time to weigh the benefits of staying at the fire festival for those extra 40 minutes. However, it turned out that there were to other foreigners in the same boat I was- Frank (from Canada, here for a year or so teaching english) and Tara (from London, volunteering at a care home for about 9 months).

At first, we went out looking for a karaoke bar or internet cafe where they'd have a couch, chair, or some other kind of comfortable room we could crash in. However, the train's last stop was in more of a residential district, so we ended up just staying at the station, talking about life, politics, and poking fun at some of the phrases in Tara's book of useful japanese phrases. Turned out to be alot of fun.

Finally the trains started running again at 4:50, and we went our separate ways. But not before this last photo op of victory, when we finally made it back to the Osaka station.

For those keeping score, Frank's parents are Vietnamese, and Tara is a quarter Malaysian and a quarter Chinese- I was the only westerner of the bunch that actually looked western. And yes, I went to work monday morning, and yes, it was a very long and painful day :)

2006-10-26T08:50:00.000-05:00

Up until now I've posted all the fun stuff, but I do actually work here on occasion.

What am I doing, do you ask? Frankly, you don't want to know.

Now this isn't because it's so terrible that it would destroy your psychological underpinnings, but because for a large part, it's boring. Now I get really cool results that mean a very great deal to me and my advisor, but the path taken to get those results is not especially glamorous.

To highlight this, I present the extruder. If you look at the first picture, you can see the guts of the thing. Now technically I'm extruding POPC:SM liposomes through a 100 nanometer filter to create vesicles of a uniform size. That sounded impressive, didn't it?

In reality it's two syringes connected in the middle. I push on the left till that syringe is empty. There's alot of resistance (remember the filter), so it takes anywhere from 1 to 4 minutes. Then I push on the right syringe until it's empty. Then I do it again. And again. And again. And again.

After that, I clean it and load up the next sample, 1 mililiter at a time. I've probably spent upwards of 25 hours of quality time with this thing, and it's what I did nearly all day last saturday.

Now as for sunday/sunday night/monday morning, that will have to wait for the next entry,,

2006-10-26T08:23:00.000-05:00

So last friday night, my Japanese teacher (I take language lessons one day a week through a volunteer service) invited me to have dinner with her husband and another one of her students. The food was nothing short of awesome.

As main dishes, they had sushi (just about every different kind you could want) and tempura. Tempura is lotus root/eggplant/carrots/misc vegetables/shrimp/most other things you can think of fried in a light batter. It's pretty amazing.

There was also some kind of fried sausage/cheese something, a shoot/sprout heavy salad, and great company. The other student she had was from Greece, doing a math post doc. They also had white crane sake (which is, by the way, a very excellent brand).

The two were so hospitable to us,, making sure we had plenty to eat and drink, offering us little sweets as we left. It was strange though, some of the dinner conversation. Nobuko-san was talking to me as he poured me my drink, with his limited english. "I was in high school in 1945,, B-29's came, yes." He continued, as he finished filling my sake glass. "My house, burned to the ground,, but, well, that's war."
Now don't misunderstand the event, or the evening- these people were beyond kind, and it was just an old man telling me his story (there was alot more, that had nothing to do with the war, but it didn't stick in my mind). Yes of course, it was a ridiculously long time ago, and happened before me or my parents were born. But that didn't make it any less strange to me, being served sake by a man who survived the Osaka bombing raids.

My teacher (Nishiuchi san) lies often. I'll be in a lesson and manage to tell her what time the clock says, and she acts like I've cured cancer. When I fail in telling her how much money she's put down on the table, she's eternally patient and says "yes, Japanese is very hard, I'm sorry- you're doing well though". Now normally I prefer more honesty in interpersonal interactions, but in this particular setting, her complete blindness to my vast ignorance of Japanese is greatly appreciated.

2006-10-22T22:29:00.000-05:00

So this week, my goal is to put up three posts,, that should catch the blog up to speed.

However, due to a lack of forsight upon my part, I got zero sleep last night, so said entries will have to wait,, but last night was quite the interesting tale,,

2006-10-15T23:57:00.000-05:00

Weekend of fun :)

Saturday, I milled around Nara (southern/central Osaka),, cool place. Row after row of shops, who's main method of self promotion involved flashing multicolored lights.

I was looking for the Wood block museum (basically, a collection of paintings/etchings on wood of characters from some of their traditional theatre). After about a half hour of looking around, I finally managed to find it (in my defense, this place, from the outside, is a total hole in the wall. I submit these two photos as evidence,, the second is the enterance to the museum,, the first is what every single alley in 8 surrounding blocks looks like).

The museum itself was pretty cool,, I'm not sure if I was supposed to take photographs, but upon a semi-thorough inspection I didn't find any signs that told me not to, so here's a few shots of their holdings. Most are from around 1860.

Sunday was a wildly interesting day. It began with a desire to go to Iga Ueno, where one of the two main ninja schools is located. However, a bit of reading seems to indicate that the place is more of a turist trap than an authentic representation of its history, so I decided to skip this (for now, at least), and head out to Kyoto. This decision happened around 9:10 a.m.

By 10:00, I was on the train heading out. It's actually not that far,, which is a good thing, seeing as how I apparently need 10 days to do the 'basic tour' of Kyoto (so said my nifty travel guide book I was reading on the way there). By the time the train was nearing the staytion, I'd made a loose plan for the day- to see Nijo castle (Kyoto residence for the Shogun), the kyoto museum for world peace (exhibits from WWII and later conflicts), and Kinkakuji.

I could have taken buses, but I dediced to walk for as much of the trip as I could,, makes me feel more like I'm exploring. And if I hadn't, I never would have got these photos of: micky mouse sold right next to tombstones, the herse (I think), and this random parade:

The castle was really cool. All the passegeways had something they called nightengale flooring, which creaks loudly no matter how you walked (it passed my thorough testing without fail). Apparently the shogun made it this way to prevent assassins and whatnot from entering undetected.
The grounds themselves were beautiful, too- a good example of a Japanese garden. Or I assume it's a good, authentic example. All I can really attest to is it's high quality asthetics.

Next I went to the Kyoto peace museum,, this was, shall we say, quite a walk. The highlight of the trip there was running into this trio of french people that were as lost as I was (although they were trying to get somewhere else, so we weren't much help to each other). Eventually though, I rather pitifully asked a Japanese couple for directions, and they not only told me how to get there, but walked me most of the way.

The museum itself was,, sobering. It mainly covered Japanese involvment in WWII (none of which really caught me off guard, as I know more about taht conflict than is healthy for any sane human being), but it also covered Korea, Vietnam, and a few more recent conflicts. I'm glad I went, and the exhibits were well done (with a few rather impressive artifacts), but it isn't a place I'd like to go back to again and again.

This is a rather complete contrast to my next stop- the golden pavilion. I'm really not sure how to describe it. Imagine a three story wooden building plated in gold. No description I can give here would really do it justice, except to say that not only was the building impressive (how could it not be?), the scenery and setting around it was something close to perfect. A very natural feel (which is difficult for something as alien as a gold building). I'm going to stop rambling and just let you see it for yourself.

After this, I was planning to grab a quick bite and head back, but very long story short, I got invited to dinner with about 15 other Japanese tourists,, most were from Kobe or Osaka, one was from Kyonshoe (badly misspelled, northern japan), and they were all rediculously friendly and kind. Unfortunatly, I had about 4 pictures left by dinner, so I didn't get many photos. Notwithstanding, these were some of the coolest people ever, and made for quite the memorable night.

2006-10-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

This is from Osaka castle. The site has some cool history behind it, but it's nothing like the origional building,, all glass and concrete on the inside now. Makes me a bit sad. Still, the park it was in was beautiful, and they dressed us up like fake plastic samuri. I can't say that wasn't fun.

Brief entry yes, but the last picture says it all.

2006-10-10T05:03:00.000-05:00

Nara. This is the site of the first permenant capital of Japan (apparently before this, the capital rotated with each emporor, it was bad luck or karma or something for a new emporor to reign from where the last one had died). Only 45 minutes away, and pretty cool if you ask me.

Once out of the train station (have I mentioned yet how good the public transit is here?), we were gretted with this monk guy next to the fountain.

There's a large park that contains most (but not all) of the many Buhddist temples and shrines that make Nara a tourist spot,, we stayed there for most of the day. That was odd, actualy. The strange mix of observer and devout,, they were functional temples, with several people there praying to,, well whatever it is buhddists pray to. Like this couple here. And right next to them, there were crowds of turists there to take photos,, a rather strange atmosphere. I wonder if some of the Cathedrals of Europe are like this,, there are several people in my lab here that traveled to cathedrals to basicaly do the tourist thing I did yesterday,, but I digress.
There were some truely amazing wooden structures here. These things were huge, and not a single piece of stone in them. The main temple is the largest standing wooden structure in the world, and it's only two thirds it's origional size (it burned down in 1634 or something like that).

Inside is Buddha. A big Buddha . I mean like a big huge ginormous could beat up King Kong Buddha. Unfortunatly in the main temple where it is housed (there's a reason it's the largest wooden structure in existance, you know?) had fairly poor lighting, so none of my pictures really do the thing justice.

However, there's an interesting point- a replica of Buddha's nose. They put a hole in one of the pillars supporting the structure about the same size as the big guy's nostril, and if you can fit through it, it's supposed to mean something. I don't know what that something is, but to translate for people that might not be cometitive to a fault- "you can fit through his nose if your not a failure as a human being". Now most of the people going through were about 25 months old,, but hey, what's wrong with a 25 year old? Nothing I say!

Unfortunatly I went through the thing too quickly for clare to get a good photo with my camera, but there's digital proof on either her camera or tims,, I'll get a hold of it when I can (admittedly, I was so frightened that I wouldn't fit that I kind of flew through the thing. There was much flailing involved).

There was alot to see at the park though, and quite a few deer to feed (they let them roam the park, and sell little packs of buscuits to feed them for 150 yen). I'll end this entry with a few more shots of the park. In other news, I can't get the spellchecker to work for the life of me,, I apologize for any gramatical butchery.

2006-10-05T18:37:00.000-05:00

Today's subject- the squat pot.

I don't think that's the actual name of the thing, but it's the nickname the american students have given it. Apparently, they're very, umm,, popular, and much more commonplace outside of metropolitan areas (this is not to say that they don't have them here, they certainly do, but western style toilets have taken a dectent hold).

Now there's nothing wrong with it, persay,, it's just that I'm not umm, that comfortable doing all my buisness there. They could at least put up a handlebar or something. Fortunatly I've had a western style toilet whenever I needed one, and hopefully that trend will continue.

2006-10-04T21:22:00.000-05:00

Birthday :)

The day began with before morning hike up to the park behind my dorm (and I should emphasize the 'up' part, it's a pretty steep trail to the top). There have a little observation tower thing, which I made it to in time to see the sunrise.

I stoped at the bakery I go to every morning, and actually managed to explain (in Japanese) that I turned 25. Not only did they give me a free pastry fresh out of the oven, but when I went back the next day, they'd made me my own special present (below are pics of what I bought, stuff they had, and the freebys they gave me)

Later at school, I brought some food into the lab. I was also given some pastries from Clare, who knew of my particular affinity for baked goods.

Later that evening, we went out for pizza in shinshibasha (that is most likely mispelled, but it's something like that). Some of it was pretty out there (ever had corn, or shrimp or squid on pizza?), but there was also a few more recognizable toppings, like peppers and pepperoni.

Later, Tim and Dane presented me with a gift I can only call well themed :). I stand impressed by their attention to detail, and now have aliens sitting in my window.

However, many of the students in the lab were gone on a trip to Tokyo on tuesday,, so I think there's a plan of some sort to do something partyish friday,, we'll see how that goes :)

in other news, the power cord for the laptop came in- no more toolbars laden with katakana!

2006-10-01T18:40:00.000-05:00

The weekend of fun, and rain. There were plans to go to the aquarium (apparently one of the best in Japan), but that fell through, and will have to happen another time. It does turn out, however, that I was supposed to meet with Kuboi Sensei briefly saturday. In the future I will put much more effort into knowing when I have such meetings,, but fortunatly I made it. If I`m lucky, I`ll finally start experimentation this week! woot!! Before that happens though, I give a presentation to the lab here on some of the work I`ve done in S. Carolina, and Moss`s lab in general.

But anyway,,, Saturday I went to the oriental ceramic museum (which, Ironically, has more korean/chinese pieces than japanese). I always get reflective when I look at stuff like that, reading the captions. `This one is from the 18th century,, someone made this when we were fighting for independence, with muskets`. This vase is from the 12th century, before the Europeans sailed across the atlantic. What was kept in you? What were the people like, the ones that used you and made you? This one of a chinese lady is from the 5th century,, when rome was old. I don`t even think the aztec empire was around yet. Over 10,000 years old. Over 10,000 years and here I stare at it, through lead free low reflection glass, in a chamber especialy made so that natural sunlight illuminates every piece. Boring to many, but facinating to me.

I also found the shopping street. Well, that`s not it`s name, but I know of no other way to descripe over a kilometer of resteraunts, gift stores, clothing shops, and row after row of miscelaneous goods and services. It`s fun, shopping for suvineirs. In a way, it`s like the friends I`m buying for are here with me.

I also milled about the department stores/malls, and discovered two things. 1- I am in a place where people wear, well, some crazy stuff. Like shirts that say `I like to sense heaven and look in the place that water falls beauty`. (They also wear knee high boots, that have a general name that I will not go into here. And they buy the jeans with the holes already put in them. And over 80% of all women wear high heels. And bike in them.) But anyway, these engrish shirts, they actually buy them in really expensive stores. Stores that, in my mind, could afford better translations.

2- The Japanese version of the video arcade is also,, different. I could go into details, but I`ll only post the most striking- the guy/girl ratio is nearly 50%. I didn`t want to be an annoying turist, so I didn`t take many pictures, but I have never seen such balance. There were even couples there- apparently this was a legitimate place to take a date. I hearby declare Americans socially backward, and think we could learn a gread deal from our Japanese friends*.

Sunday, I went out to see the international flower garden. You could also say I went out and got rained on. But I wanted to be outside in Osaka, and so there I was. I really didn`t know what to expect, but this place was really impressive. When they say international, they mean it- countries from every continent, every region and culture had come and carved out thier own small plot of land. It also had the tremendous advantage of being free.

Hopefully I`ll get the laptop back on-line this week, and finally have pictures of osaka castle, the origional medical university, and the welcome party. Untill then, I leave you with these **

*While the possibility is quite low that a girl I ask out would read this, I want to (just in case) heartily assure you that I would never take you to the arcade on a date. I promise.

**I`m not certain wether the signs in the ceramic museum meant no flash, or no pictures, but in any case, I have none. However, everything I saw can be found here. I think this one was my favorite, just because of it`s simplicity.

2006-09-28T18:30:00.000-05:00

So a huge hole in my life has been filled! Most people who know me realise that I have a certain,, affinity for flour products. For me, they break down into two main catagories: baked goods and spagettii (noodles). Now Japan has noodles aplenty (most aren`t wheat, but close enough). However, the majority of thier baked goods are well, different. They like to do random stuff, like put sweet bean paste in the middle of them, or make cookies out of rice paste. Now this stuff is good and all, but, well,, ok, I miss cookies and sweet bread and things made out of yeast and flour and eggs and sugar. No longer. I bought first picture on a whim. I figured something that large had to have some kind of bean/rice/something else paste in it, but hey, it was a dollar. We`ll try it. Weeellll, not only was it some of the best, softest dough I`ve ever had in a prepackaged product, but do you see the second picture? Yes, that`s chocolate!! I soon discovered that my find was a variation on a popular sweet bread roll shown in the third picutre (no chocolate inside, as shown, but it really doesn`t need it,, it`s pretty awesome). It`s sweet, yeasty, floury, wonderful bread. Now keep in mind, I know bread. I`ve had the rolls at the vanician inn (with honey/butter goodness, when they were hot out of the oven, yum). Not to toot my own horn, but the cinnammon rolls my mother makes (and I have as well) are pretty amazing. I`ve tasted zucini bread and Easter bread, and can make both. Notwithstanding, I must say that by the time I found a bakery that made them fresh, I`d found some of the best bread I`ve ever eaten, hands down. Soft, almoast doughy inside with a sweet (but not too sweet) crispty outer layer. A labmate just came in and told me it`s called `mellon bread`. I`ve eaten like 7 of these things in the last two days and I did`t even know what they were called. Now, off to the depths of the internet- I must find this recipie*!!

*including, but not limited to, the chocolate variation.

2006-09-25T18:06:00.000-05:00

So, two big news points, one, the power cord on Kraigh`s laptop died. power cord on Kraigh`s laptop died. With ｔｈｅ invaluable help of the grad students here, Iwas able to order one from the Japanese Del site (the american one will only ship to America, go figure) . So, for the next week I`m on this spiffy Japanese-formatted computer they have. Don:t get me wrong, it was really nice of them to let me borrow this. It is just that,, well, the computer has subtlties that are a bit irksome. Like most of the commands are written in Katakana. That in and of itself is ok， but the Ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ also has the entire katakana alphabet, and every time I try to use a contraction time I try to use a contraction (specifically, and apostrophe), the machine does this wierd copy/paste thing, and every now and then, I lock　it into `type only katakana` mode, that I have to figure out how to undo.

Nevertheless， the alternative is no computer, and thus I won`t complain. This is computer, and thus I won`t complain. This is a really nice/new machine, too :)

But enough of that. My older pictures are on the laptop, and so updates on the welcome party and such will have to wait. But what I do have are pictures of where I was this weekend. Some of you will have no idea what I:m talking about. Others will think I:m bonkers for being so exited about it. But those few who truely　understand, the nerds among you, will truely appreciate the opportunity I experienced.

The tokyo game show was last weekend. The largest gathering of console/computer entertainment in existence since E3 got axed.

It was pretty awesome. It would have been a bit more enjoyable　had I spoken Japanese, ｂｕｔ enjoyable nonetheless. And I can also tell Jordan Salis that I was there, and possibly come out ahead in our longstanding fued as to which one of us is the biggest geek. But anyway, things that stood out at the show.
1- Open to the public means the place is rediculous crowded. There were even 15 minute lines to get into the souvineir stores.
1b even with the mass of people, there was nearly enough gamming stuff for everyone. Pure, distilled electronic joy.
2-I must buy Hellgate-london. The game looked amazing, and will probably be cheap to boot.
3- I have a picture with bomberman. Nuff said.
3b- I also have my picture with a playstation 3. And, even if it:s overpriced, that:s still awesome.
4-I ｈａｖｅ now seen firstand this strange phenomenon that is cosplay (where `normal` people dress up like video game characters for fun), These people are hard core,, some of them had color contacts so that thier eyes matched the character they were dressed up as. I recognized many of them(especially the die hard final fantasy 7 ,, I think there were only 3 cloud/sephiroth`s, surprizingly)

5-I have no sense of direction whatsoever, and regardless of how sure you are that you leave the convention center on time, it does you no good if it takes you a half hour to find the place you ｗｅｒｅ meeting up with everyone afterwards. Yes, not only did I take the up with everyone afterwards. Yes, not only did I take the wrong exit out, I:m pretty sure I crossed the river over the wrong bridge as well, and backtracked several times. Sorry Chris/Dane. Many, many thanks to matsamoto for getting us two tickets to the show, and helping us find the way there. I am a bit envious you were able to go friday, but more power to ya- hope you had an awesome time :)

2006-09-19T06:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry all, too lazy for pictures

I've developed two modes of speaking: normal, and slowly with large.... spaces ....between.... words.... so.... it ....might.... be ....clear.... to ....some ....one ....that.... speaks ....little.... english (using small words helps too). I used to get a chuckle when Dr. Williams or other americans here would talk to me this way out of habit,, now I chuckle at myself.

This, however, is only surpassed by how funny my broken Japanese stuttering must be to the people here. Oh my word. Not only can I not form a sentence, I can't remember anything- 30 seconds after I ask "kore wa ningun nan to imas ka?", I forget whatever vocabulary word I just asked for (I probably screwed up that question, too. If any japanese speakers happen to be reading, I hearby offer my most sincere apology).

I do however, remember the word for room, shitsu, because it sounds like the dog breed. It's my victory for the day :).

And on that note, japanese vocabulary often combines the sylables 'shi' and 'tsu/tsa', so I'm having to get past the embarrasment of thinking I'm swearing every 5th word I say.

Had my first day of work- my labmates are pretty awesome, and there is absolutely no way I'll ever be able to adequately thank Hiro for his kindness and inexhaustable help (this, I believe, is soon to develop into a list of people that will be anti-small).

That's all for now,, hopefully pics of osaka castle and the lab in when I get non-lazy.

2006-09-17T18:14:00.000-05:00

40 hours later

where to start.

first off, I'll have a section with 'the engrish phrase'. This one definitly wins the prize here. It's funny some of the stuff people wear on t-shirts here,, one girl was actually wearing a t-shirt that said 'orgasm' on the back. I wonder if she knew what it meant. There was also this second one, which I will dub the 'we reject political correctness' sign.

Anyway, this kiss pic came from a random electronics store, that was in the same building as a grocery store, and a 100 yen (dollar) store. And on that note, the 100 yen store had some good stuff in it. I've also found pokey, which is a really good flavored-chocolate-on-a-stick candy.

I also asked someone what time it was, and he understood me and showed me his watch! huge triumph.

I wish I could adequatly convey how large this city is. It's ginormously huge. Here are a few pics of the skyline, from various parts of the city I visited. The first pics are from this 300 ft (I think) ferris wheel they have on the roof of one of the department stores. The latter pics are from the umeda sky building (aka, building of awesomeness). You can see the ferris wheel from it- see how much higher it is?

I'm also waking up at 5:00-6:00, and going to bed around 8:00-10:00,, never thought I'd say that. But the mornings here are pleasant, and sunrise is around 5:45, so it's all good. There's a park in the hills/mountains just behind our dorm that I've taken to exploring in the mornings. There's a graveyard behind it,, thier headstones are different, interesting.

We also tried conveyor belt sushi, which was pretty awesome. Had eel sushi, which I found surprisingly good. Today, they're taking us to Osaka castle- hopefully I'll have a new thread up for that tonight :)

jak

2006-09-15T07:39:00.000-05:00

In the beginning,,,

well first off, there's the 7 classes of survival Japanese taught by the most excellent professor Sakakibara. Considering he had 7 two and a half hour classes, I'd say he did a great job teaching us (survival-style language ftw!). Unfortunatly, I don't have a pic of him. We went out to eat alot while we were in Columbia (as they couldn't cook from the hotel), so we did alot ofeating out. One of the last nights in Columbia, they took us to some rediculously nice Japanese resteraunt, where we had ton's o good food.

Then I stayed at Tyler and Ali's house. To get up waaay to early in the morning, as the evidence will show. Then it was off to the dallas airport. Which, by the way, has a McDonald's that's more expensive than a McDonald's has rights to be, while maintaining the particular level of quality for which it has become famous. But in any case, my flight left for Osaka, which was noteworthy if only for these pictures I managed to get of Russia! isn't it cool!

Anyway, landed at the airport, and said goodbye to what are most likely the last native english speakers we'll meet for some time. And now, I crash, as I've long since given up on figuring out when I should have gone to bed Columbia time.

2006-09-06T16:01:00.000-05:00

must go to nara, and see Mount Koya.

Also!! This feudal castle looks pretty awesome. Not a reconstruction- this one was never destroyed, apparently. Not only that, but the temple nearby (by bus/rope walk?) was a film location for the last samuri! cool beans :)

2006-09-06T15:35:00.000-05:00

kyoto.

wow, so much to do- check this out. So much,, I'll try to divy out a plan of attack later.

2006-09-06T12:37:00.000-05:00

Osaka goals (places to go):

stuff and other stuff near osaka castle.

some kind of plant/flower thing (wonder if there's hiking somewhere)

old temple. The park it's in. The zoo nearby might be good. What is apparently the central/capitol shrine or something.

Sky tower. doesn't that look awesome? 300 ft farris wheel nearby that too. I think this aquarium is close as well.

Might ride out to this mountain/city, or perhaps not.

might be a cool part of town walk around in. Must see the puppet theatre. Schedule here. Should either go in november or september. Apparently some good shopping nearby. I have to say this museum of wooden prints looks cool too.

Ceramic museum sounds cool. Central hall is just next door, should see that at the same time. Must walk/ride down this street, ideally when the leaves are changing. Should walk down this way while I do, too.

Iga Ueno-
ninja museum, with spiffy castles and artists nearby. and how to get there.

Kyoto- too much to do there,, wiill need it's own seperate post.

2005-12-11T19:42:00.000-05:00

So, this will most likely be my Japan travel/picture blog. Nice for this to finally have a purpose. Pics from japan starting September 15th.