Well, it's been another amazing few weeks. It's scary to think that we're already halfway through our adventure here. I've been meaning to write a blog entry earlier this week, but work has become increasingly hectic as we inch toward our final report. Because it's been a while since I last wrote, I'll be splitting this one up into multiple posts. This is the second oldest post. The newest will be at the top.
Before I continue, let me say that my camera ran out of juice that day, so most of these pictures are courtesy of Marshall and Robert, but mostly Robert. He took some beautiful shots! You can see more under this tag in my photo gallery. I'm trying out a different layout this time, with larger pictures and smaller paragraphs. Let me know what you think.
We spent the Sunday after Cathy's party in Kyoto. There, we met Daisaku and his girlfriend Junko, who we met through Marshall. We had met Daisaku once before towards the beginning of our stay in Osaka, when he accompanied us to our first Izakaya.
Our first stop was the famous Fushimi Shrine in Kyoto. I had stumbled upon a few shrines before in Osaka, but this one was something else. First of all, it was huge: a giant complex of at least two dozen structures, with paths leading through the forest to the top of a mountain. In the two hours we spent there, we only saw a third of it, at most.
The architecture and sculptures were amazing. The Fushimi Shrine is dedicated to Inari, the shinto god of rice, and foxes are it's messengers, or so says the internet. Anyway, exquisite fox statues abounded, as did fox-shaped wooden wish-blocks.
Shinto generally involves a lot of wishing. We saw millions of folded paper cranes, each string of which supposedly represent a wish, and candles which represent wishes. And a stone, which if is felt to be light, grants your wish.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the shrine are its countless thousands of shinto archways, or Torii. When Junko first told me there were supposed to be over 10,000 of them, I balked, but after walking through hundreds, one after another, like a tunnel through the forest, I believe her. Each was supposedly donated individually by and individual or company, and accumulated over the years. It's pretty surreal to walk through them all the way up the mountain.
The next stop after the shrine was the Gekkeikan Sake Museum. It was built in a traditional sake brewing house, and had lots of old equipment, barrels, labels, and paraphenalia. It was a lot more interesting than you'd think, actually.
The best thing about the museum was of course the sake tasting. Needless to say, it was quite delicious. Afterwards, some of the employees introduced us, chatted us up, and tried out their English: "My name is James Bond... my mission is impossible. Thank you very much."
We finished off the trip with a visit to a very fancy restaurant at the top of a very tall shopping center, from which we could see all of Kyoto, including the Kyoto Tower. The food was exquisite, also. Back in Osaka that night, we topped it off by celebrating Cathy's 21st in the proper American fashion... All in all, it was a pretty marvelous day.
Before I continue, let me say that my camera ran out of juice that day, so most of these pictures are courtesy of Marshall and Robert, but mostly Robert. He took some beautiful shots! You can see more under this tag in my photo gallery. I'm trying out a different layout this time, with larger pictures and smaller paragraphs. Let me know what you think.
We spent the Sunday after Cathy's party in Kyoto. There, we met Daisaku and his girlfriend Junko, who we met through Marshall. We had met Daisaku once before towards the beginning of our stay in Osaka, when he accompanied us to our first Izakaya.
Our first stop was the famous Fushimi Shrine in Kyoto. I had stumbled upon a few shrines before in Osaka, but this one was something else. First of all, it was huge: a giant complex of at least two dozen structures, with paths leading through the forest to the top of a mountain. In the two hours we spent there, we only saw a third of it, at most.
The architecture and sculptures were amazing. The Fushimi Shrine is dedicated to Inari, the shinto god of rice, and foxes are it's messengers, or so says the internet. Anyway, exquisite fox statues abounded, as did fox-shaped wooden wish-blocks.
Shinto generally involves a lot of wishing. We saw millions of folded paper cranes, each string of which supposedly represent a wish, and candles which represent wishes. And a stone, which if is felt to be light, grants your wish.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the shrine are its countless thousands of shinto archways, or Torii. When Junko first told me there were supposed to be over 10,000 of them, I balked, but after walking through hundreds, one after another, like a tunnel through the forest, I believe her. Each was supposedly donated individually by and individual or company, and accumulated over the years. It's pretty surreal to walk through them all the way up the mountain.
The next stop after the shrine was the Gekkeikan Sake Museum. It was built in a traditional sake brewing house, and had lots of old equipment, barrels, labels, and paraphenalia. It was a lot more interesting than you'd think, actually.
The best thing about the museum was of course the sake tasting. Needless to say, it was quite delicious. Afterwards, some of the employees introduced us, chatted us up, and tried out their English: "My name is James Bond... my mission is impossible. Thank you very much."
We finished off the trip with a visit to a very fancy restaurant at the top of a very tall shopping center, from which we could see all of Kyoto, including the Kyoto Tower. The food was exquisite, also. Back in Osaka that night, we topped it off by celebrating Cathy's 21st in the proper American fashion... All in all, it was a pretty marvelous day.
Meeting the Chancellor, Gion Matsuri, and Cathy's Birthday
0 Comments Published by MistarOblivion on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 at 3:20 PM.
Well, it's been another amazing few weeks. It's scary to think that we're already halfway through our adventure here. I've been meaning to write a blog last week, but work has become increasingly hectic as we inch toward our final report. Because it's been a while since I last wrote, I'll be splitting this one up into multiple posts. The newest will be at the top. What follows actually transpired two weekends ago, in case you're keeping track.
It's certainly been a busy weekend. Peter Arzberger, the head of the PRIME program, came to visit Osaka. We got a call from Peter last Thursday, letting us know that we were going to meet the Chancellor of Osaka University. Apparently, you don't meet the Chancellor unless you're 'somebody important', and because of the rather rigid social heirarchy in Japan, the encounter was a little nerve-wracking for everyone. His office was four or five times as big as my apartment, and was decorated with traditional Japanese art and calligraphy. Even Peter and Shimojo-sensee were palpably nervous as they spoke to him. That said, I think it went mostly fine. We got our picture taken at the end of the meeting. That night, a dinner was arranged for Peter and the whole lab attended. I met quite a few new faces that night and got a lot of practice speaking Japanese.
Friday at the lab, we showed Peter our work so far, and he seemed happy with our progress. He only had one day to spend in Osaka before his return trip, and Ichikawa took all of us the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto. It's an annual festival held there, and it's said to the most famous in all of Japan. It's a very ancient tradition, and it gave me a great opportunity to see some more traditional Japanese culture firsthand. Japanese men and women at the festival wear summer-kimonos, called yukata. For the week of the festival, the entireity of downtown Kyoto is closed to all but pedestrian traffic, and giant floats, called yamaboko, are assembled all over the city. We went there days before the festival's finale - a long ceremony and parade through the streets. Despite this, the streets were swarmed with people. The alleys were lined with stands selling food, drinks, and souvenirs. I sampled quite a bit of the former two, including some skewered yakitori (barbequed chicken) and fish-shaped cakes called taiyaki.
My pictures of Gion Matsuri
Cathy's pictures of Gion Matsuri
Last saturday was Cathy's birthday. We spent the day in Dotomburi and America-mura. For lunch we went back to the ramen-shop Kibo-ken, so Marshall and I could race to see who could finish the super-spicy bowl first. I won on a technicality - somebody called him on the phone during the contest. Cathy's birthday celebrations began that evening. Junko and her friend Yamaguchi-san joined us for the evening. First, we went to a Chinese restaurant for shaved noodles, which were delicious. After dinner, we went to a gigantic palace of fun called Beaverworld. It was a pool hall, a karaoke bar, a bowling alley, an arcade, an internet cafe/gaming lounge, a movie theater, and a few other things. This wouldn't have impressed me too much, except that everything is free once you're inside. For about 2 or 3 dollars an hour. Needless to say, we were in heaven for the evening. We finally got home at around 4 or 5 in the morning.
My pictures of the evening
Cathy's pictures of the evening
It's certainly been a busy weekend. Peter Arzberger, the head of the PRIME program, came to visit Osaka. We got a call from Peter last Thursday, letting us know that we were going to meet the Chancellor of Osaka University. Apparently, you don't meet the Chancellor unless you're 'somebody important', and because of the rather rigid social heirarchy in Japan, the encounter was a little nerve-wracking for everyone. His office was four or five times as big as my apartment, and was decorated with traditional Japanese art and calligraphy. Even Peter and Shimojo-sensee were palpably nervous as they spoke to him. That said, I think it went mostly fine. We got our picture taken at the end of the meeting. That night, a dinner was arranged for Peter and the whole lab attended. I met quite a few new faces that night and got a lot of practice speaking Japanese.
Friday at the lab, we showed Peter our work so far, and he seemed happy with our progress. He only had one day to spend in Osaka before his return trip, and Ichikawa took all of us the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto. It's an annual festival held there, and it's said to the most famous in all of Japan. It's a very ancient tradition, and it gave me a great opportunity to see some more traditional Japanese culture firsthand. Japanese men and women at the festival wear summer-kimonos, called yukata. For the week of the festival, the entireity of downtown Kyoto is closed to all but pedestrian traffic, and giant floats, called yamaboko, are assembled all over the city. We went there days before the festival's finale - a long ceremony and parade through the streets. Despite this, the streets were swarmed with people. The alleys were lined with stands selling food, drinks, and souvenirs. I sampled quite a bit of the former two, including some skewered yakitori (barbequed chicken) and fish-shaped cakes called taiyaki.My pictures of Gion Matsuri
Cathy's pictures of Gion Matsuri
Last saturday was Cathy's birthday. We spent the day in Dotomburi and America-mura. For lunch we went back to the ramen-shop Kibo-ken, so Marshall and I could race to see who could finish the super-spicy bowl first. I won on a technicality - somebody called him on the phone during the contest. Cathy's birthday celebrations began that evening. Junko and her friend Yamaguchi-san joined us for the evening. First, we went to a Chinese restaurant for shaved noodles, which were delicious. After dinner, we went to a gigantic palace of fun called Beaverworld. It was a pool hall, a karaoke bar, a bowling alley, an arcade, an internet cafe/gaming lounge, a movie theater, and a few other things. This wouldn't have impressed me too much, except that everything is free once you're inside. For about 2 or 3 dollars an hour. Needless to say, we were in heaven for the evening. We finally got home at around 4 or 5 in the morning.My pictures of the evening
Cathy's pictures of the evening
Fourth of July, America-Mura, more work...
0 Comments Published by MistarOblivion on Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 12:01 AM.
Another week has passed since my last post - time flies, I guess. I know it's been a while, but now that everyone is busy with their projects, things have settled down a bit. It's been mostly work, eat, sleep, aside from a few notable happenings. Also note that aside from the pictures here, I am now linking directly to Cathy's Yahoo photo gallery, which is updated daily (wow!), and Robert's photobucket page, in the bar at the right. Anyway, the picture above is from his gallery, and it hangs above the entrance to a store that sells manga, anime, videogames and figurines in Den Den town. 'Otaku' means something like geek or nerd in Japanese.
We've been attending a series of Grid Computing talks in the mornings for the past two weeks. It means waking up extra early and taking a bus ride to the other campus, but they're interesting enough. Last week, Wilfred Li, the director of the NBCR, gave a lecture. It was mostly a cheerleading session for his software and the concept of Grid Computing in general. To those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, grid computing deals with aggregating computing power from many different places. Instead of using a very expensive, centrally-located supercomputer, grid computing means using smaller sets of supercomputers communicating together over the internet to run business applications and solve scientific problems like the docking simulation I am working on now.
Last week Marshall and I took Dr. Li out to dinner after his talk, which was fun. We got to chat with him about biology, computing, and advancements in the field. It turns out that he did his post-doctoral work for my PRIME mentor (and boss) at UCSD, Phil Bourne. We had a great time, and after quite a bit of searching through downtown, we found great place for dinner. It seems that we're getting pretty good at navigating around the city.Unfortunately, we didn't get to entertain this week's speaker. His name is Rajikmar Buyya, and he's from the University of Melbourne in Australia. He's creating a worldwide grid computing system loosely analogous to the Internet, where all programs are run on one (or a few) massively distributed supercomputers, and people pay for the distributed computing power they use instead of buying personal computers, as is the case now.
Its an interesting (crazy?) idea, and there are many challenges (political and economic ones, not just technical), so I can't say that I'm sold on the idea. Maybe the ARPANET detractors had the same misgivings? He's been all over the 'E-Science' and 'E-Business' news as quote "someone to watch in 2006", so somebody takes this stuff seriously. I'll have an opportunity to 'watch' and discuss some of these misgivings with him tomorrow, so maybe he can convince me. I had to chuckle a bit when he listed Worldcom, Enron, and Compaq on his list of corporate partners (circa 2002, of course).
I know I mentioned our 4th of July plans last time, so I'd better recap. Luckily, we were able to enjoy the occasion with a proper fireworks display. Here, it seems, you can just walk into storefronts along the subway station at any time of the year and buy baskets full of the stuff! Nothing too large or dangerous (don't worry Mom...) was acquired, but there were some notable ones that I hadn't seen before. My favorite were 線香花火, or Senko Hanabi, which are difficult to describe. I guess you could call them Japanese sparklers. They are thin and delicate, and you hold them upside down. When you light the wire at the bottom, a white hot ball forms, and travels up the fuse. As it burns, it goes through many different stages. First it flickers coyishly, then becomes like a tiny aerial firework on a string, then for the finale, it becomes an amazing, almost organic, fractal structure with forking and twisting tendrils, like something between nerve endings and ball lightning. You have to hold the stem very still in your hand, despite the excitement, or the ball will shake loose and drop before it gets to the top. I'm told that because they are affected by humidity, Senko Hanabi burn differently depending on the time of the year, and are at their most exquisite in summer. I didn't take this picture, but found it on Flickr. It's a good one, but you really have to see one in person to appreciate how absolutely beautiful it is.
The weekend was fun. Marshall went to visit a friend in Tokyo, so Cathy, Robert and I spent Saturday in Den Den Town again, visiting all the electronics, video game, and comic book shops. I was on the lookout for a video game that my friend back home wanted, but everywhere, even in never-ending Den Den Town, was sold out. Luckily, "soldo outo" is how you say that in Japanese.
Aside from that bit of bad news, it was a fun day. Cathy found us a great katsu restaurant down an alley in Dotomburi. Katsu is a way of breading meat. It's usually served over rice, and sometimes mixed with with egg. Finding new restaurants is definitely one of my favorite things to do here...
Sunday, Ichikawa-san took us to America-mura (mura means village), which was interesting. It's mostly a shopping district, and despite the name, it wasn't very American at all, except for a few souvenier shops. We had some excellent takoyaki though, for which Osaka is famous. Takoyaki are little fried balls of batter filled with tako (octopus), mayonaise, and green onion. Quite delish.
All the prices there were pretty outrageous at the shops there: 40 dollars for a T-shirt, 60 for a collared shirt, and 180 for pairs of jeans. We managed to find a thrift-store in the expanse of trendiness, eventually. There was some crazy vintage clothing along with the normal stuff (bright purple cordorouys, "1978 Bass Fishing Championship" wife-beaters...), and they were selling most everything, including used American license plates, for 300 yen (3 dollars). The 'Pay-by-Weight' section was what really floored me. They had large scales with baskets set up, and you just loaded clothes onto them for 5 yen a gram. This converts to about 20 dollars a pound, so it wasn't exactly a steal, but interesting all the same.For lunch, we went to a ramen-ya in Dotomburi called Kiboken. This was probably the highlight of the day, but not because it was especially delicious or fancy. If you order the spiciest thing on the menu (bottom left) (there's a printed warning next to it), and finish it in under 15 minutes, broth and all, you get your picture put up on the wall. Needless to say, this was something I had to do. It was good - more scalding than spicy - and it really didn't get to me until I had to slurp down the dark red soup at the end. My 6 minutes was well within the 15 allotted, so I now there's a grinning picture of me and my empty bowl on the wall in the cramped little shop on the river. Marshall's been craving spiciness since we arrived (most Japanese can't really handle spicy things) so I'll probably go back there this weekend... and race him to the bottom of a bowl.
The past few days have been uneventful, other than the lectures, and have mostly involved lots and lots of work, punctuated by (good) food and (insufficient) sleep. We went to dinner with some guys from the lab tonight; Takeda-san (who helped us set up our parallel processing) is leaving on his own international research trip to Singapore for the rest of the year, so the dinner was to see him off. We had Okonamiyaki - those pancake things I described earlier - except this time, we had to make it ourselves! They gave us a bowl of ingredients (batter, spices, veggies, ginger, various uncooked sea-creatures...) to mix together and pour onto the grill in the middle of the table. We were kindly assisted by our hosts, who knew what they were doing, but it was a struggle nonetheless. Still delicious, though.Work is going well, and I have to send another progress report back to UCSD at the end of this week, so maybe I'll have some more cool science-y pictures for my next post, which hopefully will be soon. We've got a lot of great things planned - Peter Arzberger, the PRIME organizer and all around superhero, is paying us a visit, so we'll probably party in his honor. Then Cathy's 21st birthday is on Saturday, and we're planning something (maybe karaoke) for that. We'll see. It should be fun!
If I've learned anything from this past weekend, it's the following: In Japan, at least, getting lost usually turns out to be a good thing. Hitting the road with some vague idea of a destination, and walking in its general direction, while usually not advisable if one is in a hurry, is a sure fire way to come across some amazing stuff.
On Saturday, Marshall and I decided to visit a Buddhist temple we read about near Dotomburi arcade. We got off the subway at the nearest stop and started walking. It's fair to say that we got fairly lost, but we found some great stuff along the arcade - a mexican restaurant (that was quite a find), some crazy shops, and a life-sized statue of Colonel Sanders.
The temple itself eluded us for quite some time though, and we spent much of the midday trudging through the busy Dotomburi arcade in the rain. There's quite a bit of interesting stuff around there just waiting to be stumbled upon, like the kabuki theater, the Dotomburi-gawa riverfront and these ... things. Thank goodness we only had a tiny unlabelled map and our own horrible senses of direction to go on, or we wouldn't have found all this cool stuff.
Eventually, we did find the Hozen-ji temple. Apparently, you splash water on this moss-covered statue for good luck. It has some other smaller temple buildings around it, but basically its
embedded in a tiny alley by the arcade. Pretty cool, if you ask me.
We spent the rest of the afternoon continuing to wander. We had some lunch at a ramen shop, but it wasn't nearly as good as last weekend's outing to Ippudo.
We then met up with Junko, a girl that Marshall and Robert met on the plane to Osaka. She took us around to several 居酒屋 (izakaya, japanese-style bars), and gave us an impromptu tour of
the Dotomburi area at night. It reminds me a little of the Las Vegas strip, except everything is squished together, and in Japanese. We got a good amount of Japanese practice in throughout the night, discussing politics, religion, and all manner of other things.
Sunday we got a later start, but our decided destination was Den Den town, a district famous for its many electronic stores (Denshi means electronic). But once again, we got lost. Very lost. We ended up going east instead of south. But once again, we saw some amazing things (<- a link to my tagged photos of the outing). There were tons and tons of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples hidden throughout the area, and it was a very surreal experience walking down a narrow alley and ending up at a huge gated shrine complex, with ornate buildings, koi ponds, statues, and waterfalls. Our whimsy for exploration ended up getting us even more lost, and after a while we ended up at some sort of festival, with game and food booths, music, and everything. Talk about luck.
After asking for directions and consulting some subway maps, we did eventually end up in Den Den town - see the picture of the street above. It was fantastic, especially the vintage video game shops. It was a very nostalgic experience, and the sheer amount of games, consoles, and memoribilia was jaw-dropping.We didn't stay as long as we could have, so I'm definitely going back there soon, to oogle some more, and maybe buy some things.
Robert didn't join us for either of our adventures this weekend - instead he met up with a friend he met at UCSD and spent Saturday and Sunday with her. Cathy had gotten sick after the Welcome Party on Friday, so she stayed home the next day, but was able to get some fresh air with us on Sunday. She's still feeling a little bit under the weather, but I think she'll be OK. Marshall and I all have tons of pictures of our weekend adventures, so be sure to check them out.
Oh, and I almost forgot, today is the Fourth of July! While I must say that the nationalist rhetoric that usually accompanies most 4th of July celebrations makes me uncomfortable, I'd never miss the opportunity to light things on fire! To that end, I've convinced Tak (Tomomi's husband) to help us buy some fireworks and set them off at a park near his apartment. We'll see how it goes. And of course, there will be pictures, as usual.
On Saturday, Marshall and I decided to visit a Buddhist temple we read about near Dotomburi arcade. We got off the subway at the nearest stop and started walking. It's fair to say that we got fairly lost, but we found some great stuff along the arcade - a mexican restaurant (that was quite a find), some crazy shops, and a life-sized statue of Colonel Sanders.The temple itself eluded us for quite some time though, and we spent much of the midday trudging through the busy Dotomburi arcade in the rain. There's quite a bit of interesting stuff around there just waiting to be stumbled upon, like the kabuki theater, the Dotomburi-gawa riverfront and these ... things. Thank goodness we only had a tiny unlabelled map and our own horrible senses of direction to go on, or we wouldn't have found all this cool stuff.Eventually, we did find the Hozen-ji temple. Apparently, you splash water on this moss-covered statue for good luck. It has some other smaller temple buildings around it, but basically itsembedded in a tiny alley by the arcade. Pretty cool, if you ask me.
We spent the rest of the afternoon continuing to wander. We had some lunch at a ramen shop, but it wasn't nearly as good as last weekend's outing to Ippudo.
We then met up with Junko, a girl that Marshall and Robert met on the plane to Osaka. She took us around to several 居酒屋 (izakaya, japanese-style bars), and gave us an impromptu tour ofthe Dotomburi area at night. It reminds me a little of the Las Vegas strip, except everything is squished together, and in Japanese. We got a good amount of Japanese practice in throughout the night, discussing politics, religion, and all manner of other things.
Sunday we got a later start, but our decided destination was Den Den town, a district famous for its many electronic stores (Denshi means electronic). But once again, we got lost. Very lost. We ended up going east instead of south. But once again, we saw some amazing things (<- a link to my tagged photos of the outing). There were tons and tons of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples hidden throughout the area, and it was a very surreal experience walking down a narrow alley and ending up at a huge gated shrine complex, with ornate buildings, koi ponds, statues, and waterfalls. Our whimsy for exploration ended up getting us even more lost, and after a while we ended up at some sort of festival, with game and food booths, music, and everything. Talk about luck.
After asking for directions and consulting some subway maps, we did eventually end up in Den Den town - see the picture of the street above. It was fantastic, especially the vintage video game shops. It was a very nostalgic experience, and the sheer amount of games, consoles, and memoribilia was jaw-dropping.We didn't stay as long as we could have, so I'm definitely going back there soon, to oogle some more, and maybe buy some things.
Robert didn't join us for either of our adventures this weekend - instead he met up with a friend he met at UCSD and spent Saturday and Sunday with her. Cathy had gotten sick after the Welcome Party on Friday, so she stayed home the next day, but was able to get some fresh air with us on Sunday. She's still feeling a little bit under the weather, but I think she'll be OK. Marshall and I all have tons of pictures of our weekend adventures, so be sure to check them out.Oh, and I almost forgot, today is the Fourth of July! While I must say that the nationalist rhetoric that usually accompanies most 4th of July celebrations makes me uncomfortable, I'd never miss the opportunity to light things on fire! To that end, I've convinced Tak (Tomomi's husband) to help us buy some fireworks and set them off at a park near his apartment. We'll see how it goes. And of course, there will be pictures, as usual.
