Well in less than 10 days, this year is going to come to an end... and you know what? It's that time of year again to make new years resolutions. Yay, actually, I'm kind of looking forward to making some new years resolutions (NB: don't let New Years to be the only time to make resolutions btw).
So what do I have in store for the resolutions? Not so sure yet, but I have a general idea... but I'll post it when I have them down. Also the other interesting thing is that I have my old resolutions on file from the psat 2 years on my computer after hosting my old blog. I'll make the post first and make a comparison of my resolutions compared to the past 2 years. Interesting food for thought.
Anyways, here's looking towards 2006. 2005 was a great year, just hoping that 2006 is just as good.
Time to get ready for the Lab's pre-new year's party (they really don't have x-mas parties here... they have pre-new years parties instead.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Season's Greetings.... and Farewell Firefly
I have no sense of time at the moment. Life, as usual is operating on a week by week basis. It snowed a few weeks ago and now that I'm looking at the date, it's almost Chrismas. Where the hell did time go? I know this for sure-- I don't have time to send out x-mas cards or do any real sort of holiday season preparation. I have learned something thus far-- if you're going to work hard on something, there had better be some value that you're going to get out of it at the end, or by the end, you're going to feel robbed... and you are going to feel robbed of alot of things. Fortunately for me, it hasn't come down to that. You just gotta deal with the mechanics of study, work, experiments and knowing what you want at the end. Simple... sort'a.
So Chrismas is comming up, it's a week away. Officially the lab doesn't close until the New years, but I'm taking the days starting from the 26th off. I'm tired and all I want to do at the moment is crawl into bed, hibernate and read. But that isn't going to happen, because the holiday seasons are here and the other students here at the dorms are going to be setting up parties and such... as a likely result, I'll be hopping along for the ride and will still be tired at the end :P I want a (real) vacation.
In other news, I've read on /. that one of my most favorite TV series is being laid to rest for the time being. Information here. Dispite huge support from fans, since the TV series was cancelled years ago and even after the release of the movie (which I still have yet to see but had great reviews but not a blockbuster turnout... [official link] here) it seems that there wasn't enough mainstream support to get the thing off the ground. What can I say, (I feel like I'm writing a eulegy...) just watch it. Fire up e-mule or a bit torrent, whatever download or buy the DVDs.. just watch it. It's good... I just wish there was more.
So Chrismas is comming up, it's a week away. Officially the lab doesn't close until the New years, but I'm taking the days starting from the 26th off. I'm tired and all I want to do at the moment is crawl into bed, hibernate and read. But that isn't going to happen, because the holiday seasons are here and the other students here at the dorms are going to be setting up parties and such... as a likely result, I'll be hopping along for the ride and will still be tired at the end :P I want a (real) vacation.
In other news, I've read on /. that one of my most favorite TV series is being laid to rest for the time being. Information here. Dispite huge support from fans, since the TV series was cancelled years ago and even after the release of the movie (which I still have yet to see but had great reviews but not a blockbuster turnout... [official link] here) it seems that there wasn't enough mainstream support to get the thing off the ground. What can I say, (I feel like I'm writing a eulegy...) just watch it. Fire up e-mule or a bit torrent, whatever download or buy the DVDs.. just watch it. It's good... I just wish there was more.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Back from Tokyo
Back from a semi-conductor conference in Tokyo. 2 days, most expense paid trip to help the lab run booth at the exhibition hall. Totally under dressed, dispite one of the guys telling me to go "semi-formal" (which I even brought down to semi-casual). Whatever, suit or no suit, I did my job.
Snow this weekend, midnight snow ball fight, a little bit of shopping this weekend, lab meeting on Saturday as usual and it's back to the grind this monday.
Speaking of the grind there's something cute a friend sent to me-- coffee too pretty to drink, here
Enjoy!
Back to preparing another presntation for tomorrow. I wish my professors would lay off the presntations and let me do my work for crying out loud...
Snow this weekend, midnight snow ball fight, a little bit of shopping this weekend, lab meeting on Saturday as usual and it's back to the grind this monday.
Speaking of the grind there's something cute a friend sent to me-- coffee too pretty to drink, here
Enjoy!
Back to preparing another presntation for tomorrow. I wish my professors would lay off the presntations and let me do my work for crying out loud...
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Screwed! Well not completly.... but mainly
I have a presentation this weekend, this Saturday in particular. You see, in this lab we have weekly meetings.... on Saturdays. This isn't the norm, it's just the lab that I decided to pick. That and it turns out I picked well... the lab is also quite good.
Well every Saturday, everyone attend these meetings where members (3 of them a week) are to present to the rest of the 50 members to the lab their work for the past ~3 months. Well great, I've been officially been a part of this lab since the beginning of October and I've gone though 2 research themes and was going to present my most current one (yeah we know where this is going...).
So I've been prepping for this presentation for the past 2 weeks (I was supposed to be done last week because I got the date wrong and started preparing a week early). So, well here I am, 2 days before the presentation... and decided to talk to my professor to hear what points in particular so I'd have my bases covered. Well what happened, is that my proff wants me to go and present my previous research theme as well to everyone because he thoght my research was indepth and so that I would not forget it. I have 2 days before my presentation dude! My presentation is already going to be long; I can already feel it. NB. I've already slaughtered a group of students in a robotics class with my monstrosity of a presentation... weighing in about 63 slides and 2 hours long and I am going to do this again?
Well I don't mind the talking part, it's just the preparation. Driving me batty. Thursday night and I was looking forward to getting this presentation of mine down just barely but up to snuff for this Saturday. I'm also scheduled for a tour of a micro-fabrication plant for tomorrow that is going to eat up a chunk of my day. Sigh...
I wonder I'm going to watch the sunrise from my lab... haw...
Well every Saturday, everyone attend these meetings where members (3 of them a week) are to present to the rest of the 50 members to the lab their work for the past ~3 months. Well great, I've been officially been a part of this lab since the beginning of October and I've gone though 2 research themes and was going to present my most current one (yeah we know where this is going...).
So I've been prepping for this presentation for the past 2 weeks (I was supposed to be done last week because I got the date wrong and started preparing a week early). So, well here I am, 2 days before the presentation... and decided to talk to my professor to hear what points in particular so I'd have my bases covered. Well what happened, is that my proff wants me to go and present my previous research theme as well to everyone because he thoght my research was indepth and so that I would not forget it. I have 2 days before my presentation dude! My presentation is already going to be long; I can already feel it. NB. I've already slaughtered a group of students in a robotics class with my monstrosity of a presentation... weighing in about 63 slides and 2 hours long and I am going to do this again?
Well I don't mind the talking part, it's just the preparation. Driving me batty. Thursday night and I was looking forward to getting this presentation of mine down just barely but up to snuff for this Saturday. I'm also scheduled for a tour of a micro-fabrication plant for tomorrow that is going to eat up a chunk of my day. Sigh...
I wonder I'm going to watch the sunrise from my lab... haw...
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Alive and well
More than 2 weeks since my last post. I'm losing it, really. I'm at the computer all day reading and then running around running little experiments. Sometimes I wonder where my time goes. I'm at the lab late sometimes... sometimes I wonder how much I am getting done now a these days.
As usual, a lot has been going on. I've been in a fasion show, hit the onsen and saw the beautiful autunm leaves in Sendai. That was nearly 3 weeks ago. Today was a party in my room with Mike, EE Wen, Eun Young, Diego, Misha, Nannan, Li and more. Last week was the fashion show and badminton. The week before was volunteering for an English Speech contest.
Just to let you see what has recently gone on here's a picture from Nov 3, after making a trek to Yamadera with friends. Props to Kelvin and his wonderful camera... (I really want a nice camera now :)
EE Wen, Momo and me in the mountains.
Cheers all!
As usual, a lot has been going on. I've been in a fasion show, hit the onsen and saw the beautiful autunm leaves in Sendai. That was nearly 3 weeks ago. Today was a party in my room with Mike, EE Wen, Eun Young, Diego, Misha, Nannan, Li and more. Last week was the fashion show and badminton. The week before was volunteering for an English Speech contest.
Just to let you see what has recently gone on here's a picture from Nov 3, after making a trek to Yamadera with friends. Props to Kelvin and his wonderful camera... (I really want a nice camera now :)
EE Wen, Momo and me in the mountains.
Cheers all!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Infamy and Questions
It seems that some parts of my life in Canada also carries over to Japan. I don't know how or why, but news of me seems to travel around everywhere without me knowing. Why is that? I'll admit that I'm an odd ball, but somehow in random conversations, my name pops up. I think it's kind of funny. Oh well.
There is a difference between taking classes in Japan as compared to Canada or in the states. The difference is that students here don't ask questions. That and they don't seem to enjoy answering questions posed by teachers either. I personally believe that it has to do with some kind of inbread fear of being embarassed.
As for me, well when it comes to certain things, you could say that "I have no shame." This is especially true for asking stupid questions or doing stupid things. It's a fact, I do stupid things all the time. Just ask the audience. It's not a problem though-- it makes for some pretty good stories however.
But that's the thing, the thing I feel about Japan is that in formal situations with other people in a class. They are afraid of being stupid in the sense of not knowing the answer or asking questions. I am taking 6 classes now and in most classes I am the one that is asking the most questions. The interesting thing is that most of these Japanese people are kind of puzzed about this asian looking foreigner that can speak fluent English, that can sounds like a native Japanese speaker but can't speak proper Japanese half of the time. It has come down to the point where I do stand up and walk up to the chalk board and write out mathematically what I want to express. The students in the class were rather surprised at how bold I am. Well... even in Canada I don't usually walk up to the chalk board to write out what I am talking about in class... in Japan, it's sort of a necessity. As a result I have become some kind of spectacle.
What I would learn later is that news of me is spreading. Interesitngly enough, I started talking to random people in class from time to time and do hear that they know a few friends of mine in my lab... hence the news spreads. I find it interesting, so long as it's the good kind of news that spreads :) I'm all for that part.
Aside from that, it has been about 5 weeks since the beginning of my masters degree. I've finally settled on a project... the only problem is getting the ball rolling. There is a lot of equipment over here and the thing is that I need to schedule time with people to learn how to use the equipment. Ugh, time management was never one of my strong points. It still isn't either. How does one balance work and play? It's tricky. I play lots on the weekend and stay late at the lab during the weekdays. I haven't loafed around in a while.. which is a good thing I guess... (hence the lack of idle thoughts posts like I had done before the start of my masters).
On an interesting note. After getting into the lab, I have gotten fatter. I've gained back the 5 pounds which I lost at first when I first came in to Japan. The culprit being the fatty foods (ie deep fried foods) at the cafeteria that I've been eating everyday. Going to have to get myself off those foods because it isn't good for my health. Keep this up and I'll be comming home like a pumpkin. Not a pretty sight.
There is a difference between taking classes in Japan as compared to Canada or in the states. The difference is that students here don't ask questions. That and they don't seem to enjoy answering questions posed by teachers either. I personally believe that it has to do with some kind of inbread fear of being embarassed.
As for me, well when it comes to certain things, you could say that "I have no shame." This is especially true for asking stupid questions or doing stupid things. It's a fact, I do stupid things all the time. Just ask the audience. It's not a problem though-- it makes for some pretty good stories however.
But that's the thing, the thing I feel about Japan is that in formal situations with other people in a class. They are afraid of being stupid in the sense of not knowing the answer or asking questions. I am taking 6 classes now and in most classes I am the one that is asking the most questions. The interesting thing is that most of these Japanese people are kind of puzzed about this asian looking foreigner that can speak fluent English, that can sounds like a native Japanese speaker but can't speak proper Japanese half of the time. It has come down to the point where I do stand up and walk up to the chalk board and write out mathematically what I want to express. The students in the class were rather surprised at how bold I am. Well... even in Canada I don't usually walk up to the chalk board to write out what I am talking about in class... in Japan, it's sort of a necessity. As a result I have become some kind of spectacle.
What I would learn later is that news of me is spreading. Interesitngly enough, I started talking to random people in class from time to time and do hear that they know a few friends of mine in my lab... hence the news spreads. I find it interesting, so long as it's the good kind of news that spreads :) I'm all for that part.
Aside from that, it has been about 5 weeks since the beginning of my masters degree. I've finally settled on a project... the only problem is getting the ball rolling. There is a lot of equipment over here and the thing is that I need to schedule time with people to learn how to use the equipment. Ugh, time management was never one of my strong points. It still isn't either. How does one balance work and play? It's tricky. I play lots on the weekend and stay late at the lab during the weekdays. I haven't loafed around in a while.. which is a good thing I guess... (hence the lack of idle thoughts posts like I had done before the start of my masters).
On an interesting note. After getting into the lab, I have gotten fatter. I've gained back the 5 pounds which I lost at first when I first came in to Japan. The culprit being the fatty foods (ie deep fried foods) at the cafeteria that I've been eating everyday. Going to have to get myself off those foods because it isn't good for my health. Keep this up and I'll be comming home like a pumpkin. Not a pretty sight.
Monday, October 31, 2005
What has been going on here?
Well I have been holding off on making any posts because I was hoping to make some rather long posts (with pictures) catching up on what has been going on over here. I do have a long back log of pictures to post and thought it would be fun to throw them up. That just hasn't been wanting to happen the last few weeks and I don't know why. Perhaps a lack of motivation? Energy... I dunno. But anyways I thought I might as well post on how things have been going on here in text instead.
As busy as I sound, I am having quite a lot of fun in addition to doing my masters work (nothing concrete at the moment). The masters work itself (or at least the getting a thesis process it self, will explain later on). For the past 2 weeks, my life has consisted of getting to the labs in the morning, taking classes, reading papers and then heading out at about 6:00 pm to teach Engish to a few students on Tuesdays and Wedensdays. If I don't have to teach, them I'm here usually till about 9:00 pm reading papers or learning more about whatever ideas I have at the time or the Micro Electric Machines (MEMs) field in general. I have already filled 1.25 binders with reading material which I have downloaded the net.
On other days when I don't have to teach, I periodically head home and eat with friends, usually inviting them over for dinner or getting invited out for dinner, baking cookies and etc. Great fun. We have a guy named Mike over here from MIT that can make some pretty mean cookies and Thai curry. Damn good stuff, heck I ate too much of it that I ended up having a stomach aches the next day (since I haven't been eating really spicy food for a long time).
Weekends have been really busy as I have been doing something every weekend. 3 Weeks ago was something called an Imoni-kai in Japan. Which is where groups of friends head out to the rivers to cook a type of stew with Japanese potatoes, an assortment of veggies, meat and a sort of soup base (soy-sauce or miso depending on the region). The interesting thing is that only Miyagi and Yamagata (the neighbouring prefecture) are the only 2 prefectures in Japan that carries out this tradition. And the food was most excellent. I will be having an Imoni-kai party when I do come back to Canada to introduce everyone to this little Japanese event.
I have so far gone to 2 of these events, once with the international club and another time with a friend as guest for a tennis club. I have not played tennis in about 3~4 years but we had Imoni, beer and played tennis (beer has never tasted so good after a hard game of tennis!) During the same weekend it was some person's birthday whom I did not know, but got invited anyways out to the party. Ended up hitting a kareoke bar and then a club for the evening (the second time I've been to a club in Japan). Didn't get home till 4 am. Just as a note, Kareoke is awsome in Japan. Just because you can go with groups of 20+ people and there is a very wide selection of English music (much more than the selections than what I have seen back home when I did have the chance to go). That and when you pay $20 for2 hours of singing, that also include an all you can drink... all in you can drink as in booze! Crazy no?
The week after, on the Friday evening, the dorms here had a roof top party. Though instead of partying on the roof, I held a little party in my room and was up till about 5 am. The next day was a Korean friend's b-day party at the dorm were a bunch of friends and I would surprise her by all cooking a big lunch and crashing at her room. Yay, more food.
Finally, this week, I ended up going out with friends looking for a halloween costume. A friend of mine came up to me and asked me "Um this might sound weird but, where's the porn store around here?" since they were looking for some school girl outfits to wear. Can you imagine the horror of guys with really hairy legs in a short skirt school girl outfit? Scary indeed. I went as a kung fu master with blood and scars on my face.
Ps, if anyone knows how to remove tea stains, a bit of ash and a bit of melted red wax from a white silk shirt, please do tell me. I had a little incident where I got a white silk shirt (bought in Taiwan!) a little dirty and I've been trying like mad to remove a few marks. Gah, I've hand washed the shirt so many times....
There were a few parties here and there and a little trip I took to a farm I took last month (pictures which I still need to post) and more misc things I have been doing that has been keeping me busy. Yes, lots of work and play. It's the way I like it... just wish the work part was getting a litte more progress however.
What's the itenary for this week? Nov 2nd, going out to a party with the masters students. The 3rd going out on a trip to check out the Autmn leaves in Sendai. This Friday going to be helping out with a Chinese dumpling party hosted by the lab and then on Sunday I'll be going to a hot Spring. Busy busy... in a good way.
As busy as I sound, I am having quite a lot of fun in addition to doing my masters work (nothing concrete at the moment). The masters work itself (or at least the getting a thesis process it self, will explain later on). For the past 2 weeks, my life has consisted of getting to the labs in the morning, taking classes, reading papers and then heading out at about 6:00 pm to teach Engish to a few students on Tuesdays and Wedensdays. If I don't have to teach, them I'm here usually till about 9:00 pm reading papers or learning more about whatever ideas I have at the time or the Micro Electric Machines (MEMs) field in general. I have already filled 1.25 binders with reading material which I have downloaded the net.
On other days when I don't have to teach, I periodically head home and eat with friends, usually inviting them over for dinner or getting invited out for dinner, baking cookies and etc. Great fun. We have a guy named Mike over here from MIT that can make some pretty mean cookies and Thai curry. Damn good stuff, heck I ate too much of it that I ended up having a stomach aches the next day (since I haven't been eating really spicy food for a long time).
Weekends have been really busy as I have been doing something every weekend. 3 Weeks ago was something called an Imoni-kai in Japan. Which is where groups of friends head out to the rivers to cook a type of stew with Japanese potatoes, an assortment of veggies, meat and a sort of soup base (soy-sauce or miso depending on the region). The interesting thing is that only Miyagi and Yamagata (the neighbouring prefecture) are the only 2 prefectures in Japan that carries out this tradition. And the food was most excellent. I will be having an Imoni-kai party when I do come back to Canada to introduce everyone to this little Japanese event.
I have so far gone to 2 of these events, once with the international club and another time with a friend as guest for a tennis club. I have not played tennis in about 3~4 years but we had Imoni, beer and played tennis (beer has never tasted so good after a hard game of tennis!) During the same weekend it was some person's birthday whom I did not know, but got invited anyways out to the party. Ended up hitting a kareoke bar and then a club for the evening (the second time I've been to a club in Japan). Didn't get home till 4 am. Just as a note, Kareoke is awsome in Japan. Just because you can go with groups of 20+ people and there is a very wide selection of English music (much more than the selections than what I have seen back home when I did have the chance to go). That and when you pay $20 for2 hours of singing, that also include an all you can drink... all in you can drink as in booze! Crazy no?
The week after, on the Friday evening, the dorms here had a roof top party. Though instead of partying on the roof, I held a little party in my room and was up till about 5 am. The next day was a Korean friend's b-day party at the dorm were a bunch of friends and I would surprise her by all cooking a big lunch and crashing at her room. Yay, more food.
Finally, this week, I ended up going out with friends looking for a halloween costume. A friend of mine came up to me and asked me "Um this might sound weird but, where's the porn store around here?" since they were looking for some school girl outfits to wear. Can you imagine the horror of guys with really hairy legs in a short skirt school girl outfit? Scary indeed. I went as a kung fu master with blood and scars on my face.
Ps, if anyone knows how to remove tea stains, a bit of ash and a bit of melted red wax from a white silk shirt, please do tell me. I had a little incident where I got a white silk shirt (bought in Taiwan!) a little dirty and I've been trying like mad to remove a few marks. Gah, I've hand washed the shirt so many times...
There were a few parties here and there and a little trip I took to a farm I took last month (pictures which I still need to post) and more misc things I have been doing that has been keeping me busy. Yes, lots of work and play. It's the way I like it... just wish the work part was getting a litte more progress however.
What's the itenary for this week? Nov 2nd, going out to a party with the masters students. The 3rd going out on a trip to check out the Autmn leaves in Sendai. This Friday going to be helping out with a Chinese dumpling party hosted by the lab and then on Sunday I'll be going to a hot Spring. Busy busy... in a good way.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
No desire for the computer
I stare at my comptuer screen almost all day reading research papers. Right now, I still am in the process of getting a reserach theme down. I'm going to turn down a project for an implantable glucose sensor due to probably complications due to the human immune system most likely rejecting the device.
With that gone, that leaves me with one project one of my professors have proposed -- an electron beam lithography system using carbon nanotubes. Seems interesting but I am rather worried about the feasibility about the system using the proposed technique one of my professors gave me. How I hate to deal with uncertainty in research because I am going to be dedicating myself to a project for the next 2 years for my masters thesis.
So for the past 3 weeks, I've been doing nothing but reading reserach papers on a varety of topics in my field. Many of them on the computer but I've been taking the time to print things out and read them on paper (reading reserach papers on the computer is tiring... I can read entire novels on my computer but not research papers it seems). With all the reading I've been doing, I am getting pretty tired of looking at my computer monitor all day, meaning that by the time I get home, I don't really feel like updating the blog (as it requires me to stare at the screen some more while I write).
What about today? Well today is different because I went to bed at about 10:00 pm and woke up at about 4:30 am. After milling in bed till 5:00 am I was out. Took a miserable shower; the hot water was not on in the building and all I got was some luke warm water that was on the cold side. I was hoping for a nice HOT shower in the morning. Since it's getting cold in Sendai, much how it is like in Canada stepping out of the shower into the hall way on the way back to my room was horrible. I grabbed some food and in the lab by 6:00 am. So before I get tired of looking at the monitor all the day, I figured that I should do a bit of an update. And yes, I am in sort of a cranky mood at the moment.
Life has been busy here. I have been going to parties over the weekend. Hosting dinner get togethers during the week with friends and staying at the lab late from time to time. I can stay out late at the lab a few times a week but do it too often I get tired of hanging out at the lab during the day. (Heh, I even look for a secluded couch somewhere in the building to crash once in a while).
Well it's 7:30 am now... half awake. Going to take a quick break and then do something... which I don't know yet.
With that gone, that leaves me with one project one of my professors have proposed -- an electron beam lithography system using carbon nanotubes. Seems interesting but I am rather worried about the feasibility about the system using the proposed technique one of my professors gave me. How I hate to deal with uncertainty in research because I am going to be dedicating myself to a project for the next 2 years for my masters thesis.
So for the past 3 weeks, I've been doing nothing but reading reserach papers on a varety of topics in my field. Many of them on the computer but I've been taking the time to print things out and read them on paper (reading reserach papers on the computer is tiring... I can read entire novels on my computer but not research papers it seems). With all the reading I've been doing, I am getting pretty tired of looking at my computer monitor all day, meaning that by the time I get home, I don't really feel like updating the blog (as it requires me to stare at the screen some more while I write).
What about today? Well today is different because I went to bed at about 10:00 pm and woke up at about 4:30 am. After milling in bed till 5:00 am I was out. Took a miserable shower; the hot water was not on in the building and all I got was some luke warm water that was on the cold side. I was hoping for a nice HOT shower in the morning. Since it's getting cold in Sendai, much how it is like in Canada stepping out of the shower into the hall way on the way back to my room was horrible. I grabbed some food and in the lab by 6:00 am. So before I get tired of looking at the monitor all the day, I figured that I should do a bit of an update. And yes, I am in sort of a cranky mood at the moment.
Life has been busy here. I have been going to parties over the weekend. Hosting dinner get togethers during the week with friends and staying at the lab late from time to time. I can stay out late at the lab a few times a week but do it too often I get tired of hanging out at the lab during the day. (Heh, I even look for a secluded couch somewhere in the building to crash once in a while).
Well it's 7:30 am now... half awake. Going to take a quick break and then do something... which I don't know yet.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Oh how do I miss corny jokes!
Q: What do you call a guy that steals software?
A: You call them a pirate!
Q: What do you call a Swede (or a Danish) that steals software?
A: You call them vikings!
Oh how I miss these. What's going on here? Too many things, just way too many things. This evening I was over at Mike's room (from Boston) grabbing some dinner in the form of Thai green Curry, with Marek (German) and Ee Wen (Malaysian) and then we had a Swede that popped by from time to time named (I'm serious here) "Viking." As you can see, I had a great time playing with his name.
Muah ha ha ha ha.
It is now midnight and I am going to turn into a pumpkin. Good night, good night, to all a good night.
A: You call them a pirate!
Q: What do you call a Swede (or a Danish) that steals software?
A: You call them vikings!
Oh how I miss these. What's going on here? Too many things, just way too many things. This evening I was over at Mike's room (from Boston) grabbing some dinner in the form of Thai green Curry, with Marek (German) and Ee Wen (Malaysian) and then we had a Swede that popped by from time to time named (I'm serious here) "Viking." As you can see, I had a great time playing with his name.
Muah ha ha ha ha.
It is now midnight and I am going to turn into a pumpkin. Good night, good night, to all a good night.
Friday, October 14, 2005
If I only had a brain!
There is an experiment going on over here at the university. What they call for are a bunch of native english speakers and do a fRMI brain scan of them while they take a look at *grammatically* correct sentences (hahaha, I can't spell... and some of you already know that my grammar can really suck sometimes... I hope I don't ruin their experiment :). What occurs after is that subjects will buzz in a yes or no depending on the passage.
The best part? I'll be getting a scan of my brain! Boo yah!
This is the response I got from the Secretary:
***************
I've heard a volunteer of fMRI scans can get copies of their brains.
The best part? I'll be getting a scan of my brain! Boo yah!
This is the response I got from the Secretary:
***************
I've heard a volunteer of fMRI scans can get copies of their brains.
(It was funny you said you want it for a souvenior!)
Let me ask Prof. Yusa about the copy of your brain.
I will tell you as soon as I get the answer from him.
***************
And there you have it. :)
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Still Alive...I think
I knew exactly what would happen to me after the new term starts-- that was that the lab would be sucking me into a black hole of a world in time. I just didn't know it could get even darker then that too.
I'm just kind of tired actually. It's a 9 to 10 kind of job sometimes later with lab meetings and we have meetings on the weekend from 9 to 5, and those are *short* days too! I started classes in Japanese, ran a seminar (it was my turn) today, did some shopping to replenish cleaning equipment, soap and get some utensils.. hosted a party in my room the day before. Stuff like that. 10:30 pm now and It's the first time I had some time to myself.
Heck, my parents are even worried about me because I haven't been able to make the time to talk to them all week. It's a Saturday night... I think I'm going to spend it sleeping.
Taiwan pictures are going to have to wait a little... until I have a little more strength in me. 2.5 hours of cleaning today. I had to catch up on some cleaning since classes started up... now, time for some sleep!
I'm just kind of tired actually. It's a 9 to 10 kind of job sometimes later with lab meetings and we have meetings on the weekend from 9 to 5, and those are *short* days too! I started classes in Japanese, ran a seminar (it was my turn) today, did some shopping to replenish cleaning equipment, soap and get some utensils.. hosted a party in my room the day before. Stuff like that. 10:30 pm now and It's the first time I had some time to myself.
Heck, my parents are even worried about me because I haven't been able to make the time to talk to them all week. It's a Saturday night... I think I'm going to spend it sleeping.
Taiwan pictures are going to have to wait a little... until I have a little more strength in me. 2.5 hours of cleaning today. I had to catch up on some cleaning since classes started up... now, time for some sleep!
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Alive and busy!
Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I have been exceptionally busy; working and playing.
With Alex and the new international students in town, events and me now officially as a masters student at Tohoku University, it has become pretty busy on this end that I haven't had the time to make many posts. I have a (growing) backlog of pictures to post... got a dessert event I am hosting this Friday (yes, I do like to prepare in advance for events) a seminar to give this Saturday to some labmates (for which I have to review for) and I need to read papers to see if I can get a thesis project going.... in Japan you start your masters thesis research in your first year as opposed to your second year.
Well that sort of sums up what has been going on here (not really... but more posts perhaps after Sunday?)
Alive and really busy.... (and sleepy... we had a lab meeting that went till almost midnight yesterday. These people are nuts).
Oh yeah, one more thing. Vancouver Rules!
With Alex and the new international students in town, events and me now officially as a masters student at Tohoku University, it has become pretty busy on this end that I haven't had the time to make many posts. I have a (growing) backlog of pictures to post... got a dessert event I am hosting this Friday (yes, I do like to prepare in advance for events) a seminar to give this Saturday to some labmates (for which I have to review for) and I need to read papers to see if I can get a thesis project going.... in Japan you start your masters thesis research in your first year as opposed to your second year.
Well that sort of sums up what has been going on here (not really... but more posts perhaps after Sunday?)
Alive and really busy.... (and sleepy... we had a lab meeting that went till almost midnight yesterday. These people are nuts).
Oh yeah, one more thing. Vancouver Rules!
Monday, September 26, 2005
New Stories Begin
The new the new JYPE students are arriving. They're so easy to get along with. Already I've met a bunch of students comprising of a German, 2 Koreans, a Malaysian and a Chinese that just got back from dinner. I saw them in the lobby and said hi to them already. A few Americans dropped by my room already. I passed stuff along from one of the former students to the new one and gave away a map and directions to another.
The dorms here have been dead for the past 2 months. As I walked by formerly empty rooms, all I could do was think "that was so-and-so's room" as I walk past closed doors. But it will become lively again and I look forward to it... I just hope that I can keep my school work, play and rest balanced.
What is going on this end? I've been downloading so much stuff. Just finished watching Final Fantasy VII: Advant Children (I like CG), started watching Firefly (how the hell was this series cancelled!? I really like the story and characters) and got hooked into music from "Secret Garden."
There are lots of things, loose ends and bits that I need to get done. I know that I am horrible at loose ends-- loose ends are too stringy; I like going after big meaty things instead. Never been a good details person. The devils are in the details... the devils are always in the details. Am I making any sense, nope not really... but that's because I'm tired.
The dorms here have been dead for the past 2 months. As I walked by formerly empty rooms, all I could do was think "that was so-and-so's room" as I walk past closed doors. But it will become lively again and I look forward to it... I just hope that I can keep my school work, play and rest balanced.
What is going on this end? I've been downloading so much stuff. Just finished watching Final Fantasy VII: Advant Children (I like CG), started watching Firefly (how the hell was this series cancelled!? I really like the story and characters) and got hooked into music from "Secret Garden."
There are lots of things, loose ends and bits that I need to get done. I know that I am horrible at loose ends-- loose ends are too stringy; I like going after big meaty things instead. Never been a good details person. The devils are in the details... the devils are always in the details. Am I making any sense, nope not really... but that's because I'm tired.
Taiwan Sept 14th and 15th
So here are the first 2 days of my Taiwan trip. I spent the first 3 days in Taipei meeing up with friends from the dorm that went home. Kai Ling and Rifan were really awesome by comming out the airport to meet up with me and show me around. Due to some silly thing with the naming of the picture files, it was better to post the 3rd day of the Taiwan trip in a separate album... which I'll do later. Just horribly tired at the moment :P
What can I say about Taiwan... it was really hot, even for September. They were pushing 33 degrees C and going up to 36 degrees with humidity. Air conditioner in Taiwan is like a necessity. It is hard to imagine what life must have been before air conditioning came around.
I visited the night markets, the CKS memorial hall and the national palace museum during the first 2 days. You can check out all about my first 2 days here.
As for now.. I am pooped, so off to bed I go. I'll make more comments later on.
G'night!
What can I say about Taiwan... it was really hot, even for September. They were pushing 33 degrees C and going up to 36 degrees with humidity. Air conditioner in Taiwan is like a necessity. It is hard to imagine what life must have been before air conditioning came around.
I visited the night markets, the CKS memorial hall and the national palace museum during the first 2 days. You can check out all about my first 2 days here.
As for now.. I am pooped, so off to bed I go. I'll make more comments later on.
G'night!
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Return home... unexpected surprises
No and they weren't good surprises unfortunately, well except for one :). I managed to leave my rice cooker with a full load of rice which had a good 2 weeks to ferment. I walked into my room wondering "what's that strange smell?" I opened my rice cooker to find really moldy rice with worms running around in the bottom. Yummy, really.
I've so far cleaned out the rice cooker and boiled hot water in it twice to see if I can get rid of the smell. The metal pot doesn't seem affected by the smell. But the rubber rings around the edge seem to have absorbed the smell. I can't seem to lessen the smell at all. It would suck to make a fresh batch of rice just to have it stink. My lungs burn from smelling my rice cooker so many times as I try to see if it stinks less after I boil water in it... I may end up chucking the rice cooker. Ugh that's $50 in damage right there.
I left some Kim chee and some left over sweet beans. Needless to say both needed to be chucked after I got home. Aside from forgetting those 2 in my fridge, the fridge is OK.
Finally, a good chunk of tupperware had to be chucked! Lesson learned, DO NOT seal tupperware after you wash and wipe them, even if you wiped out all the water. Pot the lid back on too soon and the water condenses. Fungus grows and well, need less to say I was assulted by wafts of rancid smelling tupperware after I got back. Most of which had to be chuked (tupper ware can be bought very cheaply in Japan however for $1).
There was a plus side however :) On the flight back to Japan I did manage to meet some nice Japanese tourists on their way back from Taiwan. I was sitting with one of them in front of a blank wall (the separator between Economy class and First class). The annoying part was that we couldn't really see the screen so I decided to have a conversation instead. I think my Japanese is getting better... though I still need work since it is still kind of broken. The converstaion did last for all of the flight back to Japan. I ended up meeting 2 other friends of hers who were exceptionally kind and showed me the way to a cheap train out of Narita to Ueno where I could catch the bullet train back to Sendai. We took a group picture at the train station out of Narita :)
The nice people I met on the airplane :)
Pictures of my journey around Japan and Taiwan to follow later in the week. For now, I need to get myself a new rice cooker, replenish my food, finish some paper work for the University and more. No rest for the wicked eh?
I've so far cleaned out the rice cooker and boiled hot water in it twice to see if I can get rid of the smell. The metal pot doesn't seem affected by the smell. But the rubber rings around the edge seem to have absorbed the smell. I can't seem to lessen the smell at all. It would suck to make a fresh batch of rice just to have it stink. My lungs burn from smelling my rice cooker so many times as I try to see if it stinks less after I boil water in it... I may end up chucking the rice cooker. Ugh that's $50 in damage right there.
I left some Kim chee and some left over sweet beans. Needless to say both needed to be chucked after I got home. Aside from forgetting those 2 in my fridge, the fridge is OK.
Finally, a good chunk of tupperware had to be chucked! Lesson learned, DO NOT seal tupperware after you wash and wipe them, even if you wiped out all the water. Pot the lid back on too soon and the water condenses. Fungus grows and well, need less to say I was assulted by wafts of rancid smelling tupperware after I got back. Most of which had to be chuked (tupper ware can be bought very cheaply in Japan however for $1).
There was a plus side however :) On the flight back to Japan I did manage to meet some nice Japanese tourists on their way back from Taiwan. I was sitting with one of them in front of a blank wall (the separator between Economy class and First class). The annoying part was that we couldn't really see the screen so I decided to have a conversation instead. I think my Japanese is getting better... though I still need work since it is still kind of broken. The converstaion did last for all of the flight back to Japan. I ended up meeting 2 other friends of hers who were exceptionally kind and showed me the way to a cheap train out of Narita to Ueno where I could catch the bullet train back to Sendai. We took a group picture at the train station out of Narita :)
The nice people I met on the airplane :)Pictures of my journey around Japan and Taiwan to follow later in the week. For now, I need to get myself a new rice cooker, replenish my food, finish some paper work for the University and more. No rest for the wicked eh?
Monday, September 19, 2005
Ne How!
Greetings from Taiwan. I've been here since last Wedensday and will be here until this comming Wedensday where I will catch my flgiht back to Japan. It's been a jam packed trip so far, travelling to Taipei for the first 3 days with friends I met up with from the dorms to check out various museums and night markets; then moving down to Taichung to stay with family friends sa I toured around the big mountains in central Taiwan (breath taking views) then finally to the last leg of my trip to Shenzhen to meet up with the Wen family where I'll be staying until Wedensday.
Ps. Kevin if you're reading this your mom tells me that you haven't called within the last 10 days (tsk tsk :).
Arrived at 7:30 am this morning, spent today going around the Shenzhen technology and science park, out for a walking tour of the city, lots of food, a quick return back home, more food, more walking and more food. At this rate, I am going to be bringing back a few extra kilos of extra "baggage" to Japan.
I have a really big library of pictures that I will be posting when I get back to Japan. Hope all's well back home (I hear it's getting pretty hot over there).
Lates for now!
Ps. Kevin if you're reading this your mom tells me that you haven't called within the last 10 days (tsk tsk :).
Arrived at 7:30 am this morning, spent today going around the Shenzhen technology and science park, out for a walking tour of the city, lots of food, a quick return back home, more food, more walking and more food. At this rate, I am going to be bringing back a few extra kilos of extra "baggage" to Japan.
I have a really big library of pictures that I will be posting when I get back to Japan. Hope all's well back home (I hear it's getting pretty hot over there).
Lates for now!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Aichi and Nagoya: Beyond Belief
I arrived into Nagoya right about noon on the 9th and I was to meet Alex at about 10:00 pm in the evening... what does that mean? It means big walking tour of the City. I dropped by the tourist office, picked up a few maps and brief notes of the city and jumped onto the subway to Sakae station, the downtown bit of Nagoya with lots and lots of shopping malls.
The malls in Nagoya are really nice and they sell all sorts of stylish stuff. I had the chance to walk through a few of them.
Here is the atrium of one of the malls I walked into. They had some type of paper decoration hanging from the ciling which looked really nice.
They had all sorts of trendy stores. The picture above is a pic of some a trendy hobby/decoration shop selling some really funky clocks. The clock is made out of gears upon gears spinning to make the hands turn. Really interesting to watch.
The outside of a store called "Nano Universe!" Perfect, I thought I'd pop in to see what these people knew about Nano Technology...
Much to my "sha-grin" it turns out that it was a clothing shop. Maybe they make really really small clothing :P
Well I have about 80 other pictures siting on my tour of Nagoya to post so those will have to wait for the photo album... but I ended up visiting a school of design and a science of museum (which was quite rudimentary but very interesting... I saw how they made a tornado :P).
After 10 hours of entertaining myself I finally could meet up with Alex afterwork and hit a chinese restaurant to grab some food. We also we ran into some of his co workers. Whom are very sociable people.
Alex and I chowing down on some food.
The both of us go way back, actually more way back than I realized until my mom showed me pictures of us in the same Japanese class when I was 5 and he was 4. We would later meet up again in High school and in the Richmond Orchestra-- the world is a definately small place.
After finishing off dinner, we hit dropped by an "Izakaya" which is the Japanese version of a spanish "Tapas" restraunt (and with alcohol). Ran into more of his co-workers and friends. I am envious that he has such an awesome crew of people to work with.
I borrowed a futon from one of his friend's room and crashed in his room for the night.
The Next Day:
Woke uo at about 6:45 and got ready to head out to the Expo. We ran into a guy that was staying with one of Alex's coworkers whom told us that there were even people sleeping at the front gates of the Expo. From what I heard from Alex, line ups to the corporate pavillions (Hitachi, Toyota and etc... all of them Japanese corporation) are over 4 hours long! Alex took the staff entrance to the Expo, unfortunately I wasn't so lucky and had to go through the ordinary gates.
My camera batteries lost charge that day so I couldn't take pictures.. thought I did take pictures on my cell phone (need to find a way to download the pictures directly to my computer).
Though originally Alex had planned to give me a personal tour of Expo in Nagoya but it turned out that he had a seminar in the morning and had VIP duty in the afternoon at the Canadian Pavillion. Waht happened instead was that I ended up borrowing his staff pass and got easy access to all sorts of pavillions (except for the corporate pavillions which were way too busy... what is means is that I didn't have to wait in line for other global pavillions if they had line ups :).
The pavillions I visited were Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Korea, Canada, America, China, South America, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Germany and a few more here and there. All I cans say is that after seeing all those pavillions is that I want to travel around the world more. There are so many different interesting things in different parts of the world.
At the Candadian Pavillion, Alex gave me a personal introduction and got me in through the VIP door. I also met some of his co workers that day (and the day before) and they were really friendly people. Got along really well. At the end of the tour, I even got a pin only given out to Canadians that visit the pavillion, yay!
A few things to note Sri Lankan and traditional Mongolian clothing are quite nice looking. I also liked Moroccan interior design. I have to look back at my pictures in my cell phone but I really enjoyed looking at the global pavillions.
One thing I wanted to note about the Expo was that the corporate pavillions were the most popular. The thing about this is that an Expo is really supposed be an international exposition... I just thought that it was a sad waste to see all the Japanese tourists at the Expo only spending time waiting in line for the Japanese corporate pavillions. What happened was that in the morning, there was a mad dash for the corporate pavillions... when the wait times got as long as 4 to 5 hours long, then people started falling back to the other pavillions, I thought that was kind of sad.
I talked to various staff from all over the world and it was very refreshing to listen to different perceptions of the world. One interesting thing I heard from an Pakistan staff member working at the Pakistan pavillion was about the Japanese and their herd mentality. When there isn't anyone looking at a display, then all the Japanese visitors walk by... if there is someone looking at the display then people start dashing up to the display to see what is so interesting. The process continues till you have a big fat mob looking at something possibly mundane. It's the craziest thing.
One thing I thought was the most wasted on the vistors at the expo was the lack of attention to information presented at the pavillion. At the expo is looking some something flashy to see, whether it be the corporate pavillion (all about futuristic technology... though the Expo's theme was all about "Nature's Wisdom"), or flashy movies put on by some of the other country pavillions. It's was all about the chutzpa and the big lights for some of these people. Ordinary screens with clips about the country and presentations about different countries were lost upon many visitors. I thought that was particularly sad.
Party!
Here is the best part of the Expo. I got to attend an after hours party hosted by the New Zealand staff members. This party was by far the best party I've attened *ever* in my life. They kicked off the night with the New Zealanders in traditional warrior clothing performing war chants and dances followed by singing. They even ended up sining a Japanese song at the end of the performance. One of the ladies of the NZ crew pulled out sort of a Morning star kind of object, doused the end in gas and lit it on fire and did some sort of dance while spinning around the lit morning star. Very cool.
There were cheap drinks, excellent snacks (like roasted muscled and more) and they had a band playing in the backround with a huge dance floor. There was a pond near by which people started jumping into and dancing inside. It blew my mind.
The people at the party were great. The one of the friendliest bunch I've ever see. All you have to do is walk up to them and say "hey where are you from" and you've got a conversation going and who knows, you might get a friend out of it. It's that easy! The people there are exceptionally chill. Compared to going to a usual club, people at a club are so anti social. I was exceptionally happy to be hanging out with really great people.
We were out till really late, probably until about 3~4 am before heading back to his appartment. Good times, good times indeed.
Well that's all for now. Need to pack and get ready for my trip to Taiwan tomorrow. I'll try posting from there if possible!
The malls in Nagoya are really nice and they sell all sorts of stylish stuff. I had the chance to walk through a few of them.
Here is the atrium of one of the malls I walked into. They had some type of paper decoration hanging from the ciling which looked really nice.
They had all sorts of trendy stores. The picture above is a pic of some a trendy hobby/decoration shop selling some really funky clocks. The clock is made out of gears upon gears spinning to make the hands turn. Really interesting to watch.
The outside of a store called "Nano Universe!" Perfect, I thought I'd pop in to see what these people knew about Nano Technology...
Much to my "sha-grin" it turns out that it was a clothing shop. Maybe they make really really small clothing :P
Well I have about 80 other pictures siting on my tour of Nagoya to post so those will have to wait for the photo album... but I ended up visiting a school of design and a science of museum (which was quite rudimentary but very interesting... I saw how they made a tornado :P).
After 10 hours of entertaining myself I finally could meet up with Alex afterwork and hit a chinese restaurant to grab some food. We also we ran into some of his co workers. Whom are very sociable people.
Alex and I chowing down on some food.
The both of us go way back, actually more way back than I realized until my mom showed me pictures of us in the same Japanese class when I was 5 and he was 4. We would later meet up again in High school and in the Richmond Orchestra-- the world is a definately small place.
After finishing off dinner, we hit dropped by an "Izakaya" which is the Japanese version of a spanish "Tapas" restraunt (and with alcohol). Ran into more of his co-workers and friends. I am envious that he has such an awesome crew of people to work with.
I borrowed a futon from one of his friend's room and crashed in his room for the night.
The Next Day:
Woke uo at about 6:45 and got ready to head out to the Expo. We ran into a guy that was staying with one of Alex's coworkers whom told us that there were even people sleeping at the front gates of the Expo. From what I heard from Alex, line ups to the corporate pavillions (Hitachi, Toyota and etc... all of them Japanese corporation) are over 4 hours long! Alex took the staff entrance to the Expo, unfortunately I wasn't so lucky and had to go through the ordinary gates.
My camera batteries lost charge that day so I couldn't take pictures.. thought I did take pictures on my cell phone (need to find a way to download the pictures directly to my computer).
Though originally Alex had planned to give me a personal tour of Expo in Nagoya but it turned out that he had a seminar in the morning and had VIP duty in the afternoon at the Canadian Pavillion. Waht happened instead was that I ended up borrowing his staff pass and got easy access to all sorts of pavillions (except for the corporate pavillions which were way too busy... what is means is that I didn't have to wait in line for other global pavillions if they had line ups :).
The pavillions I visited were Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Korea, Canada, America, China, South America, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Germany and a few more here and there. All I cans say is that after seeing all those pavillions is that I want to travel around the world more. There are so many different interesting things in different parts of the world.
At the Candadian Pavillion, Alex gave me a personal introduction and got me in through the VIP door. I also met some of his co workers that day (and the day before) and they were really friendly people. Got along really well. At the end of the tour, I even got a pin only given out to Canadians that visit the pavillion, yay!
A few things to note Sri Lankan and traditional Mongolian clothing are quite nice looking. I also liked Moroccan interior design. I have to look back at my pictures in my cell phone but I really enjoyed looking at the global pavillions.
One thing I wanted to note about the Expo was that the corporate pavillions were the most popular. The thing about this is that an Expo is really supposed be an international exposition... I just thought that it was a sad waste to see all the Japanese tourists at the Expo only spending time waiting in line for the Japanese corporate pavillions. What happened was that in the morning, there was a mad dash for the corporate pavillions... when the wait times got as long as 4 to 5 hours long, then people started falling back to the other pavillions, I thought that was kind of sad.
I talked to various staff from all over the world and it was very refreshing to listen to different perceptions of the world. One interesting thing I heard from an Pakistan staff member working at the Pakistan pavillion was about the Japanese and their herd mentality. When there isn't anyone looking at a display, then all the Japanese visitors walk by... if there is someone looking at the display then people start dashing up to the display to see what is so interesting. The process continues till you have a big fat mob looking at something possibly mundane. It's the craziest thing.
One thing I thought was the most wasted on the vistors at the expo was the lack of attention to information presented at the pavillion. At the expo is looking some something flashy to see, whether it be the corporate pavillion (all about futuristic technology... though the Expo's theme was all about "Nature's Wisdom"), or flashy movies put on by some of the other country pavillions. It's was all about the chutzpa and the big lights for some of these people. Ordinary screens with clips about the country and presentations about different countries were lost upon many visitors. I thought that was particularly sad.
Party!
Here is the best part of the Expo. I got to attend an after hours party hosted by the New Zealand staff members. This party was by far the best party I've attened *ever* in my life. They kicked off the night with the New Zealanders in traditional warrior clothing performing war chants and dances followed by singing. They even ended up sining a Japanese song at the end of the performance. One of the ladies of the NZ crew pulled out sort of a Morning star kind of object, doused the end in gas and lit it on fire and did some sort of dance while spinning around the lit morning star. Very cool.
There were cheap drinks, excellent snacks (like roasted muscled and more) and they had a band playing in the backround with a huge dance floor. There was a pond near by which people started jumping into and dancing inside. It blew my mind.
The people at the party were great. The one of the friendliest bunch I've ever see. All you have to do is walk up to them and say "hey where are you from" and you've got a conversation going and who knows, you might get a friend out of it. It's that easy! The people there are exceptionally chill. Compared to going to a usual club, people at a club are so anti social. I was exceptionally happy to be hanging out with really great people.
We were out till really late, probably until about 3~4 am before heading back to his appartment. Good times, good times indeed.
Well that's all for now. Need to pack and get ready for my trip to Taiwan tomorrow. I'll try posting from there if possible!
Alive and well (In Tokyo)
Went to Nagoya on the 9th and 10th to see long time friend Alex since I knew from when we were in Japanese classes when I was 5 (he was 4).. and then to meet up again in High School and orchestra many years later.
Had a time beyone belief in Nagoya and at the Expo.. stories are going to have to wait unfortunately until I have a better chance to post. I'm supposed to leave for the famous fish market in Tsukiji tomorrow morming at some really early hour and it's already almost 2:00 am here.
Just wanted to let everyone know that I am alive and well. Going to get a more detailed post down perhaps tomorrow or after I get back from Taiwan... utill then I will be sporadically on the internet.
See ya!
Had a time beyone belief in Nagoya and at the Expo.. stories are going to have to wait unfortunately until I have a better chance to post. I'm supposed to leave for the famous fish market in Tsukiji tomorrow morming at some really early hour and it's already almost 2:00 am here.
Just wanted to let everyone know that I am alive and well. Going to get a more detailed post down perhaps tomorrow or after I get back from Taiwan... utill then I will be sporadically on the internet.
See ya!
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Saving the Planet!
Oh nooo! Everyone is leaving and I'm acquiring all their left over stuff. There are so many nice things being thrown out, like dishes, utensils, left over spices, hardly used pots and pans (for people that didn't end up cooking all that much)... and much more. The thing is that everyone moving out feels really bad about throwing things that are perfectly usable away... so what's happening instead is that friends are dropping by to give me left over stuff.
What kind of stuff?
I now have 4 TVs (here are 3)
I've got 4 fans (one not in the picture, and there's the other TV)
I've got a second oven and a bunch of pots and pans 
And a crap load of sugar and spice!
I've got more too, like a cordless phone, a chair, nice speakers (which I bought from a friend for $30), candy, olive oil, 3 bottles of honey (all from different people), baking equipment, plates and more.
It's going to be a give away fest when the new students start comming in from different countries. It'll be a nice way to meet the new students... "hey, need some stuff?"
I remember the first time when I got here... the volunteer group attending to the new international students gave us a face cloth, a coffee cup and a few maps and that's all I started off with. It took me a few weeks to find my way around this place before getting used to where everything was (that and walking everywhere on foot didn't help either). Atleast when I give stuff away they'll start off running!
What kind of stuff?
I now have 4 TVs (here are 3)
I've got 4 fans (one not in the picture, and there's the other TV)
I've got a second oven and a bunch of pots and pans 
And a crap load of sugar and spice!I've got more too, like a cordless phone, a chair, nice speakers (which I bought from a friend for $30), candy, olive oil, 3 bottles of honey (all from different people), baking equipment, plates and more.
It's going to be a give away fest when the new students start comming in from different countries. It'll be a nice way to meet the new students... "hey, need some stuff?"
I remember the first time when I got here... the volunteer group attending to the new international students gave us a face cloth, a coffee cup and a few maps and that's all I started off with. It took me a few weeks to find my way around this place before getting used to where everything was (that and walking everywhere on foot didn't help either). Atleast when I give stuff away they'll start off running!
Going to be a rough trip to Nagoya
Not sure when my papers for registration are going to come in yet for university. Official results are to be presented at the university on the 7th. I will be attending the presentation... which is going to be some list posted at the main engineering office at the University.
I am hoping that the paper work makes to me in time before I leave, if not, the office just told me to do it when I can get around to it.
Depature to Nagoya on the 8th on an afternoon bus, arrival to Shinjuku at 10:00 pm, catch 11:30 night bus from Shinjuku to Nagoya. Arrival in Nagoya at 6:10 am. This is going to be a 13 hour bus ride to Nagoya! Painful indeed for local travel. The last time I had to deal with a long bus ride was to Calgary for a band trip in grade 8. That trip was 14 hours... but I had lots of good friends on that bus to keep ourselves entertained. I'll be brining some research papers along to read on the bus.
Going to meet up with Alex and say over for the 9th and 10th. Check out the expo and hang out. Hitch the bullet train back to Tokyo on the 11th. Debating if I should make a pitstop at Fuji mountain on the way. If timing works out right, I will hit the mountain for the day and visit my uncle in the Evening (Fuji mountain has been on my todo list for Japan!).
Stay in Tokyo for the 11th, 12th and 13th. 14th, catch plane to Taiwan and meet up with Rifan and Abby (I am very much looking forward to seeing them again!). Stay in Taipei for the 14th,15th and 16th then depart to Taichung to meet up with family friends on the evening of the 16th and stay over to the 19th. Depart 19th and head off to visit Kevin's family for a day. 21th, return to Tokyo. Hitch either a bus or a bullet train back into Sendai.
Gotta get packed and clear out the fridge on the 7th :)
I am hoping that the paper work makes to me in time before I leave, if not, the office just told me to do it when I can get around to it.
Depature to Nagoya on the 8th on an afternoon bus, arrival to Shinjuku at 10:00 pm, catch 11:30 night bus from Shinjuku to Nagoya. Arrival in Nagoya at 6:10 am. This is going to be a 13 hour bus ride to Nagoya! Painful indeed for local travel. The last time I had to deal with a long bus ride was to Calgary for a band trip in grade 8. That trip was 14 hours... but I had lots of good friends on that bus to keep ourselves entertained. I'll be brining some research papers along to read on the bus.
Going to meet up with Alex and say over for the 9th and 10th. Check out the expo and hang out. Hitch the bullet train back to Tokyo on the 11th. Debating if I should make a pitstop at Fuji mountain on the way. If timing works out right, I will hit the mountain for the day and visit my uncle in the Evening (Fuji mountain has been on my todo list for Japan!).
Stay in Tokyo for the 11th, 12th and 13th. 14th, catch plane to Taiwan and meet up with Rifan and Abby (I am very much looking forward to seeing them again!). Stay in Taipei for the 14th,15th and 16th then depart to Taichung to meet up with family friends on the evening of the 16th and stay over to the 19th. Depart 19th and head off to visit Kevin's family for a day. 21th, return to Tokyo. Hitch either a bus or a bullet train back into Sendai.
Gotta get packed and clear out the fridge on the 7th :)
Saturday, September 03, 2005
"So long and Thanks for the Fish"
The title's from "Hitchhikers guide to the Universe" for those that missed the reference.
There'll be nothing like the going away parties that I've been to over here. All you can eat and late night Karoke the night before...
Steve from Minnesota
Look at the dude to the right. Now that's stuffing your face!
Twan from Sweeden (yes, he's Asian!)
Hang Loose!
Squish! Wow his face turns really red!
The remaining bunch of students!
Today, Albert, a student from Indonesia left this morning, yesterday's party was for him and we stayed up all night hanging out (well they did, I had to get some sleep at 2:00 am for a lab meeting but I woke up to see him off before he left). I've never seen so much crying while seeing a friend off. I got to listen to all sorts of stories and look at their yearbook. After looking at their year book, these people spent an amazing year and they had every right to cry as these people leave one by one. After heading back to my room, I realized something strange however... that I was a little jealous that they did have something to cry about.
I tell these people that should they ever the find their way back to Japan that they'd be more than welcome to crash, but that's really only a small consolation-- living here is *all* about the people. If world peace existed, yeah, it existed here between a mix of American, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (both Taiwanese and Mainland), Swedish, French, Indonesian, Thai, Columbian, Canadian, Philipino, Venezuelian, Russian and more.
Comming to Japan country to experience life like this has gone beyond all my expectations.
There'll be nothing like the going away parties that I've been to over here. All you can eat and late night Karoke the night before...
Steve from Minnesota
Look at the dude to the right. Now that's stuffing your face!
Twan from Sweeden (yes, he's Asian!)...and then an all nighter party the next day to hang out...
Hang Loose!
Squish! Wow his face turns really red!
The remaining bunch of students!Unfortunate for me that I didn't spend enough time hanging out with these people during the first 4 months. Too busy working like crazy teaching english (I took on way too many classes :P), studying Japanese, having my life sucked in on the weekends and on the other days, I spent either exploring on my own or sleeping in my room to recouperate.
Most of these people are atleast 2~4 years younger than I. Some were the same age and were still doing their undergrad. At first I thought, "how am I going to fit in with a bunch of undergrads? They party all the time and do all sorts of silly things!" I acted like a grown up and I got treated like a grown up... then one day I was my usual insane self when one friend turned to me and said "what happened to you? I thought you were a gentleman" (what my friend ment by gentlemen was that I was mature), heh, I put an end to that image quite quickly.
Most of these people are atleast 2~4 years younger than I. Some were the same age and were still doing their undergrad. At first I thought, "how am I going to fit in with a bunch of undergrads? They party all the time and do all sorts of silly things!" I acted like a grown up and I got treated like a grown up... then one day I was my usual insane self when one friend turned to me and said "what happened to you? I thought you were a gentleman" (what my friend ment by gentlemen was that I was mature), heh, I put an end to that image quite quickly.
Today, Albert, a student from Indonesia left this morning, yesterday's party was for him and we stayed up all night hanging out (well they did, I had to get some sleep at 2:00 am for a lab meeting but I woke up to see him off before he left). I've never seen so much crying while seeing a friend off. I got to listen to all sorts of stories and look at their yearbook. After looking at their year book, these people spent an amazing year and they had every right to cry as these people leave one by one. After heading back to my room, I realized something strange however... that I was a little jealous that they did have something to cry about.
I tell these people that should they ever the find their way back to Japan that they'd be more than welcome to crash, but that's really only a small consolation-- living here is *all* about the people. If world peace existed, yeah, it existed here between a mix of American, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (both Taiwanese and Mainland), Swedish, French, Indonesian, Thai, Columbian, Canadian, Philipino, Venezuelian, Russian and more.
Comming to Japan country to experience life like this has gone beyond all my expectations.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Travel Plans!
Now I'm done, time to focus on travel plans.
Depart Sendai to Hokkido [tomorrow] (northern Japan) spend weekend there, return on 7th to see marks from exam.
Depart Sendai on 8th or 9th after getting paper work done, head to Aichi for World Expo. Hang out with friends in Nagoya for a few days. Visit relatives in Tokyo for a few days, hang out in Tokyo!
Depart to Taiwan on the 14th. Spend 3 Days in Taipei with Friends from dorm. Leave Taipei, drop by Ms. Wen's house in Taiwan for a day. Proceed to Taichung spend 3 days with family friend and friend from dorm. Return to Japan on 21st.
Go for a hike on the 23rd (national holiday). Last week before school starts... start reading research papers.
Depart Sendai to Hokkido [tomorrow] (northern Japan) spend weekend there, return on 7th to see marks from exam.
Depart Sendai on 8th or 9th after getting paper work done, head to Aichi for World Expo. Hang out with friends in Nagoya for a few days. Visit relatives in Tokyo for a few days, hang out in Tokyo!
Depart to Taiwan on the 14th. Spend 3 Days in Taipei with Friends from dorm. Leave Taipei, drop by Ms. Wen's house in Taiwan for a day. Proceed to Taichung spend 3 days with family friend and friend from dorm. Return to Japan on 21st.
Go for a hike on the 23rd (national holiday). Last week before school starts... start reading research papers.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Through the Front Gates
I was talking with the assistant professor today when I dropped by the lab to drop off my study materials and I heard from him, "congratulations, you passed." I had only done my interview yesterday and most of my exams 2 days before. I am exceptionally happy to hear the good news. Now I am ready to go out and have some fun.
Today, however, I will be heading out to a farewell party for the next batch of students soon to be going. These kids in the time span of 10 months for some and 4 months for others have melded together into one of the closest groups I've seen. In 4 months these people probably have done much more than I. I take for granted how long I will be in Japan (going to make up for that this month!). I will miss them and stay in contact!
Random thing I learned:
Kareoke in Australia occurs in pubs, after much drinking and on a stage. Where a solo person or a group stand up and belt out songs to the audience... for their enjoyment or horror (depends on the people singing).
"Dutch courage" is courage solely gained from drinking.
Today, however, I will be heading out to a farewell party for the next batch of students soon to be going. These kids in the time span of 10 months for some and 4 months for others have melded together into one of the closest groups I've seen. In 4 months these people probably have done much more than I. I take for granted how long I will be in Japan (going to make up for that this month!). I will miss them and stay in contact!
Random thing I learned:
Kareoke in Australia occurs in pubs, after much drinking and on a stage. Where a solo person or a group stand up and belt out songs to the audience... for their enjoyment or horror (depends on the people singing).
"Dutch courage" is courage solely gained from drinking.
Monthly Costs
The month of August has ended, I have decided to compile all months worth of data and plot them together to see what my monthly expentitures look like when looked at all at once. The graph below is what it looks like.
With that said, the interesting thing is tha food costs have stabilized at about 32,000 yen/mo, that works out to about 1,000yen/day for food. My predictions that food costs would drop did not pan out. What it means is that sure, groceries are cheaper to buy, but when I cook for myself, I tend to eat more than I would eat compared to eating out.
You will notice that my costs for goods tend to fluctuate. The big spike is when I bought my scooter sending my goods costs skyrocketing for the month of July. The total I pay for the month will vary by about 10,000 yen (about $110) depending on if I make a large purchase or not.
Services, you'll notice that I have spikes in my service in May and August. Those were the times where I paid for gym subscription fees, 2 months in advance. That's $77/mo or close to $150 in a single shot.
Transportation. You will see that my transpot fees remain low. I bought a set of 1 day rail passes in August (3 of them) for $66. Gas costed me about $22 for the month of August for my scooter. I logged 262km and I pay $1 per 11.2km travelled. This is quite a significant savings over riding my bycicle.
A scooter travels about twice to 2.5 times faster than a bike (and with no effort). Using about 20km/h for average biking speed vs 40 km/h average scootering speed, I save 15 minutes for every 10 km travelled. Suppose I worked at a job that paid me $20/hr (not unreasonable for tutors and certain city jobs) meaning that 15 minutes saved is actually $5 more productivity (net gain, $4 savings by travelling by scooter assuming that all time is money). The break even point for this calculation is $4/hr (yes, this is below min wage). Assuming that time is money, even working at min wage, you'd be "saving" money by using a scooter under these conditions.
Just a note, the amount of money you save will be slightly less as you have to factor in the fixed costs of bike maintenance and insurance. My insurance fees for 2 years ran me about $120. Assuming that I used my bike for 9 months out of a year at 260 km/month, I would be paying about $0.05/km or about $0.5/10km. Brining my cost per 10km to about $1.50/10km... putting the break even point at $6/hr. There are more benefits to scooters, such as not needing to wait at bus stops and not having to walk the distance from a bus stop to your destination. Factoring these values in scooters give further value to their users. OK enough about scooter costs...
Room costs, they stayed fairly constant for the last few months. I will see in the winter if my room costs go up for heating and by how much.
Finally Entertainment. It fluctuates. This month I had exams meaning I locked myself into my room and pounded books, slept and took walks to relax. Meaning that I didn't go out to movies, events or etc.
Observations...
Room and food costs remained constant. I expect transportation costs to be faily fixed as well. Costs that should vary the most are goods and entertainment costs. I am still debating whether to consider costs like train rides to fire works or fun trips fall under transport costs or entertainment costs. My gut is telling my to put those costs into entertainment (currently they are listed in transport costs). Anyways, there you have my little financial report.
With that said, the interesting thing is tha food costs have stabilized at about 32,000 yen/mo, that works out to about 1,000yen/day for food. My predictions that food costs would drop did not pan out. What it means is that sure, groceries are cheaper to buy, but when I cook for myself, I tend to eat more than I would eat compared to eating out.
You will notice that my costs for goods tend to fluctuate. The big spike is when I bought my scooter sending my goods costs skyrocketing for the month of July. The total I pay for the month will vary by about 10,000 yen (about $110) depending on if I make a large purchase or not.
Services, you'll notice that I have spikes in my service in May and August. Those were the times where I paid for gym subscription fees, 2 months in advance. That's $77/mo or close to $150 in a single shot.
Transportation. You will see that my transpot fees remain low. I bought a set of 1 day rail passes in August (3 of them) for $66. Gas costed me about $22 for the month of August for my scooter. I logged 262km and I pay $1 per 11.2km travelled. This is quite a significant savings over riding my bycicle.
A scooter travels about twice to 2.5 times faster than a bike (and with no effort). Using about 20km/h for average biking speed vs 40 km/h average scootering speed, I save 15 minutes for every 10 km travelled. Suppose I worked at a job that paid me $20/hr (not unreasonable for tutors and certain city jobs) meaning that 15 minutes saved is actually $5 more productivity (net gain, $4 savings by travelling by scooter assuming that all time is money). The break even point for this calculation is $4/hr (yes, this is below min wage). Assuming that time is money, even working at min wage, you'd be "saving" money by using a scooter under these conditions.
Just a note, the amount of money you save will be slightly less as you have to factor in the fixed costs of bike maintenance and insurance. My insurance fees for 2 years ran me about $120. Assuming that I used my bike for 9 months out of a year at 260 km/month, I would be paying about $0.05/km or about $0.5/10km. Brining my cost per 10km to about $1.50/10km... putting the break even point at $6/hr. There are more benefits to scooters, such as not needing to wait at bus stops and not having to walk the distance from a bus stop to your destination. Factoring these values in scooters give further value to their users. OK enough about scooter costs...
Room costs, they stayed fairly constant for the last few months. I will see in the winter if my room costs go up for heating and by how much.
Finally Entertainment. It fluctuates. This month I had exams meaning I locked myself into my room and pounded books, slept and took walks to relax. Meaning that I didn't go out to movies, events or etc.
Observations...
Room and food costs remained constant. I expect transportation costs to be faily fixed as well. Costs that should vary the most are goods and entertainment costs. I am still debating whether to consider costs like train rides to fire works or fun trips fall under transport costs or entertainment costs. My gut is telling my to put those costs into entertainment (currently they are listed in transport costs). Anyways, there you have my little financial report.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
I'm done, I'm done, in more ways than one!
I did my Controls exam yesterday. I thought I did allright. After the exam, I went on a tour around other laboratories in the fluid mechanics department. I learned something really interesting that day, that small insects like dragon flies and bees make tiny little vortexes in the air with their wings and then push off on them some how to make them fly! Very fascinating stuff.
I came home by about 6:00 pm, exhausted. Milled about and then crashed till 9:00 pm then I started working on my presentation which I had for today. I wrote out an outline, reviewed old data and pictures of my project and then proceeded to write notes on how I wanted my presentation to go. I spent time translating text in to Japanese and then finally started putting the presentation together in powerpoint. I was finally done making the presentation by 3:00 am. Spent 1 hour till 4:00 am practicing giving the presentation in Japanese (ad lib) and then collapsed into bed where I would wake by 7:00 to grab a bite to eat, suit up and make it to the university by 8:30. They showed the presentation list and I had my presentation to go at 9:40 to 10:10 (30 mins). Just a note, the Japanese are infatuated with the suit! For a university interview almost all students came in a full suit or close to it. I forwent the vest and went in dress pants and a dress shirt.
The presentation went smoother than I expected. Sure I stumbled on a few words, but those were language barriers (I also made a vocab list of technical words and kept it by my desk for reference should I need any of those back up words :). All in all, it went pretty well.
The strangest thing was that there were atleast 7 professors in the room for my interview. I was incredibly shocked and embarrased, not becaused there were so many professors, but because I made only 4 copies of my resume to give to them! How would I have known that there would be so many professors! Ugh. I thought that 4 was a nice round number and that it wouldn't exceed that. Live and learn... then move on.
Unfortunately, though I know the professors have marked my exam, they didn't mention anything about my exam marks. One of my friends got a little flack for not doing so well on the exam because his professor asked "why were [his] exam marks were so low compared to [his] university grades." I will have to find time to enquire about my marks as I am curious to see how I did.
I got home by 10:40. Zombified because of lack of sleep but at the same time, my body didn't want to goto sleep. I tried waiting it out but that didn't work. By 2:00 I departed from my dorm to anywhere... just anywhere that looked like a nice place to eat. I wound up at a restaurant specializing in food made with soy. I was amazed the food was excellent! Presentation was beautiful and for $15 I was stuffed (and had a small bite for dessert). Too bad I went alone though, would have been much more fun if I went with friends, but I was content none the less. Also a note about Japanese restraunts, the Japanese quite often give you the bill right after you recieve the meal. I felt weird the first few times when that happened because I was so used to asking for the bill when I was done.
4:30 now... I have an appointment at 6:00, I decided to join something totally ridiculus for me in Japan, but what the hey. I'll talk about it some other time. *yawn* Let's see if I can take a 1 hour nap....
I came home by about 6:00 pm, exhausted. Milled about and then crashed till 9:00 pm then I started working on my presentation which I had for today. I wrote out an outline, reviewed old data and pictures of my project and then proceeded to write notes on how I wanted my presentation to go. I spent time translating text in to Japanese and then finally started putting the presentation together in powerpoint. I was finally done making the presentation by 3:00 am. Spent 1 hour till 4:00 am practicing giving the presentation in Japanese (ad lib) and then collapsed into bed where I would wake by 7:00 to grab a bite to eat, suit up and make it to the university by 8:30. They showed the presentation list and I had my presentation to go at 9:40 to 10:10 (30 mins). Just a note, the Japanese are infatuated with the suit! For a university interview almost all students came in a full suit or close to it. I forwent the vest and went in dress pants and a dress shirt.
The presentation went smoother than I expected. Sure I stumbled on a few words, but those were language barriers (I also made a vocab list of technical words and kept it by my desk for reference should I need any of those back up words :). All in all, it went pretty well.
The strangest thing was that there were atleast 7 professors in the room for my interview. I was incredibly shocked and embarrased, not becaused there were so many professors, but because I made only 4 copies of my resume to give to them! How would I have known that there would be so many professors! Ugh. I thought that 4 was a nice round number and that it wouldn't exceed that. Live and learn... then move on.
Unfortunately, though I know the professors have marked my exam, they didn't mention anything about my exam marks. One of my friends got a little flack for not doing so well on the exam because his professor asked "why were [his] exam marks were so low compared to [his] university grades." I will have to find time to enquire about my marks as I am curious to see how I did.
I got home by 10:40. Zombified because of lack of sleep but at the same time, my body didn't want to goto sleep. I tried waiting it out but that didn't work. By 2:00 I departed from my dorm to anywhere... just anywhere that looked like a nice place to eat. I wound up at a restaurant specializing in food made with soy. I was amazed the food was excellent! Presentation was beautiful and for $15 I was stuffed (and had a small bite for dessert). Too bad I went alone though, would have been much more fun if I went with friends, but I was content none the less. Also a note about Japanese restraunts, the Japanese quite often give you the bill right after you recieve the meal. I felt weird the first few times when that happened because I was so used to asking for the bill when I was done.
4:30 now... I have an appointment at 6:00, I decided to join something totally ridiculus for me in Japan, but what the hey. I'll talk about it some other time. *yawn* Let's see if I can take a 1 hour nap....
Monday, August 29, 2005
4 down, 1 to go. Interview Wedensday
Breakfast of champions: Steak Ramen with boiled egg. I was off to a good start... then I slipped on a banana peel (metaphorically speaking).
Math A ("math fundamentals"):
I'd describe this exam as "sheep being led to slaughter." Seriously, the exams from the previous years were way easier than what I faced today. Heck, I could even get a perfect score on the older exams, but today? Uh-uh, no. Not a good way to start the morning. I went into a meditative slumber during the break before my next exam (in 30 minutes) to cool off, I was quite disappointed to say the least. I made a horrible mistake-- I let my curiosity get the better of me. What does that mean? I saw a problem that I've never seen before and decided that I'd play with the problem to see if I could solve it. I wasted too much time rechecking my equations against the problem to see if it fit and fiddled with it too much as I got closer and close to the answer. End result? I got burned for time! Atleast the problems were tricky, some of them required some clever thinking to get through... Consolation has it that the rest of the Japanese students that took the exam got slaughtered too. My goal is to (hopefully) ride the bell curve (if they do use it here).
English:
As my labmate put described it, "you being in an Englsih exam is *criminal*." heh I couldn't agree more. We had 1 hour to do the exam. The exam had some article from MSN on IP phones, asked us a bunch of questions and asked us to write a 100 word essay on how internet phones would effect society. I write over 700 words in a sitting for my blogs and I push well over 1,000 on occasion. I was done in 30 minutes and I left in 45. I left early because I wanted an early lunch-- I will still miffed about the first exam.
Math B:
Foruier transforms, differential equations and Lapalce transforms. I know for sure that I didn't perfect the exam. We had 3 problems on the exam, of the 3 we choose 2 to solve. I had enough time in the 1.5 hours to try all three and pick the best 2 solutions I wrote for grading. I threw the Japanese adjudicators for a loop. They were wondering why the hell I attempted all 3 questions that they didn't know what to do for a little bit even after I told them one of the solution papers should not be graded (all solution papers had to be submitted). I couldn't get a perfect solution for both problems but I brought them as close as I could to getting the final result. I might have made an algerbraic mistake in one problem and then the other one, I didn't know the inverse laplace transform of a "hyperbolic tangent" function. But it's okay, I wrote down what the solution should look like algerbraicly.
Electomagnetics:
Again of the 3 problems, we choose 2 to solve and hand them in. One problem I didn't understand so well so that pretty much left me with the other 2 problems to solve. I think I did pretty well for this exam. Solved everything, little shaky on one of the question but I think the results for this exam are good.
Tomorrow: Control Systems
I hated this course the first time I took it at UBC. I loved reviewing it on my own. The theory is beautiful-- using differential equations, you can make a system respond to a variety of inputs during a specific state to change the output. The usual math we study are "close form" solutions to most problems. We don't usually talk about how a set of basic equations and variables evolve over a period of time based on certain inputs. This kind of math can be used to progam robotic controllers, acoustic filters and more. The same theory can also be applied to economics which I find fascinating.
Wedensday: Interview
Presentation on my graduating project at University. I need to make slides (which I gave yet to do) and make a list of Japanese key words I will be needing during the presentation (my technical vocabulary is still limited). My professor wants me to do the interview in Japanese. I tried to hide my Japanese skill so I could spend more time practicing before using it in a formal setting. Unfortunatly I got preempted... the reason? My marks for my Japanese courses have probably come out and they probably turned out good (a copy is sent to my professor). He told me that my Japanese was good and that I should do the interview in Japanese. Damn, well here goes nothing. It'll be a trial by fire.
It is now 11:02 pm, test at 9:00 am, arrival time to exam room at 8:30 tomorrow. I've been meaning to review notes but I'm sick of review. I wanted to read my old projcet report but couldn't bring myself to do that either. Probably later tonight.
After exams? I will celebrate and go travelling. Plans? Tokyo, Nagoya (expo), Hokkido, Taiwan and Korea (if I can squeeze Korea in). I'm going to be burning a hole in my wallet, but what the hey, it's now or never!
Math A ("math fundamentals"):
I'd describe this exam as "sheep being led to slaughter." Seriously, the exams from the previous years were way easier than what I faced today. Heck, I could even get a perfect score on the older exams, but today? Uh-uh, no. Not a good way to start the morning. I went into a meditative slumber during the break before my next exam (in 30 minutes) to cool off, I was quite disappointed to say the least. I made a horrible mistake-- I let my curiosity get the better of me. What does that mean? I saw a problem that I've never seen before and decided that I'd play with the problem to see if I could solve it. I wasted too much time rechecking my equations against the problem to see if it fit and fiddled with it too much as I got closer and close to the answer. End result? I got burned for time! Atleast the problems were tricky, some of them required some clever thinking to get through... Consolation has it that the rest of the Japanese students that took the exam got slaughtered too. My goal is to (hopefully) ride the bell curve (if they do use it here).
English:
As my labmate put described it, "you being in an Englsih exam is *criminal*." heh I couldn't agree more. We had 1 hour to do the exam. The exam had some article from MSN on IP phones, asked us a bunch of questions and asked us to write a 100 word essay on how internet phones would effect society. I write over 700 words in a sitting for my blogs and I push well over 1,000 on occasion. I was done in 30 minutes and I left in 45. I left early because I wanted an early lunch-- I will still miffed about the first exam.
Math B:
Foruier transforms, differential equations and Lapalce transforms. I know for sure that I didn't perfect the exam. We had 3 problems on the exam, of the 3 we choose 2 to solve. I had enough time in the 1.5 hours to try all three and pick the best 2 solutions I wrote for grading. I threw the Japanese adjudicators for a loop. They were wondering why the hell I attempted all 3 questions that they didn't know what to do for a little bit even after I told them one of the solution papers should not be graded (all solution papers had to be submitted). I couldn't get a perfect solution for both problems but I brought them as close as I could to getting the final result. I might have made an algerbraic mistake in one problem and then the other one, I didn't know the inverse laplace transform of a "hyperbolic tangent" function. But it's okay, I wrote down what the solution should look like algerbraicly.
Electomagnetics:
Again of the 3 problems, we choose 2 to solve and hand them in. One problem I didn't understand so well so that pretty much left me with the other 2 problems to solve. I think I did pretty well for this exam. Solved everything, little shaky on one of the question but I think the results for this exam are good.
Tomorrow: Control Systems
I hated this course the first time I took it at UBC. I loved reviewing it on my own. The theory is beautiful-- using differential equations, you can make a system respond to a variety of inputs during a specific state to change the output. The usual math we study are "close form" solutions to most problems. We don't usually talk about how a set of basic equations and variables evolve over a period of time based on certain inputs. This kind of math can be used to progam robotic controllers, acoustic filters and more. The same theory can also be applied to economics which I find fascinating.
Wedensday: Interview
Presentation on my graduating project at University. I need to make slides (which I gave yet to do) and make a list of Japanese key words I will be needing during the presentation (my technical vocabulary is still limited). My professor wants me to do the interview in Japanese. I tried to hide my Japanese skill so I could spend more time practicing before using it in a formal setting. Unfortunatly I got preempted... the reason? My marks for my Japanese courses have probably come out and they probably turned out good (a copy is sent to my professor). He told me that my Japanese was good and that I should do the interview in Japanese. Damn, well here goes nothing. It'll be a trial by fire.
It is now 11:02 pm, test at 9:00 am, arrival time to exam room at 8:30 tomorrow. I've been meaning to review notes but I'm sick of review. I wanted to read my old projcet report but couldn't bring myself to do that either. Probably later tonight.
After exams? I will celebrate and go travelling. Plans? Tokyo, Nagoya (expo), Hokkido, Taiwan and Korea (if I can squeeze Korea in). I'm going to be burning a hole in my wallet, but what the hey, it's now or never!
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Sendai from Above
I went to the Aeru building yesterday (tall building in Sendai) during a break from studying (a 15 minute scooter ride from the droms) to catch the sunset and took a few pictures of Sendai from above. There are plenty of high rise buildings in Sendai but I can say honestly, I much prefer the asthetic looks of the buildings in Vancouver-- there is a sense of style in Vancouver. In Sendai the buildings have a bit of a boxy look. But don't mind me, I'm just kind of spoiled comming from Vancouver (and spent way too much time taking walks in Coal Harbor).
Looking North West
Looking West
Looking South West
Looking East
Looking way west. The buildings on top of the mountain (if you can see them) is the Engineering Department. The nice thing about Tohoku University is that it's literally located right by a pretty big forest. A section of the area is sanctioned off as a nature preserve. Very beautiful, went scootering around there one late afternoon. I'll be going for a hike there the next chance I get.
More photos on life in Japan to follow, stay tuned!
Looking North West
Looking West
Looking South West
Looking East
Looking way west. The buildings on top of the mountain (if you can see them) is the Engineering Department. The nice thing about Tohoku University is that it's literally located right by a pretty big forest. A section of the area is sanctioned off as a nature preserve. Very beautiful, went scootering around there one late afternoon. I'll be going for a hike there the next chance I get.
More photos on life in Japan to follow, stay tuned!
Friday, August 26, 2005
Be square!
After much effort (like a 6 hour tutorial) a German friend of mine taught me and a bunch of friends how to cube. The guy is absolutely amazing. He holds a record of cubing in about 30 seconds. The current world record stands at 11 seconds, the record before that one was 24 seconds! As for me, it takes me about 4~5 minutes to solve a cube. And now back to studying, I'm almost done!
Can you do the cube?
Can you do the cube?
Pictures from Naruko Trip
Been a while since my last picture post. I went on a trip waay back in the Beginning of August... never got around to posting pictures but finally here they are. I went to Naruko which is north of Sendai, known for their hot springs. We didn't stop by at a hot spring house, but we went hiking instead.
Japan has a beauriful country side, though most people only get to know the cities. The rice fields and lush forests around make for a wonderful sight. For those that do make their way to Japan someday, definately check out the country side!
Pictures here.
Japan has a beauriful country side, though most people only get to know the cities. The rice fields and lush forests around make for a wonderful sight. For those that do make their way to Japan someday, definately check out the country side!
Pictures here.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
An interesting Biography
I decided to do some random reading today and I stumbled across a short and interesting biography of the Mayor of Sendai.
Involved with the volleyball club in middle school, part of the sailing club in high school. Graduate out of Tokyo University (the supposed holy grail universities in Japan). Did work in industrial commerce, started several of his own small and medium venture companies.
Holds a first level black belt in Judo, Part of a Pan-American Judo organization at the first (beginning level).
Um wow, interesting character.
Here's a question for you readers. What would your biography look like today? What would your biography look like in 10 years? Interesting, eh?
Involved with the volleyball club in middle school, part of the sailing club in high school. Graduate out of Tokyo University (the supposed holy grail universities in Japan). Did work in industrial commerce, started several of his own small and medium venture companies.
Holds a first level black belt in Judo, Part of a Pan-American Judo organization at the first (beginning level).
Um wow, interesting character.
Here's a question for you readers. What would your biography look like today? What would your biography look like in 10 years? Interesting, eh?
Innocent Mistake
I finally caught the bike "thief" today when he decided to come out and get my bike. It turns out it was a friend of mine (still is a friend) and it was all an interesting little mistake. My friend, Resa, got a bike from his friend and this friend gave him the bike key and told him the general area where the bike was (which so happened to be right near mine). What it turned out was that the key fit into my lock perfectly and unlocked my bike. Huh, would you have guessed at that.
This is a picture of my bike
And this is a picture of the lock
In Japan, all bikes here come with a standard lock located at the front wheel of the bike usually. The mechanism is pretty simple-- a pin comes out and prevents the spokes from turning. As you can see in the picture there. So it turns out that Resa's friend gave him the keys to the bike and told him where it was, all he had to do was plug the key in to a few bikes and 'ta da' that's the bike.
Had a good laugh over that one. Resa's a good guy from Iran and that would probably explain why I had a sticker on my bike indicating that he paid for a bike parking fee.
Nearing the last leg of my cram session with 5 days left. Meaning I have time to review and prepare something for my interview on the 31st. I'm looking forward to the end of this. I have been in my room for so long. Well I took the weekend and Monday. I slept so much it was unbelievable. I also wake up really late (well that is because I go to bed really late).
On a side note, I've been downloading tons of music. I clocked in at 2 gigs today. Decided that I should acquire some Japanese music to listen to. People that I am currently listening to:
Koda Kumi
KOTOKO
Do as Infinity
Hitomi Yaida
English music I'm currently listening to:
Natalie Imbruglia
4 Strings
Thievery Corporation
Smash Mouth
Avril Lavigne (apparently she's really popular in Japan!)
Audioslave
This is a picture of my bike
And this is a picture of the lock
In Japan, all bikes here come with a standard lock located at the front wheel of the bike usually. The mechanism is pretty simple-- a pin comes out and prevents the spokes from turning. As you can see in the picture there. So it turns out that Resa's friend gave him the keys to the bike and told him where it was, all he had to do was plug the key in to a few bikes and 'ta da' that's the bike.
Had a good laugh over that one. Resa's a good guy from Iran and that would probably explain why I had a sticker on my bike indicating that he paid for a bike parking fee.
Nearing the last leg of my cram session with 5 days left. Meaning I have time to review and prepare something for my interview on the 31st. I'm looking forward to the end of this. I have been in my room for so long. Well I took the weekend and Monday. I slept so much it was unbelievable. I also wake up really late (well that is because I go to bed really late).
On a side note, I've been downloading tons of music. I clocked in at 2 gigs today. Decided that I should acquire some Japanese music to listen to. People that I am currently listening to:
Koda Kumi
KOTOKO
Do as Infinity
Hitomi Yaida
English music I'm currently listening to:
Natalie Imbruglia
4 Strings
Thievery Corporation
Smash Mouth
Avril Lavigne (apparently she's really popular in Japan!)
Audioslave
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Armed and Dangerous (watch out thieves!)
I know of atleast 3 bikes being stolen, 2 of them were my friend's and the last one was mine. Today at 2:00 am I saw a suspicious guy walking around the bike racks (my window is located right outside the racks) who have since walked away. I wasn't so miffed about having my bike stolen (I have a scooter now right?) but people that think that they can go around stealing things don't sit well with me. I found my bike elsewhere in the bike racks. Interestingly this thief actually parked my bike at some "bike parking zone" and paid for the parking fee! Can you imagine that?
As a parting gift, I inherited a BB gun from Olen among many things... like spices and herbs up the wazoo, but that is a different story. So here is the little devil that I have got here.
Non lethal, and just stings. Apparently the current batch of international students that are going home had a thing for BB guns and ran around shooting all the time leaving welts on each other. I have now parked by bike in a place where I have a line of sight to my bike and since I'm up late most of the time, I hope to catch the thief... but I don't have any intentions of shooting him because 1. That person will know who I am, 2. That person will know where I live and 3. Getting into an extended conflict is not worth the effort (I have to live here for another 7 month's you know!) There are much better ways of skinning a cat!
All I just need to know is who is it and where he lives and the next time it gets stolen, I'll just come his door leave a post it note saying something like
"I know who you are,
I know where you live,
you won't know where or when,
but I'm going to get'ya. Yarrrr!"
and leave a pirate flag sticker on the door. Ain't that cute? If worse come to worse, I'll just start playing practical jokes on the poor bastard. Muah ha ha ha ha!
As a parting gift, I inherited a BB gun from Olen among many things... like spices and herbs up the wazoo, but that is a different story. So here is the little devil that I have got here.
Non lethal, and just stings. Apparently the current batch of international students that are going home had a thing for BB guns and ran around shooting all the time leaving welts on each other. I have now parked by bike in a place where I have a line of sight to my bike and since I'm up late most of the time, I hope to catch the thief... but I don't have any intentions of shooting him because 1. That person will know who I am, 2. That person will know where I live and 3. Getting into an extended conflict is not worth the effort (I have to live here for another 7 month's you know!) There are much better ways of skinning a cat!
All I just need to know is who is it and where he lives and the next time it gets stolen, I'll just come his door leave a post it note saying something like
"I know who you are,
I know where you live,
you won't know where or when,
but I'm going to get'ya. Yarrrr!"
and leave a pirate flag sticker on the door. Ain't that cute? If worse come to worse, I'll just start playing practical jokes on the poor bastard. Muah ha ha ha ha!
Monday, August 22, 2005
"Envy" in different languages
The neat thing about living in an international dorm is that I am exposed to so many cultures and the one thing that really struck me is that almost everyone here from places like Sweden, Germany, Columbia, China, Taiwan and more can speak atleast 2 languages, their mother tongue and English... and they are throwing a 3rd into the fray with Japanese as they are studying here in Japan.
As for me, I feel a little out gunned linguistically knowing only 2 languages, English and Japanese as opposed to these other people. I would have to say that the people that learn English do it out of necessity, because their country does business in the English world and the language of international academia is also in English.
Sooner or later, the distribution global powers are going to shift. China, India are now gaining momentum, who knows what the global landscape might look like in the next 40 to 50 years. Me, comming from a mainly mono-lingual culture (well most of us in Canada don't speak French, especially those of us in the West), I see it as a potential problem if we aren't able to communicate with other cultures, becuse we might actually be dependent on them one day.
Given the time, I would definately like to study more languages. In the future, I probably will. Learning more languages isn't the whole point of the story however, I think the most important part is to understand how to learn multiple languages efficently with enough command to communicate reasonably well to a native (with the hopes of gaining fluency).
Armed with the basic concepts of syntax and conjugation of words one can learn fairly quickly the basics of most languages (the real trick is the vocabulary). Fluency is achieved when you understand the nuances of how people communicate and the story is just that. But of course, it is easier "said" than done.
As for me, I feel a little out gunned linguistically knowing only 2 languages, English and Japanese as opposed to these other people. I would have to say that the people that learn English do it out of necessity, because their country does business in the English world and the language of international academia is also in English.
Sooner or later, the distribution global powers are going to shift. China, India are now gaining momentum, who knows what the global landscape might look like in the next 40 to 50 years. Me, comming from a mainly mono-lingual culture (well most of us in Canada don't speak French, especially those of us in the West), I see it as a potential problem if we aren't able to communicate with other cultures, becuse we might actually be dependent on them one day.
Given the time, I would definately like to study more languages. In the future, I probably will. Learning more languages isn't the whole point of the story however, I think the most important part is to understand how to learn multiple languages efficently with enough command to communicate reasonably well to a native (with the hopes of gaining fluency).
Armed with the basic concepts of syntax and conjugation of words one can learn fairly quickly the basics of most languages (the real trick is the vocabulary). Fluency is achieved when you understand the nuances of how people communicate and the story is just that. But of course, it is easier "said" than done.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Post exam vacation spot 1
1 more week till exams. 3 Tests down 2 more to go. Just have to review controls and practice my "English" exam (which isn't as bad as I anticipated), run through all the tests again. Prepare for an interview and I'll be done by the 31st. Yay, and to celebrate, one of the first things I'm going to do is going on a trip...
and I'm planning on going to Taiwan!
a bunch of friends have gone home to Taiwan so I figured that I'd pop by there and go visit them do a tour around the island and come back a week later... and then do some more vacationing throughout the month of September :)
I'd better go learn some Mandarin right after exams!
and I'm planning on going to Taiwan!
a bunch of friends have gone home to Taiwan so I figured that I'd pop by there and go visit them do a tour around the island and come back a week later... and then do some more vacationing throughout the month of September :)I'd better go learn some Mandarin right after exams!
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Going away parties, too much to handle?
Yesterday Fred (from America) and Mikiko (Swedish girl) had their going away party. International students, Japanese people, all you can drink and food. It was quite the party.
I had my revenge against Abby for out drinking me the last time we downed a beer. Friends shot edamame (green soy beens) at each other, met a Japanese person called "Saiko" (sounds like "Psycho"). We made fun of Abby (from Taiwan) who got "Intimidate" and "Intimate" wrong after she blurted "Do you want me to 'intimate' you!?" after some guy was bugging her. No, we didn't let her live that down for a while.
The food was pretty good and I had a bunch of drinks. What else. Austrailian girls are eeeeevil! Apparently they were teaching some Japanese girl pick up lines. Who ended up blurting them out at me. It started with "Hey you're hot," then "I love you," then "I want to have your children." Tsk tsk tsk I wasn't about to let them have their way with me :) I shouted back "You're gonna have to deal with twins if you're going to mess with me!" laughter ensued.
More interesting, while I was talking to Fred... when he suddenly stopped talking and started staring. I looked around and caught what he was seeing. Apparently one Korean gal was complaining to another friend about her boobs, the other was checking them out telling her that they were "OK." Some of the Japanese girls caught Fred staring and asked him if he thought his boobs were okay and proceeded to check them by poking at his chest. I couldn't help but laugh.
After 2 hours, our all-you-can-drink time limit elapsed and the party moved on to Karaoke. I didn't attend however, I had to headed back to the dorms to give a friend of mine heading back to Taiwan her present --> mango pudding (yes it's quite popular over here :). An army of friends were in her room, like 5~6 of us helping her out clean everything before she had to go the next day.
I got back into my room by 2:00 am... woke up at 10:00 am and was late for a special lecture on MicroElectricMachine fabrication techniques by 30 minutes.
I had my revenge against Abby for out drinking me the last time we downed a beer. Friends shot edamame (green soy beens) at each other, met a Japanese person called "Saiko" (sounds like "Psycho"). We made fun of Abby (from Taiwan) who got "Intimidate" and "Intimate" wrong after she blurted "Do you want me to 'intimate' you!?" after some guy was bugging her. No, we didn't let her live that down for a while.
The food was pretty good and I had a bunch of drinks. What else. Austrailian girls are eeeeevil! Apparently they were teaching some Japanese girl pick up lines. Who ended up blurting them out at me. It started with "Hey you're hot," then "I love you," then "I want to have your children." Tsk tsk tsk I wasn't about to let them have their way with me :) I shouted back "You're gonna have to deal with twins if you're going to mess with me!" laughter ensued.
More interesting, while I was talking to Fred... when he suddenly stopped talking and started staring. I looked around and caught what he was seeing. Apparently one Korean gal was complaining to another friend about her boobs, the other was checking them out telling her that they were "OK." Some of the Japanese girls caught Fred staring and asked him if he thought his boobs were okay and proceeded to check them by poking at his chest. I couldn't help but laugh.
After 2 hours, our all-you-can-drink time limit elapsed and the party moved on to Karaoke. I didn't attend however, I had to headed back to the dorms to give a friend of mine heading back to Taiwan her present --> mango pudding (yes it's quite popular over here :). An army of friends were in her room, like 5~6 of us helping her out clean everything before she had to go the next day.
I got back into my room by 2:00 am... woke up at 10:00 am and was late for a special lecture on MicroElectricMachine fabrication techniques by 30 minutes.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
How Inconvenient
We had an earthquake in Sendai just 5 minutes ago. The building runbled, the doors shook and I was in the can. It could've been worse! I could've been taking a shower!
All is well here.
"Shaken, not stired"
All is well here.
"Shaken, not stired"
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Life does exist!
Allright, so I might have been obsessed with the news and other things the last little while, that isn't to say that I don't have a life here.
I've been in Japan a little too long now!
I even eat fruits with chopsticks (I don't even have a set of forks!).. those are chopped pineapples and that was breakfast :)
The picture above was dinner. Flour coated chicken with Szechwan pepper fried in garlic butter and a side of pasta in olive oil, garlic salt, lemon pepper and basil with chopped green peppers. Wow that's a mouthful (literally! haw haw).
Mood lighting anyone? I did some decorating today. I got some chrismas lights and threw them up now I can work on my computer in the evenings in dim lighting. It's a lot nicer than having room lights blaring at full blast all night.
And that's my random update for the evening :) Time to do some reading!
I've been in Japan a little too long now!
I even eat fruits with chopsticks (I don't even have a set of forks!).. those are chopped pineapples and that was breakfast :)
The picture above was dinner. Flour coated chicken with Szechwan pepper fried in garlic butter and a side of pasta in olive oil, garlic salt, lemon pepper and basil with chopped green peppers. Wow that's a mouthful (literally! haw haw).
Mood lighting anyone? I did some decorating today. I got some chrismas lights and threw them up now I can work on my computer in the evenings in dim lighting. It's a lot nicer than having room lights blaring at full blast all night.
And that's my random update for the evening :) Time to do some reading!
Other ways of fighting softwood lumber
Weapons are to war as leverage is to negotiation.
When it comes to negotiation, it seems to me that either Canada is unarmed or doesn't know how to fight. I was reading the news today, Gordon Campbell treatening to restrict resource trade with the US. What took him so long to come to this conclusion?
Unfortunately, details in the news are scant interms of what resources he is going to restrict and how he is going to do it. Without knowing either one cannot tell whether if it is feasible or to do so or not. At this moment in time I am currently not interested in doing the research to see whether if Canada should make this move (I have other things to do). But the decisison making conditions should be apparent. As I will outline briefly.
Should Canada restrict trade of natural resources such as gas, oil, water, electricity and etc, economic damage to both economies needs to calculated. If damage to American industries are going to be significantly greater than to Canadian industries, then serious thought should be made to go through with this move while providing suitable compensation to local resource companies to reduce damage on our side.
Cutting US access to cheap resources and energy (which is why the US is trading with us I presume) should drive up prices in US markets or reduce profit margins for American companies (resources they acquire will become more expensive if they cannot get them from Canada).
Suppose the following situation. I will use wood as an example. Suppose that wood is sold to the US for $1 a piece. An hardware outlet purchases the wood for $1 and has a 200% markup, selling the wood for $2. Suppose that the wood is sold to construction companies and through their work the value of that wood increases by 400% and is sold to the consumer for $8.
Next presume that the US sells their own brand of wood for $1.2, assume that the same process occurs and the consumer purchases the finished product for $9.6. The value that Canadian lumber offers to the US economy in this case is $1.6. For every $1 that we don't sell the US loses $1.6. This is one form of leverage. The real factors are probably different, but the more processing our products go through in the American market, the more value they get out of it and hence price fluctuations at the lowest level (ie resource level) will be felt the most as it propagates through to the end product.
There are more factors at work here, suppose that Canada did severly restrict selling lumber to the US. Understanding "suppy and demand," that would cause lumber prices in the US to rise and the net result will be amplified to the consumer. By how much, that would be hard to predict, but the effect would be greater than the imaginary "$1.6" damage from the previous example. A much more detailed analysis is necessary to better understand the effects of Canadian trade on the US economy.
Now, to simply take the $1 as a loss is silly and what Gordon Campbell mentioned in the news release that Canada is looking for other countries to sell our resources to (ie China, etc) is to reduce the damage done to us for not trading with the US. This is a step in the correct direction.
Furthermore, the American lumber lobby groups supporting the trade dispute should be pressured. Motives of governments are based on demands made by strong lobby groups, since these lobby groups are the ones that support the government most strongly it is in the interest of the government to appease these groups. Going head on against the US government is not the key to resolving this issue, because it is quite evident that American based lumber lobby groups (whose names I cannot recall at the moment) want to keep Canadian competitve factors minimized in American markets.
The trick to solving this dispute is to apply pressure on these groups from within the US. The strategy I propose is for either the Canadian Government or lumber companies to appeal to people further down the lumber chain (people that use the lumber in construction and consumers) that they would be losing value by not buying cheaper Canadian lumber interms of reduced profit margins (from more expensive building materials) or increased price (which is passed on to the consumer). I personally believe that reduced profit margins will make the strongest incentive to encourage a dispute against lumber lobby groups from within. This is what exactly needed to weaken support for the softwood lumber dispute.
When it comes to negotiation, it seems to me that either Canada is unarmed or doesn't know how to fight. I was reading the news today, Gordon Campbell treatening to restrict resource trade with the US. What took him so long to come to this conclusion?
Unfortunately, details in the news are scant interms of what resources he is going to restrict and how he is going to do it. Without knowing either one cannot tell whether if it is feasible or to do so or not. At this moment in time I am currently not interested in doing the research to see whether if Canada should make this move (I have other things to do). But the decisison making conditions should be apparent. As I will outline briefly.
Should Canada restrict trade of natural resources such as gas, oil, water, electricity and etc, economic damage to both economies needs to calculated. If damage to American industries are going to be significantly greater than to Canadian industries, then serious thought should be made to go through with this move while providing suitable compensation to local resource companies to reduce damage on our side.
Cutting US access to cheap resources and energy (which is why the US is trading with us I presume) should drive up prices in US markets or reduce profit margins for American companies (resources they acquire will become more expensive if they cannot get them from Canada).
Suppose the following situation. I will use wood as an example. Suppose that wood is sold to the US for $1 a piece. An hardware outlet purchases the wood for $1 and has a 200% markup, selling the wood for $2. Suppose that the wood is sold to construction companies and through their work the value of that wood increases by 400% and is sold to the consumer for $8.
Next presume that the US sells their own brand of wood for $1.2, assume that the same process occurs and the consumer purchases the finished product for $9.6. The value that Canadian lumber offers to the US economy in this case is $1.6. For every $1 that we don't sell the US loses $1.6. This is one form of leverage. The real factors are probably different, but the more processing our products go through in the American market, the more value they get out of it and hence price fluctuations at the lowest level (ie resource level) will be felt the most as it propagates through to the end product.
There are more factors at work here, suppose that Canada did severly restrict selling lumber to the US. Understanding "suppy and demand," that would cause lumber prices in the US to rise and the net result will be amplified to the consumer. By how much, that would be hard to predict, but the effect would be greater than the imaginary "$1.6" damage from the previous example. A much more detailed analysis is necessary to better understand the effects of Canadian trade on the US economy.
Now, to simply take the $1 as a loss is silly and what Gordon Campbell mentioned in the news release that Canada is looking for other countries to sell our resources to (ie China, etc) is to reduce the damage done to us for not trading with the US. This is a step in the correct direction.
Furthermore, the American lumber lobby groups supporting the trade dispute should be pressured. Motives of governments are based on demands made by strong lobby groups, since these lobby groups are the ones that support the government most strongly it is in the interest of the government to appease these groups. Going head on against the US government is not the key to resolving this issue, because it is quite evident that American based lumber lobby groups (whose names I cannot recall at the moment) want to keep Canadian competitve factors minimized in American markets.
The trick to solving this dispute is to apply pressure on these groups from within the US. The strategy I propose is for either the Canadian Government or lumber companies to appeal to people further down the lumber chain (people that use the lumber in construction and consumers) that they would be losing value by not buying cheaper Canadian lumber interms of reduced profit margins (from more expensive building materials) or increased price (which is passed on to the consumer). I personally believe that reduced profit margins will make the strongest incentive to encourage a dispute against lumber lobby groups from within. This is what exactly needed to weaken support for the softwood lumber dispute.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Big Stick Diplomacy, Self Interest and Niceness
Pakistan develops cruise missle technology. Their comment?
"Mr Ahmed said the "milestone" launch had been a success, adding: 'The nation is proud of its team of scientists who have raised the country's prestige in the comity of nations.'" --BBC article, here
This statement I don't understand, actually it's really kind of silly. What do weapons have to do with "prestiege"? I also laugh that developing long range weapons capable of carrying nukes falls within the "comity of nations." Which, by the way, means "Courteous recognition accorded by one nation to the laws and institutions of another." (reference: dictionary.com) Riiight, [sarcasm] I am sure that everyone will be pleased to hear that their neighbour is stalking up on weapons, "legally" [/sarcasm] . Unfortunately, in reality this is a result of tit-for-tat relations between India and Pakistan and their long standing rivraly. Understandable that Pakistan wants weapons to provide India with more disincentives for war.
But this idea got me thinking about pecking orders, morality and stable systems.
Pretend that you have a pecking order based solely who can beat up who. Suppose that you have person B that can beat up person C, therefore person B can have their (I use the word 'their' because it is gender inspecific) way over person C whenever they please. Is this fair? Let's ignore this for now until I introduce person A which is stonger than person B. Assuming this the laws of "morality" holds true for this society, then person A should have every right to smack person B around whenever they chose to have their way.
What if person B complains about rights to "sanctity"? In this case, that statement is a non-argument-- person B didn't adhere to them in the first place, thus it is perfectly "moral" for person A to smack B around. There is a reason why people at the most fundamental level (I'm talking about individuals, not companies or perhaps even countries-- companies, atleast, follow a different set of rules) don't out right push each other around based on how powerful they are-- society is large and there is almost 100% certainty that there are people more powerful than you.
I should talk more about "morals," atleast my interpretation of them, so here it is: Morals is a conceptual set of rules of behavior equally applied to all persons in a system.
This definition of morals is not hard set and I am obviously welcome improvements to my definition or discussion. If you think that my definition of "morals" is incorrect or another word/concept is more suited feel free to post comments.
The point about morals I want to make is that morals do not define what is "good" or "bad" conduct, but rather what is fair conduct. Using the former example that people higher up on the pecking order can have their way, it is perfectly fair for someone that pushed another around to be pushed around. Sure they might not like it, but that's fair, this is a moral system.
Consider the absurd case to illustrate this point further. Suppose the same situation, B tells A that A cannot retaliate (dispite A being more powerful). B then proceeds (or shall I say attempts?) to push A around. This does not work, because it is silly. It would be like saying that given 2 identical particles in a physical system that one obeys a different law of physics compared to the other. This case of behavior is immoral and like inconsistent laws in physics, immoral (inconsistent) systems are often short lived. Result: B gets busted.
I said earlier that morals do not determine what is "good and bad," but to have a system of morals without knowing what is good and bad is somewhat useless. I will introduce the concept of "self interest" here. I define self interest as "what you want." What is good lies within your self interest, what is bad is outside of your self interest. The person that defines your self interest is you. I want to present the idea that the moral code we follow are the products of self interest.
Again, let's consider the A,B,C model. Let's extend the model such that for every person that exists, there is a person that is more powerful than the last. In other words, suppose that there is a person that is stronger than A, let's call this person Z and there is a person more powerful than Z who is X... and so forth, the pattern continues. Suppose that all persons are carrying the same amount money and it is not in their interest to lose it but everyone is interested in having more. Assume that stronger persons can forcibly take money from weaker persons. Now consider the question, will the stronger person take the money from a weaker person?
The answer is no, but this is obvious. But I did not drag you through all this to come to an obvious solution. There are more interesting things if we take a closer look at the results, shall we?
Let us look at both cases, both of which are moral but one is prefered. It is clear that 2 equally fair systems exist. The case where all persons took from each other (assume that the pattern continues forever and we approximate the system as having "no strongest person") and thus have nothing versus the system where no one takes and everyone has money. The reason why the latter system is chosen over the former is because of self interest, which I assumed that all persons within the system would rather not go without money. The implication I make here is that self interest governs what moral system we choose... and that I argue that there can be more than one moral system. I thought that was interesting!
I want to take this further, I want to also say that this system is stable and say that this is a "nice" system (in more ways than one). Suppose that immoral conduct did occur within this system. Suppose that B is a delinquient, B takes money from C, what happens now? A realizes that this is not fair (immoral situation), A could take the money and keep it, but it is not in A's interest to do so (else Z could take form A, a new moral system would be selected but this is not in the interest of other members of this system). The system is self restoring-- A takes the money stolen from B and returns it to C. The system is "nice" because it is self restoring; in Engineering and Mathematical systems, we call this a "stable system" or a "stable state"... the action of B would be considered a "perturbation" (deviation from stable state). Isn't it wonderful? An aside: the origins of niceness at the most selfish level can derived purely from self interest-- Niceness is self-supporting! (A comment like this was published in 1999 in Time Magazine' s Millineal Edition which had an article "On the Origins of Niceness")
What I described isn't something new. I think it is well understood and this concept falls under "Game theory," which is a discription of an "incentive based model" (definition taken from Wikipedia)... I prefer to explain game theory as a model of "self interests" in a system and how the system evolves over time as "self interest dynamics." But I'm running away on a tangent...
These ideas are not new, actually Nobel had similar ideas over 100 years ago when he invented dynamite:
"My factories may make an end of war sooner than your congresses. The day when two army corps can annihilate each other in one second, all civilized nations, it is to be hoped, will recoil from war and discharge their troops." --Alfred Nobel
Nobel thought that if he could make weapons so powerful that it would inflict terrible damage to everyone for anyone to go to war. He understood well enough that he wanted to provide the world with enough disincentive for war to end. Could this be what Pakistan be doing? This probably is half true. The world is going to be in a lot of trouble if everyone decided to take the other "moral" system and blows everything up with nukes. I seriously hope humanity isn't that stupid.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. " --Albert Einstien
"Mr Ahmed said the "milestone" launch had been a success, adding: 'The nation is proud of its team of scientists who have raised the country's prestige in the comity of nations.'" --BBC article, here
This statement I don't understand, actually it's really kind of silly. What do weapons have to do with "prestiege"? I also laugh that developing long range weapons capable of carrying nukes falls within the "comity of nations." Which, by the way, means "Courteous recognition accorded by one nation to the laws and institutions of another." (reference: dictionary.com) Riiight, [sarcasm] I am sure that everyone will be pleased to hear that their neighbour is stalking up on weapons, "legally" [/sarcasm] . Unfortunately, in reality this is a result of tit-for-tat relations between India and Pakistan and their long standing rivraly. Understandable that Pakistan wants weapons to provide India with more disincentives for war.
But this idea got me thinking about pecking orders, morality and stable systems.
Pretend that you have a pecking order based solely who can beat up who. Suppose that you have person B that can beat up person C, therefore person B can have their (I use the word 'their' because it is gender inspecific) way over person C whenever they please. Is this fair? Let's ignore this for now until I introduce person A which is stonger than person B. Assuming this the laws of "morality" holds true for this society, then person A should have every right to smack person B around whenever they chose to have their way.
What if person B complains about rights to "sanctity"? In this case, that statement is a non-argument-- person B didn't adhere to them in the first place, thus it is perfectly "moral" for person A to smack B around. There is a reason why people at the most fundamental level (I'm talking about individuals, not companies or perhaps even countries-- companies, atleast, follow a different set of rules) don't out right push each other around based on how powerful they are-- society is large and there is almost 100% certainty that there are people more powerful than you.
I should talk more about "morals," atleast my interpretation of them, so here it is: Morals is a conceptual set of rules of behavior equally applied to all persons in a system.
This definition of morals is not hard set and I am obviously welcome improvements to my definition or discussion. If you think that my definition of "morals" is incorrect or another word/concept is more suited feel free to post comments.
The point about morals I want to make is that morals do not define what is "good" or "bad" conduct, but rather what is fair conduct. Using the former example that people higher up on the pecking order can have their way, it is perfectly fair for someone that pushed another around to be pushed around. Sure they might not like it, but that's fair, this is a moral system.
Consider the absurd case to illustrate this point further. Suppose the same situation, B tells A that A cannot retaliate (dispite A being more powerful). B then proceeds (or shall I say attempts?) to push A around. This does not work, because it is silly. It would be like saying that given 2 identical particles in a physical system that one obeys a different law of physics compared to the other. This case of behavior is immoral and like inconsistent laws in physics, immoral (inconsistent) systems are often short lived. Result: B gets busted.
I said earlier that morals do not determine what is "good and bad," but to have a system of morals without knowing what is good and bad is somewhat useless. I will introduce the concept of "self interest" here. I define self interest as "what you want." What is good lies within your self interest, what is bad is outside of your self interest. The person that defines your self interest is you. I want to present the idea that the moral code we follow are the products of self interest.
Again, let's consider the A,B,C model. Let's extend the model such that for every person that exists, there is a person that is more powerful than the last. In other words, suppose that there is a person that is stronger than A, let's call this person Z and there is a person more powerful than Z who is X... and so forth, the pattern continues. Suppose that all persons are carrying the same amount money and it is not in their interest to lose it but everyone is interested in having more. Assume that stronger persons can forcibly take money from weaker persons. Now consider the question, will the stronger person take the money from a weaker person?
The answer is no, but this is obvious. But I did not drag you through all this to come to an obvious solution. There are more interesting things if we take a closer look at the results, shall we?
Let us look at both cases, both of which are moral but one is prefered. It is clear that 2 equally fair systems exist. The case where all persons took from each other (assume that the pattern continues forever and we approximate the system as having "no strongest person") and thus have nothing versus the system where no one takes and everyone has money. The reason why the latter system is chosen over the former is because of self interest, which I assumed that all persons within the system would rather not go without money. The implication I make here is that self interest governs what moral system we choose... and that I argue that there can be more than one moral system. I thought that was interesting!
I want to take this further, I want to also say that this system is stable and say that this is a "nice" system (in more ways than one). Suppose that immoral conduct did occur within this system. Suppose that B is a delinquient, B takes money from C, what happens now? A realizes that this is not fair (immoral situation), A could take the money and keep it, but it is not in A's interest to do so (else Z could take form A, a new moral system would be selected but this is not in the interest of other members of this system). The system is self restoring-- A takes the money stolen from B and returns it to C. The system is "nice" because it is self restoring; in Engineering and Mathematical systems, we call this a "stable system" or a "stable state"... the action of B would be considered a "perturbation" (deviation from stable state). Isn't it wonderful? An aside: the origins of niceness at the most selfish level can derived purely from self interest-- Niceness is self-supporting! (A comment like this was published in 1999 in Time Magazine' s Millineal Edition which had an article "On the Origins of Niceness")
What I described isn't something new. I think it is well understood and this concept falls under "Game theory," which is a discription of an "incentive based model" (definition taken from Wikipedia)... I prefer to explain game theory as a model of "self interests" in a system and how the system evolves over time as "self interest dynamics." But I'm running away on a tangent...
These ideas are not new, actually Nobel had similar ideas over 100 years ago when he invented dynamite:
"My factories may make an end of war sooner than your congresses. The day when two army corps can annihilate each other in one second, all civilized nations, it is to be hoped, will recoil from war and discharge their troops." --Alfred Nobel
Nobel thought that if he could make weapons so powerful that it would inflict terrible damage to everyone for anyone to go to war. He understood well enough that he wanted to provide the world with enough disincentive for war to end. Could this be what Pakistan be doing? This probably is half true. The world is going to be in a lot of trouble if everyone decided to take the other "moral" system and blows everything up with nukes. I seriously hope humanity isn't that stupid.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. " --Albert Einstien
This is going to be... "fun"
The closer to a deadline the more productive I get. It's even more interesting when I'm in a panic (sort'a).
I got a form last week to confirm choices for what subjects I will be taking for my entrance exam. I initially thought I was going to be taking 3 subjects, Math A (integrals, differentiation, vector calc and basic differential equations), Math B (Laplace Transforms, Fourier Transforms, differential equations) and Control Theory (I hated that course when I was in UBC).
After reading the form I got, I am supposed to be taking 4 courses for examination... I'll be throwing ElectroMagnetism into the mix, I was surprised since I got the gist from the old exams that I would only need 3 courses. The best part is that I left all my electromagnetism notes in Canada, plus my text book. I'll be having that Fedex'd to Japan and working off some of the library resources.
There is a possibility that I might have to take an english test too. What the hell? I asked the main office last month if it was necessary and they said that it wasn't. I asked the Mechanical Engineering (that's the official department I am under) office to see if I needed the English test and they said yes. I will not be amused if I need to take the English test because it is not trivial. It means that I need to translate some tough looking prose from English to Japanese. This I am not prepared for and nor will 3 days worth of study have me prepared for that test if/when it occurs. This detail will have to be straightened out tomorrow.
Finally I will have an interview with my professor and several other people from the department. I can already guess what they're going to ask me: "Why did you choose this University?" "Why do you want to study MEMs technology?" "What kind of skills do you have?" "What do you like?" etc etc.
Personally, I like interviews because the topics you can cover are open and the important part is that you can admit that you don't know something without looing like a fool (interesting thought, no?). In a test, you get docked marks if you don't know; in real life you can propose a hypothesis, lay out your assumptions do some research and make a plan to go from there. I will be looking forward to the interview because it'll be something refreshing to do after sitting through 4 tests over 2 days.
As of today, I have 18 days left to study for 4 courses. Wish me luck!
I got a form last week to confirm choices for what subjects I will be taking for my entrance exam. I initially thought I was going to be taking 3 subjects, Math A (integrals, differentiation, vector calc and basic differential equations), Math B (Laplace Transforms, Fourier Transforms, differential equations) and Control Theory (I hated that course when I was in UBC).
After reading the form I got, I am supposed to be taking 4 courses for examination... I'll be throwing ElectroMagnetism into the mix, I was surprised since I got the gist from the old exams that I would only need 3 courses. The best part is that I left all my electromagnetism notes in Canada, plus my text book. I'll be having that Fedex'd to Japan and working off some of the library resources.
There is a possibility that I might have to take an english test too. What the hell? I asked the main office last month if it was necessary and they said that it wasn't. I asked the Mechanical Engineering (that's the official department I am under) office to see if I needed the English test and they said yes. I will not be amused if I need to take the English test because it is not trivial. It means that I need to translate some tough looking prose from English to Japanese. This I am not prepared for and nor will 3 days worth of study have me prepared for that test if/when it occurs. This detail will have to be straightened out tomorrow.
Finally I will have an interview with my professor and several other people from the department. I can already guess what they're going to ask me: "Why did you choose this University?" "Why do you want to study MEMs technology?" "What kind of skills do you have?" "What do you like?" etc etc.
Personally, I like interviews because the topics you can cover are open and the important part is that you can admit that you don't know something without looing like a fool (interesting thought, no?). In a test, you get docked marks if you don't know; in real life you can propose a hypothesis, lay out your assumptions do some research and make a plan to go from there. I will be looking forward to the interview because it'll be something refreshing to do after sitting through 4 tests over 2 days.
As of today, I have 18 days left to study for 4 courses. Wish me luck!
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Tanabata in Sendai
I wanted to buy spoons today.
Last week, I held a dessert party in my room and now, mysteriously one of my spoons went missing. On Friday, I made a batch of Mango Pudding to give to the secretaries at the International Exchange Center (because they're so nice and I felt bad after telling them of all the dessert parties I've been doing and never had the chance to invite them out [yes, the international students invite the secretaries out to events!]). I gave them a container of mango pudding and included a spoon for them to dish it out to their colleagues in the office. I won't be back into the office for atleast a month... and I gave them my last spoon.
The Tanabata festival for Sendai (cf. wikipedia description here) started on Saturday and I would finally have time to see the festival on Sunday. I needed to buy spoons and hit the gym to check if my automatic bank payments worked for my monthly gym subscription. I headed out this morning at about 11:00 am to make my way out there.
I walked around the main arcade where the Tanabata festivities were being held. There were people everywhere walking around and looking at the decorations. To the left, you'll see the streamers hung for the Tanabata festival. From what I've read, they represent "woven threads," for what reason however, I am not sure. I tried asking some Japanese people and even they didn't know off hand.
Alot of people were out wearking Yukatas and Jimbeis (Summer Kimonos for women and men, respectively) so it was rather nice seeing everyone in such festive spirits. Along the street were lots of vendors selling food, beer, toys, shoes, etc. I saw a place that were selling really cheap sandals that I wanted to buy, since they're good for rainy days and my feet won't be soaking wet the whole day if I were to wear them. I didn't stop to buy them because I had other things on my mind, like finding some food to eat.
I walked and walked and eventually found a kaiten-sushi restaurant (one of those conveyor belt sushi restaurants) but they were remarkably busy, but I really wanted to eat in one. The line ups were really long and I didn't feel like waiting so I kept walking looking for other sushi restaurants. I walked another km to the train station to find a place to eat there; big mistake, I should have known that all the restaurants there would be extra busy. Sendai is famous, nationally for their Tanabata festival so everyone comming to see the festival came by train and stopped off to eat at the restaurants in the station.
A little disappointed, I at first decided to skip lunch and go for a walk instead. Close by the station was the tallest building in Sendai, otherwise known as the "Aeru" building. I headed to the roof of the building to the observation deck to take a look at the city from up above. The view from above is spectaular and I enjoy going there from time to time. I have yet to go there at night to see the city lights (it's summer and it gets dark after the building closes).
After hitting the observation deck, I checked out the restraunt right by the observation deck (one of those nice posh restraunts) and I was in luck, they had a lunch set for only $25, well I wasn't complaining for a 6 course lunch.
The picture to the left here is the waiting room while they prep up the table for customers. The only sad part was that I went alone. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing... though I'm not sure if I was friends that they would be willing to shell out $25 for a lunch, but it was worth it.
I ran into friends right after lunch hanging outside of the train station, what luck. I tagged along to catch some coffee with them.
This is what happens when you have 13 people crowding into a coffee shop. We were also evil and asked for separate bills and hung around for a long time and made other people wait for us before we had to leave.
The group had to split up and I had to meet up with a Phillipino friend since we arranged to check out the Tanabata festival when it started. The city had the roads blocked off and groups of performers took to the streets entertaining different sections of visitors along the way. We got to see marching bands (way too many of them), a dance squad, Japanese firefighters doing stunts on a really tall ladder and cheerleaders. Unfortunately I had to leave the event a little early to check the automatic transfer with the gym. Ended up leaving an hour before the parade was over. Oh well... but it gets better.
Unfortunately I didn't have pictures for the last part, but I headed home after checking things with the gym. The automatc payment did go through and I was in dire need of a shower and had a stack of laundry to do. I hit the local convenience store to get some change for the washing machines when I heard drumming in the courtyard of a University near by. I had to go and check it out.
It turns out they too were doing a little festival up there. They had a stage, an intimate sort of thing with only about 30 people. They had a few performers and musicians entertaining to Japanese music. They broke out the beer and snacks and we had a picnic in the courtyard. It was all free, these people are amazingly friendly. The floor opened up and I joined everyone dancing around the stage doing some kind of Japanese folk dance :) When I do come back to Canada, I have something new to try when I go clubbing!
The really cool part of this group of people was that there were tons of old people out there having fun and hell, old people know how to party better than the young ones! I had a great time listening to these guys crack out the microphone and started singing. They started rotating through people and there were a few international students out there whom I've never met from China and they sung just beautifully. I on the other hand had to fall back onto "If you're happy and you know it..."
I was a little embarrased when I was going up to the stage... not because I had to sing, but because Canada has so little history compared to the Japanese. These old guys were singing all sorts of folk songs and they sounded terrific. But hey, Canada is like a baby compared to asian nations, we're only in the ball park of 200 years old as opposed to Asia that is thousands of years old? Well atleast they enjoyed my singing, I was greeted by the "grannies" and "grampas" who poured me a few glasses of beer after. I even got 2 boxes of tissue paper as going away presents (they were giving them out for some reason).
So finally I got home and did my laundry... and still, I'm without a spoon. Maybe something interesting will happen the next time I try to buy a spoon.
Quote of the Evening
"Not wearing a shirt either?"
"It's too damn hot to be wearing anything!"
Last week, I held a dessert party in my room and now, mysteriously one of my spoons went missing. On Friday, I made a batch of Mango Pudding to give to the secretaries at the International Exchange Center (because they're so nice and I felt bad after telling them of all the dessert parties I've been doing and never had the chance to invite them out [yes, the international students invite the secretaries out to events!]). I gave them a container of mango pudding and included a spoon for them to dish it out to their colleagues in the office. I won't be back into the office for atleast a month... and I gave them my last spoon.
The Tanabata festival for Sendai (cf. wikipedia description here) started on Saturday and I would finally have time to see the festival on Sunday. I needed to buy spoons and hit the gym to check if my automatic bank payments worked for my monthly gym subscription. I headed out this morning at about 11:00 am to make my way out there.
I walked around the main arcade where the Tanabata festivities were being held. There were people everywhere walking around and looking at the decorations. To the left, you'll see the streamers hung for the Tanabata festival. From what I've read, they represent "woven threads," for what reason however, I am not sure. I tried asking some Japanese people and even they didn't know off hand.Alot of people were out wearking Yukatas and Jimbeis (Summer Kimonos for women and men, respectively) so it was rather nice seeing everyone in such festive spirits. Along the street were lots of vendors selling food, beer, toys, shoes, etc. I saw a place that were selling really cheap sandals that I wanted to buy, since they're good for rainy days and my feet won't be soaking wet the whole day if I were to wear them. I didn't stop to buy them because I had other things on my mind, like finding some food to eat.
I walked and walked and eventually found a kaiten-sushi restaurant (one of those conveyor belt sushi restaurants) but they were remarkably busy, but I really wanted to eat in one. The line ups were really long and I didn't feel like waiting so I kept walking looking for other sushi restaurants. I walked another km to the train station to find a place to eat there; big mistake, I should have known that all the restaurants there would be extra busy. Sendai is famous, nationally for their Tanabata festival so everyone comming to see the festival came by train and stopped off to eat at the restaurants in the station.
A little disappointed, I at first decided to skip lunch and go for a walk instead. Close by the station was the tallest building in Sendai, otherwise known as the "Aeru" building. I headed to the roof of the building to the observation deck to take a look at the city from up above. The view from above is spectaular and I enjoy going there from time to time. I have yet to go there at night to see the city lights (it's summer and it gets dark after the building closes).
After hitting the observation deck, I checked out the restraunt right by the observation deck (one of those nice posh restraunts) and I was in luck, they had a lunch set for only $25, well I wasn't complaining for a 6 course lunch.The picture to the left here is the waiting room while they prep up the table for customers. The only sad part was that I went alone. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing... though I'm not sure if I was friends that they would be willing to shell out $25 for a lunch, but it was worth it.
I ran into friends right after lunch hanging outside of the train station, what luck. I tagged along to catch some coffee with them.
This is what happens when you have 13 people crowding into a coffee shop. We were also evil and asked for separate bills and hung around for a long time and made other people wait for us before we had to leave.
The group had to split up and I had to meet up with a Phillipino friend since we arranged to check out the Tanabata festival when it started. The city had the roads blocked off and groups of performers took to the streets entertaining different sections of visitors along the way. We got to see marching bands (way too many of them), a dance squad, Japanese firefighters doing stunts on a really tall ladder and cheerleaders. Unfortunately I had to leave the event a little early to check the automatic transfer with the gym. Ended up leaving an hour before the parade was over. Oh well... but it gets better.Unfortunately I didn't have pictures for the last part, but I headed home after checking things with the gym. The automatc payment did go through and I was in dire need of a shower and had a stack of laundry to do. I hit the local convenience store to get some change for the washing machines when I heard drumming in the courtyard of a University near by. I had to go and check it out.
It turns out they too were doing a little festival up there. They had a stage, an intimate sort of thing with only about 30 people. They had a few performers and musicians entertaining to Japanese music. They broke out the beer and snacks and we had a picnic in the courtyard. It was all free, these people are amazingly friendly. The floor opened up and I joined everyone dancing around the stage doing some kind of Japanese folk dance :) When I do come back to Canada, I have something new to try when I go clubbing!
The really cool part of this group of people was that there were tons of old people out there having fun and hell, old people know how to party better than the young ones! I had a great time listening to these guys crack out the microphone and started singing. They started rotating through people and there were a few international students out there whom I've never met from China and they sung just beautifully. I on the other hand had to fall back onto "If you're happy and you know it..."
I was a little embarrased when I was going up to the stage... not because I had to sing, but because Canada has so little history compared to the Japanese. These old guys were singing all sorts of folk songs and they sounded terrific. But hey, Canada is like a baby compared to asian nations, we're only in the ball park of 200 years old as opposed to Asia that is thousands of years old? Well atleast they enjoyed my singing, I was greeted by the "grannies" and "grampas" who poured me a few glasses of beer after. I even got 2 boxes of tissue paper as going away presents (they were giving them out for some reason).
So finally I got home and did my laundry... and still, I'm without a spoon. Maybe something interesting will happen the next time I try to buy a spoon.
Quote of the Evening
"Not wearing a shirt either?"
"It's too damn hot to be wearing anything!"
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