Sayonara to Japan

May 28, 2009

Last day in Japan :(

After packing everything up, we left Nara and went to Osaka. Tamas was staying at a hotel there, so we were able to leave our luggage in his room. This is by far the smallest hotel room I've ever seen. His "room" is just big enough for a person to sleep. Very minimalistic - just tatami mats, and sheets and a mat for sleeping (well, and a tv - every hotel room in Japan seems has a tv).

(picture from Tamas)

We took the train one stop over to see the arcade in Osaka. This was one of the bigger and busier arcades I've been to. There were some funny restaurants and advertisements.


Soon it was time for me to go to the airport and say bye to Tamas and Japan. Tamas will be staying a few extra days to stay in a temple in Mount Koya and hike in Wakayama. On the flight back, I had no problem sleeping and I soon woke up in San Francisco. My parents are awesome and visited me at SFO, even though I only got to see them for about an hour. It was funny because I had bought mochi for them, but my mom also brought me mochi - so we traded :) One more flight, and I was back in Baltimore.

Overall, this Japan trip was amazing. It was a great professional and personal experience. I loved playing with the robots, sampling the food (especially the mochi!), staying in Japanese-style rooms, seeing everything from beautiful moutain temples to the crazy crowds of Tokyo. And of course, there's so much more that I haven't done or seen yet...but that's for next time :)

Nara

May 27, 2009

We started off the day with a cute Japanese-style breakfast at our ryokan. There were a bunch of little dishes, rice, miso soup, and tea. It was interesting to try so many different flavors - from sweet to salty to whatever taste pickled veggies have - so early in the morning (8:30am was on the later end of when breakfast was served!)


We walked around Nara and visited many temples today. The first was Kofukuji Temple, and here we began to see deer everywhere. The deer in Nara are considered to be national treasures. These deer seemed to be well-behaved, content with eating the grass surrounding the temple - unlike the little beggars in Miyajima. Every shop and stand was selling stacks of senbei (deer crackers), so we decided to buy some. Turns out our first impression of the Nara deer was very very wrong. They were even worse! Some would nudge us with their antlers and others even bit our shirts!


The coolest temple was Todaiji Temple, which has a huge Buddha statue sitting in the world's largest woodest structure. In the gate in front of this temple, there are two huge wooden guardians - they're probably the most impressive wooden statues I've ever seen. In the back of the temple, there's a column with a hole cut out in the bottom, the same size as the Buddha's nostril. If you can crawl through it, you'll supposedly reach enlightenment (we made it!)


We saw many other temples as we hiked through the hills and side streets. Another impressive one was Kasuga-Taisha Shrine, which had pathways through the forest that were lined with thousands of lanterns. Nara Park was also nice, especially with the gazebo on the lake. Another thing about bathrooms (I know I've made lots of comments about this already), but I really can't stress enough how nice Japanese bathrooms are. The one in the park, for example, even had a little garden in it!

Tonight we moved to a hostel since our ryokan only had availability for one night. This hostel has a great, quirky atmosphere. It's funny because we had a private Japanese-style room, but it was really just an enclosed area of one of the bunkbed dormatory-style rooms.

Himeji

May 26, 2009

This morning we boarded the train to Himeji to see the castle. It's actually really big - 6 stories tall - and each floor is very spacious. After touring the castle, we walked through the arcade (here, arcade means a covered street of shops and restaurants). We tried a local favorite – okonomiyaki – at a restaurant in the basement of a department store. It’s like a pancake with noodles, egg and cabbage.


Our visit to Himeji was pretty short, and we were soon on our way to Nara. In Nara, we're staying in a ryokan which used to be a geisha house. You can tell it's old, but I really like the atmosphere of the place. In our room, there was hot tea waiting for us. We have a room on the second floor facing the cute garden in the center of the ryokan. They have Japanese-style baths, with mini shower stations for washing with shampoo and soap, and a hot bath for soaking.

Miyajima

May 25, 2009

In the morning, we took a boat to the island of Miyajima, famous for its “floating” red torii. This was probably one of my favorite places. The island is beautiful, with amazing temples and hungry deer that follow you around, begging for food (we found out that they also eat paper…). In the morning, we walked around Itsukushima-jinja Shrine (which is also surrounded by water during high tide) and watched the water recede from around the torii. Once it was low tide, we were able to walk under the torii. I also had fun watching all the little hermit crabs – I saw one crab drag another crab away and shake it out from its shell.


I liked walking through the small streets of Miyajima because the buildings are more traditional and there are no tall, modern buildings around. We also found the giant rice paddle!


The remainder of the day was spent hiking up Mount Misen. We passed many shrines and little statues with offerings along the way. My favorite shrine was Daisho-in. This shrine was gorgeous and there were tons of different statues scattered around the different buildings, in the grass, and among the rocks. I thought all the little Buddha statues were especially cute.


At the top of the mountain, we got a great view of Miyajima. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any monkeys at the top because it was too late in the day.


After hiking back down the mountain, we decided to wait for the tide to come back in to see the torii against the night sky. The little lanterns lining the shore added to the beautiful scenery.

Hiroshima

May 24, 2009

After dropping our luggage off at our hostel, we set off to explore the city. We walked around the Peace Memorial Park. There were different monuments for the victims of the atomic bombing, many of which had tons of colorful origami cranes strung on a string. At the Children’s Peace Memorial, children from all over the world have folded paper cranes to be added to the memorial.

We also went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The museum had personal belongings from people in Hiroshima during the bombing, firsthand accounts of what had happened that day, information about why Hiroshima was chosen as the first target, and models and pictures of what the city looked like before and after. I thought it was a really sad, but good museum. After the museum, we also saw the A-Dome.

Afterwards, we went to the Hiroshima-jo Castle. The original castle had of course been destroyed during the war, so this was just a reconstruction. We got a great view of the city from the top.

More craziness in Tokyo

May 23, 2009

It was nice to get away to some quiet towns in the mountains for a few days, but now we were ready to face the crowds of Tokyo again. We started off the morning with some shopping in Ginza at Uniqlo. We also played with some of the new gadgets in the Sony Building. My favorite was a camera that allowed you to take panoramic pictures just by panning the camera over the desired area, rather than taking multiple pictures.

Then we went to the East Imperial Garden and caught a glimpse of the Imperial Palace.

The rest of the day was sensory overload, beginning with Shibuya. Shibuya Station and the surrounding area seemed even more crowded than Tokyo Station. Also, you don’t see as many businesspeople in suits anymore, but all different types of fashion. When we first exited the station, the area didn’t seem as lively as I expected it to be – Shibuya is supposed to be a huge shopping area. After turning a few corners, we found ourselves right in the middle of all the excitement – shoppers walking everywhere, people yelling out advertisements for their stores in the streets (even two ladies dressed up in kimonos playing drums), and tons of lights and signs. To get back to the train station, we had to cross the main intersection in front of the station. There were gigantic herds of people at each corner, and when the cars stopped, literally thousands of people filled the intersection.

Next stop was Harajuku, where I saw even crazier clothing and hairstyles. I enjoyed walking through the crowds and people watching. We also went to a huge 100 yen store, where they sell pretty much anything you can think of (for about one dollar).

Once the sun started to set, we went to Shinjuku to try and get a view of Tokyo from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast, so we couldn’t see any mountains in the background – just building after building after building.

Back at the house, we packed up and said goodbye to everyone, then we were on our way to Hiroshima by an overnight train. Unfortunately, we were misdirected and boarded a bullet train instead of our slower overnight train. We were able to get off at a later stop and catch our original train, but we had to wait 2 hours at the station. Turns out our overnight train beds were super uncomfortable too – pretty much just a hard, narrow cubicle for you to sleep in, with a little blanket. After another transfer, we finally arrived in Hiroshima.

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil

May 22, 2009

Tamas' cousin's daughter took a day off from school today to come with us to Nikko. Nikko is a bit farther away from Tokyo than Hakone and Kamakura, but there are some amazing temples there. The temples are up in the mountains, surrounded by tall cedar trees. First we walked around in a pretty Japanese-style garden.



The main temple that we visited was Tosho-gu, which was built as a memorial to a Japanese warlord. These buildings were unlike any of the other temples and shrines I had previously visited. There was lots of intricate detail, and everything was very colorful with lots of gold.


We saw the famous "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" monkeys carved into Shinkyusha.


In Honji-do, there was a huge dragon painted on the ceiling. A monk hit two sticks together, which made a high-pitched echoing noise. Supposedly, the accoustics of the building are supposed to make it sound like the roaring of a dragon, but I didn't think it sounded like one.

Again, there were lots of schoolkids here. A group of them approached Tamas and asked him some basic questions about his background in English (his name, where he's from, etc.). Afterwards, they all thanked him and one even shook his hand. They completely ignored me though. I noticed that they only go up to people who are not Asian.

Seeing Fuji-san from Hakone

May 21, 2009

One thing I realized, if you hear music coming down a neighborhood street, don’t bother running outside with your ice cream money. At least in the area we’re staying in, that music comes from the garbage truck.

Today we decided to go to Hakone to try and catch a glimpse of Fuji-San. We wanted to climb it, but unfortunately it’s not climbing season yet…next time. We bought a pass that covered various modes of transportation that would take us around Hakone. We traveled up the mountain from Odawara train station to Owakudani by a train, cable car, and ropeway. At the top of the ropeway, we could see Mount Fuji peeking behind the other mountains and fog.


Owakudani was formed by a volcano and has many hot springs. I tried a black egg, which supposedly adds seven years to your life. It’s cooked in the sulfuric hot springs on the mountain, which causes the shell to turn black – it just tasted like a normal hard boiled egg.



We took another ropeway to Lake Ahi, then crossed the lake in a pirate ship. I’m not quite sure why, but they have these tacky pirate ships that take people across the lake. You did get a nice view of Fuji and a torii though.



At the other end of the lake, we walked around two of the small towns, but there wasn’t much to see. Back at the Odawara train station, we decided to look around the food store next door – I could have spent all day in here. There were tons of delicious looking food, ranging from sweets (and samples!) to bento boxes to fruits and vegetables. Everything is presented so nicely. There was a cantaloupe (I think) that was being sold for 7500 yen ($75)! (It was displayed so nicely that I was almost convinced that it was worth the price). I couldn’t walk away from here empty handed, so I bought some cute mochi/jelly snacks.

Hiking in Kamakura

May 20, 2009

To give ourselves a break from the craziness of Tokyo, we decided to go to Kamakura for the day. Kamakura is a much quieter town, known for its beautiful scenery and temples, about an hour out of the city. The majority of the people walking around were tourists, but the town still felt pretty empty. Another nice feature was that there are lots of beautiful temples, and the entrance fees are very reasonable.

The first temple (Engaku-ji) was huge, with many different temples up on the hill surrounded by the forest.

Tokei-ji Temple had a lot of little graves scattered on a hill and in small caves, which I thought was actually really pretty. It was interesting because this temple used to be a nunnery and a sanctuary for women – during the time when women weren’t able to file for divorce, they could come here to become and nun instead.

The rest of the plan for the day was to hike along the Daibutsu Trail and see the temples along the way. The first temple was Jochi-ji, which had cute little paths through bamboo forests and some shrines in small caves. And then there was a bear statue with some coins and a candy bar as offerings, I think.

The trail up the mountain was really pretty and green. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Genjiyama-koen Park and Kuzuharaoka-jinja Shrine, my feet were killing me. My Reefs sandals that had served me well while walking all over Europe didn’t seem to be holding up so well here in Kamakura. We decided to go back to a house we had passed and ask them to call a taxi. I limped part of the way, then Tamas carried me on his shoulders (we got some odd looks), but we were eventually able to get a taxi back to the train station. It was too bad that we didn’t get to finish the hike, but I cheered myself up with a green tea/mochi/red bean pudding dessert :)

Back at Tamas’ cousin’s house, she showed us all the necessary items for her daughter to bring to kindergarten. In her backpack, there’s a towel for sitting outside, one to put her food on, a small dry hand towel, a moist hand towel that must be kept in a separate container, etc. The cute yellow hat (see picture from May 12) is for walking out in public, but another hat has to be worn when at school. And all the kids have cute little homemade bentos for lunch – they have their own collection of little containers with various cartoon characters and even the plastic grass in all different colors!

Exploring Tokyo

May 19, 2009

(This morning I realized my camera batteries were pretty much dead, so Tamas took the pictures shown here – you can click on the link to his photo album to see more.)

After three hours of sleep, we woke up early to visit the Tsukiji Fish Market. All the people working there were wearing shoes that looked like rainboots, whereas I had unwisely chose to wear flip flops today. I’ve never seen so much seafood in my life – there are rows and rows of booths selling all different types and sizes of fish and other seafood. Some things I didn’t know were edible, and others I had never even seen before. For breakfast we decided to give some of this seafood a try – raw fish and wasabi at 8am was good, but probably something I’ll never do again.


Afterwards we walked through Ginza, the super expensive shopping area, but it was still early so most of the shops were closed. We saw a cool theater though.


Next was the Edo Tokyo Museum. The building looks like some robot out of Star Wars. The museum went through the history of the city and had cool little models of the city at different periods throughout time.


For lunch, we ate at a restaurant where you ordered your food from a vending machine, rather than telling a waiter or waitress your order. All the buttons were in Japanese, so it took us some time to figure it out.

Next, we visited Sensoji Temple. The street leading up to this temple was lined with shops selling snacks and souvenirs. Like Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto, there were tons of school kids going from shop to shop, buying treats. I think this is always my favorite part, just looking at all the different types of Japanese sweets.


We also made a quick visit to the Tokyo National Museum and got to see some screen paintings, Noh costumes, and samurai swords and uniforms. Afterwards, we walked through Ueno Park before heading back to the train station. I didn’t find the park to be too impressive, but I thought the area with the kiddy rides was cute – the rides had characters like Pokemon and Doraemon.


Now it was sumo wrestling time! We’re lucky because it just so happened that a sumo tournament was being held in Tokyo. Kokugikan Stadium is in Ryogoku, also known as sumo town. Around the stadium, we saw sumo wrestlers walking around in robes and wooden sandals. We even saw one who was riding a bike – pretty impressive considering their size… We watched the last round of bouts for the day, featuring the highest ranked sumo wrestlers. These guys are huge, but it’s not all fat and they seem incredibly strong. Even without knowing all the rules, it was really interesting and entertaining.


The last stop of the day was Akihabara, where all the electronic stores are. The main street reminds me of Times Square, with all the bright lights and signs. I liked looking at all the different kinds of laptops and cell phones.

Robots in Tsukuba

May 18, 2009

Today I visited the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). I saw some MRI compatible robots, tried out a surgical training setup for endoscopic endonasal surgery, and “danced” with a humanoid robot. We were lucky to visit the lab that was working on the humanoid robots since it seemed like their work was being kept pretty secretive. We got to play with one of their robots, but the rest were hidden in “body bags.”

After the lab tours, I was on my way to Tokyo. Tokyo Station is HUGE. I was amazed at how many people were in the station and how long it took us to walk from one line to the next. We’re staying with Tamas’ cousin, who lives near Disneyland. She and her family live in the cutest neighborhood – the houses are more modern, but the trees and plants give the neighborhood a more traditional Japanese feeling. I loved playing with her daughter, who is only four years old, but speaks Japanese and Hungarian. It’s amazing that she can easily switch between the two languages – she would talk to her mom in either language, her dad in Japanese, Tamas in Hungarian…and she would try to talk to me Japanese.

Hiking in Kobe

May 17, 2009

Today I woke up early and went on a hike to Rokko Mountain with a group from lab.


Afterwards, I had planned to go to the Kobe Matsuri (festival) that was supposed to take place this weekend. However, I learned that it had been canceled, I think because of the swine flu scare. Today, I noticed that significantly more people on the streets were wearing masks.


Tamas and I instead explored different neighborhoods of Kobe. We randomly wandered into a restaurant because we were curious about their plastic food display outside. They specialized in these little egg puffs that had a piece of octopus in it – I wasn’t exactly expecting that when I walked in. Kobe also has a Chinatown, where we ate some dim sum items that were being sold from stands on the street. The last stop was the harbor, but it was hard to see much because it was rainy and foggy.

Then I was off to Tsukuba because I will be visiting a lab there tomorrow. But of course, I missed my train (if you can’t already tell, riding on the trains hasn’t been the smoothest experience so far). Luckily, I easily caught the next train since I have a JR pass that makes it very easy to make reservations for train tickets. This was the first time I got to ride a shinkansen (bullet train)!

A few more observations:
- Japanese people are so awesome. Everybody is so nice and helpful, and I haven’t met a single rude person here. Everyone has been so willing to help me with directions, even if their English isn’t very good. I’ve had someone call their English-speaking friend to help me. Another person has actually walked with me until I got to where I needed to be.
- I love how the bathroom mirrors are heated directly above the sink, so that when you get out of the shower, that area isn’t fogged up.

Robotics Conference

May 14-16, 2009

The main reason why I came to Japan was to attend the International Conference on Robotics and Automation. I presented a paper on the first day, then got to enjoy the rest of the conference stress-free. I won’t bore people with the details of the conference, but I will mention that I got to see KeepOn! They had one hooked up to a WiiFit board, so that it would “dance” with you, depending on how you shifted your weight. And another thing, we get the cutest bento boxes for lunch!




One night my advisor offered to take everyone in the lab out for Kobe beef. But unfortunately I had to attend an event for students who had received a conference travel grant. I later learned that they didn’t end up ordering the actual Kobe beef (over $100/person!), but the beef they did end up eating was still very good. I’ll have to try Kobe beef the next time I’m in town...and when my wallet can afford it.

On the last day of the conference, they announced that cases of swine flu had been reported in Kobe, so we would need to wear the face masks that they had given us. I tried wearing mine for a while, but it made my glasses fog up, so I gave up on that idea.

On the last night, after the conference was over, I went out with some Hopkins labmates and some USC people I met to explore the downtown area. One of the bars we went to had a very interesting dynamic. There was an American band playing, and there were Japanese men and women, but only American men. We just watched the American men tried to interact with the Japanese women.


Tonight I stayed at a ryokan – a traditional Japanese hotel. The ryokan was so adorable! Upon entering, you take off your shoes and are given slippers to wear (there are actually separate slippers for the toilet room). Everything in the ryokan seems like it was made for someone my size – narrow hallways, low ceilings, etc. I loved the style of the building, little garden with koi fish, tatami mats to sleep on, but I did NOT like the toilet here. It’s pretty much a toilet that’s level with the ground, meaning you have to squat…