Tokyo Day 5 and 6 – Back to the future and books from the past

Wow sorry it really has been a long time since the last post in this series. Once again I’ve been getting steadily more and more busy. With publishable results comes, as one might expect, the need to publish. Most of the writing of my journal article is finished however it would seem that about 90% of the battle is getting the figures done to a reasonable standard. Anyway that’s not what I’m writing this blog for so I’m going to finally finish off this Tokyo visit series.

Now much though I do love my parents there are times when I’d like to do things at my own pace so we agreed to do a half day break from each other. With plans to meet each other later on at Roppongi hills I got myself up early to get back to Odaiba and finally visit Miraikan (未来館).  

Mirakan is the National museum of Emerging Science and Technology, the naming is a shortening of “Nihon kagaku miraikan” which is a bit of a mouthful, and houses many of the latest big developments in Japan’s research. As a member of RIKEN it would be rude of me not to go really since my organization probably contributes to some of the displays.

The first stop was the Dome theatre, a dome shaped planetarium. I have a strong sense that Japanese people have a real fascination with the stars, there are so many planetariums in this country, and you know what I’m not complaining because I love them to. This one was particularly special as it has 3D projectors and 270⁰ screen meaning you really feel like you are in amongst the stars. The best 3D I’ve ever seen hands down.

After a 20-minute movie I strolled around the exhibits. The top half of the museum is dedicated solely to real ongoing scientific research in an exhibit called explore the frontiers. It was quite nice to read about all the varied research going on across the country with nice little cornered off sections like; Our Solar System, The Universe, Life, Medicine and so on. In fact over half of the floor space was dedicated to something space related but I’m not complaining too much.

The section that impressed me most was definitely the Earth Environment space, called more specifically – Earth, Environment and Me. It showcased some of the wonderful things currently being developed right now that are moving towards making our exploits on the planet more sustainable. The exhibits were colorful and well laid out, god bless the Japanese propensity to the aesthetically pleasing, and the English was excellent. In fact I think it’s the most informative of all the museums I’ve been to as most of the Japanese information was well translated. Further more whilst there is a lot of stuff for children there is also a lot of extra information available if you want to delve deeper, and that is also translated.

 

Some of the displays themselves were really impressive in their ability to convey their message. I loved all the Rube Goldburg machines that illustrated things like the flow of carbon or the changing of the ages of earth. Besides these some other displays that stuck in my mind was the genomic harp, a series of light panels representing the 23 chromosomes of the human body. When you pressed a button corresponding to a particular trait lights would flash showing the corresponding genes positions on the chromosomes, very cool.

In between the 5^th and 3^rd floor is a giant suspended, revolving sphere, called Tsunagari. Onto it is projected a map of the world that can be changed to display maps colour coded for various different global trends. Alongside this is a walkway that is lined with images of all the Astronauts who have ever been sent to space, ordered by the year they were up there. Have you ever heard of Valentina Tereshkova? I know I hadn’t but she was the first woman in space, way back in 1963.

 

The third floor is a little less based on hard science but it is nonetheless interesting. This area is called “Create Your Future” and is focused on where we are headed in the next century. My favorite area, besides the robots because who doesn’t love robots,  was “The drive force of innovation”, a display devoted to where ideas come from. There is a large mural displaying some of the best human inventions from ancient times to the present day as well as area exploring the different ways in which we come up with new ideas. Mixed in there are also some amazingly inspiring quotes about the human mind.

There is much more I could talk about as this place really is the best museum I’ve been to in the country easily. I could feel the pride for Japan’s scientific frontiers without and of that creepy nationalism I got in the natural history museum. It was very cool and I was even treated to a dancing robot display before I left to meet up with my parents.

So out of Odaiba and off to Roppongi. Unusually I was bang on time and I met up with my Mum and Dad without any problems. I think being able to be in touch constantly this time around really helped a lot, my lesson had been learned from 2 years ago.

The plan for the evening was to check out the Mori art gallery near the top of the Roppongi hills tower complex. The complex is massive and the art gallery on the 50 something floor is equally expansive. The reason for us going there was an exhibition of works by Alphonse Mucha, of whom my dad is a big fan. I’ll not pretend to be particularly knowledgeable on Art Nouveau but Muscha is one of the big names so I’ve at least some of his work before. I’m not going to embarrass myself by trying to play art critic so I’ll just say I enjoyed the exhibit.

 

Afterwards we went up to the sky deck for some very spectacular views over Tokyo. Up is always better if you want to get a good impression of this city. What amazed me is the diversity of architecture across Tokyo. Sure it is mostly a concrete jungle but every now and then you see some wonderful curves to contrast those hard angles and some lush green to offset the dull greys.

For my final day in Tokyo I wanted to visit a friend out in Tsukuba, I think travelling to visit friends is something I will make more of a habit of when I return to the UK it’s such a rewarding pastime, but first there was one place I’d been longing to visit for quite some time.

It is no shock, I’m sure, to learn that I have a supreme fondness of the written word in any language. I’ve spent much time over the years wandering aimlessly through libraries and second hand book stores so when I heard there was a place in Tokyo where there were a ridiculous number clustered close together, I had to go.

Jinboucho (神保町) in Chiyoda sits neatly in between several of the major Tokyo universities and for this reason many of the big Japanese publishing houses set up shop nearby. Now we all know that your average student is pretty strapped for cash and so I’m sure it’s not surprise to learn this place has become known as “Book town” due to the approximately 150 used bookstores that line it’s main high street.

 

There really are books of all kinds here. Reference books, magazine stores, antiques, battered old novels, you name and you can probably find it in Jinboucho. Many of the shops have so many volumes in stock that they quite literally spill out into the streets, with boxes and shelves strewn willy nilly. It is a bit of a far cry from the usual pristine order of many Japanese establishments and I’ll be frank it was a welcome change.

I could have lost myself there in the musky smell of ancient tomes for over a decade but sadly I did have other things to do. Now knowing this place was home to a lot of th old Japanese publishers I wanted to check out some Ukio –e (Japanese wood block painting) prints for my parents. The best place for this is undoubtedly Ohya Shobo, one of the oldest stores in Jimbocho. The place is lined wall to wall with prints and originals, as well as some very old maps and books dating back to the 18^th century. I think I could have emptied my bank in that shop but instead I settled on a couple of copies for my parents. I think I’ll go back to get a few more before I leave.

 

After that I set out on a separate mission. This time I intended to find some books of old Japanese fairy stories (In Japanese of course). Not really being able to read too much kanji I was a little bit handicapped but I did eventually come across something and I’m currently reading it for practice, and personal interest of course. I do love a good folk tale and these are all centered around a particular area in northern Japan called Kurobe, home, besides all the crazy creatures in the stories of course, the world headquarters of zipper producers YKK apparently.

I eventually had to tear my self away and go visit my friend, my backpack was starting to get a bit heavy and if I didn’t leave soon I was going to have spent all of my money for sure. That being said on the way out I did make one final purchase. I came across a bookstore selling English books very cheap and picked up a copy of the Han Solo adventures, once a star wars geek always a star wars geek.

Well that about does it for my Tokyo adventures. I still need to write up some stuff about Okinawa so have that too look forward to, then hopefully once I have my paper and Japanese language proficiency test (eep) done and dusted I’ll hopefully be off on more adventures.

 

Mata ne.

Tokyo Day 1

Well Spring is well and truly in full swing. The cold is behind me, the Sakura has already bloomed and fallen and the new financial year is well under away. So what better way to welcome in the new season than…a holiday. Last year I missed almost all of spring thanks to a large amount of beamtime, the only spring I saw was of the 8 variety. This year with my group’s size shrinking, and the fact we have plenty of data to work with, we’ve applied for much less beamtime.

April is about the best month to be in Japan in terms of the weather. It’s not too hot, the rainy season hasn’t set in it is definitely the third bowl of porridge of seasons in Japan. With that in mind when my parents mentioned they wanted to visit I told them that April was the best month. So without further ado here is a little travel log of the week we spent in Tokyo.

As with nearly all of my trips to the capital that aren’t for work my journey started the night before boarding the night bus from Osaka. I’ve experienced these beasts quite a few times and it’s always a bit different, a topic for another post perhaps, either way they are by far the cheapest way to get to and from Tokyo for me and I’m now a gold member due to my frequent use.

One long and uncomfortable bus journey later and I was standing in front of Tokyo station, and it was finished. To backtrack it has been under renovation since I arrived but now it is all done. I must admit it does look magnificent a real blast from the late 19^th century. After basking for a while I descended into the maze therein to make my way to Ueno park.

I’ve heard many great things about this place, it’s the home to many national museums, plenty of sights of historic importance and also a zoo, admittedly I had no intention of visiting that though. Suffice to say I was very excited to finally get there. Ueno station on the Yamanote line is right outside so I had no excuses not to haul my bum over there, sleep deprived or not.

First impressions? It’s E.N.O.R.M.O.U.S. I think I don’t have too much experience of huge public parks to draw on, or I’ve been in Japan too long where large green spaces are few and far between, but either way I was really staggered by just how much open space there was. The park was established way back in the meji period as a drive for more public places of exceptional beauty, an idea borrowed from European countries at the time. Well good work Meji people you really nailed it.

Asides from monolithic Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo Metrapolitan Art Museum and National Museum of Western Art, amongst a few others, the park is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. Over 9,000 trees call it their home and as such it has become a particularly famous place to visit for 花見 (flower viewing) in early april. Most of the blossoms had already fallen to the ground thanks to a heavy storm a few days previously but there were still many out braving the early morning to lay down their tarps for festivities in the evening. Amongst them is an incredibly old Cherry blossom tree that is incredibly designated as a world heritage site.

After necking a coffee I wandered about the place in a bit of a daze. As you can imagine, this being Japan after all, there were plenty of shrines knocking about the place. The shrine to Benzaiten (A goddess of luck), which sits out in the middle of a lake definitely caught my attention. I wandered over one of the many bridges out to the shrine taking in the skyscraper dominated skyline that, for me, always epitomises Tokyo. The shrine is not so special but I guess it gets a lot of visitors as there were many people setting up Yatais (portable food stalls). I got talking to the lady who owned on such that was selling dried fruits and nuts. She was fairly impressed with the fact A) I spoke passable Japanese and B) I’d come all the way from Hyogo by Night bus and gave me a nice handful of dried fruit for breakfast. Language skill level up.

So as I mentioned earlier there are many museums and galleries in Ueno and the thing that impressed me most was the price. None were more than 600yen and some were even free. Having not long been severely ripped off at the Kobe municipal museum I was more than happy to see this.

I had to debate were to go a bit but in the end my inner science nerd won out and I went to the National science museum. What can I say, science isn’t my job it’s my lifestyle choice. That and it had a giant whale model outside so I was intrigued from the beginning.

A quick warning here. Whilst the exhibits are enourmous, informative, and well layed out there is also almost zero English information in the entire building. I was a little shocked by this given it is a national museum, but I have long come to expect this from Japanese institutions. That being said if you can read there is a lot of interesting stuff here, with a heavy emphasis on natural history.

The one weird thing I did get out of the museum though was how amazingly Japanocentric it was. One exhibit that really stuck out was one in which the indigenous vs non-indigenous flora and fauna of Island nations was compared. Specifically Japan, New Zealand and the UK. Now it is true that Japan does have a lot of animals very particular to it’s lands alone but as an outsider the way the display was set up almost made it feel like “Japan rules and these other countries suck.” This was also apparent in a section tracing the anthropology of human existence in Japan. One display said in all but words “The Japanese people are special and unlike every other race on the planet.” Maybe I’m just being cynical but it’s a little unsettling that these kind of messages are being passed down to children.

The next floor down however my dark thoughts were dispelled by a wonderful showroom full off old scientific instruments. If there is one thing I most definitely am it is a massive instrumentation geek. I love this stuff. Looking at old telescopes, seismometers and even a 1933 electron microscope really brightened my mood. A kind old man even stopped to explain a bit about the history of the seismometers and how in ancient times in Japan it was believed a giant catfish demon was the source of earthquakes.

The museum itself is absolutely huge. It is separated into two sections, Japan and global, each of which has three upper floors and two basement floors. Being a natural history museum a large portion of the exhibits were set aside for hulking great skeletons (some amazing dinosaurs in there), taxidermy models and, weirdly enough, a large exhibit displaying the intestinal tract of various animals. I was immediately taken back to my youth spending time wandering the displays of Liverpool museum.

Nostalgia aside this place is an excellent waste of time and money at 600 yen. I easily spent 5 hours wandering it’s corridors and I could happily have spent longer. What I will say is that I’m glad I got into Ueno and the museum early because by the time I was leaving around 3pm the whole area was incredibly crowded.

So there ends day one, didn’t really do much after I met up with the rents. Anyway look forward to day 2 some time soon.

Ja mata ne.

Defining terms

I’ve had this blog running around in my head for quite a while now so I figured it was about time I got it written. Now anyone who follows my Facebook statuses (you know who you are) will probably have noticed certain terms featuring time and time again and maybe, just maybe, you might be a little curious as to what I’m gibbering on about. If that’s the case then this post is for you.

1. Synchrotron/Spring8

In short this is where I work and essentially where I live. A synchrotron is a kind of particle accelerator, the name coming from the synchronous tuning of a guiding and accelerating magnetic field that ensure particles in the accelerator ensure both a circular path around the synchrotron and also keeps there speed constant at just below the speed of light.

Now note I said accelerator, not collider. I do not smash atoms together. I do not create black holes. I am not looking for hitherto undiscovered particles (godly or otherwise). Right now that that’s off my chest I’ll tell you what I am doing which involves exploiting a handy little oddity of electrons.

As these electrons whizz around the ring at breakneck speeds they are constantly being deflected, to maintain that all-important circular path. At the deflection points they will slow down a bit losing energy. But that energy has to go somewhere and so it is radiated in the form of photons of light, x-rays to be precise. Originally this was an accidental side effect but these days’ synchrotrons are built with this phenomenon in mind and with that we come nicely to term number 2.

2. Beamline

These are the positions around the synchrotron at which the x-rays are actually emitted. X-rays act just like any other rays of light so they can be diffracted reflected and focussed in the same ways. The beamline contains the apertures; lens and mirrors used for this purpose as well as big end-station hutches that house the equipment needed for the particular experiment you want to perform. They are essentially a synchrotron scientist’s lab.

 

3. Beamtime

As you can imagine synchrotrons are not infinitely large, such a shame I know. As such the number of simultaneous experiments is limited. Unfortunately the number of scientists wanting to perform experiments is much greater than the number of beamlines. The usage period is therefore allocated in time slots that users refer to as “Beamtime”. This time is always fairly limited and precious so we try ti make as much use of it as possible, hence all the sleepless nights . In fact nothing causes more sleepless nights than the next term.

4. Beam dump

The original term comes from the piece of equipment used to absorb the energy of particles in a particle accelerator to safely stop them. For me and anyone working in a synchrotron however the term is synonymous with “Oh no not again”. Without circulating no x-rays will be emitted and therefore no experiments can be performed. They can happen for a number of reasons. Sometimes it can be down to hutch interlock problems meaning there is a chance a worker could be irradiated by escaping X-rays and so they need to be shut off as quickly as possible. Other times it is down to the electron source (wonderfully known as an electron gun) or the accelerator itself, which leads to instabilities. What it always is though is damned inconvenient. Sometimes a dump is a matter of moments, other times it can last for hours and when the beam comes back all it’s parameters may have changed, meaning the experimental set up has to be re-optimised and more time is lost.

5. Beamline staff

Golden rule, make these guys your friends. They are the people who run the beamline with expertise generally in construction engineering. They develop and maintain most of the equipment and software for performing experiments and will help your experiment run as smoothly as possible. Treat them nicely and you’ll have a nicer time during experiments, especially if there are problems – there are always problems.

 

6.Speckle patterns

These are the stuff that dreams are made of, provided you dream about coherent diffractive imaging (CDI). The experiments I perform involve illuminating samples with very bright X-rays and measuring their reflections from atoms within the sample using a detector similar to those found in digital cameras (though quite a fair bit more expensive). Speckles occur when photons of light with the same wave length, the distance between the humps of the lights wave form, interact with different regions in the sample and are reflected to the same degree. The photons interact additively or destructively and so we see spots of very intense signal or patches of no signal on the detector.

Each speckle contains contributions of reflection from the whole sample so it is the variation in intensity and the periodicity of the samples that hold the important structural information. If that is a little confusing don’t worry, I’m still not fully on top of it myself. What I do know though is that they can be very pretty. Whilst getting the hard structural information requires a fair amount of computation we can still draw some interesting conclusions about overall structural changes within a sample from changes in speckle position and intensity alone. It is quite nice that the data we collect is something you can physically see straight away.

Right science waffle over, hope you feel a little bit more enlightened in regards to my research and hopefully next time I post won’t be so far away.

If I were born again.

You know it’s a question that often gets asked and I’m sure a lot of people often consider it. “If you could live your life again what would you do differently”. Now I could be cliché and say “nothing” and that would obviously be a lie. I do love the life I’ve lead and I don’t want to change anything, there is nothing I regret doing. That being said would I do things different given the chance.

Hell yeah.  I mean there are a million, billion possible lives branching of every second that we live. Who knows if they are better or worse but for certain they are different. If you believe the many worlds interpretation then those branches are going on right now. I can definitely say for some of those branches it’s rather other me than me.

So why am I writing this post? Well it was just an interesting thought that came up when talking to some friends and fellow researchers. When a researcher is presented with this question, or some derivative there of, about 90% of the time their answer involves not doing researcher. It amazed me really. If they could change thing they wouldn’t change their field but get out of science altogether.

That got me to thinking, “Is the research life really so hard?”. Well I think not. I’ve never met anyone who does this that isn’t deeply enthralled by what they do, with the drive to do something or find something new. In fact some are so driven that it’s a little scary. Then why given the chance would they get out of science?

I think part of it is that research is always research. Whether you are a field biologist or a theoretical physicist. Ok so in one case you’ll be dredging your way through mud in torrential rain to get that elusive worm sample whilst in the other you’re stuck in front of a huge string of code trying to figure out how the universe comes together but the processes involved are the same. You think of an idea, why it might be so and then you test and test and test.

It can be tough and it can be grinding but in the end it’s always rewarding. The funny thing is, and I know it’s cliché, is that science requires a hell of a lot of creativity and unilateral thinking. It’s no wonder that when asked most scientists cite things as ‘literature’ ‘painting’ ‘graphic design’ etc etc, as their alternate professions. I think no matter how we would be ‘born again’ it would always be into something that requires an unwavering, single minded, determination.

Sorry nothing much about Japan today but just a little bit of insight into the research world. I’ve been thinking a lot about it through the sleepless nights recently. I’ll leave you with a quote from the big boss man of RIKEN and Nobel laureate Professor Noyori.

“If I were to live my life again would I still be a scientist. Definitely not. I’d be a painter”

oyasumi nasai,mata kondo ne.

博多で博士と会った。

Another long gap in the blogging, I seem to be making a habit of it lately. This time it’s for a little less stressful reasons than beamtime however. I’m currently sat in the very swank Hilton SeaHawk hotel in Hakata Japan for a scientific conference.

I was really excited about this for a couple of reasons. Firstly it was in a Hilton hotel. My god everything in the place looks so expensive I don’t half feel like a bit of a bumpkin. Secondly this was my first real international conference and not only that my first conference within my new field. Many of the big names whose papers I’ve been rending over the past year are here.

At the start of the conference I was pretty daunted. As I said I’m pretty new to the field and most of the people here have made massive contributions. Also at least 90% of those in attendance are physicists. I’m still a little bit behind in that department and the conference has taught me I have a long way to go.

That being said I can still follow the talks and I’ve learnt more in the past couple of days than I'd managed in about a month. Admittedly I didn’t give a talk, just presenting a poster and I’m quite glad I’m not since I didn’t really have much to present. Anyway it’s been a great week, the vast majority of people at the event are European and I even got to meet a couple of PhD students from the UK working in a similar field.

 

The last day was a real highlight. I spent the farewell banquet sat next to Professor So Iwata, an absolute legend in my field. He’s pretty young but his contributions have been massive. To top it off he’s a cracking guy, really down to earth and just into the experiments that he does. I’m not sure if it’s the long time he’s spent working and living in Europe but he is a very untypical Japanese researcher.

We also went on a bit of an excursion. This was a real typical Japanese, in that it was exhausting we got bustled about and didn't see very much. It was interesting nonetheless. We set out early for a three-hour bus drive to Mt. Aso, the largest active caldera in the world. The central area actually consists of five peaks; Neko, Naka, Eboshi, Kishima and Taka, with Naka being the only one accessible by road.

This seemed like it would be really cool and the tour guide cheerfully told us all (in Japanese though it was kindly translated) the history of the mountain range. According to legend a giant once tried to break through the Aso range to distribute fresh water and fertile soil to the people below. He kicked it three times and whilst not successful in breaking down the range he did managed to create a road.

 

We moved to the top via a cable car that spewed out some of the most esoteric facts I’ve ever heard, even in Japan. I really won’t bore you but it was a detailed break down of the cable cars construction and history. Sadly the top was a let down. The crater was too active and spewing far too much sulphuric ash to safely stay near by. A little gutted we were all bundled back into the bus.

Next stop was a traditional Japanese bbq place. This really was BBQ indoors. We had grills set up with hot coals underneath and the it was just a case of get cooking really, I love how in Japan the more expensive a meal is the more likely you are to have to cook it yourself.

Following that it was back on the bus for another two hours to check out the Daizaifu Tenmangu shrine. This shrine is dedicated Sugwara Michizane, known as the god of learning so fairly appropriate I thought. I’ve been to a few shrines before now but this one still impressed. The three giant bridges leading to the entrance where quite a sight; a large arched one followed by a flat bridge and then another arch representing the past, present and future.

There also many cow statues around the temple, a rather unusual motif in Japan. The legend goes that Michizane died in disgrace and his body was pulled to his burial site by an ox driven cart. The ox however stopped at one point and refused to budge and so it was believed that this was Michizane’s spirit indicating where he wished to be buried. It is said if you have an ailing body part and you rub the corresponding body part on the cow it will become better.

Our final stop was out into the streets of Hakata for the famous Hakata Ramen. The noodles here are a lot thinner than normal ramen noodles, much more similar to Chinese egg noodles which is probably a reflection of Fukuoka’s close proximity to China. The soup is also pretty special. Like most ramen noodles it comes in Tonkotsu (pork bone) based broth. In Hakata however it’s really thick and almost looks white. Extra fat? Maybe. Extra delicious? Definitely.

On the second to last day we finished the morning talks a bit early so I went for a little wander. My initial plan was to try and check out the Fukuoka tower but to be honest the sea breeze was so gorgeous I got lost in my wandering. I think being on the coast again is making me homesick. Anyway after about ten minutes I came across a sign for a place called "Robosquare". I've been here over a year and yet I've encountered so very few robots. This place was like a mini car emporium displaying some of the funky robots being developed in Fukuoka, including robo pets, cleaners and a crazy dancing Ipod stand. Definitely worth the short walk.

Coming out of this I’ve learned a few things about conferences that I’ll share with you here:

 

1.  The old guys speak the loudest – I guess it’s a given, they’ve been in the field longest so they have the most to say. They also love to argue.

2.  The phrase ‘we can discuss it after the talk’ actually means ‘you clearly didn’t understand my question and your rubbish answer is taking too much time.’

3.  People like to talk about their own fields, regardless of how relevant it is to the talk that's just been given.

4.  Generally there is no bad blood though.

5.  The secretaries are always super stressed don’t bother them. This is a golden rule.

Sadly the last one I failed on pretty bad. Having a few allergies is always a problem and stupidly I didn’t notify anyone in advance as nobody asked me (what happened to that being an adult thing?). It wasn’t a issue till the last day and I think in the UK it wouldn’t be a big deal. In Japan though culture around food is very different and I think returning or refusing stuff is a major no no. Live and learn I guess, just wish I’d stop sticking my foot in it.

 

Anyway going forward it’s been a great week on the whole. I’m coming out of it with a bit of a fresher mind and also a more concrete idea of where my research can fit in to this field, which is no bad thing.

Mata neee.

I can see clearly now (almost)

A little slow with this update but things are busy as always. The I’m a scientist get me out of here event is sucking up a fair amount of my free time at the moment. So many wild and varied questions from the quiz I’m loving it. I’m also learning a fair bit about physics in the process since I’m the only none physicist in the zone. Happily I’ve not been evicted first so fingers crossed I last the week (I didn't I got evicted today).

Right back to me then. Last weekend was pretty wild. It started with a trip to the hospital. As I’ve mentioned before I have a condition called kerataconus  (円錐角膜 in Japanese) that alters the shape of my cornea making it difficult for me to focus on objects. Well with a lot of help from a colleague I went to the hospital to get fitted for contacts to correct the problem. It was an interesting experience to say the least. My Japanese is getting better but I’m not at a level where I could explain my problems specifically enough or fully understand a Dr’s response so the help was pretty welcome. 

The little differences between countries are the ones that shock the most I think. In Japan eye charts are made up of circles with an opening at the top, bottom, left or right, rather than the alphabet we are used to. It took me a sec to click on to what was going on. Amazingly I could see down to the second bottom like once the lenses were fitted and focused, turns out my eyes aren’t so bad apart from being pointy. It was a real revelation. I had no idea just how much this was affecting my vision until I could see normally. I quite literally could not see the first line of  circles with my left eye. The nurse had to, rather adorably, hold up picture cards and move backwards slightly to test the limit of my left eye. I can’t wait to get my lenses in a week or so and see the world clearly.

So what else was I up to. Well after visiting the clinic I dashed onto a train bound for Osaka. I was due to go to a friends birthday party that night. Another first for me as there would not only be no guys, something I could handle, but no native English speakers either. 頑張ります。Actually my biggest concern was what to buy my friend for her birthday. I have no idea what Japanese girls are into. With a bit of help from some friends though I settled on a small chocolate cake.

We met up for a fun night at a 鶏肉　(chicken skewer) restaurant for a night of drinking and eating. It was good fun. Hadn’t seen my friend in some time and she was shocked how much my Japanese had come along. It turned out one of our party had spent a long time overseas so her English was amazing. In fact probably better than mine and we had fun chatting about the quirks of British English compared to the Americanized version most Japanese people are used to. Following that we went to, of all places, an Irish pub called the blarney stone. Well I guess it was St. Paddy’s day after all. The bar was chock full of rowdy English teachers and there was a wicked Ska band playing covers of current hits. Saturday was a great day all in all.

I ended up kipping at a hostel in Kyoto that night and met some wonderful people. Whilst staying at a friend’s would have been cheaper there is something to be said to staying in a hostel, you always meet interesting people. I got chatting with a lady who was visiting Japan from Spain. She was a massive Japanophile and her enthusiasm was infectious. It made me realize I really need to relinquish some of the jaded views I’ve been holding.

In the morning I had initially planned to head over to Arashiyama, the northern area of Kyoto, for the first time. Sadly I over slept and the weather was a bit rubbish so instead I went and explored the station.

I’ve written about Kyoto station before now but I can’t help but come back to it. I always come across something new in there. This time I took a meander along the suspended walkway that runs the length of the station. It’s even more impressive when you are up high. It also seems that this year marks 100 years until Doraemon, possibly one Japan’s most famous manga icons, will be born.

I should probably explain that. Doraemon is a robot cat sent back from the future to prevent a young talentless boy called Nobi Nobita from becoming a waster by his descendants. It is the most popular children’s manga ever penned and is essentially the Japanese Mickey mouse. To mark the clearly auspicious occasion a giant image adorned the steps of the west side of Kyoto station.

Since it would be mothers day the next day I decided to grab something for my mum and mail it back home. This was another first for me it’s not something I’d had to do before. Fortunately I was doing this in Kyoto so the clerks, used to tourists, were very patient and probably knew what I wanted without me asking. I hope you enjoy the tea mum. Now having lost time mailing the tea, and also searching for a museum that apparently no longer exists, I didn’t have much time left to go to Arashiyama. Instead I just decided to wander the streets of Kyoto a bit.

It’s easy in such an historical town to head towards the major tourist spots and not realize all the exciting things going on about you. Just a short wander from the station are many winding side streets with some surprisingly old buildings. Unless it’s a temple or a shrine you don’t see so much old architecture in Japan and especially not derelicts. In a country where space is at a premium, things are constantly being renovated and, on the whole, going upwards.

The general architecture of Kyoto is different to most of the cities I’ve experienced though. Nothing like the concrete jungle that makes Osaka, the streets are lined with quirky little houses. I love the slap dash nature of Japanese residential areas. Unlike Britain, where streets tend to be lined with more or less the same houses over and over again, Japanese vary wildly in shape, size and style.

It was nice to take a bit of time to look at my surroundings. I think now that I’ve been here a year I’m really starting to appreciate the smaller differences more. Even back home I’ve always been a massive people watcher and it was cool to take the time to watch people living their lives, wondering why they picked a house like that to live in and so on. After a wander and ponder I headed back to Osaka to play some Frisbee. It had been ages and to my happy surprise the team had grown thanks to some university students coming back home. Some of these guys could really play, leading to 3 hours of knackering fun that I’m still feeling now.

Mata neeeee