The week that maybe made me

Admittedly as auspicious weeks go this one didn’t start so well. Having a bout of gastroenteritis is not begin a period of hard work really. I’ve gotten more used to stomach discomfort than I’d like but it was still  unpleasant. Fortunately I had a wonderful first thanksgiving meal with some friends to cheer me up.

Better fueled I embarked on what would be one of the hardest weeks of beamtime I’ve had since I’ve been here. We spent 3 days performing experiments on the XFEL, something less than 100 people in the world have done. It was tiring, stressful, scary and exciting all at once. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it, we had the whole institute breathing down our necks at.

Due to the inability to eat or sleep during the experiment I’m still a bit of a mess , hence the concise length of this entry. Sadly I can't share too much of what went on, I can't believe I'm doing work were I can legitimately say that, but I think we got some decent results out of it. Plenty of things learnt and plenty to build on.

What really struck home for me this time, more than any of my other experiments, is just how much hard work this is going to be. Whilst I’ve thought I’d worked mad hours before this was something else. It’s not just the time spent working but the sheer intensity of it whilst you are there. When the payoff for good data is high expectations are high and therefore preparations need to be immaculate. I guess this is what I need to do if I want to continue in high end science. A daunting thought but I’m up for the challenge.

I’ve been having a bit of a hard time lately. I was feeling like I was losing direction, losing my focus and that is something I’ve always struggled with. This experiment is something I don’t think I could of managed a year ago and I’ve surprised myself a bit. I dunno when the change happened but my group are very aggressive and very dedicated. It’s infectious and I’m glad I’ve been placed with them.

Well that's enough personal musings. In amongst all that hard graft I managed to get out to Kyoto for a day for a bit of Momiji viewing. Momiji are the autumnal flowers of the Japanese maple trees. The colors out here are quite spectacular in autumn, so much so that people will flock from all over Japan to particular hotspots to view them.

Well I was a little bleary eyed after not sleeping for 30 hours the previous day but I wasn’t about to let a little thing like sleep deprivation get in the way of exploration and seeing friends. I bundled myself onto the bus at about 6:30am and was on my way. I do believe I spent the whole day grumbling about lack of sleep, so sorry guys but hey I earned the right.

Our first stop was the Tofukuji zen temples complex. Before entering however we stopped by a nearby shrine for a great view of one of Kyoto's many Zen gardens. This site is world famous as an excellent place to view 紅葉 (autumn leaves) and so naturally it was very crowded. It was however worth braving the hordes as the view across the bridge at the temple's entrance was beautiful, rows and rows of momiji of all different autumnal colours. 

 

It was lovely up there and had it not been so crowded would have possibly been nicer to stay a bit longer, but we had a lot to go see so we pushed onwards, back onto the train and up into Gion where we would do some shrine hoping. The first was a very little one just down a side street dedicated to an eye Go (目のために神様)always worth a visit since I need all the help I can get.

Our next stop was Kennin-ji, apparently the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto, though it’s easy to lose track. This one is a little special though. It has some incredible pieces of artwork including a paper screen depicting Rajin and Fujin, the Gods of Thunder and wind, and amazing ceiling painting of twin dragons. The floors here were also interesting, yes you heard me interesting floors. All of the panels had a peculiar chirp when you stepped on them, earning them the name nightingale floor (鶯張り). Their purpose was to stop assassination by stealth, quite a sinister purpose for something so charming.

After saying good bye to the dragons we stopped by another small shrine dedicated to いぬしし (wild boar) something I assume is a bit of an oddity. I’ve not seen anything dedicated to the porcine inhabitants of this earth in Japan before at any rate. A real shame as they are such wonderful creatures and the statues in this shrine were wonderful.

We rounded off the trip by heading north to Hokan-ji temple. This temple is also known as Yasaka no to, on account of it’s 40 meter tall pagoda. It’s quite a site and actually the first pagoda I’ve seen up close since coming here. It would have been nice to go inside but I think it was closed for the day by the time we arrived also. On the way back I managed to grab a few quick Christmas gifs for some people thankfully. I’ve had no time to do any shopping yet.

Last time I was in Kyoto I most definitely got temple fatigue but this visit was much more pleasant thanks to the milder weather, and awesome company of course. That and we had a very enthusiastic (unofficial) tour guide who’d put in a lot of effort to plan things, makes me wish I planned my outings more really.

Right back to work I guess

Mata ne.

Tokyo day 1

Well the night bus was hell. Not only was I stuck next to an absolute blob but I had unfortunately had a massive allergic reaction to the tomato ramen. I’m pretty sure it had cheese in it, which probably explains why it was so delicious. So after a night of tossing and turning with stomach cramps I emerged onto the streets of Tokyo at 7am.

The obvious choice for me of where to go first was the central station, I needed to figure out where I was and, based on Mum’s dodgy directions, where I would be staying over the next four days. Unfortunately life just isn’t that simple, the JR Tokyo station was on a completely different scale of Huge. I’d say it took me a good 30 minutes to finally get myself orientated.

After picking up and consulting a few maps I was feeling confident I could at least get myself to the area where our hotel was so I headed in the direction of the Imperial Palace (皇居). Well I was in Tokyo after all I had to visit at least once.

The first thing that struck me, or rather nearly struck me, about the palace was the incredible volume of Joggers going around the palace grounds. I don’t know if it was normal or it just happened to be because it was the early morning but there were a helluva lot of them.

I moved a bit closer but was turned away from many of the gates. You can’t actually get very close to the Imperial palace at all. I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked at this. In fact I’m not sure if I actually ever saw it I was that far away. I think the closest point you can really see is the Nijubashi Bridge. Content with that I went off to explore the outer grounds.

The surroundings I have now found out span over 7sqKM. Pretty huge right , which is why I spent the good part of the morning wandering. Many of the outer gardens are open to the public as parks and whilst the southern park （こきょがいえん）is pretty barren many of the other areas are worth a look.

I walked around the perimeter to the northern “きたのまる“ garden. I’d come here as due to my inherent science geekyness I wanted to see the national science museum. Sadly It seemed to be predominantly aimed at children and I was a little dissuaded by this.

I headed a bit further north and began to hear a lot of shouting and saw many people with large sticks and wearing armor, as well a what appeared to be members of the Japanese military. I came to a large circular hall, which Yuko has now informed me is called the “体育館“ (Taikukan) which is the Japan martial arts hall. There seemed to be some kind of kendo tournament on the go. I stayed to watch for a short while as no one stopped me going in but not really understanding what was happening I left pretty quickly.

I skirted round to the eastern gardens which appeared to be th main event of the imperial palace grounds. There were some remains of the original edo palace as well as some exhibitions concerning the renovation of the outer walls. I swung by the information desk for a map, typical considering I'd already been everywhere and also checked out a small art gallery before the heavens opened and I decided it’d be a good time to head to the hotel and check in.

First stop was Ningyocho the district where the hotel was located. Getting there was fairly simple the Tokyo subways where fairly expansive and comprehensive. Sadly that's where the easy part of my journey ended. Getting to the hotel was a bit of a nightmare. This was in no short part due to the double-edged swords that are Japanese maps.

They are everywhere which is really great, but there is a big but. Quite often from map to map the orientation and scale will completely change, meaning that whilst you know where you are you don’t know where you’ve come from or how far you have left to go. Needless to say following said maps I got a bit lost.

I asked quite a few people, including a policeman who are normally pretty helpful, but to no avail. Finally I found someone who could help me and she pointed me in the right direction. I’m not sure if it was my Japanese getting better or just that people in Tokyo are more used to foreigners but I was definitely finding it easier to talk to people.

Finally checking In I dumped my stuff and set off on a hunt for socks and lunch. I got myself a takeout from a nice looking donburi place near the hotel and then set off to a department store the hotel clerk had informed me off. It was unfortunately really posh and about 3000JPY for a pair of socks, not going to happen.

Luckily upon my return I happened upon a cheap clothing shop on one of the high streets and “socked” up (sorry couldn’t resist that pun).  Shortly afterwards I was reunited with the parents. It seemed that they had once again taken the slow Shinkansen so it had taken a lot longer to arrive than they had planned.

Dad expressed his interest in checking out the electronics district in Akihabara so that was where we went next. Akihabara (or Akiba as it’s shortened to) was pretty intense. The streets where pretty crowded and the bright lights of electric town seemed to show no sign of the ‘energy crisis’ Tokyo was currently suffering.

We’d set off with the goal of finding a new XD card for my camera as mine was currently full. First stop was one of the massive, and I mean massive, department stores. These things were about 15 solid floors of electronics and entertainment goods. They were also very expensive however and it did not take us long to realize that the best deals were to be had at ground level.

 

In the end we didn’t find an XD card for my camera but instead I bought a microSD card for my phone. For a mere 350yen my camera could now store over 1000 pictures. Ridiculous.  At this point my parents were getting tire and hungry, they’d been skipping meals again, and so headed back to Ningyocho. My stomach was still a little off so I opted to stay out longer.

I had a quick explore of the Akiba anime centre. This place was an Otaku’s dream. It was about 7 storey’s high and had all manner of Manga and anime related goodies. From comics and DVD’s to soundtracks, figurines and drama CD’s there was quite a lot to look at. Window hopping was all I did however as the prices were pretty unreal.

I descended back on the streets and started a bit more aimless wanderings. One thing that seemed to crop up with incredible frequency where young ladies dressed in rather unusual outfits advertising maid bars. I’m not sure exactly what these entail and whilst not as sinister as the mind conjures I still think they are a bit seedy.

I decided to move away from the side streets pretty quickly and make a move back towards the hotel. This was of course not before stopping in one of the many video arcades for some 2D beat-em-up action. I just can’t help myself. A few rounds of BlzBlue and moonwalker, that's right the Michael Jackson game, I was back on the train to Ningyocho and an early night. Tomorrow held a very early start.