Nostalgic Memoirs (ದಿನಚರಿಯ ನೆನಪುಗಳು)

Valentine day chocolates

2008-02-17T16:59:00.002+09:00

Valentine chocolates

The valentine day brings cheer to me every year especially in Japan, as I get to recieve chocolates from near and dear female friends. This year too I was presented with plenty of them coming from various quarters -work place friends, well wishers, kid friends and the most cherishable - girlfriend.

The concept of valentine day celebration in Japan is different from the rest of the world in that the ladies present gifts (necessarily chocolates) to their guy friends. Recently, in my japanese language class, I happen to learn that this custom exists only in Japan and probably started as a promotion from chocolate making companies. Interestingly, on television I heard that this year some companies also branded their chocolates as '逆 (Gyaku or Reverse) choco'. As the name suggests this was to promote gifting from men to women. I am not sure how big a hit it was. But at least it might profit those companies to some extent.

New Year Wishes

2008-01-22T23:31:00.000+09:00

Its a little late post wishing for the new year. I thought to end any further procrastination. The past year had been fulfilling on many occasions. Some of them I could document in my blog posts.
The year end parties were euphoric. Among them, the dept. party was a special one and most cherishing as I could sense the same euphoria among my colleagues and supervisors when I disclosed my personal commitments!

How shall I wish you all for the new year? Let me try in languages that I can manage to speak.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
ಹೊಸ ವರ್ಷದ ಶುಭಾಷಯಗಳು (Kannada)
नया साल मुबारक (Hindi)
明けましておめでとうございます　(Japanese)

Let the new season bring out the new spirits, enthusiasm, peace and love among all. In the wake of it, some make resolutions. Well, I don't vie to make any, for I cannot limit them to few!

Visit to India - My home

2007-12-27T16:43:00.000+09:00

Marriage celebration

Japanese restaurant (Harima 播磨) and Lord Shiva temple at Mudukuthere

Most of the days in November I spent at my homeland - India, to attend a special celebration - my sis marriage. Thanks to my prof, I could get a fairly long vacation of nearly a month. As expected everybody at home were jubilant, busy in various preparations and eagerly awaiting for the event. I landed home a week before the actual celebration. Though I expected last minute tasks to be handed over to me, thanks to my dad, brother and rest of them that I didn't have to do anything other than taking photos or videos of pre-marital ceremonies, accompanying them to shopping and inviting my friends. As for me, the pre-marital ceremonies were itself hectic with lots of interesting rituals (Shastra ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ) happening at home. Some of them include dressing the bride each day in a new saree followed by ritual blessings from married women, bangle wear ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ, coconut leaf-roofed marquee (ಮದುವೆ ಚಪ್ಪರ) in front of home, applying henna (ಗೋರಂಟಿ) on hands and foot and so on. Those are some of the most enjoying and memorable moments as everybody in the family and friends come together and celebrate in unison.

The Indian marriage usually comprises of marriage and reception. The marriage is the actual event in which the pair dress in traditional wear and experience ceremonial rituals like tying the wedding knot (Thaali ತಾಳಿ), exchange of garlands, blessings from the attendees and many others. The customs however differ according to caste, religion, and the location. During reception, the groom dress in suit, the bride in glamarous saree and they greet the guests accompanied by series of photo-sessions. In addition two events are associated with dinner or lunch. The event though appears long and tiring for the marrying individuals, is nevertheless worth to cherish once in a life time.

Apart from marriage ceremony, I could make time to visit some of my relatives near and far. I also happen to go for the first time to a Japanese restaurant in Bangalore along with my siblings and cousins. Overall, the vacation was eventful except that I dearly missed going out with my old friends.

Halloween party 2007

2007-12-22T18:59:00.001+09:00

Halloween ghosts and Halloween kids

In the last week of October, the yearly Halloween party was organized in a special Halloween train (the local Echizen train) at Fukui. The party is special since the entire train is converted into a disco floor for all sorts of halloween ghosts dancing to loud hip-hop music. The train travels in the evening from Fukui main station to a final stop at Katsuyama and returns back after a short break constituting a rocking ~3 hr journey.

Eco study tour on September 2007

2007-12-22T17:42:00.000+09:00

Aerial view of Shirakawa-go town and Close-up of Gassho zukuri houses

My eco study group and Japanese paper (Washi) in the making

Its been a long time since the last post. In the last week of September, I and few of my friends had joined for the Eco study tour visiting various interesting places in neighbouring Gifu, Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures. It was my first time to participate in the event and I could enjoy it very well. Our first visit was to Shirakawa-go town in Gifu prefecture which is popular for ancient houses called Gassho zukuri . Together with that of Gokayama in Toyama prefecture they are designated as World heritage site by UNESCO. The walk to Gassho zukuri houses guided by local school children was good fun. The event was a 2-day trip during which we had hiking, group discussions, making japanese paper and so on. Overall the event was splendidly organized and kudos to Hokuriku JASSO group for their elegant effort.

Sojourn at Manila, Philippines

2007-12-15T23:21:00.000+09:00

The Beautiful "Taal" volcano and Mall of Asia

Tricycle rikshaw and Our Group

This November I happen to visit Philippines, my first entry to the country of my beloved. Though I had landed in Manila airport in January as a part of transit, this was my first visit inside the country. I was fortunate that the timing of visit was appropriate. My friend Kath, from Manila had just gone a week back to her home and was expecting my visit. My first impression of the country as I got out of the airport was "feel-at-home", since I found similarities to India. The baggage delivery area, the conduct of customs staff and the airport exit area were reminiscent of those in India.

On exit, I was very much pleased to see my friend and her family. I was glad to note the sense of cordiality from all their family members which made me feel-at-home once again. After the introductory greetings, we headed to their house. En route my friend showed the various popular streets, places, malls and also highlighted about the sightseeing trips for the next 2 days.

During my stay, I visited the famous 'Taal' volcano, the smallest active volcano in the world. It is nearly 50km from mainland Manila and has some spectacular views from nearby hilly regions. Though we couldn't reach near to it, the scenery from the far was good enough to capture vivid photographs.

The visit to a water park resort was another interesting one where I could chill out in the various water sports such as swimming, boating and others. Of notable interest was "Beach wave" where in water waves similar to ocean waves were artificially generated. The water sports were thoroughly enjoyable.

I happen to visit some of the popular shopping malls in central Manila. The biggest of them, in fact the biggest in Philippines, was "Mall of Asia" which sprawled a huge area just near to the Manila airport.

More than the places that I visited, the kindness and the cordiality of my friend's family members and her friends were the ones that impressed me and will stay in my memories for long time to come. Thanks to Kath for the way it was organized!

My first post in Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಥಮ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಪೊಸ್ಟ್)

2007-10-07T01:20:00.000+09:00

I just now explored the way to input kannada in my computer. Its simple and easy. Just follow the instructions given here. In order to install phonetic Kannada script one needs to download Indic input IME from www.bhashaindia.com Its amazing and works superbly.

ಗಣಕ ಯಂತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಥಮ ಭಾರಿಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡವನ್ನು ಬರೆಯಲು ಈಗಷ್ಟೆ ಕಂಡುಹಿಡಿದೆ. ಮೇಲೆ ಆಂಗ್ಲಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದಿರುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಗಣಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೊಫ್ಟ್ ವೇರ್ ಇನ್ಸ್ ಟಾಲ್ಲ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

My first Baseball experience

2007-10-05T17:51:00.000+09:00

My first Baseball batting and M-chan batting

The pitcher and Our Baseball Group

Recently, I had an opportunity to try playing baseball, a new sport in my repertoires of sports. To play baseball was a fascination that I eagerly awaited since I arrived in Japan. In fact, I knew little of the game before coming to Japan and always thought of it as a variant of cricket in this part of the world. In the initial days I never bothered to know it seriously until a friend from Cuba, another nation hugely popular in baseball apart from Japan and US, explained the rules of the game. Baseball, as a game is so popular in Japan as is cricket in India. Though the game tools are similar to cricket (bat&ball), the rules of the game are quite different. Unlike in cricket where the bat is flat, baseball bat is a cylindrical stick which is swung horizontally to a fully tossed ball. A batter should however, not only make contact to the ball but also has to hit in the right direction to score runs. Look here for more rules. My first experience of playing it was quite good. A baseball game was organized as a send-off event to one of our lab member. It was good fun as we had included even the kids of a member of the lab staff. I was glad to make the opening score for my team.

Visit to New york city

2007-09-28T17:40:00.000+09:00

View of Downtown Manhattan and Ground Zero (site of former WTC twin towers)

Skyscraper and Statue of Liberty

I happen to visit New york city (NYC) for a couple of days on mid-september following the Joint Molecular Imaging Conference at Providence, Rhode Island in USA. I was really amazed with this city for more reasons than I imagined. My first experience at NYC started while riding the subway train from JFK to Penn station. As it was evening hours the train got filled up as it neared to NYC. It was short ride though since I had to move to Providence immediately without getting out of station. On the way back, I took my time in exploring NYC along with my friend K.th. Just after exiting the Penn station, I had a view of my first close-up look of a skyscraper (photo attached). Gosh! what a sight! After realizing that we are on 34th street, we decided to walk to the accomodation at 47th street. As it was already morning 10am, my worry of walking under the sun was effectively culled by the shadowy sky scrapers. According to the travel plans we visited central park in the first afternoon, later headed to American museum of natural history. The visit to central park brought me back to the familiar semblance of vegetation on this man-made spectacle of concrete jungle. Well, later I was not surprised to learn that even the central park is an artificial construction. The museum had some spectacular dinosaur fossils and a wide variety of zoological creatures that would interest any animal-lover, but not me! The evening exploration was Empire state building, where in crowd was so much that it took few hours to reach the top. Once on the summit, the night view of NYC was glorious and still fresh in mind. The city of skyscrapers glows in all its splendor. That was just awesome!!

The next day, we went downtown Manhattan to Ground Zero, the site of former Twin towers. While the construction work for new towers is thick and fast, it blows up my mind imagining the supremely tall structure (more than twice the height of two green roofed buildings in photo) being grounded. How cruel must be the heart of sinners? The next destination was to Statue of Liberty and Staten Island. Looking the downtown from those islands is absolutely brilliant. Post-lunch, we headed to midtown via MTA bus, getting a glimpse of fast-paced life in Manhattan. A visit to Rockefeller foundation was made later. The evening walk on Times square was the most memorable as the whole area glitters in huge neon light structures dazzling all the skyscrapers lining the street.

Having seen the man-made marvel city, I couldn't resist buying books about NYC growth and Twin tower tragedy. Besides the edifices, I marveled at the ethnic diversity of the city. People of all races reside, work and survive. It truly is a melting pot. It is a must-visit location for any traveller, but barely will it satisfy only with one visit!

Mikuni Fireworks Festival 2007

2007-09-05T18:48:00.000+09:00

Its been a long time since I posted. The days were busy enough to keep me off from penning down. On August 11th I attended a fireworks festival in a nearby portal town called Mikuni. As every year this year too huge number of spectators (~200,000) had gathered for the brilliant fireworks spectacle. I, along with my international friends went by a crowded train, reaching there late evening. After a swift food shopping at the local tents, we groped for a suitable place and fortunately got one of the best views.

International Friendship Camping 2007

2007-08-18T19:26:00.000+09:00

Koshino Beach and Barbecue party at Kunimidake Camping site

Enjoying fireworks and Scenery on the way back

The season now in Japan is summer and this year it is unusually hot and humid. To enjoy the season in spite of sweltering heat is to get in to cooler locales, be it higher altitudes such as mountain-tops or down to water as into a sea. Fortunately, the University of Fukui organized 2-days camping trip on August 8&9th where in I had a chance to enjoy the cooler ambience of mountain top as well as sea. The initial visit was to a beach called Koshino, within Fukui, where in our group of around 40 international students including japanese friends had fun in swimming, ball-chase, suika-wari (Hitting a watermelon blind-folded) and so on. From the sea-shore, we headed high up a mountainous range to Kunimidake camping site. On the vast lawn over there, we enjoyed playing outdoor games such as soccer and volley ball. The evening camping was all the more fun with barbecue party, fireworks and some interesting group games. The camping cottages for night rest though well ventilated with a cool natural breeze blowing inside, had just tatami mats as our beds, much to the discomfort of some.

The next day we had a light breakfast and a free walk around the site after which we packed our bags to return to much familiar atmosphere of hot and sultry dry land.

When my cooking gets published...

2007-08-05T22:08:00.000+09:00

Fu-magazine cover and The cuisine page

Recently, I had a request from Fukui news paper (Fukui shimbun) agency to make an Indian curry dish. Come August, the japanese summer begins and for nearly one and half month the weather gets hot and humid. Interestingly, in this season the japanese favor spicy and hot flavors in contrast to their orthodox neutral flavored japanese delicacies. The logic behind this is eating hot and spicy food causes more sweating, which results in cooling the body. Anyway, I was surprised to get a call for introducing Indian spicy cuisine. The Indian dishes are generally conceived here as one of the most hot yet delicious. I am amazed about the popularity of Indian curries, so much so that when I introduce my country of origin, the obvious next question will be on Indian hot curries. Due to their much popularity, I was told by Fukui shimbun staff not to introduce curry but something else which still has hot spices as its constituents. After some deep thoughts, I planned to make a version of Alu parata having a mix of usual locally available spices like coriander, turmeric, chilli powder and cumin. Though my experience in making Alu parata is limited, to my surprise, on the D-day of my cuisine showcasing, the paratas turned out mouth-watering!!!

A weekend of concerts

2007-07-22T19:18:00.001+09:00

Mandolin concert and Harp performer

I was fortunate to recieve passes for two concerts on successive days of last weekend. The first one was a big event held at Harmony hall in Fukui, where in musicians from Fukui and the neighbouring prefectures gathered for a Mandolin concert. It was my first visit to any such major concert and it was a unique experience to spend 3 hrs just listening to a musical feast.

The next day was a concert arranged at a japanese family home, where there were individual performers of harp, piano, flute and some vocals too. It was indeed my first musical weekend!!!

Keimo School Friendship festival

2007-07-22T18:34:00.000+09:00

Keimo School kids and Taiko (Japanese drums) performance

On July 7th, I attended a Friendship festival organized in a nearby school. Around 30 foreign nationals were invited as guests to spend time with the elementary and primary school children. The event was truly one of the delightful ones. We were made to play various games (tug of war, ball-in-the basket, janken and quiz with the little kids. It was a great fun to answer their quirky but smart questions. I was amazed at the preparation that they have undergone for this event as each little kid knew their responsibilities to conduct very well. There were also many entertaining performances on stage. I am sure all the foreign guests went back home with unforgettable memories of good fun. A big thanks to the organizers.

A trip in and around Fukui

2007-07-22T16:58:00.000+09:00

A Shinto ritual and Soba

Soba making and Kyudou (Japanese archery)

In the last week of June, I had an opportunity to participate in a 1-day trip in and around Fukui city. The event was organized by Phoenix association of global exchange for japanese and foreign residents of Fukui. I was fortunate to get the chance at last minute as I was in waiting list during registration. The trip began with a visit to the nearby Asuwayama mountain, where there was a special ritual of Shinto tradition. According to the priest, the ceremony is held every 6-months to drive the evil forces and clear oneself from the sins that had accumulated in the past. It was an interesting ritual where in one has to wave a bunch of grass reciting a japanese poem. All the foreigners and locals were allowed to have a slice of shinto ritual practice.
Following that, the next stop was at Miyama Choju Soba making center on the highway to Ono city. This was my third time to make soba, so I had minimal trouble in making one. Nevertheless, the soba guides were of great help too. Though there are several varities of soba, the one we had for our lunch was Oroshi-soba.
The most interesting part of the tour was visiting a Kyudou (Japanese archery) center, in fact the major reason for which I had registered in the tour! Though the demonstrators performed in absolute brilliance (hitting the target of diameter 50 cm, as far as 28m), our group of novice who were given a target of 1m diameter and as close as 10m proved futile as most of our arrows could barely hit it. My six trials yielded only two hits:( Nevertheless, it was the most interesting event of the day.
The final visit was to a tea house in a local park where each one of us could get a chance to savor Japanese tea ceremony.

JSMI 2007 award certificate

2007-07-09T10:22:00.000+09:00

My poster and Award Certificate handover

Certificate and Present
On June 28th and 29th, there was Japanese Society for Molecular Imaging (JSMI 2007)conference held here in Fukui in which I had submitted my current research work as poster presentation. It was a national level meeting organized every year and this year was its 2nd meeting. I had a surprising moment when I was awarded in three of the best posters of the event. I was much delighted to recieve the award from Dr. Fujibayashi, the president of the society, who is also my chief supervisor. My sincere thanks to you Sir.

Spider(man) on my car!!!

2007-06-23T21:02:00.000+09:00

Just last night, I had a surprise visitor on my car- Spiderman. Spiders are so common in this season that it is rare not to spot one on a day. Interestingly, the spiders over here are so vigorous that they build large webs (>10-fold larger than the above) in no time interconnecting the trees lining the sidewalks. It is not uncommon to strike its web while passing on sidewalks especially at nights while cycling back home. Even a overnight rested bicycle can be seen entangled in the web on next morning! A day's parking of my car near to my center had a Spiderman conquering the antenna. I decided to give the Spiderman a ride with its web intact. On reaching my home (a ride of 2-3 min), I had a look at the guest on my car top.

I was surprised to find it still hanging strong on the antenna but had lost its web. Wish I could capture the movie of its fight (flight) against air!

Birthday party

2007-06-23T19:04:00.000+09:00

Multinational Cuisine and My contribution (Chicken Biriyani)

Our multinational group and party begins
Last Sunday was a birthday of one of my dorm friend (N.ya-san) and we all dormmates celebrated the event with a delightful dinner. As japanese guests, I had invited T.shima-sans (two distinct families with same family name-T.shima). After the party, the usual post-dinner chats began. The majority of discussions centered around cultural habits of individual countries. Such a topic involving diverse countries can never seem to end and we had to call off reluctantly when somebody pointed at the time reaching 11pm.

Matsuoka Kuzuryu festival

2007-06-08T19:48:00.000+09:00

Kuzuryu festival and Traditional dance

Yaki tori and Fireworks
Last sunday there was a festival on the banks of Kuzuryu river very close to university campus. This festival is an annual event held on early June and is a one day event. It is celebrated by most people of Matsuoka and probably is the only time when one can see such a big assemblage over here. It includes performances on the boat, parade, dancing, singing and finally finishing off with brilliant fireworks. Some of the food available in the outlets were mouth-watering and I couldn't resist buying twice!

Off-trail hiking

2007-06-08T19:19:00.000+09:00

Map of Ryugahana dam and Dam-apex

Dam-base and Jungle trail
I had been to a picnic in a group of four on last saturday to a mountainside near to my place. A little more than half-an hour ride by car led us to Ryugahana dam. We found the place had a 5km walking stretch (on road) around the river. We began to hike in the afternoon sun stopping in a small sidepath for having lunch. The scinitillating sceneries all around the walk-way was some good enjoying stuff in the wild. The midway of the stretch had a beautiful park (Jonkoro horiba) which added to our pleasure of off-trail hiking.

Weekend dinner

2007-05-31T22:35:00.000+09:00

Dinner table and Rotating dish

Fruity dessert and Uiri (Special Nagoya sweet)

This weekend I and my friends were invited for a dinner at jap. family freind's house. The evening's special was a kind of dosa (they call 'crepe') made with rye flour. The unique rotating dish (traditionally used for 'sushi') was filled with various relishing side-servings. Trying out different blends of side-servings to the dosa gave a unique flavor each time. Apart from the fresh vegetables, the delcious ones were corned chicken curry, raw salmon and egg with mayonnaise. A unique two-flavored sweet from Nagoya's popular Tora ya (Tiger shop...doesn't mean actual tiger!!! just the name:)) called 'Uiri' was served for dessert along with fruit cuts..With some entertaining dinner chitchats it turned out to be a fabulous evening.

Talk in FM Fukui

2007-05-23T11:59:00.000+09:00

Japanese version and English version
Last Friday was an eventful day. I was invited for a 10 min talk in FM Fukui radio. The topic was to introduce about the home country. It was organized by Fukui International Activites personnel named S.mada-san. This was in fact my second talk in Fukui radio. Two years back, there was an impromptu interview by another radio channel of Fukui called FBC. At that time there was no beforehand preparation except for a short practice just before going live on air. However, this time, I had to make a document regarding the contents of my talk "in japanese" and had to get verified by the DJs. Besides, unlike the last time, I had to go to the studio for broadcasting live on air.
There was also a comedy of errors before I went to FM radio station. I somehow by mistake always thought the program is in FBC station and told all my friends to tune to FBC. It was only just before I arrived to the FM station I realized my mistake. Just at that moment, even my mobile went off because of low battery and couldn't inform any of my friends...Poor friends...most of them waited for nearly an hour tuning in FBC. Unfortuntely, I was told that I can get a copy of my talk only after few days.
Aside that, the talk went well, better than my expectations as though it was a casual conversation. I was impressed by the DJs ability to render the conversation more naturalistic. But I still have to wait till I get a copy of my recording to get any second opinions.

Golf at Kenkou no Mori

2007-05-20T22:02:00.000+09:00

Scenery at Kenkou no Mori and Our golf group

First golf trial and my team-mates

Last Sunday was fun as I had been to a superb nature-rich scenic spot in Fukui called 'Kenkou no Mori' (Forest of health) for playing a unique version of amateur golf. The locale was also rich with various sporting facilities (runner's track, tennis courts, soccer/baseball/golf ground, kids playground and many others...) besides having splendid sceneries.
Thanks to T.shima-san's invitation, I and my friends could join the golf activity. We were a group of 30 members divided into various teams. The golf course is famous for a unique kind of golf play called 'Mallet golf', where in the golf bat looks like a hammer. I heard that the place is famous for inventing it. But our golf was different from mallet golf or conventional golf, as we played using larger golf balls or bats.
All in all the day was good fun and my team scored well to win the competition!!

Mini-Flower garden

2007-05-12T22:42:00.000+09:00

My mini-flower garden
This is my mini-flower garden at my dorm. This is my first experiment of cultivating plants, thanks to K.kawa san for her birthday gifts. There is always a joy to watch a new flower blossoming out of one's own efforts. The word "efforts" is a misnomer, as it barely requires any efforts, but for watering once in 2-3 days apart from the initial planting in a pot!! Not a big deal!

Golden week vacation

2007-05-12T21:33:00.000+09:00

Nishiyama park and Azalea lawn

At the end of april and start of May a week of holidays appears in japanese calendar populary known as "Golden week". In this week, generally most japanese take their time off for an outdoor vacation. During this week, the hotel rates skyrockets in most of japan and most sightseeing places are crowded with people. Since this season also is spring, many visit popular flower gardens too. Fortunately I could find Azalea flower festival happening at Nishiyama park in Sabae, a town close to Fukui. I visited there with my dorm friends in one of the golden week holidays. Thanks to superb weather, we could thoroughly enjoy the flower fest and the trip. Have a look at the album for more photos.

Cherry blossoms

2007-05-11T19:43:00.000+09:00

Rows of Sakura (Cherry) blossom trees and Bloomed flowers on sidewalk

Pink Sakura and Sakura flower at night

The month of april is the onset of spring and the nature becomes bright and colorful with flowers blossoming in all their splendor. Among the most celebrated flower blossoming in Japan is Cherry blossoming (Sakura). Viewing the cherry blossoming (popularly known as 'Hanami') is one of the most interesting aspects in japanese culture. Usually it starts in late march in southern parts and ends around early may in northern parts of japan. In fact the blossom forecasts will be announced each year on news media. It is carefully followed as the blossoms last only for a week and plans for the outdoor partying has to be done within that short period. It has a rich history in japan and often there are few popular sites in each japanese city where in people gather in large numbers. At Fukui, the best site is on the banks of river Asuwagawa in central Fukui. This is my third year of hanami and I have always enjoyed watching it. This year however, I had been to Asuwagawa site to watch at night (called 'yozakura') along with japanese family friends and my dormmates. It was splendid indeed!!

Kokoronet magazine 2007

2007-04-12T20:37:00.000+09:00

I had an opportunity to write an article to the 'Kokoronet', a biyearly magazine published by University of Fukui depicting the life of foreign students. Incidentally, it is my first true publication in any college magazine. It was satisfying to know that the magazine is dispatched to all the secondary schools in Fukui prefecture and also to overseas alumni of the university. In fact my initial plans of writing it in japanese was later taken back as I found it too complicated to express well as in english. There were other nicely contributed articles from current and yester year students as well.

March B'days

2007-04-10T17:48:00.000+09:00

At party and Birthday cake

Gifts and friend's b'day celebration

The last month also had few b'day celebrations. The events were fun as it could make few more gatherings and some interesting dinner chats.

Farewell to Bunkyo friends

2007-04-10T17:19:00.000+09:00

Barbecue party and The Group

We, the dormmates of Matsuoka gave a party to departing Bunkyo friends S.ley, T.wan, S.nty, and H.se on 16th march. It was also joined by few jap friends too..It was great to have a long and funny chat with all of them. I had made yakisoba, which got an appreciation-thanks to some inputs from N.koji-san!

BIRC farewell party

2007-04-10T16:10:00.000+09:00

Assemblage and Tempura

Sushi and Desserts

Our dept. also organized the farewell party to a professor and few master graudates on 15th March. As usual, the traditional japanese food like Sushi, Sashimi and tempura were the major part of the diet. An interesting chat game was conducted where in the audience can pose queer questions to someone on their personal matters. Well, this had a resemblance to many of the humorous japanese talk shows on TV. It was an entertaining stuff.

Visit to Osaka

2007-03-17T18:42:00.000+09:00

Location of Youth Hostel and Dinner at Indian restaurant

Yodobashi Electronic store and My talk

I had an official visit to Osaka on march second week to attend a meeting on 6th. I reached Osaka on previous day evening, stayed at Osaka Youth hostel. Later had a delicious dinner at Pariwar, an Indian restaurant. Its been quite a while since eating nan and butter chicken. The taste was very much native unlike in Fukui restaurants. The final serving of ginger tea brought a sense of wholesome food. I then headed to Osaka station and roamed around 'Yodobashi Camera' electronic store. The next day, had to leave the hostel in early morning to reach Senri-chuo station where I met the boss. We both then headed to National Cardiovascular center and were the first of the visitors to reach the place. The presentaton session was only in the morning ending with a serving of lunch box in the noon. The way back to Fukui was interesting one as we both travelled in a long ride through rapid train instead of express one, which facilitated some very useful non-stop interactions with boss.

University Farewell party

2007-03-17T18:33:00.000+09:00

Graduating foreign students and Arabian dance performance

"Chookar mere manko" hindi song by Tiwari and foreign students posing with Uni president

Its a long break since I penned my last post as it was too tough to squeeze time for it. This event was a month back organized at University of Fukui(Bunkyo) campus. Every year the University of Fukui organizes a farewell party specifically for foreign graudating students. Its a nice get-together in which they also invite students from medical campus. After the valedictory address by the University president and graduating students, the dinner party started accompanied with various cultural programmes delivered by students of different nations.

My Abode!

2007-03-08T17:20:00.000+09:00

Found a koool map creating site recently, where in you can geographically depict your present residence. I say it koool since it also comes with options of zoom(in or out), map visitor locations and other statistical info. The zoom function is powered by google earth, so one can zoom in to get closest details of any site in the world!!!. I was awed when I could even spot my apartment by zooming in (using + mark on the right-lower side of the map).

February B'days

2007-03-08T12:08:00.000+09:00

The end of February also had two birthday celebrations. One was our dept. staff - Kasamatsu-san (Feb 23rd) and the other of Miguel (Feb 28th). The former one was celebrated in the dept. by having a delicious cake made by Kurokawa-san (another dept. staff). Later we had freshly brewed filter coffee made by Kasamatsu-san.

The Miguel's b'day event was held at Bunkyo campus in the late evening of Feb 28th. It was a fundoo dance party with many foreign and japanese friends dropping in to wish and make it big and memorable for him.

Visit to Morita-sensei’s house

2007-03-08T00:07:00.000+09:00

Japanese Onigiri and Aloo sabji

Our group and Sensei preparing pizza

My Japanese teacher invited me and my friends to her house for dinner on last Saturday of February. The evening was spent chatting while having delicious vegetarian dishes. As far as I know, she is the only Japanese vegetarian that I know over here. It is very hard to find a vegetarian in Japan considering people here mostly consume meat or sea food products almost everyday. It is hard to survive as a pure vegetarian and my sensei says she became veggie since 10 years. In general, for veggies India is heaven as there are numerous mouth-watering veg dishes available so easily if one explores indian cuisine. Even my japanese teacher had made Aloo ('potato' or 'jagaimo' in japanese) dry curry so much so that it tasted truly indian flavor. Towards the end of supper she offered 'masala chai' which was one of the best that I had ever. Finally our long dinner ended with freshly prepared Chinese tea.

Winter trip to Nagoya

2007-03-08T00:01:00.000+09:00

Little World Open Space Museum and Ainu House of Hokkaido, Japan

German edifice and Indian building style

Nagoya City and Nagoya Castle

Nagoya Aquarium - Dolphin show and The Waving Whale

Since past two weeks a series of outings also kept me busy along with my research work. The first outing was on 20th and 21st of last month. It was winter trip to Nagoya organized by University of Fukui. The university trips appear to come so frequently these days as I fondly remember the last year's summer trip to Toyama and Nagano just happened in the immediate past. Originally I had not planned to attend this year's trip in spite of repeated requests from F.da-san, since Nagoya is a nearby city and can be visited anytime and partly also to save my chance of being selected for better ones in future. Finally just 3 days before, I changed my intention to go and have some fun. In the ensuing two days I had many memorable moments while exploring different places along with friends. To give a brief description of the trip- The first place visited was called “Little World”. Spread in a huge area of land was a man-made miniature representation of traditional housing patterns of various countries such as Peru, Germany, Indonesia, Thailand, Middle East nations, South Africa, and of course mine, India. The ancient housing architecture of different countries enthralled me so much so that I wondered how human minds were still naïve in those days. Nevertheless, some of them were modern too. However, I found Indian version was too modern to be called it as style of ancient kerala. To my surprise, I heard kannada song being played in the Indian restaurant over there.
The next place visited was Meiji-mura (Meiji village). It was a symbolic of buildings and lifestyles during Meiji period (~17th century). In the evening we went to Nagoya city proper and stayed at a dorm near the Nagoya rail station. After a refreshing bath in hot spring (onsen), we had traditional Japanese meals with sake and karaoke.
The next day we visited popular Nagoya Castle followed by Tokugawa art museum in the morning. The afternoon was spent in the famous Nagoya aquarium. Right at the entrance one can see dolphins sailing in huge water chambers. Later, it was a spectacle of sorts to see dolphins and whales performing high jumps, rolling and swaying rhythmically in concert with each other. Later, it was amazing to see a varied number of aquatic fauna and flora. The final moment of the day came when I saw a large group of penguins in a wide enclosure with artificial snow fall.

Matsuoka fest

2007-03-07T23:50:00.000+09:00

Its been quite a time since I contributed for the last post. The past two weeks were a mixture of fun outings and hard work at research front. So hardly could make time for posting in the blog. On Feb 18th, the local Matsuoka municipal council (not sure should I call council) in Fukui organized a gathering of localites extending invitations even to foreign residents at our dorm-mates. The event was fun-filled with singing and dancing by local and international groups while having a delicious dinner. Teams were made and a quiz game was held too. Win or Lose, prizes are always distributed to all..no one returned empty handed!!

Valentine chocolates

2007-02-17T16:54:00.000+09:00

These were some of the chocolates that I recieved on valentine's day. In contrast to other countries including India where on valentine's day loving couples exchange gifts, in Japan the custom is slightly different. On that day men recieve gifts (allmost always chocolates) from the fairer sex, be it either your girlfriend or any well-wisher. I was abound with chocolates from different quarters coming from two T.shima-sans (jap mom and my dorm manager), Oba-chan (jap granny), dept. staff and beloved k.th.

But the cliche is returning the gifts on 'White day', which falls on March 14th. Haven't heard of this day before coming to Japan.

Y'day in a radio programme by FBC ('Itteirashhai' from Suzuki hanji), there was a talk on chocolates, where in the DJ told that chocolates are good for health (contains minerals like magnesium and calcium in balance) and its a myth that they cause obesity, caries, nosebleed or even pimples. The aroma of chocolates are to be smelt before eating them. A chocolate activates the brain and hence is useful in rejuvenation.

Well, my experiments with those I recieved was a fair success and the one I ate before posting this is still keeping me active!

Souvenir-SNMI 2006 Award certificate

2007-02-16T15:19:00.000+09:00

Among different events that occured last year, the one that I cherish most is visiting India to attend SNMI 2006 conference where in I had a oral presentation of my research topic. Though my research topic was a little out of sorts compared to others, I still managed to get an award for my presentation. Though I recieved a memento during the conference, I was surprised not to recieve any certificate. Recently, I recieved the certificate by post. Here it is how it looks!

Ski trip 2007

2007-02-16T13:54:00.000+09:00

The previous post highlighted the snowfall happening in Fukui. In fact that was the only time that I could see some snow accumulating on the ground. The ensuing warm days cleared it off the ground in less than 2 days. Since then, only the occasional flurries were seen on some cold days.

Just like every year, the university organized a Ski trip for international students. As usual, the competition to get selected was high considering the no. of students willing to go at concessional price exceeds the selection capacity. But since it was on first-cum-first-serve basis, I got selected as I submitted on early morning hours of application acceptance date. Though the trip was planned for 2 days at Rokuroshi highlands, it was later shifted to 1-day event at Katsuyama Skijam due to little snow at the former location.

The trip was scheduled on 13th February. Fortunately the weather was superb with blue skies, which is perfect for skiing . Though it was my second time, I took time in accustoming to balance even on low-angled slope. My initial few trials also resulted in direct collsion to a colleague. Luckily, she managed without any inuries. Later, did ski carefully only when the surroundings were clear off any people. The best part came post-noon when I along with K.th and S.ley went half-way top of the mountain and started to slide down. The most toughest part of skiing for beginners according to me is the control needeed to STOP or SLOW down the speed, besides needing to make turns freely. While learning that, the safest way to control was only to fall intentionally. Overall it was a great fun-filled day and I didn't want to go back from there, especially after learning to make turns towards the end of day! Nevertheless, the great experience prompts me to go and master skiing in future.

FIRST SNOW FALL OF 2007

2007-02-05T00:12:00.000+09:00

Oooopssss...Its nearing to an year after my last post on this blog. Just thought I should not make it to year! So is this post. The last week saw the first snowfall of the year 2007 at Fukui (more specifically at my abode). Its my first too for this winter.

This year is surprisingly a WARM winter ('Dantou' in japanese) by japan standards. In contrast to last year's heavy snowfall and freezing winter, this year was amzingly little snowfall and generally warm and pleasant in most of japan. The snow could be seen only on mountain tops behind my uni and I dearly missed the ALL-WHITE Fukui that I had seen in last 3 years of my stay over here.

WINTER TRIPS of 2006

2006-03-05T11:32:00.000+09:00

The later half of the month of February is generally eventful as the university organizes winter trips. I remember the fond memories of my trip to Okinawa on last year, and hoped there could be more fun over this time around. I was fortunate to make into two trips - A ski tour to Rokuroshi Highlands and Kyoto-Nara trip.

The Ski tour was organized by Prof. Nakashima of Bunkyo campus. We went in a group of 30 students to Rokuroshi Highlands, a 1 hour drive from Fukui. The first day was pretty cold with intermittent snowfall. After having a short lunch, we adorned our ski gears to go for the slide. With me being novice, it took a while to balance with a proper stance. Thereafter it was fun skidding and making all sorts of side, front and back falls often colliding with others. The ensuing onsen (hot spring) bath and sauna made it a refreshing experience all together. The evening dinner party was fun-filled with lots of singing, dancing and enacting talents in full-flow. The next day was even brighter with blue skies and was perfect for skiing. The final glide from the mountain top was the best part with Prof. Yamamoto teaching the skills needed to control the slide. It was satisfying moment when I could make a long final slide without fall!

Rokuroshi Highlands

The Kyoto-Nara trip was organized by University of Fukui, as a part of annual winter trip. More than 50 students got an opportunity to make for it. The first day was spent at Kyoto visiting only two of more than 1000 historical temples. We also were taken to Kiyomizu pottery arena where each one of us had a chance to make cups or saucers. The evening traditional Japanese dinner had few surprises to the taste buds exploring exotic flavors of sea food dishes.

The next day was a visit to Japan's ancient capital city - Nara. The first place to visit there was Nara Deer park, where in nearly 1800 Shikas (deers) make their abode. The park also had a famous Todaiji temple where exists the largest buddha idol (Daibutsu) of Japan. It also contains a large Shinto shrine (Jinja) containing around 3000 lanterns. Then two other nearby temples -Kohfukuji and Byodoin were visited and their historical importance were learned.

Kiyomizu Pottery work (Made a large tea cup)

Kinkakuji Otera (Golden Temple) at Kyoto

Daibutsu (Large Buddha) at Nara Deer Park

TREE ICICLES

2006-02-11T11:16:00.000+09:00

According to standard weather records of Japan, the peak winter coldness is on the last week of January with varying low temperatures from north (-20 deg C at Hokkaido)to south (+15 deg C at Okinawa). I was glad that it was over and began to feel for the rise in temperatures. Instead, I felt the most chilliest of all, over this week, when the temperature dropped to well below zero degree centigrades following a fresh snowfall.

In such adverse conditions, one can also come across few brilliant natural spectacles too..The 'Tree icicles' is one of them.(I coined the word 'tree icicles' since I am not sure if they have any particular term). I was perplexed as to why it formed only on few of the roadside trees. I could see only on 3 of them while walking from my dormitory to my office, out of more than 25 roadside trees!!!!

On my research front, I did get first mouse microPET images following FES injection. Contrary to my expectations, I could perform the experiments with the help of Kobayashi-san without any major flaws.
Towards the end of week, I got an icing on the cake when I found my first research paper got published.
Feels like writing more..but, my fingers are getting numb being exposed to coldness pressing the keyboard as I am composing this at home!!!

Takes of the Week

2006-02-04T11:03:00.000+09:00

The days seems to fly by as I realize it's already a week past since my previous post in the blog. Few things of interest do happened in this short period. I had a good discussion with Kobayashi-san about the new microPET (Hamamatsu SHR-41000) installed in our lab. He was kind enough to show me the basic operations of image capture window and reconstruction methodologies using the pc console. It was a necessity since there was no english manual currently available for the machine. The standardization was complete by the week and he informed me that I can perform the first mouse imaging on next week.
In this week's japanese lessons, I had a revision of "kanji" characters from two chapters (30 & 31) of Minna no nihongo 2. Though I tried to gobble up few of them before the actual class, it was a testing challenge for my visual memory. I feel that it is the most toughest task to recollect them even if you have observed them a few moments before. To be frank it is mental exertion at its peak!! However, at the end of day, I feel satisfied when I recognize the characters accidentally while I am out.
The week also brought a good news from my boss. I got a new post of Assistant Researcher since I am now in second grade of my doctoral program. It means I have to show up a job of 6hrs/week. Fortunately, it will be included in the already existing time schedule of my research work. So no more extras!!!
I also came to know that it costs nearly 23,000yen/FDG-PET scan with insurance cover in my University, an MRI scan as low as 5,000yen and that there are two PET facilities in Fukui...
Towards the end of week, boss came in and mentioned that a new Japanese Society of Molecular Imaging has been set up by a committee of 15 founding members and he is the key chairman of the society...also said that he worked hard for the past 6 months to make it happen...Amazing job!
Few other things too happened...had to finish here as i have to spare my time for other things..more next time....

CHILLY WORLD!!!!

2006-01-29T20:35:00.000+09:00

I got back to my workland in the end of December after a brief sojourn in my homeland only to be surprised by the enormity of chilly, snowy but eye-catching views of scenic beauty as I rode from Nagoya to Fukui....I had heard from the news channels in India beaming about the record snowfall happening in Japan this year...I was visibly awestruck to see the snow pile-up on the landscapes spanning all across from the Chubu airport till the Fukui station as I traveled in the Inter-city bus. A cold air mass blew hard as i got out of the bus at the station.....just realised for a moment that I have to sustain and survive in this chilly world for the next 3 months to come...

Yeah, those were the days of last month still afresh in memories forcing me to pen few comments on it....The ensuing Christmas and New year was celebrated indoors with snowy splendor all around...
During this new season a lot happened --

Distributing "homiyage = souvenirs" to all my near and dear ones in fukui including the BOSS, dept. colleagues, apartment colleagues-kin, godfrey; oba-chan and takashima-san..
Small dispute with a close friend, which really took a long time to reconcile than expected
Got net connection (thanks to Nakakoji-san) to my room in the dormitory..had to settle with ISDN conxn after knowing that only my dormitory in our lane cannot get broadband ADSL or Hikari network due to metal-fibre incompatability in the vicinity....never thought such drawbacks can occur in developed nation!!!
Weekly grocery shopping was done in new way....boarding the university bus on a weekday, get down at Bunkyo campus and shop at Mitsuwa...
My fortune--in spite of ISDN conxn, voice chat through Skype or yahoo msgr works..my joy knew no bounds when I spoke to my family and friends in Singapore and USA
I set my japanese OS computer (which was idle on my desk for a long time) to use...thanks to Kathy for sending her japanese presentation to be converted into english...a challenging task, but got inspired by her accuracy in composition, clarity and the grammar..way to go...
Lastly, I decided finally to publish happenings of my life in the BLOG....the motivation came from a newspaper article on blogging....ready, set bloggooooooo