Visit to Osaka

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!!

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