The first Singapore Post

Hello everyone again.

I am actually typing this on the plane coming back from Singapore. Not that I won't get a chance to post it until I get on the Internet again.

So first off why was I there?

I was in Singapore to present a paper on my research (APCOT2006.org). The presentation I guess didn't go as bad as I thought it did and I met a bunch of interesting people doing other types of research or dealing with some of the same topics as I deal with.

In some later posts I will post pictures from the trip.

For now i will leave you with a link for googleearth to go Singapore. If you are like me the first time that I realized that I was going to Singapore I could not place it on a map so this should help some what.

Googleearth (tested in v4 however it might work in v3)(This is a collection of links that I found. Depending on how I feel and ambitious I am I might set up my own site for storing kml file.)
maps.google.com

Here I will put some of my thoughts of Singapore. I always thought that Japan was known for its clean cities. Singapore puts Japan to shame. things were really clean there. The second thing to note that for me was odd the first day or to was that we were basically on the equator the sun did not come up as early as it does in Sendai in the summer. There are two official languages there, English and Chinese. Guess which one I used. It was really nice to be in a country again where I could speak English with people. Singapore also seems to be a very international city/country. This made it feel like I didn't stick out as much as I normally do in Japan.

As I will mention later the architecture there is probably all new but I liked it. To me the prices were not that bad compared to Japan even though it was listed in the top 20 of the most expensive places to live in the world. The food was good there even though I really don't know what is truly from Singapore. But again because people understand English I could always ask for not spicy. Also the variety of food was quite good also.

A few of the points that I didn't like about the city but there is really not much that can be done about some of them. One was the humidity. The second was related to the first and that is the amount of electricity that must be used for cooling. During the conference I was in a suit and tie every day and as long as I was in AC building life was good. When I went outside I began to pour sweat out. The third thing that I didn't like was pushy restaurant owners.

Otherwise I really liked the city and highly recommend it to people for a visit at the least. I don't think it would be all that bad for somone who was single or as a retirnment home either.

Google Earth - Home

So this week google earth 4 beta came out. Now how does this relate to Japan and the like. For one it has a Linux client so I can use it now and secondly they have improved the resolution around Sendai. So this means that I can now actually find my apartment.

So still why the blog post?

Well because I am paranoid that if I post my address (even though I probably have in some other way and just don't realize it) some maniac will come to my door. So if you want a link to see where I live send me an email or an IM (all contact info is on the right) and I will send it off to you.

So thanks google for putting out this nice product for free and a Linux client.

Google Earth - Home

A relatively small Japanese pagoda

cimg2071
Originally uploaded by ehud4242.

On a weekend trip I saw this pagoda. It just so happened there was enough space to setup a forced perspective shot.

Here is the original without me in the shot. I will put more photos up of this trip later.

Chevy and Bicycles

Just an amusing picture or two.

Who knew that Chevy made bicycles too.

Dentisist in Japan

Today is just a short post on a topic that has come up for me in the past.

Dentisist in Japan operate a little bit different than they do in the US. Here no appointment is necessary. So sometimes the wait is a little long but there are enough densist around that it is not too bad.

The second item that comes up is that when the dentist cleans your teeth he or she only does one half at one time. So when I went they cleaned by lower jaw first and then I went back a week later and they cleaned my upper jaw.

The price for this is quite reasonable or at least what I ended up paying. In Japan the the health care system is government operated so that makes prices reasonably cheap and espically for students.

Thats it for now,

Survey Marks

Yes I know it has been a while since I posted. I have been bery busy as normal and just could not make time for this. Oh well such is life.

Here is an interesting topic for some people, survey markers. I don't remember seeing these all that often in the US and it was pointed out that you see these all the time here. These are primarily used with marking property boundaries.

Here are a couple of examples. The first one I think ins intersting because the survey marker was molded int a cement wall.





The final example, I am guessing is for putting new survey points in.



I am not sure if these are more common because I am in a city or not, but it shows the value of people's property.

You can see more examples atflickr.

Trash Day at the Lab

Just a couple of pictures of trash day at the lab.





Basically in my lab we have a storage room in the back that every couple of weeks we need to empty to take over to a main collection area. Of course like everyone else we need to see what is the least number of trips we can make. I am of course guilty of this.

A somewhat common scene

cimg1555.jpg
Originally uploaded by ehud4242.

Today I am only have a short post for you. Specifically I am looking at this display that I saw outside of Sendai Station. This display tells you how much energy solar panels are converting to electricity and how much CO_2 is not being produced because of these Solar Panels. These Solar Panels I believe are part of the compliance with the Kyoto Accord. So if you are in Japan you might see displays like these near new buildings or buildings that have been recently renovated.

My Morioka Snow Festivile Trip

Well last weekend for a change we had a Saturday off so Ye-san and I went on a trip to Morioka which is north of Sendai. The reason for the Trip was to go see the a snow festival in a town outside of Morioka. Here are some of the picutres of the snow festival.



This festival was nice except for one thing which was that it is designed for children. Ye-san and I got their pretty early and we wanted to stay until the evening because they would light up the snow sculptures. However there was nothing then to do for four or five hours so we went back to Morioka to look for someplace else to go. We ended going to a museum where you can make get some hands on experience doing traditional Japanese crafts. Some of the photos are here.

The highlight was I made nanbusenbei. Nanbusenbei is kind of a traditional cookie or cracker in Japan. Here are a couple of the pictures for this.




From there we went back to morioka and I grabbed some night shots there of the city skyline, which I think came out pretty good.



The final photo that I will show here is of someone who obviously missed their bus and had been waiting a while.



Yes that little guy was sitting on the bench at the bus stop that while we were waiting for the bus to come to take us back to Morioka.

This was not that exciting of a trip but it was just nice to get out and see someplace different. Here is the link to all of the photos from the trip.

Until next time,
Andrew

Valentine's Day and White Day in Japan

Valentine's Day and White Day in Japan

So this is worthy of a blog post. I just found out Japan's Valentine's day this year and how it works. You can read the article but here are the highlights.

The Japanese celebrate St. Valentine's day in a rather unique fashion. Women give the men gifts of chocolate as well as other gifts.

This is obviously a little bit different. The article goes on to say that there is the opposite of this holiday in March called White day where men give gifts to the woman or women in their life.

I have another post I need to put up but I need to get it organized before I do it so you can look forward to that hopefully later on this week.

New with the Old

cimg1447.jpg
Originally uploaded by ehud4242.

This is a picture that I took while on my way to church. This is one of the interesting things about Japan. Some of the things that you see where the "old" collides or combines with the new. In this case you have a rather old house but it still has a satellite dish on it. I will try to find more odd stuff like this.

Click on the link to go to the flickr page where the photo is stored to see the highlited section with the dish.

Electrical outlets in Japan

This is a photo that I in my lab. Can you see anything wrong with this photo.

When I was growing up I remember seeing videos of that you should not one use three prong to two prong adatpers. You should also not use outlet expanders as seen here to plug more things in.

In this picture you can see both of those rules have been broken.

Now here I am suppose to come up with some type of conclusion for this picture but I have none.　Maybe the circuits are built better here but I have a hard time believing that. Probably it means that again in the US we are taught to be a little too cautious with circuits.

EDIT: The more I think about this in the US it is acceptable to use power strips and surge protectors to expand outlets. So maybe we do this anyways. I still think though that surge protectors and power strips have been designed with more redundancy and insulation than what I see here.

My Flickr photo feed

Well if you have not guessed by now I am using flickr to store my photos. I have gone through and uploaded all of my old photos so you can still see those from the ophoto days. Here is a link to my main feed and here is a link to my tags. For people who do not know tags our well tags that I add to all of the photos to make them easier to organise and browse.

The other fun thing about flickr is that it also has rss feeds for the photos so you can use this feature to let you know when I add new photos.

Please fee l free to browse the photos and download any of the ones that you want. Almost all of them have the orginal hi-res versions up there so if you need photos go ahead and use them.

This will probably be the last post from Japan before I come back to America for Christmas and New Year's. I don't think I will post much from the US unless something comes up.

So Merry Chrstmas and Happy New Year.
Andrew

Happy birthday Josh

For those that know the Painter's Birthday Song and have a sense of humor.

Happy Birthday Dirge

For everyone else move along.

TIMEasia Magazine: Mirror, Mirror...

TIMEasia Magazine: Mirror, Mirror...

As Promised here is the link to the time article that talks about men and their makeup, at least in Asia.

Deodorant and Japan

Now with a title like that you are probably wondering what the heck is this blog post about or where are we going with this. Well last weekend I went looking for to buy deodorant because I was almost out and did not think that people in the lab would appreciate me going without deodorant for a couple of weeks. So I went to a drug store to look for deodorant. No dice. I went to another drug store and a supermarket and still no deodorant. The second supermarket did finally have some, however only a roll-on and a spray-on deodorant. For contrast think back to the last time you went to a supermarket and think about how many different varieties that they had for deodorant. Granted the supermarkets in japan are not huge but you could definitely call the second one a small to medium sized supermarket by American standards.

I will admit that I might have missed the deodorant in the other stores because I was looking for in the wrong place or looking for the wrong thing. But still next time you come to Japan and have left the airport you are going to probably have a hard time finding deodorant.

I asked one Japanese member of my lab who had spent 1 year in the US if he knew what deodorant was but he thought of it in terms of perfume. So basically it is not used very often here.

On the contrary you would be surprised by the number of facial creams and hair products for men that you can find here. I should find the Time article about that.

Japan and Thanksgiving

This is one of those kind of similar to the ice cream post, in that a few people have asked me this, does Japan have Thanksgiving?

The answer in my opinion is no. The reason being is that there are some holidays here in japan where they might go to temples to ask for another good year or something along those lines. I am not sure if there is a really a day that they give thanks. Borrowing from tonight's (Sunday's Night's) sermon who are we giving thanks to? In my opinion God. If you look at the origins of the first Thanksgiving (or at least what was taught in school) the pilgrims were giving thanks for a good harvest and good friends. So for this reason I don't think the Japanese do not have what I would call a Thanksgiving.

The Japanese do have a holiday on Nov. 23 that is basically a workers or labor day. So if you see a holiday on the Japanese Calendar that is the one.

I guess I should say what I am thankful for. Several things actually. One was a good turkey dinner (the first turkey I have had since a Turkey Club Sandwich in Korea in June) at Church on Sunday. Pictures below.



Trust me, this made my week.

The leaves finally changing here with color are nice.



To all of the people who comment on this blog and just a new way for me to put stories up of what is happening around me right now. Finally, I am thankful for my family and friends both in the US and in Japan.

Well thats all for me. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

Stanely and a Fashion Show

The last installment for this will talk about the fashion show for each of different countries. So with out further adieu I will just begin.



China





Wighuru




India




Pakistan




Nepal




Indoneshia





Bangladesh




Korea




Mongolia




Romania




Vietnam




Russia




Jordan




Japan




Just all of us after the event.

This will be the last post relating the Flat Stanley project. There are even more pictures than are shown at my flickr account. Below is a link to just the photos related to Stanley

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20969726@N00/tags/stanley/

I will be adding more pictures to that over time (there is a 20 meg upload limit and I use that up pretty fast). Those pictures will both be new pictures, pictures from the ophoto account and other random pictures that I never posted before.

I hope people have enjoyed the Flat Stanley project, because I have.

Post 1 of 2 on the Amigo Festival

The first in a series on the Amigo festival. The Amigo festival was held at my dormitory last weekend. The Amigo festival is basically an international festival where people make different foods for their part of the world and then there is a series of skits, songs, dances and a fashion show to showcase all of the different cultures.

For this event I was in charge of the sound mixing.



This meant that the pictures I got were from the side of the stage instead of the center. Also sadly my camera does not do well in low light conditions so the pictures are not that great. The good news is that Flat Stanley was s placed very nicely in the pictures that I took. I also had a friend in the crowd with a tripod so she was able to get some good pictures in the low light conditions.

Onto the show. The first show of the day was a Japanese Drums group. These are quite nice, but very loud. One of the fun things that they did was they had the children come up and play a little. See pictures below.



This picture is a good shot of where Flat Stanley was stuck.

Next was a Napalese dance which is one of those sad cases with most of these photos that to see it was very impressive unfotunatly you can only see the pictures from the event.

Next Up I will post the pictures for the fashion show.

Pictures from the top of my Lab Building

This is the last of the pictures of Flat Stanely before I mailed him back to America. These were taken from the top floor of my building where my lab is to show off some of the scenery around where I am.





This is not the last post for Flat Stanely because I have well over 100 pictures or so to sort through for the International festivile at my Dormatory last weekend.