"Good Morning, Japan!"

I started today very early, woke up very early - 6am (thanks Mara!) - but slept a little again and then woke up around 6:50am, one hour before the meet-up time at the school for today's technical tours.  Surprisingly I was able to do all that I need to do - including taking breakfast and taking a shower, among others - and I got to the meet-up place on time.  It helped that I bought ready-to-heat-then-eat breakfast food, a kind of hotdog embedded in some bread.  Nope, it wasn't really like a hotdog sandwich.  Anyways, it was good.  The hotdog here is a little different from the usual ones we in the Philippines or in the US know - you can still see some chunks of pork fat inside.  It's almost more like a sausage, like longganiza, but it looks like a hotdog from the outside.  It appears that it's the usual type of hotdog here, much like the red, Tender Juicy hotdogs we have back at home is the usual there.

Anyways, so off we went to Tokyo on a rented mini-bus that sits probably 15 or more people comfortably, with reclining chairs and all that.  I saw a 3rd McDonald's here in Atsugi, as well as a Denny's.  And then, surprise, surprise.

MT. FUJI, appearing with a white tuque (bonnet/beanie) of snow, suddenly appeared in the background behind the dark/green Mt. Ooyama that stands guard on Atsugi, as if saying "Good Morning, Japan!" and thus, this blog entry's title.  I thought I would've entitled this "First Tokyo Tour, Day 1," but after seeing the glorious heavenly creation that is "Fuji-san" (that's what they call it here; "san" also means mountain), I could've also entitled this blog post as "Surprise, Japan!"  And it was indeed a pleasant surprise.  Of course I took some photos.  :-P

Now, I could've also entitled this blog post as "Where's the rain?"  And that was the other surprise of today.  Two days ago, the forecast for today was rainy and cool, with day-time temperatures below 20 degrees, and night time temperature below 10 degrees.  The forecast yesterday for today, was cloudy, but pretty much the same temperature range as previously forecasted.  Today went and passed and guess what - it was a very fine day, with temperatures reaching 23 degrees in Atsugi and in Tokyo.  And it was clear skies here in Atsugi, thus the surprising view of Mt. Fuji.  This is the first time I saw Mt. Fuji from a distance; I "climbed" Mt. Fuji up to the tourist center, by car, 5 years ago, and it was freezing cold then, at least for me, although it was still springtime, with temperature below 10 degrees and quite breezy weather.

To give you an idea of what I saw, you can check this link out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skyscrapers_of_Shinjuku_2009_January.jpg

Anyways, first stop on the tour was Shimizu Corporation's Open Institute of Technology.  The top 5 Japanese construction companies here are high on R&D, and Shimizu is one of them.  They have plenty of laboraties, including a wind tunnel testing laboratory, a vibration (shaking table) testing laboratory, an acoustics lab, a geotechnical centrifuge lab, and so on, and they have introduced plenty of building services technologies.  They also have built "green" spaces, which attract plenty types of insects and urban birds, and are actually host to some fish, ducks, and one bird that looks like a crane.

Where are the photos?  My camera lost battery (I didn't charge it last night), and I left my spare battery at home.  *sigh*  And then my phone camera - oh what a problem it usually is - it "requests for 5Mb space" - on the main storage system.  I have plenty of space on my mini-SD card inside my phone (like around 8Gb) - but it does not recognize it!  I think it's a Windows Mobile issue.  I don't like, and I don't recommend Windows Mobile.  Mine is Version 6.1, by the way.  I do have some photos, including of Mt Fuji, and I requested some of my fellow students and colleagues to take some photos of me, and share their other photos with me.  Hope I can get those soon.  I still haven't uploaded any of my photos!  Let's see if I can do that later tonight.

Anyways, one of the highlights of today was...  We got to be "tested" in one of Shimizu's wind tunnels.  As in, "We."  Basically, we, 4 at a time, can step on platform, and then we get to feel what it is like in very high winds with speeds up to 30 m/s (108 kph).  WOW.  And that's not a gust speed, it was the mean speed, so it was 30 m/s continuously for a few seconds to a minute.  It was quite uncomfortable, of course, and actually I found it difficult to face the wind itself continuously.  The photos we had were funny.  I hope I can upload them very soon!

Anyways, next stop was... lunch at Shimizu.  We had authentic bento box lunch, I think taken from Shimizu's canteen, but courtesy of TPU.  It had shrimp, duck, chicken, and fish, as well as the usual sides of veggies, mushrooms, some shabu-shabu-type of food, and of course, rice.  Yum.  And we had green tea in a bottle with the meal.

Next stop was the Tokyo Sky Tree construction site.  Actually we're not allowed to go into the construction site, so we just viewed the whole thing from about 100m away.  The Tokyo Sky Tree is a communication/broadcast/antenna lattice tower that is intended to be 634m tall, with a triangular base, but circular top, made almost entirely of steel.  It is currently 349m tall.  You can see how tall it is currently because they have a sign posted just outside of the construction site.  You can read more information at www.tokyo-skytree.jp/english/.

Next stop is Japan's currently tallest completed structure, the Tokyo Tower.  It is also a broadcast tower much like the Sky Tree, and its shape is more traditional, like the Eiffel Tower.  It is 333m high.  It is taller than Japan's tallest building, the Yokohama Landmark Tower, which is just nearly 300m high.  You can read more information at www.tokyotower.co.jp/english/.

It was my first time to go up Tokyo Tower, while previously I just took pictures of it from a distance.  The tickets cost more than 800 yen, I think, and that is probably one reason why I didn't go up the last time.  That ticket is the cost to go up the first observation deck at 150m height, which has two floors.  You need to pay an extra 500 yen, I think, to go up the higher "special observation deck."  Anyways, one of the features at the first observation deck is looking down the tower through "lookdown window" - not really so scary, each was just probably 0.6m x 1.5m in area, so unless maybe more than two people step on the glass, something might happen.  Generally, people were scared to step on the lookdown window.  Even people much lighter than me.  You wouldn't feel height-sickness at all, because the tower itself is enclosed, so you don't feel the lower pressure and stronger winds that you would normally experience at altitude.

When we were up Tokyo Tower, the Tokyo skies were quite cloudy already, and so we didn't get to see Mt Fuji from Tokyo Tower.  Likewise, it wasn't worth it to go up toe the "special" observation deck.

On the bus trip, I saw two Pepper Lunch restaurants - not like the ones in the Philippines in size; they are just small restaurants.  I would think the food tastes are the same here as in the Philippines.  We'll see.  The food at the Yoshinoya chain of restaurants, by the way, doesn't taste the same here and in the Philippines.  I tried Yoshinoya the last time I was here.

And that was it.  Back to Atsugi we went, and surprisingly the trip was just an hour.  Traffic only met us in Atsugi itself as it was already around 5pm then, nearly after office hours already.  So apparently, even here in Japan where the trains are very efficient, it is faster to go by car (or in our case, private bus).  Of course, it is a different scenario in Tokyo itself, where, like New York, parking might be a problem.

Near Atsugi, I think I saw Mt Fuji again but because it was getting dark, it didn't look as white as it was during the day time and you don't really know that it's Mt Fuji except for its shape.

What a day!  Love it. :-)

Apartment

Photos are yet to come!  But for advanced info of everyone, here are links to details and a general photo of my apartment building, as well as a map.

http://www.atsunou.co.jp/?page=gakusei&sub=detail&id=00218
http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?q=厚木市飯山2171-3

No-Day Today (Un)Like Yesterday?

It's a No-Day today, what I would call a day when you don't expect anything to happen, and you don't have anything planned.  I don't have classes yet, no assigned things-to-do yet, no nothing.

Well actually I did have something planned: prepare my presentation for the "semina" (that's Japanese for seminar, just as "bas(u) senta" is for bus center) this Saturday wherein all new PhD students are to make a presentation, as well as this one "short-term researcher" from Italy.  There are four of us new PhD students, 1 is Japanese and is taking the environmental wind engineering track, and the rest of us are taking the structural wind engineering track.  The other 2 are from India.  Most of the Indians here are Tamils, from Southern India.

I thought it might take time to finish my presentation, surprisingly I was able to finish a complete first draft of my presentation for Saturday.  I have Friday to review and revise it.

Me expecting it to be a No-Day, for some reason I woke up so late!  Probably around 7:50am!  So I hurried to make it to the "office" at 9:00am.  I was a little late.  And then...  Surprise!  No one was there yet!  So apparently it was normal that no one came to school that early.

I think I woke up late because of the exhaustion from yesterday.  Hopefully tonight I'll sleep early enough because tomorrow, we'll leave Atsugi early for our technical tours around Tokyo!

Anyways, this day, there were still a few administrative stuff I had to do, like sign some documents, get my picture taken for my student ID card (I got it this afternoon), submit some more stuff, and so on.  Have I said I don't like doing these administrative stuff?  But it's all necessary, of course.

And who said it was a No-Day today.  Out of the blue, the short-term researcher from Italy asked me to join them for lunch at the cafeteria with the other Italian guy, and later a couple of Indian guys, and then we were to meet up with an Australian and a Japanese (not engineering students though).  Cool, international flavor!  We were going to have lunch at the main cafeteria, but it was jampacked; it was 12:30pm already - lunch break for everyone.  The Indian guys say they usually they take their lunch at 12:00pm so that there are not much people yet.

Anyways, we decided to have lunch at the other cafeteria.  During my last stay here, I did not get to eat at this "other" cafeteria.  They had a slightly different style here, like for one line, it was much like a buffet.  Then the food you got was weighed and you pay by the kilo!  The rice was weighed separately because it has a different unit cost.  The soup though - good old miso soup - had a fixed cost.  Hot or cold green tea, your choice, was drink all you can.  Love it!  For Y733, I didn't feel full though.  Awww.

So anyways, it was cool to meet new people, and hopefully I could meet more new people - but I really hope to have constant friends/buddies here.  It's a little more difficult now because, for example, among us 3 new structural students - I'm the odd one out, literally.  I'm the 3rd to arrive, plus of course, there is already a bond between the two Indian guys who arrived on the same date and probably the same flight.  I am being friends with them, and with everyone of course.  There is also young Pillai-san, younger brother of the Pillai-san PhD student (now Dr. Pillai) who was so nice and who I became close friends with (together with a Vietnamese guy and a Japanese guy) the last time around.  But anyway, basically there's also a whole lot of us here now compared to before, so it's difficult to become close with anyone, or at least not yet.  Supposedly I'm assigned a "big brother," but he is too busy nowadays because he's about to finish his PhD this semester, and so he is not really able to attend to me.

Anyways, dinner is ready-to-microwave meals from the school store.  I also bought milk and juice there because it's cheaper (prices are for students) than in the supermarkets or convenience stores.  I hope to sleep early today so that I can wake up early enough tomorrow!

Out-of-Office

Today I left home 9:00am to meet with my graduate program's secretariat who will help me with a number of things...  First at the Atsugi City Hall at 9:30am.  I got there a little early (better early than late!) because while I knew the bus ride was just 15 minutes, something could go wrong and I did not want to be late.  First time I saw the City Hall, and the Central Park right in front of City Hall.  Took some pictures.  I think we were done around...  10:30am?  Then off to the bank to open an account.  We were done around...  12:30pm?  Then by myself I was off to Shin-Yurigaoka, 11 stations away on a local train (stops at every station) or 4 stations away on an express train (stops at select stations), to go to the immigration office.  It was around 1:15pm when I arrived at Shin-Yurigaoka so I had lunch first...  At Pap-parap-pap-pa!  Had a quarter pounder with cheese meal.  They have a double quarter pounder here.  Yay!  That'll be for next time...  :-D  And they have discounts if you eat between 11:00am and 2:00pm!  Anyways, I got to the immigration office around 1:40pm.  Took a number - got 192.  The number they were serving was still 96.  Guess what.  Got back to the school around 5:30pm.  Phew!  What a day.  And as a reward...  I'm having konbiini (convenience store) food for dinner!

Sun Day!

It's Sun Day today, a sunny Sunday indeed.  Temperature was as high as 17 degrees but because of sunshine it feels like 21 degrees, as reported by Accuweather.com.  Itinerary: Downtown Atsugi, lunch at some western fastfood joint, attend Mass, buy stuff for the home at the 100-Yen Store, and buy ready-to-eat freshly cooked dinner at discounted prices just before closing time at the supermarket.  % Completion: 100%.  Yay!

I was supposed to eat at McDonald's but when I got down at Hon-Atsugi (Central/Downtown Atsugi), the first place I saw was KFC.  I wondered where McDonald's was, later I found out I remembered its location wrong.  It was somewhere else, where upon seeing it now I remember!  The KFC here do not serve rice.  Awww.  But the food was good, like how KFC should be.  Their chicken fillet sandwich tastes better and is larger than the Manila counterpart.  Actually I didn't know it was their chicken fillet sandwich when I ordered, until I saw it!  They didn't provide any utensils so I'm not sure if I was supposed to eat the chicken with my hands.  I just used the paper napkins to hold the chicken.  It was a breast part.  I didn't really get to choose, but maybe it was the default with the meal/combo I ordered.

And then...  Mass!  Just last night I found out that there was a Catholic Church in Atsugi.  How very convenient.  As expected, lots of kababayans.  The priest was Caucasian, but apparently not American.  The music min and lector/commentator are Filipino.  We sung "Still" as a communion song and "My Life Is In You" as the last song.  Actually I'm considering joining the music min when I'm settled down.  They have practices Thursdays from 5:30-7:00pm.  Unfortunately I'm packed with lectures on Thursdays, and I think our official time-off is 5:30pm so I can't make it on time.  We'll see.  Hopefully I can join on the Thursday after next.

And then the 100-yen store.  I went to the one on the 3rd floor of Atsugi Trellis, where the supermarket is on the 1st floor.  Walang sinabi ang Daiso sa Philippines or Singapore; these 100-yen stores here in Japan are huge and has a huge collection of stuff.  I could've just bought my "lakwatsa"/travel bag here instead of buying one in the Philippines.  Generally cheaper here also - 105 yen for the basic items (5 yen for the tax), so roughly under 50 pesos only, compared with 88 pesos in the Philippines and around 66 pesos or more in Singapore.  Well this is where it started.

Last year when I first went to this same store, I just knew it was a 100-yen store from the sign, but I didn't understand the prices.  One would say 100 and 105, 200 and 210, and so on.  But I couldn't find the Yen sign that I'm familiar with (Y with double strikeouts).  The Japanese sign for the Yen is actually different from what we are all familiar with.  It's like a...  badminton net with one leg bent.  Get the picture?  Ehehe.  So now you know.  :-D

And I went again to the supermarket at around 7:20pm.  The freshly prepared food were 20% off already, but only a few choices left.  I picked up one sushi roll (actually a maki with cucumber, egg, tofu, mushrooms, and seaweeds in the inside) and one bunch of deep fried shrimps, similar to the ones they once offered at KFC in the Philippines.  It was like worth P16 per shrimp; not bad.  I got a couple of other food items, and when it was around 7:30pm when I heard an announcement.  When I was about to check out, I noticed the freshly-prepared food items are now 30% off!  But the stuff I got were the last ones so, no, it wasn't like I could've saved a few Yen more.  Phew!

Well that's about my day.  Using Skype again to chat with the love of my life.  Ja mata.

P.S. I hope to post photos soon.  By the way, I was able to buy this prepaid card called "PASMO" for use at buses, trains, and some stores, just like the EZ-Link card in Singapore.  And I was able to use it already when riding the bus.  Bus trip here by the way is roughly 80 pesos for a 10-minute trip, 117 pesos for a 15-minute trip.  Yikes!

P.P.S. I learned about the Atsugi Catholic Church by doing a search on Google, and then going to this site: http://catholicinjapan.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/atsugi-chruch/

1st Day in School

I woke up "early" today - around 8 or 9am local time..?  My Manila body clock is still working, I usually wake up there around this time.  Better than my wake up time the day after the last time I went here - 2pm.  But I also had a reason to.  Or two.  First, I had to tidy up my (42kg of) stuff and my apartment (or apaato, pronounced apah-toh).  Second, there was a "seminar" in school at 2pm.  The Japanese are very punctual people.  Actually, I would call them normal people.  I would call perenially-late people extra-normal.  Anyways...

I finished taking some breakfast, tidying up, taking a bath, and getting ready by around 12:30pm.  I was starving.  For lunch I was able to score some Japanese "lunch box" food, but since I was too late I didn't have a choice - it was an all-fish meal with mushrooms, pickled ginger, and seaweeds on the side.  One of my Japanese seniors said that I might not find that meal to be nice.  I said I don't think so; I love Japanese food in general.  Indeed it wasn't great, but I liked it still, nonetheless.  I really like Japanese food in general, except for that very bitter soy bean dish.  I'd have that dish again!

So the seminar went.  Because of some exhaustion from my 13-hour door-to-door trip yesterday, I felt a little sleepy at one point in the seminar.  But I was able to battle it out.

After that, one of the senior researchers accompanied me to teach me how to use the bus, and around some stores in the Midorigaoka area.  I bought a rice cooker, rice, breakfast food and drinks, and my dinner for the night.  Make that dinners for the night.  I had a 10-piece mixed sushi dish, and some kind of teriyaki chicken, and microwaveable rice.  Sorry, I can't figure out yet how to use the rice cooker!

And I was able to Skype back home.  I'm lovin' it.

Speaking of lovin' it, there is a McDonald's nearby, just a 15 to 20-minute walk away.  And it's open 24-hours.  Pap-parap-pap-pa, love ko 'to!

P.S. I saw some cherry blossom trees around the campus actually.  But their... leaves? petals? are all on the ground na.  Brought down by the rains, perhaps?

The Trip Back to Atsugi

Here we go again.  Last time I did this, I got lost while dragging my 35 kg luggage around Shinjuku.  From Narita (the airport I'm headed for) there is supposedly a bus that goes straight to Atsugi, but because of the schedule of flights from Manila, I missed it.  So there I was, in Shinjuku, but thanks to helpful people I was able to make it to Atsugi - except that I wasn't able to contact the person I was going to meet.  So it was past 12 midnight, the place was deserted, and I was there by myself, getting lost for a while, but I didn't know if the person I was going to meet was going to find me.  Unfortunately my phone was not useable in Japan (it is a GSM-only phone; Japan's cellphone networks use CDMA), so I cannot make a phone call to my picker upper. I tried using the payphones but they were speaking in Japanese, I didn't understand what the instructions were as to how much coins I should put in.  I think I didn't even have enough coins, or that I lost some of them already trying to make a call.  And then, she showed up.  I left my Manila home at around 10:00am.  I got to my Atsugi apartment at around 1:00am.

Looking at the positive side, it was nice weather in Atsugi then, the perfect spring weather, like nature's own natural air-conditioning system was on.  And my free baggage allowance was just 20kg, but thanks to my connections, I was allowed 35kg without charge!  (This was not Philippine Airlines, by the way.)

So this time around, I'm a been there, done that.  Only problem is, since I was staying longer in Japan this time, my checked and handcarry luggage totaled 54kg!  And on paper, the allowable weight was only 37kg.  Thankfully the guy at the check-in counter said he will let me go with just a 10kg excess baggage.  Goodbye hundred-something dollars.  This is Philippine Airlines, by the way.  That's about all the trouble I had at the Manila airport.  Oh no, wait, I had to pay the Philippine Travel Tax of PhP 1620 - they say it applies to all tickets purchased online.  The inconvenience of going online!  What an irony.  And you wonder how come the Philippines is... nevermind.  I flew business class by the way, to get the heavier check-in baggage allowance.

And PAL's business class was spankin' hot!  Fully reclining seats, and 19-inch touch-screen LCD panels?  Wow.  I had a choice between a Japanese meal and a Western meal.  I chose the Japanese meal of course.  Yum.  Well, that's what you get for paying an extra...  $3.  Yup, I bought my ticket online, and it is just a one-way ticket because I don't intend on flying business class again soon, and the difference is just $3 (~PhP 150).  If I bought roundtrip tickets, the difference would have been around $200~$400, I think.

The plane take-off queue was so long at Manila, it took us probably more than 30 minutes from departure time before our plane actually departed, but like airlines do, we landed in Narita around 20 minutes ahead of schedule.  That would be around 7:35pm local time.  The straight bus to Hon-Atsugi (the main train station in Atsugi) leaves at 8:20pm.  I could make it in time!

Alas, when I got to the immigration counter, there was a problem with my visa.  It says "precollege (undergraduate) student" when in fact it should say "college (graduate) student"!  So they had to change it, blah blah blah.  Point is, I could've made it in time for the straight bus to Hon-Atsugi, but I didn't.  This time around, I was able to get on a bus to Sagami-Ono, which is just 5 stations away from Hon-Atsugi - no more Shinjuku!  That was so much pleasant a journey.  I got to Hon-Atsugi around 11:30pm, I think.

Actually, it wasn't so pleasant when I got to Sagami-Ono.  The bus stop was on the ground floor and the train station was on the second floor, so I had to go up one level.  Where we passengers got down from the bus, there seemed no option for elevators - just a long, 5- or 6-meter high staircase.  And then it was raining.  And very cold.  As in, around 5 degrees (celsius) cold.  Add some wind chill.  It felt practically freezing.  Quite literally.  No way I was going to take those stairs!

I actually noticed the elevator on the other side of the road, but there was a 2-foot high fence obstacle.  I chose to just carry my 42kg luggage over this 2-foot high fence and then take the elevator (and this is all protected from rain), than carry it under the rain 0.2m (stair thread height) at a time 30 times (number of steps)!

But when I got out of the elevator,  the problem was still there.  The rain and the wind chill factor.  My umbrella was deep inside my 42kg checked baggage.  And even if I was able to get it I would only be able to shield myself from the rain, not any of my bags.  Oh no, my electronics.  And if I still had to look for my umbrella, how long would that push me back?  Under that weather, all I wanted to do was get home.

Anyway, I just hurried to get to the station and nevermind the rain.  When I got to Hon-Atsugi, I needed to take a taxi to the school.  The last time, that someone who picked me up had a car to take me to my then apartment, and there was no rain!  And the rain and the wind chill I think rode with me on the train from Sagami-Ono to Hon-Atsugi.  Big problem.  Nothing else could go wrong?  Try this, there was a 20-party queue for the taxi.  Guess what.  In the rain.  I had no choice.

So finally I got to TPU at just a little past 12 midnight, the person who was to meet me, met up with me.  He introduced me to some of the researchers at the school, and then off to the apartment we go.  On foot.  Thankfully they lent me an umbrella.  When we got to the apartment, I forgot that my apartment was on the 2nd floor.  Have I told you I have a 42kg bag?  Well at least there were 2 of us this time to carry the bag one level up.  Obviously there aren't any elevators or escalators.

Anyway, finally I was in my apartment already.  maybe around 12:15am.  Everything is fine now; time to sleep.

NOT.

I forgot to ask my new friends how to operate the heater.  The controls were in Japanese!  I tried to figure it out but to no avail.  So I slept in 5-degree weather.  I wore a thermal underwear, two layers of sweater, I had a towel-like blanket (that's what they gave me), and a comforter/quilt.  I had difficulty sleeping at first.  I haven't eaten anything yet since that in-flight meal!  And it was soooooo very cold.  Last time I slept at around 2:30am.  This time though, I was too tired, and clocked out at around 1:30am.

Overall, except for the excess baggage (a.k.a. unplanned expense), visa issue, the rain, the rain, and the rain, and the really cold weather, everything was better this time around.  I was able to exchange text messages with my fiancée.  Yup, my phone is CDMA-capable!

One night only so far, this looks like an interesting 3 years.  Not to mention, my wife-to-be will be with me here witnessing one of my dreams coming true.  Of course, her becoming my wife this December is another dream I do not want to wake up from for eternity.  Ah, I am very sleepy now.  Good night to you all.

Japan... Version 2!

Back in 2005, I visited Japan... no, actually I lived in Japan.  It became the most memorable time of my life then.  I had a lot of fun, learned a lot about Japan, about technical stuff (wind engineering), and well, I also had my share of misadventures and all that, as a foreigner in a foreign land.  While I tell friends of my stories, some of them say it must have been a nightmare.  Not at all.  I loved it.  Anyway if you haven't yet, read my Japan 1.0 blog.

Now, almost exactly 5 years later, once again I am visiting - and actually living - in Japan, starting tomorrow.  But this time instead of 2 months, it's 3 years.  I am taking up my PhD studies at Tokyo Polytechnic University (or in Japanese, "Tokyo Kougei Daigaku"), and specifically under their Global Center of Excellence (GCOE) Program on "New Frontier of Education and Research in Wind Engineering.

Here's to less "misadventures" and yet more fun and even more learnings and experience in the Land of the Rising Sun!

Japan - The Strange Country

Happy Valentine's Day, men!  Watch this video from YouTube.

Bai-bai, Apaato! (JUN-13)

Woke up at a fairly normal time this morning, had my breakfast, took a shower (my last shower), packed the last few things I haven't packed (e.g. soap, etc), and folded up the futon bed and the beddings. Actually I bought some hot coffee in can from a vending machine and sandwich from the convenience store. First time I tried either one of those, and one or both of them caused me a little stomach problem. I didn't have any appetite come lunch time.

Sachi arrived to pick me up from the apartment just before 11am, and then we brought all my stuff to the school, where I left my luggage for the evening.

Anyway, at a little past 1pm, Masuyama-san and Pillai-san and I went to this Yamada electronics store. Pillai was supposed to buy a Sony Clie, but unfortunately, it was only in Japanese. He bought a Japanese-English dictionary instead. Unfortunately, it is also for Japanese, but he could use it nonetheless.

At around 4pm, I ate my lunch, and I regained my appetite after taking two bottles of this sports drink, Pocari Sweat, which has the similar effects as Gatorade.

I learned only today that I could actually send some books and documents home via EMS (a kind of fast postal service), and the school will take care of the expense. So I was practically re-packing after lunch. The books and documents were around 5 kilos only. After weighing, I found out that I could actually send other things along with my books, and that the school will take care of the expense upto a 20kg weight. So re-packing I did again, until around 6pm, when we were supposed to go already to the Chinese restaurant near the school.

Anyway, so we went to the Chinese restaurant, and Yoshida-san and the master's students were there already. We had Chinese food of course, and beer and sake. Yoshida-san took care of the bill! Thanks again Yoshida-san! Pictures are available at http://ronjie.com/photos. We left the restaurant at around 8:30. Quite early? I was surprised also. But it was just the right time as I still had to go to downtown Atsugi to check-in at the Atsugi Urban Hotel for the evening, plus I had to catch the last bus. I actually got the 3rd or 2nd to the last bus.

Atsugi Urban Hotel is not as nice (maybe because it is not as new) as the El Inn Kyoto hotel, but it is practically the same. Slept well there, although being at the topmost floor, I always am concerned for the possibility of an earthquake happening. Of course, I believe that we are safe inside the hotel, but of course, the hotel management would ask us to evacuate. I was concerned that I might be in the Yukata (something like a bathrobe that looks like a simpler and lighter type of kimono). Hehe

Bai-bai, Atsugi! (JUN-14)

Quite a sad day today.  Got to the school before 9am.  I got a seat on the school-bound bus that stops directly in front of the hotel, and I think it was because "rush hour" at the school is around 9:30am, which I think is the start time of the first class on weekdays, and I was very early.

So a little more packing I did.  Now I got a box, and it was around 12kg.  So by EMS it went...

Prof Yukio Tamura was kind enough to offer a farewell luncheon for me.  We ate at this western (not exactly American) style restaurant near the school.  They had pretty nice food there.  We also drank two kinds of beer, one is a regular draft kind of beer, and the other is non-alcoholic...  Prof Tamura presented to me my Certificate of Completion just before eating, and then we had a group picture taken outside the restaurant.

Did I mention that this Japan trip is so far the most memorable experience for me?

Anyway, 230pm came, and Koizumi-san then fetched me from my office, I said goodbye to the guys there, and we went na to the Hon-Atsugi station.  I had a little trouble there pa, as I tried to pull my suitcase thru the ticket gate, and while doing that, the ticket gate ate my ticket.  Well, it's no problem.  Had a little more relaxed trip from there on going to my friend's (Danny's) apartment.  Had to pull up or pull down the big suitcase though through stairs.  I don't know why there are stations where there are no escalators (nor elevators) for the disabled.  Of course I am not disabled, but I just wonder...

Anyway, going down the Namboku subway line (which was around five stories below), a Nihonjin was so kind enough to help me carry my suitcase down two stories.

I arrived at the Oji-kamiya station at around 5:30pm, and I met with Danny's wife and son, Silahis and Dalan at one of the playgrounds near their apartment building.

That's practically the end of all my Japan experience...

Rainy day (JUN-15)

It's a rainy day today, and I practically stayed at Danny's apartment the whole day. Except that I went to the nearby Tajima grocery store for my lunch, and to the Shopping Street leading to the Higashi-Jujo Station to look for something for one of my bosses. It was so nakakatamad! Hehe. I think I was too tired as I was quite busy from Friday until yesterday, Tuesday. I had dinner with Danny and ate some Filipino food: fried dried squid (Sarap!).

Rainy day part 2 (JUN-16)

It's a rainy day again today, and again, I practically stayed at Danny's apartment the whole day. Except that I went again to the nearby Tajima grocery store for my lunch, and to the Shopping Street leading to the Higashi-Jujo Station to buy something for one of my bosses. It was again a so nakakatamad day! Hehe. Well, I did my final, final packing today. We had Sinigang na isda for dinner. Sarap! :-)

END OF BLOG (JUN-17)

Today is my last day in Japan, and this is my last BLOG entry here, unless I will do some editing or revision.

Anyway, my flight is at 6:20pm, and I practically woke up about 12 hours before that. The sun was shining then but it wasn't like so for the whole day. Danny and I left his apartment at a little past 8am, I think, and he accompanied me through two stations. From then on, I took a train, transferred, and took another train going straight to the airport. Wow, eto talaga ang astig. Mas nakatipid pati ako sa pamasahe.

Arriving at Narita, I checked in immediately (it was around 11am pa lang). Anyway, Narita airport (Terminal 2) is quite big, they have quite so many flights, and there are a lot of things that could be done here, like typing my e-mails, reading some journal articles, shopping, eating at McDonald's. I did all those.

So, it is around 2 hours before my flight, and I will say goodbye here now.

I thank God for the opportunity, Dr Pacheco for recommending me, Prof Tamura and the COE-TPU program for accepting and accomodating me, and to Japan and all my friends there (whether I know their name or not), this has been absolutely the greatest, most memorable experience of my life.

Cleaning & Packing (JUN-12)

Today is packing and cleaning day for me as tonight is my last night at the apartment... So I woke up a little late (around 10am), had a coffee, tuna & rice breakfast, hung my laundried clothes dry outside (did the laundry last night), and did some major cleaning at the apartment. By early afternoon, I had packed my luggage, and then I took a bath. Afterwards, I went to downtown Atsugi to get something for this something that I have. I also had a late lunch at this "sushi turntable" restaurant. 5 small sushi dishes, Yen 895. Well at least now, I've tried it. Afterwards, I then went to the university because I had nothing to do at home. Went home at around 9pm, and passed by 7-Eleven for my dinner... It is my last evening at the apartment... How so very sad!

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Home late! (JUN-7)

Not a very exciting day. Lecture in the morning. "Work" in the afternoon. Stayed at the university until almost 11pm!

Later! (JUN-8)

Not a very exciting day. Lecture in the morning. "Work" in the afternoon. Stayed at the university until almost 12 midnight! (Why do I have a feeling this is just one of those old movies being replayed?)

"Busy" (JUN-9)

It's another one of them busy days. Got home just in time for the closing time and discounted meals at Sekichu Home Center (the grocery). Actually I was early but I dropped by the 100-Yen shop, but I did not find what I was looking for. Actually I found something, but it was 840 Yen. No thanks! I also went home early today because tomorrow, we have a "business" trip to a really far place......

Tsukuba! (JUN-10)

We went today to Tsukuba to visit two research institutes: the BRI (for buildings) and the PWRI (for Public Works).

We met at the Hon-Atsugi station at around 9:30, we got to Tsukuba at around 12:45! We bought lunch at Tokyo station, and ate it (cold) on the bus from Tokyo to Tsukuba.

Tsukuba is quite a nice city, it's north of Tokyo, and farther north from Chiba prefecture (where Narita airport is). Lots of trees, large roads... It is I think a relatively young city, and I think being a location of (government) research institutes is its main industry. Anyway, if you like the "city life," you won't like it here because it's far from Tokyo, but anyway, I like suburban places and this is one of those kinds of cities, much like Atsugi.

Our first meeting started at 13:30 (1:30pm--did I mention already that Japanese are more used to the 24-hour format?), and we saw this really big wind tunnel at PWRI - 40 meters wide! There was a scale model of a 5-kilometer long bridge inside. Very interesting.

Palatastas: in making a scale model of one busy city center in Tokyo--the Shinjuku area--it cost one wind research facility around 8 million Yen. That's 4 million pesos. That is 80 houses for the poor. Hmmmmmm.....

We next went to the BRI and they had quite a lot of interesting facilities there. Our meeting ended at almost 5pm or so. We then took a taxi back to the bus center. The taxi cost around 2,020 Yen by the way. Maybe it was around 4 to 5 kilometers lang... Anyway, so we got on a bus back to Tokyo.

Actually, today was also the first time I experienced Tokyo traffic on the way back to Tokyo. It was rush hour din kasi.

We got back to Hon-Atsugi station at around 8:30pm already! Man, we were so tired! Giang-san and I had dinner again at this ramen restaurant beside the bus center in Atsugi. Got home after 10pm na I think. I did some more things at home, and was able to sleep na at around 1am.......

Nag-mana sa Ina? (My mom won't agree) (JUN-11)

Today...  We had our last lecture under Prof Tamura at 9:30am.  I WOKE UP AT 9:05!  Damn!  Was about 5 or 10 minutes late.  I really felt the exhaustion from yesterday's trip.

Anyway, I had lunch at the cafeteria - maybe my last lunch there.  I had my favorite ulam there, deep fried breaded salmon with fries.  Hehehe.  I got my usual vegetable side dish, and "L" size rice.

4:00pm came and it was presentation time!  My presentation actually started at around 4:15.  I ended maybe around 5:30, at around 5:45 after the questions.  Hehe.  Quite interesting, I liked my presentation, except that I noticed that I was not looking too much at the audience because I had to point to the screen using the laser pointer.  I was able to respond naman to the questions asked by the top two professors (Prof Tamura, Prof Matsui) in the group.  Earlier during my stay here, I had thought that my presentation would only take 30 minutes.  Two weeks ago, and then again a week ago, I practiced my presentation and it took me 1 hour, and a little over an hour each!  I had too much to talk about.  Some of the guys said it was very interesting anyway.  So, that's quite a good thing.

I feel good now, having overcome that minor obstacle.  Tonight, I did some laundry, and I am doing some packing.  I could sleep better tonight.  I'm leaving soon!  It's quite sad actually.  Two people already asked me if I want to leave Japan.  I answered to both of them "Yes and No."  Yes, because I have things to finish in the Philippines, and I miss my loved ones there.  No because, it is so nice in Japan among other reasons.  I have thought that this has been my most memorable experience so far in life.  For those of you who don't know, I am not married yet, and presently I don't have a girlfriend.  :-)

Anyway, last Wednesday, I was also chatting with a friend--si Elaine actually, my touring companion around Tokyo.  She was one of two people who asked me if I want to go back now to the Philippines.  Anyway, I was listening to some kinda senti music then (kinda lang), and mej na-senti nga ako.  (For the curious souls, I was listening then to the background music when Trinity was dying in the Matrix Revolutions movie.)  While that song was playing, I was telling Elaine that this stay in Japan is so far the most memorable experience for me in life.  And she remembered our first meeting at Ueno, when we planned to meet at 9am but we met at almost 12 noon na!  She was apologizing again, but anyway, I told her that that was a very essential part of this stay in Japan being my most memorable experience.  I told her that if I were someone else, I might have gone to the park and cried by myself.  But anyway, I took it positively, and well, that and other experiences here have taught me somethings about myself.  Of course, Elaine did not know that the background music was a senti kind of song, and hehe, that might have affected my reply to her.  Hehe.

Shocks, right now, I'm listening to senti songs again.  Hirap din mag-maintain ng blog.  Time consuming.  Anyway, eto, it's 1:00am again, and guess what is playing: "I'll never get over you getting over me."  Damn.  I should stop this here, right now.  So, until next then!