More Matsuyama - Ishite-ji

OK, sorry for the delay, I wanted to give Ishite-ji a proper write up.

This temple is the 51st of the 88 temples that make up the Shikoku pilgrimage, an ancient ritual still popular today, in which pilgrims spend a month or so wandering around the circumference of the island of Shikoku. Most Japanese people don't have the time or opportunity to do this, so its mostly the rich and retired who take part nowadays.

The temple grounds were a ramshackle sort of place, not terribly well maintained, which gave it a rather charming atmosphere. But the tunnel through the mountain with movement-activated strobe lighting and the parked space ship out the back made it really special.

The big golden onion nestled in the trees which looked like it might take off at any moment was decked out on the inside like an old fashioned cinema, or some sort of cult headquarters, with red velvet chairs, a video projector and lots of grinning statues. I think it was really part of the selection of Burmese Buddhist buildings which were scattered around the site, they had a very different feel to them, and lent an even more Dadaist edge to the place.

So, on to the photos...

Science Blogging

Sorry for keeping you waiting. More photos of Matsuyama and beyond coming soon, but I'm busy writing job applications at the moment.

I don't think I can really call myself a science blogger, more occasional nice photo and anecdote for friends and family blogger. On the other hand there are a lot of very good ones out there. Bora has an excellent post with a lot of good links, and asks a great question - should we be publish hypotheses or data on a blog?

More to come...

I never get bored of taking photos of food.

 

Too damn right.

I shall post a sign like this on my doorway. No timewasters! 

The gate

 

Woah, scary!

I'd certainly be put off invading by freaky mind games like that! 

Cherry blossoms are here!

At Matsuyama castle. 

Steaming fish soup

 

Yum yum

Just the beginning of our amazing meal. I am modelling the tasteful yukata provided by the hotel. 

Matsuyama

Sorry for the bloggin hiatus, here's a little update.

Last week was the Japan Physical Society meeting in Matsuyama, on the island of Shikoku. These meetings are enormous, with more than 1000 physicists from all over Japan converging every six months. Despite most of the presentations being in Japanese, they are actually quite useful, you can generally get the sense of things from the graphs and things, and it gives a good overview of what people are up to. It's pretty useful for networking.

Thanks to the hordes of physicists descending on the area for 4 days, despite booking a hotel more than a month in advance, all that was left was a very posh and expensive hotel in the old spa area of Dogo.

It was very very nice though. And not a total rip off considering that included in the price was a lavish evening meal (photos above, of course). Also the hotel had several different hot spring baths, outdoor and indoor, and free use of massage chairs. Good stuff!

The Greatest Physics Experiment Ever

Vote here.

I went for the Michelson-Morley experiment, which disproved the existence of the ether (or fixed background to space and time), and was one of the underpinnings of special relativity (at least for the rest of us, Einstein never mentioned it as far as I know). It used the motion of the Earth to demonstrate that the speed of light remains constant regardless of the frame of reference.

As one of the commentors mentioned:

The fact that they set out to find the ether, and in doing so effectly killed it off for the rest of time inspires my faith in scientists looking for truth and not looking for what they want to find.

Update:

We have a winner.

Sweet dreams

Isn't that fabulous? An alarm clock that takes beauty sleep as seriously as I do.

It follows your sleep cycle and wakes you just when you are likely to be most bright and perky. A snip at €200!

(found thanks to the most excellent inkycircus)

Mogultastic

 
 

Wild mistletoe

 

No kisses here unfortunately. 

Say cheese

 


My boss Professor S. and his very cute and unbelievably self-assured little daughter Sakura (which means cherry blossom). 

Extinct volcano?

 
 

Wow

 
 

Me with tree

 
 

Next day

Stunning view from the top of the mountain. 

I wouldn't like to be under that when it falls down

 

There are some cars under there somewhere.

 
 

Rooftops

 
 

Look how high that is!

 
 

Its cold and snowing.

 

Skiing in Nagano

So after a delightfully restive fortnight back home, I arrived back in Japan and twenty four hours later set off on an overnight bus with our lab's ski trip. We were going to Nozawa Onsen in Nagano prefecture. You might have seen some scary news stories about man-eating snowdrifts, but fortunately the roads were clear.

However, it was snowing heavily when we arrived (at a hearty 6am), and continued to do so for the next two days.

Japan's geography makes the climatic situation very different from the European Alps, for example. As this map of snowfall from the last seven days shows, cold humid air from the Japan sea comes in from the north west, and deposits its moisture on the mountains which run along the spine of the country. Here in Osaka on the south coast there it rarely rains or snows during the winter.

There is often plenty of snow well below 1000m, and many ski resorts don't reach very high altitude at all. The snow is often rather wet, though when we were there it was cold enough that that wasn't a problem. Skiing in 1m of powder was good fun though!

We were there for three days, about 2o people from my group and a couple of others, about half and half staff and students. Fortunately the sun came out on the third day and, having carted my snowblades over from Switzerland I gave them a twirl.

Onsen means thermal bath, and Nozawa onsen has 13 free public baths. So after a hard day's skiing, getting naked with total strangers was a fun way to relax.

Holidays

I'll be back home for the holidays, from around the 23rd to the 4th of January. It'll be good to see people.

Weirdest food yet!

Weirdest food yet!, originally uploaded by alexybeetle.

My boss refers to this as 'eggs of male cod'. I think no further explanation is needed.



Yes I ate it!

More proof that Japan is still living in the 1950s

 


This is a real sign for a bar on a busy street in Kyoto. Could you get away with that anywhere in Europe or America? 

Sacred and profane

 


...especially not with this chap bellowing instructions at you.