The heavenly Maldives

I know I mostly talk about Japan and it makes sense that I do just that since Japan is where I live and spend most of my time. After all, even after the two years I spent here I still see so many things that catch me off guard. However, today I will talk about a place that could not be any more different than Japan – a place where everyone is laid back and you are surrounded by an amazing tint of blue and green… Maldives…

  OK, let’s start with getting there. Maldives consists of many, many little islands as well as Malé, the main island. Most, if not all, of the touristic resorts are on those little islands but the airport is on Malé. Finding a flight to there is not a big problem but expect layovers unless you are flying in from certain parts of Asia. I know for a fact that Dubai and Kuala Lumpur have direct flights (through Emirates and Air Malaysia respectively) since I took those routes on my way there and back. Oh, one thing to keep in mind – Maldives is a Muslim country and they are pretty strict about it. What this means is that you are not allowed to bring in pork products or alcohol. The resorts carry both, mind you, it’s just you are not allowed to bring these into the country yourself. If you do, I am told, they just confiscate them, give you a tag, and when you are leaving the country they return them to you.

The real “challenge” is getting from the main island to the island where your resort is. Depending on how far away, this would be by boat or seaplane. If you are like me though, ahem, a little sensitive to motion, the boat ride maybe slightly problematic. My hotel was on an island about 30 minutes by boat and let me tell you, the small speed boat jumping over the waves is not an experience I want to remember. This is what the boat looks like. Notice the big white cylindrical thing in the front? That’s basically there just because it is heavy. Your luggage gets loaded safely under the cabin and you get to sit in the back, about 20 or so people per boat. I am told if you pick the season when it is “officially summer” (the islands are pretty hot, or hot enough to swim, pretty much throughout the year though you might want to check online for the temperature ranges in each month) the boat ride is more pleasant. If you are really unlucky though it will be raining and crazy windy, making up for one bumpy ride.

OK, on Saturday I will continue and this time it will be about the resort, the beautiful Ananthara Dhigu.

Back in Tokyo

Yup, finally the army stuff is over – at least for this year – and I came back to Tokyo last Sunday afternoon. For the first time I took Turkish Airlines instead of Emirates which I always used before. Even though the in-flight entertainment system on Emirates in unrivalled by pretty much any other airline company (there are literally more than 200 movies from animations to movies in theaters to classics that you can choose from) the ease of travel is not even comparable. Emirates does not like the newer, international airport in Tokyo for some reason. As a result, to get to Tokyo, one first needs to travel to Osaka and then fly to the smaller of the two international airports (Haneda/羽田). Add to that the fact that Emirates always stops over in Dubai and you get the pretty ridiculous itinerary: Cyprus –> Istanbul –> Dubai –> Osaka –> Tokyo. With Turkish Airlines this takes much much less: Cyprus –> Istanbul –> Tokyo. The flight is a “codeshare” between Turkish Airlines and ANA so a lot of Japanese passengers use this route too. The price can get a bit high if you get the ticket in the last minute though so if you decide to use this make sure to get your ticket nice and early.

Unfortunate model name for a car

I should be finishing up something else but I realized I have not posted anything since Wednesday… Well, that simply won’t do so here it goes…

I dived into the stack of random pictures I took and came up with this one which I think you might find to be interesting.  This tiny “car/truck” is produced by Daihatsu and its model name, as proudly shown in the front of the vehicle is “Midget II”. Needless to say if they were to export this model to, say, the US, they might have to rebrand the vehicle (which would not be the first time of course). Car manufacturers, and I don’t mean just the Japanese ones, regularly use different names for models that would be sold in different regions of the world. It’s just I have never seen quite a name like this being used in any region.

It turns out there was a “Midget” as well – which was the original model. Wikipedia has a lot of information on the models with more pictures.

Historic cars and… a giant mechanical spider?

I was in Yokohama on Sunday and as luck would have it there was a historic car exhibition right outside the restaurant I was at in Akarenga / 赤レンガ. Given that there was a ridiculous wind outside I was happy to get a seat inside and almost as soon as I sat down I saw a group of people gathering right outside and surely enough in about a minute the first car passed right in front of the window followed by more. Apparently this was a part of historical tour around Japan which explains how they managed to attract a crowd even under those weather conditions. There was a nice collection of both very old (see the pic above ;)) and very new cars including a few generations of Ferraris, all looking equally impressive to my untrained eye.

It was on my way back to the train station that I noticed this huge spider towering over walls, I suppose a part of some exhibition. I couldn’t see much though thanks to my zoom lens now I can see much clearer ;) It definitely looks impressive, a mechanical spider with (at least) 6 operators controlling its moves. I would love to see this from close up myself. I am not sure what the exhibition was for exactly but I suspect it is a part of the 150th year celebration of the opening of Yokohama Harbor.

Adventures in Nashville

I am still getting over the jetlag even though it has been more than a week by now but I thought I would drop a line and let you know about at least the highlights of the trip. New material about Tokyo is accumulating with the nice weather we are having these days and I can’t move onto that without finishing up with this so, here we go…

First I need to talk about the Centennial Park. This green gem of a spot lies pretty close to Vanderbilt University and hosts a copy of the Parthenon. Granted it is a bit on the smaller side compared to the original in Athens but hey, it is newer and in a better condition (yeah, I do realize that does not make it better than the original but still ;)). Now as luck would have it we ran into some cherry blossoms in bloom there which kind of made up for our missing the cherry blossoms in Tokyo – again, not quite as special as the original but much better than nothing. The day we were there was very nice and sunny for the most part which made the view more enjoyable and I saw a squirrel or two which sure brought back memories of the US. I even spotted a blue jay which looked really really pretty.

Another highlight was this – the district. It is basically a well lit and clean street flanked on both sides by souvenir stores and live music venues. We had dinner at one of the restaurants with live music playing and it was a pleasant experience. If you are into ribs you are in luck here though for those of us who are “pork-challenged” (like me) there are other options such as catfish. Keep in mind though – the style they seem to prefer is either BBQ (in terms of the ribs) or deep fried (in terms of the catfish). The “Batman building” in the background is the AT&T building and the Nashville skyline can be seen pretty clearly from this street. It was not a very crowded night but I don’t know if this is typical since the night we were there also was the night when a hurricane touched down in Nashville and there was some heavy damage in certain areas of downtown and traffic was backed up on certain highways which brings me to the biggest highlight (after the conference of course) – the hurricane/storm…

What is this you say? This is what everyone in the conference was watching for a while on the last day of the conference… It is the tornado report on the weather channel. Shortly after my talk on the third day, during the coffee break, we all realized that it was not so sunny outside anymore. In fact, it was raining like crazy and there was lightning left and right. While we started talking about how it was unlucky we could not go out to see the town a bit on the last day we heard these sirens coming from the hotel’s PA system. It was the first time I heard such an announcement – asking everyone to gather in the lobby but it did not end there. We had to get in line and go to the basement and stand against the wall for a few minutes. Luckily there weren’t any delays at the airport the next day and we were able to get back on time. It was an interesting experience but I enjoy seeing new places and experiencing new things so this trip definitely was enjoyable for me.

Onto recent things in Tokyo starting with the next post…

Buying a PSP from a vending machine?

If anyone asked me before my little trip to Nashville where, if anywhere, one would be able to buy a PSP or an iPod from a vending machine I would say it has to be in Japan somewhere. Well, imagine my surprise when I got off the plane at Dallas International Airport and ran into not just one, but at least 3 huge vending machines which, well, vend, PSPs, iPods and related accessories. There is also a little touch screen introducing each item and of course the all important credit card reader. I am not sure what would happen if an item would get stuck just like with other vending machines – I can live with wasting a dollar for a bag of chips that gets stuck, or I can pay for another one and get two at the same time but the same “trick” doesn’t work when each item costs upwards of $100. Still though – pretty interesting concept. It seems like Sony and Apple are the two big backers of this as of now.

The airport is your typical large US airport, with a multitude of terminals and a train system linking them. There isn’t really a distinguishing feature of the airport – at least internally. I am not entirely sure how it is from the outside though since it is one of the airports I have only seen from inside. Oh and before I forget – I snapped this picture of a crashed application that was on the display screens. I am wondering why no one noticed it but I suspect there is no application that watches for crashes and notifies an operator. I guess this would be something good to build for applications like this though I am surprised there is not one already.

From Tokyo to Nashville

Last week I was in the US, attending a conference in Nashville and well, if I don’t start posting about this I am going to forget so… here we go…

I took the AA flight out of Narita on Sunday and had a 10 hour flight, touching down in Dallas. The flight was generally pleasant and contrary to my last experience aboard an American carrier (United back in 2006) there was actually an entertainment system of some sort for each passenger in economy. Now before you get excited – it is a VERY limited system.  First of all, it has the smallest screen I have ever seen. The screen is supposedly touch screen and it does allow, um, touching, but the resolution is basically 8 by 8 or so. When you succeed in pressing a “button”, the whole screen reloads giving the whole experience a slideshow kind of feel (which I guess was appropriate given that I was going to a conference with lots of slideshows). There are a few new movies and TV series available and they even threw in a token Japanese movie but the whole collection included less than 20 or so items – when you compare this with literally hundreds offered by Emirates (which not only had recent movies but also classics) and the like you can see how AA still has a long way to go. Oh and the system they have for the videos is just strange – unlike a perfectly digital system where you can start to watch any of the offerrings whenever you want as well as pause it, rewind it etc, you have to start watching at certain time blocks (seemed to be about every 20 minutes) or you have to watch starting from the middle. Better than nothing but not by a lot…

I want to talk a little bit about the next hop to Nashville but it is almost 11 pm so, that’s it for today. More coming tomorrow (hopefully) ;)

Japan and small cars

I don’t know if it is the lack of space (be it for parking or driving through the narrow roads in Tokyo) or the Japanese fascination with all things minute and cute but there is definitely a surplus of small cars on the streets of Tokyo. Most of these are Japanese made and some are two seaters but one can also see cars made overseas that rival their Japanese counterparts in minuteness. This particular one was in a showroom in Aoyama and is a Fiat. Oh and of course there is another advantage – cars smaller than a certain engine size get tax breaks and they also use up less gas which with today’s economy is definitely something worth keeping in mind.

On an unrelated subject – see the phrase “Grand Open” ? That’s a “Japanese-English” phrase which they use very often around here instead of “Grand Opening”. I guess when they took the phrase they decided to keep it short and sweet ;)

Seoul Subway System

In many ways Seoul Subway reminds one of the Tokyo's own underground transportation mechanism. The stations are clean, you can use an IC card to get in and out, and it is by far the easiest way to get around in the city. There are just as many differences however: Among other things, all of the subway system seems to belong to a single entity with each line being denoted by a number as well as a color instead of names, all subway lines seem to be local, the IC system works slightly differently, the stations seem to be more poorly lit, the overall grid is much smaller and less complex (but then this is not a surprise, right? Tokyo has one of the most complex subway/train systems in the world.).

I guess a few words of wisdom for anyone who is going to be navigating Seoul's underground train wonderland: Make sure you get a map beforehand. Most stations have maps but not always in English. The trains themselves and the stations do have station names written in English as well as Korean (and Japanese on board the trains) but the numerical ordering of lines and the whole color system can get a bit frustrating without a map to keep track of which stations to use for transferring to another line. One good map is the one over at the official web site - here. The IC cards are very useful and makes it easier for travelers who don't want to deal with figuring out which ticket to buy. The particular one I bought was called T-Money and it was usable on board the bus from Seoul Tower as well. The IC card is sold at the stations and there are machines for recharging (though not for the initial sale). 

Finally I want to mention one weird thing that happened on the trains a few times (which is a lot if you consider the fact that I was there only for 3 days). There seem to be people asking for money who go from car to car. One time it was a blind lady with a cup of sorts, playing music from a little radio type thing and walking slowly so as to allow people to put money in her cup. Another time it was a guy who gave letter type thing to everyone in the car including me (though the content of the letter is completely lost on me since it was completely in Korean) and then came back and collected them, some people giving him money with the letter. It was one of the weirdest experiences I had in Seoul. Come to think of it, I guess there is a law against asking for money directly so people came up with these indirect, creative ways to do so...

Canceled trains create a (bigger than usual) mess in Tokyo

See, today was supposed to be a simple day. I was going to take the express Chuo Line train from Kichijouji to Ochanomizu - a maximum 20 minute trip, followed by hopping a station over in a local train to Akihabara for my bi-weekly stroll through the capital of electronics and software in Japan. How was I to know that something very very unexpected would happen and the whole day would turn into an experiment of how many bad coincidences can occur in a given day without my head exploding...

The first surprise was seeing the two guards in front of the express line entrance in Kichijouji with a clear sign (if you speak Japanese) explaining something was up (in case anyone thought jumping over the metal cable that they pulled across was a good idea). The image is from Shinjuku by the way where a similar scene was taking place in front of the entrance for the express train for Chuo Line, but I get ahead of myself... Where was I ? Ah, yes, still at Kichijouji. Not being able to read the sign I had the bright idea of taking a local train back to Mitaka (which is in the opposite direction) and then finding an express train from there towards Ochanomizu but nope, there were guards and a sign there too. So I gave up and hopped on a local train which actually turned out to be going the opposite direction - not good. Finally, at Musashi-Sakai I managed to get onto the local Chuo line train going in the right direction (which was of course very packed thanks to being the only Chuo line in service). Result? A very uncomfortable journey of about 45 - 50 minutes.

After re-charging at Akiba, thanks to the very yummy  food of Star Kebab, I was ready for the next stop - Shinjuku for picking up something quickly from a store there. I am not even going to mention the train trip which was similar to the first one. This time I had the extra bad fortune of running into a free open air concert of this music group called "Gazette" which I have never heard of before. Now if this meant getting to listen to some nice music for free it would have been just fine but no - it just meant having to force my way through a bigger-than-usual ocean of people who were more intent on just walking slowly and listening / taking pictures than getting from point A to point B.

When I finally made it back home I think I appreciated that, just being home, a little more than usual... It will take me a day just to get rid of the stress I think. I am glad it was a Saturday and not a Sunday.

Miyajima Island (宮島)

About half an hour or so from the center of Hiroshima by train,  lies Miyajimaguchi (宮島口) or literally "Entrance to Miyojima". This is basically a port town which seems to have a single important reason for its existence - it is home to two ports (one operated by JR - Japanese Railways, the other by the company that operates the trams in Hiroshima) which have ferries every 15-30 minutes to the wonderful little island of Miyajima.

The ferry takes about 15-20 minutes but the view is pretty and you get a preview of the island's coastline and forest, as well as the artificial "pools" that are basically used for fish farming. Of course, also visible is the island's shrine that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The island is anything but flat so it makes a good place for climbers/hikers too and this is pretty clear on the ferry trip. Oh and a quick tip - the right side of the ferry gets a much much better view ;)

Now before we got there I was told that there were deer on the island and of course my first thought was that the deer would be on the mountains and one could see them on a lucky hiking trip. As soon as we got off the ship though things turned out to be quite different: the deer basically welcome you to the island right in front of the port building. There were literally at least 10 - 2o of them walking around, greeting the tourists - both the Japanese and non-Japanese types. They seemed to be on the thinner side and eagerly followed anyone who had any type of food they would be interested in, including little information booklets or any piece of paper for that matter.

Being an island, Miyajima has access to really fresh seafood and this is pretty evident in all the little restaurants dotting the path around the island (there IS a road for cars but it is mostly paved walkways). The main delicacy seemed to be oysters (both raw and cooked) but seafood in general is king at the restaurants. There are also little stores selling T-shirts and little souvenirs but the most famous souvenir, or Omiyage (おみやげ) as they put it around here, is a variety of "manju" (bean paste filled pastry in the shape of a kind of a maple leaf - symbol of Hiroshima). The machines they use to make these things are huge and pretty impressive - they are usually put right in front of the store for all potential customers to see the process but usually with a sign saying taking pictures is prohibited.

The walkway which starts at the port, ends at the shrine which is one of the biggest reasons why people visit the island. The shrine itself is big and nice looking but the highlight is its big red gate that seems to "float" on the water during high tide. Unfortunately the weather was not great which made taking a good picture difficult but I tried my best. Here is a panorama I made - I am keeping it at a bit higher resolution too for detail (click for the bigger version as always).

Back from Hiroshima.. details coming soon...

I just got back from Hiroshima after spending the weekend there. I have lots of pictures and things to write about but given the time, how tired I am from squeezing so many places and things into two days, and the fact that there is work tomorrow, I will postpone writing about it until tomorrow or so.

Still, a heads up is good no? :)

Check back tomorrow/day after for the update!

Toyota iWalk (and Captain Commando)

Who said all the prototype transportation vehicles had to have wheels? What if you are disabled and have to go up the stairs or what if you had to carry something really, really heavy? Toyota's iWalk seems to be coming straight from this arcade game I used to play called "Captain Commando" where a little baby and some bad guys were riding these things and using it to lift and throw others :P I think it would be amazing to see this one in action - and no I don't mean throwing bad guys, I mean walking and helping people with movement issues. For all those interested to see it in person - this can be found in Odaiba/お台場 in Toyota's museum.

And for comparison, this is what I was talking about when I mentioned the game - similar no? :)

Some "future vehicles" from Toyota Showcase

Toyota's showcase "museum" in Odaiba (お台場) is a pretty fun place to roam around in and it is free to get in too! They have a whole bunch of cars from actual race cars to current models, hybrids, and of course different models of Lexus including one that costs upwards of $125,000. For me the most enjoyable part was the "future vehicles" section featuring futuristic single person and multi-person vehicles. They even have a demo of one of the individual-ride models which I think deserves its own post so for this one I will just put photos of the others ;)

The "New" Yurikamome Line (ゆりかもめ線)

I wrote about Tokyo Big Sight before (it's in Odaiba/お台場) and if you remember that, you will remember how to get there may be - it's the Yurikamome line from Shinkawa Station (新川駅). I guess it was put into service pretty recently - so recently that it still keeps the word "new" in its title. The view is why I am writing about the line. See, the last time I went there it was a cloudy day and I was rushing so I did not get a chance to really enjoy the view but this time, well I was there to take my time and enjoy myself so I took my place in the front car and made sure I had a nice view. If you are spending some time in Tokyo you definitely need to check out this line. I mean, you have to visit Odaiba anyway so don't make the mistake of not using this line to get there ;)

Mama-bicycles everywhere

It seems like in Tokyo there are quite a few stay-at-home mothers who have at least one little kid to take care of. In fact, even though the trend has recently been changing, the traditional Japanese woman is usually expected to leave work once married/has children and this increases the number of stay-at-home mothers as well. In a city where driving let alone parking a car can be a huge hassle and most people use public transportation and/or a bike getting from point A to point B can be extremely difficult for a mother with two little kids. Enter the "mama-bikes"...

A mama-bike is very similar to your traditional (i.e. non-sports, mountain, etc..) bike except with two main changes. There is a seat for a kid in the back with optionally another seat in the front and the bike is more stable than average making tipping over harder. These bikes are literally everwhere during the day as the fathers are at work and the mothers are going out for shopping, et al. This one was in front of the park by my apartment.

Getting to/from the airport cheap - "Airport Limousine"

The "Airport Limousine" is the fancy name given to the busses that service both Haneda (羽田) and Narita(成田) Airports. They are pretty convenient in the sense that there are busses at worst every hour and they take people to hotels in popular areas of Tokyo like Shinjuku(新宿) as well as various train stations like Kichijouji(吉祥寺) which is what was the most important thing to me. Haneda is far away from Kichijouji - it takes about an hour or so on the normal subway/JR trains but it is like walking distance compared to Narita. Narita Express, which is supposed to be an "Express" train as its name suggests, takes about an hour and a half. The Express is unfortunately not available quite as frequently as the bus however, and it costs slightly more (about 200 yen more - 3200円 vs 3000円). In fact, in order to take the train on the way to the airport, I had to take it at 6 in the morning which was OK since I had an early flight but if I wanted to take it on the way back I would have had to wait for a few hours at the airport.

The bus trip from Narita to Kichijouji is non-stop and it takes about two hours. It is a nice bus and everything but still, it's a bus. The ride is nowhere as smooth as the Narita Express. When the alternative is wasting a few hours waiting or taking the slow train and wasting an hour as well as lugging around a huge suitcase I think the bus wins. For anyone staying at a hotel the bus is hard to beat too - it will drop you right in the front of the hotel.

Tickets are available from travel agencies (apparently) or more easily from the airport. They do pickups too but from some locations they require a reservation. They even have an English website with schedules an information at http://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/ (come on, you can't beat a website with a section named "For your useful information" :)).

Back in Pittsburgh, in a bright orange Mustang

I spent 10 years in Pittsburgh and now that I am back in town for the graduation I find that not much has changed. In fact while driving around the town it almost feels like I have never left... Talking about driving - I originally had a convertible reserved from Budget but the nice lady at the counter gave me a free upgrade to a Mustang. Let me go on the record to say that a Mustang is a terrible car if you have more than two people and/or need to carry lots of luggage but otherwise it is a pretty fun car. I have been enjoying it for the last two days.

There is a lot to write about Pittsburgh - it is such a nice little city. Very green, relatively cheap, extremely passionate about sports, and of course home to my alma-mater Carnegie Mellon. It is also relatively quiet, full of students during the school year, and to me almost like home...

Changing continents...

I will be going to the US tomorrow for about 8 days. It will be both a holiday and a bit of business for me - after spending a few days in New York, I will be back at good old Pittsburgh for attending the graduation ceremonies I missed last year and to give a talk at my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, about the company I work for in Japan - SECOM. I will try to keep on posting from the US.

I will be flying on a Japanese carrier - ANA. I have tried JAL before on a local flight from Osaka to Haneda but never ANA. I heard good things from colleagues and friends who have tried it before. If it is anything like Emirates which I enjoyed quite a bit then I am sure it will be a nice experience. This also will be the first time I use my re-entry permit to Japan. This is supposed to streamline the immigration process when re-entering Japan when on a working visa so hopefully this will mean less time spent in the airport on the way back.

Travelling to Hakone（箱根） and then Gora（強羅）, from Tokyo

Hakone is a popular destination for both domestic and international tourists. During local holidays such as the Golden Week it is extremely hard to find vacancy in hotels or transportation short of driving there on one's own - it's a good thing I managed to find both but ideally you would want to make a reservation at least a month in advance. I used Odakyu Travel （小田急トラベル） for booking both the hotel and the train trip but I get ahead of myself. Let's get back to the actual travel...

The hotel I stayed in was in Gora, one of the "hot spring centers" which is about 500 meters above sea level. Going up the mountain is possible using the Hakone Tozan Railway, Japan's only mountain railway. The train follows an interesting path, going back and forth as it ascends the mountain and earning it its name - "switchback". The trip up the mountain takes less than an hour and Gora is the final stop. As there is only one line serving the stops on the mountain the train is almost always full to capacity. The first stop of the line is Hakone-Yumoto （箱根湯本） which is where I boarded the train. Of course this meant getting to Hakone-Yumoto first.

Odakyu has a regular Semi-Express service called "Romance Car" （ロマンスカー） which runs between Shinjuku and Hakone-Yumoto covering the distance in about an hour and a half. There are a few different types of trains used ranging from relatively old (called EXE which literally stands for "Excellent Express") to put in service less than a few years ago (called VSE). All trains have reserved seats, a bar, menus to order food from, and some like the VSE also offer a really nice view as the train is controlled from the "second floor" meaning there is a huge window in the first and the last car to watch the outside.

Waking up around 6:30 am I was in Gora around 10:30 am which is not so bad when one considers how radically different the two locations are - from tight, crowded streets of Tokyo to open mountains. Tomorrow, onto describing Gora and the hotel (which I do a disservice by just calling it a hotel - it was more like an experience ;) I will give a hint - think Kimonos).