10 weeks! It sounds like a long time, but it still feels like I just got off the plane yesterday. Guess I'm still not used to living here quite yet, because I am missing the New England spring weather and chess in Harvard Square sooo much! (I'm making up for it at the local Go parlor, but I'm not very good yet and it's indoors ;_;) Please please make sure that those of you in N.E. get out when you can and enjoy a few hours in the cool evening breeze for me!
2 weekends ago I visited Kamakura (the so-called "Kyoto of East Japan") with two colleagues from work, Alex and James, as well as James' friend Jenny who just move here to work at Google Japan. The four of us spend an amazing day enjoying nature, and then on the way back to the city we dropped through Yokohama for dinner and a quick romp through a beautiful little seaside amusement park at night. Here are pics from that trip:
Some neat statues.
Small Graveyard (rest in peace).
The ocean popped out of the forest for a moment during our hike! So blue and beautiful!
Not sure, I think these are prayers tied up to the wooden structure..
Spring water for washing your hands along the trail as I am demonstrating
Here my co-worker Alex (glasses) is drying his paper money, which was dipped in a pool of water in the cave behind him (can't see in this pic) for good luck.
An 800 year-old statue of Buddha at the end of our journey; left to right is me, Jennie, Alex, and James.
Modern art near the amusement park in Yokohama.
Giant Ferris Wheel! I was too scared to go in it, though...
...but I rode the roller coaster!
That's the end of the Kamakura trip folks! We had Golden Week at the start of the month week (a 1 week national holiday) but I worked through it to earn holiday time and complete my team's submission for the SIGGRAPH Research Challenge (submitted May 6th).
An image from our submission, the "Virtual Flashlight" project.
The timing actually worked out pretty well because I'm moving into my awesome new apartment now and need a little time off to get everything set-up (like, for example, I have no Fridge; unlike most apartments in the US, everyone takes *all* their stuff with them when they move, you rent an apartment and it starts out 100% empty). Here is what the view from my unfurnished new pad looks like.
Dusk view of what I like to call "downtown" (it's actually downtown in all directions of Tokyo)
Same direction, Shinjuku at night (click to enlarge picture)
Oh yeah, while I was looking for a washer and fridge for my apartment, I came across this display for 3D TV in the appliance store, it's all the rage right now in Japan (but like HD TV, will probably take 3-5 years before it becomes "mainstream," at least in Japan)
I tried it too, the image looks really cool, especially slo-mo sports replays (on the TV to the left, which you can't see in this picture ;_;)Ok guys, sorry I've been so delinquent, I will be post more frequently from now on, promise ;) Missing you all,
-Arun
