Liou's quiet little life...or is it?

Last post

2006-11-29T23:22:00.000+01:00

I haven't updated this for a long time, and I think because this blog has been about my stay in Japan. Now that I am back, life is normal again, so I don't feel like bothering people with boring stories. Also, if I start another blog, that will be anonymous. Too easy to be found on the web (googling my name and I found this webpage as the 4th result), and I don't really want that. But I'll let you know when I do so.

2006-10-15T01:32:00.000+02:00

I have been in my appartment in Amsterdam for one week now, and it is a strange feeling. On one side, I know the city and its streets well, on the other side a lot of people I knew are gone and many other circumstances are different. So it feels familiar and anonymous at the same time. Some of my best friends are now in different countries, such as the U.S. or Mexico. I associated them with this city, so returning and not being able to meet them, feels like a little void.

And then again, I need to start my life again. I got my old appartment back, which is definitely a big advantage in Amsterdam. The lack of living space is so urgent here, people will settle with the most cramped spaces or ludicrous prices. Apart from this though, I will need to to make a living to pay for my appartment, and make some money aside (I would like to go to China sometime within this year). And I have no idea what job I want... I will talk to my professor soon, and go to some presentation of PhD soon, so that might give me some insight. But the problem is probably whether to opt for a full-time job with long-period carreer opportunities, or get the necessary money with temporary assignments. Essentially, I am still a bit anxious of the prospect of committing myself to a task for a long period.

I think it will be important to get on with activities, to create some stable reference points where I can meet new people, alongside reestablishing old friendships.

Before returning to the Netherlands, I did quite a bit, including visiting my grandmother's family in the south, or more correctly the west of Honshu (Japan main island), in a prefecture called Tottori. My grandparents moved up after the war to Toyama, which is a little north of Tokyo and on the other coast. Originally however they are from Tottori though. I met there with a nephew and niece of my grandmother (cousins of my father, if you can follow me). The coolest thing is that my grandmother's nephew lives in the house where she grew and it's really old, 200 years or more. I made some b&w pics, but still got to develop them and see how they turn out. Meanwhile you can see an old film poster, which probably dates from before the second war. The inside of this closet door is filled with newspapers who are 100 years old.

Tottori is famous for its dunes, although they form a very narrow strip between forest and regular beaches. But since this is one of the only spots to have dunes in the whole it has become a famous tourist attraction, even with camels to ride! I am here with the grandson of my relative, who was to afraid to climb alone with his sister. It didn't seem like he enjoyed the ride a lot, as he was trying to get off halfway. The camel assistant asked me something about someone being half-Japanese; I thought he meant me, but he actually meant my companion, as he thought that I was his father (!).

After the stay in Tottori I went up to Fukui, which is actually half-way to Tokyo. But my remote cousin invited me to go there and visit some of his family. It was really nice, because apart from I didn't know anyone, but even if his family had no relationship to me, they were very friendly. This was a nice change from work, where my colleagues would be polite, but would difficultly go into more casual conversation. I guess anywhere in the world there is a difference between how family and colleagues behave, but the contrast in Japan seemed striking to me.

After this I got back to Tottori by car again, to fly back to Tokyo, quite a detour! I spend the last week in Japan with my uncle and aunt, and had a goodybe dinner with my colleagues somewhere in Tokyo. It was hard to realize that I would leave this country suddenly, and I really didn't until I got on the final airplane.

The shock I was expecting only lasted for the first 10 minutes. And it actually only consisted of the amazement of how many cultures were mixed in Paris. Living in such a homogenous country as Japan, you get used to seeing few foreigners. But I got used to it really quickly. When I got to my father's place, everything was familiar, although it felt a little surrealistic. But that was also due to the lack of sleep in the airplane, I guess.

I am not sure how often I will update this blog, as I am back in the Netherlands and life has returned to normal. I guess it will be a good place to announce important changes as new jobs and plans...

2006-09-05T07:26:00.000+02:00

It’s been a week now that my internship has finished, and I am currently enjoying some holidays at my grandparents house in the countryside. Even though there is no internet at home (obviously), I was smart enough to bring my laptop along with me, so I can watch all the series and movies I meant to watch the last past year. For example, the last few episodes of The Office (painfully realistic), and a lot of old Hollywood movies such as The Philadelphia Story, nice cast (Cary Grant, James Stewart and Kathryn Hepburn) but a bit disappointing.

Last week was a little bit hectic, as I had to settle the last things for the end of my internship. I managed to go out with a couple of colleagues to a yakitori-street near Shinjuku, downtown Tokyo. Yakitori are basically skewers of meat on barbecue. Although it means grilled chicken, pork and vegetables such as onion and green bell pepper are used as well. This street is narrow, crowded, smokey and full of tiny yakitori bar with usually a maximum of 8 clients or so cramped between the bar and the wall. But this only adds up to the atmosphere, which is really convivial. If you want to know how it feels to be a japanese worker drinking and eating after work, this would be the place to go.

I must say it feels nice indeed not to have wake up early and to be able to relax, study some Japanese and watch movies. Although I know this can only last for a bit, as after a while the monotony will starts setting in. For now, I will travel a bit around Japan, not necessarily in the most logical order. Next weekend I will go to Nagoya, take a look at the city, and visit a friend nearby. After returning to Tokyo, Tuesday 12th I will take the airplane to go to the other part of Honshu (Japan’s main island) to Tottori prefecture. There I will visit some remote family - my grandmother’s niece and nephew. The latter lives in the house where my grandmother grew up. This house is considerably old, probably somewhere between 100 and 200 years, although I am not sure. I mean to bring my camera and make some nice black & white pictures, as I think this is a really interesting part of my family history.

Frankly, I am amazed at how healthy my grand-parents still are, especially considering my grand-father is almost 90! He managed to go up a ladder and crawl around in the attic to find our family's family crest! I am not sure if I will be able to do so at that age. Especially if I recall the elderly in the Netherlands with their walking devices. I haven't seen any of those her, but maybe that's just a bias, as don't see that many old people in the city anyway.

My family crest:

After this I will stay one more week in Tokyo, probably meeting the interns that haven’t left by then, my family and buy some last-minute items. My return flight is the 26th and I will arrive the 27th in Paris. I’ll probably stay there one week before going back to the Netherlands. Of course, I hope to see most of you guys by then!

Hiroki's concert

2006-08-13T16:50:00.000+02:00

(left to right: Takako, former secretary at Asahi Kasei, Hiroki, colleague as well as Marco, me!)

Today, one of my colleagues, Hiroki, gave a concert in a small venue in downtown Toyko together with a set of singers brought together for this occasion. It consisted of songs of various musicals, such as "Les Miserables", "Rent" and also Disney movies. It was very enjoyable, despite my initial prejudices against the musical genre. I actually discussed this with Maarten when he was in Japan. In the Netherlands, musical is considered a commercial product, devoid of any artistic content. Whereas in the UK, London especially, musicals are popular amongst everybody and from what I understand offer a vast amount of topics and range in "intellectual level".

So, I was pleasantly surprised by the voices of the singers - give or take a strong japanese pronunciation of english ;) And although musicals still remain a commercial commodity, this holds true for so many cultural things, not the least cinema for example! So I might give up my elitist view and watch one in London one day!

Update

2006-08-06T15:17:00.000+02:00

Haven't been writing for a while, so here is a badly needed update about my life in Japan. The coolest thing so far is that my best friend Maarten (you might now him of some of my pictures) came to visit me for 2 weeks. Although I had to work during the day, we managed to eat and drink a couple of beers afterwards and visit Tokyo and do some other stuff during the weekend.

Most importantly we climbed Mount Fuji (or Fuji-san, ~~not the Fujiyama, this is a wrong term only used by foreigners~~ - according to Tadahiro-san, Fujiyama was the original name, this was changed to Fujisan by a new intellectual group, but the original name persisted outside Japan) Japanese say that this is a thing you should do once, but not twice, and I completely agree with them, as it is a rewarding yet tiresome experience.

Actually, the group consisted of four persons, as next to my friend Maarten, came another Maarten (!) , who I visited earlier in May during my trip in Hokkaido, and his Dutch girlfriend (Sietke) who had come to visit him. We just went ahead of the tourist season, starting July 15, and started at a less popular stop. Actually, you don't start from the very bottom, as that would take too much time, or you would have to rest one night in an inn. Instead, we took a train and taxi and arrived at the 5th station (out of 10) around 21.30. Then started the climb, tougher than I expected. As we went higher the temperature dropped, and while you are walking you don't feel this, but the minute you stop your sweat turns ice-cold. Actually, we went too fast, and as we didn't want to wait on top of the mountain for the sunrise, we waited outside of the wind for about an hour. Since we started the climb in a less touristy spot, we only met about 30 or 40 people. But when we arrived at the point where multiple paths converge, the amount of people basically led to a jam, and we spend at least 1,5 hours to get to the top even though it was a smal distance.

Just when we arrived the sun rose, at least that's what we guess, as it was so cloudy that it was impossible to see when the sun exactly appeared. But the cheering and applause of our fellow japanese climbers was as good a signal as any! The climb down was much tougher than up, or at least in a different way. The road was just volcano stone's gravel and our feet would dig in at least 10 cm or more everytime we walked. I guess having climbed for about 6 hours had made us tired already of course! Finally, we arrived at the same station we started from, and the owner of the local shop offered every climber some mushroom soup, green tea and a piece of chocolate. This was very thoughtful and certainly appreciated! Called a cab and after 2 or 3 hours we were back home taking a rest.

Apart from this memorable experience, I managed to see kabuki theatre for a second time with Maarten, eat wonderful sushi at the Tsukiji fish market just next to it, go to a local rock jam in Atsugi, visit my friend from the Vladivostok-Japan boat and visit a wasabi farm with the three of us, amongst many things. But I guess the best thing was that Maarten could come here and now have a good understanding of my life here.

I know - update really needed

2006-07-31T17:54:00.000+02:00

In the meantime, I put up a couple of b&w pictures i shot some months ago on my Flckr account.

Tragedy on the playing field

2006-06-26T14:05:00.000+02:00

Just a quick note, nothing I want to linger too long on. Yesterday I have been to Roppongi (one of the night districts of Tokyo, famous for foreigners) to see the match between the Netherlands and Portugal. At 4.00 am on Sunday night, or more correctly Monday morning, mind you!

The obvious question I often get during European cups, and furthermore complicated during World tournaments concerns which team I support. Now, most of the Earth's population will have an easy choice - their maternal country and place of residence -, for me slightly less. Especially when the three countries I consider as having influenced me through my parents and location are all participating. The matter is less trivial than it seems, as people expect you to be loyal to one country. Needless to say, I am not the nationalist type. At least that's what I thought. So why do I end up watching a Dutch football game at an insane time knowing I will not be able to get any sleep before work?

Apparently, I am more attached to this country I believed, although I am not particularly looking forward to returning there. Except to see my friends. And eat cheese and smoked herring. And be able to have more time of my own to spend. By traveling through nearby European countries.

Hmmm...guess all places have their charm and downside.

PS. No regret of watching the match, even though it turned out to be memorable for the wrong reasons...

Hakone

2006-06-18T09:24:00.000+02:00

Last weekend I went to visit Tadahiro-san, a traveler with whom I shared the cabin last November in the boat from Vladivostok to Japan. He lives close to where I work, about 1 hour by train, so I finally managed to pay him a visit. We first went to Hakone, one of the three most popular weekend trips from Tokyo, besides Kamakura (pittoresque city with lots of temple) and Nikko (a lavish temple/mausoleum). Its main attraction is the fact that it is a active volcanous area. No eruptions though, but loads of warm water springs and sulphuric gasses coming out of the ground.
Hakone also offers a splendid view on neighbouring Fuji-san, at least when you are lucky and the sky is not too cloudy. After this we went to the local museum, with a great collection of Japanese craft products, such as lacquerware (my favourite), bird cages, old man-carried vehicles and swords. Tadahiro-san had a nice surprise though, which was a samurai armour and helmet to wear! Especially the latter was much heavier than I would have thought! A nice photo opportunity of course.

We were quite lucky to have fairly nice weather on Saturday as Sunday was covered with rain. But this was no problem as we stayed in his house and chatted over various matters. My stay ended with a visit to the local onsen (warm water spring), while contempling the landscape, reminiscent of the Meditteranean! This is due to the fact that there are a lot of orange trees and that the mountainy cliffs dive quickly into the water.

Temple carrying and salt throwing

2006-06-04T05:55:00.000+02:00

Saturday two weeks ago I experienced some traditional Japanese festivities and sports. With some of my colleagues I went to Asakusa, the most famous, touristic temple of Tokyo in a popular area. That weekend it hosted the Sanja Matsuri (festival of the tree gods), where most of the inhabitants of each small neighbourhood of Asakusa carry around a miniature temple. They go through the whole area and get a blessing at Asakusa's main temple.

The event was especially nice since it showed a more popular side of Japanese culture, and especially of Tokyo, shitamachi. This means literally downtown, and refers to the time where the rich people would live higher up in the hills, and the popular class in the lower areas in cramped neighbourhoods, which would regularly take fire. Although this distinction has been disappearing, you can get an idea of the shitamachi atmosphere during the Sanja festival for example. Everybody walks in short festival gowns, and goes about drinking beer and eating such things as roasted meat and fish.

The more 'popular' side was even more clear, when we saw a group of fully tattooed men going around with a temple of their own. They were actually the only one to stand on the temple, in a an act that could be interpreted both as ostentatious and profane. From the characters on their gown, it was clear they were part of a yakuza-clan. A very rare sighting, as the yakuza is known for being as discrete as possible.

After this, we went to the day before the final of a sumo tournament. As we were 20 (!), it was difficult to get hold of tickets, and we were seated very much to the back. But it was nice getting a feeling of the game anyway. The most surreal thing was the shinto-like roof hanging in the middle of the hall, which reminded me somehow of a Magritte painting. Sumo matches are a little bit difficult to watch, as the sumotori first spend a lot of time throwing salt in the arena, looking at each other, deciding to throw salt again, etc. It's only after three or four minutes that they really start the fight, and usually it's finished within 10 or 20 seconds. Quite a build-up for a very short interval of action. But of course, it was still impressive.

Sushi, snow & sunburn

2006-05-18T16:44:00.000+02:00

First of all, my title is inspired from Maarten's weblog, a friend (and before the brother of a friend) who I visited two weeks ago in Hokkaido. This was during Golden Week, a week of holidays in Japan at the beginning of May. With the New Year holidays, these are the two longest vacations in Japan. In the latter case, people will visit their family, but in the Golden Week they will often travel overseas or inland. That's also the reason why prices will literally be doubled, as time is much more precious than money in this country.

I took the opportunity to see a part of Japan, which I wanted to visit for some time now, namely Hokkaido. Interesting note: it is twice the size of the Netherlands! I went and visited Maarten, the younger brother of a friend of mine of Amsterdam. He is currently doing a internship for half a year at the engineering faculty of Hokkaido university in Sapporo. He's working on a autonomous robot which can find its way around a room by learning from its experience.

Sapporo, and all Hokkaido, has only been used more intensively by the Japanese since less than 150 years ago. Before, it were mainly Ainu living there, a kind of Japanese Inuit. They were more or less forced to blend in with the colonizing Japanese and the little that remains of their cuture is now shown in museums - which unfortunately I didn't have enough time for to visit. The relative recent settlement of Hokkaido is directly noticeable from the city. It has large avenues which go from north to south and east to west, dividing the town into a Manhattan-like grid. Therefore, it felt much more spacious than any Japanese city I have been, although it is supposed to still have more than 1,5 million people I believe. Some buildings have a definite European influence, such as the city hall and some Sapporo beer factories converted to for example a museum and a shopping hall. It was then that I noticed I really miss European architecture.

Maarten lives in a ryo, a student home. This is a total different living place from the others I have seen so far in Japan. And I liked it! There was definitely something authentic about it, in an otherwise well kept clean Japan. But I guess this holds true for most of the ryo here. This was a famous ryo as well (keiteki?) which has existed for longer time and has a special introduction for newcomers, as well all kind of university songs and other events. When you come back, people say "okaerinasai", which is normally said by your family or partner, so this gave it all a very homely atmosphere.

I visited part of Sapporo during the first couple of days, a nice and pleasant town, much more manageable in size then Tokyo. It also has an extensive night district Susukino, which can easily rival with the capital. One of the best memories I have of Hokkaido is the food, as it serves excellent, fresh fish. By far, the best sushi and sashimi I ever had was during this holiday!

After this we went to an island up north of Hokkaido, Rishiri. Our group consisted of four guys: Maarten, Tim (a fellow student of Maarten from the TU Delft), Joseph (German mechanical engineer from Berlin) and me. After six hours to the north of Hokkaido, Wakkanai, we slept one night in a biker's house, with a very hospitable owner and atmosphere.

Next day up to the island by ferry, and when we arrived the weather was not too nice. The site of the island was very impressive though. It is essentially a mountain rising from the sea, and very similar in shape to Mt. Fuji, the nickname for this one as well. Walked a bit around the closest town (village) and were greeted quite regularly by people. Apparently, on a such small island, strangers are very much welcome, also for the need of tourism. We found a small bungalow on a camping site, just next to a onsen (public bath with water from a spring). The following day we miserably failed at an attempt to climb the mountain, nothing short of a small polar expidition except for the lack of adequate equipment; due to the huge amount of snow still around and the bleak wind and cold rain we had to give up after about 2 hours of climbing.

After this we were quite exhausted and rested and walked a bit around the town. This included a dinner in a restaurant, which was basically someone's house with some extra tables on the floor. Very friendly and excellent seafood again, such as a salad made out of onion, octopus and scallop. The latter is ridicously cheap here in Japan compared to its exorbitant price in Europe.

The next day the weather got better and we were able to rent a bycicle, go up half the way of a valley, walk the rest, and finally go along the coast of the island (60km in total). We were exhausted and sunburnt as well, but this day made up for the first ones on the island.

After this, back to Sapporo, some karaoke, and my last day in Hokkaido, I spend half a day in Otaru, a nearby harbour. I was quite surprised by the amount of tourism in that city! A street filled with sushi restaurants, at least 40 I guess, and hordes of mainly asian tourists, such as chineses and malaysians for example. After trying out some average sushi at quite a touristy spot, I asked a local for a better one, and had my best piece of raw fish on rice ever. Tuna, salmon and roe, herring and especially the scallop were both generous, succulent and, I can only repeat myself, incredibly fresh. As the taste of raw fish is quite subtle, I guess texture is more important to tasting it.

Before going back on the plane to Tokyo, I had a short goodbye dinner at Sapporo's train station with my fellow travelers. All by all, a nice holiday, with loads of good food and splendid nature.

Some pictures

2006-04-29T13:58:00.000+02:00

Put some pictures on my flickr-account I made of Maarten more than half a year ago, intended to be used for casting. Not professional by far, but actually quite nice!

Flying off for Hokkaido tomorrow, visiting a friend in Sapporo, and enjoying a very much deserved holiday! Not too much to see there, except nature parks. Hopefully I will be able to visit at least one!

Delayed: sakura

2006-04-26T15:33:00.000+02:00

Well the cherry blossom (sakura) is by now completely gone, but here are some pictures. It actually only blossoms for about a week, and then everything starts to fall down again. The interesting thing is that they put these trees everywhere, meaning that you won't see a lot of other trees blooming around here, except for that one week. I found that kind of zen / buddhistic, as it emphasizes the frailty and vanity of beauty in specific and life in general. You appreciate the blossom because it is there only for a short time!

Traditionally, you perform hanami under the blossoms, which literally means, "watching flowers". Actually, it involves more drinking than seeing. Unfortunately, I didn't have the change to participate, but went to Kamakura with some colleagues and saw other people at it in Yoyogi park.

Following, pictures of a pedestrian road topped by cherry trees:

This is a picture of yoyogi-park denoting the "flower watching":

The weekend after this, I went to Aoyama Bochi, a famous graveyard, in the middle of the Tokyo. It is a nice open space and it is difficult to find such an area in the rest of Tokyo. Funnily enough it is just next to the fashionable Omote-sando district (with exclusive clothes shops) and the mondane Roppongi-district (a mix of business buildings, expensive housing and a earthly night district). Strangely enough, people were having "flower watching" parties there as well, that is in the middle between graves!! Although this can be considered as a profanity, I think you can not be reminded enough of the value of life and to enjoy it; a cemetery is an excellent means for that.

The more fashionable part, Omote-sando:

More pictures Kyotos

2006-04-06T16:28:00.000+02:00

Above a view from inside a Zen garden. It's founder, a fiercesome warlord spending his final days as a buddhist monk, is said to be buried under the lantern, as it was one of his favorites.

Below some dolls representing the ancient japanese imperial grades, such as princesses and other members of nobility.

The inevitable cherry blossom (sakura) that is now blooming everywhere, and actually already falling down. But this was he only one I could see in Kyoto.

Osaka. Close to Kyoto (half an hour by train), but completely different atmosphere. Not really nice to be honest, even though my aunt assured me that there are some nice spots. This juxtaposition of an Edo-style castle moat and the modern skyline, is maybe not nice but striking anyway.

Arashiyama, in the west of Kyoto. A lot of tourists, but walking through the bamboo forests and inside tiny, peaceful gardens was definitely worth the trip. The colours of the bamboo and the moss garden I found contained such luscious shades of green.

This guy was selling post-card reproductions of drawings he made with regular pencils. Very sympathetic guy.

Finally, a picture of one of the markets held every month, this one in Toji temple.

News from the peaceful capital

2006-03-24T15:05:00.000+01:00

Just a short update as I am quite tired from all the cycling through Kyoto today!

I have arrived here last Saturday with the nightbus, quite an horrible experience, which I will have to redo tomorrow night again, due to financial concerns :) Even though, I am seriously considering whether the Shinkansen (=Japanese high speed train) isn't simply the better option, even if it is three times the price of a busticket.

It is only now that I realize how lucky I am to have relatives here in this beautiful city. My uncle and aunt have been living here for the biggest part of their life, and I am able to stay at their place, somewhere north in the city. The weather has been pretty awful at the beginning of this week, but is very sunny by now. Unfortunately, I am just a week too early for the beginning of the various spring blossoms, of which the cherry tree is the most famous one. It is kind of bitter to see a nice landscape with bare trees almost burgeoning. But all disadvantages have advantages (quote from our Dutch philosopher/ex-soccer player Johan Cruijff), since the city will be completely packed, as spring is Kyoto's busiest season.

I have more or less avoided the most touristic spots, such as Kinkakuji (the gold temple in the west of the city), as I have seen them 4 years ago on my last trip here. Of course, it is hard to avoid the crowds, since everybody wants to see beautiful things. But I have focused on more tranquil spots and actually a lot of shops as well. I have taken a liking for Japanese handcraft products, and especially lacquerware, one of the many specialities of Kyoto. Enough shops (with sometimes exorbitant prices) to go around here.

Furthermore, I have been able to communicate much better than before with my aunt, since my level of Japanese has greatly increased since the last time we saw each other.

Below is a somewhat blurry (and therefore maybe even more artistic?) photo of Inari, a famous temple with a path surmounted by an incredible amount of red gates.

Below, you can see me with my aunt and uncle at a traditional Japanese restaurant, serving sashima (raw fish) and tempura (batter-fried vegetables and fish). The appetizers included yurako, which is actually fish semen. I heard so after eating, which I think was for the better! My face is quite red in this picture, and I hope it is due to the sun instead of the beer. The latter would mean that my Japanese genes are somehow becoming more dominant here, as a lot of the people here can't stand alcohol very well and become red after just one or two glasses. This is apparently due to a lack of enzyms that break down alcohol.

This was a nice teahouse in the garden of the former castle of the shogun (highest military ruler who for 300 years possessed the real power, while the emperor was more or less a puppet). Macha is the tea you get here, which consists of green tea leaves grinded to a fine powder.

Violin is in the air

2006-03-13T14:07:00.000+01:00

Last November I was surprised and very much happy to hear one of my high school classmates, Frederieke Saeijs, had won an important prize in Paris for violin and piano solists, the Long-Thibaud concours. The prize consisted mainly of concerts given in Europe, as well as one in Japan!

Since my uncle and aunt like classical music, they bought tickest for both them as well as for me, a very kind thing to do. A couple of weeks before the concert Frederieke told me she had reserved three invitations, not knowing we already had bought the tickets. So I was invited two colleagues and a friend of mine. The concert was started by a french violonist, who didn't participate in the contest, but who was here as the evening was more or less based around a french theme. Then came the second prize winner, Minami, a girl who just turned 17, 10 years younger than Frederieke!!! When we caught a glimpse of her backstage, she seemed even really young. She was very shy when she appeared on stage, but this shyness completely disappeared when she started to play (a piece by Saint-Saens btw). When the concert finished and she received her rightfully diserved applause, she turned into a schoolgirl again.

Frederieke played a more contemporary piece (by Berg), which was maybe slightly less suited to the taste of the more conservative Japanese audience. For me it was a very interesting, intriguing and hypnotic composition. I don't pretend to know a lot about classical music, but this play reminded me of a concert of Yuri Bashmet, which I saw in Moscow during my travel through Russia. It is not so much about harmonic melody as more of a soundscape or a musical journey, which conjures up all kind of images in the mind.

We briefly met with her backstage, but as expected there were many people eagerly waiting to greet her. This was no problem however, since I spent most of the following weekend with her. We went to Kamakura on Saturday, and were quite lucky because of the sunny weather after what must have been one or two weeks of continuous rain. We strolled around and saw some beautiful japanese temples, both zen and shinto. Kamakura is famous for one of the biggest buddha statues in the world. Unfortunately, since we were too late the temple complex was already closed when we arrived. We hoped to see the buddha to outside, but yet it is not that big :)

After this sightseeing we went back to the appartment of one of her friends Olga, a Russian woman having studied the violin at the same school in the US, and now living with a banker in the centre of Tokyo. I must say that their appartement is the most impressive I have seen in Japan. It is just next to the Tokyo tower and offers stunning views over downtown Tokyo as well as the bay separating it from Chiba prefecture. Maybe I have chose the wrong business, but considering the type of work involved, most probably not. From there we were able to walk to Roppongi, the night district of Tokyo where we danced salsa until I had to leave to get my last train home. We found out in Japan that we both really like dancing, which we both didn't expect of the other person!

Saturday we went to see a Kabuki-play in the most famous theater in Ginza - the most expensive shopping street of Tokyo with brand shops of Louis Vuitton, Armani and the like. I remember going to Kabuki 5 or 6 years ago with my stepmother, and I didn't appreciate it as much as now to be honest. At that time, there were only one or two actors, and one was playing various roles by using several masks. This was all rather cryptic and difficult to follow. This time however, it was a very engaging tale of samurai's, honour and revenge, involving quite a lot of violence, although acted out in a stylistic way. Olga's partner had bought a pamphlet with a summary of the story, which really helped us a lot in understanding the play. The stylised acting together with the repetitive background music (played by live musicians using a small set of notes), gave the whole a very meditative feel to it. After the show finished, it almost felt like if I had done some yoga. Frederieke made the exact same comment curiously enough! Full kabuki plays are long, about 4 or 5 hours; this theatre offers you to see one act of one hour, which I think is more than enough for an untrained spectator! Even though, a very interesting experience. A funny anecdote is that the otherwise silente, polite Japanese audience will shout out the stage names of their favourite actors when they enter and leave a scene. This took us all by surprise, since it was such as contrast with the otherwise peaceful public.

Snowfever

2006-03-06T14:00:00.000+01:00

Three weekends ago I went on a ski-trip together with most of my colleagues. This has been the first time ever I was moving on something else than my own feet over snow or ice. I have never learnt to skate either so far, even though most of the Dutch people have; a thing I have been often reminded of by my friends when living in the Netherlands. And neither have I ever skied since this time I chose to learn the snowboard, based on the advice of some of my friends. Even if the majority said snowboarding was easier, it remains a controversial issue. Until I try out skiing though I will not be able to compare both.

As you might already have heard from me, Japanese holidays are very scarce. So in order to make the most of our weekend, we hired a bus for 20 people, left Friday night, tried to sleep and arrived rather exhausted Saturday morning. After this we changed to our hired snow outfits, which were desperately due to renewal and definitely not fashionable - my jacket stated "Skiing Master", somewhat ironic for someone snowboarding for the first time ever. Christian, a German colleague, was kind enough to teach the snowboard novices the basic concepts and then we were off. This led to a weekend full of falls and sore muscles, that lasted for a couple of days after restarting work. Even though, the learning curve was fortunately not too steep, meaning that I actually managed to improve enough to enjoy it. Apart from that, it is really fun! One of the bests things however, was to dip in a incredibly hot bath in the hotel after a hard day of snowboard exercises. This practically boils your muscles, but tend to relax them as well. And after this nothing better than a cold beer :)

Actually, I would definitely like to do it again, maybe at the end of this month, or when I come back to Europe. As I mentionned to one of my friends, so far I always thought of snow sports as something of a proletarian form of amusement. This was associated with the image of Dutch people drinking beer after some hours of snow activity, loudly singing along with "oompahpah" medleys while dancing in a long queue. But as my friend assured me after skiing in the Haute-Savoie (France), things can be a lot more civilized. Which reconforts me and might offer to see a different side of France.

More pictures

2006-02-28T17:19:00.000+01:00

I have just added some more b&w pictures to my flckr account. Some taken in the Transsiberian, others in Paris. Enjoy.

Some pictures Russia

2006-02-27T17:07:00.000+01:00

I managed to scan some of my old-fashioned black & white pictures that I took in Russia, most of them in the Transsiberian. You can see them here in my flckr-account. Unfortunately, the scanner was quite dirty, which really make the pictures lose quality. Anyway, I hope you might enjoy some of them.

Sushi customs

2006-02-09T08:41:00.000+01:00

Here is a great video of two Japanese comics (called "The Ramen" I believe) showing the 'proper' customs of eating at a sushi restaurant. A little bit weird, but quite funny. According to my colleagues half of it is true.
(link)

Cool online radio - Pandora

2006-02-08T12:02:00.000+01:00

I am probably quite late to report about it, but my colleagues taught me about a cool interactive radio: Pandora (link). It decides what to play based on your favourite artists and tracks. You can add as many as you want, but I recommend you to use about 5 specific songs you like. Otherwise the resulting broadcast selection will be too diverse and inconsistent. The cool thing is that it really chooses music you likes. Apparently, the makers have been classifying 60 years of music according an enormous set of parameters such as melodic key, use of instruments, mood, genre, type of vocals, etc. So it tries to find common parameters between the artists and songs you provide, and matches these with songs in the database. A cool concept!

Radish & furiitaa

2006-02-07T09:57:00.000+01:00

Two bbcnews articles, indicating some aspects of Japanese culture, but don't take this as to be representative of the whole please!

A picture of my room about two weeks ago when the snow hit my town. It has been snowing incidentally since then, but nothing as serious as in the northern part of Japan.

Finally, an update!

2006-02-05T13:41:00.000+01:00

I haven't been writing for quite some while, my apologies for this, especially to those who check my blog on a regular basis. Since I still don't have a computer and internet at home, it is quite difficult to combine writing entries and emails with work. But yesterday I made an order for a new VAIO laptop (F-type). It will arrieve in about 2 weeks (it is custom-made), so combined with an internet account I will be able to update my blog more often by then!

The work environment is getting more and more familiar fortunately. I can't tell too much about my work content, but let's say I am working more on documentation than actual programming. I just can't help to be reminded of 'The Office' series, but in a kind of strange, Japanese form. There is a clear distinction between the foreign trainees and the rest of the staff, all Japanese for except for two or three foreigners coordinating the trainees. Of course, trainees work for a limited amount of time, whereas most of the employees have been working for more years. But the biggest problem is the language barrier, since most of the staff doesn't speak English. As I am gettting more proficient in Japanese (but still far from fluent) I start to speak with more people, but it remains an obstacle.

A couple of days ago, I experienced my first earthquake! About 5 on the Richter-scale in the region of Tokyo (article), and 4,8 around Atsugi! It has been most of the unsettling things I have ever come against in my life. Your whole body and mind is used to ground being stable, in contrast with vehicles for example. So when things started moving (I was at Mos Burger eating my dinner at that time) I first didn't understand what was going. After maybe 1 or 2 second I realized it was an earthquake and got quite scared. Fortunately it faded away after only a couple of seconds. The Japanese in the restaurant were looking quite calm during the whole thing, but maybe they cope with such situations in a complete different way.

On a more brighter note, I have started taking salsa lessons, therefore achieving one of my New Year's resolutions. It is quite expensive, but definitely worth it. I have the feeling it is not as popular as in Amsterdam, but still I was amazed by the high level of my fellow students. I really had to reconsider my skills. Yesterday I went out with some of my colleagues and friends to Roppongi. This is the centre of bars for Japanese-searching foreigners and foreigner-searching Japanese, in all its possible forms, from seedy to friendly. The two bars we went to (La Rumba & Cafe Latino) were quite small and somewhat cramped, but with a great atmosphere. Unfortunately, when we go out, there is always the decision of leaving early (23.00) or early in the morning (5.00), since there is no public transport in between. An early night this time, but probably better for the legs.

I'll have to spare them, since we will be going on a ski-trip next weekend with most of the foreign trainees and employees and some japanese of my floor. It will be the first time I will move myself on snow with something else than my feet, so I hope I will come back home in one piece!

Btw, here are some pictures:

My cousin Kyoko and me after a Woody Allen-movie at Yebisu. I hadn't seen her since she visited me in Amsterdam three years ago, so it was really cool to meet her.

Asakusa alley, probably one of the most touristic spots in Tokyo. It leads up to the Asukusa temple where people purify themselves with the smoke of incense (2nd picture).

This is kind of a tease of my 'love hotel' explanation which I should write in one of my future entries. I guess everybody understands that "rest" is something of an understatement.

Near Asukusa is a road (can't remember the name now) filled with shops with kitchen products, both for consumers and restaurants. In look for the perfect Japanese knife I stumbled on this incredible shop. Pretty expensive compared to its competitors with the mininum price about 80$ (whereas others start with 40$).

A street in the middle of Yokohama's Chinatown during Chinese New Year. This Chinatown is the opposite of many Japanese restaurants outside Japan. In the first most of the restaurants are run by Japanese, wherease in the latter they are run by Chinese.

Snow in Japan

2006-01-08T21:10:00.000+01:00

Apparently I underestimated the amount of snow falling this winter in Japan; this became clear after looking at the following pictures from the BBC. Here is my own picture, although not as dramatic, from my grandparents' house:

Snowy Japan

2006-01-05T08:08:00.000+01:00

I have been for 6 days at my grandparents' house now, and I am glad to find an internet-cafe. They are very sweet, but with the great amount of snow there is not much to do around here. I guess it works fine as a rest therapy before I start working again. I am at the west-coast of Japan and regions here and more to the north have been hit by major snow, halting trains and transportation in general. In this town, there is about 70 cm of snow I guess, but there are regions with more than 3m!

New Year's Eve was very quiet, and I ate some traditional Japanese food, such as lotus root (renkon), which is said to bring good luck for the new year. The next day my grandparents and I paid a visit to the local Shinto shrine (see right).

Japanese have to write a great amount of postcards for New Year, between 200 and 300. These are for family, friends, business contacts, etc. So my uncle spent two or three days of his holidays writing those... I think this indicates how important it is to maintain your social network in this country. I guess that failing to send someone card amight have some negative repercussion in later dealings, no matter the relationship.

Well, anyway, wish you the best for 2006.

Holidays, tomorrow!!!!

2005-12-29T07:03:00.000+01:00

[One note: if you want to see the bigger versions of the pictures, just click on them. It's quite intuitive, but just to be sure ;) ]

It's 29th of December and I am sitting at the office, supposedly "working". I am doing this so I can save one day of holiday for 2006. Indeed, holiday days are so scarse that I am taking any opportunity to pile them up. Tonight I am taking the nightbus to Uozu, where my grandparents live. I was thinking about going to Kyoto afterwards to see my uncle, but that would be quite an expense for a short amount of days. I will wait for another time, also when it's warmer. Here in near Tokyo it is quite sunny, but I hear my grandfather's region (Toyama-ken) is covered with snow, and I will probably have to help him out with the garden. I might even do some snowboarding or ski-ing for the first time in my life! Enough mountains to go around, anywhere in Japan actually, and with my friend Katsuma we might drive around. Work starts again the 10th, but I will go back to Tokyo the 7th, so I can spend some time with my uncle and aunt. I haven't seen them since I started working in Atsugi, so it will be very nice to meet them again.

In the meantime, I am getting more familiar with the work topics. It is still not completely clear what I should contribute, but I will have to talk about this with my boss, Owa-san. Most of the trainees are working on perfecting the recognition module for their mother language, but since I know several ones well I assume I will work on a broader level.

It is sometimes difficult for me to describe the life and culture here; it is completely different in so many facets and details. Maybe describing some of these parts will help create a general, broader picture of Japan. For example, the "convenience store". There about at least 15 chains, such as 7/11, Lawson, AM/PM, just to name a few. You will find them often one next to another, at stations and near busy roads. But I guess you are never further away than 200 m of one. They have mainly food, for example at least 50 kind of sweet cakes, 20 kinds of yoghurt, and 25 kinds of ice cream, just to give you a picture. There is one just next to the AXT tower (where I work), and it also sells socks, underwear and even cotton white-collar shirts! They also have some typical stuff, such as adapters with which you can recharge you mobile phone with regular pen-lites! Mobile phone is definitely something that Japanese can not live without, but I guess I would need another section to go on this. I bought one a week ago, and even if the language is in English, I probably only know about 10% of its functionality! Some convenience stores such as Lawson and FamilyMart (note the alteration of market in the last chain name) have machines that look like bank machines but can provide all kind of services. For example I used one to buy credit for my call card to make international phone calls. The card company sent me a detailed instruction, which was very handy since all the menus are in Japanese. This resulted in a printed coupon which I took to the vendor, and after paying 2000 Yen I received a confirmation with the hanko (=official japanese stamp used instead of a signature) of the store. And indeed, when I used the card from my phone, the cal credit had been added. It all seemed quite miraculous, convenient but in some way also cumbersome at the same time, as you have to follow quite some steps to make a cheaper, international call.

Maybe, in lack of spectacular events such as my transsiberian trips, I will go on describe ancedotes or typical japanese objects and customs. I think this might give a better picture of the country and its culture, instead of trying a generic approach. Subjects I will definitely describe: the mobile phone (and the japanese smileys ^_^ ), love hotels, the consumption society, television programmes and advertisements, food. Although I remember that Bert's partner, Yolandi (read below) described Japan quite accurately as being a "parallel world". A lot of Western influence and things that look the same, but in someway are different. For example, the books look regular, but when you look inside, the reading order of the pages is from right to left (as opposed to left->right in occidental countries).

Two Sundays ago I met with a former Dutch university teacher of mine, Bert Bongers. He was also the second reader for my Master's Thesis. He is teaching at various institutions, not only the Vrije Universiteit, but also the Technische Universiteit of Eindhoven, where he is the coordinator of a design study. He came to Japan for a student trip to various design-related companies, universities and other instances. Two weeks ago he was in Tokyo, so we met at Harajuku, together with his partner Yolandi and his colleague Kees Dorst. Just next to the metro station, there is a bridge (which name I can't remember now) with "cosplay" adepts. These are apparently high school girls that might be bullied or somehow unhappy in school, and like to wear eccentric costumes (cos play <- costume play) to express themselves in the week-end. What scared me most were the older man taking pictures of them...God knows for what purpose...

Actually, while waiting to meet them, I walked around in Yoyogi-park, which is just next to Harajuku. Inside is a famous Shinto shrine (Shinto being the indigenous religion of Japan, as opposed to Buddhism, which came from China), and apparently there were a series of weddings. I just love the costumes of the Shinto priests and priestress, they are so colourful, simple but yet so tasteful.

After all this emotion we went to a very nice (design!) cafe which we found by chance, and after this we had shabu-shabu in Shibuya, a lively district of Tokyo (see photo below).

This is a traditional japanese dish where several vegetables and tender japanese, incredibly thinly sliced beef are boiled in water. The mixed flavours of these ingredients together with the wonderful citrus-based sauces are simply delicious. Anyway, it was very cool to meet Bert in the middle of Tokyo! Here is a picture of my appartment complex ("Youth Heim") to give you an idea of the uniformity and efficiency of Japanese architecture, as well as blandness :)

And this is the AXT tower, where I work. Anyway, I wish you all the best for 2006, and I am always curious to know what everybody is up to :)

2005-12-23T13:05:00.000+01:00

Things have sped up a great deal since a week, so it was difficult to find time to update you people. Enjoyed my last days of unpaid holiday before working, for example spent some time looking for my first japanese electronic gadget, a PDA (=small computer used for schedules, notes, addresses etc). I bought one quite cheaply second-hand in Akihabara, but the main feature for me though is that you are able to
draw japanese signs (kanji), which the computer recognizes and can even give a translation into english. Very practical when you are looking for washing powder in the supermarket and you don't understand anything of what's written on the boxes!! For example a Spanish colleague actually used softener for a month, until he realized his clothes smelt strange even though they were very, very soft :)

Last Monday took the train from my uncle's house to Atsugi. I have made a little map you can see here (click on it for a larger version):

So it takes me about 1 hour to get to the first big station inside Tokyo (Nippori), then another 30 minutes to get to Shinjuku, on the other side of Tokyo and the biggest public transport station in Japan I believe. And finally about another hour to get to Hon-atsugi - for some strange reason station the Atsugi station is now redundant. So about 2,5 hours, even if both suburbs are said to be close to Tokyo!

I was welcomed there by Takako-san ('san' is a prefix used for politeness, it would be rude to say just Takako), the internship manager, a friendly, young woman, and Nakura-san, the head of the Yokohama branch of my job agency company (I work as a Japanese citizen on a temporary contract). Takako-san is much more informal than her
japanese colleagues, probably due to having worked for several years with young foreigners. We headed for the "Youth Heim", the dorm rented out to mainly young Asashi Kasei employees, although other people can rent a place there as well. This was the first shock. My friend Reinoud (who has lived in Tokyo about three years ago) could tell me the exact lay-out of the room without ever having seen it! Apparently
most of them have been built in the eighties according to the same exact plan:

* a small entrance hall where you leave your shoes (never enter a japanese room with them!)

* in this same hall an incredibly small kitchen, even though that word can't be really used to describe this anymore

* also in this a hall a door on the right hand to the equally surprisingly tiny bathroom, all plastic pre-fab. This was actually the part that shocked me most, even though I am already quite used to it now. Apparently they are made in the factory and fit exactly in the appartment; you only need to connect some tubes afterward and there is your bathroom!

* the main room, about 3 by 4 meters I would guess. I expected tatami, but just carpet here. The bed is confortable, but no central heating. This is in general very rare to Japan, they just use air-conditioners. This makes sense in summer, when the humid air can be made drier, but seems to me like a waste of energy in winter. Another common heating option are stoves that work on petroleum. You can move them around, which is quite handy, but I would say they are far more dangerous.

The room actually reminded me of my cabin in the boat from Russia to Japan, even though its bathroom was more spacious! But I am getting used to it, the only real inconvenient being the lack of space for cooking: no place to cut up the ingredients, and only one gas connection, so can't do too complicated cooking. Well, that will leave some place for creativity here. Even though the ingredients at the local supermarket are quite expensive, especially the meat and vegetables. My colleagues pointed out that it's often cheaper and far more practical to eat at the various small restaurants in the centre.

After leaving my luggage at the youth heim, we went together to the city council to register me in Atsugi. This happened quite efficiently and quickly, a big difference with Russia :) The next step was going to the office, which is located in the biggest building of Atsugi, the AXT tower, which has about 28 floors I believe. My office is located on the 22th and offers a nice view of the surroundings. You can see the sea from the main window, a very nice sunset from the toilet and normally you should see Fuji-san, the most famous mountain of Japan, but I haven't figured out which window that would be. Anyway, you can see it from the street level as well, at least when the sky is clear.

Left: AXT tower, just right of the middle in the distance: Fuji-san

Seeing the office was the second shock: a large room with about 40 peoples working in cubicles made up of long tables separated by metal parts for each individual. They are at head-level when sitting, so when you stand up, you can see everybody. At first this seemed very crowded and intimidating. No personal space, just berths similar to
the ones where cows eat in Dutch farms. And the boss can always see what is going on, just by standing up. And then everybody had their headphones on and were staring at the monitor, which gave them a zombie-like appearance. Other strange details are the fact that some women wear a kind of blue overall, similar to those used while
cooking. Apparently this is meant to protect them from radiation. So do only women wear them because of the fact that they can bear children? Just one of the many strange characteristics of Japanese society... Secondly, my boss, Owa-san has two kinds of clothes: a regulary salaryman outfit (darkblue suit, white shirt and tie), but also a factory-like, white uniform with a blouse with zipper. During break time I have seen a lot of people wearing those, and I find it peculiar that they would wear this in an office, although they seem more at place in a factory.

Actually, I only had slept about two hours before going to Atsugi due to a combination of bad preparation (very typical) and nervousness (less typical). This had its toll during the contract formality. Takako-san, Nakura-san (the head of the job agency) and me were accompanied by another employee from the job agency and an official interpreter! Except me and Takako, all were wearing formal, black business suits. This seemed completely absurd to me, but apparently signing contracts is one of the most formal parts of japanese business practice. My Japanese language skill didn't allow me yet to understand what Nakura-san was saying, or only very much partially, so the interpreter had to translate everything. All the clauses were
thoroughly explained, which caused the session to last for at least 2 hours, although it seemed much longer due to my lack of sleep! When I thought it was over, some foreign trainees and me got an explanation of the possibility of getting an insurance on commutation by bicycle. This included some clauses where we had trouble not to smile such as the exemption of the insurance in case of bicycle accidents due to
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, war and terroristic attacks. I could already pictured myself getting hit by a rocket while taking my 5-minute bike ride and not getting any compensation for that :) After this, I was finally ready to go home and cooked some curry with my Dutch colleague Randy. This painly failed due to the use of too much water resulting in curry soup rather than rice & curry.

The next day I got an introduction from Owa-san (my boss) about the Vorero project and the different parts of the Vorero software and how to train it. My task now is to make several exercises to get acquainted with the Vorero training kit. Btw, Vorero is a product that allows speech recognition for various applications, such as
controlling your car radio or gps navigation system e.g. So, that's what I am doing basically, next to reading some theoretical parts with great amounts of mathematical formulas.

Wednesday I bought a new bicycle for about 50 euro, which is not bad, but I doubt the robustness is as high as good, old-fashioned Dutch bikes! Anyway, the bicycle is indispensable here to go around; so all the trainees have one.

This was all after going on a small excursion with all the foreign trainees: the hospital! Apparently, all japanese employees need to do an annual, medical check-up. Takako-san had made the appointment for us, so there were several nurses who did all kind of checks in a very efficient, assembly-line manner. All the different checks were assigned to different nurses and rooms, so waiting time was kept to a
minimum. Best for the last, the blood check, which to my surprise was almost painless.

Leaving the office to go to the hospital, from left-to right:
Stephane (GER), Randy (NL, almost not visible), Jason (USA), Marco
(IT), Pedro (POR, from back), Guillaume(FR), Joanne (Hong-Kong),
Takako-san (JP), Jose (SP)

I haven't done so much on the evenings; most of the time I was too tired from absorbing all the information at work that I would eat, watch some tv and go to sleep afterwards. I guess that's the regular life of a salaryman, or any office worker in the world for that matter :) Quite a contrast after my travel through Russia though. Actually the only activity I undertook was going to the free Japanese lesson at
the local community centre. I was probably the only European person there, while the other students were mainly asians, such as Chinese, Korean and Indian. According to my language skill they put me in one of the highest group, which is maybe just a bit too difficult, but this way I can extend my vocabulary very quickly. In theory I can go and take these 2-hourly lessons 3 times a week, but don't know if have
the time, energy, discipline or will to do so. We'll see how it will go.

Friday I went to bed early and was finally able to sleep as long as I can. Although my working hours are from 9.30 to 18.15, which is really decent, I really needed some sleep, probably due to the bad start this Monday. Saturday chilled out with Guillaume, a French guy studying in Lyon before coming here and from Paris.

Saturday I decided to go out with a Dutch couple I met at a science party at the Dutch embassy. They are mainly artists, but also do all kind of jobs to earn money, such as giving technical assistance to the embassy. We went to AGEHA, one of the biggest discotheques in Japan apparently, although it can't compare to some disco's I have seen in Spain. But still very impressive, especially the technical equipment,
such as 32 high-end speaker boxes and loads of robo-scans. The main reason I went there was to see Deep Dish, arguably two of the best dj's in the world, playing house music (slightly progressive) and producing their own tracks, now trying to enter in the pop scene ("flashdance" e.g.). I had listened to their sets on mp3's and found
them very good, because they use very melodic tracks, but always with a strong, exciting beat. This time however they quickly skipped the harmonic parts and played tough tracks with minimal percussion more akin to techno and hardhouse. This was really disappointing as this is not my piece of cake. But still it was an experience to see this disco and the outfits of the japanese clubbers. Nothing really
extravagant, but still very stylized. And they definitely know how to party, albeit in a kind of civilized way!

Some art lesson

2005-11-30T18:24:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went to the Tokyo National Museum, which has an incredible collection of japanese traditional art. I remember I really liked this museum last time I visited it, which was probably about 4,5 years ago. But this time it made an even bigger impression on me; japanese art is very much an expression of excellent craftmanship. This can be found in its sophisticated, detailed and perfectionist quality. What I like about it, is that it expresses a minimal, but very touching beauty. It is difficult to distinguish between craftmanship and art here, but I think the signature of the artist makes the difference, be it in sometimes a very subte way.

Lavish Noh costume. Noh is one of the traditional forms of theatre)
Wonderful maki-e teacaddy. Maki-e is traditional lacquerware where gold and silver are used with different colours of lacquer to create patterns and illustrations and wood. The teacaddy's main use to store green tea powder (macha) used in the famous tea ceremony.

Seeing such beautiful art reminded of the great Russian painters I have seen, mainly at the Russian State Museum in St.Petersburg and the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The most incredible thing is that they are known or taught at all in the Western world, which is really a shame. Here are some links to some wonderful pictures, although the quality of the photograph is not always on par with the actual painting.

Valentin Serov. Portrait of Sophia Botkina.
Nathan Altman. Lady with a Dog. Portrait of Esther Schwartzmann.
Ilya Repin. A Shy Peasant. Ilya Repin is probably one of the greatest painters I have seen in Russia!
Ilya Repin. Portrait of Polixena Stasova.
Victor Vasnetsov. Alionushka.
Victor Vasnetsov. Three Tsarevnas of the Underground Kingdom.
Vasily Vereshchagin. At the Door of a Mosque.
Mikhail Vrubel. Portrait of N. Zabela-Vrubel. This artist suffered from mental disorder, which can be seen in the painting. Just as Van Gogh though, this adds a fascinating, maddening touch to them.
Mikhail Vrubel. The Seated Demon.

Cool & freaky virtual creatures

2005-11-25T08:27:00.000+01:00

Hugo, one of my friends, sent me a link to a cool short film. This one is about virtual, evolving creatures that tend to look either very freaky or realistic. Actually I remember seeing these animations on a documentary on the Dutch TV. And this was one of the main reasons why I chose to study Artificial Intelligence. Of course, afterwards the study was really disappointing in comparison to my expectations and this movie! And that's how I got into multimedia and human-computer interaction...

Domo arigato!

2005-11-24T17:28:00.000+01:00

Now that I am more or less at the same spot, my inspiration for this weblog has suddenly decreased :) The Transsiberian has been a pretty wild trip of course, so Japan seems very quiet and fairylike compared to it.

I spent my last days with my grandparents going through photobooks and found some really cool pictures of my granddad when he was still studying and when he was a soldier during the 2nd World War. Of course, those times seem far away, but the japanese version is even more typical and exotic. The pictures you see are all portraits of my grandfather, except for the blurred one, which was one of his friends. Before I left, they made sure I would come back, very sweet people indeed.

I have been staying at my uncle's and aunt's house so far. And they have optical internet, fantastic! Well, that's when I realize I am pretty well much internet-addicted :) Trying to catch up on the email with everybody person by person...

Two days ago I met Heather, Alex, Lisa, Ayako and her husband John in Shibuya, Tokyo. Ayako and husband left early for Nagano, but I spent the rest of the evening and night with the others. They were staying in Ikebukuro, a pretty lively district with a lot of entertainment. We had some drinks in an Irish pub ran by an Iranian guy (!), and after this some pool. And inevitably some karaoke :D This turned out to be pretty cheap actually: about 12 euro each for one hour with free drinks. Great fun anyway singing classics such as "Mr.Wendal", "Smells like teen spirit" or "Hotel California" :) I missed the last train and eventually stayed in the ryokan with Alex and Heather (ryokan= japanese style hotel, where you sleep on the ground on tatami and futon).

Next day accompanied Heather and Alex to the train station bound for Narita airport, near Ueno. Took the opportunity to walk around the park, which was completely packed as yesterday was a national holiday. I wanted to go to the National Japanese Art museum, which contains an excellent collection of kimono, weapons, makie (=lacquerware) and other traditional japanese crafts. But due to the amount of people I decided to head to Akihabara, Electric Town, after seeing a nice quiet temple.

Pretty strange decision, since that place probably much more crowded and certainly more noisy than Akihabara. Anyway, videogames still attract me, even if I don't play them at home. They have a lot of games on trial, for the geeks in the audience: biohazard 4 and soulcalibur 3 for example. And then they have the arcade halls, with some really weird / innovative machines. This time, the hype is all about controlling some games with real cards instead of a joystick. They had war and soccer games where you can control your players or soldier by buying corresponding plastic cards and moving them around on your table. Japanese gamemakers don't fail to surprise me...

A bit more than a week before I start to work, looking forward to it....

Some pictures of my grandpa
Me and my aunt
Alex, me and Heather before leaving :'-(
Tranquil temple
Akihabara
Guy playing some RPG-game with real cards
Cool Kendo (japanese swordfighting) masks
Cool & modern Tsukuba express

Finally arrived in Japan

2005-11-18T04:47:00.000+01:00

Hi there!

Well, I am finally in Japan after arriving 2 days ago. Left Irkutsk on the 10th and arrived at Vladivistok the 13th. This train was just a tiny bit more shabby, but I had a lot more of of fun. The atmosphere was much more convivial than last time, with people walking around in their pyjamas and going from one compartment to another in the same wagon to talk to different people. I made quite some portraits with my Nikon film-camera, I will put them on the internet as soon as I can develop and scan them! Well not much to say, as it was the same relaxed journey consisting of reading, eating, talking, checking out the food on the platforms. I must note that on the first station after Irkutsk (!) I almost missed the train!!!! I was buying some typical Siberian nuts (from the cedar) when the vending lady started shouting at me and grabbed my arm to turn me around. I was quite shocked when I saw the train starting to move!!! Apparently as the train was a bit late, the driver decided to leave earlier than the usual stop says. Even the provodokna (train conductor) was surprised by this. You can imagine the stress as I runned on my socks and slippers through the thick snow to jump aboard again. Well, let me say I stayed in jumping distance from the train after this little adventure :) As my fellow American traveller quoted from Coppola's movie 'Apocalypse Now', "Never get off the boat"!!!!

The rest of the journey went pretty smooth and we arrived in Vladivostok dead on time! As it was Sunday it was quite hard to find somewhere to have breakfast, so we ended up in this R&B cafe with fashion catwalks on several plasma tv's and waitresses with short skirts. We first thought this was quite a shady brothel-like of place, but this wasn't so. Alex had met a Russian girl (Olga) through a hospitality website, and she was willing to host us and show us around the town. This was very, very cool indeed! Instead of going to the typical tourist spots we got to:
- picknick on a rock above the sea with a beautiful view.
- go out in the local club playing good alternative rock music (franz ferdinand, futureheads, the cure, joy division, etc.
- meet interesting art students.
- see Vladivostok by night from the top of a appartment building.

It was quite hard to say goodbye from Olga, even if we only spent about 32 hours together!

The boat trip was quite interesting, as there were only 10 foreigners out of approximately 150 russians! The women seemed to hide (both passengers and personnel) and they had every reason to! Most of the men were drunk by the evening, and some already started drinking around 10 am!!! So during the night we had to protect Heather (american) and Lisa (australian) as they would get harassed, even if not in an aggressive way. The rest of the trip was okay, you had a lot more walking space than in the train of course.

Again we met some very interesting people. I shared my cabin with a Japanese 60-year old hippie, Tadahiro, who had taken the transsiberian 8 times, as he didn't like taking planes to Europe! Last time was 30 years ago, and he said nothing had changed in the mentality and attitude of the Russian people. Quite a shock there, as the fall of Communism apparently has had little effect on life! A good example of this were the lunch and dinners: we were assigned to the 'foreigner' table and had to be there in time and were asked to leave after 30 minutes in a friendly but certain way! Another interesting guy was Yunden, from Buryat. This is an autonomous republic in Siberia, north of Mongolia. Apparently, as Tadahiro told me, these people have the most similar DNA to the Japanese compared to any other people. And indeed Yunden seemed Japanese except for two things: his larger size and his incredible capacity for wodka :) He is running a business in buying digging machines from Japan and reselling them to golddiggers in Siberia!

The arrival at Japan, Fushiki took quite a while. We arrived around 9.30 am local time, but only got out around 13.30!!! The immigration and customs check went on board (in the nightclub) and a huge queue followed. As non-russians we were told to wait until the end, absolutely no idea why. I was quite nervous there, since I have a double nationality, which the Japanese do not allow. My custom officer said something about not being able to find something about the Netherlands, but his colleague said it was alright and that he should let me pass, pfewww!

And then I finally set foot on Japan!!! This was absolutely surreal!!! After 4 weeks of travelling, my mind could not comprehend it. It was like walking in a dream or in a Japanese theme park. Everything is so Japanese, cute, safe, friendly, etc. It is only after two days that I am getting used to the idea! This is also because Vladivostok has nothing asian at all. According to my feeling it could be 50 km from Moscow. After some initial problems with getting cash, I got on the train and was at my grandparents house within 1,5 hour!!! They were very happy to see me, although the signals are much more subtle than in another culture. They have also grown much older since the last time I visited them, 3 years ago. My grandpa has more trouble walking, and they get tired quickly. But still, he is approaching 90 years and they still live on their own without any assistance, which is something I can't say about a lot of elderly people back in Europe!!

Only now I am getting back to (Japanese) reality. After 60 hours on the ferry, by body repeated the rolling movement of the boat until now, which was a really strange sensation. I ate some delicious sukiyaki two days ago, and some excellent and fresh sushi yesterday, so I am slowly recuperating. Yesterday morning getting up was like getting out of coma! But everything is fine now. Sunday I will head to my uncle near Tokyo and stay there until the 5th of December, when I will actually start to work, another surreal thought :) I am at a very nice internet cafe now, with small boots with leather lounge seats, slippers and reading light, very Japanese indeed. At my uncle's house there should be internet, so I will finally be able to answer you all personally!

Some pictures:

Cheers,
Liou

Transsiberian - Irkutsk

2005-11-09T13:19:00.000+01:00

Hi!

First of all, thanx for all the emails and sms for my birthday!!!! I would like to write you on a personal note, but quite difficult with the limited time I have. But I greatly appreciated that!

Finally gmail is working in Irkutsk, so i can write you a quick note. Finished my visit to Moscow about a week ago, and went to Suzdal. This is a really beautiful, small city, 4 hours from Moscow, with a lot of well preserved churches and monasteries. Very fairylike, and no foreign tourists at all, except for the compulsory bus full of japanese :) Anyway, this was a great change after the stress and dynamism of Moscow! The day I got back from Suzdal (3rd nov), got my things at the hostel in Moscow, bought way too much food for the train
(3 days and 3 nights journey to Irkutsk), and got in to the train.

I spent the first night and day with a couple of taxi drivers going back to their home town. Ended up with one Russian, Maxim, working as a fireman in Perm, a 2-day journey. After him came Nina, a 50-year old woman working in the oil industry in the north of Russia. Managed to speak with both with gestures and my english/russian dictionary. I thought to be the only foreigner on the train, but on the last day before arriving met two americans, Alex and Heather, who had worked 2 years as volunteers in Macedonian. The funny thing is that they speak
macedonian to the people here, and get along in the language pretty fine! After finding some partygoers, decided to celebrate my birthday after midnight (didn't bother to calculate the exact hour). No champagne in the restaurant (russian champagne is said to be quite good), so bought some wodka from the security attendant who apparently had a stash in his compartment!

After couple of hours of sleep, had to wake up, not completely sober yet, and waited in vain for the youth hostel manager at Irkutsk station. After calling we got the directions to get there, even though the door was locked! But the manager's girlfriend came about 20 minutes later, and we were sleeping in a very cosy appartment.

Yesterday and today we were in Listvyanka, a touristic resort at the Baikal lake, which is absolutely stunning!!! It's like having Swiss on sea, you don't get the feeling it's a lake except for the fact that it is surrounded by a range of mountains with snow in the distance. By the way the temperature was -12 when we arrived in Irkutsk and -15 at the lake yesterday! Glad I bought those thermal long underwear!!! Even though the feet are still getting cold, even with 3 pairs of angara socks!

Went have the local omul-fish in a very good, and cheap, restaurant. Met two english persons, Scott & Heather (anotherone) and had quite a few drinks after getting home through the extremely cold night :(

We woke up quite late in the homestay we had found, with a very nice and sweet old lady (babushka), with only one disadvantage, being quite deaf. She would shout at us from 10 cm distance, imagine this with a bit of a hang-over!!!

Today took it easy, and packed our stuff for the train tomorrow morning at 8.00. Am quite eager on coming back here actually, when it's warm and you can do some nice hiking or kayaking. I saw only a small portion of the lake and it was absolutely beautiful!

The train trip was quite nice actually, doesn't seem so long as you would think. You just read a bit, try to communicate with your fellow passengers, check each station out and the food people are offering. This varies a lot, I noticed that the bigger stations have less or no vendors, while the smaller ones do. Most of the time you can buy stuff like noodles, bread but sometimes also whole meals such as salads and cooked chicken and potato. A very tasteful change from the usual bread and sausage!

Well, that's it so far. I am really keen on going to Japan actually now and see my family after three years. Have experencied quite a lot of things in only 3 weeks, and I can recommend it to anybody!!!

Ciao!
Liou

By the way some pictures:

2005-10-31T21:49:00.000+01:00

It's only now that i have found the time to write you. Have been doing a lot of things in Moscow, and the computer in the youth hostel doesn't support gmail, argh!

Took the nighttrain to Moscow, went quite alright, tried to communicate with an army pilot with which i shared the berth, as well as two other russians. Natasha's mother was so kind to pick me up from the train, at 7.00am! We left the luggage at our hostel, which left me with quite a bad 1st impression: messy, lots of beds in a small space. But actually it's quite alright, and the people are very interesting!

After this we went to the red square and the kremlin....and it was snowing!!! Complete change from S.PB. Unfortunately i was wearing my pair of shoes with holes in the soles - so I found out the hard way. It soaked up the ice-cold water which wasn't too good for the temperature of my feet. And seeing Lenin's balsemed body at 9.00am when not completely awake, was also an interesting experience :) Then I entered the Kremlin (it means fortress in Russian, this was the original city) and lost my tickets after 10 seconds. Fortunately, there was only a church open and I could enter together with a group. This was enough of Moscow and I called it a day around 15.00. Got some groceries and warmed my feet under a semi-hot shower. Instantly met very nice people, for example
:
- Guillaume, a french telecom engineer working at night in Moscow to replace mobile phone signal receiving equipment. He has been doing this in Africa, Sri Lanka and other countries as well for the last 5 years;
- Noriyuki, a Japanese piano student, who came to Moscow to do an entry exam at the Moscow conservatory, as his favorite piano player teachers there. Fortunately he got in!
- Daryll, working in the paper industry (The Office!!!!) and doing a week of Russia as a holiday.

Have done quite a few things in Moscow:
- seen several museums, as the Pushkin (international art) and Tretyakova. Again I was amazed by the greatness of Russian artists, who are virtually unknown and unfindable in other countries: Serov, Rublev and Repin for example.
- been to several concert. Went to the Bolshoi, famous for its ballet, but saw an opera (lady macbeth of mtensk) which was pretty horrible. Wished I had bought a ticket for the ballet, but it was sold out and didn't want to risk buying a fake or far overpriced ticket from street sellers. Yesterday and today I have been to classical concerts at the Conservatory. Saw a chamber orchestra doing Vivaldi, very nice, and today Yuri Bashmet. didn't know him, but apparently he is a world-famous violin player, and I must say the concert was absolutely incredible. Especially the 2nd part which was more contemporary and experimental. For some parts of the audience it was too progressive, but I absolutely loved it!
- Been to the market to buy woolen socks and new shoes, after my adventures! Lot of workers from Azerbadjan I would guess, pushing huge cars with goods through the market. Very different experience compared to the more European centre of the city.
- Novodechny convent, very nice compound of stunning churches (see photo below) and nice cemetery with graves of people as: Eisenstein, Krushov (former russian leader, but later disgraced because of his reforms), Gogol (writer), Tschechov (playwright).
- Went out with friend of friend (babke), Yrtsen. He is doing a PhD in quantum physics and has been living in Moscow for 2 years now. Went out with him, his girlfriend, a friend of him, and two of his female friends. I was the only one not to speak Russian, and I could only communicate with Yrtsen in Dutch. Managed to learn some russian, and we all went to a nice discotheque to celebrate halloween.
- Saturday evening at the family of Natasha. They live in a type of building called Krushowkidi, or something like that. Krushov had this type of building made to augment the amount of social housing, very typical soviet I must say. But inside was very cosy, albeit some small, especially considering three live there, and they were four before. One common room (dining, tv, books), one bedroom for the parents (which also functions as storage) and one sleeping / computer room for Natasha's sister, Katia. Natasha's father used to work as an electronic engineer for components of Soviet rockets. He wasn't allowed to get out of the country for holiday for several years after this job, because of its confidentiality!
- Today took it easy and went to VVTs, a exhibition centrum constructed by Stalin, and very impressive. Quite absurd as well, as it boasts total soviet architecture, with Indian selling audio/video electronics inside, and Kylie Minogue sounding all around the place. After this took a look at the treasury of the Kremlin with Faberge-eggs, incredible clothes (kaftans of Peter the Great, with a very distinct oriental touch and very elegant as well) and a bit too much jewellry for my taste.

Yesterday had quite an experience with the police. My passport was alright, but Guillaume had forgotten to put a stamp for the extra days he was working. We had to go along with the police to their little office inside the metro station. It even had a nice cute little prison with wooden bench! I thought he was going to have to cough some bribing money, but at the end he let us go without any problem. Still, it's a good warning you should have all your papers alright!

Tomorrow my last day in Moscow, and then I will go for 1,5 day to Soezdal. This must be a very pittoresque historical city with lots of nice churches, about 150-200 km from Moscow. And then I get back the 3rd to get the transsiberian to Irkutsk. I arrive the 7th, so don't forget to email me for my birthday, or even better sms me.

Awesome weather in front of the Bolshoi
Same weather on the Red Square
Novodevichny convent
Halloween-party
St.Basil on the Red square
At Natasha's family home
Russian metro (at night, completely empty, and quite scary actually)
Stalin exhibition fair: monument to Yuri Gagarin (with Lada!):
St.Basil again, by night this time

Last day in St.Petersburg

2005-10-25T17:51:00.000+02:00

Hiya!

Today will be the last day in St.Petersburg as I will catch the nighttrain to Moscow at 23.00. Tomorrow I will arrive there at 7.00, and Natasha's mother has been so kind to say she will pick me up. To people who don't know it yet, Natasha is a Russian friend of Arturo, a very good Mexican friend of mine. When talking with me, she said her family could help me out when I would be in Moscow. And apparently they will.

Only problem so far, is that I have quite a pain in my left foot, or to be precise the heel part of my leg. It's inflammated because of my new shoes and all the walking i did. I am going to see if I can get some cream for that, or I will be taking some good old painkillers.

Three days ago I went out with Peter, the Dutch guy selling posters I mentioned already. He met with three russian girls in a nice pub, called "dacha", the holiday house in the country a lot of people possess. Think retro wallpapers and loads of people: russian drunk men (i haven't seen people that drunk in bars actually), beautiful girls and foreigners, both pursuing specific interests. I was quite surprised at how bold russian girls were in that bar, as several approached me out of the blue. I wonder if they are just curious, see you as a potential way-out of russia, or or just good fun; maybe a combination of everything.

Two days ago I finally went to the hermitage, and it was there actually that my left foot started to hurt, around closing time. It wasn't as big as I expected it to be in terms of square meters, but it contained a hell lot of paintings! Especially the contemporary art section was truly wonderful with Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne and other artists I discovered there. Too bad I have had no time to return there, but I am sure I'll go back to this city :)

That night I went and saw a concert by the Philharmonia orchestra of S.P. The first part was Chaikovsky with a truly amazing violon soloist. He was improvising so well and much, and played the whole part without a partition and his eyes closed. I have never heard anyone playing a violin that way.

That night after I went out with Peter to get some beers in a local bar.

Yesterday I made quite a big tour through S.P. seeing several cathedrals, and most interesting of all a museum about the political history of Russia. It used to be propagandistic in the soviet time (you can still see that in the decoration), but now was highly critical of it. Very educational and an intersting insight in the shortcomings of the soviet regime.

And that night I finally went to the Mariinsky, one of the most famous ballet theatres and groups in the world! The costumes were absolutely beautiful, and the dance quite exquisite. But I was a bit disappointed by the fact that it was more touristy than classy (>50% foreign public), and the ballet was not as top-notch as I would expect it to be. But after seeing ballet at the Palais Garnier in Paris, I might be spoilt :)

Today I took the opportunity to go to Peterhof, one of the imperial palaces outside the city. Too bad they close all the museums on the last Tuesday of the month, argh!!!!!!!!! Well, anyway I had a good time walking with an American hippie-woman, travelling in Europe since 2,5 years (!).
Well, I'll be off to eat and catch the nighttrain to Moscow.
Cheers,Liou

St.Peterburg continued

2005-10-22T17:07:00.000+02:00

It is amazing how quickly you adapt yourself to a new situation and get used to a new city in this case. When I arrived, all kind of impressions struck me at the same time, but now they become less, but still interesting.

St.Petersburg is really a wonderful city, and it is truly European. There is a lot of Italian architecture as wel as Paris-like one. It is in the details (as I mentioned before) that you can encounter its socialist past. For example the communist stars in the metro stations, or the Leningrad sign outside the Moscow station.

Yesterday I went on a walking tour with a guide from S.P. and he showed us some smalll streets, alleys and backyards. Very interesting, the only downpoint being a typical american family coming along with spoilt brats shouting and driving around on their steps. The father is on a business trip to work out how the Xbox can be sold. It is officialy not available, because of the great amount of piracy, which apparently is somehow supported by the government!

The tour included an alley decorated by the world biggest Beatles and John Lennon-fan, a visit to a market full with caviar, honey and fish and an art centre accessible through a bunker door! After this I went and bought some tickets for a ballet and a concert of the Philharmonia orchestra.

The ballet wasn't quite what I expected. I based my choice on my guide, saying it was an all-male ballet performing contemporary dance. When I turned up there, the crowd was very mixed, similar to a cinema public, and the stage pretty tiny. There were about 7 dancers, and the main dancer, a lot older and quite pleased with himself; very probably the director as well. It started out with pretty amateuristic choreographies on famous classical music with a beat (think vivaldi mixed with the prodigy). There were some nice things, but I was really doubting if I came to the right place. After the break, the genre was completely different: TRANSVESTITE BALLET. Think "Priscilla, queen of the desert" meets The Lake of The Swans. All the men were dressed up as 19th century ballerinas, with make-up competing with those of drag queens. The tone was comical, performing fine ballet (the dancers are obviously classically trained) as real ballerinas would do, with exagerated gestures and eye-winking. And the crowd loved it, clapping after each performance. Well, quite an experience, and a fine contrast with the Mariinsky troupe I will see next Monday!

Today I went to the Peter&Paul fortress, which used to protect the city and the river from the Swedes. There is the church where the last tsar and his relatives are buried (after being dug up from Siberia, where they were murdered), as well as Peter the Great, the founder of the city. Next to this, an interesting museum about the lifestyle of S.P. in the 19th century, and a very cool, retro, communist cosmonaut-museum. The first complete heritage of the socialist time I have seen here.

From Russia with cold!

2005-10-20T21:31:00.000+02:00

Finally, I found a nice internetcafe and send you some news (and life
signals) from Russia! Some people around me playing online games,
watching movies, looking at nude tabloid pictures of celebrities and
an american guy checking out the components of a Kalashnikov.

Only the 3rd day but I already feel I am in a different world.
Everything around me is written in Cyrillic, and although I have
learnt it, I can definitely not recognise the words instantly.
Actually, it is quite funny to read a word letter for letter and then
finally see it's a transcription from English - e.g. ДЖЕКПОТ -> D ZH E
K P O T -> jackpot :) Another one: ВОЯЖ -> V O YA ZH -> voyage (trip)

The trip has been going well so far. My father brought me to the
airport Tuesday morning. No problem checking in and flying out with my
Japanese passport! Found the hostel quite quickly and managed to walk
in the town. Tallinn has a very nice centre so I can definitely
recommend it. It's medieval with fortified walls, but inside you will
also find Baroque buildings. The hostel was only so so, especially
because of the goldfish-food smell in the hallways - what kind of
cleaning products do they use??? Estonian is really a difficult
language to categorize. It has definitely something nordic, because of
the rising intonations. Sometimes I found it akin to Spanish and
French. Also Russian, but that may be because people are actually
speaking Russian - 40% of the town is from Russian origin. Just next
to the hostel there are wooden houses, in the middle of the centre,
very Nordic/Baltic indeed.

Yesterday I got the bus from Tallinn to St.Peterburg. Quite an
experience, not the least because I managed to hop on 2 minutes before
it left, in Liou-style! Apparently I am quite lucky, because they keep
a list of the passengers and hand it over to the customs. So you can't
really hop on without making a reservation first. The bus itself made
some really worrying sounds, creaks which made me suspected the
gearbox needed some oils. But it seemed I was the only one to worry
about this, and the bus continued its journey without any problem. The
scenery was quite beautiful: nordic, high trees with half of their
orange and golden brownleaves. Passing the Russian border was much
easier than I had thought, it took me about 10 minutes. I insisted on
getting a special form to register my foreign currencies (euro's) -
apparently if you don't fill this in, the customs can rip you off when
leaving the country.

The difference between Russia and Estonia was quite striking: roads
were much worse, the landscape seemed more desolate and the building
were almost not maintained. This corresponds much more to my
stereotype image than St.Petersburg!

Arrived on time in the city and got my metro ride! Damn, very deep
escalators, it takes at least 5 minutes to get to the bottom floor.
Apparently built to resist nuclear attacks, although I suspect the
metro existed before the Cold War. (correction: it's built in the 50's, and it's deep because of the marshlands, but also very probably because it can be used as a shelter)

Even if I was tired, I made a hike along the Nevsky Prospekt, the
"champs-elysees" of S.P. Very nice and classy. But nothing prepared me
for the Hermitage and the Winter Palace. Large, richly decorated,
impressive, in one word: imperial! Can't wait to get inside! As the
russians do, I caught a "taxi" to get back from the hostel, that is a
russian who can't resist someone giving him breakfast or drink money -
otherwise it takes about 40 minutes to walk the whole street to my
hostel!

Today, I went and saw the Russian State museum. And I must say Russian
art is to the same level as other European art. Excellent pieces:
icons, portraits, and even some fauvism & cubism, all before Social
Realism, so no Soviet propaganda.

I also booked my tickets to get my Vladivostok:
S.P. - Moscow: 25/10
Moscow - Irkutsk: departs 3/11, arrives 7/11 (my birthday!)
Irkutsk - Vladivostok: 10/11 - 13/11

Only one and a half day to spend in Vladivostok, but tickets were much
harder to get than I anticipated. So I had to reschedule my trip the
best I could.

Well, that's about it, enough stuff to read for two days I think!
Didn't meet that much people yet, apparently it's really low season.
On the Tallinn-S.P. bus I was the only non-Russian person I think!

Last day in Paris

2005-10-16T23:26:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow is going to be my last day in Paris and I actually can't really imagine I am going to be in Russia in three days. On the other hand, I try to rationalize and think about my travel schedule. But of course, that's not going prepare me for the actual experience, luckily!

I have been seeing a lot of friends the last few days: Philippe, a child cartoon drawer, Pauline, our former neighbour in Paris and actress, Eva, my former Polish babysitter. It has been really good to see them again. This reminds me of the duality of my past life; I would spent most of my time in Holland, but occasionaly I would go to Paris and catch on with completely different people in a whole different environment. Until I would go back to Holland and would pause that parallel world. That's probably the hardest thing when living in different places; maintaining the contact with your friends while away.

That's also why I am glad to stay for a longer period in Japan. On holidays I would stay no more than two months, and now it will be at least nine. This way I can settle in and really get to know more about the culture.

Friday I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with my sister, and we really liked the movie. Definitely one of Tim Burton's best movies since some time.

Well, tomorrow is going to be a busy day organizing stuff, so I'll sleep early this time...

Approximate overview trip Russia-Japan

2005-10-15T13:05:00.000+02:00

Just a quick overview of my trip. This way you will
know more or less where I will be. It's nice to know, but might be
important in case of any irregularities in Russia. The trip is not
planned yet after Moscow, so the dates are only approximates, except for the ferry.

18 October: Paris-Tallin
19 October: Tallin-St.Petersburg
19-25 October: St.Petersburg
26 - 29 October: Moscow (ending date not sure yet)
30 - 31 October: Soezdal (not sure yet)
1 - 4 November: Transsiberian, 1st leg: Moscow - Irkutsk
4 - 7 November: Irkutsk / Listvyanka
8 - 11 November: Transsiberian, 2nd leg: Irkutsk - Vladivostok
11 - 14 November: Vladivostok
14 - 16 November: Ferry Vladivostok - Fushiki (Japan)

16 - 21 November: Uozu (grandparents)
21 - 5 December: Tokyo and around (uncle and cousins)
From 5 December: Work at Asahi Kasei, Atsugi

Bye!
Liou

2005-10-14T00:24:00.000+02:00

Paris.... actually a really beautiful city!! This seems silly to say from someone who spent so much time in this city. But I hadn't visited it for almost a year now, and that made me see its distinct and splendid character. As well as its stressed and polluted one btw. Beautiful buildings, grandeur, chic. And people pushing themselves through the crowd next to clochards drinking wine on doorsteps. Hmm...still wouldn't want to live here - or be it for a short while.

Only been here two days, but already lacking time. Tuesday I settled down. Now I have about 20 kg of luggage, and my back was already aching from the short distances I had to walk. This doesn't seem like a good plan for Russia! Definitively need to loose something on the way. Yesterday I took out my fantastic bike (i'll make a photo and post it) and drove to the Palais de Tokyo. Such an ugly neo-classistic 30s building it has some charm - think Soviet, Italian fascist or Nazi temple-like architecture. Lot of kids painting their own piece of art, and I had difficulty differentiating which works were theirs and which were not :)
Today I did two things. Go to an exceptional exhibition of Klimt, Schiele, Moser and Kokoshka. All painters of the Vienna Secession, an artistic group who painted around 1910-1920. Especially Schiele's fleshy portraits and other pictures full of existential angst made a great impression on me. Secondly, I searched for a nice winter coat my father would pay for me as a birthday present. I checked out various stores (Printemps, Lafayette, Dotti), and found a couple of nice models. When I came back home I described them, and my stepmother stepped out of the closet with exactly the kind of coat I wanted!! Well, that saved us some money :) Now, I can buy some new shoes instead, yeah!

The adventure starts soon!!!

2005-09-26T11:28:00.000+02:00

To readers who haven't heard or read about it yet, I did get the internship I mentioned in my last post!!! Actually, it took about 5 or 6 weeks from contacting some Dutch people to actually getting the job at Asahi Kasei! Compare this to the 8 months I have been searching through AIESEC! My internship will revolve around voice recognition (link).

I have had a lot of luck and it came just at the right moment. Already I was planning my trip through Russia before having any certainty regarding jobs in Japan. Maybe it had to be - quoting a good friend of mine ;)

My job starts December 5th - which some people will recognize as Sinterklaas (St.Nicolas) ;) I will be leaving the Netherlands for Paris on October the 11th, then get a plane to Estonia the 18th and enter Russia the 19th. After visiting St.Petersburg and Moscow the dates are not certain yet. The plan is to visit lake Bajkal, arrive at Vladivostok and get a ferry to Japan November 14th, arriving at Fushiki the 16th. The most incredible thing is that I will only have to take a train for half an hour to get to my grandparents, out of all places in Japan!! Actually, this started the idea for the whole trip. I found out about this ferry and then backtracked to St.Petersburg through the Transsiberian. In Japan I will have about 2,5 weeks to visit and stay at my family before starting to work.

Of course, I will keep you informed and update this blog more often than 4 times a year :) Comments are more than welcome!

Japan plans materializing

2005-08-19T16:23:00.000+02:00

For the lonely reader still checking out this blog:

The plans for Japan have started getting real. Through an amazing link of contacts, I have applied for an internship in a big Japanese company near Tokyo. I would work there on speech recognition for Dutch (!). The conditions seem to be nice, as well as the work, even if the payroll is not very high. But that is not my aim of course! I have been hopeful for other internships too, but this seems to be the best. So I hope to hear soon from them.

And I have more or less a good idea of how I want to organize my trip through Russia: arrive at St.Petersburg somehow (maybe through Helsinki or Talinn), continue to Moscow and check out the area. Then travel the two thirds of the transsiberian route to Irkutsk (Lake Bajkal) and stay a couple of days there. After this finish the route to Vladivostok and get the boat to Japan, to a small harbour just half an hour away by car from my grandparents.

Things are looking positive after a couple of months of low activity!

About to move house

2005-06-04T13:05:00.000+02:00

It has been more than three weeks since I sprained my ankle. Last Monday I finally went to the doctor, as he was available again after the strikes two weeks ago. He sent me to the hospital to have x-ray photo's made. This to be sure there was no fracture. Fortunately, there wasn't but apparently I have a rupture in my ankle ligaments (Dutch: gescheurde enkelbanden). They taped me and now I have to walk as much as I can to let the ligaments and muscle heal faster.

I must say I am very happy to walk again! It's about 1 km/h, but I feel much more autonomous than when I had to hump around on one foot! Next week I'll be moving to my new room in the East of Amsterdam, so I am glad that I am more mobile gain.

Mexican metal concert -> stuck with sprain ankle :(

2005-05-16T13:28:00.000+02:00

Well... Arturo had me listen to and watch some music and video clips of the Spanish metal/rap-band Molotov. It sounded pretty cool, like a Mexican version of The Bloodhound Gang. So when I saw they were playing in the Melkweg I suggested going and seeing them, which Arturo really found a good idea! So Friday (the 13th!!!) we went and see the concert, together with my friend Mirella and her Frysian boyfriend Tijs. It was in the smaller concert hall with a lot of Mexicans and other hispanic looking people (Spanish, Central-American probably). I hardly knew their song, but it was clear that the concert versions were much more metal than the album ones!!! From start to end it was more of a metal concert. This resulted in a lot of pogoing of course. And with the second-last song I decided to join in: bad idea....

After less than 20 seconds of jumping I was probably pushed while in the air. Because of this I landed on my right foot at a wrong angle, causing it to snap inwards. When I say snap, that is exactly how it felt. I suddenly knew this was bad and went to the first help, one of the security guys. He saw that I could still stand on it and told me it was sprained (as I expected) and gave me some ice to put on it. 5 minutes later the concert had ended. Actually, I was 'kind of lucky' that it didn't happen at the beginning, so I could still see most of the show.

But the story hasn't ended yet, since I am still at home with a purple, thick foot and I am still unable to walk on it :( The swelling is slowly disappearing, but very slowly... The f**ked up part is that I won't be able to badminton and do salsa for a couple of weeks now :'( Well, no more pogoing for this old lad...

News from the living

2005-05-10T23:15:00.000+02:00

I am very sorry for not writing for such a long time, but it was the last thing on my mind. Anyway, I find writing a blog a bit too narcistic for my taste. Reading other people's blog actually makes me fed up really fast, so that's also why I am not so keen on writing one.

Well, anyway just some short news. First of all, I've got a new room / appartment in the East part of Amsterdam (Oost / Watergraafsmeer for those familiar with Amsterdam). I was not so sure on taking it, but I finally did. One of my doubts concerned my (hopefully quick) departure to Japan. Why should I find another room if I will stay in Japan for a unknown period of time? But as it so hard finding a nice place in Amsterdam, I decided to take it anyway and see how things go. Maybe I won't go soon to Japan or I'll come back earlier than expected.

Secondly, I really, really want to go to Japan. I have been offered a job at the Vrije Universiteit. This would consist of improving the website of the Computer Science Department. But this is not really too interesting and would last 9 to 12 months. It would offer me some stable income and money for that period, but that's not my main aim. So I'll probably decline (I have until next Tuesday to decide). For once, I will not make a rational choice but go with my guts.

Well, I'll try to update you sooner.

PS. Some picture from Ardi's after-wedding party. She is my best female friend and got married here in amsterdam to her American fiancee. I still have to develop the black&white films...

Zita Swoon

2005-03-30T18:03:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I saw a concert of Zita Swoon in Paradiso, Amsterdam. Very, very nice indeed! I knew them from one song regularly played at kinkfm, "Thinking about you all the time". But actually this track is not representative at all. Actually, it would be an impossible task defining any song as representative for this group. I had listened to a couple of their albums in wake of the concert, and still had no idea what to expect! Just read how they define themselves on their website:

"Their music, on record as well as on stage, is a journey through a long tradition of popular music. On this road they have encountered folk and blues, even seeking their way to eighties disco, making leaps between past and future, no real regularity kept in mind…"

Anyway, I still can not define the music well, but I think that's a good thing, if the music is good. The concert started out slowly, but then the band got really heated up, as well as the audience! One of the best shows I have ever seen, to be frank. Great drums & percussions, an occasional violin and harmonica, three beautiful(ly singing) background ladies, and a amazing melting pot of various genres!

Still waiting for Japan

2005-03-09T12:11:00.000+01:00

I am still exchanging emails with the AIESEC-contact person in Japan. In the last email I asked whether I could talk to the company's boss, and I am still waiting for that answer. In the meantime I have been offered a job by my professor Gerrit, but that would be for 6 to 9 months in my university. But I would really like to leave to Japan and try something else.

That last e-mail was pretty cryptic! Japanese (and Asian in general) are known for their somewhat strange use of English.

P.S.
Now they made a masticating robot to test how cookies crumble!

DJ Remote Control

2005-03-04T12:28:00.000+01:00

Here is a cool link to a new device HP is developping, called the DJammer. It is a handheld device meant to replace the conventional vinyl turntables, and apparently allows scratching by moving your hand in the air.

Here is a video explaining it.

Getting snowy in Amsterdam

2005-03-02T22:33:00.000+01:00

This is the first winter's day with real snow here in Holland. And when it comes, it comes in abundance: at least 8 cm. At least for here, I don't know what you guys are used to... It makes walking and using the bicycle less safe, but it offers great cityscapes, as you can tell from my pictures.

I went to the internship office today, and we decided to go for one of the internships offered in Japan. It really seems ideal: it's in the country where I want to be now, and it has to do with interfaces for visually handicapped people. So it is directly relevant to my study, human-computer interaction. The other option consists of proofreading english contracts and also making a website, but sounds much less attractive.

Hopefully they will still be interested, and I can go in Japan in two months. Strange, I haven't been here even a year, but I really feel like I should go now. If I find a decent job here in Europe (and girlfriend, house, etc.), it will be much more difficult. But I'm sure I will enjoy my stay, even though I would like to stay longer than two years there...

Chemical Brothers

2005-02-25T00:25:00.000+01:00

Just came back home from an incredible concert! It just passed away without any notion of time at all. Suddenly we were two hours later, and for my feeling it could have been 5 minutes or 3 hours. The Chem.Brothers are definitely the best electronica act I have seen so far! Not that I have seen many, and it will difficult to find a better one.

The set was certainly preprogrammed, and they were just turning the filters and oscillators. But they were doing that very well indeed! I embarked on a odyssey through melody, beat and visuals. The video part was incredible, that's what VJ-ing is really about. Not repeating the same 3-second sample for 10 minutes, but alternating and using the right images that go with the music!

And the Heineken Music Hall was nice as well. I expected a packed crowd, but they was enough space. At the beginning there was an aggressive mood with antipathic people around us. But this soon cleared up, especially when the music came through!

Wonderful, it will be difficult to re-experience an electronic concert that good.

Quick update

2005-02-19T18:31:00.000+01:00

Sorry for not writing for such a long time! Just a quick update, as I am on holiday in Italy now. I am staying at Riccardo's parents, he graduated last Thursday and I came to visit him. Next Tuesday I'll take the plane back and stay at a friend's place in Brussels.

It's really nice to see my friend again and enjoy Italian food! The weather is the same as in the Netherlands, but I don't mind at all.

I got some good news from AIESEC, the organisation through which I am searching for internships in Japan. I got two positive reactions, both in Japan! One consists of correcting contracts written in English, the other programming. It's not really what I want to do for a living, but it's a start! It's really difficult getting a job in Japan, even more so if I want something specifically in multimedia. If I am already there, I could start searching for other options....

YES! I am right, ladies and gentlemen

2005-02-03T22:52:00.000+01:00

I am completely tired, but in a nice satisfactory way. First, I worked on all the stuff I needed to organize for tomorrow's presentations. This will conclude the webdesign course for the students, while I'll have to check all the documents and websites! I hope to finish in one week.

But more importantly, I finally got the result of the public hearing! And they said I was right! It's all in 'legalese', but the decision I made a complaint about (which consists of my list of grades) has been declared invalid. So they will have to make a new one, which in some way must represent the courses done in Italy. And yes, it feels good! It was quite probable they would decide in my favour, but I feared the newspaper or the department of Education would still have had some influence. But fortunately this was not the case.

To end the day, a link to how the first Macintosh presentation (via wildkamperen.nl) had a major impact on the audience. It's all the same over again (iPod, iMac, MiniMac) but 20 years ago, Steve Jobs with butterfly tie and all :)

Discipline, discipline

2005-02-01T13:49:00.000+01:00

This is one of my weaker points. I have been to a mini-lecture about leadership where they explained the distinction between important and urgent. If you do not plan well, too much important things become urgent as well, resulting in a lot of stress. That's a good New Year's resolution: do important things before they are urgent.

This weekend I bought a ticket for Italy, where I will visit my good friend Riccardo for his graduation. This will be definitely a great party, and I will try to have the grades for my course students ready before!

Great techno classics!

2005-01-31T17:17:00.000+01:00

Some great techno classics mp3s on a amateurish, student website about the history of this electronic genre.

Check out these:

Rhythim is rythim - "Strings of life". A real classical piano and strings feel-good anthem.
Inner city - "Big fun". Another strings and piano anthem with vocals. Quite close to garage, but with a more abstract melody and more present drummachine.
Dj Roland - "Knights of the jaguar". This is a great song!!! I recognised it instantly but never knew its title! The start of progressive house/techno/etc.etc.
Funk D'Void - "Diabla" (heavenly mix)
Slam - "Virtuoso". This and the previous are from the Soma label, who normally produce melodic techno music, but also Daft Punk for a while!

Make fair trade

2005-01-31T13:19:00.000+01:00

A great photography stunt, for a good cause, what a good combination! I just saw this and decided to post this immediately.

Make Fair Trade is about protesting against the rich countries selling their surplus ('dumping') products at extreme low prices in developing countries. The consequence is that the native farmers are outpriced and don't get any benefits. So go the site and sign the petition!

I already have seen some postcards at the Vrije Universiteit, but now I understand what it's all about. Photographies of celebrities which get all kind of agrarian products dumped on them. Check out the stunning pictures of Michael Stipe (REM), Chris Martin (Coldplay) and Jamelia, for example.

Chemical Bros.

2005-01-29T19:52:00.000+01:00

I forgot to tell you about it, but last week me and my housemates were watching MTV and saw an ad for the new album of the Chemical Brothers - Galvanize. The night before we heard the single with the same title in a club, and we were really enthousiastic about it. So when at the end of this ad we heard there would be a concert in Amsterdam (in the Heineken Music Hall), we all shouted more or less synchronized "let's buy the tickets!". And that's exactly what we did 1 hour later. So I'll be going there the 24th of february with Eva, Arturo and my friend Daan, who is completely into electronic music ("if there's singing in it, I don't like it").

We heard the new single the day before in a club called Club 11. It is located on the 12th floor of a former post building (the 1st floor is not the ground floor, so that explains the number 11), and offers an excellent nightly view of the centre of Amsterdam while dancing. Too bad the music s*cked most of the time, consisting of electronic beats without any imagination. And the superficial, fashion level was a bit too high for me.

Well, I'll make this a short one. I still need to burn some tracks for Daan, who is celebrating his birthday today. Oh yeah, still no news of the university (big surprise!).

Still no answer...

2005-01-24T13:54:00.000+01:00

I just encountered the professors of the examen board of my faculty. Just as me, they are still waiting for a reaction from the directing board. I am really wondering what is happening here? Maybe they are thinking a bit better about the decision to make, since the article got in the uni paper. But still, they assured me of the contrary last Friday.

At the beginning of the afternoon it started snowing. What a delightful sight! Not really when you are cycling through it, but definitely when you are in your warm office.

Some interesting link about a dutch artist making moving arts of works, based on animals (video).

Still no letter

2005-01-23T13:36:00.000+01:00

I am still waiting for the letter with the decision from the public hearing (see previous posts). Either it will arrive on Monday or they just sent it to my old address in Uilenstede. Needless to say, I really can't wait to read it, especially with all the build-up.

Just a small link to the site of my teacher of photography, Rogier Alleblas. Some really interesting pictures, originally black and white but retouched with oil paint.

Confort

2005-01-20T17:08:00.000+01:00

I mailed the directing board and fortunately they understand the situation with the article (see the last post). So normally it should not affect their decision! Few, that is a relief! Well, I should get the letter tomorrow, it's getting more and more exciting.

A small link to a nice photo-web site: a Stern-photographer making pictures throughout Asia. Well, this might be what I should expect if I go and work in Japan :O

Ooooops! Bad timing, bad publicity

2005-01-20T11:58:00.000+01:00

This morning I arrived at the university, and as usual went to get some tea at the staff room before starting to work . After contact with a reporter from the newspaper of my university, I expected some little news item about my problems with my diploma (see recent posts). I was completely surprised, mostly in a bad way, to see this story on the front page! It is nice to get in the publicity, but not when this can affect a legal decision!!!

Not a smart idea to get in contact with this paper (Ad Valvas), especially not with this timing. I did think of it yesterday and wrote an email right after my conversation with the reporter, to ask if they could wait until after Friday. She replied that the article was already written, edited and included in the newspaper, and that it was pretty dry ("sec") and objective. Well the title says "This is not my diploma!"!!! This doesn't sound objective to me, but more sensationalistic!!!

But most importantly, I am afraid this might affect the judgment of the board of directors with regard to my complaint. I have written them an e-mail where I explain the situation and more or less apologize. I have also sent an e-mail to Ad Valvas, where I state that I am not happy with the article and that I hope it doesn't affect the board's decision in a bad way.

Well, on the bright side, this makes things a bit more exciting. I had pretty good hopes before, but now the outcoming decision is not so clear anymore. But my main thought is "sh***t, I hope this doesn't screw things up".

Transcultural Communication Seminar

2005-01-19T17:13:00.000+01:00

I intended to write about the seminar yesterday, as you can see in the title of the last post. But I was probably too tired writing about the hearing :)

Yesterday I went to a transcultural communication seminar. And part of it was indeed as 'socio-abstract' as the title suggests. But fortunately I received some good tips, which for example made me reconsider my work in Spain. This seminar was organized by AIESEC, the organization through which I hope to find an internship in Japan. Part of this exchange is to follow this seminar to be better prepared when working in a foreign country.

We had a presentation of two employees of the Department of Economic Affairs (economische zaken), which hosted and sponsored the seminar. This was mainly to get interest from potential future employees amongst the students. Then came a anthropologist who taught us about key differences between types of culture. This started out with vague concepts as masculinity, power distance and avoidance of uncertainty. Fortunately, at the end of the training this was used for more concrete tips.

For example, I remembered I only had one or two conceptual discussions about my project with my boss in Spain. He left me free in my work most of the time, as he was quite busy. But now I think I confronted him too much with my critic, a typical Dutch thing. So it's better to use more indirect mechanisms (suggestions, a middle person, etc.) or otherwise the person might not know how to react or stop the cooperation.

Besides that I talked with other (graduated) students. Apparently India offers the widest number of internships and therefore seems to be booming. Few people had such a distinct goal as I do (Japan), but were happy to go anywhere in the world. That is definitely adventurous, although I would like to consider the internship subjet as well...

Next Friday is my first meeting with my AIESEC contact person, so after that I should know where to start.

Hearing and seminar

2005-01-18T23:04:00.000+01:00

In my last post I wrote I would go to a public hearing last Friday. I was a bit nervous, especially since I had no idea what to expect. But it all went very well! First I met up with Babet, my 'counselor'. As a law student she gave me some tips and I asked her to come along, so I would have some support. We were a tiny bit too late, as we had some trouble finding the small meeting room. It was filled with about 10 people, and we occupied the two remaining seats. There were two people from my faculty, against whom I have made the complaint about my Italian courses not being included in the diploma.

The board let me talk and then the faculty representatives. I repeated the arguments I already explained in my letters, and added two more: that it was not correct to let me know about the decision only 3 minutes beforehand, and that I had all the rights that I got until then to expect the Italian courses to be included. The faculty members replied by agreeing, which I already expected. Then the hearing turned into a bureaucratic discussion about which rules they followed. All in all, the board was positive about my complaint, and I will get their decision next Friday.

So, cross my fingers, I hope the decision will be (very) favorable for me, and I will be very glad to have made this complaint. It seems that you can actually have influence on the rules of the university!

Tomorrow court day!

2005-01-13T22:37:00.000+01:00

I haven't written about this yet, but some of you might know that I was not completely happy with my diploma. To be more specific, the fact that the courses I followed in Italy do not appear on my list of achieved courses. This is due to some stupid commission (Schutte) who was founded when the government found out (hbo) universities were making up fake foreign students to get more money from the state. This commission also did an inspection at my faculty and this resulted in the decision of not putting any foreign courses anymore on the diploma.

This is really unheard of, since the courses that should substitute my courses do not correspond at all regarding the content. And the excellent notes I got are also not present on the paper. So I made an official complaint to the directing board of my university. And this resulted in a public hearing tomorrow where I will have to explain my arguments. I was too late with the complaint, so I'll have to have a good reason for it, which I have. The decision to substitute the courses was told to me only 5 minutes before the actual diploma ceremony, and then I went on holiday for three weeks. By the time I found out about the complaint procedure, I was already too late. But we'll see.

I am not nervous at all, but no big things are at stake here. I hope I can get some kind of certificate that I did those courses, but I already have from the university in Italy (Siena). But it would be nice to see those high grades on my actual diploma...

Why blogging?

2005-01-12T17:55:00.000+01:00

Some friends have asked me why I should put up a weblog? They are absolutely to ask this. I have seen a lot of totally unnecessary weblog that possess no added value whatsoever. My reason for creating one is to keep my friends informed of what I do. And this is especially relevant, since a lot of them don't live in the Netherlands. This way they can keep up with my life in an easy way. [even if from the site statistics I haven't seen too many foreign siteviews!]

I found it very useful during my stay in Spain. People I met after returning home knew a great deal more about what I did, compared for example to my stay in Italy. So now, it might be slightly less relevant, but I still hope people find this interesting to read of course!

My first lecture ever!

2005-01-10T18:44:00.000+01:00

This morning I had the pleasure of teaching 90 students something about web design! I still have mixed feelings about this first lesson. All things considered, I did pretty well. I wasn't nervous, had no problem talking clearly and went quite smoothly through the material. But it was still a bit too dull, I guess. Maarten already warned me for talking in a monotone way and standing too much still. Raul (one of my friends and also student-assistent for this course) actually said the same thing. But I guess it's really difficult delivering the content right and interestingly at the same time! Practice should improve this, and I should really work on this. But, not bad for a first time, come on!

After the lecture, I was completely drained! I haven't felt like this for a long time. It's like the void after a tremendous effort, such as after sport or a funeral. I just ate a chocolate bar and did nothing for about 20 minutes. After this I started recovering and had a talk with my student-assistents.

I still have to do some work, but feel pretty relaxed now. Tomorrow is the next lecture, so I'll have to prepare that one as well!

Other info

2005-01-06T20:58:00.000+01:00

Before I got the job as an university teacher, I agreed upon making a website for a couple of psychologists in Leiden. Unfortunately, I have not been able to do as much work as I wanted on that level. Now I'll really have to deliver some results. Which is not that bad, as I am teaching web design now. Some practical experience is always handy, although doing the two things at the same time is not so wise.

Recent developments

2005-01-06T13:37:00.000+01:00

Here follows a small summary of the most important and recent developments in my life.

First of all, I am working full-time until February. The professor who was supervising my Master thesis (Gerrit van der Veer) offered me a job as an university teacher! Of course I accepted as I had absolutely no other prospects at the time. On Monday I will give my first lectures, so I am getting quite nervous now! Especially since I still need to work on the slides and organise all kind of stuff. Until now about 95 students signed up, which is quite a big amount of spectators :0 But I am really happy with this, as it is a great opportunity to learn how to teach and to build (cv) experience.

So, what to do when this job is over ? As some of you already might know, I would really like to go and work in Japan. This plan seems to be more concrete, as I was selected by AIESEC. This is an international student organization, which offers internships throughout the world. When I went at one of their presentations, I was thinking of doing some voluntary work in South-America. I explained that I couldn't find any jobs in Japan, and that this might be a welcome intermezzo. And then they told me there were also internships in Japan!! It is not sure I will get one, since every member of AIESEC may compete for the same placement. But I hope my IT background, Japanese origins and passport and other skills will work in my favour. And otherwise I might be off to Chili, Argentinia, Brazil or another South-American country...

Well, gotta get back to work now, so I'll post some more info later on!

My first post

2005-01-06T00:28:00.000+01:00

I promised to start a new blog a long, long time ago! Well here it is. I hope I have enough time, with all my current activities. But I think it is a good way to share a bit of my life with my friends in different parts of the world. And it saves me writing email *hehe*. Not that I will stop writing them now!