Sangorrin

Beijing - 2010

2011-01-24T01:08:00.005+09:00

This is the first post out of three describing my trip to Beijing-Ulaanbaatar-Shanghai during October 2010. I traveled to those places using a multi-city flight operated by Air China. The concept of a multi-city flight comes handy when in order to reach your final destination you need to transfer at a certain airport. In a nutshell, since you are going into the effort of transferring at that place, you may as well stay there for a day or two without incurring extra flight costs. Since I have Spanish passport I needed to obtain visas both for China (double entry) and Mongolia. They were almost as expensive as the flight tickets!

Although I didn't plan it ahead, I arrived to Beijing on the National Day of the People's Republic of China. This is probably not the best time to travel in China since most people get holidays (similar to Japanese Golden Week) and the transport system becomes saturated. Tiananmen Square was packed to the rafters and Chinese were taking pictures of supposedly VIP people passing by in their luxury cars. Only once I got to see Mao's giant poster did I finally realize that I was in China.

Needless to say I did a lot of wandering that day to immerse myself in Beijing's extraordinary cultural diversity. Wangfujing, in the center of Beijing, is a must-visit street full of many kinds of food. By the way, being a pedestrian is dangerous in Beijing. Nobody seems to give a s*it about the traffic lights!!

Practically everybody has seen them in China's documentaries so I was ready to see scorpions being sold as a snack. What I wouldn't expect was to find out that they are all alive. Actually, scorpions were just the top of the iceberg.

China is the homeland of thousands of electronic gadgets. Although one could be critic about their lack of concern regarding to violation of copyrights, I have to admit that I've always appreciated the freedom of use present in Chinese gadgets. By recommendation of a Chinese lab mate, I went to Beijing Northwestern electronic district, Zhongguancun. Originally, my intention was to bargain the price of an Android's powered SmartQ MID. However, I soon realized it was not the best idea (eventually I would buy it through the Internet at allpmp.com if you are interested). Compared to Japanese people, Chinese do have Spanish picaresca and I'm pretty sure I would lose my money if I tried to bargain hehe. Other situations where I witnessed picaresca was on the subway. Some people would literally step on me just to enter first!. Talking about the subway, it was modern, fast and very cheap. Though they had controls at every entrance and sometimes I saw officials recording the passengers with a video-camera.

I spent the night at Happy Dragon hostel which was quite recommendable. If you wake up early in the morning, you will have the chance to get some fresh fruit and vegetables in a nearby street market. To tell the truth, some of the stands in that market where a bit shocking (in particular open-air "dentists"). But generally speaking, my impression was that Chinese people are very hard working and they love making business.

The next day I woke up early to take a bus to the famous Chinese Great Wall. Unfortunately, I was not the only one. Thousands of people were queuing to get on buses that looked like a can of sardines. I gave up the Wall and decided to wander around and see what Beijing had to offer.

Actually it wasn't a bad idea, not at all. Perhaps some of the most interesting views of Beijing I had happened while I was walking through its back streets, out of the beaten path. By the way, I loved Chinese electric motorbikes! They don't make any noise at all!

I arrived by chance to Beihai lake park. I felt it as an Oasis in the middle of the desert.

As I made my way into the park, a beautiful traditional Chinese melody came out of nowhere and filled the air with epic and exoticism all at once. Soon I discovered the source of that pleasant melody. A group of Chinese senior people were gathering around and singing old Chinese songs. I sat down nearby for an hour or so, closed my eyes and tried to imagine China a few centuries ago.

A few meters from there, I found these two amazing guys writing Chinese symbols on the floor with water. Seeing the written symbols fade away as the water evaporates is quite metaphoric. Although Chinese simplified symbols are a bit different from the ones used in Japan, I was able to guess the meaning of many words on signs, etc. I bought a book to learn the Chinese language (Chinese clerks were really persistent!) but I haven't made any progress yet.

It was time to make a brief stop and have some Beijing duck for lunch. I was told by Chinese friends that eating out is not a very extended custom in China and it might get risky for a foreigner. I decided to watch my steps on that so most of the time I was eating food bought at the supermarket. As for the Beijing duck, I went to an "expensive" restaurant which looked more or less safe. Also I found a Saizeriya restaurant in the center but I was disappointed when my soup came almost cold! (could it be that the Chinese like it lukewarm?)

I spent the rest of the day enjoying the Forbidden city, a must-see in case you visit Beijing. At night, I went to see a Kung-Fu show in the Red Theatre of Beijing. I wouldn't recommend it. If you want to see a good Kung-Fu show, you have to go and see the Jump show at Seoul!

Despite the overwhelming modernization process (e.g.: I was impressed to see people calling inside the subway, while here in Japan there is no signal), Beijing still conserves its personality and traditions. The culture is different and so the way of thinking. Sometimes that opened my mind about things I used to take for granted.

Next destination: Mongolia!!

Super Comic City - Osaka

2010-08-29T23:43:00.005+09:00

The 30th of October of 1998 (Friday) was an important day in my life. La noche temática, a program from the Spanish public TV, emitted a documentary called "La noche de los manga".

Thema Manga, Mangaka - 01/21 - Intro et Sommaire - 1998
アップロード者 Alexkiddmw. - クリエィティブ動画をもっと見る。

The documentary, a co-production between TSR2 and Arte France, had a total duration of 187 minutes and covered in detail the world of Japanese animation and Manga. I was moved by the images, the music and the idea of discovering a new hidden world (am I, after all, another Spanish conqueror? :P). The documentary explained the process of creating manga and animation in Japan. In particular, I recall one scene where thousands of manga amateurs were gathering around in a huge event to sell their self-published material. Back then, attending such an event was a mere dream for me.

Back to reality, a few weeks ago, I was hanging around in Toranoana manga shop when I spotted an interesting book at one of the floors dedicated to dōjinshi 同人誌 (self-publishing) mangas. It was a book about one of those events that I dreamed about a decade ago!! I thought it was time to make those old-good dreams come true!!

And there I was, a few weeks later, in Osaka ready to participate for the first time in a dōjinshi event: the Super Comic City - Kansai 16. The event took place in Intex Osaka, a huge building complex that had plenty of room for the 14.000 stands where Japanese manga amateurs were passionately selling their work. It was organized by Akaboo, a company that prepares similar events during the whole year. It was completely full of people, much more than what I had imagined. Amateur (and not so amateur) artists were selling their own mangas, illustrations, hand-made postcards, badges and even dolls!! Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures inside the building to illustrate it.

Although this time I attended just as a visitor, I would love to attend someday with my own comics. In order to participate as an author you need to fill a form. I found a free magazine called Piggy in Toranoana which includes the forms to apply to many of these events but you can apply directly from Akaboo website. An interesting detail on the application form is that small rectangle on the down-right corner reserved for you to show a catchy cut of your art.

That cut will appear eventually in the event's guide book, which can be bought in advance at the manga shop or directly on the day when the event takes place (the book qualifies as entrance ticket). This is very useful for the attendants to think in advance which stands they want to visit first.

Many of those amateur artists dream of becoming professional manga artists (mangaka) someday. One way to accomplish their goal is to take part in one of the numerous manga contests that are held in Japan. Some of them feature prizes that simply make my jaws drop. For instance, the picture above (extracted from the event's guide book) advertises the Shinjin comic contest, sponsored by Shogakukan, whose biggest prize is 5000000 yen (46572 Eur at 29/Aug/2010).

There are many people that love drawing manga. And many more who love reading them. And of course, "a lot of people" stands for an opportunity for business in a free market society. There exist a plethora of companies to help the artists achieve their goals. From printing companies specialized in amateur mangas to transportation services that can bring your boxes full of manga directly to the building. Inside the building, you can buy all kinds of tools for drawing such as tracing tables, color pens, manga patterns, etc. There is even a service to send home the mangas that you bought.

12 years after watching that documentary, I still feel as if I was discovering a new hidden world...

Hakodate (函館)

2010-08-21T09:32:00.008+09:00

A few weeks ago I went to Hakodate (函館), south of Hokkaidou (北海道).

I went there with some of my lab colleagues in order to attend a Japanese conference on Embedded Systems, called SIGEMB (情報処理学会組込みシステム研究会).

The day we arrived, we noticed that the temperature was not as cool as we expected. In fact it was almost as hot as in Nagoya. Many people go to Hokkaidou during Summer holidays to escape from the excessive heat in other parts of Japan. As the conference started the next day, we had some free time for tourism. The picture above was taken from the Goryōkaku Tower where you can have good views of the city of Hakodate.

The next day, we went to the Future University (未来大学), where the conference was held. The building was surprising at first, spacious and modern. However many of us were wondering how many people would move to such an isolated place as the one where the University is located at. I made a presentation there and in fact, it was my first presentation in Japanese!!. After the presentation I received several questions, also in Japanese. There was one question that I could not understand correctly at first because the accent of the person asking the question (most probably from Osaka 大阪) was a bit difficult for me. There were some interesting presentations. I especially liked one about clone code.

The day after the conference we had some time for ourselves. We took a train to Nanae town (七重町), rented some bicycles and went around the Oonuma lake(大沼湖), which is near an active volcano called Komagatake (駒ヶ岳). Actually, I wanted to climb that volcano but they said that I had to apply at least 3 days in advance!

During the afternoon I went to climb Mt. Hakodate (函館山), which is famous for having one of the best night views in the world. The path to climb it is quite nice and I could see some squirrels. Do not go out of the path because there are snakes. Specially be careful with the so-called mamushi マムシ!

The day had been a bit cloudy so I didn't have the chance to see the long-awaited night views of the city. Instead, I enjoyed the beautiful colors of the sunset while wearing my new t-shirt :D (Note: kuma means bear in Japanese). I went down at night using the cable car.

Now that I am finishing this post I realized that I didn't mentioned anything about food in Hakodate. Trust me, if you ask any Japanese what is worth doing in Hakodate, they will all tell you to eat as much seafood and fish as you can! This is because you can enjoy very fresh seafood at much cheaper prices than in the rest of Japan.

Apart from seafood, there were also some other interesting places that we went for lunch such as Hakodate Genghis Khan (函館ジンギスカン) which is basically a yakiniku (焼肉) restaurant, the Lucky Pierrot hamburguer chain or some place near Oonuma lake (大沼湖) which served a huge dish of ankake yakisoba (あんかけ焼きそば).

Kamikōchi (上高地)

2010-07-25T12:09:00.003+09:00

A few weeks ago, I went with Simon to visit a beautiful region in the northern part of the Japan Alps (Nagano prefecture), known as Kamikōchi (上高地).

I took a train from Nagoya (Ltd. Express Shinano) to Matsumoto city. After meeting in Matsumoto (he was coming from Tokyo) we took a bus to Kamikōchi.

We spent our first day walking around the lake and admiring the mountains that were surrounding it. Perhaps the most famous touristic spot there is the views of Mt. Hotaka from the Kappa bridge.

We stayed in a mountain lodge called Nishitoya (nice place, good service and delicious dinner). The next morning we woke up very early and decided that the mountain we wanted to climb was Mt Nishi-hotaka (西穂高岳) with 2908m of altitude.

After an hour or so, we found ourselves in the middle of the snow without appropriate equipment such as crampons (アイゼン). Although it wasn't the first time for me to climb in the snow, it was for Simon.

Our first milestone was Mt. Nishi-Hodoku (西穂独標) at 2701m of altitude.

Here the hike became quite difficult due to the continuous ups and downs through dangerous cliffs and rocks.

We continued for a while because we really wanted to climb Mt Nishi-Hotaka but finally we decided to go back after reaching the Piramid peak (ピラミッドピーク) at 2740m of altitude. We were quite tired, it was becoming increasingly dangerous and we didn't have the necessary equipment. Plus we had to go back early in order to make it for the bus that would bring us back to Matsumoto (松本).

In Matsumoto, I took the opportunity to visit its castle for an hour before coming back to Nagoya. It was a very tiring hike but I am glad that nothing bad happened to us on those cliffs!!

Study some Kanjis a day!

2010-06-02T10:15:00.000+09:00

Just a short post to mention that I recently opened a new blog dedicated to the study of the Kanji. This is the address: http://sangorrin-kanji.blogspot.com/

It is more like the diary of my own study rather than a systematic approach to learn them but I hope it is useful for other people!

Mt. Kama - 鎌ヶ岳 (かまがたけ)

2010-05-24T23:05:00.003+09:00

Last weekend I went to Mie prefecture (三重県) for a hike in the Suzuka mountains where I had already gone for two other hikes, Gozaisho (御在所) and Fujiwara (藤原岳). This time I climbed Mt. Kama (鎌ヶ岳) which is 1.161m tall. Similar to the hiking trail to Gozaisho, the starting point for Mt Kama is Yu-no-yama-onsen(湯の山温泉). This time instead of going by train I took a direct bus from Nagoya Meitetsu bus station (1 hour bus ride - 1280yen each way).

The hiking trail is really beautiful!! It crosses many streams, rocks and nature. In fact I managed to see a huge snake on my way!!. Sometimes there are difficult parts where you need to use your hands but in general, anybody with a bit of experience can climb it. In the picture above, you can see the views of Mt. Gozaisho from Mt Kama.

Helsinki, Finland

2010-02-22T21:57:00.000+09:00

My flight back home to Nagoya was quite cheap at the cost of having to spend one night in Helsinki.

But looking it from the positive side, I had a whole morning to visit Helsinki. So after spending the night on a bench at Helsinki-Vantaa airport I took a bus to the city center (cheap urban bus number 615). The last stop of the bus is in the central train station, a good place to start walking around.

My first impressions about Helsinki were quite good. Houses were beautiful, everything seemed to be ordered and clean.

Also despite it has a very good economy, the city didn't look very big. Maybe a good place to life if you don't mind the cold.

As we see, somebody didn't mind about that :D

On the other hand the level of life is quite high. Fortunately, there is always a cheap McDonalds to survive.

In Helsinki, like in many other European cities, there are trams on the streets. In Spain there are few places with trams I think, notably Bilbao (probably the best tram in the universe of course hehe)

I read that one of the main buildings in Helsinki was the Cathedral so I went to have a look. Honestly, it was not so impressive.

Although I didn't have too much time I decided to take a boat to check Suomenlinna, a famous fortress in some islands near Helsinki that are included in the Unesco world heritage.

It was a good decision. The trip by boat across the frozen sea was awesome. It looked like those documentaries about the Antarctica or something hehe.

The fortress in the islands was huge and worth visiting it. Also there were very nice views both of the city and the partially frozen Baltic sea.

Mazury - New year's eve 2009-2010

2010-02-21T22:56:00.000+09:00

I spent New Year's eve with Maria and part of her family in Mazury, a region with many lakes in the north east of Poland.

The small and hidden village where Maria's uncle has a house was called Racibor. It is so hidden that it doesn't appear in google maps. The closest place is Spychowo.

Poland in general was cold, but north of Poland was even colder so smoke was coming out of many chimneys. This region reminded me about a comic I drew last year, titled Mayak.

Yeah, it was cold hehe probably the coldest place I had been until then, with temperatures around -16C.

But I was born in the Basque country, so it was not long before I got used to the cold :P

Maria's uncle's house was in a beautiful location near a lake whose surface was completely frozen. Although at the beginning I hesitated whether it was really safe to walk on the lake, finally I decided to cross it. Next day, we found out that it was a bit reckless from my part (^^).

One night we all rode sleds pulled by a tractor. We went to the forest in the middle of the night and had a barbecue there, surrounded by wolfs (a few weeks before they found a huge wolf nearby).

Inside the house it was very warm, thanks to a firewood. They had two dogs who were quite calmed until you would put a balloon nearby!

I played billiard long long hours!!I kind of started getting the hang of it. When something like this happens i can't help it and it's hard to stop myself!

I did not mention anything about the delicious and abundant food that we had. In the picture just a few dishes that we ate. It was very tasty and I learned many polish words for food :D

More pictures at Maria's website here and here.

Kraków, Wieliczka and Auschwitz 2009

2010-02-20T10:21:00.000+09:00

Maria and I took a train from Warsaw to Krakow, in the south of Poland. This was the second time I was in the south of Poland.

The first time was during my trip to Bieszczady, where I enjoyed hiking in the company of new good friends thanks to an AEGEE Summer University event. During that trip, Simon and I loved a delicious Polish dish called "placek po wegiersku" (we called it Shabo) so Maria took me to a very nice hidden restaurant where they prepared it. It was awesome!

Of course Polish food has more dishes and they are really tasty in my opinion. Maria had the already famous around the world Pierogi.

Krakow is a nice city with many interesting places to see. When we were there everything was covered by snow which made it even more beautiful.

There were many stands selling a bread called obwazanki. And many pigeons!. We also noticed the presence of many kebabs hehe

Not far from Krakow, in a town called Wieliczka, there is a very famous and old salt mine. So famous that it is included in the Unesco world heritage list. And I can confirm that it deserves to be visited. The most beautiful part of the salt mine, in my opinion, was a huge cavity that was converted into a cathedral with numerous figures sculpted on the salt. Actually, Maria's ancestors participated in creating such a piece of art!

Another famous place that we visited, near Krakow, is the Auschwitz former concentration camp. Although a few weeks before going, the sign at the entrance saying "Arbeit macht frei" (work makes you free) had been stolen, by the time we arrived the police had recovered it already.

Watching Auschwitz concentration camp in person was impressing. Although we all have seen it in the movies, when you are there somehow you realize that it is something real, that happened and could happen again. You can enter to the houses where people were kept, see their clothes, luggage, photos, information about the war..

And of course you can also see in person places where people were hanged, a wall where they used to shoot them down, or a room where they used to kill people with gas. Human beings are capable of the best and of the worst.

Warsaw, Christmas 2009

2010-02-17T20:59:00.000+09:00

I spent last year's Christmas with Maria and her family in Poland!! The trip was longer than expected. Due to snow conditions I missed a plane and had to spend one night in Helsinki.

Some friends had told me that their luggage got lost so I decided to carry hand luggage only. It was a good decision in fact as I could give my Christmas presents without trouble. I wonder if Maria liked her mother's new camera more than her new headphones though! :)

A few days after my arrival, Maria's cousins (Ela and Ula) and their parents came to spend Christmas together. Actually they didn't know I would be there, so maybe they got surprised hehe.

They brought even more cakes and cookies and we spent long hours playing board games. Maria's house was nicely decorated and it looked like real Christmas! We had a good time and my favorite game was Shogun, because I could build castles and protect Nagoya from the neighbor prefectures! :D I also enjoyed another game called Fasolki (Bonanza in Spanish) asI could learn important words in Polish as 'pijak' (drunk).

In Christmas day, we did a Polish tradition that consists of giving a piece of 'sacred' bread to each other and say some good words.

Warsaw's streets had beautiful illumination on the trees. We went together for a walk in the old town and visited a Polish church. During the day I walked the streets of Warsaw with Maria and she took many good pics.

Joukouji (定光寺)

2010-02-14T12:03:00.000+09:00

Another spot not far from Nagoya to watch momiji (紅葉), the colors of the fall, is Joukouji (定光寺). I went there with my hiking club a few months ago.

Joukouji station is quite easy to reach, just take the JR Chuo line from Nagoya. It takes around 35 minutes.

We realized how popular this place is when we saw that everybody was getting off at the same station. Joukouji has natural trails suited for easy walks and also a quite important temple. In fact the third kanji of Joukouji (寺: ji) means "temple"!

This time, the hike was led by Chiho-san and a new leader in the club, as you can see in the picture, who was hiking with us for a long time!! :D

The trail we followed was very beautiful and the ground was covered by fallen leaves which made it comfortable for walking. There were many different colors on the trees.

Also around the park there are many traditional Japanese houses with very well conserved gardens. I like Japanese gardens very much and they really put a lot of effort.

Finally, after crossing a nice pond through a typical Japanese bridge and climbing many steps, we arrived at Joukouji temple.

There were many families and I took some pictures of cute children playing with the leaves or enjoying the natural environment.

Near the temple, there is a viewpoint frome where we could see, in the distance, the beautiful shape of Nagoya station towers.

It was not only me who was amazed by the view! :)

We went back using the same train. We were all tired but happy for the nice excursion.

Mennoki (面ノ木) and Kourankei (香嵐渓)

2009-12-20T22:56:00.000+09:00

One week after visiting Soni Kogen, I went with my hiking club for another trip.

This time I started the day eating a delicious grilled ayu 鮎.

Then, we went to Men-no-ki (面ノ木), a virgin forest near Toyota city.

This forest is a good place to contemplate the momiji or kouyou (紅葉) which refers to the phenomena that occurs in Autumn when the leaves of some trees like the Maple change color.

We had a guide (wearing typical　jika-tabi 地下足袋, like the ninja turtles :D) that explained us the names of the trees, etc. In my hand I am holding leaves of two kinds of Maples and a Japanese beech (Buna ブナ).

Some of the trees in the forest were really old, over 300 years old.

The guide also showed us some liquid (I forgot the name) under the bark of the trees that was often used in Chinese medicine. Some deers (shika 鹿) seemed to like the tree's bark as well as we can see in the picture above hehe.

It was like those forests that appear in traditional tales for children. In fact there were even figures of a mythological creature called tengu 天狗.

One funny anecdote was that three of us where carrying the same watch. In the picture we compare our measures of the altitude. They differ a bit because we set the reference pressure at different days and so on :D

Near the forest there was a wind power plant. And it was indeed a good location for that because it was really windy there.

We had lunch near the wind power plant. But it was quite cold there due to the wind. Some people were well prepared for it though as you can see in the pictures :D

Before dying of coldness we found a really funny coffee place in the middle of the mountain. It was more like a farm with different chicken and silkies (ukokkei 烏骨鶏). And actually, despite the sign at the entrance, they had no coffee! :D But they did have tea and some cakes ;). And right after that we went to warm our bodies in a Japanese onsen. It's such a pleasure to go to a onsen after feeling so cold!! :D

At night we went to Kourankei (香嵐渓) which is a famous spot to see the colors of the leaves in Autumn. Even at night it is interesting as they put lights on the trees and there are many Japanese stands selling food. Once again, a very complete trip thanks to the CHIC hiking club! :)

Soni Kogen (曽爾高原）

2009-12-20T10:59:00.000+09:00

Last month, I went with my hiking club to a place called Soni Kogen, in Nara prefecture.

If there is a Japanese word you should learn before going to this place, that would be Susuki 薄, which refers to the beautiful pampas grass that covers all that area as you can see in the picture above.

We went by car as it is not a very easy to reach place. Although I just found in this blog that it is possible to reach the place by public transport.

The hike was organized by Masa, a very nice and talkative Japanese guy who took care of all the details.

The hike usually starts at the parking lot, where diligent workers are counting and directing the traffic :D

Right from the start you can appreciate the beautiful fields of yellow grass. The place somehow recalled me of my hikes in Bieszczady, in the south of Poland.

Following the trail up you get really nice views of Nara and Mie mountains.

And the good thing is that this hike is really easy. Everybody can do it, from the just arrived to the more grown up guys out there ;). I even saw Japanese girls with full make-up and long heels climbing it!

Also I would like to mention that all the club members that participated were really nice and friendly. We had many talks and I learned many Japanese words from them! Thank you all :D

Once on the "almost" top we had to pay some fee to access the top of the mountain, Mt. Kuroso (倶留尊山). It was a bit stupid but at least two nice local Japanese children gave us some kakis hehe

Both the place and the weather were fantastic so I took many photos :D. There were many families having a day trip and I really enjoyed taking pictures of Japanese children.

The day came to an end and we were all happy an satisfied with the trip. But there were still two nice surprises waiting for us. First, we went to a wonderful open-air onsen (sorry, no pictures hehe) were we could relax our bodies.

And then we made a stop to eat in a famous cheap yakiniku (fried meat) restaurant in Kameyama city called Kamehachi Shokudou. It was delicious!! :D

Mamá, tú no mires

2009-11-26T00:13:00.000+09:00

Around two months ago I made a post about the interview that a Spanish TV channel (Antena 3 NEOX) did to me. It was for a TV show, called ¡Mamá tú no mires!, about Spanish people studying abroad. For that post, I used very nice pictures taken by Maria. Yesterday, the interview finally appeared on the TV and thanks to a colleague from my previous laboratory, Juan Maria Rivas (thank you!), who recorded the video, I could just put it on-line:

If you are interested in watching the other interviews in Japan and other countries, check the Antena 3 videos website, where they are uploading them.

Hiking near Gero city (下呂市)

2009-11-17T14:04:00.000+09:00

I went for yet another hike with the CHIC hiking club to a mountain near Gero.

Gero, located in Gifu prefecture, is a city famous for its onsens (hot springs).

We used the JR Takayama train, which crosses the central Japan, giving access to very beautiful natural places. The train cooling system was quite interesting hehe.

From Gero we took a taxi to the entrance of the route to climb the Gero-Gozen mountain.

We had very good luck with the weather. The sky was blue and I could take clear photos of the nature and the other club members.

We could already see how the arrival of Autumn was turning the leaves red. A very popular phenomenom in Japan that is commonly known as momiji or kouyou. Some of the trees were already without any leaves at all as well.

I found a nice decorative toy in the bushes and I put it near to a budha statue that was in the middle of the mountain.

We arrived to the top without any difficulties. I checked with my watch the altitude, which was around 1400 meters. I received this watch from my colleagues in my previous laboratory at the University of Cantabria (thanks!).

The views from the top where quite nice and we could see the Mt Ontake which already had some snow on the top.

After getting down we went to Gassho-mura and entered to a museum with traditional Japanese houses. Gassho refers to the position of the hands when praying and the roof of this houses, which resemble this position, are known as Gasshotsukuri.

Inside the open-air museum there were special onsens for the feet, called ashiyu.

After the visit to the traditional houses museum we went to enjoy a bath in Gero-Onsen. This place is one of the three most famous ones to go to onsens in Japan. To complete our great day we finished it by tasting some delicious Hida raw meat.

Playing soccer in Japan

2009-11-16T22:08:00.000+09:00

Although I don't like watching soccer very much, I really love playing it since I was a child when I used to play with my friends Denis Arconada and Francho in San Sebastian.

When I moved to Cantabria at the age of 10, I went on playing almost everyday at the school's breaks (Sagrados Corazones, Argomilla de Cayon). Soon I entered to a local soccer team, the Ayron de Vargas. For many years, I had such a good time traveling with my team Ayron around Cantabria, playing matches every weekend, having dinners. I feel very grateful to all the people at the Ayron club.

I managed to play in the 3rd Spanish league which sounds quite cool when I say it here in Japan, but in reality it was not that hard I think. Unfortunately, when I entered the University I didn't have time for playing anymore. I just played occasionally with friends, and especially with my previous laboratory colleagues.

Note: thanks to Hara-san for her photos of the matches

I got my ankle twisted just a month before coming to Japan, which was really a shame. I have been waiting to play again for several months because I wanted it to fix correctly. Finally, a few weeks ago I played soccer with my current laboratory colleagues in Japan. We played a small league against other laboratories in the University. Although I felt that I needed to practice more to recover my normal level I really enjoyed playing again! :D

Magome - Tsumago trail

2009-11-10T00:15:00.000+09:00

My second trip with the Chubu International Hiking Club (CHIC) after visiting Iwayadou park, was to the Magome-Tsumago trail.

This trail is part of the Nakasendō (中山道 means centre-mountain-road, check the Kanjis in the picture above) route, which was one of the five main routes of the Edo period. It connected Tokyo (known as Edo in the past) to Kyoto.

From Nagoya station, we took the JR Chuo line and got off at Nakatsugawa station. From there we took a bus to Magome, where we started the route to Tsumago. For coming back, we took a bus to JR Nagiso station and then a train back to Nagoya.

We started the route by tasting some delicious goheimochi (五平餅). It is made of rice and grilled with a tasty sauce based on soy sauce and walnut.

From Magome we could see the Mt. Ena (恵那山). Maybe another hike.. :)

During the trail we could already see the first colored leaves indicating the Autumn. In Japan, this season is very popular and the phenomenon is known as kouyou (紅葉).

The trail crosses a very rural Japan. People living a quiet live, agriculture and even fish crops.

Along the trail, you can see lots of different versions of pottery statues of Tanuki.

There are also lots of waterwheels (suisha 水車 in Japanese).

The trail goes through a beautiful natural environment. There were also some waterfalls which were called Man-Waterfall (男の滝) and Woman-Waterfall (女の滝), although I could not figure out the reason hehe.

Tsumago, the end of the trail, was a very nice village with traditional houses that hosted souvenir shops. Although it is quite a touristic place I think it was worth walking through its main streets.

Finally, we went to eat Soba. I had Bukkake Tororo Soba, which had a quail egg (in Japanese uzura).

Note: sorry for the bad quality of the pics, I forgot the camera and took them with my mobile phone :)

Ayaya concert あややのコンサート

2009-11-07T23:19:00.000+09:00

On the 3rd of October, I went to Tokyo with my friend Raul to see a concert by Aya Matsuura (松浦亜弥), also known as Ayaya.

He has been her fan since before coming to Japan. As he belongs to her fan club, he got some special tickets near the stage.

Ayaya is a very famous Japanese singer (J-pop) originally from Himeji, as she mentioned during the concert. Before going I was expecting lots of young noisy Japanese teenagers at the concert, but it was completely different. In reality the average fan was a man of around 35 years old completely equipped with lights, Ayaya t-shirts and bracelets!! The concert was full of Otakus that knew all the movements and dances, and when to use the lights!And most of the concert was actually based on this interaction between the idol and the fans. She talked to them quite a few times and listened to their requests about songs to perform.

The concert was held in the Sun plaza hotel at Nakano (around 10 minutes from Shinjuku), which includes a very good hall for this kind of events.

The trip was quite tiring because I used night buses for going and returning. Still it was worth it, because it was a very unique Japanese experience :).

Early morning pictures in Nagoya

2009-11-01T16:51:00.000+09:00

Sometimes I like going to walk or run by a river near my house.

View Riverside walk in Nagoya in a larger map

In the map above, you can see the path I usually take. In case you live in Nagoya, you might want to take a look at it.

There is nothing touristic along the path (apart from the football stadium) but you can contemplate real Japanese life there.

There is one place I like in particular, which is the train intersection (see the mark point in the map).

I took all these pictures one day that I woke up very early in the morning and couldn't fall asleep again so I decided to go around the path by bike to take some pictures.

Iwayadou park (岩屋堂公園)

2009-11-01T16:21:00.000+09:00

Recently, I joined the Chubu International Hiking Club (CHIC). Every weekend there is some excursion organized by volunteers and everybody can attend them freely.

My first excursion was to a placed known as Iwayadou park. This place is popular because of its rocks, caves and waterfalls. It is close to Seto city, where I already had gone after my visit to Sango town. From Nagoya (Sakaemachi station) take the Meitetsu train to Owari-Seto and then take either a taxi or a bus to Akazu.

The name Iwayadou is composed of three Kanji symbols: Iwa (岩) which means rock, Ya (屋) which means roof and Dou (堂), meaning hall. And I think the main reason for this name is the rock formation that is shown in the picture above.

It was a nice walk and also I met nice people during the excursion.

South Korea

2009-11-01T12:36:00.000+09:00

My first trip outside Japan, since I started living in Nagoya, was to South Korea. Although there are flights from Nagoya, the cheapest option I found was to travel from Osaka airport to Seoul Incheon. I received lots of suggestions from my Korean friends who were always happy to hear I was going to visit their country. I bought a Korean Rail Pass in order to use the fast KTX trains as much as I wanted during 3 days.

Seoul

Seoul, the big capital, is the heart of the Korean peninsula. I visited several districts and the general feeling after coming back was that I still had much to discover in this great city.

I stayed in a hostel called Namu guesthouse, which was really nice. It was located near the Hongik University district, full of youngsters, restaurants and entertainment places.

One of the things I enjoyed the most in Seoul was its theaters. I went to see two great performances: "The drawing show" and "JUMP". The former was a very funny show were several artists were drawing in life and with different techniques to the amusement of the attendants. Although it was not allowed to take photographs or record video during the show, I found this video on youtube. The latter was one of the most amazing shows I have seen in my whole life!! It mixed comedy with martial arts and it was really funny. I also found some videos on youtube! There are more performances that I couldn't see due to time restrictions like for example the Nanta show.

The district of Myeong-dong was full of fancy shops and other trendy business. It reminded me of Shibuya district in Tokyo. I walked by and I arrived to the city hall where there is a big square good to make concerts and similar events.

I wanted to visit some historical place in Seoul as well and I decided to visit the Gyeongbokgung palace. It was worth the visit and I could take pictures with a nice light thanks to the good weather. I also visited the nearby district of Insadong.

Jeonju

I went to Jeonju using my Korean Rail pass. I was told it was a very good place to taste Korean food and that is the reason I went there. However, I didn't feel like it was very touristic as I couldn't see any foreigner there and children in the streets were stopping to say 'hi' to me! :D

Jeonju looked quite poor compared to Seoul. There was a huge open market where peasants where selling their products. Although I think they didn't have the necessary higienic conditions!

I walked all over the city and saw Jeonju streets (Film street, youth street, chinatown..) but I had not prepared the visit enough so probably i missed a lot of interesting things. The most cultural asset I visited was Gyeonggijeon.

In the above three pictures I am showing some details about Korea environment that surprised me. First, the LG brand on the yellow lines for blind people. Second, the deep penetration of the Christian church in Korea (although I already had noticed about it in Nagoya during Easter). And finally, the huge blocks of flats that are all over Korea. Specially surprising if you compare them with the urban landscape of Japan which consists mainly of small houses.

Gyeongju

Gyeongju is a city in the southeast of the Korean peninsula with lots of interesting cultural heritage. Unfortunately I didn't have time to see everything and had to leave some places for another visit.

I started seeing the Daereungwon royal tombs, which were like small mountains in the field.

Then there was a nice walk near a famous astronomical observatory from the past.

Imhaejeon site had a very nice pond called Anapji and some traditional temples.

A Korean old woman carrying food on his head.

One thing I noticed in Korea was that the traffic lights had 4 lights! I guess the forth one was for turning right or something like that.

After visiting Gyeongju I passed by Dongdaegu station in order to take the KTX train to Busan, where i would spend the nigth. I had a feeling that Daegu would have been a good city to visit though.

Busan

I didn't see much about Busan and definitely I will have to come back once again.

The hostel where I stayed (Zen backpackers) had great views.

It was near the center of the city which is the only place I saw in Busan. Full of restaurants and very lively! It was a Saturday night and I was walking alone among the crowds of Koreans having fun and eating tasty food with their friends.

Korean Food

Food is one of the best things about Korea.

Most of Korean restaurants expected you to go to eat with a friend so sometimes I preferred to buy something in the supermarket to eat alone. Fortunately, I made some friends in the hostel and went for dinner with them. Everything was delicious despite being so spicy!

My favourite dish was the Bibimbap. A bowl with vegetables very typical from Korea.

Tokyo, Lost in Translation and Gundam

2009-11-01T10:16:00.000+09:00

From Kawaguchiko we took a bus to the capital, Tokyo, where we stayed two nights. Check Maria's post about Tokyo for more information. You may also want to check my previous posts about Tokyo when I came to Japan on holidays two years ago: 1, 2 and 13! :)

We stayed in a youth hostel near the busy area of Asakusa. I hadn't seen that district before and I really liked it.

I went with Maria to some famous districts like Shinjuku, Akihabara or Shibuya.

Although the weather was really bad, it was good for taking pictures. Some parts of the city under the rain, covered with transparent umbrellas, reminded us of some scenes from the movie Lost in Translation.

In fact, we went to the same Karaoke room that appears in the movie Lost in translation. Check Maria's post to know more about it.

Finally we also visited Odaiba, an artificial island famous for its huge bridge, its replica of the statue of Liberty and its huge Gundam statue. It was a bit hard because at the same time a Typhoon was passing by Tokyo!

Shizuoka and Kawaguchiko　(河口湖と静岡市)

2009-11-01T09:19:00.000+09:00

The next day after being interviewed by the Spanish television, Maria and I took a train with direction to Shizuoka city (静岡市) using a Juu-Hachi-Kippu ticket again.

When we arrived to Shizuoka we met my Spanish friend Raul, whom you may already know from my trip to Hamamatsu. He dedicates part of his time to maintain his blog.

We had lunch in a Sushi restaurant in the train station. There we tasted a local specialty called Sakura Ebi (cherry blossom shrimp).

Raul also took us to see a market with lots of fresh fish and seafood. In this market you could buy whale　meat (クジラ) as you can see in the picture. Raul also told us that sometimes you can also buy dolphin meat.

We were going to stay just for a couple of hours in Shizuoka so we went for a short walk and visited the Sunpu Castle (駿府城).

After this short visit to Shizuoka we took a train to Gotemba and then a bus until Kawaguchiko (河口湖) which is a famous place to stay if you want to climb or have good views of Mount Fuji.

We spent the night in a nice hostel near the station.

Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see Fuji even from such a short distance and we could juar enjoy the views of a nearby lake that gives name to the town.

Note: the pictures of this post are copyrighted by Maria.

¡Mamá tú no mires! - TV interview

2009-09-26T09:19:00.000+09:00

During my Summer holidays, a TV program from the Spanish channel Antena 3 NEOX came to Japan to interview some Spanish students. They were kind enough to make a stop in the underrated city of Nagoya (the best!) to interview me as well.

The name of the program is "¡Mamá tú no mires!" (Mum, don't look now!)and its about Spanish students around the world. The different episodes and promotional videos will be available through their website for free.

People from the TV consisted of a cameraman and the interviewer, who also was the boss of the program. The usual presenter couldn't come because she got pregnant. Basically, I was taking them to different places and they were filming it in the street and asking me questions.

After showing them around Nagoya station, I took them to my home where I explained them how to classify the garbage and other daily-life stuff. I also showed them the neighborhood and the manga shops around my house.

Then we went to my University and I showed them the campus, my laboratory and I explained the details of my grant and what the 'hell' I am doing here :D.

We also went to the cafeteria where I usually have lunch and dinner. They recorded me washing (lightly) the dishes after eating and explaining the system to make suggestions for improving the service.

After filming around the University I took them to Osu Kannon, where there was a flea market, which make the visit to Osu's temple more interesting.

Some people were showing interest in us, specially groups of young girls and children, and they used to say "hi" or smile to the camera and wave their hands. I even heard some of them wondering if we were from the ABC television :). It was like being a movie star hehe

Finally, during the evening I took them to see a dancing festival called Nippon Domannaka Matsuri, which I believe, rounded the interview!

Fortunately, Maria was there to report about that day and she not only took fantastic photos of the interview but also about the places and people that we passed by.

I specially like Maria's pictures of people. Normally I would just take pictures of buildings (or tomatoes) because I'd be too shy to take a photo in front of the person.

This one for example is lovely and she took it just two meters from them and very fast!

Note: all the pictures are copyrighted by Maria.

Iga, Mie prefecture (伊賀,　三重県)

2009-09-26T01:24:00.000+09:00

Traveling to Iga, in Mie prefecture, is an easy though interesting one-day trip from Nagoya.

Iga was famous for being one of Japan's leading ninja schools. Ninjas were basically spies and assassins that were able to use lots of techniques and tools.

The town of Iga itself was quite nice. A typical Japanese village with Japanese style houses, boys going to high school, just like in the Anime Captain Tsubasa ;).

The village is crossed by the river Hattori, which is a name of a famous Samurai (Hattori Hanzo) and also the legendary sword maker in Tarantino's movie Kill Bill. By the way, it is also the surname of my Japanese sensei hehe.

And we also enjoyed a plentiful lunch, especially Maria hehe whose dish looked bigger than her! :)

When it started raining we went to the Iga Ueno Castle. It was not that interesting after having seen the one in Himeji.

The main attraction of Iga is its Ninja museum where they explain the tricks that Ninjas used to do, the tools they used, etc.

At the end of the visit there is a show where some actors throw shurikens and other Ninja tools.

Check Maria's post about our visit to Iga!

Nagoya with Maria

2009-09-26T00:30:00.000+09:00

After seeing Himeji and its castle we went back home to Nagoya.

However a big city, Nagoya is safe for riding a bicycle and its quite common thanks to its wide sidewalks. It was a great way to see the city!

Nagoya Castle, which may not be as valuable as the one in Himeji and yet interesting enough to pay a visit. We contemplated it from Meijo park.

The sunset light was perfect for a photograph session and we took some nice portraits of each other.

I did not carry my camera so I could only take some crap pictures with my phone. Next time I should carry mine as well because it's not fair for her :).

We went back to Sakae (downtown) and watched the TV tower from the Oasis21 complex at night. Probably one of my favorite views of Nagoya.

Just behind Sakae's famous big wheel there is a manga shop called Tsutaya where Maria and I discovered a great manga called "Saint Oniisan" (eng. "Saint Young Men"). Check Maria's post about it here.

And also very close to the TV tower there is a very nice restaurant called Saizeria. Although it claims to be Italian, they have also Spanish food like paella or jamon. But the main point of this place is that it offers a nomihoudai (drink as much as you can), which means that for 180 yen you can drink coffee and soft drinks without limit.

Talking about food、 I took Maria to the cafeteria where I usually have lunch in the University　everyday. In Japanese it is called gakushoku 学食　and it is very convenient because you get a lot of food for a more than acceptable price. We also enjoyed sushi in restaurants called Kaiten Sushi, check Maria's post about sushi here.

And to put an end to this post, check this interesting photo that we took near the University showing the words Gaza, Love&Peace :)

Himeji Castle - 姫路城

2009-09-13T09:14:00.000+09:00

After visiting Kyoto, Maria and I took a train to Himeji in order to see its famous Castle. Perhaps the most interesting castle in Japan.

Once again we used a Juu-Hachi-Kippu ticket for the trains which made the traveling expenses much cheaper. Trains in Japan are very punctual and I could plan all the train routes very easily thanks to the website hyperdia (click English) and my mobile Internet :).

I love trains since I started using them to go from the village of Renedo to my University in Cantabria (Spain). Back then, I got used to reading and studying during the journey and it seems there are habits you never lose completely.

Himeji Castle was really interesting. Even for me who likes more the traveling part rather than sightseeing buildings or monuments. We entered inside the different departments of the castle, imagine what the rooms were like in the past, etc.

As we didn't have enough time, that day we ate o-bentou in the train.

The views from the train back to Nagoya were very relaxing. Finally some rice crops and fields instead of so much concrete and urbanized areas.

Note: Pictures by Maria-chan

Rediscovering Kyoto with Maria

2009-09-07T17:51:00.000+09:00

It was a bit more than two years ago when I visited Kyōto for the first time.

We used a ticket called juu-hachi-kippu to travel to Kyoto from Nagoya.

The previous time I visited Kyoto, I rented a bicycle to get around. But this time we decided to use the complex Kyoto Bus system with a one-day ticket. I guess I am used to Nagoya's subway and that's why I found urban buses in Kyoto slow and messy.

The first temple we went to see was the Kinkakuji (golden temple). Thanks to the pond in front of it and its nice colors, it is not difficult to take pictures that look great here.

Then we head for the famous Zen garden of the Ryoanji temple. Although maybe not that amazing, I think it was relaxing to watch it.

In the city center, we entered to a Game center where Maria pretended to be playing a drums game which looks similar to the one that appears in the movie Lost in Translation.

Finally, we visited the famous Kiyomizu temple which had great views of the city and it was probably the most interesting temple in Kyoto.

After watching the Kiyomizu temple, I showed Maria a fantastic cemetery that nobody seemed to have interest in. I found it by chance two years ago when I was trying to get to the mountain to have a nap! :)

We saw lots of people wearing the traditional kimonos and at night we saw for a few seconds what looked like two Geisha apprentices. There is this kind of service where you can rent a kimono and wear it around the temples, or even get photographed by professionals.

We spend the night in Ayado Gyon hostel, which had nice surroundings. The hostel was a nice place to stay, clean and friendly.

One of the places I liked the most was the Gyon district. It was especially interesting at night when the narrow streets where full of open restaurants and lights and there were couples sitting by the riverside.

Note: Pictures taken by Maria-chan

Watching the Dragons

2009-09-07T17:00:00.000+09:00

Maria-chan came for a few days to visit me in Japan and we had a great time together.

We decided to spend the first day after she arrived in Nagoya so she could have time to rest from the long trip. I took her to some of my favorite places in Nagoya, like Osu Kannon or Sakae area.

While walking in Sakae we saw a street concert by some Japanese band. It looked like they were quite popular among Japanese as the public was following their songs with strong interest and waving their hands and arms.

We also went to the nearby Oasis21 area where there are nice views of the Nagoya tower and other buildings.

Very close to Oasis21, also in Sakae area, there is a place where there is always somebody playing on the weekends. In our case, we had the "luck" to see this hilarious group of imitators of Kiss :).

Finally, we went for the main event of the day, the Dragons baseball match!! We made a stop in the commercial centre AEON that is in front of the stadium (Nagoya Dome) and bought two Dragons bracelets and a T-shirt. She got the number 3, from Tatsunami, and I got the number 1, well.. because I am her number 1 hehe.

A Japanese friend called Ayumi, who is a fan of the Dragons, came with us and she also brought two more friends. She had all the necessary equipment to become a Dragons supporter hehe

The stadium was great and everything was well organized. Unfortunately the Dragons lost against the Yokohama Baystars, but nobody can always win. I more or less knew the rules of baseball but Maria filled the information that was lacking. Although I consider this sport a bit boring for the players that must be waiting for their chance to participate in the game, I admit that I had a good time :)

Note: Pictures taken by Maria-chan

Sango, Nagoya city 「三郷、名古屋市」

2009-09-02T07:16:00.000+09:00

During the middle of August, I had some days off thanks to the Obon (お盆), which is a traditional Japanese festivity similar to the "Day of the Dead".

View Larger Map

As I had not prepared any trip, I decided to check by bike one place near Nagoya that I had seen in a map before. The place was called Sangō (三郷) and the reason for going there was that the short version of my family name is also Sango :). Actually, after visiting Sangō I went on further to Seto　「瀬戸」, which made the trip even longer (and brought double pain to my bottom hehe)

Leaving the city there are some great views of elevated highways crossing in amazing ways that I have only seen here in Japan.

After the highways, some bits of peace and quite life. These photos remind me of some Animes like Captain Tsubasa and others :).

But to be honest, the "rural" part of Nagoya could be the center of some small cities in Europe. You hardly see anything else than buildings or cars. The only piece of nature that I managed to see was the Shinrin park (森林公園).

And finally, after around 20Km by bike under a killing sun (it felt as if I were in hell!), I arrived to Sango's crossing, which looked like the pic above.

In Sango there is also a Meitetsu station so I could have gone by train but I think it is always much more interesting to go by bike.

And here I am in front of a building called Sango hehe. I also saw several shops, hotels, post office with the word Sango written on them :).

Probably a stupid trip that no one will ever want to repeat but at least I took some ordinary Japanese streets photos that might be interesting for fans of Japan (sorry that the quality is bad, I took them with my cell phone). Next will be trying this burgers hehe

My new apartment in Nagoya

2009-08-24T21:51:00.000+09:00

During my first five months as a student of Nagoya University I have been living in the International Residence (check the views from it).

The residence is a great idea because at the beginning you get a very cheap place to stay until you get used to the new environment.

Unfortunately, this stay could only be extended for 6 months so I had to start looking for a new apartment to move out and I found one in the building above.

I decided that I wanted to be close to the University but also have shops around and live in a busy area. Fortunately, there was such a place, it's name was Irinaka. So I went to the Irinaka office of a famous state agency called Minimini. A very kind Japanese woman, Mami-san, showed me different apartments by car and it was very easy to find the one that I wanted. If you are looking for an apartment around Nagoya University I recommend you to contact with her (she can speak English very well): irinaka@minimini.jp (tell them you saw the link in my site :D)

I am very happy that my apartment in Irinaka, apart from being close to the University (around 10 min by bike or by subway), is very close to a Book-Off store (my favorite shops!).

In this zone, there is also a great bookshop and rental shop called Sanyoudou (三洋堂書点) which has several floors.

On the top floor there is a big Manga shop where I can buy materials for drawing comics. I have the intention of drawing new comics soon.

In the second floor I can rent movies, animation series and even mangas. It is a great way to read mangas for a very cheap price and not having to store them at home.

I pay around 36000 yen/month and I have a simple apartment with a bed, desk, small kitchen and bathroom. Just what I needed!.

World Cospay Summit Parade, Nagoya Aug 1st, 2009

2009-08-15T14:30:00.000+09:00

At the beginning of the month I went to see the World Cosplay Summit here in Nagoya. The word cosplay originates from COStume and rolePLAY and to summarize, it consists of people dressing up as their favorite characters.

Some days before the event I attended a conference by one of the organizers, Edmund Hoff (Vancouver, Canada). The conference was aimed at AGGN guides mainly and its title was "Popularity of Otaku Culture Abroad, what's good to see in Nagoya?". Edmund talked about manga and anime, shops in Nagoya and about the event itself.

The event was divided in two days and I went to see the first one which consisted of a parade around Osu Kannon (the manga district of Nagoya). The main temple in Osu Kannon was full of people waiting to see the outfits of the participants.

I took some videos in a crossing at Osu Kannon to show the parade. They all look like they were having lots of fun.

Naruto and its characters were very popular and I saw quite a few people dressing up like them.

There was also a great variety of participants, from young girls to more mature fans.Probably they had been working on their outfits for a long time before participating in the event.

Apart from the parade, there was an international contest with around 15 participating countries. It's amazing to know that they just came to Japan to participate in such an event!

Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament July 18th 2009

2009-08-15T11:12:00.000+09:00

I had some more "Sumo" experiences that I would like to mention.

Some days after the Sumo chankokai party, I received a nice present from them consisting of a piece of good Japanese paper with my name written on it in Kanji (it reads "Dani") by a master of Japanese calligraphy (shodou 書道)

Some weeks later I attended another interesting event called Nagoya Rave 2009. During the event, which was near Nagoya Castle, there were lots of Sumo amateur fights, including foreign wrestlers that wanted to experience this Japanese sport.

Finally, some weeks later I attended a professional event, the grand sumo tournament where I took the video above. The Sumo stadium, called Nagoya Basho and very close to the castle, was full of people. I liked the fights very much and also the traditional rituals that were involved.

I had the luck to be guided by volunteer members of the AGGN (Aichi Goodwill Guides Network). They explained me the situation of the tournament, the names and characteristics of the wrestlers or details about the ceremony. Thank you very much for your help! :)

Manga in Nagoya - 名古屋のマンガ店

2009-08-01T21:43:00.003+09:00

Lately I have been visiting a lot of Manga shops here in Nagoya so I thought I should make a post about it.

There are Mangas everywhere! thousands of titles in the shelves! tens of magazines are published every week with new series! It's really a paradise for me and a great incentive for me to study Japanese even harder.

Inside Manga there are lots of genres but the main difference is the target audience they are written for. For example, recently I have become interested in Josei Mangas (also called ladies comics レディースコミック, check the sign). It is aimed at an adult female audience and they are about daily life stories and romances from a short of adult point of view.

Comics for girls between 10-18 (teenagers) are classified typically as shoujo (少女, check the sign on the shelf). They are mainly about cute girls having romances and sometimes they become quite cheesy (thanks Si for this word :D).

The equivalent of shoujo for boys is shounen (少年) manga. One of the main shounen magazines is probably the Weekly Shounen Jump (週刊少年ジャンプ). In the photo above the shelf has tankoubons from that magazine. In my laboratory, we buy this magazine and one of the most popular series that appears on it is Naruto.

Mangas for adult men (and I don't mean porno XD) are known as seinen (青年) Manga. In the shelves above they are classified depending on the name of the magazines where they first appeared in: Big Comic (ビッグコミック) and Young Magazine (ヤングマガジン).

Such a huge world to explore! It feels like when I found out about Internet which gave me the chance to get information about almost anything. I have bought several Mangas and Manga magazines and I can understand about 50% of the text. When I can't, I try to look the meaning up in the electronic dictionary. It's a good way to learn new words.

In Nagoya, the main place for Manga is Osu Kannon which concentrates several good shops. But this is not the only place, so I will make a list of the places I know:

1.- The BEST place to buy Manga (or a book or anime) in my opinion is in a BOOK-OFF shop. In Nagoya there are lots of book-off shops. For the moment, I have bought mangas in Ikeshita and Irinaka shops. The good point of these shops is that as the mangas are second-hand (although the quality is as if they were new!) they are very cheap (typically 105￥ per manga, although today there was an offer and I bought 3 mangas for 105￥ which is less than 1 euro!). Also, in these shops Mangas don't have a plastic wrap so you can take a look before buying. Actually there are lots of people literally reading them without paying (which is called in Japanese tachiyomi 立ち読み, meaning reading while standing up).

2.- The only problem of book-off is that they don't have all the mangas or new publications. If you want to stay up to date then you want to read manga magazines. The best place in my opinion is in one of the million convenient stores that are spread out throughout Japan. Most of them open 24h and you can do tachiyomi there to check that you like the drawings or the stories before buying it (or not! :D). You can also buy magazines in the next shops I will mention but they will be wrapped in a plastic bag most probably.

3.- In front of Irinaka's book-off there is a huge bookshop with several floors. In the second floor there are mangas that you can RENT as if it was a DVD (there are also DVDs to rent of course, with lots of anime). This way you can read the manga for a very cheap price and you don't have to store it in your home, just give it back. Also in this bookshop, they sell materials for drawing manga (paper, ink, color pens, etc). By the way, I think I would like to get an apartment around Irinaka hehe.

4.- Manga cafes, also known as mangakissa (kissaten means cafe or cafeteria), are a good option too. Basically you go there, have a coffee and read the mangas they may have. You pay for the time you stay there. There is a good list of Manga kissa in Nagoya here. From my experience i can recommend Mamboo meieki (Nagoya Station).

5.- And finally i will mention the main manga shops in Nagoya that i have visited:

Toranoana (in Sakae, near the TV tower): amazing shop with many floors including one floor for relaxing reading your mangas!
Wonder Goo (in Osu Kannon): very good shop, with several floors and very spacious.
Animate (in Nagoya station): very good shop, with several floors and it has all kind of materials for drawing. For example, they have books with reference photographs, a software that is used to make mangas called Comic Studio (there seems to be an English version, called Manga Studio), light tables, patterns, color pens, mannequins, etc. Also they have a big section with self-published mangas, called doujinshi.
Gamers (in Osu Kannon): good shop that is alway full of people. It's not as big as the previous ones but its very popular as well.
Mandarake (in Osu Kannon): it is famous but i didn't like as much as the previous ones. It has several floors but there is not too much space.
Sanseido bookshop (in Nagoya station, JR Takashimaya Department store, or in Nagoya Dome, Aeon Shopping Center)
K-books (in Osu Kannon): it's quite big but i didn't like it too much.
Rashinban (in Nagoya station): strange shop with two floors, one underground and other one in the 4th floor. They had lots of doujinshi also.
AEON shopping centre (in Nagoya Dome, in front of Dragons stadium): although it is a normal bookshop it has a very good amount of manga. In fact most of the pictures above were taken there.
Sanyodo and Tsutaya: these are bookshop franchises.

And I am pretty sure there are still much more that I have not seen! :)

PD: It seems that my friend Alberto Muriel is going to draw a comic as a professional, congratulations! :)

1seg TV - ワンセグテレビ

2009-08-01T09:56:00.000+09:00

Recently, I made a post about my gadgets here in Japan. This time I will show you my new gadget to watch TV on my EeePC netbook anywhere.

My gadget is a 1seg TV tuner: IO-DATA GV-SC300. It is just a small USB stick with an antenna to tune the 1seg Japanese TV on the computer.

1seg is the name of a low quality digital TV broadcasting service that is mainly aimed at small handsets like mobile phones. The way it works reminded me of the SMS in the GSM mobile networks, in the sense that it makes use of some spare resource.

In Japan, digital TV is broadcast using the ISDB-T standard, which divides the UHF spectrum 470MHz ~ 770MHz in 50 channels of 6MHz. This channels are then divided in 13 segments (in the time domain) and 1seg uses 1 of these 13 segments (that's why it is called 1seg).

Good points:

I can watch the TV everywhere I take my EeePC (for example, in a trip or to the park).
A lot of programs also come with Japanese subtitles (transmitted with BML, a XML-based standard) so I can practice Japanese much better.
It's cheaper than a normal TV (in Big Camera it cost me 6000 yen) .
It doesn't occupy space like a normal TV, and I don't have to carry a TV when I change apartment.

Bad points:

If you move fast it loses synchronism easily so you can't watch it in the car, bus or train.
The quality is not very good, only 320x240 pixels coded with H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (but in the EeePC I put it in fullscreen and the quality is acceptable for me)
I can only choose among around 5-6 different channels. So the programs I can see are limited. There is not too much Anime for example (but I watch it on the Internet instead, which is also mobile :D)

Spring Sakae 2009

2009-07-25T14:15:00.000+09:00

During the last weekend of May, I went with my friend Cesar (Panama) to a live music festival in Nagoya called Spring Sakae. Sakae (栄) is the name of the downtown district in Nagoya. It is full of stores (for example, Lachic, which organized the event), people, high buildings and some famous tourist spots like the TV tower or the Oasis 21 complex.

The festival lasted two days but I only went the first day. There were lots of artists performing in different live houses around Sakae. Basically, people could make their own schedule according to their taste and attend the concerts they were more interested in. Also for me it was a great opportunity to see a lot of locals in Sakae within a record time and without needing to pay extra! The groups were all Japanese and most of them were on their beginnings, although some of them were already quite famous.

This is the list of artist/local that I saw:

小泉ニロ (Koizumi Nilo) / Nagoya Blue Note: the local was great and the music was not bad (Brazilian music).
城南海 (Kizuki Minami) / CIPHER the underground: my favorite of the festival, I really liked her voice. She had the ability to sing with a very high-pitched voice like in traditional Japanese Enka songs. Last weekend I was in HMV (a music shop) and I saw a leaflet of her saying that her 3rd single, 白い月　(shiroi tsuki = white moon), was going to be released on the 22th of July 2009, and her 1st album will be on sale on August 19th!
UPLIFT SPICE / PLUS PARK: this group was a bit more heavy compared to the previous ones and I really like the singer's voice, I think it is very special. The guitarist was also good and i loved his haircut, which covered his face completely. And the guy on the drums was also great. It seemed to be a popular group by judging the public behavior.
Sonomi / Spiral: not worth it
AFNICA / Nagoya Blue Note: it was a very cool performance and the music was kind of Jazz. The best were the drums.
瓜生明希葉 (Uryu Akiha) / CIPHER the underground: nice voice and violin, the style was like in an animation movies
Platinum / CIPHER the underground: funny but not worth it
Ayuse Kozue / Ozon: this was one of the stars of the night I think, she reminded me of the singers from the eighties. Good performance.
Metis / Club Quattro: I don't remember liking it especially.

It was a very nice day and I am glad I went because it was a very Japanese experience and I felt integrated with them. Everything was very well organized and after each performance you had time to go out and walk to the next local or to drink or eat something.

Sumo chanko party - 相撲ちゃんこ会

2009-07-12T16:26:00.000+09:00

The day after Mt Gozaisho I went to a traditional party called chankokai (ちゃんこ会) in a Sumo gymnasium of Nagoya. In this party you get served a dish called Chanko by Sumo wrestlers.

There are several kinds and flavors of chanko and the most popular, nabe (鍋=pot), is served by the wrestlers directly from the pot to your dish.

I was invited by Kikuko-san, a very kind woman that volunteers to help international visitors know better about Nagoya and Japanese culture. I met her when I arrived to Nagoya, and she helped me and some other international students with several administration procedures. She also invited me to participate in a Samurai parade which I enjoyed very much.

During the event I was sitting down besides the guy on the left in the picture above. He told me he is manager of several Sumo wrestlers. There is something special about that Sumo belt he is holding but I don't remember exactly (maybe it's the winners belt?). It was quite heavy!

And of course I took the obligatory photo with a wrestler. In this case Shimasegawa (嶋瀬川) born in April 4th 1980, height 177cm and weight 147kg. Actually my favorite wrestler was Tokusegawa (徳瀬川) but he was very busy with other people trying to take pictures with him because he was the last champion of some secondary Sumo league. By the way Tokusegawa is Mongolian not Japanese, and he was born in August 6th 1983 and 191cm 154kg. In the video bellow, he is the first one from the left.

The party ended with the Sumo wrestlers singing and clapping. Although all of them were in pants, the most funny one was one that was wearing Calvin Klein underwear hehe. I took a first shot in my video. His name is Kongoufuji (金剛富士), March 10th 1983, 183cm and 90kg.

Mt Gozaisho - 御在所岳

2009-07-12T14:35:00.000+09:00

A few weeks ago I went for a hike to Mt Gozaisho　(御在所岳), a 1210m peak (35° 01' 13" N 136° 25' 28" E) not very far from Nagoya in the border between Mie and Shiga prefectures. From Nagoya I took the Kintetsu (近鉄) Nagoya line, changed in Yokkaichi　(四日市) to the Yunoyama　(湯の山) line and got off in Yunoyama Onsen　(湯の山温泉) where there is a bus that takes you to the ropeway. It takes around one hour or so.

Although normally I would like to climb it on foot, this time I decided to go up on the ropeway and get down on foot. The main reason was that it was really hot and that it was an opportunity to see the landscape from the cable car. It reminded me of when I went to Picos de Europa and got on the cable car.

On the top of the mountain, like in Picos, there was a restaurant, places to buy drinks and even a shrine.

Fortunately there was also a lot of nature and nice views, even though it was a bit cloudy. I managed to spot a deer among the bushes and took this picture with zoom.

While I was having lunch (a sandwich with ham and cheese :D) suddenly I heard some voice calling me. I turned my head and it was one Japanese friend that I had met just one week before or so. It was such an amazing coincidence to meet him in the middle of the mountain that I couldn't help thinking about how small the world is.

We shared the way down and it was great because he knew that mountain very well so he could explain me a lot of things about it. For example, he showed me a place protected by some rocks where he had spent the night once. Also on the way down he showed me some interesting rock formations that are famous in the mountain.

There are several paths to go up or down Mt Gozaisho but the easiest one was washed out because of the rain some weeks before and it was impossible to take it. Still, the mountain was being climbed by hoards of Japanese people, you couldn't feel lonely in that mountain :).

When we arrived to Yunoyama onsen, we relaxed near the river in a place called　ooishi kouen (大石公園 = large stone park)where we put our feet in fresh water. It was really relaxing. Actually, the most typical tradition is to go to the Onsen (thermal baths) but for me it was too hot for that so I preferred the cold water of the river stream.

Summing up, I think that Mt Gozaisho is good for a one-day hike because it has very good connections by train and the views are really good. I was told that the best time is in Autumn because of the red/orange colors of the trees (momiji) or in winter because actually on the top there is a ski resort as well. By the way, the pic above is some bamboo coming out from the asphalt and I found it scaring hehe like if it was from a horror movie! :)

Okehazama Historical Battlefield Festival

2009-07-01T23:22:00.000+09:00

At the beginning of June I participated in a Samurai parade to commemorate the historical battle of Okehazama (桶狭間古戦場まつり). The festival takes place every year in the city of Toyoake.

Some days before the festival, I was invited to take part in the promotion of the festival in the media for one day.

First, we went to the NHK offices in Nagoya where we appeared in the program Sarasara.

The stage was right at the entrance to the building and there was a clown to make the audience laugh and relax at the beginning of the program (which was in live!). The Japanese girl on the right asked her mum to record the video for us. When she gave me a copy in DVD unfortunately I coudn't see it because it was protected with CPRM. Fortunately, this protection is crackable with relCPRM (in Japanese).

After appearing in the Japanese TV (sounds cool hehe) I was invited to one of the best lunchs I have ever had in Japan. Then, we went to go on with our promotion to the Chūnichi Shinbun newspaper (中日新聞). They published it both in paper (see picture above) and on their internet website (here). Finally, we also went to a cable TV called CCNET which recorded the whole festival. Their video is here in streaming but I can't access it without a CCNET contract.

Some days later, on Saturday, we had the first rehearsal. During the parade we were going to represent the battle and I had the luck to perform the role of Kinoshita Tōkichirō (木下藤吉郎), who in the future would become Hideyoshi Toyotomi, one of the most important figures in the Japanese history.

The next day, Sunday, we did more rehearsal but this time with the real armours.

Finally, we went out, walked in the streets of Toyoake city and made our representation of the battle of Okehazama.

The representation was filmed and at the end of it, the presenter asked me some questions in Japanese :D.

Here you can see more pictures and get more information about the festival. It is the website of Kikuko, the person who invited me to the festival (thank you!), and it's probably one of the most useful websites to know what things you can do or see if you are around Nagoya.

Intercultural lunch

2009-06-28T10:57:00.000+09:00

Some weeks ago I had an intercultural lunch with some friends in the residence where I am living at the moment.

My korean friend Daeheon Choi (also known as Kevin for those, like me, who can't pronnounce his name :D) prepared a delicious Korean pancake.

Although I am not a good cook, I decided to prepare the typical Spanish dish "seafood Paella". I was trying to remember how Michael used to prepare it in our department barbecues. Finding the main ingredient of Paella (saffrom) wasn't a very difficult task, although it was quite expensive.

My gadgets in Japan

2009-05-31T11:43:00.000+09:00

Recently I realized that I have more gadgets than clothes here in Japan, I'm such a geek hehe.

In the picture above you can see the following devices:

Batteries with a recharger device.
Headphones with a special gadget to plug another set of headphones to share your music with someone.
PSP Playstation
Some memory sticks
Small tripod with flexible legs
Torch without batteries (you charge it with a handle)
My watch (present from my lab mates) with altimeter and compass
Spanish phone (Nokia - Movistar)
A whistel-thermometer-compass-magnifying glass key ring.
A mountain GPS
A graphic tablet to draw on the computer
My Dell laptop
A CASIO electronic dictionary (spanish-english-japanese-encyclopedic)
My Japanese cell phone (Samsung - Softbank)
A 320GB external USB drive
A 3G e-mobile communications USB device. I have Internet anywhere anytime thanks to this device for 6500 yen/month.
An Asus eepc netbook that costed me 100yens (less than 1 euro) :D because it was an offer for the mobile internet.

Another interesting device is the rice cooker (炊飯器 suihanki) which is very popular in Asian countries to prepare the rice. Virtually every Asian person I know has a rice cooker. It is very simple to use, just put water and rice (you use the measuring glass to use the right proportions), close it, press a button and wait for 40 minutes.

Last but not least, my super foldable bike! It is really useful to have a bike here and I use it everyday. I chose to have a foldable bike because normal bikes are not allowed in trains or subway. But I can fold my bike, put it into a bag I have, and carry it as luggage in any means of transport! So I can go to Kyoto for example, take my bike in the train, and then unfold it there again! The brand of the bike is Hummer and it costed me around 22000 yen.

Mt Ontake - 御嶽山

2009-05-23T20:46:00.000+09:00

During the last days of the Golden Week, some friends and I went to climb the Mt Ontake, the second highest volcano in Japan at 3,067 m.

Here is a video that I have made about our legendary adventure hehe. Climbing Mt Ontake was not an easy job.

From Nagoya we took a train (JR Chuuou line) to Kiso-Fukushima (木曽ー福島), at the east of the mountain. From Kiso-Fukushima there is a bus to Tanohara (田ノ原), which is the starting of the route, but only during the climbing season (Jul 16 to Aug 20). So instead we took another available bus from Kiso-Fukushima that left us close enough to start hitch-hiking with a sign saying Nakanoyu (中の湯) which is another way to start the route (although it ended up being not so clear as there are several places with that name, so maybe its better to put Tanohara). We were lucky and some nice Japanese people took us to the parking where the route is supposed to start.

We reached the peak around 6 when it was close to start getting dark. Although we carried tents, we found the toilets of a mountain hut open and we decided to spend the night in them! (no jokes!). There was more snow than what we expected and the hike was quite slippery at times.

The next day we went on the route until Nigorigo Onsen (濁河温泉) where we enjoyed a very relaxing time after the hike. Then we had to do hitch-hiking once again because although there is supposed to be a bus, it was not working on that day as well. Although it took us more time to get picked up finally we got lucky and a Japanese guy, actually the owner of the Onsen, was nice to us and took us to the train station in Hida-Osaka (飛騨小坂) where we took the JR Takayama line to go to Nagoya.

There is information about the hike in the book Hiking in Japan, Lonely Planet. Also I suggest to get a hiking map (Shonbunsha Yama-to-Kougen map 1:40000, no40, which on the back has the route to Ontake on a 1:20000 close-up).

Update: Check out Tyler&Alyssa's blog describing a similar hike but with much more details! :)

Kamezaki Shiohi Matsuri - 亀崎潮干祭

2009-05-18T20:32:00.000+09:00

During the Golden Week I went with some friends to a village called Kamezaki (亀崎) where they have a famous festival called Shiohi (潮干 low tide) Matsuri (祭 festival). We took the JR Tokaido line from Nagoya and changed in Obu to the JR Taketoyo line (武豊線) until we arrived to Kamezaki station (亀崎駅).

I fell in love with the sound of Japanese flutes so I decided to take a video. Also the sounds of the people pulling from the carriages is interesting in my opinion. So this is my first video in the blog hehe I hope you like it.

The village was full of people, some of them dressing traditional clothes, and there were lots of stands selling food.

There was a small beach there and children were enjoying it.

The festival's carriages were carried out from there by the some strong Japanese guys. It reminded me of the "costaleros" in Sevilla's main festivities.

In the picture above one of the drawings on the carriages. I love Japanese drawings on clothes.

Nagoya Castle - 名古屋城

2009-05-09T23:56:00.000+09:00

One of the main attractions of Nagoya city is its castle.

Although the original one was destroyed during the second World War it is still a stunning building (donjon) and a must-see if you come to Nagoya. At the moment they are also rebuilding the Palace that used to be next to it.

There are volunteer guides in English during the first and third Saturday of each month. Mine was an interesting old man called Nobuyoshi Izumichi（泉地信良）, who spoke English surprisingly well.

For more than an hour, he talked about several emperors, battles, how well protected was the castle and several historic facts that for some reason I always forget about.

Maybe because I get distracted by the small and not-so-famous details of life :).

Apart from the castle there were exhibitions of paper figures, paintings on rolls of paper (called kakejiku 掛け軸), armours, etc. One of the most famous parts of the castle is a golden mythological （kinshachi 金鯱） figure on the roof.

The views from the castle's top floor were nice. From such a traditional place you can see the elevated highways of the modern city.

Because in spite of being calm and conservative, Nagoya is still a big city with its avenues, people and shops.

And when the night comes, it dresses up with lights and neons, like in Blade Runner. :)

Kimchi Chigae (김치찌개)

2009-05-09T15:13:00.000+09:00

One of the good things of my scholarship in Japan is that I'm making friends from a lot of countries that I never had the chance before.

The other day, my Korean friend Daeheon Choi (aka Kevin), invited me to his room to eat a typical dish from Korea called Kimchi Chigae (in Korean 김치찌개).

It was very tasty (oishii in Japanese) and I told him he is a good cooker (not like me... yet!). We also enjoyed a good conversation after the dinner.

He used to live in Cambridge (England) during a scholarship and he met there a Japanese girl that is nowadays his girlfriend. That was the main reason he decided to study Japanese (he speaks very well and actually, Korean and Japanese are quite similar in grammar) and move here (she lives in Kyoto). He also told me that it was a bit difficult for him to make friends from occident while he was in Cambridge. Then I realized that it was the same for me with Asian people. I have Asian friends but they are not as close as occidental ones. I would like to find out the reasons!

Now it is my turn, what Spanish dish should I cook?

Cooking Gyûdon (牛丼)

2009-04-24T20:44:00.000+09:00

Although most of the time I have lunch and dinner at the University I would like to learn how to cook so I can make better food and probably save money as well.

One thing that I don't eat often in the University is cow meat so I went to the supermarket to buy some. It is funny to see that they cut meat so thin that it looks like Spanish "Jamon". I didn't follow any recipe but I just found that what came out is quite similar to Gyûdon (牛丼), a typical cheap Japanese fast food!

I cooked some onion in low fire and then added two eggs in order to resemble a sort of sauce that I have tried in a dish at the University.

So here is my made-up dish haha. Please don't make fun of me :). When I cook I don't like following recipes but trying to use my intuition. Somehow during my life I've get used to this learning-by-mistake procedure. In this case, the food was tasty and I could enjoy it with a Manga that I found on a bench.

Next day I made a variation and I cooked it with rice. After cleaning well the rice I boiled it for 25 minutes or so with low fire because I wanted it to come out sticky so I could pick it up with the chopsticks. It was surprising that I was successful on it so maybe this sticky properties are something inherent in the Japanese rice. Normally, Japanese have a machine called "suihanki" that cooks the rice almost perfect.

Osu Kannon with Eiichiro-san

2009-04-21T15:42:00.000+09:00

On Sunday, after going to church in the morning, I went to meet my friend Eiichiro in Nagoya's Osu Kannon district.

I met Eiichiro two years ago in Oxford (check this and this posts) during Summer at the same English school. I told him that one day I would see him in Nagoya and here I am :).

He is a very fashionable guy and he likes to follow the latest trends on clothes. For example, he told me that now the strives pattern is becoming very trendy.

After walking around a shopping centre we went to have lunch and we ordered a typical dish from Nagoya that was really tasty.

Then he took me to his parents' incense shop. There is a big temple nearby that I already visited two years ago which is probably one of the main clients. Eiichiro's parents were very very nice and they invited me for a coffee and gave me the incense boxes in the picture above. Please, check their website if you are interested.

They also took me to their house where they have a tea room with tatamis. In that room, they celebrate every Tuesday the famous tea ceremony and I'm invited to participate. It sounds very interesting.

Finally, we said our goodbyes and hopefully we will meet again soon. Now he is in a nearby prefecture (Mie-ken) on a training course for his work. As I had a ticket for the whole day I went to Nagoya's main station where there is a big electronic shop called Big Camera. The devices that I liked the most were small pocket televisions that you can take anywhere and watch TV on them. Now more and more phones are also including digital TV here (including an adaptor for the iphone).

Hamamatsu

2009-04-20T21:05:00.000+09:00

Last Saturday I made a trip by train (with JR) to Hamamatsu to meet my friend Raul. The travel time was a bit more than an hour and all the trains were very punctual according to the timetables on the Internet.

Raul started to study Japanese at the same time as me some years ago in a Karate gym run by my teacher Hattori-sensei. At the time we both dreamed about coming to Japan so it was really funny to meet in Japan. Now he is married to a Japanese woman and probably he will stay in Japan for a long time.

Hamamatsu is mainly an industrial city so there wasn't too many touristic attractions. We just met there because he lives in Shizuoka city and Hamamatsu is half the way for both of us.

Probably the most important building is its castle built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, whose rule marks the beginning of the Edo Period.

Tokugawa Ieyasu lived here from 1571 to 1588 and I remember my sensei talking about him during our classes of Japanese. But I'm terrible with history, dates and so on..

There is a small museum inside with armors, a miniature city and relics of the period like katanas, arrows, etc.

From the top of the castle there were some nice views of the city. The main building is a skyscraper called Act City Tower Observatory which is close to the station. It was designed to resemble a harmonica. Unfortunately it was closed on Saturday but you can go up there and see the views.

Easter in Japan

2009-04-19T23:24:00.000+09:00

Last Sunday (April 12th 2009) was Easter and I went with two new friends from Poland to a catholic church near Nanzan University (the University where my Japanese teacher studied).

It was really interesting to see so many priests and people from all around the world gathering to celebrate the Easter mass. There were people from Africa, Europe, Asia and America.

There was also a huge variety of age, from little children to old people. At the entrance we received some pamphlets with the lyrics of the songs and the religious readings both in Japanese and English.

After the mass finished there were cute Japanese children at the exit gate wearing white dresses and giving away the typical Easter eggs to all the believers.

When I went back to my residence I met by chance my Korean friend Kevin (although this is not his real name I can call him Kevin because I can't pronounce his name well hehe). He said he was going with one guy to a Korean Christian-protestant church for the Easter celebration so I decided to go with him!

The Korean church was much smaller than the catholic one but on the other hand very familiar. They gave us Korean lunch for free and then the mass was quite interesting, especially the first part where they were singing Christian songs and showing the lyrics on the screen like in a Karaoke (there was a guitarist, pianist, drums and chorus so it looked like a concert!). As for the speech I borrowed a walkie with headphones and a Korean woman translated the priest words for me to Japanese. I learned some words in Korean also like how to say "yes, no, sorry, thanks and it's hot!". (Note: I will update this when I find out how to spell those words properly :D). At the end of the ceremony they also gave me another Easter egg where it says "Jesus reborn" and "Congratulations" in Korean language (well, I think so :D).

Hanami

2009-04-18T21:24:00.000+09:00

When I was done with Jiyugaoka I went to take the subway to the next stop (I had a ticket valid for the whole day).

By chance I met my new English friend Julie who was going with some friends to make a barbecue at Meijo Koen, a nice park 11 stops from Nagoya University. She offered me to come so I said "why not".

I bought some meat at the supermarket and took a new "daily life" picture of it :P.

Close to Meijo Koen there was a baseball match (most popular sport here in Japan) so I decided to take some shots. To be honest I still can't see what's so funny in this sport.

Under the cherry blossoms there were lots of Japanese cultivating a very nice tradition called hanami (which comes from hana=flower miru=look) which consists of going with your friends to eat and drink under the pink blanket of cherry flowers.

We also had our own hanami thanks to Julie and her friends who brought a barbecue, food and joy.

As the weather was really nice I went around to take some shots. This flowers look unreal but they were very real!

And I'm very proud of this picture because I was brave enough to pick my camera, point directly to that couple and take a shot without getting embarrassed hehe. I think it's much better than my tomatoes!

Near to the park there was the Nagoya Castle. It is not the real one (which was destroyed) but still looks great.

It was a very nice day so I even managed to ask someone to take a pic of me. Unfortunately my eyes were closed, shame! :P

Jiyugaoka 自由ヶ丘

2009-04-18T21:15:00.000+09:00

After visiting Suemori's castle I took the subway to the next stop in the Meijo subway line: Jiyugaoka 自由ヶ丘

Actually this place has nothing touristical to see, but showing daily Japanese life is also interesting in my opinion.

I passed by this school which really looks like in the animes. At the traffic light there was this funny button to cross the road. Please compare it with the shot that Maria took at Madrid (which recently won a second prize in a photograph contest!).

As a daily life photographer I have to learn how not to get embarrased of taking pictures of people. Most of the time they look at you with an evil eye and I hate it. In the pic above I took the easy way hehe a policeman from the back while putting a fine.

In these two shots I improved a little bit, but I was pretending that I wasnt taking any picture hehe. Lawson is one of the 24 hours shops that exist in Nagoya (others are 7 eleven, family smart for example). They are very useful because you can buy food and other stuff there at anytime of the day.

Suemori castle - すえもりじょう（末盛城）

2009-04-16T13:21:00.000+09:00

Sometimes when you wander around without any fixed destination you get nice surprises.

The other day, when I was walking away from Motoyama's central avenue I arrived by chance to some stairs and a symbolic gate.

I was intrigued enough to go ahead so I went upstairs and I found the map above and a sign saying:

Suemori Castle Site

Lord Oda Nobuhide (1508-49) built this Castle here in 1548. The following year, his third son Nobuyuki (?-1558) became the castle lord, but was defeated in the battle of Inogahara where he fought against his elder brother Nobunaga (1534-82). It is said that the castle was doomed to abandonment in 1559.

It was nice to discover such a magic place only a few minutes away from that crowded crossing that I talked about in the previous post.

A woman was there using this kind of ladle that my friend Mitsue-san already showed me how to use, when we both travelled to Kamakura, two years ago.

After that, she started praying for sometime in front of the temple. I didn't want to ask her about her problems so we just had a shallow conversation ("this is a famous place" and the like).

Finally, I decided to return to Motoyama station. On the way back, the houses and streets seemed to be even more beautiful than before :).

Motoyama (本山) - Nagoya

2009-04-15T14:52:00.000+09:00

Motoyama (original mountain) district is located close to my University, right in the next stop of Nagoya's Meijo subway line (in counter clockwise direction).

At the centre of Motoyama, there is a big crossing between two main avenues where one can find different shops, restaurants and also a pachinko-karaoke called Shinsekai that I went to with some friends the other day.

Perhaps the most interesting building is the Matsuzakaya commercial centre which has several floors of shops. In the basement there is a big supermarket with fresh food (vegetables, fish, meat, etc). On the first floor you can find sort of delicatessen products of high quality (and price!). On the upper floor there is a 100-yen shop (each article costs 100 yen), clothes shops and the like.

Although it is a wide avenue, there is not as much traffic as you would think. Probably one of the major reasons is that the bike is really a popular means of transport here in Nagoya. Having a bike here is close to having a car in the sense that you need a plate and you can't park it anywhere but in the designated areas. I have seen many times workers in charge of ordering the bikes so there is more parking for everybody :).

If you walk away from the main avenue you will see the typical small houses and narrow streets that are all over Japan. This streets are really quiet and calm, they remind me a lot of the animation series that I used to watch when I was a child.

In particular I love all those wires and cables above our heads. The sign in the picture (and the ground in the opposite direction) contains a very useful word: tomare (とまれ - 止まれ) which means STOP :).

Views from NU's International Residence

2009-04-08T21:57:00.000+09:00

There is a volunteer group of students in Nagoya University, called ACE (Action group for Cross-cultural Exchange), whose main goal is to support foreign students while they get used to life in Nagoya and also to serve as a bridge between foreign and Japanese students.

When I arrived to the residence some of its members where already waiting there to help students that had just arrived. Kenji-san, on my left hand in the picture, showed me my room and explained me some basic stuff like how to turn on the hot water, the air conditioner or the kitchen.

Some days later they proposed us to go with them to a welcome dinner. Basically, we went to the school's restaurant and we all ordered something to eat. I ordered a Korean dish called Kotsuyan (if i remember right) that consisted of rice, meat, pepper and a spicy sauce that gives the name to the dish. During the dinner, Kenji-san told me that the views from the 8th floor of the International Residence were very nice. So this morning I woke up early to take some shots with the sunrise light.

And finally, a few minutes ago I took some shots of the same scenery at night. In the background, the lights of the center of the city remind me of some animes like Ghost in the Shell.

Japanese administration

2009-04-07T19:29:00.001+09:00

During the first days of my scholarship I have had to fill out lots of forms and do administrative stuff. Fortunately, Nagoya University is well prepared to smooth all these procedures thanks to student volunteers, guides, international centres and several guidebooks in different languages.

Yesterday, two nice Japanese volunteer guides (please check out Kikuko Kosaki's website, it has lots of interesting information) accompanied me and a group of foreign students in the same situation to register ourselves in the ward office, open a bank account, apply for the National health insurance and hand in some documents in order to get the student ID card and the monthly stipend.

We took the subway from Nagoya Daigaku to Ikeshita (literally: under the pond) where the ward office is. At the subway, they explained us how to save money by using different prepaid cards (I will explain this more in detail in another post). I prefer London's Oyster card system but I must admit that the machines to get the tickets are cool. Bicycles are also very popular here and I'm thinking about buying one in a bazar event that is going to take place here in a few days.

On the way to the ward office I saw the first McDonald restaurant in Nagoya so far. On the sign it says: makudonarudo hanbaagaa (McDonald hamburger). There are lots of people wearing a mask on their face. I think that the reason is that they are alergic to the cherry blossom or that they are ill and they don't want to be contagious.

Update thanks to Kikuko-san: it seems that now more than 20-30% of Japanese have allergy to the pollen of Japanese cedar and/or cypress, which is called "kafunsho". In autumn, allergy to butakusa, karukaya, etc is also common. That's why people wear a mask.

Doing administrative tasks in a Japanese office would be difficult without our helpful guides. Japanese administration staff are very hard working but not very flexible. If your case is not the typical one, you can expect some complains. Actually, I felt a bit uncomfortable with some questions where I wanted to answer either a) "I don't know" or b) "this is not applicable to me" or c) "for god sake, it's my privacy!". At least they didn't ask me for the color of my pants yet :P.

Opening a bank account was a bit surrealistic. First, our bank is actually the post office! (it seems that private banks don't want to give money accounts so easily). And second, the post office had an amazing look of the 80's age. Workers were in suits, machines were old, lots of paper everywhere.. and the best, a funny 80's music in the background. By the way, being a small post office I counted more than 8 different cameras on the ceiling.

After eating a burger in a place called MOS burger, we went to the ECIS International centre. Nearby I took these pictures of the cherry blossom, which is very popular in Japan. By the way, those stones over there are a zen garden.

Finally, after a long day I went back to the residence. The picture above is taken from the entrance to my residence. I have been very lucky because it is a very quiet and nice area and also close to my laboratory (the gray building on the background of the picture).

First shoppings and garbage issues

2009-04-06T17:59:00.000+09:00

When I arrived to the International Residence at Nagoya University my room didn't have any daily life utils so I had to buy a lot of things.

A soap pack, liquid for washing dishes, liquid for cleaning furniture, shampoo + conditioner, toilet paper, sponge, pan, glass, knife, spoon, fork, scissors, wiper... and also food and ingredients to cook. I have an OpenOffice spreadsheet to keep track of my daily expenses. This way I can better administrate my money.

At the beginning I only found some small supermarkets. Then another student, from Ethiopia, told me about a big supermarket and we went together. There were 4 floors and they had lot of things. They not only have Japanese food but also food that we use in Spain (including olive oil and my dearest Nutella!).

There is also another giga-supermarket (called Yamada, in Hoshigaoka) that has any kind of electric appliance, computers, phones, etc. I was looking for a machine to cook rice (suihanki) and i took some leaflets to read at home. I also got information about the mobile phones. It seems that the cheapest company is Softbank. The iphone is cool but there are some limitations if you don't crack it, so I have to look for other mobile phones and compare.

One important thing here in Nagoya is that they are very strict with the recyclation procedures. I have to separate the garbage in several bags like the one in the picture and I can only take them out from 6 to 8 am (yes, am=in the morning!) at specific days.

But in order to separate the garbage I have found a useful trick. Most of the products have a symbol telling you which kind of garbage it is (recyclable paper or plastic, burnable, unburnable, pet...).

For example, in the chocolated milk in the picture there are two symbols. It means that the straw must be in the recyclable plastic bag and the box must be in the recyclable paper bag.

I think it is a good system because it forces you to separate the garbage, and it discourages you from generating too much garbage because you will have to get up very early to throw it out and because you have to pay for the bags.

Arrival to Japan

2009-04-06T08:40:00.000+09:00

So here I am, a guy from Spain in Nagoya!! :) As you may know from previous posts I am going to spend two years here granted by a Japanese government scholarship.

I arrived at Nagoya (Japan) 3rd April 2009, after a very tiring trip of 30 hours involving:

Santander->Madrid: I used the train because I thought it was probably the most secure way to get to Madrid in time. The new train to Madrid is called Alvia and in the last part of the journey it reaches speeds of 200 km/h, making it to Madrid in only four hours. The seats are also very comfortable and it is not very expensive (46 Eur one way) so I think that it was a good choice.
Madrid airport: To make sure I would catch the flight I went to Madrid the day before as my flight was at 9 am. I arrived at the airport at 00:30 and found a nice corner to lay down.
Madrid->Frankfurt: First I had to go to Frankfurt through an Spanair flight and then make the transfer.
Frankfurt->Nagoya: Fortunately there are flights directly to Nagoya so I didn't have to go to Tokyo or Osaka and then use a train. The 11 hours flight to Nagoya was not bad. I was sitting down with an old Japanese grandmother with whom I had very nice conversations in basic Japanese. I also played some PSP games and I even managed to sleep a bit.

When I arrived to Nagoya airport, I changed money (unfortunately the rate is horrible at the moment), took the Meitetsu train line to Kanayama and changed to the subway's Meijo line to Nagoya University to visit the people from my future laboratory. I met there Ms. Kanematsu, the secretary of Prof. Takada's Laboratory, who has been helping me a lot for getting this scholarship (thanks a lot!). She showed me my desk and then she took me to my residence. Other students were going to see the Cherry blossom (hanami) but I was very tired so I decided to stay at the residence to rest. In the residence, there were voluntary students that were very nice to me and showed me my room and solved any doubts I could have.

As I was hungry I went out to a nearby convenience store and bought some instantaneous ramen. I also had to bought a pan to boil water and other stuff. If you want to read more, subscribe to my blog and wait for the next posts!! :)