Techbookfest 5

This is the second time I attend a Techbookfest (技術書典) event, and I have to say that I loved both of them. Techbookfest events are events with booths where software and hardware fans can sell their own publications.

The events are quite popular. During the first few hours, you can expect a long queue of people ready to buy their favourite publications before they get sold out. The first event I attended was Techbookfest 2 and it was held in Akihabara. I remember having to wait for a couple of hours in the rain. Techbookfest 5 was held in Ikebukuro. There was a long queue as well but at least it was sheltered.

There were many interesting circles (a person or group of persons in charge of a booth) in Techbookfest 5. Personally, I bought a publication related to a 3D modeling software I have been learning for a while called MagicaVoxel. It seems that the author has also published a book on Kindle called 3D dot modelling (3Dドットモデリング) and has its own voxel webpage. I also bought a publication about creating your own cartridges for the old Game Boy by Nicolli. There was also a similar circle specialized on the Game Boy advance (GBA). I also got a publication related to GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) whose author used to convert a ramen picture into a curry rice one. Finally, I bought another publication about modeling and 3D printing a robot that was then imported into ROS.

Conclusions: Techbookfest is a really nice event if you like software or hardware technical stuff. I hope I can participate as a book writer in the future. I was happy to see that many booths offered their publications in digital format, for example through taimen or booth.

Climbing Mt. Ryoukamisan

I recently climbed Ryoukamisan (両神山, yamap, yamareco, yamakei）with some friends. Ryoukamisan is a mountain located in Saitama, near the Chichibu district. It is part of the 100 famous Japanese mountains.

We used the the Hinataooya (日向大谷) route to get to the top of Ryoukamisan and then went back using the Nanatakizawa (七滝沢) route. Here you can download my GPS log. You can also get information about similar trips from here, here and here.

With its 1723m I would say that Ryoukamisan requires a bit of hiking experience. There are quite a few steep areas that will require you to use the chains anchored to nearby rocks. When we arrived at the top everything was cloudy. For that reason, I can't tell you if the views are good or not.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this mountain is its Shinto shrine and its relation with various Shinto deities.