tangobravo

10:01 pm: Wrap Up
Thought I should really wrap this journal up now I'm back home.

The last few days of travelling were pretty busy. Sam and I stayed one more night in Kyoto, while the Germans left for Tokyo. We went to Tokyo via Himeji which has a deservedly famous castle where Princess Sen once lived. Unusually for Japan, some of the original buildings have managed to survive fire and war so that was good.

We arrived pretty late in Tokyo, but got quite lucky with the Japanese-style hotel we had booked - it was right next to a station on the main overground loop-line around Tokyo that we could use freely with our Rail Passes. Unfortunately on the first night we missed the last train home so walked from central Tokyo back to our hotel - it took us around two and a half hours, walking fairly rapidly too!

On Sunday we met up with Anna and generally wandered around bits of Tokyo window shopping. We went to see the parliament building but couldn't walk around it as it was closed on Sundays. In the evening we went up to the 45th floor of the Metropolitan government building for some nice views of Tokyo.

On Monday I fancied a trip to the mountains so we took a bullet train to Nagano, which was the host of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. The mountains were still a bit distant from the town itself, but there was a nice temple there so it didn't feel like a completely wasted journey. There was a totally dark passage at the back of the temple (eyes open/closed made no difference) which you walk down with your hand on the wall searching for the "key to paradise" (which actually feels more like a doorknob) and occasionally banging into the person in front. Good fun, and we found the key, so are guaranteed a long life or something like that. Sam headed back to Tokyo in the afternoon but I went to Matsumoto on a scenic train ride to see and old wooden castle. Worth the trip.

Tuesday we had another day in Tokyo. We went on a river cruise, looked around the famous "Akihabara Electric City" packed with electrical shops and then went up to the top of the highest viewpoint in Tokyo on the 52nd floor of the new skyscraper in Roppongi Hills. It was a bit cloudy but there were still some spectacular views to be seen.

For the final evening we managed to arrange a meet up with most of the other IDC students still in Tokyo. Japanese student Yuta's grandparents owned a karoke bar to which we were invited for many hours of free food, drink, and singing. Most of the brazillians and Tokyo Institute of Technology students came along, and other-UK-Simon met up with us towards the end. It was great to see everyone again.

We kipped on a floor upstairs at the karaoke bar for a couple of hours before getting the train back to the hotel at 6am, quickly packing, and setting off for the airport which is well over an hour's train trip away from Tokyo.

Finally about 12 hours after take off we arrived back at a rainy Heathrow. Then the jet-lag began - I slept soundly that night!

So that pretty much covers my Japanese experience. Thanks for reading the waffle, and good night!

Simon

10:01 pm: Not the last post then...
...so great news for all　you Journal fans who still check this occasionally (hi Mum!).

We're at an Internet cafe in Kyoto. Went to Osaka on the bullet train yesterday (very fast, smooth and quiet). Stayed in a capsule hotel which was an interesting experience, but the place wasn't very clean. We went with the Brazillians and a couple of Germans to Osaka altho the brazillians had already booked a normal hotel but we met up with them in the evening.

Today we (Sam, myself and the German guys) took a train to Kyoto. Looks like a very interesting　place - it was the capital of Japan for over 1000 years and has hundreds of shrines and temples scattered around, and weird zen buddist gardens which are all patterns in sand.

Nice hotel for tonight - very cheap room for 4 (around 8 quid) but we've got our own bath and toilet and a nice view from the 7th floor balcony.

Tomorrow we'll probably stay in Kyoto at least for the morning, maybe head somewhere else in the afternoon.

Sorry for the more-poorly-written-than-usual entry, I've only got 3 minutes left on the net.

10:58 pm: Final day
So today was the contest.

Our practice time with the 2-ball lifter was cut short when our string broke on the lifter. We managed to replace it in time for the contest but the lack of practice was obvious and there were a few driving mistakes so we didn't get through the lucky losers contest. I still think our machines were pretty cool though.

The expo dome was cool though and we stayed in the expo this afternoon to watch the robofesta with quite a few really cool robots, including the toyota trumpet-playing one. I think they were having a few problems though, because the presenters did some obvious filling, them the doors opened and the robot promptly fell over, sending arms and legs flying. 10 minutes or so later they either fixed it or had a new one though, so we got to see the performance which was seriously impressive.

Tonight was the farewell party - really good fun. The UK performance was an attempt at the macarena but it was slightly lacking in the areas of tune, lyrics and movements. Other than that it was fine.

People are now drinking quite heavily - some are leaving quite early tomorrow. Still no real idea where I'm travelling - I'll go with Sam and we'll possibly follow the Brazillians for a bit.

This may well be the last entry in the blog, depending on internet access out and about. I'm flying back next Wednesday (and still considering the possibility of working on Thursday!).

It's been great.

Talk to you later.

Simon

12:26 am: Forgot something
Just been out for a meal tonight with a few people.

We went to a nice japanese place and had some interesting sushi ordered by the Japanese guy - raw tuna, jellyfish, octopus and whale as well as some fried shrimp and chicken, a bowl of rice and a couple of beers. Under a tenner each. Japan really isn't all that expensive.

There's some great whale-eating photos but I've left my camera cable in my room so I'll have to leave you hanging for those.

12:03 am: Competition Time
I'm sure no one is particularly interested in the detail of the last few days (which have been frantic) - if you are, I'm sure I will bore you with it sometime soon.

The amusement park won for the day off. It included a water park that I didn't expect to go to but ended up spending over 5 hours in t-shirt-less and hence got quite badly sunburnt. Other than that it was cool though - lots of queues at the waterpark but barely none at the rollercoasters. Unfortunately the Steel Dragon 2000 (the world's longest, tallest, fastest and deepest rollercoaster when it was built in 2000) has not been running since a car derailed in 2003 - really fills you with confidence about the rest of the park!

The seeding contest was done without any practice and with our emergency back-up strategy - hence we came second from bottom (but did score some points). We finished building the main idea late on Sunday (as in 8:45pm after about 11 hours in the workshop) but when we tested it this morning it lacked stiffness, and we had no time to sort it out. That meant the preliminary league stage was completed with the emergency back-up stategy too. In our first match against the very strong blue team we forgot to turn on our air bottles for the pneumatics so wasted more than half of the time with a robot that didn't work. Our second match was more successful - we lost but still scored 11 points. Simon Stent's pink team qualified with 6 points in each round, so we were in quite a tough group.

Tomorrow the contest moves to the expo dome, and the 4 losers from the group stages (including us) play a knockout to determine the last place in the main final knockout contest. We were back in the workshop this afternoon changing the strategy again - the main robot now has bigger wheels (should be faster) and 2 hooks so we can lift 2 balls at once. I reckon that's a system that could work quite well although the lack of practice could end up being our downfall. We will see tomorrow. Early start - 7:20 meeting at the workshop.

Fingers crossed that England win the 3rd Ashes test btw...I'll find out in the morning.

Later.

12:48 pm: Quick update
Lunchtime on the final official building day.

Robot 2 caused some problems, as predicted. We have still not finished (or tested) our original plan - hope to get that done this afternoon. We have managed to score some points though with an emergency-backup-strategy that has no chance of winning but should at least prevent total null-points elimination.

It's our time in the seeding contest 2 hours from now, so I'd better get back to it.

09:25 pm: Lots of work
The last few days in the workshop have seen robot 2 slowly taking shape. Today we finally got the vertical sliding lifting mechanism attached, and it looks like it will work. Woohoo. We have the chassis finished and the motors and castors attached, but we still have to attach the motor for the lifter, sort out the whole ball-holding structure and do some testing. We only have 2 and a half days of workshop time for that lot as there's a day off tomorrow. It might be a bit of a race to the finish.

Still it's all good fun with a great group of people. Learnt a great Korean game a few nights ago that translates as "potato potato". It basically involves chanting "kam-ja kam-ja", "nado guo jouing", "puka puka", and assosicated actions.

Yesterday we went to a nearby karaoke bar. Very strange place, thoroughly Japanese. You have a small private room (which we managed to squeeze around 8 people into) and a big TV with a karaoke machine with thousands of songs. Loads of English ones too. Lots of fun, but some people (I'm looking at you, Germans) took very good advantage of the fixed price for all the drinks you want deal and therefore the train back was fairly roudy - something very uncommon in Japan by the looks we were getting from the locals.





Plans for tomorrow are still being formulated - some people are going to Kyoto (I'll save that until the week when we have free bullet train travel), there's talk of another trip to Nagoya, possibly a trip to the mountains, or a visit to the theme park quite nearby with suppoosedly the biggest, longest, fastest, deepest rollercoaster in the world (at least it was in 2000). Whatever we get up to it should be fun, although we could really use the time on the robot.

First stop tomorrow needs to be at a bank - I need to change my first lot of travellers' cheques. The £100 cash I bought (+ about the £25 they gave us for lunches) have lasted pretty well I think.

06:24 pm: What I've been up to
Last few days have been hectic.

Thursday evening we went to the world expo - nothing much to report. We thought the cheap tickets available for after 5 would be good value, but we didn't get in until 6, and all the major attractions needed booking beforehand really. That meant we spent most of the time wandering around the huge site and looked in a few of the country pavillions. Quite interesting, but I'd like to go back to see the big robotic exhibitions. The final of our contest is held in the expo dome so we may get chance to see more then.

During the day off on Friday we went to Nagoya, about an hour away although you never go through any sort of countryside, so I guess we are sort of in a suburb here anyway. When we arrived we went to a Pig restaurant and had an early lunch, accompanied by the tv people as usual:



We wandered round Nagoya a bit, had a look at the temple and castle - impressive although both were modern reconstrunctions after the drubbing Nagoya was on the end of in World War II.

Saturday evening was the firework display in Okazaki City (sp?) - with an awesome number of fireworks (well over 10,000). It went on for over 2 hours and I didn't really get a single good photo of it! Some decent videos though. Best photo of the bunch:



Oh yeh and we were told it was an event for traditional Japanese clothing, so I had to buy mine the day before in Nagoya!



Major news from today is that our first robot is completed. Unfortunately this is the simple one, and robot 2 might present lots more problems. We'll find out next week how it's going to work.

11:22 pm: Still Alive
Just a quick one, big computer-usage queue!

Still alive, went to Nagoya yesterday. Huge firework display tonight (2nd biggest in the world so I hear).

Something very strange - whenever anything closes no-one goes round telling you it's closing time, instead they pipe the music for auld lang sine (sorry about the spelling) out over speakers. Supposedly it happens everywhere, even as schools close! Crazy crazy people.

I'll add some more text and piccies when I get a mo.

09:28 pm: 2 days in
Had a couple of days in full-on competition mode now.

The design is beginning to take shape, we hope to start putting some stuff together tomorrow. The Japanese struggle with English but by a mixture of exagerated mime and quick sketches we seem to be communicating (or at least they say aaah ahhh in a "I completely understand that action and you look very silly" kind of way). Rafael, the Brazillian guy, speaks pretty good English so there are no problems there.

Last night we had the welcome party. There was a huge buffet laid out:



We had a few speeches from the sponsors - one is providing lots of these "ionised sports water" type of drinks called "Pocari Sweat". The slogan at the end of his speech was "sweat won't let you down" which is certainly true here; 33 degrees yesterday. Workshop and rooms are air-conditioned though, so it is not that bad.

The party actually finished at 8pm (!) but many of the Japanese were already quite drunk by then. The rest of the evening was spent finishing off the rest of the drinks and swapping drinking songs. Lots of good videos of that, need to find someone with a CD writer so I can free up some space on my camera for the ret of the trip!

Today we've got a bit further on the design, and had a big game of football after the day in the workshop. Not been out for a meal yet - just been to the student canteen at lunch (which is cheap and pretty good) and pot-noodle at night. The Aitchi campus is actually quite far away from any restaurants or shops so we tend to live with the facilities that are here. That means no wild drinking though = the shops on campus don't seem to have anything alcoholic.

That's enough waffle for today, got a day off on Friday so I'll probably add an entry then.

11:35 pm: We're here!
Finally in the student accomodation at Aichi.

Flight passed pretty much without incident, plenty of in-flight entertainment (Japanese Pop music rules!) - saw a couple of films, and didn't get much sleep. Ate some odd fried chicken with rice and weird veg thing, plus some noodles and random salad stuff. Then a mushroom omelette for breakfast!

After taking the 90 minute flight from Tokyo to Nagoya, we were greeted at the airport by the tv crew, then shoved onto a bus and told to get off at the last stop. Whoever was supposed to be meeting us didn't show up for a while so we were left loitering around looking shifty.



She found us in the end, some people ate some octopus (:S), then we had the final bus ride to the accommodation.

Accommodation quite basic, but air-conditioned thankfully. All very clean, looks very new everywhere.

Long day, and up at 7:30 tomorrow for breakfast. It's going to be a busy trip.

11:01 pm: Packed and Ready
Brand-spanking-new backpack finally packed, I'm pretty much ready to go.

The plan for tomorrow is to get a lift down with my parents to Heathrow, via a stop at my gran's.

The flight actually leaves at about 7:45pm - then it's 12 hours on the plane plus an 8 hour time difference, so we should be landing in Tokyo around noon on Monday.

Recently received a few more details on the contest, which this year is entitled "Bloom Your Dreams". The rules make almost as little sense as the name, but hopefully all will become clear when we get over there. Also got the team allocations - I'm in the "olive" team with a guy from Brazil and a couple of people from Japan. Go Olive!

Male:Female ratio isn't very good - out of 45 people taking part, there's just one woman!

Not sure yet how often I'll update this, it sort of depends on the state of internet access over there (I'll be very disappointed if the fridge in my room isn't online!). I'll probably stick some photos up every now and again too.

Till next time, probably from Japan...

Simon