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Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Osaka Style Sign-board(?)



In Osaka, they apply huge sign boards. Well, basically they moves too! The concept of having a sign board seems to be how it stands out in the crowded street.

In this case of the crab, its limbs moves up and down! This place, a restaurant (but not sign board shop), served obvisouly crabs and some original crab cuisine.

In Osaka, you can find many places like this place, they are extremely appealing what they have. It's very unique to find those in the same city :)

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Baseball in a dome


Here is the Tokyo Dome. I've been to Osaka Dome before though, still it was weird to watch baseball game in a such covered studium.

There was a great smash at the game. The hit ball leaped up straightly toward the home-run area, but at the next second, the call hit the dome itself and fell down. That WAS a homerun (slam) !!! But unfortunately the ball fell into a fielder's grab, then, the batter was out.

They used to have a different rule that such hit was counted as a slam. But since then, they have changed the rule and now such a great smash is counted as same as a pop fly. Such a mean rule!!!

Anyway, baseball should be outside under the sun light, after all.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Master of psychology should master fiddle, too!



so, one of my co-worker was playing violin in our lab. and this shot is my first entouchment with a fiddle. Seemed so difficult, but also fun, too :D

I used to play trumpet quite a bit, and this experience was very fun to me :P In the biggining, I worried that I might break the string in a sec, but it worked well, actually :D Well, it doesn't neccesarily mean I could produce hermonic nice sound thou.

I discussed about the relationship between classical music and thought before. That was, something like... while listening to classical music, I was full of many innovational thoughts, ideas. So now, I wonder if not only listening to them, but we PLAY music, can we facilitate the brain activity? If it is, does it facilitate more? or rather intervene it?

Well, of course as for me, if I play violin, my neurons shall be undergone managing producing a right code, so there wont be any possibility that I can think about somethingelse, unfortunately...

But what if experts do??? Good question, isnt it?!

In conclusion, I like playing instulements. :D (what a poor conclusion jejeje)

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Firework Festa


Firework Festa

Japan is in the middle of the horrible season, summer. It's horriblly humid, hot, cruel...
But one of the amusements during summer here is fireworks!!!
It's not fun to watch something small scale; however, like the one above, watching more than 10-20 colorful supernova-like explosions in the sky is very eye-catching, fantastic, and dynamic!!!

I've seen some of those in the US before, but I think Japan is one of the leading artistic firework country. They are not simple as the ones that you can find at one of the Disney parks. You should try watching those in Japan before preconcluding the judgement. This 2 hours event, well, especially only the 1-2 min for the last part of the festa in the summer would not only refresh your mind but also make you wonder the color of the sun what if it explodes...

Far beyond the dark sky, billions of miles away from the earth, there may be many beautiful supernovas start creating new lands....

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Life in Tokyo makes you like this

As you know, Tokyo is a crazy city... I've been here about half a year already...
I've been busy posting things these days, because I was crazy like this as you can see in the pic... :P


HERE I AM Posted by Picasa

Also, this is my surprized emotion toward knowing I've got a news from my advisor in the US about having my second publication would appear in the Nature magazine in this fall !!! I will talk about the amazing research what the boss has done when it appears in the world. Since, I cant talk anything until it actually appears in nature.com because of some secret thing for copy rights... Anyway...

Yea hooo~~~!!! So, living in Tokyo made me crazy like this.... Uh, was I like this from the beginning?! well, it may be true... If you make some effort in Tokyo, you can have some amazing luck, unexpected one!!! :)

I'm now start thinking about having a plastic surgery so that I could get my normal face back :P Any recommendation?! I think I'm really good at having stupid faces, I think on the otherhand, I can be a face actor at a scary movie or something... But it doesn't fit into normal life... Complicated...

Thursday, June 23, 2005

However you shout....

However you shout, you will never beat the X-43A's speed!!!

X-43A is a NASA's guinness winning scramjet plane and holds the record of 9.6 Mach... Wow!!!

So, it flies 10 times as fast as sound goes. I've heard sprinters such as running on 100M track in 10 sec may feel strange visual scenary during their sprint; they see views flows away and see only a spot over the goal line. But, they can run only just above 20miles/h, which is only 1/30 of sonic speed. If I compare the fastest man on the earth versus the X-43A, the future machine can fly more than 300 times faster than the man.

So, I wonder what I feel and what I see if I sit on the jet flying at about Mach 10!!! It should be way beyond humans imagination...

I'm curious how human brain reacts under such incredible world. Does the circumstance activate their brains more or rather, inhibit some normal activation in the brain??? Someone has to do it on the place :P Well, as you can easily think, if the jet accelerate too fast, then G force would fightlessly terminate your heart and lung function... :P

Monday, June 20, 2005

No regulation for playing othello on the street!?


That was really hilarious to find those two girls, even one of them on the left is wearing Yukata (a Japanese traditional summer dress), were playing othello on the street next to the Yoyogi Park in Tokyo.

You may believe that's normal thing to catch a glance that two old men playing chess on the street right next to a cafe in Europe or one of the western countries. I totally agree with it. But, the thing is though, even they are playing such puzzle game with folding their legs!!! I know in Japan, they play traditional table games by folding their legs, for instance, "Sho-gi" or "Go". But, they are usually held inside of a house!!! Not on the steet!!! Plus, othello is not Japanese traditional thing at all what she needs to wear for formal performance at all!!!

The scenary in my eyes is like what you are wearing a swimsuit and lecturing about serious politics in front of university students in a math class.

There is no way that I could come up with such insane idea!!! So, they've got 5 stars at the street performance from me in which many other is doing generic, normal, and usual music or comedy performances.

That's what they need to do. And you know what, this is happening not only once a year but on very every weekend at the street!

Amazing place here is, Tokyo!!!

"Playing Music Prohibited"---Can't they read the sign!?


The sign-board on the back of the performers says, "Playing Music Prohibited" in red.

There may be something under the table thing between the city regulators and those players; however, it was so funny to see that they might be playing such music right in front of the sign.

That was in the Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, this time, I was so amazed by finging many people in a huge park--- of course, this is Tokyo, I should remind--- plus at the same time, that was really sensational to me seeing so many people performing on the street for free!!!

Well, getting back to the point, I was so inspired by them and was made me feel doing something on the street sometime... well... what can I do??? Showing off my stupidity? funny face? crazy Maro dance? or very simple--- a drunk guy with a can of beer wandering on the street with my roommate!? :P The right answer is... probably you get it right :P

Friday, June 10, 2005

Lever... That's raw!!!

Have you tried this Japanese original raw lever sashimi? It really looks like beef, or tuna fish though, it is lever. This time, I went to eat this in Saitama with friends, and the taste was really amazing! I was expecting something more bloody, as you can imagine how lever tastes like, even raw one! However, it turned out to be very fresh, tastes like more tuna fish. So it wasn't rather good than I expected and than you can imagine.


Reba-sashi {Lever Sashimi (Raw Lever)} Posted by Hello
Bottomline is, though, it's still better to try tuna fish rather than challenging to have uncooked lever. Or, even I prefer raw beef, which is called "Yukke" (probably Korean food originally). Well, I believe that there is no food can beat multiple series of fresh sushi at a nice sushi bar in Japan where is located near by ocean/fish market!!!

Sushi is ever! That's what I thought by having the Reba-sashi.... :-P

Friday, May 20, 2005

Sesame in Ramen... Or Ramen in Sesame?!

This story would be one of my famous, funniest, hilarious story ever in my life!!!

The day, I just went to a Japanese noodle shop, and we were having a nice noodle... And somehow the God of Comedy found out himself to be very bored, and he decided to do something crazy to a normal guy.

I was just having a nice noodle, and when I decided to put some sasame on it, he gave me a test that how I can survive from having almost 1 kg (2 pounds) of sasame on the top of ramen, which is common Japanese noodle that you would never eat with such amount of sasame in general...

When I shake a bottle filled with sesame, the lid were too loose (I guess) and just poped out from it... and a seconde later, I found my noodle bowl was totally filled with sesame; in other words, the bowl was looked like just only sesame in a soup, or some dressing on a mountain of sesame...

There were 2 boy friends, and they couldn's stop laughing me and even they took pictures of the bowl and me, in shock and depressed. Even one of them told me that I've finally got a God of Comedy... I wanted to have a god's help though, I wasn't waiting for such outsider... Somehow, the god (my stupidity & my low-attention charactor) led me into the most stupided thing
I've ever done in my life... Well, the soup and noodle was like... You can imagine how it tasted like... You don't need any explanation for it... Just SESAME!!! The original soup was really good, but it turned out to be sesame with a bit of noodle soup...

I've never done such a thing, never! Have you done such weird and funny "happening"?! But even you try to catch an attention from others, or to be looked funny, I can tell you at least that the thing, putting too much sesame from a bottle into ur soup bowl (with the lid pops put into the bowl with in a sec) would not end with nice taste at all. It will ends having your neighbors laughing at you and eating just sesame...

That was my tough night to get over with...

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

The road to the US Capitol

I took this picture in 2004 in Washington DC, the US. I have nothing to talk
about, but simply, I can say... the world's economy, peace, and stability is
lost... If the country states theirselved as a leading country in the whole
world, I'd like to ask them to be a leading RESPECTABLE government that
would never get ANY objections EVEN from its own country. I understand that
all people are different; however, such government (the president B*sh)
should obtain his higher degree by his own intelligence to learn how to
control his country, how to maintain citizens peace, how to promise what he
would said before, how to speak correct English...
Well, since I don't know much about what his situations are, and it should
not be easy though, at least native speaker should be able to use correct
grammar so that no reportor at his talk would not complain about his
horrible grammatical mistakes that no one can easily understand...
Is he a really such world-leading country (this earth)'s leader??

If there is a such straight way to the INSIDE of Capitol in which I can just
give them a small talk, I'd like to walk straight, and I'm not confident
with my English, so I'd employ a TRANSLATOR to give them a talk, because it
should be a shame that if anybody raise a hand and claims about my
gramattical mistakes...

The street seems to be very flat, clean... I hope, in reality, people who
can join to the Congress had much more ability to correct his educational
level to even at normal level that he can think and talk by his own words...

Anyway, this is the straight road to the Capitol... to the center of the
world, to the center of the madness... May this world would become more
fair, safe, no-war, peaceful planet...

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

BASEBALL GAME IN JAPAN

On the last day of the Golden Week (one of the longest national holidays in Japan), I went to watch a baseball game. The game was so exciting, and luckily we could get the front row in left outer field. The game was totally controlled by a team, Softbank Hawks, but we could watch many hits and runs. Unfortunately there wasn't homerun in the game; however, there was one liner shot right in front of us! The net was tumbled so hard that you can never feel it by just watching through TV.

One of things you can find in Japanese baseball is supporters. In the outer field, funs filled with the outer field and cheers players. And amazingly, they have certain way to cheer each player. So if there are 9 players, they sing (cheer) a song for each player in different way. So here, I thought that Japanese baseball teams do not need to hire their cheerleaders, because supporters are more than enough to do that.

I recognized one thing, even they look just normal in town; however, they are really into and excite with the game in the stadium, makes them great well-cooperating cheer-leaders!!!

Sunday, May 08, 2005

TOKYO TOWER!!!

Second time in my life to climb up to the Tokyo Tower. The height is only 333M though, it used to be the highest building in Japan.





But still, the view from the window to look down the street way below my foot was very scary... (@o@)/~~~





Unfortunately, the view on the outside was not good because of clouds... but, still, looking down on those skyscrapers surrounding the tower was spectacular!!!



This is way better than the view from my house's top terrace.. If you know
better or even just nice view in the world, just drop me a line please :-)

Friday, May 06, 2005

La Folle Journee au Japon

There was a Bethoben cerebration in Tokyo recently. That fiesta was biggest
one in my life. More than 2000 PRO-musicians from all around the world
gather at the place, and they play musics. Some time they do in a huge hall,
other time, you can see them right in front of you.

There, I was really inspired by classical musics and reminded me that
classical musics facilitate your brain when you study something. There are
many articles about it; (classical) musics helps memory. At this time,
actually I felt was that I couldn't stop thinking about ideas about
research. Such as, those musicians who has absolute hearing may use the same
area of brain where people usually use while they talk. Or, I even think
about deja-vu, why they feel the weird sense that they cannot remind/never
experienced before; however, they FEEL that they have experienced before.
etc...

Well, probably I will talk about those in the near future, definitely
classical music works!!! As I remember, I was listening to music when I
studied hard when I was high school student, and it worked well that time.
So, at least, it works for me :-D

So, why dont you try?!

RIKEN's Open Day on Apr. 23rd



RIKEN's Open Day.

Maro with Dave (the doll with brainwave cap; subject's appearance in my lab) Posted by Hello

There was a RIKEN's Open Day (to the public), where I work. At the party, we introduced what we are researching. And I wore a cow gawn which I wear for experiment, and introduced Dave, the guy next to me in the pic. The Dave represents subjects' style when they undergo our MEG (megneticencephalography) experiments with EEG(electroencephalography; aka brainwave) cap.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Finally in Tokyo

Hey hey hey,
Finally, The Maro has come back to "Tokyo"!!! :P If you know The Rock, famous American wrestler, you will understand this phrase... jejeje.

Anyway, seriously, I moved to Tokyo. Here is very comfy for doing everything except looking at Mt Fuji, until a couple of months ago...

Now, I moved to this place, and one of the cool thing at this place is that I can take a look of 360 view from the top of my apartment because my room is penthouse in the building!!! I will show you the 360 world from my penthouse on a cloudy day :(
Attention! even though the place is penthouse, it is only 4 floors plus one for this sight viewing floor :P I just can climb up from my room on 4th floor.

You can click each frame to see larger pictures :D



Well, it looks way better no night time, especially in the first picture direction, where you can see several tall buildings. The tallest in the pic is so-called "Sunshine 60". It used to be called tallest building, but not today.

I hope I can update similar pic during the night. Having a glass of cognac smoking, looking at those nice beauty skyscrapers is my favorite moment now :)

As you can see (imagine), most shops are located on the bottom of those buildings, just 10 min walk from my room. That was never happened in the US before (Oregon/Virginia) except New York...

My second life in one of the biggest city has just started. I'm excited!!! I just need visitors to my place! Shall we drink at my penthouse apartment!? :D

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Just relax... Here is Mt. Fuji.

Now, I live in Saitama where is close to Tokyo, about 30 min away.

A cold, early morning, just one of my normal day. But the sky was sky blue, very warm air, clean air... Something was different on the day... I went out to barcony at my apartment... And then, WOW!!! There was the Mt. Fuji, which is the most tallest mountain in Japan!!! I couldn't expect this at all!!! It was like a dream, day dream, or even I doubt whether I was still dizzy right after I woke up in the morning... But it was clearly reality, because here is the proof of the Mt. Fuji from my apartment!!!



From the window Posted by Hello
from the window


Close-up Mt. Fuji

It's not quite nice picture on my small compact camera though, this is the best view of the year 2005, already!!!

If you wanna see the same, please come visit me... Until the end of February 2005. Because I will be movein' out to metropolitan area soon. :(
So it will be my last chance to see the beautiful snow capped Mt. Fuji from my apartment for a while... Quite for a while, may be never...

What can you see from your window?!