Before 2009 came to its sudden halt, I went along with a group of aikidoka and friends to hike Nijouzan (Mt. Nijo), which is situated in Nara prefecture overlooking Osaka to its northwest and Nara city to its northeast.

Our sojourn started by assembling at 8:30 AM at the Kintetsu Abenobashi station, and from there we set out to a small train station not far from our starting point, which is where we met up with friends of Nanami who joined us for the rest of the journey. I should note that I also brought along Zack Kaplan, a foreign exchange student from the United States who studies at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. I know from playing Go in the United States and am fortunate enough that his studies bring him close to Osaka for a year!

Rob Hori was a little delayed getting to the rally point in Osaka, so we linked up with him shortly after we arrived in Nara prefecture, just before we went to visit Harubi Temple, which is also where our hiking trek up the mountain began. We departed the temple at 10, just on schedule — and there, slowly but surely, began the ascent!

By noon, I think everyone was huffing and puffing enough from the climb, so we stopped for lunch, and were treated to a fantastic view of Nara to the northeast.  From our lunch stop, we continued to the summit (517 metres in altitude), then descended a bit and reascended to the public park (474 metres) at which a monument to the historic ruins once found on the site was erected.  It’s a beautiful sun-dial, the points of which represent both the cardinal directions and the signs of the Chinese zodiac.  I am a bit partial to the rabbit, since it’s my Chinese zodiac sign.

Although the hard part of our trek was done, we still needed to descend to the base of the other side of the mountain, and it was pretty steep in parts.  However, we were able to take a moment to see the remains of an ancient temple carved into the side of a stone face.  Next to the main religious monument was a carved-out grotto, which Nanami took to be her own for a little while.

At the end, we all got a nice reward, because we were all able to go to the Taishi Onsen and soak our weary bodies for a couple of hours before heading back to Osaka. It was a most excellent way to spend the day!

2nd article: Arriving in the Land of Astro Boy
1st article: Getting to Kyoto

Festival!

If there is one thing Japan is noted for, it’s the multitude of festivals, called “matsuri”, on display at any given time. These festivals are almost always local affairs, so if you’ve planned well, it’s possible to wander around Japan from town to town, hitting the best ones in a row.  There are winter festivals and summer festivals, spring ones and fall ones, too.  Some celebrate historical events, others seasonal events (such as harvest time), but the most famous festival in Japan celebrates recovering from a disaster.

Can you guess when and where that festival is? Of course, it is the Gion matsuri in Kyoto, lasting the full length of the month of July. In other words, it coincides precisely with the FIRST conference.

Gion matsuri

The Gion festival began about 1,100 years ago when floats were made and paraded in the town to appease the diety of plague and illnesses. At the time, there was an epidemic in the land, and it was believed at the time that the cause of the calamity was due to the diety Gozu. Since then, the festival has taken on the meaning of relief from the effects of fire, earthquake and other calamities.

Once I heard that the FIRST Conference was slated for Kyoto in July, I immediately connected the date with the Gion matsuri, which led me to submit what was eventually the winning theme for the 2009 FIRST Annual Conference, Incident Recovery.

Turning a Gion matsuri float takes teamwork

More about the festival

The Gion festival is centered around the Yasaka-jinja shrine, which is the birthplace of this matsuri. The biggest highlight of the month is the pageant of around 30 floats that parade around the main streets of Kyoto on July 17th each year. The floats are absolutely impressive, some of which weigh 10 tons and stand about 2 stories high. They are so famous that they’re sometimes called “mobile museums of art” for the exquisite treasures that adorn them.

In addition, throughout the month of July there are street fairs with games and Japanese festival food available. (I’d suggest the takoyaki [octopus balls], which are a regional speciality.) You can also see festival-goers wearing traditional summer kimono (called yukata) and geta (high wooden shoes).

The Aquarium

The diversity of species on display at the Osaka Aquarium is probably rivaled only by the largest aquariums. Even comparing this aquarium with the magnificent one in Monterey, California, I have to say that Osaka’s seems to have a much broader spectrum of life on display, organized into “rooms” that represent various parts of the world.

My favorite area was probably the Equadorian Rain Forest room, whose colorful (and motionless) iguana looked truly resplendent. Iguanas can get up to a couple meters in length, but apparently feeds only on leaves, buds, flowers, and fruits of fig trees. Though they have been known to sometimes eat small birds and mammals, I was surprised to learn that iguanas are, by and large, herbivores. They enjoy perching near the water on rocks, bathing in the heat until disturbed, when they leap into the water to scurry away.

In his work, The Voyage of the Beagle (1831-36), Charles Darwin wrote amusingly about about iguanas, “…they are ugly animals … from their low facial angle they have a singularly stupid appearance … In their movements they are lazy and half torpid. [...] I watched one for a long time [making its burrow], till half its body was buried; I then walked up and pulled it by the tail; at this it was greatly astonished, and soon shuffled up to see what was the matter; and then stared me in the face, as much as to say, ‘What made you pull my tail?’”

I used to think that Man’s Best Friend meant Fido, but I now understand that it’s really a penguin (provided you’re carrying a bucket of fish). The Antarctic room sports a rookery of penguins, and they really do look like they’re wearing a tuxedo.  But, unlike the penguin on Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, these ones did not seem to be doing much talking. In fact, they seemed really intent on eating more fish!

Some of the most interesting things about the aquarium were probably some of the most common points. Of course, there are lots of very spectacular fish and exotic colors to be seen. But I enjoyed seeing some of the less colorful fish just swimming around together. The silver colored fish in the the Seto Island Sea room (see photo, left) were very interesting because they were almost entirely motionless. Except for the fact that a few other fish were moving around, I might have mistaken the tank for an acrylic display of fish. Instead, they seemed to be in some kind of ballast state so that they neither rose nor fell. Only rarely did one of them move in the five or so minutes I watched them. Maybe this is a way for the fish to sleep or take a break, I’m not sure; but whatever they are up to, they’re doing it as a group.

Speaking of groups, our group — consisting entirely of students — was given a set of tasks to do while in the aquarium. Mostly, we were charged with looking up information displayed throughout the museum on the various signboards. However, we were all asked to draw a picture (head on) of the Ocean Sunfish (マンボウ in Japanese). I can’t claim to be much of an artist, but at least I did get a decent straight-on photo to use as a guide! (photo, right)

I tried to take pictures of more of the fish, but discovered the difficulties that wildlife photographers must experience when they’re shooting their subjects: they move! The giant whale sharks are quite spectacular, but it’s really difficult to get a good photograph of them with a pocket camera.

I think everyone had a great time visiting the Osaka Aquarium. Afterward, we all went to Yume-Hachi in Shinsaibashi (Namba) for an enjoyable dinner and a couple hours of revelry, after which some of us departed (study!) and others went on to karaoke. There’s no telling how long that went on…

YUME-HACHI心斎橋｢戎橋店｣ ●大阪市中央区心斎橋筋2-4-5 淡路屋ﾋﾞﾙB1F 06-6212-4544

What city hosts the headquarters of Nintendo and has the second largest train station in Japan? Why, that’d be Kyoto! I guess the more popular things for which people know Kyoto are the myriad of historically significant locations, including the 17 locations in and around Kyoto that have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, called the “Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto”).

However, my personal favorite thing about Kyoto is that the Tezuka Osamu Manga Museum [official site] [information] is located not terribly far from Kyoto, and a year-long festival of his Tezuka’s well-known anamated character, Astro Boy, has been going on in Kyoto. (You can find Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion here and there around the train station.)

Some practical arrival information

The official host hotel for the FIRST conference is the Hotel Granvia Kyoto, which is situated right inside Kyoto’s (immense) main train station. When you arrive at the station, your first task is to find the right exit — there are lots of them!

Fortunately, the exit signage at the station is both easy to locate (it’s all colored yellow) and easy to read (see inset photo, right). You should head straight for the Central Gate. [Not the underground central exit, though you'd have to go out of your way to get there.] To exit the gate, you’ll need to insert the travel coupon in the gate, which will read it and determine if you’ve paid the correct distance-based fare.

Tickets tickets tickets. Now’s a good time to make a side note about tickets on Japanese train systems.  The ticket gates take paper tickets in the slot on the right and, as you walk through the gate to enter the station, you collect your ticket as it spits it back up at you on the far side. As you exit the station, after you’ve reached your destination, the exit gates will eat the ticket you feed it, assuming the fare is correct.

The good news is that it keeps the station clean from litter.  The bad news is that if you were expecting to use that ticket as part of your expense report once you return, you’ll simply be out of luck.

If you need a receipt for travel, don’t use the exit turnstiles. Instead, present your ticket to the ticket inspector overseeing the exit gates. They’ll manually cancel it and hand it back to you.

Once you’ve exited the ticket barriers, just look up and to your right and you’ll see the hotel.  There are escalators across the train station lobby (straight ahead and slightly to the right after you exit gate). Go up one floor and follow the signs to the hotel lobby. You’re there!

Location, location, location

“Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” -Derrick Scholl

The Kyoto main train station is situated right in the heart of the city, so it’s not only convenient to a lot of services, it is also easy to get to the many and various Kyoto attractions from there. You can even go quite easily to nearby cities like Nara, which was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784 and is home to some spectacular sites of its own.

Of practical importance to any computer science related conference is, well, coffee. Japan has no shortage of coffee outlets, both of the chain variety and of the ‘one-off’ coffee shop, known as “kissaten” [kisːateɴ]. In the vicinity of the conference hotel are two Starbucks. One is located in the Porta mall, a large underground mall situated in the floors beneath the Kyoto train station. (If it rains, you can get your Starbucks fix without needing an umbrella.) The other one is located directly across the main street in front of the train station, toward the west.

Coffee & WiFi. My only problem with the Starbucks is that I couldn’t find any WiFi at either location. Bleh. However, there are a couple of nearby spots with WiFi for those who can’t do without a WiFi fix. (I do find it interesting how seemingly hard it is to find WiFi hotspots in Japan.)

There’s a Seattle’s Best Coffee inside the nearby APA Villa Hotel [map], sporting a completely free WiFi spot. I’ve had some connectivity issues from time to time there, but it’s pretty reliable, though not particularly large. In addition, there’s a McDonald’s just two doors down from the Starbucks just West of the station. It has mobilepoint WiFi that most users of AT&T WiFi can use. There’s lots of seating, with separated smoking and non-smoking sections, and the coffee’s pretty good, too.

[Mobilepoint usage note: You can use a variety of WiFi providers to access mobilepoint WiFi hotspots in Japan. You'll need to enter the WEP key of 696177616b and then follow the login instructions. There are several providers listed explicitly, such as Boingo and iPass. To use AT&T WiFi, use <att-wifi-username>@attwifi.com@weroam.com as your username. Yes, there are two @ symbols in the username.]

Money matters

I think that the conference FAQ covers money (foreign exchange) pretty well, but it’s worth mentioning a couple of details about ATMs and credit cards. Japan is a really cash-based society. Really. Many, many people do not possess a single credit card, and you should assume that every store and restaurant you enter does not accept plastic unless you can determine otherwise. Doing so will avoid an embarrassing “no money” moment.

I don’t know what the official crime stats are for Japan, but my experience is that the personal crime rate is exceptionally low. So much so that people routinely carry large sums of cash on them without worry. Of course, shops that are geared toward the tourist trade have made adjustments, but I merely suggest that you should not automatically assume that every shop will accept the form of payment you have. Get cash.

As the FAQ points out, there is a post office next to the train station. Time was that post office ATMs were the only ones that accepted foreign ATM cards, but now you can use 7-Eleven Bank’s and Citibank’s, and perhaps others.  The Kyoto Post Office’s ATM hours are almost 24 hours a day. Almost. It is closed on Sundays from 8PM until 0:05 the following morning. All ATMs are closed from 23:55 to 0:05 daily.

Coming in the next installment…a more sober look at Kyoto’s past and how understanding it helped me come up with the winning theme for this year’s FIRST conference.

Unless you already live in Japan, the first step in getting to Kyoto is, of course, making landing at a port of entry and then traveling onward to the final destination.  Kyoto’s situated in the center part of the largest island of Japan, about 100 km north of Osaka; Kyoto itself is not directly served by an international airport. I suspect that the majority of people coming to the conference will either fly into Kansai International Airport in Osaka or arrive at New Tokyo International Airport (Narita) and use train or domestic flight to continue on to Kyoto.

If arriving at Kansai International Airport

By far the simplest way to get to Kyoto is by train from Kansai International Airport (KIX), using the Limited Express “Haruka” train that runs directly between KIX and the central train station in Kyoto. Please note that the Kansai airport is served by two different train lines, one called the “Nankai” line and the other being “Japan Rail”. I strongly advise against using the Nankai Airport Express train, called “Rapit” because you will have to change to Japan Rail in the heart of Osaka in order to complete your journey.

The two train stations at Kansai Airport are color-coded, with the red-colored entry being that of Nankai and the blue being for Japan Rail. You want the blue entrance.  The ticketing office is on the left under the green signs (you can see the ticket office signs lit up in the left side background of the photo above).

Using Japan Rail, there are actually two different ways to get to Kyoto, and the one you choose is simply determined by your price sensitivity.  The fastest way is to use the Limited Express “Haruka” train, which makes only three stops before arriving at Kyoto, and involves no changes of train.  As of this writing (May 2009), the cost for a reserved seat on this train plus the underlying travel fare was JPY 3690 [approximately USD 37 or EUR 28], each way, and takes 1 hour 15 minutes. If you have more time or wish to spend less, you can use the Rapid Service “Kanku Kaisoku” service, which costs JPY 1830 [approximately USD 19 or EUR 14], each way, requires one train change, and takes just under 2 hours. Which you choose is up to you, but I’d recommend using the Haruka.

Trains in Japan are non-smoking, except that trains with reserved seating might have smoking cars or special, separated smoking areas. Because both the Haruka and the Shinkansen trains usually have smoking cars, it is wise to ask for either a smoking or non-smoking seat, depending upon your preference.

This seems as good a place as any to make a mention about luggage.  Most trains in Japan have no facilities for handling luggage aboard the train. The notable exceptions are the Haruka train and the Narita Express trains, both of which have large luggage racks just inside the door (see photo right). However, on local trains and the Shinkansen trains, there is no place to put luggage.  On the Shinkansen, you can often wedge large bags behind the rearmost seats in the car in which you’re seated. It is wise to consult with a member of the station staff before your train departs if you’re not sure whether it will fit.

You can also get to Kyoto from KIX by bus. In Japan, commercial bus service is called “limousine bus” service. It’s not a limo; it’s a big bus. The limousine bus service takes you directly to the Kyoto train station in just under 2 hours. I have not reconfirmed the bus fare, but it was JPY 2300 [approximately USD 23 or EUR 18] last winter and is unlikely to have changed much, if at all.

If arriving at New Tokyo International Airport (Narita)

No airport in Japan has more international connections than Narita airport, and because of this many people will want to fly to or through Tokyo instead. If you come into Tokyo, you can choose to continue either by train (easiest) or by domestic flight (not as easy, but doable).  We’ll take them in turn:

Train – Step 1: Get from Narita Airport to Tokyo Station

From Narita, your onward journey will have two parts: First, travel from Narita (which is situated well to the east of Tokyo) into Tokyo Station; then, travel from Tokyo Station on a different line to Kyoto.  You can make the first part of the journey (Narita to Tokyo Station) by Limited Express “Narita Express” (fastest, but most expensive); local train (Rapid Service “Airport Narita”); or by airport limousine bus.  The choices are detailed in the table below:

If you’re departing from Narita at the end of your journey, I strongly advise you to find out in advance which terminal (1 or 2) your flight departs from, because they are served by different stops on the train line. Last time I rode the Narita Express, there was no signage indicating which airlines were served by which terminal.

Train – Step 2: Get from Tokyo Station to Kyoto Station

Now that we’ve gotten you to Tokyo Station, you need to continue your journey to Kyoto. The good news is that you can sail from Tokyo to Kyoto on the Shinkansen “bullet” train. Tired of choices yet? You can choose from two kinds of Shinkansen trains.  The fastest are the “Nozomi” superexpress trains, and the travel time is about 2 hours 15 minutes to Kyoto. The less rapid (but still quite fast) Shinkansen train is the “Hikari”. It is an older generation bullet train that doesn’t have the same top speed, and it also makes more stops. The “Hikari” train takes about 2 hours 45 minutes from Tokyo station. The price difference between the two trains is negligible (about USD 5), so I’d stick with the Nozomi.

Domestic flight

You might prefer to take a domestic flight from Narita to continue your journey.  (If you haven’t booked your travel yet, I’d seriously consider just using the train.)  Thre are two ways to get to the Osaka area (a region called “Kansai”) by domestic flight.  The two destination airports are Kansai International Airport (KIX), which we discussed above, and Itami International Airport (ITM). There is a bus line from Itami airport to the Kyoto train station which costs about JPY 1,300 and runs hourly, so I understand.

To be continued…