Kyoto Part 2

Tuesday 23rd May
I awoke to the patter of rain. It seemed to ease as I left the Ryokan but the drizzle mist persisted. I decided to explore the station areas that I hadn't got to yesterday. The station is a very big modern building. Above the promenade that Ang and I had sat on the previous day was a garden with views over the city, linked by a skywalk to a garden on the opposite side of the station.

After admiring the view I decided to walk to Gion in the hunt for Geishas and then on to the Philosophy path near the Silver Pavilion. By the time I reached Gion the rain had come back and there was not a single Geisha in sight. I carried on through a park containing various shrines. It's at this point that my map stopped bearing any relationship to reality. I think I broke some kind of personal record cos in total I ended up walking for 5 and a half hours. And I still didn't find the fecking philosophy path. I did however find a number of shrines off the tourist trail and then walked back through several shopping arcades.

I arrived back at a cafe in the station for a quick lunch before heading out to an amusement arcade for a go on the new MarioKart GP arcade. After Blondie and I had shed blood, seat and many tears finishing the Gamecube version I was pretty happy to finish the race in first place. I was less happy when it demanded more money to keep going - surely I play till I lose??!? The Japanese arcades seem very weird - and not in the way I was expecting. Traditional cabinets seem to be out and the majority of space is taken up by those damn grabby machines (I wonder if they're as impossible as in England), horse racing betting games and the novelty controller games (Light guns, taiko, guitar, drums etc). Watching the Japanese schoolboys played the drumming game convinced me that not only did you actually need to be able to play the drums to be good, but it also required the ability of very quick sight reading. I returned to the Ryokan before heading back to Gion. Alas, still no Geishas, but a whole street of doormen trying to entice as many people as possible into various strip clubs...

Monday 22nd May
After another weird night of interrupted sleeping, I was up and dressed by 9. It was Ang's 22nd birthday so I gave her a card and presents and then we headed to the station to sort out our onward travel arrangements. For me this involved booking a shinkansen on to Tokyo and for Ang it involved changing her bus time from 11.30pm to 3.30pm. With this done we set out on the bus to pick up where we left off yesterday.


It was another boiling day and the packed bus didn't help the temperature (9 people give off the same amount of body heat as a bar on an electric fire). Our first stop was Nijo Castle. The reception rooms were well preserved including the famous nightingale floor - purposefully made squeaky so that intruders would register a sound like that of the eponymous bird. What would have happened if the castle were infiltrated during the day when people were walking around anyway? I'm not sure. The spacious gardens and moat full of coi carp were very pleasant to experience before we headed on to the Golden Pavilion. As with much of the other "ancient" buildings of Japan, this one was also reconstructed within the last few years after a disgruntled monk burnt the original to the ground. As expected, the place was packed with tourists, but the classic scene of the temple from across the lake was worth it.


As we walked around, we were accosted by several high school students eager to practice their English. Under the watchful eye of their teacher we were asked our names, where we lived and how long we were in Japan before being asked to write a "message for world peace" in one of their exercise books... Ang suggested we do a tea ceremony - the drinking of a frothed green tea in a certain way before eating a wagashi cake made from sweet bean paste. After enjoying a fantastic strawberries and cream ice cream we set out for our final visit of the day before Ang was due to leave - the Silver Pavilion located on the other side of town. This was a much more peaceful location and the pavilion itself was less garish (and not silver at all). There was a small walk around the site from where we saw the odd sight of a man brushing leaves off the moss bed that covered the ground.

Kyoto is a very strange place - from arrival at the station it seems like any other city in the area but the guidebooks and tourist information make out that it's a peaceful oasis in the wilderness. Try to imagine a more built up version of Cambridge (sort of Cambridge crossed with Birmingham) - the city has continued expanding around all the temples, palaces and shrines. Just as in Cambridge where the touristy colleges are next to large shops, so in Kyoto, UNESCO world heritage sites could be beside an office block. We ate lunch in a small cafe and set out back to the station with seemingly enough time - 50 minutes. From that you can probably guess that the bus got stuck in traffic and duly arrived too late. After Ang had rescheduled her departure back to 11.30 again, we looked around the station's department store and then decided to go to the cinema. The tourist information point us back to Nijo so we took a train and found a modern entertainment complex mixing restaurants, and arcade and cinema. We played around in the arcade for a bit and then watched The Da Vinci Code. If Blondie is reading this - sorry, I've seen it with out you BUT I can tell you it's absolutely toss. In 2 and a half hours nothing happens, Tom Hanks' character doesn't do anything even remotely heroic and I guessed the "twist" after about half an hour. We followed this up with dinner at a strange cafe that was very similar in appearance to the Selfridges store in Birmingham - lot's of plastic in a 70s style. The orange decor and faint taste of citrus in the water could have been easily solved if we'd just realised the place was called the Orange Cafe. I left Angharad at Kyoto station to catch her 11.30 night bus back to Izumo and returned to the Ryokan.

Kyoto part 1

Sunday 21st May
Once again I was awake and unable to get back to sleep at 6. I eventually got up and packed up before leaving with Angharad to head for JR Osaka. Here we set about getting to Kyoto. Surprisingly, a ticket was only about £3. The trip took half an hour and we were soon in the modern steel builing that houses the station, many shops, a department store and several rooftop gardens in a 12 storey design.

The weather had fully turned and it was a scorching day with no clouds at all. The walk to our ryokan (Matsuba-ya) only took the advertised 10 minutes and we found that although we'd to book 2 separate rooms (Angharad was only staying for one night) they were next to each other and actually connected by an internal door. With our excess luggage dumped, we set out to explore western Kyoto. A 20 minute train ride left in the suburb of Arashiyama. The narrow streets filled with tourists lead us to a bamboo forest. The experience of being surounded by these unusual trees was very weird. A half hour walk lead us down to th river where a lot of people had gathered. Eventually the reason became clear as a festival parade passed by. Crossing the river lead to the Iwatayama Monkey Park. My Wikitravel guide warned about a steep climb, but nothing could have prepared us for the mountanous hike we had to undertake to reach the monkeys at the top. Along the way we were bombaed with signs telling us among other things, not to let thm see we had food and not to make eye contact with them. I'm not really sure why making eye contact with a macaque monkey is a bad idea; perhaps a zoologist can leave a comment. The top of the mountain thankfully contained a panoramic view over the sprawling city that we enjoyed as we got our breathe back. A keeper offered to take our picture with a monkey (which involved throwing nuts at our feet), but all he managed to do was to get a fully overexposed picture of pure white - I'm not quite sure how. We then went into the small hut where there was a strange mix of howling monkeys and screeming children - hungry, grabby monkeys and small children don' mix well. We fed them some apples and then wet outside for a talk which unfortunately was in Japanese.

After the long decent back down to the river we had an ice cream - Angharad choosing the curious combination of vanilla and green tea flavour - and caught a bus back into town. From here a series of bus rides around the city began as we found ourselves arriving at various locations too late to gain admition. In the end we decided to cut our losses for the day and get some dinner. After consulting the Wikiguide, we arrived near the river where there was a strefull of restaurants. First, we cut into a bar for some margaretas and snacks before walking up the small street looking for food. For some reason my appetite has been odd all week - I can walk all day and not feel even remotely hungry. This was one of those days. We found a nice place that catered to us well and offered me the small meal I needed. Angharad again suggested karaoke and this time I was in the mood so headed back to the main street and into the first karaoke box establishment we found.

We were shown up to our small booth on the 5th floor (4th floor in UK terms). Drinks were brought to us and we set about ruining some of the finest songs to emerge in the last 20 years (and S Club 7). After our hour, Ang managed to get us another half an hour and the catawalling continued culminating in a duet of A Whole New World that would have had Regina Bell and Paebo Brsyon ruing the day they ever agreed to record the song in the first place. A brisk walk got us back to the ryokan easily before the 11pm curfew. As I lay on my futon whishing the air conditioning was more powerful I went to sleep with the thought - I never did figure out what was wrong with that river...

The rest of Osaka and Fpi7

Saturday 20th May


The last day of Fpi7 dawned bright and sunny. I made my way to the Grand Cube Osaka for the final time and sat through some very thorough OLED talks. By the coffee break the sun was beating down and there were proper, distinguishable clouds in the sky replacing the overcast curtain of white that had lasted all week. The last 2 talks were from two well-known materials chemists and were very enjoyable as they actually contained some chemistry and not just device studies.

After the conference was closed I went with Kara and Yvonne to the Tempura restauant across the river and then headed back to the hotel to wait for Angharad. Kara reurned to Namba in search of wax food keychains for o-miyage (souveneers). After a long wait, Angharad arrived at 6pm. Kara decided to pack and get an early night for her 7.30am trip back to Kansai Airport the following morning so Angharad and I walked down to the rose gardens whilst catching up and then back to catch the free bus to Umeda. Here we ate at a restaurant inside a small arcade. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel.



Friday 19th May
Once again we set off to lectures. The keynote talk was given by our head of department, David Parker. It seemed to confuse a lot of people because it wasn't based around devices of any sort. By this point, the lectures were dragging really badly - chemistry seemed to appear less and less. However, before lunch we had a couple of very good talks including one including the actual demonstration of a solar cell from Peter Baurle from Ulm. At lunchtime I went with Kara and Yvonne across the river once more in search of food, finding a small, out-of-the-way place where we got a mix of fried fish and crab cakes. I couldn't take more unrelated lectures so I attended a total of 4 in the afternoon. Afterwards Kara presented her poster drawing a lot of questions about its potential use in devices. As most delegates sloped off to the conference banquet that we hadn't been told we could apply to (£50 each seemed a litle steep), Kara decided she was still full from lunch and didn't want to return to the rainstorm that was raging outside. At 8pm I set off alone to explore the Umeda district. Taking advantage of the free Rihga Royal bus to JR Osaka I straight away got lost around the station. Nearby, the behemouth that is the Umeda Sky Building looms over a district of warehoues. Combined with the weather and darkness the imagery from Blade Runner and Bullfrog's Syndicate games rushed back into my mind. Ridley Scott's epic, although set in LA was based on Japanese cities. Businessmen and women milled around on their way home from work (9pm) and the advertising hoardings provided a seedy faux-lighting. Eventually I managed to orient myself with the post office and navigated to the Hankyu Grand Building on the 29th floor of which, WikiTravel ensured me was a very good and cheap restaurant.

The 29 floor indeed had a number of resturants and some great views over the city. I eventually found the resaurant in question and joined the entry queue. More young couples passed by; perhaps all the talk of a declining birth rate is premature. A glance at my watch showed me it's 9.30 and these couples are still in work clothes - so maybe the problem does has some validity. Eventually I was shown to a fantastic window seat and given a menu in English. The view extends over Umeda all the way out to Osaka Castle in the distance. I plump for the Kansai speciality, okonomiyaki, a cabbage and meat pancake bound with egg and smothered with mayonaise and other sauces. The table contains a hot skillet and soon the ingredients arrive in a bowl and are upturned onto the hot cooking surface right in front of me. It's at this point I decide talking off my jumper maybe a good idea. After a while, my waiter returns to flip my cabbagecake and then inform me it was ready to eat.

To most people, the idea of a cabbage pancake seems odd, however I am a cabbage fan(!) and sure enough it tasted great. After finishing I hurried back to the station to try and catch the last Bus back to the convetion centre but was just too late. I decided to take the subway - an easy journey. Even at this late hour though (10.30) the tube was rammed with businessmen returning home from work - I guess there's no such thing as a rush hour in the evenings here.


Thursday 18th May
The first three lectures this morning were excruciating. The first one was about using OLEDs as LASERs which went over my head, the 2nd and 3rd ones said absolutely nothing - I have no idea why they were plenary talks. The third one was so dull that I managed to get through another chapter of my Japanese language learning book. David Parker confirmed my suspicions that they had been crap. Thankfully the second session was a lot more interesting.

After they finished there was the prospect of the excursion to Nara. We made our way down to the buses where all notions of Japan being an organised society went out of the window as the JTB rep attmpted to make the simple proceedure of checking people off a list as complex as possible. When we were finally boarded and on our way, our tour guide piped up with an unintentionally hilarious self-introduction. For some reason the bus did a slow figure of 8 aound the area and Kara and I both spotted that we'd passed certain points before. Had the bus driver got lost or was he just buying more time for our tourguide to point out more average buildings? Finally we made it onto the toll road towering above the streets of Osaka. For some reason the sides of motorway had high opaque barriers so seeing any scenery was out of the question. Perhaps this was due to the fact - as our guide happily informed us - that suicide is the 6th most common cause of death in Japan. The national speed limit is a leasurely 80km/h (50mph) so the 15 mile trip took us an hour. Nara is the kind of place that really wasn't meant for mass tourism. The narrow streets to the sights has to support 100s of coaches per day and the deer that are free to roam frequently roam into the road. "They don't understand the traffic signals - or if they do they ignore them" chirped our guide seemingly indicating that the deer were possibly deliberately flaunting the rules of the road. Our first stop was the Todai-Ji temple, home of the world's largest wooden building (now rebuilt at 3/4 the size) and the world's largest Budda - made of bronze and weighing a scale-bending 500 tons. It is said that 20 children can stand on his outstretched palm. The whole site is one giant tourist trap - hundreds of simultaneous school tours mass around the area and the number of cheap tacky souveneer stalls is mind numbing. This is partially organised chaos. Our guide instructs us to follow her flag on a pole; a good idea until we realise that every other guide and school teacher has had the exact same idea.

We amble around the temple and then gain a massive 20 minutes of free time (just enough to get back to the bus) before we are whisked off to Kasuga Taisha (shrine) - founded when Nara became the ancient capital of Japan. Once again, the peaceful surroundings have been shattered by the regular influx of oversized coaches - each of which carries a girl who's only job seems to be to count the passengers, shout irasshaimasse (welcome) as we leave the coach and stand behind the coach shouting "Hai" to the diver so he know when to stop reversing. At Kasuga Taisha, the back of the bus extends over a drop and there was no room to the sides so I had visions of this poor girl having to dive into a 5 foot drop as our bus backed ever closer. Our guide whisked us around the shrine attempting to convey to a group of material scientists the history and customs.


The place is a lot more peaceful than Todai-Ji, but the school parties were arriving as we left... Those attempting to sleep on the return journey were awakened to take part in an origami class - I've long since forgotton how to make Japanese cranes, so I was hopeful this would reteach me. In the end we made minature hats, much to the chagrin of several postgrads behind us who had been woken up to participate. Eventually we were dropped back at the Rihga Royal and Kara and I decided to follow David Parker's advice and head the opposite way along the river in search of food. As is always the case, we walked around for ages before deciding on the first place we had seen - a small tempura restaurant just off the river. The waiter immediately picked us out as gaijin (well, let's face it we sick out like a sore thumb) and took us back outside for us to duly point at the wax food replicas in the windows. The light tempura tiger prawns were excellent and again, the meal was very cheap. I'm now actually very fond of miso soup to the extent that I'm upset when it doesn't come with a meal. After we got home I decided to go out for a walk. Armed with my iPod I strolled along the riverside promenades until I reached the rose gardens at Nakanoshima Park.

Even in the darkness, the place was full of young couples walking hand in hand. After duly failing to get any decent photos (hand holding a 1sec exposure is not easy) I headed back, mildy alarmed to find the hotel entrances shuttered up - is ram raiding a problem here? Thankfully a small door next to a security desk remained open and (with absolutely no checks of who I was) I gained reentry.

Wednesday 17th May
The second day of the conference dawned and once again I hadn't gotten full night's sleep. Our head of department, David Parker, had arrived and chaired the first session. As the day wore on, the lectures seemed to get longer and more dull. After they finished the next poster session started. I chatted to Prof Parker about the conference and he seemed very underwhelmed with some of the talks branding them as being crap and containing bad science. He introduced me to several people from the journals who were trolling for business. Amusingly he also gave me a glimpse into the world behind the scenes as he revealed how he taunted just about everyone he met - whether it be about historic battles or cricket.

Japan - The conference and the castle - Days 3 and 4

I thought I'd stick these two days together as the conference has taken up most of the days - but then the university has shelled nearly £1k for me to be here so I suppose I should go to some lectures...

Tuesday 16th May

Today was the first day of the conference proper. I was little disappointed by the organisation; our main lecture hall was flat (not sloped like a lecture theatre), there were no desks to lean on, just row after row of very odd chairs.

Looking to all intents like a regular chair, putting weight on the wrong part of the back caused the chair to lean back - great if you were relaxing, not so great if you were trying to take notes. Lunch wasn't free as it was in Ithaca 2 years earlier although the cafe was inexpensive. The afternoon saw the shorter lectures take place. There was some fairly ropey science on display here. Igor took apart one presentation by showing how it contradicted itself and a couple of apparent postgrads or young postdocs spoke leading me to actually be slightly pissed off that I hadn't been asked to give a presentation. After the lectures came my poster presentation. A good number of people seemed interested in work and several people asked to be sent copies of our paper. As the sun set over a misty Osaka, there was more evidence for a lack of neon - both in the local area and in the distance. Eventually the delegates disappeared home to the upmarket Rihga Royal and the large number of grad students packed up and headed back to the cheaper NCB hotel.

I went out to dinner with Yvonne, returning to the vending machine resturant we'd first encountered on the first night. She told me that the afer eating at the same chinese restaurant Kara and I had eaten at a few nights earlier had left some delegates with food poisoning - explaining some of the quiet, uneasy presentations we had seen...


Monday 15th May



Today I was alone for breakfast as Kara had sourced hers from the 7-11 the night before. We set out back to Awaza, the ticket machine posing no problems this time around. This time we alighted at Osaka Castle and walked around the surrounding park. Although it was quiet and peaceful (apart from the incessent whistling from the land-train) the city's skyscrapers were visable in the background and the site lies near the final approach into Osaka International Itami Airport so low flying planes were common. There was a miniature garden display on (complete with barmy mascot character) so we had a browse thhrough these before we eventually got to the castle itself which contains a museum.

The view from the top floor is certainly impressive, apparently moreso than that from the Umeda Sky Building. There was a school trip at the time so Japanese junior school children rushed around in large numbers - some of them spotting the gaijin greeted us with a cheery "hello!". The castle itself is something of a fraud having been largely reconstructed in the last century but still looks impressive. After strolling through the plum groves we headed back to the hotel, picking up a freshly prepared sushi lunch on the way back.

The afternoon brought registration for the conference and our first encounter with the Grand Cube Osaka - the international convention centre. The conference was on the 12th foor and the foyer outside our main hall afforded some more great views over the city. The reception brought a welcome influx of food of various styles as we mingled with the researchers attending the proceedings. This was to be the only complementary food for the whole week, but it was provided by the Rihga Royal so was of a high standard.

Japan - Osaka - Day 2

Sunday 14th May

Afer waking up at 2am and 5am I finally woke up at 6am and lay in bed for hours thinking. Eventually I got up at 8. Kara knocked at 9am and we went down to get breakfast. I opted for the American style breakfast and was greeted by scrambled eggs, ham and bacon. I don't think I'm quite up to cold fish first thing in the morning yet. Afterwards we set out to Namba.

It was fairly overcast, but after a few hundred yards the decision to bring a coat was looking pretty foolish. After waiting for Kara to corner a pigeon so she could get a photo -"it's a different colour from ours", we made our way to the nearest subway station. Our first encounter with a subway ticket machine went fairly smoothly although we paid about 50yen too much. Finding the correct exit at Namba however was a struggle. Evntually we found our way up to street level and were greeted by the kind of street scene that I had been expecting. Large signs, hundreds of people and pachinko parlours everywhere. My knowledge of pachinko only extends as far as knowing that it's a kind of vertical pinball and gambling can be involved. Narrow streets with masses of overhead cables snaked off in every direction and cars moved slowly past.

We had a long 2 hour walk around the Namba area taking in all the sights, sounds and smells: Namba Parks - a shopping centre with picturesque rooftop gardens, Nan-Nan Town and Dotombori packed with all sorts of restaurants and street site vendors. Giant mechanical crabs, robotic clowns beating drums, barbequed crab claws, it was all here.

The Dotombori area is still having a pedestrianised area built so only a bit of the waterfront was accessible. It featured an arcade with a giant london eye-style ferris oval. We then headed back to Nan-Nan Town to buy some tako-yaki - a local speciality of octopus in fried batter cooked before our eyes. 8 of them turned out to be too many, but at £1.40 offered great value. We sat in the rooftop gardens at Namba Parks to eat and then headed back to the hotel. What jet lag I had hadn't completely worn off and we had a quick sleep before heading out to the Awaza district again for some food. This time Kara and I tried a Chinese restaurant just aross the river. The menus were completely in Kanji so we had to hedge our bets and write down the Kanji of what we wanted based on the wax models outside. Unfortunately our food was covered in a thick layer of pure MSG, but once this had been scraped off the food was perfectly fine.

Japan - Fpi7 and cultural experiences - Day 1

Firstly, before you read any further, this is an ongoing entry. It will change a few times as I update it. Photos will appear (here and on Flickr) and more text will be added into the entry. So, on with day & 1/2 - the arrival:

Friday 12th May/Saturday 13th May
This was it. The day I'd been waiting almost 2 years for. The day that, for a variety of reasons, seemed like it would never arrive was here. Even the 6.30am start couldn't deter me. I got a lift to the Airport from Mark and Catherine and soon met up with Kara at the airport. After dropping off the baggage and collecting our travel money, we made our way upstaris to the departure lounge and then onto the 737 to Amsterdam. The flight took us south towards London and then east accross the North Sea. After landing at Schipol we faced a 3 hour wait for our connecting flight to Kansai. Half an hour of this was taken up simply walking between gates as Schipol seems to be one very large terminal. The trip between gates D to F took us over several travelaters. Upon finding a US-bound Airbus at our gate we duly wandered round for a few hours looking through the indentikit shops and Rembrandt "museum" before eventually our flight was called and we proceeded back to the gate to board our 777 flight eastwards. Straight away we were in the minority as Westerners, but after only a few minutes sitting around I'd become acustomed to the sea of Asian faces. We were sat apart from each other and I soon got a chance to practice my nascent Japanese as I had to ask someone to move so I could get to my seat. I managed to get out sumimasen, sore wa watashi desu (excuse me, that is me) whilst pointing at the seat. To my amazement the bloke actually understood what I'd said (or it could have just been that he understood my gesticulating) and allowed me to pass. Our lunch/dinner combo was a curious mix of sushi and beef stew. My cunning plan of avoiding jet lag by sleeping for 6 hours duly failed as I watched 3 films and a load of TV shows. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would have to go to the toilet on the plane (my least favourite thing ever), but miraculsly as the hours ticked by I felt no urge at all. Our flight took us over northern Germany, the Baltic Sea, Russia, China, then a little twist to avoid going over North Korea (possibly the reason the trip back from Tokyo is quicker than the trip back from Osaka), then South Korea and finally Japan. Kansai airport is a wonder of engineering. Built on a manmade island in Osaka Bay, it is one of the most expensive engineering feats ever undertaking (currently $15bn). The interest on the loan alone costs over $550m per year. The island sunk 8m more than was expected during construction and to this day, may sink further. The terminal building is the longest in the world and during the Kobe earthquake just across the bay, not even a single window was broken. Work on a second island for a second runway is underway. The price for the exuberance is that the landing fees are the 2nd highest in the world (ironically after Japan's other international gateway; New Tokyo International - Narita) so a lot of airlines (including BA) don't fly here - and if they do, they avoid landing 747s (it costs an airline $7500 for every 747 that lands) sticking to the 777 or Airbus planes. More bad news is that Kobe is building it's own airport across the bay which could steal a lot of KIX's traffic and worsen it's financial position. But enough with my mindless airport trivia.
To say the weather was bad was an understatment It was raining and was so misty that we could barely make out the mainland just over a mile away from the man-made island that Kansai airport is built on. Strangely, this made me feel a lot more comfortable. After all, we may be 6000 miles from home, but it's nice to know that they still get crap weather here just as we'd left back in Newcastle. Also the gloomy mist enveloping the tall buildings on the mainland cunjoured up images of Ghost in the Shell (set in Kobe) and Blade Runner. On the bus into Osaka we met another Fpi7-goer, Yvonne, (and I'm sure Ullrich Scherf was on the bus too) also staying at our hotel. As the bus dropped us off (not, as promised, at JR Osaka but a random Umeda bus stop) we made our way through the rain trying to find the correct exit from JR Osaka to our bus to the conference centre. Eventually we found it, more by luck than anything else and soon we were dropped off outside the Rihga Royal - the posh hotel where most people were staying. Not us however; we were in the cheap Hotel NCB down the road. After paying and getting our keys, we finally got to our rooms 19 hours after we left Newcastle, unpacked and had shower. The plan now was to stay awake, but after finding Kara had probably zonked out, I settled down to watch some baseball (which is the dullest game ever) and soon passed out. At 6pm we set out with Yvonne in search of a local restaurant. Eventually we found one we agreed on and went in. The ticket-vending machine style cut down on the interaction required and only required me to utter the phrase that we're going to use most this week: reshito wa arimasu ka (is there a receipt?). We got back to the hotel via a 7-11 and I promptly fell asleep, but not before daring to use the toilet; basic by Japanese standards, it only featured a bidet and spray function with adjustable pressure. No heating. The sensation was worryingly enjoyable - my quest in life now is to have a smart toilet in my home!

My demonstration ends

Today marked the last time I take part in any university demonstrating. It's quite sad as it was an excellent experience going back into the same labs that used to scare me so much as an undergrad. Actually knowing what was going on and how the experiments worked made them seem sooooo easy compared to the first time through, when you'd run off the find a demonstrator if your reaction looked even vaguely different from those around you. I remember not having a clue what was going on and essentially following a recipe to get my products rather than trying to understand the chemistry. I remember the demonstrators being not much cop too. If you asked them a question they'd just tell you the answer with no attempt to try to get you to understand of help you out so you'd know what to do next time. Memories of the evil Darren Holling telling us that if we didn't use the vacuum pump correctly it'd blow our legs off still haunt me. So I made a concerted effort to try to get the students to understand what they were doing. On a few rare occasions you could actually see them understanding a concept and it was such a good feeling to think that you had actually got through to them. Of course, most of the timee they'd nod as you explained things to them fully knowing that they weren't taking it in at all.
Sdaly, my last shift was for a spectroscopy workshop in which most people were doing an assessment and didn't need/weren't allowed any help so I spent most of the time sat talking to the other demonstrator. It's definately something I'll miss (especially the £9.57/hr that came with it)

My problem with paintball

Last weekend I went to a friend's stag weekend back home in Birmingham. The main event during the day was paintballing in a small forrest near Kidderminster. I'd never been before, but it sounded like a right laugh. The first challenge was making it to the site for 9am. Once we had signed the legal waivers (not a good sign) and were suited p in the most faded cammo gear ever, we were taken through our safety drills, split into teams and lead into combat. The first game was set in a very small 30' square zone with triangluar blockades around a central wall were our objective, a flag, was located. Of course, with 30 players casualties were quick to rack up. Before the game started I did notice how most other groups had brought heavily armoured gloves. Of course, I took the first round to the hand and a lot of swearing followed. Now in paintball, because they didn't want us shooting each other in the head, head shots don't count as a kill. Of course, when everyone's dug in, all anyone sees are heads poking out. This is a round about way of saying I took the second shot to the face, which included ingesting most of a paintball. I wasn't even "dead" yet, but a volley as soon as I stepped out put an end to my alive status. The second game was a more traditional attack/defend objective. This time, I dug in and took out a load of defenders before a last second dive for the flag earned me a volley from 4 defenders I didn't even know where there. With the roles reversed, I'm proud to say that not only did we also defend the base, but I took out lots of their players and wasn't hit at all!
The third game was a bit of a puzzle. All the other games had some kind of strategy. This one require someone to sit on a chair with only a barrel for defence for 10 seconds whilst being pelted. Their guy got off quite lightly, but our guy took an absolute pasting and once the 10 count was over crumpled to the floor. A few minutes after arriving back at base camp, half his body had visibly swelled. The look of concern on the marshalls' faces reminded me why we'd had to sign a disclaimer.
More conventional battles took place over a variety of terrains until we finally ran out of paintballs. It was this point that I took another round straight in the face. This time yellow immediately sprayed into my vision and images of the one-epsiode of Byker Grove I watched sped through my mind. I collapsed back , and slightly raised my visor to spit and out came half a paintball - casing and all. I then took a proper body hit and was eliminated. For the next 10 minutes I was spitting yellow. Finally returning to base camp, I removed my visor to see that: yes, paint had indeed sprayed up into the inside of the safety device...
The rest of the day was spent trying to avoid touching any bruises. Although the stinging pain of being hit faded after 5 seconds, I'm left with some impressive battle scars. Overall a great experience that couled be improved by taking more people you know and not getting hit as often!