Finnish summary: (English version at the end of the mail)
Hei,
Taas on aikaa vierähtänyt edellisestä matkakirjeestä. Olen palannut Suomeen, aloittanut uudessa työpaikassa ja totutellut taas pohjoisen pimeneviin syysiltoihin. Palaan tässä kuitenkin vielä tunnelmiin Japanissa viimeisinä viikkoina ennen lähtöä.
Elokuun lopulla lähdin reiluksi viikoksi Hokkaidolle (北海道), Japanin pohjoisimmalle saarelle, kiertäen erityisesti kansallispuistoja. Upean reissun kohokohtiin kuuluivat mm. suoraan merestä korkeuksiin nouseva Rishiri-vuori (利尻山), puhisevat höyrysuihkut tuliperäisen Asahi-daken rinteillä ja ehkä koko Japanin hienoin kuuma lähde Kamuiwakka-yu-no-taki (カムイワッカ湯の滝). Kamuiwakka on itse asiassa sarja pieniä vesiputouksia ja koskia, joissa lähteestä peräisin oleva vesi virtaa alaspäin. Alhaalta lähdetään kiipeämään ylöspäin keskellä matalaa virtaa jolloin vesi koko ajan lämpenee, ja paras paikka kylpeä on juuri yhden kauniin vesiputouksen alapuolella.
Otin tapani mukaan runsaasti kuvia. Matkakertomusta en ole ehtinyt kirjoitella, mutta kuvia voi käydä katsomassa osoitteessa
http://www.iki.fi/ajt/travel/japan/hokkaido/all/
Hokkaidon jälkeen kävin vielä labran muiden opiskelijoiden kanssa lyhyemmällä reissulla Tokion lähistöllä ja tapaamassa vielä kerran Tokiossa asuvia kavereitani. Sen jälkeen yritin viimeiset pari viikkoa saada hommat labrassa niin hyvin kuntoon kuin mahdollista. Suomeen palasin 20. syyskuuta.
Suomessa minulla oli parisen viikkoa aikaa ennen kuin aloitin uudessa työpaikassa, josta oli sovittu jo kesäkuussa. Tosin vapaa-aika hupeni tehokkaasti yhdistysaktiviteetteihin ja erilaisiin käytännön järjestelyihin. Alkuun asuin väliaikaisesti vanhempieni luona, nyt kuitenkin taas yksin vanhassa tutussa kämpässä Etelä-Haagassa, Helsingissä. Yhteystiedot löytyvät www-sivuiltani osoitteesta
Lokakuun 8. päivästä alkaen olen ollut töissä CSC:llä (http://www.csc.fi), tieteen tietotekniikan keskuksessa joka tarjoaa yliopistoille, korkeakouluille ja niiden tutkimusryhmille laskentaresursseja ja informaatiopalveluja. Itse puuhailen erityisesti niin sanottujen Grid-teknologioiden parissa, joilla pyritään yhtenäistämään ja helpottamaan eri puolille verkkoa sijoitettujen tietokoneiden ja tiedon käyttöä.
Diplomityö on edennyt mutta vielä sen verran kesken että tänä vuonna valmistuminen näyttää jäävän haaveeksi. Ensi vuoden alussa sen pitäisi kuitenkin onnistua. Kunhan saan dipan valmiiksi niin odotettavissa on vielä Japani-aiheisia päivityksiä www-sivuille. Kun on jotain kerrottavaa niin lähettelen taas mailia. Seuraavaksi kesäksi on myös alustavia suunnitelmia pitemmästä pyöräreissusta, mutta siitä lisää myöhemmin.
AJT
Hi,
Again time has flied without me having had time to write. I'm back in Finland, I've started a new job and been relearning to cope with the shortening autumn days in the north. But first I'd like to tell about my last few weeks in Japan.
For the last week of August I headed up to Hokkaido (北海道), the northernmost of the four main islands of Japan. Before the trip there were several things that seemed to go wrong. I had planned to travel with a few friends and rent a car together but one after another they had to cancel for various reasons. My schedule was also getting tighter, I already knew that I wouldn't be able to finish my master's thesis in Japan. Despite that, I felt that I deserved a vacation, packed my backpack again and hopped on a train on Friday afternoon, August 22.
I'm glad I did. Rishiri mountain (利尻山) rising majestically almost straight from the sea, hissing steam vents on the slope of Asahi-dake (旭岳) and superb sashimi at Utoro were just some of the highlights of the trip. The best of all was Kamuiwakka-yu-no-taki (カムイワッカ湯の 滝), an unbelievable hot spring in Shiretoko national park. It's actually a series of small waterfalls and rapids. You start climbing in lukewarm water in the middle of the stream, and the water gets warmer and warmer higher uphill. The best place to bath is just below a pittoresque hot water waterfall. And we were even crazy enough to do it at sunset time...
Once again I took a lot of pictures. I haven't yet picked the best ones or written a proper travel story but the photos are online:
http://www.iki.fi/ajt/travel/japan/hokkaido/all/
After the tour around Hokkaido, there was still one trip to go: a three-day excursion near Mt. Fuji with the students of the lab I was studying in. This one was not hiking, instead we went to a zoo where one drives around by car and to an awesome amusement park called Fuji Kyuu Highland (富士急ハイランド), sporting world's highest and fastest roller coasters. On the last day (Friday) we did a walk in an ancient forest with interesting caves. Being near Tokyo, I still had a good chance to meet my friends there once more. So when the others headed back to Kanazawa I hopped on a local train to Tokyo and returned by overnight bus Sunday morning.
Two last weeks in Kanazawa were filled with trying to write at least some parts the thesis, completing user and administrator guides for the database system I had been developing, teaching others how it works and preparing for departure. I made the post office richer by mailing some 50 kilos of things I wanted to bring back to Finland - the limit in airplanes is 20 kg. I was treated with presents, farewell meals - including lots of sushi, a farewell party at the lab and even a surprise dinner last night in Osaka with Maki, the girl friend of one of my friends from Kanazawa.
Returning to one's home country after a long stay abroad is at the same time a sad and a happy event. I had to say good bye to so many good friends, on the other hand I met again my family and many friends I hadn't seen for over a year. I had a direct flight: the plane left Kansai airport on the morning of September 20, arriving in Helsinki 10 hours later.
In Finland, I had about two weeks free before I had agreed to start in my new job. Of course "free time" is a subjective matter: I was involved in organizing a local Linux user group event, continued writing my thesis and had lots of different practical things to arrange. One of them was moving back in my apartment which was rented out until the end of September. New contact info is available on my web page, as usual:
On 8th of October, I became a salaryman. I'm working at CSC (http://www.csc.fi/index.phtml.en), the Finnish IT center for science which offers supercomputing and information services for universities and research groups. My main responsibility is Grid computing, a group of technologies which try to make it easier to use computers and data over wide area networks, usually the Internet.
Technically I'm still a student, because the master's thesis is still an ongoing project. I was planning to graduate before the end of this year but trying to balance my time between the thesis, work and various hobbies has favored too much the latter two. However, I've made reasonable progress and expect to graduate in early 2004. We don't have any strict deadlines in the Finnish university system which allows me to take it easy.
During the winter I won't be traveling much, perhaps some weekend getaways or short work trips to neighboring countries but no longer excursions foreseen. I'll try to make the web coverage of my year in Japan more complete; when I have something new on the site I'll let you know. I also already have preliminary plans for a longer biking trip next summer, but more about that later.
And by the way, feel free to write me in Japanese if you like, I can read and type kanji from this address.
Cheers,
AJT
--
Arto Teräs --- See http://www.iki.fi/ajt/ for contact info