Tärkeä huomio / Important note:
AU:n sähköpostipalvelimen ongelmien takia menetin viime viikolla tiistain ja perjantain välillä kännykkään tulleet sähköpostiviestit. Jos siis esim. vastasit edelliseen "AJT in Japan" -mailiin käyttäen osoitetta arto at ezweb.ne.jp, lähetä viesti uudestaan, kiitos.
Due to problems with the mail server at AU, I lost emails which were sent last week between Tuesday and Friday to my mobile phone address (arto at ezweb.ne.jp). So if you for example replied to the previous "AJT in Japan" newsletter to that address, please try again. Thanks.
Finnish summary:
Hei,
Tällä kertaa kerron hiukan jokapäiväisistä rutiineista, usein aivan arkiset asiat ovat kiinnostavimpia uuteen kulttuuriin tutustuessa. Ennen sitä kuitenkin linkki uusimpiin kuviin, Kenrokuen-puisto viikko sitten lauantai-iltana:
http://www.iki.fi/ajt/travel/japan/kanazawa/kenrokuen.html
Myös Kanazawa-sivullani on muutamia pieniä päivityksiä.
Syksy on saapunut toden teolla myös Kanazawaan, pari viime viikkoa ovat olleet sateisia ja selvästi kylmempiä kuin lokakuun alku. Päivisin lämpötila on yleensä 10-15 astetta ja yöllä viiden asteen tienoilla, tällä hetkellä (23:25 perjantai-iltana) labroratorion sääasema näyttää lukemaa 8,7.
Olen Kanazawan yliopistossa "research student" eli tutkimusopiskelija, joka tarkoittaa käytännössä sitä että kurssien sijaan osallistun laboratoriossa johonkin tutkimusprojektiin. Tietotekniikan tapauksessa laboratorio ei toki tarkoita mitään kemian koetilaa vaan lähinnä näppäimistön ja näytön ääressä istumista.
Paikallisessa kuvankäsittelyn labrassa projektit ovat kuitenkin melko käytännönläheisiä. Itse olen mukana ryhmässä, joka tutkii lumisateen ominaisuuksia, apuvälineinä mm. videokameroita ja pari erilaista pilvitutkaa. Lisäksi opiskelen japania, 90 minuutin oppitunteja on viisi kertaa viikossa ja lisäksi tietysti kieltä tulee harjoiteltua käytännön tilanteissa joka päivä. Hiukan kömpelöä kommunikointi vielä on, mutta paranee koko ajan.
Aamuisin herään tavallisesti yhdeksän maissa, ja syön aamiaiseksi kotoisaan tyyliin leipää, muroja ja teetä. Se on ainakin näin alkuun tuntunut mukavalta muuten japanilaisiin aineksiin painottuvan ruokavalion lomassa. Lounas tulee yleensä syötyä paikallisessa opiskelijaravintolassa ja päivällinen labran porukan mukana kampuksen ulkopuolella. Suomeen verrattuna ruoka on supermarketissa kallista mutta pienet ravintolat taas halpoja, joten ruoan laittaminen itse ei yllättäen ole juurikaan edullisempaa. Kun vielä asuntolan keittiö on melko vaatimaton (yksi keittolevy, ei uunia), niin sitä tulee käytettyä aika vähän.
Hinnoissa tulee välillä vastaan mielenkiintoisia yllätyksiä. Esimerkiksi suomalaista kevytmaitoa vastaava vähärasvainen maito on selvästi halvempaa kuin normaali rasvaisempi maito, joka kuitenkin on näkyvämmin esillä. Myös rasvainen liha ja kala ovat vähärasvaisia kalliimpia (myös ravintolassa) joten näyttäisi siltä että rasvaa arvostetaan, ruoassa sitä on kuitenkin onneksi yleensä niukasti. Hedelmät ja vihannekset puolestaan ovat torilla alle puolet supermarketin hinnoista, joten hintojen vertailu kannattaa.
Kanazawa on pyöräilijän näkökulmasta varsin kiva kaupunki, riittävän pieni ja pyörätieverkostokin melko hyvä. Pyöräilykulttuuri sen sijaan oli pienoinen yllätys. Pyöriä käytetään paljon mutta maastopyörät ja hybridit loistavat poissaolollaan - asukkailla olisi kyllä niihin varaa mutta mieluummin ostetaan mopo tai auto. Vaikka itse omistan Suomessa japanilaisen Nishiki-merkkisen pyörän niin täällä en ole nähnyt vielä yhtään sellaista tai edes samantyyppisiä malleja. Onnistuin kuitenkin löytämään itselleni varsin kohtuullisen kulkupelin vaivaiseen 4000 jenin (35 euron) hintaan. Talvikäyttöön se ei oikein sovi, mutta labraan on matkaa vain kolme kilometriä joten sinne pääsee hyvin jalkaisinkin.
Ensi maanantai ja tiistai ovat lomaa, joten käytän pitkän viikonlopun tutustumalla Kiotoon, joka sijaitsee parisataa kilometriä Kanazawasta etelään ja on tunnettu kauniista temppeleistään. Lisäksi kansainvälisten asioiden toimisto järjestää retken maaseudulle keskiviikkona ja torstaina, joten lähipäivinä on tiedossa paljon mielenkiintoista ohjelmaa.
Nauttikaa syksyn väreistä, terveisin
AJT
Hi,
This time I'll write you a bit of my daily life - often the most basic things are the most insteresting to discover in a new culture. But before going to that I'll give you a pointer to the latest eye candy. Kenrokuen garden by night, douzo:
http://www.iki.fi/ajt/travel/japan/kanazawa/kenrokuen.html
There are also a few small updates on my Kanazawa page.
Weather has gotten quite rainy and colder lately, at least compared to what it was two weeks ago when I sent my previous newsletter. During daytime the temperature is usually between 10 and 15 degrees celsius and at night it drops to about 5. The information should be quite accurate because it's provided by the weather station of the lab, installed at the roof of the building. At the moment (23:25 Friday night) I get a reading of 8.7 degrees, and it's raining again.
My status in Kanazawa University is "research student" (研究生) which means that my main job is to participate in a research project in a laboratory. It is quite common among Japanese students as well - the work in the lab is accepted as a part of their major field of studies.
In addition to research in the lab I participate in Japanese classes. It's 90 minutes four times a week and another 90 minutes dedicated to Kanji (characters used in Japanese writing), plus of course some homework. That gives a nice boost to my ability to communicate - it's still quite clumsy but getting better all the time. I actually do the same Japanese classes than students studying in the Kanazawa University Short-term Exchange Program (KUSEP), which consists of language studies and courses in English on various aspects of Japanese culture and economy. It would be interesting to participate in the culture courses too, but there's only 24 hours in one day so I have to draw the line somewhere.
A typical day
I wake up around 9 o'clock and have green tea, bread and cereal for breakfast, sometimes also yoghurt and fruit. At least in the beginning it has been a nice to balance Japanese lunch and dinner by starting the day in western style. It's more expensive than in Finland, but I was actually expecting worse.
Comparing prices often pays off, the differences are big and sometimes unexpected. For example, after buying the cheapest "normal" milk a couple of times for 1.5 euros / liter I noticed that low fat milk (which I wanted anyway) costs about 20-30 % less. It only took some time to find it, as I was looking for "gyuunyuu" (牛乳) and low fat milk is called teishibounyuu (低脂肪乳) without the kanji which means a cow.
The same goes for meat and fish, parts that contain a lot of fat are more expensive than others - most food is fortunately low fat. Fruit and vegetables are overpriced in supermarkets but can be bought for less than half of that at the Oumichou market. Good bread actually seems to be harder to find than most other products. On the other hand, the shelves are full of interesting looking Japanese things many of which I haven't had time to taste yet.
After breakfast I take my bike to get to the lab, which is situated three kilometers away on another campus. By bike the distance is actually about one kilometer longer: the shortest route has a section of steep slope through a small forest and I would have to carry the bike up. In any case it's not far, in winter I plan to go by foot. Japanese classes are organized on both campuses so I have them conveniently at Kodatsuno near the lab.
At around noon it's lunch time in the local student restaurant. There are plenty of options on the list but it's mainly the same selection every day: small starters, different kinds of fried fish, pork or chicken, miso soup and rice plus another counter which has various kinds of noodles. The food is edible but I wouldn't call it very good, the restaurants at Helsinki University of Technology get better points here.
Luckily there are small restaurants all over the city which have decent food and are also a lot cheaper than in Finland. Combine that with high prices in the supermarket and you end up in a situation where it's actually almost the same price to eat out in a modest place than to cook something yourself. Furthermore, the facilities at the dorm are quite limited (one heating plate, no oven) so it is much more common to go out with friends.
Most students in the lab go for dinner around 7 pm: the normal procedure is to get in cars and go to a different place every night. Without dessert and with just the included drinks (usually water, sometimes tea) the bill is usually between 500 and 1000 yen (4-9 euros) per person. On Friday we sometimes choose the gourmet option and go to a sushi bar: add another 1000 yen. Of course there are also top class restaurants where dinner may cost more than 10 000, but I haven't tried any of them yet.
After dinner we get back to the lab and I usually stay for another hour or two, often writing personal emails rather than working though. I could do that at the dormitory too but in the lab I have a full size keyboard and a fancy 19" LCD, which compares quite favorably to the small laptop at the dorm. I usually get back around nine or ten in the evening, leaving some time to do Japanese homework and chat with other exchange students at the common room before going to bed.
Moving around - by bike of course!
Bike culture was a small surprise. Many people here use bikes, but while in Finland the streets and shops are full of mountain bikes and hybrids, here over 90% are basic models with 3 gears at maximum. My bike in Finland is made by a Japanese company called Nishiki, but ironically I haven't yet seen a single "Nishiki" or even a similar looking model here. Few people seem to want to invest in a good bike, if they have extra money they rather buy a car and tune it with a radar detector and an exhaust pipe of absurdly large diameter. :)
As you may now guess, my plans of finding a good second hand hybrid or mountain bike were doomed to fail. New mountain bikes were available but I didn't want to either buy the cheap supermarket models or spend a lot of money in a bike I would have to get rid of after a year. Luckily I found a small shop which sold used bikes and had one which is something between a basic city bike and a touring bike. For a mere 4000 yen (35 euros) it was mine. The bike doesn't really match the "Road racer" text written on the side, but it works and even has 18 gears which is quite useful as the region is not flat.
All that said, bike is the best way to move around in Kanazawa. There is no subway, bus service is poor, taxi is expensive and the network of biking routes actually quite good. I probably cannot use my bike in winter like I do in Finland but because I live close to the lab it is not so essential than it has been in Helsinki.
The laboratory
The name of the lab is Image Information Science laboratory (画像情報工学研究室). In Japan you can also refer to it by the name of the leading professor, in this case professor Muramoto (村本). The personnel also includes professor Matsuura, assistant Kubo (in Finland he would probably be called researcher) and almost twenty students. Most of the students are doing a two-year course towards a Master of Science degree, which comes after a four year period to get a B.Sc. Almost all are Japanese, Sha comes from China but has lived in Japan already for several years and speaks the language fluently. However, I'm not the first Finn here: Henri Servomaa did his Ph.D in the same lab and gave me a lot of useful information by email in advance.
Image processing can be applied to many fields and here the main research projects are related to nature and environment. I participate in research studying various properties of snowfall, using video cameras and a couple of different types of radars. One important goal is to study how the radar data and results from snowflake classification are related. With that information it would be easier to observe snowfall from a distance, for example in mountains.
It hasn't yet been decided in detail what will be my part in the project. Up to now I've mostly been reading manuals of the devices and papers about the project, discussing it with other students and trying to learn some of the vocabulary in Japanese. Well, I already got into some practical stuff by writing a small program which gets data from the weather station of the lab through a serial port.
Of course the project really gets going when we start getting snow (usually at least 1 meter during winter), so maybe this is enough about it for now. In upcoming newsletters I'll drop in some interesting bits now and then. But if you got immediately fascinated and want to know more, feel free to follow the pointers below.
Snowfall team homepage (Japanese only, but there are pictures):
http://wis02.ec.t.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/study/muramoto/sft/
Most recent scientific paper about the project (in English):
http://search.ieice.or.jp/2002/pdf/e85-d_8_1306.pdf
Next Monday and Tuesday are free so I've decided to take advantage of the long weekend and will go to Kyoto. Then there's another trip to the countryside on Wednesday and Thursday, organized by the student exchange division. I'm participating in that as well - when I get the story and pictures on the web I'll let you know.
Enjoy the colors of the autumn,
AJT
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Arto Teräs --- See http://www.iki.fi/ajt/ for contact info