Monday, July 07, 2003
Let me get back to last night. I would have written it then, but for sake of time, I merely ranted about customer service. That went like I had planned, really. Today was kind of boring, so I'm glad I postponed it.
And now, for the rest of the story...
Went to a party at someone's house yesterday. Maybe not most people's idea of a party, but Dr. Koizumi invited us to a get together at his friend's house. His friend is a researcher at AIST, another laboratory here in Tsukuba. They both do diamond research, but not really working on the same topics I think. Dr. Koizumi-san brought his wife so we met her and the other guy had a wife and son that we met. I regret that I can't think of the guy's name now. I will have to ask Dr. Koizumi. It would be a lot easier if they had names I was used to, like Smith, Jones, Johnson, etc. I'm bad enough with those anyhow. Back to the story, we had a great Japanese meal and some good discussions learning about each other over about a 2 hour period. (notice a trend?) There was another researcher there as well, and once again I have forgotten his name. Maybe I should have written this last night come to think of it.
After the meal, the three researchers had a jazz jam session. See, that was really the point of the whole evening, a jam session get together. Imagine, three Ph.D. researchers having a jazz jam. Ok, you don't have to imagine, here's a picture! And here is a short video excerpt with sound. I took some individual pictures of the three as well. I should have used a tripod in the low lighting situation so some are a little blurry because the shutter speed was slow, but I edited them to sharpen the edges a little. They're better than they were.
On the keys
The bass man!
And the git-fiddle! Funny, his wife is in the background.
This one was the blurriest so I gave it a matte finish to make it look intentional. Not that you would know if I hadn't told you.
I also took a picture of the wives during my time talking to them. They entertained us with stories about Japanese history and literature and asked us a lot about what we do in the States. I like this picture because of the slow shutter speed. It caught Koizumi-san's hands in action as she spoke to us. The Japanese people use a lot of body language in their conversations and I am glad I was able to capture it without the use of video because that wouldn't really do it justice. And let me explain her clothing. Some people would probably think it's a kimono, right? Well, it's really called a yukata. It's made of cotton while the kimono is usually used to refer to one made of silk. It's not typical dress for the Japanese like many people would also think. Actually, most people dress like people in the States, that's not that different. They only wear traditional clothing really for special occasions. What was the special occasion? Well, meeting us of course! No, not really, I'm far from being that special unless you're talking about 'special ed.' It's really a Japanese holiday called the tanabata today, the star festival. It's not the type of holiday that closes banks but somehow I managed not to go in to work today. I still did work, just from home rather than in the "office." Had an Internet conference with someone back home from the research program and worked on the product I have to do for the program.
Three more weeks to go. Only two weekends left so I had better get to planning my exciting tourist trips. I'd like to go see Fuji-san and the shrines at Nikko. I'll have to buy a Hawaiian shirt to fit the stereotype for American tourists.
And that's the rest of the story.
Muddy-san
And now, for the rest of the story...
Went to a party at someone's house yesterday. Maybe not most people's idea of a party, but Dr. Koizumi invited us to a get together at his friend's house. His friend is a researcher at AIST, another laboratory here in Tsukuba. They both do diamond research, but not really working on the same topics I think. Dr. Koizumi-san brought his wife so we met her and the other guy had a wife and son that we met. I regret that I can't think of the guy's name now. I will have to ask Dr. Koizumi. It would be a lot easier if they had names I was used to, like Smith, Jones, Johnson, etc. I'm bad enough with those anyhow. Back to the story, we had a great Japanese meal and some good discussions learning about each other over about a 2 hour period. (notice a trend?) There was another researcher there as well, and once again I have forgotten his name. Maybe I should have written this last night come to think of it.
After the meal, the three researchers had a jazz jam session. See, that was really the point of the whole evening, a jam session get together. Imagine, three Ph.D. researchers having a jazz jam. Ok, you don't have to imagine, here's a picture! And here is a short video excerpt with sound. I took some individual pictures of the three as well. I should have used a tripod in the low lighting situation so some are a little blurry because the shutter speed was slow, but I edited them to sharpen the edges a little. They're better than they were.
On the keys
The bass man!
And the git-fiddle! Funny, his wife is in the background.
This one was the blurriest so I gave it a matte finish to make it look intentional. Not that you would know if I hadn't told you.
I also took a picture of the wives during my time talking to them. They entertained us with stories about Japanese history and literature and asked us a lot about what we do in the States. I like this picture because of the slow shutter speed. It caught Koizumi-san's hands in action as she spoke to us. The Japanese people use a lot of body language in their conversations and I am glad I was able to capture it without the use of video because that wouldn't really do it justice. And let me explain her clothing. Some people would probably think it's a kimono, right? Well, it's really called a yukata. It's made of cotton while the kimono is usually used to refer to one made of silk. It's not typical dress for the Japanese like many people would also think. Actually, most people dress like people in the States, that's not that different. They only wear traditional clothing really for special occasions. What was the special occasion? Well, meeting us of course! No, not really, I'm far from being that special unless you're talking about 'special ed.' It's really a Japanese holiday called the tanabata today, the star festival. It's not the type of holiday that closes banks but somehow I managed not to go in to work today. I still did work, just from home rather than in the "office." Had an Internet conference with someone back home from the research program and worked on the product I have to do for the program.
Three more weeks to go. Only two weekends left so I had better get to planning my exciting tourist trips. I'd like to go see Fuji-san and the shrines at Nikko. I'll have to buy a Hawaiian shirt to fit the stereotype for American tourists.
And that's the rest of the story.
Muddy-san
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