A Day on the Bay

Rainbow Bridge and Central Tokyo as seen from Daiba

Another of those striking clear November days, another visit to the Hama Rikyu Garden (浜離宮恩賜庭園). A short walk away from Shimbashi station and directly bordering Tokyo Bay, it is a garden of urban contrasts. The skyline of the ultra-modern Shiodome district forms the backdrop for the well-groomed Japanese trees, and the traditional tea house in the tidal pond. The tea house can be reached via a wooden zig-zag bridge. From there, one can look out over the pond and the bay, sniffing the sea breeze, drinking matcha and enjoying a sweet. It even sports a dry landscape type Zen garden. I guess the Shogun Tokugawa did not quite envision this type of borrowed scenery….

Shirasagi no Mai

On November 3rd, Culture Day, the Dance of the White Herons, shirasagi no mai (白鷺の舞) takes place. This year, it was on one of these steel blue Tokyo autumn days with crystal air that bring views of Fuji-san.

Terrace Update IX

The climate in late autumn is fantastic here. In the afternoons, we still have around 20 degrees Celsius. While in other countries, trees are already defoliated, most trees are still green here. It seems that the geraniums went out of service for this year, and also the morning glories are closing down. But the Zinnias, Cosmos and Snapdragons are still going strong, providing cheerful colors. They have been blooming since May!

The Jidai Matsuri

Edo Period court lady

During our stay in Kyoto, on Oct. 22 to be precise, the Jidai Matsuri (時代祭り) or Festival of the Ages took place. It counts as one of the three biggest festivals of Kyoto.
On Oct. 22nd, Emperor Kammu decided, more than 1200 years ago, to move the capital to Kyoto. The Jidai Matsuri centers around the Heian Shrine where Emperor Kammu is enshrined. The festival is a celebration of Kyoto’s people through the ages. Its main event, a big parade, displays historical costumes and important people of Kyoto’s history.
The parade starts at noon at the Imperial Palace and arrives several hours later at the Heian Shrine. Unlike Western parades, it involves hardly any music at all, and no marching, either. The pace is very leisurely with frequent stops during which the impatient horses carrying the important warriors have to be led in circles by their attendants.

Warrior under Oda Nabunaga - Oda Nobunaga - Yabusame archer - Yamana-shi

Things Japanese IX – Suikinkutsu

On a visit to the Eikando temple complex in Kyoto, I came across something amazing: the suikinkutsu (水琴窟), a sound ornament for Japanese gardens. The concept of a sound ornament I find wonderful and striking, and somehow very Japanese. Suikinkutsu means, literally translated, water koto cave, where the koto is a musical instrument, the Japanese zither.

The secret life of the trees

Today, a casual look out of the (3rd floor) window of our Kyoto apartment revealed several men of monkey-like abilities roughly at my eye level.

Charming Kyoto

Main Hall of Kurodani

We’re back in Kyoto, this time for two weeks, to attend the workshop Branes, Strings and Black Holes held at the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics.
We are thrilled to be staying in a charming little Japanese flat in Kyoto’s Okazaki area. The flat is really small (six tatami), but we have all we need.

Happy Birthday IPMU!

Today, we are celebrating the 2nd birthday of the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU).
In these two years, IPMU has gone from being just an idea to being a research institution with about 60 on-site researchers! By this winter, IPMU will have more than 100 members (this number includes about 30 people of the administrative office).

A truly international community. Fig. courtesy of IPMU

My husband and I are two of them, and we’re proud to be among the pioneers. Last year at this time, there were about 30 of us. While were watching our new building grow out of the ground like a big mushroom, many new colleagues have arrived, and eventually the mark of 200 people should be reached.

Typhoon Melor

Today, typhoon Melor is sweeping the country. It is the 18th tropical cyclone of the 2009 Pacific typhoon season. They form over the warm waters of the Pacific. While many of them head towards Vietnam or Taiwan, about a quarter of them travel towards Japan. But often, they either just graze the coast or disintegrate when hitting colder air before reaching it. Nearly every year, at least one of them makes landfall, which means that its center hits the land.

Satellite Image of Super Typhoon Melor. CIMSS

Typhoon Melor is the first to do so in 2 years. Melor has shown on the satellite images of the pacific for many days. When it was still further South, it was classified as a Super Typhoon of the strongest category, with a perfect concentric shape and the eye showing in the center. By now, it has gone out of shape considerably and weakened down by several categories. Nonetheless it causes numerous disruptions. Hundreds of flights have been canceled, factories shut down, etc. The University of Tokyo has left it to our own judgment whether to come to work today or not. Seminars, in any case, have been suspended.
This night, we were woken by a rustling and whooshing noise and the sound of rain hitting our window panes horizontally. The torrential rains have ceased by now, but the wind gusts are still strong. Of course, most of the tall flowers on the terrace got broken by the wind. Since the drain got clogged, our terrace is currently flooded. From outside we can hear the metallic noise of big objects being moved by the wind and banging into things. It’s not yet clear how much damage this typhoon is doing, but it seems that at least inside, we’re safe.

Akiu (秋保）

Fishing in Rairaikyo

On the last day of our trip to Sendai, we treated ourselves to the independence a rented car gives. This time, we turned towards to mountains of the Sendai region. Our first stop was Akiu Onsen, a village about 30 min by car away from Sendai. It counts as one of the best onsen of Japan, but we had not come for bathing this time.
In Akiu Onsen, one can walk along the Rairaikyo (磊磊峡) Gorge, in which the Natori river flows through impressive stone formations, about 20 m deep. Even though the gorge is only 800 m long, walking through it both ways, stopping at all the vantage points a bit further up or down from the main path, took us an hour!
After a soba lunch at Akiu Onsen, we headed further upstream, towards the Akiu Otaki (秋保大滝, Akiu big falls), 14 km from Akiu Onsen. To reach the falls from the street, one first passes a big shrine and then gets to a viewing spot where one is about at the same level as the top of the falls.