Cheers for our Building!

After less than one year of construction time, the new building of IPMU is handed over today in a ribbon cutting ceremony. Unfortunately, we can’t attend, since we’re on the other side of the world. For the occasion, I am posting a little stop motion movie I made from pictures I took of the construction site from the roof of the neighboring building.

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Time Lapse Japan

There are some very cool time lapse videos around on the Web, which really capture a Japanese feel.
This one, for example:

Also very cool is the (seasonally changing)

UNIQLO Calendar,

which also makes use of the tilt shift technique to give the impression of looking at a miniature model.
If you want to lean back for a few minutes and tune into a Japanese mood, give these two videos a try.

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Christmas in Tokyo

If you thought that Christmas takes place only in the West, you could not be more wrong: In Tokyo, Christmas starts the day after Halloween.

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Expensive Japan?

Tokyo, as everyone knows, is one of the most expensive cities in the world. In Mercer’s Worldwide Cost of Living 2009 survey, a standard reference, Tokyo ranks highest. And it’s been in the top ranks ever since Mercer started collecting data in 1994. For the survey, Mercer compares the cost of over 200 items in each of the 143 reviewed locations.

So is it true, is Tokyo really this outrageously expensive?

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Quantum Diaries

Here at Chipango, I am concentrating on the Japanese aspects of my life. In case you are also curious about my life as a physicist, take a peek at the Quantum Diaries, where I will be writing (along with a bunch of other particle physicists) for the next couple of weeks.

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Engrish

Engrish, that is the Japanese take on English, is often a source of amusement.
It can be found everywhere, in ads, shop names, information for visitors, even T-shirts! Some are funny because of simple spelling mistakes, others for their grammatical constructions, whereas others seem to have come straight from google translate on a bad day. But I think it’s better to let the examples speak for themselves!

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Public Spaces in Japan

Another thing that’s nice about living in Japan is that all public spaces are so clean.
Sometimes you see a salary man jumping after a scrap of paper he has accidentally dropped that gets carried away by the wind. I have always considered myself a tidy person, and do not drop trash on purpose, but I have to admit that at home, I would not have gone to such lengths. In Japan I do, because everyone does.

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