To blog or not to blog...

That is the question...
Hey world, its been a while, a lot of untold stories, theories, adventures, life in general kept going despite of my disconnection with the blogsphere.
Honestly I don't even have a reason for this break simply could be bother to write stuff, either for the guilt of not witting much for my thesis, or because I didn't think it relevant to waste time on posts that matter very little anyway... Regardless of it blogging became a task, and that is something I think defeats it purpose, we should write and share when it feels write, true that at times it is good to force ourselves to write about hard topics, but at times breaks are positive, you can enjoy things without analysing them so much, which is inevitably what one does when writing about things.
As for a small update, life is OK, still stuck in the PhD life, with all the advantages and disadvantages of such life. I've been a bit more disconnected from the world than usual (not just from blogging), the thesis missing gaps do take more time than most might expect. All in all I can't complain about life, but the Portuguese in me tells me I shouldn't say that :P
I am back in Portugal for my Christmas break, should be fun...

And that is it for this first re-approach to blogging, I might write something very soon, or not, regardless of that, thanks for reading ;)

Growing Old Is Getting Old...

Came across this one in a tv series, at the time I thought nice song I should get it...
Once I realised the title and the lyrics I thought, how pertinent ;)
It is a great song, something that pushed me towards getting old, to write my pending Japan posts so I could share this one. At a time of choice, fear is always present, and has in dune "fear is the mind killer". The mind plays numb, makes you redundant, until it is out of your reach. You see it and yet... Well not the point of the post, enjoy the song, and get a bit older, in time and wisdom...



So we all
Are growing old
And it's getting old

Pressure on
Our hollow bones
And the (varicose)?

Suddenly
We decompose
But we're not alone

So we all
Are growing old

Maybe we're sealed in silence
And maybe we feel a guidance
Maybe your own devices
Will keep you afraid and cold
But I

Memorized
Your smile lines
From left to right

(Candlelight)?
And childlike
Reaction time

We're allowed
To expire

So we all
Are growing old

Pull out the fear of silence
And put out the need for guidance
And put out your own devices
And don't be afraid of the cold

And we sing, sing, sing.
Fight, we fight, fight.
We cry, cry, cry.
We slide, slide, we slide into the light.

We sing, fight, we cry.
We slide, slide, we slide into the light.

Maybe we're sealed in silence
And maybe we feel a guidance
Maybe your own devices
Will keep you afraid and cold, well.

Pull out the fear of silence
Put out the need for guidance
Put out your own devices
And don't be afraid of the cold
Afraid of the cold
Afraid of the time
You've got no where to go but here.

Japan - day 5 (tokyo and toilets)

So last day in Gifu, I had to take this picture...



Where would you say this picture was taken? LOL I guess the title of this post gives it away :P yes the toilet...



Why would you need that there? I mean you are taking a shit and need a beer? Honestly don't get it.

Moving on to Tokyo, city of lights, city of confusion, city of chaos... Exaggeration? Not really, as an example in Tokyo the public transports do not belong to one company, which is good right? competition? Wrong, you end up needing different tickets to get places, and we are not event talking of different types of transportation, were are talking same type different companies. Some lines are for one others for another, a complete mess. It is quite hard to navigate there :P.
But overall it is a interesting town, however I didn't get to see much...





Finally the last toilet, check it out...



This one is awesome, so if you press the button a get of water hits your ass hole, but that is not the coolest part, it hits it regardless of weird you sit on the toilet. It has some sort of hole tracking system, LOL, I swear I tried different positions it is just funny. Someone told me after that they spend millions on this, money well spend, right? ;P

Japan - day 4 (last day of conference...)

Firstly let me apologise for the late post, it has been over a month since I left japan and I haven't posted the final days, for that I am sorry. For that and the fact that some stuff I will forget to say. Nevertheless I will try.
So for the last day in Gifu, another conference day, plus the conference dinner, some shopping and a few curiosities.
So the conference was nothing special, but during the day I found out about this...



Good that I could find a video, since I wasn't able to go to that event because it was on Saturday. However I need to share this with you, a bird that catches the fish, how cool is that? Cormorant Fishing on the Nagara River (ぎふ長良川の鵜飼 Gifu Nagaragawa no Ukai?) has played a vital role in the history of the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Throughout its long history, it evolved from a means to live, to a profitable industry, to a major tourist draw. It runs from May 11 to October 15 of each year (except when the river level is high and during the Harvest Moon). for more on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormorant_Fishing_on_the_Nagara_River

Moving on so after the proceedings there was a toyota automation special event where I got to see this live, check it out:(since my videos came out dark here youtube :P)



Same song and everything :P. Cool isn't it, they have a full band, and are working on a robot to play the violin. I could talk about the future and how it looks from the roadmap of toyota, but let me just say, science fiction is coming :P

Last but not least the conference dinner, it was great, nice venue, OK food(that wasn't the best, from UK standards it was brilliant but still :P), nice people, nice traditional puppet show. That reminds...

So you might not know this, but Japanese researchers in the field of robots are mostly on the humanoid robots, most of their papers, and they are considered to be in the vanguard of such systems. Well from looking at the puppet show I think they are obsessed with it for hundred of years. Each puppet need like 4-5 people to operate it, really complicated control if you know what I mean ;P

Japan - day 3 (Extremely developed, but poorly developed)

So at the beginning of day 4 I am right on schedule to write about day 3.
In the morning of day 3 I when up for breakfast, in the 9th floor of the hotel and saw the first view from above of the city.





As you can see, this justifies the title. I am very impressed with the chaos of the city, the randomness of things, the sheer density of the buildings. This is a very different culture, but we'll get to that.

So I had my presentation, it went fine, managed to keep it under 15 minutes. The questions were easily answered.



After I had the most Chinese food in an supposedly Italian restaurant :P If they thing that is Italian food, OMG :P After some more presentations, the conference is very control driven thus my interest is not that high in most papers.
After this I went to the castle, or the Japanese version of a castle. The area has a lot of the traditional view for Japan, however with strange add ons, like plastic moulded to look like wood, from a distance might look ok, but up close well :P
The castle itself from the outside looks like a house, from the inside looks just like a tower.



Once inside you could see Japanese armour, weapons, etc. From the top you had a magnificent view, but what I like more, was the Portuguese connections ;P







And the view from the top...



A lot of pictures today :p Final picture is the view of the strange electric posts that would give any health and safety officer in the UK a heart attack





The final thought from this day is about food. Food is generally good, there is a lot of variety, and I still haven't eaten sushi or similar things. However the portions are small, cheap but small, and it is strange because the people always look at me and the other Europeans as weird for ordering so much food. The funny thing is, I have not eaten here and got full, just content ;P...

Japan - day 2 ( If it can go wrong...)

Hello, so day 2 in Japan and a bit late since today was the conference so yesterday I didn't have the mind to write anything.
So yesterday I went to the registration of the conference and I got the package for the conference, with the recites and all of that. So when coming back to town by taxi, I left these in the car. After 20 minutes I realised that I left this in the car, so I ran to the taxi place to see if I could find the car driver. After looking for this in about 20 cars I realised it was not there. As you can imagine I was starting to panic. The other drivers started to talk to me, and I tried to explain what happened. I had a recite from the taxi which helped a lot. After 10 minutes of trying to talk and explaining with gestures what was my problem, these very kind, patient and helpful drivers managed to call someone that got the driver to come there. The funny thing was when he got there, he acted like it was his fault. Seriously very stressful, however showing the niceness of the Japanese that having nothing to do with it helped me :)

Another interesting thing I realised on the second day was the toilet of my hotel room, in the mean time there are more things but from the second day I register the phone in the toilet just in front of the toilet seat, which has not numbers to dial, it is just for picking up. When I actually thought about it, this one seems useful, however the future ones wont :P I will take pictures and share them soon.

Japan - day 1 (Lost in Translation...)

Hello world, it is my first time outside of Europe. Japan an old country with so much history and culture.
Well the intercontinental flight was quite ok, I was very lucky to get the front seats in the economy class, which proved to be very convenient for a 12hour flight. First and only tip for these flights get a sit at the corridor, NOT the window, because you will go to the toilet and if people are sleeping it might be a problem :P.
So I landed in Tokyo, it was quite easy to get the railway pass I needed plus the itinerary for my trip. Didn't see much, besides being extremely tired, it just looked like a lot of apartment buildings. So I went from the airport to the station after Tokyo, and then to Nagoya. In Nagoya I had to catch the local train to Gifu, which proved to be tricky, well not tricky but I felt lost in the train and was afraid that I missed my stop. Why? Well it was all in Japanese...
But I got here, finding the hotel was easy, however the reception of the hotel was another matter. So the entrance to the hotel has nothing except stuff in Japanese and the lifts. So I managed to deduce that the reception was at the 5th floor, yes the 5th, and so I went up.
When I got there, I got my room sorted easily enough, just showed the paper, and got the room, people are very nice here, but their English doesn't allow for big conversations.
Got to my room just to realise that the plug adaptor I bought didn't work, so I went to the reception to see if they had any. This was when I realised that even the guy the spoke better English had a lot of difficulties understanding, but once he did, he got me what I need.
After settling down in my room, I went for a walk and for dinner. Luckily I ran into a friend that is attending this conference, he was here since morning and was very happy to find a familiar face, and a common language :P
We decided to to got a local place, like real Japanese, clearly we did not think this through :P
We sat down, and the girl spoke no English, it was very funny the process of getting food. Strangely enough the food was great, their little English was way more than our Japanese, and despite being hard to get the food, we got it in the end :P
The last thing to mention is the tip, we wanted to give a tip and the girl insisted on us taking the money, which makes me wonder if tipping is not good in Japan... I will keep you posted on that.
So you think I am done? Well almost, so I got back to the hotel and I wanted to get internet, so asked at the reception, after talking for a bit, the guy decided to go to the computer and use the translation tool from yahoo, he wrote Japanese and I in English ;P Honestly I know it is funny but it was the best way to solve the communication problems :P After a few minutes I sorted my internet.
The film "lost in translation" took place in Japan, I can honestly see why ;)