My trip to Japan
Five weeks ago, I returned from a short trip to Japan, where I gave talks at a workshop and a conference. First, I spent a few days in Tokyo. This enormous city has a really good subway system that quickly brought me from one suburb another. The subway map looked a bit daunting at first, but it wasn’t hard to figure out, even though most of it is in Japanese.
Tokyo is an interesting mix between old and new, past and future. One moment you’re staring at a shrine or standing in a tranquil garden with beautiful old trees and the next moment you’ll find yourself surrounded by skyscrapers, luxurious shopping malls or hundreds of brightly lit signs. Although Tokyo has 14 million inhabitants, it is quite pleasant to walk around in, because for a city that big, there aren’t a lot of cars and public transport is excellent.
After 5 days I flew from Tokyo to Miyazaki, a prefecture in the South of Japan, to attend a conference. Flying past Mt. Fuji was very impressive. The conference was held in a luxurious holiday resort with golf courses, the world’s largest indoor “ocean” (even though the actual ocean was just 500m away), sauna and more entertainment. Sounds great, but the whole resort was had a pretty run-down 70s feel. Think “Sporthuis Centrum” if you know what that means.
The conference itself was nice, both academically and socially. A few of us went night-swimming in the sea one time, amidst fluorescent algae! Furthermore we played pachinko and had dinner in a traditional Japanese cafe.
Back in Tokyo, I had one more day to buy heaps of presents and try all the exciting new food I hadn’t tried before. The food is great! I’ve never tasted so many different new things; I still don’t know what all of it was.
Check my photos!
