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  • A T M 6:56 AM on March 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    They say your life is worthless if you haven’t seen Nikko… 

    I moved from Tokyo city to Oyama this week. Two hours away from Tokyo,  Oyama is a little and a peaceful town.  Our interpreter yesterday suggested that Nikko is a place I should visit for a weekend day trip, as it is not far from the place where I stay in Oyama.

    I had to change two trains. First one from Oyama to Tsunomiya in a Shinkansen Train ( magnetic train, runs at around 200 kph ) and a local train from Tsunomiya to Nikko.  A town with lot of history & gifted natural beauty.

    kegon-fallsmulti-templesacred-bridgesleeping-cat

    It’s such heart warming to find the Japanese being so eager to help foreign visitors.

     

    • Avik... 8:34 AM on March 22, 2009 Permalink

      Ahh… Nikko… Beautiful place. Don’t miss Kamakura. Lots of old temples and the Great Buddha (daibtsu) statue. And a small mistake (which i had to point out). :)

      Shinkansen (commonly known as Bullet train outside Japan) is not a magnetic train. MagLev in Japan is still in experimental state. Shinkansen is your standard overhead electric train, of course with much higher power and lots and lots of technical features to make it safe and efficient. Also the lines are always as straight as possible, going through mountains and going over other lines (can’t turn in high speed). The current top speed is 320 kmph!!

      Ultimately MagLev will come. Not that current technology can’t go in higher speeds. The problem is noise pollution!!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail#Technology

    • A T M 8:57 AM on March 22, 2009 Permalink

      ooops. Why dint I look it up in Wiki. Since they travel so much faster than regular trains, I thought they must possess some special superior ‘magnetic’ power. So, these are electric trains and not magnetic. Thanks correcting.

      I had been to Kamakura. Now I am bored of visiting shrines around.

  • A T M 10:24 PM on March 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Innovative Straw 

    There is pipe-within-a-pipe, so that you can elongate and reach to the bottom. I haven’t seen such a thing in India. Stealable idea.

    straw1straw2

     

  • A T M 10:21 PM on March 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Japanese Tea 

    This free sample tea bottle was handed over to me at the traffic signal yesterday morning. See what it reads.

    energy 0 Kcal ,  protein 0 g , Fat 0 g, Carbohydrate 0 g, Sodium 0 mg, non sugar, non flavor, non coloring.

    java-tea

    Hehe. Then why should I choose it over plain water ?

     

    • Adarsh 12:04 PM on March 12, 2009 Permalink

      Nettu, Did you drink it…how was it anyway…

    • A T M 10:17 PM on March 12, 2009 Permalink

      Probably plain water is more ‘delicious’ tasting than our fellow Japs tea.

    • A T M 10:49 PM on March 12, 2009 Permalink

      Hey our interpreter told, it is a java tea. not sure whether Java tea ( indonesian ? ) is same as Japanese tea.

  • A T M 4:05 PM on March 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Acceptance Speech 

    I stumbled upon this youtube video.  Touchy.

     

  • A T M 5:49 AM on March 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Day trip to Hakone 

    This is where Tokyo comes to relax.  This is one chain of tourst spots not be missed if you are visiting Tokyo. Hakone is an hour and half journey from Tokyo. There are bunch of places to see. I covered Odawara Castle, Open Air Museum, Boiling Pot valley besides the experience of ropeway, cable cars  and the cruise ride.

     odawara-castleropewayopen-air-museumblackeggshellboilingvalleycruise-ride

     

    • Jnaneshwara 8:52 PM on March 9, 2009 Permalink

      So you got an opportuninty to visit one of the most advanced,richest,asian country..Good.Enjoy.. :-)

  • A T M 10:11 PM on March 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

    Lost in Translation 

    lost_in_translationWorking at Japanese offices for an outsider is not easy. An outsider is always assisted by an interpreter. ( a mediator, who is conversant in both Japanese and English).  

    There was no interpreter helping me yesterday evening. This Japanese guy was trying to ask me this question. ” Can you tell me the current temperature on that device ? “.   I was supposed to reply ” No, we cannot read the temperature until the next software update”.  Simple Isn’t it ?.

    We took almost half an hour to understand each other. He would type in something in his phone in Japanese and convert into english. Show it  to me. I try telling him, we can’t.  After figuring out he can’t even make out what am trying to say, I used this translator page.  And it worked.  Imagine, two human beings face to face, but talking in text. Book mark it.

     

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