Category: Japan
-
細木和子 (Hosoki Kazuko) Japanese fortune-teller, and Japanese dramas
So I got home at about 8pm today, ate dinner and started flipping through channels on the TV. I came across a special for Hosoki Kazuko’s birthday, who is a well-known fortune teller. She has people on a show and then gives them (typically brutal) advice, from what I could tell. I really couldn’t believe […]
-
Birthday Blood Typing
So I turned 31 today, in Japan. This is the second birthday I’ve had in Japan actually. Last time I was here for a conference in 2002 I believe, and it was not memorable. I believe that I bought myself a cup-cake at a convenience store or something. This time, I had a memorable birthday. […]
-
Ikebana show
Fumie and I went to a large Ikebana show at the Takashimaya in Nihonbashi on Sunday.
-
Visit to Hiroshima City University
On Wednesday morning I went to Hiroshima City University (広島市立大学) and met with Professor Hidetsugu Nanba (難波 英嗣), and was introduced to Dr. Teruaki Aizawa (相沢 輝昭 先生). I gave my multi-lingual multi-document summarization talk, as well as a brief demo of NewsBlaster and a short talk about graduate student life at Columbia University. Professor […]
-
Trip to Hiroshima, do I have to change this website to FuguTabeta.com??
On Tuesday evening I took a train from Tsu to Nagoya, and from Nagoya to Hiroshima on a Hikari Shinkansen. The picture is actually of a Kodama Rail Star train from Hiroshima because the shot I got of my Nozomi 700 Series Shinkansen from Hiroshima to Tokyo didn’t turn out well. On arriving at Hiroshima, […]
-
Lab visit at Mie Daigaku (三重大学)
Tuesday I visisted Dr. Masui (桝井先生) at Mie Daigaku. He introduced me to Dr. Atsuo Kawai (河合 敦夫 先生) and I was able to see some demonstrations of the research that they are doing. They have some very interesting work on identifying errors in Japanese and English (particles and determiners respectively) and some interesting Q&A […]
-
Trip to Tsu and Ise Jinguu
On Monday morning I caught the Kanki 3 train to Tsu (津) and met with Professor Nanba of Mie Daigaku. He and two of his students (Naito, who was very talkative, and another student who was not as talkative) took me to Ise Jinguu (伊勢神宮). Ise Jinguu is a very large temple, one of the […]
-
Visit to Nittaiji in Nagoya
On Sunday, I visisted Nittaiji temple in Nagoya with the Maedas, and we also saw a small local Matsuri aimed at kids. It was very interesting. Nittaiji had some interesting Buddhist artifacts that were donated by the King of Thailand, according to what I could understand. So maybe that isn’t really the case. The five-level […]
-
Tokyo to Nagoya, dinner with the Maeda family
I caught a 3pm Shinkansen from Tokyo and arrived in Nagoya at 4:22pm. I met with Maeda-san, and we went back to his house where we met with his daughter Ryoko, her two children Amane (2.5) and Hitoki (.6), and later on Masao and his wife Chisato and their two children, Yuusuke (3) and Motoki […]
-
Kyoto Daigaku, Kinkakuji, back to Tokyo
On Friday I left the Keihana area and headed to Kyoto to meet with Professor Toru Ishida, whom I was introduced to by Professor Sal Stolfo. Professor Ishida spent some time at Columbia University years ago. We had a nice lunch and talked about the upcoming “Language Grid” project and other things. I should contact […]