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Tokyo to Nagoya, dinner with the Maeda family

Kyoto Daigaku, Kinkakuji, back to Tokyo

American Analog Set in Kyoto

So my sister tells me that I need to see the group "American Analog Set". They are currently touring Japan, and as luck would have it they played in Kyoto while I was there interviewing. According to my sister, the girl making her dress, Jesse, is dating the drummer of AmAnSet. Since I'm staying about 40 minutes away from Kyoto, it is a bit of a hike for me, but I thought it would be stupid not to see them, so I headed out.

I got to the venue (Metro) at about 7pm, and people had started lining up. They started to let people in about about 7:25 or so, and luckily they hadn't sold the place out completely so I was able to get in. Unlike New York, small live shows are really expensive: 5,000 yen for this one (included one drink.)

The first group up was 13 & God and I liked them. They had some nice soft soothing music, punctuated by really hard rocking parts and loud, fast rap. A guy I was talking to in the audience told me that the album is almost completely mellow, which was really surprising given the show, but I'm definitely interested in picking up their album, or perhaps some of the stuff from the component bands, since "13 & God" is apparently the joint work of a group called "the Notwist" and "Themselves". Here is a kind of nice review of their history together. "Doseone" even had one of those thinkgeek favorite LED belts. And at least one song was about gravity and atmosphere, so it has a geek appeal that I would like to check out.

After 13 & God, American Analog Set came on. Unfortunately, I had to leave after their first song in order to make it back to the station to catch the last train (I actually got the second-to-last train) back to my hotel. But I did pick up their latest album, "Set Free" which has 4 bonus tracks (remixes) for the Japanese release.

I didn't hear a thing out of the closing band, Her Space Holiday.

Talk and interview at ATR

I gave a talk today at ATR (also in Kyoto) and met with some people there: Dr. Yutaka Sasaki, the head of the Natural Language Processing department. I also spoke briefly with Dr. Eiichiro Sumita, a principal researcher in the NLP group, and I heard about Dr. Kiyonori Ohtake's work on Japanese paraphrasing / simplification.

After lunch with Dr. Sasaki, I met with Yoshinobu Tonomura, the deputy director at NTT. We talked for about half an hour I believe, and I think he was impressed with (if nothing else) my Japanese.

Shinkansen to Kyoto, talk at NTT

I took the Shinkansen to Kyoto today, from Shin-Yokohama. It took about 20 minutes, not including the ridiculously long time it took me to get to Shin-Yokohama. To get there, I took the Toyokosen to Kikuna from Jiyugaoka, about 25 minutes, then at Kikuna realized that I had forgotten my passport (which I will need to exchange my order for the JR Rail Pass I bought) so I turned right back around and was back at Jiyugaoka 25 minutes later. A short 10 minute taxi ride to the apartment and back to get my passport, and then another 25 minutes to Kikuna, from there one stop on the JR Yokohama line, and I had about 2 minutes to spare to catch the last Hikaru Shinkansen (the fastest type you can get with a JR Rail Pass.)

Of course, that train had no reserved seats remining so I had to chance the unreserved seating, but since it was only the second stop, there was plenty of room. I arrived at Kyoto at about 11:45am, and arrived at NTT at about 12:30pm.

The talk went well, and I met with Hideki Isozaki, supervisor group leader of the Knowledge processing group, Eisaku Maeda, Tatsuto Takeuchi (HR, Research Planning Supervisor), Naonori Ueda (Executive Manager), and Hajime Tsukada (Senior Research Scientist.) I really got the feeling that I would be welcome there. It was a nice visit, I saw a demo of their Q&A system, and heard about some knowledge ontology work that they are doing.

Cafes in Akihabara: Maid and Linux

Maid Cafes

A few days ago, I saw a show on "Maid Cafes" - places where the staff dress up in Maid costumes, but otherwise normal cafes. There are apparently a lot of them in Akihabara. Admittedly, that is a very popular destination for their presumed target audience: Otaku, but there still seems to be a very large number of these things. There are at least 5 or 6 in Akihabara, and that was just after a quick internet search. I didn't think it was worth counting after seeing there were that many.

I resolved to go check one of these places out when I got a chance. I went to Akihabara today to pick up a cooling pad for my laptop since it has been getting very hot lately. I decided to get lunch at the first Maid Cafe I came across.

I found a place called Cure Maid and went in. I had a nice Tonkatsu Curry Set for 1000 yen. What really surprised me was the normalcy of the place. There were at least twice as many women in there as men, which was the big surprise with me. It seems like these are just normal mainstream cafes, where the wait staff happen to dress up. I think maybe some of acceptance might be due to the wide publicity the "Otaku" has been getting recently in the Japanese media, especially from shows like Densha no Otoko, but it is still pretty surprising.

While I was there, I saw at least two couples come in for dates. In both cases the girls in each couple were semi-cosplaying. One of the girls was wearing a very cute dress, most likely handmade, that was in an Alice In Wonderland theme. It had a cute hearts and spades pattern, and some cat imagery (possible Chesire-inspired, but it didn't look like the Chesire Cat to me.) Anyway, that was a bit more in-line with my expectations.

Linux Cafe

After making my purchase, I wandered around for a while and saw this sign for the Linux Cafe. Now that is some place that I would like to visit. Apparently, they offer free wireless with purchase, which is very rare in Japan. It is a place that I will try to visit on my next trip to Akihabara. I can't say that I go there all that often though, so who knows when that will be.

Apple Store in Ginza

Job hunting in Japan, blog software

I arrived in Japan August 24th, 2005 to start my job hunting activities. I also installed bBlog on FuguTabetai.com, and I think it is quite nice software. I should be able to post a bunch more because this automates a lot of what I was doing by hand.

Successful Thesis Defense

On Friday, I successfully defended my PhD thesis at Columbia University. Oh yeah.

Japan Girls Night US Tour

This is the second time I've gone to Benten's Japan Girls Night tour in New York. Lots of fun. Puppy Pet, TsuShiMaMiRe, Titan Go King's, Gaijin a go-go, and Petty Booka.

Bishop Allen at the Mercury Lounge

Bishop Allen at Mercury Lounge.

We Are Scientists at CBGBs

Bishop Allen and We Are Scientists at CBGBs. I was late and missed BA, but made the Scientists part of the show.

Evans Siblings Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at my place. I even cooked a Turkey, since both of my sisters came here!

Internet Halloween Party

Carl Sable had an Internet-themed Halloween Party. Click on the thumbnail to check out my pictures.

DeVilla VanNoy Wedding

My best friends Ron and Michelle got married at Princeton University October 23rd, 2004. I have the pictures here to prove it.

Trip to Washington State

Back from my trip to Washington state, where I visited the family.

Treo 600 as a modem in linux (Fedora Core 2)

I haven't had much interesting to talk about lately, but I did today get my Treo 600 phone working as a modem on my linux Fedora Core 2 install. If you are interested, check out the amazingly simple things I had to do to get my Treo 600 working as a modem on my Fedora Core 2 linux install.

Asobi Seksu

Asobi Seksu played at Lounge 13 on Thursday, and I went to check them out. I really, really recommend them. Their CD should be out soonish in NY area stores, but at least hit their website, check out their MP3s, and then go see them play.

We Are Scientists at the Knitting Factory

We Are Scientists at the Knitting Factory. How cool is that?

Say Hi To Your Mom

Caught Say Hi To Your Mom at the Mercury Lounge. It was a great show. They are a great band. Had dinner at Waikiki Wally's (a really kitschy Tiki place, sister restaurant to Lucky Cheng's) before that. Really cute ambiance, and surprisingly good food.