Tokyo!

So, here I am again.
I was in Tokyo for the weekend to visit some good friends (my Japanese sisters). It was soooo good to see them once again.
The cheapest way to get to Tokyo is actually not by JR (Japanese Railways) but by Bus. I took the Willer Express and only payed approx. 79€ for Sendai, Tokyo Sendai. So if you have enough time that's the way to travel here! If you don´t have time but money.... go for the Shinkansen.
While I was waiting for the Bus to arrive at the pick up point in Sendai a Japanese guy talked to me cause he saw that I was reading the German National Geographic (thx Mirko). He told me that he is going to Germany next month and I recommended an umbrella and a jacket. I hope he will not need it.
The bus travel was interesting as I had a window place and could see the beatiful landscape here in Japan, we also passed by Fukushima city, a really nice area. I finally arrived in Shinjuku and was picked up by one one my "sisters". Just as six years ago I got a bit shocked when we entered Shinjuku Station to go to Shibuya, but when I remembered how the system works I was fine again. I could remember lots of places and that was a really nice feeling.

View from Enoshima to Fujisawa

Just as Spot +6kg!

 

After a very nice evening at the new house of my friends (and their lovely children!) I could sleep on a bed with a real mattress, what a relieve after one month on the plank!The next day we went to Enoshima. It was a super sunny day, but the wind made it very comfortable! Sometime you can see the Fujisan from here, but I think he was on summer vacation... at least he was not visible.

 The Monday I spend in Tokyo itself and visited some places I remembered from my last visit.

 Wtf? What is a Happy Room?

UNU HQ

Meiji Shrine

Again, the Meiji Shrine

Third week done, two updates 2/2

Welcome back for part 2, the "Zoo". In did not want to criticize anything in Japan, but that one... come on!
So we went to the Yagiyama Zoological Park. As Sendai has a similar size to cologne I was expecting something similar for the Zoo... I was soooo wrong.

So let´s go through the Zoo:

There are three major area: left (with the entrance on the top), the middle (a hilltop) and the right area.

We started at the entrance, went through the left area, made a break on the hilltop (middle) and went on  into the right area. After that we went back to the entrance.

The Zoo was opened in 1965, and it still looks like that. Well, that's OK... but the standards for inmates, ahm I mean zoological subjects, have changed since then, right? Guess what, not here.... But see for yourself.

Penguins, that's the first thing you see when entering the zoo. So this extreme fast swimmers have a pool of 4m²... and not much else. Well, OK, I´m no expert,might be enough, lets go on.

Lamas

A peacock, spread you wings and.... better not fly, you might hurt yourself. Other birds hat way less space!

Japanese Panda, super cute. Lets put a tree in there... and a plastic cover that they don´t climb it.

Camels, one was totally bored and walked in circles, the whole day.

Japanese macaque actually where somewhat fine

 

 

 

Dramababy, the mother had some trouble with that one

That was the negative highlight. I love horses and that was a horror. Do you need to keep in such a bad shape in a zoo?

 

He was bagging for something at that door. His area was extremely small and parts of it with some trees even fenced by electric wire.

Same as for the peacock, better not try to fly.

Two Lions, one male, one female (not in the picture most obviously). Both dozing and bored by the little space they had to live in.

Same for the tiger... an animal that can jump 3m high... locked in a area that is smaller than many gardens.

Check out the mosaic in the background, tells you a lot about the 1960s perception about Shimpanses.

 

Reptiles (let´s not go into the revised definition here) also had very small boxes to live in.

 

That is not two times the same Hippo. They are on the two sides if the door. If they wanted to fight or were missing each other, I don´t know. But both had surely some kind of hospitalism.

The Zoo is on a hilltop and you can see the coast from here.

The Kangaroo, he seamed not as bored as many other animals in that Zoo.

So, in general I was astonished, they had a good variety of animals, but i would suggest to enhance the living conditions as there is no pleasure to see this beautiful animals living like this. Maybe I´m becoming an environmentalist and conservationist? Hell, I guess I´m already one! I think it´s good that way...

Third week done, two updates 1/2

Hello again, two topics to cover today.
First of all it will be about my research here in Sendai, second will be the environmental, nature conservation part...

So, the research. As some of you might know I have two topics to cover here in Japan, my Diploma research and some work for my former employer (UNU).
The later is the one I have been focusing on so far and it turned out to be good that way. Because of the development in the first weeks I decided to switch my Diploma topic once again. The UNU research will now be a kind of core subject for my Diploma thesis. So when the first turns out good, the later might have a solid core at least.
So far I developed a short questionnaire with six open questions about ecosystems and disaster risk reduction aspects. I´ll not go into detail here as it might scare you off!
I tested this questionnaire on a class of Prof. P. (technical college) but their English was less good as expected. Still there was one answer that made it very useful. When we asked them what they would like to see for reconstruction one student said: Anything that makes them forget the tsunami.
I was quite speechless. Thinking a lot about that.


Another great news, I have the opportunity to be on a helicopter flight next month to checkout the coastal protection forest! That will be fun! Most likely I will shoot a lot of pictures that day!

So much on the research, the next post will cover the trip to the Zoo, or better, animal prison.

And for the pictures: First the most uncommon house I saw in Sendai  and the cutest (western like) house:

Baseball

Wow, what a day!

So the guys from the UCK (my dorm) decided to go to a baseball match of the Rakuten Golden Eagles (Sendai) vs. the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

When we entered the station there was a real festival feeling, but when the match started we did not even realize it as everyone was still running around. This was until the 3rd inning. The Rakuten finally got a point and everyone was happy... until the 7th inning when the Fighters also maid one and also in the 9th... so 2:1 for the guest today. But don´t mind, there will be the same match tomorrow! Strange habits.

But the best thing was in the mid of the game. Everyone had a balloon which makes a strange noise when you let it fly. 

After that match we went to a Okonmiyaki restaurant. Everything is a kind of omelet there, but it was fun anyway!
Thanks guys for a funny day!

At the Lab

These are the awesome people in my office. A bit crazy but extremely helpful! Thank you guys, you give the hope to survive the two month!

My place it the one in the rear next to the window. A Desk, a chair (well a very small one) and an Internet connection, that is all in need and actually more than I expected. When my supervisor told me that I will have a place in the lab (actually an office) I was really happy.
Most of the colleagues are master students, one is a PhD student and one post-doc. They all speak English and I feel really comfortable with them!

Field Trip No. 2

Just after that rainy day we got the total opposite. Again I´ll let the pictures speak, but this time with some comments.

Natori City, near Sendai Airport

Yuriage Junior High school. Some pupils died here (as they tried to get home) and the things on the tables are donations to the spirits.

 

 

This statues were set up after the tsunami.

 

 

Another School. On the yard they sort different debris.

A broken teapot. You can find them everywhere.

 

 

A waster management facility. Before the tsunami their was a coastal protection forest that was severely damaged.

All debris are sorted and burned if possible.

 

 

 

This was a kind of resort.

 

This was the more pleasant part of the day. We visited a shrine in Shiogama.