Syzygy

On July 22nd there was a total solar eclipse that could be seen in many parts of Asia, including Japan. Although the totality could only be seen way to the south around Kagoshima Prefecture and I couldn't (and didn't want to) go all the way there, even in Kyoto where I live the eclipse would reach 80%. Enough for a good show, I guess.

Being the longest solar eclipse of the century (and we're still in the first decade), it was surely a big event. Obviously lots of scientists and people went to the countries where the totality could be seen. India, China and Japan included. For the Japanese case, of course there was a festival to celebrate the eclipse.

I was also preparing myself to watch the eclipse. Had saved the morning for that. Unfortunately, the weather didn't help. It was cloudy on that day, which spoiled the "getting dark during daytime" effect (people don't get so surprised when it gets dark while the weather is cloudy). Nevertheless, I still managed to get a glimpse of the eclipse.


Perhaps I should say the cloudy weather helped in the sense of allowing myself to take pictures without solar filters. The picture below is from the LIVE! UNIVERSE website feature where one can see the projections for the eclipse in many parts of Japan. It shows how the eclipse was supposed to look at the time I took the picture above.


And of course, there are all the problems related to that kind of event: places getting overcrowded, accidents happening during totality... Nevertheless, the eclipse got me thinking about the meaning it has for humans.

As a (very) unusual phenomenon, there are many superstitions and religious meanings related to an eclipse. Perhaps even more for a solar eclipse. Movies, TV shows and the like also used eclipses in their plots. One example is the TV series Heroes, where a solar eclipse visible all over the globe was used as trigger for the whole story.

One common point in almost all those views is that an eclipse is seen as a sign of change. So I'll try to make it so in my case. I could really use some change in some aspects of my life...

As an extra, a decent eclipse picture from the Japan Times article, taken from Iwoto Island (previously known as Iwojima).


For those wondering about the title, "syzygy" is an astronomical term for the alignment of three or more celestial bodies in the same gravitational system along a plane. It is a better title than "eclipse"... and an excellent word when one is trapped in a word puzzle.

G for Green, G for Gundam

Lately I've been to Tokyo (more precisely, Chiba) for a workshop held by a member (or should I say "former student"?) of my lab. It was about transaural technology, and it was nice both for the workshop contents and for the people I met there.

But since I try to avoid technical stuff in this blog (you may see one post like that when I get my degree, though), the topic this time is a temporary attraction in Tokyo, more precisely in Odaiba.
The world faces an environmental crisis, who can help us to create more environmentally friendly cities?

The answer is about 18m tall, a special icon in Japan...

Gundam!


Explaining better: 2009 is also the 30th anniversary of the Gundam series. And as part of the commemorations, they created the Green Tokyo Gundam Project aiming at raising funds for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's push for a more environmentally friendly future.

The centerpiece of the project is an event in Odaiba (an artificial island in Tokyo) where the main attraction is a 1:1 scale model of the classic Gundam RX-78-2.


So for a couple of months, the artificial island's got an extra guardian; and also an extra icon to help Tokyo's bid to host the Olympics. From August 1st, the Gundam will carry an icon of the bid on its shoulder.


It's an interesting place to fans of the series. Too bad they blocked the best angle (from where one can take pictures of the Gundam with Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge on the background) for paid pictures.

Also, it is possible to see the Gundam as you're approaching Odaiba if you go through the Rainbow Bridge (Yurikamome line). I was just a little disappointed to see that it was smaller than I thought. 18m is big, but it pales in comparison to other structures on the island like the Fuji TV headquarters. Of course, it is the tallest structure where it is located.

If someone wants to see it, go to Daiba station and walk to Shiokaze park. From there I think it is easy enough to find.

More about the event and the Gundam series can be found here.

What about English?

Well, almost two months without writing... Does anyone still read this blog?

I am stuck with many things to do and not much time to write, and that's the main reason I've been away for so long. I hope I can at least write regularly from now on.

This time, I'll (try to) be brief.

One topic that comes every once in a while is if Japan is opening or closing itself to the world.

On one hand, the government tries to estimulate tourism and increase the number of international students (I have to admit that there other motivations in those measures: tourists bring money and students bring knowledge, but I'll just leave it at that for now), on the other, parts of the population don't seem too keen to look outside Japan. (The article from the link suggests that Japan should look into itself to find the path to follow, reason why people are looking less abroad. Again, I won't touch this issue now.)

One common issue when it comes to "internationalization" is the ability to speak English, the current international language. On that point, stories about Japanese people English proficiency are almost legendary. I was even impressed one day to read on one message board at the university that Japanese people had the lowest average scores in TOEFL test. (Just in case, I've looked into that data myself and Japanese are not the lowest average score. They do rank quite low, though.)

On that issue, many blame the differences between the two languages ("as a native Portuguese speaker, I have more common points with the English language than Japanese do, which makes it easier for me to learn it", for example); others blame the foreign words imported to Japanese (the Japanese word "tsuaa" means "tour". So there's a some likelyhood that the average Japanese will pronounce the word the Japanese way, even when speaking English); and others blame culture (Japanese culture values the "communication without words")...

My own personal opinion aside (it might be somewhere in this blog, though), I've just read an article that blames the Japanese government for it.

... Yeah, you read it right.

The reasoning goes into the conspiracy theory. Basically the government wanted Japanese people to understand English enough to be able to understand information from abroad, but not enough that the best members of society would leave Japan to work in other countries. Even if you don't believe a word of it, it's interesting just for the different line of thought. You may even start to believe it... heh!

Original in Japanese here. Translated to English here.