Ironman 28

A couple of months ago, I mentioned about the 1:1 scale Gundam statue in Tokyo. Well, guess Japan might be preparing itself to be invaded by Godzilla or something equivalent, because now here comes a new challenger to the Gundam!
(Note: the Gundam statue was actually disassembled some time ago)

Tetsujin 28-go!


This statue was built by the city of Kobe as a memento of the city's revival after the Hanshin Earthquake. Technically it has the same height of the Gundam in Odaiba, although since his position is not straight up, the relative height is a little smaller. And in this case, people are allowed to get close to the statue, with kids using its foot as a playground slide. Also its position calls for funnier pictures with people imitating Tetsujin's pose.

The statue is actually at a location not so easy to access. It is at Wakamatsu Park in Nagata Ward, since the area was the one who suffered most from the quake. I went there with my host family by car, so I don't really know the directions.

The choice for Tetsujin 28-go was influenced by the popularity of its creator, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, a Kobe-born manga-ka.


Another curiosity is that Tetsujin (鉄人) translates as "Ironman". And, when I hear this word, I can't help but remember Marvel's Iron Man. Fortunately (or not), that Iron Man was translated to Japanese as Aian-man (アイアンマン). That sets a clear difference between the two characters in Japanese. Note that it's "aian", not "airon" (アイロン) as many would expect. I don't know the exact difference between the two, but "airon" is used more when we talk about ironing clothes.

Master of the Universe

Or should I rather say M.Eng.?

Yes, I finally presented my thesis. This was way crazier than years ago during my bachelor's years. Maybe it's supposed to be like this. Having problems with simulations and systems; becoming desperate that results are not exactly as expected; being pressured by deadlines...

But now it's over. Or almost. I still have to submit another version with some corrections, and I still have one congress to go. Nevertheless, the worst is gone now... Probably.

And, as it couldn't have been different, Murphy decided to make its show during my presentation again. Although this time it wasn't as bad.

All M2 (2nd year Master students) had their presentations on the same day in sequence. So it made sense that we use a single computer with all presentation files in it. The guy who presented just before me was a Mac user and he decided to present using his Mac instead of the common computer with Windows.

Well, his presentation lasted long enough for the common computer to enter sleep mode. And after turning it on again...

... I face a password screen with no idea of what is the password.

Also, for some mysterious reason, the other M2 weren't in the room.

Niiiice.

Well, we found someone and the password went well (after getting it wrong and having to ask it again). There was also a problem to send the data to the projector, but at least this time there were no problems with the presentation file itself.

And, of course, considering that I had to listen to questions in Japanese made things a bit confusing so I couldn't really understand some questions.

Still, all went fine and in the end I passed. Or so it seems. (It also means I'll have to change my description in this blog soon...)

Ironically, after being DM for some years, now I am really a "Master"... hehe!

Now I start to really think about after graduation. With the dust settling, I realize I have no concrete plan. This is not good. I'll probably have to start looking after my connections and for some opportunities. I should have done it earlier.

Well, after one battle, there is always the next one... The cycle of life.

Triple Special Day

February 14th, 2010.

Three days until I defend my Master's Thesis.

I shouldn't be writing here now...

But this day deserves some comment..

Why?

Because it is a "special day" in many points of view.

It is carnival in Brazil. Arguably the most celebrated holiday in the country (although I'd place Christmas first) and one of the main images people abroad have from Brazil. From Japanese to other foreigners, most people make a reference to either carnaval/samba or soccer when I say I'm Brazilian.

While initially a Christian party, Brazilian carnival created a file of its own and nowadays is considered pretty much an unrelated thing. Especially since the Church is against some of the libidinous behavior common there.

I wouldn't even dare to call myself an especialst in carnival. I actually don't like it much myself (it is a nice holiday, though) . Still, my years in Japan allowed me to give at least a brief introduction about the subject. Ironic. I became more acquainted with carnival in Brazil after I left the country. It was in Japan where I saw my very first carnival parade and professional dancers.

On the other side of the planet, China and other countries that use the lunar calendar are celebrating New Year. Another irony, considering my previous post was also celebrating new year - this time according to the Gregorian calendar.

So many of my friends from China, Taiwan, Malaysia and around are celebrating new year now. Like in Japan, New Year is the most important holiday, the season when families gather, trains and flights in those countries get crowded and expensive...

... during a one month celebration.

Yes, I had the same disbelief look when I've heard that first. It is not all days I guess, but there are traditional festivities during more a less that time span. During the days before, among other things, there's a general cleaning up (similar to Japanese oosouji tradition, I believe) and a "small new year celebration" one week before the real one. And after the new years there are still certain festivities concentrated on the first week, but they go as far as the 15th day. More details can be found on websites around the net.

So whoever said Brazilian carnival is too long should check Chinese New Year...

And it seems there is a traditional TV show in China that people watch on the 31st. Quite like Japan's NHK Kohaku Utagassen I've mentioned before. The English name would be CCTV New Year's Gala or something like it. But it has even more variety than its Japanese counterpart, with comedy scenes, some magic and other stuff. Personally, I think it's better without so many variety, but it may be just because I don't understand Chinese anyway.

Still, two points about the broadcasting of the show surprised me. One was how I actually got to watch it: live through online broadcast (fair trade: I invited Fang for a Christmas party; she introduced me to Chinese New Year). And even now, while I was looking for links, I managed to find a website in English... but not only. Four other languages, including Spanish are also available (even though it is separated from the Chinese version for some reason... the 2009 page has all of them linked).

Now on to the third celebration of the day: Valentine's day.

This one I think has European origin. THE classic day for lovers to exchange cards and presents, go out for a date under a perfect romantic atmosphere.

Not in Brazil. Not (so much) in Japan.

How come? Well, for some reason, Brazil celebrates Valentine's in June 12th. Guess there wasn't any need of another celebration with carnival around... heh! So, although what people do on that day is still essentially the same, the day they do in Brazil is different.

Japan is different in the other sense. The day is kept, but not the way couples usually celebrate it.

Guess some chocolate company had the idea (and influential power) enough to change the basic rule of Japanese Valentine's to "girls give chocolate to men".

Originally, women didn't declare their love for men. It was the other way around. Giving a chocolate on Valentine's day would be a girl's chance to express her love.

Although unnecessary nowadays (yes, girls in Japan are able to take the initiative already), the idea was somewhat cute and with good intentions. What happened later messed things up (in my opinion): instead of only giving a chocolate to a girl's love, she "can" also give to other "relevant" men in her life.

Allow me to elaborate on the two words between quotations: by "relevant" I mean friends, relevant senpais (seniors. For example, in labs or clubs) and some superiors and other people who helped her during the year. Not a bad thing anyway if she wants to, but then comes the second word: the "can" actually means that in some cases it is expected that she gives chocolate to certain people. The so-called "giri-choco".

I am not a Japanese girl, so I am just giving an opinion of an observer. I may be taking too harsh of a posture on something they actually don't mind, anyway.

Men shouldn't get too cocky either. They are expected to give a present in return on White Day.

Either way, this year I am home preparing for my Master's thesis defense. So I am most likely not getting chocolates.

Back to study... on a triple celebration day...

Enjoy carnival, happy new year, happy valentine's.

New year

Before anything else, happy new year! Feliz ano novo! 明けましておめでとうございます！ Glückliches neues Jahr! ¡Feliz año nuevo! 恭贺新禧! 새해 복 많이 받으세요! szczęśliwego nowego roku! Bonne année! с новым годом! Buon anno!

Etc.,etc...

Yeah... new year... Makes me think of all the new years I've spent. In Brazil, my routine used to be have dinner with family and watch the countdown at a relative's house or at home with my family. In Japan, every year was celebrated in a different way.

In 2005~06 I spent the reveillon with relatives in Japan and after took some pictures at Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto before returning to Himeji.

In 2007~08 I went to a friend's house to eat some nabe with a couple of close friends and we went to Manpukuji just a little after midnight. Even though we could stroll around and see the new year illumination, the temple closed shortly after we entered. During the first days of the year, I took some pictures at Daikakuji and Yasaka Jinja.

In 2008~09 I went with some friends to Osaka to watch the countdown at Umeda Sky Building followed by some clubbing. During the new year holidays I also met old friends from Himeji and went with them to Kiyomizudera.

What about this year?

With my thesis still pending, I couldn't do much. For the reveillon, I actually stayed home watching Kohaku Uta Gassen. For those who don't know, it is a traditional TV show for the night of December 31st in Japan. And this year it was the 60th edition of Kohaku.

It is basically a music show with appearance of many popular artists (not only singers. Comediants and others make small appearances during annoucements), some with special performances prepared for the occasion. But there's a "competition" between male singers (red team) and female singers (white team) performance. The competition aspect is actually left on the background during most of the show, though.

Another interesting aspect is that the artists invited for the event cover a wide variety of musical genres. From J-pop to enka, it is obviously a program aimed for people of all ages in a time that families are usually together. (Many Japanese return to their hometowns during new year vacations.) And there are also some "traditions" in Kouhaku as well that are interesting to watch. For me, the highlights were:

• Susan Boyle: Yes, NHK managed to bring what was probably one of the most popular names in entretainment in 2009. Her debut in the TV show Britain's Got Talent became one of the most viewed videos on the internet and spread like a virus. What made it so popular? I can only speculate, but it might have been the fact that even though one wouldn't expect much of Susan by her looks, she has an impressive voice that astonished everyone on stage. Why her? I was also asking myself the same question, but after hearing that the 2009 motto for Kohaku is the "power of music" (歌の力), nothing more appropriate than bringing someone whose life was completely changed thanks to a music performance. Her performance was great, but I felt that when she went on stage, with no other than Takuya Kimura, she wanted to be funny (like in her debut video comment to Simon) but couldn't make it.


• Michael Jackson Medley: In one of the special performances of the year, SMAP members did a homage to the "king of pop" with a medley of Michael Jackson's most popular songs. "Billie Jean", "Thriller", "Bad" and "Smooth Criminal" were musts; and including Jacksons 5 "ABC" was a nice addition. Last, of course, there was "Heal the World" with all the artists on stage. SMAP did a relatively good performance (including moonwalk and other of Michael's trademarks), although it still paled if compared to the original. SMAP are very popular in Japan, but it seems there was another reason why they were chosen to perform this number: they also have a TV show called SMAP X SMAP and Michael made a special appearance there once. Go YouTube it if you are curious enough.


• Kobayashi Sachiko costume: one of the "Kohaku traditions" is that Kobayashi Sachiko, a popular enka singer, will show up with an extravagant but beautiful costume when it's her turn to perform. This year was no different, and having a giant torso of herself holding her on the "statue"'s hands was a nice idea.


• Angela Aki's song: Angela Aki is one singer in Japan that, although I am not very familiar with her discography, I am often pleased with those I hear. Probably most people will know her by "Kiss me Good-bye", that is also Final Fantasy XII theme song, but in Kohaku she sang "Tegami ~Haikei Juugo no Kimi e~". That song was composed for the 75th NHK National School Music Contest in 2008 and has a nice message. Considering that 2009 was the year that more children commited suicide in Japan, this song comes in a good time.


• Saburo Kitajima's "Matsuri": well, this one is another tradition. "Matsuri" has been the last song of Kohaku for quite some time. And it quite appropriate to be so.


• Ayaka's last performance before "break": that one got me by surprise. I didn't know that Ayaka annouced that she was diagnosed with Graves' disease and that would put her career on hold after 2009. As she was invited to Kohaku, it became her last performance. Although it wasn't that long before her debut, I am familiar with some of her songs, many of which I like a lot; for example "Mikazuki", "I Believe", "Anata to" (with Kobukuro) and "Okaeri". "Why" is another song that more people outside Japan may know since it's the Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core theme song.

Well, to avoid saying that staying in front of TV was everything I did for new year, as it's tradition since I came to Kyoto, we had a dinner with my host family and other "foster international students". Good opportunity to eat like there's no tomorrow and enjoy a more family-like atmosphere. This year someone brought a mochi-making machine. Didn't even know that such a machine existed! And it works nice!

Also, for the first time I decided to take an omikuji (some sort of fortune paper). Yes, in all previous years I went to shrines but never participated in the rituals. My luck for 2010 according to it is "regular" (平). Reading it further, the general message was that I may get what I want if I put effort into it...

Obvious? Meaningless? Maybe, but I prefer to think of it as confirming my usual view about luck:

「俺の運命は俺が決める」, or "My destiny is up to me to decide."

Time for the new

Last post of 2009; time to show the kanji of the year.

The winner was...

新

The reading is shin and it means new, fresh (atarashii, arata).

The main reasons that led this kanji to the top were:

• New government: After basically 50 years of LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) rule, the power shifted to the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) in a landslide election. With the new Obama government, a new age for the Japan-US relationship is also in sight.
• New sports records: Ichiro, a Japanese baseball player in the US (and very popular in both places - especially Japan - as far as I know), set new records in the MLB and in Japan. Also, new records were established in many other fields, with special mention to Usain Bolt's athletics records.
• New influenza: The H1N1/09 flu (a.k.a swine flu) is known in Japan as 新型インフルエンザ, or new-type influenza. I don't think I need to mention the flu outbreak this year that didn't spare Japan... neither Brazil.
• Introduction of new systems: Japan saw this year the implementation of many new systems this year. Among which the lay judge system, the eco-point system and a highway discount system.
• Coming of a new age: From the movement towards a more environmentally friendly society to the changes in the structure of the economic system after the global crisis, there's a feeling that a new age is coming. And people have hopes for what's to come.

So, the feeling of change last year (when the kanji of the year was 変) now changed into optimism for what's to come.

About my "new" meaning, it will probably be delayed until March. That's when I graduate and start a new life, wherever and whatever it will be. I hope for the best, but I also need to double my efforts to get there.

For that, the first step is get done with the thesis that is giving me so many headaches lately.

Back to research...