2008.2

TOSHI's　DAIRY
2008
October 　　November　December

September　　2009　January

December 30th (Tues.)

It was a very cold day and I was surprised to see a lot of people. The hotel was located near Takeshiba-Pier and many people were waiting and would take a ferry boat bound for Chichi-Jima which is located about 1000 km away from here. It takes more than one day from Tokyo to Chichi-Jima which means
Father’s Island in Japanese. Many people would leave here to stay there during the New Years Holiday and I found that this day was the best day to enjoy there during long vacation.

There were more than 600 people waiting there. I saw the ferry boat leaving Takebashi-Pier for Chichi-Jima from our hotel room. We returned from Shinagawa by way of Aqua-Line.

December 29th (Mon.)

I got up early in the morning and walked around the hotel. After that, my wife and I went to Odaiba which is one of the sight-seeing spot. We walked along the Tokyo Bay and visited Toyota Show Room near the Palette town.
There were many cars exhibited and tried to take seats of expensive cars. I found that Allion which is a brand name of Toyota car was attractive for me, because the size is proper for me and it seemed reasonable. We could take an electric car as a trial which was controlled by the control station for 7 minutes. It was so crowded that we had to wait for 40 minutes. We returned to the hotel and went to a sushi restaurant near the hotel and enjoyed eating. It tasted good. We went to bed earlier than usual at the Intercontinental Hotel Tokyo.

December 28th (Sun.)

We waked up at 7 o’clock and ate breakfast in the room. After relaxing and watching TV, we went to a tea restaurant on the third floor where we got free tickets. It was a large restaurant, but there was only one couple except us and it was very quiet. Almost all the people went to TDL and almost no people stayed here at 10 o’clock, so we could be relaxed. We left the hotel at 11 o’clock and then went to the Hama-Rikyu Park near Shiodome Station. During Edo Era, Tokugawa Shogun opened this park near the Tokyo Bay. Now many skyscrapers stand around the park. Other side is Tokyo Bay.
The weather was very fine and warm, so we sat at a bench and saw the sea scenery for a while. We went to a hotel where we could see the Rainbow Bridge.

We ate at an Italian restaurant and enjoyed eating and seeing beautiful
scenery.　We returned to the hotel and saw a beautiful Rainbow Bridge lighted up with a glass of wine.

December 27th (Sat.)

My wife and I went to Tokyo Disney Land. I forgot when was the last time to visit there. We checked many tours during the New Years Holiday and realized that they were very expensive especially southern part of Japan and overseas tours compared with ordinary days. On the contrary, the cost of hotels and amusement places in Tokyo area during the same season was reasonable. We decided to got to the Tokyo Disney Land and stay at one of the TDL official
hotels. We left our home at 9 o’clock and arrived at 10 o’clock. There
were many people in front of Maihama Station. There were many shops and we dropped in the service station to get a one day ticket of TDL and checked in the hotel and left our luggage. I thought that it was a good service for visitors without going to the hotel. We could directly go to the TDL gate and began to walk around there. We realized that most of amusements were so crowded that we needed to wait for half an hour. We waited for some of them and then had lunch earlier than usual. It was chilly outside, but we felt comfortable and enjoyed eating lunch.

We saw the TDL parade and then saw the dancing show. As we got a little tired, we went to the Tokyu Hotel where we would stay. It was a large hotel and we took arrest and then we left the hotel by the hotel bus bound for Maihama Station and we ate Japanese dishes and then went to TDL again. We　saw the TDL night parade which used many LED and was very colorful. After we saw the fire works, we returned to the hotel by the hotel bus. We enjoyed very much.

December 25th (Thurs.)

I went to Kanazawa University in order to attend the cooperative research project meeting. It began at 9 o’clock and discussed all day without any break except lunch time. It ended at 16 o’clock.

December 24th (Wed.)

I went to Kanazawa University and had the oral examination of Dr. course students. One of them belongs to my research laboratory.
Both of the students presented their papers for one hour and then had questions and answers. They passed their oral examination.

December 18th (Thurs.)

I went to Hiroshima and had some trials and also had a laboratory tour. It was a cold day, but as I could see valuable trials, it was worth visiting.
After trials, I had a drinking party in down town Hiroshima and had a
enjoyable time.
On the way to hotel, I saw very beautiful scenery of illumination along the main street.

December 5th (Fri.)

I was asked to present a technical lecture arranged by Japan Society of Polymer Processing and talked about Film Processing for one and half hours.
There were about twenty researchers and I had a good time to discuss some technical matters in Tokyo.

November 17th (Mon.)

Three students came to our research laboratory from Kanazawa by a night bus to do the research using a stretching machine, X-ray diffraction equipments and so on. One of them was a lady. They usually stay for one week, namely five days. They got useful results and returned to Kanazawa on November 21st.

November 14th (Fri.)

There were about fifteen people gathered for cooperative research project
meeting. It began at 8 o’clock and ended at 16 o’clock as usual. We
dropped in a sushi restaurant at 6th floor of the department store located
in front of Kanazawa Station. We often came here after I watched TV program
which introduced this restaurant. I enjoyed eating sushi.

November 13th. (Thurs.)

I went to Kanazawa in the morning and discussed with my students in the afternoon. I usually had a meeting for three hours. I had a drinking party with two members at a typical Japanese Izakaya in downtown Kanazawa. It was the first time to visit and eat there, but it was reasonable and we enjoyed very much.

October 12^th (Sun.)

　
I bought a car navigation system one month ago, but my wife and I did not use it. As we had a time, we tried to set up it in my car. We could not understand well how to use it and it took about one hour to set up it. We left for Soga shopping center and used it. It seemed to be good and a voice advised us to the direction. When we went shopping, Itoh Yokado offered us 20% discount for clothes, neck ties, shoes and so on, because today was Giant Central League Champion sales. We bought several items and spend more than 20,000 yen. On the way to home, we dropped in a restaurant and ate dinner.

October 11^th (Sat.)

I had English lesson as usual on Saturday. Today’s topic was world wide recession. The United States of America had sub-prime loan problems and has been struggling. Lehrman brothers company went bankrupt and then AIG insurance company had a trouble, but this company was temporally saved by USA government decision.

Today GM which is the largest company in USA and has about 70,000 employees has a big problem and big deficit.

Now many insurance companies and banks all over the world are in a serious condition.

The prices of my stocks were going down quickly in a few weeks. I lost a lot of money and I had the same experience after the bubble broke about less than 20 years ago. Stock price went down 1/4 as high as the highest stock price during “Bubble Area”.

Nobody can expect the future situation, but at least I can say that World economy will be going worse in coming several years and we need to think of our future plan individually.

October 10th (Fri.)

Professional baseball team Giant won the 2008 Central league Champion and most of Japanese people were surprised to hear the news, because Hanshin Tigers team gained 13 games over Giants team in July and most Japanese people thought Hanshin would be the this year’s champion team. After that, Giant team said they were trying to make legend. Now “the dream comes true”. Nagashima Giant did “make a drama” and this time Hara did “make legend”. I am Giant fan and I was glad to have this final result.

October 8^th (Wed.)

I heard last night that three Japanese physicists would win the Nobel Prize in this year. They were Prof. Nanbu, Masukawa and Kobayashi. Their researches were related to Prof.Yukawa who was the first Japanese person of wining the Nobel Prize. They are theoretical researchers of physicists. And tonight another chemist was announced to win the Nobel Prize in the field of chemical area. I was so surprised that four Japanese researchers won the Nobel Prize in the same year. It was good news and many Japanese researchers were very much impressed to hear it. But I hope that younger researchers who are doing the research at present would be better to win the Nobel Prize than older researchers over 80 years old.

The Nobel Prize seems to be offered to people who did the research in the field of basic research rather than industrialized technology of world wide famous developments, such as Li-ion battery, LED and Liquid crystal display which were developed by Japanese researchers

October 7^th (Tue.)

I was very busy all day. I had four meetings at our company. I could not take a rest at all. I presented my research results during the meetings. I received my students who made a presentation material and corrected many sentences and figures and tables. She was the first time to make a presentation material, so she might be struggling to do it.

October 4^th (Sat.)

As I found that I missed to visit some of the companies’ booths of the CEATEC last visit, I visited the CEATEC Japan again with my wife. Before going to the CEATEC, we dropped in the Air University near the Makuhari-Messe. My wife made ID of the Air University. We parked my car at the university and went to the CEATEC. There were many people who visited the exhibition and it was more crowded than last visit. I could get a lot of information by talking with many people in charge of their presentations.

In these several years from now, electric car and battery will be more popular and a gasoline car will be changed into an electric car in twenty years

October 3rd (Fri.)

I had a meeting with my friend and discussed our research for three hours. I liked to have a research discussion rather than a big meeting. We planned to publish one of our research subjects in this year.

October 2^nd (Thurs.)

I went to Makuhari-Messe in order to see the CEATEC JAPAN ’08. The CEATEC Japan is the exhibition of newly developed electrical products and their parts. I was very interested in the Panasonic TV and new life style with electrical products presented by Panasonic. It displayed 150 inches Plasma display and it gave us a big impact. The company succeeded in saving the energy consumption which could be reduced 50%. Sony developed very thin display for LCD TV by using LED technology as a back light of LCD. This back light LED was introduced by 4 edges. SONY also displayed Organic EL 27 inches and 11 inches TV which were very clear and very thin. But these TV were displayed last year and I was not impressed very much. Sharp also displayed their TV and blu-ray system and fine LCD TV.

When I visited Murata-Seisakusho booth, I was very surprised to see a carefully designed robot named Seiko-chan which could manage to ride a mono-cycle. Last year I saw a robot named Seisaku-kun which could manage to ride a bicycle in a narrow road.

There were many people who saw them. I thought this company’s booth was the most popular one of this exhibition.

　　　　　　　　　

December 30th (Tues.)
It was a very cold day and I was surprised to see a lot of people. The hotel was located near Takeshiba-Pier and many people were waiting and would take a ferry boat bound for Chichi-Jima which is located about 1000 km away from here. It takes more than one day from Tokyo to Chichi-Jima which means Father’s Island in Japanese. Many people would leave here to stay there during the New Years Holiday and I found that this day was the best day to enjoy there during long vacation. There were more than 600 people waiting there. I saw the ferry boat leaving Takebashi-Pier for Chichi-Jima from our hotel room. We returned from Shinagawa by way of Aqua-Line.
December 29th (Mon.)
I got up early in the morning and walked around the hotel. After that, my wife and I went to Odaiba which is one of the sight-seeing spot. We walked along the Tokyo Bay and visited Toyota Show Room near the Palette town. There were many cars exhibited and tried to take seats of expensive cars. I found that Allion which is a brand name of Toyota car was attractive for me, because the size is proper for me and it seemed reasonable. We could take an electric car as a trial which was controlled by the control station for 7 minutes. It was so crowded that we had to wait for 40 minutes. We returned to the hotel and went to a sushi restaurant near the hotel and enjoyed eating. It tasted good. We went to bed earlier than usual at the Intercontinental Hotel Tokyo.
December 28th (Sun.)
We waked up at 7 o’clock and ate breakfast in the room. After relaxing and watching TV, we went to a tea restaurant on the third floor where we got free tickets. It was a large restaurant, but there was only one couple except us and it was very quiet. Almost all the people went to TDL and almost no people stayed here at 10 o’clock, so we could be relaxed. We left the hotel at 11 o’clock and then went to the Hama-Rikyu Park near Shiodome Station. During Edo Era, Tokugawa Shogun opened this park near the Tokyo Bay. Now many skyscrapers stand around the park. Other side is Tokyo Bay. The weather was very fine and warm, so we sat at a bench and saw the sea scenery for a while. We went to a hotel where we could see the Rainbow Bridge. We ate at an Italian restaurant and enjoyed eating and seeing beautiful scenery.　We returned to the hotel and saw a beautiful Rainbow Bridge lighted up with a glass of wine.
December 27th (Sat.)
My wife and I went to Tokyo Disney Land. I forgot when was the last time to visit there. We checked many tours during the New Years Holiday and realized that they were very expensive especially southern part of Japan and overseas tours compared with ordinary days. On the contrary, the cost of hotels and amusement places in Tokyo area during the same season was reasonable. We decided to got to the Tokyo Disney Land and stay at one of the TDL official hotels. We left our home at 9 o’clock and arrived at 10 o’clock. There were many people in front of Maihama Station. There were many shops and we dropped in the service station to get a one day ticket of TDL and checked in the hotel and left our luggage. I thought that it was a good service for visitors without going to the hotel. We could directly go to the TDL gate and began to walk around there. We realized that most of amusements were so crowded that we needed to wait for half an hour. We waited for some of them and then had lunch earlier than usual. It was chilly outside, but we felt comfortable and enjoyed eating lunch. We saw the TDL parade and then saw the dancing show. As we got a little tired, we went to the Tokyu Hotel where we would stay. It was a large hotel and we took arrest and then we left the hotel by the hotel bus bound for Maihama Station and we ate Japanese dishes and then went to TDL again. We　saw the TDL night parade which used many LED and was very colorful. After we saw the fire works, we returned to the hotel by the hotel bus. We enjoyed very much.
December 25th (Thurs.)
I went to Kanazawa University in order to attend the cooperative research project meeting. It began at 9 o’clock and discussed all day without any break except lunch time. It ended at 16 o’clock.
December 24th (Wed.)
I went to Kanazawa University and had the oral examination of Dr. course students. One of them belongs to my research laboratory. Both of the students presented their papers for one hour and then had questions and answers. They passed their oral examination.
December 18th (Thurs.)
I went to Hiroshima and had some trials and also had a laboratory tour. It was a cold day, but as I could see valuable trials, it was worth visiting. After trials, I had a drinking party in down town Hiroshima and had a enjoyable time. On the way to hotel, I saw very beautiful scenery of illumination along the main street.
December 5th (Fri.)
I was asked to present a technical lecture arranged by Japan Society of Polymer Processing and talked about Film Processing for one and half hours. There were about twenty researchers and I had a good time to discuss some technical matters in Tokyo.
November 17th (Mon.)
Three students came to our research laboratory from Kanazawa by a night bus to do the research using a stretching machine, X-ray diffraction equipments and so on. One of them was a lady. They usually stay for one week, namely five days. They got useful results and returned to Kanazawa on November 21st.
November 14th (Fri.)
There were about fifteen people gathered for cooperative research project meeting. It began at 8 o’clock and ended at 16 o’clock as usual. We dropped in a sushi restaurant at 6th floor of the department store located in front of Kanazawa Station. We often came here after I watched TV program which introduced this restaurant. I enjoyed eating sushi.
November 13th. (Thurs.)
I went to Kanazawa in the morning and discussed with my students in the afternoon. I usually had a meeting for three hours. I had a drinking party with two members at a typical Japanese Izakaya in downtown Kanazawa. It was the first time to visit and eat there, but it was reasonable and we enjoyed very much.
October 12^th (Sun.)
I bought a car navigation system one month ago, but my wife and I did not use it. As we had a time, we tried to set up it in my car. We could not understand well how to use it and it took about one hour to set up it. We left for Soga shopping center and used it. It seemed to be good and a voice advised us to the direction. When we went shopping, Itoh Yokado offered us 20% discount for clothes, neck ties, shoes and so on, because today was Giant Central League Champion sales. We bought several items and spend more than 20,000 yen. On the way to home, we dropped in a restaurant and ate dinner.
October 11^th (Sat.)
I had English lesson as usual on Saturday. Today’s topic was world wide recession. The United States of America had sub-prime loan problems and has been struggling. Lehrman brothers company went bankrupt and then AIG insurance company had a trouble, but this company was temporally saved by USA government decision. Today GM which is the largest company in USA and has about 70,000 employees has a big problem and big deficit. Now many insurance companies and banks all over the world are in a serious condition. The prices of my stocks were going down quickly in a few weeks. I lost a lot of money and I had the same experience after the bubble broke about less than 20 years ago. Stock price went down 1/4 as high as the highest stock price during “Bubble Area”. Nobody can expect the future situation, but at least I can say that World economy will be going worse in coming several years and we need to think of our future plan individually.
October 10th (Fri.)
Professional baseball team Giant won the 2008 Central league Champion and most of Japanese people were surprised to hear the news, because Hanshin Tigers team gained 13 games over Giants team in July and most Japanese people thought Hanshin would be the this year’s champion team. After that, Giant team said they were trying to make legend. Now “the dream comes true”. Nagashima Giant did “make a drama” and this time Hara did “make legend”. I am Giant fan and I was glad to have this final result.
October 8^th (Wed.)
I heard last night that three Japanese physicists would win the Nobel Prize in this year. They were Prof. Nanbu, Masukawa and Kobayashi. Their researches were related to Prof.Yukawa who was the first Japanese person of wining the Nobel Prize. They are theoretical researchers of physicists. And tonight another chemist was announced to win the Nobel Prize in the field of chemical area. I was so surprised that four Japanese researchers won the Nobel Prize in the same year. It was good news and many Japanese researchers were very much impressed to hear it. But I hope that younger researchers who are doing the research at present would be better to win the Nobel Prize than older researchers over 80 years old. The Nobel Prize seems to be offered to people who did the research in the field of basic research rather than industrialized technology of world wide famous developments, such as Li-ion battery, LED and Liquid crystal display which were developed by Japanese researchers
October 7^th (Tue.)
I was very busy all day. I had four meetings at our company. I could not take a rest at all. I presented my research results during the meetings. I received my students who made a presentation material and corrected many sentences and figures and tables. She was the first time to make a presentation material, so she might be struggling to do it.
October 4^th (Sat.)
As I found that I missed to visit some of the companies’ booths of the CEATEC last visit, I visited the CEATEC Japan again with my wife. Before going to the CEATEC, we dropped in the Air University near the Makuhari-Messe. My wife made ID of the Air University. We parked my car at the university and went to the CEATEC. There were many people who visited the exhibition and it was more crowded than last visit. I could get a lot of information by talking with many people in charge of their presentations. In these several years from now, electric car and battery will be more popular and a gasoline car will be changed into an electric car in twenty years
October 3rd (Fri.)
I had a meeting with my friend and discussed our research for three hours. I liked to have a research discussion rather than a big meeting. We planned to publish one of our research subjects in this year.
October 2^nd (Thurs.)
I went to Makuhari-Messe in order to see the CEATEC JAPAN ’08. The CEATEC Japan is the exhibition of newly developed electrical products and their parts. I was very interested in the Panasonic TV and new life style with electrical products presented by Panasonic. It displayed 150 inches Plasma display and it gave us a big impact. The company succeeded in saving the energy consumption which could be reduced 50%. Sony developed very thin display for LCD TV by using LED technology as a back light of LCD. This back light LED was introduced by 4 edges. SONY also displayed Organic EL 27 inches and 11 inches TV which were very clear and very thin. But these TV were displayed last year and I was not impressed very much. Sharp also displayed their TV and blu-ray system and fine LCD TV. When I visited Murata-Seisakusho booth, I was very surprised to see a carefully designed robot named Seiko-chan which could manage to ride a mono-cycle. Last year I saw a robot named Seisaku-kun which could manage to ride a bicycle in a narrow road. There were many people who saw them. I thought this company’s booth was the most popular one of this exhibition.

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