Optics and Exposure

Before leaving, I had to finally visit Nijo Castle, since it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it was a scant block and a half from my hotel.  Bob was pretty interested in seeing it as well, so we showed up together at the gates when they opened at 8:45.  We spent about 30 minutes touring the gardens of this dual-moat castle, and another 15 minutes walking through the Shogun’s palace.  They wouldn’t let me take pictures inside, so we didn’t spend as long in there as we did out in the gardens.   Continue reading

This morning, I got up early and rode the subway east to Chion-In, an active Buddhist temple that, according to my Lonely Planet guide, is like the Vatican for one particular sect of Buddhism. The temple is a sprawling complex, with several building connected by raised and covered walkways. Fortunately, the grounds are free and open to the public, although they do prohibit photographs inside the temple. I figured this wouldn’t be a problem, as the architecture of these places is usually just as captivating. I arrived, however, to find that the temple is in the middle of renovations….so the architectural views are all polluted with cranes, scaffolding, and construction debris, and the soundscape is infected with a lot of repetitive banging. Continue reading

This morning, Bob and I hopped on a bus to Kinkaku-Ji, in the North-West outskirts of Kyoto.  Kinkaku-Ji, the Golden Pavilion, was built in 1397 as a retirement complex for a Shogun.  Upon his death, he asked that it be converted into a Buddhist temple, so it was.  More recently, one particularly zealous monk decided to burn down the Golden Pavilion in 1950, presumably since he was so enamored with the pavilion.  It was rebuilt in 1958, according to the original specifications, but with one minor modification:  the gold leaf that originally covered the top two levels was extended down to the ground floor (and also covers the interior walls).  It was a pretty cool complex, and another UNESCO World Heritage site to check off the list of things to see. Continue reading

Today, the conference entered full swing.  As such, I did not do much sight seeing during the day.  The morning was consumed with opening ceremonies (presentation of a bunch of Best Paper and society awards) and the first plenary talk.  For lunch, I ventured to a local restaurant (i.e., not for foreigners) with June, Aurora, and Joao.  We managed to negotiate the language barrier thanks to my Lonely Planet’s menu decoder, Aurora’s digital pocket translator, and June’s partial knowledge of the written language.  After lunch, we headed back to the conference for the afternoon sessions, and then met up with Prof. Moura and the rest of the group at 6:00 for dinner, and that’s where the night began.

Continue reading

After my mid-day nap on Monday, I rode the subway up to the conference center to check-in and attend the welcome reception.  There, I met up with Markus, a former CMU professor, and the rest of the CMU contingent (in the photo, clock-wise from bottom-left, we have: June, Peter, Franz, Markus, Qiuling, Joao’s girlfriend Katie, Joao, and Aurora).

The welcome reception was very nice, with amazing hors d’ouvres that, because this is Japan, could have served as a normal dinner.  There was sushi and sashimi, nakami rolls, and about a dozen kinds of sliced meat and fish, all designed perfectly for chop sticks, of course.  The only thing that would have made it an actual meal was more rice.

After the reception, we all hopped onto the subway to head towards Downtown Kyoto, hoping to have some drinks at an upscale Japanese bar (or restaurant, I wasn’t ever sure what to call it) Izakura.  Thanks to Franz’s Japanese wife (who told him where to take us), we had a round of drinks at an awesome venue (shown above).

Continue reading