The Bjørner Japan Diary
Trivia &
Photos: "Blow-by-Blow"
February - Mid April 2006
Kari & Dines Bjørner
December 22, 2006
- 7-8 Feb., arrival:
After some hectic last days in Denmark we (Kari and I) enjoyed
a luxurious SAS business class flight CPH-TOY, great dinner,
fine wines, lots of sleep. Arrived, relatively relaxed at Narita, on
time 10:40 am. Cruised through passport control. Took possession
of our 7 suitcases - well over 120 kgs., but, with
EuroBusiness Gold etc., no charge! Sent 5 suitcases off by ABC, delivery
to our hotel in Kanazawa - where they arrived next noon. Then off
on bus to the domestic airport, nearer Tokyo center, Haneda. Had lunch, sushi
of course, and then flew off, 3:30 pm to Komatsu, our local airport,
30 kms. south of Kanazawa. Our hotel was ready - and so were we.
After a light dinner around the corner we went to bed.
- 9-14 Feb., moving in:
Next morning, Thu.am., we saw our apt., and moved in Tue., after 6 days
in the hotel. Many things had to be cleaned and cleared out of the apt.
Sat. we bought a double bed and linen. Bed was brought Friday, a week
later. Slept on the floor, i.e., on Japanese madrasses (futongs) etc.
First week in the apt. was a bit of a chock: Bitterly cold,
a circus of
trying to get three kerosene burners and the warming AC to work and the
fuses not to blow. But we've learned that too.
- Satomicho is the name of our "district" (and hence of the streets).
- Our address is: Apt.303 Townheights Satomicho, 44-1 Satomicho,
Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-0989, Japan
- The apt. house is called: Townheights Satomicho.
- Kanazawa is the city name, some 450,000 inhabitants.
- Ishikawa is the name of the prefecture (i.e., province, state).
Above:
Street leading to our apartment (behind the photographer).
Above:
Our apartment house.Our apt. is the one with the brown (desk)
in the corner window.
The living room window is half-hidden and
right above the tree in the center photo.
Above:
View from our living room. The red building is city hall.
Click
this for
more photos
of
Satomicho district and our apartment
.
- 21 Feb., initial impressions at work:
Nice introduction here at JAIST, nice big office, loads of computers,
and after now two weeks here Dines is
heading a small group of one Post.doc.,
one PhD stud., and one M.Sc. student. I've written a document formalising
what one might mean by a document (well there seems to be an inexhaustible
lot one can say about documents without yet having captured "all"!). In this
group we are now looking at Digital Rights Management (DRM), in
fact, a rather
fascinating area of licensing the rendering (playing, viewing, copying) of
digital documents.
- General:
Kanazawa is neat: 400,000 approx., beautiful parks, an ancient castle,
cozy restaurants, galore, and we have tried now quite a few. We have a bank
account, credit cards, chops, alien registration cards, health insurance
cards, etc., etc. Dines has
a lovely secr., Miss Yuko Banba. She speaks English
very beautifully, spent 4 years in Santa Rosa, near Napa Valley, Calif.
Kari got carried away a bit too much perhaps, attending zillions of courses
at the very nearby Intl.Lounge: Ikebana, Japanese for beginners,
Papercutting, Embroidery, etc., etc. Dines commute: Bus, train, bus.
35 mins. on the train - and have used that productively to read now 5
clever papers on DRM, as well as refereeing a paper. JAIST is 30kms south
of Kanazawa. Spring is coming.
- Early March, travel preparations:
Kari flies off,
8-24 March, to Seattle, to be with
Nikolaj, Bodil, Marianne, Katrine and
Jakob, for 16 days. Dines is flying off to meetings in Tokyo, and to
a quickie luxury stay at a smart hotel in Brügge, Belgium: The IFIP WG2.3
meeting 13-18 March. Our daughter, Charlotte's hand is trembling: She is
signing/or about to sign buying what appears to be a very nice house in
Trørød. (Some days later: She bought it! It is very nice.)
- March 7-8, Kari off to Seattle:
Kari flew off to
Seattle Wedn. 8 March. Taxi was ordered by Dines' secr.
and came at 9:10 (for 9:15 - here precision and reliability is
Number ONE): for Kanazawa station, then express airport bus, and
flight 11:45 for Haneda, the "domestic" airport in Tokyo. From there
by bus to Narita, and from there 5:45 pm to Seattle. We went out the
evening before to our favourite local Sushi rest., sat, as always at
the counter, and talked much with the amazingly well-speaking
Mr. Yousjimo, the sushi chef.
- March 10-13, Dines off to Tokyo:
Dines flew off, early
Friday March 10, to
Tokyo for meetings in the
late afternoon and fine dinner + a later "modern" version of a
Geisha-evening. Drinking Chateaux Margaux and other
ridiculously priced French wines. Company was CSK. Host was its
Director, Mr. Teiichi Aruga. Fascinating executive.
The next two full days, Sat., and Sun., Dines just relaxed: Dines had
prepared substantive reports for the above and for another meeting, see
below - and preferred to be in a nice warm hotel room in Tokyo
rather than in the still cold apt. in Kanazawa. One has to
understand that Dines has probably been in Tokyo more than 50 times
since 1978, for a total of possibly almost a full year, and at all
times of the year. So Dines do know quite a bit
of Tokyo. And Dines could therefore wander
at his ease, relax and enjoy what is unique Edo. Bookstores:
Maruzen, Yaesu and Kinokuniya and the many ones at Jimbocho's Book
Street, Kanda. His favourite there us Isseido (7 Kanda Jimbocho).
In between meandering Dines had Sushi at Dines' favourite, "behind" the
railway line, near Shimbashi Station, 5 minutes from the Imperial
Hotel (where Dines has stayed many times since 1979). Dines also went for a
cocktail, it became two, at the Old Imperial Bar, designed by Frank
Lloyd Wright and still preserved.
- March 13-18, Dines off to Brügge:
Then
Dines flow off
to Brügge in Belgium:
Lufthansa to Frankfurt and on
to Brussels, then train. From 10:40 am Japan time to 7 pm Belgium
time. Ticket was "cattle" class, but luckily Dines was upgraded and had
a splendid business class seat. It could be automatically set into
6 different shapes and tuned to any position in-between these. A
favourite was fully horisontal. Dines spent from Monday evening 13 March
7 pm to
Saturday morning 18 March 7 am at a nice hotel, Navarra, in
Brügge,
with 25 old friends, all
computer scientists, presenting ideas to one another, discussing
them, and eating sumptuous lunches and dinners. Friday it was all
over before noon. Wedn. and Fri. afternoons Dines then had time to
sightsee. Kari and Dines were in Brügge as far back as 1977. Most
interesting was the Groening Museum with paintings by van Eyck,
Hans Memling and others.
- March 19-22, Dines back to Tokyo:
Sat. return via Brussels and Munich to
Tokyo, arriving half-broken (no upgrading), at Dines' Tokyo
hotel at noon Sunday. Monday Dines' colleagues and Dines had a meeting from
11 am till about 2:30 pm. Later that afternoon Dines visited the UN
University HQ and chatted with old acquaintances from our time with
the UN (1991-1997). Next morning back to Kanazawa: Air from Haneda
and bus, one hour, from local airport Komatsu.
- March 26, Kari back from Seattle:
Meanwhile Kari was 16 days
in Seattle. Came home last night at
10:30 pm. She had had a fine time with Marianne (8), Katrine (5),
Jakob (3), Nikolaj (38 on the 28th of March) and Bodil (40 years
today, Sunday 26th). Kari brought home many patchwork fabrics and
several, some 8 or so, books.
- General:
We now have a little "circuit" of local
restaurants. We've only
tried one of the three rests. on the ground floor of our apartment
building. There is also a delightful bar, starts at 8 pm and closes
the other side of 2 am, when the last customer leaves. He has great
Scottish malts, Caribbean rums, etc. He's very entertaining. Cute,
slight accent. Despite the restaurants it is always very calm and
quiet here.
We have walked (Sat. 11 March) in the ``Eastern Pleasure
Quarter" of Kanazawa, the geisha district, and had a delightful
lunch at a local rest., since 1906! Bought small boxes and things
for Kari to bring to the children in Seattle. Sunday we walked in
the so-called old samurai district with its beautiful houses and
gardens, saw museums, etc. Also a nice sunny day. Dines stayed home
Monday, first going to the Immigration Office to get unlimited
re-entry permission stamped into Dines' passport, Yen 6,000. Then
further working on two documents started the previous
Friday. Basically finishing them in a final draft form and
distributed to Dines' host professor (Kokichi Futatsugi). In the
afternoon (still Sat. 11 March) Kari and Dines walked, in the slight
rain, in yet a third old
houses quarter. So we saw quite a bit of town. And we like it.
Above:
Our favourite sushi chef, the sushi bar, and the
yakitori place in our apt. building!
Above:
Dines' favourite sushi place (near Shimbashi train
station), bar (@ the Old
Imperial), and teriyaki abalone steak (@ Kamon, Imperial Hotel), all in Tokyo
Click
this for
more photos
of
Japanese restaurants
.
We are having our fill of it. Some episodes are:
- Forms Filling:
There are 2-3 papers at least,
with signatures (chops using Dines' hanko, i.e., Dines' Japanese seal with
Katakane for "Bjorner") and lots and lots of the very same information
that one has given thrice before to the same authority (usually the
university administration, or the bank, or the local and regional
immigration services). One feels, but Dines might be wrong, that one has
filled out - with the extremely kind help of Dines' secretary, Miss Yuko
Banba - such forms at least 15 times.
-
- Immigration:
We filled out application forms at the
Japanese Consulate (Embassy) in Copenhagen. For that effort we got
a one entry resident visa for three years to Japan. One entry only.
Not multiple entries. That took a week. Then we filled out
rather similar forms, all over at the Kanazawa city immigration
services to obtain the Alien Registration Card. No, it had to be
done all over again, no streamlining this into one process. That
took two weeks. Then, to
obtain multiple entry status we went to a third office, way out of
town, bus, walk, and bus again. Only that took two photos, half a
page of form to fill out, and wait 10 minutes. All done!
-
- Telephone and ADSL:
To get a telephone line opened
takes applications and 2 weeks of waiting! (In Calif., in 1963, it
took approx. half a day!) To get an ADSL line also took applications
- but longer time: three weeks!
-
- Mobile Phone versus ADSL Costs:
Since Dines uses his
computer at home, linked up to the Internet, almost exclusively to
do scientific and administrative work strongly related to his job at
JAIST, Dines was naive enough to believe that Dines' ample computing
equipment budget (which, by the way, Dines have little chance or
opportunity to use up, too much money for Dines' needs) - since Dines
assumed it could be used to defray the ADSL line costs, Dines asked for
this. Oh no! But they would pay purchase of a mobile phone and all
the work-related costs associated with that phone! Now, can you see
it: The cost of ADSL, per month, is well below the cost of the
mobile phone purchase cost + usage per month for the period we are
here. And: the cost of the JAIST administration to go through the
list of mobile phone calls to calculate which are work-related and
their cost, well, far exceeds the similar costs for administration
of the ADSL line. But a rule is a rule. And rules cannot be
changed.
-
- Credit Cards:
It turns out that one needs
several CCs to survive. Although there is a "generous" 400,000 Yen
borrowing ceiling on a credit card, in effect it means that you can
only spend much less because the transfers between my bank and the
CC company are such as to render that "generous" ceiling a joke.
So, instead of wanting my business, they loose it. I now have, or
are applying for a total of four CCs!
The Japanese banking system is, so tells my more exerienced expatriates
here, the most archaic they know of.
University administrations, banks, etc., instead of being flexible
forcess us all to live according to their "rules".
- Sunday 2 - Monday 3 April: Hikone and Hakkeitei
Ryokan:
Sunday morning we took the regional express train to Maibara (100
minutes) and then, after 5 minutes,
the local train, 5 minutes, to Hikone. We
walked, with our "carry-on" the 15 minutes through town to the
Hikone Castle grounds to the Hakkeitei Ryokan, i.e., Japanese inn.
See http://www.hakkeitei.com/english/h/top.htm. A rather phantastic
300 year old place. We got the Ukimido room. Fabulous, really.
The price of 52.000 Yen included the room, a sumptuous 8 course
dinner and a likewise sumptuous 6 course breakfast, all Japanese,
served in our room. We arrived at noon. Got the room at four. Left
it the next morning at almost 10. So we just stayed in that room,
straight, for over 17 hours - minus the walk down creaking
corridors to the bath and toilet! From noon till 4pm Sunday we
strolled to, along, and around Castle Street, and mounted the
Castle. Very impressive. Train home by 10:16 with 20 minute stop,
this time, in Maibara. We home by noon and had had a great journey.
Above:
Our room is the whole building in the middle of all
three photos!
See the castle above the photo in the middle.
Click
this for
more photos
of
Hakkeitei ryokan outside
.
Click
this for
more photos
of
Hakkeitei ryokan inside
.
Above:
Yes, it was raining that afternoon halfway through
our castle visit - but it was OK.
Click
this for
more photos
of
Hikone castle
.
- General - Around April 8-9:
About our daily life,
seen here two months
after our arrival.
- Kari's Daily Life:
We get up at around
6-6:30 am most mornings, week ends included. Have breakfast and Dines
is out by 7:20 or so. Then there is house work, shopping, cashing
monies from the ATMs, window shopping, and the usual stuff.
Kari has promised Dines to write more for this diary
-
- Kari's Work:
There are two elements to
Kari's work - besides what has been described above: the house
chores.
- One is attending classes, 3-4-5 times a week, at
the International
Lounge.
Kari enjoys
classes in making pictures by paper (no scissors, "tearing" to get
soft edges), origami, embroidery, etc.
Kari has promised Dines to write more for this diary entry
-
- The other is sewing and P&Q: patch-working and
quilting. Kari
brought a fair selection of fabrics with here from Denmark, and
quite a large selection, in a huge "back to school trunk" with her
from Seattle. So now Kari is washing some of these fabrics, cutting
them p: some to parts to keep, some to sell - in Denmark.
Kari has promised Dines to write more for this diary entry
-
- Dines' Travel to and from Work:
We get up at
around 6 am every day, week ends included. Week days, Monday through
Friday Dines commutes. First a leisurely stroll, some 5-7 minutes to
the Korinbo bus stop. Then a walk of typically 4-5 minutes. The #87
bus then takes him to Nomachi Station, another 6-7 minutes. Payment
is 200 Yen, i.e., US$2, approx., and, in Dines' case, is by an
electronic card which carries some 27 such trips. It is easily
recharged, usually by paying 5 thousand Yen, or approx. US$50.
The train cost to Tsurugi, "end of the line" is 460 Yen and is paid
by a ticket from a booklet of 20 such, at 10% reduced price. The
train ride is almost 40 minutes during which Dines continues to read
either scientific (or technical) papers, or, more leisurely, a
book. Presently Dines is reading Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird
Chronicle. At Tsurugi the JAIST Shuttle bus takes us to JAIST in 9
minutes. From Dines leaves Kari till he sits in his office some 65
minutes has passed, 40 of them reading, 20 of them observing local
life. Dines usually take the 8:44 am train in the morning and the
4:58 pm train in the evening.
-
- Dines' Work:
Dines' work divides into
several parts:
- Domain Engineering.
Two reports:
On Domains and Domain Engineering:
Prerequisite for Trustworthy Software, A Necessity for Believable
Project Management
and Towards a Theory of Documents.
- Digital Rights: Consumers and
Producers in a Digital World:
See Specifications of Digital
Rights Languages
. We are now
in the process of defining two
script languages
, one for the
communications that take place in health care between patients
and medical staff and supposedly somehow focused on the
Patient Medical Reports
, and one for the
communications that take place in public administration around
Administrative Documents
. We will design these
languages around modal concepts of rights and obligations
(permissions and commitments),
knowledge and belief, time and space. Finally we shall try
relate the communication acts to
Game Theory
.
- Click this
for
my
April - May Lectures at JAIST
.
- Preparation of a paper for an invited
IWAAPF 2006
talk.
- Preparation of lectures for Macau Government staff around
e-Macao
- a project "master-minded" by
UNU-IIST
, and in particular by Dr. Tomasz Janowski:
Click People, then click Staff
and Fellows, and then click Dr. Tomasz Janowski
- Tokyo/JAIST Lectures:
Four evenings
of 190 minutes, 6:30-9:40 pm.
- Book Editing:
Dines is editing a book:
Logics of [Formal] Specification Languages
. To be
published in the same series as Dines' three books - by Springer.
Editing also means: making sure all 9 sets of authors use the same
styles, that the macros do noit conflict and can all be compiled as
one set, making sure that all 9 language chapters have adequate
subject and symbol indexing, etc., etc. Zillions of minute things.
(This takes time!)
- Writing yet a book!
Dines is trying to ruthlessly
assess whether he has achieved what he wanted with his three volume
book, 2413 pages, that was published 9 Dec., 2005, 9 Feb., 2006 and
9 March, 2006. It is built up around the seven theses that he claims
runs through this book, these volumes, as a rainbow coloured
braid. Dines expects the estimated 140 page "Thesis" to be
finished by the time we return to Denmark.
- Academia Europaea:
Dines is chairman of AE's Informatics
Section. Dines' trip to Budapest is to two half day meetings, of
the AE Nominations Committee and the AE Council. Dines worked
with his membership to nominate 24 new members of AE/IS - and the fate of these nominations will be decided April 19 and
20. Dines has recently nominated a six man Section Committee,
and it must be presented in name at the Council Meeting, as must
our Section's plans for a two day "grand challenges of
informatics" symposium at the AE Annual General Meeting in
Budapest in September this year.
In addition Dines is reviewing assistant and associate professorship
applications and very large scale (i.e., Euro 80 million) applications
for the German Research Council! Lots to do!
- Tokyo-Vienna-Budapest-Kyoto (written 9 April,
Charlotte's Birthday):
These days Kari and Dines are
preparing for trips to Tokyo (14-19 April) and Kyoto (22-24 April),
resp. for Tokyo (one evening and night 14/15 April), Vienna (14-15
April, arrival 4pm, dept. 3pm), Budapest (16-21) and Kyoto (as for
Kari). Expect some future diary entries on this. In Tokyo and Kyoto
Kari and I will meet our friends since February 1969: Peggy and
Peter Stark. Kari will, additionally scour Tokyo's P&Q
stores. Undoubtedly she will have to buy another trunk! In Vienna
Dines will stay at Hotel
Wandl
,
an old favourite. And in
Budapest at Hotel
Sofitel
,
another favourite. In Budapest Dines will meet Szeredi Peter and his
family, and hopes to meet Bach Hedda and Ivan. Be sure of one thing:
the
tremendously boring hardship of intercontinental travels on "cattle
class" sort of "pays off" when you can stroll down Wollzeile in Wien,
have dinner Saturday eveniningat 7pm at
Plachutta
;
attend an Easter Morning 11 am concert at the
Augustiner Kirche
;
followed by an early lunch at Hotel Sacher's outdoor/wintergarden cafe/restaurant
(Rote
Bar
- you can see the winter garden through the opening to the right) before taking the train to Budapest at 3:45 pm. All
restaurant bookings are made!
- Week-end Walks in Kanazawa:
We have spent many hours
most week-ends walking at our leisure around Kanazawa. Dines
believes the below photos speak for themselves.
Click
this for
more photos
of
houses in Kanazawa
.
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The Bjørner Japan Diary
Trivia &
Photos: "Blow-by-Blow"
February - Mid April 2006
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The translation was initiated by Dines Bjorner on 2006-12-22
Dines Bjorner
2006-12-22