forget it. really. i mean it

noop (3-0) blog; urgency=low

Trent Reznor of NIN fame just released a collection of four new albums,
Ghosts I-IV[1]. The cool thing is, all four albums are CC-licensed,
you can get FLACs and even the original multitrack recordings for
an (IMHO) quite fair price straight from NIN (no record label involved),
and Trent created the first Torrent for Ghosts I himself, to get the word
out. Check it out ! [2]

I am quite fond of (some of) NIN's music for quite some time already,
and Ghosts I is a clear reaffirmation for me. But more importantly,
it is very pleasing to see artists starting not to fight technology
(granted, often passively) but actively experimenting with new ways
to reach out towards their fans.

[1] http://ghosts.nin.com/
[2] http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/4059158/Nine_Inch_Nails_-_Ghosts_I_(2008).4059158.TPB.torrent

-- Philipp <blog AT yomu doT de> Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:46:53 +0100

noop (2-7) blog; title=mirfaelltkeinenam

Wow, it's really been a while since i blogged. I can't believe i'm
already here for a month. So much has happened, and at the same time, so
little. By now i have pretty much settled into a (very busy) daily
routine, which means right now i really can't find time to blog regularly.
Sorry to everybody who was looking forward to reading more here. A lot of
the stuff that happened to me i would categorise as "private life" - and
that's not something i want to discuss in this public blog, apart from the
time issue.
As i have a bit of free time this week, though (it's Golden Week - look it
up, basically it's three holidays in a row), i will try to make true on my
promise to finish my accounts of my first week. Hopefully i can follow this
up with a description of what my daily life looks like sometime soon. (Let's
say for now that i really enjoy it.) After that i don't know if i'll
continue this blog. The feedback i got so far has been a bit meager, and,
considering the time it takes to write this blog, a bit discouraging.

On thursday there was an orientation about "Life in Japan" at the ECIS, and
a volunteer from ACE picked us up at the dormitory. Of course i had made my
way to the university already, but not everybody had. The meeting took over
three hours, starting with a nice introductory round of all the new NUPACE
students and all the people working at the ECIS, and covering everything
from how/when to register for a bank account and health insurance, to the
omnipresent trash sorting rules. This meeting was used to relay a lot of
important information to us (which i will not repeat here) whereas the
"NUPACE Opening Ceremony" scheduled for the next day would hold the more
formal introductory part. At noon we went to have lunch at the Coop cafeteria
(Coop being a student organisation, similar to our Studentenwerk, though
membership is voluntary - i of course joined). This was followed by a campus
tour done by some ACE volunteers. I learned the location of my school of
affiliation (although i can't really go there at the moment) as well as some
other important places on the south/west part of the (main) campus.

After the tour a large number of NUPACErs went to their respective Ward's
office to complete the formalities for their alien registration and japanese
health insurance. I, however, was among the few students scheduled to do so
on the following day, so i had the afternoon off. I took the time to look
around the campus some more, went shopping, and finally home. I spent the
afternoon working on my computer, and in the evening, got together with a
few international students over a beer. I was quite interesting for me to
listen to some of the more vivid stories that the "oldtimers" (who had been
here for half a year already) were willing to share.

The next day meant getting up early again, since we were supposed to attend
the Opening Ceremony. This included, among formal greetings from the
university vice president and who-else, an Academic Orientation. This
included details about all possible NUPACE courses, which is a set of
courses taught in English, and aimed (in the way they are taught/graded) at
the needs of the NUPACE office. I, as most other students in the NUPACE
program, did not posses the necessary japanese skills to listen to ordinary
university courses.

I had decided before that in my first semester here i would like to take an
intensive japanese class (20 lessons per week, while only yielding 8 credit
points). Unfortunately, i noticed during the orientation, this would
conflict with the only information science course NUPACE offered -
regardless of which level i would take. The only alternative would be to
take a standard (non-intensive) japanese course, but i later decided against
that. Since I need to gain 12 credit points total to gain some academic
certification (which of course i don't need, but which would be a
nice-to-have) i was left with the task of choosing at least two more courses
to take for credit. So i made a rough pre-selection of courses to go to, so
that i could decide over the next three weeks which of the courses to take
for credit and which as an auditor.

Another thing about the academic orientation was that the academic advisors
of the different schools, that had been assigned NUPACE students, were
present. My advisor briefly greeted me, told me that he was really busy, and
to come by his office in the afternoon. He also invited me to a Hanami that
his research group would hold that same evening. Then he ran off to his next
appointment.

After the ceremony was over (including the mandatory group photograph) we
headed to lunch again. After that everybody was taken to their respective
school of affiliation to complete the registration procedures there. (I did
mine at the School of Informatics & Sciences, the undergraduate school,
which apparently also handles some of the paperwork for the GSIS, the
Graduate School of Information Science.) Having finished that, i had to
hurry back to the ECIS, where volunteers were waiting to take me to the
Ward's office.

The subway ride took quite some time, changing lines once, and the office
itself was quite crowded. Imagine a Bürgerbüro, for a medium-sized city, but
all in one room. There was a bit of paperwork involved, and while we had
received english instructions on how to fill it out, i was quite happy to
have somebody there to help me with the Kanji, for example for the address.
Basically, i registered as an alien with longer-term residency (which
yielded a nice ID card after three weeks), became a member of the mandatory
japanese health and pension insurances, applied for an exemption of paying
the latter (as i was a student and wouldn't be earning any major amount of
money) and made sure about the formalities for paying the former. One thing i
found interesting (annoying) was that they stapled a temporary alien
registration form into my passport, until i would be back to pick up the
real ID card. This card, as i later learned, was also mandatory in getting a
mobile phone - something quite important among japanese youth, as well as
the international students living in japan.

After having been accompanied back to the university by the YWCA volunteers
and thanking them for their invaluable help, I went to find out how to
contact my academic advisor, Assistant Professor 河口 信夫 (Kawaguchi Nobuo,
Kawaguchi of course being his family name). Getting ahold of him proved a
little bit tricky, but i finally managed.

When i arrived at his office, he was in another meeting (or discussion with
his coworkers), so i just sat and looked through his (mainly japanese)
office library for a while. When the meeting had finished, I still couldn't
discuss my schedule with him - the sun was almost setting, and it was high
time to head out to the Hanami with the rest of the laboratory (= the
research group). Being too happy about it, because i was feeling a bit sick
on that evening, and not looking forward to spend my time in the (still cold)
outside, i followed.

If you have ever been to a Hanami, you know what it's about. If you haven't,
it's quite difficult to describe, at least if i want to get across why this
event is so special. Imagine a picnic under the blossoming cherry tree, where
traditional japanese food is served, together with maybe some beer. However,
that is just the outside of it. At heart, a Hanami can maybe be described as
a reminder, that life (like the cherry blossom's time) is short, and to
enjoy it - together with your family and friends. I guess you have to
experience it yourself to see what i mean.

The collectivistic aspect of japanese society was quite present at the
hanami. Not only did i have to introduce myself (as did all the others
present), but everybody was contributing in some way - some through
preparing food, some trough showing some little feats, others by singing or
playing the guitar. To the outside it probably all looked like a big happy
family celebrating the cherry blossom together. And really, that's what it
was. The people working together in the research group, like most other work
groups in Japan, are the individual members' primary group, primary frame of
reference - their family. And once you are accepted into a group, you really
are a valued member of it. And right there, in between all the sushi and
beer, all the singing and celebrating, all these people whose every
twentieth word i could understand - right there, for the first time in
almost a week in this strange country, I just felt at home.

-- Philipp <blog AT yomu doT de> Thu, 4 May 2006 15:43:28 +0900

noop (2-6) blog; title=scheduled no-op

For the next two days, as anticipated, i did not have a whole lot to do,
which was just as well, as i did have quite some jet-lag to overcome. I did
awake during the night from monday to tuesday, around midnight i think, and
unpacked all of my stuff. After having carefully decided where i wanted to
put everything, my room already looked a whole lot nicer. Imagine something
roughly 4.4 x 2.2 meters, but with a quarter taken up by the bathroom, and
also one square meter for the entrance area - we're in japan, after all. The
rest holds enough room for one-and-a-half cupboards (? - Kleiderschränke),
a desk (with an internal-only telephone), a chair and a comfortable bed.
Not comparable with my old rooms, but not too crammed, either, especially
with what little stuff i brought.

While i was working, there was a lot of noise coming from the common living
room - apparently there was a party going on. I pondered going over there
and introducing myself to the other people on my floor - but for some reason
i suddenly felt very inconfident in my japanese language ability (and from
the sounds of it, these guys wouldn't be able to talk english anymore).
What's more, i also did not think i could fit into that cultural context,
"student party", easily. Adding to that that i was dead tired, i pretty much
decided that i would just hide in my room, and read for a while - which was
just as well, i went to see another party the next day, and i can
confidently say i didn't miss anything that night. Feeling a bit bad about
my inability to act, though, i went to sleep again.

The next morning i was supposed to go into the NUPACE office and say hi -
though i did not have any fixed time to be there, so i just went after i
woke up naturally, which was around 10:30 am. I found the university alright
(a ten minute trip on foot), and also did not have too much trouble finding
the ECIS - the educational center for international students - where, among
other things, the NUPACE office was located. I was greeted with a lot of
enthusiasm (in every office i was immediately recognised, might be the beard
:-)), and it was very nice to get to know all the people that i had been
emailing with in person. I had hoped that i could get some paperwork done
immediately, but as they had setup a nice schedule on when to do what (and
probably also didn't want to explain every single detail to everybody), i
was just given a login to their computer room, and sent on my way.

The first thing i noted was that kant had apparently been rebooted (due to
a power outage, as i would learn later), and the mail system hadn't come up
again (neither had the LDAP, but i didn't notice that until later). As i did
not have my notebook with me (and even if i had, i would not get network
connectivity until much later), i was unable to login and fix the thing.
While i did bring my key-on-a-stick, this didn't do me any good - the lab
only had windows boxes, which of course were totally unable to read any ext2
partitions. So, accepting the inevitable, that i could not fix the thing,
the only thing i could do was using my university webmail (ugh). This also
meant that any mails i had received before the unclean shutdown were
inaccessible to me, as they had already been transferred to kant. So i
settled for just sending a short mail to my family, telling them that i had
arrived alright, and apologising that i could not answer to possible
previous mails.

While in the computer lab, i met three girls from the NUPACE program, let's
call them C, H, and Y, who were also enrolled for a full year and had been
here for one semester already - just the kind of people i needed to talk to
to get up to speed in Nagoya. They agreed to take me out to lunch, gave me a
quick tour of the central part of the campus, and later even showed me
around to the next supermarket, so i could buy some basic stuff. Also they
had quite some helpful tips about life in Ohmeikan, at the university, and
in Nagoya in general. I will not recount every piece of information that i
received from them, nor from others in the next days, as i think this is
off-topic for a blog of experiences. So, if you, dear reader, ever decide to
come here, i hope i can answer your questions directly. :) Suffice to say
the girls, knowing my situation from their own experience, were very helpful,
too, up to the point of slightly overwhelming my poor tired brain. :)

After we came back from shopping, it was late afternoon again, so i felt i
needed to get more rest. (Also, sometime during the previous day, either
during arrival in not-as-warm-as-expected Nagoya, or during the night, where
due to my inability to properly program the air conditioner, my room had
cooled down further than would have been comfortable, i had caught a cold,
which just added to my tiredness due to jet-lag, and would haunt me for at
least a week.)

I awoke again in the middle of the night, due to some shouting - another
floor party. This time, it didn't take me long to decide to join in. What i
did find surprised me a bit, though - a few people sitting around the living
room table, and lots more standing outside the room, looking in, and
shouting "Kore, Sore" over and over again. :) After some careful inquiry it
turned out that the two girls in the room (this is an male-only floor, so
they were guests) were drinking milk, two more were getting wasted (one
on beer, and one on some kind of pop-drink), and the rest were just standing
in or outside the room, helpfully shouting on each sip. That was about it,
not much conversation, just people watching others getting drunk - very
loudly that is. Also, one of the non-drinkers helpfully held a bucket during
the whole thing.

I did manage to get to know a few of the people from my floor, though i had
trouble telling apart who were guests and who weren't. Right besides the
living room lives a nice chinese guy, who introduced himself as Tom, who
also had one semester of nagoya experience already. Turns out he also knows
Hiro (the guy who picked me up the day before) and also is a member of ACE.

As suddenly as the shouting had started earlier, the party disassembled,
when the two guys agreed they were drunk enough. The guests from other
floors and their host stayed in the living room for a while, but everybody
else left - the fun was apparently over. I did not feel like intruding on
what had suddenly become a very small circle, so i got some food from the
kitchen, went back to my room, and enjoyed the very outstanding final two
episodes of Hellsing.

On wednesday, i didn't have anything planned either. I contemplated going to
the campus, but as it was rainy and the girls said they'd stay at home, too,
i just settled for a lazy day, doing a bit of blogging (though i didn't know
when i could upload it), reading, and lots of sleeping. :)

That evening there was a BK, which is short for block meeting, a mandatory
part of Ohmeikan life. At these meetings, the house and trash recycling
rules are repeated regularly, and possible problems discussed. There is one
BK per half-floor (floors are actually divided into north and south half)
and a common english BK for all foreign students. I went to both.

At the english BK we were welcomed by a nice multi-cultural mix of NUPACE
and other foreign students, told about all the weird rules they have in
Ohmeikan (no guests allowed on the dorm floors, only in the lobby; no guys
allowed on the girls floors) and encouraged to volunteer for jobs that
nobody seems to want to do. :) It was nice to meet the older NUPACErs (most
newly arrived students didn't find their way to this BK yet), though i would
have liked some kind of introductory round. At least, i now knew some faces.
I also reported my toilet being broken, but was told to find some volunteer
on my floor that could report this to the central office in japanese. :)

At the (japanese) floor BK i did not understand a whole lot, though i was
secretly proud of myself when i understood a joke somebody made - the first
joke in a foreign language is always something to treasure IMHO. I also
introduced myself to everybody (a few faces i had not seen before), this
time in japanese. All in all i have to say that the people here talk waay to
fast for me - but hopefully i'll get used to that. I also paid my first
month's rent then. A guy promised to report my plumage problem to the
office the next day (though apparently forgot, i found somebody else to do
so on friday).

After finishing that second meeting, i decided to call it a night, and spent
some more time reading. When i was about ready to sleep, i remembered that i
had an introductory NUPACE meeting the next morning, where i would have to
be on time. I figured out how to set the alarm clock i brought, but as i was
not sure it would be able to wake me, i spent another hour programming my
computer to boot up at the right time, and start playing music (will post
that script later). That, together with a NIN playlist, would surely get me
up in time. So, with an undeserved sense of accomplishment, i went to
sleep. Had i known i would wake up one hour before the alarm clock anyway, i
might not have bothered. :-)

-- Philipp <blog AT yomu doT de> Wed, 12 Apr 2006 06:06:19 +0900

noop (2-5) blog; title=The arrival

Ok, I haven't gotten anything of this blog uploaded yet (for reasons you'll
hear in the next days), and, consequently, haven't gotten any feedback so
far. For now I will continue in this style, but still want to hear your
comments about how i should continue this blog.

As I walked out of the main airport into the pick-up area, i was immediately
greeted by a nice Japanese guy, maybe a bit younger than me. He introduced
himself as 弘之 (Hiroyuki), and told me he was the volunteer the NUPACE
office had promised. We exchanged pleasantries, and i learned that i was the
only one to be picked up by him, and the only one arriving today (no
surprise there).

I asked for a few minutes to get acquainted with the airport area, but as i
learned that it took one and a half hours by train (and two different lines,
for which you have to purchase tickets separately), i quickly decided that i
wouldn't be hanging out at the airport all that much.

As we boarded the Meitetsu airport line, Hiro told me that he was member of
a club called ACE (Action group for Cross Cultural Exchange), in which he
invests most of his time. This of course interested me, so i asked for a
few details. Suffice to say here, that i got the impression that i was in
good hands :-), and that the group took care of all the intl. students, not
just the NUPACE ones. Hiro handed a bunch of papers to me, including a map
of the subway system, another one of the campus, and my timetable for the
following days. He was very patient explaining everything to me, as by now
it became apparent that i lacked quite some sleep, and had trouble
concentrating on some of the details. The instructions were easy though: no
major events planned until Thursday at 9:00, but show up and introduce
yourself in the NUPACE office the next day.

For the rest of the trip we talked about architecture, my japanase history,
our respective majors, dormitories and WGs (a concept i had quite some
difficulty getting across, as i used the word "flat" instead of "apartment",
which confused him to no avail - yay for British English in german schools).
We changed from train to subway at 金山 (Kanayama) station, and i had to buy
another ticket. In Japan, you buy a ticket at the source station, go
wherever you want to go, and then possibly do a "fare adjustment" if you
changed your target - otherwise you won't be able to leave the station.

Just around the time my conversational skills were really dropping, we
reached 八事日赤 (Yagoto Nisseki), where my dormitory is located, just one
station short of 名古屋大学 (Nagoya Daigaku) - Nagoya University. Just after
the station, we passed a convenience store, and Hiro suggested i get
something there - not to stock the fridge, but just so i had enough to eat
for the next 24 hours - to which i agreed. We got some obento, some ramen
that i could just cook with water, and some tea and water. Then we headed
for the dormitory, the International Ohmeikan. I was really beginning to
feel my arms, as i was carrying the hand luggage all the time.

In the lobby we were greeted by two students, who were quick to give me a
departure form (!). When i complained about that, i only earned blank looks
- they both didn't speak english very well. Until i turned over the form, and
saw that the back was japanese - pointing this out, they quickly realized
what i was complaining about, and went to get the correct form. After
completing the sign-in formalities and receiving a key (as well as the
number combination for my mail box), they asked me to fill out a short form
about myself, which would introduce myself to the other students on my
floor. This turned out to be quite hard - who in Germany knows their blood
type ? - and i had trouble thinking up something funny and creative, like
e.g. a favourite artist that anybody would even recognise.

After surviving through that, i said goodbye to Hiro (i wouldn't see him
until thursday morning, when he would come by and pick up all NUPACE
students for the introduction), and was put in the hands of a student from
my floor, who would show me around.

I settled for the _very_ quick tour - my room, next to it the room with the
washing machines, next to that the kitchen, and the common area / living
room across the floor. I quickly introduced myself to a few students from
the floor, but then excused myself again, as i felt i really needed to head
for bed.

As i half-unpacked my luggage and made my bed (bed sheets were already
provided) i contemplated my new situation. I had got here alright and
without major problems, which certainly was something to be thankful for -
and i was. It also seemed i was in good hands for now, though i would have
to stay put for a while.
My room certainly was small, but would suffice. Right now it seemed really
stuffed - but i hadn't unpacked all of my luggage yet, so that was no
surprise. But i did have a nice view over the city, and even a small
balcony. The room was rather cold though (as was the whole city), but
luckily i had learned before how to turn on the heater, so i did just that.
What really got to me, though, was the bathroom. Really small, smelling
heavily of chlorine, and the first time i flushed the toilet, water dripped
from the water reservoir onto the floor, and partially flooded it. As i made
the bed, i quickly considered skipping the shower, but as i certainly was
aware how awful i smelled, and didn't want to go to bed in this state, i
decided against it.

Of course the showering soap had landed in the other suite case, the one at
home. So i just used normal soap, and tried to ignore that chlorine smell,
which i still hate from my time in the states. (Turns out is isn't _that_
much chlorine in the water, it just hung in the air.) And after the shower,
i felt a lot better, though still dead tired.

As i went to bed, i considered my housing alternatives - a thought i would
entertain a few times over the next days, as i learned more and more about
the dormitory. Of course there were alternatives, but they weren't trivial
to come by, and certainly not right now. So i decided to just let things be
for now, and was thankful for my comfortable european-style bed, and invited
sleep gladly.

-- Philipp <blog AT yomu doT de> Thu, 6 Apr 2006 06:22:30 +0900

noop (2-4) blog; title=The trip (2/2)

Shortly before arriving in Seoul, the flight crew made me fill out
immigration papers for Korea, "just in case". Luckily, as this is not the
USA we're talking about, i didn't need them. I checked shortly that my
luggage would be automatically transfered to the next flight, went to the
bathroom, and prepared to wait in line again. Contrary to Paris, they had
enough personnel in the transfer area, so it took me less than half an hour
to reach the departure area. Having about one and a half hours until the
next take-off, i decided that i wanted to send a short message home. I
looked for a comfortable place to sit, so i could scan for open WLANs.
While doing so, i noticed an internet café, and on impulse asked if they
provided WLAN access. They did, so i decided to pay them their three bucks
for one hour of network access (i had packed a few US dollars).

I contacted AOne via Jabber, luckily he was still awake (by now it was 0:30
in CEST zone). I told him to ring my parents, and leave a message on the
machine that i was in Seoul, alright, and not too tired. I also got (i
think) an email sent out. We chatted a bit on how the flight was, and he had
the idea to spend my hour trying to establish a VoIP connection (i would
just have read my mails otherwise, but i can do that offline). This didn't
work to well at first, ekiga isn't in debian yet, and linphone had problems
with the NATed network connection i was using. We did overcome these
problems, though, and managed to have a short chat, which was kinda cool. I
then tried calling his regular phone, which for some obscure reason, only
worked one way. So he could hear me, but i couldn't hear him. I decided
though that this was enough for talking to an answering machine. :-)
I had AOne make a conference call to the machine, and inform me via jabber
when i should start talking. This was one weird use of 4-5 technologies at
once, but a cool one nonetheless. I hope the message got through alright. :-)

While sitting there, the fog over Seoul cleared up a bit, and i kinda enjoyed
my second sunrise of the day (although maybe it wasn't technically a sunrise,
i don't care).
When my hour expired i quickly downloaded my mails, said bye to everybody i
had been chatting with, and went to the restroom again, because i wanted to
get out of my sweaty shirt. Luckily i decided i didn't want to wait for the
line, as apparently the flight to Nagoya had started boarding earlier than
i had anticipated, and they were just doing the final call when i arrived at
the gate. Well, by now i had experience in being among the last to board, so
i managed to not feel self-conscious about it. :-)

This flight immediately felt different, as it was only 1/3s full and, since
by now it was monday noon, most passengers were the business type and
probably flew to Nagoya for some meeting (or back home after a weekend with
their secret lover ;-)). I got a nice-but-plain breakfast (sandwich, orange
juice, and coke) and had some fun getting (partially) changed in the very
small lavatory. Then i had to get serious about immigration papers. As i was
missing one information (residence address) in my dead-tree notes, i had to
boot up my notebook again, and after filling out the forms, i looked at an
email i had noticed on friday evening, but not found time to read - an
introduction of my future dormitory, and some of it's peculiarities. More on
that later.

Before i was finished, the fasten-your-seatbelt signs went on already, so i
shut down the computer for good measure, although we still were quite some
distance to Nagoya. Shortly after, the flight went very rough, and while i
had had a little bit of trouble with minor nosebleeds and ear pressure on
the previously landings, i now started to feel really bad. Not sick in the
stomach sense, but a had a real problem dealing with the rapidly fluctuating
pressure inside the aircraft. So i asked for a cup of water, ate some Salbei
candy, and unpacked my headphones. The aircrafts music channels were already
shut down, except one, which played some soothing Tchaikovsky. This made me
relax, as i just decided to ignore the pain in my ears for now, and deal
with it after we had landed - at least then the outside pressure would stay
constant.

Because of the bad weather, the pilot circled Nagoya by 180 degrees, and
finally approached the airport from the south (the sea side). The runway
were we landed was _directly_ next to the ocean, which just was a totally
awesome sight.

I repacked my stuff and, after leaving the airplane, took a few minutes to
get accustomed to the pressure. My first impression of Japan were the
speedwalks, which clearly stated "stand to the left" - and also kept talking
to me, to watch my step when i got on or off. So much for the "Das ist
Japan..." part - now where can i find somebody to complete that sentence ?
;-)

After being a bit confused for a while, because the airport was larger than
expected, i found where i needed to go for immigration. All the Japanese
people ran to some desk to fill out a form - but it was just an airline
questionnaire, so i passed. I went to the immigration officer, having my
passport and all my papers ready, and expecting the worst - but he worked
through all my stuff professionally and friendly, within two or three
minutes, and still finding time to have a friendly word for me. We should
get some guys like that in the BGS or whatever that army is called nowadays.

Well, that was it - i was now officially allowed to reside in Japan for one
year. I was pointed to the baggage claim area, and just as i walked through
the door, i saw a familiar bag going by - so i jumped to get it. Then, i was a
bit puzzled where to go next, as i see multiple customs officers, but no sign
saying "nothing to declare" - so i head for "Duty Free", which sounded just
as good. Well, here I wasn't prepared for the worst, so i get it. The two
officers are also very friendly, but insisted on completely searching my
baggage, as well as my whole body area. Strangely, they don't even have a
look into my hand luggage, which held my laptop and some alcohol. :)
But they were interested in the money bag i wore on my body, and ask me to
carry out the trash in my pocket. As i didn't see any trash can on arrival,
this mostly consisted of handkerchiefs drenched in blood - they searched
every one of them for hidden drugs, after which i kindly asked them to
throw the stuff away for me. Well, i couldn't really feel sorry for them,
their career choice. ;-)

Remember when i told about the emergency repacking of my luggage ? And how
overstuffed it was ? Well, back then, it all was very nicely folded, but
after the customs officials are through searching, and declare me free to
go, the situation is entirely different. So, we enjoy another fun five
minutes together, in which i try to pack my clothes somehow, and they
helpfully try pulling the bag shut so i can close the zippers. Well, we
finally manage, although i feel a bit weird carrying two liquor bottles in
my coat pockets. :-)

I re-check to make sure i got all my personal belongings, take a deep
breath, and step through the door marked "Exit"...

Ok, so much for now. I hope you'll excuse my verbosity. I know most of you
are mainly interested in my exp's in Japan. However, the trip itself was for
me a very important part of my journey, and coloured not only my "successful
departure" but also my "there but not quite there yet" mood of the next
days. More to follow... :-)

-- Philipp <blog AT yomu doT de> Tue, 4 Apr 2006 23:08:09 +0900

noop (2-3) blog; title=The trip (1/2)

The guy at the Air France terminal in Berlin had been very helpful when i
finally did manage to check in, so after an uneventful flight to Paris CDG,
talking to a nice older lady next to me, i found my way around the airport
without much trouble. There were very long lines at all security gates,
though, so after i finally reached the departure area, i only had time
for a quick trip to the toilet, and to buy a beer (Heineken) and a sandwich.
Since they were already boarding my next flight, but there was a very long
line there, too, i quickly unpacked my laptop and scanned for any open WLANs
- without any success though, the commercial ones make a good living selling
that stuff, so maybe they do "security recommendations" for everybody else.
:-(

I was again one of the last to board, but by now felt much more relaxed than
i did initially. My first impression of the interior of the 777-300 was...
being quite impressed. The luggage compartments were quite spacy, but hid
away very well when closed. The seats were quite comfortable, and installed
with enough space in between so that i could sit comfortably, even with my
long legs. I had booked a seat "am Gang" so i could stretch my legs in that
direction - so when my korean neighbor (who had the window seat) asked to
switch seats so he could better reach the lavatory, i was a bit skeptical,
but told him it would be ok for takeoff and landing. There was an empty seat
between us, though, so i could once in a while stretch my feet in that
direction - or lift the armrest partially, and gain the extra 10 cm that
I needed to really sleep comfortably. So i ended up using the window seat
for the whole flight - while not having to worry about stewardesses and
their trolleys.

Each of the seats is equipped with a little interactive terminal, which not
only lets you choose from about 15 audio- and 20 video-streams (a few of
which come from a VHS drive, which you can see when they pause the movie for
PA announcements). I counted:
- 3 informational / promotional channels (including the mandatory flight
status display)
- 1 cartoon channel
- 6 or 7 continuously running movies.
Also the audio selection was generally satisfying. Two channels playing
classical music, some youth mainstream stuff (probably charts from some
french radio station - remember this was a joint Air France / Korean Air
flight) and an easy listening channel, which included a cool, uber-long
mix of The Prodigy's "Smack my bitch up", which i came across a few times
during the flight.
Stuff i watched:
* a mainstream-kind-of-funny Jim Carrey flick "Fun with Dick and Jane"
(partially; a movie you can safely ignore)
* a very interesting movie "The Trail" (or something like that) which plays
(and was filmed) in Namibia, and is about a european girl re-learning the
ways of the african desert, and trying to find her father. A very touching
story, with a few action scenes - i definitely recommend it.
* (partially) a Korean movie, of which i forgot the english title, with
original soundtrack (and english subs) of two teenage boys getting to know
each other while awaiting brain tumor surgery, and the way their families
try to cope. I would have liked to watch all of it, but i never woke up
right when it started, and it was finally cut-short during landing. :-/
* Tom and Jerry, Superman cartoons
The rest was boring mainstream stuff, or more mindless cartoons (Roadrunner
- yuck!), which i ignored. Oh yeah, and i shortly zapped into Harry Potter 4
(i still boycott these movies) which was available with a 日本語 soundtrack
(that's "japanese" in case you were wondering). Kinda funny to hear the
japanese voice actors do that Rowling pseudo-latin spells.

To switch between audio- and video-mode, one needs to use the interactive
menu, but then changing the channels can just be done via the console. Also
- this will interest Wansti - the console can be pulled out of the armrest,
and converts to a full blown video game console. Nothing fancy, think SNES -
but you get a familiar feeling while using it. The GUI is designed badly
though - they assume that, while in the main menu, you have the console put
in the armrest, but while in any game menu, you have it pulled out - so the
cursor cross works different ways depending on where in the menu hierarchy
you are, which is just bad design IMHO. You're probably supposed to use the
touch screen while in the main menu, but i don't like these things, and they
didn't work very well. There was a selection of about ten games - i tried
a few kid's games, then ended up playing solitaire for about 3/4s of an
hour. Some of the games you can even play over the network, but i didn't try
that.

All in all, a bit of the content advertised in the menu was missing
(feedback form etc.) but the user experience was, as a whole, pleasant. The
integration of their audio and video entertainment was smooth (although i'm
pretty confident that they stream the videos analoguely) and you can really
feel the korean touch behind the technology (and the french touch behind the
content). I mean, the console even has a credit card reader (although
apparently unused as of now) !

With all this entertainment available, i didn't feel the need to unpack my
notebook at all - although i probably should have checked if the Ethernet
and USB ports i discovered in the armrest were connected. :-) I also didn't
read, just played with the entertainment system - that's what it's for
anyway :-). I did, however, manage to sleep three times - don't ask me how
long, i didn't keep track, but i felt quite rested when we landed. The
personnel was friendly, the service _excellent_ and the food - yeah, let's
talk about the food.

Shortly after takeoff they gave out little flyers, offering two courses to
choose from - a "Sauté of beef with rosemary sauce, mashed potatoes and
zucchini with emmental" or a Korean speciality "Ji jim dak gogi", which is a
"chicken with mushroom sauce, rice and korean-style vegetables". Both of
these would come with "Crudité salad with pasta, goat cheese" and "Camembert,
Yogurt, Chocolate cake, Coffee and tea". Also you can buy a bunch of stuff,
including Häagen-Dazs. :)

I probably would have went with the french meal, just to taste meat one last
time ;-), but i was asleep when they started serving (having drowned my
Heineken during the take-off made me quite sleepy), and when i woke up, my
neighbour was quick to secure the Korean meal for me, so i just took that. I
have to say, it was most excellent. I used a liberal amount of the chilli
paste they served with the meal, and was most surprised how well that went
with the 2004 Merlot Skalli they had on offer. I did, however, need a few
minutes before i could fully enjoy my camembert-and-wine and then the
chocolate cake desert.

A while after lunch (i think it was when we were a bit north of Riga, but i
might be mistaken, might have been further east) they started turning the
main lights in the passenger area off. So while we flew through the
shortened night, the plane was generally quiet and most people got in some
sleep, including me. During the night, you could also get drinks and soup
etc. from the stewards. Around the time of a beautiful sunset shortly after
Beijing, breakfast was served. This meal also was well thought-out and
おいしい ("oishii", tasteful). So all in all, we skipped dinner, which i
thought was appropriate considering how the flight went - it made you wake
up in the target timezone - though i would get a second breakfast on my last
flight, but i didn't know that yet.

We arrived over Seoul about half an hour before schedule, but had to circle
above the city for a while as there was heavy fog (at least on our height).
It was quite funny to see the "miles travelled" counter increase and then
decrease again. In this last minutes i managed to start a more in-depth
conversation with my korean neighbour, but his english was very hard to
understand. About 15 minutes ahead of schedule, we landed very smoothly in
Seoul Ichiton Airport.

Wow, this got quite long - as i hopefully managed to get across, i was quite
impressed by how the whole flight was handeled, and enjoyed almost every
minute of it. And, considering at how pissed i was (and still am) at their
earlier performance, i have to admit that is was in part Air France that
made this flight an outstanding example of how international air travel
is supposed to be. I really felt like a first class passenger, although i
had booked economy. :) No small part of this was that i had _enough room for
my legs_.

I will continue this description in another blog entry. For now it's time to
eat some おべんとう (obentō, a packed lunch), so i'll just say:
to be continued...

-- Philipp <blog AT yomu doT de> Tue, 4 Apr 2006 20:55:34 +0900

noop (2-2) blog; title=The departure

Of course i was ready in time, and (no surprise to everybody who knows me)
of course by a very small margin. Basically i took until friday evening to
move out, then started packing that night and also took all of saturday.
My family was absolutely invaluable in making all of this happen - thank
all of you again, i love you !

Shortly after midnight on what would become a very long / short sunday i
even had gotten my PC running again (as my family wants to use it while i'm
abroad) and took another hour for a shower, and to say good-bye to my
siblings. I also made a backup of a movie to watch in-flight (didn't happen
though), and all in all it probably was about 2:00 a.m. until i managed to
sleep a bit.

I got woken up at 4:00 a.m., shaved, and had a short meal, said bye to my
father, and started with my mother to Berlin - a very smooth ride, a little
more than 3 hours to the airport. I thought that we could have stopped in BS
at AOne's, to drop something of, since we didn't need our safety margin -
turns out we'd need every minute of it.

We were among the first to check in, when disaster struck - 36 Kg of luggage
instead of 30 was a bit more than i'd hoped, but the real problem lay
elsewhere - the travel agency had promised us they had booked a flight where
i could take 30 Kg of luggage (and we specifically booked a more expensive
flight because of that), but the tickets said and the people at the Air
France terminal insisted that it were only 20 Kg. Moreover, they also
insisted that there was _no such thing_ as booking a 10 extra kilos in
advance, and certainly not for free. (We did discover though that we paid
about 200 euros more than the ticket should have cost). Checking in 16 Kg of
overweight would, on a trip of this proportions, cost us a smooth 576 € -
which i certainly were not willing to spend.

After trying one hour of arguing with a real a**hole Air France bitch at the
check-in and her much more polite and friendly but equally unhelpful boss at
the sales area, we went back to the car, and repacked *everything*. From a
full suitcase, an equally full piece of luggage and a piece of hand luggage
that nobody would believe could hold the original 10 kilograms, we went to a
stuffed piece of luggage of exactly 20.8 Kg (no extra charge, yay !) and a
_heavy_ piece of hand luggage. This would never have been possible without
the help of my mother, genius of the little details, who remembered exactly
where everything was. Still, I had to leave quite some stuff behind, but i
have to admit i had fun in the process.

I checked in in quite a hurry, kissed my mother goodbye (thanks again
for all your help !), of course completely forgot to give her AOne's
address so she could drop off his stuff on the way back, and went through
the security gate with about 15 minutes left until take-off. Wow. I really
managed to get started. From now on, nothing _major_ could get wrong. I
hoped. I sighed deeply, and took my window seat.

-- Philipp <blog AT yomu doT de> Tue, 4 Apr 2006 20:21:07 +0900

noop (2-1) blog; title=Background

This site is supposed to be a travelogue of my Auslandssemester in Japan.
I applied for my place at Nagoya University not six months ago, and only got
the OK in the middle of February. After that, i have been _very_ busy
finishing my student thesis, and doing the tons of paperwork required for a
stay and study abroad.

The plan was to leave on sunday, April 2nd early in the morning at Berlin
Tegel, fly via Paris and Seoul to Nagoya, and get going there one way or the
other.

This is an account of what really happened. :)

-- Philipp <blog AT yomu doT de> Tue, 4 Apr 2006 20:14:42 +0900

noop (2-0) blog; title=To blog or not to blog...

Hallo ihr alle,

von einigen Seiten wurde gewünscht, dass ich doch über meine
Japan-Erfahrungen bloggen solle. Meine Erfahrungen mitteilen will ich gerne,
aber ich bin mir unsicher, ob ich dies öffentlich tun will. Evtl. sollte ich
einen Blog schreiben und ihn mit einem Passwort schützen.

Related ist die Frage, ob ich auf deutsch oder englisch schreiben sollte.
Wenn das hier eine Art "privates Reisetagebuch" sein soll, würde sich eher
deutsch anbieten.¹ Aber ich habe gemerkt, dass ich doch hier (zwischen den
anderen Intl. Students) wieder recht schnell auf Englisch umgeschaltet habe,
auch was mein Denken und meine Identität betrifft. Es könnte schwierig sein,
ein paar points across zu bringen, wenn ich die entsprechende Erfahrung in
einem englischen Denk-Kontext gemacht habe.

Bitte mailt mir mal eure Meinung dazu - nicht ein "mir egal, ich kann
beides lesen" (ich weiss dass ihr das alle könnt), sondern was ihr denkt,
wie ich am besten von diesem Werkzeug Gebrauch machen kann. Ich möchte dass
dieser Blog
a) wenig zeitaufwändig und
b) nachhaltig
wird - ansonsten werde ich wohl sehr schnell die Motivation dazu verlieren.
Oh ja, und ich werde warscheinlich noch auf eine andere Blog-Software
umsteigen - wenn ich mal Langeweile habe. :-)²

Ok, vielen Dank für eure Aufmerksamkeit. Ihr dürft jetzt zu den eigentlichen
Artikeln weiter oben scrollen. :-)

¹ (Englisch können nicht nur ein paar Japaner, sondern vor allem auch meine
vorraussichtliche peer group für die nähere Zukunt).

² Weiss übrigens irgendwer warum Kant rebootet wurde ?

-- Philipp <blog AT yomu doT de> Tue, 4 Apr 2006 19:52:51 +0900