On the season and people

Well, it's winter, that much is pretty obvious. At least for the people on northern hemisphere. When, before coming to Japan, I read about Sendai from wikipedia, I had the image that this would be a warm place. And this is true to a some extent. For example, the temperature has been under 0 only few times. Yet the winter feels more harsher here than in the Finland. Why?
Because the houses here don't have central heating. It's not like Japanese don't know about central heating, because apparently in Hokkaido every house has one. But not in Sendai. Again, this is not problem for people living in Tokyo and below it, because they never get weather this cold. But for people living up this north, it's incovinient.

Near the dorms on one snowy day

Flower, overtaken by snow. I have asked the name of the flower from my labmates at least three times, yet I have always forgotten it.

Anyway, the winter ought to be over soo. It'd better be, because I'm freezing here. And as much I'm looking forward to the warmer spring and summer, I'm still slightly afraid of the real damp, hot summer Japan.

On the people

The IDAC organized a gathering for all the foreigners working/studying in its laboratories. This was done to promote understanding between each other and our cultures, or something like that. The actual reason, we were told, was more money related. I didn't quite catch all the Japanese, but apparently they can't apply for "internationalizing-money" unless they actually do something with it.

The actual gathering was actually nice, we (that's me, 4 chinese, 2 korean, 1 malaysian, 1 cuban and one dane) met at Rinnoji. The temple is/was the family temple of the Date-clan, who founded the temple arounf 15th century. The temple is famous for it's garden, which is said to be one of the most beatifull of it's kind in the prefecture. We visited the temple and it's gardens in february, so I can't really tell.


Pictures from and around the temple gardens.

We also had an opportunity to enjoy shoujinryouri (精進料理) at the temple. The food might seem bit suspicious, but it was really really good. The yellow slimy thing down right is tofu. And for slimy piece of tofu, it was really tasty.

So what about the cultural exchange? Well, one of the Japanese IDAC officials who were with us told us about the shoujinryouri and then well... we all introduced ourselves. And ate and went to see the said gardens. And that was pretty much it. It seems that 'deepening cultural relations' is still a cargo cult for the Japanese people. On the other hand, when comparing to the other 'culture exchange days' I have bumped to here, this was a complete blast. So prehaps there is hope for the Japanese culture exchange.

Land of Fire

As much as Japan is an epitome of peace nowadays, if you look deep beyond the crust of earth, the Japan is all but peaceful. The earth around and beneath Japan is at constant move, causing earthquakes practically all the time. Not all of them are felt by humans though. Japan has been hit by several devastating earthquakes several times during its long history (e.g Kanto and Hanshin quakes). And as surely as the sun rises from the east, one day one of these great quakes will hit Japan again.

I'm not overtly aware of how the country is prepared to the quakes of that scale, but the signs in the parks that tell that said park is used as emergency gathering place in a case earthquake and posters around in the lobby of international dorm which tell you how to prepare to an earthquake tell a tale of a country that is constantly under a threat of catastrophe.

Japanese measure the magnitude of the quakes in Shindo-scale. The news and websites report the magnitude of each quake, in almost real time, using this system. When I was rudely woken by a quake in early November, I got to internet and checked the magnitude of said quake.


Image from the website of the japanese meterological agency (JMA). The numbers in the balls show how strongly the quake was felt at that point in the map. This particular quake was felt as Shindo 4 at places, where as it was felt as Shindo 3 in Sendai. Quake of similar power also occurred in January. I've been told that Sendai was hit by scale 5 quake last summer.
Service using data from JMA and Google maps show us the epicenter of each quake. This shows the epicenter of the small quake in November.

While being struck by quakes on regular basis sounds unappealing, the geological activity has also its boons. Japan is riddled with hot springs, and people use these natural bathing pools as.... well, baths. Nothing screams 'Japan' as much as outdoor natural hot spring (露天風呂 rotenburo) and in November, a volunteer group helping foreigners here in Sendai offered to give us a ride in Onsen near-by (40 minutes trip by car). About 20 of us decided to seize the opportunity and go to experience the more or less authentic Japanese bath.
Male members of our group, with exception of me, and a German guy, they were all French. Picture also shows of one our car drivers and a guide to onsen-life, Mr. Satou.

Picture at the outdoor bath. I can't remember the French guys name. The hot spring is pretty much comparable to sauna, you feel hot at first and then you begin to relax.


Later the volunteer group offered us free lunch at restaurant in the onsen. I was seated with German guy, a Korean girl and our guide, Mr.Satou. As you can see from the pictures, the onsen provided us with yukata to walk around while not in the bath. The price for lounging whole day in bath was 1600 yen, or around 12 euros back then. Thanks to the economic meltdown, that would mean 15-16 euros now.