Nonsense to compare, but ...

I always get puzzled when I am asked 'which do you like, life in Germany or Japan?'. But, I can easily list differences between them.

On the other hand, there are many things that I previously did not take as advantage of living in Japan. New discoveries!! One of them is that I can access to every kind of research expertise in the country because many, many people live in the small islands (=Japan).

When I was in southern Germany, I felt that I was in the middle of many pretty cities with various research centers and researchers in Switzerland, France, Austria, and of course Germany. But, in fact they were scattered throughout the vast land.

Here in Japan, in the small islands, we have access to all kinds of things, and that is convenient. But, this is the reason why the country tends (or I should say 'we tend'?) to become isolated from the rest of the world. I am seeing all the pros and cons of this tendency.

from Yokohama

Skate genome resource

The journal DATABASE published an article about skate genome annotation. It includes links to the project website and sequence resources .

6 - 0 for Japan

The match between Japan and Jordan was played in Saitama, Japan. The number 10 of the Japanese team, Shinji Kagawa, is moving to Manchester United after scoring 13 goals this year for Borussia Dortmund (BVB!) in Germany. He also scored one goal tonight.

RIKEN CDB Graduate School Guidance

On May 26th, RIKEN CDB in Kobe, Japan, will hold the first annual guidance session for students who want to start developmental biology research for master or doctor program.

Because targeted participants are probably already in Japan, I paste below the official advertisement written in Japanese. I will also join this event and introduce my unit.

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神戸にある理研 発生・再生総合研究センター（CDB）では、５月２６日（土曜午後）に連携大学院説明会を開くことになりました。http://www.cdb.riken.jp/daigakuin/

この説明会は、理研 発生・再生総合研究センター（CDB）中で、大学院の講座として、大学院生も行ける研究室を紹介しようというもので、今年が初めての試みです。遠隔地からも参加してもらえるよう、午後１２時５０分から開始します。CDBを代表するサイエンティストのレクチャーや連携大学院の教員を兼ねているラボの訪問の機会ももうけてあります（プラス懇親会）。

大学院を決めようとしている学部学生（４年）と修士の学生に広くこの説明会の存在を知ってもらいたいので、mailing list, twitter、facebookを使っている方、あるいは、みなさんのラボの後輩や、そのまた後輩の学部学生に、この情報を伝えていただければ大変ありがたく思います。

ぜひよろしくお願いします。

'Oktober'-fest in Kobe, Japan, in April/May

It was rainy today in Kobe, my new base in Japan. I visited a place called 'Kobe Harborland', a big attraction on the seashore with my family. We happened to find an event related to Germany. Yes, the traditional 'Oktoberfest' !

But, why in April/May? In Japan, we are now right in the middle of the year's biggest holiday season, called 'Golden week'. Probably, organizers chose this period due to this holiday season.

Did we, after 5-year-long life in Germany, enjoy ourselves in this late spring Oktoberfest in Kobe this time? No, we did not enter the event area and stayed in a different roofed area with more in-door shops. I am sure food and drinks at such a place are outrageously expensive. Moreover, we don't really miss German stuffs yet.

Special Issue about Elasmobranchs Biology

Here is the table of contents of the special issue of the Journal of Fish Biology, titled 'The Current Status of Elasmobranchs: Biology, Fisheries and Conservation'.

No.1 (in computics) in my neighborhood

The other day, I took a walk alone from my working place in a lunch time. It took only 10 minutes for so to reach another branch of RIKEN with which I am affiliated, namely RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science (AICS). This center hosts the world's fastest supercomputer (as of November 2011 - see the ranking). Both this center and my working place as well as many other institutes, university campus and biomedical companies are located on an artificial island, called Port Island. To be honest, the main purpose of my walk on the day was to look for any nice restaurant or canteen because that is always the issue in our life on the artificial industrial island. Unfortunately, mission not really completed.

Heading for north from the area with RIKEN AICS. This promenade with cherry blossom tree is really attractive, with all concrete.

A snapshot of Japanese precision which I have to learn

Below you see the label showing collection time on a mailbox in my neighborhood in Kobe. You see how precise Japanese postmen are or are trying to be! I got very surprised at this.

'Currywurst' in Japan

Today I had a lunch at a small restaurant in Kobe serving "Currywurst" which is famous among German people.There seemed no German employee.

The book 'Evolutionary Genomics .... ' coming soon!!

A collection of valuable chapters about evolutionary genomics will be published in two volumes by Springer [ see the product page at amazon.com: volume 1 volume 2]

I also contributed to a chapter in this book and am expecting a free copy.

 

Deutschland - Japan

A woman's football (=soccer) competition, Algarve Cup, is going on in Portugal.

Tomorrow the final between Germany and Japan will be played. In the world cup 2011 held in Germany, Japan defeated Germany . Let us see what happens in this big match tomorrow.

German elements in Japan

Bakery KÖLN in Sannomiya, Kobe

VOGEL Animal hospital, in Rokkomichi, Kobe

Bakery GUTEN APPETIT in Yokkaichi, Mie

Lineup of various bread sold in GUTEN APPETIT in Yokkaichi, Mie

Restarting in Japan

I arrived in Japan this Sunday (19th) and am setting up new life here. My new base is Kobe near Osaka (but distant from Tokyo). I learned in Europe that this city is famous for its delicious beef as well as for the big earthquake in 1995. Regarding this beef, most people have not tried to eat, but just heard cows that produces 'Kobe beef' are fed beer.

Special last days in Konstanz

I have only two more days in Konstanz. It has been hectic to pack at home and send out, while working on some residual burocuracy etc. Unexpectedly we had a lot of snow although the temperature arose quite a bit. My winter shoes were already sent out in a package for surface mail. I have to survive with my favorite lether shoes, but they are already quite damaged.

This morning we had emotional moments to say goodbye to our 6-year-old son's teachers and friends. It is unbearable when I imagine what this move means to him. Apart from this, I mostly can stay calm, probably because I know what the life is in my next place. But, people saying goodbye to me would feel that I am moving away to an unknown world. I really want to stay in touch with them (you!?) and show how I start in Japan.

Rehabilitation effort (1)

I now need to work on filling out forms for contracting for my position in the next working place. I found a few Japanese traditions (that I need to recover) in this kind of formalities.

1) In Japan, we are based on a unique way of counting years in official documents. For example, this year 2012 is the 24th year in the Japanese way after the previous emperor passed away. I lost the habit to stick to this Japanese year count system. Often I mistakenly write '12' in some blanks instead of 24, for example.

2) A very basic thing. I am accustomed to write and recognize the digit 7 in the European way. This European handwriting is hard to recognize by Japanese people, and the Japanese normally write it in the way shown here (mostly #1). I know this well, but I am so familiar with the European way and spontaneously write 7 in that way. I always realize this after my hand automatically makes a mistake, and say to myself 'These 5 years made a big difference!'

It should not take a lot of time to recover the habits, though. Let's see.