Larger than the average fair

Last weekend was the annual Tokyo Tech open campus and school festival. There have been posters here and there around the campus and such advertising the event, so I expected it would be somewhat of a big deal; something like the old SAC carnival at UofT. What I didn't expect was for there to be thousands of people there, from the community as well as the school. There were student run stalls selling all kinds of foods( chocolate dipped bananas, okonomiyaki, etc) and whatnot. The stalls took up most of the space in the main part of the campus, which is pretty big, so they was an absolute ton of stuff to choose from.

The event was for both days of the weekend, but a typhoon blew through on the Saturday, so I don't think that much really happened that day. I dropped by late Sunday to see that there was a stage set up at the bottom of a hill which was packed with people sitting and watching some apparantly famous Japanese comedians, who came in for the event. I couldn't stay as long as I liked, cause I had some bid-nass (i.e. homework) to take care of. Maybe next year.

Nothing special

Well the summer is beginning to wind down here in Tokyo.. Not so many 35C+ days any more, which gets no complaints from me... Classes at school start next Monday, which doesn't mean that I've been on vacation, since I been doing research and preparing presentations and the like for the last little while.
For those who know them, Ed and Maggie stopped though Tokyo a little while back (although anyone who knows Ed and Maggie and most likely knows that already). I'll try to get some of those pictures up and in here in the next little while.

The sucky part of studying...

is tests. I've never been a fan of tests, exams, quizzes, and the like, and today was no exception. Today I wrote my entrance exam for the masters program at TITech. (Until now I've been a research student).. Holy friggen' crap. Let's just say that I had my hind quarters handed to me in a brown paper bag and was told where I stand. No pretty bows, no bubble wrap, just, "Here, get out, and have a nice day".

I'm exaggerating a little, but the gist is that it was tough.. Lots of detailed knowledge, lots of tedious calculations, and not a lot of time. On top of that there's no outline of what kind of material will be on the exam.. section names like, "Math" and "Physics" are supposed to somehow help narrow it all down. ("Please study math ; there will be questions on math"). I can see now why this is one of the toughest schools to get into in Japan.

Of course, I've been preparing for this test for the last few months, so none of this was a surprise to me. Still, doesn't make it any easier. But I'm finished now, so I'm all smiles and sunshine. Tomorrow I have an interview, but hopefully that will be a less trying ordeal.

Now that I've had my little rant and rave, I'm off to misbehave with a beer and a bucket-of-bird (KFC for laypeople).

Acceptance

Whew, looks like another long while between updates, despite my promises to update more often.. Well I have the excuse that I don't have internet at home, I suppose. Well today's topic is "acceptance". Acceptance of life, liberty and the pursuit of "happyness" (which I saw the other day, and is an awesome movie, but for some reason is called "The Power of Happiness" in Japanese)..

Actually, I lie, its all about my acceptance to the Tokyo Institute of Technology's research student program starting in April. I'll basically be doing research in the fields of robotics and control systems, possibly emphasizing human/machine interface systems. I'm really looking forward to it, and I've been looking back at some of the material that I studied back in the day at school, and realizing, that this crap can be pretty tough stuff. Oh well, wish me luck.