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madteckhead's weblog
general postings on life, travel, and goings on in general.

Updated Travel Page

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Hey Readers,

I’ve updated the travel page to include:

  • an index of posts from Japan
  • information about where I’ll be studying in Germany
  • and added a interview I did recently with JJJ (removed due to confidentiality agreements)

(At the bottom of this post is the updated info)

Recently I had the good fortune to be interviewed for JJJ’s Hack show. I discussed my reasons for choosing to study and work overseas, and what pressures have led me to leave Australia to obtain work in the renewable energy field. Below is the initial project description.

[Description removed to to confidentiality agreements]

My current project in Japan has been proving very challenging also. I had the fortune of scoping the project myself. In Japan I have been looking at techniques to achieve a highly distributed grid. The particular focus has been on a distributed control strategy that ensures quality, and robustness of the grid. Its an exciting area to be researching as its all cutting edge. In particular I have been programming a Multi Agent System in JAVA’s Jade environment. Its slow going, challenging work but very rewarding and I love a challenge. Exciting because it is bridging artificial intelligence, distributed control (a personal political preference of mine), and renewable energy technology.

Well I’ll leave it there, but you can expect a more detailed write-up on my project in Japan over the next couple of weeks as it winds up. I’ll leave you with a quote I like.

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
- Helen Case

—

The follow is the updated into to the travel page.

Germany

(2009 – March to July)

Final year project at Hamburg, Germany.

  • JJJ Interview about where and why I will be working aboard, and why it is necessary. (2009/1/28) - (removed due to confidentiality agreements)

Japan

(Summer 2008/09)

Where I lived in Japan

Work Experience as part of Engineering degree in Gifu, Japan.

Japan Blog articles

Japan Album (Photos only)

OR

Check my Facebook albums (they have comments not at the link above)

Posted on February 1st, 2009 :: Filed under Education,Life
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On The Train Again, 12 Trains To Be Precise.

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It used to get so frustrated when I had to sit still for a long time, but now I almost relish in it. I’ve spent days at a time now on trains and in transit and each time I think it gets easier, and my patience increases. It’s nice to not have any distractions… to jut sit and ponder for hours on end. Dozing off… waking up… looking around… It was an early start this morning.   Was out of bed by 3:30am, walking to the train station as snow was falling. It was a nice surprise that Dave got up and walked me to the station. We cooked up porridge in the foyer of the station, and I was on my first train by 4:50am. Being Saturday morning it was obvious that Fukouka is a party city. With one of the main streets translating roughly to ‘street of the unruly children’. It has been a great experience traveling with Dave, perhaps one of the best… been so refreshing and spontaneous, with a healthy focus on outdoors adventure. Thanks Dave I look forward to traveling together again sometime in the future.

We stayed in one of Japans infamous cyber cafes. They are really something… for a techno-traveller like my self the are a small piece of heaven. For about 2/3rd the price of a youth hostel you get 12 hours in a cyber cafe business booth… the booth is about 2.5m x 2.5m, consists of a raised floor that is padded (perfect for sleeping on), a computer, TV, Game Console, and high speed internet. Out of the booth you have unlimited access to DVD, cartoon books (very popular in japan), free drinks and ice cream, shower, bathroom and laundry room, and more I’m sure.

After the natural beauty of Yakashima, and the beautiful island hospitality Fukouka seemed just like another big city, complete with pollution, noise, cars and lots of people. I made a remark to Dave that we need to reinvent cities…. we need cities 3.0. Cities 1.0 didn’t really work, everyone got sick and they were extremely polluted at the beginning of the industrial revolution. We realised this and moved onto cities 2.0, where industry is restricted to certain areas, and regulated to ensure a more healthy environment. Cities 2.0 is still a bit of a compromise as they incorporate technology and aspects that we know to be unhealthy, but for the time being the benefits seems to outweigh the costs. For example cars and roads to move people and things. And the lack of open social place. There is also a high focus on spending money in cities, that detracts from meaningful social interaction. Or at the very least complicates social interaction by tying it up with money. Perhaps cities 3.0 will find better ways to move people and goods, freeing up the space used for roads, and reducing visual, audible and chemical pollution. Incorporation of green spaces and more free/ low cost opportunities for social interaction. I believe society has already realised this and some people are tugging in that direction, there is just a huge amount of momentum and embedded resources that will have to be replaced slowly over a long period.

There really hasn’t been much else happening since we finished the cycling tour of Yakashima. Got the ferry back to the mainland, camped in a park in Kagoshima, trained it to Fukouka, did a lot of walking around the city. Ate Japanese famous rammen (noodles), by the river and drank a some nice beer. The rammen vendors in Fukouka are interesting, these guys work pretty hard. Setting up and packing up there stores almost every day of the year. They are in fierce competition with each other and hustle for business.

Right now I’m on my… ahh… 5th or 6th train for the day. I’d already been on 3 trains before the sun came up! I’m using the 18-kippu again, which means I can travel on local (slow) trains only for 24 hours using just one ticket for about AU$32. So with some help from the lovely Japanese Rail workers I’ve worked out how to get back to Gifu in about 14 hours, covering over 700km. it goes like this:
Hakata > Kokura > Shimon Seki > Tokuyama > Itozaki > Fukuyama > Okayama > Aioi > Himeji > Maibara > Nagoya > Gifu!!!!
That is 11 trains! In one day! Its pretty impressive that they all run on schedule to the minute… and that the staff anywhere in the country provide all the information without the use of a computer system. There is a book as thick as a textbook with all the timetables in it. Not quite what I expected for Japan, but I think they figure why fix it if it ain’t broke.

Anyways, thats about it for now.

Hope things are good with you all, look forward to hearing what you’ve been up too!

Nathan

Posted on January 10th, 2009 :: Filed under Education,Life,Travel

Gifu, Japan 101

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So my life of several month gaunts continues in Gifu, Japan where I’ll be completing work experience as a compulsory part of my Micro-Electrical Engineering Degree until late February. I came not knowing what my project would be, which is quite unusual for something like this. I have quite strong politics at heart, and was afraid I’d be asked to do something confronting. But it has really worked out quite well. My original project was not suitable, as it was out of my field, so I got to scope my own project which is most awesome. It will be concerned with technical methods to achieve a high proportion or electrical energy coming from micro-genertors such as residential photovoltaic panels, wind farms and combined heat and power generators. Cutting edge stuff as our grid system gets updated to take advantage of advances in computer science. This will improve reliability of power, make the sources greener (less CO2 emissions), make energy cheeper (or at least the same cost) and make it more efficient (of course).

So what’s going down in good old Gifu. Well not a hell of a lot to be honest. It is an agricultural town, and its winter. It is starting to get really cold, today I could feel snow flakes hitting my face as I made rode home. And tonight it is set to snow. I’m living on Gifu campus in the international house, I have about 14m2 to my name. It isn’t much but it will do for the short period I’m hear. I really miss having photos and thing around the room to make it my own. Perhaps a task for next week. It is also quite expensive here at the moment as we get only 59Yen for an AU$1. This is compared to 110Yen before the economic slow down. So it effectively halved the amount of money we have. It is a great lesson in how to be economical. I guess I’ve know how to live on a little money, but now I actually have to. So I make just about all my meals. I look for local food and specials that are cheap… etc. On my floor, San Kai (3rd Floor) there are several students from Mongolia, China and one from Myanmar. They cook the most awesome food. I feel a little guilty because every time I walk into the kitchen they offer me some dinner, and so far I haven’t had a chance to cook for them. Also the food that I am used to cooking is quite expensive here …. which brings me to my plans to learn to cook some japanese foods before I leave. Perhaps even a cooking class.

How have I been spending my time. Well… it has been jam packed really. Last weekend we took the bullet train to Kyoto and Osaka. It was a great trip but probably a bit much traveling with 5 people, all having differing priorities. I also found it a little frustrating that they were so disorganised, but I guess perhaps that is just a reflection of my uber organisation and an accumulation of travel experience. I finally had a chance to play with my favorite toy, my Nikon 80 DSLR Camera. I’ve uploaded the picks and some of my room and will link to them below.

I am a little stumped about how to get exercise here. I was used to riding everywhere in Oz, and that kept me reasonably fit. A little swimming and I was feeling great. But here it is sooooo flat that riding is well. Dull. I like riding fast. And swimming well, its winter and I think it would take a lot of energy to heat a 50m pool for an entire winter… so in short the pool is closed. I think if I just keep eating and walking back and forth between the lab (5 min walk) and my apartment I’m going to get unhealthy very quickly. Jumped at an opportunity to play tennis today, which I haven’t played since I was a kid. I guess it must be like riding a bike, because I didn’t make an ass of myself. We got invited a bunch of Vietnamese doctors. We even had Australia vs Vietnam… we lost. But there will be a rematch next weekend. After that ate vietnamese, drank beer and played pool. We even won the pool competition and scored 50% off out bill. Most awesome, since we didn’t have money to pay the bill!!! *cheeky grin*

What else, what else…. What am I planning for the near future…. well It is getting cold so I think I will catch up on a bit of reading that I have been putting aside and pick up a few projects that I am interested in researching and developing further. The main project is the energy meter project, which aims to make information about energy in homes transparent and user friendly, and offer some automate to save energy. Other than this I’m reading about where to spend my winter break in Japan. We get 2-3 weeks off from about the 23rd of December until the 12th of January. So far I’ve my eyes on the warm southern island around Okinawa, the only catch is I have to find a cheap way to get there and back (transport is sooooo expensive here. Just getting on a bus costs $4 even if I get off at the next stop!). Keep you posted on that one.

I’m missing my Brisbane posse, and hope you are all well. Other worldly readers I hope to catch up with you somewhere on my journeys (don’t forget I’m headed to Germany in March if your going to be around). Lots of love,

Nathan

Posted on December 6th, 2008 :: Filed under Education,Life,Travel
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