Gifu, Japan 101
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, Uncategorized, photos
Tags :: gifu, Japan, photos, Travel
