I was huge over there, it’s that simple. They loved me. Of course I was mobbed by croweds most of the time, so I couldn’t get pictures of my adoring fans. But I did manage to snap a few pics of my journey.

We start in Ithaca, with a sight I’m sure you’re all familar with

In every good airport and hotel, you will find current Ithaca time!

After short hops over to Philly, then Chicago, I was on the plane to Narita. This is a 12 hour flight, and let me tell you, it’s LONG. One interesting moment was when we passed over northern Alaska. Looking south this

was the scene. More interesting though, was the view to the north,

That’s the arctic ocean, we’re flying right over the edge of the Earth. I was hoping to get corresponding pictures when we flew over Siberia, but their were too many clouds.

After landing in Narita I took the train for three hours, finally reaching Shuzenji, and my destination. The hotel was nice, and the room was very large, but I couldn’t figure out what this thing was.

I think it was some sort of mind control device. I definately felt “odd” in its presence.

After a resonable night’s sleep (a suprise considering the time difference) I woke up, had breakfast, and walked over to the workshop site. On my way I met one of the organizers, and he took my picture, with Mt. Fuji in the background.

Okay, I won’t bore you with tales of the workshop. I was productive, and there were lots of physics talks. The bored can check out the official website for details.

Our story picks up at the official banquet, where I snapped shots of lattice gauge theorists in action

After the workshop, on Saturday, I left Shuzenji early so that I could spend a few hours in Tokyo. I took the Shinkansen Super-express back. It was too fast to get a shot of the front, but here’s a side view of the train, to give you an idea of how big it is.

Tokyo was hot and humid. Really hot, and really humid, so I didn’t wander too far away from the train station. My first short excursion produced turned up two stereotypically Japanese icons

It was early in the morning though, so neither store was open. I also saw an ad for some art exhibit, with a provocative question

For my second excursion, I walked the other way, north, from the train station. This leads toward a large park, which is part of the Emperor’s palace grounds. First there was a cool foutain park, with this mollusk like fountain

Then I wandered in the East Garden, which had some old buildings. Also there was a moat, which was kind of neat. Here’s a shot of the moat and what was once a guard building

The coolest thing in the East garden was this building

which had lots of tile patterns on it. But this was the only view I could get, there were barricades which prevented you from getting any closer on the ground.

After the East garden I walked west along a main street. This cool mini delivery truck

made me realize I needed to eat. I found a resturant that was down some stairs, and too dark for pictures. I attempt to order by pointing. My original point was apparently to tempura, and I nodded that that would be fine. At that point the chef pointed at another dish, and said “pork cutlet” a couple of times. I said that would be fine too, at this point I just wanted to eat. I ended up with pork cutlet, which was really good, but I was very confused by the whole ordering process.

In any case, after emerging from the resturant, I snapped this picture of a picture of my lunch

It was time to head back to the station, I wandered back slowly, through some side streets, where I saw this guy

Of course, at the airport, I was mobbed by more fans (I am, after all, Big in Japan), but I managed to get on my plane without incident. 27 hours later, I was home.

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