Why you should chose Japan for the next journey

How are you guys doing? Have you been enjoying summer? Where did you go for vacation? Whoever you went, next destination is fixed. Of course, Japan. You haven’t thought about it, have you? No worries, I will teach you here.

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(The picture was taken by Satoru Fukuda, you can find his post on Facebook, Tokyo camera club, https://www.facebook.com/camera.jpn )

Let’s start statistics first. Do you know how many foreigners are coming to Japan each year? 10,364,000 (=10 million) people (2013)!! Do you think that small or not?  This is surprisingly small compare with top level tourism countries. Top three is French 83 million, the U.S. 67 million, and then China 58 million in 2012 according to World tour ranking. Also the number of tourist in many other Asian countries can beat that of Japan. I thought I need to start writing about Japan to increase the number of foreign tourists.

Good news is that the foreigner tourists in Japan have been increasing, except of the year of the Lehman shock and the great earth quake, we are also expecting 20 million people to come to Japan each year by 2020 when we hold Tokyo Olympic we have just 6 years. I want people to choose Japan for next trip. And for Japanese, I want to be ready and welcome for tourists. I want tourists to come before Olympic, during Olympic, and after Olympic.

The purposes of tourist are mainly eating Japanese food (1st) and shopping (2nd). I am thinking of writing about foods, places to visit, and things to do in Japan.

The foods: The reason why tourists chose to come to Japan is food. I will try to introduce foods you might want to try when you are in Japan. Sure, you can eat Sushi. To find good Sushi restaurant you might ask your Japanese friends because sometime good Sushi restaurant is small and hard to find. To find good and reasonable restaurant you have choices. Do you know MICHELIN guide? The number of the 3 star restaurants is 1st Tokyo, 2nd Paris and 3rd Osaka. I hope you will have good food in Japan and I want to help you.

The places: The biggest city in Japan is Tokyo and most popular city for tourists may be Kyoto.  So, you can come to Tokyo or Kyoto for the first time, but if you liked it, you can come to place where is small but worth spending. I would like to good place where other visitors don’t know, I am asking my Japanese friends.

The things to do: I will try to introduce the place you should to go. Fortunately, we have also a lot of nature.  And you can go theme park, such as Tokyo Disney Land, the Universal Studio Japan and so on. These are popular for Asian people. And you want to go to shrines or temples we have a lot, especially in Kyoto and Nara.

One of reason why I am writing this English is because there are too few blogs written in foreign language, I would love you to write more about your experiences in Japan with your native language and post on your Facebook, blog, or whatever SNS you use. If your stay in Japan were satisfactory, please come to Japan again with your friends and family. Thank you very much.

Do not waste your time.

I met my friend to have dinner on this Monday. Unexpectedly, I talked a lot about myself. She was generous and listened to my story very patiently. I want to say thank her. I did not realize but, it seemed I had been frustrated for waiting visa. Yes, my visa application has been delaying. I was frustrated because I need only one document to apply visa in Australia. Since my motivation and preparation are ready to go, I am tired of waiting for nothing. Finally, I called them. They said I am going to get the document around mid-September and then I will be able to apply to Australia for visa. Maybe I can start working for October 1st, hopefully.

While I wait the document, I have been staying in Aoyama-Gakuin University. One thing I have to do is finishing up several papers before the real work starts in Australia. I am working on it. And also, I am using this time to research for future. I finished two things.

One is for research about the instrument which I will work for. I will work for the instrument at reactor in Sydney. There is a duplicable instrument in the U.S. That machine is very productive. I had surveyed all scientific publications from the instrument. Since this machine is going to our rival, I would love to know as much as I could. I would love to know what the machine is capable of. I spent for 1 month to finish reading all.

The other is to read the publication list from Dr. Shirane, he is one of just 8 physicists appeared in both “The 1000 contemporary scientists most cited 1965-1978” and “1000 most cited physicists 1981-1997”. He died 2005 when I start working as a scientist. He had worked for the neutron scattering experiment techniques which I decide to do for my entire scientific career. As I mentioned, his publications are very strong. He has 35 papers which were referred more than 100 times. That is actually incredible number. As you know, 2005 is ten years ago, people did not find the paper to refer so easily, that number should be unaccountable if he were alive now.

And I have many lists I would love to complete. Also I am making my reading list. I am thinking of selecting 100 papers which I need to read as a physicist, almost for fun. Since the scientific publications have been increasing, even the fastest reader in the world can’t read everything, he doesn’t have to. I am trying to read important papers as many as I could before the real work starts.

Also I am reading a lot for fun from literature, business, or whatever. I just finished reading “On writing” by Steven King and am listening to “How to read a book” by Mortimer J. Adler. I am neither a native English speaker nor writer though, Steven King gives me a lot of ideas for writing and convinces me how we have to be serious about writing.  And, Mr. Alder gives me the ideas for reading a lot how I should be a demanding reader. I would love to review these books here in near future.

“Salt and light” from Matthew 5:13-16.

After the vacation on L.A. and Chicago, I have been staying in Japan. For the late of July, I mostly spend in Fukuoka where is my home town, and Tokyo where I had lived for more than 10 years in August. I would love to review Fukuoka and Tokyo later. Currently, I am trying to finish visa application for Australia though, unfortunately the criminal record from FBI has been delaying, so that I have not finish the application for visa for Australia. I am kind of nervous lately. Anyway, I am trying to write something before I forget how to write in English.

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I have been staying in Aoyama-Gakuin university where I got Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D, to prepare for the next job and my research. While I am studying in the University, I have been reading the bible and trying to finish within 3 months for the first time. I had finished the Old Testament and now am reading New Testament. I have a lot of things I would love to write though, I would like start of this “Salt and light”.  Since Aoyama-Gakuin university is Christian school, I remember that the university has motto which is “Salt and light” from Matthew 5:13-16.  Surprisingly, when I got to the church on campus (Or, should I say ‘on ground?’) first time since I graduated in Aoyama-Gakuin Univesity, I realized I happened to be reading “Salt and light”.

Salt and Light

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

So, my school has kept telling me that I should be “Salt and Light”, and I have been thinking all the time. I have been thinking from school is something like this “how can I be salty to contribute the world?” To be salty, the talent is not good enough, I needed to put a lot of effort to condensate and not to be exploited. What does “light” mean personally? I would love to be salty because I am a scientist. So, I needed to have talent, focus, and enduring to be salty enough as a scientist.

But, how about “light”? To be salty is not enough? That is good point. We also need to be “light” of the world. My understanding is something like this, “Light” is to be a leader.  A leader gives people hopes by taking risks, sacrificing for the other and leading the people with his talent and wisdom. If you have talent and you had trained yourself enough, you should be shine. You should be light for the world and people. You have to be bright light to lead the people.

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The both pictures were taken at Aoyama-Gakuin university, Sagamihara Campus