From here to Kyoto - 14/2/'14
It is six o'clock in the morning. The first alarms start to make their noises to wake everyone up. Today we are going to travel to Kyoto. Since we now have some experience with the metro in Tokyo we knew that it could be difficult to get to the Shinkansen on time, so we left early.
When we arrived at Asakusa station we had to split up to fit everyone in the metro with their luggage. We had to divide ourself over the train in small groups and force ourselves in to get on board. In the end the journey to the Shinkansen went very smooth and we were on time to start our two hour journey to Kyoto. For most of us this meant that is was time to sleep.
When we arrived in Kyoto we went directly to the hostel to leave our luggage there. The program for the afternoon was a visit to the university of Kyoto. We had to hurry to be there on time since the Shinkansen was delayed by 30 minutes because of the snow. At the university we had a small seminar with interesting presentations of the work the university did on wireless communication and digital communication. I also got the change to see a Rube Goldberg machine that had some wireless sensors in it.
After the visit at the university it was time for dinner. I bought a dish with separate specialties in it. The Japanese guy next to us explained to us what to do with all the food. Unfortunately he did not understood English so we had to communicate by small words and a lot of gestures. By the end of our dinner he bought us some beer and the bar gave us some sake as presents. I had a great dinner, great conversation and very good sake after a very long day.
By: Maikel Huiskamp