Yesterday’s fireworks were a bit of an anti climax in some ways, but still it was a very interesting night. Firstly, from the side of the fireworks, I was a bit disappointed, but that is the fault of the other foreigners, not of the fireworks: Many people had told me that fireworks in Japan would be by orders of magnitude better and bigger than anything I have seen before – I think their fireworks must be a bit crap then, frankly. Most commercial fireworks I have seen in Germany are very similar in scale – noticeably Rhein in Flammen, the firework I grew up with set my standards. Well, maybe I learned something new there, namely that it is not customary in all countries to pay millions of tax euros and get Chinese experts over for that kind of event.
(It’s not like there was anything WRONG with the fireworks, they were very pretty – I just had too high expectations!)
Then also from the social side – we went to watch the firework from the roof of the Riken Brain Science Institute – which is great, because, apparantly, fireworks are very busily attended, so you rarely ever get a chance to see anything. I, however, faced the opposite problem: Having expected an occasion to wear out my yukatta, my summer kimono (see next post), I found myself alone with Keisuke and his girlfriend Yoko, Takashi and his kids, Fujisan, the head of Keisuke’s lab, and a postdoc from Hong Kong whose name I forgot and who went back to work up to a deadline after the fireworks. It was more a hang-out-with-beer-and-fast-food-before-going-home-from-work kind of thing, not an occasion.
So, why was it still a good night? Well, firstly, because I really like these people and I am quite glad to be able to spend time with them before I board my plane the day after tomorrow. Secondly, it was very exciting to see Fujisan’s lab: It is possibly the coolest lab I have ever seen – everything is so stylish, silver shades on the ceiling, black shiny walls behind the screens. Comfy, stylish and practical office chairs, a very chique seating corner with red armchaires, a little coffee corner with an espresso machine, and every object in the room designy, from the inclined dustbin to the mac-style tissue dispenser. Apropos mac, they all work on macs, obviously. (For the moment, let’s not think about whether it is a good move to banish ugly but useful things, like whiteboards… it is just too cool the way it is!)
The heartpiece of the room, however, is a megamegamegascreen that is fitted into the black wall behind the seating corner, and the motion capture system surrounding it – when I came, there was a wildlife documentary about insects with a lot of amazing close-up shots, the perfect place to see that kind of stuff. But, you can do virtual reality stuff right there as well! Which led to the somewhat surreal situation that a western woman in traditional japanese clothes, surrounded by casually dressed Japanese wears a motion capture glove and hat in a futuristic cool high tech office…
