history of a man

Already three months since I arrived at Tokyo, and i could keep on writing for hours and hours about all the things I’ve seen and lived in this strange country that is Japan. I have a strange feeling when I think about these last months, in a way the time has passed so fast that I can hardly believe that it’s already December and Christmas is almost here, but in other way I’ve become so used to the daily life here, that sometimes I feel as I’d been living here for a much longer time.

The Vulcanus group in the Kyoto workshop

It’s been a really busy time, and specially the last month was really intense, with lots of things to do, travelling, studying, and also parties. I would do special mention of the Kyoto workshop and the weekend we spend in Nara after it, about what I want to write soon, and also the official proficiency test, that we had last Sunday.

De broma en clase de japonés

About Japanese, to be true I expected that by this time I would be able to speak it better, but not as it was with the German when i went to Vienna, it’s being hard for me to get into the language. Despite the intensive classes we have had, my conversational level is still really limited, and my reading ability even worst. But I’ll be still here for many months, so I hope I will improve with the time.

La Tokyo Tower

By the way, maybe you would have notice the change in the look of the blog, with new heading picture included. I took it from the Tokyo Tower, and in it you can see the Rainbow Bridge in the left side, and a little bit of the Tokyo’s skyline at night. This tower, situated in Minato-ku, was built in 1958 inspired in the Eiffel Tower of Paris (although 9 meters taller), and is one of the symbols of the city.

The new “image” of the blog

To finish, I want to thank it to all the people that follows my adventures here in Japan. I want to be more active with the blog from now on, since I am now more relaxed after the Japanese test. I have many things to write about :p

View from the Tokyo Tower

Yesterday I returned from Brussels, where I’ve been last days. The reason of the trip was attending the pre-departure briefing of the Vulcanus programme, I was selected for two months ago.

I took a flight on Sunday, after sleeping less than 3 hours and packing everything in ten minutes. After 2 hours sleeping in the plane, I arrived Brussels and went to the central station by train. It got lost looking for the hotel, but after 5 minutes walking in the wrong direction, I found the right way.

Once in the hotel, i left my luggage in my room and went visiting the city (it was my first time in Brussels). When I returned to my room i met Jan, from Czech Republic, who was my room partner. We introduced ourselves and talked some time, before going to the hall, where we were supposed to meet all the other Vulcanus people.

They came after little time, and we had a beer together in the hotel bar. Once all have arrived, we went to have dinner to a restaurant. It was very funny meeting all that people, from so different places, and realizing that we are going to spend one year together in Japan. After dinner, some of us (Darek from Poland and Fer, Juane and I from Spain) went to have a beer in an Irish pub.

Juane, Rebeca and Juan (ES)

Next day, after sleeping around 4 hours, we met in the hotel hall, and went together to briefing. The briefing itself was very interesting, and we were given a lot of information about everything related to the programme: life in Japan, things to bring with, the schedule for the first 4 months (the language course), etc. Some of us also signed the contract, and I got some more information about where i’m going to live (a little apartment in Tokyo), and about what’s going to be my trainee in the NTT Data Corp :)

We had lunch in an Italian restaurant, and after that Anne, a German girl who were in the programme two years ago, told us about her experiences and answered our questions. It was not until then, that i really realized that I’m going to be one whole year in Japan… it was a strange feeling, like vertigo. :P

Juan (ES), Pedro (ES), Rasa (LT), Rebeca (ES) and Fer (ES)

After the briefing we did some group pics, and some of us went to the building’s roof where we enjoyed a fantastic sight of Brussels. Back in the hotel we rested a little bit in our rooms. I talked a while with Jan, and afterwards I met Fer and Cris (IT) in their room, and we had a beer together. Then we went to the hotel bar, and waited for Anne (the German ex-Vulcanus) and were talking some time with her and Christian (DE).

Then we went to eat a kebap, and met the remaining people, but most of them were already leaving. Anyway, some of us stayed: Cris and Enrico (IT), David (FR), Hannu (FI), Anne (DE), and Fer, Rebeca and me (ES). We had some beers and talked a lot about the programme and Japan. We also asked a lot of questions to Anne (thanks for your patience and for staying ‘til the end “remolona” :p).

We went to bed late, and I almost lost the flight back to Spain. Thanks Jan for waking me up ;) And that’s almost all. Jan and I went together to the airport, and I arrived to Madrid after two hours sleeping in the plane.

Now I must study all the documentation they gave me, learn Japanese (hiragana and katakana at least), and prepare everything for a year in Japan. I still can’t believe it :D

Last friday I presented my Final Term Project, the last step left in order to finish my degree, so from now on you can call me “Mr. Engineer” :p

The presentation has been a little “surrealist”. I’ve done it in a record time, and luckily they have liked it very much :p After it I talked some time with the professors and my project tutor. It was a very funny and interesting chat :)

The weekend I celebrated it, on friday with some friends, and on saturday with my family, both days ’til late in the nigth (early in the morning?).

I’m very grateful to those who have been with me during this last year for your support, without you it’d have been impossible for me to finish my project.

Thank you!

The haiku is a kind of short poem, without rhyme, usually organized in 3 lines. This poetic form has it’s origin in Japan hundreds of years ago, although the term “haiko” was not used until the XIX century.

This short poems use to capture a moment, situation or event, usually trivial, which inspires the autor, providing it with a special transcendence or spirituality. Already in the XVII century japanese poets said “haikai is just what it’s happening in this place, at this moment”.

You can find more information about haiku here.

Yesterday I met a friend for teaching him how to play Go (囲碁 or 碁 in Japanese). It is a two-player strategic board game, originating in China thousands of years ago, and very popular in East ASia.

The is played in a 18x18 cell board, but unlike more “occidental” games like chess or draughts, the “stones” (game pieces) are placed in the intersections of the board lines, so there’s 19x19 posible points.

My Go board

The rules are very simple, and the basics of the game can be learnt in less than 15-30 minutes. The strategic complexity and game posibilities are, however, great, and it is said that you’ll never play two times the same game.

The game consists of placing your stones in the board, seeking to surround the biggest amount of territory possible. Once placed in the board, the stones stay at the same point and could not be moved for the rest of the game, unless they are captured.

Beginning of a game

The opponent stones can be captured by surrounding all the points around them. The stones so captured are removed from the board, and kept appart for the final point count. It is also possible to capture groups of stones, surrounding them with your own.

How to capture stones

One basic concept of Go are the “eyes”. One eye is a free point inside one of your groups. It is said that a group is “alive” if it has at least two eyes, making it impossible to be captured because the opponent could never completely surround it.

White group has two “eyes”, it can not be captured

The game ends when both players agree that there’s no more free territory to battle for. Then they count the free points controlled by each player. Each captured stone worths one point, that is substracted from the opponent points. The player with more points, wins the game.

White controls most of the board

That’s all, this post was just a short introduction to this wonderful game, unfortunately almost unknown in the West. For more information about it you could visit the following links:

Wikipedia: Go.
The Interactive Way to Go.
How To Play Go.

This is a poem i like very much, I hope you like it…

I envy not in any moods
The captive void of noble rage,
The linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods;

I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘T is better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Lord Alfred Tennyson

I wanted to talk about what it’s going to be my life from September of this year.

One month ago more or less, I was informed that I had been one of the 29 european students selected to take part in the Vulcanus Programme 2005-2006. This programme, organized by theEU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation, selects every year a group of europena engineering students for a one year trainee in Japan, in technology innovation projects.

The programme has two parts: the first one, four month long, I’ll learn Japanese and attend to seminars about Japanese culture in Tokio. The second part, eight month long, will be the trainee, that I will do in NTT Data Corporation.

You are maybe wandering why I had choose to go to Japan… :P Apart from being a very good opportunity in all aspects, the true is that Japan is a country that has always attracted me, and living in Japan for some time has always been one of my biggest dreams, that it seems i will achieve. And as my dear Barb always says “Is just the posibility of making one dream come true, what makes life interesting”… ;)

When I got the email telling me I had been selected, I could hardly believe it. Last year more that 800 students from all the EU asked for the 30 places of the programme, and last year the EU had ten countries less. I still don’t believe it, and I think that I will not get used to the idea until I am there… :P

I will tell you more about the programme and my arrangements for one year in Japan soon.

This morning I went to my university to deposit my final term project, and I also did all the mm requiered. Now I only have to wait for the presentation (around two weeks), and after that I will have finished my degree!!! :P

About my project, the official title is “Web Applications Generation System”, and in a few words is a module for the Apache web server which, from a set of XML configuration files (”the application”), carries out all the actions usually expected from a web application, like for example database queries, formularies generation for data introduction or presentation, users authentication, reports and charts generation, email sending, etc.

The XML configuration files are loaded by the system, and each time the web server gets a request, the system execs all the actions required in order to attend it as defined in the application configuration. The syntax of the files is very simple, you only has to tell the system what do you want to do (query tables a and b, show the results in a formular 20 each time), and the system does everything else.

But the important thing is that it’s almost over, and in a few weeks I’ll be free! I almost can not believe it :P

I really don’t know very well what to say in this the first post of the blog…

I should introduce myself, but you can already read some information about me on the left side of the page, and if you want to know more, you can click the “More about me…” link. Easy, isn’t it? :P

I’ll tell you something about my reasons for writing this blog. The first and most important is that I think this is a mean to express myself and talk about the things that interest me or I worry about. It’s also one easy way to keep in touch with all the people I know, and tell them about my adventures and experiences. And finally I hope this blog could be of interest for the people that don’t know me yet.

What kind of things could you expect to read in this blog? A little about everything: transcendental reflections, accounts of my trips and my life,
short essays and technical articles about topics i find interesting, short tales and poems written by me, remarks on the books or movies I like, and much more… ;)

That’s all at the moment, this blog is officially inaugurated!!! :P

PS: Please accept my apologies for my bad English. I’ll try to keep this “English version” up to date, but due my poor English level and limited time, some articles will only be in the Spanish (or German) version…