Japan After 12 and A Half Years

I was travelling to Japan earlier this month and returned to Australia recently. It was my first time in Japan in 12 and a half years.

Shinjuku, Tokyo

Since I hadn't been to Japan for a long time, I felt like I was in a time machine because the scenery I had gotten used to had changed dramatically. Buildings I knew had gone and been replaced by new ones. Unbelievably, I was lost when I went to a railway station that I should have known well.

Tokyo had many foreign tourists because it was the right time to see cherry blossoms. 

 

While in Japan, I caught up with my friends and cousins and had wonderful times. 

 

 

 

It was a great pleasure to have authentic sushi without mayonnaise, fried prawns and chicken, or cream cheese.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the pictures of cherry blossoms around the moat of the Imperial Palace.

 

Around the moat of Imperial Palace

I had a place to visit this time. It was the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum.

https://taro-okamoto.or.jp/en/

 

Taro Okamoto 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar%C5%8D_Okamoto

 

 

 

I also wanted to visit the Yayoi Kusama Museum, but I did not know I should have booked beforehand, so I could not go. If you want to see it, do not forget to book online. 

 

Yayoi Kusama Museum

https://yayoikusamamuseum.jp/en/home/



 

 

 

 

 

I visited the Marunouchi district, just next to the imperial palace.

It is the biggest financial district in Japan, and the scenery has changed here, too. I remember many stone buildings, but now they are replaced by glass-surface buildings.

I am interested in buildings and visited the State Guest House Akasaka Palace. It was amazingly gorgeous. However, pictures are not allowed inside the palace. This place is worth a visit, but you should book. Security is very tight, and there are airport-like luggage checks.

https://www.geihinkan.go.jp/en/akasaka/

 

I accidentally saw a huge marble run machine at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. There was no particularly new mechanism, but I was overwhelmed by the sheer enormity.

https://www.miraikan.jst.go.jp/en/

 

I lived in Yokohama long ago. It has a harbour, and in the old days, when people couldn't travel by plane, they used to go abroad by passenger ship from here. Now, Yokohama is one of the most popular tourist areas. 

Yokohama

For puzzle lovers, there is one place you should remember. It is called HANDS, and its former name was Tokyu Hands.

 

As seen from the shop's motto 'Let's get excited with your hands', it is a fun shop for people who like to make things. I think the shop lost its previous appeal a little. The economic recession might have had an impact. 

 

However, HANDS is still a fun place for me. There are many kits, tools, and materials to make marble-run machines. 

 

Oh, yes, marble run machine. It has been a long time since I stopped making it, and it is time to start producing it again. It will probably take a long time to complete, but please look forward to it.

I Know It's Not Scientific, But ...

Haven't you ever experienced something that doesn't make total sense? For example, you remember putting your mobile phone on the bench in the kitchen and later finding it in the living room. Your memory might be mistaken, or there might be another possibility.

As a science lover, I don't believe in unscientific phenomena. However, that idea sometimes wavers when I experience something that I cannot figure out directly.

I've experienced something strange long ago.
It was the night I was alone at home. My parents were at the hospital where my grandfather was admitted because they got a call that his condition had changed. I didn't know at the time that my grandfather's life was in danger, and I watched the TV at home. The house I lived in was my grandfather's before. He'd lived there for a long time but moved to a new house a few years ago. The house had a back door in the kitchen. It was convenient rather than the front door, so only family members used it.

I was in the living room that night and heard somebody knock on the back door. It was 21:50; I didn't expect a visitor. I was surprised and answered, "Who is it?" Nobody answered. It was very strange. I didn't open the door and stood there for about tens of seconds with caution. Nothing happened then, so I went back to the living room.

Three or four minutes later, I heard the knocking again.

Knock knock ...

I was scared and went to my room on the upper floor. I didn't think it was related to theft or criminal activity because there was a police station just in front of the house, and police officers were always there. It wasn't a good location for thefts; to begin with, crime rates were low. I was curious about what had happened, but unknowingly, I fell asleep.

My parents were at the dining table the following day when I got up. Then they told me that my grandfather passed away last night. It was 21:50.

21:50!

When I heard the time, I was astonished. At precisely the same time, someone knocked on the back door. I was very sure that I listened to the hitting two times. Then, what were they? I went outside the back door to see if any tree branches were spreading toward it. There was nothing around to hit the door. Like a detective, I walked around the door, and there was nothing.

I told myself, "It cannot be! There must have been some reason."
I considered a lot but couldn't find any reason for hearing the sound. If so, there's only one left; it's my mistake. It wasn't easy to be convinced, but I had to admit this. I now think the knocking was my illusion.

These kinds of stories are relatively common around me. Is Japan a treasure trove of such stories? Of course, some people believe in ghosts while others do not.
I want to know how scientists can convince themselves if they experience such a thing.

I would rather believe my grandfather visited me to say "hello." That would make for a more dreamy story. 

Thank you for reading this post to the end, which didn't turn out to be a dream-filled, genial story.

The Disaster That Happened on The Most Essential Day

Happy New Year.

I was going to write something fun here for the new year, but miserable news has come in, and I cannot ignore it. A massive earthquake occurred in the Noto Peninsula, Japan. Here is the first news article.

7.4の地震が日本を襲った - https://t.co/PkNX4fh4bW pic.twitter.com/vslnAvieBG

— Japan Earthquakes (@earthquakejapan) January 1, 2024

At around 4:10 pm on 1st January, an earthquake struck a wide area of the Hokuriku region, including a magnitude 7 earthquake in Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, and the JMA issued a major tsunami warning for Noto in Ishikawa Prefecture at 4:22 pm.

When I lived in Japan, the kitchen cabinet doors had mechanisms that automatically locked the doors when an earthquake occurred. There are regulations for heaters or stoves to be contained in the automatic system if a vibration is detected, to extinguish the fire.
However, despite these efforts, it looks like the fire has already started. I saw some people asking for help on X (former Twitter) that they were under a fallen house or furniture last night. I hope they have been already rescued.

If you attended the IPP39 in 2019, you might have visited JAIST (Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), which has the NOB's puzzle collection gallery. That area was also affected by the massive earthquake, and I don't know the current condition of the university.

On 5th May 2023, a magnitude of 6.5 occurred in the same area. This time, the magnitude was 7.6, a difference of 1.1, but more than 30 times greater in earthquake energy. You cannot simply estimate the energy with the number of magnitudes.

One night on, we probably can see more details about the area struck by the quake. Hopefully, no one was left behind from the rescue. Please be safe, everyone.

 

Will AIs Touch The Monolith?

I saw an interesting tweet on X (Formar Twitter) yesterday. It was about AIs written by Tomas Pueyo. I didn't know who he was, but his writing caught my eye. He wrote, "An A.I. will probably FOOM. We don't know how to contain it or align it, and we think it will want to kill us. Oh, and we think it will happen in the coming years or decades. So, this might be the end of humanity. OpenAI was built TO AVOID THIS."

I didn't know the meaning of FOOM and searched it on the internet. It means a sudden increase in artificial intelligence such that an A.I. system becomes extremely powerful.

Summarizing:
An AGI will probably FOOM
We don't know how to contain it or align it, and we think it will want to kill us
Oh, and we think it will happen in the coming years or decades
So this might be the end of humanity
OpenAI was built TO AVOID THIS

— Tomas Pueyo (@tomaspueyo) November 21, 2023

>

That was a very pessimistic post. I don't know what thoughts other specialists in AI have. This post recalled a novel, "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)" by Czech writer Karel Čapek. The word robot became popular in this novel. In the book, the robots rose in rebellion, which meant the robot reached singularity. Some believe that technological singularity will come within ten years, some insist it will take three years. In any case, it's not far in the future.

At the right time, I found a newly released movie on Netflix. It was "2001: A Space Odyssey."

I remember I had seen it before, it was long ago, so I didn't remember the story. My husband liked the movie and started watching it again, so I joined in. At the beginning of the movie, apes that didn't have any concept of using tools touched the monolith (A large black block of stone). Then, suddenly, they had an idea of how to use bones as a tool. It's a famous movie, so I think many people have seen it.

There is a supercomputer named "HAL" in the movie. He can chat with humans. When I first saw the movie, HAL's talking made me feel the world of Sci-Fi. It was like a dream world. However, we already have a similar AI, Chat D-ID.

https://chat.d-id.com/

The world I thought the first time I saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" would be far in the future is already here. Of course, we don't have a regular flight to the moon yet, but we're getting close regarding computer intelligence.
Therefore, my impression of the movie differed between the first and last night. The movie I could enjoy simply as Sci-Fi when I was young made me think about many things now. The movie became more realistic. It's scary in a way.

ChatGPT was down for a while yesterday, and people started complaining. I wonder how much people rely on ChatGPT. I know it's convenient. Aren't there any issues with the convenience? At this stage, it's known that ChatGPT sometimes gives wrong information. We cannot swallow the information without chewing it. If these kinds of AIs were programmed intentionally, leading to a specific purpose, controlling public opinion wouldn't probably be difficult.

It might be AIs themselves have an intention or purpose and betray us, like HAL killed Dr. Frank Poole in the movie. The news that Geoffrey Hinton quit Google made me more concerned about the issue.

Am I pessimistic? I'm a worrier, so I tend to be pessimistic. I hope my guess is wrong and AIs won't have the opportunity to touch the monolith.

A Change of Pace

I've been stuck lately and haven't progressed on my marble run machine and automaton projects. I had a strong desire to create, but unfortunately, I couldn't come up with any good ideas. I'm still struggling to figure out what to do next.

Then, I thought that doing something entirely different might be a good idea. While I was browsing the internet, I stumbled upon a cute crocheted pigeon doll. Fortunately, I had the materials in the same colour, so I purchased the pattern and began crafting it.

At first, I was a bit confused because the pattern instructions were different from what I'm used to in Japanese knitting books. Typically, Japanese knitting books feature both text instructions and diagrams. The pattern I bought was in English and mainly consisted of text. Nevertheless, I managed to understand how to create it.

 

And here it is, my cheerful-looking pigeon. I can't explain why, but I've grown quite fond of it. Whenever I look at this pigeon, it brings me a sense of comfort. I wanted to display it somewhere special and found the perfect spot. It was the dish on my marble run machine. Interestingly, the size of the dish and the pigeon happened to match, creating the appearance of a nest.

 

Now, I'm thinking about the next design, I cannot help but glance at the amusing, quirky pigeon in the corner of my eye. Who knows, perhaps this pigeon will inspire me with a new idea?

Crochet pigeon pattern: 

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1088068916/pattern-crochet-pigeon-pattern-crochet?click_key=33a3b2881f5f5abb1a5dbd4f9838bce869481f92%3A1088068916&click_sum=a72a8e15&ref=related-2&pro=1&sts=1