Berlin (I)

Well, the winter seems to have frozen my blog and my energy... these days I do not feel very much in the mood to write lenghty posts, it must be the cold weather in the Netherlands. Anyway, I have an obligation with you, my readers, and I should tell you about my last trip. This time it was Berlin!

When I decided to organize a trip to Berlin with some friends, I did not really know what there was there appart from the Brandenburg gate, the wall or other World War II historical elements... the rest of the city, I expected it to be just like any other German city I had been to. However, once there, I was quite surprised! So far, I had only been in cities from Federal Germany... and Berlin was in the Democratic Germany side of the country before the fall of Berlin's wall and the reunification. Therefore, the main influences in the city are from eastern Europe... Actually, this city reminded me of Moscow or even Helsinki. This also had an influence on the people and buildings. The underground scene in Berlin is pretty well developed, not only in clubs or music, but also in clothes, graffitis in buildings or even squats! One of these days I will post some pictures from Tachelles, a complete shopping mall which has been turned into squats! There are rock shows, artists' exhibitions and other stuff going on there. Cool!

So, in general, Berlin is cool! Berlin mola as Tonaka would say ;-)... well, he did actually already say that!

Now, let's proceed with some photos!

First, as it could not be otherwise, the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of Berlin and even Germany. You can find it in 10, 20 and 50 euro cents coins. Hehe...



And also the infamous Berlin's Wall:



Checkpoint Charlie, a control point between the two sides of the city which has a lot of history (check in Wikipedia), such as the tanks crisis which was about to unleash WWIII...



Of course, being in Germany, what else could we do but drinking nice beer! :)



And one of the twin cathedrals with the Xmas market in the square. Berlin was full of Xmas markets that weekend!



Detail of a graffitti in the part of the Wall in Postdammerplatz.



And this is the most modern thing in the city, the gorgeous Sony Center, a complex with shops, cinemas and Sony stores...



And at night back to Brandenburg Gate.



I will continue posting something more in the coming days!

... And inside the Imperial Palace

This is the second part of my photo walk around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo... as in the previous one, I will just put the photos and a short description ;-) This time, the photos are within the Imperial Palace, in the public gardens.

A perfect example of modern and old Japan: skyscraper together with a traditional guard post.

Leaves were turning to redish and brownish colours

Strange building next to the remainings of Edo castle. Doesn't look Japanese at all!

Big open area where to sit and relax. The remainings of Edo Castle at the back...

Water and walls between the inner and outer citadels

Enjoying a beautiful Japanese garden!

Photo walk around the Imperial Palace

This time in Tokyo, I had the feeling sunsets in Japan are extremely beautiful. Judge by yourselves!

Outer walls of the Imperial Palace

Tokyo Tower at the end of the street, just behind Hibiya

Beautiful outer park of the Imperial Palace


Buildings around Tokyo Station


Nihonbashi


Sunset just out of the Imperial Palace Outer Park

My photo with Pedro Duque

During my stay at ISU, Chiaki Mukai, a Japanese astronaut and resident professor of ISU, invited some astronaut friends to our campus. Steven Smith came from NASA and Pedro Duque from ESA.



Being Spanish, to meet Pedro Duque was quite an experience for me! Recently, during my stay in Japan, Estefania sent me this photo in which the Spanish students at ISU MSS06 appear together with Pedro.



Thanks Estefania!

Ebisu Garden Place. Floor 39th

This is the view which can be seen looking towards Shinjuku from Ebisu Garden Place, a nice complex of shops, museums, hotels and restaurants in Ebisu, one of the neighbourhoods in Tokyo.



And this is a closer look on Shinjuku:



Beautiful, isn't it?

剣道 Kendo

During my stay in Japan, I had the oportunity of practising kendo, a very japanese martial art. Kendo means "the way of the sword" and the main feature is a bamboo sword called shinai which is used as the main element. In my opinion, after reading some books by Mishima Yukio 三島 由紀夫, I associate Kendo to Yamato spirit ;-)



Naoko's father was very kind and taught me a bit about the basics of the sport, including some basic movements. Naoko's sister is also very good at kendo and A-chan as well! Every Japanese is potentially very good at some martial art!!

Naoko's birthday, 誕生日おめでとう!

20th November, just one week ago, it was Naoko's birthday and we celebrated it all day long!

First of all, we woke up really early to take a train which was taking us to the mountains in Gunma prefecture. There, our plan was going to Takaragawa Onsen, a very nice hot spring in the middle of the mountain. What we did not expect was there was snow around! But first we traveled like 3 hours by local trains to arrive there.



The landscape was so beautiful! Now, Japan is in the colour changing leaves season and all the trees are becoming brown leaved. The result is breathtaking landscapes full of colours: green together with brownish and redish colours. And snow up in the mountains!



After that long trip, we were finally there! Takaragawa onsen! The atmosphere was incredible: a traditional Japanese onsen... to be bathing at 45 degrees when just outside there is snow... and in that scenery! Wonderful! (or priceless ;-) )





And of course, having some rest in the resting room!! Makura to tatami fuka fuka ne!



When they closed, we took a shinkansen and back to Tokyo!! To Nishi Shinjuku, where we were going to enjoy a nice yakiniku dinner in the floor 54th of a skyscraper. The view was again really nice... and so was the dinner... Korean bbq is always nice!



And of course, macha icecream for dessert! I really like it!



By the way, this was the view from our table in the restaurant:



Afterwards, a short visit to an izakaya in Sendagi...



and back home to blow some candles and eat some cake we just bought from a nearby convenience store!



And Naoko destroyed me in a go game just before sleeping ;-)

A great day to celebrate Naoko's birthday! Once again: Tanjoubi Omedetoo!!

Coming back to the Netherlands

This last week I have been doing so many interesting things that I did not have time to write some lines here. I have practiced kendo, met many of my friends in Japan, sung in karaoke bars, visited many izakayas, gone to a fish market in Ibaraki and eaten in a rotatory sushi there... and of course, celebrated Naoko's birthday on Tuesday with a visit to an onsen (hot spring) in the mountains of Minakami and a gorgeous dinner in the 53rd floor of a skycraper in Nishi-Shinjuku.

Tomorrow in the morning, late at night in Europe, I will have to head back to the Netherlands... but, seriously, I would rather stay here!! It is a pitty I have to come back, I have to remember my obligations are with ESTEC for the time being ;-)

Therefore, from Monday, life will come back to routine and I will be back in this blog, where I will post some photos of the different things I have been doing these almost 15 days in Tokyo. See you soon Japan!

Fugu 河豚

Fugu is the Japanese name for blowfish, a fish which has a lethal poison but whose flesh is really delicious. As many things in life, the best and the worst are together, showing the two sides of reality.

Last tuesday, my second day in Tokyo, I went for dinner with Professor Ito, and Naoko and Yuuka came along. The dinner, as you can imagine from my introduction, was fugu. The chosen place, a fugu restaurant in Ueno/Okachimachi.



There we could enjoy a very nice dinner and get up to date in our present and future projects. For me, it was the first time I ate fugu and I can say I really enjoyed it! It was served in many ways: sashimi, fugu nabe (shyabu shyabu style) and with rice porridge afterwards, sake burnt with fugu dried fin, fugu skin with vinegar...





Thanks again to Professor Ito for such a nice evening and hope we can meet again in Japan soon.

Friday night in Shinjuku

Now in Japan, it is 00.30 and I just came back from Shinjuku, where I had dinner in a typical Japanese izakaya with some friends from JAXA: Okadakun and Shimizukun, with their girlfriends. Naochan couldn't make it because she is really busy ne. Daijoubu desu. I will try to put some more photos from the previous days when i have some free time, but as you can imagine, now i am too busy meeting people and enjoying this fantastic country.

My last weeks at work

First of all, let me apologize for not updating this blog as often as I used to. These last weeks have been quite busy at work and I did not have much spare time at home…

As I already explained to you in a previous post, I had decided to move to a new section in ESTEC. As a matter of fact, that change has been made effective! Now I belong to the Antenna and Sub-millimeter Wave section and not any longer to the Microwave section. But before the change was effective, I had to submit many reports, make presentations and talk to many people… Today I will move to my new office and the section change will be consummated.

Now I will be working on two projects, more related to radiation and electromagnetics than my previous project, related to mixers. In my opinion, my professional situation will improve, as I will have more involvement in the section and I will be working with people who seem to be nice. My work with Finnish has not been satisfactory at all (sorry Seppo, but you can understand from our conversations in Leiden ;-). As a matter of fact, I have not had real supervision so far at ESTEC… maybe I should blame my previous supervisor instead of his nationality. This week he proved all his tactlessness, but that is something not to be talked about here… 

By the way, from last Sunday and for 15 days, I will be in Japan, mostly in Tokyo but with some visits to the Northern and Southern areas, maybe even Sapporo and Kyushyu (for the ones who know about Japan). I will bring my laptop and I will have internet connection… therefore, I will try to continue updating my blog during this period! Stay tuned!!

Frase del dia

"Los bosques serían muy silenciosos si en ellos sólo cantaran pájaros de canto hermoso."

Ayer, Los de Marras

English Translation: "Forests would be very silent if only lovely-singing birds sang in them"

Museumnacht 2007

Before getting down to the writing of this post, I want to introduce new features in my blog... from time to time, I will include some music so you can listen to something while reading these lines ;-) and normally, this music will be what I was listening at the time of writing!



Yesterday night, Amsterdam museums held another edition of the Museumnacht. This means museums were open till late (2am) and some interesting non-usual events were taking place in them: special food or cocktails served, hands-on activities, live shows... For the price of the ticket (around 16 euros), you could go to any of the museum participating in the organization of this event and take any public transportation in Amsterdam, including two special boat lines. Last year, I already went for it and I enjoyed a lot! Therefore, this year, I decided to join again and I went along with my YGT friends. As usual, some photos come now!

First thing in the evening was taking one of the boats in order to enjoy the pretty view of Amsterdam canals! However, that first boat broke down and we had to get off... but no problem, the next boat came in a few minutes! At that time the initial group was composed of (from left to right) me, Sandra, Aurelien, Daniel and his girlfriend.





After the boat ride, we met a larger number of YGTs and started visiting museums. The first one was De Apple museum. It was a modern art museum and could have been nice it there wasn't so many people! In my opinion, the rooms were large with small pieces in order to generate some sort of "making your internal feeling arise"... it required some intimacy to properly appreciate the museum. However, there was quite a lot of people and that killed the visit (this is my personal feeling, maybe other people enjoyed!).

Then, we moved to the nearby FOAM Museum of Photography. This museum was the most disappointing of the night... there were no photos in it!! The name of the museum was completely misleading... and the contents were not very interesting if you couldn't understand Dutch. At least, I got a USB pendrive with some photos of Amsterdam stored inside. The building was interesting too. Some rooms looked like archives and had vault-type doors. Marco and a belgian YGT (sorry, but i am really bad for names...) were pretty interested in the doors (in view of this photo) ;-)



The next museum was the Van Gogh Museum. As last year, this museum was really good, both the paintings and the atmosphere. There was even a band playing some music!



Finally, we made for the Stedelijk museum where we found an Andy Warhol exposition with some imaginative and thought-provoking stuff. A very pleasant surprise! Here, Marco playing around with a "killer bonsai".



And here, Sandra trying to block my image out of the screen with a shooting star. I would be behind the star in the screen XD When we realized, we were all playing like kids! This place had a very strong effect on us! hehe



If not, check out this video! We were playing with a balloon... :)



The only problem was it was exhausting! Just standing and walking from 7pm to 3am is quite tough...