Katsura Campus: Sterile?

This is my third post (and maybe the last) about Katsura campus. In a previous post I wrote that Katsura campus resembles a “golden cage”, brand new buildings and equipment but no life, no shops, restaurants or shopping areas around. Please allow me to elaborate. First, restaurants. Katsura campus has one cafeteria in cluster B, right in the middle of the campus. There is a small cafeteria (?) and a small bakery in cluster A and a French (!) restaurant in cluster B. The main cafeteria in cluster B basically monopolizes the catering market of the campus. Even local residents can be seen eating there, since there is practically nothing else around. What is wrong with that you might ask? First, with virtually no competition around, meal quality ranges from eatable to mediocre while prices are not fit for a University CO-OP cafeteria IMHO. If I have to rank the meal tastiness among the 5 CO-OP cafeterias (Yoshida main, Yoshida north, Renais, Uji and Katsura) I rank Katsura last.

Getting ready for the lunch rush at Katsura Cafeteria (Photo: Eddie)

There is more to that. Outside of the main cafeteria there is beautiful wooden terrace. On the terrace there are several wooden picnic tables. Unfortunately the tables are not used much. There are no bars, restaurants or cafes around Katsura campus. Friday nights on campus are depressing.

Happy New Year 2010!

Happy New Year to ALL! Hope this year will be full of success and prosperity!

Merry Christmas!

10 days before Christmas! Wishing you all Merry Christmas! Enjoy this clip of “Christmas Light Hero”!

Signs of running out of time!

I wish I could buy time… Evidence: the chat I had with my friend Eddie.

Eddie: 今日ご飯にいかない
me: 行く
何時？
Eddie: 11時55分
me: 了解
時度販売で会う
Eddie: 時度という言葉あるの
me: 時度＝字度販売機？
時度販売機
me: ははは　それもまちがってる
自動　販売　機
me: はははははは
Eddie: automatic selling machine
me: 自動販売機
やっと
Eddie: you wrote “time selling machine”
wow
i wish
me: Cool ain’t it! I want one of this!
Eddie: in the future
year 3001
me: I will post that!
Eddie: pls
this is so cool
haha

Countdown to submission

The deadline for the PhD dissertation submission is around the corner! I would like to wish all of you the best. GANBARIMASHOU!

 

Katsura Campus: Disconnected?

This is my second post about Katsura Campus. I will try to let pictures do the talking. Below is a map of Kyoto showing the location of the main campus at Yoshida and Katsura campus:

Yoshida campus is at a well developed area of Kyoto, very close to city center and Kyoto’s shopping and entertainment heart. Contrary to that, Katsura campus is literary in the middle of nowhere, on top of the mountain. The nature surrounding Katsura campus is beautiful and the campus is very peaceful.  Maybe too peaceful… Commuting from the main campus to Katsura campus takes about 1 hour if you use the campus shuttle bus service or 1.5 hours if you use public transportation. If you have a car it takes about 40 minutes on good days of low traffic. For those of us that don’t have a car, if we use public transportation we will have to ride a train from Demachiyanagi station to Shijo, transfer to another line at Shijo-Kawaramachi, get off at Katsura station and finally ride a bus to Katsura campus. Not to mention the cost (620 yen), all these transfers take time. If you are lucky enough to make the connections without waiting then it will take you something like 1.5 hours (assuming walking from main campus to Demachiyanagi station). The shuttle bus service offered by university partially alleviates this waste of time but the service is offered only between 9 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon, roughly every one hour (i.e. there are 7 runs). If you are a (hard working) graduate student that works until late then, sorry no shuttle service for you! You can sleep in the lab if you want!

What can be done to connect Katsura campus to the rest of the city? That is a difficult question. Maybe the university should subsidize the commuting of students. Maybe, the shuttle service should be offered until late.  Maybe students should move close to Katsura campus (and risk dying of boredom). One think I can say for sure, not much thought was put into the campus connectivity issue during planning. What do you think?

Relieve some stress!

A friend of mine told me yesterday of a telemarketer calling and trying to gather personal information in order to send a free sample. My friend took the telemarketer by surprise by asking her where she got her name and telephone number from and requested further info about the telemarketer’s company and its location. Telemarketing is not that old in Japan as compared to USA from example. In USA telemarketing became a science and people working in that field are getting training to handle all kind of answers and situations with their targeted audience.

While talking about telemarketing I remembered an audio clip I found on the web where a comedian plays a very funny prank on an unsuspected telemarketer. I searched it today and here it is for your enjoyment and maybe to relieve some of your daily stress!

What do I have to go through?

I’m usually an optimistic person. Seeing figures and reading news like the following wakes up the pessimistic beast in me:

Source: Kyodo & Japan Times

“The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed to 5.2 percent in May, nearing a six-year high as job availability dropped to its lowest level on record, the government said Tuesday…”

“The number of people out of work jumped by 770,000 from a year earlier to 3.47 million, the largest ever year-on-year rise and marking the seventh straight monthly increase…

“Separate data by the labor ministry showed the ratio of job offers to job seekers in May fell to a seasonally adjusted 0.44, the lowest reading since comparable records started in 1963…”

“The number of new job offers plunged 34.5 percent from a year earlier. By industry, new jobs fell the most in the manufacturing sector, down 55.9 percent, followed by 46.4 percent in the information and communications industry…”

Source: Japan Times

Katsura Campus: A Golden Cage?

Katsura campus is the newest campus of Kyoto university. It’s the home of the graduate school of engineering and soon will host the graduate school of informatics.

Katsura Campus Map (Source: Kyoto University)

I’m always joking about what went in the minds of the university’s administrators when they decided to build Katsura campus:

- Hey, why don’t we move all the engineers there, alone on the top of the mountain, to do their experiments and don’t bother us.

- Great idea! Let’s also send the informatics there.

- Excellent!!! All the geeks under the same roof, far away from the main campus.

- It worked with Uji. It will work with Katsura!!!

Maybe the conversation went something like that

But seriously, why complain about a new campus, with brand new buildings and equipment? Brand new is good, no complains there. Katsura campus happens to be one of the most sterile campuses I have ever been. I list what I think are the main problems. Each item of  the list deserves its own post:

• The campus is disconnected
• There are no shops or restaurants in the vicinity
• There are no recreational areas

The result is a “golden cage”, a brand new campus with new equipment but no life!

Next post I will discuss the problems I mentioned above.