Recent News
AGU fall meeting (1999.12.13-17): Two fundamental questions about the AGU fall meeting: 1. Why it's the fall meeting? Is the middle of December fall in San Francisco? 2. Why are there so many people attending it? I think I saw more Japanese scientists than I could ever see in any meetings in Japan.
Dr. Hellinger visits us (1999.10.28-29):Dr. Petr Hellinger, on leave from Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Czech Republic, currently at Radio Atmospheric Science Center (RASC), Kyoto University, visited us for three days for research collaboration and information update on nonlinear waves and instabilities in space plasmas.
Dr. Lembege visits us (1999.10.20-23):Dr. Bertrand Lembege, on leave from CETP/CNRS, currently at Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in Kanagawa, visited us for four days for research collaboration and information update on collisionless shock waves in space plasmas (photo) . Dr. Lembege is also known as a proficient clarinet player, and we had an opportunity to have a little chamber music session with a program including Mozart's famous Kegelstatt trio.
A new foreign member (1999.10.18):Dr. Bertrand Lefebvre, expected to graduate by the end of this year from the CNRS, Orelans, with the Ph.D. degree in physics, has been nominated and accepted as a grantee of the JSPS fellow. He will be joining our group for one year starting from February 2000. Dr. Lefebvre is an expert of theoretical and numerical studies on nonlinear dynamical systems. We are very much looking forward to having fruitful collaborations with him on various issues in space and astronomical plasma physics.
Asia Month (1999.9.15):Throughout the Japanese history, the region of Fukuoka has been playing essential roles in communicating with other Asian countries via trading and cultural exchanges: thus Fukuoka is sometimes referred to as "the entrance to Asia". Every year, the whole month of September in Fukuoka is devoted as "the Asia Month", in which a variety of activities are scheduled including Asian music concerts, dances, cultural exchange events (e.g., cooking classes), and a movie festival. These activities are held at different locations in the entire Fukuoka region, although somewhat centered around the downtown Tenjin area. All the members in our lab got together and went to watch one of the movies in the festival, "Terrorist", which is a contemporary Indian film, depicting a struggle of a young female terrorist who volunteered to assassinate an Indian government V.I.P. It was an excellent film with splendid cinematography. If you are only reminded of the Maharaja series when you hear about the Indian film, this is a must to see.
English as the Lab Official Language (1999.8.1):Since English has been practically the only language used in most international conferences and also in academic journals in our field, and since we are having increasingly many foreign scientists and visitors these days, we have finally decided that in our seminars and meetings, we will be using English only, or, at least, as much as possible. This is no easy task for Japanese students, even though they have at least eight years of learning experience of English in school by the time they enter our lab. This is because the emphasis of school English in Japan is placed more on reading and writing rather than communication skills. In any case, we are having lots of fun creating unique combination of English words and phrases, sometimes even mixed with Japanese words, as we try to explain things to each other. If you are curious, you should visit us before we get more experienced.
Yamakasa festival (1999.7.14):'Hakata-Gion-Yamakasa', or 'Yamakasa' for short, is arguably one of the most lively and energetic summer festivals in Japan. It is held annually around middle of July in the downtown area of Fukuoka, and it lasts for some two weeks, during which a variety of rituals and activities are scheduled. However, without doubt its real climax comes with 'Oiyama', scheduled in the early morning of the final day of the festival period, where several groups of people carry portable shrines (or Kasa's), run along the pre-determined zigzag route in the city, and compete the time for running through the route. If you are interested in the festival, you can view some pictures at this site (all the explanations are in Japanese, though). In the evening of the day before the Oiyama, we had a welcome party for Dr. & Ms. Saikia in an Indian restaurant in Tenjin area (photo here) , and after that we strolled through the town, visiting a number of Kasa's and appreciating their beauty.
Dr. Sharma visited us (1999/7/9):Dr. S. Sharma at Maryland Univ., now temporarily visiting Solar Terrestrial Environment lab in Nagoya Univ., came to our lab and gave a seminar entitled 'Phase transitions of substorms'. We also made informal yet fruitful discussions on many topics in space plasma from nonlinear physics points of view.
Dr+Ms Saikia came to Japan (1999/7/8):Dr. Bipul Saikia, accompanying his wife Puravee, came to Japan as the Japan Society of Promotion of Science fellow, for research collaboration (mainly) on physics of dusty plasmas. Bipul and Puravee will be in Japan for two years.
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