tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975purplecatpurplecatpurplecat2023-08-02T20:06:31Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:883711Walk to Indre Arna2023-08-02T20:06:31Z2023-08-02T20:06:31Zpublic4"Bring your outdoorsy clothes we might get lucky with the weather," Matryoshka said in one of her emails before this trip.<br /><br />I therefore packed my walking boots. I considered packing my walking sticks but wasn't convinced they were worth the trouble of trying to get into the carry on luggage. Once here, we consulted the weather and decided that Tuesday was the best day for a walk. Matryoshka then picked us a 13km (allegedly) walk to the next town, past a Vikinghytten where she promised there would be waffles. I murmured a bit about the lack of walking sticks but she insisted we would take the funicular railway up to the plateau and, once up there, "it's very flat". It was only later it occurred to me that, being nearly 10 years younger than I am, she might not have realised I value my sticks more on the down than on the up.<br /><br />Anyway we got up onto the plateau where the walking was pleasant and easy albeit with a bit more up than Matryoshka had anticipated.<br /><br /><center><br /><img src="https://www.dennis-sellers.com/ljimages/2023/bergen/IMG_3212.png" alt="A square cairn with a pointed stone on the top and a sign. Beyond it is visible a blue wooden house."><br /></center>Despite the fact the sign on that cairn reads Vikinghytten, that house is not the Vikinghytten. When we got to the Vikinghytten which was actually off to the left of that cairn, it was resolutely shut and there were no waffles to be seen. Also, the toilets were locked. <br /><br />However we continued onwards and upwards a bit following a nicely visible line of cairns. Then we took a turn off this path and things became a bit more complicated. It's a long time since I've been on a walk without the combination of solid GPS and an ordnance survey map. I had managed to persuade Matryoshka to load the route to Indre Arna, on her phone and we relied on this quite heavily in what followed as the path repeatedly disappeared leaving us to strike out in roughly the right direction across the bog until we picked it up again.<br /><br />Then we hit the down which was both muddy and steep and variably pathless, sufficiently so that when we came out on the road and then missed the turning back onto the path we decided to stick with the road which only took us a little out of our way. Shortcuts make long delays, we reassured ourselves, and we were certainly travelling about twice as fast on the road as we had been on the path.<br /><br /><center><br /><img src="https://www.dennis-sellers.com/ljimages/2023/bergen/strava.png" alt="image showing a contour map with two peaks, then sharp down from about 9km to about 11km which subsequently flattens out about. Over this is a blue line which shown a noisy track but generally downward trend until there is a sharp dip just after 10km after which it rise up higher than the start."><br />This is the Strava analysis of the walk showing elevation against our pace. The point where we hit the road is fairly obvious.<br /></center><br /><br />We ended the walk in a very empty but very clean train station with a very space age toilet but no bar. We waited 30 minutes for a train and 10 minutes later we were back in Bergen, where we went our separate ways, showered and then met up again for burgers and beer. We were both clearly a bit dehydrated when we compared notes this morning, but neither was too stiff though Matryoshka had sore ankles and I have slight numbness in one big toe.<br /><br /><center><br /><img src="https://www.dennis-sellers.com/ljimages/2023/bergen/IMG_3207.png" alt="View from the plateau, down to the pine forest and then to the fjord."><br /></center><br /><br />Allegedly this was a research meeting and, to be fair, we did plan out a textbook though we got side-tracked today into writing a paper so the textbook plan hasn't even made it as far as an outline document.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=883711" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:868209Third Day at Dagstuhl2023-04-12T17:43:37Z2023-04-12T17:43:37Zpublic0The talk went well though, as I had somewhat expected, at least two other people in the audience had worked on formalising traffic rules and done so rather more thoroughly than we had. Still, now I have papers to read. <br /><br />In the afternoon we had breakout sessions, so I got to spend a couple of hours arguing about what normative competence(s) might be, pausing only briefly to eat cake because, it transpires, you can eat cake and argue about normative competence at the same time (even though, as some of us pointed out, while eating cake one has permission to discuss topics other than those of the seminar). Tomorrow I might switch to the group that is arguing about what an explanation is.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=868209" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:868081Second Day at Dagstuhl2023-04-11T17:53:38Z2023-04-11T17:53:38Zpublic0Today was full of talks. The theme of the workshop is Normative Reasoning for AI, but some of the talks seemed more like logic (or theorem proving) theory talks - perhaps that is a natural consequence of mixing communities. I'm talking tomorrow morning on the UK Highway Code - I do so because the organiser suggested it, but he's now denying responsibility and says he's happy for me to talk about verifying machine ethics if I want to. This is tempting. I have a much more solid body of work on machine ethics than I do on the Highway Code. On the other hand the Highway Code talk is now written and cheese is being served in 10 minutes - so if I start writing a talk on machine ethics I will miss out on cheese. There are gaps in the schedule, so I will tell the room tomorrow morning that I could give a "lightening talk" on machine ethics if they really want one, and then the assembled worthies can decide.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=868081" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:867585And now I'm in Germany2023-04-10T16:02:34Z2023-04-10T16:02:34Zpublic2I'm at a Dagstuhl about which I have <a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/77145.html">written</a> <a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/125923.html">before</a> though I have also attended Dagstuhl's I have not documented (or at least not documented under the tag travel:work related).<br /><br />Covid precautionary arrangements seem a little uncertain. However the Schloss website suggests masking whenever we move around, so I have an FP95 with me, though presumably we will be taking them off for shared meal times, so I'm not clear how effective they will be.<br /><br />The Dagstuhl hasn't actually started yet, but it's 6pm which means dinner will have just been served per the ruthless Dagstuhl timetable, so I had better go and see what it is.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=867585" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:843294Lugano Picspam2022-07-14T20:11:54Z2022-07-14T20:11:54Zpublic6<center><br /><img src="https://www.dennis-sellers.com/ljimages/2022/lugano/IMG_1181.png" alt="View over tiled rooftops, to a blue lake with wooded mountains beyond."><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/843294.html#cutid1">More under the Cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /></center><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=843294" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:453627Texas Capitol Building2017-06-20T19:21:38Z2017-06-20T19:21:38Zpublic2While I was in Texas an old friend and his wife took me out for the day including a trip around Texas' Capitol<br /><br /><center><br /><img src="http://www.dennis-sellers.com/ljimages/2017/texas/IMG_2421.jpg"><br /></center><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/453627.html#cutid1">Piccies Under the Cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=453627" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:245636Then I went to Bergen2017-04-13T18:12:41Z2017-04-13T18:12:41Zpublic10This is the last travel picspam for a while I promise. I was there to deliver a lecture on Verifying Autonomous Ethical Systems to Matryoshka's Machine Ethics class.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/245636.html#cutid1">Pictures under the cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=245636" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:245188Washington Picspam2017-04-11T13:40:53Z2017-04-11T13:40:53Zpublic6At the start of March I spent 2 Days in Washington at a slightly odd workshop on Incorporating Ethics into Artificial Intelligence. I knew, from following <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://gregmce.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://gregmce.livejournal.com/'><b>gregmce</b></a></span> on Strava, that there was a nice looking run around the National Mall and so most of the photos below are from that - often early in the morning because Jet-Lag.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/245188.html#cutid1">Picspam Under the Cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=245188" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:180636Sunset over Delft2015-12-01T18:31:13Z2015-12-01T18:31:13Zpublic10<center><br /><img src="http://www.dennis-sellers.com/ljimages/2015/IMG_0961.JPG"><br /></center><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=180636" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:148206Delft: Final Post Honest!2015-03-15T17:14:00Z2015-03-15T17:14:00Zpublic6A final few miscellaneous images of Delft. Including some of medical instruments, just to warn those who may not like such things.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/148206.html#cutid1">Under the Cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=148206" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:147951Delft's Churches2015-03-14T17:19:04Z2015-03-14T17:19:04Zpublic2More photos of Delft<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/147951.html#cutid1">Under the Cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=147951" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:147558A View of Delft, Part the First2015-03-12T20:16:21Z2015-03-13T08:28:02Zpublic12I've been in Delft for the past two weeks for work reasons but I was able to spend the weekend doing touristy things. I've got quite a few photos, but I need to pack this evening so I'm only posting a handful now. Maybe more later. I also had to take selfies for Corporate Communications, so I may be posting a link to that at some point.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/147558.html#cutid1">Pictures under the Cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=147558" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:141038View from an Austin Hotel Room2015-02-04T19:38:01Z2015-02-04T19:38:01Zpublic12The weekend before last, I flew out for a one day workshop on AI and Ethics as part of the American Assocation for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) conference. I will probably blog about that in more detail soon, but I've suddenly ended up on the radar of Liverpool University's Corporate Communications unit (I think because of my two appearances on Radio Merseyside making soothing noises about the imminent rise of the machines) and so they want me to run something past them first for potential publicity generating reasons.<br /><br />Those following along on Facebook got a front row seat of my 4am discovery (I had jet lag) that all my flights home had been cancelled since they went through New York JFK and the resulting conversion of a crisis into a minor irritation when, in an entirely unexpected fit of competence and efficiency the departmental purchasing team managed to get everything rebooked onto a wonderfully empty British Airways flight. The minor irritation was was the 8 hour wait to check-in at Austin airport and the frustration of knowing I had just purchased a special "Priority Pass" card that would have let me spend those 8 hours in a first class lounge if only I had been able to get a boarding card and get through security to reach the lounge.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/141038.html#cutid1">Photos of the Hotel under the cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />The workshop was interesting, and certainly worth attending. It would probably have been more sensible to stay the whole week and go to the conference as well but I have another paper deadline looming.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=141038" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:126181Prague2014-09-05T20:02:16Z2014-09-05T20:02:16Zpublic9I went to Prague for the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence. I did not get ripped off by any taxi drivers - the websites I consulted about an hour before I left for the airport warned strenuously against trusting taxi drivers in Prague but it was too late, by that point, to order the hotel shuttle service to pick me up. As it was I ordered a taxi from a booth at the airport for a firm the Internet grudgingly allowed to be usually OK and was ferried to my hotel for a third of the price the shuttle service would have charged.<br /><br />My schedule was pretty packed but, having established that the conference dinner was on the opposite side of Prague to the hotel, I decided there was probably time between the final conference session of the day and the dinner for about an hour's wander, particularly if I took the metro to the city centre. As it was I got a bit confused about timings, missed the final session of the day and found myself in the centre of Prague with about three hours to kill - just as most tourist attractions shut for the evening. However I was armed with the Lonely Planet guide book that my boss had thrust into my hands as I was leaving Liverpool.<br /><br />You are spared most of my photos because my iPhone really wasn't up to the light conditions.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/126181.html#cutid1">Clock</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/126181.html#cutid2">Prague Castle</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___3" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/126181.html#cutid3">Hrad čany</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___3" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=126181" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:125923Formal Methods for Coordinating Multi-Agent Systems2014-09-01T19:04:37Z2014-09-01T19:32:17Zpublic4A couple of weeks ago I once again enjoyed the "sensible arrangements" (seemingly limitless alcohol on an honesty system) at Schloss Dagstuhl. It occurs to me to marvel, slightly, at the way the Dagstuhl staff ruthlessly organise us. Seminar leads endlessly entreat us not to be late for lunch, supper, morning coffee or afternoon cake and there is the ritual of writing your abstract <i>by hand</i> into the book of abstracts.<br /><br />This was a particularly successful Dagstuhl from my point of view and I came away with an invitation to give a talk, a revelation about a paper two of us were currently working on, discussions that may lead to two further papers, not to mention a list of references to check out that may be useful for my work.<br /><br />The seminar itself was slightly derailed when a logician* announced that he couldn't possibly discourse sensibly on the topic without a formal definition of coordination. A working group was set up to come up with such a definition with... moderate success? Accounts suggest the working group spent a lot of time not talking to each other or, at least, all working individually on their own and then having 5 minutes intense argument at the end of the session. I rather liked one of the definitions they came up with but apparently no one else did.<br /><br />There were three working groups in total but the other two quickly combined, together with some refugees from the "let's define coordination" working group. We decided to tackle the rather easier question of how you should go about engineering a solution to a coordination problem. We were aided in this by the discovery that our meeting room had an <i>entire wall</i> that functioned as a white board** with which we (well I, because I appropriated the whiteboard pens) had a lot of fun.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/125923.html#cutid1">Pictures under the Cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />*I was tempted to write a Russian logician since most good logicians in Computer Science are Russian. However this particular logician was Bulgarian with a Ukranian surname (and a family history involving the White Army) who was about to move from Denmark to Sweden. So I'll just go with "a logician".<br /><br />**This probably also counts as a sensible arrangement.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=125923" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:106523Coruña2013-10-26T16:46:53Z2013-10-26T16:46:53Zpublic8<center><br /><img src="http://www.dennis-sellers.com/ljimages/2013/Corunna/IMG_0136.jpg"><br />Coruña harbour.<br /></center><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/106523.html#cutid1">Ugh! So behind on posting stuff</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=106523" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:77145Engineering Multi-Agent Systems (mostly a visit to Bernkastel-Kues)2012-09-24T13:55:22Z2012-09-24T13:55:22Zpublic4Over the summer I attended another <a href="http://louisedennis.livejournal.com/89546.html">Dagstuhl Workshop</a> on Engineering Multi-Agent Systems.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/77145.html#cutid1">More under the Cut including a lot of photos of Bernkastel-Kues</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=77145" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:66289Tallinn, Estonia2012-04-22T12:54:55Z2012-04-22T12:55:59Zpublic21At the end of march I went to a conference in Tallinn, Estonia. It was actually a really good conference and I came away with lots of thoughts though I'm not really intending to blog about them since they are along the lines of "more efficient ways to generate Büchi Automata" which I suspect won't mean much to my flist. Though there was an interesting and more generally accessible talk about load balancing in the German national grid with a side order on getting more trains onto a single European train track which I may give an overview of at some point (*stares dubiously at list of "things it might be interesting to blog about" which has grow scarily long of late*)<br /><br />Anyway, I actually think my boss was a little bemused by my sudden enthusiasm for foreign travel when this came up. Our group was approached by one of the attached workshops and asked if anyone would like to give a talk and he rather dubiously passed the question on and asked if anyone was interested in going. Normally I'm not terribly excited at the prospect of spending a week away from home, but I'd seen pictures of Tallinn and it looked terribly pretty.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/66289.html#cutid1">I was not disappointed. Gratuitously long Picspam under the cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=66289" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:43307Taiwan Photos2011-05-22T10:38:06Z2011-05-22T10:38:06Zpublic0I was really just in Taiwan for the conference, arriving the evening before it started and going directly to the airport from the venue when it ended so I didn't have any time for sight-seeing. However I did take a couple of photos.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/43307.html#cutid1">Under the Cut</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />My hotel was very western and charged accordingly. But elsewhere we were all amazed how cheap things were. In the "expensive" food court below the Taipei 101 where I had lunch every day, I could get a four course meal for the equivalent of £2.50. Similarly the bus I caught to take me to the airport (roughly a 40 minute drive along motoways) also cost £2.50. The conference banquet was a nine course meal with no rice or noodle dishes. We were told that this was because it was an expensive dinner and to have served rice or noodles would have suggested they couldn't afford to feed us properly.<br /><br />Most of my other impessions are very fragmentary; glimpses of other people's lives as we were ferried to and from conference events and too brief to really draw conclusions from. Early in the morning you could see the staff in the little workshops the bus drove past, all lined up and standing to attention as their manager gave them their instructions for the day. Everywhere there was evidence of cheap labour, from the fact that all the bus seats had clean antimacassars on them which were presumably replaced and washed regularly. All the hoardings surrounding building works were decorated with hanging baskets of plants which were watered every morning. Every road crossing (at least in the posh business area where the conference was) was accompanied by a traffic policeman who would blow his whistle and direct commuters and traffic. The traffic itself, reminded me most of Italian traffic with hundreds of apparently suicidal moped riders of every kind from businessmen in suits, to teenage boys with their girlfriends riding pillion, through little old ladies going shopping. Almost ubiquitous piped Western classical music seemed to follow us wherever we went. At first I thought this was a particular obsession with Vivaldi's Four Seasons but it turned out to be a little more wide-ranging than that, but I've no idea what this signified beyond that places like westernised hotels, airports, conference centres and prestige shopping malls considered it appropriate muzak.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=43307" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:20660Sapporo2010-09-22T08:00:44Z2010-09-22T08:18:39Zpublic0I didn't take many photos when I was in Japan. Sapporo is a tourist city, but it's tourism is based around it's winter ski slopes and focused on the internal market. Visually, it felt to me very much like visiting a North American city, just on a slightly more compact scale which actually made walking from place to place practical. But largely there were just a lot of big modern buildings.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/20660.html#cutid1">For the sake of completeness though, here is the view from my hotel window</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=20660" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:18156Japanese Loos2010-09-08T07:37:54Z2010-09-08T07:44:47Zpublic0Almost the first thing B asked me when I skyped home from Japan was "what are the loos like?"<br /><br />There were indeed most impressive.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/18156.html#cutid1">photos of Japanese Loos</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=18156" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-08:316975:17707Emergency Shopping in Sapporo2010-09-07T16:46:43Z2010-09-07T18:13:44Zpublic0So Japan was... stressful. The combination of not speaking the language at all, not understanding the script, attending a conference in a field I'm not familiar with and where I knew no one in advance would have been bad enough without the excitement of lost luggage, a head cold and flights that arrived and left an airport 40km away from the city at times mostly either too early or too late to be certain about using public transport.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://purplecat.dreamwidth.org/17707.html#cutid1">Shopping in Japan</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=purplecat&ditemid=17707" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments