A brief day-to-day account of my recent visit to Japan to attend ICASSP conference
Day 1: March 23
I had gone to bed by 10pm, but could not sleep at all till at least 12am. And then by 4:30 i got up by alarm. After getting dressed and eating the sandwich I had procured at night for breakfast, I finally set out around 6:25am. However, after walking beyond the library i suddenly felt- what if Green Gables insisted payment by card since the booking had been committed by card? After debating for a few minutes I decided to rush back to the hostel and get the card rather than take a chance. Some time was lost, and I had to hurry towards Mekhri Circle. On the road i found an auto but he demanded Rs50, so i continued walking. Immediately on reaching Mekhri i found a Bias, which was quite crowded and overloaded with luggage which almost blocked the middle door. I had to stand all the way in the crowd. IISc senior Vikas Garg boarded the same bus near Hebbal. He was also going to airport for a flight to delhi, albeit a different flight.
After reaching the airport I quickly finished the formalities. They never objected to either of my luggage, though it was not easy to remove and put back the waist-pouch for the security check. At the lounge, Harini was already waiting. Soon Prof Chandrasekhar Seelamanthula also arrived. We boarded the aircraft. Our seats were far apart. On board reasonably good food was provided, so that i did not need a full breakfast or a full lunch. After arriving at IGI Airport Sir left with his luggage for his sister's home. Me and Harini roamed about the airport for sometime, had a light lunch (i ate plane dosa and she ate idly) and then decided to go out if a cloakroom could be found and the heat was not that much outside. A good cloakroom was found, and it was actually very pleasant outside. After depositing my backpack and harini's bag that contained all her provisions (keeping all the necessary documents and even the posters with ourselves) we took a metro to Chandni Chowk and then walked to Red Fort (5mins from CC metro station). We spent some time in the fort and then returned. Every metro station and the Red Fort gate involved security checking and scanning of luggage, so the waistpouch was again a problem. We were back to the airport shortly before 6, collected the bags from the cloakroom and proceeded to the departure section. Although the notice boards said that only 1 piece of hand luggage is allowed, the person at the boarding pass counter said that i can keep both the bag and the poster-case. Harini would also carry her poster-case and her bag of provisions. After completing immigration formalities (we had to fill a form provided at boarding pass counter) and security checking, we moved to our gate. Harini started talking to her family on phone. I waited for her to finish but as she was taking a very long time i got my dinner- mcdonald's combo meal (1 veg burger and french fries). Later Harini got some Dosa and idly. Past 10PM, Neeraj and Prof Chandra finally arrived. We met Prof Umesh of IITM with his two students- Vikas and Raghavendra. Soon it was boarding time, and we boarded the aircraft. All of us had widely separated seats. This aircraft was much bigger than the domestic aircrafts, and had 3 columns each with 3 seats. I had an aisle seat in the middle column. Next to me on the sandwich seat was a Jap lady and on the other aisle seat was an European man who was travelling to Hong Kong. The plane departed and I slept, though was woken up for meal. I did not eat much because of the hour.
Day 2: March 24
At 3:30AM Indian time (7:00 AM Hong Kong time) Hong Kong was reached, where there was a long halt. Here we were given an embarkation card to be filled up and submitted to customs upon arrival at Osaka. After that we flew for another 4 hours to reach Osaka at 12 noon JST. Team India, now 7-strong, regrouped and went through the formalities. After that IIT Madras left for their hotel in a taxi which they had booked beforehand. We decided to take the Haruka Express to Kyoto. Neeraj and me drew 20K JPY each using Yatra Cards, and bought the train tickets from vending machines using the 10K JPY notes, with some help from the station master. Outside the airport it was very cold due to the sea breeze, and we put on jackets and gloves. After reaching the station we tried to call home from a telephone booth using a calling card (1000JPY) which succeeded after some 20 efforts (initially we could understand what prefixes to use, and even when we figured it out the call was getting dropped again and again.) Finally the train arrived and we boarded. It was a airconditioned 6-coach train. Initially we did not get a seat and stood near the vestibule of our coach. A TTE came and stamped the tickets. The train crossed a sea bridge and entered the main land. The train travelled at speeds like the better trains in India (superfast but not Rajdhani/Shatabdi) and reached Kyoto by covering 100Km in 75 minutes with two brief halts (Tennoji and Shin-Osaka). On reaching Kyoto me, Neeraj and Sir ate Potato and Pumpkin chops (Sir also ate a Pork chop :-P) at a shop in the station while Harini stood outside as she could not bear the strong smell of fish in the shop. Then we took two taxies- Sir went to his hotel in one and the 3 of us boarded the other. The taxi driver could not speak english, but read the address of the hotel from the booking.com receipt which we had and reached close to the place. I knew the hotel was on the main road (from Google Map) but he entered a network of lanes and soon got confused. He got down several times and asked people, each of whom opened some GPS device and gave some directions by making very articulate gestures with their hands. The language problem resulted in comic situations. Finally the hotel was found. But quite remarkably, the taxi driver turned off the meter when he was searching for the place. Neeraj payed the bill.
On reaching the hotel one lady received us and put us into two adjacent rooms on the ground floor. The corridor was very narrow and doors strange-looking, giving the impression of a jail. But the room was quite decent. It had a sliding door, and so we partitioned our room- one for Neeraj and one for myself. Harini took the other room. Our room had wired internet facility, two beds, a TV (only japanese), room heating, electric kettle, gas, washbasisn, a toilet and a bathroom fitted with a small bathtub, a tap and a telephone shower. One key was given which Neeraj kept. There was no access to water, so we went out. It was evening, and quite cold. We visited some small shops (the hotel was in a residential area and not many shops were around) but we could not explain "water" (some thought "vodka"). Finally in one restaurant they understood and filled harini's bottle with water, and took no charge. We found their warmth and helpful nature was quite remarkable. We returned and ate a frugal dinner (bread with milkmaid and jam), biscuits, sweets and one packet jeera rice (shared between 3), and went to bed. We were woken up by the landlady who came with a phone, over which the landlord was inquiring about payment. It was decided that each would pay 10K JPY on that day, and the rest after 2 days. This was done and we returned to bed.
Day 3: March 25
We slept heavily, and got up late. Actually i had woken up around 7am and bathed, but on seeing that neeraj was still sleeping when i was done, i also slept again. Around 9:30am we were all awake. Some breakfast was prepared and eaten (my bread and biscuits, Neeraj's milkmaid and moong laddu and Harini's MTR upma). We had conferred with Chandra Sir over video chat and decided to meet at Kyoto station at 11:30, move around the region for 1 hr and start for the conference venue at 12:30pm by subway. By the time we could start from the hotel it was past 12, and we had no means of informing sir. So we decided to move to the conference center instead of Kyoto station, as we all had to reach the venue by 1pm, and sir would come by himself. I had drawn a map of the route from the hotel to the nearest subway station Kitaoji, and we walked there, with some help from pedestrians/ policemen. It took 20 minutes. We bought tickets from vending machines which were easy to use, and promptly returned change. A train bound for Kokusai-Kaikan soon came and we boarded it. We reached in 10minutes, reached the venue and registered. Sir had also come over. Neeraj registered for a tutorial for the following day with my credit card. On 25th me and sir had a tutorial, but they had none. It was decided that during the tutorial hours (1:30-4:30pm) they would see around the venue and the places outside, and we would meet at the station at 4:30. The tutorial was not that good. At 4:30pm me and sir moved out to the station but could not find them. We moved back to the conference venue door but they were not seen anywhere. Sir was feeling cold, and wanted to get back to the hotel. So after waiting till 5:15pm we started back. I got down in Kitaoji and walked up to the hotel, and got the landlady to open the door for me with a "master key". They returned about an hour later. It turned out that they were looking for us between the venue gate and the tutorial hall. Neeraj was slightly unwell and went to bed early, without eating much. Me and Harini ate cup-noodles which she had brought. It seemed a bit too spicy.
Neeraj had brought his laptop and every day after returning from the conference he used to call home through skype. After that i would either send a mail to someone to call home or chat with bub if he was online. After that Harini would take the laptop and keep it for the night, as she talked with her family for long durations over skype. I never used it as making calls over skype requires charges.
Day 4: March 26
We woke up early and went to the venue by 9:30am. The walk to the Kitaoji station was long, and we considered renting bicycles from the hotel. In Kyoto, bicycles travel over the footpaths, and the station had a place to park bicycles. But somehow this plan was never implemented. In the first hour they went to attend some workshop, while I sat outside and read the conference booklets. We had some lunch (Harini's methi paratha and biscuits) which we ate around 1:30pm. After that all of us went to tutorials. We regrouped at 5pm for the welcome drinks session. Apart from the japanese alcohol "saki" (O saaki saaki re) there were many snacks. The non-veg snacks were beef,pork,duck etc. Sir tried out some of those things. We ate veg snacks like pasta and mashed potatoes (which was quite delicious). Around 7pm we left for the hotel. The landlord came and collected the remaining amount. He also showed the different facilities like the washing machine and the microwave which were outside the room, and shared by all the inmates (there were hardly any). Harini cooked some jeera rice and upma for dinner.
Day 5- March 27
The conference started this day. Every day there would be a plenery talk in the morning, followed by 3 sessions- each of 2 hrs. In between there would be a lunch break of 1.5 hrs and a tea break of 0.5 hrs. Each session included several lecture sessions and poster sessions parallelly, and participants would have to plan attending presentations by looking at the schedule beforehand.
On the previous night, when the landlord had come, he had showed us that one of the taps in the room provided drinking water. Also I had also bought a bottle of water from a vending machine and Harini had brought her bottle, and we used to collect water from the conference venue. This morning, I cooked my first packet of maggi for breakfast. Harini liked it, but Neeraj felt it was a bit lacking in masala, so he added some masala on the cooked maggi itself. We took the subway as usual and went to the venue. After lunch was Neeraj's presentation. We met at lunchtime. I got my lunch box (pic sent) while they ate methi parathas and some other things which Harini had packed and brought. Along with the lunch came a packet of tasteless green tea. After lunch we put up the poster together. When the session started we went around visiting the different posters. This session had many posters which were interesting for me, but the next session was quite barren. In the evening, after the conference, we met sir who wanted to go to an Indian Restaturant called "Kerala" very close to his hotel. We took the subway, changed trains at a station called Karasuma-Oike and reached the hotel, where we had dinner (jal-frezy and pakada). We took a taxi and returned. Now we knew the names of the roads and crossings, and so this time there was much less trouble. The taxi driver pronounced the hotel's name as "Gween Ga-ga-ga-gablso" which Harini found very amusing, and throughout the rest of the trip referred to the hotel by that name.
Day 6-March 28
Harini's presentation in first session. I cooked two packets of maggi in the morning- one for breakfast and another to be packed for lunch. I added a bit more masala this time. Neeraj was happy. We skipped the plenery talk and reached shortly before the first session. We put up Harini's poster, and then went around attending other lectures and posters. At lunchtime we met again and ate the maggi, biscuits and my box lunch (it seemed worse than the previous day). After lunch we considered going around the conference area- there were hills and scenic spots around. Neeraj had some talks to attend, so I and Harini went. We roamed around for almost 2 hours, taking lots of snaps. There was a hill with steps leading up to the top, which we climbed. Afterwards we returned to the venue. The afternoon session was nearing its end. When we were waiting for the next session harini got a call from home (her mobile was active) that an earthquake had happenned in Japan. We searched the internet (Harini had an iPad and the conference venue had Wi-fi) from which we learnt that it had happenned the previous day in North Japan. I made a call to mum using a telephone which I found in the conference venue, and fortunately the connection worked at first chance. When the conference ended we took the train back, had dinner (pasta, pongal etc) and went to bed.
Day 7: March 29
Neeraj and I wanted to attend the pleneray talk, but Harini wanted to sleep. I had set an alarm and got up early (I did this every day) but Neeraj woke up very late, and by then it was already time to leave. Harini was still sleeping. Breakfast had not been made. It was decided that all 3 will go separately. I went first, Neeraj started 10 minutes after me and Harini after an hour. I attended the talk and ate breakfast there (some snacks and bananas were laid out on tables after each session, but they were cleaned up very fast, in 5 minutes). After that Harini came. None of us had any important session to attend, and we considered visiting Imperial Palace of Kyoto. But one of the IITM students told us that it required booking beforehand. It was decided that we will go with Sir to the downtown area (Shijo) in the evening. We met Pallavi- who had completed her BTech in 2011 and will go to CMU for MS this year. She was staying in K's House. I found out some talks to attend, and attended them. Neeraj visited the posters while Harini sat outside with her iPad. We ate khakra for lunch apart from the lunchbox. We skipped the evening session and went out with Sir. We went by subway to Shijo, where one IITM student had said was a temple. The temple was closed. We ate cakes at a shop and then went to Sir's hotel which was close to Kerala- the Indian restaurant we had visited on 27th. We went to some shops nearby where we bought some souveneers. Harini, quite obviously, took a very long time. We returned to the hotel by bus, after asking some people at the bus-stop which buses go to the junction closest to our hotel. The bus soon came and we boarded it. The system was to pay coins to a machine while getting down, and the price was fixed regardless of the distance. We ate pasta and maggi (my last packet) for dinner and slept after chatting for a long time among ourselves.
Day 8: March 30
The day of my presentation. This time, Neeraj did not want to attend the plenery session, and me and Harini went ahead. After attending the talk we came out and met Neeraj. Throughout the rest of the day I attended many other talks before my session (the last session) began. In the afternoon session Sir had presented Subhadip's work, and in the evening session (my session) he would present Mohammad's poster. Harini and I set up the poster. There were 11 posters in my Poster Area (and there were 8 poster areas). Over two hours 8-9 people came and asked about the work. The crowd now was much thinner compared to the first day, when the poster area was packed with people. In front of me Carlo Tomasi, the HoD of Sayan's department in Duke was presenting a poster.After the session we met Sir and all of us left the conference venue for the last time, after taking several photographs. We took the subway and returned to hotel, but on the way bought some chocolates from a large shop for our labs (Harini bought some umbrellas- to add to a few she had bought the previous evening) We ate pasta and cup-noodles for dinner and went to bed. Sir had asked them to plan for sightseeing the following day, so Neeraj browsed in his laptop for tourist spots nearby before retiring.
Days 9 and 10-March 31 and April 1
I woke up at 5am by alarm and got ready in less than an hour. The bag had been packed the previous night. Others were fast asleep. It had been decided on the previous night that we would have breakfast at 7:30 together, and i will leave at 8am, while they will leave for Sir's hotel or his station at 8:30 or 9am. But seeing that they were sleeping and there was time i returned to bed again. Around 7:30am harini came with a plate of pasta for me, but said that she wanted to sleep more. We bade each other goodbye and she retreated to her room. I finished my breakfast, woke up Neeraj to inform him that I was leaving, then started off. It was raining lightly. I walked with the umbrella till Kitaoji, boarded the train to Kyoto, found the main JR (Japan Railway) line for Kansai Airport, bought both tickets and reached the platform. Soon a Haruka came in from Kansai, and it was serviced for 10-15minutes before the new passengers were allowed to board. I found a window seat in an unreserved compartment. The train started 5 minutes late at 9:20, and reached Kansai after an additional delay of 5 minutes, around 10:40. I folowed the crowd and arrived at the Kansai Airport International Departure wing, and found the Air India Counter, which would open after an hour. I tried to make a call home with my card but failed. I found a small queue had developed in front of the AI counter, and I joined. There were mostly Japanses/Chinese/Korean people with only 3 Indians (a bengali couple and one Sardarji, who turned out to be Prof Jyotinder Singh of IIT Ropar (Punjab) returning from the same conference. the bengali couple were based in Mumbai and the man had been doing a postdoc in chemistry in osaka). At the counter, they did not allow the poster case, and it was sent for check-in. The boarding pass, immigration process and security check were done quickly (the security check was very minimal). I took a train to the specified gate (in Kansai there are trains instead of buses as in indian airports). The Air India gate was still empty. I tried making some more phn calls but none worked, after which i located a computer. It was a slow machine with an outdated browser (IE5) and sent a mail to Swagato,Souri,Shweta and Neeraja to inform home, with a protocol to ensure that only one of them called. The passengers started to arrive and at length Pallavi and Prof Umesh of IITM arrived. The gate opened and we boarded the plane. There was some manual frisking before boarding the plane. I had a window seat with Prof Umesh on the aisle seat and the middle seat vacant. We flew to HongKong in over 4 hours. Food was served (rice, curry, bread, butter, yoghurt and a sweet dish). At Hongkong we halted for an hour while new passengers boarded. A Delhi-based muslim father-and-son duo had separated seats and they requested me to move to the seat behind me, so that they could sit in the window-and-sandwich seats next to Prof Umesh. I now sat between a Sikkemese and a Western man. The same food was served once again. We were also given a form for immigration purposes. Meanwhile I watched 4 movies in succession. At length Delhi was reached. All the passengers moved in a queue to the customs counter where we submitted the forms given in the aircraft. After that we went to the luggage retrieval center, and my poster case arived very soon. Pallavi would go to Mumbai in 2 hours, Prof Umesh to Chennai after spending the night at his relative's home and Prof Singh to Punjab by train, so we all separated. I proceeded to the domestic terminal, and found a place to sit, but the policeman told me that i could not enter the main airport till 2:15am (my flight was at 6:15am). I found a place to charge my mobile. There were many other passengers waiting in the same lounge to enter the airport for the early morning flights. At 2:15am the policeman himself called me and asked me to go in. I found the Air-India counters after some search, and got the boarding pass. They did not object to the poster case. The security check was done and I proceeded to the gate. It was only 3:15am. At length the gate was opened and we boarded the aircraft. We reached Bangalore after 2.5 hours. I had an aisle seat. Breakfast was served (masala idly, sambhar, bread and butter). After reaching bangalore i found Bias 11 and reached iisc in an hour.
