Japan : 船の科学館

En français
お台場's museum of maritime science, 船の科学館 is closing its doors for good so it is now accessible for a reduced price. I went to spend the afternoon there with some friends before visiting お台場's 温泉. I really like this museum and I think it's a great attraction. It also looks very nice from the outside as it has the shape of a boat. The 温泉 was really relaxing after walking all day. It was a very agreeable experience.
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Japan : 井の頭公園

En français
One nice week-end day in July when I was tired of staying indoor, I decided to go have a walk in the 井の頭公園. 井の頭公園 is a park in Mitaka near the Ghibli museum, I had been to the Ghibli museum with friends the week-end before and I wanted to have a closer look at the park. I had a nice walk and met with a strange bug's shell.
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Japan : 札幌 north part of the campus and end

En français
At the end of the conference I went to take a walk on the North, wilder part of the campus. I didn't really know where to go and I walk for a long time, getting a bit lost and even wondering if I would be on time to catch my plane. But obviously everything was alright, I'm used to worry a lot for no reason. In the train station there were a lot of artistic sculptures.
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Japan : 札幌 Genghis Khan

En français
For the conference diner we went to eat a 焼肉、Ｉ already talked about 焼肉 before but the 焼肉 from 札幌 is different. It is called Genghis Khan from the emperor of the Monghol empire around 1170 and 1227. So we ate the special Genghis Khan 焼肉 made of lamb in 札幌 beer garden. Curiously the only Khan who tried to invade Japan seems to be Kublai Khan, so I'm not sure where the name of the dish comes from. Some say it's because the grill to cook the meat has the shape of Genghis Khan's helmet.
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Japan : 札幌 walk in the evening

En français
Last July, I went to 札幌 for my first conference of the season. I needed to present a poster to ICOMP12 in北海大学。One evening after a long day of talk I went to take a walk in the south part of the city from the University. I wanted to go to eat a ラメン in the famous ラメンどり。 I took the chance to see the Clock Tower when I was at it. Doctor Clock is famous for his sentence "Boys be ambitious", his statue is also somewhere in 札幌　but too far away for me to reach on this little journey.
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Comptine d'un autre été

En français
Back in Mai I had a challenge with my friends and a part of it was for me to learn to play "Comptine d'un autre été" from Yann Tiersen. I learned it then forget it a bit then recently learned it again. After several attempt at recording myself, like everyday for more than a week I finally came up with a version that I find acceptable even though it might need to be played a little faster. Anyway here is the video I promised to my friends.

Japan : 鎌倉 明月院

En français
The last part of 鎌倉 we visited was 明月院. 明月院 is a temple with several beautiful gardens including one filled with hydrangea, mostly blue. There was also several statues of Rabbits and a cage possibly containing rabbits which were supposed to be sent to the moon. There is also a small bamboo forest which made me want to go back to the bamboo street in Kyoto by day as I saw that one only at night and the effect wasn't so wonderful except to scare my friends with ghost stories.
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