Checklist :

o Filed down my outlet adapters to match Japan’s outlets (check)
o Stashed map of Tokyo-Nagano regions (check)
o Packed spare 512 MD sd memory card for camera (check)
o Packed USB to PC card reader to upload pix to Mike’s blog (check)
o Packed the supinator dynasplint to terrify the baggage checkers (check)
o Packed 5 dvds to watch on boring nights (check)
o Charged and packed 2 extra laptop batteries (check)
o And so on, and so on.

Why in the heck am I doing this?

Well it’s all Mukul’s fault. Mukul is my “retired‚” ex-boss, a spry, talkative 77-year old solar radio astronomer who plans to live to 150, while he writes several dozen more scientific articles about radio flares on the Sun. He’s canny and clever, but he’s still in the 80’s computer-wise, and he needs to enlist help to program radio flare mapping, save data to DVDs, transfer data from computer to computer, and all that ‚Äò90’s and 0’s stuff. So he enlisted me.

At first Mukul asked if I’d go with him for a whole month to Nobeyama Radio Observatory (Nagano prefectorate, Japan). But I bidded him down to 3 weeks between Thanksgiving & New Year. Being Indian, he thinks it’s quaint that I want to celebrate those holidays with my family. I told him that my wife and kids would kill me if I wasn’t home with them on Nov 24 and Dec 25, and he accepted that. And it’s true, too.

The trip is being paid for by Shibasaki san (got to remember that “san‚”), the observatory director. He’s wangling the fare and hotel bills from his budget by creating a One-Day Symposium while we’re there. Mukul and I each have to give a half hour talk (Arggh. I hate to give talks) and listen to the Observatory guys give talks. Then we’ll all recover from our speechifying and listening by munching on sushi, sashimi, and sipping 20-year old sake. That’s the sum of the ODS.

The rest of our workaday stay in Japan, Mukul and I will be sitting in front of monitors, extracting data from the archives and making maps of solar radio flares. Both he and I have similar agendas. He’s got his flare lists, and I’ve got mine. By the end of 3 weeks we should have enough maps to supply Mukul with articles for another decade, and to supply me with more than enough projects until the end of 2006 when I retire. (But I’m really, really going to retire, not like Mukul, whose so-called retirement is more like what I’d call full employment.)

Nobeyama Observatory is located between two National Parks. Come to think of it, one of them is a “Pseudo National Park‚” (That’s what the map says.) So I’m hoping to do some hiking in the parks on weekends, if there isn’t too much snow. If there is too much snow (can there ever be “Too much‚”?), I may go skiing in a small ski area near the observatory. As much as possible I plan to walk around the nearby village looking for the “old‚” Japan‚”. And every day or two I’ll be writing up my experiences for the Millerblog.

My flight leaves at 9:15 am, Nov. 26.

Sayanara for now
Rakkity