Taking a bath at hot spring : Japanese Culture

Have you ever enjoyed hot spring ? 

Japanese people have enjoyed it once at least for sure. The picture below is hot spring which I went last December when I went back to Japan.

A few weeks before, my wife found hot spring place at the central California where not every room, but each room has own hot tab of sulfur based hot spring. So we can enjoy own hot spring anytime except from midnight to early morning.

It had been almost more that 10 months since I took a bath when I went back to Japan last new year. Although some people knows, Japanese people usually take a bath everyday and put your body in hot water to relax your body. It's one of our customs and culture. That's why we wanted to there. So if you look at a bath tube in Japan, it is deeper and bigger than that of U.S. in order to fill hot water. 

If you go to Japan, it's easily find hot spring place almos all around Japan country, especially at mountain side. Even in the central Tokyo, hot spring is available, but people do not desire it, because what people desire hot spring for is usually not only hot spring its self but also beautiful scenery actually. In addition to that, local food is available and it is usually included in a price which is one of interesting points in hot spring hotel.

We actually went to the Sycamore mineral hot spring in San Luis Obispo at the central California. When I made a reservation, which was a few week before the our stay, the day of the stay was Saturday, its price was around $240 for each room. At first, I thought it was really expensive because it was the price without dinner and breakfast in the following day. They are usually included in a price in Japan. However, we wanted to take hot spring, so we did not have a coice. San Luis Obispo is located to South of San Jose, so there are mainly two ways to get there. One of them is to take HWY 101 which is almost straight road all the way, and second one is to take HWY 1 which is a road along pacific coast, called Big sur. Unfortunately, the day of stay was rainy day, but when I looked at the real time rain map before I left home, there was no rainy cloud around the sea coast, although it was raining around my apartment. Actually I decided to take HWY 1 while hoping that it was fine weather there. But, fortunately it was foggy situation there without rain. I could say I could enjoy 50% of Big sur. Afte taking late lunch at Morro bay, we got the hot spring place. When I opened my door of my car, I felt a little bit of sulfur smell which reminded me of coming to hot spring, which I felt every time when I visit hot spring places in Japan. After completing check in, I got keys of my room and headed for the room. When I open the  door of the gate of our room, there is a patio with own plastic bath tub. When I looked it at the first time, I was a little bit disappointed at the looking from Japanese hot spring point of view because authentic bath tub is supposed to be made from wood. At the same time, I accepted that this is American style to maximize functionalities in order to hot spring. The bath tub was empty so I had to put hot spring water by myself to tune tap, which takes more that 30 mins to fill the bath tub at 90% full. Hot spring water its self was very good and I actually tried twice at the night and the morning respectively.

Totally, it was very good quality and situation where each room has own bath tub, when I consider the history of American hot spring. It would be less than 200 years, maybe. It still has huge potential to develop own hot spring culture. I'm used to Japanese hot spring but I do not mean that American hot spring culture should be Japanese one.

http://www.sycamoresprings.com/

How addictive Facebook is !

Do you have a account of Facebook, you might have it with 16% possibility. According to the wikipedia, a number of active users seems to be one billion. It's almost one sixth of the population of the earth. That's amazing number which I have ever heard of. 

I just started Facebook a few weeks ago because many my friends recommended me to create an account to keep in touch with each other. However I realized that Facebook is very addictive for me, immediately after I created my account.  

Facebook shows you a lot of possible your friend in your homepage by analyzing your email account which you tell to Facebook and by analyzing through friends of your friends. Naturally, human being has curious about what our friends are doing right now, and needs attention to show something own happening. Facebook is well taking advantage of this personality of human. So there seems to be a word of "Facebook addiction", in which people always consider facebook whenever it is and wherever you are. People with this addiction starts a day by checking own facebook immediately afte waking up and end the day by checking it again to see if there is updates of friends.

The reason why I felt that it is addictive is that I have similar experience once when I was a university student in Japan. At that time, a domestic SNS called Mixi was very popular, in which we could keep in touch. The concept was very similar with Facebook actually, although Facebook advances in terms of technology though. Everyone tell own stories in the site, and share pictures. Everyone spent much time on it by using PC and own mobile phone. Right now, its popularity of active users is decreasing rather being stagnent because many people is moving to Facebook since it has started its service in Japan. 

What I am feeling is that human being is a creature which is easily to get bored of anything, so if something new concept better than Facebook comes out, then people would move to it easily by throwing away old one. I would not come up with what's gonna come next though.
For example, it is very good example that many peoples moved to Facebook from Myspace which used to be popular as SNS in the united states. 

One of my friends told me that I have to be careful about Facebook in terms of safety because we are supposed to create an account with name, but it is easy to disguise other persones and some peoples use it for own bad purposes. 

Is Facebook dominating SND industries ?
When we look back any industries, a situation is always that a lof companies compete each other, and if one company can go ahead, then it dominate the market.  For example, let's look at the CPU industry, at first, many companies were struggling but Intel can win finally right now. I'm thinking that the same thing is happening at the SNS industry, os Facebook would continue to dominate the market in a few years, no matter how its share decreases.

However, I'm not sure about this a few years later, there would be destructive innovation like Toyota Purius which would destroy its own gasoline car finally.  

Wikipedia 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

Spin Hall effect

Early this November, one of my friend visited me from Japan. He is 2 years older senior to me, and we belonged to a same research group when I was in a university for my physics master degree. He is one of person around me to go PhD course and make a living in the theoretical physicist, although many peoples including me find a job in companies afte graduating a university. Our group research subject was to investigate low temperature condensed matter physics theoretically by using theory of quantum mechanics. The subject is rare to hear for those who do not know much about physics, so one of famous phenomenon in this domain is superconductivity. Superconductivity is situation where electrical DC resistance is zero. Its resulting famous phenomenon is Meissner effect in which magnetic material can levitiate in the air. Physical mechanics were explained macroscopically by BCS theory.

When I joined the group, I had to decide what to research by myself. Therefore since I joined, I checked many online journals in order to find it. A important think which I was thinking at the time was that it's is important to find research subjects which even younger master degree researcher could make research papers. What I was thinking at early age was to be able to research something about gravitational space or microscopic  world theoretically, but what I noticed when I grew up was that it would takes much time by following established theories from early 1900s and its subject is very interesting for everyone, so there are so many competitors in the world. I think that people can naturally think what is the space like, how big our univers is, what we can see at the edge of world, what is there if we can loop at microscopic world, and what microscopic materials consist of us. At the time when I chose research group for master degree, super string theory was famous to investigate extreme super microscopic world by thinking that one string consists of world. Depending vibration modes of string, string can be seen something different. I have tried to go over the theory, but it looks almost mathematics and there is no way to verify it because a facility with size of univers is said to be necessary. I gave up to go the direction immediately after realizing how difficult it is to be good at the domain and how much long time it takes to learn it. That's why I chose the condensed matter physics group because theoretical research results can be verified by experimental physicists relatively much easier than it is in the superstring theory.
Let me go back to the my research subject, I chose spin hall effect because I felt that this subject looked early stage to be researched theoretically and experimentally. This effect is generally saying that electronic spin can be controlled by electrical field. In our electrical devices, electron its self moving is playing important role to conduct current. In the spin hall effect, electron spin can play important role but it ideally doesn't consume power so it is really ideal devices in terms of industry inovation for low power world. This subject was very attractive in the future and I was thinking to go to PhD course but I changed my mind and gave up it after writing one paper because I gradually came to feel that working as a researcher is not appropriate job for me and I came to lose my interest for it. After all, I found a jobs in a semiconductor company. 

When I met him early November, it was good weather luckily even though it becomes rainy season. So I took him to Napa and San Francisco. On the way to Napa, we talked a lot while recalling past time and exchanged current situations each others and or our common friends. What I was surprised at was that he said to me that the subject which I was involved is becoming popular right now and it is expanding toward many domain. For example, some researchers work on it to organize mathematical foundation. Some researchers work on applying it to real devices. I was really glad to hear that because I can confirm that my intuitive selection was right at the time.

I should follow my intuition for future.

Wikipedia for superconductivity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconductivity

Any relationship between memory retention and alcohol ?

Is there any relationship between memory retention and alcohol ?
Recently, I'm thinking about this question internally, because I am feeling that I'm gradually losing memory retention of remember something when I compare it to my past memory retention when I was small. For example, It sometimes take a little bit longer time to recall names of restaurants which I do not go to recently.  

I'm suer that aging has impact on it. Generally, it is well known that production of human brain cells decrease after 20 years old, and its decrease is definitely relevant with less memory ability. 

But, how about alcohol ? 

I'm a heavy drinker of beer, so I'm concerning how alcohol affect human ability of remember something, memory retention. I have heard of news that alcohol certainly affect memory ability.

I have a shocking experience recently when I did a tramp game. One month ago, I went to Sausalito with my friend who was visiting the bay are, and I bought one set of tramp because it looks nice with the golden gate bridge picture on each of card and I did not have a tramp set. When I went back home, I asked my wife to play a tramp game together over beer. She agreed willingly because it was long time since last time of playing a tramp games because tramp games in japan are for teenager and children at home. After getting adult, people don't do this so often because adult people have a lot to enjoy other than tramp games. So we played concentration at first because I wanted to do and I had confidence of it because I used to be a strong gamer of it. After starting the game, I immediately realized that something was wrong because I could not make it. Specifically, I could not remember cards as much as I could used to do when I was small. This was really shock experience for me because I have confidence of not only concentration game but also remembering something.

I know a short term effect of alcohol impact on memory as I have experienced it so far when I drunk much. I don't know however a long term effect of it. 
Is what I experienced at the game a long term effect of losing memory ?

According to the new linked below, it seems to be verified scientifically that alcohol affect on impair of memory.

Do I need to try to drink beer less ?
Sure, I should do it in order to keep my memory ability because I feel once I lose memory ability, it would never come back.


Alcohol impact on the memory
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2223136/Two-glasses-wine-day-nearly-HALVE-number-brain-cells-produce.html

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_(game)

10,000 hours rule to become an expert

Have you ever heard of 10,000 hours rule ?

This seems to be key time generally to be able to be professional and successful in any field. 

I had never heard of it until I came to the U.S. At that time, I unfortunately had nothing much to do in the office even though I came here to do, and I had much time to do something after work. So I tried to read books which I had wanted to read since long time but I had not read due to lack of time. In order to find something interest books, I used to hang out in book stores daily and do web surfing to find them. A good point of bookstores is obviously that we can actually read books there whenever we want to read, but an issue of finding interesting books at bookstores is too many books there, and we usually can find best seller books which are usually recommended and arranged in a book shell by book store clerks, although your smart phone can help you find past bestsellers.

The easiest way to find them is to search bestseller lists in the web, for example, The New York Times. A great point of these lists is that bestseller books are generally categorized into specific field, for instance, politics,  business, self-improvement, science, heath, history, etc. At that time, I had interest in business and self-improvement books, so I did search by focusing on these topics, and happened to find a book, "Outliers".    

Truth be told, I haven`t read this book and I don`t know much about detail, but I have read about online reviews much and got the outline of this book which reminds me of my experience through my job. I would like to write about it. The book is about 10,000 hours rule, and an author, Malcolm Gladwell, have investigated that exceptional performance in any field comes both from generic heredity and heavy effort by interviewing famous athletes, entrepreneurs, and people who is doing well at their own field. Regarding this experimental rule, another person, Anders Ericsson, seems to propose same thing separately. Anders`s paper is available for free on line so it`s worth going through it once. I put the link at the bottom on the page.

Let`s look at 10,000 hours in other words. If you spend 3 hours per day, then 10,000 hours is going to be achieved by 10 years. If you spend 9 hours per day, it is going to be 3 years. "3 years" is very important to me because it makes sense from my experience. 

My job is analog circuit design in semiconductor industry. I can say that I was able to do the job better than other colleagues after 3 years since I began to learn the design. My major was pure theoretical physics when I was in a university both for bachelor and master degrees, so when I joined the company, I did not have background for the design and electrical engineering background. What I had at the time were basic behaviors of RCL (resistor, capacitor, inductor) with ohm law as well as electromagnetic knowledge in terms of pure physics. My company employs on-the-job training for new fresh employees. It is called OJT in short, and one senior is supposed to be assigned for one fresh employee for one year to teach whatever is necessary for doing jobs. Fortunately, I could work under one superior senior who is 2 years older than me, although he already left the company for personal reason. I did not have spoiled idea that my senior teaches me everything, and I had an idea that I tried to learn faster and contribute him and the company soon. In order to do them, I had studied the design whenever I had time and wherever it was. If I look back the past, I am sure that no other colleagues who joined the company at the same time had studied it harder than me. My senior was very kind, and he is very good at teaching intuitively and qualitatively with mathematical back ground. Consequently, I could feel growth almost every day. After one year passed, I kept studying harder because I felt that I still needed to learn a lot. Throughout job experiences and study, I could feel that I could do design well by myself before just 3 years passed. If I look back the past, I spent 9 hours averagely on it every day including weekends. This experience make me feel that 10,000 hours rule makes sense to me. I was very luck actually by surrounded by many respectful peoples, so my experience is owing to them much.

At last, let me tell you one thing. In Japan, there is one quote since long time ago which is strongly correlated with 10,000 hours rule. When I check it   on line Japanese to English dictionary, it gave me "Perseverance prevails". This does not make sense to me a little bit, so English does not seems to have direct translation of it. Let me give you example of the quote. If you begin to do something new, you have to keep doing it for 3 years patiently, then a result comes out. (3 years is necessary for you to keep doing it until a result with which you feel satisfied comes out)

Link to the paper
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/DeliberatePractice(PsychologicalReview).pdf

Autonomous car from Google will help many peoples.

California governor Jerry Brown signed lay about autonomous car on the state`s public roads for testing this revolutionary technology. This lay allows autonomous cars to run on the roads as long as licensed drivers are behind the wheel to be able to take over if needed. Google co-founder Sergey Brin told that we can count the number of the years on one hand until product version comes out in public. He has already contacted many auto companies to achieve this technology.

When I heard of this news, I felt that the technology is developing rapidly, but on the second though, I felt that this technology does not develop faster than peoples think. Regarding autonomous cars, many people have imagined, considered and anticipated it, so the concept itself have existed for long time. When we look back the 1980s, many people already imagined that we would have autonomous car and cars could fly in air. In the "Back to the future II" which was filmed in the1989, flying cars were depicted as common vehicles in 2015. Flying cars would not happen in 2015 as commercial products even with current technology, although it might be possible in military secret technology which does not come out in public yet.

I considered lists of what kinds of benefits and demerits we could have when the autonomous car comes true as commercial usages. It can definitely change many industries.

Benefits

• Peoples who have physical difficulties can travel further without being afraid of walking outside together with other peoples. For example, blind peoples does not have to walk much while fearing cars. For example, elderly peoples can go to hospitals without concerning driving a car, although elderly peoples might not be going to have to go to hospitals later thanks to developments of internet and health technologies.
• People can drink alcohol at restaurants without worrying about driving a car. It would contribute to food industry very much. 
• Peoples who are afraid of driving a car can go anywhere they want to go. They don`t have to worry about changing lanes etc. It`s my wife.
• People can travel much while sleeping in the car.
• It seems to be able to reduce numbers of car accidents. According to the news, car accidents usually happen because of human errors, but the Google autonomous car have run over 300,000 mls without any accidents.
• We can expect less transportation fee like taxi because there would not be divers in the car.
• This can create new business opportunities for auto inductry.

Demerits

• Many people who are involved in car transportation industry would lose their jobs to the technology. Autonomous technology is one step toward driverless car. Taxi and bus does not need drivers. This kind of story happened before at gas stations. As self service gas station increase, peoples working in gas stations decrease. 
• HWY patrol officers would lose their jobs because car accidents, DUI and over speed would expect to decrease.

Computers and technology can replace peoples. There situations have happened a lot so far when we look back the past. This is not unusual but usual and natural phenomena since industry revolution. For example in car industry, technology of robotics have replaced many peoples jobs. A important thing which I think is to accept the fact without denying it and to consider next potential industries which would benefit from technology developments, and move quickly.


Link

http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/autonomous-cars-google-receive-approval-california-gov-jerry-brown-article-1.1168509

One moment please this channel should be available shortly again ! and good service of a local center

My Comcast TV box was broken again !
Situation was exactly same with previous one.
This time, I was not irritated and did not fell anger because I am unfortunately used to this situation. Actually last time when I replaced my old box by new one, I wrote about its situation detail and process which I followed to exchange it at. Here is a link to the previous post of mine about it. Last time I called to the call center, but it was painful time for me because it took much time for identification as well as remote test to check weather the box was really broken or not. It was also because it took a few days to expect a mechanic to come to my apartment and replace it by new one. I was sick of this process even though it was not my fault. 

Therefore, I tried to follow advice which my colleague suggested to me before. He advised me to take it to a local service center because he has seen many people do that to replace their own box by new one. Today I had time to do that, and I thought that it would be  cumbersome but could be experience and a thing to talk about. When I checked where a local service center is, fortunately I found it near my apartment. It is the local service center at Sunnyvale. Before I visited there, I checked its reputation at Yelp, but it was not so good and everyone complains about its service : link.  It looked like to be going to be tough, but it was fine with me because I gave up high quality service here. When I visited there actually, I was very surprised to see many people holding their TV boxes. I realized soon that one of reason was lunch time and second reason was that Comcat planed to stop its analog TV service from October 1 and many people would come to replace own TV box which can deal with only analog signal by new one which can deal with digital signal. The size of the service center is, for example,  as same as Seven Eleven, and there are 7 or 8 service desks but only half of them were available at that time.  When I visited there, there were already 15 peoples ahead of me, and one lady was noting customer names by using tablet at the entrance. The tabled looks like connected to internal network, and customer names are send to a big monitor in order to show their name in their service order. When it comes to your order, your name will be displayed largely at the monitor, and service person in own desk will call your name loudly. I waited for around 15 minutes during which I was doing people-watching to see with what reason peoples came here, to check how service persons deal with customers, and I was thinking how to explain my situation about cable box. It was because I was thinking it would be tough negotiation and it would be obviously better to tell a person in charge clearly in order to make process go easier. A person in charge of my service was a lady, and she could understand my situation easily even though I just said "My cable box has not worked since one month ago and I can only see blue error code". She immediately said that she could replace it by new one without cumbersome identification and process which I had experienced before. Additionally, she checked my account information by looking at the number of TV box, and pointed out that I`m paying too much to the current service, and proposed me that I could upgrade TV service but expect $40 less. I was embarrassed to realize that I paid too much without knowing breakdown of price which I paid so far. I, of course, followed what she said. Finally I got new cable box soon, and it took only 10 minutes for process and 25 minutes totally including waiting time. My expectation started from bottom, so I was feeling comfortable very much even though the broken TV was not my fault. She gave me the easy instruction paper to activate new box kindly by highlighting activation code and online URL. I would like to thank her to make process easier. What I am regretting now is to forget to ask her name.

When I returned home, I connected cables to new one and tuned on it,  and make it ready for activation. I went to the link on the paper which I got from her, and enter my account number and cell phone number. When I clicked a bottom for activation, new cable box was turned off remotely, and remained turned off. The activation site told me that it would take 45 minute to complete activation. Around 45 minutes later, I turned on it actually and confirmed that it works well finally, and I could confirmed that new service (Channels) are available.

If you suffer from same situation for TV boxes and if local service centers are close, I recommend you to visit them. Many peoples say that service at local centers sucks, so I might just happen to be able to get very good service and it might be just lucky.