A Troy in Tokyo

The summer holidays are almost at an end (though these ones have been so busy and insanely hot the word 'holiday' doesn't quite seem to fit), I've moved into my new dormitory, my internet connection is almost sorted (it's taken close to three weeks to get internet into my room - my mobile data has taken an absolute hammering!), and I am getting to grips (again) with my research. All has been going pretty well, albeit at a great rate of knots; there is no rest for the wicked it seems! On Saturday morning I woke up with a bit of a sore throat and a headache, for which I took some painkillers, and then went to work. Over the course of the day I got more and more fatigued, snoozing between lessons and generally feeling a bit sorry for myself. Getting back to my room that evening I went to be early, because on Sunday it was an early start for myself and a few friends (Fiodar, Viktor and Vindu), as we headed west to climb (another) mountain! This time it wasn'

Hello again! Been a busy couple of days with lessons, so much so that I haven't had any windows of opportunity to get in this third blog - until now! In Japanese universities, it is common to go on a study trip, know as 'gasshuku' during the Summer holiday, as an opportunity to learn about something new and bond with your fellow students and professor. In the typical Japanese hierarchical system, several months ago the M1 (Masters first year) students, myself included, were asked to come up with proposals for where we should go, what we would see, what the merit of this would be, and our accommodations. Naturally, wanting to see as much of the country as possible, and visit prefectures I have not been to yet, I came up with week long adventures to far flung places - these were promptly shot down as too expensive and logistically challenging (in fairness though the extent of my instructions were to come up with a proposal for our trip, with no limitations on price, time, o