I came back home from Tokyo in the morning. The plane was relatively full for a flight departing in the morning on Sunday. The weather back home was superb. My wife picked up me at the airport to take an excursion together. I drove our car to one of the hills nearby. We expected leaves to turn red, but it was still early to appreciate the seasonal beauty in the forest. We took our lunch on the hilltop. Quiet and lovely sunshine.

It may take another few weeks till these forests turn red

dragonflies were everywhere

I went to Tokyo to attend a seminar with students. I was a bit tired just back from Osaka and was not particularly willing to take part in the seminar. I was however refreshed once I had eaten three pieces of fried shrimps for my lunch. Shrimps are popular in my hometown and are one of my favorite foods. I was saved by shrimps.

The seminar went well. We popped in to a Korean pub for a drink and light foods. They served very nice meals although I could not eat lots of them due to my condition. It was quite a while since I had seen these students, whose ages are almost the same as mine. I was mildly shocked to learn that one of them was forced to leave his job and another one might take an early retirement. Japanese companies, once mighty strong, are now facing problems, competing with companies overseas. I realized I had to think seriously _now_ how to live when I am retired.

The korean pub served nice foods with an acceptable drink for me. For our surprise, the waitress was from Myanmar.

We had a meeting in Osaka university. We visited a primary school in Oita prefecture the previous day. We reflected on things occurred there and discussed what to do next. The meeting was fruitful.

I came back home on train. I had to go to the airport to pick up my car. Evening was approaching. I feel relaxed these days when I drive through in the middle of field.

eh.. I bought a compact disc. The disc was produced by an artist called Kishi Bashi. I enjoyed listening to his music very much. The disk localized to Japan contains a lovely tune in the last, which I recommend for a moment of relaxation. Cute, it is. (http://kishibashi.bandcamp.com/music)

Back Home. Driving in the middle of field. Feel relaxed.

We got up early in an inn. It is a pleasant, small hotel, by a river, in the area where hot springs are available. We had to leave there as early as possible because our class started around 8:30 in the morning.

Schoolchildren arrived from two other schools for the class. The school itself was small with only eighteen students, of whom two are in the 6th grade and another two in the 5th grade. Other 33 students came over from other areas. They are barely functional as an institution with few population.

Kids were open to new experiences and soon learnt to use telenoids as medium. They were obviously exited with the fancy robot. We too had an important encounter with those students and their teachers as well. They were all curious to know why it was developed and what we were investigating with it. The dancer, Mr. Jareo, was insightful as usual and sparked the inspiration within those schoolchildren with his feat.

We were tired when finished it, but more than happy to see those schoolchildren leave with something learnt in an unusual environment we had set up. Thank you, children and people at the school.

a first encounter with telenoid

Mr. Jareo, the dancer, shows students how to animate the telenoid

The schoolchildren were all very quick in learning to contact with the robot

The other group concluded their session with dancing

They have learnt to communicate with each other through telenoid very quickly

I walked around the school while waiting the team to pack up the luggage. There was a shinto shrine on the hill in front of the school. The hill was occupied by one of the earliest emperors in Japan, who came to conquer a local tribe. It occurred more than 1,500 years ago.

Children from other schools went back after they have eaten the lunch together.

We took a flight to Kumamoto Airport to drive to a small village, which is about 70km away. We were a group of seven, who are from different institutions. We brought into several telenoids, a humanoid, into classrooms for schoolchildren to learn to use it as a medium.

The weather was not particularly nice due to a typhoon, but we were lucky as our flights could land on the airport despite the fact that we were warned that they might land on some other airport to avoid the bad weather, which is more than 100km away. I was a bit tired when reached the primary school, having through the long, winding road in the mountainous area. People at the school welcomed us with a cup of tea accompanied with some beautiful local sweets. It was very quite place and seemed to be less populated than our place.

Our colleagues were busy preparing for the class next day.