Journeys for Knowledge

The next day our real journey began. Already having enough trouble with the altitude of Leh (3500m), we journeyed higher along the Khardung La pass, rising up to over 5300m before coming back down the other side of the mountain. The pass was fraught was rocks and breaks in the road from landslides, to the point where a two lane road became a one lane plus boulder road. The journey back down the pass was no different, until we finally reached our first town and resumed smooth travels on proper roads.

These roads are regularly washed away by ice and landslides, yet also constantly maintained by the military to allow supplies to reach troops stationed along the nation’s northeastern borders with Pakistan and China. We ended up driving alongside the Shyok river, visiting settlements along the Nubra valley. Once such settlement actually had sand dunes, and to my surprise Bactrian camels. Of course we took a short ride on the camels, whose fluffy hair was far more comforting than their Arabian cousins, before settling for the night at the base of the valley. The dim lights and clear sky made it perfect for star gazing, and the moon’s light filled the valley with an ethereal glow.

After returning to Delhi from Tijara, my family took off for our real vacation, a journey through Ladakh. Our port of call was the local capital of Leh, a city tucked away in the mountain not unlike our ancestral home of Srinagar (although, a lot drier). Leh and its surrounding regions are home to many Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, representing the predominant religion of the area. Although the windswept arid mountains surrounded us from all sides, the temples hid within colorful displays of devotion and meditation, all in the service of their dedication to enlightenment.

Apart from the mountains, deep turquoise rivers of glacial water swept through the valley, feeding the hundreds of people who live along the banks and the valley of Leh. Down in the town, it was hard to understand just tucked away Leh was. A visit to the Japanese funded Shanti Stupa revealed an eye-opening view of Leh, its protecting mountains, and a prelude of the mountainous journey that we had only just begun.

This begins a series of posts chronicling my brief trip to India this year. The trip began was a family vacation to Tijara Fort Palace, which rises above the hills of Rajasthan. Now remodeled into a hotel, the fort set the scene for a family reunion almost 9 years in the making. As we caught up with each other and enjoyed the stunning views, I tried exploring as much of the fort as I could, finding places under repair or simply hidden from public view. For once it was nice to have a vacation where we actually did not go anywhere, but simply rested and relaxed in the sun. We focused on each other, rather than a continuous series of new surroundings, and by the end of the stay felt renewed in our familial bonds.

Okinawa is known for having beautiful scenic vista along its many capes, chief of which is Cape Hedo, the northern most point of the island. Although it is almost a 2 hour drive from my home, the parking lot there provided a convenient base to set up my camera for sunset and night time photography. Out there, light pollution is almost non-existent, leading to stunning views of the Milky Way and accompanying stars.

Unfortunately, capturing these sights is not as simple as pointing a camera and taking a picture, and my initial attempts were only marginally successful. However with new equipment and more experience I will come back and do these night skies justice.

Over the next week I will be publishing a series of posts to recap some major events from the past year, backdating them to the correct dates. I apologize for such a long lapse, and can only give the workload on my PhD and general forgetfulness as my excuse. Nevertheless, I shall carry forward with the blog on a more regular schedule, as the end of my PhD nears.

So to start, back in March of 2017 I finally made it out to Osaka for the first time. I had been to Tokyo so many times, so I was excited to try jumping into a new city again and get the lay of the land. One of the biggest landmarks in Osaka is the aptly named Osaka Castle, standing tall in the center of the city. As per my luck, I had arrived just before the cherry blossoms bloomed, but even the buds were impressively on display in the city. The castle itself was closed off but the complex around it gave multiple paths to explore. Even on a cloudy day such as this, the cherry blossoms stood out, and the castle stood tall.

Something I feel many of us take for granted is how we interact with our electronic devices. Most of us have used our smartphones with touchscreens, but perhaps more commonly interacted with our computers with keyboards, in the standard QWERTY format we all grew up with. It was not until recently that I began to reconsider whether there was a better way to interface with my computer, which led to me to the Atreus layout (detailed here).

Here the basic keyboard is split into two sections and rotated outward, to more naturally align with the angles of our arms while typing. Of course rather than just buy a keyboard with this shape, which do exist, I thought it would be more fun to build it myself, assembling the pieces over several months and finally completing it over the winter break. I started by laser cutting the case pieces from wood, and painting then in a black lacquer to protect them from the elements. Next, the PCB needed to have diodes and key-switches soldered to them before it could be mounted onto the key plate.

To dampen the sound of the keys, I added rubber orings and a foam layer to absorb the sound under the PCB. To finally seal it all up I also had to 3D print a spacer to match the foam layer. With this final assembly, it was time to program the microcontroller to create an operational keyboard. One of the more common firmwares used for hobbyist keyboards like this is QMK, which allowed me to customize the key layout to my liking. Having fit most of the main keys I needed on the main layer, all that remained was testing out the keyboard, which proved to be quite difficult. Even though the layout is still QWERTY, just having the split forcing me to types certain keys with certain hands was quite tricky. With the help of my friend, we also constructed a soft case for the keyboard, allowing me to carry this new device on my travels, ensuring comfortable typing at all times.

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Some of the greatest sights in our lives can come from just setting out your front door at the right time. Few sights can command as much  presence as the sun and moon, which both decided to illuminate Okinawa in very special ways recently. As I am living on the west side of the island, sunrises are rather dull with the mountain blocking the horizon, but sunsets are absolutely amazing. Having a spare bit of time one day, I drove down to the beach to catch the sun as it lowered beyond the horizon. I was amusingly not alone in this, as several locals joined in to capture the particularly brilliant flaming sunset.

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Some of you may remember that recently the moon was passing closer to the Earth, a so-called supermoon. After hearing about this I wondered, what does a moonset look like? With some light sleep and a 5 AM departure my roommate and I returned to the beach to capture the supermoon in all of its glory. However, beyond the moon’s own brilliance slowly creeped the beginning of dawn, which quickly overwhelmed the sky. Seeing this transition from darkness to morning was a wonderfully unique experience, bringing my understanding of the day full circle.

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Coming back to Gundam models, I present the latest of my creation, known as the Astray Blue Frame Second Revise. If this model seems quite similar to another model I completed recently, you would be correct. The Blue Frame shares the same basic design as the Red Frame I built last month, but with some different equipment and a different color palette. However this was a model I had been wanting to build for some time, due mostly to the massive sword it comes equipped with. In addition, this was the first model in 1/100 scale I had built since I made Exia two years ago. Most models come in 1/144 scale, which makes building them a very precision heavy process. Moving up in scale was such a relief, but also brought additional complexity. The next few models in my queue will offer similar challenges, but with my qualifying exam a month away, I do not know if I will have to start anything before the winter.

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September is always an enjoyable month in Japan, due to the wealth of holidays that make up the latter half of the month. Seizing this opportunity, I returned to Tokyo to see my old friend Miranda again, as we explored the port city of Yokohama just outside Tokyo. The main harbor was rather peaceful on this Saturday morning, with locals walking about and a rather amusing yoga demonstration in the center of the nearby park. The summer heat was still beating down, and even the birds needed a refreshing dip in shallow water to cool off.

Yokohama is known for its cosmopolitan atmosphere, which became apparent after visiting the red brick warehouse further along the coast. In buildings that hearkened back to the Meiji Restoration, tourists of all sorts were exploring the various crafts and cuisines being peddled, with even more vendors just outside. All the while a jazz festival was taking place at the edge of the pier, with the music so loud everyone could enjoy it. Although we had to return shortly after that, this brief look into Yokohama showed a very laid back and friendly city, compared to the hustling and bustling metropolis that is Tokyo.

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After a long busy summer, I finally submitted my thesis proposal, setting the next phase of my thesis in motion. With the proposal submitted, I need only to await my oral exam to officially start my PhD research. Until that time, I decided to take things easy and enjoy myself, embarking on a hike up Katsuu Dake this weekend. The weather was quite warm and sunny this weekend, so it seemed like a good time to go outside. As fortune would have it, a slight chance of rain turned into an absolute certainty, though I did not know it at the time.

The path up the mountain was quite steep, far steeper than I was led to believe. Most of this climb came from rocks which provided quick shortcuts up the mountain, at least for someone of my height. Within half an hour I had reach the peak of 414 meters, greeted by a wondrous view of Nago and Cape Zanpa to the south. That was when I glanced north and noticed the swiftly approaching rain cloud. Within seconds was upon me, rapidly escalating from light drizzle to pouring rain. Instead of running back down, I decided to wait out the storm and mists until I was sure it had passed. Several minutes later, a heavy mist following the cloud enveloped the mountain, with the sun breaking through overhead. Confident that the rain was gone for good, I headed back down the mountain.

Unfortunately, those rocks that had been such an easy boost up the mountain were now wet from the rain, making them a serious hazard while climbing down. I had several close calls slipping on the rocks, but luckily a nearby tree or ledge was always there to help keep me going. Surprisingly I came down the mountain faster than I climbed, despite being extra careful around the rocks. While this excursion was not the light jaunt I was expecting, it proved to be an exhilarating trek through the elements and back down to civilization.

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