On December 16th, I went for a business trip to Nagoya Institute of Technology to see my friend Satoshi and attend the seminar of Yamauchi from the Tokyo University. Then, on December 18th, a former student from Hirata's group, Hatanaka, came to visit us in Toyama.

I departed from Toyama by the high-speed bus at 10:20 am to arrive at 14:30 at Nagoya station. It was a very long trip, but I had the chance to see some beautiful snowy mountains at Hirugano Highland. When I arrived at Nagoya station, Satoshi picked me up. Next, Yamauchi arrived around 3:00 pm at Nagoya station.

I had a very interesting discussion on the Kernel method with Yamauchi, which is used in machine learning. I've learned a lot and I recommend you purchase the book of Prof. Michio Seto, Prof. Ibuki, Prof. Hatanaka, and Yamauchi, who was co-author to develop the Python codes. More details here.

I also had a look at the drone environment at the Nagoya Tech developed by Satoshi's group. Very impressive with quite high-end 3D printers and CNC machines.

After our closed group discussion, we headed to the lecture room, where Yamauchi gave his seminar about the Kernel method.

Prof. Nakashima from Nanzan University and Fujita, 1st year PhD at Nagoya University, joined the seminar and went out with us to have dinner afterwards.

The next day, Yamauchi and Satoshi proposed me to visit some nice places in Sakae. By the way, Yamauchi's hometown is Nagoya! There was a nice performance at the Nagoya castle, where the main character was Kato Kiyomasa.

Afterwards, I went eat some oyakodon with chicken from Nagoya for lunch and returned back home at 2:10 pm to arrive around 6:00 pm at Toyama. It was a very nice trip where I've learned quite new things about the Kernel method.

Hatanaka, a former member of Hirata's group, came to visit us in Toyama. I went for lunch with Hatanaka, Morikita, and Miwa and eat some great soba. Please come visit us again anytime soon!