Little update on my blog! Sorry, I was quite busy lately with all my business trips, project applications, and lecture preparations...

This month (September), the University of Toyama had two business trips in Kokura (Kitakyushu) and Tokyo. Let's start with our business trip to Kokura!

September 12th
The accompanying group from the University of Toyama was composed of Prof. Hirata, Kitajima, Morikita, and Miwa. Unfortunately, Kajiwara couldn't join us as he was in California. This time, I went on my own by Shinkansen early in the morning at 8:31 am to arrive around 1:40 pm. For lunch I just ate a little onigiri as I was looking forward to eating a good meal in the evening with Prof. Hirata, Prof. Hatanaka, Mengmou, and Tanaka. No need to say that I was extremely hungry😂.

However, I was quite free until dinner, so I went for a walk in Kokura. The sun was shining and I was walking under my umbrella to not get sunburned. Usually I don't plan my walks and just go as the wind brings me to. I first went to the "Nihon Fukei Kaidou Tokiwa Bashi". It was quite an old bridge, but it was very romantic.

Next, I went to the Castle of Kokura. Very nice, peaceful, and calm.

After my lonely walk around Kokura, I decided to go check in at the Apa hotel, which is Prof. Hirata's and my favorite hotel 😜!

Next, we had to gather at Kokura station with Prof. Hatanaka, Prof. Hirata, Mengmou, and Tanaka to go to a fish restaurant. Mengmou was a new encounter and is now affiliated with the Tokyo Institute of Technology as a postdoc. Finally, I could eat yummy food!

September 13th
We had our discussion meeting close to the Kokura station, where Wasa-san could join us. His students couldn't join the meeting this time. Very interesting discussions we had about optimization using sampled data. Mengmou could establish the necessary conditions to prove the convexity of the cost function. He also introduced a sort of slack variable in the optimization problem to propose a stochastic gradient descent method.

Next, we went for a little trip to Jouno to get a feeling of what a city with the prospect of zero CO2 emission looks like. We got introduced to this new smart city by Prof. Ushifusa from the University of Kitakyushu. It really looked futuristic!

Afterwards, we went back to Kokura and had dinner with everybody. I could meet Prof. Namerikawa from the Keio University. It was a very memorable night.

September 14th
The last day we went our way back home. Before going home, coincidentally, I've met with Miwa and Morikita on my way to my hotel to check out. Then they kindly invited me to visit the manga museum of Kokura close to the station.

Here, I'm sorry I haven't taken any pictures. I was so happy to go back to Tokyo Tech (I've spent 8 months there as a PhD student). But I will briefly describe how was my trip.

September 25th
I departed from Toyama quite early (9:08 am) to arrive around 11:20 am. I went to Ikebukuro to see an old friend from Keio University.

Next, I went to Musashikosugi, where I met with Miwa and Morikita. This time, Prof. Hirata, Miwa, Morikita, and Kitajima were staying at the same hotel (Seiyouken). Then Prof. Hatanaka and Mengmou joined us for dinner at a really nice Izakaya. Tanaka was late because he thought that the dinner was tomorrow... 🤦

September 26th
We had a nice presentation from Funada (now assistant professor at Tokyo Tech) and Prof. Hatanaka. I've met with Funada during my stay at the Tokyo Tech. What a small world! We talked a lot about swarm control and drones. I was so amazed by the experimental environment that I forgot to take pictures...

Here ends our business trip story. Lots of fun and so many unforgettable memories!