Taking the Nozomi Train to Fukuoka
Kyoto to Hakata Station, Japan: June 7, 2013

Time to go! With the conference over, we paused for a change of clothes in the conference center, and were off to catch the train!
Email to home:

Sent: Friday, June 07, 2013 7:46 PM
Subject: Pictures - Conference Week in Kyoto

Hello from Fukuoka!
We are in Fukuoka/Hakata for the weekend, and will be visiting the Kyushu University on Monday before we start heading back to Tokyo & Colorado.
We certainly miss our little fuzzerkin, and we’re sure she misses us (or at least Mike. I’m probably in trouble with Chloe for stealing her Mike away for a couple of weeks.)
The conference went very well. Mike chaired his session on Friday as well as presented his work. The announcement was also made during the closing ceremony
that the 2015 conference would be hosted in 2015 at Keystone (ski resort in the Rockies). The Colorado School of Mines will be very involved with the planning - Mike’s
advisor/now boss, Ryan, will be one of 3 main planners. (Ryan didn’t win the young Scientist award, but his friend William did.)
I have attached some pictures:

02June_InternationalConferenceCenter.jpg & InternationalConfCenter.jpg: These pictures are of the facility where the conference was held. Our hotel
was right across the street from the facility.

Stefan_Dan_Mike_atICC_03Jun2013.jpg: This picture is from the first of 3 poster sessions at the conference. There were 600 posters in addition to
the papers that were presented. They had 2 large rooms where they hung the posters, 100 per room for each of 3 nights.

03June_GroupDinner.jpg: After Monday’s poster session, Ryan’s team, William’s team, and Ryan’s PhD advisor all went to dinner at a small Japanese
restaurant. The concierge at our hotel was invaluable in this adventure - Mike went running in there during the poster session asking where we could get
reservations for 20 for dinner about an hour later. They found an awesome little place where we had lots of good food! (including homemade Japanese pizza)

Banquet pics: Wednesday evening, the conference hosted a banquet event at the Kyoto Westin hotel. They had harp players as well as Geiko and Meko dancers. I have video!

Yamazaki distillery: Thursday afternoon, we went to the Yamazaki whiskey distillery. We were not able to et a tour, but we enjoyed wandering the grounds, seeing
their history museum and whiskey library, as well as tasting some of their whiskies that are not available in the U.S. Two of the pictures I attached are from the Whiskey Library.

kari sue

First, some lunch. We weren't expecting much from station food, but Pasta More was really quite tasty! ...even if the doorway was a little small for Mike.

The train -power! More Power! Well, that should probably do it:

We're going to be spending a few days in Fukuoka, right down the street from Hakata Station. So, it's time to remember
our lesson learned and study the characters. The characters for Hakata Station are right above the word...
I think of them as a cross with a little alien dude in a hat, followed by two swooshy A's. ok, done.

All aboard!

Cruisin!

We loved the Coke canteen so much that we kept it.