E=awesomeness

I had to go to Gifu City yesterday for a conference. Usually I don't like going to Gifu, especially when I have to take a train that leaves Takayama at 650 in the morning in order to make it on time. There's not much there that I am interested in doing, it's usually hotter and more humid (in summer) than Takayama, and it takes over 2 hours to get there by train. Plus, if I go for work it means I have to sit in meetings all day, and yesterday was no exception. I would have much preferred to stay in Takayama and go to school ^^ ha ha ha ha, I'd rather be at school than travelling to a city. Oh, how times have changed!

After the conference I chose to come back with some other ALTs on the 615 train. Usually when we take this particular train, we end up standing in the back of the car as the non-reserved seats are all taken by people in Nagoya. Last night, however, we got lucky. There were just enough open seats!

I was pretty tired after having to get up so early, then sitting in meetings all day, so I planned to just plug in the iPod and go to sleep. Shortly after we all sat down the man next to me turned to me, pointed at the ALT in front of me, and asked "is he your husband? if you want to sit together I can exchange seats with him." I just laughed and told him that we were just co-workers and it was fine. I put on the iPod and prepared to pass out.

And then a thought struck me. Hey! He spoke pretty good English. And I had noticed when I sat down that he seemed to be reading some kind of technical paper. Whatever it was it was full of mathematical equations involving integral signs. Something like this:

which I totally stole from the wikipedia article on path integral formulation. This particular equation came from the section on the Schrödinger Equation.

But enough geekery. I glanced over at the paper he was reading again, and I noticed it was written in English. He was reading a paper about something very math-ey, in English! Intrigued, I had to ask him about it.

me: wow! you're reading about math in English!
man: yes, it's a paper about theoretical physics
me: *glances to the top of the paper*
paper: *quantum mechanical theory.....*
me: oh! are you a student?
man: no, I must write some questions for a test so I am trying to get some ideas.
me: so you're a teacher then?
man: yes. I'm trying to make the questions difficult, but no TOO difficult.
me: wow, that sounds, well, difficult :D
man: yes, these days there are so many students who attend university. I think many more than in the past, because they don't want to start working yet ^^ (ha ha)
me: really?
man: yes! and a lot of them want to go to graduate school to keep avoiding starting work [*wink wink, nudge nudge*]. so I must write a good test to find out who REALLY wants to study and who's just avoiding work. Especially in this subject, because it is very difficult to find work in this field. There aren't many positions open for theoretical physicists.
me: O.O

Turns out he's a professor of theoretical physics for a university in Tokyo. He's originally from a town near Takayama, went to high school at Takayama's best public school, then university in Kyoto. He was returning for his nephew's wedding, but he had to give a lecture that day so he had to take the train all the way from Tokyo, via Nagoya, instead of the (much more direct) bus.

I was curious, so I asked him if the textbooks Japanese theoretical physics students study are in English, and he said that for undergraduate students it's all in Japanese. But if they go to graduate school they also must learn English because many of the papers they will have to read about the subject are written in English. Also sometimes French, German, or Russian, but mostly English. And then if they do a PhD, their dissertation must be written in English.

!! Can you imagine? Doing something that difficult in a foreign language. It really makes me appreciate much more how lucky those of us who speak English as our native language are. I mean, sure, I can have a simple conversation about inconsequential things in Japanese (hey! it's pretty hot today isn't it? is this an apple? can I sit here?) but I can't ever imagine doing something like differential equations. Heck, I can hardly explain why I hate eating shishamo so much, ha ha ha

We chatted a little about his work, and then moved on to much more important discussions. Like our mutual dislike of natto


We talked non-stop for the entire ride home. About food, teaching English, my lack of scientific anything since I've moved here, how he lived in France, how he met his wife, how we both like motorcycles. He teased me for wearing my Ducati sweatshirt, when my name so closely resembles another famous motorcycle brand ^^

In the end, I was really disappointed the train ride wasn't longer. That was a pretty damn awesome conversation! And who would have thought? There I was, ready to just pass out and ignore the guy next to me. If it hadn't been for the integrals, something I hated doing in college, by the way, I might never have met such an interesting person d(^_^)b

I never thought I'd say it, but thank you, Isaac Newton.