This weekend I had a chance to visit my good friend Paul Hays up in the Sanda area of Kansai (think Kobe-north); he teaches media and policy studies at Kwansei Gakuin University. I got a chance to visit and participate in his seminar on Ambient Findabilty (a book that coincidentally has a reference to one of my confluences). One student was in charge of one of the chapters and led the discussion which was held in Japanese and English.
The campus is beautiful. The relatively new buildings have that Mediterranean feel and the well-manicured lawns have, how can I describe them?, “Stay off the grass!” signs. Built during the bubble years, the campus is a little out of the way and a bit hard to get to. The train line stops about 6 km. away and one needs to catch a bus the rest of the way. I understand that, for some, it can be quite a commute, but then I have at least one student commuting from Fukuoka. I guess it’s all relative.
