On the last day of the workshop at castle Dagstuhl, the participants had time to make a group picture. This is a small tradition at the castle…
Here is the picture of the participants for the workshop about “Modeling Techniques for Computer Network Simulation”
I guess you can find me quiet easily on the picture… (click on the picture, if you want it in original size)
Lots of great researchers on the picture, I hope that I will be able to follow their lead.
Ein kleiner Linkverweis auf Tabibito’s Blog…
Nimmt man besser English oder Japanisch um Japanische Kinder darauf hinzuweisen, etwas sein zu lassen… 
Tabibito’s Blog Entry
I just read that the famous Ling Ling (the last panda in a Japanese zoo) has died last week. He was pretty old… so I guess it was time for him.
So what is Japan going to do now??? Import some panda bears from China???
I never went to Ueno zoo, but I guess the visitors (and of course the kids) will miss the panda.
We had a nice “verlängertes Wochenende” (longer weekend) in Germany, thanks to Pfingsten Holidays. The weather was really nice, lots of sunshine. It was the perfect time to do laundry 
I also met some friends at the weekend, we went for billiard and barbecue. The total number of barbecues per week are increasing lately… from zero in March to 2-3 per week now! And we discovered the sweetness of marshmallows… they are almost completely made out of sugar. I guess that’s the main reason why I like them…
I also discovered that the supermarkets (konbinis) around the city center are beginning to offer “fresh” sushi. So now I have the chance to go to the sushi bar or to a supermarket to get some sushi. And I found some nice Udon and Ramen restaurants in Berlin, which I have to try out.
A nice surprise last week was the arrival of another care-packet from Japan. In my last weeks at work, I packed over 10 small packets (postage fee was so small for small packets) back to Germany, with lot’s of instant food and other small things from the 100 Yen store and Tokyo shopping trips. Almost all packets have arrived until now, I just miss one single packet with some small gifts for my mum… and two packets of miso soup
I hope that the miso soup will survive the summer in the cupboard, because now it is just too hot to eat/drink warm miso. But autumn is coming sooner or later, then it’s miso time again!
In this summer semester, I am holding a lecture on the topic of “Network Simulation”.
After some initial delay, I am getting along better with the work… the exercises for the students are going to be published on the day of the lecture, the next exercise is already progressing… well it seems like I finally will find some time to start thinking about my master thesis.
Plan is to finish the proposal this week, so that I can “negotiate” with my professor about the contents (how much things should be included) as soon as possible. And then I should get going… time is running out!!!
(BTW: I haven’t forgot to write the last articles about my Japan trip… I just haven’t found any motivation sadly 
)
The last couple of days were Golden Week Holidays in Japan.
Golden Week is the first week of May, where several Japanese holidays occur during this first week. This is also one of the main times for Japanese to go somewhere for holidays. This leads of course to packed highways, full air planes and so on… and of course to this interesting side effect that Tokyo is (once in a while) really empty.
So I hope that all of my Japanese friends and contacts, who stayed home for Golden Week have a nice and good time back in Tokyo and Saitama!!! Now is probably the best time to get out for a nice walk thorugh some parts of Tokyo. Wish you all the best…
For those of you who aren’t staying in Japan… here are some information about Ōgata renkyū (Golden Week Wikipedia Article)
