Dr. Gabriel Robins
Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science
School of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Virginia

www.cs.virginia.edu/robins
Email: GabeRobins@gmail.com
Phone: (434) 249-0809
Gabe's Vitae / Resume (NIH Biosketch)

Mailing address:
P.O. Box 6189
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6189

Gabe's Trip to Japan, January 2000

  1. Denny's, Japanese style!

  2. Having breakfast at Denney's

  5. View inside Japanese Denny's

  6. A Japanese toilet - hmmmm!

  7. Cheryl hard at work shopping.

  9. Another good shopping spree!

  10. Checking out the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo.

  12. Street scene in Ginza, Tokyo

  13. Street scene in Ginza, Tokyo

  15. Cheryl experiencing sticker-shock when she realizes that the cantelopes cost 120 dollars each!

  16. Yes, here is a closeup of a 120-dollar cantelope (one dollar = 100 Yen). But you gotta admit though - it a reeeeeally nice cantelope!

  17. If you think that cantelope wasn't a bargain then here is a much better deal: grapes for only 70 dollars per bunch!

  18. And now these 12-dollar oranges seem like a steal! And the little wrapper blanky comes free - what a deal!

  19. View of the Tokyo Disneyland from the Tokyo Bay Hilton, Chiba, Tokyo.

  20. Closer view of the Tokyo Disneyland from the Tokyo Bay Hilton.

  21. Space Mountain at the Tokyo Disneyland.

  24. Another view from our hotel room: the Tokyo Disneyland monorail being built.

  25. Yokohama Bay bridge (near Tokyo), as seen from our hotel window.

  26. More views from our Yokohama hotel room.

  29. The concluding slide from Dave Liu's ASP-DAC talk

    30. .

  30. Dave Liu is President of Tsing-Hua University, the best higher-education school in Taiwan.

  33. Gabe with his buddy Dave Liu.

  34. Another of Gabe' colleagues, having a bad hair day!

  35. The Yokohama Grand Hotel, where we stayed.

  40. Giant ferris wheel in Yokohama (God, its Big!)

  41. Its good to see some familiar food!

  42. Cheryl found a yummy lunch!

  43. What a deal - and seaweed-free, too!

  44. Cheryl enjoying her baked potato!

  47. Japanese Starbucks!

  49. Cheryl getting coffee at a Japanese Starbucks.

  50. Our hotel at Yokohama Bay, as seen from the 70th floor of the Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan.

  51. Yokohama Bay, viewed from the top of the Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan.

  53. Giant ferris wheel in Yokohama, as seen from the 70th floor of the tallest building in Japan.

  54. More views from the Landmark Tower.

  55. A view from the observation deck of the Landmark Tower.

  56. A view from the observation deck of the Landmark Tower.

  57. A view from the observation deck of the Landmark Tower.

  58. A view from the observation deck of the Landmark Tower.

  59. A view from the observation deck of the Landmark Tower.

  60. A view from the observation deck of the Landmark Tower.

  61. A view from the observation deck of the Landmark Tower. Lots of tall buildings have heliports on their roofs.

  73. Cheryl relaxing after a hard day of leisure!

  89. "Herman Munster" shoes seem to be very popular with teenage Japanase girls!

  92. Nightcap with Dave Liu, President of Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan.

  94. Dave Liu telling the Timbuktu joke!

  97. Cheryl with the Landmark Tower, Japan's tallest building, in the background.

  99. Cheryl enjoying a Japanese breakfast!

  106. View from our table at the breakfast restaurant, located on the 48th floor of the Tokyo Grant Hyatt.

  107. A zoom view from our breakfast restaurant table.

  108. And here comes the bill for that breakfast: 95 dollars for two people - gulp!

  109. Kinda makes you appreciate U.S. prices! (the exchange rate at the time was 100 yen per dollar)

  110. What the heck - it was a good breakfast though!

  112. Self-portrait - I love that zoom-lens!

  113. Honey Japanese Style, straight from the tap! (note the actual beehive the that honey is dripping from into a serving bowl)

  116. One of the atrium restaurants of the Tokyo Grand Hyatt, this one located on the 47th floor.

  118. The atrium ceiling.

  120. Window washer on the 47th floor scaling the slanted glass atrium roof - not a job for the squeamish!

  121. Views from our hotel atrium.

  127. Dessert buffet at the Tokyo Grand Hyatt - the Japanese have increadible presentations!

  133. Our home-away-from-home, the Tokyo Grant Hyatt - our room was on the 52th floor, near the top of the building.

  136. The Tokyo Grant Hyatt, as seen from down the street.

  137. The Grant Hyatt, as seen from even further down the street in the Shinjuku district, Tokyo.

  138. Street scene in Shinjuku, Tokyo

  140. Guess what this restaurant is?

  141. Cheryl finds her favorite restaurant again!

  142. Cheryl's thoughts on raw seafood, Wendy's or not!

  145. Cheryl checking out some Japanese furniture for sale.

  149. "Do they deliver to Wintergreen?"

  151. A gauntlet of salesmen ready to help you at the entrance to a Japanese Department store - what service!

  153. An odd building in downtown Tokyo, where real estate prices are the highest in the world (about 100 million dollars per acre!) This building is 12 stories high, but is so narrow that it has only one room per floor, and the staircase is on the outside!

  158. The Takashimaya shopping mall has 14 floors of retail shops!

  161. A japanese "fruit parlor" at the Takashimaya shopping center.

  162. Again, "presentation" is everything!

  163. Cheryl enjoying a half-cup of freshly squeezed apple juice.

  164. Hmmm - it yummy!

  165. And here comes the bill for that apple juice: 17 dollars - it was pretty good apple juice though! Checking out the Japanese prices is an endless source of amusement!

  166. A closer look at the apple juice bill, just to make sure its real. The laugh alone was worth the money!

  167. So we figured for that kind of price we're entitled to photograph the person who served us, despite her polite objection!

  170. Sunrise in our Tokyo Grand Hyatt corner room.

  171. Views of downtown Tokyo from our room.

  173. Amazingly, in Tokyo most streets have no names!

  179. Cheryl enjoying the Land of the Rising Sun!

  187. I'm having an artistic moment...

  197. Mount Fuji at sunset, as seen from our hotel room at the Tokyo Grant Hyatt

    198. .

  201. View from a room: Mount Fuji at sunset over Tokyo.

  203. I wanna be an artist!

  205. Our bath tub has a nice view!

  207. Marble and glass all the way around - nice joint!

  208. A separate glass shower; hmmm, maybe this room is worth 600 dollars per day after all!

  209. A high-tech toilet!

  210. Lets see, is it number 1 or number 2?

  211. The kimonos come with the room - nice touch!

  213. "Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting!"

  214. Here we are on the plane over the Pacific ocean.

  216. On the way to Japan, we stopped in San Francisco for a few days - here is the home of Al Capone.

  217. Nice place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there.

  222. A quick stop at a camera shop on our way to Japan, to outfit my digital camera with a wide-angle zoom lens - a Sony, of course.

  227. A WWII submarine, moored at San Francisco Bay.

  228. Cheryl enjoying Ghirardelli Square, where they make that world-famous chocolate!

  229. Yummy, isn't it? And the chocolate machine isn't bad either...

  230. Cheryl going for it!

  232. Cheryl checking out the "Cover me in chocolate and call me dessert" T-shirt.

  233. Checking out the goods!

  236. Hmmmmm...

  237. Yes - definitely yummy!

  238. Sigh - time to move on to the next leisure activity...

  245. At the Golden Gate bridge.

  246. Overlooking San Francisco.

  249. One of Gabe's friends, now a high-powered Bay-area lawyer.

  251. At Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco Bay

  260. Sea lions near the shore of the San Francisco Bay.

  266. God, there's a lot of them!

  269. What a way to make a living!

  273. Actually, wearing a dog costume isn't such a bad way to make a living, now that we think of it!

  274. Another interesting job.

  275. Kids, please go to college!

  276. Yeah, everything is relative in San Francisco...

  277. They name streets here after good kids!

  278. And each good kid gets their own street!

  282. Cheryl taking her rightful place on the pedestal.

  286. On the Golden Gate bridge.

  297. Checking out the giant redwoods at the Muir Woods national monument, San Francisco.

  301. "God its big, God its big!"

  303. Some of those redwoods are over 300 feet tall and over a millennium old!

  308. On the plane again!

  314. When the lights in the plane were turned off, I figured that was a good time to test the infrared night vision feature of my digital camera.

  317. My version of the The Blair Witch Project!

  322. And that wraps up another of Gabe's artistic moments!

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