Past Pictures (1998)

• Uncle Billy's Restaurant in Hilo, Hawaii, USA, June 2, 1998
  "Why is there BACK-SCRATCHER in cocktail ?! ...this cocktail is named BACK-SCRATCHER..."

Past Pictures (1999)

• Rockefeller Center, New York, USA, October 30, 1999
  "Which is cool, I or Prometeus ?!"
• St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, USA, December 30, 1999
  "Oops, sorry my God!! I just hide the sanctuary..."

Past Pictures (2000)

• At the COUNT-DOWN event in front of Nassau Hall in Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, January 1, 2000 [another one]
  "A HAPPY NEW MILLENNIUM!! I am a champion of the University?! This statue I step on is the symbol of Princeton University..."
• COBE + TOCO + BOOMERanG + MAXIMA Data, May 9, 2000 [eps]
  "CMB Acoustic Peak(s)!! Yes, our universe is FLAT. Great!! But...Is the baryon density higher than thought before?"
  
  For further interests...
  • Effect of Matter-Density (May 10): [gif] [eps]
• Opera Garnier, Paris, France, June 25, 2000
  "Dazzling!! What great ornaments they are..."
• My home, Hyogo, Japan, August 23, 2000
  "Well... did I miss something? My dog JIRO wondering what is happening."

Past Pictures (2001)

• Kiyoshi-kohjin Shrine, Hyogo, Japan, January 1, 2001
  "A happy new century! A statue behind us is the God of Fire. From left to right, my wife, myself, and my friends."
• In front of Poisson Rouge in Kobe-city, Hyogo, Japan, March 10, 2001
  "Thank you guys! After a second party of our wedding, which were arranged by my best friends. They helped even main ceremony. We have no idea how to thank them. So, who is next?!"
• COBE + QMASK + CBI + DASI + MAXIMA + BOOMERanG Data May 1, 2001 [eps]
  "MAY-DAY of the CMB experiments! Why May-Day? Check this up!"
  For further interests...
  • Is BOOMERanG screwed up? (May 1): [gif] [eps]
    The discrepancy between the results in 2000 and 2001 is ascribed to
    the different estimation for the beam-size and pointing-jitter.
• Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA, June 30, 2001
  "THE MAP LAUNCH!!
  It was so hot, humid, muggy day (so typical in Florida); however, the launch was surely the hottest one.
  We all heard the countdown --- 3...2...1...!! The rocket, carrying the MAP satellite, was launched just right.
  The MAP is traveling to the destination of staying in the space, L2, 1,500,000km from us (cf. the moon is 380,000km from us),and will soon send back to us the gorgeous microwave sky image, the CMB sky, the figure of the Big-Bang. (the picture is taken from here.)"
• Mt. Choukai-san (2,236m), Akita, Japan, September 23, 2001
  "The summit looks very close to us under the beautiful blue sky, but the truth is..."
• Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York, USA, October 20, 2001
  "Mariners got a big win, 14-3! This is the American League Championship Series for Seattle Mariners vs NY Yankees. I am, of course, on the side of Mariners, pretending to be Ichiro. The left guy is Totani-san, a lovely-crazy astrophysicist + drinker. Since here is the home stadium of Yankees, wearing the Marines hat is a suicide (I am serious)!!! So, needless to say, I took my hat off right after taking this photo..."
• Prof. David Spergel's office, Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, Nomember 27, 2001
  "This is my boss, Prof. David Spergel, who won a 2001 MacArthur Fellowship, the Genius Grant! He is a member of the MAP Science Team, and takes charge of theoretical interpretations of the MAP data. I also take part in the MAP project, working with David on measuring non-Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background radiation anisotropy. Would you like to know about the MAP project? You can see the details in the official home page."

Past Pictures (2002)

• Camelback Ski Area in the Poconos, Tannersville, Pennsylvania, USA, January 10, 2002
  "Intermediate & Expert Only. It's a scary sign, but this trail (The Pharaoh) turns out to be pretty nice one. We had a lot of sunshine, no wind, and warm temperature in the Camelback ski area. What a great day it was! On the top of that, there were quite few people. Why? Because it was Thursday. So, why were we there on Thursday, an absolute week-day? ...please don't ask me..."
• Stratton Mountain Ski Area, Stratton Mountain, Vermont, USA, January 26, 2002
  "Enjoying after-ski. This ski trip was truly great; we have skied from th e morning until the lifts close everyday, without thinking about any work at all . We were cooking everyday-meals for ourselves, relaxed with some drinks, and talk ing about fun stuff. This house is a ski house that David's parents have. Moreover, apart from the first day, the weather was very nice everyday. So, I got sun-tan on my face, which I wanted to get." i
• Horseshoe Fall, Niagara, Ontario, Canada, February 22, 2002
  "Niagara Falls, calling the rainbow. The Falls are absolutely spectacular. Also, a pretty town, Niagara-on-the-Lake, is must-see, must-visit place, as yo u go to 'Old Angels Inn', the finest pub I have ever been to! (In fact, this pub is said to be the oldest British Canadian pub -- originated from Coach House, which was built in 1789!) By the way, what do the Falls look like at night? What about the Lake Ontario in sunset?"
• Bo Brooks Crab House, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, March 16, 2002
  "Just to eat Crabs, not to think of anything. This is a Baltimore style of eating crabs; take your hammer, hit it! beat it! get a hell of delicious crab meat out of the shell! The taste is actually spicy, so good, and so perfect with beers. With these as-is-crabs, we had crab soups, and crab cakes -- they are also so good. We all thank Prof. Matsubara-san (who appears in the picture as two hands) for taking us to this fine crab restaurant, Bo Brooks Crab House. -- OK, I can't resist anymore writing in Japanese to express my emotion -- てゆーか、やっぱカニみそ最高？！あーもう、超うまかった。失禁失禁。大失禁。"
• At the garden of Jadwin Hall (Department of Physics) in Princeton University, Princeton, NewJersey, USA, July 19, 2002
  "The MAP Science Working Group meeting at Princeton University -- from right to left: Gary F. Hinshaw (NASA/GSFC), Hiranya Peiris (Princeton), Mark Halpern (UBC), Chris Barnes (Princeton), Michael Nolta (Princeton), Alan J. Kogut (NASA/GSFC), Norman Jarosik (Princeton), David N. Spergel (Princeton), Edward Wollack (NRAO, NASA/GSFC), Lyman Page (Princeton), Charles L. Bennett (NASA/GSFC), David T. Wilkinson (Princeton), and myself. Not shown are Michele Limon (Princeton), Stephan S. Meyer (U. Chicago), Gregory S. Tucker (Brown), Licia Verde (Princeton/Rutgers), and Edward L. Wright (UCLA)."

Past Pictures (2003)

• The New Year Count Down at the Times Square, as seen from 7th ave. and 46th st., New York, New York, USA, Jan 1, 2003
  "Happy New Year! We finally made the count down event at the Times Square. This year the weather was nice and warm, and we were very lucky that we could reach this close. The trick is presented here.."

Past Pictures (2004)

• The State Capitol of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA, Jan 7, 2004
  "The symbol of Texas. Once you enter, you begin to realize that you are not in the United States -- you are in the Republic of Texas -- and you are not an American -- you are a Texan."

Past Pictures (2006)

• Metro Section, San Antonio Express-News, June 11, 2006
  "Midori Komatsu, on the News!"
• The first Texas Cosmology Network Meeting, September 15, 2006
  "The first Texas Cosmology Network Meeting was held on September 15 at the University of Texas at Austin."
• Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Australia, December 16, 2006 One more picture here.
  "Great Ocean Road! Run, run, run towards the Twelve Apostles......and, I've made it through between two of them ;-)" (Photo: courtesy of Chiaki and Mahoko Hikage. Thanks!)

Past Pictures (2008)

• PhD party for Beth Fernandez at my place, June 3, 2008
  "My PhD students, as of June 2008. Back: Yuki Watanabe, Donghui Jeong, and Masa Shoji. Front: Myself, and Beth Fernandez, who has just passed defense for her PhD dissertation (hence very happy). The department of astronomy at UT Austin has its tradition that new PhDs are given a T-shirt about their lives at grad school. For Beth's case, her T-shirt has something to say about the First Light in the Universe..." Link to Beth's website for more pictures.

Past Pictures (2009)

• Drinking at our favorite 888 Korean Bar after the PhD party for Yuki Watanabe and Jun Koda, August 26, 2009
  "New PhDs in 2009! From right to left: me, Yuki Watanabe [I love inflation! on his "PhD T-shirt" (tradition in astronomy department)], Jun Koda [Paul Shapiro's "former" student ("former," because he graduated ;-)), the bullet cluster on his T-shirt], Masa Shoji (4th year), Donghui Jeong (5th year), and Donghui's beloved wife Hyun Sol Park. Here is a photo from last year's my group."

• PhD party for Donghui Jeong at my place, August 18, 2010
  "My PhD students, as of August 2010. Back: Jonathan Ganc (4th year), Masatoshi Shoji (5th year), and Chi-Ting Chiang (2nd year). Front: Myself, Donghui Jeong (with the graduation T-shirt on) and his wife Hyun Sol Park. For more photos, see this page."

Past Pictures (2011)

• Nishinomiya City Hall, November 5, 2010 (Credit: Asahi Shimbun)
  「この度，第２５回西宮湯川記念賞を頂けた事を大変光栄に思います．特に，私自身西宮で産まれて宝塚で育ったので，郷里から賞を頂けた事に感激しております．西宮市に深く感謝致します．この賞は，本当に多くの方々に取らせていただいた賞です．推薦してくださった先生方，運営委員・選考委員の先生方，共同研究者の方々（特にWMAPチームのメンバー）はもちろん，同僚，友人，家族，親戚一同，お世話になった方々の支えがなければ，今回の受賞はなかったと思います．今はただ，感謝の気持ちで一杯です．最後になりますが，父は生前苦楽園小学校の教頭を勤めておりまして，苦楽園小学校の湯川先生の記念碑の事はよく聞いておりました．父は，まさか自分の息子が湯川先生の名にちなんだ賞を頂く事になるとは夢にも思っていなかったと思います．父も喜んでくれていると思いますし，私にとっても，それが何よりの喜びです．本当にありがとうございました．」 [朝日新聞, 毎日新聞, 神戸新聞, 神戸新聞2, 読売新聞, 西宮市広報, 宝塚西高校広報]

  "I am humbled by the honor of receiving the 25th Nishinomiya-Yukawa Memorial Prize. Since I was born in Nishinomiya and grew up in Takarazuka, this prize from my hometown deeply impresses me. I sincerely thank Nishinomiya City. Many, many people contributed to this prize. I wish to thank those who nominated me for this prize, the members of the Nishinomiya-Yukawa Memorial Prize Committee, and the collaborators (especially the members of the WMAP science team), as well as my colleagues, friends, family and relatives. I am receiving this prize, because of you -- I am so grateful to all of you. Finally, my father was a vice principal of Kurakuen Elementary School, where Yukawa's Monument is, before he passed away in 2005. I heard many things about Prof. Yukawa and the monument from him. He probably never thought that, one day, his son would be awarded a prize named after Prof. Yukawa. A thought that my father is probably pleased about my receiving this prize makes me very happy. Thank you very, very much."