Wonderful Five Days in Moscow

On July 5, 1998, my visit to Moscow started with about one-hour delay of arrival at Sheremechevo II International Airport(at 6pm). Dr. Elena Kramarenko, Phys. Dept. Moscow U., kindly picked me up at the airport and took me to the Guesthouse of Moscow State University (MGU). Everything I saw from the car was so interesting to me. It was the time just before Junior Olympic. The most surprising view was the huge building of MGU!! The main building is 450 m long and 240 m high (See the photo). Seven of Stirlin-style buildings are connected to one big complex. The center building has 30 stories, which is used administration etc. The 17 story-wing buildings are used as students' dormitory. My room is located at the third floor of one of the wing buildings. I had a sound sleep after the trip from Oslo.

My seminar schedule was scheduled from 11am, July 6. One of Prof. Erukhimovich's students, Sacha, picked me up at 10:15, and took me to Prof. Khokholv's office. Meanwhile, Prof. Igor Erukhimovich came in with Jean-Francois Joanny. It was nice to see them in Khokhlov's office although Prof. Khokhlov was absent (He was in Ireland during my visit in Moscow). I gave a lecture in a small room with a full audience. The lecture was very challenging to me since I had to begin with theoretical introduction of the theories developed at the Physics Department of Moscow State University. In the audience, there were three distinguished theoreticians closely related to my topic, i.e., Igor Erukhimovich, Joanny, and Sergei Panyukov. I also saw the faces of Drs. Valentina Vasilievscaya, and Starodubtsev, and Prof. Rambidi. I gave a lecture on the comparison of theoretical and experimental structure factors. The seminar was very successful with many questions. We had lunch together and then I had a chance to discuss with Sergei. I suggested him the importance of speckles for analyzing gels. He promised to develop a theory on gel speckles. After discussion, Elena and Sergei took me a walk to the Moscow River and we had a Moscow River Cruise. It was a great idea arranged by her since I could enjoy the Moscow City sightseeing from the river. During the cruise, a big ski-jump slope, Goriky Park, New Cathedral, Peter the Great Ship, and finally Kremlin came into my view. It was a nice preview of Moscow sightseeing. After the cruise, we walked Red Square and had dinner together.
July 7, it is an important day in Japan, called TANABATA. A cowboy living on the one side of the shore of the Milky Way can meet his girlfriend on the other side only on July 7. However, if it rains, the ran-de-boo has to be postponed to the next year. This story came from China, and today, it is one of the major festivals in Japan. One Russian person, another Sergei, taught me it before the seminar of Joanny. I was surprised since he knew TANABATA. He told me that he saw a news of Japanese TANABATA on TV in the morning. Joanny's seminar was held at 11am, July 7. It was on a theory of polyelectrolytes on a surface. It was very interesting that he showed how to arrange positively charged and negatively charged polymer chains one to another. In the afternoon, I discussed with Igor Erukhimovich. He showed one of his latest works, which was a theoretical work on sol-gel transition. He estimated the fraction of loop and stressed the importance of its contribution. It was very interesting since this work is related to my recent work on the in-situ determination of sol-gel transition. Then, I discussed with Panyukov and Makhaeva. She is interested in light scattering. So, I showed the OHP's which I used at Polymer Network '98. After the discussion, Elena and I went to State Kremlin Palace. This is the place where communists used to have a meeting. I saw it many times on TV and I remember several scenes even in a textbook of my junior/senior high school. Today, it is used also for concert and play. We saw ballet "Swan Lake" I was very happy to see ballet play "Swan Lake" and circus. As I told her, it was my first time to see ballet in my life. I was very impressed by the beautiful dance in the play. It was also the first time for Joanny to see ballet. He told me that he also loved the swan dance. Whenever I have a chance to listen to the music, I will surely remember the several scenes I saw in the evening with you. It was the evening of July 7, the TANABATA's day in Japan. On the TANABATAfs day, kids pray fine weather of July 7 for the lovers in the sky, one cowboy (cowboy in Chinese constellation but it is a star in the Eagle) and the other weaving girl (the Virgin) living different sides of the Milky Way.

I also enjoyed the circus very much. I learned from Elena that pierrot is a sad clown. It was very impressive since I had thought pierrot being the same as clown. I cannot forget his costume and his play and the background music.

I returned home safely after 9.5 h flight and 1(Narita Express) + 3(Shinkansen)+0.5(local) h JR train ride. It was a long way back to Japan. But, I realized that Moscow is not so far from Japan since the time difference is only 5 hours now (in summer time). I did not feel jet-lag at all.
The first volume of my journey in the wonderful Moscow has finished. I will prepare for the next one.

Mitsu Shibayama