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 postpo
ned
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 TANABATA's 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.