Blog Archives: October, 2006
Elliptic curve cryptography in Firefox 2
I know that many (23.9%) of my readers use Firefox (and to the remaining 55% using Internet Explorer: you should seriously consider switching). Firefox 2 has just been released; if you don’t already have it through automatic updates, you should be getting it shortly. Aside from being an apparently nice upgrade, it also contains much of the work I’ve doing with Sun Microsystems over the past few years in the form of elliptic curve cryptography in the security layers. We started working on the code in 2002 and started contributing it to the Mozilla project codebase in 2003. Finally, some four years later, it’s being shipped. It will still be sometime before any https websites you visit use elliptic curve crypto, but if you visit this test server, you can try connecting. If you see a message saying that you have negotiated the “TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA” cipher suite, then you’re using the new elliptic curve cryptography code (and a few other enhancements, like the AES cipher for bulk encryption) and your computer is doing my bidding!
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Leaving Japan
Shinjuku intersection I’m flying home in a few hours; my Japanese adventure is coming to a rapid close. I’ll post some more pictures in a few weeks once I get settled back in Waterloo (I’m spending the next week at a workshop at the Fields Institute in Toronto), but for now I’ll leave you with one picture from my last night in Tokyo: the craziness that is Shinjuku, said to be Tokyo’s busiest district.
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Pictures from Kyoto
Kinkaku Golden Pavilion, Rokuon-ji Temple Greetings again from Kyoto! I’m scamming (“borrowing”) some free wireless Internet to bring you this update. The picture at left was the aforementioned Golden Pavilion of the Kinkaku-Ji Temple in Kyoto, at sunset. Quite beautiful, isn’t it?
Gate of Heian-jingu Shrine We had a little bit of a hiccup. Last night Paul realized he lost his passport and Japan Rail pass, so was indisposed much of the day today trying to track it down. As I write this, he’s going to a police station that allegedly has his passport, either that or they’re going to lock him up for not having a passport. So I was on my own for most of the day, although we did go to the Kyoto Imperial Palace together. After that, I went to Heian-Jingu Shrine and walked through the gardens which, as you can see in the picture at right, were very enlightening.
Screen door at Jugetsu-kan villa, Shugakuin Imperial Villa After visiting Heian-Jingu Shrine and the nearby Nanzen-Ji Temple, I cycled a gazillion miles up to Shugakuin Imperial Villa, which was built in the 17th century as the Emperor’s country villa near Kyoto. The buildings were mostly simple (although tastefully decoarted, as you can see in the screen doors at left), but the grounds were spectacular. 
Yokuryu Pond, Shugakuin Imperial Villa (panorama) The view at right is the view from the upper-most villa in the complex. The walk up has been landscaped so that there are bushes on your side as you walk up and only when you reach the top does this view open up before you. I wouldn’t mind having it as my summer cottage.
Update (2006/10/19 6:56 AM Japan time): A note for concerned readers: Paul was successful in getting his passport and enclosed Japan Rail pass back. What good luck!
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In Kyoto
Paul and I are in Kyoto. Today we visited the beautiful Golden temple of Kinkaju-ji. I can’t upload a picture at the moment, but Google for it — it’s truly beautiful. Off to Hiroshima in a few days. Bye for now!
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Yokohama at night
Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel I gave my talk at the conference this morning and wasn’t booed off stage. The conference was held in curved building at the centre-left of the picture at left. The conference has wrapped up and I’ll be heading up to Tokyo tomorrow for a few days, then down to Kyoto and Hiroshima, with a few stops along the way.
Shomyo monks in Yokohama 2 As I went out to get some dinner tonight, I happened to encounter a group of Buddhist priests doing performance of chants, called shomyo, just outside of my hotel. The priests are from the two holy mountains in Japan: Koyasan and Hieizan. (Actually, it was a rehearsal tonight for the big event tomorrow; but all the better, as it meant less people were around.) 
Shomyo monks in Yokohama In the picture at right, the priests on the stairs are chanting while the row of priests in the upper right play various musical instruments. At left, the priests are processing up the stairs and the presiding priests (if that’s the right term) is being guided by two small children.
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Konbanwa from Japan
At the wall of the Kyoto Imperial Palace Konbanwa! (Good evening!) It may look I’m writing this at a very early hour of the morning, but where I am it’s just evening. I’m almost as many time zones away from the Eastern time zone as I could be: I’m in Yokohama, Japan, just outside of Tokyo. I’m here to present a paper at a conference later this week. I arrived Sunday afternoon and have been doing some sightseeing before the conference starts tomorrow.
Hello Kitty banana I flew Detroit-Chicago-Tokyo, and that last leg was a bit longer than the first leg. I watched three out of the four movies, including the cute Pixar film Cars. I got lost in Shibuya train station, though after a couple of days I am now a seasoned expert of the Tokyo transportation network. I went to bed almost as soon as I got to the hotel, but was up early (6 am) the next morning. For breakfast I got some juice and a banana from a nearby convenience store, and the banana I bought was a Hello Kitty-brand banana. How strange!
Torii at Meiji Jingu Shrine Monday was filled with lots of walking. Walking past the stadium from the 1964 Olympics, I went to the Meiji Jingu shrine (left), which is a beautiful shrine complex in a large park in the centre of Tokyo. It was built for Emperor Meiji who initiated the “restoration” period of Japan from 1868-1912 in which the monarchy was restored and the nation opened to the west after 200 years of isolation. Next stop was the Imperial Palace and Gardens; you can see me standing outside the Palace in the picture at the top of the page. Unfortunately, the Palace is closed to the public all but two days of the year, and I have not been invited for a private tea ceremony.
Electronics stores in Akihabara After visiting the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, I made my way to the Akihabara district. First stop: Electric City (right), a neighbourhood populated with hundreds (thousands?) of electronics stores. Take every electronics store you’ve ever been into or even walked past, cut the size in half (but keep the same amount of stuff!), add neon signs and blaring music, and you’re getting there. Make it a holiday and close the main street so that there are tens of thousands of people walking around as if it were a street festival. Now you’ve got it!
Lanterns, Kanda Myojin Shrine A few blocks from Electric City was Kanda Myojin shrine (left), allegedly built in 730, and then the nearby Yushima Seido. After that it was time to head down to my hotel in Yokohama to get off my feet. The hotel that I arrived to was quite a surprise: a 70-storey landmark building, as you can see at right. 
Yokohama Landmark Tower with the Yokohama Royal Park Hotel The building itself is taller than the Eiffel Tower and breakfast every morning is in the lounge on the top floor. My room is on the 53rd floor and you can see Tokyo 30 km away.
Today was a slower day. All I really did in fact was attend a Kabuki play in Tokyo at the famous Kabuki-za theatre. Kabuki is different from western theatre in that it is presentational, not representational. In representational theatre, the goal is to construct a believable world that represents some reality that you experience as an observer. [year="2006" gallery="japan" title="View of Yokohama at night" desc="View from my room at night"] Presentational theatre, on the other hand, highlights the presentation of the actors, and all devices — costumes, sets, plot, props — exist to serve the actor. I’m glad I had a headset telling me all this.
Now I’m relaxing in my hotel room trying to get my body on the right sleep schedule. The last picture at left is a view from my hotel room right now on the 53rd floor. The horizon on the right side of the picture is downtown Tokyo. Tomorrow the conference starts, and then next week I’ll be off to other parts of Japan: Kyoto, Hiroshima, and other places. Sayonara!
