Photos RoboCup 2002 Fukuoka

These are pictures of the RoboCup 2002 event which took place June 19 through 25 2002 at the Fukuoka Dome in Fukuoka, Japan. The interpretations of the Japanese language and culture are courtesy of Bas Bouten.

The Fukuoka Dome is the stadium of the local baseball club the Hawks. The RoboCup 2002 flags next to the road lead visitors from the subway station to the Dome.

During three days many, many busses of schoolchildren were invited to see the robots and the foreigners.

Inside of the Dome which seats 50,000 people. You can see two of the four middle-size league fields, the big screen and the balloons which point out the different leagues.

Volunteers are being instructed how to handle the schoolchildren (I presume).

Some members of the Philips team are standing next to their robots.

Fukuoka is a rather industrial city but has some nice temples and gardens.

Due to lack of space they built a two story urban expressway on top of a street. The river was not very clean.

I have seen such constructions at several places, they seem to signify some kind of offering.

Temple near Higashi park.

Statue of an ex-emperor standing on a hill in Higashi park.

These two men were walking around the park and apparently trying to measure things, although I couldn't figure out their trick.

The Buddhist Risshou surrounded by banners preaching wisdoms like "if you are the rays of sun and moon you can remove each darkness".

Me (on the right) feeding the local wildlife. I had no idea what the vending machines (the green capsules) would vend, but the pigeons knew. Photo from Philips.

Just another way to save space.

RoboCup 2002 poster are hanging in every subway station.

Cemetery in the middle of a residential area. In the background lies the Dome, the policeman on the sign on the wall instructs you to dispose of your garbage properly.

The main Middle-size league field crowded with robots and developers. In the foreground volunteers are given instructions.

GMD-Musashi (robots on the left) vs Sharif CE quarterfinal.

The Sharif robots have an ingenious way of storing the onboard laptop: just rotate out the plexiglass box and you can use the laptop.

Jelle Kok's UvA Trilearn simulation league is losing this match, sadly.

I spent an afternoon at the Dazaifu temple complex just south of Fukuoka where I met this unicorn, a Kirin.

A service in action.

Front of the main temple with the only other foreigner present.

Mountains and rice fields.

First rice field up close.

View after quite a climb up the mountain. No free space left in the valley.

"Falling rocks, watch out" (also for the devil).

Large, quiet house up in the hills.

Don't touch the wires.

One of the many humanoids on display. The man demonstrating it is not feeling confident enough to release it completely, though.

On the big screen a shot from the humanoid matches in penalty shootouts.

On the day of the finals there was quite a crowd.

After spending a week in Japan Jelle is even eating his raisin bread with chopsticks.

We watched the semi-final Korea vs. Germany of the real soccer world cup at the Korean consulate of Fukuoka. The atmosphere was very good, even after the Germans scored.

More Koreans. Photo from Jan Murray.

There were even filmcrews present to film the public, especially certain wildly enthusiastic Dutch guys. Photo from Jan Murray.