Dr. Kaifu phoned me and asked, “Will you come to Hawai`i?”

When I was a university student, I worked part-time at the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL), and I had a vague idea that I would like to become a civil servant when it came time to get a full-time job . After passing the civil service examination and the second round of interviews, when it came time to choose where to go, I initially wanted to go to NAL, but it was not recruiting that year. Then I decided to go to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) because it was close to NAL. That was really the reason (laugh).

Around the time I got the job, I had an opportunity to interview with an astronomer who told me that there was a plan to build a very large telescope in Hawai`i, and he wanted me to go there eventually. He said, “First, go to Okayama (Okayama Astrophysical Observatory)” to study, so my first assignment was Okayama Astrophysical Observatory. Five years later, I received a call from Dr. Norio Kaifu of Subaru Telescope, who asked me, “Kurakami, will you come to Hawai`i?” So in 1998, I was transferred to the Subaru Telescope.

A Commute of 4000 m in Altitude. Construction of the Subaru Telescope.

When I transferred to Hawai`i in 1998, it was right around the time of the groundbreaking for the Subaru Telescope, so I was very busy. The first difficulty was my physical condition. The Base Facility is near sea level and the summit region is at around 4000 m. For the first year or two I made the daily commute between the two. At first, just going up to the summit to watch and then come back down gave me muscle pain. There isn’t enough oxygen up there.

As for the work itself, I began by observing Mitsubishi Electric’s construction work, and then I helped with some of the work. ...... When the construction was nearing completion, Mitsubishi Electric gradually withdrew from the project, and I worked with the remaining people on maintenance and adjustments. Nowadays, the observatory staff alone performs routine maintenance. The primary mirror of the Subaru Telescope has a diameter of 8.2 meters, and one of the jobs was redeposition of the aluminum coating on that mirror. I was at Subaru Telescope for 17 years, and I gave it my all, so I felt like “I have done my part.” About the time I started to feel that I had worked at Subaru Telescope and enjoyed my life in Hawai`i enough, my father collapsed. Also at that time, someone had just come in to take over my job, so I decided to go back to Japan.

Getting Everything Ready. Nobeyama’s Winter Observation Season.

My new assignment in Japan was at Nobeyama Radio Observatory, which has an easy commute from my parents’ house and has an attractive giant telescope. During the high season for observations during the winter, the observatory runs 24 hours a day, so we have a maintenance period in the summer. Before the maintenance period, we do a lot of planning and preparation for the major projects to get ready for the winter. If the maintenance is not completed as planned, it will interfere with observations during the high season, so I think that is a tough part of the work. I believe as long as the arrangements are well made, the job is as good as done. That’s something I learned in Hawai`i. In Hawai`i, if you don’t prepare well at the Base Facility, you haven’t got a snowball’s chance of things going well once you get up to the summit.

Nobeyama is cold, but it doesn’t snow that much. But we shovel snow four or five times a year. We keep the 45-m antenna nearly perpendicular to the ground, shovel only as much snow as we can reach, and let the sunlight melt the rest. There are only two people in charge of the antenna, but the whole staff is there when we shovel the snow. Even the director and the astronomer will help out, doing around the rails and so on.

Properly Maintaining a 45-m Antenna that is Over 40 Years Old.

The 45-m antenna at Nobeyama Radio Observatory was built more than 40 years ago, when there were no internal networks or anything like that. In the past, most of the work was done manually. The most enjoyable part of this project has been upgrading the antenna through improvements like making it usable with a computer or through a network. I had to figure out how to modify it starting from square one, buy materials, build it, run it, and debug it....... There is a sense of fulfillment that comes from matching what I want to do with what I have to do. We even paint the damaged places ourselves to save money.

I am from the Gundam generation, so I like big robots and huge things that move. I always think that the antenna of Nobeyama Radio Observatory looks cool and powerful when it moves. My main goal right now is to maintain the 45-m antenna. It is quite old, but I would like to take care of it and protect it carefully.