Visiting Tehran, Iran with high school programmers (1/2)

I visited Tehran, the capital of Islamic Republic of Iran. ...Don't you get so restless. It is said to be difficult to get Iranian visas for US citizens. Even in Japan, not many people have visited Iran and people ask me if it was safe. Then I would answer that I have to go whether it is safe or not, because I have a role in the programming contest held in Tehran in this summer.

This year, International Olympiad in Informatics, the programming contest for secondary education students was held in Tehran, and I attended the contest as a committee member (deputy). Luckily our national team did really well, including 1st pace in country ranking and we have the winner of this contest. It is irrelevant to a lot of readers, so I conclude the reference of the event with the link to IOI 2017.

July 27, 2017

I headed to Haneda Airport in the evening and attended (and ignored) the lecture for the students. You know that we cannot eat pork, and of course, Japanese food in Iran, so I went restaurant in the airport and had some pork dinner.

I was a little hungry before the flight and because I never eat food provided in airplanes, so I ordered ramen right after crossing the immigration gate.

I forgot the price but it was a little higher than ordinary ramen restaurants. I don't like Haneda's international terminal not having decent convenient stores or cheap restaurants beyond the immigration gate. I strongly recommend you buy stuffs at stores before the gate.

My flight was Emirates via Dubai, but the transit time was too short to buy anything. The flight from Dubai to Tehran was short, maybe about 2 hours flight.

July 28, 2017

Tokyo is sweltering in summer.

Tehran is scorching in summer.

Other than the fact every toilet is separated in rooms, the most surprising thing when arriving was the weather. It was HOT and DRY! I am used to hot weather in Tokyo, but it's very humid and temperature is around 35~40℃ even at the highest. Here in Tehran, humidity was almost zero and I felt the temperature was above 40℃ every day.

I took a bus to the contest venue (one of the most expensive hotel in Tehran). The contest seemed largely supported by the government, so they can decorate buses just for this competition.

 Here in Iran, a lot of places are covered with sand and short plants. Even Tall grass and shrubs are rare. I had never seen such a location and that was really impressive for an ecology major.

Iranian cuisine was very new to me. I think it is important to elaborate the way you eat rice as you like. In my opinion, Iranian rice goes very well with curry-like sources or lamb meat (this was really awesome!!) but it doesn't taste good without anything else. Also, maybe because of political issues, some popular drinks from US, such as Coca-cola or Fanta was not seen everywhere: there was Zam-zam brand instead.

Some strange objects were seen in the contest venue: big balloons, big emoticons, big contest logos. This was lighten up at night.

July 29th, 2017

It was the opening ceremony day. Honestly I was too busy the previous night, so I was sick in my bed in the morning. This is vital: You must always keep water bottles around yourself, especially when you go to bed. Not drinking anything for hours will surely make you heatstroke. You are sweating even if you don't feel your sweat like you do in Tokyo. Here in Tehran, sweat dries in seconds.

In the afternoon, I became better and headed to the opening ceremony. In fact, Tehran is located in the mountains, so you can see or climb beautiful (sand) mountains.

Tehran is populated more than 10M people. It was a big city. It was so big that bus traveling takes very long time and delay the schedule.

Actually I was so busy with contest stuffs after returning to the hotel but it is irrelevant for you guys.

July 30th, 2017

Competition Day 1. The contest went well, but the schedule didn't go well. Usually there is no travels in competition days, but somehow organizers of Iran like to insert number of excursions in the schedule. I really wanted to rest but I visited the bridge.

This is called Tabiat Bridge, a pedestrian bridge across the highways. I was so surprised that there was covered with forests, but it seems green is conserved artificially sometimes in Tehran.

And here is a joke: Wolf Eating a Bridge

Honestly I was completely exhausted at that time. I followed others just for the dinner. (This day dinner was Subway-like sandwiches) I decided not to go out the next day for resting (it was planned to go to Azadi Tower).

Beautiful but not interesting for exhausted people.

July 31st, 2017

I was resting at my room in the daytime, and I attended some committee at night. It was so busy that I could go to bed at 2:30AM.