All about Japan

Britain -drenched in lard

2006-10-10T21:57:00.000+09:00

I was back in Europe for a while in September. I have to say I didn`t get the "Wow everybody here is morbidly obese" feeling when I was in Belgium and Sweden. But as soon as I set foot back in good old Blightly it quickly returned. Well, everybody may be chronically overweight but at least they`re so very happy and everything in the UK is clean and the public services are great and customer service is so considerate and polite... Erm...

Japan in the Fall(out)

2006-10-10T21:54:00.000+09:00

Ahh, early autumn in Japan; 20-25 degrees Centigrade, bright days, calm, clear blue skies and the distant rumble of nuclear weapons tests.

2006-08-26T20:41:00.000+09:00

The campsite by the river by night.

2006-08-26T20:40:00.000+09:00

The campsite by the river by day.

2006-08-26T20:39:00.001+09:00

We went to a cave...

2006-08-26T20:39:00.000+09:00

Another hike photo from Okutama

2006-08-26T20:38:00.000+09:00

Here is a photo from the hike in Okutama

Okutama

2006-08-26T12:55:00.000+09:00

Last weekend I went to Okutama, in the very north west of Tokyo. Technically part of Tokyo, you would never guess that it is a portion of the world`s largest metropolis. It takes around 2 hours by train from central Tokyo to get to Okutama which is very much in the countryside, nestled in the mountains. We spent two days camping by a river and hiking. We also visited a large cave and finished of the whole trip in the traditional fashion; with a nice relaxing onsen (hot spring bath).

2006-07-30T16:10:00.000+09:00

I recently went to the floating lantern festival at Enoshima. On an evening, traditional paper lanterns (some very large) are floated along the river. This is a religious festival, the floating lanterns ("toro") supposedly guiding spirits that visited relatives during the "obon" period, back to their spirit world. Unfortunately the whole event was marred somewhat by the rain...

2006-07-16T11:52:00.000+09:00

New T-shirt design! This T-shirt shows the words "Strength of the Dragon" painted in Japanese calligraphy using kanji symbols. If you are interested, you can buy it by clicking here.

2006-07-16T11:45:00.000+09:00

Kotohira shrine is a Shinto shrine. It is associated with the god of the sea. There are 750 steps to the main temple followed by more than 600 more to get to the true summit.

2006-07-16T11:41:00.000+09:00

I also went to the Kotohira shrine (also known as Kompira shrine after the mountain on which it is built). This is the entrance gate.

2006-07-16T11:31:00.000+09:00

One of the strangest things on this little island was the "007 "Man with The Red Tattoo" Memorial Museum". This was opened a couple of years ago in response to the release of the James Bond novel of the same name, a small part of which takes place on Naojima. Perhaps the island was hoping to attract vast crowds of Bond fans, with quality artwork like this, how can they fail?

2006-07-16T11:25:00.000+09:00

After returning to Takamatsu I took the ferry to a small island nearby called "Naojima"

2006-07-16T11:24:00.000+09:00

Another "attraction" at Ryugado was a collection of birds. This breed had incredibly long tail feathers and was kept in this tiny cabinet. Now, I`m no animal rights expert, but that can`t be right can it?

2006-07-16T11:22:00.000+09:00

One interesting thing was this old pot dating from 2000 years ago. Over the centuries it had become fossilised by the action of the calcium carbonate being deposited on its surface and is now fused to the rest of the rock.

2006-07-16T11:20:00.000+09:00

Not so far from Kochi, we visited Ryugado cave. (Literally "Dragon-River Cave"). A large cave complex which was inhabited as long as 2000 years ago. There were a lot of stalactites and stalagmites that had fused into interesting shapes.

2006-07-16T11:16:00.000+09:00

A view form the top of the castle over modern-day Kochi city - a fairly typical small Japanese city.

2006-07-16T11:15:00.000+09:00

Kochi is home to Kochi castle, a fairly small and well preserved castle that is unusual in that it survived both the Meiji restoration and the Second World War relatively untouched (most castles in Japan burned down at some point in the last 100 years). Kochi castle was last consumed by flames back in the mid-18th century. This is a show from inside the castle looking out to a garden.

Hermit crabs

2006-07-16T11:05:00.000+09:00

The hermit crabs in action!

2006-07-16T10:59:00.000+09:00

One of the stalls was selling hermit crabs! (as pets, not for eating!)

2006-07-16T10:58:00.000+09:00

Last weekend I went to Shikoku, the smallest and most rural of the 4 main islands of Japan. I was based in Takamatsu but visited Kochi on the South East side of the island. The market in Kochi (shown above) is quite large and sells a lot of locally produced goods.

2006-07-16T10:52:00.000+09:00

Another variety of Kit Kat. This appears to be, er, "Universal Studios Japan" flavour. Closer inspection of the back of the pack reveals that this is, in fact, a mixture of white and milk chocolate.

2006-06-18T21:57:00.000+09:00

No your eyes do not deceive you, this is indeed a bottle of carbonated black coffee. Now, I`m not much of a coffee drinker, but that can`t be right.

2006-06-18T21:55:00.000+09:00

A popular dessert in Japan is "annin doufu" a jelly- like, sweet almond tofu originating from Chinese cuisine. So why not make it a Kit-Kat flavour?

2006-06-18T21:49:00.000+09:00

How about French Bretagne Milk Kit-Kat? This one seems to be in conjunction with a Japanese French bakery. The subtleties of the difference between this and the standard white Kit-Kat are, I`m afraid, lost on me.

2006-06-18T21:43:00.000+09:00

Continuing the tradition; it`s azuki Kit-Kat! Azuki is a red bean, the second most popular legume in Japan (after soy beans). It was originally domesticated in the Himalayas and is popular in Chinese, Korean and Japanese cuisine.It is usally eaten sweetened, often as a "red bean paste". It is one of the foods it takes a while to get used to if you are an outsider as its texture and tasete is undeniably "bean-like" which is at first incongruous with its sweet taste.

2006-06-11T08:17:00.000+09:00

I am starting a new little venture with a talented Japanese artist. We have set up a web shop selling T shirts printed with unique. hand-drawn Japanese calligraphy artwork. You can visit the site here.The above design says "karate". The first symbol, "kara" means empty, the second symbol "te" means "hand" giving "karate" the meaning of "empty hand". The T-shirt includes the red "hanko" or stamp - showing the artist`s name. Available in a range of sizes!

2006-05-27T13:36:00.000+09:00

Just in time for summer: It`s KitKat Fruit Parfait. According to the packet it contains fruit granules. Tastes OK.

2006-05-14T09:26:00.000+09:00

This mime artist "Jikki" wsa great!. He has his own website (in Japanese) here.

2006-05-14T08:45:00.000+09:00

There were some pretty crazy Chinese acrobats whose bones appeared to be mafde of rubber!

2006-05-14T08:44:00.000+09:00

Recently it was the "Noge daidoge" an internationl street performer`s festival in Yokohama. I went along and saw some pretty cool stuff. Here is a biker scaring members of the public (note the two people holding hands)

2006-05-14T08:03:00.000+09:00

After having failed to visit Kamakura recently for the yabusame fesival, ast week I went there to the beach. It had been long time since I had been to Kamakura nd I had forgotten just how conveniently close to Yokohama it actually is. I` d never actually been to the beach there. Like most people, I`d only ever been to visit the important shrines and temples The beach was not bad and there were a load of windsurfers making the best of a blustery day.

The Japan Prize - I saw the Emperor!

2006-05-04T09:59:00.000+09:00

I recently went to the Japan Prize ceremony. The Japan Prize is a bit like the Nobel Prize exept that it is awareded only for science and there are only two winners each year. They each win 50 million Yen (around 250,000 pounds). This year the winners were Sir John Houghton from the UK in the category of Global Change for his work on climate change and Dr Akira Endo of Japan inthe category of The Development of Novel Therapeutic Concepts or Technologies for his work inthe discovery and development of statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The prize ceremony was in The National Theatre, not far from the Imperial Palace and the British Embassy. The participants were pretty impressive; representatives of what seemed like virtually all of the embassies were there as were members of the Diet (Kokkai). Heads of both the House of Representatives (Shugi-in) and the House Of Councillors (Sangi-in) were there as well as the Emperor and Empress. And then there was me...

Actually it was pretty good. Speeches were kept short and there was a nice classical music concert afterwards.

Yabusame in the rain? I think not.

2006-04-16T10:32:00.000+09:00

Today I was supposed to go to Kamakura to see the Yabusame festival but it is raining. So lets just pretend I went anyway...

Kamakura is easily the most convenient place of historical interest to reach from Yokohama, just over 30 minutes by train. Which makes me wonder why I have only ever been there once.

Throughout its history Japan has had a number of capital cities, Tokyo taking the honour from Kyoto only in the second half of the 19th century. At the end of the 12 th century the Minamoto family took control of Japan (the Japanese emperors have an unbroken line of succession spanning right back to the beginnings of Japan itself but for much of that time held no real power; various shogun families actually ran the country). And the government moved to Kamakura (although he imperial Court was at Kyoto). Kamakura remained the capital until 1333 when the ruling family was overthrown.

Today Kamakura has a lot of historical buildings and old temples including a very big bronze Buddha dating from 1252.

In April and September every year are festivals which include Yabusame. This an ancient tradition dating from the Kamakura period when Samurai warriors would show off their skills to the Shogun. The competition first began in 1187. Participants, dressed in traditional uniform compete on horseback, they must ride their horse down a track and, while moving, fire an arrow at a small cedar target. Looks like fun but probably not so great in the rain. Maybe I`ll go in September...

Energy Crisis?

2006-03-25T14:45:00.000+09:00

This week we had two interesting bits of news regarding Japan`s nuclear reactors. There was a fire at one reactor (not dangerous) and another reactor faces shutdown over concerns that it may not be safe in the event of an earthquake. Japan has an energy problem, namely it has virtually no natural resources of its own; it imports essentially all of its coal, gas, oil etc. and relies heavily on nuclear power for its power needs. prices for these natural resources have risen considerably an competition for them from countries such as China and India look set to intensify. But nuclear power has its own potential problems and is of course, always cause for concern in a country so prone to strong, frequent earthquakes. Japan does have a potential ace up its sleeve; it is technologically very advanced and should be able tocome up with innovative solutions to these problems. However, from my own observations it seems as if Japan is lagging behind some other nations in its use of alternative energy sources. The only thing you do notice here is there is a relatively high use of solar cells and solar panels although this is hardly widespread. It seems to me that Japan needs an ambitious push in this direction; its solar cell manufactures such as Sanyo lead the world and hopefully if they can invest enough money and brains they can increase the efficiency of the cells and panels and decrease the cost to the extent that everyone can get free energy from the sun and all our problems will be solved!

2006-03-12T16:07:00.000+09:00

The next weekend I took a trip to Singapore. I left on Friday night which was "hima-matsuri" or "doll festival" in Japan. Also known as "Girl`s Day". Most families with a female child have a set of dolls and put them out in a display similar to the one shown (this is in Narita airport so is bigger than an average display but is basically the same). The tradition goes back to the Edo period and, I believe had something to do with floating dolls down a river to take evil spirits away with them.

2006-03-12T16:02:00.000+09:00

We has pretty good weather, in fact, on the first day it was really hot, maybe as much as 10 C!

2006-03-12T16:00:00.000+09:00

Sunrise from our hotel room!

2006-03-12T15:59:00.000+09:00

Sorry for not updating sooner! The last couple of weekends have been rather busy. First of all, I went snowboarding in Niigata Prefecture. There has been record amounts of snow in Japan this winter so there was definately plenty of skiing to be had! As is often the case on Honshuu, the snow was not the lovely powder type you get in Hokkaido but it was reasonably soft - not the very hard icy stuff I`ve had to contend with on occassion.

Nikko in moving pictures

2006-02-18T12:16:00.001+09:00

Here is a movie showing some of the area we hiked around. You can see some mad people actually preparing to climb up the ice. Strangely, the majority of the climbers seemed to be old men well into their 60s. Only in Japan....

Nikko in moving pictures

2006-02-18T12:16:00.000+09:00

Here is a movie showing some of the area we hiked around. You can see some mad people actually climbing up the ice. Strangely, the majority of the climbers seemed to be old men well into their 60s. Only in Japan....

2006-02-18T12:00:00.000+09:00

Lots of ice!

2006-02-18T11:52:00.000+09:00

More frozen waterfalls!

2006-02-18T11:47:00.000+09:00

Probably the highlight of the hike was the frozen waterfalls.

2006-02-18T11:46:00.000+09:00

Preparation for the hike: Warm clothes? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Food? Check. Ski pole? Check. Small children`s plastic sled? erm, check.

2006-02-18T11:41:00.000+09:00

In the low-lying coastal areas of much of Japan we are already notiving Winter losing its grip and entering a period known as "san-kan, shi-on", literally "three cold, four warm" denoting the transition to spring where you have several wintery days followed by several warm days. the latter gradually becoming more and more frequent. In the mountains however, it is a differetn story. I just went back to Nikko. Not to see temples this time but to have a bit of a snow hike and see some frozen waterfalls. It was a LOT colder than Tokyo! Not suprising as Nikko is well over 1000 metres above sea level, a similar elevation to Ben Nevis, Britain`s highest mountain. Here is the street just outside Nikko station

2006-01-22T21:35:00.000+09:00

Continuing the KitKat theme, here is a cherry blossom version. And for those doubters out there, it says on the packet that it really does contain cherry blossom. Why is it only in Japan that we get all these different flavours? I have a theory that people here like new things so much that constantly bringing out new flavours is the only way to keep them interested. On the kitkat front, to my knowledge, in addition to standard milk chocolate, we have had dark chocolate, white chocolate, vanilla, white chocolate with maple syrup, cafe latte, cappuccino, green tea and strawberry.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-16T21:45:00.000+09:00

A slightly belated Happy New Year to everyone! New Year in Japan was the usual affair: Work places deserted as people go back to their family homes for well over a week! This is the first time since I have been in Japan that I did not spend New Year at a Japanese person`s home. But I know the drill: On New Year`s Eve people eat toshikoshi soba (Literally "year-crossing soba" (soba are buckwheat noodles). During the holiday period people eat "osechiryouri" which consist of a variety of dishes including "date-maki" (rolled sweet omlette), "kuro-mame" (sweet black beans) and "kazunoko" (herring roe). Then it is an early start on New Years morning (in one case, 2 am) to go to the temple to get rid of the old year and ask for good fortune in the new year.

I am always surprised how the pubs and restaurants seem almost deserted on New Year`s Eve; it really is a family time.

Alcholic KitKats?

2005-12-25T10:02:00.000+09:00

Not particularly Christmas-themed but strange nontheless. I give you wine Kit-Kats.

A very Kitty Christmas

2005-12-25T10:00:00.000+09:00

Ah Christmas in Japan. The festive wonder of, erm, just another ordinary day. Actually, that`s not quite true. Christmas Eve has a definite Valentine`s Day vibe and is seen as a romantic time for young couples to go on a date. And of course American cultural imperialism has meant that the trend of giving presents on Christmas day has taken off here although currently it is restricted to parents giving presents to children. But in general, it`s just a time for shops to put up Christmas displays and try to sell lots of stuff with only the vaguest concept of what Christmas is or where it comes from. Today being just another regular Sunday I will be doing my regular Sunday stuff including a quick pop into the lab to set some cells growing. But all is not lost, I have bought some Christmassy Hello Kitty Chanmery - a non alcholoic carbonated grape drink. Party On!

More bad news in Japan

2005-12-11T19:52:00.000+09:00

This week saw the third murder of a schoolchild here in Japan in as many weeks. There is a lot of soul searching going on once again about the declining safety and questions about whether the country has lost its moral bearings. It is unclear to me though if the crime rate or these murders, terrible thought they are are actually reflect an increasing number of crimes.
The first in the recent spates of murders resulted in arrest of Peruvian man. I do not know the details of the case and so cannot comment on them. As I have mentioned previously there is a sizeable South American population in Japan. One does wonder if it is going to become even more difficult for foreigners to come and live in the country. The problem is that Japan is ageing fast and is on the cusp of a great population contraction. If it wishes to maintain its position as a leading economic powerhouse it will have to replenish the population from somewhere. Yet many Japanese are reluctant to face this dilemma (and understandably so, their current system has served them admirably in the postwar years, whcih has seen economic growth beyond imagining and extremely low crime rates). It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years...

Not quite a Babel Fish

2005-11-20T20:03:00.000+09:00

I remember a few years ago a little hand-held machine was released that could translate your spoken words into a number of foreign languages and speak them back out again. I don’t remember much other than that as the machine clearly didn’t take off; I’ve never seen one in real life. It’s a sad in a way as for a while it seemed as if we were heading towards a Star-Trek like future as the continued improvements in computing power and miniaturization heralded a day when such a machine would be able to work in real time, translating foreign conversations on the go, maybe in a device that could fit in your ear. I saw an advert on the train today that suggests maybe such a future is back on track. It was for new a piece of PSP software called the Talkman. This is a language learning tool that uses speech recognition and playback. One of the most interesting features is that you can speak into the machine in your native language and the software will speak out the correct phrase in a foreign language (The Japanese version handles Chinese, Japanese, English and Korean). The limitations are, of course that it does not work in real time and it does not usually do an exact translation of your phrase but rather will interpret it and suggest an appropriate phrase from what is, presumably, its more limited database. If that is OK with you can then play back the phrase. Sounds nice and apparently the speech recognition is good. The really great feature is that it is too way, the machine will understand the reply and translate it back into your language. It will be interesting to see if the software takes off. If so then perhaps we will finally have universal translators by the time the PSP 3 comes out. I have to say though, if it was me programming the thing I probably would find it very difficult not to produce something like the Hungarian phrasebook from that Monty Python sketch ("My hovercraft is full of eels.")

Toilet instructions close-up

2005-10-16T16:35:00.000+09:00

Close up of the best bit.

Toilet instructions

2005-10-16T16:33:00.000+09:00

I recently went to China. While at Haneda airport in Tokyo I noticed that the officials had finally acknowledged the problems the fancy Japanese toilets were causing the foreigners (people spraying their trousers/shirts after ignorantly pressing the bidet button "just to see what would happen", and other such incidents). As a result, each cubicle now sports an information poster in Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English. I don`t know if the Koreans and Chinese fared any better but I`m guessing the task of writing the English version fell to the most junior staff member who was given 5 minutes and access to an automated internet translation service. The results are shown above with the second picture showing a close up of my favourite phrase; "Equipment to Cleansing the buttocks with warm water" (although "extra deodrizing [sic]") comes a close second. Interestingly, when I took the photo, in the busy airport toilet, my flash, of course, went off. I wonder what the other people using the facility thought I was taking a picture of...

Robots

2005-10-02T11:03:00.000+09:00

More interesting developments over on my robot blog including a video!

Back in Japan!

2005-09-18T17:34:00.000+09:00

I have been away for a while, back to Europe for a couple of weeks. It is always strange to go back home from a place which, in some ways has become my home. The things I always notice when I go back to Europe and particularly Britain are:

1. Everyone is fat! Seriously, it hits you as soon as you get off the plane. The Japanese are the thinnest of all industrialised countries (probably accounting for, at least in part, their world-leading longevity). With the UK now topping the European league of fatness, the contrast couldn`t be stronger. This is all to do with our diet (see point 3).

2. What is all that green stuff? Wait, I remember, plants! Living in the biggest metropolis in the world means that it is always a relief to see England`s green and pleasant land. There doesn`t seem to be the conept of a "green belt" in Japan. Perhaps an unavoidable consequence of 127 million people living in a country considerably smaller than France of which 75 % or so is uninhabitable, rugged mountains; you have to pack people in where you can. I always feel that when one leaves the big city in Japan the countryside has been somehat concreted over or spoiled in some way. Japanese people don`t seem to mind. In fact, today I saw a news program extolling a "beautiful" river walk. I had two problems with this; Firstly it was in a city and secondly the river was flowing in what appeared to be a concrete trough.

3.Food... so... heavy... OK, to be honest, Japan has its fair share of fast and fried food joints both domestic and imported but more traditional foods are probably still more popular, such things as steamed rice, raw and baked fish, tofu etc. Generally the portions are much smaller. It takes some adjustment but once you do you feel decidedly unhealthy just looking at a full size portion of fish and chips.

4. I can understand what people are saying/can read signs and newspapers/have more than the vaguest notion of what is going on around me at any given time. Hurrah! thanks for the English language, its (relatively) logical grammar and its simple, phonetic alphabet. Down with ideographs!

5. Why is everyone so incredibly rude? I am told there was a time, before I was born, perhaps before my parents were born, when Britain was a civilized place where gentleman always removed their hats when encountering a lady (for in those days gentlemen always wore hats) never a raised voice was heard in public and people always left their doors unlocked. In many ways Japan is still like that. Things are beginning to unravel a little bit but displays of agressiveness in public and violent crime and bad manners in public are still much less common. Any doubt as to whether the UK is different was dispelled last time I went back. I was waiting outside a station for a lift and a group of 4 or 5 teenage boys walked past. I observed them cross in front of me and my gaze was met with a shouted response of "What the f$#k you looking at?" It is inconceivable that this would happen in Japan. Of course I did not reply and the gibbons went on their way. If I had said something it could resulted in a bout of fisticuffs. So loutish and uncooth was their behaviour that I almost found myself wishing for that outcome so that I could beat some sense into them but that would be bad and wrong and besides they were probably carrying guns.

2005-07-31T12:13:00.000+09:00

I also went back to Expo 2005 to see a special prototype robot exhibition. It included this dog called "den-ken" (I think). It was very impressive because it used shape-memory alloy to move rather than electric motors meaning that it could move very quickly indeed. Probably the most impressive movement I have ever seen in a robot. I will update my robot blog soon with more information on the robots I saw at Expo.

2005-07-31T12:08:00.000+09:00

This was Miki, our guide.

2005-07-31T12:07:00.000+09:00

As part of the conference that David was attending, there was a trip to the famous Sankei garden in Yokohama. It was built by Sankei Hara, a wealthy silk trader and was opened to the public in 1906. It is a very fine example of a Japanese garden, very tranquil.

2005-07-31T11:40:00.000+09:00

Early in the month my friend David came to visit for a couple of weeks and we had lots of parties including a house party in my flat. It was a bit cramped but a good time was had by all and language barriers were soon overcome with the help of copious amounts of alcohol.

2005-07-31T11:29:00.000+09:00

Since last I updated I have been quite busy. Been on a few trips, including a very short trip to the nearby soji-ji temple, the world headquarters for the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism. There are two main types of Zen Buddhism; Rinzai and Soto, both originating in China. Soto comes from the Ts`ao-tung school and was brought to Japan in the 13th century by Dogen Zenji. In Japan there are about 15,000 Soto temples with around 12 million followers.

2005-06-12T09:51:00.000+09:00

Forgot to include this picture of me "negotiating" a large waterfall. What better way to enjoy your weekends than to narrowly avoid being pummelled to death on the rocks?

2005-05-22T21:45:00.000+09:00

There were also bonfires...

2005-05-22T21:42:00.000+09:00

The Full Moon Party was outdoors with a DJ pumping out the music. Most people in our group complained that it was all too much "Trance music for Hippies". Not suprisingly therefore, most of us left before the scheduled 5 am finish time.

2005-05-22T21:40:00.000+09:00

Our group of mainly foreigners shared a couple of cabins. Here we are just before heading off to the Full Moon Party. In the foreground two girls seem to be wrestling (at least I think that's what they were doing). In the background you can see a few people already getting into the dancing spirit (i.e. they were already drunk).

2005-05-22T21:36:00.000+09:00

This weekend I went to a place called Minakami in Gunma province, to the N.W. of Tokyo. It was a pretty little town nestled in the mountains. But we were there not to enjoy the scenery, rather to do canyoning, whitewater rafting and attend a party on the mountainside called the "Full Moon Party".

2005-05-22T21:27:00.000+09:00

A close up of a doorway from one of the temple buildings at kyoumizudera.

2005-05-22T21:26:00.000+09:00

kyoumizudera again.

2005-05-22T21:25:00.000+09:00

I went to kyoumizudera, a temple built in the 8th century. It is on the mountainside and you can geta good view of Kyoto.

2005-05-22T21:23:00.000+09:00

They proved popular with the school children!

2005-05-22T21:20:00.001+09:00

2005-05-22T21:20:00.000+09:00

Not sure if these were real Maiko (trainee Geisha) or were just practicing for the big festival which was held in Kyoto the following day where processions of people in old costume parade through the streets.

2005-05-22T21:17:00.000+09:00

Not sure what this was about but it looked funny.

2005-05-22T21:16:00.000+09:00

Next I went to Nara to work for 10 days and took a Weekend off to visit nearby Kyoto.

2005-05-22T21:14:00.000+09:00

Paddling around in the mud is a dirty business and we had to wear shorts and "tabi" the traditional Japanese working shoe which has thin rubber soles and split toes. These are still widely used by all sorts of manual workers today, the advantage is that they give you much better grip than boots. On the downside they don't give you much protection if you drop a hammer on your foot.

2005-05-22T21:12:00.000+09:00

Although we planted by hand, almost all rice Planting is done by machine these days. Racks of seeds are put on the back and rotating "hands" pick out a few at a time and plant them in the mud.

2005-05-22T21:10:00.000+09:00

Here is a completed field full of rice seedlings. Seedlings rather than actual seeds are planted because seeds tend to be eaten by birds.

2005-05-22T21:07:00.000+09:00

Why haven't I updated in a while? Because all my weekends have been busy. So here is the rundown of what I was up to. First, I went to the countryside in the centre of Chiba prefecture to do some rice planting in the paddy fields. Here is a picture of the farmer pulling a kind of rake across the field to provide guidlines for us to plant the rice.

2005-04-24T14:21:00.000+09:00

Some members of our party just had to join in...

2005-04-24T14:20:00.001+09:00

Sword balancing....

2005-04-24T14:20:00.000+09:00

While we were in Yoyogi park we saw some of the mad/unusual people for which it is notorious. One man was going round reading pages from Japanese comic books in a bonkers yet amusing way for money. We also were danced for by some "gypsies"

2005-04-24T14:16:00.000+09:00

I also recently went cherry-blossom viewing. The period for doing this has just finished as all of the blossoms have already fallen. But people here go crazy during the brief 10-day period when the blossoms are out. The main parks are absolutley packed with happy people picnicking under the trees all day long. The viewing extends well into the night by which time the participants have become very happy, very drunk people. I went with a group called Tokyo gaijins. There were about 60 of us, two thirds were foreigners. As you canse, we sensibly chose a park with not so many cherry trees so it wasn't so crowded but we still got to sit under a cherry tree, so that was OK.

2005-04-24T14:07:00.000+09:00

Perhaps not suprisingly, the International Tropical Timber Organisation's pavillion was also deserted.

2005-04-24T14:06:00.000+09:00

Contrast with Cuba's pavillion...

2005-04-24T14:05:00.000+09:00

Some countries' pavillions were more popular than others. The Canadian pavillion was quite popular.

2005-04-24T14:03:00.000+09:00

As pavillions from countries across the world, there were pavillions of large Japanese companies such as Hitachi, Toshiba etc as well as this gas company pavillion. All of the corporate pavillions were impossibly busy.

2005-04-24T14:01:00.000+09:00

I recently went to the World Expo in Aichi province, a couple of hours by bullet train from Tokyo. It only just opened and the weather was good. So it was bit crowded...

2005-04-03T16:43:00.000+09:00

And on the other it says "omedetou" which means "congratulations".

2005-04-03T16:42:00.000+09:00

It grew! One one side is a smiley face...

2005-03-13T14:21:00.000+09:00

My newest purchase. A bean plant with a message inside.It is called "ma-mail" this being a pun on the fact that bean in Japanese is pronounced "mame". I just watered it for the first time today and after five days it should grow and reveal its message in the bud, The message has been burned into the plant using a laser. Exciting huh?

2005-03-13T14:17:00.000+09:00

It has been an unusual couple of weeks, weatherwise in Japan. We recently had snow, a rarity at sea level in the Tokyo Yokohama area where the average yearly lowest temperature is never less than 4 centigrade. Here is a photo of part of Tsurumi after one such snowfall.

2005-02-13T15:39:00.000+09:00

They say that the British are a nation of animal lovers but I think the Japanese win hands down. Or at leat they certainly pamper their pets more. As well as numerous clothing stores for animals I stumbled across this shop, "Three dog bakery" "The bakery for dogs."

2005-02-13T15:36:00.000+09:00

This was the closest I got to one of the Lions that were dancing through the streets.

2005-02-13T15:35:00.000+09:00

A detail from the temple roof showing a dragon. The styling is quite different from Japanese temples.

2005-02-13T15:33:00.001+09:00

Here is the Chinese temple.

2005-02-13T15:33:00.000+09:00

Yokohama is home to the largest Chinatown in Japan and one of the largest in the world outside of China itself. Lunar New Year celebrations were in full swing yesterday when I went to visit. Here is one of the gates into Chinatown.

2005-02-06T18:30:00.000+09:00

My friend, giving the temple bell the respect it deserves.

2005-02-06T18:29:00.000+09:00

A detail of the ornamentation on the temple buildings. The dragons claws are in the foregraound while its eyes and teeth are in the background.

2005-02-06T18:27:00.000+09:00

Some people were filming at the temple. From the costumes and swords, it looked like a period piece. As soon as I turned my camera on them, they began to mug.