Blogging In The Rain

I have a nifty function on my desktop that shows the weather across the globe; looks like France was best off today. Just.


Il pleut.

Image Of The Week #94

Ruuu-ude!

(taken in Odaiba - 16th July, 2008)

Phil-Board in Japan?

I'm playing the award-winning Mario Galaxy on the Wii (hold on a minute, wiiiiiiiiiiiiii; couldn't resist). For some strange reason, my name turned up.


I consulted with Google and there are four signs throughout: Phil Board, Gil Board, Jill Board, and Bill Board - of which, at last the last one makes some sense.

Must be all those mushrooms Mario keeps taking.

A Lot Of Hot Air

This weekend in Bournemouth is the (first) annual Air Festival. Lots of planes took to the sky, although a few lost out to the rain. On Thursday, something like a stealth bomber from an action movie boomed around town, creating a visual spectacle and an audial headache.


Last night (Saturday) some hot air balloons were inflated along the Gardens, around the Bournemouth Eye.


The blasts of fire into them were pretty impressive, and the crowds seeemed please, but it was a bit disappointing that there weren't any spotlights or strobe lighting set up, and most of the time, the balloons were in darkness.


Further along, a multicoloured heliosphere took to the sky, and a girl gymacised her way underneath it.


The night was finished off with some fireworks.


The red arrows just flew past my window now. No pictures, but here's a short clip from YouTube.

Sunny In Sendai

So that's where the sun's been hiding.

Image Of The Week #93

In a Sendai supermarket after the earthquake a few months ago.

Tanabata In Sendai

About a year ago, I went to a Tanabata Festival near Yokohama. It was an amazing place, with all the streamers filling the streets, celebrating the annual reunion of the lovers across the Milky Way. Sendai, however, is the place to be. For three days near the beginning of August, downtown is full of festivities, with their streamers hanging so low everyone walks through them. (The live-streaming fireworks were the opening ceremony.)

Every shop joins in, from Starbucks to even Claire's Accesories! And of course, no traditional ceremony is complete without Pokemon.


Miyagi Prefecture, home to Sendai, is infamous for being home to the ugliest girls in Japan. This one's no exception:


Even the dogs dress up!

You Can Take The Boy Out Of Japan

Yesterday I quelled my craving for sushi, thanks to my Grandma who went the distance and bought a range of ingredients that we used to concoct some creations. She even bought a bamboo rolling mat!


We started with the rice, and made the rice vinegar (using the wine vinegar, liqueur, salt and sugar). I'm not a connoisseur but it tasted like the real thing. Most of the sushi we made was rolled, spreading rice over a sheet of nori (seaweed)and then including a filling, before rolling it tight. We used tuna mayo and cucumber, and smoked salmon and avocado.


Sushi doesn't have to be raw or fresh fish, although the majority of choices on a typical menu would be, as it also includes other vegetables, meats and the like. However, we adventurously tried some fresh salmon on rice but agreed that it was a bit bland and decided to leave it for cooking later. Otherwise I'm pretty sure Grandma enjoyed it as well, and it was good practice for when Oli returns from LA and we can prepare it for him.


It wasn't as presentable or delicate as an authentic restaurant, but for first attempts, this wasn't half bad:


It was really delicious, with ginger and wasabi (green horseradish), making sure we addressed the ginger delicately; 'gari' means ginger, whereas 'geri' is diarrhoea!

The ingredients were all fantastic, by a company called Yutaka, although their slogan was a little cheesy:

"Sushi made Japan-easy"

A really fun experience. Arigatou.

Trained Chimp

You've heard of 'Snakes on a Plane' but how about the sequel, 'Monkey on a Train'?


Yesterday, this monkey escaped from somewhere and wound up in Shibuya station near my old line, the Toyoko, causing mass hysteria.


If ever there needed to be proof that Japan becomes weirder by the day, surely this is it.

The Curious Incident Of The Doorbell In The Night-time

Woken up at 2am by someone at your door is scary and just weird. Who visits at 2am, except burglars or drunkards?!

Apparently, our bell is on the same wavelength (or something) with a neighbour. Which still doesn't answer the question of who visits in the middle of the night.

For now, case solved.

Can't Do That On A Packed Train

Kohei Uchimura, Silver Medal.
He's only 19 and 5ft 3!

How To Make Mugicha

Japan tea comes in many varieties, from the simple green tea, through to the more complicated herbs and spices. They're all available in convenience stores and one of my favourites is mugicha; roasted barley. Distinguishing features are that it is darker brown than other teas, caffeine-free, and refreshing in the summer. And it's easy to make too!

Step one: procure a teabag.


Step two: fill up a litre of water and add said teabag.


Step three: leave to cool for three hours.


Step four: serve cold or warm it up for Winter's nights, ahhh.

Quick kanji lesson:
茶 (cha) = tea
緑茶 (ryokucha) = green + tea
麦茶 (mugicha) = barley + tea
茶色 (chairo) = brown + colour (brown)

And The Award...

...for 'Best Girlfriend' goes to Keiko. Here, have an imaginary medal. This care package really raised my spirits yesterday.

Revenge

You would have thought that all those hiralious Engrish t-shirts would be a good deterrent for Westerners from falling into the same trap. But did the designers learn? Of course not! Oli found these t-shirts on the Topman website:

The Japanese means nothing and reads nonsensically/awkwardly, to the point where it would probably correspond in English to something like "zxzxqzy".

Key-Train

I won these in an arcade machine just before I left Japan. The key-rings are of a typical ticket and Keihin Tohoku train carriage (anothr popular line) and the Yamanote Line with support handles.


Snazzy, but seeing as Bear McClane is currently protecting my keys, I have nothing to attach them to. Maybe I'll have to get a mobile. While we're on the subject of the Yamanote Line, and I always seem to be, here's a little jingle to remember the stations.

Choo Choo... Gotanda!

When Good Escalators Go Bad

A convention centre in Tokyo on the 5th Aug; the escalator reversed and sped up, leaving 20 people injured and one with a broken leg. Chaos!

How Long Is The Yamanote Line?

34.5kms, which would take quite a while to check using the newest, coolest gadget doing the rounds: a replica Yamanote Train Tape Measure, which displays the stations in order as well!

Surely deserving of a barrage of exclamation marks, so: !!!!


I was fortunate to find one just before I left, and now I'm the envy of all the kids in town. Not really, but no way is this a souvenir for anyone but myself. This website has quite a few funky pictures.

Image Of The Week #92

Somewhere between 'grammar' and 'glamour', this t-shirt is faburous.

(taken in Odaiba - 16th July, 2008)

Trivia

Japan and Great Britain appear roughly equal in size on a World Map, but which one is bigger (in terms of land mass)?

Highlight below for the answer.

Answer: Japan (377835km sq) > UK (244820km sq)

Be Careful How You Say It

Big Brother's officially boring me now, so what better time to do some blogging?*


Two weeks before I came back to England Keiko, Michelle (a friend) and I headed to Sensoji Temple in Asakusa to see the annual houzuki bazaar that I'd never heard of before. Houzuki is also known as winter-cherry or Japanese lantern, or in Latin - and this is where you have to be wary - physalis alkekengi.


As usual it was packed with tourists looking for souvenirs and trying their luck with the paper omikuji. The plants were being sold by people on stalls the whole way down from Kaminarimon (thunder gate) to the main temple, which made me wonder what they do the rest of the year round. They were pretty expensive, at about £5 a single branch, but popular especially among the older generations. We asked around where they were grown but most people were defensive to say the least; one guy said something which, since I couldn't understand, took the tone of: 'If I tell you I'll have to kill you'. Friendly.



He did show us the fruit inside which looked tough but sweet.


I snacked on my regular festival food mizuame, sticky water candy drizzled over a piece of fruit or marshmallow. The general method of selling is for 50p or so, you play rock, paper, scissors and can win two or leave with just one. I won!


The main delivery service was even on hand for purchasers to send gifts straight off to friends and relatives.


Some other sights included a sign that's just asking for trouble, some cute kids, the ingenious price of a pancake, cooking red-bean pancakes, and some even cuter kids!


A bit of a walk around and then across the bridge to the Asahi building (and the Flaming Turd/Yellow Willy architecture) and up for that toilet view a few entries ago.


*Although, to BB's defence, and my embarrassment, I had a close encounter with The House (!) in Borehamwood the other day which was bed-wettingly exciting.