Showing that Jomyoji tea shoppe really does have a British-style garden, the first snow drops I have seen for 8 years.
Read more...Friday, November 27, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Jomyoji, one of the top five Zen temples of Kamakura has an English tea shoppe in its grounds. I have avoided it for 8 years, because English tea shoppes in Japan sell cakes that look realistic but taste of salt rather than of sugar. This is so crushingly disappointing that its better to avoid the places altogether. I thought the Zen temple version would be the worst of the worst, but I was wrong. Not only were the cakes actually sweet and the coffee quite acceptable, but the garden was actually very realistic too.
There was even an on-site bakery, which is what the picture is of.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
This time the focus is on data people, but to all climate modellers, whose arts are equally dark: in order to avoid being boiled alive after all is revealed, make sure you have fully published your climate model at the journal created especially for the purpose of improving transparency in modelling science, GMD.
Read more...Monday, November 23, 2009
Don't come the raw prawn with me, and yes that's the ole sea urchin's gonads next to it... mmm delicious. But it would have felt kinder if the chef had killed the poor prawn rather than leaving its top half a-twitching on the plate.
Read more...Thursday, November 19, 2009
Another abrupt climate change occurred yesterday and it is only 4 months since the last one. Now it is cold, and therefore "virtually certain" that all the mantises are dead including dear sweet Trevorina
Photo is taken in a sub-temple at Hase-Dera. It is a scary place. There is one little concrete statue for each dead baby. I hope Trevoria managed to make 10 times this many progeny before she died. Mantis infant mortality rates are very high...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
A break from the nauseam on the empty blog, a quiz. Boy or girl?
Taking flight off the stairs to join the black kites swooping overhead seems a good solution to impossible to walk in shoes.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Autumn colours and cherry blossom in a single photo! The title of the photo gives it away. This is a cherry blossom that flowers in October. The tree is rather sparse now, so I wouldn't bet on it still being in flower by the time the maple tree in the background has turned all the way to red. But then again I do usually lose my bets...
[Zuisenji, Kamakura]
Monday, November 16, 2009
Commissioned by Steve to disambiguate kiddy kimonos, here's a 3 year old girl.
Yesterday, 7-5-3 festival day, I stood inconspicuously with my long lens along with the other inconspicuous men with inconspicuous long lenses, at the foto-place at the foot of the stairs by the bandstand, and we all took pics of happy families. It is quite entertaining. Basically the child is charged with climbing a large staircase wearing expensively rented constricting clothes and shoes it is impossible to walk in. Luckily parents are allowed to help. Despite all this it was smiles all round and I saw not a single tear or tantrum. Japanese kiddywinks are the best!
Then, most bafflingly, as we stood there surrounded by beautiful people in lovely kimono, one of the inconspicuous photographers came up and asked me (dressed in tatty jeans and drab jacket) to pose for him! Hmmm.. seems that I will never be an inconspicuous photographer after all...
Friday, November 13, 2009
In the comments to the tiny dot boy and his family, on Js empty blog Steve was getting curious about men's attire.
THis is how it seems to me:
0-10: "moe!" (dressed by Mum)
11-18: Exhausted school boy (dressed by school)
18-25: Fashion icon seeking mate (dressed by self)
25-65: Exhausted salaryman (soul and dress-sense owned by company, wife does what she can but his heart's not in it)
65+: Inconspicuous (obeys she who must be obeyed)
0-10 and 18-25 are by far the best. Here's one of the latter.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Our meeting last week was mostly about the last millennium, so as well as oceanography we also mused on some old trees, one of which (a ~500 year old ginkyo) frames most of the right hand side of this photo.
I often try to take this photo of the bandstand and several tori down the ~1.5 mile dead straight road between the beach and Hachimangu shrine in Kamakura. I like the lighting in this one but, the thing I find most interesting is that almost everyone who is not actually walking up the stairs is engaged in photography.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
This year disaster training had to be postponed at the last minute due to a disaster; a typhoon was directly overhead. Luckily the replacement day was 20C and sunny. For the first time this year there was a 10 second count-down to the pretend earthquake. I do hope we will get one of those for the real thing. Then there will be time to grab my helmet and sit cuddling my Mac Pro under my desk. Really I just like any socially acceptable excuse to cuddle my Mac Pro.
Read more...Tuesday, November 10, 2009
When the family dresses up kimono-stylee, the salaryman remains attired the same apart from his accessories; his briefcase always becomes a camera, and in extreme circumstances, such as shown in this picture, he may adopt a more brightly coloured tie. It is really quite odd, because there does exist traditional kimono-stylee wear for men.
[Early 7-5-3 celebrants at Hachimangu, Kamakura]
Monday, November 9, 2009
This picktur what I took in Yokohama yesterday is getting an awful lot of hits on flickr. Odd. It's not that great a picktur. Anyway, Christmastide has just started in Japan, so we are all dustng off our faux fur, mini-skirts (shorts are also permitted) and knee high boots.
Read more...Saturday, November 7, 2009
Our week of Let's Internationally Climate Science (=we had visitors) ended yesterday evening. Last session, oceanography.
Read more...Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
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