Daibutsu

New Year's Eve - a time for reflection.

We weren't actually the only ones there, but Kamakura is quiet. Everyone saves up their visit for the first 3 days of the New Year.

Read more...

Boxing Day

It didn't start out that well...

But after a tasty business lunch in a basement, discussing a paper revision with a colleague also attending the meeting, we went home the slow way.

The light was a bit wild at the newly refurbished Tokyo station. Swung by the Imperial Palace The pale brown stuff below is grass. It always does this here, because it is so dry in winter. Found some end-of-year leaves (ginkgo) And some 10th month cherry blossom And then ran to meet James (who had been peacefully reviewing papers - his main occupation since August - in a cafe a couple of miles away), only pausing occasionally to photograph the architecture.

Read more...

More wildlife for my MIL

Oh OK. I give in. But most of them weren't in Yellowstone... and see how few of them are bears!

Elk (there are plenty in Yellowstone, but this one was just north of the park entrance):

Mountain goat (Glacier Park): Mummy rare black-tailed prairie dog (Devil's Tower): Kiddiwink prairie dog: Big Horn Sheep (The Badlands): Mummy deer (Boulder garden variety): Kiddiwink deer (it actually did have 4 legs): Tourist and moose (Lake MacDonald Lodge, Glacier Park): We saw a live moose in the distance just outside Glacier Park. Unlike the wolf, it was easily visible to the naked eye, but again there was someone there with a scope who kindly let us get a closer look. Pronghorn deer are everywhere in Wyoming, but they are small and springy and I didn't try to photograph them.

Read more...

Wildlife for my MIL

James has promised his parents a trip to Yellowstone. Weirdly this has resulted in them sending us lots of bears for Christmas and birthdays. It seems important, therefore to point out that, apart from buffalo, wildlife can be elusive. For example, see the wolf, 4th photo down, here.

We had better luck with the mountain goats further north:

(Those prairie dogs in the distance are rare black tailed ones!)

When you do see a bear, usually it is too quick to hardly even notice, but sometimes it looks like this:

Read more...

body image

Gingerbread men weren't morbidly obese when I were a lass (in the 1970s). We shared him, of course.

I don't understand US food portions. I suppose the idea is that people support the economy by eating lots of food, and then they support it even more paying for the resulting treatment to lose the weight gained. In Japan the portions are all much smaller, which means that even if you go to a restaurant alone you can sample a pleasant variety of food for your meal, whereas in the US one is in danger of exploding before finishing half a portion. Because it is not necessary in Japan to pay someone to make you thin again, it makes sense economically that the food is much more expensive.

Read more...

AGU review, the ADD version.

Drink Bluebottles. Eat chockie. Don't forget your hearts.

Dangerously multitask coffee and phone. If brain overloads with exciting science, cease multi-tasking immediately and prop self against wall, where it is safe to engage in deep thought. It is of the utmost importance that men spend much more time proclaiming codswallop to bemused women than the reverse. Help. Help. Geeekkks! Geeekks! As far as the eye can see! Recuperate by sampling best pizza in San Francisco (Noisy and not as good as Kamakura's finest, let alone Tokyo's.)

Read more...

Tour de San Francisco #2 - Let's Art!

San Francisco has a modern art museum. It is important not to view modern art on an empty stomach. Luckily, art-priced luncheon is available on the top floor. Note the brilliant Mondrian cake.

Like a multi-floored Japanese department store, starting at the top and working down is a good tactic, as the whole experience is then a slow run for the door. But after a while one may start to confuse up and down... Apparently this one is about uncertainty, and since this is wot we work on, I had to take a picture. Some staved off madness by retreating into familiar worlds. James' trousers were admired several times!

Read more...

Tour de San Francisco #1

Unfortunately I did not remain at the chocolate sundae shop all week, while James went to hang out with the spods at the AGU. Although... perhaps I could become one of those ladies who lunch eat chocolate...

Instead we left Ghiradelli behind... and visited some old boats from the motherland... Artistic misty golden gate bridge with posing gull was the reward for making it to the end of the pier... The walk back to our hotel was quite interesting. Really ought to have taken more pictures. We did, however, have the honour of being flashed by a street photographer. Is this really an advert for Dropbox? Dinner was in Chinatown. I didn't previoulsy know that the temples are built in the upper stories. Sorry if these pictures are awful. Work has given me a new MacBookPro and it makes all my photos look phenomenal. Hopefully some discernment will return with practice.

Read more...

Choclit

How much fossil fuel would you burn for a chocolate sundae?

Read more...

Autumn colours

Even the toxic waste dump part of town where we work has some pretty red and gold colours at this time of year.

In the shop I thought the iPod was green and was surprised to find no such colour option available, only yellow. Depending on the light it can be gold or green (flourescent light is green and tungsten is yellow). Anyway, whatever it is, it is a brilliant colour, especially for someone so good at losing things - hope it doesn't wear off too quickly. The background is the deep red leather of an iPad cover.

Read more...

But then on 25th November...

I found that James had been right all along (as usual) - the cars really are breeding! Clearly one of ths parents of this brother and sister pair is the first car pictured here.

Read more...