Just a quick update!
All is well.
The news coverage is painting a very bleak picture and certainly it very bad in the north of Japan. However Tokyo has been minimally effected. The earthquake disrupted the trains but apart from that there was little damage.
There has been a bit of panic buying. Mostly perishable goods such as meat, bread and vegetables. Water and dried goods are in plentiful supply at present. The Miso supply seems unaffected!
Last night around 5am there was another strong earthquake. It was very short though and after leaping up and making sure the TV/fishtank was safe i went back to sleep.
Currently the Nuclear Plant situation doesn’t look too good. Tokyo is a long way from the effected area though, and I live in the south of tokyo itself. Hopefully they can get it back under control!
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solid
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solid
I’m at mayumi’s parents for a BBQ. More photos later!
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solid
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solid
Testing out a blog from the iPhone!
Also a photo!
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solid
Blogging from an i pad in an apple store in ginza. Fantastic device!
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solid
Blast zoundry!
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dodman
There’s nowt wrong with the Raven. Resize your photos 512 x 384 and Zoundry’s a breeze.
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solid
Hail!
Here are some pictures that have been hanging around for ages!
Snow on our roof.
In front of a high tec train.
The quiet mountain town we went to for our onsen trip a while back.
Ingenious method of keeping snow off the road. Water is sprayed from cats eye like things continuously.
View from the window of our onsen. That cage on the right contained a couple of bears, which i didn’t photograph for some reason!
Mayumi!
Our drink store.
The traditional finery
The resplendant meal!
Tucking in to the Udon noodles.
Me too!
Snow with bamboo.
Pretty genki around here. Looking forward to popping back in a few months!
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decoy
not sure what’s up with your photos. try uploading one without zoundry raven and see if it works. or email them to me.
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carotte
Good photo’s – shame you didn’t get the bears! Might make it over one of these days.
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dodman
Pretty genki here, too, what with the nationwide warm weather shortage finally coming to an end. Astonishing to see your sheep(?)skin coat is still going strong!
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decoy
good pics jul. like the small bamboo grove.
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dodman
Yes, very well spaced bamboo – I wonder how they do that; ours always ends in a clump.
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solid
haha! they are pretty neat. i look like some sort of crazy mountain man!
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decoy
ah yes, I see it now. more hysterical than crazy perhaps;-)
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solid
Hello all! Happy belated birthday Mama! You prezzy will be a little late im afraid, but it’s on it’s way.
I finally downloaded picasa and the blogging program, so here are the picture from a while back.
Here are a few from the beach when i went up to Mayumi’s family home.
Very pleasant and sunny.
Here are some older ones from Korea.
That thing in the middle of the table that looks like a glistening alien thorax is in fact raw crab.
Mayumi can’t wait to get at the succulent alien spleen.
A fine eatery in Izu, the place we went for the hot springs.
Same place, different angle. they had very good scallops cooked in butter.
At the hotel, dressed in my finery.
Out side in the town nearby. very nice place with old style buildings. It had an area called Perry town after Commodore Perry who aided in opening japan to trade with the west.
Im sporting a touch of a side parting for some reason.
Old house with a mix of Japanese and western aesthetics.
A canon. possible one of perry’s favoured canon for slaying the natives.
A cactus. Perhaps unrelated to Perry.
Delightful cooking pot experience in one of the private onsens.
Mayumi, being small, could completely submerge herself.
Mayumi crafting food at the homestead.
Ill see if i can scrounge up some more photos!
Alls well here!
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solid
Indeed a peculiar dream. The other night i had to fight a chap, in some sort of gladiatorial situation, armed only with a spoon. I stabbed him in the thigh with the handle and i believe he died quite unpleasantly. Did i actually slay some dream denizen, who had some manner of real life unconnected to mine? Or was it some mental problem personified?
The trouble with dreams is, they have very little continuity so its very hard to see anything resembling a world that keeps going after we wake up. If we can control and manipulate our dreams then there is nothing actually solid and real in our dream. There is therefore no need for roads, or cars, or potholes. those are requirements of a material world, which the dream world is surely not. Unless you were having your dream on a layer above a sort of base matter, say a dream terrain, and you traveled over blip or bump in it, which manifested itself as a pothole.
On the other hand. For a road to exist there needs to be a set of rules, like gravity and such. But dream rules rarely match up from one dream to the next. So there would have to be a million little worlds each with there own different rules that we visit every night, like a plague of horrifying godlike ghosts, bending matter to our will and leaving a trail of madness in our wake. Actually that would make quite an interesting story if told from the perspective of a dream chap! -
solid
Completely unrelated, but i thought you all might like to see the simply fabulous summer shoe that my friend Andy sported the last time we met. It defies description and sanity.
It puts “crocks” into perspective. -
solid
Hello! Here are some photos from the recent trip to Mayumi’s family home. About half an hour away by bus and situated near the coast it has very pleasant weather and is very close to the beach. We went for about 5 days and had a very jolly time. I didn’t actually take that many photos. And although e\we went to the beach every day i never thought to bring my camera. The beach was very nice. crisp and sunny days and the water was for the most part pretty clean baring the occasional band of detritus that would wash past sometimes. Presumably brought to shore by earlier storms that we have been having. The waves were very strong and Mayumi and I, and sometimes her friends, had a great time leaping about in the waves. After swimming we would then go to the bath house nearby and soak in the hot pools for a spell. Despite the rampant nudity its very relaxing and after the extremely hot pool i would stagger into the icy cold pool to cool off. Good for the system and gets the old heart going.
Here is the coastline of where we went fishing. interestingly shaped concrete blocks.
This is Maymi and her friends Nororin and Jun setting up the fishing rods. Mayumi caught a puffer fish, but it was too small and not to mention poisonous so we threw it back. Jun caught a crab. I caught nothing…
This is us again enjoying a convivial beer before the start of the BBQ. This was to be a pretty epic BBQ with about 30 of mayumi and her brothers friends.
Early stages of the BBQ. As you can see Mayumi’s Parents have quite a nice garden. In the back it even has a vegetable plot.
The evening wore on, much tasty meat was consumed!
Just before we head back to Tokyo. The chap on the right is Mayumi’s dad. As you can see i invited Alex. The stuff mayumi is poised to pour onto my head is mayonnaise.It was a great visit! Mayumi’s mum made tons of scrummy food and it was very relaxing.
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decoy
nice photos jul. looks like a quality vest that Mayumi’s dad is sporting
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solid
Thank you for the letter mama! It was nice reading! Mayumi says hello!
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solid
my packet just arrived! thanks Tan! we are really enjoying the saucisson, so cheers very much for the resupply.
the statuette made it almost in one piece. there is a clean break at the neck wich should be easy to glue. i think Mayumi has some paints, but im still not sure what colour as yet. ill show it to her when she gets home tonight!-
pinkie
Happy Birthday! Our presents to you are in the post also!
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solid
happy birthday tan! prezzy is in the post!
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dodman
I second that.
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maza
Me, too.
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decoy
the lack of access to the internets at our new place is a bit disconcerting. a belated many happy returns from me. Hope the parcel arrives ok. (despite it being entirely in Han’s handwriting, i played a full and active part;-) – it’s just that her writing is better than mine…)
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solid
had a delightlful meal last night of bread, french cheese and sosi… saucisson! absolutely scrumptious. Mayumi is still in desbelief that it tastes so good in comparison to the bilge cheese we get here. she says thank you all so much for the nice gifts!
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dodman
Presumably they taste all the better for being rare commodities? I remember Mamie snaffling a small Brie triangle we had saved from the plane and using slivers of it to ‘arrange’ her mouth on several successive evenings.
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solid
a jolly few days back in tokyo. thanks Tan and Geoff, i had an epic time! here are some photos.
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decoy
good photos jul! I can practically taste that duck….
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solid
some pictures from the recent sakura hanami. very nice this year. lots of blossom.
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solid
no to feel left out i decided to produce my own emaciated bod.
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solid
i am currently in Korea, where it is a delightful minus 6.5 degrees. i think i have lost a good deal of my face to frostbight. its still rather nice here as the food is fantastic and in general its very cheap. there was some suggestion at the airport that i would need an outgoing ticket on my return to japan but i have printed out my statement and am hopeing for the best. that said could you let me know a likely date i should book a ticket home in case i have to by one in narita or something unpleasent.
dodman 3:43 pm on 15/03/2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Welcome back (to the blog), stranger!
decoy 10:02 pm on 15/03/2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
All you need is Miso and Rice! Let us know if there any assistance we can provide.