Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan

Chooch got a new iMac, so we have here old iMac to give away to a good home.

It is a Purple iMac, still works fine. At the moment it has OS9 on it. You could put OSX on it, but you might want to add some extra memory if you do that. Anyway, if you are looking for a computer to check your email and things like that then this would be great for that.

Currently it has Mac OS J1-9.2.2, but we could put the English version on there. Have some software on CD as well which you can take with you. Hard disk is 10 gigs. 192mB ram. Has Clarisworks, Mozilla and some games installed.

Pick up in the Azabujuban area. For more information drop us a line via the contact page.

Update: Looks like it has gone:) Thanks to everyone who got in touch.

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I found this beautiful website - http://www.hdrjapan.com/ while surfing yesterday and thought the photos so gorgeously luscious that I just had to post some of them here.

Katsuren Castle

Katusuren Castle is located on the Katsuren Peninsula on the eastern coast of Okinawa. Today, the ruins of the castle are an educational attraction, hosting tourists, schoolchildren, amateur historians, and curious passersby.

Obon in Okinawa

Obon is a three-day holiday set aside each summer to honor deceased ancestors. During this period, family members celebrate the return of ancestral spirits by gathering together, feasting, and praying.

Hamahiga Island

Hamahiga Island is a small landmass located off the Katsuren Peninsula on the eastern coast of Okinawa Honto. Roughly 2.5 square kilometers in area, Hamahiga’s small size belies its importance in Ryukyu mythology. The island’s name comes from the two communities on opposite sides of the small mass: Hama and Higa.

I haven’t travelled to Okinawa (yet), but looking at these photos makes me really want to visit those idyllic islands. Of course the photos are HDR photos which always makes photos seem completely mindblowing but wow! it does look fascinating. I particularly like the third image posted above as I think it quite captures the ambient mood of early evenings out on the islands.

You can see more of the photos here: http://www.hdrjapan.com/.

Wouldn’t you just love to visit there?

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Saw a longer “expose” on this yesterday morning on the news. Below is the story from the Yomiuri Newspaper - but as to why he really did it, who knows!

Nude foreign man caught swimming in Imperial moat

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A foreign man was spotted swimming naked in the moat of the Imperial Palace in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on Tuesday at about 11:30 a.m., sparking a police and fire service operation to apprehend him.

About 50 members of the Marunouchi Police Station and fire service were mobilized in pursuit of the man, some of them in boats, as he swam around the moat near Wadakuramon gate.

A crowd of about 300 bemused passersby gathered to take in the rare sight of a nude foreigner thrashing about in the moat and watched him as he clambered out of the water onto a path, from where he hurled stones at police and firemen before fleeing. It took police officers about 1-1/2 hours to finally capture and subdue the streaking man after he climbed up a stone wall.

According to a senior police officer, the nude swimmer described himself as a 40-year-old Spaniard. Along with four other foreigners, the man had apparently been to a police box at Wadakuramon at about 11:20 a.m. to say that a bag had fallen into the moat. The man apparently spoke in English.

However, after telling police about the bag, the man suddenly launched himself into the moat, stripping off his garments as he trod water in the moat.
(Oct. 8, 2008)

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I went to a trial shodo, or Japanese calligraphy, lesson on Saturday, and then had my first proper lesson last night.

Living in central Tokyo it is quite easy to forget that one is living in Japan at times, so I wanted to do something Japanese and improve some of my skills at the same time. I am not really into Japanese swords - although I can see how people appreciate them as art forms, and I don’t find the idea of Japanese martial arts that appealing (I mean really judo gear stinks!) so I thought I would give shodo a try. And now that I am a bit more settled into work (must tidy that site up soon!) I have time to try some new things.

Another reason is that I would like to get better at writing Japanese. I write a bit in Japanese at work, business emails and the like, but it is all done on a computer (good old Ubuntu!) so I forget how to write the characters by hand - I think this happens to a lot of Japanese people to. And, earlier this year, we sent a wedding present to a friend in China who got married. She wrote back saying I write Chinese like a primary school student. Ouch!

Much more difficult than it looks would have to be my first impression of this Japanese art form. I think I can now draw a simple line. The idea basically is to become one with paper and brush and there is a long way for me to go to achieve that.

The image is from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Haruichiban.JPG. Calligraphy by Ishizaki Keisui, uploaded with author’s permission, http://www.sho.ne.jp/artists/a/html/ISHIZAKIkeisui.html.

Something to aim for!

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Here is how not to provide advice to beginning users of your software:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Basic_Batch/

A great example of a Catch 22 though!

I mean if you can understand what they have written, you don’t really need the page do you.

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Apparently this McDonalds Hamburger was bought in 1996 and still looks as good as the day it was sold! You can read more about it here: 1996 McDonalds Hamburger.

Think I would rather stick with a decent felafel pita from Pita the Great.

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A Walk

Tracing lines turning
parallel chances
into relics in the rain

They flew and overflew
and refueled and reflew
and flattened temples

munition dumps, soba shops
intelligent turning of heads
elegantly falling petals

my feet are heavy
stomach light, hands sticky
umbrella bobbing east and west

like this music, pop songs
from a kids music box, all reborn
at the turn of a key.

And Pene lost his sense of smell.

How much an image
indelible in snow

I remember cartwheels
across the square

Everyone giving the wheel
a cold shoulder

The snow melts
only the footprints remain.

Dance, then

It came early
but was never
unexpected.

A light mist
to hover

over thought

This June, this July.
Out in the country
the frogs acroack.

Bishkek, or the victory of capitalism

It was only an opera
Nothing more than
a few kopeks here and there

A National Tale revealed
by the orchestra in the bar
between acts. Watch

them demolish a bottle
a bottle a group
a group six or eight

Slowly the woodwind
then the timpani
A right cacophany

By the end
even the strings
marched towards progress

One imagines divas
and virtuosos. More pastoral
than plastered.

The city a park
stretching over
pot holes and street vendors.

The orchestra leaves
on a truck packed
to the brim

Spilling over
with rusted metal
The principal export.

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I see this limousine parked outside our place quite often. Actually there are a lot of cars like this parked along our street, black cars used by the presidents of various companies in this little city. It is quite amusing to see them all in a row - lexus’ and bentleys and the like - and to think that there are car parks just around the back of the one star Michelin restaurant they love to frequent.

I mean if you can afford a bentley, you should be able to afford parking for it!

It isn’t very good for the environment as they leave their drivers sitting in their cars as they wine the nights away, leaving the air conditioning on for all that time. Of course I imagine people like that don’t care too much for the world they live in.

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Saw this truck stopped at the lights outside our place and thought it was worth a quick snap. We see these trucks quite often, driving around advertising Japanese pop music stars. They play samples of the music for the masses to enjoy. I wonder how much it actually helps their sales.

Still the music is slightly better than that played by the Japanese nationalists / fascists in their sound trucks.

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Congratulations to Rent My Flat in Feodosia!

This is a website I help look after for a Turkish friends’ flat in the Crimean resort town of Feodosia. This year they were featured in the Lonely Planet, something they are very proud about.

The Lonely Planet had this to say about the website:

Rentmyflatinfeodosia.com (www.rentmyflatinfeodosia.com) - This private apartment for rent …. also has an informative English website with detailed museum, restaurant and bar listings.

Nice to hear that they think the site we put together is useful and informative.

I put up a page about the Lonely Planet Ukraine Travel Guide.

I was planning to visit Feodosia this month, but got offered a new job that was too interesting to turn down - hopefully we can visit this exciting place next year!

All the best to the Rent My Flat in Feodosia team.

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