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Meishi of my own
Since we moved in February, I’ve not had any personal meishi (business cards), but while shopping the other day, I found some very interesting translucent stock that will work in my inkjet printer. So today I’m designing some new cards. I forgotten how challenging it is to get a good balance of white space, graphic…
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Yakatabune
Yakatabune! Dining on Tokyo Bay. Floating parties on ships like these are a summer tradition dating back centuries. Poetry readings and courtly music have been replaced by karaoke, but the spirit is the same. It was fun to dress up in yukata.
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Typhoon Chataan
Typhoon Chataan blew through yesterday (so much for too little rain) and by 2:30 this morning, it was extraordinarily windy. We battened down the hatches and went to sleep. This morning the sky is bright and clear except for an appalling haze of pollution around the horizon.
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Mistakes and lessons
“You have the capacity to learn from mistakes. You’ll learn a lot today.” Thanks, Slashdot, for posting those words of wisdom and encouragement at the bottom of your page. I’ve been working on some video projects that are simple in concept, but tedious and frustrating in execution. My equipment is just not behaving. Like I…
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It’s stopped raining
It’s stopped raining. Yesterday’s weather was hot and humid–typical Tokyo summer. We’re due to have thundersorms over the next couple of days, but that’s not a typical rainy season all-day drizzle. Looks like tsuuyu is over. If so, that was a very short rainy season. Farmers rely on a long tsuuyu to keep the rice…
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Son’t say oriental
Washington state in the northwest US has passed a law banning the use of the word Oriental. “There is a need to make clear that the term ‘Asian’ is preferred terminology, and that this more modern and nonpejorative term must be used to replace outdated terminology,” the law says. Yes, ‘oriental’ is outdated when referring…
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Zoupi
Yesterday’s fun all involved Zoupi. (You can meet him at Zousan.com) After completing his photoshoot for “Where’s Zoupi?”, he packed up and headed off to Belgium where he’ll be vacationing and enjoying a homestay in Heverlee. How is it that Zoupi gets a holiday but I don’t? I’m not sure, but at least his airfare…
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Another all-night billiards session
Another all-night billiards session. This one is indelibly etched in my mind because I managed to sink all my balls and the eight ball before Tod dropped a single one of his. I won and Tod was subject to MJ’s Aussie pub rules. He had to “drop trou” and run a lap around the pool…
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Rant on housing
//rant on// The Japanese real estate system is exceedingly frustrating. With Tod soon unemployed, we’ll need to change our housing lease. Currently it is in the company name; now it will need to be in our name. That shouldn’t be such a big deal since we have ample funds to cover the rent through the…
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Naming hills
Tokyo has a lot of hills with names. Streets generally don’t have names, but the hills do: Andozaka, Tomisaka, Dangozaka. A few of them are well-known for their neighborhoods or train stations–Kagurazaka, Nogizaka, Akasaka–and there are plenty that loan their names to busy intersections, but many are only etched onto historical signs dotting the local…
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