文書は英語ですが、写真は共通
(though I'm taking a break from blogging for a while)
Archive for November, 2007I was thrilled to get a call yesterday from my best friend, Ramchandra Kulkarni, whom I had not seen in years (perhaps since he was Best Man at my wedding 10 years ago!?). He happened to be in Tokyo for a few days, so I zipped up on a shinkansen (bullet train) to visit with him during a few hours he carved out of his schedule. Ram and I both entered the University of New Hampshire at the same time, for a Masters in Computer Science. For the duration, we studied along side each-other in Kingsbury Hall, and lived on [...] 
View full post » Despite the beauty of Kyoto and Japan that I try to showcase in the photos I normally post, most of the populated ares of Japan are wall-to-wall unmitigated monochromatic urban blight. Concrete, utility poles, warehouses, convenience stores, congested traffic, anonymous nondescript office buildings.... just lots and lots of visually-neutered components pasted together with horrific amounts of mind-numbing blah. The drive down to Hirakata (to see a doctor about my ouchy back, as I mentioned yesterday) is through this metropolitan monotony most of the way. As such, the drive is in no way pleasant, but it does offer one point that [...] 
View full post » Last week was not a good week for me. The cold I got Monday evening was the least of my problems, because earlier that same afternoon, something happened to my back that left me, for the most part, unable to walk for several days. Whatever it was, it was unlike any condition I could find discussed on the Internet (it's not related to a pinched nerve, slipped disk, etc.). As one might expect from a sudden and severe back pain, the pain was utterly excruciating. I was mostly okay so long as I didn't move, so that bode well for [...]
On the way back from the Eikando-Temple event that yielded the Bonanza of Fall-Foliage Desktop Backgrounds (among others), we came via a street here in Kyoto that I've traveled often, and whose views I've always admired. Yet, it was the first time that I noticed that one of the walls lining the road along the way was covered in weathered, "flattened" bamboo. I'd never seen such a thing. The bamboo had apparently been scored lengthwise many times over its entire circumference, then flattened to make a flat veneer. Without ever having heard of such a thing, one can imagine that [...] 
View full post » The outing that produced the Bonanza of Fall-Foliage Desktop Backgrounds and the Touch of Color from the Nanzen Temple posts was an outing to an event at a local preschool, which we attended with the family of one of Anthony's classmates, Monet (who was featured in the latter half of this post). The preschool had fun stuff for kids, of course, so it was a hit with all... Lots of events and activities were prepared for the kids. Here, Anthony puts on the eyes of an animal face he's making.... At some point the kids got ahold of those party [...] 
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