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 May, 2007Every year, the local water-treatment plant opens its gates for four days so the public can enjoy its manicured gardens of about 4,600 azalea shrubs (tsutsuji -- つつじ -- in Japanese). Kyoto's Keage Water-Treatment Plant (蹴上浄水場) is on a sprawling hillside less a kilometer from our place, and I've long enjoyed the brilliantly colored (mostly insanely bright pink) hillsides of shrubs that are visible from the road, but until I ventured inside yesterday, I didn't realize how much I'd been missing. The place is huge, and full of amazing and beautiful sights. It rises 68 meters (225 feet) in elevation [...] 
View full post » I ended my previous post with the sad tale of having most unfortunately thrust my foot into a large, gooey pile of finely aged cow poop. The story doesn't end there. In fact, that wasn't even the low point of the tale -- it turned out to be one of those "one of those days" days. So, to continue the story, I washed it off as best I could in a puddle of what I fervently hoped was water. I was able to get it to appear fairly clean, but then again, the shoe was brown to begin with, so [...] 
View full post » As I mentioned yesterday, Biei, Hokkaido is a really pretty area, and we went three days in a row. Each day's weather was different, so each had its own feel. The fields all seem to be in different states, with some recently plowed (deep brown dirt), some green (grass?), some dried yellow dirt. A very few had dotted rows of tiny seedlings that could be seen only up close. I loved the endless combinations of rows, colors, and shapes, along with the many different types of backdrops. I was forever stopping to take pictures; Fumie is a patient woman. The [...] 
View full post » The shadows point almost due north, and are long, so it must have been taken in the heart of the winter. The bare trees along the riverbank also attest to that. The lack of trees certainly takes away some color, but I just don't get the overall muddy, copperish cast. For comparison, here's the same close-up view via Yahoo! Maps.... In this case, Yahoo! Maps seems to look more reasonable. Generally speaking, Google Maps still has better coverage than Yahoo! Maps, but I'm finding more and more cases where Yahoo! has better maps and/or better satellite coverage. As a [...] 
View full post » The other day I posted about a koinobori bento that Fumie made for Anthony, featuring koinobori (carp streamers) made from wieners. Today is the Children's Day national holiday in Japan, for which koinobori are flown. We saw many more koinobori flown while driving around Hokkaido than we do in Kyoto. It was nice. The ones above are in front of what looks like a small hotel in the middle of nowhere, in Biei, an hour's drive north of where we stayed in Furano. (A bit of search after the fact shows that it's indeed a small hotel with the odd [...] 
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