Koinobori Bento for a Four Year Old
Fumie is getting extra creative with Anthony's bentos these days. In honor of the upcoming Children's Day holiday, during which koinobori (carp streamers) are flown to symbolize and hope for children's strength, today's bento has koinobori-shaped wieners.
As a bonus, there are little fish mixed in with the veggies.
We have large streamers that we normally fly from the balcony, but this weekend we're heading to Furano in Hokkaido (Japan's northern large island) for a mini trip. According to Yahoo! Weather, next week's highs look to be about as warm as here (20°C; 68°F), but the lows (freezing) are colder than it got here in Kyoto all winter. It should be fun.
We're taking a car ferry (that leaves at 1:30am.... ugh!) and so hope to be able to drive around to enjoy the countryside. Hmmm, I wonder whether I should bring my camera.....? 😀
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 31mm — 1/8 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — full exif
Standard: 1024×768 · 1440×1080 · 1600×1200 Widescreen: 1280×800 · 1680×1050 · 1920×1200 · 2560×1600
Buncha' Stones
Unlike yesterday when I photographed the voluptuous cherry blossoms of my previous post, today was misty/spritzy all day. One nice thing about such days is that the bed of stones filling some of the alcoves in my building glisten sumptuously, and I enjoy them for brief moments as I walk by.
On one such day, I paused to take a picture of them, and I thought some might enjoy such an image as a desktop background, and hence this post. Links below the image above lead to sizes appropriate for common desktops, both standard and widescreen.
Personally, I like a background with less contrast (despite the fact that at the moment, I'm using this colorful image on my own desktop), so I futzed around with some Photoshop filters and came up with something even more subdued and calming. It has its own desktop-size links as well:
Standard: 1024×768 · 1440×1080 · 1600×1200 Widescreen: 1280×800 · 1680×1050 · 1920×1200 · 2560×1600
Buncha' Stylized Stones
One problem with creating the various sizes above is that in resizing the image, some of the filter effects are reduced or lost, so here's a set at full resolution, with the various sizes being full-resolution crops. Thus, the filter effects remain unperturbed....
Standard: 1024×768 · 1440×1080 · 1600×1200 Widescreen: 1280×800 · 1680×1050 · 1920×1200 · 2560×1600
Buncha' Unresized Stylized Stones
I realize that these are not the most exciting photos, but sometimes “calm” is nice for a desktop background. There are plenty of other kinds in my desktop-backgrounds category.
Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 1/350 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 — full exif & map
10 Gallons of Blossoms on a 5-Gallon Branch
Imagine taking 10 gallons of white and pink blossoms, and forcefully shoving them onto a branch capable of holding at most half that amount, and that's the feeling you currently get from two trees in my neighborhood.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Approaching Critical Mass
I don't know what kind of trees these are. If they are cherry trees, they're blooming long after all the other cherry trees in this neighborhood.
Update: thanks to Aaron and Andy for identifying them as “yaezakura” or “botanzakura” cherry blossoms.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 170mm — 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Current State of Most Cherry Trees Around Here
These blossoms range from almost pure white to a mildly deep, rich pink, often the whole range being found on a single branch. Yet, they seem to congregate in cliquish bundles of like-minded blossoms, with one pom-pom's worth mostly one shade, and the neighboring one another. Perhaps they were high-school girls in a former life?
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 44mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200, P.P. boost: +0.20EV — full exif & map — nearby photos
White? Pink? Why not Both!
From afar, the trees look to be adorned with enormous, discrete puffs of pinkish cotton or pom-poms, as if these trees were populated by gaggles of 9-year-old girls fresh from the mall, invisible except for their hair decorations.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/180 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Tree #1, From Afar
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320 — full exif & map — nearby photos
An Edge of Tree #2
The individual blossoms are huge... perhaps two inches across (substantially larger, deeper, and more full than common cherry blossoms). Huge quantities of these two-inch blossoms are then grouped tightly to form pom-pom-like clusters. Close up, they appear quite fake, as if an overly crafty Martha-Stewart-type made them from vast quantities of the most pretty, delicate crepe paper.
The pom-poms seem to be more tightly bunched (if that's at all possible) on the second tree compared to the first. There's a definite difference in overall look and feel between the two, as can perhaps be seen when comparing the first two pictures on this post.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 95mm — 1/250 sec, f/9, ISO 320 — full exif & map
Martha's Handiwork?
I tried some pseudo-macro work by interposing a Kenko 12mm extension tube between my D200 and my Sigma 30mm f/1.4. The resulting magnification doesn't quite reach the 1:1 ratio required to be called “macro,” but the blossoms fill the frame well enough.
Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 + 12mm extension tube — 1/350 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 — full exif & map — nearby photos
“I am Blossom. Worship Me!”
I don't have any experience with macro photography, except when I put a bunch of extension tubes on my Nikkor 70-200/2.8 the other day (see the last two pictures on this blossoms and buds post). The picture above was taken while I was straining to be three inches taller, on my tiptoes, holding the blossom steady with one hand, the camera in the other, and focusing by adjusting my distance from the blossom. Rube Goldberg would have been proud.
The result is not too bad for such a cheap solution. It had some pretty severe chromatic aberration in the upper-left corner, but that was tamed to a good extent in Adobe Lightroom by slapping both chromatic-aberration sliders to their max.
I took the pictures shown here yesterday. This morning on the drive to preschool, while waiting at a traffic light, I noticed that a roadside shrub right outside the window had the most wonderful, vibrantly red/pink flowers on them. I want to foster in Anthony an appreciation of nature and of beauty, so this short exchange ensued:
| Me: | Wow, Anthony, look at those flowers. Aren't they beautiful!? |
| Anthony: | I know you want to take a picture of it. You do. |
Ah, he knows me well. More blossom posts here.
I renewed my visa today, so I'm allowed to live in Japan for another three years. I'd applied for the renewal three weeks ago, and about a week or so ago, got the “come in and pick it up” postcard. I went today, bought 10,000 yen (US$85) worth of revenue stamps at the little shop around the corner, submitted the stamps, the postcard, and my passport (and with a bit of help from the kind, helpful man at the counter, the application for a multiple re-entry permit), and sat down to wait.
Unfortunately, it was ready soon and I was out in less than five minutes. I say “unfortunately” because I'd brought along a treat for the wait: a book by Bill Bryson.
It doesn't really matter what book it is — if Bill Bryson wrote it, it's got to be great. This man could write about wiping the dust from paintings at a museum, and it would be riveting, entertaining, and informative all at the same time. Or, to make a more realistic analogy, he could write about walking the Appalachian Trail — I can scarcely think of a more boring subject — but with his writing, it would be a riveting, entertaining, though-provoking, witty, wonderful book that's a joy to read.
Anyway, the particular book I had today is The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir, which I recently received from my folks for my birthday.
Here's a taste... the first four paragraphs of the book:
In the late 1950s, the Royal Canadian Air Force produced a booklet on isometrics, a form of exercise that enjoyed a short but devoted vogue with my father. The idea of isometrics was that you used any unyielding object, like a tree or a wall, and pressed against it with all your might from various positions to tone and strengthen different groups of muscles. Since everybody already has access to trees and walls, you didn't need to invest in a lot of costly equipment, which I expect was what attracted my dad.
What made it unfortunate in my father's case is that he would do his isometrics on airplanes. At some point in every flight, he would stroll back to the galley area or the space by the emergency exit and, taking up the posture of someone trying to budge a very heavy piece of machinery, he would begin to push with his back or shoulder against the outer wall of the plane, pausing occasionally to take deep breaths before returning with quiet grunts to the task.
Since it look uncannily, if unfathomably, as if he were trying to force a hole in the side of the plane, this naturally drew attention. Businessmen in nearby seats would stare over the tops of their glasses. A stewardess would pop her head out of the galley and likewise stare, but with a certain hard caution, as if remembering some aspect of her training that she had not previously been called upon to implement.
Seeing that he had observers, my father would straighten up and smile genially and begin to outline the engaging principles behind isometrics. Then he would give a demonstration to an audience that swiftly consisted of no one. He seemed curiously incapable of feeling embarrassment in such situations, but that was all right because I felt enough for both of us — indeed, enough for us and all the other passengers, the airline and its employees, and the whole of whatever state we were flying over.
He goes on and talks about all kinds of things from his youth, about everything and about nothing at all. None of it is intersrting, yet it's all extremely interesting to read. I can't possibly explain it because I don't understand it. It just is.
Eventually, he gets to Chapter 2. Here's Chapter 2's first paragraph:
So this is a book about not very much: about being small and getting larger slowly. One of the great myths of life is that childhood passes quickly. In fact, because time moves more slowly in Kid World — five times more slowly in a classroom on a hot afternoon, eight times more slowly on any car journey of more than five miles (rising to eighty-six times more slowly when driving across Nebraska or Pennsylvania lengthwise), and so slowly during the last week before birthdays, Christmases, and summer vacations as to be functionally immeasurable — it goes on for decades when measured in adult terms. It is adult life that is over in a twinkling.
So, a kid has a lot of time (especially a kid growing up in the relative innocence of the 50s, in rural middle-class Utah). Days were long and he, like all kids, spent them doing kid things, and he writes in a way sure to evoke the reader's own memories:
I knew how to get between any two properties in the neighborhood, however tall the fence or impenetrable the hedge that separated them. I knew the cool feel of linoleum on bare skin and what everything smelled like at floor level. I knew pain the way you know it when it is fresh and interesting — the pain, for example, of a toasted marshmallow in your mouth when its interior is roughly the temperature and consistency of magma. I knew exactly how clouds drifted on a July afternoon, what rain tasted like, how ladybugs preened and caterpillars rippled, what it felt like to sit inside a bush. I knew how to appreciate a really good fart, whether mine or someone else's.
Sadly, my visa was ready, so I didn't add much beyond this to what I'd already read. I then had to make an unexpected trip to the ward office to have my “gaijin card” (proof of foreigner registration card) updated to reflect my now-extended visa. I'd never done this in previous years (in the 90s, when I worked for Omron), so either it's a new requirement, or I was inadvertently naughty. I only knew to do it this time because the guy handing back my passport mentioned it.
My favorite book of all time — the one I'd bring to the deserted island — is Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, so I'm looking forward to enjoying this new one.
Computers Can Be So Vexing
Yesterday when Anthony got home from preschool, he runs in and says “Daddy, Daddy, I want to build a computer.” Now, I don't know where he got this idea about building a computer, but when Anthony says “I want to build...,” it really means “I want you to build for me...” He's fully capable of building things by himself, as evidenced by the highway construction project from the other day, but when he actually pre-announces that he wants to build something, he's really telling me to do it.
I sort of thought the request was a bit odd, since he doesn't really use the computer much. Once a month or so he plays some of the wonderful activities at the Nick Jr. UK site (which has activities appropriate for kids as young as two; a great resource). Other than that, his only interaction with the computer is to watch me.
Anyway, I didn't think he'd understand if I replied truthfully that “Daddy is a software guy, I'm not a hardware engineer,” so I put on my best MacGyver hat and built him a computer from random things lying around the house.
Anthony's New Computer
It features a Lego block for the mouse, a piece of cardboard for the keyboard, yarn for the wires, and a plastic tool case for the monitor (the case being part of a Christmas present from his Aunt Chickee and Uncle Mikey). He can tape pictures to the monitor to change what he's working on. To get him started with that, I gave him a salad dressing advertisement and an old catalog of photographic equipment filled with random pictures.
Computers Can Be Fun!
It's a pretty advanced system, comparable in may respects to my new Dell.
Its main feature is 4 gigabytes of quad-core imagination, which he puts to extensive use.
Staring Intently at Nothing but a Screen Full of Imagination
Not long after starting his “work,” we had this conversation:
| Anthony: | I'm going to send something. |
| me: | To Mommy? |
| Anthony: | No, to Shimada-san. |
| ... slight pause... | |
| I think we're going to need a printer! |
I cut some slots in a used tissue box, and we had our printer.
Why Don't These Things Ever Work?
Hardware Upgrade
He found the initial configuration to be a bit lacking, so we had to make a few additions. Above, he's adding a button that automatically contacts the fire department. We also added a power button, and a delete key.
Below, he's using the delete key. Maybe he was reading email, and clearing out spam?
Exercising the “Delete” Key
More proof that his experience with computers is mostly from watching me.....
I fully expect him to come home some day soon with “Daddy, I want to build a camera!”