Here's a photo which I think captures a lot of Japan:

Cherry Blossoms, a Cemetery, and a Ramen Noodle Joint

I took this near Daigo Temple in Yamashina, Kyoto, Japan, after visiting the temple during cherry-blossom season last month.

The big yellow sign says “Ramen” (as in “noodles”), and is for a shop on a major street that you can't otherwise see in the picture. The thing that looks like a cemetery is a cemetery, although there are no bodies, just monuments and likely some ashes.

As a bonus quintessentially Japanese thing, in the very upper right, you can see some futons hanging over someone's balcony railing, being refreshed in the sun.

Here's a pointer to a satellite map showing where the shot was taken, and also the location 300 yards to the northwest of the sign itself. The observatory on top of the mountain is that of Kyoto University, just exactly three miles (4.9 km) away.

I used to love garlic, but I think that all changed this morning when I woke up leaking concentrated garlic extract from every pore of my body.

Yesterday while relaxing with a beer, I enjoyed a snack best described as “corn-nut garlic”. Cloves of garlic deep fried and turned into big puffy crunchy snacks, very much like hyper-seasoned corn nuts. They were strong, of course, but no more than a good garlic potato chip or other well-seasoned snacks.

I didn't have too many of them, though -- maybe a third of a 120-gram bag (a total of about an ounce or so). But this morning, I awoke with a general unease. I just didn't feel right, and my head hurt.

Oh, and I reeked of garlic. Garlic was coming out of my hair. Ears. Nose. Garlic was coming from my eyeballs. And oh, yes, it was on my breath. I actually couldn't smell it myself, but I could feel it oozing from me. I'll spare you the details, but it's suffice to say that my bathroom experience for the whole day was new and, uh, tumultuous.

Today was a busy day -- I had a lot of errands to do (catching up on some shopping, I finally bought a TV and DVD-Recorder TiVo type thing for Fumie, and a small scooter for myself) and I was keenly aware that anyone getting within 50 yards of me would want to gag. I held my breath a lot, in the hopes of sparing those closest.

I came home this evening, a good 20 hours after eating them, thinking that perhaps I was mostly over it, but Fumie said that I was still extremely, uh, “strong”. Putting Anthony down to bed later, I asked him if I was still stinky. “Yeah” was his understated answer. I asked if he liked a stinky Daddy, and he just shook his head. Indeed.

Relaxing now in my office, I realize that I can still feel it oozing from my pores. And yes, my eyes. My eyes are still oozing garlic.

I found the image above via Y! Japan image search, associated with someone's blog post, where the guy mentions that he tried them. He goes on to say “The bag I found had only 1/3rd the amount in the package you see, and so that's all I ate, but in the morning I was obviously a human “dangerous weapon”. It's recommend to not be careless and come too close.”

The remains of the mostly-full bag are going into the trash, as will I if this doesn't clear up by tomorrow morning.

So after losing my old 60-gig 4th-generation iPod at a hotel in Malaysia )-: I got home and ordered a new one, a 60-gig 5th-generation iPod. The new one is thinner than the old one, can play videos, and is black.

I use it mostly at the gym, but also in the car and sometimes out and about or at home. I like it a lot. I'm not one of those rabid Apple fans, or, perhaps, even an Apple fan at all, but I must admit that Apple does a very good job of keeping things simple and clean, yet leaving more advanced features just under the surface within easy reach of those who want them.

So, it is with that in mind that the few features I wish my iPod had stand out so glaringly in my mind as “missing”. Since I'm sure Steve reads my blog, I thought I'd post my new iPod feature wishlist (which is in addition to the old one):

• If the per-song option to trim some time off the start and/or end of a song is used (so that only some middle portion actually plays), the “song time” and, if used in a playlist, the “playlist time” does not reflect the shortened time. This is exceedingly annoying, since I use this feature the most on songs for my “30-minute workout” playlists for the gym, and it becomes quite difficult to keep track of how long the playlist will actually play.

• Similarly, on the iPod itself during song playback, there's no indication that the “remaining time” isn't really the time the song will continue to play. It's the time the song would continue to play where the stop-playing-early option not used. This is inconvenient.

• While playing a song, the “menu” key brings you up to the song list, but it doesn't show you where in the list you currently are, but the top song on the list. This is retarded, at best.

• I would find it convenient if some of the per-song options were actually per-song, per-playlist. For example, when using a song in one of my gym playlists, I trim off any slow intros or exits (as per the first bullet above), but I want that trimming only when hearing the song in the gym-related playlist. I'd also like the song volume adjustment to be this way.

• It'd be nice if I could specify an alternative name or title string to show up in the display during playback. For songs in my gym playlist, I'd like to show the beats-per-minute of the song, but I wouldn't want to see it when playing via other playlists.

• There are some playlists for which I always want the play order to be unchanged (my gym playlists, and ones dealing with classical music), and others I want the play order to always be random (anything else). I really wish I could set the “randomize” feature on a per-playlist basis.

• When I go to the list of podcasts and select the first one to play, why doesn't it continue with the second one once the first one is done? Why is the podcast list the only list that doesn't “auto-continue”? It's frustrating enough that I stopped listing to podcasts.

Apple, your attention to these issues for the next software upgrade would be most appreciated. Thanks.

This picture doesn't look like much when it's small, but click on it for a larger (1,600 × 1,200) version suitable for what I think is a lovely desktop background. It's from our trip to the Takaragaike Children's Park, mentioned in the previous post.

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UPDATE: more cherry-blossom backgrounds from the same trip.

Today we went up to the Takaragaike Children's Park, a wonderful playground with lots of fun things for young kids (those older than elementary-school age are not allowed in unless accompanied by someone in elementary school or younger).

It's in a cooler area of Kyoto than we are (they get a fair amount more snow during the winter, for example; as the blog of Nils, who lives up there, will attest). Being cooler, some of their cherry blossoms are peaking and fading a bit later than ours.

Here's a tree right between the “petals fallen” and “leaves grown” state:

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All the red stems will eventually fall off.

The next image has three cherry trees in the foreground (although it may be hard to see on the small pic; click for a larger version):

• The tree on the left looks much like that in the picture above (mostly the red stems, but the occasional white petal and occasional green leaf).
• The tree on the right is in absolute full bloom.
• The smaller tree just to the right of center, which at first glance just looks like part of the big fluffy tree on the right, has a mix of half blossoms and half leaves.

These trees are right smack in the middle of the play area; the trees in the background are on the side of a mountain that the park is next to.

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I guess the way things progress really depends on the variety. The middle tree has no red stems -- the leaves are pushing out the petals directly. (Heck, for all I know, maybe one or all of these aren't even cherry trees!)

Here's a close-up from the big fluffy tree on the right:

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There are plenty of buds which haven't even bloomed yet!