Because we had time to kill, we all took the train to the end of the line to a station called Hon Kawagoe. Near the station, there are some temples and other old buildings. It seems to be a fairly popular tourist destination and the temple was busy with people who were apparently still performing their New Year rituals. .JPG)
There were lots of stalls selling traditional snacks and trinkets. The picture at the top shows daruma - traditional Japanese dolls which are used for making wishes. As can be seen from the picture, each daruma has no eyes. When you make a wish you colour the right eye black. If your wish subsequently comes true later in the year, you then colour the left eye black. If you look at the picture of the daruma in the fire on my New Year blog, it appears that whatever wish was made did not come true in 2007 as the left eye was still uncoloured.The next picture shows lucky cats or maneki neko. Cats which hold up their right hand are supposed to attract money while cats holding up the left hand are supposed to attract customers.
We also visited Toki-no-Kane, a famous belltower which is about 400 years old. I took some photos of the area but because blogger does not seem to accept pictures in portrait, I have had to steal an image from the internet. I am also still unable to include links in my postings....arghh!!
40 comments:
So can you get loads of the cats with there right hand held up then - could be useful and I notice that you have a Bell tower named after you too! Fame at last!
Since the bell tower is 400 years old, I assumed that you had an interest in bells. Perhaps that's why Mark called his son Ben?
Pauline, your grammar is truly awful. It should be THEIR right hand, not THERE right hand.
If I ever sell my house in Skye through your Estate Agency, I will be checking the sales particulars extremely carefully!
yeh thats true. Oh Alan by the way before you correct me I am aware that the 'there' should have been 'their'.
too late..............
Pauline, I am always one step ahead of you, babe.
By the way, Kane, have you ever been to New York? GD and I were thinking of going there for a few nights in March/April.
Aldo
Never been but I think it's in a place called Ameridia. I've heard that people are very fat there and carry bazookas. Be careful!
Thanks, Kano. Is Ameridia near Narnia then? I think my parents may have taken me to Narnia as a child. As I recall, you enter Narnia through a wardrobe.
Almost correct. In your case it would be a closet you would need to come out of.
On a completely different subject, does anyone know the best way to clean/dust a venetian blind? I have tried using a damp cloth, but it takes absolutely ages.
I hoovered our blinds last week. Worked a treat and only took a few minutes. Totally dust free!
Seriously? Perhaps you will eludicate. I presume you used the extension hose, but please confirm.
Nope, I used the regulation floor attachment which covers a broad area of blind (approx. a 30cm swathe).
I am not sure I follow - can you please explain further? Do you detach the blind from the bracket, place it on the ground and then vacuum it as if you were vacuuming your carpet? Seems a bit rough on the poor blind. I can see that it might work with traditional cloth blinds, but not venetian ones.
I wonder what Pauline thinks.
There is no need to modify the configuration of either the blinds OR the vacuum cleaner.
I initially thought that it would be too rough on the blinds and was worried that an overly strong suction effect would cause minor damage e.g. warping or scuffing.
However, the gaps between the blind slats REDUCE the suction effect to acceptable levels, thereby eliminating the risk or damage or unsightly marks.
You can see an example of blind vacuuming in the film called 'The Fugitive', starring Harrison Ford. In the film, he poses as a cleaner/cleaning operative to obtain confidential information regarding recipients of prosthetic limbs in the Chicago area. Whilst secretly scouring the hospital database, he vacuums the blinds to maintain his cover.
I hope this helps.
He does however use a special attachment which I assume was manufactured especially for the job. However, as previously mentioned, I have since discovered that additional (and potentially costly) attachments are unnecessary. I can only conclude that the manufacture of such accessories was a profiteering exercise to maximise revenue from the American health care industry.
Thank you for your interesting and valuable insight into the world of venetian blind cleaning.
I am still a little uncertain though. Do I take the blind off the brackets and then just vacuum it as if I was vacuuming a carpet?
Negative. You do not need to remove the blinds from their brackets.
Please watch 'The Fugitive' for a demo.
Regrettably, I recently threw out my old copy of The Fugitive (the 1993 action thriller which, as you say, stars Harrison Ford in the lead role as Dr Richard Kimble, together with a fantastic supporting cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, and Julianne Moore)on VHS format.
Perhaps on your next blog could could include a photograph of you vacuuming your venetian blinds by way of a demonstration. I am sure that your (two) readers will be interested.
oh my God, young (well maybe) men discussing how to clean a blind!!! I have absolutely no comment to make!
ps got a job for you Kane when you are here at Easter?
I was thinking about this again last night and I have reached the conclusion that you must be using a cylinder vaccum cleaner rather than an upright one. I possess the latter, so it would make sense for me to use my extension hose to reach the blinds. Agreed?
Agreed. I was unaware that we were using different cleaning apparatus. Let me know how you get on. It would perhaps be best to test your technique on an area of blind which is not immediately obvious to any house guests you may have. This cautious approach would ensure there are no f*ck ups which would result in expensive payments having to be made to blind specialist companies in the Lothian Region.
As an aside, you mentioned the VHS format. As you know, VHS triumphed over the Song Betamax system in the early 1980s, despite VHS being bulkier and having an inferior performance. Which system do you think will win the text format war? HD-DVD or Blueray?
I think you mean the SonY Betamax system, do you not? I certainly do not recall the Song Betamax system. Was at an early type of karaoke machine?
I favour the HD DVD system as opposed to the Blue Ray(TM) system as I myself have recently purchased a Toshiba EP35 HD DVD player. Did you know that HD DVD players use blue rays to read the data on the DVDs (as opposed to ordinary DVD players which use red rays)?
Certainly (and at this present juncture at least) there is a much wider range of titles available on HD DVD format, as opposed to Blue Ray (TM) format. I appreciate, however, that the position may be vastly different in Japan and other eastern countries.
Yep, you sure know your karaoke machines!
Looks like HD-DVD is dead. Toshiba have halved the prices on players now as only 2 studios back the HD-DVD format. 7 now support BlueRay. You backed the wrong horse.
I beg to differ as time and tide fight for no man.
On a more positive note, however, I have successfully secured the purchase of a black Ninendo DS games console. Said console is due to be delivered from the good offices of Amazon (the website, not the rainforest)tomorrow.
Nest question - who would win a fight between Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk?
I hope it was the DS Lite that you purchased and not the older (and bulkier) DS.
I'm not sure which super-hero would win to be honest. I think that if it came to straight blows, The Hulk would win easily. However, if Spiderman played to his strengths, I believe that he could mount a good guerrilla style campaign and gradually weaken The Hulk into submission over a period of months or years. I guess the Mujahaddeen versus the Soviets would be a suitable analogy.
That's an affirmative - it is a Nintendo DS Lite games console.
And I agree with your analogy which puts The Hulk (and indeed the Soviets) in a quite invidious position. Very much a war of attrition (like The Great War).
Turning now to architecture, I find that many buildings in Japan appear to be of a rather post-modern design. Do you share my view?
The only view I have about Japanese architecture is that it is almost all a mixed bag of total garbage. True, there are some 'nice' temples and the like, but post war architecture generally consists of poorly built box like buildings which have an average shelf life of 25 years.
To summarise, Japanese architecture and planning are a total shambles. The urban and rural environments have been largely ruined by inept / non existent planning practices and very few people complain. A big shame!
Well, you say that yet, ss with so many other aspects of Japanese culture and society, the change to modern technology brought a quite noticeable change in architecture as well. The need to rebuild Japan after World War II proved a great stimulus to Japanese architecture, and within a short time, the cities were functioning again. However, the new cities that came to replace the old ones came to look very different. The current look of Japanese cities is the result of and a contributor to 20th century architectural attitudes. With the introduction of Western building techniques, materials, and styles into Meiji Japan, new steel and concrete structures were built in strong contrast to traditional styles. Like most places, there is a great gap between the appearance of the majority of buildings (generally residences and small businesses) and of landmark buildings. After World War II, the majority of buildings ceased to be built of wood (which is easily flammable in the case of earthquakes and bombing raids), and instead were internally constructed of steel. High visibility landmark buildings also changed. Whereas major pre-war buildings, such as the Wako Department Store, Tokyo Station, Akasaka Palace, and the Bank of Japan were designed along European classical lines, post-war buildings adopted the "unadorned box" style that some people love and some people hate. Because of earthquakes, bombings, and later redevelopment, and also because of Japan's rapid economic growth from the 1950s until the 1980s, most of the architecture to be found in the cities are from that period, which was the height of Brutalist Modern architecture generally.
However, since around the early 1990s, the situation has slowly started to change. The 1991 completion of the postmodernist Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was perhaps a tipping point in skyscraper design. Hot on its heels was the Yokohama Landmark Tower. In 1996 came the much-loved Tokyo International Forum, which besides a unique design, sported a landscaped area outside for people to relax and chat. More recently, in 2003, Roppongi Hills was opened, which borrowed ideas from previous ground-breaking designs and furthered them. The new area of Shiodome, completely redeveloped since the late 1990s, is an excellent place to see a group of postmodern and European-style buildings, away from the usual jumble of '60s-era anonymous rectangular prisms. Still, despite this slow but continuing trend in contemporary Japanese architecture, the vast majority of suburban areas still exhibit cheap, uninspired designs.
The postmodern Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku, Tokyo.The best-known Japanese architect is Kenzo Tange, whose National Gymnasiums (1964) for the Tokyo Olympics emphasizing the contrast and blending of pillars and walls, and with sweeping roofs reminiscent of the tomoe (an ancient whorl-shaped heraldic symbol) are dramatic statements of form and movement.
Japan played some role in modern skyscraper design, because of its long familiarity with the cantilever principle to support the weight of heavy tiled temple roofs. Frank Lloyd Wright was strongly influenced by Japanese spatial arrangements and the concept of interpenetrating exterior and interior space, long achieved in Japan by opening up walls made of sliding doors. In the late twentieth century, however, only in domestic and religious architecture was Japanese style commonly employed. Cities sprouted modern skyscrapers, epitomized by Tokyo's crowded skyline, reflecting a total assimilation and transformation of modern Western forms.
The widespread urban planning and reconstruction necessitated by the devastation of World War II produced such major architects as Maekawa Kunio and Kenzo Tange. Maekawa, a student of world-famous architect Le Corbusier, produced thoroughly international, functional modern works. Tange, who worked at first for Maekawa, supported this concept early on, but later fell in line with postmodernism, culminating in projects such as the aforementioned Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and the Fuji TV Building. Both architects were notable for infusing Japanese aesthetic ideas into starkly contemporary buildings, returning to the spatial concepts and modular proportions of tatami (woven mats), using textures to enliven the ubiquitous ferroconcrete and steel, and integrating gardens and sculpture into their designs. Tange used the cantilever principle in a pillar and beam system reminiscent of ancient imperial palaces; the pillar--a hallmark of Japanese traditional monumental timber construction-- became fundamental to his designs. Fumihiko Maki advanced new city planning ideas based on the principle of layering or cocooning around an inner space (oku), a Japanese spatial concept that was adapted to urban needs. He also advocated the use of empty or open spaces (ma), a Japanese aesthetic principle reflecting Buddhist spatial ideas. Another quintessentially Japanese aesthetic concept was a basis for Maki designs, which focused on openings onto intimate garden views at ground level while cutting off sometimes-ugly skylines. A dominant 1970s architectural concept, the "metabolism" of convertibility, provided for changing the functions of parts of buildings according to use, and remains influential.
Downtown Tokyo is densely packed with polygonal multi-story buildings that squeeze right next to each other.A major architect of the 1970s and 1980s was Isozaki Arata, originally a student and associate of Tange's, who also based his style on the Le Corbusier tradition and then turned his attention toward the further exploration of geometric shapes and cubic silhouettes. He synthesized Western high-technology building concepts with peculiarly Japanese spatial, functional, and decorative ideas to create a modern Japanese style. Isozaki's predilection for the cubic grid and trabeated pergola in largescale architecture, for the semicircular vault in domestic-scale buildings, and for extended barrel vaulting in low, elongated buildings led to a number of striking variations. New Wave architects of the 1980s were influenced by his designs, either pushing to extend his balanced style, often into mannerism, or reacting against them.
A number of avant-garde experimental groups were encompassed in the New Wave of the late 1970s and the 1980s. They reexamined and modified the formal geometric structural ideas of modernism by introducing metaphysical concepts, producing some startling fantasy effects in architectural design. In contrast to these innovators, the experimental poetic minimalism of Tadao Ando embodied the postmodernist concerns for a more balanced, humanistic approach than that of structural modernism's rigid formulations. Ando's buildings provided a variety of light sources, including extensive use of glass bricks and opening up spaces to the outside air. He adapted the inner courtyards of traditional Osaka houses to new urban architecture, using open stairways and bridges to lessen the sealed atmosphere of the standard city dwelling. His ideas became ubiquitous in the 1980s, when buildings were commonly planned around open courtyards or plazas, often with stepped and terraced spaces, pedestrian walkways, or bridges connecting building complexes . In 1989 Ando became the third Japanese to receive France's prix de l'académie d'architecture, an indication of the international strength of the major Japanese architects, all of whom produced important structures abroad during the 1980s. Japanese architects were not only skilled practitioners in the modern idiom but also enriched postmodern designs worldwide with innovative spatial perceptions, subtle surface texturing, unusual use of industrial materials, and a developed awareness of ecological and topographical problems.
Sorry, what were you saying?
An interesting copy and paste which seems to ignore or gloss over many of the problems which exist in Japanese architecture and planning.
It is not a copy and paste - it is how I feel. After all, architecture is a very personal thing that is able to reach out and touch the hands of millions.
Kane, you guys are mental! x
Do you ever watch "The Sopranos"?
Katie, you are so right!
I spoke to Mr Campbell last night and mentioned the fact that Yuki and Clara would be unable to attend his wedding as they were heading back home prior to it. He said he would give you a call to discuss that. He was on good form. Have you had your invite yet? Mandy is 38. Go on, my son!
Invite arrived yesterday. I will RSVP shortly.
As far as your wedding outfit is concerned, I have a proposal. GD has suggested that we could hire you a decent kilt etc here in Edinburgh, bring it up to Nairn with us on the Friday, pass it to you and then take it back with us and return it to the shop on Monday if you want.
You have indicated that the kilt hire shops in Nairn are not the best.
Thanks for the offer. I will consider the situation when I arrive in Inverness (2 weeks before the wedding).
Thanks to GD for the thought.
Personally, I think it would be hilarious if you rocked up at the wedding in a gimp suit, but that's just me.
Anyway, is it not about time you did an update?
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