節分

OK, so, armed with my oversized log of sushi, a bag of beans and my map to happiness, today I endeavoured to rid my self of demons, devils and wrongdoers, and hope for a wondrous future.











Step 1: Pelt the lurking horrors with beans. He seems to be enjoying it though, perhaps I should throw them harder?
Step 2: Every corner of my colleague's classroom is littered with beans, now to orient myself in a SSE direction.
Step 3 (and 4): With all and sundry scared off by the bean onslaught, the coast is clear for me to consume the SSE pointing oversize sushi roll without uttering a word for the duration. This done, I make a wish. The wish does not involve waffles.
Mm-mmm... this IS a tasty burger.

東京

People used to seem pretty shocked when I told them that I'd been in Japan over two years and had never spent any time in Tokyo.

Now I have.

It was big and shiny just as you'd expect.

I liked this train too, designed to take advantage of the sea view, and the grassy embankments blocking said view. Cheers to Brandon for the cheesy pose.

Oh yeah, and apparently I can live a happy life now I've been fortunate enough to see the very top of Mt. Fuji on a clear day with no haze or clouds. I pity all you sorry souls who'll never witness it, and never know true happiness as a result.

キノコがある

There is indeed.

雪

So, ah, you're not driving this winter then?

この写真が大好き

お正月

１０１ビルは世界で一番高いビルと思います。一月の一日、００：００にここで素晴らしい花火大会を見えた。

台北のルール

There seemed to be a remarkable number of such rules and regulations around Taipei, and the ones in the airport I especially wanted to take photos of - including things along the lines of: 'Anyone with a fever, cold, diarrhoea et al must report their condition to the authorities on entering Taiwan'; 'To prevent the spread of avian flu, passengers must not bring poultry on public transport'; 'Passengers arriving from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand et al must take special precautionary health measures for the first ten days of their stay'; 'To prevent the spread of Dengue Fever, the use of long-sleeved garments is recommended'.

I can just imagine turning myself in upon arrival with a case of diarrhoea and being locked in a shiny white cubicle for the duration of my holiday...

日本のクリスマス

Hope everyone recovered OK from New Year!

Here's some pictures from the aforementioned rained-out Christmas festivities. Held every night of December, the 'Hakodate Christmas Fantasy' features a giant-headed amusingly voiced Santa, his cohorts and sleigh, and a Christmas tree imported from Hakodate's sister city in Canada. This year the top broke off, but it got better (those with long memories may recall that last year's tree had to be replaced from Hokkaido due to a bug infestation).

The usual weird techno music featured, with the same Pet Shop Boys track being the centrepiece ('Go West'?) and the dancers did an admirable job despite the sleet drizzling down.

新しい図書館

すごい！静なのに賑やかです。たくさんパソコンやDVDやCDや雑誌や漫画や本があります。少しだけ英語の本もありますから、村上春樹の小説を借りました。

イスラエル六番目

The Wailing Wall. Imposing, wall-like, worshipped in a way that seems to jar quite badly with my pre-conceived notions of God-worship. No idols, right? Anyway, it's impressive enough, and it amused me that I could enter where Tamar couldn't (women get a small screened-off section of wall to the far right).


These pious-looking types will just spontaneously gather and when they reach a quorum all sorts of murmuring and head-nodding will kick off, in orders of magnitude greater than they can achieve alone.


So the idea is that whatever you write on a scrap of paper and stuff into the wall will be read by God. I figured I might as well do so, and wedged my slip of paper in amongst all the others. Much later an Israeli said to me "So what did you ask for?" to which I replied "Wait. What? I was supposed to ask for something?".


This is the closest I got to the amazing mosque in Jerusalem, as just a little futher down the road there were eight soldiers with big guns who informed me that only muslims were permitted to go any further. Note that all these folk are men, and all are headed away from the mosque.