Kanazawa station

Kanazawa station is amazing!

these are some pictures I took while I was bored. I was waiting for my friend.

Shot from the windows of the Kanazawa orchestra hall. I think the sculpture is a giant tuning fork.


Bicycles and pedestrians around the station.

surprise english lessons!

These are two of the funniest videos I've seen in a while.






What do you think?

no way?!?

Does this exist anywhere else?

Yes folks, you read it right. It's a Pepsi™ ICED CUCUMBER drink! Can you believe it?!

I had this with some Biz. ..."for my lucky time"

getting the ball rolling...again

Well, I've been kinda lazy about writing recently. So I thought I'd get the ball rolling again...so to speak. Today is the beginning of rainy season. If I look out the window, the atmosphere is so misty that is looks like a Japanese screen painting with the clouds overlapping the scene here and there.

To tell you the truth, I like the rainy season. Rain is good for the soul. I remember growing up in the Afrikan savanna, when the occasional rainstorm would seemingly wake up life. Animals would dance, plants would open-up thankfully, and the earth would smell so clean — the everyday hovering dusts, beaten to the ground. If Afrika is a world of soil, Japan is most definitely a world of water. Life here is so dependent on water. Not just because they are an island culture either. I mean, Britain is an island and their culture isn't nearly so obsessed with water.

I'd say that 80-90% of Japanese food comes from the sea. The most important part of daily life here is the bath, which probably comes from having so many volcanic hot springs around. And the Japanese language itself sounds like it developed in the rainy season. The た, ち, つ, て, とs (ta, chi, tsu, te, to)s sound like raindrops.

Three cheers for the rainy season!!!

a stroll around the wall

urban art

The ghost figure is a very common sight around Kanazawa. But check out the sticker next to it!!!

This sticker is so cool! The design is of a kimono-clad woman doing a tea ceremony. I love the mix of traditional and new! Awesome!

culture tip #11

Japan is a very well mannered country, despite not having an absolute code of ethics, there is very little crime. So little, in fact, that you often see lost object left EXACTLY where they are dropped. Most often they are picked up off the ground and posted on top of a low object, or hung on a fence to make them easily visible.

Even bicycles are left unlocked most of the time. The only solid exception to this rule is women's underwear! If a bra is dropped between the laundry and your house, it will be gone — 100%.

Lost Hello Kitty water bottles, left exactly where they were found.

A forgotten Hello Kitty purse, picked up off the ground and placed on a nearby electrical box.

does anyone else hate microsoft?

By the way, check out Lottering dot com, if you have a chance. I added it to the links as well...for future use, perhaps.

legs

kyudo, the way of the arrow

Last weekend there was a massive festival in Kanazawa. It's called Hyaku-man Goku matsuri, or 'the 1 million bales of rice festival', celebrating Kanazawa's heritage of being the richest prefecture in Japan.

Unfortunately, I missed the Parade, but while wandering through the park with Erin Chapman, who came to visit me all the way from Osaka, we stumbled upon an archery contest.

courtesy of Erin Chapman

This girl won the whole competition to become the Grand Archer of Ishikawa Prefecture.

watch her shoot an arrow!

for Pippa

"Darth Pylon guards underground base"