Archive for '2006 November'
Takao mountain
紅葉/Kouyou basically translates directly to red leaves. Around this time of the year, leaves on some trees turn bright orange (or red) and people would venture out for sightseeing. A few years ago, I went to Kamakura for Kouyou and thought it was rather nice but I never got to go anywhere for Kouyou ever since. So this year, I made an arrangement to go to Takao-san which is 45 mins train ride from Shinjuku.
3 commentsUtsunomiya
I joined with a few girls from my ex-employers to visit Utsunmiya (Tochigi prefecture), a place that is famous for its dumplings, gyoza, and Oya stones (image: that frog is carved from Oya).
The girls basically named this trip, gyoza eating trip: go around to a few famous gyoza restaurants and just try ‘em all and see whos the best. So yeah, I thought it was just an eat-till-you-drop kinda thing. But to my surprise, they had plans to do a bit of sightseeing too which is always great since I do not venture out of Tokyo all that often, if ever.
The journey took us about 1hr 30mins (train ride). Upon arriving, the first thing I noticed was, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of people. Certainly, this place is no big city but nor is it really countryside. Anyway…
2 commentsXmas in Roppongi
To end the day, Yuki, Hiromi and I had dinner near Roppongi Hills (just across the road, actually). The Xmas illumination is identical here every year – they need to do something different… like… change the colours of the LEDs on the tress? Hahahahaha… OK, maybe not…
No commentsTokyo Tower
After the Imperial Palace, we grabbed something to drink in Marunouchi (trendy business district which is just around the corner) before heading off to the Tokyo Tower, a place I last visited close 11 years ago…
5 commentsThe Imperial Palace
Yuki is in town again from Osaka so I met up with her and her manga-artist friend, Hiromi, and did a bit of sightseeing here in Tokyo.
2 commentsAnimals in the womb
“Using an array of technology, the images reveal what until now has been a secret – exactly how animals develop in the womb. Each one amazing and now, thanks to these remarkable pictures, they can be seen for the first time.
Researchers used scans to track elephant calves developing for almost two years in the womb – the longest gestation period of all mammals. It shows at 16 weeks the elephant foetus starting to look more like an elephant as the trunk develops.
Animals closer to home were also studied. A golden retriever foetus is shown exhibiting some of the same behaviour as family pets, panting with its tongue out, while still in the womb.
Programme makers also reveal the moment at eight weeks when a baby dolphin learns to swim while in the womb. During the next few weeks, it develops flippers, a tail and a blowhole before being born after a year, and must be able to quickly swim to the surface to take its first breath of air.”
Incredible! Absolutely amazing! Check it out!
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Geoff’s farewell
Yesterday, I attended Geoff’s farewell party at his place along with like 25 other people, out of which, I knew only 5 people. Geoff is about to leave Tokyo and return home to France with his gf, after spending the last 2 years here.
These are the kind of times that make me realise how fast time really flies. I remember as if it was only yesterday when I interviewed Geoff for a designer position at the company I was working for. We worked together for only a year before I resigned. And even that was close to a year ago.
Anyway, Geoff’s place was pretty big and easily accommodated all 25 of us with even more-than-enough space left for dancing! And you should have seen the amount of food he and his gf prepared! They spent like 2 days preparing it all. There was just so much food, even after 25 people had been at it, there was definitely about 80% of it remaining – enough to last weeks! And that is not including the drinks and cakes.
2 commentsUlala slowly passing out
… behind the living room mirror (which happens to be the entrance to my room). Rabbits are always on high alert, even when they are asleep. This is hardly surprising considering these cute and quiet animals are at the very bottom of the food chain.
Anyway, Ulala when asleep, from my slightest of movements (and I mean slightest), one of his ears will first shoot up into alert mode followed by the other ear, then he would open his eyes and stare at me. If I get up and walk somewhere, he’d get up too. But if I stayed still, he would slowly fall asleep again only to be woken again if I moved a finger.
So, to get this shot of Ulala being very close to deep sleep, was not easy. I had to stay seated with the camera in my hands pointing at Ulala the whole time while keeping very still. It felt like I was in this position for a decade before Ulala finally fell asleep. And yes, rabbits do snore… quite loudly too.
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