Curious, Odd, Interesting

Barrels of Sake at Meiji-Jingu

May

2013

As the sign says, these barrels are offered once a year from the Meiji-Jingu Sake Brewers Association. The presentation is impressive.

Nokke-don in Aomori

May

2013

I visited the Aomori Gyosai Center and enjoyed Nokke-don which is a process where you have a do-it-yourself bowl of rice topped with fish and seafood of your choosing. There are numerous blogs describing this. Do a search like this and you will see many entries. The google maps street view is here Very heavy snow ...

2011 Japan Earthquake Video

Mar

2011

I was in Japan on 3/11/2011 at the Tesudo Hatsubutsukan (Omiya Train Museum) during the Tohoku Earthquake. I was able to shoot video footage about 1 minute AFTER the shaking started. I added this video to youtube if the above one is not working. You can view it here.

Modern Japanese Express Train

May

2010

I was shooting pictures on the bridge at Uguisudani in Tokyo and snagged some nice shots of a yellow E653 set used for the Fresh Hitachi service on the JR Joban Line. The cool thing about the Joban Line is that it is dual voltage with 1500V DC in the Tokyo area and 20,000V AC ...

Deflation in Japan

Feb

2010

One menacing characteristic (from a macroeconomic viewpoint) of the Japanese economy now is deflation. It’s evident at izakaya (watering holes) everywhere in Japan. Y300 plates (or less). Food has really come down in price since the heady Bubble years and it is really nice to enjoy a few beers and tapas for a little bit ...

Light Bar on Police Car

Feb

2010

This is something I have never seen before. It’s a light bar on top of a police car that extends upward for better visibility. I saw this in Ryogoku after a sumo tournament while I was walking back to the station. Very clever, but I’m not sure how useful it might be.

Delay on JR

Feb

2010

Day 10 Post Note: This is from a series of trip reports from my January 2010 Tokyo Trip. They are random musings about whatever seems interesting for that day. I was headed to Yokohama on day 10 to visit a friend. The following message popped up on the display. Chuo Line “Delay” due to “clearing ...

F1 Car at Toyota Factory Tour

Feb

2010

Day 9 Post Note: This is from a series of trip reports from my January 2010 Tokyo Trip. They are random musings about whatever seems interesting for that day. On Day 9 I went on the Toyota Factory Tour. Prior to the tour I went through the museum and found that they are still displaying ...

Osaka Castle Visit

Feb

2010

Day 7 Post Note: This is from a series of trip reports from my January 2010 Tokyo Trip. They are random musings about whatever seems interesting for that day. On Day 7 I visited Osaka Castle. I didn’t pay to go up to the top because I was told it’s a concrete replica and not ...

Fresh Wasabi 2

Jul

2009

Most people have not seen fresh wasabi. It costs about US$21/lb wholesale so it’s not cheap. Here is a picture of some at the wholesale market in Tsukiji.