Traveling Round Japan

As with everyone, I've long been digital, camera and every other wise. But have a few photos from when I first traveled overseas - after I left school and before I went to uni for the first time. And been scanning them into my puter.

And I've been very struck by those I took in Japan. I still have such vivid memories of my often unexpected and unpredicted experiences. Like running from a shoe shop where I was overwhelmed by the 10,000 styles to choose from. Squeezing into tiny and crowded 20-customer bars in Shinjuku in Tokyo. And spending the night in the vast mattressed sleeping room of a gay sauna ('Senja'), to be woken in the morning by a guy standing on his head wanting me to give him a blow job - no gymnastics at all were required of me. Do you fully get the idea?! A pretty great way to start the day - I recommend it!

So with all that, I'll try not to post any of the usual 'classic' travel shots I took - but some more off-beat things.

When I arrived, I stayed in a suburb of Tokyo with a great friend in what must be one of the very last traditional wooden houses in the capital. Beyond the sliding entrance screens was a stone anti-chamber platform centred by a well - living spaces to the left and right.


Then I was off to another good friend ... in Nagoya. To find this enormous symbolic straw horse, sheltered in its bamboo stable ...


... and some Sumo wrestlers, somewhat paradoxically contexted emerging from cars parked at the base of Nagoya Castle ...


... and, less surprisingly, a traditional raked 'stone' garden.


Kyoto was next.

I loved the electric orange accents everywhere in a temple complex ...




... and the more than accent of colour at the Golden Temple.


And finally Nara, the first permanent capital of the nation, which was founded in 710 and originally known as Heijo.

I was on my own here which may explain why I took one of the prayer spoons home rather than sacrificially burn it in the temple cauldron.


Nara is small and hilly. And one morning just after dawn I went walking. And came across a temple in a valley. Where in the first courtyard was a group of around 20 seated observers listening to an orchestra accompanying a woman dancing. The photo is lousy cos I didn't want to be the ugly tourist intrusively angling to get a better one.


This photo of Koi Carp inspired me ...


... to a similar set when I was in the Philippines last year, and which I posted at the time ...

Makati, Manila, The Philippines

... and again to further shots in Sydney, recently.

Billyard House, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney

Strange, the far-reaching influences of travel!!!

In-Between Moments

It's Friday night - about eight-thirty. The TV is prattling - comfortingly - in the background. As dinner is bubbling contentedly on the stove - a chicken in a reduced broth. I've just filled the teapot from the kettle - the boiling water seemed to chatter volubly on a rising intonation as it made its way to the level of the spout. Inanimate things going on seem to have taken on a human character tonight.

When I was kid of 6 or 7 - no, this is not a Sophie Tucker joke and there is a connection with what I've just said - I craved a ventriloquist doll. I'd seen Ron Blaskett and his Gerry Gee on television ...

Ventriloquist Ron Blaskett and his doll Gerry Gee

I think I wanted a (captive, eternal and totally compliant) friend. 'The parents' had severely restricted our access to other kids - the intricacies of such connections would get in the way of big careers. I'd even infused my potential new doll-friend with a tailor-made-for-me character - nothing remained of the cantankerous, daffy and argumentative persona of Gerry Gee! But sadly this 'soul-mate' was never realized. And I had to make do with some of the other boys at school.

Now the connection between the two sets of ideas I mentioned is that I still obviously fail to make the necessary distinction between the animate and inanimate worlds!

Escaping Danger!

The Situation

You are driving in a car at a constant speed.

On your left side is a 'drop off' - the ground is 18-20 inches below the level you are traveling on.

And on your right side is a fire engine traveling at the same speed as you.

In front of you is a galloping horse, which is the same size as your car and you can't overtake it.

Behind you is a galloping zebra.

Both the horse and the zebra are traveling at the same speed as you.

What must you do to safely get out of this highly dangerous situation?


The Solution

Get off the merry-go-round - you are pissed!!!

W. Heath Robinson (1872-1944) - Humourist, Painter, Book Illustrator and 'Gadget King'

JM and I were having lunch today. The chat moved from global warming to our dependence on fossil fuels and then to renewable resources. And finally to fanciful ways of conserving energy, such as lifts where descending passengers were the 'motor' for ascending ones.

And I remembered W. Heath Robinson. Whose drawings of fanciful highly elaborate mechanical gadgets captured my imagination as a kid. I think it was my grandmother introduced me to his work - I have the vaguest memory of an old and tattered book.

I particularly remember Heath Robinson's useful household gadgets for making pancakes and pealing potatoes ...

... to his most effective ways of keeping dry in wet weather and of improving posture ...

I really love his approach to 'weapons' of war and non-mass destruction, cartooned during the First World War ...

... and those devised for general public service, such as the discarded bubble gum collector.

Finally, there are machines for I-don't-know-what.

But I realize my life is incomplete not having one of each of these about the house!

Papyrus of Ani

Panorama of the Papyrus of Ani - Weighing the Heart in the Afterlife Judgment

The Papyrus of Ani is a famous Egyptian scroll of paintings and cursive hieroglyphs. It was produced in the 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom - 1295 - 1186 BC. And is an example of the genre, Book of the Dead. One was made for each person on their death. Such scrolls contain declarations and spells for use by the person in their afterlife. This particular example was made for Ani, a scribe from Thebes. It was purchased for the British Museum in 1888 by Sir E A Wallis Budge, who cut the 78 foot papyrus into 37 panels.

Funeral Procession of Ani - The Mummy on a Boat-Shaped Hearse Drawn by Oxen beside whom is the Mourning Wife

Ani and his wife Tutu drinking water from the Celestial Nile

This is a short visual-orientated post. I didn't to say too much about ancient Egyptian papyri, their iconography, hieroglyphic stylistics and so on - just let you enjoy the exquisite beauty of the paintings and script.

Above ten gods sitting in judgement. Below is the Psychostasia or weighing of the conscience.

The God Heru-Netsch-Atef leads Lady Anhai a singer in the choir of Amen-Ra at Thebes into the presence of some gods

The God Ptah-Socharis-Osiris within a shrine. Behind him Isis and Nephthys.


Isis and Nephthys the sisters of Osiris adoring on the right and left of the Tat a Symbol of Osiris.

If you want to read more about the Papyrus of Ani, check out this website:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gavin.egypt/papyrus.htm

Michail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland - Coda from 'Don Quixote'

Hey guys. I've just changed the YouTube video feed on the right hand column of my blog - under the photo of Paris and the chat 'Cbox'.

It used to be Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn doing the 'Le Corsaire' pas de deux.

And it's now Michail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland in the Coda from 'Don Quixote'.


Baryshnikov could be the best dancer ever - certainly the best legs and basket and butt in ballet! In my opinion.

And this is most certainly the best dancing of the pas de deux - ever! It's be mad not to check it out!

Something Interesting with Food Going on at the Australian Museum

There's more going on in each image than you initially think.