August 2012 – Willem's Planet

August 31, 2012August 31, 2012

Thursday/ the driest August

We still have blue skies here and dry weather here in Seattle’s late-summer, with mild day temperatures (68°F/ 20°C). In fact, it is clear that August 2012 will the driest in Seattle history with less than .01 inch of rain to show. (Information from http://cliffmass.blogspot.com).

IMG_2709 sm — This combination traffic light/ street lamp pole is on the corner of Roy and Broadway.

August 30, 2012August 30, 2012

Wednesday/ a house wrapped up in cloth

This is an old house close to 15th Avenue and Republican Street that is now all covered up in embroidered and knitted cloth. It used to be a second-hand and antiquarian book store. If the house is meant as a public work of art, no mention of it is made on the fencing around the house. And it’s about to start raining every day here in Seattle – better take the cloth down before it becomes bedraggled with rain water, no?

IMG_6199 sm — The front of the house, steps and porch and all covered in embroidered (or knitted) cloth.

Google Streetview 423 15th Ave Seattle — Here’s a Google Streetview shot. It’s the house behind the white picket fence, right next to the Coastal Kitchen restaurant on 15th Ave.

August 29, 2012August 29, 2012

Tuesday/ talking up a storm

So the Republican National Convention started a day late .. tropical storm Isaac passed by on the west of Tampa and became a Category 1 Hurricane as it made landfall in New Orleans. The countdown to the USA presidential election now approaches 60 days, and most polls show president Obama in the lead in the ‘battleground’ states, though. (The winner of each state gets a number of ‘electoral college’ votes, and first to 270 wins the election).

map_specnews27 — This map from weather.com. 12 inches of rain will obviously make a lot of trouble for the Gulf Coast, but once the storm has moved up to the Midwest, the rain from it could actually bring some relief to drought-stricken areas.

IMG_2714 sm — Here is New Jersey governor Chris Christie delivering his keynote speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night.

IMG_2719 sm — .. with Republican nominee Mitt Romney and his wife Ann listening.

2008-0078 — Here is a map I found on politico.com .. looks like Pres. Obama is slightly ahead in almost all the ‘battleground’ states. Bush-Gore (2000) was 271-266, Bush-Kerry (2004) was 286-251 and Obama-McCain(2008) was 365-173. What will 2012 bring?

August 28, 2012August 28, 2012

Monday/ the many forms of Scrabble

I love my Scrabble on my iPad. I had time on Sunday to haul out my other Scrabble sets as well. As far as I can tell there are no on-line versions yet for my Afrikaans edition of Scrabble, or the German one I bought in Vienna some years ago. And check out the Japanese word game I bought just recently.

Scrabble sm — This is Scrabble on the iPad. You have to give it all you got to beat the ‘CPU’ machine like I did here. OK, I’ll confess : ADNATION – (botany) the adhesion of different plants – I had the Scrabble program find for me. The computer built GLOBEFISH around ‘LO’ but check out my own 7 letter word : MISSPENT.

IMG_6196 sm — This is German. My German vocabulary is very shaky, so I’m kind of limited to 3 and 4 letter words !

IMG_6198 sm — Here is my Afrikaans Scrabble set. They used to be available in wooden tiles, but lately only in plastic.

IMG_6197 sm — It looks like Scrabble, and it has pretty pictures, so never mind that it will take 6 months of intense study of the Japanese language to play – I had to have it as a curiosity. I guess one can use the cheat sheet, even though you will not know what word you are building. These are katakana characters. Japanese also has hiragana and Latin charaters (called romaji).

August 27, 2012

the week-end

This is the back of my house, on a beautiful late-summer Saturday evening in Seattle. The happy faces in the picture have not had their burgers, apple pie and ice cream yet .. but they will soon. (We are all happy because I made it up into the picture without knocking the camera over, or falling onto my face as I ran around the table). Nothing like having guests over to motivate one to clean your house and fill up your fridge with some beer and food, and so that’s what I did !

IMG_6169 sm 3 — That’s me in the Kanto Lemon shirt (a lemon-flavored milk drink from Japan). Clockwise from me are Bill, Paul, Thomas, Bryan, Dave, Gary and Ken.

Apple Pie — And here is the apple pie : every bit as tasty as its looks. We say ‘as American as apple pie’ even though apple pie as we know it today were already made in the 16th century in England !

August 25, 2012August 25, 2012

Friday/ Tampa’s uninvited Convention guest

The 2012 Republican National Convention is set to start on Monday in Tampa, Florida .. or will it have to be canceled due to Tropical Storm Isaac set to arrive there just in time to make for a lot of rain and wind? And did you know that in the politically-charged and possibly protest-filled streets around the convention center, water guns will be strictly prohibited? Concealed handguns, on the other hand, will be perfectly legal. Republican Governor Rick Scott refused a request from the police to issue an executive order prohibiting the transportation of firearms in downtown Tampa during the convention.

August 24, 2012

Thursday/ Doraemon travels the world

I am still opening my little souvenirs from Japan. I found this world map with a set of Doraemon refigerator magnets in Tokyo, and felt compelled to buy it (because I think it is cute, not because I plan to travel to every country in the world!). Doraemon is the intelligent robotic cat (from a manga series created in 1969), who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy, Nobita Nobi.

IMG_6154 sm — Here is the background board with numbers for 50 countries, and a background panel for each. The USA is easy to figure out (No 39 -Empire State Building and Golden Gate Bridge), South Africa less so (No 22- a mountain or cliff, but that is NOT the famous Table Mountain from Cape Town).

IMG_6166 sm — And here are the Doraemons for each country. The United States Doreamon is dressed up in a Statue of Liberty costume, and the South Africa Doraemon has a Nelson Mandela shirt and a vuvuzela (well done!).

August 23, 2012August 23, 2012

Wednesday/ expensive parking

I was running late for a meeting downtown and had to park near the Seattle library. With no time left to search for parking, I turned into a downtown parking garage; thought the parking would be similar to that for Pacific Place a few blocks away – $6 for 1½ hrs. But no-o-o : 1½ hrs cost 17 big bucks. Ouch – and oh well. (Yes, I saw the rates on the board going in, but I couldn’t back out!).

IMG_6123 sm — Here’s a snap of the Seattle Public Library on 3rd Ave and Madison at lunch hour on Wednesday. All Seattle Library locations will close Monday, Aug. 27 through Monday, Sept. 3 for Labor Day due to citywide budget cuts.

August 22, 2012August 22, 2012

Tuesday/ drink it gokuri

I could not get myself to throw this cool aluminum can in the recycle bin, so it came home with me all the way from a vending machine in Tokyo! And what would ‘gokuri’ mean? It is a Japanese adverb, roughly meaning (drink down) gulpingly or noisily.

IMG_6151 sm — Suntory’s Gokuri Banana from Suntory comes in a screw-top aluminum can.

IMG_6132 sm — (The back of the can). Wao! It’s very good .. even if it’s only 15% real banana.

August 20, 2012

Monday/ sunset on Olive Way

I was just leaving the Half Price Books store on Capitol Hill on Sunday night when the sun was setting, etching out the Space Needle in the distance. I tried to get a good picture with my phone camera, but the contrast between the bright sky and the dimly lit foreground was too great to get it all in one shot. So here’s what you do: you take TWO pictures, and then use Photoshop to combine them. Yes, it’s a little work, but didn’t the combined picture come out great?

IMG_2658 comb — This is the combined picture, with the Space Needle and apartment building nicely etched against the sky, and the foreground with the white wall properly lit. There is also a Starbucks in front of the apartment building.

IMG_2658 IMG_2659 — And here are the two original pictures. No foreground visible in the first one, and on the second one the bright background makes the Space Needle and building outline fuzzy. So I used the best of both!

August 20, 2012

Sunday/ resting up

I took it easy today, just resting up and reading the Sunday newspapers. I did walk down eight blocks to Starbucks on Olive Way to have some coffee and a slice of lemon pound cake -as birthday cake! .. I will look to celebrate it later, such as next weekend. One does not need a birthday for throwing a party, right?

IMG_6114 sm — This is Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (right), with his running mate Paul Ryan, from a write-up in the alternative newspaper Seattle Weekly. As the writer Paul Constant says – Ryan is .. ‘the Republicanist of Republicans’ .. ‘anti-choice, pro-discrimination, anti-gay, anti-public education, anti-environment, pro-big business, anti-gun control and anti-separation of church and state’.

IMG_6115 sm — Not much new information about jet lag in this article from the NY Times, but they do confirm my experience that east-to-west travel is much harder to adjust to, than west-to-east.

IMG_6117 sm2 — Since I always struggle to recommend to visitors what sights to see or what to do in Johannesburg, I’m keeping this article from the NY Times Travel section. (No mention of the terrible incident from last week at a mine 40 miles northwest of Johannesburg in which 34 miners were shot and killed by police during a violent protest).

IMG_6117 sm — .. but I’d be very hesitant to say it’s OK for a foreigner on his/ her own to go attend a soccer match at FNB Stadium.

August 18, 2012

The traveler is home

Everything after the Narita Express train ride to the airport went very well : picked up the stowed suitcase, get the luggage out of the way at the check-in, buying a last souvenir at the airport shops and stamps at the airport post office, and onto the plane. It was 9 hrs to Seattle, and I got in on Saturday morning after leaving Tokyo on Saturday afternoon.

IMG_2604 sm — That’s me, waiting for the train. My car was actually number 6, though (there were people crowding the platform at the Car No 6 sign).

IMG_6085 sm — Stay out of the way! This is actually the front set of cars of the train arriving a few minutes before the departure time of 1.33 pm ..

IMG_6088 sm — The front set of cars is connected with the rear set of cars. It goes very quickly. I am not sure why the two sets of cars have to be combined at Tokyo station.

IMG_6090 sm — Inside the car on the way to the airport.

IMG_6098 sm — Street scene flashing by on the outskirts of Tokyo ..

IMG_6105 sm — .. and this looks like a Saturday morning ‘Little League’ baseball event.

August 17, 2012

Saturday/ on the way to Narita airport

I’m out of clean clothes, my camera’s battery is almost dead and the charger is in the bag I left at the airport – and I did what I wanted to do in Tokyo! I’ve got my ticket, and about to go downstairs to check out. A short trip on Tokyo Metro to Tokyo Station and then on the Express to the airport.

August 17, 2012

Friday/ Shinjuku

I had to go check out the area around Shinjuku station .. lots of people, lots of places and a nice vibe. It is warm even at night (of course).

IMG_2470 sm — The entrance of the Uni Qlo clothing store. It’s more or less ‘The Gap’ of Japan and has a sale on to celebrate its 10 year anniversary (so it’s much younger than the Gap, actually). I bought two polo shirts for US$10 each. I ran out of clean shirts!

IMG_2550 sm — One of several signs for Shinjuku station, this one for the Marunouchi Line from Tokyo Metro.

IMG_2534 sm — Asahi makes many, many more beverages than just beer. This one from a vending machine came in handy on Friday.

IMG_5952 sm — This is a video game and game machine and parlor.

IMG_2548 sm — These little fluff ball soft toys are inside a coin-operated machine and are all hoping to get grabbed by a crane hook that the operator manipulates to try to grab one. Remember a scene like this in one of Disney’s Toy Story pictures?

IMG_5958 sm — It’s fun to cross the street with 10,000 other people (or so it feels like!).

IMG_5971 sm — This is the giant TV screen at the Studio Alta (store) entrance at Shinjuku station. Lots of young people hang out here. It’s the de facto meet place for friends on a Friday night in the area, no question.

IMG_2554 sm — Here’s my dinner from the 24-hr Dennys across from the Marriott. No English on the menu, and really no burgers. Cheers! to my friends in Seattle, I thought as I drank the Kirin beer. I missed you. I will be there soon.

August 16, 2012August 16, 2012

Thursday/ Skytree : Mission Impossible

Alright, so I tried !.. but couldn’t make it up to the Skytree’s observation decks (there are two). I got there a little after 12 noon and the line was so long that they sold tickets for 4 pm. School is still out here, so everyone was out in full force. To make matters ‘worse’ there is a whole Skytree Town built at the Tree’s base : souvenir shops, stores, a food court and an aquarium as well.

IMG_5712 sm — This is in the Asakusa station area. Skytree visitors take the Tobu line from there across the Sumida river to the new Tokyo Skytree station. The entrance to the Tobu line is in the Matsuya department store building (right on the picture).

IMG_5669 sm — Still in the Asakusa station area, the Sensoji temple with a large plaza behind it that sells food and handmade gifts and souvenirs.

IMG_5710 sm — Here’s the glimpse of the Skytree from the street neat the Sensoji temple. The yellow lanterns provide a festive atmosphere.

IMG_5695 sm — Now I have arrived at the base of the Skytree. These ladies are enjoying the mist and cool air. I saw these misters at a few places on the Tokyo streets.

IMG_2406 sm — .. but don’t approach the misters ‘too much’. But let me submit that I think 1. It’s perfectly OK to get wet. 2. You are wet already, from sweating. I gobbled up several 500ml bottles of water yesterday.

IMG_5699 sm — Here is as close to the monstrous metal Skytree I could get. Skytree is the world’s highest free-standing broadcasting tower, ‘with cutting-edge Japanese building technology supporting it safely’, says the website (I think that means for earthquakes, I think). The structure is 634 m tall (2,080 ft).

IMG_2414 sm — Yes? How is your knowledge of Japanese pop culture? This is Pikachu frolicking on a Skytree t-shirt from the gift store : a short, chubby, rodent-like Pokémon with yellow fur all over its body. (They did not have an extra large shirt for me).

IMG_2418 sm — And if I were 4 years old, I’d love to have a pair of these bullet train sneakers.

IMG_5740 sm — Now I arrived back at Asakusa station, and I am walking on the Azumabashi bridge across the Sumida river. The two buildings to the right of Skytree are the Asahi Beer Headquarters. The biggest building resembles a giant beer jug complete with a foam shaped white roof. The shorter building is known as the Super Dry Hall. It is a black building in the shape of a beer glass, with an enormous golden flame shaped object perched on top (affectionately known as the ‘golden turd’)..

IMG_5735 sm — And is this riverboat is sleek or what? There may very well be aliens (from Mars) inside.

IMG_5727 sm — More paper lanterns, this in the park across the Azumabashi bridge.

IMG_2435 sm — Of all the Skytree toys and souvenirs I saw yesterday, this one has to take the cake : a Swarovski crystal tree fitted with LED lights that goes for 665,700 yen (US$8,400). This is in the Akihabara electronics store.

IMG_5746 sm — The main entrance to the Akihabara electronics store. I did check out the Seiko watches, but didn’t buy another one. I have too many already!

IMG_2449 sm — I have no idea how famous Kanako Mimura is as a anime character. There are posters around the Akihabara store of several other anime characters as well.

IMG_2466 sm — Here’s Colin Farrell on a subway poster for the 2012 version of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall. The Japanese characters gives it that extra little bit of high-tech edge, not?

IMG_5728 sm — This picture belongs with the one with the colored paper lanterns. It is a statue of Katsu Kaishū (1823 – 1899), a Japanese naval engineer and statesman.

August 15, 2012

Wednesday/ in Tokyo’s Ginza district

It’s been a long day of travel but I’m in the Marriott Courtyard in the Ginza district, ready to settle in and get some rest. Narita airport was very, very busy. It took 40 mins to get through customs and another 30 in line just to buy a ticket to Tokyo on the Narita Express. I found a baggage storage facility at the airport that took the unwieldy one of my two big suitcases off my hands. They will store it for me for $5 a day until I return to go on to Seattle : a lifesaver. I cannot use the trains and the Tokyo subway with two big bags!

IMG_2330 sm — Here’s my Japanese lunch (naturally, since I am on All Nippon Airlines). They do offer a Western lunch, but then I would not have jellyfish salad (top left), orange fish eggs, pink-and-white lotus root, smoked eel and some other items I did not recognize!

IMG_2345 sm — A countryside scene that flashed by while we were on the Narita Express shinkansen (bullet train).

IMG_2369 sm — The white bullet had stopped at Tokyo station, and you have to get your get up and go. The train stops for only two minutes.

IMG_5582 sm — Eek! It’s going to be WARM tomorrow. That 34 C for Tokyo is 93 F.

IMG_5608 sm — Taxis in the Ginza district.

IMG_5622 sm — It’s Wednesday night, so the streets are not very busy. This is the Matsuya department store, glowing with pink lines.

August 14, 2012August 14, 2012

Tuesday/ back to Hong Kong!

Yes, I know I was there just Sunday. The van picked me at the Dameisha hotel today and brought me to the Hong Kong Marriott Skycity : making its way across the border, and the two bridges to Lantau island where the airport is. I am making my way back to Seattle but stopping over for two days in Tokyo. Might as well, I thought : it’s on the way, and I want to go check out the Skytree (tall antenna tower for digital transmissions, newly open to the public), and go to the Akhihabara electronics and toy store. I love that store, bought a beautiful Seiko watch there a previous time (which I could have ordered on Amazon but hey! feels nice to say ‘I bought this in Tokyo’ and it brings the happy memories back). I just think it’s going to be warm there, but I should be OK. Not like I’m not used to warm humid weather coming from Hong Kong and Shenzhen !

IMG_2294 sm — Crossing into Hong Kong after a stop at the mainland border. I had to open my suitcases this time for a quick check by customs!

IMG_2298 sm — You have to be quick to catch this glimpse of Victoria Harbor and Hong Kong island : it lasts only a minute or so while crossing over to Lantau island.

IMG_2303 sm — And here is the backseat view of the suspension of the Tsing Ma Bridge to Lantau Island.

August 14, 2012

Monday/ mystery language

We walked by this bus last night on the way to dinner. First, the deer is not typically Chinese. And then the characters are from what I can tell but the ‘Nuy Ek Gnot Iy’ below it is definitely NOT Pinyin (the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into Latin script). Google translate cannot help, even with the ‘Detect Language’ option. Hmm.