Category: Art

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Saturday/ sophisticated humor 🦓

I was not 100% sure if I understood all the subtle humor in this cartoon, and enlisted the Chat GPT chatbot’s help to explain it to me.

The cartoonist is Edward Steed (born 1987), a British cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his work for in The New Yorker magazine.

Here is the explainer from Chat GPT:
The humor comes from the contrast: ‘Polite cocktail-party etiquette’ versus ‘Wild-animal behavior’. It’s the absurd mix of manners (“Could you hold my drink?”) with the expectation that something ferocious is about to happen (such as the lion devouring the zebra). The rest of the party acting like all this is totally normal adds to the surreal deadpan comedy.
[From The New Yorker magazine, the Dec 18 & 25, 2017 issue].
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Saturday/ don’t stop painting 🦁

It’s time for another safari cartoon.

Cartoon by Eldon Dedini.
(That must be Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in the distance, and on the canvas— elevation 19, 341’/ 5,895 m).
From a hardcover book called ‘The Dedini Gallery’, published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York (1961). The cartoon first appeared in The New Yorker magazine in 1959.
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Monday/ shades of King George V 👑

I have long been unhappy with my pre-printed Leuchtturm stamp album pages for the first definitive issue of stamps for the Union of South Africa*.

The old pages are in bad shape, with bare-bones headers, and my South African Color Catalogue lists several more shades of the King George V issues, as well as a few with inverted watermarks.

The new page that I created is a difficult assembly and not yet complete, though. The black-and-white images are placeholders.
Will I ever get my grubby hands on one each of the two £1 stamps at the very high end of the set?
I doubt it. The catalog values for perfect specimens of these are US$800 and US$ 1,000 respectively.

*The Union of South Africa was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on May 31,  1910 with the unification of the Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange River Colony.

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Sunday/ along Columbia Street ️️🏙️

I took the G Line bus to the waterfront, and walked back up along Columbia Street in downtown Seattle to take a few pictures.
The tallest building in Seattle is on Columbia Street: the 76-story Columbia Center, which rises 937 feet (286 m) and was completed in 1985.

I went back to the waterfront to watch the sun set.
Sunset is now at 4.49 pm.

Blue skies and golden leaves on the way to the G Line bus stop on 17th Avenue E and Madison Street.
The view an hour or so before sunset from the Marion Street Ferry Walkway, looking north along Alaskan Way.
There’s the Columbia Center, reflected on the marble wall by First Avenue.
The Columbia Center (1985, 76 stories) is in the middle of the picture, with the Seattle Municipal Tower (1990, 57 stories). 
On the right is the Pacific Building (1971, 22 stories).
A closer look at the Columbia Center.
There goes the last of the leaves on the gingko tree at 215 Columbia Street.
This building was originally the Seattle Chamber of Commerce Building (1924), and is now the Northwest Title Insurance Company Building (since 2007).
The Net, formerly known as The Marion, is a planned high-rise office building. In its current design iteration, it is to be 36 stories tall.
Six skyscrapers in one picture.
Clockwise from the top right corner: the Columbia Center (1985), the Seattle Municipal Tower (1990), the F5 Tower (2017), 901 Fifth Avenue (1973), Fourth and Madison Building (2002), DocuSign Tower (1983).
Buildings close to Alaskan Way by the waterfront. I like the pastel colors reflected in the window panes facing the setting sun.
Sunset with the Seattle Ferry Terminal (Colman Dock, Pier 52) on the left.
The ferry is the Kaleetan, getting ready to depart for Bainbridge Island.
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Saturday/ is it sundown already? 🌇

Daylight saving time here in the United States will end at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.
We will set our clocks back by one hour.

Cartoon by Eldon Dedini.
From a hardcover book called ‘The Dedini Gallery’, published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York (1961). The cartoon first appeared in The New Yorker magazine in 1956.
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Tuesday/ the Appalachian Trail 🥾

Here is the other sheet of 2025 stamps that I bought at the post office on Friday.

The Appalachian Trail
Issued Feb. 28, 2025
Perf. 11 serpentine die-cut |Self-adhesive |Design: Antonio Alcala |Sheet size: 15 stamps | First-Class Mail®’FOREVER’ stamps (75c) |Engraving: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd. | No watermark
[Source: stampworld.com]
From USPS.com: Take a hike from the stresses of modern life with The Appalachian Trail stamps, celebrating the century-old footpath that rambles through unspoiled nature from Maine to Georgia.
The pane of stamps includes a photographic view from each of 14 states through which the trail winds. An additional stamp represents the so-called “green tunnel,” an affectionate nickname for stretches of trail through dense forest.
The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost 2,200 miles (3,536 km) between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.
[From Wikipedia]

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Sunday/ the bloody battles of the American Revolution 🎖️

I got these ‘USA forever’ stamps on Friday.
It never costs me just one stamp when I take something to the post office, because I always buy a whole sheet of stamps! 🤗

From Wikipedia:
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war’s outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war. But Washington and the Continental Army’s decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war in the Treaty of Paris two years later, in 1783, in which the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

Battlefields of the American Revolution (1775-1783)
Issued Apr. 16, 2025
Perf. 11 serpentine die-cut |Self-adhesive |Design: Derry Noyes (from watercolor paintings by Greg Harlin) |Sheet size: 15 stamps |First-Class Mail® ‘FOREVER’ stamps (75c) | Engraving: Banknote Corporation of America | No watermark
[Source: stampworld.com]

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Friday/ a beautiful fall day ☀️

Happy Friday.
It was a beautiful fall day here in Seattle (the high 70°F/ 21°C).
I walked to Volunteer Park late in the afternoon, and took a few pictures of the Black Sun.

Black Sun is a work of art by Isamu Noguchi (1969) made of Brazilian granite and 9 ft in diameter.

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Wednesday/ a Japanese lantern 🏮

Here’s my Japanese lantern that I got at the Ozeki Tokyo Gallery.
The packaging says ‘Gifu* Lantern Project 001’, designed by Yuka Noritake, and ‘Made in Japan’.

*A reference to the city of Gifu in Gifu Prefecture, Japan.

The frame with handle (inside the paper and wire sphere) is just cardboard paper.
The paper is Mino paper, made from the paper mulberry plant that grows in the city of Mino. There is a little LED bulb inside with a switch, that is mounted on a coin cell battery (so the lantern has no cord).
There were at least a dozen more lanterns to choose from in this size and shape, but with artwork such as cherry blossoms, trees or Mt Fuji.
I liked this plain one with no images on, best.
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Monday/ postcard from Seoul 🇰🇷

Hey! The postcard I had mailed to Seattle from the top of Seoul tower made it into my mailbox.

Gyeongbok Palace
Situated at No. 1 Sejong Road in the Jongno District of Seoul, the palace was originally built in 1395 as the palace of the King of Choson. It was listed as a cultural property on Jan. 1, 1963.
Mailed on Sat. Sept. 13, and processed on Mon. Sep. 15 at Seoul Yongsan Post Office, a stone’s throw from Seoul Tower.
2021 Republic of Korea Definitives
Issued Dec. 17, 2021
Perf. 13½ |Design: Ryu Ji-Hyeong |Engraving: Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation |Litho. |No watermark
#3555 500₩ Multicolored |Fruit cluster of bunge (Crataegus pinnatifida)
This tree is also called Chinese hawthorn and is known for its bright red fruit that is used in traditional East Asian medicine and foods (like candies and teas).
500₩ = US$ 0.36
[Source: stampworld.com]
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Tuesday/ autumn card 🍂

I deployed my 2 ½ -dimensional card that I had bought at a Japan Post Office in Tokyo, on my dining room table.

The cut-outs on the card was done with a laser.
Here is an explainer from Google AI Overview:
Lasers are very effective for cutting paper, offering high precision for intricate designs on various paper types, including cardstock and corrugated board. The laser beam vaporizes the paper along the path of the design, resulting in a clean, distortion-free edge without mechanical contact. While the laser’s heat can cause slight browning or charring on the edges, this can be minimized by using appropriate power and speed settings for the specific paper.
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Thursday/ Shibuya at night 🌃

Thursday was my last full day here in Tokyo.

In the morning, I ran out to Uniqlo in Ginza to change my size M shirts that I had bought Wednesday night, for size L. (The line at the fitting room was too long yesterday and I took a chance with the size M).

Then I went out to a gallery called Ozeki with beautiful Japanese lantern lamp shades that a YouTuber had recommended. I bought a little round one that is folded flat for packing into a suitcase. (At this point in any overseas trip it is always a question if all the stuff I had bought, would fit in my suitcases.)

And for the evening I made a run out to the Mandarake store (books, cards, collectibles) in Shibyua. At 5.30 ish, it was almost too late. You don’t want to get crushed on the train by the commuters that go home.
At Shibuya Scramble Crossing: lots of crazy people and definitely too many foreigners taking selfies and annoying the locals, I’m sure.
Get out of my way!

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Wednesday/ Ginza district 🪭

On Wednesday night I did my mandatory (mandatory for me) walk-about along the main street in Ginza, Tokyo’s luxury shopping district. The street is named Chuo-dori, which translates to ‘Central Street’.
The sign in the first picture says ‘Ginza Block 6’.

Stores on Chuo-dori close at 7 or at 8. The Onitsuka Tiger store (Japanese footwear maker) was filled with sneaker aficionados right until closing time. Look for the storefront with the cool tiger neon sign in the pictures below.

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Tuesday/ Shibuya 🏙️

I took the Yamanote line to Shibuya station on Tuesday morning.
My reservation to visit the open air observation on top of the Shibuya Scramble Square Tower had rained out last week, so I wanted to give it another try.

That’s the Shibuya Sky Deck, the observation deck on top of the Shibuya Scramble Square Tower (the deck takes up the entire top of the tower). 
The Tower is the tallest building in the Shibuya district of Tokyo and contains shops, offices, and event spaces in addition to the observation deck on its rooftop. The building and the observation deck opened in November 2019.
All of the windows on the four floors at the bottom form a giant display screen.
A photo from 1957 of Shibuya station that was in the lobby. The round dome in the foreground was part of a planetarium. It is still there but now part of a building called Shibuya Cultural Center.
My attempt of a panorama view of the Shibuya Mark City Walkway, a free elevated pathway connecting to Shibuya Station and offering excellent views of the Shibuya Scramble Crossing. During rush hour, the streets and station is flooded with office workers, and a major new walkway connecting the east and west sides of Shibuya Station is under construction, scheduled to be completed around 2030.
All right. Here is the Sky Deck, with its two levels.
It has a 10-ft high glass perimeter and netting. Even so, all backpacks, hats, loose items, have to be stowed in the locker room before you are allowed entry onto the deck. Cameras with straps (like mine) were OK. Yay.
There is the elevated walkway on the bottom left.
The famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing that the building was named after (four sides with one diagonal) is at the bottom right.
The structure with the black roof at the bottom of the green space is Yoyogi 1st National Gymnasium, built for the 1964 Summer Olympics.
And here is a telephoto lens look at Japan National Stadium, built for the 2020 Summer Olympics (that took place in 2021 because of the COVID pandemic). The 2025 World Athletics Championships is taking place there this week.
This is a Google office tower in the foreground. The subway trains are full of banners and posted ads about the new Google Cloud with AI.
This very tall smokestack next to the Yamanote railway line belongs to the Shibuya Incineration Plant, and the trains to its right are by Ebisu train station south of Sibuya.
This view has both the SkyTree tower (gray, far away in the distance on the city skyline) and Tokyo Tower (far right, red and white lattice structure) in.
A mosaic of turquoise and gray tiles.
This is the Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs, a high-end, eight-level department store featuring fashion, housewares, dining and gourmet food hall on the ground floor.
A closer look at Tokyo Tower.
To its left is Azabudai Hills (麻布台ヒルズ, Azabudai Hiruzu)— a complex of three skyscrapers from a major new mixed-use urban development completed in 2023. The complex features Japan’s tallest building, shops, restaurants, offices, and the teamLab Borderless digital art museum.
I am sure this map baffles many people that look at it.
It sits in the middle of the Sky Deck and uses an azimuthal equidistant projection to show how the world extends beyond the horizons seen from the deck. It’s possible to recognize the continent of Australia in there, but the blob at the bottom is actually Africa. 
Look for Vancouver at NW (7, 563 km/ 4,699 mi away), closest to where Seattle is.
I guess my question is: why does Shibuya show 40,030 km away (on the other side of Earth?). If Sapporo is 837 km to the North, should it not show 0 for Shibuya instead?
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Monday/ back to Tokyo 🗼

I was out of the bed in my hotel in Seoul shortly after 4 am this morning.
I had to take the first train of the day (5.28 am) on Line 1, from City Hall Station to Seoul Station.

At Seoul Station, I took the 6 am Airport Express train into Incheon International Airport.
(Cost: US$9, with a free bottle of mineral water from Jeju Island thrown in. For me, it’s not really about the cost, though. I just think taking the train is a lot more interesting than taking a taxi.)

The flight out to Tokyo’s far-away Narita Airport was slightly delayed, but went without incident.

At Incheon International Airport’s Terminal 1.
On the large screen there was an animation of “The Sleeping Gypsy” (1897) painting by the French Naïve artist Henri Rousseau. (The lion sniffs at the sleeping woman in the painting).
A welcome bit of color added to the beiges at the gates at Incheon International Airport.
We flew east for 2 hours across the East Sea to get to Tokyo.
The flight route makes it seem as if the pilot was asleep and said Oops! I better turn south to get to Tokyo.
Here’s the Asiana Airlines Airbus A380-800 (quad-jet, A388) at the gate at Narita Airport. I had a seat on the aisle at the back and on the upper deck.
On the Narita Express train, and on our way to Shinagawa Station where my hotel is.
I bought my ticket (13.14 pm departure) for the Narita Express at the ticket counter with only 8 minutes to go until departure time. I know the way to the platform, so I could do that. The next train is 30 minutes later, and I did not want to wait.
A nice scene from the countryside.
I had just stepped off the Narita Express train at Shinagawa station, this is a quick picture as it departed. Looks like the driver has a nice view of the track from the top of the train. The E259 series (E259系) is a DC electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan since October 2009.
This train has the new livery which was introduced in 2023.
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Sunday/ Lotte World Tower 🌐

I could not very well go up Seoul Tower, and leave Lotto World Tower out, right?

So off I went today to Lotto World Tower, even though it was a 40 minute train ride out there.

There is an express double-car elevator that whisks the humans inside up to the 117th floor* in one minute flat. I felt a little vertigo, and my ears popped on the way up. There no view to the outside, just display screens on the sides and ceiling of the car.

*The Seoul Sky observation deck in the Lotte World Tower spans seven floors, from floors 117 to 123.

Here is the scene that greets you as you emerge from the exit at Jamsil station on Line 2 of the Seoul metro.
I can only get the top of the Tower in when I stand close to it, of course. That little platform in the middle at the top is a sky deck.
There is a luxury shopping mall at the base of the Tower, with the tower visible through the skylight. That’s the elevator shaft of the shopping mall on the right.
All right! Now we can look out at the world from 120 floors up. Here is the Han River, and Seoul Tower on Namsan Mountain in the distance.
Looking southwest here. The skyline in the distance is 40 km away (24 miles), and it is of the city of Ansan, South Korea.
A great view of the bridges that span the Han River.
This green space is Olympic Park.
It opened on May 28, 1986. Built at a cost of US$200 million, it was built to host the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Down below is the theme park and recreation complex called Lotte World, sometimes called the ‘Korean Disneyland’.
Phalanxes of apartment buildings. Yes— no way to house almost 10 million residents in your city by building single family homes on plots of land.
Looking down from the 123rd floor into one of the atriums with a photo spot and a scenic view of the Han River.
There is a little skybridge at the top of the Tower. I did not sign up for it!
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Friday/ around Seoul 🇰🇷

Happy Friday. (I know it has been an awful week for the national psyche in the United States).
Here in the Far East, it was the first day with milder temperatures for me (a high of 28°C/ 83°F in Seoul today).

I walked around the hotel here by Seoul’s City Hall for a bit this morning, and then went out to Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) with the No 2 subway line.

This green space is right by my hotel.
In it is the shrine called Hwangudan (황궁우 / 皇穹宇)— also known as the Wongudan Altar. It was constructed in 1897 by Emperor Gojong of the Korean Empire and renovated from 2015 to 2017.
Not far away is Deoksugung Palace (the Royal Palace). The morning’s Royal Guard Ceremony was just finishing up as I arrived there.
Lots going on by Seoul City Hall— workers at a company protesting about their working conditions or contracts, and Seoul Bike workers repleshiing the bike rack.
Korea’s first driverless autonomous shuttle will run along to the Cheonggyecheon Stream in downtown starting in late September, after test runs and safety checks.
A closer look. There is a U-shaped seating bench inside and a large screen.
Korean manhwa on a large screen on a building.
Yes, Apple had better advertise its new iPhone because this is Samsung’s home turf. (Samsung has 70% of the smartphone market here, Apple about 20%.)
And is all that on the entire side of the building a screen? Sixteen stories tall about something AI? Why, yes. Why not?
Seoul tour buses by Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) is a major urban development landmark in Seoul, designed by Zaha Hadid and Samoo, with a distinctively neofuturistic design characterized by the powerful, curving forms of elongated structures.
[Source: Trip Advisor/ Viator]
That’s a heart-shaped outline on the stairs for a charity event that was held in the space below.
The exit/ entrance to the Line 2 train station is on the right. A camera crew is recording a discussion and a performance.
A few other public art installations are on display as well. I could not find the name of this one.
This one is called Molecular Cloud by French artist Vincent Leroy.
This is inside: an art garden filled with artwork. (The little trees are not real trees).
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Tuesday/ more Expo 2025 Osaka 🏯

I walked over to the West Gate today (both days I had entered at the East Gate), where I found Astro Boy.

I also tracked down the Japan Pavilion with its beautiful ‘golden hat’ design. The Golden Surface of the Japan Pavilion was created by the designers Nikken Sekkei. They used an iridescent color shining technology— a technique that involves engraving microgrooves onto the surface, which interact with light to produce a dynamic, multi-colored sheen that changes with the viewing angle.

As the sun was setting, everyone went up to the Grand Ring, to watch the daylight end.

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Monday/ at Expo 2025 Osaka 🤗

I made it to Expo 2025 Osaka!
It’s hot and it’s crowded with very, very long lines at most pavilions— the ones that allow you in without a reservation, that is.
Entrance to the top-rated pavilions are pre-allocated by a lottery system. I struck out despite diligently applying, as far out as three months before my visit today.

No matter, once you have made it into the entrance gate (with 180,000 others), you are in a world onto its own, inside the Grand Ring. The Ring is the world’s largest wooden structure, constructed on Yumeshima (夢洲), the artificial island located in Osaka Bay.

The USA pavilion is a structure designed by Trahan Architects with two triangular wings and a raised translucent cube flanking a central plaza. It features video imagery that features the Plains, the mountains and the cities in the US— and hey! Seattle’s Pike Place market made an appearance as well. 

I was mesmerized by the installation of shiny cubes called null². The sun bounced off the surfaces, and a low sound was emitted from the structure.
Developed by Yoichi Ochiai, the pavilion’s structure is based on a cubic grid of voxels measuring 2 to 8 m (6 ft to 26 ft) wide. The facade is covered with a membrane that resembles a mirror.  [Source: Wikipedia]

Look for a few images (towards the end) beamed out from the enormous high-resolution screen outside the Korea pavilion. The three-story pavilion has a high-resolution screen on its facade that is 27 m (89 ft) wide. The screen displays on a spectacular series of animated images and videos.

South Africa withdrew from Expo 2025 Osaka in late 2024 despite repeated invitations from the Japanese government, citing the country’s ‘financial constraints’. 

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Sunday/ shinkansen to Osaka 🚅

All went well with my train ride to Osaka.
It is an amazing experience to travel at 175 mph (280 km/h) on the tracks, with the landscape flying by the window.

A handy map from the free wifi on the shinkansen. Those lines are just names for the shinkansen* between different cities. Nozomi shinkansen (the express train with the fewest stops) on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen line from Shinagawa to Osaka stop at Shin-Yokohama (where I was yesterday), Nagoya, and Kyoto before arriving at Shin-Osaka.
It was 2 hrs 20 mins from Shinagawa station to Shin-Osaka.
*Shinkansen (新幹線) in Japanese means ‘new trunk line’ or ‘new main line’, but this word is used to describe both the railway lines the trains run on and the trains themselves. In English, the trains are also known as the bullet train.
Taxis, six abreast, at the taxi stand at the Nagoya station. Uber is not big in Japan, but you do see Uber branded taxis. Go Taxi is the app of choice for ordering a ride share taxi in Japan.
This is the 五重塔 (Gojū-no-tō) or Five-storied Pagoda at Tō-ji Temple in Koyoto.
It is known as the tallest wooden tower in Japan and I had a nice view of it from my train seat as we left the Kyoto station.
I have arrived at Shin-Osaka station. I’m just catching my breath and looking for the way to the taxi stand. There is a local train line to the hotel from here, but it’s way too warm outside to walk even four or five blocks with all my luggage in tow. I’m heading to the taxi stand.
Looking towards the sunset at Dotonbori Bridge.
Earlier, I had checked into my hotel by the Chuo line (that runs to the 2025 Osaka Expo, where I will go to on Monday and Tuesday). The metro stations were swamped with people, and one can see that the metro had added all kinds of signage and directions for the train riders to the Expo to the stations, to try to better manage the congestion.
There is a nice old-fashioned neon sign at Dotonbori Bridge.
It doesn’t show too much in these pictures, but there were throngs of tourists in Dotonbori Street, the vibrant and busy thoroughfare in the heart of Osaka known for its neon signs, entertainment, and wide variety of eateries.
I love the dragon.
Off to the side, and just a block or two away, are quiet alleys that also have restaurants and izakayas (a type of informal Japanese pub that serves alcoholic drinks like sake and beer along with a variety of small snacks).