Until next, sweet sailing.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Jazzle Puzzle
Russian actress and singer Alla Turov with guitarist Alexei Denisov are Jazzle Puzzle. Here they are performing "Bluesette"
Until next, sweet sailing.
Until next, sweet sailing.
Fast Life
Rush hour at Enoshima Yacht Harbor (in Kanagawa, the other side of Tokyo from us)
Personally, I prefer "slow life".
Until next, sweet sailing.
Personally, I prefer "slow life".
Until next, sweet sailing.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Pine Tree Islands Boats
Matsushima Yacht Club, Miyagi Prefecture - August 24, 2011
I took this on a short holiday in Miyagi, the prefecture closest to the epicenter of the 2011/3/11 earthquake. I put off posting about it, but have decided to do so soon.
Until next, sweet sailing.
I took this on a short holiday in Miyagi, the prefecture closest to the epicenter of the 2011/3/11 earthquake. I put off posting about it, but have decided to do so soon.
Until next, sweet sailing.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
It's for the birds
What a lovely way to pass the winter in Quebec - watching birds feed while listening to Bluesette. Thank you Martinelolo...
Until next, sweet sailing.
Until next, sweet sailing.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The Letter
We went to Shibuya again to see some Dutch paintings.
Readers may recall that the last time we went to Bunkamura exhibition hall, Pandaonium managed to get us "lost on the way to the Geographer". I've had other troubles in Shibuya before, such as the time six years ago when I was waiting for K to get out of a business meeting and find me at the station, I was approached by an English speaking prostitute (yuck) who was annoyingly persistent and repeated everything I said (she was practicing her English!).
The place is crowded, noisy, and populated by odd characters, which may be fun for some people, but not this shy panda. It's a zoo. On top of that, as if Japan weren't trying to squeak by with all but two of its 56 nuclear power plants off-line and depending instead on imported oil and LNG, all the neon signs and billboard-sized flat screen displays were lit up and the speakers were pounding out advertising like there was no tomorrow (hmm, could be).
lights, video screens, loud speakers, crowds, traffic, trains, wackos - help!
This time at least, I didn't get lost and we arrived in 7 minutes by the most direct route from the station. The exhibit was excellent with the main attraction being Johannes Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter, which can normally be found at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, but has been out of public view for the past two years undergoing renovation. Nice shade of Blue, don't you think?
For three of the Vermeer letter paintings, it was the first time to be exhibited in Japan.
The theme of the exhibit, which included over forty works by Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch, Jan Steen, Gerard ter Borch and many others, was "Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in the Age of Vermeer". The paintings depicted people playing music, talking, singing, partying, consulting attorneys, doctors, and so on, and of course, reading or writing letters.
Our favorite of the day was Vermeer's “A Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid”, 1670
A Lady Writing - Vermeer c. 1665-1666
After viewing the exhibit we went into Tokyu department store which is connected to Bunkamura, and had tempura lunch at a top floor restaurant. The food was OK, but I was a bit miffed that my lunch cost ¥800 yen more than K's, even though they were identical, only because hers was labelled "lady's lunch". Hers also included sherbet which mine did not. On the way out I noticed some photos of some elites who had dined there - Frank Sinatra, Jacques René Chirac, Bill Clinton, and others.
Though it was still early, we headed home, and it was perhaps a good thing that we did. For later in the afternoon, around 4 pm, in a walkway between Tokyu department store and the train station a woman her 70s felt she was being stared at, so ran up behind a woman of 61 and stabbed her with a knife leaving a 5 inch deep wound in her back and other cuts in her chest and arms. The victim survived. Such violence is the stuff of Hollywood movies, rarely the streets of Japan.
Well, violence is certainly one way to communicate, but really, she should have just written a letter.
As much as I like to complain about "the big city", we are really quite fortunate to be close enough to make a day trip of it and so able to enjoy a wide range of cultural treats such as this exhibit, and come home to our quiet "village" by the lake.
Until next, sweet sailing.
Readers may recall that the last time we went to Bunkamura exhibition hall, Pandaonium managed to get us "lost on the way to the Geographer". I've had other troubles in Shibuya before, such as the time six years ago when I was waiting for K to get out of a business meeting and find me at the station, I was approached by an English speaking prostitute (yuck) who was annoyingly persistent and repeated everything I said (she was practicing her English!).The place is crowded, noisy, and populated by odd characters, which may be fun for some people, but not this shy panda. It's a zoo. On top of that, as if Japan weren't trying to squeak by with all but two of its 56 nuclear power plants off-line and depending instead on imported oil and LNG, all the neon signs and billboard-sized flat screen displays were lit up and the speakers were pounding out advertising like there was no tomorrow (hmm, could be).
This time at least, I didn't get lost and we arrived in 7 minutes by the most direct route from the station. The exhibit was excellent with the main attraction being Johannes Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter, which can normally be found at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, but has been out of public view for the past two years undergoing renovation. Nice shade of Blue, don't you think?
For three of the Vermeer letter paintings, it was the first time to be exhibited in Japan.
The theme of the exhibit, which included over forty works by Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch, Jan Steen, Gerard ter Borch and many others, was "Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in the Age of Vermeer". The paintings depicted people playing music, talking, singing, partying, consulting attorneys, doctors, and so on, and of course, reading or writing letters.
A Lady Writing - Vermeer c. 1665-1666Though it was still early, we headed home, and it was perhaps a good thing that we did. For later in the afternoon, around 4 pm, in a walkway between Tokyu department store and the train station a woman her 70s felt she was being stared at, so ran up behind a woman of 61 and stabbed her with a knife leaving a 5 inch deep wound in her back and other cuts in her chest and arms. The victim survived. Such violence is the stuff of Hollywood movies, rarely the streets of Japan.
Well, violence is certainly one way to communicate, but really, she should have just written a letter.
As much as I like to complain about "the big city", we are really quite fortunate to be close enough to make a day trip of it and so able to enjoy a wide range of cultural treats such as this exhibit, and come home to our quiet "village" by the lake.
Until next, sweet sailing.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Return to Luce
We hadn't been out to eat since January 1st - about which I'll post soon - so as we found ourselves in Kamisu City around 13:00 we decided to have lunch at our favorite seafood/Italian restaurant; Wordsworth. Being Saturday and a national holiday (Foundation Day), they were packed, so rather than wait, we decided to try "Luce" again which some readers may recall is where we had lunch last March sixteen days after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. At the time, they had no water service but were making due with paper plates and using bottled water for cooking.
March 27, 2011 - an empty parking lot
We found them fairly busy this time, but no waiting, and of course, offering a full menu. We shared pasta with tomato sauce and crab, and a four cheese pizza. The main room seats about 40 people, though there were not nearly that many there for lunch today. The back room appeared to be full though. The furnishings are light woods with tables of knotty pine. In one corner there is a large screen playing a travelogue of Venice while a voice that sounded to me like Astrud Gilberto sang in the background. It was a most relaxed ambiance. I could see the owner/chef working in the kitchen through an arched pass through.
I didn't have my camera, so K took a photo of the crab pasta with her cell phone:
The flavor of the crab was infused throughout the pasta. Yum.
They first served a nice salad in a sweet balsamic vinaigrette dressing, minestrone soup, and bread with seasoned tomato on top. It was all very fresh and flavorful.
The pizza was amazing. Crisp yet tender crust and the right amount of cheeses and herbs - ie not too much cheese as one finds all to often and which tends to ruin the crust - and the cheeses used were excellent. This is one of two restaurants in the Kashima-Kamisu area which gets pizza right.
Desert was also "not too much" - a cup of panna cotta with diced strawberry on top and a small wedge of spongecake on a bit of whipped cream.
Sorry I didn't have my camera with me. Ah, well, I volunteer to go back again just to get more pics. Last year, the tsunami waters came within one block of the restaurant and along with the quake literally sank that street. It was nice to see that their perseverance through the tough time paid off and business is apparently good again. It should be. The food is great.
Until next, sweet sailing.
We found them fairly busy this time, but no waiting, and of course, offering a full menu. We shared pasta with tomato sauce and crab, and a four cheese pizza. The main room seats about 40 people, though there were not nearly that many there for lunch today. The back room appeared to be full though. The furnishings are light woods with tables of knotty pine. In one corner there is a large screen playing a travelogue of Venice while a voice that sounded to me like Astrud Gilberto sang in the background. It was a most relaxed ambiance. I could see the owner/chef working in the kitchen through an arched pass through.
I didn't have my camera, so K took a photo of the crab pasta with her cell phone:
They first served a nice salad in a sweet balsamic vinaigrette dressing, minestrone soup, and bread with seasoned tomato on top. It was all very fresh and flavorful.
The pizza was amazing. Crisp yet tender crust and the right amount of cheeses and herbs - ie not too much cheese as one finds all to often and which tends to ruin the crust - and the cheeses used were excellent. This is one of two restaurants in the Kashima-Kamisu area which gets pizza right.
Desert was also "not too much" - a cup of panna cotta with diced strawberry on top and a small wedge of spongecake on a bit of whipped cream.
Sorry I didn't have my camera with me. Ah, well, I volunteer to go back again just to get more pics. Last year, the tsunami waters came within one block of the restaurant and along with the quake literally sank that street. It was nice to see that their perseverance through the tough time paid off and business is apparently good again. It should be. The food is great.
Until next, sweet sailing.
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