As Typhoon #15 (“Roke”) passed South of Shikoku last night, all was fairly calm here in Takamatsu, with a light to moderate rain falling in the center of town. The biggest thing I noticed was a single bomb-like thunderclap before midnight when the rain was at its peak. Nonetheless, the typhoon panic led to various school and public facility closures. The ferries were back online, but it was funny that yesterday when they were starting to panic shutdown for the impending storm, conditions were so amazingly calm, whereas today when it was all “safe”, conditions were borderline stomach-churning. There were some legitimate road and facility closures on nearby Ougishima and Megishima due to small landslides or road washouts, but many of the much-touted art sites in the towns remained closed because staff were told to stay home because of the storm. At least this evening dinner was easier to find, as opposed to finding restaurants closed or closing early “because of the typhoon”. I can understand exercising adequate caution, but this event snowballed into a national panic (especially down South where the effects were mild), and I don’t mean this in hindsight – in the days running up to the arrival of the storm at it’s nearest passing point, it was deadly calm with just sporadic drizzling. People were shutting things down days in advance because of the media hype and not actual observed conditions. Continue reading ‘Typhoon Panic’
Archive for the 'Culture' Category
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Although the rainy weather of last night dissipated in the morning so that Shikoku was visible across the water, to avoid the possibility of getting trapped on Shodoshima in the event that the fast-moving typhoon #15 came rushing in, I bailed early. Landing in Takamatsu, the weather was actually worse, with a fairly constant drizzle falling – it makes sense, since I actually moved closer to the typhoon! With no plans for today in Takamatsu, a quick stop at the ekimae tourist information office revealed a map of a shrine complex with a pile of stairs! I hate stairs! Let’s go! I had actually heard of the Kompira-gu shrine previously, but didn’t know many of the details. A leisurely local train ride on the Kotoden from a station built up against the outer wall of the Takamatsu castle ruins took me to Kotohira-machi for 610-yen. Continue reading ‘Typhooned’
Okay, passing through the backstreets of Kotohira-machi (home of the Konpira-gu shrine in Kagawa-ken) I happened across this preschool fence. Once you get passed the fact that there was a barbed wire fence around a preschool (WTF!?!?), note that it is leaned inward to keep the little curtain jerkers in, not to keep weird, unwanted adults out!
Wow. Weird. I managed to find a wireless access point at this late-60’s vintage hotel on the far side of Shodoshima! This morning it was a rush to make it to JR Osaka via the Yotsubashi-sen, only to find that the 06:20-something limited express train had already long since gone. It took a local Osaka loop-line train, a 700-series Shinkansen, and a local train on the Ako-sen to get me to Saidaiji-eki in time for the 10:05 bus to the ferry landing to Inu-shima. The sky was overcast for the most part, and the humidity of the past couple of days had dissipated, so the apparent suffering level was not as great. After a short wait at the pier with unchi-pantsu-gyaru, a 10-minute, 300-yen boat ride got me out to Inu-shima. The former copper refinery on the island closed late last century had crumbled into disrepair, but the old slag-brick and red-brick ruins had been converted recently into an art exhibition and installation. In addition to the converted factory, several house-like installations throughout the island were also built. I wonder a little about what the remaining local fishing village residents think about the whole thing, but I’m guessing that a source of revenue that isn’t slowly killing them like the refinery and is preserving the island lifestyle can’t be all bad. Continue reading ‘Islands, Ruins, Art, and Boats’
Last Saturday Mitch gave me a buzz asking if I wanted to check out a mystery bon dance that their group was performing at. He described where in Millilani it was supposed to be. It didn’t sound familiar at all, I tried looking it up. There wasn’t anything in any of the bon dance listings for this year. Tried looking on map using Mitch’s directions, but I was looking at wrong gulch, there’s nothing there. Dave texted back, is it this Daikon Festival thing that he linked to? Picked up Mitch at his place and he confirmed that was it, weird! Looked it up on maps, Honbushin International Center, who?
Got into Osaka last night on a good flight on Hawaiian Airlines (HA449 HNL-KIX). The 767-300ER they are currently using on this route is older, but it is clean and in good repair. The comparable JAL aircraft have so many hours on them, they look a lot more beat-up inside, and the “personal contact surfaces” like the seat material and armrest pads are a lot more worn and dreary (and possibly suffused with funk). This one didn’t have the personal video screens, so that meant cooler seats and more seat width for me, since I was only one of two native English speakers on board, so I got “volunteered” into the exit row. Passenger demographic was mostly young couples, instead of the older crowd on JAL. They actually ran the A/C nice and cold, such that I actually had to use the blanket, as opposed to JAL, where my back is usually soaked with sweat. After a turbulent approach over Awaji-shima and Kobe, we were brought straight into KIX without any waiting or holding pattern. Continue reading ‘The Wall of Heat’
I dropped by Chinatown Boardroom on the 2nd for the opening of Fuyuki’s show, NAMI. Fukaya Fuyuki is an artist from Kyoto who creates using traditional brush techniques and a mix of traditional motifs mixed with a hint of the contemporary. His outstanding design sensibilities stem from his background in kimono fabric design and production. This show is his first in the USA, showcasing his paintings done with traditional water-based sumi-e inks on hand-made washi paper made by his friend in Kyushu. I was thoroughly impressed with his work and bought a woodblock print of a rooster from him. The show runs through the 30th of September, so check it out!
Highly Recommended!
Saw a really short medical professional with a fake orangy tan and purple scrubs. The “Oompa-Loompa” song started playing in my head: Coffee almost came out of my nose.
(0)In a span of less than five minutes and a distance of less than three miles between two parking lots in Waipahu, I saw three Suzy SJ410’s and an equal number of Toyota MR-S’s. Do all little cars eventually end up in Waipahu?
(0)Saw two actual commercial AM General Humvees yesterday, one white 2-door fastback and one blue 4-door wagon. Come to think of it, I really haven’t seen many GM H2’s or H3’s around lately, but maybe that’s not because they have been naturally selected out of the gene pool (like any 3-year-old Korean car), but more because I haven’t been driving through the ghetto to see them.
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