Life

12.31.5
Asakusa
Tokyo, Japan
"While it is important to have principles, you have far less control of what happens. These principles and positions only get you so far, because what actually happens is that you don't carefully chart your way through life. You are picked up by a wind every now and again and dumped down somewhere else."
- Kazuo Ishiguro

12.31.5
Asakusa
Tokyo, Japan
"Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life."
- Lauren Bacall

12.30.5
"Diagrams for a tea-serving doll, archetype of the clockwork figures that were Japan's earliest robots, can be found in Karakuri Zui (Illustrated Miscellany of Automata) written by Hanzo Yorinao Hosokawa in 1796."
"The chahakobi ningyo, or tea-serving doll, is the best known of Japan's mechanical dolls. When a "master" places a cup of tea on the tray held by the doll, it will walk straight to a guest. When the guest takes the teacup, the doll stops and waits until the guest drinks the tea and places the cup back on the tray. Then it executes a U-turn and returns to its master. The spring inside can be set to travel either the full width or half the width of one tatami mat."
link to kateigaho japanese cultural arts magazine

12.31.5
If you want a basic rule of measurement for your accomodations in Japan, simply look at the tea in your room. This was by far the nicest ryokan we stayed in.
link to Ryokan Sadachiyo

12.31.5
"If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty."
~Japanese Proverb

12.30.5
Asakusa
Tokyo, Japan
"To prepare this Green Sea Turtle In Chafing-Dish Recipe, first take one two-pound can of turtle meat, cut in small pieces, braise in two ounces of butter with a little onion. Add one-half pint of cream and two hard-cooked eggs cut rather fine. Thicken with a little flour mixed first with cold milk. Salt and paprika to taste, a glass of Madeira, if desired, and serve from chafing-dish on squares of toast with sliced lemon."
link to freerecipe.org

12.30.5
Asakusa
Tokyo, Japan
THAT'S ME!

12.30.5
Asakusa
Tokyo, Japan
Thursday February 23, 10:10 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito has welcomed his sister-in-law's pregnancy even though the birth of a boy would scuttle his daughter's chances of becoming the first reigning empress since the 18th century.
Plans to revise the imperial succession law to give women equal rights to inherit the throne were put on hold earlier this month after news that Princess Kiko, 39, the wife of the emperor's second son, was pregnant.
No males have been born in the royal family since 1965.
Conservatives hoping to maintain an imperial male line they say stretches back more than 2,000 years say the birth of a boy would at least postpone the need for the legal change.
By Elaine Lies

12.30.5
Asakusa
Tokyo, Japan
"There are two types of sperm in a man's ejaculate that strongly reduce the chances of conception if they are present in large numbers. It seems that these sperm might actually be programmed to destroy a man's own egg-getters. One of them has a cigar-shaped head and is called a tapering sperm. The other has a pear-shaped head and is called a pyriform sperm. Just as for women, stress is contraceptive for men. When a man is stressed, he produces much greater numbers of these so-called family planning sperm."
- Sperm Wars; The Evolutionary Logic of Love & Lust
by Robin Baker, Ph.D.

12.30.5
"Eating rice cakes is like chewing on a foam coffee cup, only less filling."
- Dave Barry