michael lambe's scrapbook

Last night at Tadg’s Irish pub Greg delights the punters ears with his mellifluous vocals. Sadly I didn’t catch the start…

This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog

Here’s another one of those whale thingies…

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/b1L2WuV-pGo" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Time for another eatery recommendation! Little Bamboo on Shirakawa Dori serves nice healthy organic foodage with whole grain brown rice cooked in yoghurt. The yoghurt gives the rice extra nutritional value; lots of those all important B vitamins, good for your skin, stomach… and lots of other bits I can’t remember. This is quite close to where I live (a 3 minute walk) so we’ve been going there quite a bit.

I’m afraid I forgot to take a pic of today’s lunch (sorry Rik). I was so hungry I just gobbled it all up… But here’s an artist’s impression:
All that for ￥900, eh? Take my word for it, it’s tasty, healthy and cheap and the master of the establishment is quite a friendly chap too. Here he is in his element:
He used to have a mobile healthy-fast-food van serving lunches in Osaka, but now he’s married and settled down in Kyoto. Little Bamboo as we know it opened for business just last year.
Little Bamboo is situated on Shirakawa Dori just past Mikage Dori. If you get as far as the bookshop you’ve gone too far. Anyway: RECOMMENDED.
The 梅 plum blossoms have started to bloom. These are near my house…

This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog

Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to go to 御所 this weekend and see the blossoms there.

And here as promised is the next video in the Whale/Love series:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/cFBfernMyvA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I just had a phone call from my mother in England, which always worries me a bit because she usually doesn’t call unless there’s a very serious reason. It turns out my Uncle Jimmy in America has died. He was 86. I never met him, but I think that’s even sadder in a way because now I never will… These past few years I’ve lost a few uncles and aunties and my parents are getting on a bit now too… When I was little they were the big people showing me how to do things, and standing between me and the big old world, and making me feel safe… Death didn’t mean anything. I thought those big people would always be there, somewhere. When the big people go away it makes the world seem a far far lonelier place. Well, I never met him but he was family. Rest in peace Jimmy Lyons of Kentucky. Hope to catch you next time around.

On a brighter note I found a nice link on Neil Gaiman’s website to a preview of Eddie Campbell’s latest. I read it. I was intrigued. Check it here.

And here as promised is the further adventures of the クジラブ　wagon, reminding us all that there is more to whales than meat. There are some further whale factoids up here.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/EP2ivPop5Es" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

You know, Japan is not all geisha girls, zen-monks, sushi/sashimi, deeply perverted salarymen and difficult junior high school students (why did I just lump those two together?). Oh, no! There’s more clichés to it than that! Why, it’s “hi-tech” too, right? Although, I usually experience Hi-Tech-Nippon when I buy a new mobile phone, or digital camera, it just so turns out that Japan is the world leader in solar power technology. In fact Japan wants 10% of its energy to come from solar power in 2030… Marvellous! And what’s marvellouser: a company called Kyosemi, (right here in Kyoto folks!) is revolutionizing solar-power technology through the innovative use of tiny spherical solar cells capable of absorbing sunlight at any angle! There’s a very interesting article on it over at worldchanging.com which I just read (and so now I feel very clever). You can read the interview with Yoshinobu Tsujikawa, a leading engineer and assistant to the President at Kyosemi Corporation here.

Some of the exciting possibilities discussed are the integration of solar cells with other building materials to harness solar energy, and the use of this technology for small, low power applications such as portable consumer electronics and more altruistic applications. (Kyosemi has produced hearing aids for indigenous people in Africa. These clever little solar-powered devices transmit audio vibrations via bone in the ear canal!) And other possible applications “include crop monitoring in agriculture, site security, handicapped access, and visitor way-finding…”.

To be honest a lot of it is over my head: “Have you heard of ubiquitous computing? I heard the word “pervasive” is more popular in the West, but we Japanese like “ubiquitous.” But I have to admit the idea of all these Japanese egg-heads, beavering away at world-saving technologies thrills me to pieces.

And I have to say Mr. Tsujikawa’s final words charmed the pants off of me “Currently we are focused on providing energy necessary for life, but eventually we hope to enter the realm of art.”

Oh, and I found this. It’s a nice, non-confrontational, informative series of videos seeking a deeper understanding of Japan’s relationship with the mighty whale. This is just the teaser. I’ll keep on posting more until the music drives me completely nuts.

Whale-love Wagon Teaser

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/dpcUQE3f36o" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

See here!

http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expedition/news/IWC2006-mid

Just a quick post. Japan is putting pressure on some of the smaller, economically disadvantaged countries of the world, in order to get control over the International Whaling Commision. Japan being the economic power house that it is, it is pretty much poised to succeed and being the world’s most stubbornly pro-whaling country, this is a potential disaster for whales. We are losing enough species as it is through our own stupidity and greed. Don’t let Japan add whales to the list! You can see more information on this and what you can do about it here:

http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expedition/news/2006-whale-meeting

It should take about a minute. I think you can manage that, eh?