Rusticated Museum of Petrol - The Fuel's Errand

Imagine, petrol is goneski and this bucolic bowser is all that remains of Petrol Culture. There is nothing like speculation is there?

Old School Tie - Wheat Paste Man

I found this fellow on the under side of Osaka Jo-Koen station, keeping a relaxed watch on a host of commuter bicycles. He's business like, employed by NAK is seems, and a stickler for watching.

Birdable, Shape and Aviation

The yellow bird, a well balanced piece that spins, like a weather vane, in any breath of air, is really a letter opener, designed by Yohei Oki. It joins the micro-lego cockatiel, a green porcelain parrot, plastic barn owls, Rosellas and lorrikeets,  a pair of pottery budgeerigars, a mirror generic bird, a finely constructed black net sparrow and a Lalique dove.  It must be the shape, the two clean lines that meet at beak and tail tip - perhaps a reminder of of the egg, that makes small scale birdables so appealing.  At least that's my excuse.

Ginkakuji Temple's Perpetual Self Contemplation

 A stroll along the Philosophers Walk in Kyoto, a walking path that is a pleasant mixture of quiet suburban gardens with  possies of white and tortoiseshell cats, tea shops and souvenir shops,  leads on to Ginkakuji Temple.  This is a garden so exquisite, so in scale, with walks up through groves,  down along rills, past sand gardens that may contain the beginnings of several universes,  with glimpses of roofs and other garden rooms that lead on in a way that makes strolling an effortless pleasure, and contemplation of the gardens a refreshment. One suspects that in spring, the trees blossom into poems.

Innovative Ground Work in Tokyo

Japan still, and it seems even the smaller metal grates are carefully designed,  branded with either the logo of their function [though this does make theme so a little logorythmic] or a design diagnostic to their location. 
Three more here, but where will this trail lead to?

Tin Tin-esque -A Bouquet of Brollies

This strangely gift wrapped bouquet of wet umbrellas, spied earlyish one December morning on a Ginza footpath was a puzzling reminder, but of what?   This week revisiting Tin Tin in Tibet, I found it. In what might be the most ridiculous scene in any of Tin Tin's adventures.Captain Haddock, overdoes both the whiskey - nothing surprising there - and the pace, perhaps the altitude contributes a little extra, or the heat, but his perception morphs into a crazy dream where Prof Calculus is kitted out as a school boy/sailoir suit and carrying a large bouquet of umbrellas, whereupon things get weirder. Maybe this bouquet of brollies was for Herge?

Bart Brassica's Variant on Crop Circles - The Crop Triangle

Some farmers are rightly rattled by the prospect of releasing genetically modified crops to the vagrancies of the wind but Bart Brassica  has a fondness for any acceleration of evolution that he can try.  Considering the effort that has already gone into breeding Corn , one might think that there was not much room for improvement, but Bart has managed to introduce the gene for Marzipan into his corn crop. This has had the unexpected effect of producing corn stalks only a burp under a decent sized almond tree and these slick ears of corn, that frankly have more marzipan in them than most Italian confectionery shops.

Not in any way camera shy, Bart has arranged his corn crop in what he likes to call Crop Triangles.  Granny Egg, who - due to a hearing problems - thinks marzipan is called Marx-ipan, considers Bart is making a grave mistake getting mixed up in politics and trying to outsmart nature, a fact she has relayed to everyone in Flemington ShopRite.

A Bar Code Blurr of Light - Ferry Travel at its Best

Catching the River Cat from Mosman to the Quay, idling into Wharf 4, the ceiling picks up the summer  festival ambience, pulsing like a Moog Synthesiser in a hey day - delivering a destination and an unexpexted epiphany of travel.

The Surprising Continuity of the Past - Mickey Mouse & Prayer Lanterns

 

Mostly I recollect the past as a series of episodes, a kind of laid down mezair. As in the case of old photo albums, holidays take up disproportionate space. But contemplating these photos, this vintage '50's version of pinball,  one of a series in a little stall run by an ancient women on the way into the Shintennoji Temple, and then those from within the temple grounds, suggests otherwise.

This lovely temple in Tokyo, the first established Buddhist temple in Japan, was founded in 593 by Prince Shotoku.  Inside the temple you must listen to the monk  intoning  prayers to the dead, in the glorious acoustic space of the temple. Outside, in the open cloister, the linked prayer lanterns,each with its seperate message but connected to all the others, in time, and, by night, in light, creates a clear message about continuity.

The Temple Dragon, a gloriously wild exurburance.

Castling - The Perennial Holiday Occupation

Is it that all holidays lead to castles? Here is that perfect pairing  Osaka Castle as central motif of the manhole cover at Osaka Castle,  photographed in dappled sunlight reminscent of cloud shadows passing, depicted here as we look up from the castle's  moat. The keyholes, hiding in a row of trees, are particularly well placed.

A Keystone Kops-esque Hydrant Point - Ginza

Always on the look out for stylish manhole covers, I found this example in Tokyo, just past Shimbashi Station.  This one, reminding me of the Kings of Slapstick, the Keystone Kops, has to be for the Fire Department. That look of determined concentration on the lead hose-bearer , (please no jokes about leiderhose) would be enough to put a dampener on most fires even before it's hit up with cartoon water.

Scenes from Cafe Life - Tokyo & Kyoto

 In Tokyo, we found the Breakfast Set at the Espresso Segafredo Cafe, alongside the railway tracks in Ginza, just right - sitting up at the window seat watching people bustle to work,  the curious combinations of overcoats and bags, the giant fish on the 24 hour sashimi restaurant opposite, that homely clatter of the train passing, obscuring for something more than a moment, something less than a minute, the Ginza skyline behind.

Chiyodaku, Yuurakuho, Ginza.

Along the Philosopher's Path in Kyoto, we stopped for green tea and cake the Yojiya  Cafe, climbing the stairs to a tatami room with its perfect view of the lovely garden, the pine tree's high boughs level with our eyes,  the roof line and the electricity line, the three leveled into one plane by my watercolour perspective.

Planes and Trains - Platforms for Observation

Setting out for Japan,  we arrive at Sydney Airport with what be plenty of time if not for the chaos of Jet Stars understaffed baggage check-in, a fiasco that prompts me to consider their choice of name, an anagram of  Jesters A, was no coincidence.  After navigating the perils of the White Out Queue ( a tempting subject for a stand-alone essay but why dwell on the negative?) and only just checking in our baggage we find that our flight has been delayed by an hour.  Something of the Christmas spirit, or at least some of its commerce could be seen in that traditional item, The Green Foam Antler Headband, caught here in an attempt at an indoor panaroma.

Sleeping on the train - a national past time in Japan. I find the train seats on the Narita are heated - so thoughtful.

It's usually the top half, head and shoulders,  that makes it into the picture frame but legs, after all the basic unit of transportation,  have their uses.

Enlightment - Episode 2 of In the Ponderings

Farmer Brassica's introduction into  meditation (See Episode 1 of  In the Ponderings ) literally took an unexpected turn when Frank Winkler's dinghy turned over and  flipped Bart into the pond.  Owing to his stalwart attachment to his bucket and pitchfork, swimming is well nigh impossible for Bart giving him quite some time under Brassica Pond (below). It might be the time without oxygen or true enlightenment but Bart reports he had a long conversation with a slightly damp Buddha as a result of which he considers he is now enlightened.

Mavis Eggwhistle, being highly sceptical about Golden Men made Bart stand on Granny Egg's Bathroom scales,  which she took over on purpose to prove he is exactly the same weight,  'Enlightened my foot, you still weigh 12 stone and a half! '

The Snow Resilient Manhole Cover - Hakuba Japan

Yes, those white trails are snow flacks caught in the act falling. This manhole cover with its lovely motifs of cloud, mountain and lily is the first I've seen with a name in English. That it is not covered with snow makes me think that all these covers are for the water system perhaps? Is there a competition for the town with the best man hole cover?  Can this be called a grate if it doesn't have any grating holes? And what species are those mysterious lilies? The mysteries multiply.

Emperors of Snow at Aqua Alpine Hakuba

We stayed the  week before Christmas at Aqua Alpine in Hakuba in the Hakuba Gorya village area, in the Nagano region of Japan. This was like arriving at a friend-you didnt-know-you-had's place,  the staff at the hotel picked us up, organised our lift tickets, ski gear, ski lessons, schlepped our luggage into our snug log cabin and evidently, did an almighty Snow Dance so we had plenty of soft powder snow to land in when gravity overtook us on the slopes. People would materialise to shuttle us to and from the snow. One of the staff  kindly took  my gung-ho 16year old powder hound skiing, and helped dig him out of waist-high powder after an adventurous short-cut. The cottage caretaker took us to an Onsen and then out to a local restaurant. All effortlessly hospitable, and relaxed.   I'm nearly dubious about blogging this as I am planning to go back next year, so maybe I should take that all back and say, Oh, it was Ok, sitting in front of the open fire, watching the snow slide off the roof, sketching the fir trees while the night fell like myself on a dodgy turn, but don't try  to book, I believe it's full for the next two northern winters.

Snow amoibus at Aqua Alpine

Better than Ginger Bread Cottage