Show Me The Treasure

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

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. 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

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 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

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? Japan still, and it seems even the smaller metal grates are

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

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

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. Catching the River Cat from Mosman to the Quay, idling into Wharf 4, the ceiling picks up the

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

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. Is it

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

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

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

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

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

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,