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About meArchives for September, 2006
News for Ghibli fans
The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka (between Mitaka and Kichijoji stations on the Chuo) is going to run a short film from the Totoro gang. This one features Mei and a neko-basu kitten, who got blown off course in a windstorm. According to the Yomiuri article this isn’t a new piece, but it’s the first time for it to be shown in nearly a year. No word on whether it will show up on a DVD (and therefore on YouTube) anytime soon.
East Coast gourmet dining
So Adam took a trip back east and found this restaurant . . . “Oh sommelier, could you recommend a 2006 low-fat to go with this Kix?”
Honesty in the sky
After you get several dozen flights under your traveling belt, you sort of tune out all the announcements they make at the beginning of the flight. You pull up on the tab to open the seatbelt? Yeah yeah yeah, if you need me I’ll be thumbing through “Fifteen underlit, overpriced restaurants in a major European city that paid for this article placement” in your in-flight magazine.
But there are some announcements that might make me sit up and take notice. The Economist writes about some of these in Fear of flying:
Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.
Incoming!
So typhoon #14 (Yagi, if you prefer the naming system used in other Asian countries) is going to pay us a visit this Sunday . . . Doesn’t bode well for our weekend walk down to Jindaiji to eat soba.
Last weekend we did the Tour de Noodles and ate at this place. I’ll have to post some pictures from that day when I get the chance. The temple has a “Soba Kannon” statue on its grounds—you can see a photo of it at the top right of this page—a Buddhist deity who’s there to keep your buckwheat noodles delicious. Now that’s what I call a useful religion.
There’s a better pic of the Kannon on this page. Next month the temple holds its soba festival (October 21 and 22, I think) so that might be a fun, if crowded, time to go see the sights.
For the LOTR fan with $$$
So Adam wrote me and told me about this new development going up in central Oregon: The Shire of Bend. Now’s your chance to buy into a community featuring a mishmash of architectural styles from England, Scandinavia, and Middle Earth!
As you can see on the neighborhood map, lots 23 through 27 are already reserved for such worthies as Gil-Galad, Boromir and Faramir, and one of the Proudfoots. (Proudfeet?) So obviously these properties are hot hot hot and going fast.
“We are the first in North America to bring a modern thatched village to life.”
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