randomwisdom.com

I think I'm coming down with a cold. I've been trying to get enough sleep and eat enough good foods, but I can tell my brain is on overload right now. I'm having a bit more trouble than usual understanding the simple things people are saying.

I'm going to go out and buy a digital audio recorder now, so you won't have to hear any more low-quality recordings from my camera! Hopefully in a few days I'll have a couple interesting sounds up on the site. Keep in mind though that I have a four day weekend starting tomorrow, so no updates for a few days.

I forgot about this when I wrote about my weekend before. There was a little impromptu arts and crafts festival last Sunday in the middle of downtown. Monica and I decided to get off the bus to check it out, and wound up spending about 3 hours there.

There were artisans making paper doors, tables, and even miniature fortresses. In addition, a lot of the exhibits were interactive, and didn't cost anything to try out.

Click to see the full image

Look out... Rar!

I went out and bought a bicycle a couple days ago, since everyone seems to have them. It has three gears, a built-in lock, a taillight, and a headlight. I figured it would be a good way to get around the city.

So I walked into Daiei, the big department store, picked out a shiny new silver bike, wheeled it outside onto a narrow, pedestrian-filled sidewalk, pointed it in the correct direction, and mounted it. As I veered off into a line of parked bicycles and hit the brakes, one thought floated to the top of my head.

What the hell was I thinking?

I can't ride a bicycle. In fact, I have a rather healthy fear of them. I don't really want to ride one of those two-wheeled death machines even on a wide open road, and I especially don't want to ride it down a street barely wide enough for two cars, while that street is filled with traffic!

There is a festival normally held on November 15 called "Shichi-go-san" which means 7-5-3. During this time, parents take children of those ages to the local shrine and a ceremony is held. Obviously, it was a big deal in earlier times when a child made it that far with his or her health intact.

Anyway, I was exploring Sendai with Monica on Sunday, and we passed a giant torii gate (signifying the entrance to a temple/shrine) right in front of some massive stone steps up a mountain. We decided to check it out, and lo and behold, they were having the ceremony early, in a temple on the top of a forested mountain.

The priests were playing music and ringing bells. I felt it would be a bit disrespectful to disrupt the ceremony by taking photographs, even from outside, but luckily my camera has an audio recorder on it.

The quality isn't that great, and it's a rather large file, but I still think this recording is interesting. You can hear the banner flapping in the wind, and faint music in the background.

Click to listen (mono, 8 bit, 11khz - WAV, 60 seconds)

Remember, kids, no sumo... err, smoking.

Click to sumo-size it

Well, I got back from my trip to Utsunomiya on Saturday, but I haven't been able to post photos until now.

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures in the city, as it's not really any more appealing than Sendai in terms of looks. Sendai has more trees, more narrow streets, and everything is generally closer together.

But Utsunomiya does have one thing over Sendai, and that's really good gyoza. Gyoza are basically little dumplings about the size of the palm of your hand that are either boiled or fried. We each ate about 2 and a half dozen of the little buggers in one night; some had vegetables, others pork, garlic, or some spicy stuff. And the tab at the end of the night only turned out to about $10.

Parking in Japan is always somewhat strange. This is where we parked before checking into our hotel room; it's a rotating carousel that lifts your car up into an enclosed building. At the end, when you leave, you back up and the turntable swivels your vehicle so that you don't have to back into traffic. Strange, but effective.

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On the way back, we had to stop for a random festival which was taking place in the neighborhood we were driving through. I ripped the camera out of my bag and snapped off a few shots through the windshield.

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Since we travelled by car, we had to take the Tohoku Express Tollway. The speed limit was listed as 80. By 80 they mean kilometers per hour, or about 50mph. Obviously this is a cross-country expressway, so everyone is going more like 130kph. I guess the explanation if you get pulled over is something like, "Well, officer, I thought the sign was in MILES per hour!"

There are a couple radar cameras set up to catch speeders, but everyone seems to have a jammer. Regardless, the scenery is absolutely spectacular.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Tomorrow I'm taking a trip to Utsunomiya with a group of 3 other people from my lab. Apparently, this place is supposed to be famous for its gyoza, which are like fried dumplings.

I'll bring back some photos!