Berlin!

I'm still working on getting all my camera photos of Berlin in order, but hopefully it will be done by/at the weekend. Took far, far too many photos in the zoo and aquarium....

We loved Berlin. It wasn't what we expected at all. It was wide open spaces and never crowded, chilly but sunny, full of places to stop and talk and eat and then realise that you were surrounded by history. The first reaction was that we'll be back. As a bonus, I got to meet a translator I've worked with on the Japan Society school exchanges - we got on like a house on fire - and another translator who was in Berlin at a conference.

The U-Bahn trains had the Brandenburg Gate printed on every surface.

A double pumpkin delight at a restaurant in Hackescher Markt - pumpkin soup with smoked duck breast...

Followed by linguine with huge slabs of roast pumpkin and shallots. Couldn't finish!

Our sugar rush on Saturday, a German dessert made with pancakes, raisins and slivered almonds, served with fruit compote and ice cream.

There was a spot of rain on Saturday, so we nipped in to the Ritter showroom/shop. Their half-bitter hot chocolates were amazing!

And finally, a bit of strangeness from Zurich station, when I was there yesterday trying and failing to send a DHL parcel.

Notes from Switzerland

Well, in case you were wondering, the Christmas season appears to have officially started. The cheerful orange-shirted staff in Migros were busy building a display with Christmas lebekuchen when we were in there on Saturday.

We had a quiet weekend as we were both tired. We walked from ours in to the local shopping centre, taking plenty of detours around the river. And stumbled across things that I've only ever seen here.

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins

I ordered new fans for my old Macbook Pro, which arrived very quickly from the US. Himself kindly installed them for me on Saturday, and while digging through the stuff I'd left on the laptop I found a flyer for last year's pumpkin festival at a farm on the other side of the lake - and just in time, because their next festival was on the following day! Here are the photos of the pumpkin festival, with its Olympic-themed pumpkin sculptures.

The fans work beautifully and the laptop is just as quiet and well, no warmer than it was when new although that's not saying much. Unfortunately, when I plugged it out for a moment to plug it into a different socket, it died on its arse. The battery says it's not charging (although the generic battery status indicator says it should be replaced soon but is still fine to use. Right).

The only other news is that I've signed up for my next two OU courses - another short course, about plants and all they do for us (and what we do to them) and a bigger one, made of two 15-unit courses on cardiac disease and cancer mashed together. Being on the transitional fee arrangements meant I paid £300 less for the longer course, although the short one was mysteriously £15 more than the previous ones.

This now means I'll have three weeks in October where both these new courses and my current vulcanology/seismology and alternative to oil courses are running, so that's lots of incentive to get the two current ones finished ahead of time... after that, I just have 20 units left on Level 1, so it'll be nuclear energy and forensic science and then on to Level 2 for more chemistry and biology.

Yay for recipes

Because they turn this:

Into this:

I normally make these without the glaze (and the little flowers, which are in the original recipe) but decided to try it this time as we were taking them as dessert. And kudos to himself for the idea to pop the cupcakes back into the warm oven to melt the glaze and get it to spread evenly. ^_^

Foxy!

We took our guests to see the Wildpark last Saturday, and saw all kinds of things - wolves, bears, wild boar, beavers, alpine ibex, wild cats, lynx, elk, buffalo... and the cutest red foxes!

This one didn't care that there was a crowd of people just a few feet away. Maybe we were in the cage from where he was looking.

In your eyes

Himself looks out at Lake Zurich on a sunny Saturday.

Brand name tentacles

Walking back from dropping friends off at their hotel last night, we passed by something himself had seen before and referred to as the "tentacle window display". Turns out it's the windows of Louis Vuitton, empty of their products and instead filled with the characteristic dots and eyes of artist Yayoi Kusama.

Not quite right

Last Sunday we went for a walk along the ridge of the hills behind us, taking the Felsenegg cable car up from behind the station. There was something a little bit curious about one of the road signs.

Nothing wrong here, some lovely German literalness - cable car street. But what's that at the bottom?

Hmm. Didn't know there was a combat kitty.

And this spotted in the 2Fr shop by the station today. Another I'm-not-sure-that's-licensed moment!

暑中お見舞い申し上げます

炎暑ことのほかきびしい中お変わりなくお過ごしでいらっしゃいますか。

色々とお世話になりながらもご無沙汰してしまい申し訳ありません。お蔭様で相変わらず元気に暮らしています。

この写真は京都水族館で見かけたかわいいハコフグです。

この暑さはまだしばらく続きそうです。くれぐれもご自愛ください。

Summer greetings!

Japan has a tradition of sending greetings in mid-summer, the hottest time of the year, to keep in touch with friends and family. So I'm sending you this exceedingly cute boxfish who was causing a logjam at Kyoto Aquarium. (They're really sweet. Until they get startled, release a toxin and kill everything else in the tank.)

We'll be in Zurich for the foreseeable future, so please let us know how you're doing and if we can see you sometime soon, here or elsewhere!

Swiss Miss

We had a nice lazy day yesterday - Swiss national day - sleeping in, having a late lunch, heading out to meet a friend, ending up at the apartment of some other friends for BBQ, then down to the lake for some amazing fireworks. I had no idea what you could get these days, some of the rockets and cakes were amazing. We headed home after midnight, and got utterly drenched on the way back from the station by a sudden thunderstorm. (Himself wondered if all the fireworks had seeded the clouds.) I'm sure the fire brigade were glad to see it.

We also got a leaflet from a nationalist party asking us to sign a petition to kick criminal foreigners out of the country (I'm sure that must already be a law, you can get kicked out for being on benefits here) - but there seems to be one foreign cat they're happy to let in... And the amusingly-named "Lady Crackers".

Finally!

When I was in Tottori in May, my client took me to a 'recycle shop' where people sell what they don't want or need (clothes, furniture, electronics, games, books... you name it) and others buy what they fancy. In my case, this meant Japanese fabric, and especially kimono and yukata. I got two kimono with matching haori (overcoats), one kimono on its own, a yukata and a roll of cloth for 2,000 yen. Posting it surface mail cost 4,000 yen! And it's finally arrived, just over 2 months since I posted it. Now I just need to learn to sew well enough that I don't waste them...

Sleepy sushi

Seen in a shop window off Oxford Street.

You're in the army now

Actually, I was in Migros.

I made this

Thanks to Austa's gift of her magical red sewing machine! In case it's totally unclear, it's a boat-shaped coaster.

Mass religion

What look like fake miraculous medal bracelets, seen at Clockhouse in C&A.

In other news, it's hot and sunny (more ghost thunderstorms that never appear) and although it was financially painful being where I am, we have a Dyson again. All hail.

In the gilded cage with the other animals

Right now, I'd be happy if I never saw the palace of Versailles again. I wanted to leave almost as soon as I got in, via a massive queue that ran the length of the courtyard by 9:10am. By the time we got in it was twice as long. Brawny Russian blondes who put their lethal-weapon elbow in your face as they shove in front of you, seeking the perfect shot. American schoolchildren deliberately setting off the motion detector alarms around works of art. (No response at all from the staff.) Chinese tour groups with audioguides glued to their ears who go to move through the space you occupy like you don't exist. I've checked it off, I'm done. I'd go back to the gardens, but that's it.
After all that, we headed to one of Dad's recommended restaurants - kind of. Same restaurant, La Criee, but in the rue Lagrange instead of by Montparnasse Station. (Let's just say I had no desire to go back there either after getting the train to/from Rennes.) Thankfully it's just as good as the Montparnasse branch, and I enjoyed wonderful prawns and sea bream and gratin dauphinois followed by a cafe gourmand. Mais oui.

A pharmacy too far?

A pharmacy vending machine at Charles de Gaulle airport - all over-the-counter stuff. CDG was inconvenient, but that's pretty good considering. Someone (Zurich airport, Air France, CDG) lost my luggage tag, then I left my padlock in the ladies after opening my case.
So far, Paris is full of stairs, intermittent rain, closed tourist spots and enormous queues. Basically, as inconvenient and balky as its infamous airport. But the food is good, and we just roll with it, and we enjoyed a river cruise with commentary and we're off to a friend's for dinner.

Infiltration

We've snuck into the oh-so-hip graffitti-covered Rote Fabrik by the lake. It's supposed to be an anarchist commune or something similar, but serves as a reasonably-priced (for here) cafe and ideal place to hang out when the weather is fine.
It was supposed to be raining heavily today, but has been warm and alternating overcast and sunny. I even planted my butterfly-attracting plants, lavender and shiso!

Pass and pass again!

Just got the results for my first two OU short courses, Empire of the Microbes and Molecules, Medicines and Drugs - both passed! ^_^

That's me 1/3 of the way to the Certificate in Contemporary Science (with the other 2/3 received and half being studied now) and a mere 1/18 of the way to my degree...

Instant gratification

The plus side to giving your friends omiyage while they're at work - as long as they work at the florist counter!

Last meal

On wifi in Centrair, and having a green tea latte, sweet potato muffin and yoghurt and granola with fig sauce before I have to fly away...

Exit centre stage

Just checked in at Nagoya's Centrair Airport, where the luggage belt says my case is 21.4kg. Hmm. Well, I'm not going to argue.

Going to return the phone now while I can still find a postbox. Talk to you again from the other side of the world!

Really?

Drinkable collagen, given to me by the lady at the pharmacy where I got a drink this morning. She thought my Japanese was so good she gave me two...

Wrong way

My companions on my way back to Nagoya - honey and lemon water, Uji green tea Oreo sticks, high potency good bacteria and diarrhea stopper. No idea how that last one works, but I hope it does.

Misery

Even I have to admit it, I'm still not well. Although I have no sense of direction, I remember odd details - including the location of loos in stations - for which I am profoundly grateful.

I'm giving up on seeing Kodo again tonight. I feel awful, it's too hot and humid, and trying to find a local concert hall in Osaka, a city I don't know, just sounds like a bad idea. Plus even if I made it there, I'm not sure I'd be okay for 2 hours and I still need to repack for the flight. Sulking and trying not to shed a tear in Kyoto Station.

On a mission

I've detoured to Fushimi Inari in Kyoto to aquire a certain item. Not sure what this fox is doing...

It's about 26 degrees again. High school boys are racing each other up the steps going up the hill. I feel like a steamed pudding. But onwards...

And again

Hello Kitty x One Piece cases in Tokyu Hands

Tokyu Hands strikes again

A special event celebrating Japan's much-loved traffic safety police dummy, I think.

Nom nom nom

Brunch

Bento from the platform at Shin-Osaka.

It's the final detour

On the Sakura shinkansen racing towards Shin-Osaka to change to the Hikari to Nagoya where I'll check in for the last night of the trip - up and out early tomorrow to Nagoya Chubu Airport and arriving back in Zurich tomorrow evening.

The conference was good and I met a lot of people and came away with a stack of business cards and a pharmaceutical translation handbook. My food poisoning or whatever was still around until last night but thankfully seems to have sorted itself out now. Still quite tired though.

I'll get to Nagoya around 12:30 and leave my bags at the hotel, then relax and wander around the shops before heading to Osaka to see Kodo again!

1000 cranes

Statue for Sadako, the girl who believed she would be cured of atom bomb-induced cancer if she folded 1000 paper cranes.

Have no fear, fishpig is here!

Banner on the pier where we boarded the boat for the cruise after the first day of the conference. We went past the famous torii at Miyajima, although it was partially covered by scaffolding after being hit by lightning.

Back on the railroad

Normally I'd be wailing and gnashing my teeth at the idea of spending four hours on a train in the middle of the day on my penultimate day of holiday in Japan (I'm not counting tomorrow and Sunday as that's the conference) but the buses from the station near the guesthouse are timed to meet the fast hydrofoils, not the slower ferries, so I'd probably end up waiting an hour or more at the ferry terminal - which makes it almost the same length of time as the train, and I get the train with my JR Rail Pass.

There are other side benefits - I get to spend four of the hottest hours of the day sitting down in air conditioning, and that suits me just fine as I seem to have food poisoning. Nothing major, but I don't feel very energetic.

I went back to Dogo Onsen last night and took the more expensive ticket that gets me into the Tama-no-Yu (water of the spirits) bath. It's smaller than Kami-no-Yu (water of the gods) but you get a yukata and towel, tea and senbei, and when I went in not long before closing I was the only person in there. It was bliss.

You also get a quick guided tour in Japanese (with an English leaflet) of the imperial bathing rooms. The imperial family now uses another ryokan nearby, which draws its water from the same spring, but Dogo Onsen have kept the rooms as they were at the time of the last imperial visit as an exhibition. The bath (empty) looks gorgeous, as do the rooms, but the highlight for me was the beautifully lacquered Japanese-style toilet - which has never been used, as the guide proudly pointed out.

I've written all my overseas postcards, I have some domestic ones left to write and then it'll be time to check out of the guesthouse and see if my case behaves any better going downhill to the tram station. I'll pick up reserved seats at Matsuyama Station, and then it'll just be a question of changing trains at Okayama before arriving in Hiroshima with plenty of time before the pre-conference reception.

Modelling for human tissue testing

Gasp! A non-Japan related post.

The Open University announces a partnership to test human tissue models that could lead to an end to animal testing. (This is relevant to my OU interests...)

Coffee and cake time

I found the wonderful Giaman glass museum - small but with some fascinating exhibits and very well lit. If you go, don't forget to go out through the doors at the end of the gallery and check out the pool!

The cafe upstairs is also worth a visit, with an absolutely gorgeous garden and flowing water pool. Not to mention the Marriage Freres Earl Grey roll cake!