Category: looky

something cool I found on the internets

Tea Whisk: Acquired

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I went to Nak’s today and got a whisk (“chasen” = 茶筅) to make my powdered tea.

The whisks are cut from a single piece of bamboo, with one end thinly split many times over for the brush end, and come in different grades- how many bristles the bamboo is cut into will determine the coarseness of the tea.

I bought the 120 bristle one, but they had two coarser ones, down to 80 bristles.

It turns out that if you break your chasen, it’s bad luck to just throw it in the trash- once a year in May you have a ceremony, “chasen koyō,” in which you burn your brush. I have to be careful with this one because I have no idea where the nearest Shinto shrine is, even in San Francisco.

You need about 1 teaspoon of powder for every quarter cup of hot water.


Giant Microbes

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Cute !

We make stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes—only a million times actual size! Now available: The Common Cold, The Flu, Sore Throat, Stomach Ache, Cough, Ear Ache, Bad Breath, Kissing Disease, Athlete’s Foot, Ulcer, Martian Life, Beer & Bread, Black Death, Ebola, Flesh Eating, Sleeping Sickness, Dust Mite, Bed Bug, and Bookworm (and in our Professional line: H.I.V. and Hepatitis).

Each 5-to-7 inch doll is accompanied by an image of the real microbe it represents, as well as information about the microbe.

Web link of note: Giant Microbes
(At http://giantmicrobes.com/)

Leiji Matsumoto series

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I have had a very difficult time trying to compile a list of what episodes I need to find in order to assemble a complete Yamato, Harlock, and Galaxy Express collection, no doubt because not many others share my… rigorous… nature…

So I am noting everything I find here, and a digested version on Wikipedia.

Shown below is a list of every TV episode, movie, OAV release, and TV special I could find in “my shows” (the Leiji Matsumoto shows I watch), in the Japanese kana/kanji and romaji versions of the titles. I have not included themed video games.

Most of the information here came from the Leijiverse, a fan site run in English, Japanese, and French, apparently by a French fan. Some of the links there are broken in the English version- change the URLs to use all forwards slashes = “/” instead of backwards slashes / “sloshes” = “\”.

Some of these literally are 4 minutes… in the US, a “pilot” is an entire TV episode, a standard 28 minutes for a half hour slot. Apparently these “pilots” really are a short promotional preview, like a movie trailer.

Yamato (aka Star Blazers)

  • Uchū Senkan Yamato [宇宙戦艦ヤマト] (pilot) (9 minutes, 1974)
  • Uchū Senkan Yamato [宇宙戦艦ヤマト] (TV series) (26 episodes, 1974-1975)
  • Uchū Senkan Yamato [宇宙戦艦ヤマト] (movie) (120 min, 1977)
  • Saraba Uchū Senkan Yamato Ai no Senshi-tachi [さらば宇宙戦艦ヤマト 愛の戦士たち] (movie) (140 min, 1977)
  • Uchū Senkan Yamato 2 [宇宙戦艦ヤマト 2] (TV series) (26 episodes, 1978-1979)
  • Uchū Senkan Yamato Aratanaru Tabidachi [宇宙戦艦ヤマト 新たなる旅立ち] (TV special) (90 min, 1979)
  • Yamato yo Towa ni [ヤマトよ永遠に] (movie) (120 min, 1980)
  • Uchū Senkan Yamato III [宇宙戦艦ヤマト III ] (TV series) (25 episodes, 1980-1981)
  • Uchū Senkan Yamato Kanketsuhen [宇宙戦艦ヤマト 完結編] (movie) (160 min 1983)
  • YAMATO 2520 (OAV) (4x 50min episodes, 1994-1996)

Captain Harlock / Emeraldas

  • Uchū Kaizoku Captain Harlock Arcadia-gō no Nazo [宇宙海賊キャプテンハーロック アルカディア号の謎] (movie) (34 min, 1978)
    • Uchū Kaizoku Captain Harlock [宇宙海賊キャプテンハーロック] (Space Pirate Captain Harlock) (TV series) (42 episodes, 1978-1979)
    • Waga Seishun no Arcadia Mugen Kidō SSX [わが青春のアルカディア無限軌道ＳＳＸ] (TV series) (22 episodes, 1982-1983)
    • Kaizoku Kikan Arcadia [海賊旗艦アルカディア] (pilot) (4 minutes, 1982)
    • Nibelung no Yubiwa [ニーベルングの指輪] (pilot) (4 minutes, 1999)
    • Waga Seishun no Arcadia (Arcadia of my Youth) [わが青春のアルカディア ] (movie) ( 135 min, 1982 )
    • Queen Emeraldas (OAV) (4x 30min episodes, 1999)
    • Harlock Saga Nibelung no Yubiwa Rhine no Ōgon (OAV) (6x 30min episodes, 1999)
    • Cosmowarrior Zero (TV series) [コスモウォーリアー零] (13 + 1 episodes, 2001)
    • Gun Frontier (TV series) [ガンフロンティア] (13 episodes, 2001)
    • Young Harlock o Oe! Cosmowarrior Zero Gaiden (TV series) [ヤングハーロックを追え！ 〜コスモウォーリアー零外伝〜] (2 epsisodes, 2001)
    • Space Pirate Captain Herlock The Endless Odyssey Outside Legend (OAV – aka “Endless Orbit SSX”) (13x 30min episodes, 2002)

    Galaxy Express

    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 [銀河鉄道９９９] (Galaxy Express 999) (TV series) (113 episodes, 1978-1981)
    • Ginga Tetsudō Monogatari (The Galaxy Railways) [銀河鉄道物語 (The Galaxy Railways)] (TV series) (26 episodes, 2003)
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 (Galaxy Express 999) [銀河鉄道９９９] (movie) ( 128 min, 1979)
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 Kimi wa Senshi no Yō ni Ikirareru ka!! (Galaxy Express 999) [銀河鉄道９９９ 君は戦士のように生きられるか‼] (TV special) (93 min, 1979)
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 Kimi wa Haha no Yō ni Aiseru ka!! (Galaxy Express 999) (TV special) [ 銀河鉄道９９９ 君は母のように愛せるか‼ ] (93 min, 1980)
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 Glass no Claire (Galaxy Express 999) [銀河鉄道９９９ ガラスのクレア] (movie – aka “Through a Glass Clearly”) (17 min, 1980)
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 Eien no Tabibito Emeraldas (Galaxy Express 999) (TV special) [銀河鉄道９９９ 永遠の旅人エメラルダス] (48 min, 1981)
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 Shōnen no Tabidachi to Wakare (Galaxy Express 999) [ 銀河鉄道９９９ 少年の旅立ちと別れ （総集編）] (TV special) (25 min, 1981)
    • Sayonara Ginga Tetsudō 999 – Andromeda Shūchakueki – (Adieu Galaxy Express 999) [さよなら銀河鉄道９９９−アンドロメダ終着駅 ] (movie) (130 min, 1981 )
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 “Eternal Fantasy” (Galaxy Express 999) [銀河鉄道９９９ エターナルファンタジー] (movie) (52 min, 1998)
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 “Glass no Claire” (Galaxy Express 999) [銀河鉄道９９９ ガラスのクレア] (movie) (16 min, 2000) – is this a different movie than the one above? or a rerelease 20 years later?
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 “Niji no Michishirube” (Galaxy Express 999) [銀河鉄道９９９ 虹の道標] (movie) (15 min, 2001)
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 – Kieta Taiyōkei – (Galaxy Express 999) [銀河鉄道９９９ —消えた太陽系—] (movie) (25 min, 2002)
    • Ginga Tetsudō 999 for Planetarium (Galaxy Express 999) (movie) [銀河鉄道９９９ for Planetarium] ( 2002)
    • Maetel Legend [メーテルレジェンド] (OAV) (2x 42 min, 2000)

    Queen Millenia

    • Shin Taketori Monogatari Sennen Joō Matsumoto Leiji no Sekai (Queen Millenia) [新竹取物語１０００年女王／松本零士の世界] (Queen Millenia) (TV special) (15 min, 1980)
    • Shin Taketori Monogatari Sennen Joō [ 新竹取物語１０００年女王 ] (Queen Millenia) (TV series) (42 episodes, 1981-1982)

    • Natsuyasumi Ninki Anime Matsuri (…) Sennen Joō no Shōtai wa!? (Queen Millenia) [夏休み人気アニメ祭り（…）１０００年女王の正体は！？] (TV special) (46 min, 1981)

    • Shin Taketori Monogatari Sennen Joō Semarikuru Chikyū no Kiki!! (Queen Millenia) [新竹取物語１０００年女王 迫り来る地球の危機‼] (TV special) ( 23 min, 1981 )

    • Sennen Joō (Queen Millenia) [ １０００年女王 ] (movie) (120 min, 1982)

    • The woman with the flying head

    looky

    Kurahashi Yumiko ( 倉橋 由美子 )

    The Japanese names for the stories, and the titles of the books in which they appear

    English story title Japanese story title Japanese publication
    “The Extraterrestrial” Uchūjin ( 宇宙人 ) Kurahashi Yumiko zensakuhin v.4
    (倉橋 由美子 全作品 v.4)
    “We Are Lovers” Koibito dōshi ( 恋人 同士 ) Kurahashi Yumiko zensakuhin v.4
    (倉橋 由美子 全作品 v.4)
    “The House of the Black Cat” Kuroneko no ie ( 黒猫の家 ) Yume no kayoiji
    (夢の通路)
    “The Woman with the Flying Head” Kubi no tobu onna ( 首の飛ぶ女 ) Kurahashi Yumiko no kaiki shōhen
    (倉橋由美子 の 会期小片)*
    “The Trade” Kōkan ( 交換 ) Kurahashi Yumiko no kaiki shōhen
    (倉橋由美子 の 会期小片)*
    “The Witch Mask” Kiji no men ( 雉の面 )* Kurahashi Yumiko no kaiki shōhen
    (倉橋由美子 の 会期小片)*
    “Spring Night Dreams” Haru no yo no yume ( 春の夜の夢 ) Yume no kayoiji
    (夢の通路)
    “The Passage of Dreams” Yume no kayoiji
    ( 夢の通路 )     		Yume no kayoiji
    (夢の通路)
    “The Special Place” Erabareta basho ( 選ばれた場所 ) Gensō kaigakan
    (幻想絵画館)*
    “Flower Abstraction” Furawā abusutorakushon
    ( フラワー　アブストラクション )     		Gensō kaigakan
    (幻想絵画館)*
    “The Long Passage of Dreams” Nagai yumeji ( 長い夢路 ) Kurahashi Yumiko zensakuhin v.6
    (倉橋 由美子 全作品 v.6)

    • In “An Extraterrestrial” the alien described reminds me of the Smoky Progg in the Nintendo game Pikmin. Sort of black and nebulous, and a fetus. That game rules.

    • “The Woman with the flying Head”
      • “a scholar of the old school called Hyakken” –
      • Poem by Oota Nanpo (his names are also written Ōta, Nampo) ( 大田南畝 )–
        a poet also known as
        Shokusanjin ( 蜀山人 ), who lived from 1749-1823 and wrote a genre
        of poem called Kyoka
        ( 狂歌 )        , “crazy/illogical/irreverent poem.”

        Receiving guests is what troubles me most
        But not if the guest is you

        Yono naka ni
        hito no kuru koso
        urusakere
        towa iu monono
        omae de was nashi

        世の中に
        人の来るこそ
        うるさけれ、
        とはいうものの
        お前ではなし

        quoted by
        Uchida Hyakkien ( 内田 百けん ) : “Nichibotsu heimon”
        ( 日没閉門 ) (1971)

        In the spoof version, “annoys”/”troubles” = urusakere ( うるさけれ )
        is replaced with “pleases” = ureshikere ( 嬉しけれ )

      • technically it’s “The Woman With the Flying Neck” – this might be a commonly known phrase for this monster, which is described in…

      • Classic of mountains and seas = Shan hai jing ( ), attributed
        to Emperor Yu of the Xia dynastym annotated in the Jin dynasty (265-420 CE)
      • The Account of Seeking Spirits = Soushen ji ( ),
        a Jin dynasty ghost story collection

      • Prince Genji –
        • author

        • daughter Tamakazura

        • General Higeguro
    • “The Trade”
      • The collection this short story is from is called 倉橋由美子 の 会期小片 (I believe)… which would translate to something like “Short Stories of Kurahashi Yumiko”)

      • goblin (mask) named akujou– “evil old man” ( 悪尉 )

      • goblin (mask) named beshimi – ( 圧面 )… “intense mask” –
        I have also seen a more archaic 2-kanji combination which may mean “eyes devil” because the “mi” is 見 … however the first kanji “beshi” seems to be a chinese character for “devil” which is not in general use
      • Account of Peach Blossom Spring = Taohua yuan ji ( )
        written by Tao Qian [Yuanming] of the Jin dynasty

    • “The Witch Mask”

      • The title – ( 雉の面 ) – I believe this is the right kanji… kiji literally means “pheasant” but I think it is the name of the Noh play that uses the witch mask in question. Could also be 雉子.
      • Mask hannya – ( 般若 )
      • Noh play
        The Iron Ring = Kanawa ( 鉄輪 )

        (possibly also spelled 金輪 – “metal ring” – although this seems unlikely)

        • sometimes translated as The Iron Crown, as in Eileen Kato’s translation in Twenty Plays of Nō Theater, edited in 1970 by Donald Keene

        • character Namanari – ( 生成 ) –

          A
          noh mask = noumen = 能面 used for the wife taking revenge on her unfaithful husband in the second half of KANAWA 鉄輪. … In conception, namanari, as the name implies, lies half way between the human and beast.

          in other words, not quite a hannya ( 般若 ) mask


        • character Hashihime – ( 橋姫 )

          A noh mask = noumen = 能面 representing a jealous woman who seeks revenge. Named after a lost play which literally translates as “Bridge Princess” … The version which seems to supply the basis for the mask relates how a woman, enraged by jealousy, goes to the Kibune ( 貴船 ) shrine and petitions the gods to turn her into a demon so that she can have revenge… Worn by the protagonist, shite (シテ), in the second act of KANAWA

        • a summary of this play from the Daily Info, Oxford:

          Kanawa is a musical about an abandoned Japanese wife who asks the advice of a priestess on how to seek revenge on her husband and his new wife. Following the Priestesses advice, she turns into a demon. Meanwhile, her husband is haunted by nightmares, seeks the advice of a Magician, who fights the demon. The vengeful wife-demon loses the battle and disappears from the scene, with the clear implication that she will be back another day.

        • oops, it turns out I do know what a
          kanawa ( 鉄輪 )
          is- it’s that iron ring with the candles stuck into it that posessed people / witches / demons wear on their heads in Heian-era ghost stories

      • Noh play The Autumn Foliage Hunt = Momijigari ( 紅葉狩り )

        • attributed to playwright Kanze Nobumitsu ( 観世 ) – (1435-1516) –
          incidentally the first person to write Rashomon ( ), the story popularized by Akira Kurosawa-
          the actual gate the play is named for is named Rajomon ( ) (this factoid from an interview with Kurosawa)

        • probably more accurately “Autumn Foilage Viewing”, i.e. when you invite a bunch of friends over and austerely drink tea while viewing the fall leaves
        • history of that period of Noh
      • French author Maurice Mergle wrote “The Mask of a Samurai”

      • film “The Collector” which was adapted from the book of the same name by John Fowles
    • “Spring Night Dreams”
      • somei yoshino cherry – ( 染井吉野 ) – blooms before growing any leaves

      • Poet Teika ( ていか ) aka
        Fujiwara no Sada’ie ( 藤原 定家 ) aka
        Gonchunagon Teika ( 京極中納言 ていか )
        lived in 1162-1241
      • he wrote waka

      • Poem by Teika : from
        Shoku go shūi waka shū

        Longing for the moon
        covered with the fragrance
        of the cherry blossoms
        I cannot even see
        my dreams clearly now

        Hana no ka no
        kasumeru tsuki ni
        akugarete
        yume mo sadakani
        mienu koro kana

        花 の香を flower fragrance [I think this is meant to be “wo” instead of “no”]

        掠める 月に [fleetingly touches my consciousness]; the moon

        憧れて I yearn for
        [this is definitely a typo- it’s akogarete, not akugarete]

        夢も 定かに even definitely in my dreams

        見えぬころかな I can’t see

      • Keith Jarrett wrote “Someday My Prince Will Come”
      • Three Beauties of the Land
      • Empress Somedono
      • Councilor Fujiwara Yoshifusa
      • Buddhist monk Shisai, disciple of Kuukai
      • Princess Shikishi / Shokushi: why is there ambiguity about her name?

        Princess Shokushi (or Shikishi) (d. 1201) was a daughter of Emperor Goshirakawa (1127-1192; r. 1155-1158) and served time as the Shrine Priestess at Ise. She was the finest love poet of her generation, producing work of intense passion, and one of the most skill users of the technique of honkadôri (allusive variation), becoming popular in waka at the time.

      • poem by Princess Shikishi:

        I am never at ease
        in a spring sleep;
        the cherry blossom, short lived,
        is blown by the winds
        even in my dreams

        yume no uchi mo
        utsurou hana ni
        kaze fukeba
        shizugokoro naki
        haru no utatane

        夢の内も
        移ろう 花に
        風噴けば
        静心無き
        春の転寝

        dream inside even
        the fleeting flower(blossom)
        the blowing wind
        (a sense of calmness) eludes
        spring siesta/nap

    • “The Passage of Dreams”
      • Poem by Fujiwara no Yoshitsune [ 藤原良経 ] (1169 – 1206 ) is called
        Fūboku waka shō
      • poem text:

        the fan by which I brought a breeze
        now itself is blown by autumn’s wind

        Te ni narasu
        natsu no ōgi to
        omoe domo
        tada akikaze no
        sumika nari keri

        手に鳴らす The fan in my hand blows summer
        夏の扇と
        思えども I thought but
        ただ秋風の just the autumn wind
        住みか成りけり on its course through my place

    • “The Special Place”
      • the title is more accurately “The Chosen Place”

    • “Flower Abstraction”

      • The collection this was taken from I think is
        幻想絵画館 – which would be something like “House of Fantastic Pictures”

      • Species of cactus – Epiphyllum oxpetalum – is named in Japanese “gekka bijin” ( 月下美人 ) = “moonlit beauty”


    • “The Long Passage of Dreams”

      • Noh play Kayoi Kamachi

        • attributed to Kan’ami Motokiyo (1333-1384) 観阿弥

        • is this person’s given name is uncertain ( Kan-ami )

        • translated by Eileen Kato as “Komachi and the Hundred Nights”
        • translation appears in “Twenty Plays of the Noh Theater”, edited by Donald Keene

      • Noh mask koomote
      • Noh mask roojo

      • Noh mask komachi
      • kotatsu –

      • chazuke
      • Noh play “Courting Komachi”
      • Noh play “Stupa of Komachi” – Sotoba Komachi ( )
        • attributed to Kanze Motokiyo
        • translation “Komachi on the gravepost” translated by Royal Tyler
        • translation appears in Granny Mountains: A cycle of Noh Plays

      • haiku by Yokoi Yayuu [ 横井也有 ]
        (1787-1823) appeared in his
        Semi (no) in(1759)

      • poem text:

        Locusts make one feel hot
        [to] the extent I feel like cutting down the pine they are on

        semi atsushi
        matsu kirabaya to
        omou made

      • The Account of Living in a One-Foot-Square-Room = Hōjōki ()

        • Translated by Helen McCullohugh in Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology
      • more on Kanawa ( 鉄輪 ):
        • mask hashihime

      • Tales of Ise = ise monogatari ( Ise 物語 ), appears in a translation by Helen McCullough
      • Noh play Kagekiyo ( ) – Arthur Waley translated this in The No Plays of Japan (1976)
      • phrase happi hangiri akujō idetachi
      • The Account of Spirits and Miracles in Japan = Nihon Ryōiki ()

        • attributed to a monk, Kyōkai
        • translated by Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura in Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition:
          the Nihon Ryōiki of the Monk Kyōkai

      • Noh play Adachigahara ( ) aka Kurozuka ( )
      • the well of “Prajna Paramita”

      • Buddhist phrases:

        • rupa
        • selva dharma
        • sunyata – the void

      • Noh mask kobeshimi
      • Noh play Nomori ( )
        • attributed to Zeami ( ) (1363-1443)

        • translated by Royal Tyler in Pining Wind: A Cycle of No Plays (1978)

      • Noh play Tamakazura ( )
        • translated as “The Jeweled Chaplet”

        • translated by Janet Emily Goff in Noh Drama and The Tale of Genji: The Art of Allusion in Fifteen Classical Plays (1991)

    0765601583

    Cleopatra Nemesis: Destroyer of Worlds

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    We watched The Neverending Story last night… Diane had never seen it before, and I can always watch that movie again.

    Atreyu is so so pretty. Diane pointed out that he is played by the same actor as “Boxey” in Battlestar Galactica. Obsession is a frightening thing.

    I continued my tradition of renaming the Childlike Empress each time I see the end of the movie. I have always imagined the character of Fantasia (aka Fantastica) would be changed depending on the name of the Empress… so this time her name becomes Cleopatra Nemesis: Destroyer of Worlds. Break out the ‘fro picks and bell bottoms! You under arrest sugar!

    I’m not sure how many people notice this, but there are an insane number of sexual double-entendres in the movie. If you are watching the movie with adults who are easily bored, point this out at the beginning of the movie to prevent them from losing focus. Falcor looks like a giant sperm, he’s kind of a child molester; the Childlike Empress is made up like JonBenet Ramsey, Noah Hathaway is so so pretty, and most of Bastian’s lines in the end sound like clips from a “break in the virgin” porno.

    Imperial Hubris

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    Though U.S. leaders try to convince the world of their success in fighting al Qaeda, one anonymous member of the U.S. intelligence community would like to inform the public that we are, in fact, losing the war on terror. Further, until U.S. leaders recognize the errant path they have irresponsibly chosen, he says, our enemies will only grow stronger.

    According to the author, the greatest danger for Americans confronting the Islamist threat is to believe—at the urging of U.S. leaders—that Muslims attack us for what we are and what we think rather than for what we do. Blustering political rhetoric “informs” the public that the Islamists are offended by the Western world’s democratic freedoms, civil liberties, inter-mingling of genders, and separation of church and state. However, although aspects of the modern world may offend conservative Muslims, no Islamist leader has fomented jihad to destroy participatory democracy, for example, the national association of credit unions, or coed universities.

    1574888498