Horses of Cape Toi

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, last Sunday my family and I took a drive down the coast of Miyazaki. Our ultimate destination was a Toinomisaki (Cape Toi), which is famous for the wild horses that graze there. Here are some pics of a few of the horses (click to enlarge):

Slide

Click to enlarge.

Yeah, Right...

What's that old "Chinese proverb"? Something like, "It's better to keep one's mouth shut and appear to be a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt"? Or was it, "He who farts in church sits in pew"? I forget... Anyway, somewhere some squirrels running on exercise wheels squeezed out a few bingo balls and, as if by magic, translated the findings into a bunch of 0's and 1's and deemed the content of this blog to be of such a high level that only a genius could possibly comprehend it. I have, in my oh-so-subtle way, been trying to convince everybody of this fact for several months now. What's that old Klingon saying? "Revenge is a dish best served cold"? Or was it, "He who laughs last, laughs best"? I don't know, whatever it was I think that, on this auspicious occasion, it's quite appropriate. I mean, you know what they say in Japan: "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." Or was it "The squeaky wheel gets the grease"? Fucked if I know and, as that great sage of our age, Yosemite Sam, is fond of saying, "It don't make no no-how to me anyhow"...

[H/T: Glenn]

Vending Machines, No. 8

In black and white (click to enlarge)...

Ocean and Coast (2)

Continuing from the previous post (click to enlarge)...

Ocean and Coast (1)

My family and I took a trip south down the coast of Miyazaki yesterday. Some pics (click to enlarge):

Black and White Torii

Continuing from the previous post, here are some torii in black and white (click to enlarge):

Tsuno Shrine's Torii

A torii is a gate found at the entrance of a Shinto shrine. Tsuno Shrine has several of them (click to enlarge):

At the Dentist

This didn't seem to be an ordinary waiting room in an ordinary dentist's office. For one thing, they didn't have any magazines. They had photocopies of what appeared to be journal articles, or maybe short stories-- A4 pages stapled together. They also had some unusual stuff on the walls-- a poster of Bela Lugosi as Dracula here, one of Bill Murray there...

He picked up one of the article-like reproductions, Notes from Underground. He vaguely recalled having read this in university, something about a guy with a toothache. Like a complete idiot, he chuckled to himself, thinking, "what a coincidence!"

Isis

I've never really considered Bob Dylan to be a "proper" rocker (unlike, say, Neil Young, who's always had the stink of rock 'n' roll on him). I'm beginning to re-evaluate this opinion...



That wasn't bad, eh?

A Paragraph Between Images

I'm not exactly sure how it's come about, but this blog is clearly beginning to look like a "photoblog". It's been weeks since I've even made an attempt to write anything here. I initially figured that photos would be a nice supplement to whatever I might write in this space, but the photos seem to have taken over. And while I have become more interested in taking pictures the last few months, I have not become less interested in writing. It just looks that way...

The Wingnut Concordance

[h/t: Sivacracy]

Vending Machines, No. 7

Click to enlarge.

Spider!

Like the post title says... (Click to enlarge.)

Earthrise, Earthset

Cooler than Star Wars because it's, like, real...
Nice work, JAXA.



[h/t: Pink Tentacle]

Random Black & White

Just some random (perhaps somewhat "minimalist") pics. Click to enlarge.

At Tsuno Shrine

This past Sunday I went with my wife and daughter to visit the in-laws in Tsuno (about an hour's drive north of Miyazaki). It's a pretty small town, but they have one of the more interesting Shinto shrines I've seen in these parts. The grounds around the shrine are very nicely kept up, and the combination of the trees and the sun makes for some interesting light (which, I'm afraid, I haven't done a very good job of capturing...). Anyway, here are a few pics (click to enlarge):

Vending Machines, No. 6

You know, all these vending machine pics (except one) have been taken within one kilometer of my condo. I'm just getting started... (Click to enlarge.)

Not Unlike the Waves

I often find myself in the same argument: "The reason," I say, "that you don't like death metal is that you haven't heard enough of it." Of course, I've heard more than enough of the shit they listen to...

The Idiot

Imagine if writing were like music: I think I could do a pretty good Dostoevsky cover, or Camus...

My Kind of Show

Apparently somebody says "fuck" on Deadwood (season 3) 1.73 times per minute, slightly fewer times than the 1.76 "fuck per minute" rate of season 2.

Nova Scotia Sunset

I'm afraid I have nothing to say.

Here are some pics I took this past summer in Nova Scotia (click to enlarge):

Science Update

Apparently a big chunk of the universe has gone missing. I wonder if that's where all my ideas went...

Vending Machines, No. 5

There have been mild rumblings and protestations to get a better look at what's inside these vending machines. What manner of product is offered by these sentinels of the streets and, more deeply, what are the inner processes that allow for the convenient and timely delivery of such a wide variety of tasty beverages?

The pictures below should give the viewer a pretty good idea about what's generally available in a typical Japanese vending machine (click to enlarge). As to the inner workings of the vending machines themselves, I'm afraid that's a closely guarded secret, but please, don't believe everything you read [*]...





Proof that the Japanese are more civilized than most: vending machines that sell beer.

[*] This is the type of thing that typically passes as "foreign reporting" on Japan in the New York Times. It's a complete pile of bullshit, like just about everything else written in Western newspapers about Japan. Readers of the NY Times might well be wondering how the Japanese are capable of renewed imperialistic ambitions when they're so stricken by fear of each other that they've taken to hiding themselves in "vending machines". Give me a fucking break... If you're really interested in this "story" you might find it more useful to look here and here.

Yielded with Koi Submission...

Here are some carp. (Click to enlarge.)

Dostoyevsky Comics

Batman as "Raskol", a tormented, poverty-stricken student with a dangerous new "philosophy"; The Joker as the mean-spirited pawnbroker; Commissioner Gordon as "Porfiry"; Robin as "Sonny", a cross-dressing Christian...

Yes, they're all here, in Batman by Dostoyevsky.

[h/t: God of the Machine]

Vending Machines, No. 4

You may have figured out that this series is not about to end any time soon... (Click to enlarge.)