Morning Sun

Toward the winter solstice, the Sun is going down south.  It’s mean, it’s

getting lower and lower in the sky.  So, we can see the sun coming through

side of the tree.   And now, the tree got their golden leaves. 

Unlike Wabi-sabi of typical Japanese, I got bad habit to push even farther. 

So, the Curry got to be very hot etc.   And to see twice as much Gold leaves,

the instant twice-rich-magic was to give a double exposure.   😀

While giving double exposure, even the focus has been changed to make

painting like images. —– When crispy sharp picture can be made even

by Phone-camera, I rather like to push opposite direction.

And for this picture — focus was made for background leaves and

to the foreground flower.  (—– I like this water-color effect too.)

— Have a peaceful nice week, everybody.   🙂

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Focus-Shift Flower image

Somebody in the USA contacted me to use one of my old photo which was

taken by a technique of Focus Shift, hence the image has big off-focus

bokeh superimposed on it.  In fact I’ve published such photo many times

like this or this. (though, the gear used or the lens may not be the same)

And even there was such drastic approach.   🙂     But this time, focus ring

was moved manually, and in order to have a slower shutter speed, shooting

took place in the evening, under rather dim light.

And to make off-focus, shift to near or far, or the setting of F-aperture etc,

above all, how far the subject, will make the picture looks quite different.

(still, there is no fixed manner = it’s just case by case.   🙂  )

Funny things of Focus Shift is, first moment, it was focused to the main

subject, then move the focus, generally till completely out of focus though,

why not focused here and there.  = Two subjects will have each clear focus

(and bit of bokeh)  🙂

Camera used here was the Nikon D810 — having had 37Mp image-censor,

there are ample of space to crop the image.

A radio DJ mentioned Xmas —– Oh no, soon it will be the November

—– still, flower patch has few flowers left.    Thanks Goodness.

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Salmon Tofu — simple cooking

Indeed, this was the reason why I bought Tofu. —– I used to invite the people 

to see my work, and in such a case, often I cook and eat the meal together.  

Now, I don’t need to do that since I started to show the photo in my Blog,

even the short viz in the Youtube, = just tell the person “See the blog”.

Anyway, when I cook, Salmon Tofu which I invented was my regular cooking.

—– not because original but above all it is the simplest and easiest cooking.

(no complicated preparation of Dashi etc — just put together and heat)   🙂

Only three ingredients = Tofu, a chunk of Salmon and a fresh Ginger —

well, a drop or two Soy-source. 

When the three were put together, place the bowl into the pan with shallow

water to boil = it’s mean, Tofu in the bowl was steamed. (7~10 minutes boil)

(Or put a cover on the bowl and cook in the microwave cooker for 5 minutes.)

The steam drip down through Ginger to Salmon and to the bottom of bowl

makes beautiful soup as well —– and its taste struck everybody.  (so far)   🙂

[]

Although this is not a vegetarian, I regard this is the Zen cooking.

= everything was there as it is but nothing else. 

And everything melt together and creates the best by themselves.

No complicated thinking or manipulation = just leave the process to them.

= the nature is having the best in its own.   (Proof of the taste — you try !)

And this nature, we call the Dharma. 

___/\___

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Phenomena

In the afternoon,  I found a glowing rainbow in a corner of my room. 

Obviously it was a sun spot though, — ?     where it was reflected and

coming through ?  —– So, I came to the spot to trace back the light

and found it came through a draftsman’s plastic ruler.  

As its edge was angled, its transparent plastic worked as a good prism.

= and created good rainbow when it was hit by a sun beam.

We are living in a world of numerous physical phenomena

— not necessary we are aware or able to notice it, let alone understand

and able to explain why.   Such as a burning fire, falling apple !, frozen 

or boiling water, or how induction cooker, microwave cooker works etc.   

Among them, a rainbow color must be the most loved by anybody.

Real Rainbow in the sky was created by the light reflected inside of the

water droplets of the mist or cloud. (half of Hi-viz bright tape works in

the same way = each minute grass beads reflect back the light —– other

half works as microscopic 90 degree roof mirror = reflect back the light  

to the same direction where it come from = unidirectional light is bright.   

       When the light travel through such as in the grass or any transparent

material, the light bend a “bit”.  How much the “bit” was depend on the

color of the light. —– Color ?

You may think the sun light is white but you are seeing the mixed light of

rainbow color.  There is NO white light in the world.  So that a white LED

is in fact a Blue LED covered with yellowish fluorescent pigments — its

different mixture makes warmer white or cool white, even pink LED.  🙂

— Any how, each colored light has different energy  (hence even outside 

of Violet = UV burns our skin) all depend on each wave length of the light.

= Red has longer wave length but Blue is short, Violet, UV is much shorter.  

And even shorter wave was used in a Microwave cooker to heat up the food !

= We may not aware why we get sun-burn or the pasta was cooked, — still

those invisible phenomena configuring the world.

Rainbow is not just here to please our eyes. —– It makes us to wonder !

[]

     A Japanese scientist, Prof. Kajita is going to receive this year’s Novel prize

for Physics for the discovery of  that the sub-particle  Neutrino has a mass.

—– So, what ?   I never seen even a hint of such Neutri-something — though,

it’s said to be flying around everywhere ! — The phenomenon of this particle

was captured by the thousands of photo-detectors  surrounding a pool of

50 thousand tons of pure water by detecting a trace of faint light created by 

the passing  particles.     Dear dear dear, what a work and the toil.

[]

[]

On this Planet

Time to time, I fond the very rare access to this blog, such as from

the Palestinian Territories or Bhutan.    And learned, such as

Faroe Island who supposed be a part of Denmark was treated

as an independent country and has their own flag.

Of course, these days, even middle of desert such as in Mongolia,

the locals has electric generator and watching satellite TVs so,

nothing strange to have a computer connected to the Net

—– and stumbled my blog  🙂   (Where ever on this planet, be ever

so remote, still someone stumbled and read this blog is nothing but

a manifestation of the Karmic power.)

[]

Mankind is an incredibly resourceful animals.  Longtime ago,

I heard from Afghan, in order to connect satellite mobile phone,

they improvised to use chicken-net to make a satellite dish.

And I heard that in Cuba, where under the trade sanction,

everything has to be homemade or improvised = engine-oil

was made by a washing-up liquid mixed with sugar !

[]

Nothing like their creativity, still, I had to improvised a bit to take

a photo above. = Long list of the countries.

On the beginning, I tried to collage scrolled 2 images though, it 

wasn’t looks good. — So, I setup the screen upright and showed

whole list in one screen and took the very photo.

(the reason why I’m writing such trivial story was, “It’s so funny

— and difficult — to use a screen upright”)

= It’s better you try it by yourself. —> Go to Control Panel —>

Adjust Screen Resolution. (in there, you’ll see “Screen set-up

= Landscape : Portrait”  Then click Portrait. = So, the image flicks.

But, when you try to use mouse or touch pad, you’ll see the hell.

(It may not happen, if the device was touch-screen type).

After having had a fun, Go to the Control panel and click back.

= everything back to the normal !  (You feel sigh !)  😀

(I couldn’t imagine that the Microsoft still having such incredible

shoddiness in their program === It was a DISCOVERY !)

[]

Giffgaff and the TESCO’s Fraud

To connect my Google Tablet to the Net, I’ve been using Giffgaff SIM card 

more than a year.    It was recommended by the wireless expert.  

On the beginning, its unlimited Internet connection for £12 per month

seemed good deal and worked well. (= They needed to cut into market)

(Note: They changed the tariff, Unlimited Connection to 3GB without notice)

Then early this year, when they started to talk about 4G, and up-grade etc,

the connection was getting bad. = I could see it was a sales ploy to

pressurize the user to feel needs of better connection.

And the situation was getting bad to worse, hence more than half of the

occasion, when I wanted to show my blog etc to others,  NO CONNECTION.

 Even in the middle of the night, connection couldn’t be made at all.

= Who can trust such company and pay even more money for an up-grade.

It is the time to look for

somewhere else.

The shop staffs selling Elecs’

secondhand, who is the most

knowledgeable people in this

kind of up-to-date information.   They recommended me Tesco SIM card.

The trouble was, it was not available in the ordinary Tesco shops.  I had to

Ask around three shops, and I took a journey to the largest one in the area.

—–  While testing 2 weeks so far, it made only 2 occasions hard to connect.

(At moment, it is only 1GB  £10  One month try,  though, seems not too bad.)

Funny things was, both Giffgaff and Tesco are using the same O2 net-work

which IS giving 4G service —– but Giffgaff is making such difference !

(Provider is adjusting the Bandwidth intentionally for their purpose)  😀

And what I found was even

more disturbing !

This is what they are now

advertising.(free SIM is norm)

—– Did you noticed ?

Now £12 for only 2GB. (saying

with 4G) Though, O2 IS 4G. 

So, Tesco use 4G from the start.

(But Giffgaff was intentionally

 making it to 3G speed !)

———————————————————————————————————————–

Get rid of the Giffgaff SIM and changed to TESCO SIM —– looked 

like a good choice though, suddenly the hell opened.

The use of Tesco SIM on my tablet was on a probation period.

= To test how Tesco works as a provider and its O2 connection.

But, the observation was abruptly halted. = suddenly, the usage

said to have reached to the 1GB upper limit. And the Net was cut-off,

the screen started to say “TOP UP”  —– The usage graph showed

incredibly unnatural rise seemingly caused by “TuneIn Radio”

(photo above left)  which said to have consumed whopping 0.67GB

within few days.   But funny fact was, this App was not active = as

the screen shows ” App isn’t installed”. (photo middle) = This is

the “Caught in Red-handed” case of the TESCO’s fraud. —– Is there

any possibility of the Radio was accidentally activated and off again ? 

And can the radio kept making the noise in full volume for few days

without me noticing it ?     Especially when  2 years old battery is its

end of the life so that, never able to leave the tablet left switched ON.

—– (Now I got new battery

for my Nexus 7 — BUT, it

found to be a scavenged

secondhand.

We should be careful with so-called “UK-Seller” in Ebay)

Above all,  when I’m testing it for a month within 1GB limit — who leave 

the radio kept switched on ?   ( Even if the App was working — but not)

( I use a lap-top with proper keyboard with land-line broadband to deal 

with Net, Blog, Youtube etc, so that the tablet was just for fun when I go out.

In other words, I don’t need to use the tablet in my home = why do I ?)

= Obviously, it was the TESCO, who has tampered the counter.

( Who else can access the counter without making the radio noise.   🙂 )

—– (and it was for the sake of few pounds — can you believe ? ! ! ! )

(May be few pound from me though, in the systematic massive scale operation,

the total gain would be huge = in other words, they must be doing it systematic.)

As a matter of fact, every Broadband provider did the same, but they

didn’t leave the evidence behind, unlike the TESCO did for this time.  

Yet still, I’m not sure, whether this is a case for Ofcom or

Consumer’s Association or even Police.

* * * * * * * *

—— As I took the tablet to the TESCO Mobile Shop where I’ve bought

their SIM  3 weeks ago and complained while showing the evidences,

a man in the HQ offered me free 500MB compensation.

= So, they are well aware what they are doing.

* * * * * * * *

After those findings / Experiences, when I wanted to terminate the

contract with Tesco Mobile, the real hell was opened.    The Shop who sold

the SIM said, that they can’t terminate the contract, it has to be done through

the Telephone 0345-301-4455 which never work.  And the Email kept saying

“No log-in” —– So, the only a possibility to contact / complain them was by

way of the writing.  —– It IS really funny, to get out from the 1 month Only

contract seemed such trouble. = The best way is NEVER start deal with Tesco.

 

[

Japan Matsuri 2015

It was a Japan Matsuri = Annual Festival today at Trafalgar Square Central London.  

There said to be a performance of Taiko Drumming though, before I got there.

(and long after I left = 7 o’clock evening)  The weather was fine — in fact too fine.  🙂

Normally not, but I did come this time with a hunch to bump somebody

— and surely I did.

Why “normally I wouldn’t” was that because, I’m not so sociable person to the

general public, likewise, I don’t do any SNS.   Yet still, I have many friends

— though some of them, not seen so many years. ~ ~ ~ then, bump

the person in this kind of event. —– And I did today.

So-called Matsuri = Fest’ and its stage show seemed to be so and so

— or I would rather say, shabby. (No karaoke please.  lol)

(Photo by 500mm F8 Mirror lens)

May be the most typical JAPANESE phenomenon

= manga drawing panel (Photo left)

And Origami tuition / demonstration (Photo middle)

Surprisingly, Blush Calligraphy was pretty popular. 

Somebody was selling Kaki-goori /Ice Flappe (?) — What ! ?  £5 — Oh Com’n.

Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuke stricken Fukushima people was selling noodles.

— ?    I couldn’t find what was the connection.  (Photo right)   lol

And Fukushima shop soled me their local rice (Koshihikari) 500g Sample  for £3 = !

(Which was sold in Japan 10Kg for £18) = may be a support donation included !)

In fact Quite a lot of food stall. (Photo left) = Bento / Lunch box = £10 — what ?

I don’t know what was “that” in the Photo middle.  Photo right = Takoyaki. 

      The visitor must be noticed that the very peculiar things in this Fest’ = 

other than the food stall, there is almost nothing else = no stall of campaign,

such as Eco, Green issue, no appeal for Help / Donation even for recent flood.

No appeal of voluntary / community activity group. = In fact, this was not for

the japanese community = therefore, more than half (even 60~70%) of the

visitors were non Japanese. = so that, very few Japanese Cos’Ple girls there.

Among the Japanese, there must be very strong feeling of the Peace Issue now

which has been triggered by the recent change of the Diffence law.

—– But such movement has been completely hidden-away, because Japanese

establishment is far busier against the threat from the Chinese expansionism.

It is so funny to see a difference. Chinese is brandishing their military might and

Japanese is pretending to talk about the taste of a noodle. The timid dog barks.

—– So that, the funny irony was, Chinese couldn’t broadcast their military parade

without the Sony or Panasonic equipment NOR their military system doesn’t

function at all without relying on the Japanese components. lol.

Nevertheless, it was a nice day-out for me.

[]

My old Basket

I found 130 years old photos of Japan, pretty well hand-colored and preserved.  

Among them, this was a photo of a Basket maker and his work samples.

(This is a studio set-up photo by an Italian Photographer

— Photo Credit / 1886-Japon-Adolfo Farsari )

It’s amazing to see, the technique and the design hasn’t been changed much

—– I mean, if anybody still doing it somewhere in the world.

And funnily enough, I have one which has been with my life (mostly in the

mountain) for the past 50 years or more !

I bought this when we went to a mountain in the northern Japan, I found it in 

a local shop.  = it may looks a bit odd taste for a techno orientated Hi-school boy,

though I was a very opinionated noisy student, a sort of a nemesis of the school

authority then.  And I had a view to feel shame for the loss of the traditional

culture and the crafts.   Not because of a nostalgic feeling, but I did know such 

kind of crafts could be much suited for the daily life and even stronger for a long 

term use, as its historical fact = it has been kept used 100s of the years by the folks

= it’s mean, it has been repeatedly modified and refined. = it IS the

manifestation of the accumulated wisdom came from user’s side, not from the

head-big designer or the seller’s side !

And after so many years of the journeys and the climbs, it’s mean packed tight

in the backpack, tumbled, pressurized etc all sorts of hard use, still my basket is 

almost intact because of its flexibility.    It has been used not just packing

important items such as toolbox, first-aid kit, survival food, money, train ticket 

etc but also it was my pillow in the tent or where ever.  In any emergency,  grub 

it and jump-out the tent and run. (if we noticed a flush-flood or avalanche kind

is coming) —– In real life, once I run-away (to the side) from an avalanche and

move the tent just before a flush-flood came down, so not much serious trouble

I actually experienced.  (other than, hard climbing itself.  🙂 )

[]

You may wonder, why I didn’t use plastic container.    In fact I did, though,

they didn’t work well in the Winter mountain where the temperature goes down

minus 20~30 degree C. = they easily break.   And the another disadvantage of

the plastic container was,  when the water get inside, it stayed there for ever.

(They are not water tight = when they got pressure, their rid easily come off)

—– So, I’ve been happily together with Bamboo.   🙂

[]

 

Mountain Tool box

Ideally, in here I should put a story and the photos from mountain or

at least a kind of hill walking.    Ideally from Scotland or North Wales —

if not, at least South Down somewhere. — That’s what I’ve been thinking

though, now I would say “Shame” it may no longer a viable idea.

I missed the boat.

= As a consequence, quite a few of my possessions became redundant.

(Still, such as a tent could be used for a camping, and a cooking burner

for a party use etc — typically, a multi function knife is in my daily use.)

Among those who became redundant, my Mountain Tool Box must be the

top of “the object de reminisce”.  

This was a Box accompanying me almost all of my active life more than 55 years

and in the mountain, this box could acted as the last resources for a survival. 

(Over so many years, many of the original members were broken or replaced

by the better tool. —– So that, in the photo above, only a Pocket Torch Light,

2 Screwdrivers, a Tweezer and the small boxes with its contents remain original.)

Specially designed Sewing kit in a match-box (left photo )

Screws and the Nats etc and a Razor blade (center photo) = (If 

anybody got Appendicitis, this Razer could be used for operation)  🙂

Spare-parts for Oil Burner and the Rivets etc (photo right)

Burner then was either kerosene use Radius, or white spirit use Phoebus.

And in the Alpine Club I only know how to repair, hence kept the spare

parts.  So, this box was expected to have everything for repair work. (from

mending a Climbing Boots, stitch-up the Tent to tighten-up loose gear)

And in the mountain, able to put a

fire could be the most crucial matter

for a survival.  Keep a match dry was

always a headache.

(Cheap gas-lighter wasn’t common then)

So, I kept a gas-bombe type gas lighter

for the last resources.

(After over 50 years, gas-bombe is still full !)  —– and I reflect, it wasn’t a bad 

start for a Hi-school boy to prepare and organize a Tool-box in this extent while

giving the detailed foresight of what sort of repair work could happen.  

—– And it made me think, “Is this kind of mindset (prepare to fight-off all

the trouble beforehand) affected the Karma to exclude me to get an accident”.

= It is the question, when the burner was broken down —– frozen to death is

a natural fate, or the Karma gave me the way to fight-off ?   Good Question.

[]

Artcore Int’ Exhibition

There is an Exhibition of the Artcore International at the Bird’s Nest Pub in

the Deptford, London —– in fact, it coincided with their event called Nestival

with a lots of live music.  

You may find a lots of info’ here.     

https://www.facebook.com/events/382090185319668/

In fact, what exhibited there was a collection of weird images = almost

obsessively,  painstakingly created drawings, sculptures.

(thanks goodness not a kind of “So-called” conceptual art but has substance)

(sorry, so many artists and their works, I couldn’t name and credit each one

= if you are interested in, please visit there as it’s opens till 26th Sept’ )

The exhibition was organized by Joefur and Kevin who were the 

artists of Minesweeper Collective.   The Tyre Creature, (Photo above)

= Dragon ?  or huge Rezard ? looks amazingly realistic.  🙂

(Sorry, this picture = lefthand side = Top )

As I reported before, Deptford (next to Greenwich) is a weird artistic town.

  <<   https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/deptford-art-or-odd/

  <<   https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/graffiti-in-deptford/

  <<   https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/spiritual-deptford/

So the Bird’s Nest seems to be a kind of community center, gathering point.

And it is a rare kind of pub always playing Punk, Sexpistol like music —–

the reflection of the local folks’ psych.   Good !     🙂

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