Selected quotes from Atheism for Lent 2018 study
8 years ago
A quick post about voting (mostly to vent frustrations). After a few days of trying to figure out what hoops I need to jump through to get registered to vote I have just come to the immensely irritating conclusion that it is not going to happen. Basically I need to get co-signed by a British, non-relative, also living abroad. There is no one within a many mile radius who I can get to do that. Bugger. No voting for me this time :(
For those reading this that do not have that excuse I say this -
GO VOTE
Register, do whatever you have to do, and go vote. Have your say. Please.
Jonny
Himeji Castle is one of "the" Japanese Castles. It is also the most visited Japanese Castles. It is also closing its doors this month for 4 years worth of renovation. It was on the news today and is proving extraordinarily popular as people see it one last time before it disappears from the public eye (they will be covering it up with scaffolding and the like). Combine this with the fact that I will be returning home in a few months and my chances of seeing this one are pretty non existent.
And so it is with regret that I post this one under - "The one that got away...."
I was going to do another post about my trip to Hong Kong...... Unfortunately the inspiration left me and I couldn't write what I wanted to say in any kind of legible form. So instead your going to get another weird Japanese advert from off you tube. Oh well.
I got back from my long awaited holiday to Hong Kong last Friday and thought I should finally get round to blogging about it a bit before I forget about it. In this first post (I'll hopefully do one or two more) I thought I'd talk a little about all the different forms of transport I used.
the Bus - Upon arriving in Hong Kong and meeting with my Father in Law we were guided to the right airport bus to take us to the district that we were going to stay at. It was late so the bus wasn't too full and the bus took about 45 minutes which wasn't that bad as it had a long way to go.
The next day we got another bus to the centre of HK (we were staying in the New Territories). It was packed and even though it was the express the 30 -45 minute ride was pretty uncomfortable. Needless to say I didn't get many more busses while on my trip. Just a bit too uncomfortable an experience to do too often.
the Taxi - I ended up getting a lot of taxi's whilst I was in Hong Kong. Fortunately they are really cheap, unfortunately ended up having to get about 2 taxi's a day. Our accommodation was a little way a way from the MTR station so we ended up having to get the taxi to the station a lot. Price was less than 2 pounds though and there was 4 of us most of the time so it worked out okay.
The taxi drivers appear to be some of the better drivers in Hong Kong. I don't know why this is, maybe they are more conservative with Westerners in the back, but I think I felt the most comfortable with the Taxi drivers than any of the other drivers I had the pleasure of experiencing.
the Tram - This was a fun little form of transport to get through HK Island. Double decker, really thin, and with hard wooden seats. It also bumped around quite a bit. But I'm really glad I got the chance to ride it. It costs less than 20p and drives through the nice parts of time. Well worth it either to get somewhere or just to appreciate the view from the top deck.
the Ferry - One of the things I managed to do on the trip was take the ferry from Hong Kong island to Hong Kong mainland. Its a short trip but in the evening its really worth it. Staring out the windows as the lights start to turn on in the night was great. Shame about the smog.
Also took a trip on the ferry from Lantau Island to Hong Kong Island. This one was a bit longer and there wasn't really as much to see. It was also choppier, which didn't bother me but did turn my wife a bit pale (which did bother me).
the Minibus - and why you should NEVER RIDE A MINIBUS IN HONG KONG!!!
Had to take one of these after seeing some of my wifes relatives in a different part of the new territories. It was the most convenient way to get from one area to the other. It was terrible (if you hadn't already guessed.
The mini-buses all line up at a stop (a bit like taxi's), when the fill up their off. They head pretty much to a single destination with a stop or two on the way. I get the impression that the drivers make more money the faster they go as they can make a return trip faster and make more cash. And boy do they go hell for leather. Our Driver decided that 70km/h was a good speed for tight twisting hillside roads and that breaking was not necessary. What I particularly enjoyed was the speedometer that was rigged up to show everyone in the bus how fast the driver was going in BIG RED NUMBERS. It even had a buzzer if he made it past 80. Not that this stopped him. By the time that we passed the car crash at the side of the road my hand was tightly gripping the handle in front of my seat. At one point I though it might have to get off the bus with me.
By the end of the trip I felt more than slightly shaken and decided than mini buses in Hong Kong are not a good idea.
the Cable Car - Interspersed in between the shopping and all the visiting relatives/ eating meals (which seemed to coincide), we actually found a day to do some site seeing. My parents decided to spend this day visiting Lantau Island on which there is a touristy cable car to ride. It was okay, but well, its primary view seemed to be of mountains and an airport. So it wasn't exactly what I would call scenic. There was a big Budda at the end of the ride though and that was impressive.
the Airplane - The necessary form of transport to and from Hong Kong was mercifully short and almost pleasurable for once. It clocks in at about 4.10 there and 3.30 back. This combined with a selection of your choice movies and tv shows to choose from meant the time went really quite quickly. A few episodes of top gear and it was all over. Oddly Top Gear appears to be on of those things that I seldom do on anything but flights, that and drink coke.
*edit* the MTR - I forgot to mention this one, must be subconsciously leaving the best till last. The MTR in Hong Kong is easy, well priced, fast, clean, and efficient. It was only packed on a few occasions and we were often able to sit down after a few stops. We probably used it the most the whole trip and tried to use it over any other form of transport. Most of this is because it is so new I suppose, but its a very good example of a subway none the less. Also I noticed that it has been built with expansion in mind. Many of the stops seemed to have space for an extra car or two at the end (thinking ahead). If your in HK and need to get around the MTR with an Octopus card is your best bet.
Well thats enough for now, its time for tea. Will try post more on my trip over the weekend.
I went to a puppet show yesterday. It was pretty good.
It wasn't any old puppet show, would not have gone to see it if it was. I got told about it from one of my students who was working for the makers. Essentially it was preformed by a Japanese puppeteer troupe that specialises in puppet shows for the deaf. This meant, that among other things, I could understand it. It told a tale in mime I suppose with a surprising amount of emphasis on music. But I think that the music used was quite basic and often accompanied by visual prompts, so they had their bases covered.
It told a fairly simple tale about growing up, having a family, and then watching you children have a family. It also told of how they interacted with boxes. Ever increasing amounts of boxes (think tv, washing machine, air conditioner) and how they didn't necessarily help family life. It was a fairly simple message but it was well told. And all in all we are both glad we went to see it.
In a similar vain, I bought myself a new box. It looks a little something like this -
I had this idea a while back for a series of photos. Basically my thinking was that here in the country much of the landscape is dominated by fields of rice. And as the months of rice growing go by the landscape changes hugely depending on the rice fields state of maturity. Like most plants I suppose. Anyway, I thought if I took pictures of a rice field over the months it would help my readers actually understand what this Yosano place looks like (for the most part). Well that was the plan...
Ultimately it failed. I can think of a number of good reasons for this. I don't own an actual camera. I'm not a photographer. And this year was a bad year for rice. The summer was too cool (good for me, bad for the rice), so it never really hit the heights of maturity that it did last year. This means instead of being able to show the changes in rice - from just planted sparse rice fields, through lush green, until finally ending up in light golden yellows - I've instead ended up with a series of different shades of green. Add to this a mobile phone camera and a photographer with no sense of "good lighting" you have a mess of green fields.
Still I did take the shots, and have archived them for your viewing pleasure. I also put together a quick collage of them. Because Picasa can...
We managed to take a much needed holiday over the past weekend. And whilst it was only a few days long it really helped sanity levels. We managed to get in some good eating (beef and bagels) some good site seeing (2 castles, some old fashioned streets and a museum) and some shopping (some might say a bit too much). Today I thought I'd cover the castles, because I like them, and I've talked about Japanese castles before.
The castles in question were Nagahama and Hikone. They lie pretty close to each other on the Eastern bank of Lake Biwa (the biggest lake in Japan). The main parts of the castles looked pretty similar to pretty much every other Japanese castle I have seen (as can be seen below) but the both offered two completely different experiences.
Nagahama castle stands pretty lonely in Nagahama. Its devoid of most of the fortifications that are often present around Japanese castles and is just a Keep. Its a pretty standard keep at that, with unimpressive modern innards and a standard Japanese facade. (As a side note I have now seen about 5 Japanese castles now, so while it might look impressive, it looks less so when you've seen a few). It was filled mostly with old documents and a few old relics. There was no English translations to speak of so I have no idea what they were trying to be showing but it looked a bit boring and piecemeal. There didn't seem to be any attempt at trying to tell a story of the castle or educate the visitor. Fortunately there was one standard thing that Nagahama did have that was a huge bonus. Great views. Most Japanese castles have a parapet you can walk around at the top that often offer the best views of the city surrounding it. Nagahama castles parapet offered wonderful views of Lake Biwa and Nagahama city. It was one of the few times on our trip that we could really see the extend of Lake Biwa. It was stunning.
Hikone castle was a totally different kettle of fish. On arriving in Hikone we stopped off at the tourist information office to pick up a map to the castle. What we came away with was an English guide to being a tourist in Hikone. Complete with walking routes, major sites, and a paragraph or two of information on everything worth seeing. This included a load of information about the castle. It was great. The castle itself is actually a huge complex with a large hill in the centre. The fortifications for the castle were pretty extensive and included a moat or two and a few very large walls and barricades. The guide we were given guided us up the hill along varies paths that lead to the keep at the very top. Then down the other side and through a very nice scenic garden. You can then go further still, walking down a touristy street that has been made up to look more traditional. It was a good place for souvenirs and ice cream. The only let down was the keep itself. Its a great keep because the inside is actually in the style that it used to be (has always been) but there are so many people wanting to see it you just end up shuffling around uncomfortably until you get ejected at the end and are left not quite understanding what you were meant to see. Oh, and there was no view at the top, just ridiculously steep steps.
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