the local autumn festival

The synchronized dancing robots 'go, fight, win!'

Meet the Murata Cheerleading robots. Thursday components maker Murata Manufacturing unvalied these robots that look like a cartoonish girl sporting a red skirt and short black hair. A series of rollers under the skirt keep the robot balanced on a ball or rotate it in a particular direction to move around. Under the afro, meanwhile, nestles an infrared sensor and ultrasonic microphones that help the robot detect objects nearby. Three gyro sensors control motion from front to back, side to side and in rotation.
Murata plans to showcase its cheerleaders at the Ceatec tech expo from Oct. 7 to 11.

Sagawa Art Museum

The exhibition on Hokusai KATSUSHIKA and Henri Rivière at Sagawa Art Museum.

bento box from Kyoto

Next time i go to Kyoto, I would like to check out this shop Bento&co.

Sushi socks

take them off and roll them into sushi rolls. They are from Sukeno.

'Rock Garden' from Ryoanji

The garden is a rectangle of 248 square meters. Fifteen stones of different sizes are placed within it, surrounded by white gravel, which is carefully raked each day by the monks.
The stones are placed so that the entire composition cannot be seen at once from the veranda. They are also arranged so that when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder.

Ryoanji temple

Ryōan-ji (The Temple of the Dragon at Peace) is located in northwest Kyoto.
The Ryōan-ji garden is considered one of the finest surviving examples of kare-sansui ("dry landscape"), a refined type of Japanese Zen temple garden.
you go up the mountainous path from the gate through maple trees to the ‘rock garden’.

Flash Kicker exhibition

Are you enjoying the FIFA world cup?
The exhibition of Captain Tsubasa aka Flash Kicker, is on until July 6 at
The Ueno Royal Museum . Don't miss the video @ the site above.
Yes, he is originally from Japan, although he has gone international.

glass craft from Kyoto

found a glass craft shop in Kyoto. These are paper weights decorated by etching.
The motifs are often beauties found in nature around us, such as flowers and birds.

original sushi roll

sushi roll can be as original as it gets.
Here is the creator, Tama-chan’s site.
The recipe book is also available.
Just lay out rice, put on the ingredients thin and evenly, roll and then slice it. You can’t wait to see how it comes out.

Nakanoshima Rose Garden

We headed to Nakanoshima Rose Garden in central Osaka, surrounded by urban high rises. it was gorgeous, except it was enormously hot and humid last Sunday.

sento, public bath

why not try sento, public bath in Japan. sento is not just a bath, but where you socialize with your neighbors in relaxing atmosphere, a bit like a watercooler.
1 take off your shoes as you enter the building
2 pay your fee, which depends on the prefecture
3 take off everything you wear(rings or necklaces not included)
4 wash yourself before you get into the bathtub. you share the water with everyone
5 don’t put your towel in the bathtub
enjoy!

robot restaurant

heard about this robot restaurant on TV show. It is over the top off the wall to me...Anyway if you want to try robot dance show, you need to make a reservation.

Sheena Ringo

I have always felt Sheena Ringo , an exceptional artist would deserve a little more attention. and below goes her third single ‘kiss me'. when she appeared this way, we found it irresistible...

wrapped train with anime

In Japan, wrapping buses are not covered only by adds, sometimes by anime characters to make the district unique and appealing to the fans.
Here are ones from Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions.
They jack the car inside as well. Hand straps included.

Lake Biwa Canal 2014

Last spring, we visited this canal in Kyoto side. The other side of this canal is located just next to Onjo-ji temple in Shiga. This way, residents in Kyoto receive a stable water supply from Lake Biwa . It draws a lot of cherry blossom viewers in the season.

overlook view from Onjo-ji

From the observatory, you can overlook Otsu city and Lake Biwa .

Onjo-ji temple

Onjo-ji temple is beautiful in the beginning of April with its cherry blossoms.

the consumption tax hike raised the price of stamps

On April 1, a new fiscal year started across the nation. The consumption tax went up from 5% to 8%, which means something to local people. Some of them lined up to do the last time shopping before the tax hike.
A stamp for an envelope now costs extra 2 yen. If you haven’t used 80 yen one up yet, you have to add this tiny rabbit one.

sweets ahead of cherry season

sweets from Tsuruya Yoshinobu and akafuku , both long established confectioneries.
Haiku on the package by Yamaguchi Seishi goes;
This house has a luck
Swarrows come over
To build their nest
Prior to cherry blossom season, sweets are hinting the blossoms, spring.

family emblem for the nobility

There are traditional patterns for the court nobles. They came over from ancient China and later got Japanized. They have been marked on the costumes and furniture as family emblem.

this is what we got when she tried kimono for court-ladies on. It is called ‘mukai-cho’, and represents “two butterflies facing each other.

a town of Hina dolls

this town of Hina dolls is also the home of merchants and has kept its traditional storehouses.

The box of fire extinguisher on the street has something on top of it,,, which is another set of the imperial hina dolls.