Japanese Futons Are Back!

Finally I have created the ultimate conclusion to my years of Globalized Futon videos: THE ANSWER.

Here we go... exporting everything to my blogspot domain... But... there is a caveat: "Please note that Blogger does not support photo/video importing. You will need to download all of your photos/videos using the Download Media Tool, then upload to your blog posts to blogger.com manually" And I have too many photos and videos on my Multiply blogs to go and do it all manually later. But at least the tools are available, and worth giving it a try. Best of luck to all the people out there on Multiply who want to back up their past blogs. I love you!

Hiroko's "Kamon" (Family Crest)

Recently, one of Hiroko's aunts passed away. They cleaned up the belongings, and shared some of the important things. We received the Harada family crest, or "kamon". In Japanese it is called "Maru ni Chigai Ya" and are the feathers of arrows used in Archery. I looked up this crest on the net and found some very interesting (though not 100% accurate) info on the origin of this crest. It turns out that a samurai named Minamoto no Tametomo was the first to get this kamon, and the arrow feathers signify that he was a great archer. He was born in 1139 and committed seppuku (spilling his guts out with a short knife, then falling over on his face) in 1160. He was the youngest son (eighth son) of Minamoto no Tameyoshi in the Heian period.

Here is some information for you:

Minamoto no Tametomo (源 為朝?, 1139 – April 23, 1170) (also known as Chinzei Hachirō Tametomo (鎮西 八郎 為朝?)) was a samurai who fought in the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156 (against his brother Yoshitomo). He was the son of Minamoto no Tameyoshi, and brother to Yukiie and Yoshitomo.

In the Hōgen Rebellion, he fought to defend the Shirakawa-den, alongside his father, against the forces of Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoshitomo, his brother. The palace was set aflame, and Tametomo was forced to flee and was banished to the island of Ōshima in the Izu Islands. In Ryūkyū, it has long been believed that he made his way down to Okinawa during his exile, and founded their kingdom by siring the first king of Chūzan, Shunten. This tale was included in Chūzan Seikan by Shō Shōken, the first history of Ryūkyū.However, historians today discount this story as a later invention by Shō Shōken.

Tametomo is known in the epic chronicles as a powerful archer and it is said that he once sunk an entire Taira ship with a single arrow by puncturing its hull below the waterline. It is also added in many legends that his left arm was about 6 in. longer than his right, enabling a longer draw of the arrow, and more powerful shots. It is also said that he was 210cm tall (which would make him a giant among men, and prone to hitting his head on absolutely everything).

In 1170, as the conflict between the Minamoto and Taira continued, Tametomo became surrounded by enemy Taira warriors on a small island. In some legends, it is said that Taira cut the tendons of Tametomo's left arm. Thinking that he wouldn't be able to fight anymore, he killed himself by slicing his abdomen, or committing seppuku. He is quite possibly the first warrior to commit seppuku in the chronicles.

His brother Yoshitomo went on to sire the very first shogun in Japan after arresting the Emperor Shirakawa-go. Here some of the English records are in conflict because the above mentions that Tametomo fought for Shirakawa-go, but in the information on his brother Yoshitomo, it says that HE fought for Shirakawa-go (and then later arrested him, and installed military rule). That's pretty cool, actually.

Anyway, here is the Harada Kamon, and below you can also see a painting of Tametomo, and Tametomo's armour, which is still in a museum in Itsukushima, Hiroshima, Japan.

This shows you that the Haradas are descendants of Minamoto Tametomo (or maybe a retainer who was awarded the kamon for fighting bravely with Tametomo, as an archer? Not sure about this, and neither are Haradas, but I perhaps I know more about their origins now than they do!)

It has been quite a while since I actually wrote a real blog, and this is kind of nice.

If the kamon doesn't show up, I'll add it again separately, as I have to do this via my computer, and not through the iPhone.

Isn't history great?

Amazing New Harajuku Starbucks!

I came for a haircut today, to Harajuku because it has been four
months and I want one more very short cut before I let it get a wee
bit longer again.

There is a new building across from the Condomania store. It used to
be a big Gap store but has been replaced by a really fashionable
concept, this past February. Today is the first day to visit as I
wanted to test out the new Lady Gaga perfume (kinda melts me).

Then I came up to the 6th floor where you cans we a bunch of trees
from below. It's a Starbucks! And what a Starbucks at that. First of
all I was surprised to see they sell a new coffee at a very expensive
price: Short at ¥610 or about $8.00! Wow! But they also use the Clover
machine which I read about in the latest Starbucks book. The system is
really simple, and acts like a reverse French press using suction to
pull the coffee down to a press filter plate after water is poured in
from the top. The description of it in the book doesn't do it justice.
It is cool! And the coffee is really good, too. See the description in
the attached photo.

Then I went outside and was stunned by this outside garden area (non
smoking) with a ton of awesome seating, steps, tables and more for
people to kick back and relax on. It is very impressive and this
concept is well worth the visit if you happen to find yourself in
Tokyo.

Very nice indeed!

Geo(Bangkok)Caching

It really is great using geocaching to sightsee. You have history (or
not) at your fingertips as you wander around seeing new things.

We didn't do any geocaching in Chiang Mai as there were none in our
area and few in the city but we had an opportunity to try out our
skills in Bangkok. And we found three of four caches wandering around.

The first one was outside a girls catholic school that was built in
1925. The fun part of the history is that there is a LTR station
right above the school and also a very high wall at that station
blocking the view of the school. The reason is because the school
fought against the transit line as they didn't want dirty minded men
looking down on the girls doing sports in the schoolyard. The school
lost (thank goodness as that transit line is a lifesaver) but in
exchange they were able to preserve the purity of the young girls with
the high wall at the train station. Other stations don't have that
wall.

The second cache is outside a monster shopping center (which is
extremely impressive!) but he purpose is to point out the Erawan
Shrine that you can see in photo four. This shrine was built to
overcome the bad karma that was created when laying the foundations
for a nearby hotel on the wrong day. Lots of problems occurred and
many workers died until the karma was "fixed" by the erection of the
shrine. Now people pray there regularly.

The third photo is a cache at the entrance to the transit station near
our hotel. And that's about it for that.

And that is our two days in Bangkok!

I love you!

Swimming Frenzy

On our way back to the station we walked into a small park because we
saw a little waterfall and thought it might be a great spot for a wee
respite from the heat (39C and tons of humidity). But when we arrived
we were totally entranced by the children splashing and swimming
around like tadpoles in the very shallow artificial river and lake. It
was wonderful to hear their high pitched voices ringing out amidst the
rocks as they tootled around on whatever imaginary adventures they
were creating in their minds.

This brief respite was a highlight of my day.

Kyu (Former) Furukawa Residence & Garden, Part 5

And last but not least, Rene and I together for the grand finale shot!
Taiko roll please!