Blogs & Ecology

Blogger at Techtech to Tuzuru Nichijô Essay Book (テクテクとつづる日常エッセイブック) [jp] describes how, since the first week of November, Tokyo is already lit up for Christmas, everybody seems to walk faster, all the shops are already selling gifts and the big department stores are already displaying special dishes for the New Year. The blogger writes that it's almost as if, in this period of the year, someone has pushed down hard on the accelerator pedal, everything is moving so fast.

Yuko Shimonakamura at Yuko no Jinsei to Tigers [勇皇の人生とタイガース] comments with enthusiasm [jp] on the birth of a new baseball heroine, Eri Yoshida, the 16 y.o. high school student who will likely debut as a pitcher in the Kansai Independent League (関西独立リーグ) starting next spring and will play together with her male colleagues. Like many other bloggers [jp], Shimonakamura-san is forward to admiring the feats of the “new Yuki Mizuhara”, whose specialties include the “knuckleball” and the “underhand pitch”.

Kenji Williams is in Tokyo this week with his amazing Bella Gaia presentation. This video is from the digital planetarium at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, filmed using HD cameras and fisheye lenses. Kenji Williams on the violin with KaChun Yu running the visualizations. Because we all need a reminder of just how beautiful our planet really is....

Noriyuki Okada at Silicon Valley wa Kyô mo Hareru (シリコンバレーは今日も晴れ) [jp] describes his experience taking the decision as a software-engineer to change his job despite being in the middle of an economically unstable period. He writes about how he thought carefully about his technical skills, asked for experts' opinion about what the market wants nowadays, and modified his resume in order to improve his chances in getting the position he applied for.

Id:sawabonroma, a Japanese writer living in Rome, describes her everyday life in the Italian capital at Roma no Heijitsu (ローマの平日). In a post on October 30th, she writes about a students demo against the education reform proposed by Minister of Education Gelmini. Millions of high school and university students, professors, researchers and school employees protested in the streets of Rome against the demolition of the public educational system, paralyzing the city center. Blaming the Japanese media, Sawabonroma points out how they gave more importance to the resulting traffic problems than to reasons for the demo.

The first of its kind, a Japanese blog called Sobolog (祖母ログ) [ literally “Grannylog”] crosses three generations, written by a nephew living in Tokyo in collaboration with her mother (who records the facts), presenting the daily life of her funky granny named Hide (82 y.o.) living in Gunma Prefecture. In this blog, the three Nagashima women share with the readers the granny's recipes, her travel accounts and her life in the countryside, uploading pictures nearly every day about Hide-san's bucolic living.

The ninth wind farm in South Australia just opened on the Barunga Ranges near Snowtown. Its 47 turbines, installed by Trust Power of New Zealand, (who already operate that countries largest wind farm at Tararua), are said to have a capacity to deliver over 98MW. The company reckon this renewable energy should provide sufficient power for 70,000 Australian households.

Japan's carbon dioxide emissions reached record levels in 2007. New data shows that 1.37 billion tons of greenhouse gases were emitted here in 2007. The amount is 8 percent more than levels in 1990. According to NHK World, the amount exceeds the national reduction target set in the Kyoto Protocol by about 15 percent.

Japan is obliged under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 level during the 5 years from 2008 to 2012 but that looks increasingly difficult. The government attributes the increase to suspended operations at the

Image: Japan Society

The architects Kentaro Takeguchi and Asako Yamamoto of Alphaville designed and built this house in Kyoto as their personal residence. The stairs are fabulous.

What We Do Is Secret

Photo: Kei Sugino

Often, really simple ideas work really well. The hot water bottle is a good example. They are back in style in Japan this winter, with promotion on the web and companies like Yutanpo Cuseberry offering attractive, colorful cotton covers with animal themes or vivid polkadot patterns, and ideas for your eco life......

Amazing things happen when cultures collide. Wa (Japan) meets Africa and you get Wafrica. The silk kimono is as old as Japan, now, thanks to designer Serge Mouangue, you get to think out of the box. Cotton kimonos. Isn't it just beautiful beyond belief?

In a post entitled “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”, Yasai-ＤＸ２ posts a picture of three guys [ja] dressed up as Japanese anime character Haruhi Suzumiya. “Well, they have nice legs, no?” one commenter responds.

mamachari at niwahacker.com remarks on the resemblance between Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, and sitcom character ALF.