Saw this in the news today and it made me chuckle:

[photo from: REUTERS/Shuji Kajiyama]

If you are wondering (like I was at first glance) why the whole Imperial Family is crammed into a tiny, red, train, it happens to be a solar-powered train at a children’s park called Kodomo no Kuni (こどもの国).

The park was actually founded in 1959 to commemorate the marriage of Akihito and Michiko, who would become Emperor and Empress 30 years later (in 1989); and they have crammed themselves into the little red choo choo because it is the 50th anniversary of their marriage (and, by extension, the 50th anniversary of Kodomo no Kuni).

Just for fun, here’s a groovy photo of the Emperor as a 17 year old (in 1950):

[photo from Wikipedia]

And here’s a bit of Emperor trivia from Wikipedia: he’s an ichthyologist!

In extension of his father’s interest in marine biology, the Emperor is a published ichthyological researcher, and has specialized studies within the taxonomy of the family Gobiidae. He has written papers for publication in Japanese and English scholarly journals, namely Gene and the Japanese Journal of Ichthyology.

He has also written papers about Scientific History in Japan during the Edo and Meiji Eras, which were published in Science and Nature. In 2005 a newly described goby was named Exyrias akihito in his honour.

“The Rock”, of course, is my affectionate term for this main rock, Honshu (which means “main state”), in this little archipelago of 6,852 islands, as opposed to Alcatraz, the more famous “Rock”(thanks to Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery), which I have never actually been on (but did almost see once on a cruise around San Francisco Bay, except the fog rolled in just as we got about 10 minutes from the shore); or Newfoundland, known to many Canucks as “The Rock”; or, and I am sure none of you thought this, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson…

Okay, enough “Rock” talk!

I’ve left you all staring at a bottle of what appears to be a rather disgusting beverage for far too long, mainly because I was travelling in Canada for a few weeks and just couldn’t squeeze in the time for a blog post. And then the flu hit, which I am still not entirely free of yet…(not H1N1, fortunately, but I certainly could feel the icy stares of all the passengers around me on the flight back jammed into the cabin and dreading each sneeze and every cough).

Anyway, I’ve been so under the weather that I had not even looked at any photos or touched my camera gear until yesterday. I was mainly driven to grab my camera yesterday morning because I looked out the window and saw something as clear as day that I had NEVER seen before in the whole (almost) 2 years I’ve been in this apartment – a snow-capped mountain to the north, which was just sitting there looming behind the buildings of Tokyo Station & Otemachi areas:

Now, just to reiterate and clarify: this is looking North from Tsukiji – NOT West towards Mt. Fuji, which can be seen from the other side of my building, but NOT from my balcony – here’s Mt. Fuji in the setting sun (at a distance):

At first, I thought the mountain might be Mt. Tsukuba(筑波山), but the shape is wrong and Mt. Tsukuba is more to the East.

Incredibly, Mt. Nantai (男体山) is a good 150 km from central Tokyo (close to 180 km if travelling by car), so it really is quite rare and amazing to see it from here (Mt. Fuji is just over 140 km from central Tokyo and it is also somewhat rare to see it from central Tokyo because of the usual cloud cover or the haze when it’s hotter).

A little bit more information on Mt. Nantai from Wikipedia:

Mount Nantai (男体山, Nantai-san) (also called Futarasan (二荒山) is a stratovolcano in the Nikkō National Park (日光国立公園,) in central Honshū, the main island of Japan. It stands at 2,486 m high. A prominent landmark, it can be seen on clear days from as far as the Pacific coast, 100 km away.

The mountain is popular with hikers, and the trail to the summit starts through a gate at Futarasan Shrine’s Chūgushi (中宮祠, middle shrine). The gate is open between 5 May and 25 October.

Mount Nantai is one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan.

In September 2008, the Japan Meteorological Agency was asked to reclassify Mount Nantai as “active” based upon work by Yasuo Ishizaki and colleagues of Toyama University showing evidence of an eruption approximately 7000 years ago.

Of course, Mt. Fuji is also a stratovolcano, which explains the resemblence in terms of “tall” and “conical”.

For those who occasionally visit tokyololas (from Flickr) for photography information, the shot of the Mt. Nantai in black and white was taken on a Canon 50D at 500mm (gotta love that extra reach with a crop sensor body!) with my Sigma 150-500mm – handheld, ISO 800, OS1 activated.

Finally, just in case you can’t really visualize the distance from central Tokyo to Mt. Nantai, this should help (the little “A” tag due north of Tokyo is the location:

Click here to visit the dynamic map on Google Map.

I know there are already enough blogs and websites reporting on Japanese products, but here is another drink that caught my eye in the supermarket – brace yourself for it – “Grapefruit, Vinegar, and Milk”:

(yes, the iPhone camera is crap but I couldn’t be bothered doing a professional stock shot with my real camera)

For a while now, Kirin Beverages has been doing a series called 世界のキッチンから (which means “from the world’s kitchen”) and they feature soft drinks based on “traditional” drinks or flavours from around the world. The first one to come out was the “Diabolo Ginger from Provence” – it was very good and had a nice ginger kick to it, so, after that, I’ve always kept my eye on the brand. The only other ones I’ve liked so far are the “Mint Julep Soda” and the “Lemon Peel & Honey”.

Each bottle contains extensive information about the “inspiration” for the drink with some home-style graphics:

Surprisingly, as wretched as this combo sounds, it is actually very tasty (and I don’t really even like grapefruit juice)!