Saturday, August 26, 2006

Starry starry night in Umea


I've always been fascinated by the sky spinning around the Polar Star.
Beautiful, isn't it?

Friday, August 25, 2006

People in Umea

Sweden is considered to be a very safe country, but it really seems that this girl wanted to be sure that nobody would have been able to ride on her bike without her to know ;-)

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Kusatsu (草津)

Kusatsu (草津), in Gunma prefecture (群馬県), has been selected by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment as one of the top 100 scenic spot of peculiar smell (かおり風景100選).


Yubatake (湯畑), the "field of hot water," gushes some 5,000 liters every minute. It is not only the largest hot springs source at Kusatsu (草津), but boasts the highest output of thermal Onsen water anywhere in Japan. The water arrives piping hot from the boiling bowels of the earth, and is cooled through a chain of seven traditional wooden buckets before being sent on to the ryokans of Kusatsu.

Strange but true, no fish inside this pond. I wonder why? ^_^

water mill

First case: everything looks normal.


Second case: the building is spinning, while the weel looks still.
Interesting, isn't it?

Sunday, August 13, 2006

The leaning house of Tokyo



It seems that after all Pisa is not the only place in the world to have a leaning building.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

JAF

It was a long day, but finally I got my Japanese driving license (運転免許) ^_^

Cicala - 蝉(セミ)


The sign that Summer has finally come ^_^

Update: By the way, I didn't know that some 蝉 have a very long life cycle, e.g. the Magicicada goes through a 17- or occasionally 13-year life cycle. These long life cycles (usually on prime numbers) are an attempt to stop the predators to fall into the same life cycle (a cicada with 15-year life cycle, for example, can be an easy prey of any predator with 3- or 5- year life cycle).
Interesting, isnt'it?