The View from the Towers 塔からの眺め A web log by Nigel Ruddock of life in Germany as an expat, with excursions to Japan and the UK.

Tag: towers

  • Japan Flashback: 🦪 Matsushima 松島

    (note: This is a blog which was originally published on the Israeli site WIX. After following the boycott of this firm and moving my blog to WordPress I nearly lost this report, but have managed to put it together from archive material.)

    18th April 2025年4月18日

    🟠 Be prepared for the unexpected. This is one of my mottos when in Japan. Is it the unexpected convenience of power sockets at a café table…..?

    予期せぬ事態に備えよ。これは私が日本にいるときのモットーの一つです。

    日本での多くの驚きの一つ

    🟠 Or the civic pride in a manhole?

    仙台のマンホール

    🟠 Or the discovery of a cassette player in the local department store?

    カセットテープは復活するのか

    🟠 Or a box to carry sake up a mountain to offer to the gods?

    大山に酒を運ぶ箱

    🟠 Or the discovery of a museum 5 minutes walk from your hotel?…..devoted solely to butterflies and Kokeshi?

    Mr. Bunzo Kamei was the third president of the Kamei Organisation. But he had a passion: butterflies. He travelled all over the world in search of specimens. And they are all here in Sendai, all 14.000 of them…….

    I am not going to try and name them…….

    亀井文三蝶々美術館 仙台

    Kokeshi? They are wooden dolls turned on a lathe. Originating from this region: Tohoku

    こけし人形

    🟠 Or how about these guys? They are about 2,500 years old and were found in graves from the Jomon period

    縄文時代の彫像

    🟠 Almost every day I am surprised by things here. I am walking through a residential area and suddenly come across a cement works. What next.

    ここではほぼ毎日、驚くような出来事に遭遇します。住宅街を歩いていると、突然セメント工場に遭遇するんです。次は一体何が起こるのでしょう。

    天王町のセメント工場

    🟠 Or I am walking in the forest and see this sign – it is so old. Is it a warning of some sort? I start decifering the Kanji: Security Forest?…..Protected Forest maybe? What about Forest Reserve. That sounds more plausible.

    仙台の森で

    🟠 And then there is the  sheer accuracy of the train carriage plans on the station platform……am I standing in the right place? (yes)….

    私は正しい場所に立っていますか?

    🟠 The pride in the railways……Indeed, I think this pride is part of the story behind Japan’s extraordinarily efficient transport system. They seem to love trains. At some point in the 19thc. somebody must have said > “This is it. If we are going to modernize this country it’s got to be trains”. And trains it was. Not cars. Ever been on a Japanese motorway? It’s boring. Trains are much more fun. And you almost set your watch by them.

    星川の歴史

    Hoshikawa history…..

    🟠 But for some inexplicable reason, there is no pride in getting English right. My hotel in Sendai has friendly staff, is efficient, modern, clean…in short everything you need…..except this… surely it is not that difficult to get a good English translation these days…or maybe this is Irish…..😅

    この翻訳は良くない 👎👎👎👎!

    You sometimes see strange English aswell….

    🟠 I’m now sitting an a rather squeaky clean train heading north out of Sendai. It’s the Sensecki local service to Ishinomaki.

    仙石線 宮城県

    🟠 I’m alighting at one of Japan’s beauty spots – Mitsushima Kaigan. I want to see the sea. The beautiful but destructive sea. The sea which removed sections of this line in 2011. And here it is, looking deep and calm. A few cruise boats are lined up. Not for me. I find the loud commentaries on these sight-seeing ships maddening.

    松島海岸

    🟠 This tranquil bay, dotted with little islands, was spared the worst of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami, being protected by Miyato Island/peninsular to the east (the red dot on the map is where I am)…..

    🟠 One of the first things I saw after leaving the station was one of those helpful signboards with all the sight-seeing spots marked. At least two islands connected to the land by bridges, with woodland walks and temples. But my map showed another small island which was not mentioned in the tourist blurb. Ojima. Some instinct in me (which rebels against being told what to see) led me to walk in this direction. I passed through a boat yard, and followed a trail cut out of the rock…….

    尾島

    ……..and was astonished to come across these caves along the way….also cut out of the rock

    cave for meditation はんせい  反省

    🟠 Crossing the small red bridge- the Togetsukyō Bridge  (a replacement for the one destroyed 14 years ago) I soon found myself on what can only be described as a sacred island……There is even a strange word attached to it – Utamakura (歌枕, “poem pillow”) – a rhetorical concept in Japanese poetry.

    Ojima

    🟠 I had not done my homework (sometimes a good thing) and didn’t really know what I was looking at. The island had apparently been a retreat for monks, and is littered with manifestations of Buddha, the caves being for meditation. There are also Shinto shrines, and inscriptions from the famous poet Bashou.

    Many statues have been eroded by the elements, but still receive offerings…….(I have often wondered what the point of those 1 yen coins are, now I know)

    I followed the path around the island…

    私は島の周りの道をたどった

    …with the sea lapping under the cliffs….

    Now why was this island not on the tourist maps? I wonder……..I will let you come to your own conclusions.

    では、なぜこの島は観光地図に載っていないのでしょうか？ 不思議ですね……。結論はご自身で考えてください。

    🟠 Sightseeing is hungry work. The wind was cold, and all I needed was a warm soup. All the restaurants on the sea front were offering either oysters or beef tongue  (ぎゅう a local speciality). I felt like neither. Then I noticed it, having walked passed it once and dismissed it as off the scale regarding grubbiness and a general shabby air. There was just a glass door with words pasted onto it   ラーメン (Ramen)  カレー (Curry). I stepped inside. A little old man stood up from his television and gave me a broad smile of greeting….”Yes, of course I have Ramen…just take a seat….”

    牡蠣はごめんなさい。牛タンもごめんなさい。ラーメンはOK！

    Food of the gods. Stuff the oysters and beef tongue.

    🟠 Of course Matsushima is not all Buddhas and shrines. The beaches reveal molluscs…..barnacles…..

    まんきゃくるい     福浦島

    And oysters have been harvested here for centuries……

    かき

    A bamboo shoot pushes out of the sand like a rocket…….

    たけ    竹

    …and behind it is that glittering Pacific Ocean…..

    きらめく太平洋

    always moving things around…….

    leaving its flotsam on the beach…….

    ひょうりゅうぶつ

    Oh! low and behold, a rarely-seen object, probably left by some uncouth western tourist many years ago…..

    外国人観光客が残したものだと思います!

    However, the beach is so searingly beautiful…..and so casually adorned with flowers….

    美

    🟠 Do I really have to go back to Sendai tonight?

    今夜仙台に戻らなければなりませんか？

    The bridge beckons.  I must go 😔

    福浦橋

    🟠 As always, thank you for reading, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do send it on.

    読んでくれてありがとう

    See you……. matane!

    Nigel 🖋️

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com.

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    THE END 　終わる

    Japan

  • 🎍 Happy New Year from Japan 🍶

    日本から新年あけましておめでとうございます!

    2026年1月1日🎉 January 1st 2026

    👉 You see this picture? It’s the stereotype of Tokyo isn’t it? The glittering glam city on the Eastern edge of the world…..

    新宿

    👉 Well, it was the film that brought us here. A newly released Japanese drama directed by a Sang Il-Lee, a Korean director. It’s called Kokuho, and deals with the world of Kabuki Theatre and the Yakusa (Mafia). Well worth the 3 hours! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6k9Y-irvOE

    新しい映画「告白」を見に行きました。最高でした！

    👉 That’s if you can bear the thought of a cinema on the 9th floor in the Shinjuku district……

    👉 It’s a crazy time to be in Japan. “Christmas” has promptly been dismissed, and everybody is on holiday for the New Year. The decoration has already appeared on the gate of “my” house…

    日本人ならご存知でしょうが、私にとってはとても興味深いです😉

    👉 It’s not as cold as it should be. Climate change no doubt. The gingko fruits are scattered on the ground…….

    銀杏

    …and the sun is really quite warm….

    ….filtering through the late autumn leaves…..

    地元の公園で…素敵

    and onto the ground……

    There are tasty things in the shops……

    このたい焼きが大好きです！

    👉 I had one of these Taiyaki (a waffle shaped like a sea bream and filled with sweet beans ) with a coffee….having got lost in the local mega store.

    Looking for a thermos flask, I found myself in the wheelchair department for some reason…..may need one of these some day……!

    私たちは皆、いつかは年を取ります…..

    …Do I need a shrine?….er….no…..

    …or maybe a tasty fin?………

    美味しい？よく分からないけど…

    👉 As you know from my blogs from Langen, I am fascinated by building sites. I am sure you share my enthusiasm…….ahem……well….what’s this then? On a very steep slope in Hoshikawa they look like they have built parking spaces…I couldn’t work it out – especially the little trees….

    家が建てられているのを見るまで、私はこれらの空間が何なのか理解していませんでした

    👉 but oh no….of course….you dimwit….they will construct wooden houses in these spaces. Like the one down the road…..perfect high quality woodwork….very impressive…!

    👉 Whilst we are looking at what Nigel can see from his bedroom window we can pause and look at the fantastic evening light the other day…..The View of the Towers

    塔の眺め

    Not appreciated by all. Miro-chan has other priorities…..

    ミロちゃんには他に優先事項がある

    👉 You will remember* that last week I mentioned playing music (* I expect you to read all my blogs diligently of course) .

    Portrait of a ‘cello at Senzoku-ike railway station….before…..

    智子さんとの音楽…….🎵

    ….and after….

    👉 Well, this week Tomoko and myself finally got it together…..(no, I am not inserting the recording here. Nobody wants to hear two amateur musicians scraping away 😅)

    👉 So if you are not playing chamber music or sitting in the luxurious seats of a Tokyo cinema, what can you do here in December then? Well, go to the beach of course. No, not to swim. They are horribly crowded in summer, but in winter?…….let’s have a look at Muirakaigan – only 45 mins south of Yokohama……

    ビーチに行こう………

    👉 Hello Japan in winter.……yes, it’s a kite….

    凧が見えますか？

    ….and there are horses….

    and pretty shells…..

    きれいな貝殻ですね…。

    ..and odd things….like radishes drying in the sun…

    天日干しされた大根

    and….well…what’s this?…..

    これは何ですか？

    …..a fish left high and dry…poor thing !

    彼は海にいるはずだ……

    ………a fishing boat that didn’t make it home….

    この船も港にいるはずだ

    …and always that seductive sound of the sea…..

    海の音は魅惑的です…

    👉 I love to see what efforts have been made in the past to haul boats out of the water. Either with muscle power….

    or with the help of a motor……

    古い機械…。

    But the sea always wins in the end…..burying the boats…..

    最後は必ず海が勝つ

    or carrying nutrients to the rock pools….

    海は栄養分を岩のプールに運びます…

    or by it’s mere presence….See those people? They were collecting shells, and had a little saucepan of water to clean them.

    blue is the colour……

    青、青、青……。

    👉 So there you are. No Kimonos, no cosplay, no temples…..but I did find a few Buddhas…..They crop up in mysterious places….like in Oppama further up the coast….

    …some are even coloured……….

    追浜の近くには岩に彫られた仏像があります

    Some are too big to be coloured….

    👉 Sometimes you find an old book of Sutras to pray with……However, the elements or the ants have got to this one …

    👉 No Japan blog is complete without this scene is it? I was of course photographing the power lines when I noticed that volcano in the background….

    この風景なしでは日本のブログは完成しませんよね？もちろん、電線を撮影していた時に、背景の火山に気づきました…。

    Well, that’s all for this week. Take care everybody. Try and avoid the ‘flue, and again …🎍あけましておめでとう…akemashite omodeto…Happy New Year!

    Thank you for reading, and feel free to forward on to anyone who might be interested.

    読んでくれてありがとう！。ご興味がある方にはお気軽に転送してください。

    See you またね 🍾

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    The End

    終わり✨

  • I skidaddle..逃げ出す

    I skidaddle..逃げ出す

    December 21st 2025年12月21日

    ▷ First the wonderful news: I have a new digital….electricity meter. Wow!…..🤣 the Langen company have promised that now it will be some much more convenient to calculate my bill.

    新しい電気メーターはあまりにも巧妙なので、誰も理解できない

    ▷ Fast forward a few weeks and there is my landlady and myself peering at the ever-changing information on the monitor. For heavens sake. Which display is the right one? ☹️

    ▷ The latest: A young man in a hi-viz jacket arrives. Oh. Apparently so many people have submitted the wrong information that he is going round reading the meters. How about that for progress…….

    ▷ I know you are just as excited 🙄 as myself to see “my” building site. Last week I caught a good schnapps moment for you. They work hard. But when I see the crane almost disappearing into the gloomy mist I know it’s time to skidaddle…..

    この暗い天気にはもううんざりだ

    ▷ So I have skidaddled. With a little help from the SAS flight out of Copenhagen…..no guesses where to.

    Mid-flight I went to the galley to ask for a glass of orange juice. On handing it to me the purser commented on the colour….”here’s you urine test sir…!” Trust the Danes. Merry bunch.

    ▷ For the first few hours we have to wiggle around conflict zones…notable Ukraine….

    私は逃げた………

    Let’s hope that little cabin pressure light never turns on…time for Spotify...”…….ground control to Major Tom…..” seems suitable….

    ▷ I love the way that, as the aircraft tilts, evening sun moves over the cabin….

    夕方の光

    ▷ Although it’s only marginally warmer than Europe, the big difference you notice when arriving in Japan at this time of year here is the light. There is lots of it…….

    日本は涼しいですが晴れています。青空が広がっています

    And it’s blue. Ginko trees in Yokohama……..

    横浜のイチョウ並木

    If you are not blinded by the sun, you will be dazzled by the clean floors of the train…..

    太陽で目がくらまなければ、電車のきれいな床に目がくらむでしょう…..

    ▷ Crossing the charmingly dilapidated bridge over the Tsurumi river…..to reach Yokohama…..

    ▷ I am befuddled by Jisa Boke – jet lag – on my first day. So the first place to go is the steamy, timeless world of the onsen – in this case the mineral spring baths of Hoshikawa……for just around 1.500 yen ( 8€. ) you have a wide variety of pools of different temperatures, indoors and out. Or you can lie in the water massage. Wonderful🫧

    天然温泉 満天の湯 Kamihoshikawa

    Every onsen has a rest area……

    Today is a lemon-floating day….

    ▷ The visit to the onsen is followed by a walk through Yokohama’s Chinatown. As well as the 250-odd Chinese shops and restaurants, there is a magnificently gaudy temple….a wiff of incense wafts across the street….

    横浜中華街

    ▷ The next morning it’s a walk on the promenade. My Whatsapp pings 💥My daughter has passed her Masters’ exam. Whooppee!

    ▷ Breakfast is pancakes, blueberries and cream accompanied by coffee…

    山科公園での朝食

    The coffee is“Koi”, which sounds the same as “love”, but when you write it you use a different Kanji Chinese character. Just one of the ways Japanese trips up Chatgpt et.al. Ha ha!

    ▷ Japan is safe, they all say. Yes it is, but there are some other challenges which are not in the travel brochures. Let’s say you want to park your bike and go into a restaurant. Park your bike? Try again. There is nowhere. Literally. Unless you are lucky and find a paying slot……it clamps your bike and then notes the time….

    レストラン街に自転車を停めるのは難しい

    But it’s worth the effort……The menu in the Izakaya is curious. No, I did not choose this….

    ▷ but this……

    Grilled pork, washed down with a nice beer…

    ▷ But there is more to life here than just skewered pork. There are are so many art venues in the whole area I would challenge anyone to visit them all. I decided to investigate the Tokyo Station Gallery. It’s actually above one of the grand entrances, and celebrates the restoration of the station after the bombing of WWII.

    東京駅では駅舎の修復に関する展示が行われている

    You get a fine view of the entrance lobby…

    With its Art Deco lighting…

    The gallery space has been left with curiously chipped brickwork….

    …and some of the original girders have been transformed by some deft iron cutting….(a half moon – of course – how Japanese!)

    The station today…..

    東京駅の現在 Photo: By Maeda Akihiko

    The actual exhibition was from about a young Showa-era painter……

    ▷ Later, on leaving the station I headed to the Imperial park complex, surrounded by the old moat of Edo Castle .

    ….

    ▷ Although it is December, people are sitting outside. Time to appreciate one of the many modern water features….

    …..and examine the purchase of the day…

    ▷ I’ll leave you now with with one of my Japanese icons. No, it’s not a Samurai warrior or a Manga figure. It’s a bottle of green tea. Thirst-quenching, ubiquitous and guaranteed to give you a lift….

    私の日本のシンボル：緑茶！

    Thank you for reading, and feel free to forward on to anyone who might be interested.

    読んでくれてありがとう！。ご興味がある方にはお気軽に転送してください。

    See you またね 😉

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    The End

    終わり🍜

  • Who is Jack? ジャックって誰ですか？

    November 26th 2025年11月26日

    It was a day when it would have been probably better to stay under the duvet.

    👉 It was cold enough….

    寒い朝だった。布団の中は暖かかったのに。どうして起きなきゃいけないの？

    👉 But I had a violinist coming first thing. I had given her instrument the full make-over, so was interested to hear how she would react. Of course after two or three notes I could tell she was not happy with something. It was the strings. Not her taste. Ok, so I changed all the strings. Result? A happy smile. Good. Now it was time to pay. This is usually dealt with pretty quickly, thanks to my card terminal…..

    今朝はすべてがうまくいかなかった ☹️

    👉 However when I activated it, for some insane reason it wanted me to log in and identify myself….bla bla bla…What, whilst a customer is waiting? Oh, give us a break. “I’ll give you the bill and you can do a bank transfer ” I said. I reached for the printer. Great. Today of all days it decided to run out of toner. …….☹️

    カードリーダーが動作せず、プリンターのインクが切れました…。……..🙄

    My customer saved the day by transferring the money immediately on her mobile. Phew!

    Ah, at last, now I can go for that morning walk. I glanced out of the window to check the weather….What the.…⁉️…the nearby tower block was emitting black smoke…..

    助けて！あそこで何が起こっているの？

    You feel very alone at moments like this. Are you the only person to have noticed this? All was quiet. Quick! call the fire brigade!…..but where is my mobile 🤳???? whilst frantically searching, the reliable, solid landline caught my eye ☎️.

    I was on to the fire department in seconds. The man at the other end didn’t ask me anything. He just said: “Weserstr. Wohnblock on fire, yes….is there anyone on the roof?….” (luckily not). Seconds later I heard the sirens. Phew 😮‍💨.

    That’s quite enough for one morning I thought. Ignoring everything else I pulled on a winter jacket and walked out into the freezing, but glorious sunshine.

    Winter has hit Europe. My Italian correspondent, Ciara, is driving to Rome to sing in a massed gathering for St. Cecilia’s day….

    ヨーロッパに冬が到来。イタリア特派員Mzは聖セシリア祭のためにローマへ向かう途中です。

    And whilst sunlight filters through the trees in Tochigi…Komorebi { 木漏れ日 }…….the next day in Hessen is far from bright….

    栃木とヘッセン!

    But wait. All is not lost. Blue skies are possible, and the pigeons in Darmstadt know where to enjoy it – under the gaze of Ludwig I, Grossherzog von Hessen und bei Rhein….

    鳩はどこに座るべきか知っています…ダルムシュタット

    When he came down from his pillar he looked like this…

    He was quite an open-minded fellow, and supported the arts. The opening up of Japan was a bit after his time, but I think he would have appreciated Japanese culture….

    フランクフルトの日本蚤の市でティーポットと本を売りました

    Even if it was only a Nomi no ichi – a flea market….

    https://japanisch-kulturzentrum.de/veranstaltungen/

    Yes, I’m back in my old haunt – the Japanese Cultural Centre in Frankfurt….🎏

    It’s a nice opportunityto chat.

    “Who did you fly with on your last trip to Japan?” 🛬 Finnair? Lufthansa? JAL?

    How many yen did you get for your Euros 💴( a lot!)

    “so on return you also find Frankfurt dirty and loud? 💩

    “so desu ne……🙄” ( *so it was, yes….)

    👉 Jack. Not a name you often hear these days. But when I was little the adults would talk about someone called Jack Frost. He seemed to be a rather spiky, mischievous character who came in the early hours of the morning and disappeared as soon as the sun rose…..

    イギリスでは「ジャックフロスト」(Jack Frost) が霜をもたらす……..🥶

    He’s still around….

    leaving a trail of spiky beauty……

    Anyone for frozen toadstool, accompanied perhaps by a crispy Chardonnay?…….

    What? You’re going hiking in this weather?

    こんな天気でハイキングに行くんですか？

    👉 I remembered the old adage……”There is no such thing a bad weather, there is only unsuitable clothing”

    And anyway, I have a nice warm winter jacket and a woolly hat……and I knew that the walk Yorgos had planned for Sunday would include a warm meal at the end.

    It’s wonderful 😊to be up in the Taunus hills, crunching through the frost but feeling warm inside…

    冬のジャケットとウールの帽子を着て暖かいです……😊

    The sheep looked quite comfortable…

    羊たちは暖かいですね！☺️

    “Guten Tag…”

    こんにちは!

    However, not a day for a dip in the pool ……

    私たちは泳ぎに行かなかった………..

    no, no….

    👉 In these hills you will always find a hut for walkers. There will be somewhere to sit down and the floor is dry…..

    ハイカー用の小屋

    But hang on….. this doesn’t look too friendly…..

    Photo > Phe ここは友好的な場所ではないようだ ………😯

    This is what physicists do on their days off. When they get tired of particle acceleration they go to see some tangible white particles – snow. To find them you have to go up to the Grosser Feldberg (the highest hill in the Taunus range)….I’m glad she didn’t get lost or eaten by a Grizzly bear…….🧸

    Photo> Phe

    👉 Well, that’s all from the Towers this week. As I write this my friends across the road have decided to dig another hole. They are good at that……..

    家の近くでまた穴を掘っています。穴掘りが本当に上手ですね🙄

    Thank you for reading, and feel free to forward on to anyone who might be interested.

    読んでくれてありがとう！。ご興味がある方にはお気軽に転送してください。

    See you またね 🥶

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

    The End

    ⛄

    終わり

  • 🍴 Fancy a bite? ちょっと食べたい?

    October 10th 2025年10月10日

    Fancy a bite? Someone does in these woods, but I assume they know what they are doing….

    お腹が空いていますか？誰かが……..🤤

    Because they always leave these guys alone….

    Perhaps the black and white pattern is a warning sign…

    誰もこれを食べない…..🤮

    Of course none of this is noticed by the passengers sitting in the cosy seats of their Inter Regio train which roars by…..

    乗客はこれらの小さなことに気づきません!

    I’m on a little walk between Neu Isenburg and Langen. Right beside the railway. My archaeological training is spurred to life by the sight of this bronze age artifact….a weapon of some sort maybe?…..It is well preserved I must say…….

    奇妙な物体

    However, on reflection…..hmmm. Has a rather late 20thc. aura about it.

    Back to those mushrooms. I prefer the fruits of trees. Like this one. The fig tree outside my door. The sensation of biting into that soft flesh – ever so slightly grainy and subtly sweet- so soon reduced to the mere stalk and then the need for the next one….

    イチジク！美味しい！

    Preceded by some Gyozas and a Kirin and I am in heaven…or at least in Takumi….(Mendelssohn Str. Frankfurt)

    天国

    Autumn………I must have been in an “flowing” mood when I drew this Kanji character…..

    まあ、ここでは翻訳は必要ありません！😅

    The turn of the season seems to affect different trees in different ways..The Acacia looks like it is getting a disease….

    …and reminds me of the time I once drew the Kanji character for tree (Ki), but realized after the first stroke that I didn’t have enough ink in my brush……😮

    ああ、まずい。インクが足りなかったんだ😐

    It is also easy to get too much ink on the brush. The ink itself has this extraordinary tendency to create forms – here the silhouette of a man’s head (?)………

    奇妙な形….

    Being confined to home this weekend with some bug or other I turned my attention to my calligraphy efforts. Of which there are many…..(!)

    今週末は体調が悪くて家にいなければならなかったので、書道を見つめ直す時間になりました…。

    With a well-loaded brush you can make music…🎵..The first character means “sound”, the second one “fun/enjoy”. Nice!

    🎵

    In the meantime I have found another little “bit of Autumn” ちいさい秋みつけた [Chīsai Aki Mitsuketa]…..This maple leaf has drifted graciously to earth…..

    ~

    What shall I cook today?

    Certainly none of those mushrooms near the railway…..Maybe some hearty European stew…? after all, the parsnip was a rare find in Aldi…

    Aha….let’s add a bit of Asian pep…..mmmm….

    In fact a warm vegetable stew was just right for the chilly downturn of the weather this week….

    寒い日には温かいシチューがぴったりです…

    ~

    The other day a Chinese friend of mine called round to pick up a ‘cello case. With her 3 yr- old son bounding about with far too much energy, I decided to dig out some childrens’ books 📔📚 as a distraction. Of course they were all in English, but this didn’t seem to matter. However, later on I found the book which I had been looking for the whole time.

    Lao Lao -🐉 is an old Chinese folk tale about a simple good person being maligned by a greedy emperor. The poor woman is forced to sit in a cold tower and produce paper cuttings ad infinitum (rather like the girl in Rumpelstiltskin who has to weave gold thread). However, in the end good conquers over evil through the intervention (Deus ex machina – rather like a Handel opera) of the dragon who roams the earth, who sees and hears everything.

    子供向けの本当に素敵な本

    The text is in Chinese and English and is beautifully illustrated…

    …..following the main theme of the story – paper cuttings…….

    切り絵

    …with the chance at the end to have a go yourself. This is a very special children’s book. I thought the story was probably an old Chinese classic, but my friend had never heard of it. One wonders what they teach children in China these days….

    ~

    Well, I’m told a typhoon is approaching Japan this weekend. And I see I once tried to paint the character. Not a good example of brushwork, but very fitting to the current season! Literally “great wind”…….🍃

    あまり上手な書道ではありませんが…

    And it also seems to be the season for that home-made plum wine…………..☺️

    Photo> 友子

    ~

    👉 Well, thank you for reading this, and feel free to pass it on to anyone you think might be interested. These days you can translate a web site instantaneously with A.I. or Google translate.

    さて、これを読んでいただきありがとうございます。興味があると思われる方に、遠慮なくお伝えください。

    See you またね 😉

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

    The End

    終わり

    🍄‍🟫

  • 🖋️ The View from the Desk 机からの眺め

    August 9th 2025 年8月10日

    👉 The view from my desk can sometimes be rather distracting. I don’t remember, for example, having ordered a coffee table……

    コーヒーテーブルを注文した覚えがない😂

    So I must retain some fudoushin ふどうしん( 不動心) and remain imperturbable . I read this word in Japanese today and didn’t know what on earth it meant. But seeing that character 心 at the end should have prepared me for something deep. 心 means mind, heart or spirit, and I even have it on my wall at home as a calligraphy exercise!

    心

    I would probably never use imperturbable here in Germany because I know I would have to explain it. Here is the Oxford English Dictionary…

    難しい言葉 🙄

    So there you go. Pearls of knowledge from a building site.

    👉 There’s nothing quite like a spontaneous hike with friends. But with such a hot weekend a cool route is called for. So no to the open vineyards of the Rheingau or ruined castles baking in the heat. What we needed was a route almost entirely in the shade.

    東京ほど暑くはないけど、十分暑い！

    Those who can’t come offer you a colourful range of situations they find themselves in. The globetrotters: “I am in Brazil and flying to Chile tomorrow, otherwise would definitely join! The thinkers: “I am thinking about it”. The organized: “Sorry, I have a prior arrangement”. The unfortunates: “I feel worse and worse” (all sympathy here). The stay-at-homers: “I need a day at home”. The mysterious: no reply.

    Well, in the end there were only two of us left. But there are advantages to that – flexibility is one of them.

    👉 The route took us through the shady woods south of Darmstadt. It was very quiet – only the odd dog walker or jogger trudging by. Maybe everybody was doing their shopping. It was a Saturday morning after all. Nature stood still. Not a breath of wind :

    レストランのある静かな池

    At times the luxuriant vegetation was higher than myself….

    花は私よりも背が高かった

    One area of the woods was devoted to art installations. An imaginative “rain machine”……

    アート。「雨の機械」

    A dome which teased the eye – was this art or trees? It seemed especially designed to be photographed to produce a deception in your camera…..

    欺瞞的な芸術

    ………….chiming, tinkling, boat-at-harbour-like tones……

    フェーさんが「サウンドインスタレーション」に挑戦
    これは港の船の音のようだった

    👉 Climbing up a steep path, passing an observatory, we arrived at the Ludwigsturm (Ludwig Tower) on the Ludwigshöhe. From here you get a panoramic view of Darmstadt, and on the horizon, Frankfurt.

    展望台からはダルムシュタットとフランクフルトの景色が見える

    The rather impressive 19thc. tower has never been open all the times I have been here. And the adjacent restaurant was shut because the owners were on holiday (The summer holdays are a sacrosant period in Germany. My customers don’t pick up their violins, the Opera houses and schools don’t pay their bills…all because it is Ferien (holidays). Let’s not worry about that violinmaker who still has to pay his overheads. There is even a word for it: The Sommerloch (The “Summer hole”)).

    👉 I forgot to mention one piece of art poised between two trees. It was made up almost entirely of oyster shells……curious….

    カキの殻

    Is this art?

    それは芸術ですか

    👉 Well, thank you for reading this, and feel free to pass it on to anyone you think might be interested. These days you can translate a web site instantaneously with A.I. or Google translate.

    See you またね 😉

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

    The End

    🚶‍➡️

    終わり