To Hanoi

We're leaving for Hanoi early tomorrow morning. I won't even bring my computer this time, just a tablet, so I doubt there will be any updates here for a while. I don't want to let this blog lay fallow for too long, so here's a grab bag of recent pictures for you to peruse while we're away. Still need to decide on what cameras to bring...

Typhoon 13 came by this weekend, flooded parts of Kyoto, and drenched much of Kansai. Osaka was mostly fine, though. This picture is from a different rainstorm earlier this summer.

Kobe is a major harbour, with shipyards and services in addition to the freight terminals. This is Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Forces submarine rescue vessel Chioda, lying at the Kawasaki shipyard, right next to Mosaic restaurant and shopping mall. As you can see here, it would normally carry a deep-sea rescue submarine in the center.

The internet really is amazing, by the way; and even more amazing is just how quickly we have come to taking the worlds knowledge at our fingertips for granted.

Curry udon — here with karaage (deep-fried chicken) — is a favourite food. It's a bowl of udon where the soup is mixed with equal parts Japanese-style curry. Not quite a stew but too thick to be a soup, it's just amazingly satisfying and warms you up in winter like few other foods. The weather is finally getting cooler here now, so we can start enjoying this again.

As most of you know, I work at the supercomputer center in Kobe. I attended a short course on code optimization and parallelization recently, and during a facility tour at the end I finally got to see the K supercomputer that I use every day. Didn't bring a real camera unfortunately, so this cellphone shot is all I have. Might have to join another visitors tour with a better camera someday.

A pair of old work boots have been neatly put aside by a tree in Kobe. I actually see this now and again; my guess is, they're deliberately left for homeless people to get more use out of.

A night-time street in Kyoto earlier this summer. I have no idea what the couple was doing, but the scene seemed straight out of some movie. The colour film really adds to that feeling.