Last Post...

It's all over folks. This, my 295th post, is also my final post on blogger. As of today my blogging allegiance has been transferred (along with all my archives) over to the new Wordpress account at:

www.mikeylambe.com

Yes, that's www.mikeylambe.com

So git yer arses over there!

OK Girls - Now You Are Famous...

There's no particular reason for this picture really. Just my students wanted their picture taken and then after I took it and said "Do you want to be on my blog?" - they said yes to that too. As you can see these are friendly students. My favorite kind.

Here's another video of 番屋 doing what they do.

番屋 2

Continuing on from yesterday's video here is a very nice shamisen solo from "Banya"'s performance at Gojo Guesthouse Cafe on Saturday night. I like to see how happy this guy is when he plays. More to follow!

番屋

Here's a video for you of last night's performance at Gojo Guesthouse Cafe by "Banya". This isn't the smoothest performance of the evening but definitely the cutest, as the singer keeps forgetting the words and everyone has to sing along to help her out. I'll post more - later.

Today...

Today was a pleasant and sleepy day. The sky was a deep and sleepy cloudless blue. My students were sleepy but friendly. I got one test (sleepily) written and out of the way, and only have one left to go. And my Peanuts DVD ("It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!") is arriving tomorrow morning; a rare treat for the first years after the tests are over. I couldn't think of a better way to teach them about Halloween traditions than that fine Halloween tradition - watching Peanuts! Well, hopefully it will keep them awake anyway...

Friend and artist Yui Katoh has a blog up. It's been up for a little while now but I completely forgot to blog it. I have been remiss and now I make amends. Go to her blog, take a look at her pictures and then encourage her (with comments) to post some more because they are MARVELOUS: Yui Katoh.

Rik Abel has started podcasting and swears he will make a regular habit of it. Do we believe him? Who can tell? Here's what he has to say:

Although I love techno music I have never tried my hand at creating my own mixes, and realistically, I probably never will. Luckily, I have lots of talented DJ type friends who can do that kind of thing for me. So this is the first in a fairly regular series of podcasts where I will be piggybacking on the talent of these friends in order to bask in their reflected glory, and hopefully expose them to a wider audience. Because they really are very good, all of them. As I’m sure you will agree once you check out their mixes...

Read more, and more importantly, listen, here: Rik Abel.

There is a list of up-and-coming events in Kyoto that may be of interest to someone up here: Up-and-coming.

And then there is this, which if you haven't seen it is... well, it's got bunnies in it. What more can you possibly need to know? Bravia Bunnies.

I'm sleepy. Goodnight!

Kisui

Nakano-kun and I went to his friend Setsuko's bar on Kawabata last Saturday and it struck me as very much a Deep Kyoto kind of place what with, all the hand-crafted Kyoto-style ceramics and all so I just had to blog it. Also she's kind of cute. Here's a pic of her and her brother, that I swiped off of a magazine cover (her brother runs a restaurant upstairs).


It's better than my pictures. My pictures look like this:


Oh dear. For more on that take a look here: Kisui.

Hot and Healthy (just like me)

There's a fresh posting up on you know what which is not so much a review this time as just a guide to stores in Kyoto supplying organic food and other eco-friendly products: Natural Food!

Kotake-san is currently serving piping hot pots of tasty tasty nabe at Little Bamboo right now. And no-one is ordering it! I guess the weather hasn't been cold enough for rich autumnal broth just yet... because you know... THE WEATHER IS MAD. But I had a pot of vegetable nabe in a rich and creamy tomato sauce last night and it was swee-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! I could barely walk afterwards I was so full but still - recommended!

And here's another "Crazy Clef" video from Saturday afternoon.