Skittle

Skittle

I bought a skittle last year. A skittle, which is also called “a hip flask”, is a flatly curved, metal bottle for taking whisky outside. The name of a skittle is said to stem from the name of the old game “skittle” in England, which is the origin of a bowling game, as the skittle’s shape resembled the shape of a pin used for the game.

I often take the skittle outside with me in winter. You may regard me as an alcoholic man or a heavy drinker because most of Japanese people do not have such a custom. They usually drink such brew as beer and Japanese sake, which is made from rice and has lower alcohol content. Whisky is distilled spirit of high alcohol content, which is made from malted barley and the other grains. In fact, my wife, who tastes a wine, does not like to drink whisky, saying that it tastes like a medicine. Coming back to the point, I am not suffering from the alcohol abuse. The reason I take the skittle outside is that I only want to sip whisky to get rid of the cold. I recommend this way for you when you are in the cold outside where you cannot find the other way to warm myself. I am sure that whisky will work to warm you up.

Incidentally, you may also think why I do not buy a small grass bottle of whisky. It is as portable as the skittle and is sold in any convenient shop in Japan. There are four reasons that I use the skittle:

Firstly, a grass bottle is more fragile for the use in the outside. A skittle is made from such metals as silver, titanium and stainless. Each metal has a merit and a demerit, however, it is stronger and lighter compared to the grass bottle.

Secondly, a skittle looks better than a grass bottle. Imagine the scene that a friend of yours takes the grass bottle sneakily from his pocket and sips the whisky on a street. Any Japanese people seeing this may regard it a bad habit. On the other hand, if they see him using a skittle, they take him as a cool guy. Of course, this depends on how he looks himself to high degree...

Thirdly, skittles vary in size and design. As I wrote at first, a skittle is used popularly in England, most of famous skittle’s makers such as Pinder Bros and Alchemy Pewter are there. You can have fun to look for your favourite one. My skittle is 6oz and is carved the picture of fly-fishing.

Fourth, this is the most important reason for me. As long as I use the skittle, I can choose my favourite whisky from numerous kinds of big whisky bottles. As the number of small grass bottles of whisky is less, my choice for the whisky is restricted. For my part, I could not find my favourite whiskies, single malt whiskies of Islay in Scotland such as Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Bowmore and so on. These whiskies have the specific taste and flavour of peat*, salt and seaweed. As they have such strong characters, they are called “loud spirit”. Grain malt whiskies which do not have such strong characters are called “silent spirit”. So, at first you may feel awkward to them when tasting one of them. However, if you are once accustomed to the taste, you will love it and feel it lacked something for the grain malt whiskies.

I am fond of taking photographs. I want to take photographs of deserted, atmospheric landscapes in Scotland. Now, I am just toy of thinking of the tour. But, when I belt the Islay single malt whisky in my skittle, I can imagine such landscapes of Scotland, and feel tipsier. In the tour, my favourite skittle has to be in my hip pocket. I cannot part with a skittle.

(NB) *　Peat is translated into “mud charcoal” in Japanese. It is an accumulation of decayed plants such as heather, and is used for a fossil fuel to dry malted barley. This gives Islay single malt whiskies a characteristic smoky flavour.

Duffle Coat

To my photo friend in Belgium,

How are you? It's getting colder and colder day by day in Tokyo. I have felt the herald of winter these days. I hope you are all well and fine.

Last weekend, I took my coats for the winter out of a drawer. There was a duffle coat which I bought last year. Although the coat is a little heavy and cumbersome for the activity of taking photos, I like the specific design of the coat. This year, I ordered the same coat for my wife as a Christmas present. When I searched for the coat in web sites which seemingly suits her, I happened to know the story as to the coat: its name came from Duffel, a town in the province of Antwerp in Belgium. And as a fisherman presented the coat to Field Marshal Montgomery of England who visited there in WWⅡ, it came to be used in the Navy, and further in the world of fashion later. So some coats are called “Monty coat”deriving from his nickname. As I wrote above, I am also going to present the coat to my Marsha…., no, my wife. (What a coincidence!) Do you wear a duffle coat, too? When I wear the coat in this winter, I will remember this story and you.

Take care and let’s keep taking good photos.　

Yours sincerely,
MOONLIGHT CAFE MASTER

Snow Country

“When I went through the long tunnel in the border, it was Snow Country .”

This is the first phrase of the famous Japanese novel, Yukiguni, which was written by Yasunari Kawabata.
This phrase occurs to my mind whenever I go through the Daishimizu tunnel of Shinkansen in winter, which is twenty-two kilometers long, the third longest tunnel, to Niigata Prefecture from Tokyo in winter. A landscape which I usually see in the train suddenly changes in the moment, which is really exciting for the dwellers in Tokyo where it rarely snows.

In February of this year, our family made a ski tour to Atema ski resort in Niigata. Prior to this tour, my little twins had taken part in a ski training meeting in a prefecture for the first time in life for three days last year, and became able to ski, snowplowing down, a little. So I and my wife decided to go skiing again with the twins to have them master what they learned steadfastly. We were really sad for my son not to join this tour because of the sudden flue.
When we arrived at the hotel, BELNATIO, a snow man welcomed us in front of the hotel.
http://www.belnatio.com/

When arriving at the piste by the hotel bus, I found a snowmobile whose windshield was covered with snow wholly, which showed that there was a blizzard in the last night. The weather was, however, fine then.
http://www.city.tokamachi.lg.jp/page/10170200055.html




I took this photo of the window of the restaurant with atmosphere at the entrance of the piste, though, I think that this photo would have been much more fascinating if there had been a beautiful young lady behind the wind.




The next day we went into the snow field with the professional guides to find a white rabit, Tohoku Nousagi. Not Tohokuno Usagi. We wore the snow shoes because of the snow more than three feets deep. What we saw there firstly were snowcapped cedars and a huge field. I and my daughter stretched out in the deep snow together. I said “Nothin’ like fresh air!” to her. The air was crisp and the sky was blue. It was really fantastic. We had walked around the field for an hour, wondering if we can really come across a white rabbit.



When we were likely to give it up, one of the guides suddenly shouted, “Look! Over there.” A scene which came into our sight was that a white rabbit were running away to the trees like a bullet! It was so fast that I could not even press the shutter at the moment, however, I believe that this photo tells you the truth.



It is really fun for us only to be in the nature, however, it must be more fun for me to take its photos. I want to keep taking the photos of wild life, and show you them in this blog again in the near future.

Changing in thinking

I have posted many photos to my essays in this blog since its starter. The most of the photos, however, were not taken by me unfortunately, because I could not necessarily prepare the photo which fits the essay’s content in time.
From this April, changing in thinking, I choose my favourite photos firstly and then prepare the related short comments. My workload to keep this blog lighten, so I will revise it regularly in a shorter span. (Of course, I try to write a long essay as before if I can.)
Furthermore, I think it must be easier for readers to leave a short comment for the photo than for the essay although I have not received a comment on the essays for a long time.

Anyway, the followings are my recent favorite photos and the comments for them.

<1st and 2nd photos>
I happened to find an intriguing shop which sells puppets of witches near my office a few months ago when I took a walk in a lunch time. The second photo is a fence-sitter in the shape of a witch, which is used as an ornament at the entrance. It must be in the Halloween that this shop really brightens up! I will post the puppets’ photos someday.





<3rd photo>
I found this thing on the same street, which was placed near the above-mentioned shop then. I like Paris, whose sign caught my eyes and I pressed the shutter, however, I do not know for what it is. I visited the same place to confirm this recently, only fail to find it.



<4th photo>
Added bonus.


May I have your comments for my photos?

Fly fishing

Fly fishing

Fly fishing is not an easy fishing in which anyone can dabble but is a fascinating one for several reasons. In fishing, usually you only have to put a bite at the hook, decide the length between the sinker and the hook, and throw it directly to the fishing point. Fly fishing needs a little bit more rituals: as it features using an artificial fly instead of the bite and casts it with a tapered line like a whip. Firstly, you have to choose the fly among functional categories such as dry, streamer or wet as well as the categories in the shape of an aqua insect such as divided wings, keel and so on, considering time, temperature and a favour of a fish. Regarding the favour, some fly fishermen take the trouble of taking aqua insects out of fish’s stomach to confirm and study what kind of ones they like to eat in the river. This is like a scholarly research rather than a leisure activity. Secondly, as to the casting, you have to learn several casting methods in addition to the basic overhead cast* such as tower cast when avoiding a tall tree behind you. It is like a pitcher throwing a curve in a baseball game.

Incidentally, when you hear the aforementioned things, you may have questions if fly fishing can catch fish more effectively than the normal fishing which uses the bite with flavour although the method of fly fishing is very complex and it attracts fishes with only its shape and colour. The answer is yes and no, depending on the situations. If you want to catch many fishes, you only have to use a large fishing net or poison.

Fly fishing is not necessarily the fishing for taking fishes effectively, but for enjoying the process to catch fishes as sports. This makes an angler may gives a wide berth to fly fishing, simultaneously it is the factor inherent to fly fishing which makes it fascinating.

Secondly, what make fly fishing attractive is their equipments and the river. You can find their photos in a fly fishing magazine. The fishing vest, bag, flies themselves are functional and have a good handsome shape and design. As to the latter, the rivers where the trout live are located in rural district and are clear, wide, and relatively runs shallow. If it runs in a huge green fields or forests, the stage is well set for the entertainment. Imagine the scene that you go fly fishing there in the morning mist. The surface of the current is beginning to shine, reflecting the sunshine in the tranquil. It must be such a breathtaking scenery that you cannot believe it existing really in Japan today.

The aforementioned things are attractive enough to lure us into the fly fishing world, however, there is the third attractive factor, which is more fundamental and instinctive one - pleasure to cook and eat the fish. When you ask an angler what kind of fishing he does, you usually do not want to know what kind of fish he likes to eat, but to fish. The purpose of angling is to enjoy the process of catching the fish, however, I think that fishing in a broad sense starts from casting a bite or a fly in a river and ends in eating the dish of the fish. The target of the fly fishing often is a trout. So I think that the reason why you go fly fishing is to eat a trout is a rare motivation, but can be reasonable. It must be the pleasure only for a fisherman to cook and eat the trout which he caught by himself, imagining the family peoples' smile for the dish. Furthermore, as to the liquor for it, it is a common knowledge that white wine suits the dish of a fish and red wine suits the dish of meat. Even red wine, however, may suit the dish of the trout if it is big and had fought you fiercely like a beast! And if you really missed to catch the bigger trout, however, it is advisable that you do not tell the family the story, because it will sound like a fishy story.

Thus the fly fishing is complex, beautiful and pleasant, which makes it attractive and worth challenging for an adult man.

Note: Carrying out a proper overhead cast, you stand with the line straight and then start the cast smoothly in an upward direction. Make sure that the line projects backwards by stopping the tip of the rod sharply while it is still rising. Once the overhead cast has been perfected it can be very easily adapted to the backhand cast and side cast.