by ·Comments Off on Neko Café Grand Opening

In prevision of Tokyo’s cold Winter approaching, we have adopted a pair of 100% organic heaters. Although their current wattage is still a bit low (despite sustained high-level purring), we fully expect them to reach a good heating capacity before end of year…

And if you are looking to adopt cats in Japan, you should definitely have a look at these guys and these guys (recommended by previous): they do amazing work trapping, neutering and releasing adult stray cats, while placing kittens for adoption. (Needless to say, if you ever buy a cat from one of those horrendous pet mill shops, I will never talk to you again).

by ·Comments Off on Trip to Gokayama

As Pierre and I were pondering the next stop on our week-long tour of Japan, I remembered a stunning picture I had seen in a special Brutus magazine issue on countryside minshukus a few years ago. I looked up what turned out to be the village of Ainokura (part of Gokayama town), in Toyama-ken.

Driving past the still-quite-urban town of Jōhana, the last few km of mountain roads and never-ending tunnels magically opened into some Lost Valley-like landscape, with a dozen thatched-roofed houses lying at the bottom. We spent the night there (half the village is minshuku, the other regular farmers) before resuming our trip south through the much more touristy but still very picturesque region of Shirakawa.

Definitely on par with Iya for surprisingly preserved piece of old-times Nipponia.

by ·3 Comments

I know the following claim might come off as slightly suspicious, posted at 1:34am and freshly back from drinking in Shinjuku, but… I just saw a tanuki casually crossing the boulevard, two blocks from our house. A freaking tanuki. In the middle of Tokyo.

I would have chalked it up to alcohol and a very weird-looking cat, but the taxi driver was even more categorical that the thing was neither an itachi nor a cat, but indeed a tanuki.

Next week: wild boars in our courtyard.

by ·Comments Off on Machine Learning Summer School 2012 in Kyoto

Freshly back from two weeks in Kyoto where I attended a Machine Learning Summer School organised at Kyoto University. The whole event was impeccably organised and featured some of the biggest names in the field lecturing on fundamental aspects of machine learning: two highly productive weeks leaving barely enough time in the evening to catch up with friends and enjoy life in my former hometown…

A few random thoughts and observations:

Continue reading