Fish Drying & Rust

To Matsui in the Sand, Whoever You Are

Found, leaping out at me, that smile — glad you were happy then, hope you are still.

Life & Death

Both cruel. I'm sorry. For the agony. Don't know what happened.

There's A World Out There

Abandoned House: Outside Looking In

Thought Culled From an Old Design Magazine

"Most ideas transcend the languages that you use to describe them." — Alan Kay

Whiskey 48.44%

I've been hooked recently on the show American Pickers. Living vicariously doesn't really work for me much though, so this weekend I went out looking for my own place to pick.

Tromping along the river in the rain, I passed a junk shop called (loosely translated) Holy Crap! 100 Yen City! I couldn't resist going in. In addition to a "rare" tin turtle flower frog with the price painted on its side in outdated kana, I picked up this postcard:

It shows pictorially the alcohol percentages of the various sakes available in Japan at the time, from whiskey top left, descending all the way to beer, bottom right. Next to the beer are red and white wine respectively which went by the now outdated aka-budou-shu and shiro-budou-shu.

There's a lot to like about the postcard. The wonky hand drawn lines of the bottles for one. The colors. The blue type script of the header. Certain obsolete or simplified kanji. The date. And the French "carte postale" written on the back in art nouveau lettering. 

Post Under: Only in Japan

One espresso. One mint chocolate chip ice cream in a cone. All very serious. No one laughed.