Swans woke me up this morning. Such pretty birds, but what a horrible shriek

On a more positive note, I had some great tsukemen today. Slurping noodles on a big table next to some salarymen coming back from work is truly the ultimate dining experience

Going to Senso-ji radicalised me. Tourism should be banned, and I should be the only foreigner allowed in Japan. The whole temple area was filled to the brim with ill-behaving tourists, while the poor locals tried to pray in peace. Is it really too much to ask to act respectfully at a holy place?

Ordering my food in Japanese while the two tourists next to me ordered in English makes me feel incredibly smug

I found my Bluesky password, so I'm back. Currently in Tokyo so I might have some things to say later.

Finnair cancelled my flight to Tokyo due to the strikes going on again. Finnair flights get cancelled so often that from now on when I'm flying to Japan, I'm flying Japan Airlines. The price difference doesn't matter at this point when there is no way to know if Finnair will even deign to fly.

Spring is finally here. The weather is lovely and warm. Walking outside with just a shirt on and without a coat feels weird after such a long Winter.

As the latest chapter on my quest to understand poetry I finished this collection of poems from the times of the Tang-dynasty. It was quite enjoyable for poetry. Beats the Shijing/Book of Songs. My favourite poet from this was definitely Meng Chiao.

I did a haphazard catalogue of my fiction bookshelf and determined I need to start reading books from more countries. 40% of my books were written in English. UK was the clear leader by far with France and the US tied as second. Russia, Japan, and Finland come close to that. Others are far and away.

My car finally arrived, which means I have made the switch to EV's. I went straight from gas to electric so the change feels drastic. Parking a normal sized car is also considerably more difficult than my old Mini.

Perfectly arranged ducks at the Stadtpark.

The breakfast crêpes at the Ritz-Carlton are just as good as they ought to be. I felt the French toast was lacking, but with the crêpes all the flavours work perfectly with each other. The plum compot and the whipped cream blend together to divinity while maple syrup brings the whole dish together.

All the Japanese-inspired art in Vienna art galleries reminded me that I should consider starting collecting ukiyo-e. It would have been perfect to have bought some from Kyoto when I was there. I wonder how difficult of a hobby it is to begin? Perhaps I will start a collection when I'm in Tokyo.

The torte remains worth the experience of tasting at Sacher, however their signature brut is still only average. I sincerely hope they don't serve this to their hotel quests. Ritz-Carlton's Champagne was par excellence and I would hate Sacher's quests having to suffer from this.

I forgot to mention this in my introduction, but I will also be travel-blogging here. I'm currently in Vienna. The city is magnificent and filled to the brim with old and beautiful buildings. Dinner: traditional local dish called cutlet with onions. It reminded me a lot of guydon, but with no rice.

Today would have been Mishima Yukio's 100th birthday. Undoubtedly one of the greatest Japanese novelists and among the best of his time. I look forward to reading the rest of his oeuvre. Next is going to be the anniversary English translation of The Voices of the Fallen Heroes and other stories.

The starry night was beautiful yesterday on the New Year. I think this is going to be a good year. I will be starting my year with Somerset Maugham's great semi-autobiographical work "Of Human Bondage".

Happy New Year!

This is the year I will be starting BlueSkye. I will be just posting about random things that come to my mind and the literature that I read.

Happy to be here