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The full 54-pic album is here: Nighttime lightup of Rikugien fall colors, Dec. 5-6, 2014 More info on the Rikugien Garden: teien.tokyo-park.or.jp/en/rikugien/ Dec. 2,
2014 - Golden Ginkgo Trees, Tokyo, Japan
Gaien Ichou Namiki Dori (外苑いちょう並木 通り, Ginkgo Avenue) is one of my
favorite spots to view fall colors in Tokyo. Today the golden ginkgo
trees were spectacular, as they are every year this 1st week in
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Nov. 26, 2014 - Preparing and Presenting Scientific Posters
Japanese university students are often called upon to prepare and present posters in their technical English classes. A tall, handsome university professor from Houston, Texas spoke Mon. Nov. 24, 2014 at the JALT2014 national language teacher's conference in Tsukuba, Japan to share online resources his 3rd-year university technical English students use to prepare their scientific posters.These resources included the design and layout of posters, sample poster templates, posters prepared by his former students, and also a sampling of posters presented in the poster sessions at this 4-day Tsukuba language teacher's conference.
If all that weren't enough, the presentation was captured in a breathtakingly exciting video (ha-ha!), which along with online notes & more details from the presentation (including all links) can be viewed here: Preparing and Presenting Scientific Posters
JALT2014 presenter Gary Wolff
Nov. 19,
2014 - Happy Birthday to ME!
Here's an absolutely hilarious video from my wonderful sis on the
occasion of my birthday. Check it out by clicking the image below!
Nov.
18, 2014 - World's tallest man meets world's shortest man
Sultan Kösen, 31, the tallest man in the world, is a Turkish farmer who
measures 8 feet, 3 inches (~251 cm) tall. On Thursday, for the first
time he met Nepalese weaver Chandra Bahadur Dangi, 74, the shortest man
in the world who is just 21½ inches (~55 cm) tall. The occasion was the
10th annual Guinness World Records Day, which celebrates record-setting
achievements around the globe. 
World's tallest & shortest men
(Photo credit: Daniel Deme/WENN.com)
Nov. 13,
2014 - Taylor Swift (テイラー・スウィフト) is HOT....even in Japan!
I spotted this ad for Taylor Swift's new "1989" album inside a Tokyo
train car on my way home tonight. Wow, go テイラー!! 
Ad in Japan for Taylor Swift's new "1989" album
Nov. 10,
2014 - My 1st mountain climbing book shows up in my doc's office
Maybe you can imagine my shock & pleasant surprise recently to see
my 1st mountain climbing book, "The
View from the Top of Japan," on the shelf in my doctor's office
waiting room. Wow! 
[OK, well in the spirit of full disclosure, I DID give this book to my doc back in the spring of last year, but it was great to see that he's sharing it with his other patients!]
Nov.
5, 2014 - Are you a Twit Face?
Nov.
3, 2014 - Fall colors (紅葉) in Nishizawa
Valley (西沢渓谷)
Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing one of Japan's top 100
waterfalls, along with some stunning fall colors. Yamanashi Prefecture's Nishizawa Keikoku (西沢渓谷), about a 90-minute train ride and 1-hr. bus ride west of Shinjuku, is one of the most beautiful valleys of the Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park and features several waterfalls, including the spectacular 5-tiered Nanatsugama-Godan-no-Taki.
It's particularly beautiful during the peak of the autumn leaves season in late Oct. & early Nov. The hike was organized by Jambo International.
Click thumbnails
below to open full-size images,
or click here to view entire 68-pic album.
Fall colors in Nishizawa Valley
My full 68-pic Flickr album is here:
Fall colors (紅葉) in Nishizawa Valley (西沢渓谷)
or click here to view entire 68-pic album.
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My full 68-pic Flickr album is here:
Fall colors (紅葉) in Nishizawa Valley (西沢渓谷)
My 2.5-min. Nishizawa Valley video
(If player above is not visible, you can view video @ YouTube here.)
Nishizawa Valley Hiking Map (in Japanese)
Nishizawa Valley Google Map
Oct. 29,
2014 - Happy Halloween from Tokyo Disneyland!
Halloween in Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo Disney Resort official website
(Photo courtesy: Nozomi Uchibori)
Oct. 28, 2014 - Merry Halloween!!
One cannot help but admire the brilliance of Japanese creativity.... in this case, celebrating the Halloween season with a sneak preview of Xmas.
Merry Halloween!!
Oct. 19, 2014 - NASA gets into Halloween spirit with jack-o-lantern pic of the sun
Jack-o-lantern sun
(Image credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO)
This image, taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on October 8, is a composite of two images of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths at 171 and 193 Ångströms (not visible to the naked eye), appearing gold and yellow to create a jack-o-lantern like appearance.
Blending together the 2 sets of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths shows the sun's most active regions, which appear brighter because those are areas that emit more light and energy.
WOW! Trick or treat!!
Oct.
14, 2014 - Typhoon Vongfong slams Japan; 2nd in a week
The 2nd powerful typhoon in a week has struck the entire Japanese
archipelago, leaving a broad path of destruction in its wake. Typhoon
Vongfong (a Macao Chinese word meaning "wasp"), also known in Japan as
Typhoon 19 (台風19号), has killed 2 people and injured at least 93
nationwide, with 1 missing. A 90-year-old man was found dead in an irrigation channel in Tottori Prefecture and a 72-year-old man drowned after driving his light truck into a pond in Ehime Prefecture.
Injuries include a 39-year-old American pilot whose light plane crashed in the city of Ibusuki in Kagoshima Prefecture, near the southernmost tip of the main island of Kyushu, and a man in his 20s and a 9-year-old girl, who in separate cases, both had a finger severed when high winds slammed doors shut.
On Oct. 7 Vongfong strengthened to super typhoon status with wind speeds of 180 mph (80 m/s) and a central pressure of 900 millibars, making it the strongest tropical storm on earth since Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines last November with maximum sustained winds of 195 mph (87 m/s), killing over 6,000 people.
Although Vongfong weakened to a tropical storm before making landfall on the southern main island of Kyushu, the most notable impact of the storm was the nationwide rainfall amounts, as seen in the graphic below. In Satsumasendai City in Kagoashima Prefecture, the storm dumped 85 mm (3.3 in.) of rain during a 1-hr. period on Mon. morning.
As of midday Monday local time, the highest rainfall total from Vongfong anywhere in Japan was found in Kunigami (on the northern end of Okinawa Island) where 21.95 inches (557.5 mm) of rain were reported. Also, some parts of Okinawa, Miyazaki, and Kochi Prefectures received well over 400 mm (~16 in.) in a 24-hour period.
Source:
- NHK World
Typhoon Vongfong nationwide 24-hour rainfall amounts,
as of 6:10 am, Tues. Oct. 14, 2014
(red bars indicate >100 mm (3.9 in.), many of them >400 mm (~16 in.))
(image credit: NHK)
Oct. 12,
2014 - Danny Macaskill rides Scotland's Cuillin Ridgeline
In general, I'm not a big fan of cyling in the mountains (especially if
they're on the same trail I'm hiking on),
but this remarkable video
shows one of the most incredible, daredevil feats I've ever seen. Danny
Macaskill took a death-defying ride on his Santa Cruz Bronson mountain
bike along the notorious Cuillin
Ridgeline in his native home on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Posted just 10 days ago, as of today this video has been viewed over 15 million times. I believe my favorite parts begin @ the 1:44, 2:00, 2:17, 3:06, 3:37, 4:30, 5:17, 5:42, 6:08, & 6:19 min. marks.
Mountain biking in Scotland: http://www.visitscotland.com/see-do/activities/mountain-biking/
Santa Cruz bicycles - http://www.santacruzbicycles.com
Interestingly, I had the pleasure of riding my friend's $5,500 Santa Cruz Tallboy last month in Denver (Thanks, Tom!):
Oct. 8 -
The total lunar eclipse from Tokyo
Well, I got to see the 1st half of it....before the clouds moved in. And yep, in that 1st pic, I captured a
jumbo jet flying across the face of the moon!The partial umbral eclipse began @ 18:15 & the total eclipse began @ 19:25.
By far the best lunar eclipse I've ever seen, even though I missed the entire 2nd half!
 18:01 |
 18:07 |
 18:16 |
 18:25 |
 18:29 |
 18:34 |
 18:43 |
 18:53 |
 18:58 |
 19:09 |
 19:15 |
 19:16 |
 19:19 |
 19:21 |
 19:23 |
 19:30 |
Oct. 6, 2014 - Total lunar eclipse - Wed. Oct. 8
A total eclipse of the full moon will occur on Wed. October 8, 2014. For North America and the Hawaiian Islands, the total lunar eclipse happens in the wee hours before sunrise on October 8. For New Zealand, Australia and eastern Asia (including Japan), the total eclipse is seen after sunset on October 8. A partial lunar eclipse can be seen before sunrise, October 8, from much of South America, or after sunset, October 8, from western Asia.Here are the viewing times for Tokyo (& Houston):
Partial umbral eclipse begins: 18:15 (4:15 am)
Total eclipse begins: 19:25 (5:25)
Greatest eclipse: 19:55 (5:55)
Total eclipse ends: 20:24 (6:24)
Partial umbral eclipse ends: 21:34 (7:34)
More info: Earthsky.org
When to see it from your location: http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2014-october-8
Oct. 6,
2014 - Up in the east, down in the west
These 2 pics were taken within 5 min. of each other. Mon. Oct. 6, 2014 moonrise, 5:18 pm |
 Mon. Oct. 6, 2014 sunset, 5:13 pm |
Oct.
5, 2014 - Here comes Typhoon Phanfone. Watch out, Tokyo!
Category 4 Supertyphoon Phanfone (Typhoon 18, 台風18号), a Laotian term
for "animal," is already pounding islands south of Kyushu with
torrential rains and wind gusts of up to 101 mph as the storm heads
north towards Tokyo. Winds at Japan's Kita-daitō (North Daitō Island) gusted to 45.3 m/s (101 mph) at 2:35 pm JST (1:35 am U.S. EDT) on Saturday, before the wind observations were knocked offline. Minami-daitō has set an all-time calendar-day record for the month of October with 217.0 mm (8.54 inches) of rain, beating the old October record of 198.5 mm on Oct. 26, 2010.
Heavy rains from Phanfone are the main threat, and are likely to bring dangerous flash flooding and mudslides. One precipitation forecast model predicts that Phanfone will dump widespread rains of 4-8" (102-203 mm) across much of Japan.
Two top models for predicting typhoon tracks, the GFS and European, predicted with their 12:00 Zulu Saturday runs that Phanfone would hit the main Japanese island of Honshu near 18 UTC on Sunday, and make its closest pass by Tokyo around 9 am Monday morning Japan time.
As of 9 am Sun. morning, the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center is forecasting Typhoon Phanfone to pass within only 19 nautical miles (~35 km) of the Yokosuka navy base, just south of Japan's capital. Should make for a very interesting Monday morning commute for the 9 million residents of Tokyo's 23-ward metro area.
Source: Dr. Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground
Typhoon Phanfone storm track, as of 3 am, Sun. Oct. 5, Japan time
(Photo credit: U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center)
[Typhoon Phanfone (Typhoon 18, 台風18号) postmortem:
- Widespread flooding occurred across Japan, especially in Shizuoka Prefecture where over 400 mm (~16 in.) of rain was recorded in some areas within a 24-hr. period. Over 19 inches (~480 mm) of rain fell in the prefecture's mountainous regions over a 3-day period.
-Tokyo recorded wind gusts up to 70 mph (~31 m/s), and sustained winds around or above 40 mph (~18 m/s) lasted for about 2 hours in the city.
- 3 people are dead and 4 others are missing. A member of the U.S. Air Force drowned while taking photos on the coast of southern Okinawa Prefecture on Sunday. Two other fellow US airmen were also washed out to sea and are still missing.
- Also on Sunday, a university student disappeared while surfing in rough seas off the coastal city of Fujisawa, south of Tokyo.
- On Monday, 2 men in Yokohama died after being buried in mudslides at different locations.
- A junior high school student is missing after being taken away by high waves from a beach in Yokosuka.
- 62 people were injured across the country.
- JR rail officials suspended services on the main JR Tokaido Line in Shizuoka City after a landslide washed away a short section of track. Officials are unsure when trains will be able to start running again.
- Airlines cancelled about 630 flights on Monday morning, mostly to or from Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
- Over 2.9 million people were issued evacuation advisories.]
Oct. 1,
2014 - Emily Skye's 28 Day Ab Shred
Go Emily! WOW! Emily's site: https://www.emilyskye.com/
Gary J. Wolff's Blog
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