http://nocentre.com/ Latest entries and photos on the site. en-us http://nocentre.com/rss.xml Earth Hour apparently went sailing around the world on March 31, although it went pretty much unnoticed in Tokyo, most likely because it was the height of cherry blossom season, and people were drinking in the park rather than worrying about their lights. I'm vaguely annoyed by this whole thing, partly because the name “Earth Hour” makes me roll my eyes, and partly because we've been observing the more demanding Candle Night for the last three years or so. Candle Night takes place on the summer and winter solstices (though we've pretty much been ignoring the winter one), and asks you to turn out the lights for two hours. This seems to have more followers in Asia, but the whole thing is now feeling a little like the battle between Beta and VHS (or, to put it in a more contemporary context, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD). And Candle Night is the Beta. Originally, the solstice night made more sense to me than having to remember the last night of March. On the other hand I have begrudgingly come to the realisation that if you do this during the solstice, it's always going to be winter in one hemisphere, and people are just less likely to want to sit in the dark in mid-winter. March, on the other hand, is more temperate almost everywhere. The other problem with Candle Night is that people are just not willing to give up that much power-time. They just don't know what to do with themselves for two hours without energy. Earth Hour appeals by virtue of its lack of commitment. Curiously, that time commitment is one of the things that the Candle Night website focusses on, and perhaps explains its popularity (not that it is exactly sweeping the nation or anything). Candle Night tends to push the idea of “slowing down” and taking a break from your regular lifestyle. And with the ridiculously stressful lifestyles many people live in Tokyo, the idea of turning out the lights for a couple of hours, lighting some candles, and having dinner or playing a board game or listening to the radio seems to appeal. Sure they're things you could do at any time, but people just forget. Of course, there's nothing wrong with observing all three of these events. Or making your own whenever the hell you like. But there is something appealing about the lights of a city going out for an hour. And something equally appealing about being a part of something global. If Earth Hour is going to be the big winner, then so be it. We'll bring down the lights for spring. http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400033 Yes, it is March, and I am finally getting those Christmas Hokkaido pictures up. We travelled to Sapporo and Otaru with our very good friends K‑man and Mami for a little adventure in the snow. Just wait...one of these days I'll have my Singapore pictures up from our trip in November! How's that for timely? http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400032 Testing something here. Bear with me. Well, look at that. It bloody well works. Yes, that's us. This first song thrown together on Garage Band in about an hour, so it ain't fantastic. But the player will update new songs as we add them. Perhaps I'll make it a permanent feature of the page. http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400031 I have surrendered to the spammers who have been filling my comments areas with midget porn and Pamela Anderson’s name. I have surrendered by simply taking away the comments altogether. I win. Let’s face it — there wasn't a heck of a lot of comment action going on in the first place. I had already made a kind of filter, but they soon changed the one thing I was filtering. The truth is that I could fairly easily work out a “type in the following wonky word” system, or make some kind of sign-up with a password scheme, but you know what? I just can't be bothered, because I don't think most of you casual drive-by readers can be bothered either. Want to leave a comment? Write me an e-mail! http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400029 You know, the “I told you so’s” are still ringing in my ears, but I made the mistake of allowing the trailer for Alien Vs. Predator to fool me, just for a second, into thinking it might actually be fun. It makes me wonder if the people who made the trailer should really have been given the reins to the film itself. I mean clearly, they turned it into a better film by cutting it down to two minutes! Ah, it takes me back to the days of writing film reviews, but since I'm tired and somewhat irritated, I'll spare you the details and have it suffice to say that the film is among the worst I've ever seen. I mean, yes…pretty much ever. There are direct-to-DVD releases filmed in empty parking lots that are better. This one makes the previous Alien Vs. Predator film look like Oscar material. A completely unscary, tensionless, boring cliché-fest that will make you appreciate good writing and direction by showing you just exactly how bad something can be without it. http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400028 And a happy New Year! http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400027 Going through Cindy's shots from the trip, I realized that she had several that I hadn't managed to get. And some of them were downright fantastic. Plus, she has the only shots of me. So here are a few from Cindy's point of view. http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400026 No, we did not take another honeymoon. This is just the second set of pictures from the second part of the trip. From Tahiti, we flew to Bora Bora. There are a lot of pics here, and possibly more to come, since Cindy got some nice ones that I missed out on. (I'll either add them to this collection or make them a collection of their own.) So grab a cup of coffee and you're off to French Polynesia! http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400025 For our somewhat belated honeymoon we decided to go to Bora Bora. What we subsequently learned was that Bora Bora is an island of French Polynesia, and Tahiti is the only way to get there. So our holiday was split in two (I shall not go into the unfortunate events surrounding our intent to go to Easter Island but to say that... we didn't get there!) Since there are so many photos, I've split it into a section on Tahiti and a section on Bora Bora. This is Tahiti. http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400024 In October 2007, our friend John joined us for a hike from Saitama prefecture, through the Chichibu region national park, about twenty kilometres into Tokyo prefecture, staying overnight near the peak of Kumodoriyama. It was brutal, and absolutely amazing. http://nocentre.com/index.php?news=400021