Guest contributor Roberto

Today I am extremely happy to publish a guest contribution from Roberto De Vido, well known publicist and cynical polit commentator at http://politicomix.blogspot.com/ .

Click to enlarge!

From 20070915

A spot of agriculture

After our achievements on Saturday, we decided to dedicate Sunday to field work. As Yuko and I are known to sport the "black thumbs of death" in terms of gardening, we were glad to have farmer son Alastair to give some hints.

Please be careful when cutting grass when you visit, as we have embedded edible plants in various locations on the field and other places around the house.

Basil and Rosemary



Blueberries



Raspberries



Another Rosemary



Another Basil



What do you think?



Some sort of flower

Surprise Visitor

As we were all loitering about in the house and garden, we were suddenly greeted by Kobayashi-san, the 79 Year old builder who thatched our roof last Year.

He walked into the house and was awed by the great changes that have taken place in the meantime. During his young years, Kobayashi-san actually stayed many times in this house as apprentice thatcher to the previous owner's father. Tears were about to fall when he commented that the house was rescued, something he thought not possible at the time.



Later we talked business - envisaged future projects and improvements. However, when it came down to details, I let junior handle it. Perhaps he will be a lawyer when he grows up, or is he giving architectural instructions?

Inaka Cinerama

Alastair, being as useful an architect as can be, brought his projector with him. We improvised a screen from bed linen, and were ready to watch the latest movies, when we discovered that I brought the wrong display adaptor for his PowerMac!!!

All was saved though, when we connected the projector to the multi-system DVD Player (can Play either PAL or NTSC all regions). The movie itself was quickly copied to a USB memory stick, which in turn was inserted into the USB port of the Player.

Oh how joyful my daughter was to see "Meister Eder and his Pumuckl" come to life on the 2m wide screen! Unfortunately the days exertions and a generous consumption of the Inaka Home house wine (red) led to me nodding of fairly quickly ...

Late Summer's Weekend

Our Friends Kayoko and Alastair of Bakoko the up-and-coming design and architecture practice, recently joined my family and me at Arisaka House.

Late summer created pleasant warm but not too humid temperatures, ideal for a casual Bar-B-Q.





Besides the pleasure of grilling and eating, some work needed to be done. You can see me - in dress rehearsal for the Oktoberfest - disposing dried cut grass, vines and other garden organics, while Alastair tries to improvise a new Moskito net for the windows.