Meiji era stereopticon photos

Ganked from sasha_khan who locks his journal, or I'd have sent you there instead.  Frankly, I think the seizure-inducing animation was unnecessary and the photos could stand on their own merit without it.

Oh, and go look at the standing lantern in "Geisha in a tearoom." Hexagonal basket weave, like my chochin caning!

http://pinktentacle.com/2009/10/animated-stereoviews-of-old-japan/

And now I shall rinse the purple goo from my hair, get dressed and go into San Francisco to Soko Hardware since one of my bamboo strainers decided to die at Coronet.....

Tanka challenge

Three kites, a basket,
A charming tanuki and
Onigiri molds.
A thirty dollar spree nets
Much at the 100 yen store.

In fact, the poem is too short to list my haul from Daiso Japan:

Three kites (two will be Christmas prezzies for The Nephews, one is for me).
Two plastic "lacquer" trays to add to the House of Cheerful Monkey serveware.
A basket with a lid for the HOCM sake cups to live in.
A square strainer basket which will fit into the camp kitchen box even better than the round one did and possibly last longer as a result.
One ceramic tanuki who was too cute to resist.
A whetstone, because I don't like the knife sharpening gadget I bought at some hellhole like Bed, Bath and Beyond.
A pair of round onigiri molds.
Four cotton tenugui (towels) in assorted patterns.
A Hyakunin Isshu karuta game, which I probably won't ever be able to figure out well enough to play because I can't read Japanese, but was too cool to turn down at only $6.99.

I went to the one in Daly City, then cut back through San Francisco, for a take out bento from Sakai's market, which I ate in the Peace Plaza. Turns out there is now a new Daiso in Japantown, but it's much smaller than the one I went to and the selection isn't as good. Nobody had bento boxes like the one I have (Gwenhwyfaer wanted me to pick one up for her if I saw one like it). Not Daiso, not Ichiban Kan, not Soko Hardware. I did find a couple small Christmas gifts at Asakichi but was sad to find they aren't giving away calendars this year, so the 2008 one will just have to continue to hang in my kitchen....

A couple of moments of inspiration in Japantown