47. More screens, sounds, fruit
Last episode I speculated about my experience of video tours, and I totally forgot to write anything about a really fantastic video tour that our friend Sherri organised for us to do with her and some other internationally distributed friends. At the proscribed time, we all logged into a Zoom tour to spend an hour looking at flowers growing in the grounds of Kyoto Imperial Palace with XJ Lee and his rescue forest dog Mori. I hadn’t expected the tour to be as engaging as it turned out to be - but Lee was a fantastic tour guide and had all the right macro lenses to attach to his phone camera to zoom inclose on the flowers as he led us around. We didn’t actually travel very far on the tour - a small part of the palace gardens and then out to the oldest well at a nearby shrine. There were only a small number of actual ‘stops’ - but it was Lee’s commentary and his interactions with Mori that made it so much fun to be part of. The teenagers even stayed engaged for the whole hour! Being on Zoom also made for more equitable attention throughout the tour to us as viewers - no physical crowding to see up close. Maybe museum virtual tours need guide animals!
The tour also reminded me of the existence of , a very straightforward App that introduces you to the Japanese ‘micro-seasons’ from the historical planting calendar. Today we at the tail end of a five day ‘season’, June 10-15, that translates roughly to ‘grain in ear’, the time when grain and rice seedlings should be planted, and barley harvested. With each of the 72 annual seasons, comes a related haiku, seasonal foods (currently loquat and striped jack). Its a very simple, single purpose (free) App. In a similar vein, and via Joe Muggs’s emails is , a site/app that delivers an Indian classical raga appropriate to the time of day and season. Its excellent - especially if you need a way in to Hindustani classical music. I’m very tempted to subscribe.