Dimitri's blog

Running resolutions

2012-01-09T23:07:00.000+09:00

I have not had time to post since mid-November, so let me first wish you a very happy new year before it is too late. I hope 2012 will be a great one for you and your loved ones. With the new year comes the time to reflect on the past 52 weeks and make resolutions for the months ahead. In this post, I will focus on the fitness side of things. Back in January last year, my objective was to

On gender roles

2011-11-16T21:28:00.000+09:00

(This post was inspired by a video Jenn recently posted on YouTube. You may want to watch it before reading it.) There are moments in life when a big change occurs, and it takes time to adjust to it. Imagine getting a promotion, and accepting new responsibilities. It would be quite convenient to be fully efficient from the moment you assume this new position, but we all know it is not so easy

Le livre est prêt !

2011-11-11T13:05:00.001+09:00

Project Biwa a été mise en place en réponse au tremblement de terre et tsunami du 11 mars, pour récolter des fonds pour les efforts de sauvetage et plus tard de reconstruction. Aujourd'hui, huit mois après, nous vous annonçons la dernière étape de ce projet : le livre est disponible dès maintenant. Avant de vous donner le lien, voici quelques informations. Le livre est disponible chez Blurb, en

Project Biwa: the book!

2011-11-11T12:46:00.001+09:00

As you know, Project Biwa was started as a response to the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami, to raise funds in support of the relief and reconstruction efforts. As today, November 11th, marks the 8-month anniversary of these events, it is a fitting date to announce the latest chapter in this project: the book is out now! Before giving you the link, let me explain how this will work. The book is

Osaka marathon

2011-11-01T19:52:00.001+09:00

Most of my free time is spent working on the book for Project Biwa these days, but I still managed to enjoy the first Osaka Marathon last week-end. The atmosphere was really nice and I hope that, with sufficient planning and training, I will be able to be one of the runners in the future. In the meantime, here is one of the photos I took on the day. Additional photos will probably make

A fine day on lake Biwa

2011-09-30T20:52:00.002+09:00

This week ended up being a lot busier than I expected, so here is a photo from the archive. It was taken this summer while we were cycling around lake Biwa for our fundraising project. If you are not familiar with this project, you can have a look at the Project Biwa label on the right. As always, you can have a look at sky photos from all over the world on the Skywatch Friday website.

RWC update

2011-09-21T17:06:00.000+09:00

As I mentioned in my previous rugby post, teams are currently working their way through the pool stage, and each of them have to face four opponents. All teams have now played their first two games, while Japan and Tonga are playing their third tonight, so we are just past the half-way point of this pool stage. As a reminder, the pools are organised as follows: - Pool A: Canada, France, Japan,

A quick look at Ena-kyo

2011-09-16T20:14:00.000+09:00

I am away from the country at the moment, but here is a picture I shot last week while I was on a trip in Gifu prefecture with my colleagues. It was my first time in this valley, and the weather made it a very enjoyable time. To know more about Ena-kyo, you can have a look at this website. As always, you can have a look at sky photos from all over the world on the Skywatch Friday website.

Desert sky

2011-09-09T21:30:00.000+09:00

Another very busy week, so here is shot from the archives for this week's Skywatch Friday. All the way from 2006, here are some pyramids in Giza, Egypt. The picture is not perfect, but I think it conveys very well the heat of that day! As always, once you are done with this post, you can have a look at sky photos from all over the world on the Skywatch Friday website. Have a good week-end

Rugby!

2011-09-08T22:42:00.004+09:00

For weeks now, I have been counting down the days to the Rugby World Cup, and it is finally starting tomorrow. If you are not very familiar with the sport, I suggest you immediately go to Hikosaemon's blog and read his "Quick Guide To Enjoying The Rugby World Cup". Teams are organised in four pools of five: - Pool A: Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Tonga. - Pool B: Argentina, England,

A typhoon is coming

2011-09-02T23:24:00.001+09:00

As you may have seen in the news (or experienced yourself if you live in Western Japan), a typhoon is on its way, and currently affecting the region. We are supposed to feel the most of its power overnight and tomorrow but as you can see from this photo, today's weather was already quite stormy. The wind is expected to pick up, but it already had quite an impact. It will also be

Another view of lake Biwa

2011-08-26T16:37:00.000+09:00

This week has also been extremely busy so I am going to cover two topics with this single post. Of course today is Friday, so we are going to look at the sky, but this week's sky is not just any photo. It is lake Biwa, seen from the North, and the photo was taken during our 300km bicycle ride for Project Biwa. As you can see on this photo, there were times during the ride when the weather

A fireworks teaser

2011-08-19T23:03:00.000+09:00

This week has been very busy at work, and I had very little time to think about photography. As a result, this edition of Skywatch Friday is a follow-up on last week's post. I think the picture below is largely self-explanatory, especially after reading the previous post, but I hope you will enjoy it. More photos will come as soon as possible. As always, you can have a look at sky photos

Fireworks anticipation

2011-08-12T16:55:00.002+09:00

Friday is here again, so it is time to look up and watch the sky. This week, we are sitting on the banks of the Yodogawa river, just North of Umeda. Every August, this is the background for one of Osaka's largest fireworks events, the Naniwa Yodogawa Fireworks Display (なにわ淀川花火大会). It is a very popular event and, unless you are willing to pay to get into the stands or the cruise boat, you really

Koshien is back!

2011-08-08T17:20:00.030+09:00

Saturday marked the start of one of Japan's biggest sport events of the year: the National High School Baseball Championship, also known as Summer Koshien (because it takes place in August at the home of my local Hanshin Tigers). I was at the opening ceremony last year (see the corresponding post here), but it was so enjoyable that I just had to go again this year. If possible, I would like to

Skies

2011-08-05T15:53:00.001+09:00

If you have been following our ride around lake Biwa live on Twitter or Facebook, you know that the weather was not always ideal.We had a few showers, and there were some fairly large clouds such as the one below. Overall, it was still mostly OK, and after a first look at the pictures, I am fairly happy with what we brought back. More on this over coming weeks.With this post, I would like to

Tenjin matsuri fireworks

2011-08-03T16:09:00.014+09:00

Our 300km ride for Project Biwa successfully took place last week-end. Many thanks to everyone who posted messages of support. It really helped during the most difficult moments.I will come back to this later on, but in the meantime, I just wanted to share with you some fireworks, as announced during an earlier post about the recent Tenjin matsuri.There is not much to explain (apart from saying

Project Biwa, the official route

2011-07-29T16:37:00.017+09:00

If you are new to this blog, for instance coming here thanks to Hiroki's efforts or maybe this GEMB blog post, welcome!Please make sure to check the Project Biwa tag to know everything about the project.Our big ride around lake Biwa will start tomorrow morning (July 30th), probably just after 6am Japan time.We will post regular updates over the three days, on our Facebook page and on Twitter, so

Green light for Project Biwa

2011-07-27T22:05:00.004+09:00

In case you have not already seen this on our Facebook page or on Twitter, I just wanted to post this brief message to let you know that our big ride around lake Biwa will take place this week-end.More details in the coming days, so make sure to stay tuned!

Tenjin matsuri crowd

2011-07-26T17:37:00.003+09:00

This is completely unplanned, but here is temporary break from Hokkaido-themed posts, and it is not even related to Project Biwa!The Tenjin matsuri (天神祭) concluded yesterday, here in Osaka, and I joined friends for the final fireworks. Such fireworks, known here as hanabi (花火), are a cornerstone of the Japanese summer, and I was not going to miss my first opportunity of the year.Pictures of the

Glass work in Otaru, Japan

2011-07-24T23:53:00.000+09:00

And we are back!The trip to Hokkaido went very well, in terms of both work (which is not of high interest in the context of this blog) and the small bits of tourism that I was able to fit here and there (which is a lot more relevant here).A selection of photos will appear over a few blog posts, but I am not sure what the schedule will be. The main reason is that there is a very high chance that

Back soon!

2011-07-12T15:49:00.005+09:00

Recent days have been very busy, and I am now about to leave for ten days in Hokkaido (for work, but with a short break in the middle).I am not sure I will be able to post anything while away, but you can be sure the blog will return to normal afterwards.In the meantime, short updates may appear on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Training update

2011-07-04T14:00:00.031+09:00

Our training for the loop around Lake Biwa is progressing at a nice pace. We finished last week with a total exceeding 150 kilometres, including a very enjoyable 89km ride on Saturday.This ride took under five hours (but more than 3000 calories), and was a very useful to test our stamina under the summer heat.As you know if you have been following the project from the start, we already had some

Sōja, Okayama

2011-07-01T17:45:00.000+09:00

If you have been following this blog for long enough, you know that, last August, we went on a train trip to Okayama prefecture using only local trains.The photos from this trip are long overdue, so here is a selection from one of the stops during this trip, Sōja, a small town North of Okayama City.We stopped there to visit Sōja shrine, which apparently gave its name to the town. It was a small

Heavy bikes, cicadas, and a thousand kilometres

2011-06-27T16:17:00.010+09:00

It has been two days since my last update on Project Biwa, and two training rides have taken place since then: 32 km on Sunday, and 22 km before work this morning.With these two outings, I have now cycled over a thousand kilometres for the project (1010 km exactly). I am quite happy about this, (even though I should have reached this milestone earlier if there had not been delays). The next big