10 Photos of Banana Leaves Twisting in a Typhoon

A Little Music by Harry Belafonte Wouldn't Hurt

This brilliant idea came to me when I heard of approaching typhoons.

Shoot some before and after photos of banana leaves.

Not everybody cares about fruit leaves, though.

So, I dug up this video by Harry Belafonte.

And, just in case you don't like him, I got a special bonus.

How about the Muppets ?

 

The Winds Started Kicking-up Yesterday.

 

The first photo was taken, shortly after 4PM.

A little typhoon is twisting around Okinawa, right now.

An Even More Brilliant Idea Came Along

 

Why not shoot the banana leaves during the storm ?

Here's the same scene at about 8:30 this morning.

The wind is starting to do what it did to my umbrella on the way over here.

Umbrellas aren't as flexible as banana leafs, though.

Looking for a name for your new rock band ?

Twisted Umbrellas would work.  They're no good for anything else.

 That banana leaf is taking a beating.

The wind, during a typhoon, blows left, right, up, down and, every other which way.

Before a twister hits a new banana leaf, you could use if as an umbrella.

But, once the leaf is shredded, you'd' look like some kinda nut, wearing one of these.

Start a rock band !



Every now and then, the wind kicked into high gear and really shook things up.





So, I said to myself, "We're not getting paid for this.

Let's get the heck outta here and go find some dry clothes."

That's a Before and, During the typhoon photo shoot of the banana leaves.

The After shots will have to come, later.

Is it OK to dry your underwear in a microwave oven ?

UPDATE: Look what Google+ did for me !

 

 

Click for weather forecast



Do It Yourself (DIY) Family Mart Pizza (Photos)

Pizza in a Matter of Seconds

Today was my first experiment with this kind of pizza.

There's a convenience store named Family Mart down the street from my office.

They have these places all over Japan.  I should do a photo essay on them someday.

People traveling need to know about all the things you can see and do in those stores.

But, right now, we're just going to look at my DIY project with the pizza.

 The gals in the store would have heated the pizza for me, but I wanted to try cooking myself.

Being in sort of a hurry (hungry) I just dragged a chair over to the door.

Then, set a tripod and camera up so I could shoot in natural light.

The directions required heating for 5 seconds, if you had a 1000W microwave.

Ten seconds, for a 500W microwave.

  My microwave is 700W.  Groan,

So, I did my best estimate and set the thing to about seven seconds.

It came out sort of warm and soggy.

But, I was hungry so, I ate it.

If you want to be a real Do-It-Yourselfer, you have to expect little things to go wrong.

That's why I made sure I bought an extra slice of pizza.

For pizza #2, I decided to crank the heat and time way-up.

Call it "Living outside the box" if you like.

How about 45 seconds on Hi heat, you little sucker !?

The second slice was so hot, I couldn't get it out of the oven without burning my hands.

Flip-flops came to the rescue. I don't know where I'd be without them.

You've probably never seen anyone using flip-flops for a serving tray.  Me neither 'til today.

By the time I got done taking photos everything was done sizzling and popping.

The pizza cooled-down and it was delicious.

The only thing I have to figure out now is another Do-it-yourself thingy.

Maybe someone reading this knows the answer.

How do you remove pizza burns from one of these chairs ? 



Visit my homepage for today's Feature Photo

The Burning Bento Mystery Solved (Images)

A bento (boxed lunch in Japan) is one of the cheapest meals you can buy.

 

Like most folks, these days, I try to be economical.

 Look at that meal.

For only 300 yen I got all sorts of nourishment. It's healthy stuff, too.

There was chicken, pork, fish, rice, noodles and veges.

One of the servings, I call, sweet potato meat loaf. I don't know what it really is.

But, it looks like meat loaf and tastes like sweet potatoes.

The mystery part of this meal happened while I was outside the office on a smoke break.

Guys should stick to Barbecuing

 

The bento got popped into the microwave after I checked over, thoroughly.

Any fool knows, you should remove the rubber bands from the box.

And, thanks to Amy Chavez, from Japan Times, I always check for plastic grass.

The stuff would probably melt in the oven.

So, if I find any, I throw it away and crack-up laughing, thinking about Amy's story.

Two minutes in the microwave is all it takes to get this meal steaming hot.

 So, I went out the front door for some Okinawa sunshine and a cigarette.

Too bad there's not a place around here I could set up my barbecue grill.

That's where guys outshine women, as far as cooking goes.

Microwave cooking and washing machines, that's where the gals do best.

The Scent of Burning Plastic

 

There was some kind of mayonnaise on the chicken.  It didn't take long to figure that out.

Well, if I get cancer, I don't want it coming from burning plastic.

So, the stuff with melted bento box lid on it, I didn't eat.

There weren't any feral cats around when I got done so, I buried the rest in my planter.

All that's growing there, right now, is my shamrocks.

If this little experiment works, I could become a millionaire.

Maybe, we'll have laminated shamrocks by St. Patrick's Day !

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