Sci Friday # 95: Visual Inspiration

Images that inspired me

If you’re curious why I number each Sci Friday, it’s because I need to keep track of posts. Or I’ll end up doubling or missing a post.

Anyway, I have a photo or two from the festivals I enjoyed in Japan.

This one I took at the Shimoda salmon festival, where they release the young salmon from the hatchery into the local streams so they can swim out to the ocean to grow fat before returning to spawn.

How could you not love the salmon fish for the epic quest they must complete to pass on their genes?

What?

If you’ve ever been to a festival in Japan, you know you’re going to get good food. Sometimes very unique experiences. Not far from Mt. Fuji, my sister-in-law and I chased down lavendar-flavored and green tea-flavored soft serve ice cream. We even ran into wasabi-flavored ice cream. Wasabi is a green, Japanese horseradish that tastes great on sushi, but mixed in ice cream …?

🤢

Anyway, back on track, I love rice cakes, mochi. In Japan, you can get red bean paste in mochi, along with some interesting other flavors.

So, when I saw this woman rolling out the rice paste, I had to stop and take a picture before I bought some.

Why?

This image shares some fascinating sensations for this viewer. The dry flour, the resistance of the ‘dough.’ The rolling of the pin. The sunlight falling on the woman’s back during a chilly spring day.

Readers questions: What sensations do you enjoy reading? Taste, smell, touch (texture and temperature), visual, sound? Is there a book that really brought you into the scenes this way?

Hope all y’all had a great week. Enjoy the weekend. 👋