The weather is being particuarly random in Edinburgh this week. Caught a little but of this out-of-the-blue (literally) hail storm:

Also part of the city open weekend was a chance to look around an award-winning Japanese-style house in Portobello. Hidden away in the narrow backstreets, wedged between more traditional houses, this new build took 9 months construct.

The British architect and his Japanese wife have created a beautiful space. By sacrificing an upstairs room, they have managed to flood the small space with light. There’s small 4-tatami space for guests, and two upstairs bedrooms, while the downstairs area is a split open-plan kitchen / eating / lounge area.

The eating area has a table over a pit, for legs to be dangled, right along side a wonderful burner.

The minimalistic concrete design may look like it’d be chilly in the winter, but underfloor heating throughout actually gives the place a sparse-but-cozy feel.

The design is quite inspiring! Thanks to Kieran and Makiko for being gracious guides to their wonderful home! You can find their architectural firm here: KonishiGaffney

2010 is here, the year of flying cars, spaceships, alien worlds… or was that 2000? Anyway we saw the night in from the top of Calton Hill, Edinburgh, with a fantastic view of the castle and Princes Street. Really great atmosphere, and a brilliant way to see the new year in!

Last night we trekked up to the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, to check out the Fire and Light installation. Sadly the weather was awful, with high winds meaning most of the planned show was canceled. But we were treated to some cool street installations, and a rather good atmosphere. This event is repeated on January 1st I believe. We shot some video, which you can find attached.

Trying to clear out some of the mountain of partly-used video tapes and came across some footage from St. Andrews mid-2009. So I slapped together a quick edit. Sadly it wasn’t a particularly nice day weather-wise, and not being a huge golf fan we weren’t that impressed. The harbor is very pretty, but I think Sirin and I both prefer Crail or North Berwick (down the coast).

Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting up with some of the local Japanese community for a “Bonenkai”, a sort of ‘forget the year party’ at Bonsai restaurant across town. We met some interesting folks, drank plenty of sake and had a rather good time! A Japanese singing group also entertained us with 3 rather lovely songs (sadly short!). I think Atsuko has posted the audio we recorded over at her blog.

I won’t bore anyone with pictures from the meal, but Bonsai’s toilets were worth a few photos (!):