21.8.2008 by Traveler.

Something I wanted to put up here for quite a while now:

I am an admierer of Japan. I love the people, the culture, the cuisine. Fortunately for me, right across the street (10 m or so from my door) is the Kushiage Enn. In my humble opinion the best restaurant in the whole of Munich. The meals and the tea, both macha and ocha, are excellent and a culinary delight second to none.

Here is an image of a Kushi menue:

O-cha, rice, miso soup and seven Kushi. I especially enjoy the prawn (ebi), which is the Kushi in the middle.

My wife and me and the Matsubara family are close friends and we also stumbled into a TV documentary made about the restaurant and the Matsubara family by TV Asahi of Japan.

So yes, I am obviously doing some advertising here, by Jove why should I not? The Airkraken and Cthulhu shall devour everyone who complains. The Matsubara family are our friends, theirs is the best restaurant in Munich, of course I praise them in my blog. They also help me learn Japanese in preparation of our greatest expedition too date: The Exploration of Japan, scheduled for March ‘09.

And before I forget, here’s another image:

Traditional sugar-cookies, served along with macha:

This concludes today’s entry.

Next entry will be: The Steampunk encounters the Cosplayers…

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5.8.2008 by Traveler.

So vast a terrain that is none. So many places that do not “really exist”, whatever that means. The ætherweb, or internet as non-Steampunks would call it, is a magnificent place and there is so much to see.

Luckily, modern technology has enabled us to explore the reaches of this virtual cosm with ease. We are not even confined to our homes anymore, if we want to sojourn within the ætherial reaches of the internet. All it takes is a device for mobile Internet access, like my trusted notebook (I only wish it would look like the one pictured on the left) and a UMTS Flatrate and the steampunk explorer can hook up with his fellow steampunks wherever he likes. Exploring the web is likewise so easy and cheap. By Jove! The blessings of modern civilisation, undreamed of in the age of steam but none the less very welcome in deed!

It is conditions like the ones we find today, where people can link via the internet, the omnipresent æthernet, that they are able to get organized along lines of interest, unhindered by geological or political borders, that enable a subculture such as ours can flourish. What a great blessing of technology in deed!

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3.8.2008 by Traveler.

This could actually develop into a rant or an inflamatory speech.

So, what does it mean to be a steampunk?

For me it’s more of a question what does it mean to be a German steampunk. Most steampunks I know are from North America or the British Isles and thus draw their inpiration from the reign of Queen Victoria and the time of the Civil War onwards.

For Germans it’s a little bit more tricky, if only because some of us still think we were the bad guys of the 20th century. Take a look at what happened elswhere (Boer War, Trail of Tears, The Great Leap foreward, you get the picture). Everyone has some skelletons in the closet and it’s god damn 120 - 63 years ago. I was not around, my father wasn’t around why should I feel guilt? Of course I still could have chosen to base my steampunk persona, my look etc. on some British gentleman, I did not.

I am firmly rooted in early Imperial Germany, the Emperor of my choice is Friedrich III and I am not going to call him by his anglicized name in this blog. My skies are filled with Zeppelins, not airships, and Germans certainly are not Huns.

The particular time period offers so much from a German perspective: Graf Zeppelin invented the, well, Zeppelin, Germany industrialized quite heavily, there were so many inventions by Germans at the time and so many brilliant scientists. Why not add some weird, steampunk science to the picture?

I have chosen to modify the look and feel of Imperial Germany for my personal Steampunk Æsthetics. Why should I use British or American? Steampunk is partly based on the workes of Jules Verne and the protagonist of Journey to the Center of the Earth is German, so the grand old master obviously had no resentiments, why should I?

After all, my Germany, highly romanticized and very weird, very steampunk, will never go to war over some squabble in the Balkans, and why bother with colonies when there’s the æther waiting to be explored…

So I’m an officer of the Kaiserliches Zeppelinkorps. I love my country and I love adventure. With an advanced Zeppelin design, the world and the Æther is ripe for exploration!

Lang lebe der Kaiser!

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