Tannen calls hair, clothes and weight The Big Three because they are the killer subjects for the maternal harpoon: "All women are judged on their appearance.
But just across the pier are four large ships, with mysterious gantries and winches above their decks: whalers, their harpoon guns in storage as the government ponders allowing a commercial hunt.
Yesterday the probe began its race towards the comet, which it should reach in May if events go according to plan.After Rosetta flies closer, November will see the launch of Philae, a small craft which will "harpoon" 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko so that it can pull itself down and drill into the comet's interior.
Taiji has been organising whale hunts ever since locals made breakthroughs 400 years ago in harpoon technology and in the use of nets to slow down whales migrating along this rocky coast.
Exploring the solar system is taking a violent turn.The European Space Agency ESAA) plans to chase a comet and then skewer it with a harpoon.
If they see a spout of mist from the blowhole of a grey whale, the tribal members will paddle stealthily up to the whale and throw a sharp harpoon into the mammal's flanks.
More importantly, perhaps, a motion to hold secret ballots in future (thought to favour the would-be whalers) failed.Nonetheless, conservationists worry that the harpoon lobby is gaining ground.
After reaching the comet in May, Rosetta will fly closer and then, in November, launch a small craft named Philae which will harpoon the comet, pull itself down and drill into its interior.
Instead he led expeditions to the Newfoundland pack-ice, where he daubed baby seals with paint to make their pelts worthless, and to the whaling grounds of the Pacific, where, as he bobbed in a dinghy in front of the Russian fleet, his hair was neatly parted by a Soviet harpoon.
According to Norway's government, these vets report that 90% of the whales killed by its fishermen die instantly, as a grenade attached to the harpoon blows the brain apart.
He couldn't describe the weaving of a mat or the arrangement of a harpoon rope without finding the symbol in them.
