A solitary figure paces back and forth across the vast forum of the Tokyo Government Metropolitan Offices. He seemed to be engrossed in a phone call - perhaps doing deals, surrounded by sleeping giants of business and bureaucracy.


One of the government towers. I have to say I love this building. It's a modern classic - can I say that? Mabes or June, please correct me - I don't know the architectural lingo. You can't tell from this angle, but there are 2 towers. Seeing buildings like this make me want to see New York. Ahhh... the Chrysler Building!


Our telephone-drifter continues wearing a groove into the pavers.

This space is a design-marvel. The reflected light from each building, whether or not by design, makes for really cool highlights and shadows.

Well, in my usual fashion I had completely stuffed up and had tried to get into the towers on their day off - a public holiday. (Be warned, traveller: often things here are closed on Mondays, too). But thankfully, the neighbours were more obliging. This is the atrium of the NS building, from where I took the following shots...

It's weird seeing skyscrapers in Japan. There just aren't many around, due to the high cost, I would guess - owing to the incredible engineering and devices needed to counter earthquakes. Kanto, or the eastern region of Japan which includes Tokyo, gets frequent tremors and the odd quake.

Here's a more telling view of the towers. They look so cool. So sentinel-like. Or perhaps mainframish. Kind of scary in that regard - like a giant computer running the affairs of people. Anyway, whatever the statement is, it makes it powerfully! haha... I'm just not smart enough to get it.

As it turned out this would be my next port of call, the Sumitomo Building.

This is a different view of the Metropolitan Offices space. I thought it was the perfect subject for me to try to rip off the technique of Japanese photographer, Naoki Honjo (http://www.taigallery.com/naokihonjo.html). He brilliantly makes real scenery look like a diorama of miniature dimensions, by taking them from high places and then playing with the depth of field (I guess you could say range of focus). Anyway, this shot and the one below are my poor Photoshop imitations.

Did I mention I love the design of this place?

On a completely different scale, this unadulterated photo looks like a giant has left his soft drink can in the street.

Anyway, next up: views of Tokyo and Mt. Fuji from the Sumitomo Building.

Hmmm... let's see...

- 9State story Encouraging * twin-bedded room Pocket coil bed adoption

Washlet with bus rest room

Okay, bathroom sounds spacious all right. I get to keep the bed?

Victory for Business... ...Potato Haya

Great! Success and a complimentary spud. What the !?

These were just 2 of the room types offered at a hotel website I browsed tonight in my search for accommodation in Fukuoka for my last hurrah next month.

Excuse me while I scratch my head until my brain plops out of the hole.

This could be a scene from a mountain retreat, somewhere in tucked-away Japan, were it not for the tell-tale frame holding up the powered train lines.

Look at the amazing carved calligraphy on this stone ah... thing!

Just how many Buddhas are there anyway?

Yep, we're in Tokyo, in Minami-Senju which I guess you'd call shitamachi Tokyo - the old side of town. This is one of the most densely populated places in the world... in the Tokyo Bay area, including Yokohama and Chiba, there are about 33 million people. Right next to the Buddhas is a graveyard. A train passes noisily overhead.



This was next to the station of the area I stayed in. It does the trick - cheap, basic lodgings in a pretty convenient location. But no, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. If you can handle walking past old homeless men sleeping, talking, eating wandering and occasionally urinating in the street then I guess you're up for it. But yeah, Ginza it ain't! (Note to prospective wife out there: I'd be willing to upgrade... a little. haha.)


A forgotten little scooter soaking up the morning sun.

There barely seems room for even some pedals, let alone an engine.

When in Tokyo , the Spamurai chooses to stay in a hotel where he can touch both sides of the room at once with his hands. But this isn't it! This is the view looking from it! haha.

Looking straight down I could see the little shrine below had a brand spanking roof of copper on it. I've stayed here twice before, so I knew it was new, apart from the obvious shinyness of it.

Sorry, I love shiny metal things.

Especially copper.

Wasn't quite so keen on this fella. A pair of angry looking dogs guard the way. I'd never quite seen ones like this before. They almost seem a bit Egyptian.

Finally, this is perhaps a big call, but I guarantee that the video below is the funniest thing you'll have seen in a loooonnnnggg time. What's it got to do with Japan I hear you ask? Nothing apart from the fact that I've been seeing it a lot in my local haunt, Dayz darts bar. Master or mashta as we call him loves to play 80's videos in a loop that lasts for about an hour (with the likes of the Buggles, Human League and INXS). So if you stay for the long haul you get treated to Journey's Separate Ways several times. I don't tire of it ever - unintentional comic genius! (Look for the bit where the singer's backing his way through the forklift palettes.) Please enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w44tJDnMzk8

Using the latest Spamuraivision technology I bring you Fuji-san as viewed travelling at 285 km/h! In other words I've meddled with this picture, taken from my seat on a Tokyo-bound shinkansen, to bring out the features which you can't see with normal, non-Spamurai eyes. The sky was a bit hazy, but still clear enough to be able to see this most famous of mountains. It was my first time, so I was pretty stoked. I've been past numerous times, but at the wrong times - it's always been invisible in the soupy spring/summer air. I think if it weren't for the snowcap, I would have missed it again.

This is how it really appeared. Hazy, but still... it's there! So if you want to climb Mt Fuji come in spring or autumn. If you want to see it, come in winter!

I was really surprised by the size of this thing. It's not that close to the train line, but it fills a good chunk of the sky. I guess if there were a building 3 km high it would be visible from a long way off, let alone a pile of earth that tall. It really makes you think funny words, like splendid! magnificent! subarashii! I believe the hedge things in the foreground are tea.



This is my friend Masato-san. He and I first met at Chatswood Presbyterian, back in Sydney. He lives near a city called Hiratsuka, visible here behind him. We are looking east along the coast of Honshu, in the direction of Tokyo, which is where I was headed. After shouting me to a really nice lunch, Masato-san took me to this very windy, beautiful vantage point. It's a really nice part of Japan.

Masato lives on the other side of the lookout.

I love bay windows and Masato has a really nice one! He became a Christian shortly after we met but this wasn't long before I left Sydney for Japan. So it was good to catch up and talk about our friends back at Chatswood and how it's been living as Christians in this very different culture.

It was a good time.

But, it had to end. Masato took me to the train station, but not until we'd made a slight detour on the way, to get another glimpse of Fuji-san. In one of those Japan-moments that I thought I'd only ever read about we pulled over to the side of the road and looked across rice paddies towards Mt Fuji to the accompaniment of a bullet train hurtling past.

In the coming issues, we'll keep heading east. I was on my way to Tokyo for a couple of days, to be followed by another stay with my friends Tom, Jen and Ruby in their home of Tsukuba, north of Tokyo. As it turned out, Fujisan's shyness waned further and I could see it from Tokyo! You'll see...

In the meantime, this has been a very good week. As you know, Valentine's Day was on Wednesday. I've been reaping the chocolatey goodness of being a male in Japan. Nothing is expected of me until March 14th, White Day... time to reciprocate. I've received chocolates, cookies and a cupcake from some little girls, a couple of teenagers and my manager! Yesterday was particularly good for other reasons - I managed to do a load of washing, talk to my sister, stitch my backpack and take a box to the post office all before work! I do start at 2 on Thursdays, but I usually would be lucky to get two of those things done.

Anyway, g'night.

This blog entry is brought to you by the letters S, E and the colour gold. The S and the E stand for Sam and Edwin, to whom I dedicate this post as they approach their wedding day next month. Above you can see a typical Japanese wedding envelope. The fancier they are the more cash you can expect to find inside. They usually have a suggested amount printed on the packaging - it would be embarrassing to give less than the "advertised" amount! Gift-giving for all sorts of occasions is an important (and expensive!) part of social interaction for Japanese people. Sorry S and E... you're only getting a photo of an envelope from me for now! haha... I hope that all is shaping up well.

These are decorations for a wedding. I saw these old people making them on TV. It was amazing they way they weave and wind them together. They are understandably expensive.

And now for something completely different, yet similar to the eye...

You may recall similar shots to these on the Spamurai a year ago. In the lead-up to Christmas it was time again for Kobe's annual Luminarie display - to commemorate the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995.

Here we (friends Takashi, Azusa and I) are making our way up the closed-off street. Azusa was a bit camera-shy.

Those black shapes are traffic lights.

It wasn't anything like the year before in temperature (mild, as opposed to freezing), but the display itself seemd to be exactly the same. Having just compared the photos though, I can now see that the designs were quite different, but the overall effect of a tunnel of light is repeated each year.




In the tunnel.

My favourite part - the end where you are surrounded by lights.

We just made it to the end in time to savour it for a few minutes before the lights flicked off - right on time! Everyone let out this "OH!" and then started laughing. It was very funny.

Nearby in the Motomachi district is the Daimaru department store. It's impressive by day and beautiful by night. Anyway, I'm slowly creeping this blog into 2007. Next issue will take you to Tokyo and beyond!

A virtual dog virtually looks on at virtual figures in a very real room. Or are they virtual? In a brilliant exhibition called Geometric Reality artist Kato Toshihiko brings the purely mathematical into the physical realm. He builds figures in AutoCAD or a similar program using polygons - those straight-edged facets that you see in game-characters, ala Playstation and the like. He then prints out the plans of these characters and painstakingly makes them materialise by cutting out each polygon out of artboard and assembling them together like a 3 dimensional puzzle. The dog alone consists of over 800 pieces. This exhibition was held in a very cool independent gallery called Mssohkan (or Muso-kan... there seems to be 2 ways of writing it) which is run by a family near Kobe.



The wall out the front seems to break away accidentally.



But look up and you'll find the rest of the wall on the top of the building! A silver person looks coolly into the distance from behind silver driving sunglasses.





Inside Kato's genius becomes apparent. His static, yet dynamic figures have a strange life of their own, despite their cold, formulaic microchip origins.

The purity of tone on each plane makes them so photographable! They seem to be asking to be taken. I asked the lady on staff - the daughter - if I could take some photos and surprisingly her reply was "Of course!". Later I said I wanted to write a review of some sort on the internet (I admitted the smale scale of my intent) and she was very happy aboout it. Having said that, if I breach any kind of copyright in posting these pictures, I sincerely apologise.

She left me to take pictures at my leisure and went off to make me a cup of tea! This gallery only runs on sales, so the entry was free.

She was very enthusiastic in telling me about the artist and in answering all my questions (she spoke good English - I'm not that good at Japanese!) and seemed truly grateful for my visit which was really humbling considering it's obvious to Blind Freddie that I couldn't ever afford the pieces on offer.

This figure reminds me of the headless girl that dances around outside the cabin in Evil Dead: Dead By Dawn - a movie that is laughable now, but in my youth scared the stuffing out of me!

I'm imagining a whole Playstation Acropolis in Athens.

The relative weightlessness of this medium makes things like this possible. It plays games with the mind in what you're looking at - the type of image that you're used to seeing from behind the glass of a computer screen is tangible, touchable. (But I didn't touch it!)

Check out the way he's done the shoulder joint, the jawline, the ear. Awesome.

In a back room with very chic ship's-style windows (chosen by mother!), I was shown these amazing ceramic sculptures by young artist Hayashi Higeki. http://www.geocities.jp/sheceramic/koten2006ms.html

Hayashi brilliantly draws on the hyper-modern and traditions of Japanese folklore and ceramics-production (he's from ceramics region Minoh, where I previously took photos of a waterfall and monkey) to create these intriguing artworks. These pod contraptions are designed to recall the shape of a rabbit - just as in Western tradition there is a man on the moon, the Japanese see a couple of rabbits, beating rice to make the popular snack, mochi!

Open the pod and you find a baby. If you read the excellent critique in the above link, you'll learn that this baby is the one referred to in the old tale that tells of a baby sent from the moon, to be found by a woodsman when he cut a large stalk of bamboo. I'd seen such imagery before, but had no idea it was a lunar baby!

George Lucas eat your heart out. Remember that these are entirely made from kiln-fired clay.

My host told me that the artist examined over 500 babies' faces in order to come up with an "average" face - an "everyman" baby, if you will. I wish I could have seen the full exhibition of these figures, but I feel priveleged enough to have seen this much... and with a free cuppa to boot! The lady said, please tell your friends! So here I am, doing my best. (I have a feeling that they're kind of well-patronised though, with customers coming from Tokyo and overseas... but like I said, nice of her to welcome a schmuck like me. The baser side of me dreamt of wooing her only to give me the means to do hair-brained art without ever working a regular job again in my life! haha)

So...

If you've got some time to kill in Kobe, make sure you make your way to Mssohkan... or whatever it's called! Definitely worth making the effort.

This is about a 15 minute walk from my place. There's a busy road behind you here, but it makes for a pretty view.



I promise these are the last autumn leaves I will be posting! Amazing colours.

This is even closer. Everytime I open my front door I see Elizabeth Montgomery in cartoon form on a big billboard facing the traffic. Pretty cool really. Would have preferred Barbara Eden, but I'll take any 60's sitcom lady I can get. It's an ad for a ka- conbini... offering convenience in a car maintenance and "total" shop. Total is a popular marketing word here. You see disturbing ads that sell Total Human Produce.

On the way to the station.

This is from out the front of my place. I snapped this on a particularly clear day. The mountains in the distance normally are completely obscured by haze. I've zoomed in a lot here. The stylised M you can see above a rooftop is an electrical store 25 minutes walk away, so those mountains are a long way off and pretty big.

I'm now taking you to Osaka. This is along the way, at a pretty major stop called Kawanishi Ikeda. I'm not sure who this samurai is, but I like the statue. It's strange seeing it stradling a busy train station and multiple shopping centres. I imagine these guys galloping about near streams and bamboo groves - hard to picture Japanese urbia (can I say that?) as it once was.

This is in the south of Osaka on a typical weekend. Shopping is a sport here. A lot of perfectly good stuff must get regularly chucked here to make way for shiny new things, as the dwellings tend to be on the very small side. Sad really. But recycle shops seem to have a bit of support in my area at least. I love them.

Also in the south, this is in the Dotonbori stretch. I've blogged about this place before. This is one of the many places selling Osaka's famous takoyaki, or octopus balls... little bombs of superheated stuff ready to go off in your mouth/throat and cook you from the inside. I've scalded myself numerous times. Average ones are very average and good ones are fantastic! many people make them at home (fun!) and put things other than octopus inside them. You'll see later...

Nearby is famous Glico Man.

I should never go to Las Vegas. I will get sucked in by the flashing lights.

I don't know what this guy's story is. But I like him.

Lastly, more pearls from Joi Ito: http://joi.ito.com/archives/japanese_policy/

The stories "Japanese Racism..." and "Planning to be Homeless" are particularly compelling. Just if you're interested in the state of things in Japan and its dealings with the outside world.

Anyway... pretty random stuff tonight. See ya!

Time for some hairless bipeds... aka ningen... aka people... but best known as my friends. Mister Master Masa-sama (aka beatmaster) and I goof it up at church.


Hide and Toshi. This photo sums up their personlaities well! (Although admittedly Toshi and I can barely communicate, but our attempts seem to amuse him a lot. Me too! He just became a dad.)


Strange guy with camera. (I mean him! Not me!)

Well wouldn't you know? It's Eric.

Now it's Christmas time. Well, in the photo, that is. We're at Crossroad Bible Fellowship celebrating the birth of Jesus. The people in the photo are playing the different roles of the Christmas story and singing as the temporary choir.

Christmas didn't seem quite so Christmassy this time round for some reason. Either way, Jesus was born all those years ago and that's what matters! But I tried my hardest in a borrowed Santa hat to be festive. Dinner together was great. That's my manager from work next to me.

This is my friend Namiko, currently in Australia. It's weird to think that my parents have probably now hung out with her more than I have! Hi if you're reading!

She made a great meal for my friend Mika and I. That's Namiko's mum with Mika, who's a church friend. Namiko and Mika met in a sauna! When the subject of going to Australia came up Mika mentioned she had an Aussie friend at church... and you've guessed the rest!

We now move on to Christmas, Nihongo Salon style! That's the name of my Japanese class. It's organised by Sanda International Association. We sat in a big U-shape and watched some performances by students before playing some silly games and then eating a potluck lunch. That's my teacher in the foreground. She's great.

Rosa and Nat warm up the place with a Spanish number. It's been an awesome experience going to this class - the tuition is one-on-one, but there's plenty of opportunity to chat with other students who hail from all over the world. Nat is a super nice and sharp guy from small-town America. Modest too - I knew he could speak some Spanish, but I found out at the party he used to teach it too! I was a wallflower as usual and didn't perform anything ("perform what?" I thought... maybe I should have cracked out a number or two on my comb.)

Well, these two Blue Mountains kids have more creativity and more pluck. Steph and Taylor read out a poem they'd written. They only just went home, but were here for nearly half a year - Sanda City and City of Blue Mountains are sisters, so they have student exchanges. Taylor quickly learned how the cool kids wear their uniforms! haha. They're both cool kids.

Another Aussie connection! David and Nadia also come from the Mountains. They sang about sushi swimming around in their heads. They were nice enough to have me over on Christmas day, along with some others. It was nice to hang out in someone's home and form an impromptu family.

Well, bingo done, food eaten, time for a group photo. I will miss these people.

Another occasion - lunch after class in the Italian restaurant downstairs. The occasion was that Oscar had turned up for class! haha, that's not true. We were saying goodbye to the young-uns.

This is as recent as 2 weeks ago! I spent almost an hour one afternoon after class with these 2 ladies and we ended up sketching each other. That was really cool. Yes, I always look this terrible at class. With a 10 o'clock start time it's by far the earliest start of the week for me!

Well, here's a bunch of no-good beef-eaters. We are eating kobe-gyu - the world famous Kobe beef! It's not normally done yakiniku, or barbequed, but it tastes great to me. I also tried beef sashimi - raw beef! Very nice. This is a really mixed bag of people - from work and local. A friend of a few of us works at this place, so she got us a good deal. It's supposed to be the best beef in the world and I believe it.

I like this photo a lot. Takako and I were with a big bunch from work seeing off our friend Lexie (you can see her in a previous post). Nice photo for such a dive of a place. We were in Pure which is anything but! It's absolutely packed with sketchy people there for sleaze and the nomihoudai all-you-can-drink ticket. Nomihoudai is the first Japanese that some foreigners learn.

Next to us was a little hutch type thing that looked like Yoda's house on Dagoba. On top of it was a girl dancing around a pole - she wasn't doing the mayflower dance. All class.

We didn't last long there - ended up karaoking until first train.

Anyway on that lovely note, (started in church, ended in a seedy club) I must away to the land of Nod. More great people to come.

Buenos noches!

And you can dance... for inspiration. Come On ...I'm waiting.

I think I am pregnant. I hear that when there's a bun in the oven stange things are craved. Right now I would dearly like to hear Madonna's Get Into the Groove. On that note, something wonderful has happened. I have blogged previously about the muzak they play at the local shopping centre. Come Christmas time there is a respite as they swap CDs in the control room for some Bing or some such other Christmassy dudes. Then, usually the muzak is popped back in and belted out ad nauseum. But, this year there's a whole new world of shopping at Ecoll Lilas (why oh why don't they call it something Japanese people can pronounce!?). I was startled when I first realised I was listening to one of my favourite songs there, New Order's True Faith. Woohoo. It's the small things...

Now, to whinging. Just how cold is it now? Well, it's been snowing on and off today but I came home to a winter wonderland. It was so beautiful - a clear night with an almost full moon casting a bluish light over the white-painted world. I got home, grabbed my camera and went for a walk. I headed for a cool little railway crossing. I had a certain shot in my head of a passing train and set up in anticipation. I got the shot and then tried for another angle - had to wait for the next train. This went on a few times which meant I was standing there for quite a while in 0 to -2 degrees (it's 1 degree in Kobe now and, in the mountains, we're usually 2-3 degrees lower than that). I was bringing back Bird's Eye Fish Fingers instead of hands and they were aching from the cold as I walked home, so I couldn't wait to get inside.

My front door lock was frozen shut, but thankfully only needed a little encouragement. Once inside the blood started flowing to my fingertips, but rather than feel better, the pain intensified. Eventually they felt the way they would a few minutes after dropping a brick on them or shutting them in a door. I almost had tears in my eyes for a while there. After a few minutes the aching subsided and now they still feel a little raw, but otherwise fine. I was wearing gloves. Dang it's cold!

My place has never looked so inviting before.

Beyond the trees you could see the same dusted effect on the far mountains.


I hope you like trains and railway crossings, 'cause you're gonna get 'em...

Catch you next time.

Lots of pictures and few words this time. I'll let Tofuku-ji speak for itself - easily one of the prettiest places I've ever been to.

APOLOGY

Gomen nasai!!!! My sincere apologies to all you kind souls who've left messages on my blog in the last 3 months. I've just dug them out of cyber-somewhere by doing I-don't-know-what. I switched to the new Blogger and suddenly I got 18 presents all at once. So a BIG THANK YOU to you if you've written and the same if you're reading this now and have been reading in the past. It means a lot to me!

I have no idea what happened re: the comments (maybe it's because I renamed them devon), but I'm hoping it's all sorted now.

We now return you to the previously advertised program...