Did you get your fill of hanami/cherry blossom photos for this year? Think you’ve got some pretty decent shots, do you? Do You? DO YOU? Well, in that case you’re in luck.
The good people over at Japan-related blog Wide Island View are running their annual (I think. Could be seasonal. Who knows?) photo contest. Three lucky scrotes will get to pick from a selection of items from White Rabbit Press – Japan’s finest purveyor of kanjified goods for the linguistically challenged.
The contest ends on 15th May, so get yer skates on and start fooling about with those contrast/colour/minger sliders in Photoshop!
This coming Sunday is shunbun no hi, or Vernal Equinox Day. Traditionally, on this day Japanese people would visit their ancestral graves and hold family reunions. These days, however, they are more likely to visit Starbucks and hold rat-like Chihuahuas.
Shunbun no hi also marks the beginning of spring. It won’t be long before coats are consigned to the wardrobe and t-shirts once again become acceptable outdoor attire. Fantastic.
For all you avid cherry-blossom watchers out there, sakura trees in Tokyo are expected to flower from the 24th March, and should be in full bloom on around the 1st April. Probably the best place for hanami (lit. “flower watching”) in Tokyo is Shinjuku Gyoen, which is pictured above in its late summer guise. It’s a tranquil green oasis in an otherwise concrete-filled desert. Yoyogi and Ueno parks are also good bets, but whatever you do, don’t bother with Inokashira Park in Kichijoji – it’s absolutely rubbish, you’d hate it.
Every few months Uniqlo introduces a new range of clothes in conjunction with famous design types. One of this season’s collaborations is with Gilded Age, whose clothing is “inspired by the craftsmanship of the Gilded Age and assembled from artisanal fabrics.”
Blimey. Well, a bit of Googling reveals that the Gilded Age (1878-1889) was shaped by America’s greatest industrialists – men like John D. Rockerfeller, Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan. These chaps created the modern industrial economy and helped America’s manufacturing capacity dwarf the likes of Britain, Germany and France.
What does this mean for the clothes, then? The Uniqlo collection utilises natural, earthy colours and light, comfortable fabrics, with jackets boasting a deconstructed smart-yet-casual cut that would normally cost you a lot more than ¥5,900. The only problem is finding a store that hasn’t already sold out!
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Meiji Jingu‘s reconstruction the monks with the funk decided to go mental with an enormous lantern display near Harajuku station:
Everyone was desperately trying to take some decent photos:
The flower arranging displays on offer inside the shrine itself were rather lame by comparison:
I went to Shibuya and Harajuku yesterday for some shopping and a bite to eat. Google Japan were doing one of their “Things you can do with Google” promotions (“Googleで、できること”), which I’d heard about at Danny’s Tuesday night dinner (more stuff about this from Ken and W+K). The sign says “Fly in the sky in Shibuya”:
There were a set number of tickets available throughout the day for people who wanted to take part. There was no shortage of balloons:
Here some staff members were preparing to attach the first flyer of the afternoon to the balloons:
By this time lots of people had gathered round to see what was going on. The first flyer – a girl in her early twenties – was helmeted and attached to the balloons by several sturdy-looking ropes. Finally, after quite literally minutes of anticipation, the girl was released:
Well… that wasn’t quite what the crowd were expecting, although the girl did seem to enjoy herself. So did this chap:
It’s a short walk from Shibuya to Omotesando: one of Tokyo’s poshest streets:
This is the interior of Omtesando Hills, which was opened in 2005 and designed by Tadao Ando. The shops are eye-bleedingly expensive:
Omotesando Crossing is where Meiji-dori and Omotesando meet. It’s always busy around here:
Roadworks along Meiji-dori. I like the illuminated traffic cones. They would serve as a fantastic addition to any university student’s bedroom:
This is the exterior of Uniqlo’s special UT store, which is a short walk towards Shibuya from Omotesando Crossing:
As you can see, Uniqlo now sell Japanese women in conveniently-sized plastic containers, and at very reasonable prices:
Oh, so they’re just t-shirts then. How disappointing:
Posted 20 Aug 2008 — by Andy in Tokyo Category Events, News, TV
While “Team GB” (what’s wrong with “Great Britain”?) enjoys its best Olympics for 100 years we ex-pats in Japan have so far been unable to watch most of the action. As Chris Hoy won his third gold medal three TV channels were broadcasting the men’s parallel bars. One channel is enough, surely?
Yes yes, I understand that Japan is good at judo and gymnastics and therefore it’s natural that TV companies would focus on them, but it’s damn annoying. Plus I can’t watch the highlights on the internet due to regional licensing restrictions.
Ah well, at least I was able to watch the women’s 400m final last night.
One more thing: since when has it been okay to use the word “medal” as a verb?
…is quite impressive, especially on a clear, sunny day. The Mori Art Museum, located on the fiftysomething floor of the Mori Tower, is currently staging an exhibition called “Art is for the Spirit“, with works from the likes of Damien Hirst, Andreas Gorsky and Julian Opie on display (and is, I might add, well worth a visit). While I couldn’t get any shots of the exhibition itself thanks to the extreme number of security staff dotted around, I did manage to take quite a few of the Tokyo skyline for your general perusal:
If there’s one thing the Japanese love, it’s ceremonies, and as Japan’s new financial and school year begins on the 1st of April, entrance ceremonies for new recruits were held in companies all across the country this morning. For me (and the three hundred other people in our office), this meant getting to work an hour earlier than usual, and watching the whole thing live via video-link from our company’s headquarters in Osaka.
Now, I’m sure for all those fresh-out-of-uni types this must have been a heart warming day to remember. But… I really cannot fathom why we had to watch it. I mean, they wouldn’t know whether we were watching it or not… but weird things like this happen all the time and you get used to it after a while. Radio taiso – that’s the morning exercise routines – freaked me out for the first few days of work. I thought that had all gone out of fashion years ago, but no, a fair percentage of our staff still go through the whole routine of bouncing around to bizarre nursery-rhyme music for five minutes. I tried it once, and felt like a complete tool. Needless to say I didn’t try it again.
In other news, the cherry blossom has already… well… blossomed here in Tokyo. We went to the park yesterday to check it out, and it appeared the entire population of west Tokyo had decided to exactly the same thing. It was ridiculous, you literally couldn’t move for groups of shit-faced students singing and old fogies taking photographs with enormous cameras. The weather was fantastic also (above 20 degrees Celsius), which only helped increase the crowds by a further twenty percent. We sacked the whole thing off and went shopping after about fifteen minutes.
My word… I really shouldn’t write on here after working eleven hour days ever again, it’s far too depressing…
2007 already? I’m scared at how quickly time is disappearing before my very eyes. I can still distinctly remember New Year’s Eve 1999 as if it were yesterday: I was working in a horror-show bar in Newcastle city centre (Dobson’s. The name sends a shiver down my spine to this day), and slipped down a flight of stairs while carrying a crate of Smirnoff Mule at around 10.30pm, smashing bottles everywhere and smacking my head off a step. This gave me a fine excuse to leave work early and bomb down to Saltburn in my trusty Vauxhall Nova for the celebrations. I arrived down my local about 10 minutes after midnight with a slight concussion, to discover my mates either dancing on tables or passed out in a corner. Treasured memories indeed, and there are many…
NYE 2006 was a far more sedate affair spent in Aichi-ken with the in-laws. We went out for sushi, watched TV, ate some more food and talked about, well… stuff. I rarely drink these days as my hangovers – which were always bad – are now so utterly terrible that I really can’t stand experiencing the pain and torment more than a few times each year. Many Japanese visit their local temple at midnight to say their prayers in the hope of having a successful new year, but it was really cold, so we did it the following afternoon instead.
Going back a bit further, my Christmas was about as Christmassy as you could expect considering only 1% of the population are Christians, meaning it was a normal working day for me and everyone else here. My new job – so far at least – is going well. After being a teacher for so long it’s really nice to not have to be “switched on” all the time. I can come into the office, sit down at my desk and quietly get on with my work without having to pretend to be interested/jolly for hours on end. Incidentally I’m not entirely sure what I’m supposed to be doing at work most of the time, so I’ve been attempting to try a few things and pretend to look busy, which, in Japanese offices, has been perfected to a fine art form. Nobody has sussed me out yet, so I think my technique must be pretty good.
In light of not being able to go anywhere nice or return home for the holidays, I continued my quest of buying unnecessary things instead. The most recent addition to my collection turned out to be a PlayStation 3, which weighs more than all the planets in our solar system combined and bears an eerie resemblance to the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey”. It now sits under the TV and quietly purrs away in an ever so menacing fashion, emitting so much heat I can now happily live without central heating during the coldest of winter days.
At around 3am this morning I witnessed the biggest thunderstorm I have ever seen in my life. Without any warning whatsoever the heavens opened, lightning struck surrounding buildings disturbingly frequently, and the thunder was loud enough to violently shake the windows.
And I didn’t get any of this on camera. Bugger.
Kichijoji Matsuri was held this weekend, meaning lots of people walking around in blue pyjamas getting drunk, carrying mikoshi around the local area (portable shrines used to carry gods. God taxis – cool!). Apparently the gods quite enjoy being shaken around a bit to wake them from their slumber, although I’m not sure if anyone has ever actually asked the gods for their opinion on this matter.
There were many different mikoshi, carried by different teams. Some of the more active (i.e. one sake too many) groups can get pretty vocal, like this set of individuals here:
There’s also loads of food stalls to have a wander around (and yes, the ubiqitous kebab trucks are here as well. There’s just no escaping them). I’m especially fond of the fried baby crabs. They’re soft enough to be eaten whole, legs and all, and they’re fantastic. I’m quite aware they look like something out of The Thing, but really, they’re great!
In other news, we attended a residents group meeting for our apartment, which was about as interesting as it sounds. Most of the people living in our place are retired so we were the youngest people there by a good thirty years. Luckily they’re all really nice, and had some particulary amusing ideas on what should be done in case of The Big Earthquake (ten years overdue, apparently). Nakada-san – the group leader and ex-university professor – suggested climbing the stairs to the roof and waiting for a fire service helicopter to pick them up. His wife kindly pointed out that the fire service might have a few more important matters to attend to in a city of 30 million people.
One exeptionally good point to come out of the meeting was that we were given the key to the rooftop. Apparently we should have been given it when we moved in last year but Nakada-san forgot. The views from the rooftop are supoib, you can see Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, even Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Tower (yes, I know you can’t see very much in the photo, but trust me, you can see it). We’re also allowed to have parties and stuff up there any time we like which is great during summer. Apparently the old folks are having a full moon party next month, which I absolutely must attend at all costs.
I’ve foolisly decided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December, although recently I’ve put in absolutely no effort in when it comes to studying. Methinks I should stop writing this and get some revision done!
