Despite
the fact that I've only
been in Japan less than a month and a half, my noble employers decided
I should live in a new place. So before I tell you about my new
locale, here's a few parting shots from Ageo, which some Japanese
aquaintances called "the country."
First off, here's Ageo's mascot:
After seeing this guy for a few weeks, I started calling him Hammertime. Because he looks like he's dancing.
It's therefore probably good I got out of Ageo when I did.
Although their manhole covers are cooler than the ones in America.
Since Ageo is, apparently, the sticks, they have more room for sculptures:
She'd better hope that kid's gun isn't loaded, if you get my drift.
Anyway, I'm now in Warabi, which is no one's idea of the sticks:
It is, however, home to this guy:
This is...uh...
Actually, I have no idea why he's there. That thing above him is the underside of a freeway. I can only assume that the local city planners had a meeting where they decided to put a giant cement gorilla under the freeway. Since, y'know, they don't want to waste space.
"Where do you wanna put the fifty foot screaming ape?"
"Hey, so long as it's out of my basement, you can put it under the freeway for all I care."
Beyond that, Warabi's not really photogenic.
They do have a shameful secret, which I discovered at the local 100 Yen shop.
Those bastards.
Enough of Warabi (although I do like it here. It's 20 minutes closer to downtown Tokyo, the walk to the train station is half what it was in Ageo, and both my roommates are swell guys.) I've been walking around Shibuya and Shinjiku, which are the "arty" parts of the Tokyo area.
This is Shinjuku Crossing, which is (I think) the busiest intersection in the World. The picture might not look particularly impressive, but look closer. Look at the little dark things in the middle of the picture. Those are people.
There look like there are, what, maybe a thousand people there? That group collected at roughly the halfway point of the two minute wait between pedestrian crossings. And that's one side of the street. This intersection is four-way, so there's a teeming mass like that at each point. That picture was taken at 9:15 Tuesday evening. I shudder to think what it's like during the morning commute, or (God Forbid) Saturday night.
Between Shinjiku and Shibuya is a suburb (?) called Harajuku. Remember the Gothic Lolita I got a crappy picture of a few weeks ago? I found where she shops.
This shop is exactly where you'd expect it to be: behind a Buddhist temple.
I think these girls might actually have some supernatural powers. Because despite my best efforts, this is always the kind of thing I get when I try to photograph 'em:
Ah well.
The Shinjuku/Shibuya walk yields some, uh, interesting sights.
No Comment.
Not much to say here, either:
And the winner for the most spectacularly inappropriate name for a Wedding Reception hall goes to...5F!
Japanese punk bands need to work on that "tough guy" thing.
They're everywhere:
This is in a place called Omiya. There are TV ads of these kids singing (badly) about a camera to the tune of "I Was Made For Loving You." Then they tilt their heads back and belch flame. Why this sells cameras, I have no idea (of course, this kind of thing didn't make a whole lot of sense to me back in the States, either.)
I don't know if the insect-like H.R. Geiger looking guy is for the drug store, the "Freak" store, of just something the landlord liked. This is a country where local planners put three story cement apes under freeways. He could be anything.
No, this isn't some translation issue. It really is a bar for people to bring their pets.
(click for full sized photo)
This is the view from the balcony of the break room at Kawaguchi. There's something odd about taking a few moments to get a drink and go look at the gigantic green lion across the street.
That's outside the Saitama-Shintoshin station, where the John Lennon Museum is located. They didn't allow pictures (and there's nothing to really take pictures of outside the museum, since it's located in the middle of a gigantic building.) It's got some great stuff, though: the machine that cut the master for the first ever Beatles single, the "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite" poster that inspired the song, John's first guitar, etc. You can even walk right up to the piano John played in the "Imagine" video. Westerners might be put off at how little attention (relatively speaking) is paid to the Beatles (only about 1/3 of the exhibit is pre-1970,) but John's marriage to Yoko had/has enormous cultural significance in Japan, and she didn't put the museum in London.
In other news, I've lost about 16 pounds since my arrival. I've also lost my focus.
My friend Cait isn't much of a photographer.
Last time I promised better pictures of Ueno Park, which is where the above was taken.
Here is a garden in the grounds of the above temple. Thinking ahead, I took this picture sans Twinkie Man.
(click for full sized photo)
We couldn't take pictures inside the temple ("Do Not Take A Picture!" signs are everywhere.) The temple itself, however, is suitably ancient looking.
(click for a full sized photo)
I am exhausted. And I get to work tomorrow. Joy. Until then, if you want to email me, try here.
First off, here's Ageo's mascot:
After seeing this guy for a few weeks, I started calling him Hammertime. Because he looks like he's dancing.
It's therefore probably good I got out of Ageo when I did.
Although their manhole covers are cooler than the ones in America.
Since Ageo is, apparently, the sticks, they have more room for sculptures:
She'd better hope that kid's gun isn't loaded, if you get my drift.
Anyway, I'm now in Warabi, which is no one's idea of the sticks:
It is, however, home to this guy:
This is...uh...
Actually, I have no idea why he's there. That thing above him is the underside of a freeway. I can only assume that the local city planners had a meeting where they decided to put a giant cement gorilla under the freeway. Since, y'know, they don't want to waste space.
"Where do you wanna put the fifty foot screaming ape?"
"Hey, so long as it's out of my basement, you can put it under the freeway for all I care."
Beyond that, Warabi's not really photogenic.
They do have a shameful secret, which I discovered at the local 100 Yen shop.
Those bastards.
Enough of Warabi (although I do like it here. It's 20 minutes closer to downtown Tokyo, the walk to the train station is half what it was in Ageo, and both my roommates are swell guys.) I've been walking around Shibuya and Shinjiku, which are the "arty" parts of the Tokyo area.
This is Shinjuku Crossing, which is (I think) the busiest intersection in the World. The picture might not look particularly impressive, but look closer. Look at the little dark things in the middle of the picture. Those are people.
There look like there are, what, maybe a thousand people there? That group collected at roughly the halfway point of the two minute wait between pedestrian crossings. And that's one side of the street. This intersection is four-way, so there's a teeming mass like that at each point. That picture was taken at 9:15 Tuesday evening. I shudder to think what it's like during the morning commute, or (God Forbid) Saturday night.
Between Shinjiku and Shibuya is a suburb (?) called Harajuku. Remember the Gothic Lolita I got a crappy picture of a few weeks ago? I found where she shops.
This shop is exactly where you'd expect it to be: behind a Buddhist temple.
I think these girls might actually have some supernatural powers. Because despite my best efforts, this is always the kind of thing I get when I try to photograph 'em:
Ah well.
The Shinjuku/Shibuya walk yields some, uh, interesting sights.
No Comment.
Not much to say here, either:
And the winner for the most spectacularly inappropriate name for a Wedding Reception hall goes to...5F!
Japanese punk bands need to work on that "tough guy" thing.
They're everywhere:
This is in a place called Omiya. There are TV ads of these kids singing (badly) about a camera to the tune of "I Was Made For Loving You." Then they tilt their heads back and belch flame. Why this sells cameras, I have no idea (of course, this kind of thing didn't make a whole lot of sense to me back in the States, either.)
I don't know if the insect-like H.R. Geiger looking guy is for the drug store, the "Freak" store, of just something the landlord liked. This is a country where local planners put three story cement apes under freeways. He could be anything.
No, this isn't some translation issue. It really is a bar for people to bring their pets.
(click for full sized photo)
This is the view from the balcony of the break room at Kawaguchi. There's something odd about taking a few moments to get a drink and go look at the gigantic green lion across the street.
That's outside the Saitama-Shintoshin station, where the John Lennon Museum is located. They didn't allow pictures (and there's nothing to really take pictures of outside the museum, since it's located in the middle of a gigantic building.) It's got some great stuff, though: the machine that cut the master for the first ever Beatles single, the "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite" poster that inspired the song, John's first guitar, etc. You can even walk right up to the piano John played in the "Imagine" video. Westerners might be put off at how little attention (relatively speaking) is paid to the Beatles (only about 1/3 of the exhibit is pre-1970,) but John's marriage to Yoko had/has enormous cultural significance in Japan, and she didn't put the museum in London.
In other news, I've lost about 16 pounds since my arrival. I've also lost my focus.
My friend Cait isn't much of a photographer.
Last time I promised better pictures of Ueno Park, which is where the above was taken.
Here is a garden in the grounds of the above temple. Thinking ahead, I took this picture sans Twinkie Man.
(click for full sized photo)
We couldn't take pictures inside the temple ("Do Not Take A Picture!" signs are everywhere.) The temple itself, however, is suitably ancient looking.
A
better shot:
(click for a full sized photo)
This is Ueno
Toshogu Shrine, which is in the middle of Ueno Park. You can
walk around inside, although, again, "Do Not Take A Picture!"
It's been here since April 16, 1650, and was miraculously untouched
during WWII. There are original (as in 350 year old) paintings on
the walls, original sculptures, everything, which you can walk right up
to and (feasibly) touch (although that would be a stupendous
no-no. These things didn't stick around for three and a half
centuries just to get molested by some sweaty tourist.)
I've been putting a decent amount of stuff on this site so far, but Cait tells me that her Japanese friends have a million more ideas for things to look at. I'm guessing we've seen about 10% of what there is to see. She's going to try and convince her friend Yoko to take us to a cluster of temples next week (it'll be nice to be actually established somewhere, so I can start meeting people. Generally speaking, you don't spend a lot of time trying to get out and be social when you're about to leave the neighborhood.)
After the temple, we went to the National Museum For Western Art (which is ALSO in Ueno Park, about 150 yards from the Shrine,) where they have an original cast of Rodin's "The Thinker," (there are something like 25 that Rodin supervised) as well as a few Monets and other things. Sorry, no pictures allowed there either. There are another two museums in the park as well.
I've been putting a decent amount of stuff on this site so far, but Cait tells me that her Japanese friends have a million more ideas for things to look at. I'm guessing we've seen about 10% of what there is to see. She's going to try and convince her friend Yoko to take us to a cluster of temples next week (it'll be nice to be actually established somewhere, so I can start meeting people. Generally speaking, you don't spend a lot of time trying to get out and be social when you're about to leave the neighborhood.)
After the temple, we went to the National Museum For Western Art (which is ALSO in Ueno Park, about 150 yards from the Shrine,) where they have an original cast of Rodin's "The Thinker," (there are something like 25 that Rodin supervised) as well as a few Monets and other things. Sorry, no pictures allowed there either. There are another two museums in the park as well.
I am exhausted. And I get to work tomorrow. Joy. Until then, if you want to email me, try here.