Happy
Golden Week!
OK, Golden Week is a week with four (or five or six, depending on how you count 'em) holidays. This time last year, I was moving (the first time,) I had a cold, and I didn't know enough to avoid traveling into Tokyo.
Last year, I was on the train, and it was so packed that no one could move. Seriously, if you wanted to raise your arms above your head, you were in for a five or six minute ordeal.
One Dad had put his one or two year old daughter on his shoulder, to avoid the obvious crush. Problem was, the kid quickly realized the exploratory potential of crowd surfing, so she decided to crawl on some heads. She got a pretty good trip in before Dad had prized an arm loose enough to grab her by her diaper's waistband.
Normally, you'd say something like "the things you see when you don't have your camera," but I did have my camera, it just would have taken fifteen minutes to get it out and fired up.
All of which is a long way of saying that I pretty much stayed put during Golden Week. Well, not in the house, but in Kawaguchi.
Which is OK. Last year, I had to go all the way to Ueno to take this picture:
This time, I just walked fifteen minutes to take these:
...although that was really about all there was to see.
In addition to my normal dorking around, I spent some time taking pictures of Flat Stanley. My cousin Bobby sent me Stanley, and there's a page here.
Not all the Flat Stanley pictures came out quite as joyous as they might have. The girl at McDonald's seemed a bit freaked out.
Not everyone, though. I have discovered, quite inadvertently, that young women are quite cooperative when you tell them you're doing something for a kid.
Well, the ones in the food industry, anyway.
Duly noted.
OK, before Golden Week kicked in, I did manage to see two shows by a Japanese avant garde guitarist by the name of Keiji Haino.
You probably have no idea who that is, but for Japanese rock geeks, this is tantamount to seeing Jimi Hendrix play in someone's basement. He's been at it in one form or another since the early 70s, and original copies of his early recordings have been known to fetch a couple of hundred bucks. Very little is known about him, and the mystery isn't exactly lessened by the fact that he wears his sunglasses everywhere, even in a dark club (he had to be helped to the stage.)
So, what did it sound like? Well, picture The Stooges' "Dirt" played at half speed for two hours.
Yes, it's a bit of an acquired taste. But the show was great. Even the graffiti was interesting.
I even got a bit of a history lesson on the walk back home, via the pictures outside an old rock club I happened to pass.
Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the history of THESE guys?
And what would an update be without a few shots of weirdness?
"RUN! The grass is coming!"
I...can't explain this one.
...I can guess what happened here, I just can't guess why.
OK, that's this week. And just to let you know that all colors and creeds are welcome here:
As always, mail me here.
OK, Golden Week is a week with four (or five or six, depending on how you count 'em) holidays. This time last year, I was moving (the first time,) I had a cold, and I didn't know enough to avoid traveling into Tokyo.
Last year, I was on the train, and it was so packed that no one could move. Seriously, if you wanted to raise your arms above your head, you were in for a five or six minute ordeal.
One Dad had put his one or two year old daughter on his shoulder, to avoid the obvious crush. Problem was, the kid quickly realized the exploratory potential of crowd surfing, so she decided to crawl on some heads. She got a pretty good trip in before Dad had prized an arm loose enough to grab her by her diaper's waistband.
Normally, you'd say something like "the things you see when you don't have your camera," but I did have my camera, it just would have taken fifteen minutes to get it out and fired up.
All of which is a long way of saying that I pretty much stayed put during Golden Week. Well, not in the house, but in Kawaguchi.
Which is OK. Last year, I had to go all the way to Ueno to take this picture:
This time, I just walked fifteen minutes to take these:
...although that was really about all there was to see.
In addition to my normal dorking around, I spent some time taking pictures of Flat Stanley. My cousin Bobby sent me Stanley, and there's a page here.
Not all the Flat Stanley pictures came out quite as joyous as they might have. The girl at McDonald's seemed a bit freaked out.
Not everyone, though. I have discovered, quite inadvertently, that young women are quite cooperative when you tell them you're doing something for a kid.
Well, the ones in the food industry, anyway.
Duly noted.
OK, before Golden Week kicked in, I did manage to see two shows by a Japanese avant garde guitarist by the name of Keiji Haino.
You probably have no idea who that is, but for Japanese rock geeks, this is tantamount to seeing Jimi Hendrix play in someone's basement. He's been at it in one form or another since the early 70s, and original copies of his early recordings have been known to fetch a couple of hundred bucks. Very little is known about him, and the mystery isn't exactly lessened by the fact that he wears his sunglasses everywhere, even in a dark club (he had to be helped to the stage.)
So, what did it sound like? Well, picture The Stooges' "Dirt" played at half speed for two hours.
Yes, it's a bit of an acquired taste. But the show was great. Even the graffiti was interesting.
I even got a bit of a history lesson on the walk back home, via the pictures outside an old rock club I happened to pass.
Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the history of THESE guys?
And what would an update be without a few shots of weirdness?
"RUN! The grass is coming!"
I...can't explain this one.
...I can guess what happened here, I just can't guess why.
OK, that's this week. And just to let you know that all colors and creeds are welcome here:
As always, mail me here.