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Japanese TV continues to
Japanese TV continues to amuse me. Last night I watched a show that focused on poor people. After identifying a target, in this case a man and wife with a small restaurant in Yokohama, the cameras moved in an filmed every aspect of their lives: the lack of customers, their high food costs, their single-room…
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I have a lot
I have a lot of photographs. I was searching through them yesterday for pictures I could scan to use for a client’s website. There are hundreds of photos from all over Japan. Some of them are really good views of Japanese cultural artifacts; others are silly snapshots of Tod. My filing system is dated and…
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A friend from Tod’s
A friend from Tod’s office organised a late-season hanami party at a Komaba park in Meguro-ku, about 40 minutes on the subway from our house. It was a beautiful day. Cherry blossoms fluttered from the trees; breezes caused a flurry of floral snow. Our picnic spread represented all our nationalities–American, Canadian, Indian, British, Dutch, Middle…
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“Short, frequent breaks,” is
“Short, frequent breaks,” is the mantra of anyone who’s suffered from respetitive stress injuries (RSI). Of course, I never listened and now I’m paying for that inattention. My hands and wrists burn from too much typing and mousing. This condition can lead to all sorts of nasty remedies including casts and surgery, so I’m trying…
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Maybe some people would
Maybe some people would have turned away but I was fascinated by the dead pigeon lying on the busy sidewalk. It lay upside down. Pale underfeathers on the outstretched wings sought the fading daylight. In a macabre twist on the “dead pigeon” theme, its head and upper torso were missing. There was no blood or…
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Yesterday, I visited the
Yesterday, I visited the Yahoo! Cafe in Harajuku, one of Tokyo’s trendy neighborhoods. The two story buildling houses a Starbucks on the first floor and an Internet cafe upstairs. It’s free to use, as Yahoo has cleverly gotten the sponsorship of major computer manufacturers and Internet service providers. Each computer is donated by its maker…
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Flowers, flowers everywhere. Nothing
Flowers, flowers everywhere. Nothing like a birthday celebration to fill the office with the sweet scent of blossoms. Japanese businesses are keen on service. The florist’s delivery man was exceptionally . He handed me the huge bouquet of pink lilies and alstroeameria, wrapped in lavender paper and wrapped with a fuschia ribbon, then he turned…
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It doesn’t matter how
It doesn’t matter how drunken people are here, they still maintain courtesy. We were sitting in a ramen shop waiting for our dinner. A group of three or four boozy businessmen had arrived before us and were enjoying their Nth bottle of beer, telling jokes and laughing loudly. Their big bowls of steaming ramen arrived.…
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Lithe bodies dressed in
Lithe bodies dressed in black vests with glowing neon medalions above black leather hotpants and accessorised with green glowing bracelets and black sunglasses rushed onto the stage and gyrated wildly, stirring the crowd into a frenzy of consumer lust at the Tokyo Game Show 2001. Wow, those X Box girls were hot. It’s a shame…
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It snowed yesterday, cancelling
It snowed yesterday, cancelling our plans for hanami, a cherry blossom viewing party, at Koishikawa Botanical Garden. But the unseasonably chilly weather taught me two new Japanese phrases. “Hana bie” means chilly spring weather (hana is flower and bie is chill), and “botan yuki” describes yesterday’s big-flake spring snow (botan is a peony; yuki means…
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