I wanna be 18 again

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While on my way back to Amsterdam, I met a Danish gymnastics team that was on tour in Japan.
Kids from 18 to 25 y/o I guess, all having a blast really. It made me jealous...
I think all I ever wanted when I was that age was to be travelling the world just like them with a huge group of friends, doing what you do best, exploring your talent. I imagine the stories they would bring back home with them from Japan.
And it also made me feel that travelling alone - in a word - sucks.
I always make the vow of not travelling alone in a future time, but I keep breaking it because great opportunities usually don't come up for me and my best buddy simultaneously.
So a new vow for now:
"I vow to set foot in a country for a long time and there create roots and take all the good (and bad) that comes with it"
There! I said it!

All the best everyone!
Cheers!

Leaving

I'm leaving Tokyo tomorrow.
There has been so many great experiences. So many things I will never forget.
Today, at work, after one of the founders announced I was leaving, I got an ovation from the whole team.
This was so incredible to me.
First of all, it's unusual to face the spotlight like that - ovation at work. That means more than when I get a few claps from scratching my cello to a few friends.
But it was more than that.
It showed again the profoud appreciation the Japanese people has for the other team member. With that clapping they were saying they liked working with me, they liked my work.

After that I was pulled aside by a very very talented designer, and she told me, in her always improving English, that she was honoured to have worked with me and learned so much form me. My god - I had worked so little with her, had sad so little. And she is already so talented! It's so fantastic to know that even that little I might have said helped her in any way.

So it's with this final display of extreme gentry that I bid farewell to Japan.
Amazing people, amazing culture, amazing landscape. I am very happy I came and saw all of this. Thanks to everyone who I had the chance to meet here and who sent their comments from overseas. A 12 hour flight awaits me now... hugghhh.....

PS: forgot to mention, yesterday I devoured my first non-Asian dish since I arrived in Tokyo. A pizza. It was the best thing ever.

View

I had a brief encounter with the Japanese medical system while I developed an infection in my leg. Pain in the ass really. Still not 100% - but hopefully soon.
In any case, there is a huge tower close to the hospital and that day I went up to see the view.
By the number of photographers standing by with their cameras and tripods ready to go I noticed that they were all waiting for the rare shot of the city's skyline with Mount Fuji in the distance. I did not wait till the sun set, but the view was incredible just the same.

Kyoto

Kyoto IS the pearl of Japan.
I've never seen so many beautiful temples, giant temples, Shinto temples, Zen temples, shrines, monasteries... They sprout out absolutely anywhere. From the gigantic ones closer to the mountains around the city to the smaller ones right inside the busiest areas.
Johan and I took the Shinkansen Nozomi, which we were hoping to be THE newest model of bullet trains but it wasn't. Damn it! There was one even cooler than the one we took. But it's ok. It was worth the money. It's unbelievably convenient to cross 600 km in 2 hours, leaving from a station close to your house.
We had amazing food, saw amazing sights (despite the intensive rain of the first day) and found this little internet cafe where you can check out emails of watch movies or play video games in private booths, laying on a massage chair or on tatamis, eating away... Needless to say, on both days, after our long walking hours we would relax on a massage chair for 1 hour for 5 dollars.
Plus the ryokan - typical Japanese hotel, amazing, sleeping on a fouton on tatamis, wearing the Yukata... go to Kyoto!

Death to the crows!

It's 4:30 and i lie awake because I have crows screaming outside my window. I don't know if you are familiar with crows but they really approximate the human voice. And not in a pleasant, singing way. They sound like they are really screaming from the top of their lungs, over and over again. So, for me, who already have trouble sleeping, it's a blessing from the gods.
I think tomorrow I will sleep in one of the meeting rooms at work. Not kidding.

Kawagoe

Kawagoe is a city north of Tokyo that you can reach by riding the train for 30 minutes. The attractiveness of the city is that it still retains many houses from the Edo period, so you get the feel for how a few areas of Tokyo looked like before the plethora of natural (an unnatural) disasters that hit the city.
It is truly amazing. There aren't many houses left. Maybe 30 or 40. But they are all in fantastic shape. They have all been renovated and converted into sweets shops, post office, tailor, restaurant, souvenir stores... all very quaint. It's definitely worth a small trip outside of Tokyo to visit

Amazing meeting

Today, Nori (my incredible boss) took me to an exquisite tea house/sweets shop near his place, in the Chiba prefecture. The place was incredible. The sweets look like delicate origamis. I felt sorry they would shortly be devoured by customers. What a waste! The owners of the place were the nicest people I've met in Japan. Mother and father and daughter, working together, entertaining the guests, listening, making sure everyone was having a good time, exactly comme il faut.

Coincidentally, we sat next to this gem of a guy, Terry. Terry is 76-years old, and besides being and acting younger than I feel most of the times, he also happens to have created the Nike swoosh logo, Woodstock (Snoopy), Hello Kitty and a plethora of other very well known Japanese characters. He still works actively and has his own studio, writes children's books, and, as I could tell, loves to mesmerize people with his young personality. One of those encounters that come once in a year + if you are lucky.

Tomomi, the hot girl on the pic with me, daughter of the couple who owns the store, speaks English fluently and sent me those pictures today.

Yanaka

An area of town not heavy on the tourist circuit, Yanaka is pretty much an old neighbourhood with no neon lights and a huge cemetery and some beautiful temples sprinkled around. It was nice to see old typical houses and restaurants in the city. Sometimes it's easy to forget that almost all we see in Tokyo these days have been built tops 50 years ago. Yanaka is probably how neighbourhoods must have looked like all over not that long ago.

Trade show girls

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How to cram millions of Japanese men into one area? Give them gadgets, lengthy, detailed explanations about everything electronic and give them girls!
I know the usual schtick with putting the hot girls on booths so that the men feel a little more inclined to pick up a pamphlet, to look a tad longer at the product (while she's practically mounted on it) and to have the patience to sit and listen to its list of wonders. But at CEATEC, one of the biggest consumer electronics trade shows in the world, the girls are, unabashedly, the prime product on display.

This is the place where the average Japanese man can make a safe pass at a pretty girl and still hear a pretty nice word in return, framed by a pretty smile. God, if this was the real world! But, for one day, it is.

People elbow each other to get inches away from the girls. Lines of people wait in turn to photograph the deities. To me it all looks a bit too reminiscent of the porn magazines and Mangas I've seen around the block. It gives me the feeling that these pictures go a long way making these dudes happy for another year to come, when they will invariably come back for more snapshots to fuel another year.

The gadgets, the second-rate attractions, were über cool too. They definitely put on the big show in Japan. Check out the video.

Typhoon

Welcome to the typhoon season! I think it's supposed to have passed already but it's still here.
Coming from Amsterdam, where it rains (drizzles) pretty often, you become unprepared to see masses of water pouring down every day. Monsoon times. If you stand outside for 5 seconds while it's really raining you will be soaking wet to the bone.
Everyday I look at the satellite images and to my dismay there's always this stream of typhoons and bad weather coming from the same direction - Southwest moving Northwest. Damn it!
Other than the heavy rain, the rest is very bearable. It is still damn hot, close to 30 during the day, and at night it won't go below 18. And it's October!
I would like to take the opportunity to send a hello to my Swedish friends who can probably already smell the snow about to fall.
Jag missar inte svensk vinterna... men jag missar er!

Food with a view

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A lot of the big towers in the city are crammed with nice restaurants, which, during the day, serve food at very reasonable prices.
In other cities, restaurants with a superb view are usually ONE or two per building and prohibitively expensive. And usually serving less than spectacular food for the price tag.
So today Takashi and I come eat some okonomiake and appreciate the view a bit. The office is 5 mins. from here.

Vertical parking lot

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The Japanese... I always find the best inventions in this country.
And the majority are great inventions! The minute I lay my eyes on them it hits me: "Of course! Why wasn't that invented before?" Naturally a lot of the inventions are an adaptation to the lack of physical space, but they should be implemented everywhere really, kind of like the gas station with suspended pumps (scroll way below).
Take a look at the video. Most of the car parking in central Tokyo is vertical. That's right. It's not a wide lot, but a tall building. The cars go into this "ferry wheel" compartment and then are rotated up and away, until they are summoned back my their owners. You stick the car into the compartment and it gets carrouseled away. When they bring the car back, you don't even need to manoeuvre the damn thing. The floor below you just rotates you to the right exist position. I want one!

Pump up the jam!!!

This is cool. You can always see bands playing live in several places throughout the city. I don't know if they need a license for it. It seems they don't cause they are everywhere really. And it's really cool. It goes form the depressed-brit-pop to the eurodance-bubblegum. And it always draws a crowd too.

Ultra 7

I grew up with these guys in Brazil. I always wanted to have their powers. Well, I actually wanted 2 things when I was 8. I don't know if I should reveal the first one - I might have a sensitive audience - OR super powers. Or both. I remember thinking I would settle for super powers. Actually, super powers would give me a bigger competitive advantage actually. Or would it?

Gaijin hate

This is an interesting phenomenon in Tokyo. Every time I bump into a westerner, they are sure to go out of their way to avoid even having eye contact with me. Strange no?
It's still not the commonest thing to see Caucasians walking down the street. When do see them, I need to take a second look. I don't know if I long for some type of connection, or acknowledgment, even a 1/8 smile... But it never happens. It's not that I want to go chat with them. We probably have nothing in common, other than the language (I do miss that though). Not only they do not acknowledge me, but they AVOID me.
I though this could be for many reasons beyond my mortal comprehension so I dropped it.
Yesterday I had lunch with an American expat in Shibuya and we were laughing out loud about the matter.
He too observes the exact same thing. And, as he puts it, most westerners who are Japan-obsessed have a senseless protective feeling towards Japan. They want to be "the ones who've discovered the country"! They want to be the ones who are totally adjusted to the culture and therefore try very hard to block any malevolent Western interference from their now "Japanese life".
That creates a ridiculous atmosphere.
But I have to admit that when I live abroad and I meet "the" typical Brazilian - loud at the most inappropriate places, complaining about everything, covered up in all the shit they can't wear at home: long coats (the wrong type), mittens, scarves, jewelry, going around and bumping into people, loving every detail of the foreign land (all the while trashing the homeland) - I too feel like going out of my way to avoid even looking at them.
Am I "the foreigner" in Tokyo? I like to think not. I mean, I can't do anything about my appearance but I try to respect and act according to the country's customs in every possible way.

Fuji Mountain

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I've been planning this trip for a while already. Of course I had to come see the symbol of Japan, the almighty Fujiyama, sitting there, massive, perfectly symmetric, impassive. It is the highest mountain in Japan and, deservedly so, the most famous.

There are several places you can go to get a good view around the volcano. Hakkone is one of those places. A hot spring resort at the foot of the mountain, it attracts loads of tourists. But since I can't get into a hot spring here (yes, you guesses, the tattoos are a problem) I decided to do the next best thing, which is to go to the 5 lake region.

A few of the lakes shores are very developed. One even has 1.300 tennis courts (yuck!) - so you can picture the herds of bad players invading the region and crowding everything up.

We've decided to go to 2 of the prettiest and less crowded lakes. I can only remember about the Saiko lake, cause, yes - "psycho" is how you pronounce it. Came with a friend of mine, Johan - the coolest Swedish ever. The guy has lived in Sao Paulo for 8 years and even has Brazilian citizenship. That is impressive. Most Brazilians trying to exchange their passport for a Bosnian one at any cost and this guy goes great lengths to actually become a Brazilian national. Gotta love him. ;)

So it was a fantastic day of riding bikes, looking at beautiful scenery and laughing my ass off talking about home and the wonders and idiosyncrasies of Brazilians.

Shinjuku lights

They never cease to amaze me. I need to take a few pictures every time I come by. A curiosity for those who haven't bee here... you can see there are loads of signs and advertising hanging vertically from the sides of the buildings. And they are all segmented. That's because they advertise what's on every floor, exactly at that floor. The thing about Tokyo is that is it 3D. If you don't look up and remember there are another few floors above you with a bunch of interesting stuff to experiment and see, you end up missing a lot.

I constantly forget about it. I hardly even venture up into one of those places. to my loss, naturally. Some of Tokyo's best kept (and cheaper) secrets are right there.

My Gym

So this is my new gym. Isn't it quaint? It's a no-frills, bare-bones type of gym, but I've heard that's where the competitive bodybuilders come to work out. There is vegetation nearby, the air is fresh. It's free too. It's just perfect.

Because of the Japan-wide gym ban on tattooed people, I've had to improvise and work out on this parking lot/construction site a block from my house. Naturally I don't do much, but with loads of heavy stuff in my backpack, it adds enough resistance to get a somewhat decent pump.

The thing on the floor is where I do push-ups, and the bars with the tarpaulin hanging from it are where I do pull-ups. That's all I do. Oh, and run. I try to run a bit too. Well, I won't have a killer body for the Brazilian summer, that's for sure.

Tokyo is cheap

I've come to Tokyo expecting everything to be mega-expensive. And sure enough, a few things are. Like rent, fresh food in supermarkets, fruits, vegetables... Coming from Europe, I would have to suggest the whole rest is not at all more expensive than, say, Amsterdam. And a few exceptions, like street food, are unbelievably cheap.
Food stalls and restaurants are so abundant in this city that you can easily find a cheaper restaurant in every corner. They sell mostly Japanese hearty food like ramen, yakitori, some type of meat in a rice bowl...
I always go to this specific restaurant where you buy your food at the vending machine outside then just hand the ticket in when you sit down at the counter. I usually get a big bowl of rice, Miso soup, a small salad, and a pretty big meat slab (for Japanese standards anyway), all delicious, for only 5 dollars! And for 4-something Euros in Amsterdam you can hardly find a damn cheese sandwich anywhere.

Shibuya crowd

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It's around 6-7pm on Sunday and everything is open and there must be a million people transiting around here tonight. It's a mass of people crossing on this intersection. Good think I'm a bit taller then them so I don't get too claustrophobic.

Can't afford Prada

And even if I could I wouldn't buy. Beautiful stuff, for sure, but I find the whole uber-brand idea so out of fashion (for a lack of a better term). But I do love architecture, and I had to see this amazing store up close. It lies at a less remarkable part of Omoterando-dori, where all the huge expensive brands are found.

The building is truly amazing. Organic. Translucid. The glass on each segment of the building is either flat - convex or concave. The visual is amazing. I think it's one of the most innovative building's I've seen up close.

I've heard it's pretty cool inside too, but I didn't walk in. There were too many well-dressed ladies pulling 5.000 dollar bags out of the shelves and carefully analysing them right at the door. I hate getting into a store purely to look around. When it's clear I am not gonna buy anything, I prefer to abstain getting in.

Urban Culture

I love those girls. You have to applaud the Japanese for cherishing their Harajuku girls. They are a legend in Tokyo, and they add something to the landscape that is not found anywhere else in the world. They are fucking cool!

I saw this black guy walking by and screaming at the public that the girls will go straight to hell and stuff. Tsc tsc tsc... so sad. Everyone loving the whole thing and then an immigrant has to come and disagree with the show, make a fool out of himself, in a country that has taken him is and that he probably doesn't respect. How unfair.

By the way, I have to say that most times I've met black guys here in Tokyo, there were kind of a pain in the ass. If you walk around Roppongi (the gaijin Mecca), you see hundreds of black guys pimping around, almost pushing you into their clubs and stuff. This kind of comes as a shock in a city where people as so cordial. Now this black nut in Harajuku screaming at the girls. Come on! Give us a break!

I am an immigrant too - have been for the past 12 years in over 6 countries. Make a little effort to assimilate, to understand the cultural differences. Sometimes I fear globalisation. I would hate to see all the fantastic individualities of all cultures ending up in a so-called cultural melting pot, where nothing is what it used to be, everything is just a new goo, a new strange hybrid of everything.

Temple Wedding

I think it's all the rage getting married (or part of the ceremony only?) at the Meji Temple. Today I saw 2 weddings there. One was a wedding for sure. The bride was wearing the traditional white costume and stuff. The other one, with the woman wearing the more colourful garment, I am not so sure about.

The bride in white walked in baby steps, so tight her skirt was. Everything evolved very slowly, the grom, the guest, all beautifully dressed, all in typical costumes, kimonos and such. They gather a huge crown around them taking pictures and stuff. It's beautiful to see.

A few Japanese girls went nuts for good short and almost disturbed the procession. she almost stood in FRONT of the couple to take a stupid picture, with the usual dumb smile and the "V" fingers. Come on! Can't you imagine they don't really appreciate that kind of behaviour? Imagine if it was your day and a stupid girl came gliding in front of you to take a picture? Imagine if you took a bad step with that uncomfortable tight dress skirt and fell ON the damn girl? hahaha.

(more) I hate this dude

Whoever he is, I hate him. Ok, that's too powerful a statement, but I for sure do not sympathise with him. He gives me the creeps! He looks like your average pick-of-the-week NY Times Bestseller author, who is probably letting you on his fabulous secrets for having a longer life, more money, influencing people, or forever happiness through Scientology.

What pains me is that he is big HERE too! hahaha. Big in Japan. I guess this is the apex of his carreer. It doesn't bother me when I see that stuff in the US, but when I see the (bad) American culture tentacles spreading over the world in a tight and soporific embrace, I shiver.

Maybe I am wrong. He could be selling something less gimmicky, but somehow it doesn't seem so from his look.

Meji Shrine

One of the nicest parks to hang out at in Tokyo is the Yoyogi park. It's close to a bunch of cool areas and one of the nicest temples in Tokyo is situated inside of it. I have to say I prefer this temple to the Asakusa one. Maybe because it was larger and more austere. And it felt less crowded.

I hate GAP

As I mentioned before, advertising is in everything Japanese. Other than the untouchable shrines and monasteries. Anything else has something for sale screaming at you. The average Tokyoite is exposed to over 3.000 ads every day.
Very high level in my annoyance meter is this whole metro car with GAP shit all over it. Usually there are screens on those, and they show commercials, the weather, news, the usual stuff. But here at the GAP car, not only you look at repetitive ads posted all over but you also have to sit and watch a loop of their last TV ad (30 seconds, i timed it) over and over again. Imagine if you are commuting from home and you live far from work... and you forgot your book. By the time you leave the metro you HAVE to stop by a GAP store and buy a pair of jeans or 2. I think this technique brainwashes you.

Give me something useful

Yes, give me something useful and I will read your shit advertisement. In Brazil, battalions of girls dressed up in ridiculous uniforms parade around cars parked on red lights in big street intersections, giving out terribly designed fliers, mostly on real estate shit. And if you don't take it, they give you their blasé look - as if to say: "damn you, I need to give 1.000 of those away today, couldn't you help me a bit here?"

Over in Tokyo, they do exist as well. Oh yes, they do - even more so than in Sao Paulo, but, they are the most polite creature in the world. If you take the damn thing off their hands or not, they will BOW to every one, and say thank you very much. And the stuff their are distributing is advertising just the same, but they have the courtesy to add paper tissue, a little map of the city, you know, useful stuff, so that it feel like an exchange, not a coercion. All that in a little plastic envelope. Yes yes, they pollute even more like that, I get that part.

Brazil and the rest of the world, please, learn from this...

I love Dentsu

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Yes, Dentsu is like the big bad wolf of advertising in Japan. The biggest here, and I guess one of the top 3 in the world. Despite what we might have against companies who try to create unwanted desire and dissatisfaction on the masses so that they consume like crazy, if you were here looking at this building complex, you would love them too.

The thing is impressive. This is a new area of town called Shiodome, with shopping areas, restaurants, and even a museum of advertising, by Dentu, naturally. The main building is fascinating really.

Mask

I was expecting to see loads of people wearing those surgical masks around. I think it's against pollution, or to avoid contaminating people when you have a cold, or even fear of germs perhaps. But no. Is it cause it's summer? In any case, I haven't seen many. But when they do show up, I have to take a look. People wearing them always look healthy to me. Maybe I should start wearing one too.

He exists!

If you saw "Lost in Translation", you remember the scene when Bill Murray is a host on a TV show. The INSANE host is just so damn off the wall that I wasn't sure he was a real emblem of Japanese TV.

Today, while browsing a bookshop, my eyes caught a glimpse (my retina almost burned) of Matthew's book! hahaha. He is real! I am glad to know such a creature does exist and is successful around here ;) I had to chuckle. I wanted to grab someone right there and point my new discovery out to them, but I guess they wouldn't find it that surprising. That's one of the times I hate discovering things on my own.

Dry me up

Finally someone built a hand-drier that works! Who actually cares to stop under that damn drier for 1 minute or more, rubbing their hands incessantly? They even know their hand drier sucks, cause most of the time there's also paper towels right next to the blow drier. What would you choose? Get it over with in 2 seconds with a towel or hanging out in a bathroom for an extra minute?

Now, cut to Japan. The hand driers here are built differently. You put your hands INTO this machine (clever, I always though that old thing blowing downwards and everywhere was not the best design available) and it automatically blows the SHIT out of your hands. It's got to do osme damage to sensitive skins I tell you, because your hand is completely dried up in 5-10 seconds. I love it!

Around my place

There are 2 good-sized temples around my house. I took some pictures of this one today. It's nice to enter a temple that is not in the tourist circuit. you always have it all to yourself. The Shinto cemeteries remind me of our judeo-christian ones somehow - but notice those sticks on the tombstones. I don't know what they represent. And purely by aesthetic sense - I like that addition.

Lost in Translation moment

If you've seen the movie, you probably remember the time when Bill Murray is shooting the commercial and the director comes to him and babbles forever and all the translator girl can utter is "more... intensity, more intensity". So, yesterday I had a meeting with one of our project managers and we asked Takashi, one of the guy who speaks English around here to come and translate the conversation.
When you hear "translate", you probably imagine someone trans-la-ting all the sentences, one by one, and then it would be up to you to separate the ramblings from the main content. Here in Japan (or, I should say "on this experience") I got the Lost in Translation treatment. My Japanese interlocutor would speak, or explain huge chunks of information to the interpreter, who would in turn interject every 5 words with "hai, hai" for 5 minutes at a time, and then I would only get 2 or 3 sentences translated out of it. During their conversation I would just sit there, looking at their mouths, trying to pick out some kind if English word or some sort, or some guy's names... so that I wouldn't feel too stupid even paying attention to something I can clearly not understand.
I think this whole thing happens because we westerners are normally very straight to the point, and the Japanese go great lengths to massage the message, make sure they comment on all the great aspects of things before they give out any bad news. And the translator acts as a filter.
Moral of the story, the meeting took 1 hour as opposed to the 15 necessary minutes. hehehe

Western style?

Toilets in Japan come in Japanese and Western styles. To tell you the truth I haven't encountered many Japanese style toilets in Tokyo, but then I don't go looking for them. I am well acquainted with the pissoires though. Anyway, at the Odaiba station I found them side-by-side. Take a look. Which do you prefer?

Coolest Museum

This is the coolest technology museum I've been in ages. It's tucked away at the end of the developed part of Odaiba. A real gem. Called Miraikan, it stands for National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. Aside from the extremely interesting hands-on displays and an array of information that ranges from DNA structure to space conquests, it features, right at the entrance, a HUGE, I mean, HUGE sphere that has a current satellite image of the whole globe projected onto it.
And it keeps showing info and clouds and temperature and rain and the works from a few days to current time. It's amazing! There are comfy couches below, 40 meters below, where you can lay down and look up and fall asleep if you'd like. Amazing concept. I am a map addict, so imagine how long I've spent there.

Toyota showroom

Inside the MegaWeb park there's a Toyota showroom, where you can see the evolution of the Toyota brand through billions of interactive displays and check the old and new models. The coolest thing is, naturally, their prototype cars - and also this new feature for the normal line (for handicapped only?) where the seat actually pivots to the side for you to enter and exit the car.

Don't wanna be a dog in Toyko

So cruel to dogs the Japanese! What does this mean? You can't take your dog in (unless for the visually impaired), you can't take you dog inside your bag if he sticks his head out to breath a little. But you certainly CAN bring your dog in a sealed briefcase, as long as he doesn't peek out of it!

Odaiba

Odaiba is the perfect Japanese economic bubble burst post-card. It's built on an artificial island, serviced by a monorail train (which brought back images of the Jettsons to me, but in the end looked like a regular metro train) and houses a few cool buildings.
There is a lot of cool architecture and loads of space. A rarity in Tokyo. There's even a sandy beach (don't enter the water, you might melt away in the toxins). But I need to add that the "space" is due to the underdevelopment of the area, and not always intended open spaces. So to talk from one area with a few attractions to the other, you cross over highways, jump security ropes, even the pavement has some grass showing through the cracks, unthinkable in mainland Tokyo. I got a mixture of excitement for beign in this totally human-built area, connected to the mainland through an amazing bridge - and an eery feelings of this promise of the Japanese economic - super-optimistic - future that never came.

The ever-present ad

The Japanese love their advertisements. They are everywhere. From that thing you put rest your hands on on an escalator up to the paper tissue that gets distributed free (logically) everywhere.
This is a great laboratory for marketing research. They are years ahead on the annoying-ever-present marketing scheme. Sometimes it's fun, most of the times, it's a killer. In Shibuya (and other areas) there is so much sound, things flashing, poeple screaming and trying to see the wonders of their products on the streets.
It kind of looks like a high-tech version of a Tunisian medina.

A bit of Zen calm outside of Tokyo

Today was such a Zen day. I went to Kamakura - this place 1 hour away from Tokyo, pretty much sandwiched between the mountains and the sea, loaded with Zen monasteries, temples and the biggest statue of Buddha in Japan. The place is fantastic, and the first Zen monastery I visited was indescribably pretty and proportionate and peaceful and greatly looked after. I saw some monks practising archery. All in mega-slow motion, ultra concentrated. Incredible. I actually had a relapse into my early interest on Zen things. I could totally see myself living here. For a while. hehehe. Not until illumination comes! That's too big of a gamble!

Where's the party?

Those insane Tokyo girls you've probably heard of really do exist (hehehe) and are mostly in an area around the Harajuku train station, at the entrance to the Yoyogi Park. I have just seen a few - it was getting dark and it wasn't the right day when they congregate there. They look AMAZING. when you see them in pictures, they look like clows. I think our western mind can't really fathom the idea of poeple wearing pretty much costumes, and walking around with them. But here they do and it looks extremely cool. These girls are super nice - all you would expect from Japanese girls. Even if they are doing Goth-ware they will giggle and smile and bow over and over for the pleasure of having their pictures taken.

After my friend took that picture with the girls and I, they handed him their camera and asked him to take another pic. I wondered why that would be. My friend told me that he believes it's because they want a "proof" that they have indeed done it. Some girls come from hours away from Tokyo, just to put on their "show", and they love the fact that they actually did it and that they got loads of gaijin to stop and chat and take pics with them.

Kiddyland!!!!

I think this store is called Kiddyland or something like that. It's right on the "Rodeo Drive" of Tokyo, and it spans 5 floors filled with, well, kiddy stuff. The Japanese are obsessed with icons. Here you can find from Hello Kitty paraphernalia (underware included) to Star Wars light-sabres.
I wanted to film the light-sabre in action - pretty realistic - but as I pointed my camera at it while they were showing it to a customer, they all of a sudden put the thing down and walk out of my way so that I could take a picture. No no! I am filming! I want you to play with it so that I can film it! But how could I decline such a polite act? Who would care if some intruder is taking a picture of whatever at a store? the Japanese do. Such considerate and polite people. Love them!

Ueno Park

Ueno Park has the highest concentration is museums in the city. It's no a splendid park, but, like any other place in Tokyo, has its surprises. Like small shrines and some quiet places. Around the Ueno train station there's the Ameyoko Market, a collection of incredible streets with thousands of street vendors selling mostly food. Beautiful and delicious food. From all over Asia. The stalls can be very specialised - selling only roots, only sea weeds, only sweet beans, and the list goes. The stalls are not huge but still - try to picture a 60-year-old man selling over 200 types of dried sea weed on this market. It's fantastic. Too bad I can't even boil an egg, otherwise I would have gone insane buying ingredients here.

"THE" Temple

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Asakusa lies close to the Sumida river, and it's loaded with temples and shrines. The oldest temple in Tokyo, the Asakusa Kannon Temple, is pretty huge, and, naturally, crowded. Beautiful structures inside the complex, and a beautiful mini-garden with some oratories.
Japanese people are somewhat religious, but overall extremely superstitious. They practice a mix of Buddhism and Shintoism that seem to live well together. If you ask them, most young secular people will tell you they have no religion, but they are nevertheless acting comme il faut and lighting incenses, tying their little wish ribbons to the boards, washing their hands in blessed water, inhaling the good fortune fumes... it's all there.

And the pictures of the girl wearing that insane Jaspion visor - yes, the girls here shelter away from the sun like Dracula. They are either carrying a parasol or wearing gloves up past their elbows or a full face visor. Nuts!

Business Cards

I love my business card. All in Japanese! The other side is in English, but, come on...
Business cards are extremely important in Japan. you will have to pull one out in any occasion you are to meet new people. I guess it's not detrimental if you're in an extremely informal situation, but in any other case - work (naturally), parties, events, people you're meeting for the first time and you imagine you might see them again - swap cards.
You're supposed to hand it out with both hands - writing facing the person you're handing the card out to. He, in turn will give you his card. Then you're both supposed to study each other's card and comment on the work title, the address, whatever. It shows that it's important info to you.

Bikes

Here in Tokyo people bike ON the sidewalk, right next to you. Or rather, right into you. The traffic is heavy, and then it's not backed up, it's in high speed, 4 lanes across - so I understand the cyclists. But then you usually have a micro side-walk to shave with pedestrian traffic (which is not light) and bike traffic. Messy.

Sleepless in Yamanote

The Yamanote line is the train line that loops around the city. Kind of around. It's more like inside the city in a loop shape. It would probably take 5 days to go aroooooound the city.
At night, there are loads of people who just sleep in the trains. And I don't think they are sleeping cause they were partying and they