Japan through my eyes. Slideshow.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I upload my photographs to flickr daily. So, please visit and comment.

moving my attention away to flickr for the time being. see you there ;)

fuji HELL

last weekend some friends and i decided to climb the fujiyama of japan. who could have guessed that the weather would be soo bad. basically, at around 3000m rain started pouring in from all sides and by the time we reached mountain top we were wet to the bones in freezing temperatures. we didnt see the sunrise as anticipated because of the heavy rain cloudseven on top.
it was a catastrophe, to sum it up.

if i wasnt predominantly annoyed i would remark how absurd the situation on the climb was. in the middle of nowhere at night in the pouring rain, we were queueing up with tousands of japanese. rain spoiled my original japanese experience...

click the picture for a complete set of images over at flickr!.

flickr! go

i finally decided to create a flickr! account. i will start uploading the backlog of my fotos gradually, so please visit
http://flickr.com/photos/fleshmeatdoll/

jinboucho antique book heaven.

one of the basics of tokyo is that towns have "topics", the most obvious to many are akihabara where you find electronics everywhere and more recently otaku culture, or shibuya where you will find the young women's shopping paradise. but there are much more distinct smaller towns with likewise more surprising "topics", like ochanomizu for example, which specializes in the sale of musical instrument. and there is jinboucho which has uncountable little used and antique book stores.

excurse: consumerism I - competitive eating

Now that we have a global food crisis i am sure these kinds of tv-programs will regain popularity in japan.
basically, the (mostly professional) contestants try to stuff as much food into themselves as possible. it is indeed a painful sight as japanese create noises consuming certain dishes even under normal circumstances. take into account that those who chew loose and you have a pretty good idea of how it goes.
i would guess the pain of watching is not half as bad as the emptying sessions the contestants have go through after they have taken the trophies.
the moment of the program you look forward most is when we are allowed to gaze at the the amount of food that was just swallowed, usually there will be a commercial break just before it.

cat land

i don't know about the state of pet accessories in other parts of the world but in japan some vital boundaries have been crossed evidently. tricked into riding to the top of a ikebukuro department store because advertisements on the ground floor promised the biggest cats for sale exhibition of kinds i couldnt believe that in order to see the cats for sale one had to pay entrance fees. luckily (...) the accessories were on display free of charge. there you could see a diveersity of clothing lines for your cat. so, say, you have a cat but poodles are also kind of cute, too. you could dress your cat as a poodle. i mean, why (not)?

UDON

Do you remember the day when you found out that all italian noodles in reality are just variations in shape.
Welcome to japan, the land of noodles, where noodles do not only come in a diversity of shapes but tastes as well and each of them unique.
i found this udon shop by accident in ikebukuro, which ought to have the fattest noodles i have seen to date. with the temperature rising there is nothing better than a cold noodle dish.

open house 2

"open house" is really a marvelous opportunity to experience the kind of small space architecture japan is so renowned for. this weekend i took a peak at a recent achievement of n maeda atelier
before the tenants go in and pull down the curtains... norisada maeda is an up and coming architect who still needs some recognition abroad, i feel. the practice seems to inherit two formal features in their architecture, the curve as an architectural form and metal as a material. the "machine head" a visited is covered by a galvanized metal sheet facade which winds its way from the exterior to the interior and back again. this kind of deliberate conceptual architecture that leaves usability behind at times is truly a pleasure to look at.

Ghost Island.

This remarkable place was just featured on the daily news today: Hashima, a tiny island off the coast of nagasaki. it is fairly well documented in wikipedia.
i encourage read on about it. this island apparently used to be the most densely populated place on the world with what extends to 83,476.2 inhabitants per square kilometer. it also features the first concrete apartment building of japan. i am kind of tempted to go there for a visit as i havent been to the western part of kyushu yet...

目ざめよ! Awake!

After two old people knocked on my door a while ago and got told of, another pair just dropped this into the mail box. and what do you know? jehovah's witnesses are fairly active in japan, too. the cover asks: are these the final days, how will the world be? i guess you're fucked when you happen to be a japanese, because looking through this magazine like on the cover i didn't find any pictural proof of the existence of asian people at all. how would there be?

happy hanami.

first snow

a very rare occurance in tokyo is snow.
this has to do with the fact that cold air coming from the asian continent is forced to rain down the snow north of the mountains that strech the main land of japan. but if the cold air comes from the east, snow sometimes reaches tokyo, once or twice a year. only to melt in a matter of hours.

special delivery: the first picture features the police box of ikebukuro in the background.

minke whale.

Question: what do these two pictures have in common?
i guess you can figure that out by yourself...
a restaurant that features such food is in fact a very rare sight in Tokyo, so when i found one by accident i gave it a try. i must say even if it wasn't so unpopular for obvious reasons, i would doubt anyone could build up a crave for whale meat, because of the obtrusive oily aftertaste.

tokyo love

We work hard and we party hard, in tokyo. but when we sleep everything is possible.

under the bridge

In density of tokyo's townscape, even the homeless have to seek for a place to build their shelters. someone found his temporary home under a bridge right on the central reservation between the four lanes of another midtown highway near ikebukuro.

bugpost

Well, finally the summer is over. the agony of heat and moist that keeps everyone used to moderate climate numb has come to an end.
but there is more evidence if one is observant: it suddenly gets quiet. the semi died, thats why!
after making ear-piercing noises for about 3 weeks looking for a mate, they just get weak, randomly fall from trees and die.
i mean, sure there are also bugs with a short life circle in germany but they are not nearly as big or loud.

disk union

Here is something that has grown on me. a place i go every week at least once. one could say i have become a collector of music. one could say i am a nerd for electronic music. not so much in the sense that i look for rarities, i buy what my taste is, and cheap.
so many bargains to be made, releases you would pay a fortune for in europe. i guess once i get my hands on a turntable i will totally go berserk.
it is the miracle of used record stores like "disk union" which throw out cds and vinyl like mad. the pressure of new stuff coming in every week lets them start campaigns where you just can't resist. my system is to pay not more than 500 yen (3,5 euro) per album. and i would say the average i pay is less than 300 yen.
needless to justify and maybe surprising for some my collection has seen an increase of over 250 cds over a years course...

sakura falls

Finally i do come 'round posting my tribute to cherry blossoms.
this year was a year of pity, the weekends rainy, washing away the beauty without a chance to go out there until this weekend ...
with the first leaves pushing through the white of the trees and blossoms falling i took the chance to watch some.
this is the most enjoyable time for most japanese. get out to the park, meet with friends, eat and drink your head off! and so it doesn't surprise that even here, in what i call an insider location, the aoyama cemetery, enjoyment can be found, too.

politics an' bullshit

This weekend the election for the new tokyo major is coming up. now, i don't want to bore anyone, although researching on amakudari is highly recommended from my point of view.
but the thing that excites me about this particular election is the guy number 6: kisho kurokawa, a fellow architect (if i may be as blatant as to put my name next to his)!
i am not only excited because architects in politics have always been mean-ass (germania, anyone?), but also about kurokawas (long gone) ideas of urbanity. those could thoeretically pop up during a city council meeting or something. (well, let's just forget for a minute about what his office is building nowadays in china and alike...). like, if he was still in his hot phase: the 1960's and 1970's.
picture this! city council member: mr. mayor, how should we solve the problem of the shortage of living space in tokyo? kurokawa: well, let's just transform the city into a giant double helix!
seriously, he was one of the heroes of my university days.
check out the nakagin capsule tower. one of the few buildings that the metabolist movement (Kurokawas brainchild) produced in real life.
sadly it din't work out and nowadays only an empty shell remains.

coco kare

The other day, i saw a report on the television where they tried to find out the food Japanese liked most. so they went to an airport and asked people who just returned from overseas what their first choice would be. and the choices where ramen and kare.
now, i wrote about ramen earlier. i always considered this one of the best casual meals of the japanese kitchen, but kare? that came as a surpise.
kare is the way japanese pronounce and write curry, and until now i always ignored the shops offering it, firstly because the way they advertise it reminds me of the generic school cafeteria food of my early childhood, nothing i remotely fancy. secondly i do not like curry in general and if i came round to eating it, the nan was the thing for me. and above all nan is not served with japanese curry.
but, given the fuzz i overcame my aversion against what looks like typical "brown" sauce, and tried it. this is a chain store and to me it feels like a shop can be found within a radius of 200 meters around you, wherever you are in central tokyo. the dishes are very generic, indeed. but also very customizable. every plate looks exactly the same as what you see in the menu and on your neighbors table. you have a number of standard toppings and degrees of spice. one thing i noticed is that you eat it with a spoon, which is very strange after being in japan for a couple of months. why do we stuff these huge metal object in our mouths in europe? very strange.


the one i had was a more fancy kare with shellfish and squid rings.
for 750 yen (5 euro). it was kind of good, but nothing special, really.
apparently japanese nostalgically associate their childhood with this dish, because mothers can prepare it easily and it is eaten often during the week. that explains the phenomenon above all, if you ask me.

bicycle diaries reloaded

it's spring and i have eaten myself fat. so i got my bicycle ready again, and it's tough... tireing.
but, my camera is ready and here is a little gallery of creatures of the night.


first off, a homeless carrying cardboardboxes worth a bunch of houses.








second up, a film crew faking rain.









and finally, a custom hummer.

music sounds better with you

Tokyo is a commercial hell. everything can be bought and will be sold. everyone could become a star. i am always astonished about the vastness of the japanese music market for instance. for those determined enough, the dream of fame and a never ending flow of cash might come true. that is why you will see street musicians and comedian wannabes in certain spots over tokyo. this one is at the bus station behind ikebukuro west. semi-professional with apparent talent, pressed CDs for sale and dodgy managers in the background. all that is missing is a contract with a major label. good luck.

get acquainted, nihon style.

Again, something very rare as you might imagine, for your viewing pleasure. i sneaked up on a shinto wedding complete with kimono on him and her. and for those who still struggle to get what japan is essentially about, a second picture to reassure you, that modern life is always close. the person in the center of the second picture with the hat on is the priest, the woman wearing the black kimono is the mother.
the shinto wedding is getting more fashionable lately, after some tv celebritys did it the traditional way. but most couples favour western style weddings.
for the average japanese religious correlations do not matter, one or the other way.

there is no use

First i wanted to leave this uncommented, but
hinting at how annoying her cheaply amplified repetetive set of advertising phrases is to everyone, would mean
throwing a blind eye at the implausibly extraordinary determination she shows at this beyond doubt lowest paid job out there.
i just can't decide whether to look up to in awe or look down in anger on her.

the spring has come

It is that time of the year again, plums and apricots are in bloom, and while some struggle to open their orifices to the wonders long due
others, young or old, willingly embrace springs attractions.

what is japan?

There is a saying in germany, that children's words are sources of great wisdom. i think it is true.
and when i visited a child care center recently, i was very curious what i would learn about japan from a child's perspective.
needless to say i was completely astonished about what i found out. it is daikon ... of course!

still alive.

Oh dear, a multitude of tasks is waiting to be solved and this month will leave me no time at all for putting something up here regularly.
but i am breathing, if you ask.

this picture was taken in ikebukuro, my town on the yamanote line.
i would like to raise two questions here.

1. how come high school girls seem to have no sense of temperature, running around in short skirts in the freezing cold? (no, no pantyhoses either)

2. how come japanese are attracted by grotesque figures with short arms and impossibly big heads? try to picture the person inside there for reference!

good old days

Lets talk about the good old days for a minute. do you remember when riding the metro meant reading a good selection of manga?
i am talking about roughly 5 years ago, when you would find them in the overhead compartments, left by salaryman on their commute.
nowadays, you rarely see those weekly treats anymore. it is not because there are no salaryman anymore, it isn't that salaryman don't read mangas anymore. no, those two go together like internet and porn. further more, to not get things wrong, the number of publications has not decreased it increased. but somethinge else has changed: finances.
accordingly, the number of guys like the one seen on left side of the picture: homeless (if you don't count cardboard boxes as homes). at strategic points on the metro map they will rush through the cars and fetch all the free mangas. to re-sell them on the street. it is becoming an annoyance... to say the least. we are talking about publications the size of a local telephone book worth less than 5 euros (the reason they are left in the trains). what profit are they making? 1 euro a book?
oh, there is another thing that faces an increase: it's the number of crowds (including salaryman) reading (of course not buying) mangas in convenience stores. and if you are determined, maybe one night you will see me there, with them.

the wicked witches of the east

Now, i am no chicken. good german assertiveness... so you shouldn't assume i could sit it out all day in the hotel, last weekend.
so i went on a little expedition on the stormy day (as a side note: don't go out when it is raining in japan, you will definitely get wet to the bones) into the protective coat of thick forest around the island to find a shinto shrine situated on top of a mountain. to reassure myself that there is no ship in sight and in turn have a better view of the inferno that surrounded the island.
and there, of all places, in a small cabin half way up i found 4 little grandmas. i couldn't believe my eyes. not only did they manage to get up there in what they said was the worst storm they have ever seen! even more, someone let them get up there!!
and because i had thrown a coin at the shrine, they invited me in to have a green tea and some tangerines. very sweet ladys, very friendly. if you read this: thank you.
"faces of americans are always beautiful" they said. for most elderly japanese, foreigners are naturally from the usa. and yes, YOU, even YOU, can be a star here in japan.

excellent voyage

It is these days that i wish i had updated this blog more frequently, because someone who'd read it regularly (which in itself is of course not much more than a theoretical possibility), well, this person would possibly have noticed my mysterious absence over this last extended weekend. and I was not only absent, i was actually lost and cut off the rest of the world on a remote island in the pacific ocean. (no, I am not just talking about japan in general.)

to explain it, over the new year holidays I decided to venture the izu islands south of tokyo. accidentally, the same weekend lord petrus decided to send his first marvelous taifun to japan and so it came that I first couldn’t venture to my original choice of island because the ship couldn’t anchor at the port in question. and secondly couldn’t return to Tokyo as planned one day later, because the wind was so strong that neither ship nor airplane would commute. so I grabbed a good book, sat down in the spa of my hotel and chilled (as much as I could while facing the threat of permanent exile on an island I didn’t much care about in the first place.)

check out these pictures, first day “just” rain. (search for the road on the right to get an idea of the scale)

second day, beautiful sunshine and a wind that pushed waves 9 meters over the coastline and plans to return home likewise.

Rewind: panoramic christmas

Someone told me that hakodate has one of the 3 most scenic views worldwide. i am not sure what the criterias are or the other contestants for that matter. but it certainly is amazing. see for yourself.

Rewind: Sushi shock

Many associate japanese food with sushi. and it is true there is a lot of it around. but not all japanese food is sushi. and not all sushi is raw fish. this for example is raw meat - horse meat.
i wish i could remember the taste, memories of taste are so fragile.