terebi.blog/JP

Japan through my eyes. Slideshow.

2008-10-17T03:54:00.006+09:00

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

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

2008-09-27T13:20:00.005+09:00

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

fuji HELL

2008-08-28T12:59:00.007+09:00

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

2008-08-28T12:42:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-06-16T22:06:00.004+09:00

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

2008-05-30T23:58:00.000+09:00

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

2008-05-11T22:42:00.003+09:00

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

2008-05-06T17:20:00.005+09:00

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

2008-04-20T22:21:00.005+09:00

"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.

2008-04-15T23:30:00.005+09:00

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!

2008-04-13T18:51:00.005+09:00

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?

2008-04-06T18:38:00.006+09:00

happy hanami.

first snow

2008-02-03T10:39:00.001+09:00

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.

2007-11-04T13:31:00.002+09:00

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

2007-09-10T22:53:00.001+09:00

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

under the bridge

2007-09-09T22:17:00.002+09:00

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

2007-09-01T00:22:00.000+09:00

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

2007-04-25T22:21:00.000+09:00

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

2007-04-09T23:21:00.000+09:00

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

2007-04-03T22:47:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-29T23:30:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-23T22:43:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-13T22:57:00.000+09:00

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.

2007-03-13T00:15:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-07T00:08:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-05T23:50:00.000+09:00

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?

2007-02-18T17:51:00.001+09:00

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.

2007-02-16T00:32:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-22T00:26:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-11T23:58:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-08T23:09:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-03T22:34:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-03T22:29:00.000+09:00

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.

Rewind: Christmas Illumination

2007-01-02T21:24:00.000+09:00

Hakodate had of course it's own illuminations. i encourage you to imagine happy hardcore techno versions of famous christmas songs, to get an idea of the kind of merry feelings i experienced...

Rewind: Christmas Dinner

2007-01-02T20:26:00.000+09:00

Well, you know i have been to hokkaido on chistmas. hokkaido as the northern main island of japan is renowned for the horrible creatures that lurk in the deep cold seas.
good thing is, as frightening as they may seem, they are quite tasty. let me introduce: christmas dinner. boiled and ready to eat.

merry merry christmas: illumination3

2006-12-23T16:55:00.000+09:00

I figured i would not have time to post before christmas, so here it goes out:

to all my friends and family:
merry christmas to you.

merry merry christmas: illumination2

2006-12-22T16:50:00.000+09:00

This is one gorgeous illumination. it is very near to my house and illuminates the whole parking lot next to it. it is arranged so that the top points at the colored glass window which is a regular feature of this private house.

merry merry christmas: illumination

2006-12-21T22:08:00.000+09:00

What a disgusting week, stress all throughout. but it is done! ill take tomorrow a day of and will head to hokkaido this weekend. that will make sure christmas is white.
speaking of christmas in japan. it is unlike new year no big deal. the yaer end holidays are detached from holy night and usually one has to work. the real thing with all the cultural backdrop is new year (shogatsu) and that is also when japanese travel to visit their families.
point is, just like with halloween or easter or valentines day, if there is a chance to consume japan will import the celebration along with some fine designer handbags.

in my experience, christmas in japan is synonym with illumination. all people go crazy over the thematic light installation attached to the shopping centers in tokyo. but walking with the crowds observing the lights one cant avoid to notice that illuminations have somehow detached themselves from christmas (or lets be fair, speaking in technical terms, advanced from it). nowadays what is illuminated in least cases has a connection to christmas. like near takashimaya the circus illumination or near roppongi the blue artelligence (sic!) illumination or the shibuya illumination which is barely recognizable against the everyday illumination of adboards.

good morning

2006-12-16T19:55:00.000+09:00

When is it time to get up? when the crowd of grandparents start invading the park right next to my house and begin ye olde game of gateball.
japanese love their games with little balls. seriously, golf is soo big here!
but if they start finding it hard to swing the golf club or finding the small white thing you have to hit, it is gateball next. its amazing.

caught in the act

2006-12-15T00:24:00.000+09:00

I just thought, one thing good about the bicycle take-away is that you will never see those rusty abandoned bicycles near OUR station. though you will see them around the 200m radius from the station. because it is quite common for whoever to forget where they have put their bicycle or assuming it was stolen, when in fact it still is near the station because one couldn't care about riding back home on it with a blood alcohol ratio of 3+ promile.
however recently, i was lucky to witness the actual act of taking away. very orderly, very calm. they were actually taking them away all at once, 4 or five little trucks. i guess the crew of a single truck alone would be too vulnerable faced by a mob of angry bicycle owners...

short trip into the province

2006-12-12T22:16:00.000+09:00

Yesterday i went on a short business trip to oota in gunma prefecture. amazing, how 2 hours car drive away japan looks so different from what i am used to here in tokyo. most notably, there is space, a lot of space, mostly parking space. in these places you cannot be without a car i presume. it really looks a lot like the united states (outside of new york, of course).
the town just merged with neighboring towns resulting in a bigger income. and they are going to spend it on architecture, too. what i was most impressed by however were the countless nude sculpture all over the place. it gives you a clue about ootas golden days far far back. ahh, there is few things better than mayors spending money on sculpture and architecture, a true patron of art.

teawater

2006-12-07T23:37:00.000+09:00

I passed by this spot today. actually, i do so nearly every day, because it's near the place i work. but today it occurred to me that this is one of the best scenic spots of tokyo at night. the town is called ochanomizu. the train station can be seen to the right. it looks almost like an enclosed illuminated building against the darkness above the river. in the back you can make out the advertisement boards of electric city akihabara.

weather report

2006-12-07T09:49:00.000+09:00

I am kind of in an uncreative phase right now, so i will bore those who bother with a seasonal picture from tokyo for a change. all those red leaves should be gone by the time i post this, i think.

standard burger

2006-11-29T23:46:00.000+09:00

I am starting to get obsessed with hamburgers...
oh well.
this restaurant is attached to a fashion brand store called "standard" something.
the shop is situated near to the new south extension of shinjuku station on the takashimaya side and features bloody expensive burger sets, that you have to order self service style (which i think is the "attraction" making it special, and more expensive for that matter...) but taking all this aside the taste is outstanding. i haven't eaten such good burgers in japan, yet. the meat was actually grilled and the burgers have random toppings like avocado, which always wins me over immediately. this set was about 1300yen (roughly 10euros).
delicious.

athlete's foot

2006-11-27T00:05:00.000+09:00

Ok, imagine you want to open a shoe-shop. you want to deliver this sporty feeling, like athletic or so. but putting "shoe" in the name is kind of out and overused. well, why not name it "athlete's foot", right?
good place to buy shoes...

midtown madness

2006-11-26T23:58:00.000+09:00

You have seen them collapse in kobe after the big earthquake. but that didn't mean the end of the concept. recently i came across this construction site where elevated highways will intersect. truly amazing. wouldn't you agree?

ANA Love

2006-11-17T19:51:00.000+09:00

Gosh, just look at this poster advert and repeat the slogan 15 times in fast succession. or is it really just my own perverted mind??

plus the girl is putting on some gloves and the japanese writing says: because i like, because it is winter, i want to go on this journey.

seriously, the second biggest airline of japan should be in a position to have someone capable of english check their commercials, before posting them all over the ... you guessed it ... underground stations.

chewing pudding

2006-11-16T01:07:00.000+09:00

by popular demand...
another sweet review. this time "putcho putcho custard pudding". the japanese don't eat a lot of haribo. which is terrible taking the fact that i adore gummy bears. but once in a while something surfaces, like "putcho putcho", newly introduced a few months ago. this sweet makes me smile some. it is a soft gum filled with gummy pieces. the original taste range went from grape to orange, which won me over already. recently they went a step ahead introducing new flavors, like "apple pie" or the one in the picture "custard cream pudding". i guess the most irritating part is the fact, that it really tastes like the japanese style pudding... me who thought eating some milky pudding would help my magnesium deficits rather than adding some pounds of fat. the difference is the surface of the soft gum which obviously is like rubber, and doesn't dissolve as easy as the original. they even put some half caramelized sugar inside the sweet (instead of the usual putcho putcho gummy pieces) because here in japan you have caramel on top of the pudding).
good stuff.

downfall

2006-11-15T12:17:00.000+09:00

Looking at this advert for the upcoming superdeluxe dvd edition of german movie "downfall" (der untergang) i had to smile some. in germany there was a big deal of discussion about this movie`s focus on hitler as a person and how such a portrayal would make him appear more human and less evil, something like that. so to take some arguments off the critics it was purposefully named the way it was. we all know that a critical review of the recent history is not a topic in public discourses here in japan. so as commercialism counts, the japanese name of the movie is simply "hitler". of course.

next generation

2006-11-14T21:02:00.000+09:00

These are the days for consumer without hesitations like myself, when it pays to be in japan.
so i thought, why not write about the new playstation i tried out this weekend before it comes to europe... 3 months later. lol. lo/.

how was it? endless queues? no problem at all, no queue, nothing. i didn't even planned it, just stumbled into a shop and there it was. limited ingame time to play however. so some kids behind me had to wait 5 minutes longer ;)
but seriously, it somehow flawed my expectations after such a fuzz beforehands. in the way that the new games that were preinstalled just seemed to be not at all new. i mean there was the standard driving game for example: with beautiful landscapes - no doubt- but once you figure that you will have the crystal clear graphics only if you buy one of the new hd televisions as well it doesn't seem so stunning anymore. than there was the typical survival shooter franchise sequel: beautiful surroundings, again, neat animations and every time you kill a bad monster gore splashes out of it like i have never seen before. but why cant i walk freely wherever i want to go to and instead have to follow the prefixed, pre-rendered path of the game designer? i hope they will fix that until the time where prices have dropped and consoles will be actually available to purchase...
thats me in the picture, btw :]
note to self: go to the hairdresser.

R Burger

2006-11-10T01:11:00.001+09:00

Ahhh, what bliss,
i just found another uniquely japanese hamburger restaurant. it currently has two branches in roppongi and aoyama (cool citys for foreigners..). they serve hamburgers that have yeast dumplings (Hefekloesse for german friends) instead of the usual bread roll. mine was a wasabi thuna burger (meshed thunfish). tasty, not tooo tasty though ;)
the chain is very determined to make an impression, as you can see everything in the shop has the "r" of "r burger" in it, even the chairs.
now, yeast dumplings as you may wonder, or "man" as japanese call it are a common sight in tokyo. you can by an assortment of them at every convenience store. the standard one would be filled with the typical sweet bean paste (dont ask..), more fancy ones are called pizza-man and are filled with salty stuff, that remotely tastes like pizza. no big dealfor around 1 euro.

chiba manabu

2006-11-10T01:09:00.000+09:00

Here in Japan the elite of independent architects regularly display their recent achievements in design to those interested (mainly wannabe elite of independent architecture). this is called "open house". you get to see the architecture just after completion, some time before it is given to the client. so happened recently for chiba manabu. an architect i am very interested in, i even tried to apply once at his office, but was rejected because he hadn't any projects at that time (at least that was what his letter said ;).
the building is a four story appartment house with 3 flats. he takes his turn on the clasic concept of freeing space by hiding everything inside walls. and i mean everything: bathroom, toilet, kitchen applications, storage space and working cells, even the air conditioning (which will mean at least one open door throughout all year...)
walldepth obviously gets problematic here, which he deals with by putting mirrors around the openings. those reflect the exterior and make the window itself appear bigger.
the catch though is a light void and adjoining staircase in the centre of the building. one would think that freeing up a large open room was the idea behind it all. but, ... no. interesting...

architecture matters

2006-11-01T23:59:00.000+09:00

People who know me might wonder why i have ignored architectural matters for so long.
here it is. finally i have settled down for this pic i took during my way back from work. i have come to tokyo for its unique challenge of minimal spaces, only to find that sites are merged and apartment towers are blooming out of the earth everywhere. the small scale tokyo, the tiny pieces are hard to find, nowadays.
here is one to be astonished about. just now, i can't remember how such a piece of land is used in europe. i think it might be asphalt extending the street crossing, to make it easier to overlook. not so in tokyo. it's hard to imagine how even a desk would fit into this tiny space.

loose your reservations

2006-10-30T13:46:00.000+09:00

Japanese eat a lot of things that i have never eaten before, which is nice, because if i like one thing, than that's eating new stuff.
recently i had a nice chat whit a promotional saleryman inside the supermarket. he passed things to me to let me try it, like dried little fish and dried squid, etc. than at some point i lost ability to guess what i was tasting, because things started to look really odd. afterwards my friend told me it was basially snail variations. at that time i thought, how lucky that i didn't care about eating this kind of food. it tasted good btw. but i know people who wouldn't have been so calm after learning that they just have eaten snail.
now, i didn't have my camera ready back than. so instead i will post some pictures i took of the free appetizer at a izakaya (japanese style bar) which was given as a free treat. very tasty, indeed ;)

coffee, please

2006-10-28T13:33:00.000+09:00

In the morning on your way to work, there is nothing that catches the mood your in better than a good old can of hot "deepresso", isn't there.
seriously, as mentioned before the output of new products in japan is amazing. every month dozens of new names are introduced which than turn out to be old concepts. as with can coffee from vending machines, basically they all have milk and sugar in them and taste equally bad to a west-europian.
this is a new one, and somehow i think it won't last much more than a month or so. i mean what have the designers been thinking?? (and "georgia" is one of the leading soft drink companys!)
for those wo are clueless, coffee is associated to have deep lavour sometimes...

bicycle diaries III

2006-10-24T01:11:00.000+09:00

Eyes open, this is serious japanese stuff! i think this kind of story won't happen anywhere else.

first. japanese use bicycles to commute from their homes to the nearest station. from there on they use the train, abviously.

just as a side not, for these kind of short distances the japanese invented a special type of bicycle, which you can see briefly on the first picture. it usually looks like a womans bike and to make things worse, it has a basket in front. (i may add, that if you leave the bike, say, longer than one week unattended it will be used as a trash bin)(this is due to the complete absence of trash bins in tokyo, but that is another story...) it also comes with a fixed lock attached to the rear wheel. this is indeed believed to be sufficient against any criminal approach. and it works well, who would steel this type of bicycle anyway?

yet, by looking at the two pictures one might have notices something: there are no bicycles on the picture to the right. these photographs were taken at the same place (nearest station to my home) at the exact same time in the morning. very mysterious, isn't it.

now consider again that everyone uses the bicycle to quickly rush to the station, and back home in the evening. everyone! ... that simply means a lot of bicycles, which completetly block the infrastructure around the station, all day long (untill the commuter returns). the local government therefor forbids to park bicycles around the station in a radius of about 500m! and every morning an old grandpa sticks tickets on every single bicycle to remind the owner of this fact. he will also line the bicycles up neatly so they take up minimum space. that is except for one secret day every month... on that day a truck shows up and takes all of the illegally parked bicycle away.

you can recover it for a fee of about 4000 yen (which apparently is the approximate price you would have to pay per month at a commercial bicycle parking lot, which is usually not close to the stations entrance ;).

of course all this is just part of a monthly routine, and as you will guess noone has ever changed his parking behavior because of any of the above mentioned events.

short summary

2006-10-17T23:47:00.000+09:00

To keep it short. i had some nice hours around gokuji. autumn is at hand. it was a lovely afternoon. ;)

bicycle diaries II

2006-10-14T22:26:00.000+09:00

Another amazing discovery: there are more versions of the old lasersword swinging grandpas out there. found this one today.
i'll call it the tinguely version ;)

bicycle diaries

2006-10-12T23:35:00.000+09:00

Well, the food was plenty and my own belly began to grow some. so i decided to buy a bicycle and drive to work and back from now on, in order to do something about the state of mine. timewise it's the same distance as by train, from door to door about 50 minutes.
very interesting experience so far. today i took my camera to shoot one of the most amazing nightly activities of japanese streetlife: construction sites on roads. just like the shopping district in shinjuku the same saying applies: less is a bore. there are uncountable warning mechanism around construction sites and here are the three variation of what i call the darth vader mechanism: a old grandpa working for ( i guess) 5 euros an hour, swinging the old lightsaber.
version 1 is the natural form - the old grandpa. he usually is very shy. it took me some distance to take a picture succesfully.
version 2 is the techno screen. it might not look very much, but the animation is very smooth vor a 100 by 50 pixel screen
version 3, finally, is what i call the kraftwerk stile. it's a fully automated doll swinging the saber.

toast, anyone?

2006-10-12T00:27:00.000+09:00

More food. time for some serious oddities.
this is something i see all over tokyo, mostly in italian restaurants.
basically it is half a loaf of toastbread with some icecream or syrup topping. this restaurant shop proudly displays a monstertoast at the entrance as it's main attraction?
don't ask me why, i didn't even remotely feel tempted to taste it. all available for for about 700 yen (~5 euros).

"i have a baby in my belly"

2006-10-10T23:41:00.000+09:00

Japan is an ageing society. the government has understood the problem and introduced some measures or plans for measures that should encourage the young to get children. (of course not touching the major cause - something anyone who has been in touch with the japanese education system would immediately identify: financial matters) But small measures sum up, hopefully.
however, recently i was lucky to identify the first installment of a series of measures on the train, where else. (I am not talking about the newly errected gates on the platforms of marunouchi line to avoid young drunkards falling in front of the train before having given birth to a new japanese... although very interesting by itself)
i am talking about the priority seats. one should know that in all trains at the end of each car there are priority seats, distinguished by different use of color and a big sticker indicating that this is for elderly, injured or people involved with small children outside or inside their bellys.
there is a big problem with commuting masses and drunkards (see above) on the train, especially at night. these people are tired and want to sit down. in order to not loose your seat if it is marked priority there are at least two different ways how to behave. tested succesfully by myself. first method would be to fall asleep immediately. best method in my opinion. works even better with newspaper in front of the forehead or earphones blocking accoustic signals like those of caughing elderly, etc.. than there is the shirankao. it translates to "have-no-clue-face". basically it is about the right questions to ask yourself, i mean how are we supposed to differentiate an elderly from the average person in an ageing society? same goes for pregnant women in a society changing food preferences from fish to meat?
but wait, here is where the government sees a chance of improvement. pregnant women should wear a sticker just like the one on the picture above, so there is no doubt about it anymore.

well...

i see two problems here. first, will any japanese, i repeat, j a p a n e s e woman, renowned for their modesty, wear this sticker, imposing their state upon other commuters?
secondly, do work-all-day commuters even care after they have sunken into their hard earned seat? only time will show.

welcome newsZERO

2006-10-03T00:01:00.000+09:00

Japan is a place of restless changes. that applies to food products as well as with television. so, seeing new kinds of sweets every month and your favourit ones disappearing suddenly from shelves (like the melon-pan filled with green melon cream, or the peach juice with little peaces of peach) that doesn't necessarily mean the end of it. they certainly will appear again under a different name or by a different company, a few months later.
these days some recycling was done on television. on channel 4 they started a "new" news programm called "news zero". very amusing name, isn't it. infact it works the same way all japananese news programms work: five to six people sit on a long table, preferably old journalists on one hand and young good looking girls on the other. everyone presents some kind of story that might be called news even. the old guys present more serious ones than the young girls, obviously...
after that everyone comments on the other one's story, comments range from "how sad" to "that sounds fun", period. usually world news are excluded.
so, the zero is actually quite faithful to the concept ;)

food galore

2006-09-28T00:58:00.000+09:00

Ok. some fillers, alright. more food. favourite food.
some references to earlier posts.

first up, the mosburger set with melon soda. gosh.

second one shows ramen. noodlesoup, if you want. there are endless variations of it in tokyo. originally imported from china. so you can't call it your favourit japanese food, really. i forgot where this shop was, but the bowl surely has something.

finally an example of "real" japanese noodle,
you eat it cold. very tasty, once you have gotten over the fact that it's eaten cold.

matsuri returns!

2006-09-25T21:42:00.000+09:00

If it isn't another summer-festival-picture. repetetive topic, i know. but
everyone will excuse my determination to show just this last picture: a traditional happi ; )
no, happi does not describe the part of the body you are staring at.
yes, one doesn't wear long trouser with it. it is still summer, remember?
yes, one actually wears something below beltlevel.
no, he is not a single pervert. every true japanese man wears just a towel on these occasions. no joke.
remember, just like with sumo, the old saying applies: the fatter the bottom the less visible the string. let's sex things up, alright.

let's dance

2006-09-23T18:50:00.000+09:00

Looks like a wicked art performance. but no, it's dead-serious japan.
these guys keep people from crossing the road. the road emerges out of one of seibu departmentstore's parking garages and as you can see it is behind a streetlight. the streetlight will switch to red for pedestrians automatically once two or three cars are waiting to get out. common sense in japan is that one person is there to warn pedestrians about streetlight suddenly (unexpectedly??) switching to red...
by the way, we are talking about tokyo where you'll whitness people around midnight waiting at streetlights on empty roads even in the most remote outskirts of the town or in pouring rain...
anyway, as i said you will get used to seeing one person doing this part-time job in tokyo, but like three of them, i figured was worth a picture.
in times where i question the meaning behind what i myself am doing all day long at my job... these guys in comparison must have a hard time reflecting.

the golden cock

2006-09-22T23:22:00.000+09:00

Summer is season of festivals. this i mentioned earlier. i was able to whitness probably one of the last processions of this summer in shinjuku. the rain and fall are due.
shinjuku is the biggest town in tokyo, shopping malls, luxury brands, brothels, everything at hand, just as you like. a sodom. i don't know about you, but i thought the idea of a traditionally dressed crowd carrying the golden calv around shinjuku quite fascinating...(gucci-shop in the background)

food, once again.

2006-09-21T23:04:00.000+09:00

Mos burger may be more expensive than mc donalds, and the value sets are miserably unvaluable, but their sauce on burgers is delicious like no other and makes mos my favourit hamburger chainstore of japanese origin.
now, japan is an ageing society. older people must be focussed by marketing if profits are to continually grow. secure the old for your products now, and be the winner tomorrow!
and mos burger wants the old!
that is why they introduced a lineup of soup and rice dishes targeting the over 50 crowd which is somewhat not at ease with the regular hamburger.

the picture shows a one of the new ricedishes. not too interesting so far?
now, take a look at the dish again. It's one of japans hillarious plastik displays - not the real deal! a piece of art i would say.

purikura?

2006-09-14T00:42:00.000+09:00

Speaking of schoolgirls. Here is something i found. people who have seen a french movie with a strange girl as main character know that there is nothing suspicious about picking up pictures from people, even if they are schoolgirls, like in this case...
in fact, the purikura - as they are called in japan - are quite a phenomenon with schoolgirls, or girls in general for that matter. they would take these pictures of themself with their friends in special photoboxes that can be found in the average game center, and collect them in books. there is a great variety of machines. different backgrounds, for different ages, with different esthetics... the point is to take the pictures and afterwards edit them with a diversity of special effects, as you can see on the example. this is very refined and great fun, you use a pen on a touchscreen. in other words, divert interest away from your ugly face or embarrassing pose. to add a twist, a timelimit is given.

maybe i'll post my own collection, someday ; )

queen of japan

2006-09-07T19:08:00.000+09:00

Some may have heard of the great news from far east. a possible heir of japans holy throne has been born. not a descendant from the current crown prince, but from his brother.
now, some may have heard about the controversy surrounding the crownprincess, who was put under so much pressure to give birth to a male child that she became depressed, had several miscarriages and will probably never give birth to any baby any more. despite all this, she managed to have a child in the end. a girl - unfortunately.
tradition says, a boy only can receive the crown. should constitutional rules change to make this little girl the future emperor? fractions pro point to history, where once there has been a female emperor(use google), to make a point for female rights that is. but fractions against had hoped for a boy and seem to be getting upper hand now. no immediate need to discuss this matter, as koizumi stated.
why such a fuzz, you ask. some of the greatest monarchies in europe have female heads... god save them. lets try to look at a little bit of background for a minute.

most of you dear readers might suspect (encouraged through ever reoccuring television footage about japanese perverted sexuality like the used panties lovers or obsession with lolita and schoolgirl sex) that all is due to the surpressed role of females in modern japan, the lack of emancipation. This might be a good thought. just to give one example, it seems to be common practice for a woman to get married and stop working right after in order to devote all of her energy to household and children management. Best example is the wife of the crown prince herself, poor darling...
we know that women are great mysteries of nature and men often announce they wouldn't understand women, or their actions for a fact. if western men are puzzled by woman, japanese men are downright frightened of them (usually, the woman approaches the man, like on valentine's day where girls give boys some sweets ;)
in my opinion fear of woman explains the fetish for schoolgirls and alike. they can be - if not understood - controlled and theoretically forced into doing whatever...
However, why can't a woman become the emperor in the opinion of old-geezer traditionalists? the answer: the greatest fears of japanese pair up: xenophobia and gynophobia.
The question tradionalists ask the public is: what if she traveled abroad and comes back with a foreign husband?

picture shows princess aiko, fishing. she won't become queen, it seems.

food

2006-09-06T00:47:00.000+09:00

Interesting in terms of food is a comparison between what my favourite japanese dish is now and was four years earlier (when i lived in japan for one year as a student). back than it ought to have been ramen, a kind of noodle soup. i am sure ill come up with a picture one of these days. back than i spend most of my time in takadanobaba where a diversity of shops provided my noodle demands.

nowadays, i tend to struggle, recently i have replied to a question, i'd be favouring a good old cutlet. yeah, he is german, you might say. but no, having been through universal japanese assimilation processes the typical tonkatsu dish looks like above. merged with traditional tempura, the meal is ready to be eaten with chopsticks only. at this shop at lunch time you have free rice and soup refill for all in all 900 yen (6,50 euro). very delicious. don't forget that in japan free water or warm tea is served and refilled obligatory, as well.

another monday

2006-09-05T01:21:00.000+09:00

nothing new to report, really.
note that i am working five or six days, from ten thirty to 11 at night, usually.
one can imagine that appearences are rare.
i'll use my stock of pictures today.

one of the fine things in tokyo is shopping. one might be surprised to hear such of a heterosexual masculine (which i hereby state). but, yeah the variaty, again, is more than satisfying. sideeffect: value of money is understood, amazing interior designs are witnessed (remember, i am doing architecture)

picture one shows floral ornament in "beams shibuya", the carpet on the other hand...
another picture of the above mentioned beams shop: the cafe on the second floor

yoyogi koen, adventures

2006-09-04T12:03:00.000+09:00

having had no plans for activities today
i consulted the renowned metropolis, a free english weekly magazine for foreigners with dates and stories. i do actually appreciate this magazin once in a while despite it's relatively wide target audience, because reading the usual japanese magazines is a bitch (mostly because reading japanese in general is a bitch).
eventually, this lead to a trip to yoyogi park, where a celebration of another cool (japanese) magazine was held, more like a clubdance festival. it appeared that i was not the only foreign fellow who had read the info. in fact, i was quite schocked how influencial metropolis had become, seeing that nearly half of the people were foreigners. why complain, you ask? living in japan has one interesting point: it's the admiration by japanese for foreigners. obviously admiration wears out with a greater number of them in the same spot... ; )

yoyogi park features the 1964 olympic stadium complex by kenzo tange, which you can see on one of the pictures. this is a cheer to tokyo's application for 2016 olympics.

another picture shows an impression of the dance festival which attracted a bunch of esotherical japanese, neo-hippies you could say, and they wouldn't be complete without the original vw bus, would they.

lastly one should get aware that except for high-class and very cheap restaurants, all depictthe offered goods in some realistic way. often western people are amazed by the very realistic plastic imitates that can be found in front displays of restaurants. this determination to show beforehands what customers will get for their hard earned money goes to some extremes. at the festival a small stand of a homeless guy offered american style ice (crushed ice with a sweet syrup on top). at first i didn't get the exact meaning of the intention behind depicting different ice flavours by putting differently coloured balls into glasses, since the ice itself is neither spherical nor does it get served in glasses. than, i realized how cleverly one aspect of this particular type of ice is articulated: difference between the types is not due to taste, but colour... amazing stuff.

let's celebrate a new beginning.

2006-09-03T16:37:00.000+09:00

well, well.
second post. don't let yourself be fooled by the time span between this and the former post. I AM ALIVE.
life goes faster in tokyo. i will really start off from now with this blog.
it appeared i have less and less time, and if not now, when else?

however, much has changed since last time. but that doesn't really matter i suppose since i didn't reveal anything at all about circumstances back than.

let's start by telling that i am an architect employed in tokyo. and this is my blog.

so let's observe for a moment the images above ;)
one picture shows a sweet i ate at one of those occasion in akihabara, well know to all the otakus and nerds all over mother earth. surprisingly for myself, there is some traditional excitement there as well. it's a salty apricote covered with a sweet jelly. and here is the deal with sweets in japan, if the description of it sounds akward already, the piece itself tends to be not much different in taste...

second picture shows the famous azabu juban matsuri from above. very nice setting.

2006-02-19T18:34:00.000+09:00

welcome to terebi.blog/JP - a blog by Thomas Volstorf