Rockabilly dancing in Harajuku

Nothing says manly like a bunch of dudes dancing in the street in a circle, playing air guitar and flaring the collar on their leather jackets. This is the image created by the rockabilly scene here in Harajuku. While it's just another sign for what makes Tokyo so unique, I do have to give these guys credit for the really brash display of public alcohol consumption and greased up hair-do's. It's been a revival of sorts. Word is these guys and gals dressed up in Grease-style 50's era leather jackets and poodle skirts and danced through the better part of the 80's and 90's before the goth-enthused Harajuku girls stole the limelight. Now it looks like the Rockabilly is making a comeback.

There are multiple rockabilly clubs that meet in Harajuku on Sundays and they all have their own audio equipment that they blast for public consumption. And it wouldn't be Japan without there being some sort of hierarchical structure in place for the club - not everyone can be as outgoing and with their dancing moves. Some people are relegated to play air bass and others are more "back up dancers."

There seems to be enough room for the greaser-rockabilly man and the goth-Harajuku girl, though. That's good to see. You'd hate there to be acrimony between Fonzi and Little Bo Peep. Speaking of the Harajuku girls, there was one who looked like a kind of Strawberry Shortcake doll, who seemed to like posing for people.

Click on the picture to go to a small gallery of shots. Or watch the youtube video I shot below.

Fresh Fish

I went to dinner with some coworkers last night. We ordered a plate of sashimi and on the plate was a fish that had seconds before been alive and well, but who now sat on our plate skinned and carved up into sashimi. We were told not to put our finger in the fish's mouth, because it was still "alive". Low and behold the fish kept opening and closing his mouth, and would even constrict its head and tail if we touched it. Talk about fresh fish!

There's something awkward about looking at a fish who seems alive, and who's being used as a platter on which is served carefully slices of his own meat. I think to myself that I'm sure glad that's not me. But he was delicious.

Spooning on trains

There have been two instances in the last month where the subway I've traveled on is so crowded and so many people feel it necessary to pack themselves into this train that I've literally felt like I've spooned or been spooned by two other passengers. With one, at least I could swing my work bag to give me some space. You know, for those of you who have attended an LDS dance and had to be "Book of Mormon" distance from your dance partner. The other time, however, no such luck. And when you're packed in there like that, there's no concentrating on your book - there's hardly room to lift your hands to read it!

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not in any other city in the world...because there would certainly be more violence on the trains. Can you imagine people in New York packed into trains like this? There would be civil unrest. I guess Japan's not all sunshine and puppy dogs when it comes to their packed trains. Japan suffers from serial gropers - people who take advantage of the tight quarters to cop feels of other unsuspecting passengers. Groping has become such a problem that most trains now set aside one train car solely for women during the morning commute. I've not seen these train cars, but I imagine there's tea, soft music and pedicures between each stop. And how are us guys treated? Well, we're in the rest of the train cars forced to spoon one another on busy days. But I guess in the grand scheme of things, I would rather be spooned than groped.

Visitors

In a really odd way, living the expat life can be like living on the frontier. Certainly it's much easier now that technology and globalization has shrunk the world and made almost every product available. Regardless, living in a place so removed from US-life, like Tokyo, can lead to a frontier mentality. Case in point, we've had family come and visit us twice in the last two months. And in a way we've used our visiting family members as our own Pony Express, carrying to us needed provisions, such as sourdough bread, Chex mix and other frivolous creature comforts of home that we absolutely can't get ourselves to live without.

And gosh, since our family has come all this way to deliver us this food, why not stick around for a while. Shelley's sister Pam, and her youngest son Gary Jr. visited us in March. This last week we hosted Shelley's parents and her newly minted MD younger sister Katie.

As is often the case, our visitors seem to stay only long enough to acclimated to the time change before heading home to suffer yet another week of jetlag reacclimating to the home time. Then there's the sadness of having to say goodbye. It was appropriate that the day Shelley's family left it rained from morning till night. We were reminded that while living in Tokyo does have its advantages, one of them certainly isn't "easy access to family." Summer time seems to be when we get to gorge ourselves with family time.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the Daetwylers trip through Tokyo. Most of these photos were taken by Ed...I can't take credit for any of them. Lots of good pictures of our kids, too.

Why I run for trains

They joke in Los Angeles that the one benefit of a recession is that it reduces traffic. I wish that were the case here in Tokyo as well...but it's not.

The train station nearest my house is the terminus for the Chiyoda subway line - a busy subway line that runs through most business districts in the city. It's also the transfer point for the Odakyu train line, that connects Tokyo's western suburbs to the city. During rush hour these lines, and this station in particular, serve as a major transportation artery.

Consequently, the tiny station is always packed with people. The Odakyu train will come and go at least twice, dumping off its transferring passengers, before an empty Chiyoda subway train arrives.

This subway platform is more than 200 meters long. There are 10 cars per subway. Each car has 4 doors. Standing before each door are three rows of people about 12 deep. That's 144 people per car, or 1,440 per train. Standing next to the three orderly lines in front of each subway car door is ANOTHER three lines of passengers some waiting for the next train, some waiting to make the existing 1,440 existing passengers pack in line sardines. That means at any one time on the platform, there are over close to 3,000 people waiting for a train. Let's say every 10 minutes for two hours this station turns over close to 40,000 travelers. And we're talking about a relatively small station. Can you see what I'm getting at? This place is crowded.


That's why I run. I used to make fun of those businessmen who would burst into a full sprint as they got closer to the train. Oh, how I mocked what I didn't understand! They weren't running to catch a train, they were running to beat another trains' passengers in line! That's exactly what I'm doing. As soon as I hit the train station, I'm using my long legs to propel myself up two flights of stairs, briskly walking through the turnstiles and up another flight of stairs to the platform. If I hear an Odakyu train coming with thousands of other passengers that want my place in line, then I'm running hard and I'm not afraid to push people out of the way. The result is that I'm WAY out of breath and sound like a panting dog by the time I finally get in line. If I can beat the other train's passengers, then I usually can either find a seat or at least stand in a place where I'm protected from the crowds. But if I can't, then it's like being packed in a can of sardines. But more on that in another post.

Cherry blossoms

It's that wonderful time of year when for 10 days the endless concrete of Tokyo is consumed by these soft pink and white blossoms. Despite their extremely short life, their beauty invigorates a country emerging from a cold winter.

This year, my birthday fell on a Saturday and we joined the many thousands of other like-minded locals along Meguro river. It's an especially urban and narrow canal where clusters of sakura trees line both sides of the river creating a beautiful canopy of cherry blossoms. It's quite the sight to behold.

On a day like this where literally thousands of people were cramming into these small streets to view the sakura, it gave occasion for many photography enthusiasts to get out and practice their craft. Now, I like to make fun of Japanese people because it seems to me that they are in love with standing in lines...any line. If there's a line of people there MUST be a reason that people are standing there - so they'll stand there to find out. That's the stereotype, anyway. Well, Shelley served it right back to me saying that if there was a group of people taking a picture someplace, then I would HAVE to go over to where they were and see what they were taking and take a picture myself. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Anyway, sakura viewing, picture taking, family time, wonderful pizza in the park - all in all a great birthday.

I took a few pictures from that day - click on the picture above to see a small gallery of pictures of the sakura and the family.

The view from our office and thoughts on bubbles

As seen in the picture above, this is the view from our offices in the Marunouchi district of Tokyo. As I look out, I thought about the current economic mess that resulted from, among other things, the bursting of the real estate bubble in the U.S. My mind turned immediately to the strip of land before me, the Imperial Palace grounds. During Japan's heyday, some valued the 2.1 square miles of Imperial Palace land MORE than the entire real estate available in the state of California.

When put in its proper perspective, as seen in the red-circled land below, it is ridiculous that a strip of land so small could equal the value of land in a state that has the 7th largest economy in the world. But that's what people were saying. This underscores how easily asset bubbles can quickly get out of hand when investors form irrationally lofty expectations and greed clouds the better judgment of otherwise smart people. It makes me think that it might take some time for the global economy to be able to unwind and regroup from the mess that we're currently in.



Now that we're hitting winter time, the air is a lot more crisp and clear, which allows us to have these splendid views from our 33rd floor reception area. The jewel of our view, however, is Mt. Fuji, which can be seen off in the distance only on clear days, and usually then only in the morning.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So, it's the middle of November and around Tokyo we're starting to see a lot of Christmas decorations. At least in the United States Thanksgiving is a significant enough holiday that people have to focus on it before they can start to digest Christmas. But not in Japan. As soon as Halloween was over the retail shops went into full Christmas mode. Christmas trees, lights, decorations...the works. And there's the unique Japanese spin to it all...I mean what do Godzilla and Christmas trees have in common? If you know, enlighten me.

It's a little disconcerting to see that a country whose population is 99% Buddhist/Shinto has been so taken in by the consumer aspects of the holiday and not the true meaning behind why Christians celebrate Christmas. Truly, this is a holiday that has been hijacked by retail marketers. The story goes that Kentucky Fried Chicken, back when they were new to the country, spent a load of money promoting fried chicken as THE Christmas meal. According to NPR this is one of its biggest money making months of the year. Et tu, Colonel?

So in that vein I'd like to say that the Cannons have joined the masses in starting to celebrate Christmas. Though we would like to retain our rights to make this a more meaningful holiday season. At Anthon's urging, we put the Christmas tree went up on Sunday. Since Halloween Anthon has been talking about it nonstop. Anthon has spent a lot of time staring at the tree and playing with his favorite ornaments that are at his eye level - a squishy santa and a tin nutcrakcer. He even discourages turning on other lights in the room so as to not take away from the tree's sparkly lights. Shelley and I can tell that this is going to be a very fun Christmas season with our extremely excited boy.

Sleeping on Trains

Allow me to paint with broad cultural strokes - the Japanese, especially those in Tokyo, are world class sleepers. This isn't to say they get a lot of sleep, quite the contrary. I believe many in Tokyo suffer from a chronic lack of sleep. But when opportunities for sleep arise, the speed at which people fall asleep is impressive. It's as if there is a latent genetic narcolepsy that takes hold across society at the opportune times. There is no better example of this than on Tokyo's trains. Long work hours and insufferable commute times make trains a fertile ground for sleeping.

You may be thinking that I should leave these people alone. But sleeping on trains is not a victimless crime, mind you. Many sleepers are looking for places to rest their weary heads, and that usually means encroaching upon the space of the person sitting next to them. It's at those times when you have to develop a quick response elbow to keep people from resting their head on your shoulders - something that's happened many a time. A quick jab to the ribs, however, is only a temporary solution as most train sleepers will fall right back to their sleepy ways within moments.



As you can see from the guy above, others sleep on trains because they introduce immense levels of alcohol into their system and it causes them to lose their sense of Japaneseness. This guy uses his man purse as a pillow. He stretches out across four seats and even keeps his shoes on! I've never seen such a brazen display. I have seen, and come to expect, this from mass transit in the U.S. **cough** LA's Metro Gold Line **cough**, not Japan.

Other train sleepers are more advanced - they have mastered the art of sleeping while standing. They jam themselves into a corner of the train and sleep, or they use handlebars as make shift pillows. Some brave souls just stand like cows and let the crowded trains be their protection against the buffeting from the train. Still

The worst of all train sleepers are the fake train sleepers. These are people who fake being asleep so they don't have to give up their seat to the elderly, pregnant or disabled - usually in areas of the train designated for such people. You see them everyone once in a while peeking out to see if the coast is clear.

There a whole host of varieties of sleepers, including the massive snorers. For a non train sleeper like me, this brings nonstop amusement.

Blind runners

Japan is a nation of runners. If you're up early and head to Yoyogi Park, one of the major parks in Tokyo, the pathways will be filled with runners getting in their morning exercise before work.

On the weekends you'll see a large group of blind runners descend upon the park and take to the paths. There usually is a large collection of seeing eye dogs lounging together as their owners get their exercise. These runners partner with someone who can see and run in rhythm thanks to a tether that both runners hold. This not only guides the runner down a safe path, but ensures both runners maintain the same pace.

I've been critical of what I sense as being a lack of charitable spirit in Tokyo. But this is a great example of a grassroots effort to meet the needs of a small population in need. What a selfless and efficient way to help someone with a disability to more fully enjoy his or her life, while at the same getting exercise you would probably get anyway.

To that end, Shelley and I are in the midst of looking for a cause or organization to get involved with - something that we could do as a family. For my Tokyo readers/friends - any ideas, suggestions, recommendations?

The fruit in Tokyo...

When I was in the fifth grade, I went on a class trip back to Washington D.C. to tour some of our nation's historic landmarks. At about the same time my sister Liza went on a European study abroad. One night, some months later after we had all returned, our family was sitting around the dinner table and Liza was regaling us with stories of how great various things in Europe were - the food, the people, the sites, etc. I remember feeling jealous that here everyone was listening to her stories, but no one cared about my trip. The problem was that while Liza was talking about things that were really quite interesting, the only thing that I could come up with was how great the bread was in Washington D.C. I mean, it was true. I had actually thought the bread we ate was quite good and memorable enough to mention to loved ones! Nevermind the fact that we only ate at cafeteria style restaurants our whole week. Nevertheless I was mocked, and still am, for my feeble attempt at drawing attention my way. But such is life when you're the youngest.

So it's with much trepidation, coupled with a desire to take a mulligan on that conversation, that I bring up how great the fruit is in Tokyo. I know that Tokyo isn't what comes to mind as a place to get high quality fruit. But I'm telling you, I've never had so much good fruit in all my life as I've had in the last 9 months in Tokyo. It's that good.

I think part of the reason why the fruit is so good is that there is true seasonality to what you can buy in the stores. So every three months you're treated to new fruit. If it's not in season, typically you cannot buy it. Second, it's been said that the Japanese will pay up for fruit since very little is grown locally and that end consumers will pay higher prices for good fruit. And boy do they ever! As you can see from the picture, at a high end grocery store you can buy two melons as gifts for 26,250 yen, or $250.

The pinnacle of our fruit eating experience has to be a fruit called nashi. It's technically a pear, but is shaped like an apple and has texture somewhere between an apple and pear - not too hard and not too mushy. It's got the smooth flavor of a pear with the tang of an apple. When it's at its peak ripeness, it tastes so good you actually want to shed tears of joy and happiness in gratitude to that Supreme Being who thought to create such a delicious fruit. All this from a fruit that we bought for 100 yen, or $1. Can you imagine how great the nashi would taste if we were to buy the ones pictured below for $10 and $20 a pear? I mean, the fruit would probably cure cancer and the juice would renew life like a fountain of youth. And don't get me started on the grapes. There isn't enough hyperbole to describe my feelings about grapes in Japan.



So, if you've stayed with me this far, you're probably wondering what I think of the bread in Tokyo...and does it live up to the standards set by those run down D.C.-area cafeterias? And would you believe that in a rice country such as Japan the bread is fantastic too? It is...but that's for another post.

It's Matsuri Time

We recently celebrated the fall festival, or matsuri, in our neighborhood. This festival, and many others, are an interesting expression of ancient agrarian Japanese culture rooted in the planting and harvesting of rice. Not unlike most religions and cults, the rice is harvested and sacrificed/offered to the God of the field (or perhaps shrine), so as to ensure continued prosperity. This matsuri, celebrated on the autumnal equinox, has evolved into its modern and urban equivalent - neighborhood leaders and businesses sponsoring rituals for the continued prosperity of their businesses and neighborhood.

Each neighborhood sponsors a mikoshi, which looks like an arc from the Old Testament, and houses the Kami (God-like spirit of Shinto religion) of the neighborhood. Men and women get wildly inebriated and carry this mikoshi around the neighborhood, chanting and drinking along the way, for the prosperity, health and well being of those in the neighborhood. The day’s events culminate in a large gathering of people at the Shinto shrine where there are booths set up for games and food. People will then pay their respects to the Kami (God) of the shrine and make offerings, usually of money.

Shelley grew up in Indiana, in a town very much tied to agriculture, and they too had a huge fall festival to, I presume, celebrate the harvest. While the fall festival in Shelley's home town boasts culinary delights such as deep fried twinkies, frog legs and alligator jerky, the festival food in Japan is not far behind -- chicken skewers, fried chicken, breaded balls of octopus, fire roasted whole fish, Japanese style pancakes, candy, shave ice and chocolate dipped bananas. There are lots of games too, including a game to catch goldfish. Anthon came home with four. A week later we had killed them all. One jumped out of the bowl and dried out over night - we've ruled it suicide. The other three, who were named Nemo, Nemo’s Father and Dori have all gone to “heavenly father” as Anthon put it. I think we starved two of them. The last one may have starved but seemed a bit too stupid to eat. He kept getting close to the fish food, but couldn’t ever get it in his mouth. Anthon, ever the optimist, has asked to go back to the festival for more fish. Shelley may need some convincing.

In the morning there was a child’s mikoshi and drum procession - each child was invited to participate. Run by older community leaders, it was a nice way to transmit important parts of the Japanese culture and history in a fun way to children. We thought Anthon would enjoy it…we thought wrong. We couldn’t get him out of the stroller. He rebounded and at least took some pictures in his matsuri get-up.

Festivals are a great time. Even though Japanese modern society has evolved from its agrarian roots, people still celebrate the spirit of the festival - being grateful for their well being, health, etc.

I’ve uploaded some pictures (as seen above) and a short video of our day (as seen below).

Weezer and my first rock concert in Japan

I first heard of Weezer in 1993 when I was a freshman at the University of Utah. My friend at the time told us a story of the girl he was dating at the time and how while they were making out one night she had a bad asthma attack and she had to be rushed home and hooked up to a big breathing machine. On the way home because of the constricted airways into her lungs she was wheezing quite a bit. She was henceforth called, you guessed it, Weezer. It wasn't until a few years later that I actually knew Weezer for their music.

I had the chance to see Weezer play at a venue two train stops away, or literally a brisk 20 minute walk, from our apartment. I mean, you have to go right? I have to agree with my wife when she says that she is the best wife a guy could have. She not only told me about the concert, but she stayed home with the kids allowing me the chance to see Weezer, whose music I've re-discovered of late with their new album. I bought tickets blindly on an online Japanese auction site, below face value, and I ended up with 12th row seats on the floor. Being head and shoulders taller than everyone in front of me I had an unobstructed view to Weezer...or said differently, Weezer had an unobstructed view of my head.



Concerts in Japan have some interesting differences to concerts in the States. Namely, when a concert is said to start at 6:00 PM, the concert begins promptly at 6:00 PM. There's none of this starting late BS. When a song ends, people cheer, sometimes loudly, but then the crowd of 20k+ gets really quiet. It's almost an invitation for loud Americans to shout something...which happened quite often...but only sometimes by me. And finally, when the concert was over, thousands of Japanese sat there until their section was excused by the faceless PA guy. I kid you not. It was reminiscent of church in my youth when our teacher would only excuse the rows of kids who were quiet and behaving well. No way this flies in the U.S. I of course didn't notice most people sitting until I was well on my way out the door. Come on, I'm from Los Angeles. Weezer is lucky I didn't leave before the encore was over to beat the rush! :)

Both opening acts were local Japanese rocks bands. One of the bands had a guy who seemed to be a J-Rock version of Flava Flav. His job was to sometimes play the electric piano, the kind you sling over your shoulder that looks like a guitar...remember those? And clearly his bandmates were humoring him because he only got to play every third song or so. During the rest of the set, the guy did a lot of fist pumping, a fair amount of mini-trampoline jumping and even tore off his white t-shirt to a less than excited crowd. If this band were the TV show Survivor, shirtless-wonder would be the nice old lady who had fought cancer but was a total liability to her team on any of the physical challenges. He was that guy. Except this time, his cancer zapped him of any and all musical ability.



Knowing I would have only slight interest in the warm up bands, I brought along my Blackberry and let my corporate side mingle with my anti-establishment alt rock side. I was engrossed in some great Washington Post articles about the Lehman bankruptcy, Merrill acquisition and the domestic surveillance controversy. I highly recommend checking them out - even if you're not waiting for Weezer to come on stage.

So, finally to the main event, Weezer. They do something pretty cool before their concert - called a Hootenany. The band gets together with some fans who play a wide variety of instruments and jam on some of Weezer's songs. Even the shirtless / talentless guy was part of the group, fist-pumping to Island in the Sun. All in all, Weezer rocked. They played 20+ songs in their set, even did a cover of Radiohead's Creep. Astonishingly, Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer, spoke most of the night in basic but quite good Japanese. Good energy, sound was good. They rocked. Fun night.

Here's a bootleg video I shot of the concert.

Company Softball

The Tokyo office of the company that I work for takes softball VERY seriously. Every summer we field a team that enters into a local corporate league...and they've won the tournament two of the last four years.

When I think of corporate softball leagues, I think of sweaty fat dudes in their shorts and ratty t-shirts running around and having a beer in between innings. It seems like it's a casual, family affair. It's way different here. The first thing I noticed was that we have uniforms, and hats, made especially for our softball team, with our corporate initials on them. We look like the Yankess. I don't have one, mostly because I probably couldn't fit into one. Nevertheless, I did my best to fill the sweaty, ratty casual stereotype of an American softballer! Another difference is how formal everything was - opening / closing ceremonies, speeches from municipal leaders, real umpires, etc. I was waiting for someone to present the national colors of Japan, someone to sing their anthem and a ceremonial first pitch. No luck.

In my quest to bring more closely together my family life and my work life, I brought Shelley and the kids to the game. Though it was an extremely cloudy day, it was about as chockingly humid and stuffy as it has been all summer. I broke into a good sweat just standing around and thinking about playing softball. On top of that, we all came away with a really good sunburn - even Ella. She looked like a cute cherry tomato. But my family were big time troopers. Nothing screams fun like going to watch someone else play softball.

But having my family there was the best part of playing softball...not the actual physical activity or comraderie with my coworkers. Hearing the cheers from my son is seriously one of the best feelings in the world. Even for a few minutes, I was his hero. From the moment I ran out to center field I could hear Anthon yell, "Good luck Dad!" If I caught a fly ball, get on base or score a run I could hear him cheering for me. Now, all good things come to an end and after a few innings he was off chasing other kids and playing ball. But it was fantastic while it lasted.

Thankfully for Shelley, all of the cheers and congratulations one gives in baseball is just a Japanized version of what you would say in English. Nice catch is "naisu-kachu", one out is "wan owto" and so on. Shelley said it was the most Japanese she had understood since moving here.

My goals for the game were to: 1) not embarrass myself; and 2) not be a hindrance to the team. My first at bat was reminiscent of the scene in the movie Major League when Willy Mays Hayes strides up to the plate, swings hard and knocks the ball maybe three feet down the third base side. When he legs out a single the first basemen says, "Boy, you really knocked the crap out of that one." That's what it felt like to me too. To my credit, I ran hard and legged out a single. I think people were so surprised that someone who swung that hard could have such a piddly result. My next at bat, I hit the ball pretty far into left field, but got caught stretching a double into a triple. I was greedy and couldn't slide underneath the tag and didn't want feel it right to plow into the third baseman. Despite that, I think my goals were achieved. I caught a few balls in center, drove in a few runs, scored a few times and in the end we won the tournament, third time in five years.

Harajuku: Pink Eye

I took this shot right before leaving for the States this summer and I've been sitting on it. As you can see, this girl whom I saw in Harajuku, is wearing pink color eye contacts...not a strange occurence in Harajuku. She was posing for a local magazine that highlights the fashion and trends of the Harajuku style. So like the hack that I am I stood behind the photographer (as did a few others) and snapped a few pictures.

Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.

More Harajuku Girls...

Sundays mean church, family time and trips to Harajuku. I would have gone the last two weeks, but it's been raining. So I had to stay at home. This was Anthon and Rachel's first trip here and I think it's safe to say that Anthon wasn't too impressed. The people giving out "free hugs" were a bit too forward. They would rush after him in their make up, piercings and goth outfits. If I were his size I would freak out too. Fundamentally, Anthon hates strangers touching him...especially his face (inherited from his mother)and so the thought of getting "free hugs" pushed him over the edge and was a bit overwhelming. One of the girls in a pink little-bo-peep outfit, was actually quite gentle and nice to him...but unfortunately Anthon hadn't warmed up to the scene quite yet.

We showed up a bit late, so I think the crowds of "locals" had died down. But the girl you see in the upper left was by far the most interesting. Dread locks, bandages, tattoos yet striking features. Part of what fascinates me is thinking about what these people do in their Monday - Friday lives. I mean, the girl obviously is wearing a wig and what does she do when the bandages come off, where does she work and do her coworkers know she looks like this on Sundays? Not that it matters, but it's interesting to see how people in Japan express their individuality.

Click on any of the pictures in this post and you'll see a few more photos from the gallery of shots taken that day.

Harajuku: Peacock Feathers

This girl is really fascinating to me. She is obviously really into the Harajuku goth/moulin rouge dress up scene and she is Japanese, but she has these really pretty green/gray eyes...much lighter than the typical. She wasn't too interested in posing for anyone. She was sitting around a larger photography crew and was turning slightly away from us amateur hacks...but only slightly.

Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.

Harajuku: Little Bo Peep

I found this girl hanging out with the "Free Hugs" people - a group of people who do just that, stand around offering to give free hugs to people. She was quiet and shy, but nice enough to pose for a picture. Check the main website for pictures of this girl. She's in full pink Little Bo Peep regalia. No pink sheep following her around, however.

Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.

Daytrip to Odaiba

Before jumping into this post, first some background. a few months ago, Anthon choked on a chocolate covered ice cream bon bon. The babysitter knew the Heimlich maneuvre and got him to cough it up...thankfully. Anthon's love for this babysitter has reached saint-like status. Every Sunday at church Anthon, without fail, will go up to her and say something along the lines of, "I was chocking and you saved my life." It's really cute.

Anthon had another brush with danger this weekend at Odaiba - a beach and resort area in the Tokyo Bay. He was stripped down to his diaper, throwing rocks, shells and wet sand into the water, while walking among dead jellyfish and sand crabs. As he walked into the water to wash himself off, he went in a bit too far, lost his footing and tumbled into deeper water. Had he realized it, he could have stood up and been fine, but the water kept him off balance and he struggled to keep his head above water. We were right there and it took a second for both my and Shelley's brain to register that what we were seeing was our boy drowning. He was no more than a few feet from me so I walked into the water and pulled him out. So now at home Anthon will come up to me from time to time and say, "I couldn't get out of the water and Dad saved my life!"

So if Anthon were a cat, 2 of his 9 lives would be gone by the time he's 3 years old. Here's a video.





I've done this once before with my Dog, Lexie. She was hounding my little niece who was walking with a plate of french bread outside. One piece fell off and the dog choked on the french bread. One of you (not naming names or anything) mocked my dog for not knowing how to chew. But I did the doggie heimlich and out popped the french bread.

Anyway, Odaiba is kind of a cool place. It's built on reclaimed land, so you're pretty sure where it's going to end up when the big one hits Tokyo (read: underwater). But in the mean time, there's a replica Statue of Liberty, a giant Ferris Wheel, lots of restaurants, shopping and even a Toyota store where you can test drive cars around the showroom. We took the family there, including Shelley's sister, Rachel, and spent a nice afternoon. Click on the picture below for more pictures.

Harajuku: Bandaged Beauty

Harajuku is a funky part of town not too far from where I live. Young kids, mostly girls, gather on Sunday afternoons in costumes that represent everything from gothic-inspired, anime, Little Bo Peep, Lolita and everything in between. It's a great site to behold.

This girl here has dreadlocks, tattoos and bandages across her face. A very odd exterior, but soft features nevertheless.

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Dragonfly

This picture was taken on the same day as this picture of a drop of water, and this other picture of a drop of water. I was in the Imperial Palace gardens shooting for a good part of the morning on an extended business trip to Tokyo in October 2007. This dragonfly was just hanging out on this hedge and didn't seem to mind that I was following, watching, and shooting him. It was really cool. He was really big!

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Yet another water drop

You might think that I'm obsessed with water droplets, what with that other two shots of water drops that I've uploaded to the photo blog. Yes, you're right. But I couldn't help myself with my macro lens. It really does make it so easy to get up close to clearly see things like a drop of water. Anyway, the depth of field and the focus is the hardest part, of course. If you don't have a steady hand...which I don't...then it could make taking shots really hard.

Anyway, this time this photo was taken in Tokyo. It wasn't in a very peaceful place at all. It was along the side of the road on my way to the Imperial Palace...where I took this shot. It had rained the night before and despite the throng of pedestrians and the rumbling of traffic behind me, I was able to snap this shot. I promise this will be my last water droplet shot for a while...until the next time, right? This shot happens to be my background on my work laptop.

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Our Neighbors, the Harajuku Girls

Harajuku is quite a site and probably one of the most interesting places in all of Tokyo. On Sunday afternoons, girls (mostly) dress up in a variety of goth / lolita / anime-inspired costumes and hang out. In a country that's well known for their homogeneity, these Harajuku girls stand out as the antithesis to Japan's group-orienetd culture. You have girls dressed like gothic versions of clowns, little-bo-peep, little house on the praire, and adorn themselves with spiked piercings, tons of white make-up, massive hair, freaky-colored contact lenses, etc.

Certainly these girls come to be looked at. They come to hang out with their friends. Some are there as part of the "free hug club" and freely want their pictures to be taken. The more hardcore set, oddly enough, can be hostile to having their pictures taken. While they themselves won't stop you from taking pictures, they either turn away from you, decline a picture request, or have one of their old-guy fans (also a photographer) tell you that you can't take their picture. Let's see...public place, girls dressed to shock and get attention. Gee, sounds like people who don't want their picture taken! Though it's not made explicit, my Dad thinks that perhaps a few yen will increase their cooperativeness. Though admittedly, no one likes a gothic sell out. So I choose to grab a zoom lens and shoot from a distance. Click on any of the pictures to see the gallery.

This was actually my second time to Harajuku to see the 'locals'. The first time was when Shelley came to visit me in 2004 when I was here on an extended business trip. She arrived on a Saturday and I took her here on a Sunday - all jet lagged and tired. To say she was freaked out would be modest. Admittedly, it was probably a tactical mistake on my part to take her here so soon. We now live two stops on the subway from Harajuku, or about a 25 minute walk. Upon hearing that we were that close, Shelley told me, "I don't know if I want those girls to be our neighbors." She's coming around though. I don't know about you, but I think Shelley's search for a Halloween costume is over.

There will be more pictures to come. I'm certainly going back with Anthon to not only gauge his reaction, but to also see if he can't interact with some of them. Should be some classic moments.

Asakusa Shrine

On one of our outings, we went to Asakusa Shrine here in Tokyo. I found myself having a hard time shooting because there were so many people and ultimately I couldn't get a good shot without people in the way. I sort of gave in and shot anyway.

I turned this shot into black and white and tried to darken the photograph a bit to lessen the prominence of the people. And as I have done a lot, I colorized the middle lantern.

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Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Hills

Roppongi Hills is a newish development that has a 52 story building - rather rare in earthquake prone Japan - with a city-view observatory. This has a wonderful view of Tokyo from an almost 360 degree view. Here is a shot of Tokyo Tower looking north and east.

I'm not sure how I feel about this shot. I think I like the idea of it and the ideal of what this shot could become. The execution I think is lacking. For one I was standing a few feet back from the glass, in which you can see faint reflections of people standing. That's too bad.

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Four

There is a place in Tokyo called Roppongi which I guess could be called the entertainment capital of Tokyo, especially for foreigners. In reality there are different "entertainment capitals" depending on your demographic. Anyway, On the back side of a large shopping, movie, restaurant complex is this cool lighted wall of glass with numbers spaced every few yards.

Anthon was running around wildly and we were having family night out so I didn't get to spend too much time shooting. I waited for a group of people walking in front of me to get the contrast of darkened, shadowy profiles of people in front of the large number four.

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Picture of the Week: Tokyo has a Nudy Boy!

When we told friends we were moving to Tokyo, they asked us if Tokyo had stores that we were accustomed to, you know - The Gap, Costco, Trader Joes, etc. Well, if finding a Nudy Boy clothing store isn't validation that you live in a big, westernized city, then I don't know what is.

I'll be back in the States in April. Get your Nudy Boy clothing orders in to me early because space is limited in my suitcase.

Tokyo Mosque

With our move to Japan we didn't expect to get a view of a mosque. In fact, I didn't even know there was a mosque. But it has a prominent fixture in our home as we can see it from any room on the western side of our apartment. It's particularly beautiful in the evening and the sun sets behind it.

This shot was taken on one of our first nights here in our new place in Tokyo.

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I love Japanese toilets

I'll be honest, I love a lot of things about our new place. But I love nothing more than the toilets. These babies have a little sensor that causes the lid to open up when you approach the toilet. Come on. Really.



The seats are always warm. You never have to touch any part of the toilet. There is a little remote control that you push to flush, bring the seats up or down, activate the bidet, or hot air spray, etc.

Japan has come a long way in their bathroom technology. I used to live in fear of having to use the dreaded "squatter"...I think you can visualize what I'm talking about. If not, then think of a hole in the ground.

As is the case with any new revolutionary, life-changing technology, you're going to get those who don't totally embrace it at first. Shelley was a little annoyed that the toilet would raise the lid in excited anticipation whenever Shelley entered the bathroom, even when she only wanted to brush her teeth. She at first made me turn off the automatic setting, only to come around after pushing a few wrong buttons and almost falling in late one night.

I'm not sure what one of these babies cost, but as Ferris Bueler once said, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."

I think the only thing it doesn't have is captured nicely by Saturday Night Live...


The Love Toilet

Our apartment

We've been buried in Tokyo without internet access and so we haven't had a chance to update our blog with pictures and stories about our first few days here in Tokyo.

Our apartment is on the third floor of this four story building pictured to the left. We live below a friend of the family who I've known since my days in La Canada...small world. They've been incredibly nice to us...so much so that Anthon has a new "Grammy" that he talks about all the time.

We live in the relatively quiet urban neighborhood of Yoyogi Uehara. It's about a 15 minute walk to Tokyo's version of Central Park with lots of green space, ducks, dogs and open space to run around. The area has a lot of expats as its the closest bus stop to the American School. So there is a nice mixture between local and expat families.

We've found this life in this area is very different from our life back in Pasadena. We can walk pretty much everywhere we go and for longer trips we take the train. Talk of buying a car has been put on hold until at least our little girl is born. Then we can revisit that topic at a time when many expats move home. But we are a two minute walk to the grocery store, three minute walk to the train station and within 5-10 minutes from a variety of small, family owned restaurants, flower shops, book stores, bakeries, etc. It's what I imagined living in New York would be like.

The apartment itself is quite spacious. It's double the size of our Pasadena condo and normally wouldn't have been within our housing budget. But it sat for 6 months open and I think the landlords were looking to get any cash flow possible. We lucked out because they recently upgraded the whole place. While our place is sterile and drafty because our stuff is still on the slow boat, it has a lot of potential. The kitchen, living and dining rooms and master bedroom face the western sunset. While all this light is a blessing in this cold winter, I can only imagine how hot it could get in the summer. The view to the west is of a mosque. Not what we thought we'd be looking at, but as you can see from the picture to the right, it does provide quite the view at sunset.

The kitchen has tons of storage space, granite counter tops and US-sized fridge, dish washer and oven. The bedrooms are large and afford Anthon to have his own room, Ella her own room come May, and an office.

If you're a Google Maps geek, like I am, then here is an arial photo of our place. Yes, it doesn't look like much.


View Larger Map

We'll pass along a more detailed video of our place. But in the mean time, please enjoy a few pictures of our place.

Guess the picture...

So this is a lovely view from inside our new office building in the upscale Marunouchi district in Tokyo. But can you guess where I took this picture you see above? Good guesses would include an office, the entry way to our floor and maybe even a conference room. But you'd be wrong...
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...If you guessed the urinals in the men's bathroom, then you'd be correct! I find it odd that I am close enough to look into the office of someone in the building next door while I'm, ummm, taking care of business. I presume they can see us, at least only from the chest up, though. Good times. :)

A drop of water

I actually took this shot today. I'm on an extended business trip to Japan and had the entire day free on Saturday. I lugged all of my photographic equipment all the way to Japan for just such an occassion.

It has rained the night before I took this shot and that meant plenty of opportunities to take pictures of leaves with little beads of water on them. I've never successfully shot one, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one. maybe it's the closest one I've taken to being remotely shaprly in-focus. This was taken inside the public gardens of the Imperial Palace. I took a lot of time looking for shots - nearly two hours. I had my iPod on and I tuned out the world while taking pictures. A very good day.

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Shibuya at Night

I was in Japan a few weeks ago and I spent some time after work one night in the Shibuya area of Tokyo. Shibuya is known for being the hang out for the young. This shot is taking from Hachiko Square, near the main exit to the train and subway lines and the main entry point into the shops, restaurants and other nightlife of Shibuya.

The picture taken below is a panorama compiled from four individual shots I took with my Nikon. I then stitched the photos together using a really nice piece of free software called, Autostitch. All you need to do is take a number of pictures in succession with some overlapping scenes and then drop them into the program and after a while a panorama will appear.

Over the next few months, I will be spending a lot more time in Japan for work. I am taking my camera each time so that I can take more panoramas of places like the Imperial Palace and the Ginza area, etc.

A shot like this really needs to be seen in a much larger size. Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.