(Original QuickTime video can be downloaded from the archive.org site)
Toshi-no ichi or year-end fairs are held at various places these days. I visited the one at the Fudoson Temple near Higashi-Nihombashi station. Most of the shops seemed to take the opportunity to take a section of their goods outside to sell them. Of course there were also good luck charms available.
I came just in time to see the jugglers of the temple. They were quite good, balancing balls, boxes and even a glass of water. I took a video of the women juggling with glasses filled with water.
Very nice! Since Asakusa wasn’t far away and I took a tripod with I decided to go to Sensoji Temple for some good evening shots. Last time I was there in the evening was in 2004 and back then I didn’t have a tripod so the pictures were quite blurry.
Harajuku station is not so far away from Shibuya station so I took a walk rather than using the Yamanote. I also wanted to visit the Apple Store and when I reached the store there were already preparations for a stage show. The Apple Store in Shibuya appears in some event listings since there are musicians performing there each week. You could still enter the store although people were already queuing outside. The end of the queue was clearly marked but I’ve never heard of the musician and I wasn’t in the mood to stand in line.
Furthermore, the music coming from the other side of the street was really nice. It was a christmas tree between the GAP and Parco store blinking to capsule’s “JUMPER” (look it up on YouTube, it’s a great dance track). Capsule is a duo which did release many jazz/bossa nova tracks but recently switched to electronica. Producer Yasutaka Nakata is also the producer of Perfume and MEG. The tree was doing a good job at blinking in sync to the music.
A greener christmas! There is a project to produce energy by putting mats at the ticket gates which convert the pressure/kinetic energy of the people walking through it into energy. Read the rest of this entry »
One year ago I was visiting Seoul’s equivalent to Akihabara (Yongsan), spend some time at Deoksugung Palace and Seodaemun Prison, found out about traditional homes in Namsangol Hanok Village and concluded the day in Insadong.
This year, with me staying home in Tokyo, I went to another illumination event: “Ruby Christmas” in Omotesando Hills. Omotesando Hills is a window shopping paradise – I doubt there’s a bargain somewhere. Of course they had to choose something classy for their christmas decoration: Two big chandeliers and a “ruby” with a mirror ball inside it. Sometimes the light would change and everyone would stand still to watch.
It was over soon enough and they obviously didn’t want to distract the customers too much.
Most illumination events end tomorrow so I just had to go for another photo trip. The list provided in the “Divable Tokyo” group on Facebook certainly helped
Roppongi has two illumination events to offer, one near Roppongi Hills and the other near Tokyo Midtown. First I went to the Midtown one where one could see this thing:
It changed colours which was accompanied by “Oooh”s and “Aaah”s from the people watching the event.
Much more impressive was the rest: There were animated trees and a big field illuminated with little blue lights. Sometimes white lights would flare up, setting this sea of light into motion. Impressive, most impressive!
Just on the other side of the street was a good opportunity to see the current Japanese cellphones: A stylized christmas tree with lots of glitter, sound effects and light changes which most people only saw through the display of their mobile (me included).
You may think that reindeers are incredibly rare in big cities such as Tokyo. Well, not so much I guess, because today I met one: Inside a restaurant near Omotesando Street in Harajuku. It is one of the few restaurants in Tokyo with more than one vegetarian choice on the menu.
Unfortunately it also belongs to the restaurant where the waiters and waitresses are talking to every foreign-looking person in English. While some of them are quite proficient at it, others look … like a trapped reindeer.
I think Japanese living in a foreign country to learn the language would also think that it’s rude to constantly get replies in your native language. Of course in other countries it’s custom to first address people in your own language and if they happen to look like a trapped reindeer, you would switch to English (or run far, far away).
So next time, I should really pretend to speak no English at all (which takes some effort because after all, I’m only speaking English and Japanese in this country) and hold my hand over the calculator if they want to show me how much I have to pay.
Today I was invited to a birthday party – well, literally everyone was invited. The 23rd of December is Tenno Tanjoubi, The Emperor’s Birthday, and is one of only two days where you can enter the Imperial Palace and see the Emperor and his family.
They did hand out Japanese flags before the entry which could be returned afterwards. While there were many people it was nowhere as crowded as I expected it to be. The reason may be that the square before the balcony is big enough for quite a lot of people.
The Emperor appeared with his two sons, his wive and their wives. In his speech he also mentioned the current financial crisis and he wished everyone good health. Some people in the crowd seemed really enthusiastic about this event and shouted “Banzai! Banzai!”.
The next opportunity to see the Emperor is on the 2nd of January. Note that while it may not be crowded when entering the palace, it will be crowded when leaving… Read the rest of this entry »
Tokyo is full of illumination events these days, but most of them end on December 25th. Lightopia is held near the Imperial Palace and is just a short walk from Tokyo Station. The trees are illuminated as well although I don’t know if they were part of the event:
Unlike other illumination events, where the light comes from big spotlights, Lightopia featured small painted cups. Each of them had a distinct painting – I guess it was a school project. The square wasn’t as crowded as I expected so I had no problem finding a good spot to set up my tripod.
Last movie meet-up for this year! Keanu Reeves latest film has received a lot of attention lately and is used by LG in their commercials for a new handset. The film is of course a remake of the 50’s science-fiction classic with a bigger robot, more explosions and more annoying kids. Of course the big alien sphere landed in New York’s Central Park. There were surprisingly many people in the evening – I thought that one should avoid the Central Park when it gets dark?
Most of the film was quite predictable and of course the army later attacked the robot with everything from a machine gun to jets. Parts of it also reminded me very much of Matrix – so much, that I expected the guys in the suit to call Klaatu “Mr. Anderson”. As Klaatu said in one scene, the new human body takes some time getting used to and by the end he still didn’t master facial emotions.
Photos taken out of the film, when Klaatu makes a short trip to Tokyo
Therefore the director probably thought that to balance things out, Dr. Helen Benson and her stepson Jacob have to show even more emotions. Unfortunately the Jacob character was an annoying brat and **spoiler** when he died for a minute, there was certainly no empathy in our group for him. Unfortunately, he was healed when Klaatu was sacrificing himself, but destroying all of Earth’s technology with a giant EMP.**spoiler end**
One thing I’m currently working on is a HD video podcast. I think this distribution form makes much sense because most people I know aren’t registered YouTube users but have an iTunes account.
Buying a tripod for my cameras has nothing to do with this podcast. I just want to take a few good photos of the illuminations. I have already blogged about the Shinjuku Southern Lights, but there are also special illuminations in Yokohama, the area around Tokyo stations and Ebisu.
Usually I buy all things electronic in Shinjuku and not Akihabara. There are multiple Yodobashi Camera stores near the station and also one that’s dedicated to cameras. They have a floor which is reserved for lens filters and tripods. So I bought my tripod there and will probably use it on Sunday for the first time. Unsurprisingly, the first podcast episode will be about illumination.
Today was also the application deadline for the Kanji test! The Kanji Kentei is a test that verifies your knowledge of kanji and the higher levels go far beyond even the JLPT level 1. The lower level correspond to a school year. I applied for level 7 which requires the 640 kanji learned up to the fourth grade of elementary school. Unlike the JLPT you also have to write kanji and now all readings, stroke order/count and the names of the radicals! Note that most Japanese struggle with elementary school kanji (writing, reading is usually fine) since using dictionaries and word processors has become so convenient. The test is held three times a year at various test sites and is not required to enter university or apply for a job – although it can’t hurt if you can show how good you are at kanji. There are several Nintendo DS games for practising for the Kentei.
Shinjuku set the bar for illumination events quite high (they had penguins!) so I travelled with great expectations to Ebisu Station which is the next station after Shinjuku on the Yamanote Line. There is a skywalk connecting the station and the Yebisu Garden Place.
Although there is a beer museum, they didn’t have an illuminated beer bottle. Instead, they had a big christmas tree, various decorated trees and a chandelier in the centre.
While I give the chandelier points for style, it lacks in originality. In the end I wasn’t very enthusiastic about what I’ve seen, there are much better illumination events in Tokyo.
