98% Grey

I am writing a book. I guess that is one of the main reasons I stopped blogging. It is taking an enormous amount of time.

But I know it is unfair to cut everyone off, seeing how I am a notoriously bad emailer. I will publish some excerpts on lottering dot com for those who are interested.

Just know they are kind of raw. I mean, I am uploading parts I like but they haven't been edited fully. Any comments are welcome. There should be no need to read chronologically, but I am posting the excerpts in the order that they appear in the book.

repause

I have decided to stop blogging temporarily. It may not come as a surprise to you, since posts have gradually petered off anyways. I am far to busy these days and my schedule has changed enough to make it very difficult to find time.

I will use this blog to post only some extraordinary events from time to time...But who knows? Maybe it will come back zombie-like one day in the future. So be ready and know your zombie escape route!

the people's Mario

check out this flash animation.

the people's Mario

the holidays are over

well, I haven`t written in a long time. There are some very good reasons for this.

1.) My good friend, Tom came to visit me.
2.) I had a 10 day vacation and spent it touring around.
3.) The future called and asked for its money back.

I was going to do a big thing about my trip. But you've probably seen most of the pictures of Kyoto. I will instead have to give you the highlights when I remember them.

For now, I will talk about Tokyo. i spent the last few days in Tokyo. We did almost everything you can do in that city. Everything from Shibuya, the busiest intersection in the world, to getting stuck in the National Museum for 5 hours in a freak tropical storm.

Her I am with Tom in Asakusa, where the biggest paper lantern in Japan is. It's a healing place...too bad we got there too late smell the incense from the huge burner. But It was really cool.

This is the pagoda near the shrine. Asakusa shrine is probably the most famous shrine in Tokyo next to Meiji-jinja.

This is the mandatory city view of Tokyo with Tokyo Tower (a red replica of the Eiffle Tour) in the background. It was a beautiful day and the city literally sprawls to the horizon in every direction. It is immensely big. And actually has the same population of all of Canada!!!

This is Tom in a pachinko parlour. Nuff said.

We also stayed in a capsule hotel. Mostly in order to experience all of the possible accomodations Japan has to offer. We stayed in a ryokan, a traditional inn in Kyoto, so aside from a Love Hotel we went slept nearly everywhere. (Sorry Tom, not with you, buddy). But in the capsule you get your own radio, alarm, and TV. When i turned it on there was some Japanese porn on the tube!

This is me when I realised they only have one channel!!!!

We also went to a lot of museums and galleries in Tokyo. My favourite was the 21_21 Design Shift gallery. They curator basically created my dream exhibit. I pretty much designed this kind of art show all through university, but it was never realised. This guy took samples of ever kind of writing throughout the world and typeset it. It was all very beautiful. Unfortunately we weren`t allowed to take pictures...but my camera "accidentally" went off and I got this one, blurry image.

Throughout Tom's trip the weather was perfect. Hot, not too humid, and sunny. The very last day, there was a storm that hit. We were lucky both times it rained. The first time we were in the National museum. We walked through the whole complex twice, reaching the final building just before they closed. The second time we were eating at this nice restaurant. This is the beautiful picture that resulted.

Culture tip #17: Fireworks

Summertime in Japan is fireworks time. After the rainy season companies, towns and cities, and individuals put on enormous fireworks festivals. People flock to them wearing beautiful yukata and drink outside. The fireworks in Kanazawa are consistently better than the biggest displays I've seen in Canada -- or anywhere else for that matter. So without further ado, I'll let you get to the show.








In the Edo period, the two main families who made fireworks were the Tamaya and the Kagiya. So when things heat up, people still shout 'tamaya' and 'kagiya' in response.

summer festivals

Summer is full of festivities in Japan. These pictures come from the Hyakuman Goku Matsuri, the parade celebrating when Lord Maeda entered Kanazawa city the first time. People watch the re-enactment of Samurai walking through the gates and to the castle. Then there is a BIG dance in the main street of the city.

The streets are packed with dancing people. Businesses have their own uniforms, but anyone can join in.



There are many drummers, most of them are ripped Japanese men playing enormous taiko drums, but there are some girls wearing kimonos who also play them...Then there is this girl!

Of course, with any parade there are food and game stalls that follow. The whole park is lined with there stores (most of them apparently run by the lowest level yakuza).
The group of uniformed girls is almost stereotypical Japan.

This is how is looks as you walk through the stalls. There are games, food, toys...video games (This is Japan, after all!)


Here's a traditional game people play. I guess, it's the Japanese 'bobbing for apples'.

They have absolutely every kind of food from Takoyaki...

...to choco-bananas.

But the best part of summer to me, is the people sitting around in yukata.

strange foods

"Good old-fashioned fried egg!"

And after that, you can wash it down with some Plussy juice...whatever that is.