"bLog means boring-Log"

* get indexed
* get rss-fed
* get atomized

august 2008
sun	mon	tue	wed	thu	fri	sat
					01	02
03	04	05	06	07	08	09
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

archives...

writing activity stats

blogrolls...

powered by: blosxom 

nostromo in hello-kitty land, day 9

day 09 is a sunday, and sunday means "yoyogi park"-time! or, in
other words: seeing japanese youth culture live-performing all
around in the park. to me, this means a relaxing sunday with a
rather high WTF???-factor, but not much to do than just staring,
listening, taking pictures, and strolling around.
but to get to "yoyogi park" i had to walk down "takeshita
dori"[001-011], a street full of fashion shops for more alter-
native styles like punks, gothic lolitas, hip hop dancers, etc.
(btw, pictures from day 04, [001-042] were taken right next to
today's locations).
so the first ones i met outside the park were all kind of gothic-
lolitas, and other people in interesting outfits[013-050]. i
think there's not much to say about it, just get an impression
by the pictures yourself.
in the park a gaggle of rockabillies[051-076] was dancing and
having fun (with typical haircuts). look at the timestamp of the
pictures, as later there will be some more pictures of the group.
they were dancing all the time! also notice the shoes[058]. when
i came by later there were all kind of parts from their shoes
laying around. heavy dancing!
next i saw several bands[078-105] with all kind of music genres
and with more, or less skills. a band i really liked was
"vale"[087-090]. so i sat down and listened to their music for
quite a while. it turned out they only had three songs to
perform, but they did that in an excellent way. they gave away
free CDs, so i took one and donated some money.
besides loud music there were also all kind of "permformances",
like this guy with nuchakus[107-109], who was really impressing.
unfortunately only a few pictures turned out to be in focus. a
group of japanese hippies[110] (though their clothes were really
moderated) was also there, like other groups, of which i could
not find out what they were actually doing. maybe some tailor-
ing, or acting, or both? who knows.
then some cosplay (short for "costume play") and other fancy
dressing[121-131] again, with a real cute maid[118-119].
kawaiiii!
some skateboarders[120] were there too and a police officer
stoping at them to talk with them. but it looked more like a
friendly talk and no giving orders or the like. the police
officer drove on and the skaters went on doing their tricks.
back to the rockerbillies again[132-133] - same people, doing
the same dance for (at least) two hours.
and finally another band[134-140] with cute costumes and loads
of fans as it seemed. afterwards i decided to listen to some
more "vale"[141-142] music and returned to their location. in
the meantime it started to rain (though it was more a light
drizzle), but this didn't cool down the air a bit. on the
contrary, the sultiness grew. by 17:00 (and due to the ongoing
rain) most of the performers had already packed and left their
open-air stages. so i also headed for the train station, and
found a beautiful japanese garden[150-156] on the way. since i
got a little hungry i tried this "soyjoy"[158] bar, but the soya
joy was non existent actually. it tasted ok, but the consistency
of the bar was a bit strange.
when i got off the train there was a beautiful sunset with an
dark red sky. unfortunately i didn't make it to the tenth floor
of my hotel in time, so there are no good pictures of the
sunset. too bad. since today i wanted to have maki[165], there's
no new food report. maybe i'll try something yet unknown to-
morrow, let's see.
ah, and today i bought another "nekomimi"-girl "gashapon" - this
is another cat girl (with cat-ears = "nekomimi") in a capsule
("gashapon"). this time i got the black one - yippieh! (see
picture[097], on day 04). i also discovered that power napping
is a great thing, since it can take quite a long time to get to
some station and that's a good opportunity while sitting on the
train to relax a bit.

random facts about tokyo: most taxis have doors that open
automatically, so the passenger can get on more easily. loads
of people have some kind of washrag they use to wipe away
the sweat. i bought one too in the cat store i visited on day 07
(see picture [006]), of course with a cat on it - pretty
convenient, as it's hot all the time and there are lavatories
all over tokyo where one can wash it from time to time.

[ comments (0) // permanent link ]

nostromo in hello-kitty land, day 8

today (day 08), was the big day. today was the "sumida river
festival" with a huge firework, starting from 19:10 to 20:30.
it is in the "asakusa" ward, which i have chosen for this day's
trip. it turned out this was a mistake (sort of), since this
festival seems to be a rather huge one, so many streets were
closed, many sights were unreachable (or at least no police
wo/man could tell me how to get there. but this was also due to
the lack of english knowledge).
on my way there of course i found some shrines and temples like
"edoroku jizo"[001-002], or "myoki-zuka mound"[003-006]. notice
the stone ball[006] in the mouth. i could move it, but not
remove it, so it must have been created while engraving the rest
of the head. pretty cool.
after a long walk i arrived at the "sumida" river site. what i
found was really huge masses of people and loads of police
wo/men. most of the people camped at various sites to get a good
view on the firework. but they started to sit there already at
12:00 - the hottest time of the day. the sports center's grounds
were covered with plastic tarps[007]. this applied to several
streets that got covered this way too.
some more shrines i found were "imado"[008-015] shrine and
"matsuchiyama shoden"[016-033] with a wonderful garden included.
and then i arrived at "nakamise dori"[036-039], a street with
all kind of souvenir shops. it ends at the very large area with
the "dembo"[040-049,065-080] temple, and the nearby "asakusa-
jinja"[075-076] shrine which is located right in the same place
as the "dembo" temple.
besides the "nakamise dori" there are other streets with the
same kind of shops[055-064,107-113]. and there was a performance
by (i think it was) a radio station with these cool actors and
one actress[081-106]. was fun to watch, but i have no idea what
the story was all about.
on my way back i came by the same place again right in front of
the "kaminari-mon torii"[042,053,114], a gate with a red lantern
that is weights 100kg and is three meters high. notice how much
more people gathered there. this got even worse when i went to
the tokyo metro station to drive to the hotel. i had to fight my
way through masses of people all heading for the main exit,
while only a view (like me) wanted to get on the train. once all
people got off the train, it was empty. totally empty.
at the hotel i ate my bento-box[115] that i bought at a "bento
to go" restaurant right across the street. i chose the salmon
bento box. it was delicious though i could not identify the
stuff in the lower middle part of the box. the salmon looks less
delicate on this picture than it did in reality. another piece
of yammiyammi! no dessert today, but i had a "kakigori"[051],
that's crushed ice with syrup at the "dembo" temple. i think
mine was "hawaii" - at least i think that's what the lady told
me when i asked her about the blue liquid's flavour. it was very
sweet, very cold, and very delicious.

random facts about tokyo: pedestriants and cyclists share the
pavement if the street is very busy. though the pavements are
rather narrow, both groups get along very well. no insults so
far or rude behaviour. i found my hotel on maps.google.com.
there's "hello kitty" everywhere - really everywhere[011,014].
young people (of both sexes) like to wear traditional clothes.
japanese have strange toilets[111].

[ comments (0) // permanent link ]