January 31, 2025
Seibu Railways’ ukiyo-e style posters urge commuters to mind their manners
Seibu Railways has had it with rowdy passengers. So they made these lovely Edo-period ukiyo-e style posters to catch their attention and remind them of their errant ways.
Have you been behaving like this without noticing the other passengers around you? We ask for your cooperation in being considerate of other passengers so that you can use the trains comfortably.
And who knows, maybe these offending passengers would be shamed enough to change their behavior that causes inconvenience to other passengers.
Running around in the train
It’s autumn, the season for outings! During fun times such as family trips and school excursions, you can’t help but want to let loose and have fun… We understand that feeling.
However…
It’s not just your friends who are on the train.
What do you think about making noise and running around like baby monkeys in a carriage with many other people on board?
Please be considerate of other passengers and be quiet on the train so that we can use the train comfortably.
Standing near the doors
When the train is crowded, have you ever felt inconvenienced when getting on and off because people don’t move from near the doors or fill up the train?
If you get absorbed in your smartphone, you may not notice what’s going on around you, and you may unknowingly be blocking other passengers’ boarding and disembarking.
To ensure that passengers are considerate of each other and can use the train comfortably, we ask that you leave space near the doors and fill up as far back as possible when the train is crowded to allow passengers to get on and off.
Traveling with a carry bag
Carry bags are very convenient for carrying large or heavy luggage, but if you drag them behind you, you might be causing trouble to someone else without them seeing you! ?
To ensure that customers are considerate of each other and can use the platform comfortably, when moving around the platform while pulling a carry bag, please be considerate of the customers around you, such as pulling it in a visible position.
How to carry luggage on the train
Are you causing a nuisance to those around you without realizing it, such as carrying a large backpack on your back crushing the passenger behind you, or a bag on your arm preventing a seated passenger from standing up?
To ensure that passengers are considerate of each other and can use the train comfortably, if you are carrying large luggage, please cooperate by carrying it in front of you or using a mesh shelf so that your luggage does not get in the way of other passengers.
Walking while using smartphone
You, there! Engrossed in watching videos and playing games on your smartphone and walking around aimlessly without paying attention to your surroundings!
It would be terrible if you bumped into another customer! It would be even worse if you fell under the platform yourself!
In order for customers to be considerate of each other and to use the station comfortably, we ask for your cooperation in stopping in a place where you will not be a nuisance to other customers when using your smartphone.
Last-minute boarding
Spring is in full bloom! This is the season for new lives, and you want to put on your new suit or uniform and have a fresh and comfortable commute to work or school.
But what if you rush into the train with a terrible look on your face just before it departs… Your new clothes or bag will get stuck and ruin it! How embarrassing!
But that’s not all. You might get hurt or cause trouble to other customers…
Please be considerate of each other and use the train comfortably, so please refrain from rushing onto the train and give yourself plenty of time to get to work or school.
Conversations in the car
During the winter end-of-year and new year party season, you want to relax and be quiet on the way home after letting loose and having a great time.
In the midst of all this, what if you start talking loudly and have an exciting debate that no one can stop… What if you end up having a second or third party in the car…?
We ask for your cooperation in keeping the volume of conversations down so that customers can be considerate of each other and have a comfortable ride.
January 28, 2025
Kaoru Ueda’s hyperrealistic still-life paintings
Kaoru Ueda (1928–) is known for his hyperrealistic paintings depicting everyday objects such as raw eggs, jelly and bubbles.
Born in Tokyo in 1928, Ueda began his career as an abstract artist after graduating from the University of the Arts, Tokyo in 1954. He went on to become a successful graphic designer before returning to painting in the 1960s.
His photorealistic oil paintings rendered on big canvases offer viewers a fresh perspective of looking at mundane items that we normally do not pay attention to.
Three years ago, I visited an exhibit of his works at the Museum of Modern Art in Mito, Ibaraki.
Here are some of his works.
January 27, 2025
The English translation of Uketsu’s mystery novel Strange Pictures is out
Uketsu (雨穴), the strange, masked Japanese Youtuber who may or may not be a serial killer in real life seems like a good mystery/horror writer, too.
His book Strange Pictures (変な絵 Henna e) is out in English, to great reviews.
From the New York Times:
STRANGE PICTURES (HarperVia, 236 pp., paperback, $17.99), the first of Uketsu’s novels to be translated into English, is a labyrinthine and multilayered horror mystery, full of cryptic images, about a series of deaths. The book opens with two college students in Tokyo reading a sad, abandoned blog that chronicles a portion of a man’s life. The blog is filled with personal details, including entries about the man finding out that he’s going to be a father and posts about the death of the man’s wife during labor. It also features mysterious drawings by the man’s wife. The students are convinced these drawings contain secrets and work to unravel them.
January 26, 2025
A photo collection of Japan’s nostalgic retro shops
Lee Chapman is a long-time resident of Tokyo and has explored and photographed the countless back streets and alleys of this massive yet conveniently walkable metropolis.
I have recently stumbled on his excellent photo blog that features places not often covered by popular travel sites: old bathhouses, abandoned homes, family-owned restaurants, depopulated cities.
During my first years in Japan in the 1990s, my favorite haunts were the CD shops and video stores (VHS tapes) in our local neighborhood, and I would buy my groceries and have my films developed at the small, family-owned shop in our street.
Now those places are all gone.
And that is why I find Chapman’s collection of Showa-era shops especially fascinating. A nostalgic look at the part of Japan that has almost completely faded into the past.
Below are some of my favorites; more at Tokyo Times.
Junuary 26, 2025
Message by Mongol800
Mongol800 is a Japanese three-piece punk rock band from Okinawa formed in 1998.
I’ve been listening to their second and most popular album Message, on and off for months now. Released in 2001, Message topped the Oricon charts, selling over 2.8 million copies, a first for an indie band, and became the best-selling album by a Japanese three-piece band.
From the Japanese Wikipedia:
They only use three instruments, electric guitar, bass, and drums, and their performances are very simple. On the other hand, Haruo Chikada comments that their confidence in their sound and singing is naturally expressed in their music, and even though their performances are simple, they do not bore the listeners. Their knowledge of arrangements and performance techniques have improved dramatically as they have gained experience.
Many of their songs have a love for the Ryukyus theme, such as “Ryukyu Love Song” and “Flowers Blooming on Contradiction”. Uezu has said that when he sings about his hometown, Okinawa, people may be superimposing his own hometown on the songs. Although there were many straightforward lyrics in “MESSAGE,” he said that he softened the expressions from “Momo” onwards, as the age range of his listeners has expanded with this album. Some of his songs touch on the U.S. military bases in Okinawa, but he has stated that “it’s fine to be anti-base, but singing about the important things in everyday life is closer to what I want to do.”
Listening to the Takashi Gima’s guitar on the opening song “Anata ni” I knew I would like this album.
Probably even more popular than “Anata ni” is “Chiisana koi no uta” (Little Love Song), covered by many artists and performed by high-school bands all over the country.
Inside the CD booklet are interesting photos of Okinawa.
Also interesting is that half of the songs are in English, penned by bassist/vocalist Kiyosaku Uezu, who studied English literature in Okinawa International University.
From the song “For Life”:
Father said “I’m doing this for your own good”
Kids have absolute trust in their fatherToday the father commit a crime
I can’t trust their father’s big back
It’s up to you to decide what to do
Smile your tears away
For lifeWhat would you do
If the world were to come to end tomorrow?
I hope you will always stay by my sideDon’t keep step with everyone
Which do you go to walker way or other way?It’s too late to be sorry
Smile your tears away
For life
Punk songs should be simple in words and music.
Best listened to loud.
January 24, 2025
Cleaning my Topre Realforce JustSystems Japanese keyboard: Part II
This is one dirty keyboard: four years of oily fingers, dust, bits of food, and other dirt.
Some people obsess over keyboards; others (the great majority I guess) couldn’t care less.
I’m somewhere in between.
I use a keyboard almost everyday: in the office during weekdays, and in the house, where I prefer to browse the web with my desktop PC. Also, I have used PCs since the days when keyboards were formidable pieces of hardware, not the kind of flimsy, plasticky “peripherals” bundled with today’s PCs that almost feel like an afterthought.
So I bought a mechanical keyboard, the Topre Realforce that used to be offered by JustSystems store.
Actually, I bought the Filco Minila first, but the lack of number keys made it unsuitable for the office. And now that I have the Topre keyboard for office and the Minila in the house, I have never looked for any other keyboard to obsess over with.
But now the Topre has gotten somewhat shabby from neglect, not having been cleaned since the Covid pandemic. So I brought it home and gave it a thorough cleaning it deserves.
Dirty keycaps removed. Look at the grime on the N keycap.
Soaking in soapy water before lightly brushing with soft brush.
Each keycap thoroughly cleaned, it’s time for rinsing in the sink.
Keycaps getting the afternoon sun beside the window with the plants.
This time I replaced the ESC key with a red one and the ENTER key with a grey one, and left the red SHIFT key, to add a small accent on the keyboard.
It’s like having a brand-new mechanical keyboard every four years.
January 23, 2025
The perfect summer photo of Japan was shot in the countryside of Fukui
We recently drove to Kansai and had a nice time visiting famous places like the Kinkakuji and Kiyomizudera in Kyoto and Tōdaiji in Nara, pretty much standard tourist attractions in these places.
For some reason, we didn’t go to that most Instagrammable spot of all: Fushimi Inari’s Thousand Torii Gates. But we did have a great time walking the streets of Kyoto, and Tōdaiji’s Great Buddha was a sight to behold.
Visiting Japan’s two ancient capitals is probably the best thing to do if you’re a tourist and you want to get a glimpse of the country’s culture.
But while these famous sites are great, the best places for me as a long-time resident are the nameless spots in the countryside among the rice paddies and satoyama.
Below is one of the best photos that I have ever seen of Japan, taken somewhere in Fukui Prefecture the photographer didn’t care to name.
Summer in Japanese countryside in Fukui Prefecture, Japan (@okina12).
Kosuke Okude (@okina12) is a popular photographer on social media for his photos of Fukui’s summer landscapes, including rice paddies reminiscent of the countryside and nostalgic townscapes. The “Countryside Preset” he uses for photo editing in Lightroom is available for purchase on Curbon.
It made such an impression on me when I saw it posted by several pages in Facebook without attribution that I decided to find out where and who took the photo. I eventually traced the source to Instagram, by Kosuke Okude, a photographer in Fukui Prefecture.
Fukui Prefecture faces the Sea of Japan and is especially known for its harsh winters, so it’s refreshing to see photos of its countryside in summer.
The two girls covering their eyes, the stone torii (refreshingly shot from the inside), the path leading to the houses below, the rice fields of harvested rice in the background, the hills and mountains beyond, the great cumulus clouds of summer.
It’s the perfect summer photo.
January 23, 2025
Watch Ichiro being awesome without hitting home runs
Ichiro, the greatest contact hitter in baseball history, Rookie of the Year and MVP in 2001, has just become the first Asian to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame.
A lot of baseball figures have something to say about his skills and personality, but the one thing we learned watching Ichiro is that baseball doesn’t have to be all about home runs, exciting as they are.
Ichiro was an all-around player: he could hit the ball, steal bases, play defense, and even be a ninja when the occasion demands it.
Here he is being awesome without hitting home runs.
January 21, 2025
The art of Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa explained
Possibly the most reproduced image in the history of art, Hokusai’s okiyo-e of a giant wave with claw-like appendages threatening to engulf three little boats while a snow-capped Mount Fuji stands impassive in the background, has been described as iconic, powerful, terrifying, mysterious, unique and omnipresent.
Cover of the 1905 first edition of Debussy’s La Mer (The Met)
Arguably the single most famous image in all Asian art, the Great Wave has inspired and influenced countless artists including Debussy, Van Gogh and Courbet.
As it looms over them, its cartoonish clawed fingers of foam reaching for its prey, the fishermen in their long, sleek boats are forever poised on the brink of annihilation. Like viewers of the work, the fishermen are suspended in time between tragedy and farce. Full of visual play, the great wave takes on human-like characteristics, the smaller wave in the foreground mimicking the white peak of Mount Fuji’s calm and unchanging presence in the distance.
In this 15-minute video, Great Art Explained discusses the historical context of the Edo period in Japan and the birth of okiyo-e, and the Great Wave’s enduring appeal and influence on Western art.
January 21, 2025
Will Japan become one of the winners of Trump 2.0 era?
As companies that trade with the West increasingly look to leave China, Japan is in a great position to remain close to the region’s supply chains while benefiting from a skilled workforce, a business-friendly environment, and a close relationship with the U.S. of primary strategic importance. Enhanced Japanese investment in the U.S., meanwhile, can serve as an engine for American and global economic growth.
Others take a more balanced assessment:
It is cold comfort in Tokyo that Japan probably ranks fourth or fifth on Trump’s list of targets for increased tariffs, after China, Mexico, Vietnam, and perhaps Europe. Beyond the direct cost of 10 to 20 percent tariffs on Japanese exports to the United States, tariffs on products from China and Mexico would disrupt Japanese supply chains by hitting their products assembled in those countries. They would also divert Chinese and Mexican exports to other advanced markets, creating pressure on Japan to erect its own protectionist barriers.
Despite being one of the US’s staunchest allies, Japan will have to figure our how to deal with an unpredictable demagogue.
January 20, 2025
Vietnamese top group of foreigners arrested in Japan
Sankei Shimbun has an article about the increase of crimes committed by foreigners in Japan, including tourists, that focuses particularly on the Vietnamese.
Sankei Shimbun graphic shows number of foreigners (in blue) and Vietnamese (in orange) arrested in Japan from 2014 to 2023
From the article:
According to statistics from the National Police Agency, of the 5,735 foreigners arrested in 2015, the top nationality was Vietnamese, with 1,608. They accounted for just under 30%, far ahead of the second-placed Chinese (1,231).
An immigration official explained, “Vietnam’s political stability has led to an influx of foreign capital, which has boosted the economy. There is no end to overseas travelers.”
A typical method is large-scale shoplifting, targeting clothing from fast fashion chains, cosmetics from drugstore chains, and medicines. Taking advantage of the growing travel craze due to the Japanese food boom, hit-and-run thieves who travel from Vietnam to shoplift and then immediately return to their home countries are said to be stepping up their activities.
Vietnamese people living in Japan have also seen their foreign currency-denominated income drop due to the sudden drop in the value of the yen. There has been an increase in the number of people joining “anonymous, mobile crime groups” that commit robbery and theft through illegal part-time work advertised on Vietnamese communities on social networking sites.
A person involved in the investigation said, “There is no denying the fact that the boom in Japanese food and the historic depreciation of the yen are rapidly increasing Vietnamese organized crime.”
January 20, 2025
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes by Junta Yamaguchi
Tins of Droste Cacao (コパンのうら)
Browsing through Amazon Prime for something to watch last Sunday afternoon, I finally settled on this “science fiction movie set in Kyoto,” which looked promising. I mean, a time-travel film set in Japan’s ancient capital should be good, right?
It turned out that the only piece of Kyoto you’ll see in the film besides the seconds-long shot of a street at the beginning is the inside of a cafe, where this low-budget film was shot.
The Japanese title is ドロステのはてで僕ら (Dorosute no hate de bokura) and I had to look up what “dorosute” means. (“Droste,” I learned later, is a Dutch brand of cocoa from which Droste effect got its name.)
A letterboxd user described it as:
Tenet minus about $199,500,000, minus western actors, minus IMAX cameras (or Arri cameras, for that matter), plus more fun, plus lots of passion for cinema, and plus the makings of being the next “One Cut of the Dead” surprise crowdpleaser. Great little “time-sucker punch” romance.
Which is just as well, because I hated Tenet.
But the Droste film was not bad, although I got a nagging headache afterwards because of the many sequences of walking action shot with handheld camera.
January 18, 2025
Fireflies create magical light show in Kurate Town in Kyushu
Fireflies in Kurate Town, Kyushu by Fukuoka City native J-マッチ
I just realized we haven’t gone out to any of the popular sites here in Ibaraki this winter to view some night illumination. Probably because of the cold.
Looking at these photos of fireflies illuminating a shrine in Kurate Town in Kyushu makes me long for the warmer weather of late spring, although I’m not aware of any forests or marshes around Tsukuba near bodies of water where fireflies are usually found.
From J-マッチ’s blog:
I heard that Hime fireflies live at the foot of Mt. Tsurugi in Kurate Town, Fukuoka Prefecture, so I went there right away. The habitat of the fireflies is still not very well known, and it seems that their presence here was only confirmed six years ago. Even so, there were a lot of photographers there.
There is a parking lot, and the street lights are turned off when the fireflies are flying.
However, this place also does not have the capacity to accommodate that many people, so if it becomes popular, the light from car headlights will likely make it difficult to enjoy watching the fireflies.
Hotaru (firefly) is normally written as 蛍, a kanji much more common in combinations such as 蛍光ペン (keikō pen highlighter pen) and 蛍光灯 (keikōtō flourescent lamp).
On the other hand, the hotaru in Studio Ghibli’s Hotaru no Haka (Grave of Fireflies) is instead written as 火垂る ((insect that) drips with fire), interpreted by some as the bombs that rain down the skies during the firebombing of Japan in World War II.
Also, even earlier than 蛍 is 螢, two fire kanji on top of insect (虫 mushi).
But I digress.
It’s been decades since I’ve seen fireflies in the wild and their population is reportedly declining from habitat loss and light pollution (that makes it harder for them to find each other).
More from J-マッチsan:
Genji fireflies emit light for a long time, so when you photograph them, the light trails form lines, but Hime fireflies emit light at short intervals, so the light trails become dots.
Photographing Hime fireflies is much more difficult than Genji fireflies. Hime fireflies are about half the size of Genji fireflies, and it is said that their light is only 1/4 as bright.
I don’t have a fast lens, so I tried shooting with an f4 lens, but I raised the shutter speed to 30 seconds and the ISO sensitivity to 12800. Even so, I could barely capture the background.
Generally, fireflies fly around the river, so you can see the surroundings to some extent, but Hime fireflies shine in the bushes, so it is really pitch black and you can’t see anything except the flashing light.
Fireflies in Kurate Town, Kyushu by Fukuoka City native J-マッチ
January 18, 2025
‘You carry literal pieces of your mom’
Some researchers believe that people may be miniature mosaics of many of their relatives, via chains of pregnancy: their older siblings, perhaps, or their maternal grandmother, or any aunts and uncles their grandmother might have conceived before their mother was born. “It’s like you carry your entire family inside of you.”
January 16, 2025
Old Japanese schoolbook brush paintings of irises and bamboo
Exquisite brush paintings from a Meiji Era elementary schoolbook Painting Steps Part 1 (畫學階梯 前編1) published in 1892, part of the rare books archive of the Education Library of Japan’s National Institute for Educational Policy Research.
The scanned PDF of the book can be downloaded:
January 15, 2025
The key to Space Invaders’ secret was an accident
While the sound of footsteps slowly growing louder may be a sure sign of impending doom in any horror film, the pulse of video game players quickens to a different beat: the drumming of approaching space invaders.
“My heart used to beat in time to that sound,” says one fan of the 1978 hit game, Space Invaders.
January 14, 2025
Finding Zen among the Japanese clutter
A page from the book Tokyo Style by Kyoichi Tsuzuki, showing an apartment full of clutter.
Matt Alt, author of Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World, expounds on our relationship with material things and why we look to Japan for ideas to simplify our homes.
However, if minimalism and decluttering is a losing battle, we might as well embrace the joys of the glorious mess.
If clutter is such an important part of everyday life here, why is it so often overlooked? The story of the world’s fascination with Japanese stuff is in many ways not about Japan at all. It is the story of our own changing desires, our social anxieties, our urges to consume and accumulate, and our realisation that possessing more things doesn’t necessarily translate into more happiness. In Japan, we believe we have found solutions to our problems.
January 13, 2025
Humorous, poignant haiku about the lowly toilet
The winners of 19th senryū contest held annually by Toto Ltd., the Japanese multinational company that makes bathroom fixtures. Senryū is basically a haiku-form poem that deals with human foibles while the traditional haiku is about nature.
The award for the most creative works went to three poems, all of them most people can relate to:
The word / I hate the most right now / is “Occupied”
Ima ichiban / kiraina kotoba / shiyōchū
今いちばん 嫌いな言葉 「使用中」
– Matchan
Hiragana chart / turns to kanji chart / on our (toilet) wall
Hiragana ga / kanji ni kawaru / kabe no hyō
ひらがなが 漢字に変わる 壁の表
–Natsuki
Refilling toilet paper / is not / automatic, you know
Kami hojū / sorewa jidōja / nai desu yo
紙補充 それは自動じゃ ないですよ
–Mother of a 3-year-old
The frustration of waiting for your turn, people ignoring the empty toilet paper holder, and the sudden realization that you have grown up.
The grand prize went to a woman who submitted a poem “describing the day when her child, who had relied on her to the extent of following her into the bathroom, grew up and left home.”
The day the child / who even followed me to the toilet / leaves home
トイレまで 追ってきた子が 出ていく日
Toire made / otte kita ko ga / dete iku hi
–Satchan
This is one of the good things about haiku: it is so short, what is left unsaid can be the message itself.
More at Toto’s website.
January 13, 2025
How Walmart makes the communities it operates in poorer
An interesting read:
When Walmart comes to town, it uses its low prices to undercut competitors and become the dominant player in a given area, forcing local mom-and-pop grocers and regional chains to slash their costs or go out of business altogether. As a result, the local farmers, bakers, and manufacturers that once sold their goods to those now-vanished retailers are gradually replaced by Walmart’s array of national and international suppliers.
Walmart used to operate in Japan but left the country in 2020.
I’m also not a great fan of Costco, one of the few successful foreign retailers in Japan, but it remains to be seen whether they will have the same detrimental effect on the local economy as Walmart does.
January 12, 2025
How to support someone with depression
“It can look like someone sleeping too much – or not sleeping at all. It can look like someone struggling through the day without any energy, or struggling to get out of bed, to wash, dress or eat. It can look like not responding to messages, cancelling plans.”
January 12, 2025
Live by Murahachibu
I’m currently listening to Murahachibu’s Live album, a 2CD release digitally remastered from the original analog master tapes, and released in 2022. Containing a total of 16 tracks (8 per disc), this is the “Complete Version.”
For many decades Murahachibu’s only album in existence, this recording was made in May 5, 1973, when Murahachi performed a free live concert in Kyoto University’s famed Western Auditorium, with the resulting album was released just two month later on July 3, 1973.
It would be the band’s last performance. Guitarist Fujio Yamaguchi announced his departure after this performance and all the other members went to the United States, effectively disbanding Murahachibu.
I unfold the square paper inside containing the liner notes and read:
Murahachibu was one of the most radical and hippest groups to emerge from the early days of Japanese rock. The band was an anomaly born out of the climate of Kyoto at a time when it was brimming with ancient Japanese culture and innovative creativity, and was the offspring of a drug culture that was even said to be impossible in Japan. Their fierce originality has greatly expanded the possibilities of Japanese rock and has had a strong influence on many artists. A mysterious and fascinating rock 'n roll sound that transcends time and space for more than 20 years and still pulsates with excitement. This CD is a complete recording of the only work released by Murahachibu. (Original Version/Elec Records No. ELW-3003 Released 1973/6/25)
An influential recording in the development of Japanese rock, this album is ranked 4th by Snoozer, and 20th by Rolling Stone Japan on their list of greatest albums by Japanese artists.
January 11, 2025
NHK Documentary: 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki
I have just finished watching the first episode of 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki, NHK’s four-episode documentary about Japan’s foremost living film director. The series shows a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Miyazaki’s creative process in making his acclaimed films.
One particular segment in the video where Miyazaki visited Tate Britain museum personally resonated with me:
A trip to the UK left him with a stunning revelation. It happened during a visit to the Tate Britain art museum. He found himself transfixed by the works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, particularly by a painting called “Ophelia.” Miyazaki was startled by the artist’s minute attention to detail, by how different amounts of light rendered subtle changes in the painting’s appearance.
Miyazaki: "I thought my work is shoddy compared to those artists. I was just astonished. At that point, it became clear to me. Our animation could not go on as before.
While I was growing up we had a book in our house called 1,000 Great Events over which I would spend countless hours reading.
Ophelia by John Everett Millais, Tate Britain
Like Miyazaki, one particular image that stayed in my mind was this painting, described in the book as The Death of Ophelia by John Everett Millais with its richly detailed colors depicting Ophelia (a character in Shakespere’s Hamlet) singing before she drowns in a river.
Of course, I was looking at a tightly cropped image in a small page. It must have been astonishing for Miyazaki to see this this 76.2 cm × 111.8 cm painting in person hanging on a wall on Tate.
I look forward to watching the rest of the series.
January 10, 2025
Wonderful photos taken with Fujifilm x100vi
These grainy, washed out photos by KikiSchmiki suddenly had me missing my Contax and Pentax film cameras. Maybe this time a Fujifilm x100vi would do just fine.
January 10, 2025
‘Life is a bunch of chemicals that take in energy in order to keep each other from reaching equilibrium.’
This video of the death of a lowly ciliate is strangely sad. This single-celled organism has reached equilibrium.
January 9, 2025
‘The internet is rapidly being overtaken by AI slop’
This is not the future of the Internet: it’s the present sorry state of the world wide web where people consume AI-generated content at an unprecedented scale.
From The Guardian:
Slop is everywhere but Facebook is positively sloshing with weird AI-generated images, including strange depictions of Jesus made out of shrimps. Rather than trying to rid its platform of AI-generated content – much of which has been created by scammers trying to drive engagement for nefarious purposes – Facebook has embraced it. A study conducted last year by researchers out of Stanford and Georgetown found Facebook’s recommendation algorithms are boosting these AI-generated posts.
January 9, 2025
Kyoto residents’ parking skills are second to none
A Kyoto resident’s exemplary parallel parking technique.
“Kyoto is famous for many things: history, temples and shrines, yatsuhashi, geishas, bubuzuke… While it’s well-known for these things and more, there’s another item we’d like to add to the list: Its residents’ exceptional parking skills.”
A typical Kyoto street with immaculately parked cars. Katana-wielding samurai are probably sent out by the city government to cut the portions that protrude out to the street.
Foreign visitors in Japan especially note the streets for being clean and car-free.
No doubt one of the reasons the country’s streets are free of parked cars is the government regulation that requires potential car owners to present a parking space certificate before they can exchange their yen for a Toyota or a Subaru.
But while a Saitama or Nagoya native may have adequate skills to put away their cars where they won’t be a nuisance on the street, Kyoto residents simply take parking proficiency to another level.
In Kyoto, inch-perfect parking is apparently the norm.
Says author and Kyoto resident Makoto-san:
When I started living in Kyoto City after entering university, the thing that surprised me the most was how many cars were parked right up against the walls of Kyoto townhouses.
Even in narrow alleys where it’s difficult to turn around, cars were parked just barely against the wall.
Having just gotten my driver’s license, I was constantly impressed every time I walked through the city.
What prompted me to consciously observe the parking techniques of Kyoto people was a light truck parked in front of a tatami mat shop.
I was astounded every time I saw a car parked with its nose rubbed up against the wall.
It helps that few Japanese are obese, because otherwise how would you get out of your car with this kind of parking?
These kinds of parking in a confined space are sure to make us uncouth car-owners here in Ibaraki squirm.
You’d expect pros such as rental car agents or car dealers using impressive skills to move cars in and out of their store lots, but Kyoto residents apparently use the same kind of skill as they go about their everyday mundane lives.
Just one of the many things in Kyoto that you might want to check out when you find yourself walking the streets of Japan’s ancient capital.
For the few Kyoto residents whose parking skills are less than stellar, an old tire propped against the wall prevents untoward accidents.
See more at Kyoto’s Girigiri Parking Collection.
January 4, 2025
How Japan uses increasingly draconian measures to weed out refugee claims
Under the guise of protecting the integrity of the asylum system, governments have taken increasingly punitive measures including detention to control and manage migrant inflows at the expense of the rights of asylum seekers. Japan is no exception. In this short article, I want to draw attention to how, in the wake of an uptick in acceptance rates in Japan, the government has begun using increasingly draconian measures to weed out supposedly fraudulent refugee claims.
People at a busy intersection in Shibuya, Tokyo (Koukichi Takahashi Unsplash)
Japan ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention in 1981 and has consistently accepted a small portion of the world’s refugees. However, despite its comparatively low acceptance rate, Japan is the fourth largest funding contributor to the UNHCR after the US, the EU and Germany – all major reception areas. Active support of the international refugee regime is an important part of Japan’s global image.
January 3, 2025
Climbing Mount Tsukuba on the third day of 2025
We purposely decided to avoid the crowds and do the night climb of Mount Tsukuba on the third day of the year, hoping to see the sunrise.
The weather forecast was clear skies, with 0% chance of precipitation so we went for it.
Torii gates are usually found at the beginning of mountain roads and trailheads, to mark the boundary of sacred areas and the secular world where people live.
A sign says: Please refrain from mountain climbing with light clothing and without a plan because it is dangerous.
This is supposedly the abode of a white snake that will make you rich if you make its acquaintance. We tried looking around with no luck.
This is the first time for K to climb Mount Tsukuba at night, so we had headlights on and dressed in sufficiently warm–but crucially, not waterproof–clothes.
Thirty minutes into the trail, we could feel a light shower of rain falling through the leaves of cypress trees above. We pressed ahead hoping it would go away.
After another hour of climbing, we saw a faint glow up ahead which we thought was the light of some sort of hut. It turned out that two other hikers had started the climb earlier than us and were taking a break from the rain under a tree.
We went past them, and then when we were resting, they passed us by in return.
By which time the light drizzle of unexpected rain had become worryingly bigger drops of rainwater mixed with round bits of hail. We were going to get seriously wet if it didn’t stop.
K inspects the white round bits of hail on the trail.
If we hurried up to the top, there would probably be a place where we could find shelter under a shrine. But we could have been soaked to the bone by the time we got there. In the end, we decided that the best course of action was to not risk it and abandon the climb and try another day.
We found out later that our two hiker friends did the same–we could see their lights above the trail on their way down.
The weather can be fickle on a mountain and it is best to not get wet especially on a cold winter night.
Just before we left the trail, we met another hiker (a gentleman of around 60 greeting us with a merry Ohayou Gozaimasu) on his way up. The rain had stopped by then, although with the gray overcast sky you never know if it would stay that way.
It was still dark when we left the trail, the bright lights of the sleeping city glowing in the distance.
January 2, 2025
Songs and books in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days
I started the first day of 2025 on the right note by soaking up the new year sun inside my living room with my cat while listening to Dire Straits’ Making Movies album.
Our cat Lucifer, getting his daily dose of Vitamin D.
And then I watched Dune: Part Two on the TV.
Apparently, this $190-million sci-fi flick received rave reviews from critics, who probably watched it on IMAX theaters complemented by gigantic speakers. However, since I was watching on my ancient 32-inch TV in my living room, I failed to see the whole point.
I switched off the TV halfway through the movie.
Fortunately, in the afternoon I stumbled on Perfect Days, a film by German director Wim Wenders starring Koji Yakusho, who also starred in The Eel, one of my favorite movies.
The film shows the everyday life of Hirayama, a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo who lives in a modest apartment in the vicinity of Tokyo Sky Tree. Hirayama listens to cassette tapes during his morning drive through the streets of Tokyo, takes photos of trees with his point-and-shoot Olympus film camera, and reads books in his apartment.
It’s a great movie, beautifully filmed, a meditation on our ephemeral life. I look forward to watching it a second or third time.
I also found interesting Hirayama’s preference in music and literature so I listed below the songs and books that appeared in the movie.
| Song | Artist | Year |
|---|---|---|
| The House of the Rising Sun | The Animals | 1964 |
| Pale Blue Eyes | The Velvet Underground | 1969 |
| (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay | Otis Redding | 1968 |
| Redondo Beach | Patti Smith | 1975 |
| (Walkin’ Thru The) Sleepy City | The Rolling Stones | 1964 |
| Perfect Day | Lou Reed | 1972 |
| Aoi Sakana | Sachiko Kanenobu | 1972 |
| Sunny Afternoon | The Kinks | 1966 |
| Brown Eyed Girl | Van Morrison | 1967 |
| Feeling Good | Nina Simone | 1965 |
The House of the Rising Sun is also sung in Japanese in the movie, the 1971 version by Maki Asakawa entitled 朝日のあたる家 (Asahi no Ataru Ie), and a piano version of Perfect Day by Patrick Watson is played at the closing credits.
A number of literary works also appear in Perfect Days.
Hirayama can be seen reading a Japanese translation of Faulkner’s The Wild Palms (also called If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem) in his apartment, and Trees by Aya Koda (幸田文 木).
| Book | Author | Year |
|---|---|---|
| The Wild Palms | William Faulkner | 1939 |
| Trees | Aya Koda | 1992 |
| Eleven | Patricia Highsmith | 1970 |
About Faulkner’s book:
What’s the first book
Hirayama would fall asleep
reading? Without hesitation,
Wenders immediately said,
“Probably Faulkner.” Faulkner
has no new paperbacks.
They’re only found in secondhand bookstores. The
spaces between lines in
paperbacks then were very
narrow, perfect for falling
asleep while reading.
Aya Koda’s Trees (幸田文 木)
One last thing, every morning Hirayama buys the Boss Cafe Au Lait from the small vending machine outside his apartment. I used to buy this too, but I find it now too sweet for my taste.
More about this film from the Perfect Days website.