Sayonara baby
Fear not, you have not been abandoned, dear readers. Far from it! I have so many photo’s and stories to share with you. It’s just that I’ve been out living those stories and taking those photos and making as much of my last weeks and days in Tokyo as possible. Tomorrow I fly to Cairns, to make a fresh start in Port Douglas, North Queensland, Australia.
Tonight, my last night, I find myself in a happy peaceful state. Confident that I’ve made the right choice in leaving, and satisfied that I have given life in Japan all that I can.
I have been taking a photo a day – and usually 150 a day – so once I get myself kinda settled in my new joint – it won’t be long, the internet is already connected – I will catch up on all my outstanding POD pic’s and their stories. I’ve been having quite the excellent farewell period, I assure you.
Japan, I love you, I will miss you and most sincerely thank you for all you (and your kind and generous people) have given me.
I think I might be a grown up now.
See ya on the flipside. Love youz! M xoxoxoxo
Summer fragments
35/365: Aug 14 2008. Got a funny bulky letter in the mail today. Opened it and out fell pieces of a jigsaw. When I pulled the pieces together I was gazing at the beautiful face of a little one I love. This is her eye. Photo jigsaws – such a great idea.
36/365: Aug 15 2008. In a shibuya park I had never seen before, I sat on a park bench and watched the ducks waddle, the carp jump, the mozzies eat and made pinky promises while on a dusk break from a long day of event planning.
37/365: Aug 16 2008. The full moon (in Sagittarius I believe) came out to play at the Tamagawa Fireworks festival. You ain’t never seen fireworks till you’ve experienced the delights of a major summer fireworks festival in Japan. They run for a full hour, and every man and his dog dons their kimono, grabs a bunch of beers and bento’s and treks to the location to sit and shout with delight at the awesome display above.
The Tamagawa one is special as it’s actually 2 festivals in one – Setagaya-Ku and Kawasaki-Ku synchronise their festivals and there is a point of about 5 km’s I guess where you can sit between the 2 festivals and see both displays. Helen, Kevin and Cynthia arrived at the riverbank early to get a spot between the 2 displays, by the time I got there at around 6.30, there were probably over a million people jammed along the river bank. Such a seething mass of delighted humanity.
We were sitting so close to the Kawasaki display that with the opening uber-display we were all screaming and dodging the chunks of soot landing on us (and which continued to land on us for the whole display). Cool. Very cool. After the shows were over we settled onto the tarp, watched the ominous lightning displays in the east and let the crowds dissipate as we finished our beer supplies. I do love summer.
38/365: Aug 17 2008. My friend Nate held a come-and-empty-out-my-apartment-with-whatever-you-want-to-take sayonara party. I headed out there with Tyler and Mihoko and sorted through his junk and watched it all disappear as folks came and went. I didn’t actually take this photo – as so often happens, I left my camera on the ground and someone (a stranger friend Ryan) picked it up and started clicking away.
I like this shot coz it shows the guy Jason sitting next to Tyler and Mihoko. It seems at that party everyone had these weird connections – strangers who found others who lived in their same city block, others who came from the same small districts in the States, others who studied at the same universities in the States…. Me and Mihoko sat there laughing about our lack of connections until Jason arrived. He came – to help a guy he had just met through another friend – to collect Nate’s bed.
“Right, let’s talk about connections, then.” he said. “How long have you been in Japan?”
“Almost 6 years” I replied.
“Have you always lived in Tokyo?”
“No, I used to live in Yamanashi-ken”.
“Yeah, Fujiyoshida, right?”
“Yeah! No Way! How did you know that?”
“We met at a party at a restaurant at Kawaguchiko in 2003″.
Needless to say much merriment ensued. He’s a nice guy. Working as a head hunter now.
39/365: Aug 18 2008. Brazil Flavour BiZ Nite at the lush restaurant/lounge Tableaux was a delight. We knew numbers would be down because in summer virtually the entire foreign community leaves Tokyo and heads back to their respective home countries for a visit, and despite the worries about covering costs, I was kinda happy it would be a chill night – it’s been a manic month.
We had 10 presentations including a magic show by David John, a fabulously fun hoop display from the delightful Deanne, as well as some serious presentations from greats like advertising legend Graham Thomas and film maker David Chester, and a great presentation from the Peace Boat to name but half…. We had about 170-ish people in the house, and the vibe was exactly what we’ve been trying to achieve – relaxed, friendly, interesting. It helps that Tableaux is such a gorgeous space. It also helps that so many of my own good buddies are helping out with staffing: Thanks especially to Masao, Deanne and Christian in the photo above, and also to James, Joe, Isaku, Micky, Jade, Francesca and Vincent. You all rock.
The next Biz NIte will have an Australian Flavour and guess who’s going to be doing a photography presentation there? Yes, indeedy. Moi! September 8 at Tableaux. Mark it in your diaries, and please come along and support me as I nervously stutter and stammer my way through my presentation. 
40/365: Aug 19 2008. This was in the toilet at the Inoko-StaBa (that’s the Japanese slang for Inokashira Koen Starbucks). I teach English to private students here about 4 days a week, and have been doing so for years. The staff at this Starbucks are cool. Most of them have been working here for many years. They know all the regulars by name and drink, and I have been out drinking with them on a few occasions. I would never set foot in a Starbucks in any other country (except maybe Thailand where, I must confess I have indeed spent time inside a Starbucks in Phuket), but here in Japan they offer one of the only non-smoking cafe environments and real coffee made by an espresso machine and that gets my vote. I have no idea what compelled me to take a self portrait inside the washroom – I guess I wanted a keepsake of this little room I visit almost as often as my own toilet…. I quite like the photo considering I was feeling so shattered after last night.
I was told today, after an event planning meeting at the UK embassy, not to mention that I am unavailable at certain times because I have to teach English classes. It looks bad. Ahhhh, English teaching: the bottom rung on the Tokyo Expat social ladder. Funny that the only regular, reliable and decent money I’m making now is from that most looked down upon occupation, while I constantly get screwed for cash in the worlds of photography and event management. I love teaching English. I love my students. Without them I wouldn’t be able to eat.
And these are some of my summer fragments. Such as they are.
Oh, and some more happy snaps can be seen at my facebook albums page.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day, Tokyo
Some fresh air
34/365: Aug 8, 2008. While the rest of the rest of the world geared up for the Olympics (or so I’m told), I spent a quiet day working. This picture was taken in a lane near the Tiger Office, in Shibuya’s fabulously tacky and exciting Love Hotel Hill district. These girls put their pic’s up with phone number and meet up with their clients in a local bar or coffee shop for a date before heading off to ..well, you know. Prostitution is rampant, and even school girls routinely suck/wank cocks so they can buy the latest [insert current hot consumer fad item of choice here]. Strange to me that that despite this kind of schoolgirl fantasy tomfoolery, and the commonplace reading of hard core porn manga/mag’s on the trains in full view of kids and the general public, and a thriving porn industry, Japan has the most sexless marriages in the world.
35/365: Aug 9 2008. This, my friends, is Chris Lynch, one of the adventurers at fourcornersofjapan.net - not that you’d recognise him straight up since he’s lost 12 kilo’s since he left Tokyo back in March. We met at the Indian restaurant opposite Nikko Train Station, in Tochigi Prefecture – about 3 hours north of Tokyo. I was waiting outside with my camera ready to get a kind of action shot. We devoured lunch then wandered about 4 km’s out of NIkko to a camping ground that was a kind of 4-star settlement of rolling hills, forests, lakes, toilet blocks and cooking areas. Cost 2500 yen just to set the tent up there. We spent the sunset sitting in a hut looking out at the mountains and hills and clouds and lightning still snaking through the skies after the afternoons storms, drinking beer and whisky and having delightfully rewarding philosophical discussions about all manner of things. Later, we cooked dinner over a petrol camp stove and played word games and philosophised some more. I have a bunch more great photos from this trip, I will be posting them somewhere soon.
36/365: Aug 10 2008. We walked 16 km’s to the town of Kinugawa Onsen after breaking camp at the very civilised hour of 9-ish. I had slept really badly – it was freezing up there in the mountains and I hadn’t thought to bring a sleeping bag. Chris loaned me his jacket which helped but really, sleeping on a yoga mat in a tent in the mountains in a jacket and summer pants and no blanket is really stupid. And then there was the problem with …. dare I mention it…. the.. (how shall I say it?)… interesting aroma’s [ok, foul stench] that linger in a tent that has been slept in by a feral dharma bum for 3 months, and packed away every day – wet or dry – with no chance to air… *whoa!. Breathing was difficult. even in cold air. Sorry Chris. Had to be mentioned, it was a highlight of the trip for me. Or should I say a lowsmell….? Bwa ha ha ha. Anyway, we walked. And walked. And walked. Stopped at convenience stores for food and drink and toilet breaks, and stopped after lunch in a lovely grassy forest and dozed for an hour and a half. We mostly used the footpaths beside the major highways, but as we got out of the towns, the views were spectacular. Mountains, rice fields, rivers, bridges… and we got to walk through a 900 ft (i think?) tunnel. That was a pretty disorienting experience actually, I had to run my hand along the wall to keep balance as the sounds and lights were so altered. Chris had some horror stories about tunnel passes he’s made. We were lucky to have a footpath. Anyway, we got to the town and headed to the train station where we had a last cuppa and chat and then I made my sleepy-arsed way back to Kichijoji where I met up with Christian for dinner.
37/365: Aug 11 2008. Gertrude, my 5 year old red eared slider turtle had quite a growth spurt this spring. I bought this kiddy-paddling pool at Seiyu for ¥900 and set it up in the garden for her. She loves it. She spends most of her time climbing up on top of her mountain then leaping off it. I love this turtle. She is such a character.
38/365: Aug 12 2008. My litle bro turned 38 today. When we spoke he was just on his way back from Cairns where his wife, Elissa had taken him for a movie date while the kids were in school. Things have been full of change for him lately – he is officially starting up a new real estate agency of his own in Port Douglas. Exciting stuff. Anyway, the photo for today is one of the reasons why I live where I do. Where else in Tokyo are you gonna find kids paddling around in a leafy stream in a big lovely park? Kichijoji. The most liveable city in Tokyo. I passed this scene on the walk into Inokashira Koen where I spent the afternoon drinking coffee, taking photo’s and just sitting and thinking about stuff. I’ve been a little distracted by silly things lately and wandered off the photography path but I’m back on track now. It’s hard juggling 3 jobs at the same time but I have to find the balance to make it work.
39/365: August 13 2008. My kitchen fridge. The fridge polaroid project keeps my kitchen noisy and full of life and good times, even when there is no-one else home (Greg is away scuba diving in Izu this week). One of these days I’ll scan them all for posterity and put them up on the web, facebook probably.
The house behind us is being knocked down this week, and I just received a visit from an old man who had something to do with the house. He told me that there would be a lot of dust and noise and he was deeply sorry for the trouble that it would cause us, and then handed me his name card should I need to complain, and then an elegantly wrapped gift box, offered with three deep bows and as many yoroshiku onegaishimasu’s.
Sometimes I forget that it’s Japan outside.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day, Japan, Photography
It’s 35 degrees and I just ate a frozen mango over the kitchen sink.
28/365: August 2. Jon and I spent a sunny Saturday working on Tiger Music/Biz NItes stuff at the Juice Office in Shibuya.
29/365: August 3. My old friend Michelle was in town from Melbourne for a few days. She comes every year to attend the Matsumoto Suzuki Violin Summer Session. I’ve been out of Japan during August for the past couple of years so this was the first time we’ve hung out since 2005. Last time she came, she brought her violin down to the park and played wild gypsy songs at midnight for Kat, Darin, Tyler and me as we drank beer and let our souls soar as it should when listening to live wild gypsy songs in a park at midnight.
30/365: Aug 4. My turtle Gertrude has had something of a growth spurt and her tank is too small for her now. I put her in the bathtub as a special treat – she loved it.
31/365: Aug 5. Actually, this is another cheat shot. I took this on the morning of Aug 6. On Aug 5th, we hosted Music Biz – a huge event in Roppongi organised in collaboration with the UK Embassy. No chance to even scratch my nose let alone pull my camera out. I woke up the next morning, exhausted and feeling battered, bruised, uptight and late for my first English lesson of the day, and snapped this pic before slowly pouring myself out of bed and into the shower.
32/265: Aug 6. My room mate, Greg the Canadian geneticist micro-biologist brought some pictures of his own home from work. He thinks they are way cooler than mine. I think he’s right. He did explain what these were but not being particularly sound of mind at the time, I can’t remember…. I know they were taken using a massively powerful microscope and that they are little bits of bacteria that have been soaked in formaldahyde and that the spirally ones are completely mutated from the experiments he’s been doing on them in the name of alternative fuel options. Did that make me sound intelligent? I hope so.
33/365: Aug 7. As part of a concerted mental health push, I spent the day chilling round the local ‘hood in Kichijoji with Kat and Jake – lunching, drinking coffee, shopping and hanging out in the park. Jake is so damn cute. Look at that smile wouldya. ADORABLE! Also caught up with Tyler and Mihoko who just got back from the States where they had their 2nd wedding party, complete with yodelling cowboys. Damn, wish I had gone to that one.
I’m off to Tochigi tomorrow to go hiking for a few days with Chris. Cannot wait to hit the mountains and escape this goddamn city. Tonight, Deanne is organising something for world hoop day in Yoyogi, gonna go along and help her raise some money and be somewhere where I have no responsibilities whatsoever. And probably drink a beer or 3 with Christian and Yuiko who are also coming along. Yay.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day, Japan, Photography, Tokyo
The past week in pics…
23/365: July 28. Sandi at a little Thai restaurant in Centre Gai, Shibuya. She is clutching the cracked pepper she pulled from her kitchen to give me. On this day, she and the family officially moved out of their apartment of the past 2 years, and into the landmark Tower Hotel for their last 3 days in japan. After dinner, we moseyed on down to the 300 yen bar and met with Dr Dave, Frederik (moving to Singapore to live the same day as Sandi & Jeff leave) and Nordine (who had tried to straight perm his hair that day with disastrous consequences and was forced to wear a black kit cap, turning him into a dodgy stevedore) and pretended we were in a seedy underground Parisienne basement bar rather than a seedy Tokyo bar, as the Frenchmen at our table bantered in French, English and Japanese. Ah, so multicultural. Oooh la la.
24/365: July 29. Let’s play a guessing game. What is this a photo of?
25/365: July 30. I was left by myself on the platform at Yokohama to head far far north after the final final final last night sayonara dinner for Sandi, Jeff, Max and Dexter in Yokohama . The rest of the crew headed south. This was good-bye. Actually, took a ton of hilarious pictures this night and will be sharing them with you all some time soon… A lovely night. And now they are gone. Sandi made us promise that we will come visit them in Seattle one day. I’d like to honour that promise. I’ve met some great Seattlers since living in Tokyo.
26/365: July 31. The next event for Tiger Music is next Tuesday and things are getting pretty frantic. I had an afternoon meeting with the management at Tableaux lounge for the event after next (August 18: Biz Nite). They are such awesome people, such a pleasure to deal with after the dubious quality of the management at the other venue we are forced to use next Tuesday. Anyway, the meeting went well and the relationship there is set in booking stone for the coming year, which is a seriously great thing. I love this job. And I love this room. I snuck this picture at Ryota-san was making me a coffee. Gorgeous, isn’t it!
27/365: August 1. Friday night in the big city. At home, having a quiet night. This is my special things shrine. When I need downtime, I put on some music, turn on the faerie lights, light some candles and incense and sit on my futon in front of this and try to shut off my brain chatter and be still and recharge. It’s hard. Sometimes I chat to Mum and Dad. Sometimes they answer. But mostly they stay quiet. As they should, I guess.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day, friends, Japan, Photography, Tokyo
1/365: the beginning of the photo a day project
1/365: Sunday, July 6, 2008.
As I mentioned earlier, I am worried that my work at Tiger Music will slow down my photography so I have started carrying my camera with me every day.
I’m really impressed with the work my buddy Tyler Ensrude has been doing on a similar challenge using film. He’s been shooting a roll of 24 every week, and will do so for a year. The results are great.
Anyway, this particular day has already been mentioned briefly below: I took Sandi, Jeff and their kids to Differ Ariake for the Muay Thai championships on Sunday July 6th. It was my first time at a Muay Thai fight, despite repeated (thwarted) attempts in Thailand to get to some fights. It was exhilarating and we had a lot of fun. The blond guy in the photo above was FIERCE. I knew he’d win the moment he stepped into the ring. Tough, mean, scary, disciplined and hot. I took a lot of photos, I couldn’t look away. In this shot, he had just punched the guy to the ground – I got a shot of the poor fella flying through the air but I preferred the look on blondie’s face in this one. You can see the determination.
And so we begin the adventure of A PHOTO A DAY.
Technorati Tags: differ ariake, Japan, photo a day, Photography, Tokyo
Wanna help out at BiZ NITE?
It’s a stinky sweaty day here in downtown Tokyo – I think I can hear the sounds of another thunderstorm rolling in. I’m working feverishly on 3 different projects – 2 of them with deadlines tomorrow – one being the Biz NITE event, kicking off at 6 pm, the other being the photo book I’ve been collaborating on with Kate E Deeming.
The other project has no specific deadline but I am just so excited about it that I have to have a little play on it today. I did a photo shoot with opera singer Akiko Otao on Friday, in collaboration with the team at Mint Salon, and it was SO MUCH FUN and gawd we got some great photos.
Actually, I have a 4th project in the works, too – started it last Sunday, but it is way less demanding and has no specific production deadlines…. I’ve started taking “a photo a day” (to make sure the new job doesn’t keep me away from my camera too much), and will be posting them here and up at Flickr from Tuesday (once all these deadlines pass…)
Anyway, we are in need of some more volunteers to help us make Mondays event (all all our other events) run really smoothly, so if you’re interested in helping out, please fill in the following form. Actually now is a great time to praise the delights of Google Doc’s which is amazing for working collaboratively from the web. For example, this form will feed automatically to the database spreadsheet I’ve set up, and I receive a notification every time it gets updated. Printable too. AWESOME!
The guff. The story. The dispatch. The word. The scoop. The news.
Decided to make a post dedicated exclusively to the BiZ NITE event I’ve been helping coordinate. Keep it simple, ne.
We are still booking presenters so if anyone is interested in doing a presentation or product / services / exhibition / performance launch at next Mondays event, or any of our monthly events can email me at martine@tigermusic.jp
BiZ NITE, French Flavour at Daikanyama Tableaux. July 14th, 2008. 6 pm – late.
What is BiZ NITE?
Tokyo‚Äôs fastest growing networking event for creative business people. It’s a monthly event which features presentations, showcases, exhibitions, discussion panels, product launches and more from the creative industries in Tokyo. Each sphere of interest in the A-Z of creative industries has a Biz NITE nickname, for example photo biz, ad biz, art biz, DJ biz, design biz, eco biz, NPO biz, fashion biz, movie biz, music biz, net biz, sport biz, success biz, VJ biz, wellness biz. Every month the crowds get a little bigger, and more and more people are making it a regular feature on their monthly event calendar to meet with old friends, meet new ones and see a little of what’s going in around the city.
When & Where is this monthly event held?
Biz Nites are held monthly at Daikanyama Tableaux on 7/14, 8/18, 9/8, and venue TBD on 10/20, 11/17, 12/15.
When is the next Biz NITE?
Monday 14 July at Daikanyama/Ebisu Tableaux, 18:00-23:00, with a ‘French Flavor’ to celebrate Bastille Day together.
The venue has a beautiful patio, great food and reasonably priced drinks. In addition to our regular content,
BiZ NITE will host presentations about contemporary French fashion and culture, and about French creative business people’s activities in Japan.
We expect around 300 people to attend community presentations and get-togethers in three spaces throughout the venue.
How much?
Entry: Advance: 1000 yen / Door 1500 yen, (Please buy at least one drink) (To qualify for advance, please sign up as a member at biznites.ning.com)
The first 50 people at Biz Nite receive a Skype headset & calling card.
Who is presenting this month?
7/14 (Mon) ‘French Flavor’ BiZ NITE CONTENTS
18:00-22:30 Presentations & Discussions in Three Spaces:
Ad Biz: info soon
Art Biz:
1) ‚ÄúDr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School: an introduction to the divinely seedy underbelly of live sketching ala Burlesque style‚Äù with MC LadyElle [www.drsketchytokyo.com]
(Plus: 5 minute burlesque dance performance by burlesque dancer Cherry Typhoon of the Murasaki Baby Dolls at 10 pm)
2) “ICON 5: The NY Illustration Conference: A review, and an Introduction to the works of Andrea Innocent and Beck Wheeler“,
a review presentation and slideshow by well-known Australian artists/illustrators/animators
Andrea Innocent (www.otoshimono.org) and Beck Wheeler (www.beckwheeler.net)
3) “Creative platforms to bring different art forms and audiences under the same umbrella” with 4th Skin Arts Network www.4thskin.com
Design Biz:
“WorkVitamins: Why creativity in the office just works” РMartin van der Linden (workvitamins.com, www.vanderarchitects.com)
Eco Biz: info soon
Fashion Biz:
Fashion Biz: “ID SHAPE: new solution for luxury packaging anti-counterfeiting from France” – Lucas Nanini (www.idshape.com)
Lucas Nanini
Movie Biz:
“Surfing DVD Release- Japan’s legendary surfers of the ‘70s enjoy a 2007 reunion in Micronesia” – Michio Degawa (http://www.kooks.jp)
Music Biz:
1) “Panel Discussion: Anime, Games and Urahara Fashion РHow can Japanese Pop Culture Drive
Japanese Music Sales at Home and Overseas?” – Moderator & presenter: Nathan Reaven (www.hearjapan.com)
2) “The New French Music Scene – Preview of French Summer Festival Artists”- Sylvain Delange
(Bureau Export de la Musique Francaise a Tokyo, www.french-music.org/video)
Net Biz:
1) “New Contents Delivery and Gallery System”- Tan Tan (http://ikaros-plan.jugem.jp/ )
2) info soon
New in Japan Biz:
“Revolutionary New Instrument – Tenori-on” – K. Sugii (YAMAHA, www.yamaha.co.jp/tenori-on)
Performance BIz:
Performance Biz: “The making of ‘Tunnelvision’ DVD РChoreographed Performance Art in one of the biggest underground locations in the world,
Gaikaku Housuiro, broadcast on NHK” Monique van kerkhof (www.roboudendijk.com)
Photo Biz:
“Unknown France: A tour of the cheese and wine farms of rural France” by photographer, writer and editor, Miki Toyoda.
Sports Biz:
1) “Update on Hakuba MTB Jamboree 8/16-17” ( www.sweetriders.com)
2) “Reporting about Muay Thai Fight Events” – Chisa Yamane (www.jmc-gym.com)
VJ Biz: info soon
Wellness Biz:
’Awaken to New Dimensions’ РIntroduction to insightful transformation techniques to tap into your inner balance
and potential through Art of Living“ with Marianne White & Keerthana Mariappan (www.artofliving.org)
22:00-23:30 LOUNGE DJs: James Carstensen (Tokyo Electro – Special French Music Mix), DJ Tawara (ultralounge)
See more information in Japanese and English at http://www.stereojapan.com/ and forum http://biznites.ning.com/
So there you have it, as it stands at this point…. I plan to add all changes to the line up as they occur, so keep checking back for the details.
Please come along and say Hey.
Oh, and PS – if you have a blog of your own, please feel free to mention Niz NITE there too…
Stepping back into the ring.
Todays pics were all taken on Sunday, when Sandi, Jeff, M & D & I hit the Muay Thai championships at Differ Ariake, out at Odaiba. So much fun! (zillions more pics to come) Thanks for the tickets, Chisa!
I remember at the beginning of the year writing about my dissatisfaction with life in Japan and how I had decided to try to plug into the foreign community scene some more, to try to get more things happening in both my freelance photography and personal worlds.
In places like Shibuya or Harajuku, I would walk past groups of interesting looking people (Japanese and foreign alike) all hunched over a pile of papers or laptops, excitedly discussing ideas, and it would make me feel so disconnected from the rattle and buzz of this cities’ frenetic underbelly of creative industries. Back in Brisbane, that world was my life: making things happen – events, festivals and festival stages, tours, media PR, planting seeds of opportunity, etc etc etc. I realised just how fulfilled that kind of work used to make me feel. I certainly needed a break from the burn out of those last few tours, but I think 5.5 years was perhaps a tad excessive.
Anyway, earlier this year I hauled my arse out from under the radar, and started going to events and parties – often to photograph them (using my existing network of friends and their contacts), and started meeting new people. In that one simple choice, “getting out there”, I managed to plug myself back into a vibrant active community of stupendously magnificent creative people who are all about the same thing: getting things done and making things happen. The opportunities being presented to me are so exciting that lately some nights I can’t actually get to sleep. I feel utterly alive. Of course, I am also hopelessly weather affected and now that summer is here, the time is right for dancing in the streets.
But this post was never meant to be an ode to how I was lost (erm on holiday) and now I am found. Far from it. It’s to talk up the first of the events I have helped co-ordinate with Tiger Music. And to say to those of you who read this blog and need to meet some people and get things moving in their lives, to please revise the notion that networking is a dirty word. Networking is your friend. Networking plants seeds of potential everywhere because you never know how each person is going to pop back into your life with a proposal or suggestion or introduction that could change your professional and personal life. Step into the ring…. (do you like the way my story kinda oh-so-cleverly segues into the pics…?) But I’m going to do that in a separate post now….
I wonder how it’s all gonna go?
Technorati Tags: BiZ NITE, Daikanyama, friends, inspiration, Japan, parties, Tiger Music, Tokyo
And then bang! Suddenly everything was different…
A frail old woman wearing a pretty dress, holding a walking stick got on my busy train today, and stood looking, a little wobbly, for a seat. Of course, no-one near her offered her one so I stood up to offer her mine, down the far end of the section. She graciously accepted with a smile, while I stood in front of her fuming that I was, once again, the *only one* to stand up for the old and frail or pregnant. When the man seated next to her got up a few stations down the line, she quickly patted the space with her hand and tilted her head up at me with a righteous grin. Nodding, I took the spot and felt better about the world coz, you know, I had made a nice connection with this little lady next to me.
A few stations on, an old man got on, clearly deeply upset by something. Every so often his face contorted up like he was about to cry, and he was wringing his hands constantly, occasionally forming a fist to punch the palm of his other hand and every so often his furious internal dialogue spilled out unintentionally vocally and he would get embarrassed and look down. He wasn’t crazy, I’m pretty sure. Just really upset about something.
A few stations on, a young mother wheeled her little girl in a stroller on. The toddler was a pretty little thing, and as she swept into the carriage she busted out an enormous smile at me and Grandma, and well, hell, it was infectious, we both grinned back at her like a pair of doting fools. As time passed, my attention wandered and when I looked back, I saw a beautiful thing. This little angel had fixed her little beam of joy on the unhappy old man, who was gazing back at her, with red-rimmed, tearful eyes and a soft smile. He got off at the next stop, but not without gently touching her cheek on the way and looking infinitely calmer than he had been when he got on. Ah, Tokyo’s trains. Always something to be observed, and entertained or appalled by.
Keiko and I stood outside the cafe where we had just spent the past hour. We have been meeting every week for about 3 years now, and have become very fond of each other. For a 60 year old, she’s pretty awesome – lotsa fun and very open minded. She reached out and affectionately traced the lines of the tattoo on my shoulder. “It’s really very pretty, isn’t it”. I laughed aloud and shook my head at her – she is such an extraordinary woman. There are not a lot of Japanese women her age who would ever think or say such a thing. Heading back to the station, I was confronted, again, by a wall of posters currently doing the rounds at all the stations. It reads “Be your best” in block letters and it packs quite a punch with me as those were the last lucid words my mother said to me. It recently occurred to me that this December is the 10th anniversary of her death. I wonder if she would have thought my tattoos were “pretty”, and what she would think of my life now. I know one thing for sure: I do work every day to heed her advice. Not always successfully.
Anyways…. I have digressed, as I am often wont to do. I have news to share. Cool news.
I hope the next couple of months will be as interesting as the past few weeks have been.
Life is good. I now wear 3 hats in any one week.
My English teachers hat, looking a little frayed and tired at the edges still cops a beating most days. I’m about ready to throw it into Inokashira Pond but it basically pays the rent so that’s not an option right now.
My photographers hat sits comfortably at a rakish tilt a few days a week. Jobs most weeks, and a book in the works.
And my old event managers hat, pulled out of retirement all covered in cobwebs and mothballs has suddenly been given a healthy new lease on life with a fairly daily dose of action since I met this man…..
my new boss, Jon Lynch. A lovely English fella with a good heart and ADD (a suspicion I have based on the fact that the guy never stops doing, thinking, talking. Never.)
I’m giving him and his startup side company, Tiger Music, a hand to get his vision off the ground. I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew since the man thinks big, but it’s certainly a fun ride and the potential for success is definitely there. It’s an events/PR company, and with all the contacts that Jon has based on his 10 years of publishing music mag’s in Japan (which, incidentally, he is still doing), it seems he knows pretty much everyone across the music/fashion/ad/corporate world in Tokyo, and has an incredibly creative outlook on ways to tie-up all his connections. The main focus at the moment is a monthly Networking event for the creative industries (both Japanese and foreign) called Biz Nite and there are a ton of spin-offs from that, all of them exciting.
And so, I think I may be in Tokyo a little longer than I thought I’d be.
Technorati Tags: Japan, Photography shoots, Tiger Music, Tokyo
I built a home for you, for me.
Kawaguchiko yabusame. Taken back in April, when I did the anniversary pics with Sigsy & Kei. I’m a Sagittarius and am quite drawn to horseback archery. Magnificent stuff. Especially out there at Kawaguchiko, without all the stupid crowds of Tokyo. It’s my 3rd time at this festival. I doubt I’ll ever tire of it.
I used Blurb to make a book for Christian’s 30th birthday. Yuiko and I compiled messages and photos from his rather large circle of friends and family bothe here and in Australia, and edited them into this big, beautiful book. It was all a surprise, and I gave it to him at Araku (Yui-chan had to work till 3 am so couldn’t be there!), the night before he flew back to Brisbane to surprise his friends and family for his birthday. Ha, surprises all round. The folks back home had no idea what the book would actually look like, and they were all so impressed that they’ve ordered copies of their own! Blurb is fabulous and I will definitely be using them to get my first photo books out there.
Jeff (Sandi’s hubby) celebrated his 38th (oh, sorry – ni-ju-ROCK-sai) in fine style at Red Shoes, a cool but pricey club in Aoyama. This great band, The Darkside Mirrors played, 2 hot chicks in the band made them quite photogenic. I missed the best band of the night though, so I’m told, coz i went home early as I am wont to do these days. Anyway, Sandi wrote all about it here.
My old teaching colleague, Lisa is getting married in August and asked me to take some engagement pics for them. We spent a gorgeous day out at one of my fave parks, Showa Kinen Koen and took a ton of lovely pic’s. This is my fave but they both screamed hazakashii (how embarrassing!) when they saw it. Too intimate for Japanese tastes, I think.
The 4th Wednesday of every month at the Pink Cow you can find me shooting sexy models and talented sketchers drawing afore-mentioned sexy models at the now-global live burlesque drawing class DrSketchy’s anti art school. Fabulous fun, this month being no exception.
At the end of each night, we gather the remaining sketchers and crew for a group pic. Actually, we need to start taking this group pic earlier in the night as people tend to head home before the end…. This pic is just of the stayers…..
And here is the Dr Sketchy’s crew: this months model, Svetlana, Pawel, Deanne, Rebekka (Bon Voyage!) and the hostess with the funniest and mostest, Lady Elle.
Meant to post this months ago but…. This is Chris, Ian and I just before we parted ways back in March – me for Nagasaki and Tylers wedding, The Mountain Goat (Ian) for an ill-fated walk across Hokkaido and Chris to Irojima, way down in Sthn Japan.
Mountain Goat shows his ability to read maps.
Mountain Goat counting the hours, minutes, seconds till that plane takes him outta Japan. He abandoned his walk across Japan at the beginning of this week, and arrived at my place early in the morning after an all night bus from Shikoku. He was quite shattered. But is venting his … whatever it is…. in his brilliant literary style at his new blog, The Goat that Wrote. Go add him to your RSS feeds now, he’s an excellent writer. In the mean time, Chris is still braving the trial, and will be updating the Four Corners of Japan blog regularly. He is also a brilliant writer and it’s a fascinating read, these adventures of his.
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Greg, the Canadian geneticist roomie, is off in the States for some conferences and to pay a quick trip to his home town. Hate being left in the house by myself. Especially now that it’s where I spend most days, working. I tend to get irrationally lonely and emotional and wonder what the f*ck I’m doing with my life that, at the age of 40, I have not managed to build a home of my own, with a man and kids and a menagerie of pets and visitors. And then wonder what the hell I’m thinking, calling myself a photographer, when I’m still such a novice! Fortunately, I’ve had a healthy stream of guests to stave off the worst of it. And some great photo shoots to help keep the creative spirit flowing. Can’t wait to share some of the pics from this weekends shoot with Sandi. Amazing stuff, that woman really knows how to work it for the camera. She also knows her way around a scrabble board, the biyotch beat me by 50 points tonight. Helen arrives tomorrow to stay for the week (she has work here in Kichijoji this week), so happy there’ll be someone here at night.
Technorati Tags: friends, Japan, Photography, Tokyo
The Pendragon Tour of Japan
Me, Jackie & Adrian at Ryoanji, one of the most famous zen gardens in Kyoto.
At Kinkakuji, Kyoto.
Our first night together we hit a lush, secret cocktail bar after dinner and drew sketches of each other, setting the theme for the rest of the tour. They are much better drawers than me.
Wandering around Gion, Kyoto.
This cute little puppy was sitting in a pink car. With pink ears.
The trip wasn’t all work, and they actually paid me (got an Arts Qld grant) to be their tour guide and bumbling translator, taking them around to the important shoemaking events and centres. They are shoemakers…..
At Sensoji, Asakusa.
Jackie. We’ve been friends for 23 years. One of the most beautiful people I know, in every possible respect.
I am a tad daunted by how far behind in the blog I have become. I spend SO much time at the computer that it’s hard to extend that time even further to the blog. Right now I’ve been at the computer since midday, working on a shoot I did on Friday, researching some photoshops tricks and – finally – editing some of the pics from Jackie & Adrians trip here and I an tell you now, my ass hurts and there is a pain in the small of my back that I just know won’t go away when I stand up. But I am slowly catching up on everything. And I have put a bunch of happy snaps up at facebook (and also here)so you can go take a look at what I’ve been up to.
If you’re in Tokyo, and you are an artist, you should come to the Pink Cow for the monthly Dr Sketchy’s live burlesque drawing class tomorrow night (Wednesday 28th May). A whole lot of fun with the funniest MC in Tokyo and lots of Yellowtail wine flowing. I’ll be the one with the camera…. See ya there.
Technorati Tags: friends, Japan, Kyoto, Photography, Tokyo, travel
Hiwatari Festival
A little while back – somewhere before the big night out with old buddies Billy and Sean, and another big night out with the J-ster, and another big night out for the walkers at their itterashai party, somewhere before I started archiving all my stuff to photoshelter (nothing visible to the public yet) and somewhere in amongst an excessive schedule of private lessons over a 6 day period, I had a lovely day out at Takao with Mountaingoat. This is a pretty pic I shot of him at the end of the day. He looks so pretty and huggable, doesn’t he. “Kind eyes”. (Who says the camera never lies?) He he. No, I love this pic and I’m so glad I caught this well-hidden aspect to the gruff cynical old bastard.
Anyway, he wrote a really cool story about our day out there at Takao, so go read it here. And my Hiwatari gallery can be found at the usual place. I chose to edit these pics with a bit of an ol-timey feeling since it is such a timeless ceremony and place.
I am totally backlogged with stories to tell and pictures to show but am heading off to Nagasaki for Tyler & Mihoko’s wedding in a few days so don’t know if I’ll get time to catch up… I’ll do my best though. It’s been a fun time. It should be remembered.
Kenta
My friend Kenta is an awesome artist. We met up for lunch and coffee on Sunday, in Nishi-Ogikubo. He knew a cool organic restaurant there. The food was delicious, we both had the vegetarian set. I loved the use of a peanut as a chopstick rest.
After lunch we wandered around and found one of those little old-school Japanese style coffee shops, full of the owners eccentric tastes – an owl hooted every time someone walked through the door, the walls were covered in old clocks and strange memorabilia and dozens of chandeliers hung from the ceiling. In one corner there was a traditional kitchen hearth complete with iron fish-hook suspended above the fireplace.
We sat and talked for hours. He’s an interesting guy. He cycled from Tokyo to Bangkok via China, lived in Thailand for a long time, travelled all over Asia, parts of Australia and Samoa and speaks English and Thai equally fluently. His whole life is documented in the most beautiful diaries, most pages with drawings he made for each day.
These pages were written in Thailand.
This was a poem and sketch he made for his Granddad. He had died a month before but his Mum didn’t tell him because she didn’t want him to cut his trip short.
This was in Malaysia.
He’s just had one of his designs put on a tee-shirt at Patagonia and dreams of a simple life where he can travel and draw every day, instead of working in a Thai kitchen as a cook 6 days a week. His portfolio is seriously awesome.
We hugged our farewells on the train platform – he was off to Shibuya to check the in-store display of his shirt at Patagonia, and I was off home to write epitaphs. As I went, I looked at all the rushing people around me and wondered what their dreams are, and if they’ll ever achieve them before the grind of daily life crushes all their fire into ash. God, I hope I do. And I really hope Kenta does too. The phrase “leap and the net will appear” is ringing in my head louder than ever.
Mishaal and miscellania
Mishaal is a Tokyo based belly dancer. Quite possibly the best belly dancer I’ve ever seen. Here’s her website. I saw her at a Greenpeace event in Ebisu that Yama-chan dragged me to. Very happy that she did. More pics up at Flickr.
Technorati Tags: araku, bellydance, canon, Canon Digital Rebel, canon300D, flickr, life, photography, mishaal, sigma17-70mm, tokyo
Crack and almighty mundanity.
For a very long time, MissSin has been telling me that I *HAD* to meet her new friend, Sandi. Sandi is a relative newcomer to Japan, having only lived here 8 months. She moved here from Seattle with her hubby Jeff (an IT dude) and 2 sons. She and her hubby are into music, and love da rock’n'punk’n'roll and boozing. Well, meet we did, some time ago, and Helen was right. We bonded over bad 80′s music nostalgia in the back seat of the hire car on an overnight road trip back from Izu. She is the first person I have met in a very long time who can tell – a few bars in to a song – whether it’s Visage or OMD or Flock of Seagulls or New Order or Adam and the Ants or Bow Wow Wow or… well, you get the picture. It’s nice to hang with someone who’s kinda my age. She gave me a double CD mix of obscure 80′s classics and I listen to it often. Anyway, she came up for an overnighter here in Kichijoji on Friday night and we had a night on the town while Hubby looked after the kids. She writes in much more detail than I am able to anymore, so you can read about our adventures here.
Yuri-chan is an awesome percussionist who studied for a while in Cuba.
Ka-Kunn is an awesome Saxophonist from Osaka. He moved to Tokyo recently to become a full time musician. This man loves colour and I have never seen him in anything that is not flourescent or exceptionally vivid. His sneakers are bright emerald . He tells me Osaka-ians love colour and vibrant energy and parties and are much more friendly and out-going than their Tokyo cousins. If he is anything to go by I think I have to re-think my dis-interest in Osaka.
I think this was in amongst the disco dancing at Mikorins on Friday night….
A self-portrait that I messed around with in Lightroom for fun . Love the movie-still effect I somehow accidentally pulled together.
I’ve been playing more and more with Lightroom and have been finally, utterly convinced of the power of shooting in RAW format. I can’t believe it took me so long. My main hindrances were a lack of software – the trial software I downloaded over New Years seemed really expensive and daunting so I never really got around to it – and a lack of confidence.
Really really really glad I finally took the step of buying (a legal version of!) Lightroom and downloading a bunch of (paid for) tutorials to help me understand how to use it properly. It makes me feel like I’ve just entered a whole new zone of photography. If you understand what you’re doing in the darkroom/lightroom, it makes the whole ball-game so much more fun and, actually, more challenging because you’re actually seeking technical quality with some means to actually achieving that. But every time I see some of awesome photography all around the net and media, I understand that I know nothing. Nothing at all. I wish I didn’t have to work such long hours – I would much rather be putting my time into photography. And spending time with people who actually understand what they’re doing.
In other news, I am on crack and its name is facebook. I had never joined a social network before – my own blog and Flickr were network enough, and I HATE myspace and all its clutter and noise and 15 year old SMS speak. Then I did the Twitter thing and it was kinda fun. And then. And then. Well, Tamara sent me a Facebook invite and I curiously followed the email links and joined up to see what the fuss was all about.
Seems like I can hardly tear myself away from my computer now just because I wanna see what’s happening in my facebook world… If you wanna befriend me, and help me waste valuable time, here’s my facebook profile. I have been particularly enjoying slapping and wet-willey’ing Andrea…. (you have to join up to understand that one. Poke-pro….). A lot of fun. Even my long lost cousin Hamish and his wife Ruth have joined up. I tell ya, everyones getting in on the action…
Dear god, I need to get a life. I just re-read the last paragraph of facebook rave and have realised that my life has become unbelievably mundane. Only 18 sleeps till I fly out and escape the tragedy of hourly facebook checks and getting up at 6.30 and going to bed by 11 every frikken weekday. Well, actually…. the 6.30 a.m. starts mostly cease next Monday. Can’t wait to resume normal night-owl patterns full time. Even if it’s only for 2 months.
I’m out. Gotta head into Shibuya for my weekly evening lesson date with the gorgeous Ayano. She wears glitter face foundation and the wackiest clothes I’ve ever seen. Magnificent. Wednesday night lessons are the most exciting mid-week thing I do these days.
Technorati Tags: kichijoji, life, parties, portraits, facebook, selfportraits, tokyo, web
It’s 44 degrees in Delhi and 30 degrees here in Tokyo (finally!)
The tinsel tartan samurai is a regular sight around Inokashira Koen.
Coz I just can’t get enough of people laying in grass.
Darin knows some awesome frisbee tricks. He cracks me up.
Tyler about to catch the frisbee – see it just on his leg?
So finally the world knows that Kat is pregnant! She announced it on her blog a week or 2 ago. Which means I can write about it now too.
Technorati Tags: araku, friends, inokashirakoen, japan, life, photography, sigma17-70mm, teachingenglish, travel
Losing my anonymity
Boo! Thought I’d surprise you with a post. It’s been a while, ne. So very busy. I took this pic in the park on Tuesday and messed around with it in photoshop and quite like the saturated effect. Look at all that grey re-growth! I’m at 80% grey now. Seriously.
This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for quite some time, and it seems that every week something new happens that I could add to the post I’ve been writing in my brain all this time….
Tokyo is a huge city-state (for those of you who have never been here) and it’s actually made up of dozens of smaller ‚Äúcities‚Äù. In the small city I’ve chosen to make my home, I’ve been steadily losing something that I have always cherished about life in a huge city: anonymity. Coming from a small town where my job meant that going out usually involved some band members trying to push CD’s on me or hassling me for gigs, it was nice to just walk into a place and not be known.
When it first started happening here, I loved it. It made me feel like a part of the community. But now that the novelty has worn off some, I don’t know how I feel about it so much any more. Being a foreigner in this very homogenous society makes it very hard to be invisible. People talk about you. Strangers know about you. You’re something of an oddity – almost celebrity-ish in some cases, or just a scary alien in others.
Technorati Tags: japan, life, teachingenglish
A Day in Photos
In lieu of any real news, apart from the fact that things have been pretty quiet around here, I figured I’d follow in Flickr’s footsteps and do a Day In The Life Of Me for Saturday, May 5, 2007. 24 pictures.
Oh, and P.S. – My dear friend Jackie had a baby boy, Angus, on Saturday morning. Congratulations, Jackie, Russell, Tallulah and Hannah!
Technorati Tags: a day in the life of, canon300D, flickr, inokashirakoen, japan, kichijoji, life, photo projects, photography, shibuya, sigma17-70mm, tokyo
Tokyo Earthday
The main stage
Sleeping babe at a live trance gig
Yama-chan at the end of her tether after I shot about 6 consecutive pictures of her with her eyes closed!
There is something very disturbing about this picture of Christian….
Shen playing his gig (he’s the tabla player to the left)
Midnight super-ninja’s battling in the park…and then stopping to check out pictures of themselves doing battle
I went to the Tokyo Earthday Festival at Yoyogi with Yama-chan and Christian on Sunday. My old buddy Shen played a gig with some friends, and Pete came along a bit later in the evening with his 7 months-pregnant wife Amanda and his super-kawaii 3 year old Charlie (aka Sper-ninja!). It was a beautiful day. Which is a good thing since it was also my only day off.
Can’t keep my eyes open. Oyasumi-nasai.
Technorati Tags: 1.4usm, canon, canon300D, EF50mm/f/1.4usm, events, japan, earthday, tokyo
Impermanence….
The rains of the past 2 days have blanketed the streets and parks in cherry blossom petals. Hanami season is almost gone already. A great lesson in impermanence.
A lovely spring night
suddenly vanished while we
viewed cherry blossoms
Haiku from the master, Basho
Now it’s time to settle down and get back to work. The school year starts next week. Before we know it, it’ll be summer, and I’ll be in India again.
The Hanami album
Technorati Tags: hanami, japan, sakura, cheryyblossoms, tokyo
It’s here…
Yes folks. It’s here. Spring. Cherry blossoms. Insobriety. Warmth (well almost)….
Yesterday was a magnificent day, brilliant blue skies, 22 degrees and cherry blossoms everywhere. Mikorin (aka Minako) and I had plans to go to Odaiba for the Ashes and Show exhibition but hell, on a day like yesterday you really don’t wanna be inside at all. We opted for an impromptu hanami party with Sachika, and for a little while (they had to work later) Tyler and Darin. We hit the row boats for sunset and drank a healthy amount of beverages and got very very silly till very late in the evening…
Seriously, there is nothing like hanami time in Japan. It’s insanely fun and everyone cuts loose and revels in the celebration of spring. March/April is the busiest time of all for most companies and businesses, with taxes due, uni graduates job-hunting (a seriously huge market), end of fiscal year reports due and forward planning all keeping many people late at work. My private lessons have been (temporarily) halved for the past week or so as a result of my students work commitments. Hanami is this great pressure-valve release for the vast majority of the population. Not to mention a celebration for uni and school graduates….
I had my first hanami party of the season last Saturday with Deanne and Masao and their friends and, despite the weather being not so friendly and the blossoms not quite being out yet, it was a bloody excellent day and I got to ride away with a bunch of plastic cherry blossoms… Next one on the schedule – Kat and Darins on Sunday. Yay. Insobriety.
I’ve started a Hanami 2007 album at flickr. No doubt it will be added to over the next week or so.
[posted with ecto]
Technorati Tags: flickr, friends, hanami, inokashirakoen, japan, kichijoji, parties, photography, tokyo
they seek it here, they seek it there, that damned elusive…..
Riding to my first lesson of the day early this morning, I passed by this ‚Äúfreshman‚Äù office worker stuck with the job of setting up and guarding the office posse’s spot for the annual cherry blossom (sakura) viewing piss-up. No doubt he was given this job a couple of weeks ago when it was announced that the sakura would be out by the 18th. Ha. Despite a few deep bows and profuse apologies from the mistaken sakura bureau chief, most companies were already, sadly, stuck with their long-before-scheduled day of debauchery, despite the lack of blossoms…. I really wouldn’t mind this job. Laying about under the trees in the sunshine waiting for the office crew to arrive…
Anyway, I completed my first lesson and sat with Daz in the morning sun for a bit, shooting the breeze as you do, when one by one, all plans for the day fell apart with each incoming text. At a loss for something to do, I figured today was as good a day as any to go on the hunt for that damned elusive first-sakura-blossom-of-the-season. Bear with me as I share my story in pictures….
*sigh. Doesn’t look good from here.
Technorati Tags: funny, inokashirakoen, japan, parties, hanami, tokyo
Nihon Minkaen
I just put some pics up at Flickr from our excellent day at Nihon Minkaen yesterday. Helen, Sandi, her two great kids Max and Dexter and I hit Mukogaokayuen to visit this great park-museum of old style Japanese houses, all relocated from other parts of (mostly rural) Japan. So very cool. It’s a fascinating place full of old-skool Japanese architecture and thorough feature/lifestyle explanations. Ch-ch-check it out if you’re in these parts….
Technorati Tags: flickr, friends, japan, photography, tokyo
