And we reach 100 days in the 365 project…
99/365: Oct 21. Today was an event day: Hawaiian Flavor Biz Nite. With 0% Hawaiian content. Damn. Cho hazakashi dayo! But it was a nice night with 150 people. This old fella came along as part of a Mah Jong display group, he’s also a photographer and when I showed him this picture after I snapped it, he let out a loud laugh and thumped me on the arm real hard. I’m not sure why. He was very cool.
100/365: Oct 22. As a special 100th-day-of-the-365 project marker, I’m going to show 2 pics from today because it was not only a Dr Sketchy’s event night, but also…. Jake’s first birthday. The model for tonight’s Dr Sketchy’s was Violet Eva, from the Murasaki Baby Dolls. She was pretty tame compared to Cherry and Safi, our last 2 models, but very pretty indeed. I’ve been working on getting images together for the forthcoming Dr Sketchy’s exhibition party (more on that in a separate post later)….
100/365 (part 2): Oct 22. Jake turned ONE today. I met Kat, Darin and Jake at the Nishi-Ogikubo Village-Vanguard Restaurant for lunch and fed him his first ever ice-cream. He loved it, and won the hearts of all the staff and diners with his gorgeousness. After lunch we walked to the birthing clinic where he was born, to say hi to the very special women who work there. Then back to my place for coffee, since we were retracing Kat & Darin’s steps from that day a year ago. Jake Taiga Mok-Bendall, you are a gorgeous boy and I’m delighted that you are a part of my life! You bring joy wherever you go!
101/365: Oct 23. This is a strip club near my office in Shibuya. I do love walking through this area on my way to and from the office – there is always something to gawk at.
102/365: Oct 24. Oh, the chaos.
103/365: Oct 25. Lisa and I had a photo shoot today – she is dancing in a special belly dance show next weekend so she hired a gorgeous costume. I’m pretty happy with the pics – will share more of them over on my photography blog soon. She’s so damn photogenic! It’s easy to take good pictures when she is the subject.
104/365: Oct 26. We had a shared FIRST birthday party for Jake and his little friend Aisha in Shinjuku Gyoen. The rain clouds threatened all day but nothing ever came. After the picnic, and the YUMMY home-cooked cakes, we went for a wander around the park since most of the people at the party had never been there before. I’ve been here a few times, love the place and was quite shocked that so many long term residents have never visited the place. Later that evening Cherry Typhoon took me to a kooky cabaret/burlesque show in a little club down a tiny lane and was quite disappointed by the lack of originality, true sexiness and generally tacky-cutesy nature of the routines. The chanson was exquisite, however.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day
Do it for the joy it brings.
92/265: Oct 13. Spent the day with Christian and Yuiko, walking at Takao Mountain. Christian made us take the chairlift which I had always studiously avoided in years gone by, but I’m happy to say it was nowhere near as scary as I had heard or imagined. Yuiko and I caught the lift up together and we giggled and wailed in fear when it started getting really high but after a bit we started taking pictures of our feet hanging over the trees and enjoying the views. Once we got up the top we wandered around with the masses (it was a long weekend so the mountain top was ridiculously crowded!) and came across this stall (seen in the photo above) close to the mountain top: some local farmers selling their mushrooms. YUM! AT the mountain top we soaked up the views then sat down for a soba/beer lunch and soaked up the lovely vibes. A great day.
93/365: Oct 14. Chris, the sole survivor of the fourcornersofjapan adventure arrived at my place after an overnight train from Hokkaido. 6 months, from the southern tip to the north. I’ve been loving his “things I learned from walking across Japan” series of thoughts he wrote in his notebook as he walked…. He seemed quite at peace, and satisfied that he had completed his set task despite the hardships. What an incredible adventure! I’d love to try something like that one day…. We went out to Shinjuku that night (I had a Dr Sketchy’s meeting there that night) and met up with a couple of his friends before coming home and sitting up with the Canadian microbiologist (my roomie), drinking nihonshu till quite late.
94/365: Oct 15. Chris donned the old work suit and shoes that he had stored at my place for his plane ride back to Australia, lifted his pack for the last day and strode off down my street and out of Japan. He was grinning from ear to ear. I went to work. Not grinning from ear to ear. Woudl much rather be jumping on a plane to anywhere else.
95/365: Oct 16. My roomie and I have a common love: The Wire. The best TV show ever made. We pull up our armchairs to my desk, dim the lights, get our drinks and watch an episode or 2 at least once a week, sometimes more.
96/365: Oct 17. I met with these 2 lovely French ladies in Kamiyacho for lunch. Pia and Elsa. They are going to help me with Biz Nites. I hope.
97/365: Oct 18. Our bathroom sink has been clogged for months and we finally asked our landlady to call the plumber. He was this cute old fella with a twinkle in his eye. he wouldn’t let me photograph his face but was happy to be photographed at work.
98/375: Oct 19. Sigsy has been a little blue lately so we had a special cheer-up party for her at Yoyogi Koen. It was a lovely day. I made her a pretty thing and put it in a frame:
The words I took from an Ani Di Franco song: Do it for the joy it brings, ’cause you’re a joyful girl. ‘Cause the world owes us nothing but we owe each other the world.
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Meltdown and recovery…
84/365: Oct 5. Spent the day in the office in Shibuya working on the Japan-i Project that Tiger is working on. We were in the final planning stages of a new free monthly Japan-travel English newspaper for tourists, with the deadline Monday 6th. Incredibly stressful work that I got talked into against my better judgement. Took this picture as I left the office that evening, stressed, uptight and exhausted. Had not much more than 5 hours of sleep a night for a few days now, and almost no chance to exercise either. Working way too hard.
85/365: Oct 6. Deadline day for the Japan-I newspaper. I had a complete meltdown in the mid afternoon after completing my most pressing tasks. I sent out emails announcing my intention to spend the rest of the day away from my computer and took off to my favourite place in Tokyo: Jindaiji, where I wandered around a bit in a daze before hitting the most magical onsen in the world. I stayed there for 4 hours, had a massage, a sleep, dinner (kinoko tempura and soba) and 2 extended long soaks in the peaceful, medicinal rotenburo (outdoor hot spa’s). Went home, quit Japan-I (actually, it was my second quit for that project, I just stayed on to see the first issue get made) and slept like a dead man for 11 hours.
86/365: Oct 7. Woke up feeling groggy and exhausted, and like I had had a huge night out. Spent most of the day doing as little as possible. Ambled my way into Kichijoji where I taught an English lesson at 4 pm then headed into Aoyama to meet with Lady Elle (Dr Sketchy’s organiser & MC) and Blake, event manager from Global Dining to talk about setting up a Dr Sketchy’s end of year party/exhibition at restaurant/lounge space La Boheme. Blake was insanely busy (as always) and we ended up spending most of the meeting not at La Boheme but in his little car as he sped around Aoyama, Shibuya and Ebisu, taking phone calls, picking up PA’s, dropping them off and generally driving like a maniacal pizza driver (which he was in a former life). He dropped us off an hour or so later in Ebisu where Lady Elle and I found a little lounge bar and plotted our fabulous party.
87/365: Oct 8. Slept another 9.5 hours and this time woke up feeling refreshed and determined to NOT go near my computer. I took this photo on the way to my 11 am class in Kichijoji. It’s a sight I see all the time, cracks me up every time. From around 10:55 am – 5 minutes before opening time – most big department stores send some of their staff members to go stand at attention inside the doors, and wait there before unlocking the doors with great ceremony. There are always crowds gathered outside and it makes me wonder why the hell they wait till 11 am to open.
88/365: Oct 9. My boss/colleague Jon came to have morning coffee at my place to discuss my ongoing roles at Tiger. It was a fruitful meeting and I feel way less uptight than I did before. I now do ONLY Biz Nites work at Tiger, and I am the general manager, meaning Jon can step away and focus on Japan-i, and we are going to start paying some staff members to assist me properly so I don’t drown under all the work as I have been doing. This also means that I now have time in my schedule for more photography. Yay.
89/365: Oct 10. Spent the day at home working on the next Biz Nite (Oct 20, folks – hope you’re all coming down to Daikanyama for it) before going back to La Boheme in Aoyama to finalise the deal with the venue for the Dr Sketchy’s party. Afterwards, LadyElle and I met up with Christian (and later, Yuiko) in a cool little Aoyama Izakaya and had a delightful evening with fine conversation, fine food and of course, fine beer. Much needed, for all of us. We’re all working too hard.
90/365: Oct 11. With the cooler weather, Gertrude has started moving much slower. She’ll be hibernating soon. As will I. Oh winter, you evil cow, get back! Get back, I say! Leave these parts and never return. A quiet day.
91/365: Oct 12. Met up with Kat, Darin and Jake in the park on a break from wedding photo editing.
Off to Takao tomorrow to go mountain hiking with Christian and Yuiko – it’s a public holiday – no doubt it’ll be a little like Shinjuku station up there on the mountain top.
In other news, I’ve had a few photo job inquiries this week and have managed to ease back my work at Tiger so I will actually have time for photography again from now on. That makes me SOOOOO happy. It is where my heart lies, so completely.
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Perambulations is a delightful word, don’t you think?
78/365: Sept 29. This is where my office is. Well, actually, it’s kinda around the corner. Love Hotel Hill, Dogenzaka.
79/365: Sept 30. A pretty cool day. I had been working for weeks on an event close to my heart: Photo Nite. It was all pretty frenetic, the day full of the usual stress and running around involved when you have an event on. It was a great night, around 170 people turned out despite pouring rain and everyone seemed to have a fun time. Earlier in the day I successfully jammed my hand in the train doors of the Toyoko Line and watched it swell up like blue sausage over the next few days. And on the train on the way home with Nathan (he lives a few stations away on the Chuo), I finally got the chance to check my g-mails on my phone and found the nicest job rejection I’ve ever received for a dream job I had applied for months ago. Needless to say I was pretty bummed. Nathan suggested we hit a bar and get drunk. Which we did. Till 4 am. The trip home is a little foggy. I vaguely remember dropping my umbrella 478 times.
80/365: Oct 1. I don’t actually spend as much time in the park as the 365 project suggests – I just tend to pass through it to get to work. But it is such a happy 15 minutes, I thank the gods every day that I found such a beautiful, natural part of Tokyo to live in.
81/365: Oct 2. Jake and Darin arrived at Starbucks just as I was wrapping up a lesson. Yay. Love these chance encounters.
82/365: Oct 3. Despite the loveliness of Kichijoji, this is my reality actually. I’m in Shibuya every day, working, often till last train. Tokyo is ugly, smelly, overcrowded and I want to leave soon. Had a shitty day today. Over-worked, not doing enough photography. And so on and so forth.
83/365: Oct 4. After a morning of classes I met Kat, Darin and Jake for lunch at Peppa Forest and then a perambulation around the park enjoying the incredible weather. Then back to the house to… yep, you guessed it, work. Depressing.
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Chasing dragonflies
71/365: Sept 22. Keiko. Again. Cause she brightens my day so.
72/365: Sept 23. I’ve been working late a lot, this is the joyful sight that greets me every time I get to Shibuya station for those last few trains of the night. Sardine-can express.
73/365: Sept 24. Another fabulous episode of Dr Sketchy’s Tokyo, this time starring the incredible burlesque/belly dancer Safi who is – by far – the most powerful and sexy Japanese woman I have ever had the chance to photograph. I picked this pick to share in the 365 project because of the expressions on the sketchers in the background. Priceless. There are a ton more which I am gonna try to finish editing tonight, but in the meantime you can catch a few more over at my photography blog.
74/365: Sept 25. My landlord Takesho lives in Okinanawa while his wife Eiko and kids live on the floor above us. He’s awesome fun. Speaks great English and keeps this vintage little yellow honda sports car which he tinkers with for hours on end. He comes back once every six weeks and there is a wild flurry of activity around the house and garden. They own the only electric lawnmower I have ever seen.
75/365: Sept 26. Spent the day working in the Shibuya office, and Dj James came by to get some work done too. This is the software he uses to do live MP3 mixing when he’s doing a set at a party. Scratch. Yo.
76/365: Sept 27. My friends Jane and Daisuke had their Japanese wedding today. They’ve actually been married a year now, the first little ceremony in Melbourne. His J-family really wanted a real wedding ceremony here in Tokyo so they went all out and Jane got all dolled up in a traditional kimono and wig and head scarfy thing and we all took taxi’s out to a shrine where their union was blessed by the Buddhist priests. I was the official photographer for the day and am absolutely delighted with the photos. It was a beautiful day, and the nijikai led to some fairly epic debauchery with more nihonshu than I have done in quite some time. Oh my head the next day! Anyway, I’ve been stupidly busy so haven’t actually gotten around to editing them yet (just this little rush job here for the 365 project) – that’s the next task this evening, hope to be finished them in a few days – will share some results on my photography blog… and may post something here too.
77/365: Sept 28. Chasing dragonflies.
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End of summer
64/365: Sept 14. A deep sense of foreboding fell upon me this day…. look at all those yellow leaves in the water and all around. And I got invited to my first “fall” BBQ. Crap. The end of summer. NOOOOO
64/365: Sept 15. Met with Lisa & Tomo to hand over their wedding photos, and it happened to be Tomo’s birthday so we went to Peppa Forest for a delightful dinner and surprise birthday cake & song for Tomo. They were so happy with my work that they gave me a massive bonus on top of the initial payment. I think I like wedding photography. I’m shooting another one next weekend for my friends Jane and Daisuke, really looking forward to it.
65/365: Sept 16. Oh joy of joys, look who I ran into down at my local station at lunch time. Widdle Jakey-Taiga and his poppa dawg.
66/365: Sept 17. Tony’s Pizza. A tiny little hole on the wall under the train tracks away from Kichijoji Station. I ride past here at night a lot and it smells divine. One day I’ll stop and go in. I hear from the locals that he’s been there for years and the pizza is awesome.
This day was particularly special as I had a job interview for the dream adventure job of a lifetime. I find out at the end of the month. Keep everything crossed!
67/ 365: Sept 18. Most days I get home after a crazy day of crowds and people, and I just wanna settle in to my beautiful room and look at all the pretty things and listen to great music and drink a glass of wine and stare off into space.
68/365: Sept 19. The toilets at the Mainichi newspaper building are identical on every floor. They are all curved, like the elevator bay, and extremely sci-fi. After our meeting there finished (late, around 8 pm) Jon and I went downstairs and found a cheap restaurant and drank a bunch of celebratory beers (the meeting went really well and it had been a good week), then went into Golden Gai to meet Tommy Oshima, my photo hero. He’s agreed to do a presentation at Photo Nite next week (what a great line-up it’s shaping up to be!) and I couldn’t be more chuffed. He has an exhibition on now at Golden Gai. Go check it out, the man is going to be a legend.
69/365: Sept 20. Mt Takao. My good mate Sarah had her birthday celebration up at the Mt Takao Beer Garden. To get there, we hiked almost 2 hours. A wonderful day. I swear, it only takes a day out in nature to feel fully recharged again. Afterwards we came back into to Shinjuku and I found myself at Golden Gai a second night in a row, spending a couple of beers with Tommy Oshima again before returning to the birthday party madness around the corner. More pics at Sarah’s Flickr Bday Album. I took this pic above at the mountain top shrine, it’s so pretty up there – it’s been a while since I’ve visited, it was nice to say hi.
70/365: Sept 21. I had my Sunday morning cuppa skype with my brother, sister in law and niece this morning. Here they are watching a slideshow on the computer of the kids party from yesterday – they completely forgot I was watching them and they were so happily lost in the pictures on their screen that I just had to pull my camera out to shoot a pic. My brother has launched his new real estate business in North Queensland called Port Douglas Real Estate. He already has 20 properties listed and he is SOOO happy and inspired. And would you check out the fancy website? Lordy. Impressive.
And that was my week in pictures.
Tomorrow night I’m off to see the magical IDA play at Shibuya’s DUO MUSIC EXCHANGE with Christian and Yuiko. So excited, we have all loved this band for many years – when I saw their name pop up at Tokyo Gig Guide, I did a little dance.
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9 days and we’re all up to date now.
55/365: Sept 4. Note the little cherub up in the field with his butterfly net. Why would you live anywhere else in Tokyo?
56/365: Sept 5. The view from my train platform in the afternoon light. A mellow place, to be sure. Lucky me.
57/365: Sept 6. Awesome organic vegetarian lunch at my local station.
58/365: Sept 8. The more astute among you will notice that Sept 7 is missing. That’s coz I didn’t leave the house. But Sept 8, now that was a fun day. Australia Flavour Biz Nite. I bored everyone senseless with a presentation about my new website. Had high hopes that some famous photo agency rep would sweep me off my feet and offer me a lucrative photo job that night but alas, I was sorely disappointed and ended up wading in the fountain with Tracey, Helen and Kirsten. Actually, I did get one job – Nathan from TRACE asked me if I’d be interested in taking photos for his band as we trained home together. Of course, of course.
59/365: Sept 9. A smile from Jake can just make my day. Darin, Tyler and Jake were sitting outside Starbucks as I finished my lessons this morning. Yay.
60/365: Sept 10. They stand waiting at the station, run on with their stools and bags of posters and race down the train carriage swapping the train ad posters then jump off at the next station and do it again on the next train….
61/365: Sept 11. Me and Haruka made a crossword puzzle today after she thrashed me at speed alphabet bingo. Brat. Smarty pants brat. Adorable brat.
62/365: Sept 12. Christians dad asked him to meet up with these 3 lovely young girls from Brisbane on their first big trip to Tokyo, we we took them out to an izakaya in Shibuya. The bitter old cynic in me usually don’t have a lot of time for 23 year olds these days but these girls were a pleasant surprise. It was a great night out. Turns out they knew my friend Jack (from Brisbane) and invited him and his friend Clinton (just back from 6 months in NY) along too.
63/365: Sept 13. Kichijoji matsuri. There was even a horse. With a priest in fancy dress riding atop. Cool.
And so, the summer begins to end. I see yellow leaves dropping already in the park and wonder how it’s possible that a place can only have 8 weeks of summer.
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Warships, rain and wedding.
48/365: Aug 27 2008. Tiger Music partnered the UK Embassy on a big social cocktail party on the UK Warship HMS Kent. Today we had to attend a planning meeting on ship, the day before the event, to finalise the logistics with the ships crew. Surreal doesn’t begin to explain it. Sailors in uniforms of all sorts walking around with semi-automatic machine guns hanging from their shoulders. Well, not all of them had guns. But there were enough there to make me feel mighty ew.
49/365: Aug 28 2008. After we finished packing up the event (it poured torrentially for half the night), the ships crew (who were definitely, surprisingly, the highlight of my night: great fun, cheeky, helpful) cracked open an esky full of Sapporo and we sat around for a bit drinking with them on the ship. Yes, that is a navy helicopter we were using as a beer rest. Shhh, don’t tell anyone.
50/365: Aug 30. Ok, same party but after midnight so thought I’d share this one for the next days POTD. One of the ships crew took me and Jon on a tour of the boat (it rained), explaining the armoury stuff and missiles and all that scary stuff. It was fascinating, terrifying. Those ships are unbelievably powerful. Pray they never come to bomb the country you’re in.
51/365: Aug 31. My old colleague and friend Lisa married her long time secret boyfriend Tomo today. Secret because they both work at the same school. I was one of only about 3 people who knew they were a couple and we had to keep it secret for years. I was delighted when they finally outed themselves. And even more delighted when they asked me to not only take their engagement pics but also their wedding pics. It was a gorgeous day, natch. You can see a few more pics over at my photography blog.
52/365: Sept 1. Rain. Rain. Rain. It’s been really wet in Tokyo. The park is so beautiful when it’s empty.
53/365: Sept 2. They finished demolishing the house behind us and have already started building the replacement. No such thing as sleeping in round here for the next couple of months. Crap.
54/365: Sept 3. Misaki, my dear Misaki. My English student and hairdresser and great friend of 4 years.
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A week of dreams.
41/365: Aug 20 2008. Work started on the house behind us today. DEM0-LITION baby. Horrid sounds. Stay tuned for the shot of the vacant land.
42/365: Aug 21 2008. I like this corner of my neighbourhood. A vacant block of land is overgrown with lovely thick grass and sunflowers.
43/365: Aug 22 2008. I met Christian near Yoyogi Koen to partake in some outdoor kombeni beers since I had about 3 coins to rub together and couldn’t afford anything more than 210 yen beers. We drank our beers, reassured ourselves that that was definitely an earthquake then got so cold we had to retire to the cheapest restaurant we could think of: Saizeriya, where Christian shouted me dinner and lots more beers. He was feeling generous and we were both very anti-Japan that day…..
44/365: Aug 23 2008. Spent the evening with Kat, Darin and Jake – lasagne, beers, olympic TV and an adorable baby chortling his way through bathtime.
45/365: Aug 24 2008. In Inokashira Koen. The stairs up to a house beside the park. Wish I lived there.
46/365: Aug 25 2008. Black Russian, candles, nag champa, Angus & Julia Stone playing over the speakers late at night, dreaming of an exciting adventure sailing around the world.
47/365: Aug 26 2008. James is a DJ with Tokyo Electro. We work together a lot. This night he was DJing at an event called UK SOUND at Shibuya Hobgoblin which is actually organised by Kazumi and James, for the company I work for now, Tiger Music. It’s a free monthly party – next one is next Tuesday so if you’re around, come down and say hi.
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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
22/365: July 27 2008
The Love Juice Stall at Kugenuma Beach, Tokyo.
I’m sunburnt and ready to sleep 12 hours. Ran into an old flame at a beach cafe today. It was nice to see him. We chatted for a while until the storm clouds in the south started moving ominously close. He’s having an exhibition next month, down there in Odawara. I was impressed with how he’s managed to get his shit sorted out at last. There seems to be a lot of that going around lately. It’s cool.
This 365 project is proving challenging and time consuming…. and I don’t think it’s been doing much for my photography. But it is nice to have a kind of regular journal thing going, so I’m going to make a serious effort to keep up with it. I’m looking forward to day 365 and being able to look back on the year that passed.
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21/365: July 26 2008
Awesome band, Golden, playing at Club Lizard in Motomachi Chukagai (Yokohama Chinatown) for Sandi & Jeff’s official sayonara party (organised by Mackey Ramone and the Buzz Buzz gang). A big night. I crawled into Jeff & Sandi’s bed to pass out in peace at about 3 am (the house party went all night) and woke up the next morning to find Sandi on one side and a little Japanese girl I’d never seen before curled up next to my feet – I had to do a triple take to make sure it wasn’t Jeff wearing a dress…
If you get a chance to see Golden play, do it. They are really interesting, and any band that can rock out with a mandolin deserves some attention.
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20/365: July 25 2008
Friday night. Shibuya. 300 yen bar.
Yet another stupid drunk shot of me and Christian. I think I must have close to 50 of these now. Our semi-regular piss ups are such a joy to me. This night we had some lively company who kept the beers coming at a steady pace but their photos are a little trashy so I shan’t share them here.
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19/365: July 24 2008
I adore this photo. Can you see her? The little one looking up at her future in the skies?
A line of little kids waiting to dance a traditional Obon dance at the Inokashira Obon matsuri. This little matsuri (festival) is a very small, local affair, with a small stage for the taiko drums and dancers to do their thang. Some of the more popular dances saw spontaneous rings of people dancing in a circle around the outside of the stage.
Simply lovely.
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18/365: July 23 2008
Burlesque dance star Cherry Typhoon plays up for the audience at the July Dr Sketchy’s Anti Art School life-drawing party.
Last night was an utterly fabulous evening. Seriously, if you like drawing, you should be coming down to the Pink Cow in Shibuya on the 4th Wednesday of every month to join in the fun. It’s not a competition and the spirit is one of camaraderie and joie de vivre.
Cherry Typhoon is one of only 7 professional burlesque dancers in all of Tokyo. She performs regularly around town, do yourself a favour and check out one of her shows: she’s a doll with a great sense of humour and a fabulous dance style – she shimmies like nobody’s business! We can happily say that now that we’ve tapped into the burlesque scene here, that the Dr Sketchy’s models each month will be real, bona fide burlesque dancers – as is meant to be. My portfolio is sooooo gonna rock.
You should check out the gorgeous blog from the original Dr Sketchy’s Anti Art School in New York.
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17/365: July 22 2008
It’s summer holidays and there are kids everywhere. I took this while walking in to to Kichijoji to teach a class.
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16/365: July 21 2008
OK, I’m cheating again. Technically this was taken late on the 20th after the BuzzBQ Jeff/Sandi sayonara party in Yokohama. Jeff drove us from the park to the Blue Corn so we could continue the party, dropped us off then took the kids home. They were both asleep about 5 minutes after this photo were taken, cuties. We didn’t get home till the wee hours.
In this pic (taken by the german, Kevin, in the car en route to Blue Corn) clockwise from top left: Max, Sandi, Helen, Cynthia, me, Felicity. Lots of white girls. Such a fun day. Shit I look old. Might have to stop posting pictures of myself so I can stay hidden in glorious mystery.
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15/36: July 20 2008
Felicity and I went into softbank in Shibuya to check out the iphone – this is what it looks like when it has cool websites displaying….
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14/365: July 19 2008
Felicity’s parents were among my parents oldest and best friends – and the night her parents got engaged, wayyyy back in – oh, I’d guess around 1966 or so, they came back to my parents apartment in Brisbane (where they had been staying) and jumped around excitedly on their bed as mum & dad cracked open the bottle of champagne they had readied earlier…. yeah. Great friends.
I haven’t seen Felicity since we were kids – there are cute photos of her and her 2 brothers and me and my brother all squished into a bath as littlie’s. Her family lived in Sydney and we kind of lost contact with the siblings. Happily, she had to make a stopover in Tokyo on her way back from photographing a wedding in Sweden (she’s a photographer too). It was great to get to know her and extend the bond between our families. Go check out her work.
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13/365: July 18 2008
Kazuki & DJ James working at the Tiger office in Shibuya.
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12/365: July 17 2008
You’ve all seen a lot of Sandi around this blog, but not a lot of her lovely lovely funny hubby Jeff.
Last night he paid me to come take photos of an artist he was recording for his new record label in a little club in Meguro. Unfortunately, the gear-hire company was late on delivering the recording desk, and he and Macky only got it that afternoon… this photo was taken as Jeff was chanting “I will make this happen” after being unable to get the desk functioning properly during Mikio’s set. I shot through the first set then had to leave for a meeting in Shibuya – as I left things got decidedly worse for poor Jeff when he realised the hard disk was full of someone else’s music. Haven’t heard from him yet today – I felt bad leaving him there but he was in capable hands and hell, I know nothing about mixing desks!
This photo kinda gets his frustration quite well, I think.
Jeff rocks. I’m gonna miss him and Sandi – they are out of here at the end of the month, back to Seattle. Poo.
Andrea & Beck leave tomorrow and an old family friend, Felicity Jenkins is coming to stay for the weekend – we haven’t see each other since we were kids but our parents were best friends right up till the end, and they attended both their funerals as well as Decembers ashes ceremony. Anyway, Felicity (Flicka) is working as a professional photographer in Sydney these days – doing really well I think. Can’t wait to catch up on the last 30 years or so….
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