I am very much minimalist when it comes to design. Less is always more. I am the same way with my tools. Give me tools that get out of my way and let me get work done.

Often when one things of Japan in a design sense, one thinks of Zen. Pictures of rock gardens in Kyoto come to our mind. Simple. Minimal.

For others though the opposite comes to mind. The busy streets of Tokyo. The flashy lights in Shibuya. The crazy kids in Harajuku. The complete opposite of Zen. I would almost go as far as to call it madness.

This difference is huge and is often a point of conflict in my design. How does one find a happy medium between Zen and Madness? What does it look like? What does it feel like?

I don’t have any definite answers yet, but I am studying.

The video is the same location that I took one of my favourite photographs last year, so I hope you enjoy.

As more than one person has told me, I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. I’ve graduate, and gotten a job in Japan, that’s not teaching english! Moreover, I started just over 2 weeks from my graduation. Not a bad turn around time in today’s economy.

The question immediately comes up, what I am doing. The answer is really, whatever is needed, as I don’t really just do one thing. Right now, I am working on helping the company launch and market it’s new iPhone Game business. This means web development for their site and utilities, writing copy, etc.. In the future though I should also be programming some iPhone applications for them.

For right now, I am still staying with Yumi and her family in Shounandai because it gives me time for all the proper paperwork to finish going through, figure out where I want to live in Tokyo, and find the right place.

Unfortunately, since I am working i n Tokyo, it won’t be in a place like this:

Photo taken on a short trip to Hakone over Christmas with Yumi.

Even though I was only gone for a year in Japan and have never been backpacking in my life, the film has a certain amount of resonance within me. It’s something I’ve dreamed about for a long time. I don’t want to say right now is not the right time to travel, because it will never be the “right time”.

It’s a matter of making something a priority in one’s life and finding a way, any way to achieve that. After all, “Maybe in sixty years I’m dead. I want to say, ‘I had a good life.’”

Everywhere I look in society I see madness. I see 4 dollar a gallon petrol prices yet people still drive their large trucks as fast as ever, seemingly unaffected, unaware, or uncaring. Politicians calling for change with an arrogant and stubborn population. It’s not entirely their fault though. The required change is fundamental and difficult. The house needs a good shaking.

Here I sit, a stranger in a stage land. Only the truth can guide me home.

When riding the trains (or at least the JR variety) they have been showing this cartoon recently that I’ve found quite funny called ダーリンは外国人 – My darling is a foreigner. It’s based on a manga and I picked up the first two the other day. I’ve only read about 60 pages into the first volume (of 5) so far and it is quite entertaining.

One of my favourite parts that I’ve read so far is when she is comparing a regular Japanese’ response and Tony’s (the main character) response when it comes to service. This example is a glass of wine with lunch that doesn’t taste good. The average Japanese response is more of a commenting on the flavor to the person dining with them saying something like “This wine is a bit….”.

But this guy! He calls the waiter over and asks for the manager. The manager seeing the foreigner automatically speaks to the Japanese person. At which point he has to interrupt with something to the effect of “Hey! Shouldn’t you be talking to me! I’m the one that is complaining”. He assumed that the foreigner doesn’t speak Japanese…

A common pattern in Japan sadly. A belief that foreigners can’t possibly speak Japanese, which simply isn’t true. I know there are people who have lived here for 5+ years and don’t speak a word of Japanese, which to me is unacceptable. If you are going to live in a foreign country, part of your responsibility as a foreigner is to learn to speak the local language. Unless of course you like 差別 (Discrimination), and want to be treated special. Me? I just want to be treated like everybody else.

Packing is depressing.

Shinjuku station is huge. It is the busiest station in Japan, perhaps even in the world. Surrounding it are lots of places to spend you money which illuminate quite nicely at night. However outside of the east exist there is this building that looks very unsuspecting.

It is very close to two underground exists. I found it because there is a place at the entrance that sells bubble teas and crepes. Being as it was hot and it is Mango season here in Japan I thought I would indulge in a マンゴミルク (Mango milk) tea, which my choice of black tapiocas or colored ones. I decided to play it safe and go with the black tapiocas giving the vibe building.

Inside it felt like a dead and dying mall. I pictured what it must have been like when it first opened, probably around the time of the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, and it was probably pretty nice. Inside there was only stairs that have been blocked off and a discount Zara store. Somehow people came down the stairs sometimes but never went up. Walking through the back entrance into a Zara discount store, the music was loud and the store a mess.

Our goal was the third floor today. Rumor had it there was a movie theater in this building. We ride the rickety elevator up and the doors open. The floor is covered in pink checkered carpet and a small line of movie goers has formed. We have a choice of three movies, mostly Japanese films. The concession stand is mostly lit and the pop corn in machine is sitting there with pre-popped popcorn waiting to be ordered under a heat lamp of sorts.

We get our tickets and to my surprise there is no assigned seating, which is normal in Japan. We purchase our ticket and it is like the rest of the building, blast from the past. A past that I had never before experienced. On the ticket is the name of the theater, the screen number (2 of 3), a stamp with the date and time, and a seating number.

When it comes time to enter the theater I do not know what to expect. Everybody is standing around waiting for them to start calling out seating numbers. They start calling out “Tickets 1 ~ 10 can now enter” and I start to move towards the front.

We get in the theater and it has 10 rows of 7 (split in a 4||3) with a smaller screen. At this point though I was half-expecting a 20″ black-and-white television. There is a small No Smoking sign on the front left. People are walking in with bags of McDonalds to enjoy during the movie. Apparently you do not have to sneak food into the theater here. A school bell rings. Everybody quiets down and the film begins…

Most people travel around Japan and it is one of Japan’s big travel seasons. Roads are full of cars (even with the high cost of gas and movement at a snail’s pace) and hotels are more expensive. However, as a 貧乏な大学生 (destitute college student)、I’m not traveling so much. So I did the next best thing and went to Shinjuku so I could be surrounded by all of the people traveling and silently wish it was me.

Ok so I did make up that last part, I am actually quite content to explore Tokyo more. This city is incredible and my visit to the Shinjuku Imperial Garden adds one more item to the list of rocking things in Tokyo. Normally it costs ¥200 to enter, however on this day it was free. There was also a huge festival (I guess that’s what it would be called) about the environment and environmental education. It was very encouraging to see so many people, old and young alike, taking an interest in the environment. Maybe there is hope after all.

Part of the festivities

Yumi holding my chin down as whenever I take the self-portiats like that my head always ends up looking up a bit and it looks funny. As you can see we work well together.

People were picnicking with their families and climbing on some of the trees.

I should also note that global warming was in full swing that day. I mean – it started off pleasant but by mid-day it was around 25°C outside.

The heat was enough that I went and saw a movie, 砂時計　（Hourglass). It was my first time watching a Japanese movie in theaters and I must say that for a love story, it was completely different than what I was expecting. It wasn’t bright or bubbly or happy at all.

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Side note – I’ve updated the about page and there is now a contact form on there. So people that need to contact me and don’t know my email can…contact me.

Today though in Yoyogi Park there was a huge Earth Day celebration. This year the theme was “Shift Green”. Unfortunately I arrived too late to see any of the speeches and what not so I just made a single lap through the events. There is more info at this website.

What’s amazing to me is that Japanese hippies look (and smell) just like american hippies. I was expecting maybe a bit more of a Japanese twist, but they seemed to be pretty much the same. I wonder if it is just standard affair for hippies to dress the same or if they (the Japanese hippies) get inspiration for their american counter-parts or what the deal is.

I did rather like the song this guy was sing so I made a video for y’all to watch below.

Remember: protect the environment – without it we can’t survive.

Also Birthday wishes to my dad. Happy Birthday!

We went to, I forget the name in Japanese, but it’s an old red brick warehouse that has been converted into a shopping center. As we got close to it we could hear music. It sounded like a show was going on. Once we got there, we could see a huge crowd standing next to the gates to get into the live (without tickets – like us) listening to the music and watching him perform on the large screen next to the stage.

It was a fun two and a half hours or so conversing almost entirely in Japanese. It’s kind of shocking how far my Japanese has come in last almost 2 years now. It’s even shocking how far it has come in the last 7/8 months in Japan. I’ve still got a long way to go though – learning more academic words and the basic words that I’ve missed somehow.

An odd thing of note, kind of funny actually I think, and only worth noting as it has happened twice in the last week. I’ve noticed that when people comment on my Japanese (saying that it is good or something of that sort), I seem to have this habit of not understanding the next sentence. It’s like I’m subconsciously trying to prove them wrong or something.

It’s late. I’ve got to study for biology and my kanji quiz tomorrow. I bit you all goodnight.

Update: Replaced photo with a better one from Mai.

At Tully’s in Sakuragicho

Purikura with one of her friends that lives in the area.