michael lambe's scrapbook

Just a few snapshots from last Sunday. We were too late for the antiques market but we had a bit of a stroll around Toji’s temple grounds anyway.

Then on into town for a light meal at Vanilla (which you can read more about here).

We stayed there for a while and had a bit of a read – I was reading my book about machiya. It was making me a bit sad though reading about how many old machiya have been lost and looking at photos of the destruction unfolding… So we went for a stroll towards Teramachi and on a whim had a go at one of those “UFO catcher” machines. Oddly enough we won!

Only problem with that though was that Mewby had to carry a giant pink Stitch around with her for the rest of the evening – looking a looney. Stitch in toe – we did some purikura. This particular purikura machine puts too much contrast into the eyes so Mewby comes out looking like some kind of strange anime character:

And then on for a nice dinner at Apollo (which you can read about here). Nice place Apollo. We like it a lot.

Great party the other night. The most memorable thing though was discovering that Massun is in fact Edward Furlong. Here are a couple of pictures for your perusal. I won’t even bother labeling them because they are so clearly the same person.

This is my favorite picture of the evening though.

You can see the rest here:

Ha! Ghastly November is finally over! Actually I realised that part of my gloom last month was simply down to a lack of exercise. Catching a cold and feeling terrible kept me out of the gym for almost 3 weeks. When I got back in there I did exactly 6 squats and then immediately felt the effects of the endorphins coursing through my body and into my brain. All of a sudden I was all happy and positive and rushing from weight machine to weight machine like a giddy child running round a playground.  So that’s good then. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Neon SoundCollage: When we finally made it to Collage on Friday night, we were just in time to be told by pretty much everybody that Satoko had just finished her set (moments earlier) and how very very brilliant it was. Which was a shame. And somewhat galling. However, Yamada-san himself was in very high spirits as the event was clearly a great success. Lots of people were there and some of them were even dancing. Wow! I however, drank exactly 3 beers and took exactly one picture. Here it is:
Saturday was boy’s night at Joao.

Taisho in an especially jolly mood, broke out the guitars and we had a singalong.

One last picture. Jeff Trambley posted this on facebook today and made me laugh out loud. It’s a picture from 1998 of he and I performing some Madonna at the Fukushima Jets Leavers’ Party. Those were the days!

And don’t I look skinny!

I don’t like November. The sudden sharp shift from warm blue October skies to day after day of grey cold drear (and my school’s refusal to turn on the heating) leads me to one inevitable conclusion: this is the long dark dentist’s waiting room of the soul. And on top of my seasonal gloom add self pity; I’ve had a nasty lingering chest cold for over two weeks now, which no amount of syrups, pills, antibiotics, hot lemony drinks or cough sweets have done anything to improve. I want rid of it and I want December to hurry up and cheer me with it’s bright and tawdry festive ways. Still, I reluctantly admit there have been one or two bright moments this month too. Here belatedly are pictures from Taisho’s birthday party, over two weeks back:

And here are a few pictures from a pleasant day out with Mewby at Uji Botanical Gardens one week later:

Many apologies for their tardy appearance – I’m lazy.

I know this is traditionally the time of year when people complain about how early the Christmas decorations have gone up, but this Brooks Brothers Xmas tree made us laugh when we saw it yesterday.

Back in October Mewby and I spent a day at Universal Studios Japan. And we had a very nice day there. And I completely neglected to post the pictures until now. Here they are (you can of course also view them properly on flickr).

So yeah, we had a lot of fun. I enjoyed the 3D Terminator experience, and zipping about in Spiderman’s cartoon universe, and the wee (but plucky) little girl who captained our boat and who single handedly fought off JAWS was also quite entertaining. One ride however remains etched into my memory: Jurassic Park.

The thing with Jurassic Park is you are just cruising along in this boat, looking at the life size moving dinosaur replicas, thinking “Ha ha! Moving dinosaur replicas! Life size! Oh my!” and then you know they throw in some scary ones that roar at you and you think “Oh, ha ha! Velociraptors! Scary!”. Then your boat heads through the legs of a monstrously huge and very angry Tyrannousaurus Rex, “Marvellous!” you think, “Lovely old Tyrannousaurus Rex!” And then for no apparent reason, the boat suddenly drops vertically, front first, EIGHTY-FIVE FEET. That’s 25 meters you know. This is what it looks like from the outside.

And this is what it looks like from the inside:

Let’s take a closer look at that shall we?

I was a wee bit surprised.

For some time now Ted has been doing a thirty-three temple pilgrimage round Kansai. He only had one more left to do, on an island in Lake Biwa named Chikubujima and he invited us to join him for the occasion. I’m sure he’ll write up his own thoughts on the day but here’s a pictorial record.

Some pictures from the island:

The boat trip back:

On the train:

And some pictures from dinner:

A very nice day. Thanks Tedster!

Update: Ted has written about the day here: Crossing.

Here’s a nice picture of Mewby in Kobe last night before I get down to having a good old whinge and whine fest. I’ll write about Kobe further down if you want to scroll past the complaining.

PL Fireworks – A big old-fashioned whinge.

We’d heard that this fireworks display courtesy of the religious sect Perfect Liberty was one of the most awesome to be seen in Japan. We were disappointed.  On Saturday we donned our Japanese party gear, Mewby in her light green yukata and myself in my blue jinbe pjs and went down to Tondabayashi, in Osaka expecting a lightshow beyond our wildest imaginings. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be a particularly good vantage point from which to see it. The crowds weren’t a problem (though that didn’t stop the poliko acting like they were), it wasn’t really that crowded. It was just that wherever we were, it always seemed like at least half the fireworks were going off behind some buildings or just on the other side of that hill, or behind those trees… Finally we found what should have been the perfect vantage point, no hills, or buildings or trees to block the view at all, instead hundreds of people sat peacfully on the ground facing… screens that had been purposefully erected just for this occasion. Why? I have no idea. To protect the local residents’s privacy perhaps? Whatever. We ended up seeing half the light show – basically the fireworks that made it up high enough (and that was phenomenally high) – and feeling very frustrated. And then there was the police, or poliko as they are derisively known in Japan ( “ko” comes from the word “komuin” meaning civil servant). Wherever the crowds gathered they were there with their bullhorns continuously screaming at people who weren’t running – not to run, and people who weren’t leaning on fences – not to lean on fences. It was like they had rehearsed commands that they had to repeat whether they were necessary or not. They should have told us not to have fun too, because that would have been just as redundant. Then after the display was over and everyone decides to go home at once, they lined both sides of the street, again screaming all kinds of instructions at us as we sheeplike unable to escape are herded through the streets. Noone could possibly understand what they were screaming though as every single poliko had his own bullhorn and they were all screaming different things simultaneously. Very effective that. Just to ice the cake, more screens had been erected to force the crowds along a ridiculously convoluted route to the station instead of allowing us to walk directly to it. We were forced to walk directly past and then away from the station for an hour before doubling back again… It’s all about control see. Other than that, what I could see of the PL fireworks display was also weirdly unispiring. A good fireworks display is a show, it is orchestrated, it has rhythm, it builds into a crescendo. They just let off a bunch of big fireworks one after the other. Considering that a central tenet of the PL faith is “Life is Art“, they don’t seem to be all that good at it.  In summary: it probably wasn’t worth the two hour journey there and the three hour journey back.

Trip to Hyogo (& other brighter sundries)

Yesterday, we went down to Suma beach near Kobe and took a dip in the murky brine. The beach was packed with bright young things in swimsuits. Tanned young men with six packs and slim young bikini clad girlies (fully made-up of course) flirted with each other all over the beach, while I gingerly stepped into the waters hiding my shiny white beer belly with a giant rubber ring. Mewby and I spent a pleasant afternoon splashing about in dirty sea-water before showering, heading back to Kobe and the harbor front where we had a delicious stinky cheese pizza and some salmon and cream sauce pasta. And the restaurant (the name of which I forget) had giant bottles of Moretti beer so I was in bliss (as was my shiny white beer belly). A very peaceful day indeed.

Today, I’ve been reading this Japan Navigator piece on Tokyo graveyards as little islands of green in the dirty metropolis. Interesting. I’m a big fan of graveyards myself. They are full of local history… and wildlife too. For personal reasons I was in a graveyard myself earlier yesterday, and despite the sadness of the occasion I couldn’t help but notice the lush greenery, the wasp-like insect that hovered from bush-to-bush, the sudden flight of birds overhead, the general peacefulness of the place…

Also, this Japan Times piece by Nick Coldicott on bar crawling in Shibuya is worth a look. Witty chap Nick, and once you get past the gag-inducing “Center Gai as Colon” analogy (why Nick, why?), it’s a very nice bar guide.

Center Gai is perfect for bar crawling, as long as you tackle it clockwise. It begins with some chic establishments for an aperitif, gets a little boisterous at the far end, and returns via beer and rock music. And just when you can no longer form a coherent thought, there’s Gas Panic. LINK

Pity he doesn’t live here. He knows his booze does Nick and when I have been fortunate enough to bar crawl with him I’ve really enjoyed his company. Looking forward to his next Liquid Culture installment.

Saturday night was Joao‘s 15th anniversary party. This party was much like other Joao parties. Riki and Nana were jumping about behind the bar.

Koji took his shirt off.

And I stole someone’s hat.

There was one notable difference this time though. After a long absence, Kageyan was back behind a bar.

Yutaka was snapping away with my camera for a while and took way too many good ones. Here’s a selection. Just click the buttons to move forward and back or click on the pics themselves for a closer look. Many congratulations to Taisho!
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Behold the cakeness: I had a really mellow birthday on Sunday. Went to see the Avant Garde Kyoto exhibition at MOMAK. And after feasting my eyes on beautiful things we went to Pontocho and feasted our bellies on beautiful eats at a Pontocho balcony restaurant. Then after the necessary karaoke revelry it was home to stay up far too late watching Roddick & Federer’s epic war of attrition. I finally gave up at 2:00 am when it seemed like the game would never end. Thank you to Mewby for a lovely day (and cake) and thanks to everyone else for their birthday greets, especially my lovely sisters who all remembered and all called even though I was useless this year and somehow managed to forget them all. What a lucky little brother I am.