1. Jack the Ripper walk – very good, the guide (an actor by profession) did voices (horny wretches, toff, Cockney, fire truck (??)) , sang, danced – it was a good night. www.walks.com

2. Syon Park Enchanted Woodland Walk – very very pretty – they put up lights & effects in the park and it just turns into something else. It’s also the home of the Duke and Duchess of Northcumberland but unfortunately Their Graces are not part of the exhibit http://www.syonpark.co.uk/

3. Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. Ice rink is fully booked til Xmas (I’ve been told) but it’s more like a sandy watery rink..better to go to Somerset House. Excited kids, parents, couples, teens – everyone in London had turned up. Ferris wheel, tube slide, carousel, haunted house, rides, food, stalls for pressies, Santa

4. VIP shopping weekend – they closed parts of Oxford Street for shoppers – jugglers, entertainers etc. There’s this Argos ad on the telly now that has people sommersaulting over bollards, pushing, shoving…that was probably based on this event :p

5. Columbia Street Flower Market – oh the glorious smell of pine needles…mmm 25 pounds for a 5 ft xmas tree..sigh

6. East London Design Show – it was good. Didn’t find any xmas pressies tho

Oh yes in my previous email I said that it was Richard VIII – it should actually have been Henry VIII – my bad

Interestingly, Henry VIII was eaten by the estate dogs at Syon Park – considered divine judgement for turning Syon Abbey into Syon House.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syon_House

Got soaked in the rain, it’s been raining all week. And the story behind that nice graffiti is here:

http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/horizontal_1.htm

It’s located above the bus stop at the Old Street tube station and the story behind it is worth a read.

That’s it for now..I’m absolutely knackered.

zzzz
shi

Hey there

Weather has gone crazy hot again – summer is here with a vengeance. It’s as hot (if not hotter) than Malaysia, but in Malaysia, it’s possible never to have to step out of 16C air-conditioning…Anyway went to Mount Takao for a hike, that turned out to be a great escape from the heat because it was nice and cool in the mountains…although really hazy so I couldn’t see anything beyond the sewage treatment plant at the foot of the mountains (???) Went on the cable chair to the top and walked on trails that went past the monkey park, that I heard has “60monkeys that roam free!” No such thing, the Japanese are afraid of losing their 12 monkeys (not the movie) so they are all behind perspecs in a dirt enclosure with one barb-wired tree. Hmmm. But they also had a herb garden with 50 species of plants! Which would have been great if I could read Japanese like a Nihon-jin (but I read like a Mareeshia-jin which is pretty shat) and they only have ONE plant of every herb, so the walk took..oh 45 seconds.

The temple hike was pretty good though – fantastic for the stamina, it’s like walk up 50 stairs, see one temple, go up another hill, see another temple…the peak was disappointing though because I thought that there would be a fantastic temple on the top – only to see a café, giftstore and vending machines. Which makes it like every other mountain peak in the world, actually. This Japanese ironman went sprinting past me on the way up to the peak and then sprinting past me on the way down and a pair of obasan and ojisan (gran and granpa) doing the trek together, families with little kids, and of course, the quintessential Tokyo girl dressed in knee length skirt, cute top, trendy handbag, little dog (in trendy handbag), makeup and high heels for a dirt trail trek (???) This again proves that Tokyo girls can go everywhere in sparkly high heels (even trekking in muddy mountainous jungle). I predict that the next invasion of South-East Asia will be lead by Tokyo women in cute button-down tops, knee length skirts and sparkly high heels with vicious chihuahua attackdogs that fit in their Dior/Chanel/vuitton handbags. The resistance from the menfolk of SE Asia wil be minimal, if none at all. But the hike was a calming and refreshing respite from the concrete jungle of Shinjuku, and the people there were much nicer than normal.

Next day went to the aquarium in Sunshine city in Ikekuburo (aka gangoro central). It was like most other aquariums that I’ve been too, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t worse considering that we were in the middle of the city. The animals didn’t look too miserable, so that was good. A pretty small aquarium but a diverse range of exhibitions – and the highlight for me was a pair of (bored looking) Ocean Sun fishes (1meter disc shaped fish that can only be found in one place in the Phillipines) and deep sea Japanese Spider Crabs.

And then to the 60th floor observatory to look at Tokyo from above – everything seemed really quiet and serene from 60 floors up – totally different from the chaos and people perpetually rushing to get somewhere on the streets. Tokyo is a huge urban sprawl, buildings crammed to each other, highways, train tracks and power cables winding in the gaps, and patches of green for temples and Mount Fuji in the background, obscured by haze.

Then went down and found Tokyu Hands where I also found the costume department! Woo-hooo…I found (amongst other things), an eggplant suit, a mushroom suit, a policewoman, nurse and French maid (all with knee length skirts) costume, a salaryman’s costume with no back, and a Japanese schoolgirl’s costume! Also a girl cheerleading costume and a female tennis player’s costume….for men. Hahahahahaha…..I think I’ve started accepting alternative sexual fetishes as part of straight-laced Japan, but it will be a while before I can stop laughing….did you know that they actually hold schoolgirl camps for middle-aged salarymen where they can dress up as schoolgirls, and go shopping in malls? Mmph…hahahahahahahaa….

Tried to look for this place in shinjuku-koen (park) where there was supposed to be a tea-ceremony place…but didn’t find it. I did find a homeless persons campsite, where it was laundry day because there were mens’ shirts (collared business shirts, no less) and futons over all the park railings. There are homeless people everywhere in Tokyo – in parks, in cardboard beds at office building entrances, under bridges and they make little bed-coffins out of old fridge boxes. They are supposed to be unemployed salarymen who lost their jobs from corporate restructuring or when the bubble burst – but the strange part is they all look much happier living in a park than the other Tokyo salarymen their age who have jobs and sleep on the train to and from work.

Anyway back to work tomorrow, has been a good long weekend with good sleep-ins. Looking for a new place to live now, so spent 2 hours on the wrong train(s)few days ago. Ahhh wish me luck.

Have fun,

Shi.

ps: I don’t mean any malice by consistently mentioning the pretty Tokyo women – as far as I’m concerned, anyone who can hike a mountain, ride a bicycle, get through Shinjuku rush hour, sprint on wet sidewalks….with high heels 24-7-365.. demand high levels of respect.