Hey there

This weekend passed in a blur – last weekend in Tokyo for a bit. Going away dinner for me and another colleague who is being posted in another prefecture (different area in Japan).

Went to see hanabi (fireworks) at Sumidagawa River (’tis the season for hanabi..) with D, a Dutch expat who’s been in Tokyo for a while. It was pretty good, not as crowded compared to other hanabi, and all the Japanese girls were in yukata, which was really pretty – so we had a good time admiring girls’ outfits , but my all-time favourite, I think best of all the outfits I’ve seen in Tokyo was the goth yukata. Even her obi (sash) was all goth, with lace and teardrop pearls. Very cool. I wish we went in yukata too, but it’s a really difficult thing to wear and tie properly. Drats. Fireworks were great! 1 hour of fireworks (and sitting on newspapers on the road), there were some like golden streamers, star bursts, crazy alien rockets but the most stupendous was one that sounded like a great waterfall, and then the whole sky would turn red as a fountain of thick columns of light (about 10 storeys tall) gushed out…I love fireworks. As usual, there were police with megaphones telling people where to sit and walk – it is really common in Tokyo. Which is good, because there are so many people at these events that it would be chaos if there weren’t. Everything was really orderly and clean plus no garbage on the ground after. Finished up with a tops dinner (thanks to D’s superior Japanese skills) and cocktails in Japanese restaurant before going home.

Odaiba on Sunday for the Miraikan museum – long name is National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. Coolest museum for little kids, you get to manipulate a 2-storey high globe with LCD screens showing changing weather patterns, temperatures, change the planet… and just swivel the whole thing, fast forward the years..and of course other stuff like Assimo (freaky how humanlike he moves), spider robots kids can manipulate with Playstation controls, VR…I think the Malaysian science museum has something on tadpoles turning into frogs. Hmm. And the Fuji televion building had some summer festival at the bottom with the weirdest giant elephants and celebrities heads, policegirl uniforms for Japanese girls to take photos in (although being Japan, the skirts stop ½ inch below the butt) And the Statue of Liberty with the Rainbow Bridge in the back. Dancing Elvises also on tour in Odaiba seaview deck.

Went to Omotesando on a mission to find Herzog and de Meuron’s Prada building before leaving Tokyo – and found it. It is now one of my 3 favourite Tokyo buildings. Love the treatment of the façade, the intersital spaces where stores rooms can be hidden yet appear if needed, the slanted planes with images projected at an angle so that person on the street can see catwalk show projected from the 5th floor, uber-cool creamy white honeycomb structure and custom made glass panes. Love the effortless cool. Then cooled down the hot Tokyo night with green tea frappucino on the 2nd floor while people-watching the Shibuya crossing.

Tired now. 3 days left, working till I leave. Will let you know if there is a second chapter of this Tokyo tirade.

Later,

Shi.

hullooo

Nice slow weekend, good change after shinkansen-ing between Tokyo-Kyoto last weekend. Went to a house that’s just been completed by the company, slept in and went to the 7-storey bookstore in Shinjuku. Went out for drinks with people in the company Friday night as a belated welcoming and got royally soaked Saturday evening, rainy season is starting in Tokyo now. House in Tokyo was really interesting because the house plan is closely linked to a Tokyo style of living (duh we’re in Tokyo) but it was very differently designed from say a Malaysian or Australian plan. Also little details, facade etc. Will put up more pics on www.flickr.com/photos/folio check it out

Went to the technology department at some of the Tokyo malls and drooled over techie stuff They’ve got an Olympus MP3 player that with a Darth Vadar slick black front and touch-sensitive face for all controls, smaller and lighter than an Ipod. There is a Sony Vaio desktop, but looks like a laptop with attached speakers at the back. When the keyboard snaps shut, it acts as a hifi with slick black plasma console and when open, it’s a desktop with plasma screen. It would have been even cooler if you could just undock the desktop from the speaker and use it as a laptop and even cooler if they could have could use an ENGLISH operating system…but they can’t. They even have a Panasonic MP3 player that is a 2cmX2xm silver cube (yes, it is that small) and let’s not even get started on the handphones, cameras, video cameras, lens….

The downside is all the cool techie stuff (except for Ipods) are in Japanese. The way I use Japanese gizmos here is through trial and error, in fact all the software I use in the office is in Japanese. But most options on the menu bar is in the same place and order so it’s alright. It also takes me awhile to decipher where plastic/paper/tins go if there are no icons, and I still point to the photos to order my food.

One of the redeeming things about my apartment is that I have an indirect view of the Shinjuku park. The bad news is that I have to go back to KL in 2 months time because the offer in Tokyo fell but am going to hunt again.

Resolve to get myself to Tsukiji (fish market) next week the Sony store and the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Laters,

Shi.