Tokyo sunset 

Dance? 

Descending to the catwalk 

The worry boys 

Lead singer of Klash City Rockers 

Who's a pretty boy then - Jason 

Guillaume 

Some of the delicious food on offer at Design Festa 

Full body paint job 

Meow! 

A peek at how the Japanese will be getting around next year...  

wot you looking at! 

Well, hello... 

Hear the drummer get wicked 

The mad professor 

Design Festa pic1 

cou-rah-gae

This is my wonderful wife, Miyu, and she and her friends have a cool fashion lable called cou-rah-gae.
One of Miyu's friends, Mana, runs a very successful restaurant in Koriyama, called ama terrasse, and they've agreed to sell some of cou-rah-gae's accessories for them using their HP.
Check it out here: cou-rah-gae ama terrasse

Design Festa

Well, hello again.
I've just spent a wonderful day exploring the many delights of Design Festa which, as you can see from the link, is a huge exhibition of mostly youthful Japanese talent, showing us their latest creations. The groovy combo on the right was made by Miyu (my wife), who together with Chihiro and Saki-chan, form cou-rah-gae, their fashion company.
It was't a great day for them, as they didn't sell much, but it's another step toward greatness, I hope!
Walking around the huge Tokyo Big Sight , it was staggering how many people were there, both as exhibitors and spectators. Also, the atmosphere was very ralaxed and laid back, with people talking to absolute strangers and chilling out on a pleasant Sunday.
Joining me today were two relatively new friends, Guillaume and Jason, and Christine, and old friend.
As we munched through a delicious chicken curry lunch, Christine and I found ourselves agreeing on how wonderful it is to have one of those days, where you had no work, no pressing engagements and where you could while away the day writing, doing photos, watching a movie and reading. I had just such a day yesterday. For the first couple of hours of the day, I found myself feeling slightly agitated, and thinking there had to be something to do, or there was something I had forgotten to do. After realising there wasn't, I settled in to a glorious day of doing the things I love- reading, writing, watching a film and going for a walk. It felt so refreshing, and it made me ralize I hadn't done anything like it for years! Yes, you read that right - YEARS!
So anyway, back to the Festa. Although Christine had to dash off to meet friends, G, J and I wandered around the various stalls and chatted about this and that.
G is French and he's just arrived in Tokyo, working for a French mobile company.
J is American and has been in Japan for 5 years, teaching English.
Both are excellent company. Reflective and self deprecating, but knowing themselves and being confident in what they do.
I always feel lucky to meet people like them, and we're hopefully going to go clubbing together soon, probably to go see Deep Dish play at either Air or Ageha - two of my favorite clubs here in Tokyo.
Along for the ride should be Little John, who was supposed to turn-up today but got "side tracked" (something that he's been doing an awful lot of recently). I think he's been hanging out with Boo and Charlie a bit too much recently, and both of them tend to be a bit wild!

Birthday boy 

Me 

Positivity

I turned 36 yesterday (yes, happy birthday to me, blah,blah), and found myself in a real low. I felt very negative, and had a fairly miserable day, and in the process made it a miserable day for my wife.
It was only when we were talking about our life, in bed later that night, when she said I had been so negative recently, always worried about money and work. I slept on it, and realized it was true. I'd been obsessing about not earning "enough", and also being horrible to her for not working. I felt like I had to go out and find some high paying job in order to make us "happy", whilst all the while making us miserable just thinking about it.
Well, the funk is over, and I've decided to be more positive, because not only will it make it easier to be with me, but I think better things happen in life if you are open to new things and are in a good mood. People pick-up on negativity, and I think it leads to downfall. It could be why I've not been able to get anywhere with finding a new job, because I've been thinking too narrowly about where I can find work. I need to open up my way of thinking, and once again believe I can, in fact, do anything I put my mind to.
Now I just have to convince everyone it's true!

A new light enters the world

Got great news today. My good friend and his lovely wife, Jon and Sachiko, have just given birth to their first child, Isamu! It's so exciting. Although it was two weeks early, the labour only lasted 5 hours and there were no complications. The child looks very similar to his father, apart from his nose which is from mum, and he's so cute! Ahh, kinda makes me broody, it really does. To add to their good fortune the baby hardly cries at all, and is very well behaved, which must be such a relief to mum.
Earlier today, I was having a discussion at work about whether children should be told about the work UNICEF does. Now, we're talking about 2 - 4 year olds, who may not really understand the concept of a child not having a home, or not having parents because they have died. However, the older ones can express their emotions, and there's some mothers who don't want to expose their children to "nasty" bits of information.
Let me explain. I'm managing an International school at the moment in Tokyo, and we'll be holding our annual school bazaar this month. The nominated charity is UNICEF, which the PTA chose, and part of the money raised from the bazaar will be going to this worthy organization.
We thought is would be great for the children to know a bit about UNICEF, so they're going to spend a week studying what they do, where they do it and what their aims are. However, the question is, will some of the children be traumatized by it? Personally, I don't believe they will. Sure, some will feel sorrow and pain for what they'll learn (the older ones at least), but I don't think it's going to scar them for life.
Surely it's better to feel things, to experience emotions as broadly as possible, as it will help develop more rounded individuals? If parents try and be over protective, then there is a real danger of doing more harm than good, especially when it comes to child development.
It sometimes really saddens me when parents do this, as they're not really looking at an issue from their child's perspective, but from their own perspective. They refuse to give their children the freedom that is their right, and so end up clipping their wings.
OK, sorry about the rant, I'll stop now.
Another friend had a rather unfortunate run-in with the law today. she was on her way to her train station to catch the train to work, when a policeman ran up to her, waving and telling her to stop. He demanded she produce her Alien Registration Card and passport, the former which she had but the latter she didn't. He was talking to her in Japanese, and this isn't her strong point. She then told him she was an English teacher, and he said "OK", bowed and waved her along. My friend got on her train but was deeply embarrased, and felt ashamed.
I think this is a classic example of the subtle racialism that pervades Nihon. It doesn't rear it's ugly head too often, but a surprising numner of Japanese are still under the foolish belief that they belong to a truly unique race, that is compeltely defferent and superior to any other. I know, it's ridiculous and rather silly, but people actually believe it.
I tried to reassure my friend that she's done nothing wrong. It's only because she's a foreigner that the policaman picked on her, as they probably have some sort of quota they have to fill - 10 foreigners must be stopped and made to feel bad about themselves everyday sort of thing. Aghhrrrr, it does annoy me, people being small minded and stupid.

How repressed are you?

I was talking to a friend tonight about different countries attitudes toward sexuality, and how some places are more repressed than others.
She comes from the Philippines, which is heavily Catholic, but the young people go out of their way to expose flesh, because a)it's a hot country, and b)they know it will raise the ire of the elder generation = rebellion.
Here in Japan, which has a very low percentage of people who would call themselves religious in any way (34% of the population, according to some survey I read about), you get high school girls wearing the shortest of skirts, and selling their soiled underwear to sweaty salarymen who have nothing better to spend their money than soiled high school girls' underwear...
But, generally, in this land of the rising sun, people seem to have quite a relaxed view of sex, in that it's not "dirty", as it is in say the UK or the USA. It's a natural function of the body, and people don't have too much anxiety about it.
I grew up in the UK, going to a Catholic school, and I can tell you, there were many sexually repressed people there, and that's only counting the teachers! Nah, seriously, I think I noticed and felt a real repression in the air when it came to sex in the UK, with the snickering attitude toward nudey mags, to the barely concealed delight of tabloid jounalists when they found out a senior government minister had been having an affair.
There seems to be a very relaxed attitude to sexual partners here in Japan, especially amongst the young. I've read reports where teenagers matter of factly state they have 4 or 5 sex partners and a boy/girlfriend, and that it's perfectly normal. Of course, this is probably one of the contributing factors in why the WHO has spotlighted Japan as one future hotspot of an AIDS epidemic! Especially when you factor-in the falling sales in condoms in Japan (I really don't think people are having less sex).
Personally, I wouldn't be able to cope with having more than one partner - I mean, it's too much stress, and I'd rather be with someone who I love deeply, rather than just flitting between people and not feeling at all.

A snip at BOY

Miyu and I decided to go get our haircut yesterday at a place in Daikanyama called Boy which was very funky. My hairdresser shared the same surname as me, and he had HUGE hair! A bit like an Afro, but somehow funkier. The owner was in there - 59 y/o wearing brightly coloured combats and a very tight striped t-shirt and ornage hair. He sat and stared at Miyu for ages - she has a perfectly formed head, I kid you not, and a bit of a hairdresser's wet dream I think.

He drew me an illustration of what he was going to do, and then washed and massaged my hair(very noice), and then twirled me about in his swivel chair (ohh missus) whilst looking very bored and cutting seemingly random chunks of my hair. Surprisingly it all came good in the end, but Miyu had to stay for another 2 hours!! However, I must say the result was worth it - she looks fantastic. Asymetric cut, with a blend of purple and red colouring. I went a lot shorter, all different lengths with the back kinda swept in rather than swept out, as it was beforeBOY.

There were all these magazines in the waiting area, called ING, which the staff were very keen for us to read, and now I know why - it's published by them! It's a hairdressing mag, and it looks very nice, but I'd have preferred a bit of choice!

Anyway, all in all a great experience and it's persuaded me to go back again the next time I need a cut, which means I'll be leaving the only place I've been going to since arriving in Tokyo 3 years ago SINDEN
Not putting the place down - it was great, and I have to thank Masako for keeping my locks beautiful, but the price is right at BOY (6,000 Yen as opposed to 7,500 Yen at SINDEN), and they seem to have a better finger on the trendo metre.