Graffiti love10

Well, I'm staying in London, in Shoreditch.

Graffiti love9

Whoaa, back in Tokyo again, this time in Harajuku.

Graffiti love8

Right under the noses of these rather nasty looking bouncers near Liverpool Street.

Graffiti love7

Yes, quite. Like your tagtatt though...

Graffiti love6

A quick flight to London this time, a wall in a school yard.

Graffiti Love5

Tagging in Shibuya again!

Graffiti love4

Back at you Miyu chan!!

Graffiti love 3

Damn, she tagged me back! In Shibuya again...

Graffiti love2

And here's one back to Miyu from me, on a railing in Yamanakako.

Graffiti love

As you can see, we've decided to declare our love to the world, starting on a street in Shibuya...

Yadachan keeping warm 

Ghostly Christine 

Multiple Chris 

Jase in the woods 

Sachiko and Isamu by the fire 

Sleepy Jon 

Fire Jon 

Miyu and Isamu, moving fast! 

Sizzling meat, fire diving and blackout

Back in Tokyo again after a much drunken tomfoolery in Yamanakako. Miyu and I decided to drive up there, so rented a very nifty Toyota, and it took only 90 minutes to reach our destination. We were the last to arrive (the others all came up the previous night), so we had some catching up to do. The bbq was sizzling away, with some extremely yummy local beef and perfect baked potatoes. We added some sausages and topped up the wine cellar.
Isamu, Jon and Satchiko's son, has grown so much since we last saw him, and he has these saucer like eyes that never seem to blink, taking in everything that's going on around him. Miyu was captivated and stayed playing with him all night - feeling broody, me thinks!
I drank a lot. So much in fact that towards the end of the night, I lay down on a sofa and passed out. Apparantly, Jon had to carry me to my bed, and almost dropped me, but I have absolutely NO RECOLLECTION of this. Now, this may seem a small detail, but to me it's HUGE. It's the first time that I've had a blackout due to alcohol. In the past, however drunk I've got,I could remember everything that happened. So, what's changed? Is it age? Or was it the Carlo Rossi (the cheap plonk which we were drinking toward the end of the evening)? Maybe I've reached a point where I've finally gone and obliterated enough brain cells from embibing alcohol, so that it's eaten into those cells that regulate my short term memory.
Whatever the reason, it's a tad worrying.

A short break

Right, I'm off now for a leaving party in Yamanakako, which is about 3 hours train ride from Tokyo. My good friend Jon is leaving these shores in the not too distant future, with his wife and son, so some friends are gathering at their villa up in the mountains to bid them a hearty farewell. Just hope I don't get burnt by the bonfire (see previous posting for explanation)!

Stationart 

Streetart4 

Streetart3 

Streetart2 

Streetart1 

Doodlings & Snippings

Just found a very funny site. Some NASA research fellow who draws these clever little comic strips in his spare time - LINK

Went and got my haircut today at BOY, and had an off-beat, slightly surreal conversation with my hairdresser (who is also called Kobayashi, as was the cutter next to him...)about how cool old people in England look but how uncool old people in Japan look. He also couldn't understand the logic of the Paris metro but found the London Tube system to be excellent, and the announcements spot on. Kobayashi, Kobayashi, Kobayshi. Miyu's sister, Emi, is visiting, and she was getting her hair cut by Kobayashi in the seat next to mine. Emi is a Watanabe though, so couldn't join the Kobayashi. I don't bother telling Kobayashi what I want, because he always gives me the coolest cut I could never have thought of. So, with Spring in the air, my hair is no longer there (well, far less than before anyway).

Twiddling me thumbs

Hello again,

I'm almost finished my day at Yamazaki College of Animal Health Technician (LINK)where I've spent the day doing some proofreading, researching some academic funding bodies for a Chinese team member who will be going to Oxford as a Research visitor and communicating with WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals)who we're trying to persuade in partially funding a badger project in China.

I finished everything in about 2 hours, but seeing as I'm contracted to work here for 9 hours every Wednesday, I've been twiddling me thumbs. Sigh, it's not that the work isn't interesting but there just isn't very much at the moment. Kaneko san, the professor who I work with, says June is going to be crazy busy, but as it's now the beginning of the academic year, she's more occupied with the new intake of students. I kinda feel guilty though, as the pay's very good, and it's a bit cheeky not "working" for it. Just the way it goes I suppose.

I'm going to be attending a going away party this weekend for friends, Jon and Sachiko, who are moving to England in June, with Isamu their little boy. Sachiko's parents have a villa up in the mountains so we're all heading up there. Last time we went everybody got so drunk we ended up making a HUGE bonfire in the garden, with all the dead wood lying around, and I think at one point I was jumping through the flames like a demented monkey. Oooh dear...

I was just thinking about how ucky I am in being with Miyu. It's been almost 2 years since we met, and we're still sooo happy together (retching allowed, I know how icky that sounds). I mean, we have the occasional argument, but nothing really serious, and I love spending time with her; she's so cool. Ahhh...I'm staring off into the distant now with a dopey smile on my face. I know another friend who's also in a similar situation, and it's just so lucky innit? Hmm, this is not very interesting to anybody apart from me, me thinks ; )

Right, gonna get my shit together and head home. Got 3 ER DVDs to watch!

Chinese news

I spotted these two articles in the China Daily recently, which made me smile.

1. Cow stuns experts by delivering egg
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-04-17 09:20

A cow mysteriously delivered an "egg" recently in Qinhuangdao of Heibei Province.

The 1-year-old cow was found to have delivered what seemed to be a black egg early one morning last week. The strange "egg" has the same shape of a real egg but a bit larger.

The owner said that the cow ate much more since it delivered the "egg."

Animal experts have been curious over the "egg" and have begun researching it.

2. Cat army annihilates destructive rats
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-04-12 09:36

A group of villagers recently prepared a sumptuous fish banquet for more than 200 cats to thank them for eradicating rats from their farmland.

Yangmei villagers in Sanjiang Township of Xinhui District in the city of Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, are expecting a good harvest this year thanks to the hard-working cats.

The village committee spent more than 12,000 yuan (US$1,500) to buy more than 200 cats, which they released onto farmland to help wipe out the rat problem.

Sanjiang Village has 86.67 hectares of rice fields and 13.33 hectares of other crops and suffered from a rat infestation after most of the snakes were caught and slaughtered by local villagers in previous years.

Big shiny ball 

Mash up

Well, you can tell I've got more time on my hands by the increased postings - this'll be the last for today.
If like me you're an ipod freak or you like trawling the internet for free mp3s, then check out this grrrreat site - LINK
Party Ben is a "mash up" lovers idea of nirvana. All free downloads with some great combos - my fave at the moment is the coldplay vs kraftwerk ding dong. Classic.

Inbreeding

I love photography, and have just been looking at Roger Ballan's HP - LINK
Disturbing, surreal and darn right weird at times. I think it's brilliant stuff.

Owatta

My Japanese course came to an end last Friday, and it really surprised me that three months have already passed since I began the course. Have I mastered the language - no. Have I improved - yes, but still need to work on it...a lot! It's a constant battle to master a language, and now that I have the "basics", I'm trying to do one hour of study every morning, as I've found doing some study every day is better than doing lots only two or three days a week.
Now I have to look for some more work. Ideally, I'd love to do a few interesting part-time jobs, as it'll stop any one job from getting dreary, but at the same time having the security of a full-time, steady job would settle financial worries. Miyu's slowly working on her business, and she doesn't want to work for somebody else, and until money starts coming in from her business, I'm the sole bread winner. Is it fair? I think it's just what the situation is at the moment, and it's just a matter of getting on with it.
Found a cool little movie about a anti-war/Bush protest in NY by a guy called Jan Wandrag, which you should check out here - LINK
I like the way he's used the street drumming as a backing track to accompany the imagery - keeps it urgent, I feel. There's some other good stuff on his HP too, photography and mini-movies.

Air heads

Hello there,

It's been a while. As you can see from the picture, a group of us ventured out to AIR, my favorite Tokyo club, last week. The night was called "Elephant", which I liked, and the crowd were very friendly. My friend G, who's relatively new to the Tokyo clubbing scene, has asked me to show him the places to go, so I'm trying to arrange about one outing a month. Air was the first, and next month we'll be going to Ageha. This will be in the middle of Golden Week (a whole week of national holidays), when Tokyo is almost deserted as people head back to their home towns to visit relatives. Hence, it's a great time to be in Tokyo. You're guaranteed a seat on any train, at any time, and the city takes on a less frantic air, as the streets are cleared of sleep deprived salarymen.

Miyu will be holding her second exhibition at Ama Terrace, in Koriyama, which is the same location where we had our wedding party. She's lest things a bit last minute, so she'll be spending the next two weeks sewing and stiching together a multitude of wonderous designs. The exhibition is during Golden Week, so she'll be away, so I'll be in Tokyo. Apart from the clubbing, I'm going to try some hiking and indoor climbing at some newly discovered places around Tokyo.

I got a wonderful package in the post yesterday, from my mum. "The Observer Music Monthly magazine" and "The Guardian Weekend" magazine. I really miss those papers, and it's been great to catch up with some Brit culture. You wouldn't believe how much they charge over here for week old copies of those papers, and reading them on-line just hasn't got the same feel as holding it in your hands. It kind of made me wonder about how incredible an invention paper is. I remember back in the 90s a lot of talk about the paperless office, but it still hasn't come to pass. I think the fact is that paper is amazing. You can feel it, which meets our needs for our sense of touch, and it's extremely portable, flexible and robust. I know that screen technology is improving all the time, and that portable electronic devices are getting "smarter", but personally, I couldn't imagine them ever fully replacing paper.

There's a cool annual music festival in the UK called "All Tomorrow's Parties", and I only recently found out that it's the title of one of William Gibson's novels, which I'm now reading. I've a few of his books, and they always offer a quite realistic glimmer into the future of technology. In the book I'm reading, there's a anti-graffiti paint you can buy, which contains an AI graffiti eater, that "lives" in the paint. If somebody sprays their tag or drawing on the wall, the eater comes to life on the surface of the wall, and slowly but surely "eats" the paint, leaving the wall pristine again. It's not as far fetched as it sounds, as I read a recent article about a scientist who is developing fabric that can change colour according to the wearer's mood (can't find the link at the moment). All of this due to nanotechnology, which is still a good 10 - 20 years away from reaching full potential, but is none-the-less extremely feasible.

Met up with Chris and Christine on Friday night for some drinks at Frigo.
It's a Belgium style pub located in Shinjuku, with a dizzying choice of brews. It's very expensive (800 Yen - 2,000 Yen for a bottle of beer), but if you're a beer lover, then it's paradise.

Right, I'm off to enjoy the day, so catch you later.

Storming night at AIR