The Ghibli Museum is simply amazing. Even if you’re not a fan of Hayao Miyazaki’s work, it’s worth a visit. The museum contained never before seen stuff, including viewings of several unreleased short films. We had a choice between a movie about a bug, or a movie about a lost puppy. We went for the puppy. Aside from that, there were some amazing stuff on display. There was one particular standout piece where dozens (if not hundreds) of miniature statues came to life with help of a flickering light. It looked like a stop motion video taking place right before your eyes.
Here’s some pics around the museum… unfortunately I couldn’t get any in the place.
Meet our hostess…
Thomas convinced us to check out this restaurant called Alcatraz ER. He revealed details little by little throughout the day, and I have to admit that I wasn’t thrilled about eating in a dirty hospital. But in the end I had a lot of fun, and the food was cheap.
1. Restaurant hallway
2. Parties dine in these booths. Some rooms were nicer than others. We got the nasty one on the left.
3. The bathroom
4. Sometime during our meal, a nurse comes barging in looking for an escaped patient
5. The nurse hunts down the patient and injects him with a huge needle
6. That’s not part of the act, it’s our friend Saiko
7. Lisa injects her drink with a syringe
I checked out Womb in Shibuya on Friday night solo. I got to see Apparat who I thought was pretty good live. I went out around 11:00pm and was packed in with late commuters on the Ginza subway line down to Shibuya. After squeezing myself out I made my way out into the bright lights and crowded streets of Shibuya. Darwin had made a copy on paper of a map that looked like the one below.
This is a pretty typical map in Tokyo as only the very major streets have names. Since the landmarks weren’t enough to help me find the club, I was able to find it after asking a couple of hip teenagers and some policemen.
I entered the first room which served food. For a moment I thought I may be in the wrong place because I saw no other floors. Seeing as the entrance was almost 40 dollars this would have been depressing. Luckily I was in the right place.
I put my stuff in the coat check (in Japan clubs you just rent your own compartment with a few coins like you would at a train station). In this area they also served beer from a vending machine. Since the staff don’t get tips I guess it doesn’t matter if you buy from the vending machine or from an actual person.
Upstairs I was treated to the main room which had excellent sound and an awesome video DJ. Tokyo is known for its video djs who mix images to go along with the music. I have to say its one of the most talented vjs I have ever seen.
The music was so so but I had a few funny experiences over the night. One when I was dancing a Japanese guy wanted to congratulate my enthusiasm by grabbing and vigorously shaking my hand and raising it in the air. The first time this seemed fun, after the third or fourth time it got a little old.
Another image I appreciate is the Japanese dj on the 4th floor who began his set with a humble bow. I found the bow to be a refreshing start to a dj performance.
This is one of those “Only in Japan moments”…
Thousands of people showed up today in Kawasaki to celebrate Kanamara Matsuri… aka The Festival of the Steel Phallus… aka The Penis Festival. It’s an annual fertility festival held on the first Sunday of April.
The main event was the carrying of 3 large penises around town and back to the shrine where it started. I remember watching this event on TV when I was a kid and thought it was a large part of Japanese culture. Interestingly enough, not a lot of locals know about it. During the festival, one of the announcers mentioned that more foreigners recognize this event and that it’s not widely accepted in Japan.
From Wikipedia:
The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis-venerating shrine, once popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted disease. Today, the festival is used to raise money for HIV research. There’s also a legend of a demon that hid inside a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights before a blacksmith fashioned an iron phallus that was used to break the demon’s teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item.
Check out this video Thomas put together from the footage we got today:
Update: Just found this clip on Comedy Central:
Dave Attel visits the Phallus Festival
I found this amazing book today containing the works of Tetsuya Ishida. He painted over 180 pieces with a surreal (and quite depressing) view of day to day life in Japan. Unfortunately he died a couple years ago at age 31. I did some digging online, and a few sources said he jumped in front of a train.
Tokyo seems obsessed with megaplexes; huge mini-cities within a city. Today was the grand opening of Tokyo Midtown, making it the 3rd megaplex in the area. The place was pretty swanky, especially the seemingly perfect park. For you videogame lovers, Konami (makers of Contra) is found here.
Darwin and I checked out Pecha Kucha at Super-Deluxe in Tokyo. Basically its a chance for designers to talk about their work. The catch is they have to present their project in 6 minutes and 40 seconds using 20 slides.
We only stayed for about half of the presentations due to half of them being presented in Japanese and the fact that 6 minutes and 40 seconds feels like a long time if you’re totally uninterested in the project.
We created this snobby rating system to keep us entertained:
5 – I am inspired
4 – I’d buy it if it were for sale
3 – Filler
2 – What are you doing presenting here?
1 – What are you doing as a designer?
There was some really good stuff shown, and we actually found one of the student’s work more interesting than a few of the industry vets. No 1 and 5s were given.
Pecha Kucha started in Tokyo and has now spread to over forty cities. In general I think its a good idea and you should give it a chance in your city if its available. It seems like a great networking event and would probably be most enjoyable if you stand far enough back from the presenter so that you can chat during boring presentations.
Cherry blossom activity seem to have exploded over the past few days. Unfortunately its over in about a week.
Tokyo Tower is a pretty significant landmark, so one has to wonder why they casted this guy as it’s mascot:
Here’s their bio from the pamphlet (yes, there are two of them):
Age: 10 years (male twins)
Character: Older brother (wearing blue overalls), a shy boy, cool and silent
Younger brother (wearing red overalls), cheerful and lively, but often feels lonely and misses people
Hobby: Meeting people, sunbathing
Special Ability: Posing for photos, parrying questions, and shaking hands
Wish: Being liked by children, and receiving lots of chocolate bars from kids on St. Valentine’s day
Goal: To become stars
Motto: Older brother: “Look at things with a hot heart with the cool touch”
Younger brother: “Start with small things and keep going on steady”
