The Misadventures of Jason

Ride to Asakusa

paper cranes from a random temple somewhere in eastern tokyo. is that a chinese crane or just a coincidence that its red with a gold star.

first no skateboarding sign ive seen or at least noticed cuz i was able to read wat it says cuz there is a big cartoon with a red x through it.

tons of bridges going over the sumidagawa river in east tokyo, at least 20 i counted on the map.

also tons of crazy snaking highways and land bridges so that means lots of tokyo lives works and plays under bridges, and expressways. tons of playgrounds are under bridges, and lots of cool drinking and restaurant areas are under bridges and train tracks.

that green walkway looped around like crazy

nakamise dori that leads up to senso ji temple at asakusa sells traditional japanese stuff.

what are these things? I've seen them before, my roomate said they are the dog from the old japanese peachboy story but i can't find any more info.

Senso Ji. didn't go inside cuz ive been there before and will have to go again with visitors so i want to keep some of the magic alive

December 8th and trees still have citrus fruits on them

the 7 lucky gods in japanese culture. Ebisu is one of them and he is the only japanese one

street off of nakamise dori, less crazy

these graphics are awesome and its even more awesome that its not on purpose

are those long japanese radishes in front of this restaurant ?

see that ball on top of doraemon's head? thats my head, and thats wat happens when you hang out by yourself and you have to set timers and take bad shots over again, you just don't see the point in doing it anymore

pig at a korean restaurant that blows steam out of his nose. all along the JR line underneath the tracks around shimbashi and yurakacho and ginza are tons of cool looking restaurants, stores, and drinking places. This area is underrated.

After Kyoto

Looks like I haven't posted in a while. I have been scratching and clawing trying to get work and then doing some work.

this is from my parents camera. my boxes from china finally arrived, in very not good shape mind you. Looks like they either rifled through all the stuff again and probably kept some things or it just looks like that because it rolled down the himalayas.

and somehow that fragile fragile birdcage made it fine.

this is the little park near my house where i practice kung fu.

elementary school girls uniforms. the guys have to wear the same only the wear shorts not skirts. same hat. poor guys.

Hiroshi has been growing and growing. what a guy

my roomate bought these cool rice bowls from Kyoto the other week. im a fan of blue

this is not uncommon, especially purple. i have seen at least 5 elderly japanese women with purple hair since i've been here. this one really hammered it home with the purple tinted glasses and the falling asleep though.

X Madonna on the shibuya 109 building. i dont even want to find out what it is. that part of Japan i am fine with not knowing about. oh and im sure it has something to do with fashion, probably gyalusu fashion

one of those helpful city maps that are usually on corners, only this one is behind a fence in a grassy lot.

Vivi and her new ring that is a miniature version of Vivi

these days i have been searching for good running routes from my house and i found that running to tokyo tower is about 30 min and about 6 or 7 km. its pretty crazy running around the little side streets and then having the orange tower smack you in the face every now and then as you get closer and closer to it. its cool finding cool stuff on these runs.

oh look who it is. that lil' fella Akari Kunimatsu. she just got a job and moved to tokyo

Happy Price "something nice is about to happen"

my girl for a 45 min cafe moment in time

my apt, the kitchen. my roomates had a nabe (japanese soup/stew) party

turn around and there is the table

its nabe time

my room on the left. Naoki's room on the right, Aka's room further right not in the picture.

Before Kyoto

I got this in the mail from Kult, the agency in Singapore that i worked with on the Tiger Beer project. a view master with all the artists artwork on the disks.

shibuya, random shrine with some shrineness going on.

wat are these things?

weird and cool how there are shrines even in the middle of shibuya.

Ai's friend Emi and her sister own a cafe in Kichijoji and it has a hammock theme. Everyone was from FIT and it was a welcome home party for Goro who i actually played ping pong with once at FIT. i didn't know the others though, i guess they graduated the year i started or i just never saw them.

i took the last train back to shibuya, but it only went 3 stops and ended so they only choice was to go back to kichijoji and hang out with those guys until the first train.

painting in progress. No computer will be used!

Kyoto November 2009 - Day 2

I crossed this river a bunch of times

while everyone in town was koyo crazy and lovin' the koyo these guys were hating it and shredding it and cutting it and stomping on it.

Kyoto tower. a handy landmark

had to buy some genmai cha drink to get change for the coin locker.

these poor kids

and then bam! the second most popular site in kyoto. kinkaku ji, the golden pavillion. this is what i based that golden pagoda thing on in one of my japanese themed illustrations for Yahoo!

I love how Japan is so moist and the Koke (moss) takes over everything and adds life to it.

close up of one of these straw roofs or reeds or watever that stuff is.

those are coins on the ground

fortune machines. and if it could get anymore sanitized they even have english, chinese, and korean fortune machines. why does anyone even bother? does it feel good to buy your english language fortune from an electric machine at the golden pavillion?

well if you are in highschool on a trip and are bored out of your mind i guess you would buy a fortune.

more kitsune (foxes) in a little little shrine on the way out.

across from that little little shrine was this lady borden icecream vending machine. not your standard haagen das machine.

this is what i had for thanksgiving. assorted dango rice cake things. delish. but i sorely missed american thanksgiving food.

i forgot my toothbrush and toothpaste so i finally got to brush my teeth around 11:00 am

Next down the road was Ryoan Ji which in my opinion was the best of all the temples/shrines as far as atmosphere vs. crowds vs. beauty vs. amount of fall leaves vs. misc other stuff. its a small place but had the best leaves i thought. Also you couldn't ask for better weather, it was sunny and warm. Not a lot of people either (in comparison).

a magical set of stairs with a canopy of fire, when the sun hit this its like you're an 8 yr old girl on a pink pony in your candy land fantasy.

fire water buckets. you take your shoes off when you enter this building and you can walk around the place and on the outside veranda. was warm enough so wasn't bad but in the winter it would suck.

if i return to this place when im older im sure i will appreciate it more. it was still awesome though. especially because it was the perfect time of day and the sun was shining in so you could just sit there and soak up the sun and contemplate the composition of this garden.

look at these super long and thin branches on these japanese maples growing straight out at 90 degrees! again with the japanese maples and their delicate and crazy shapes.

and again.

next was Ninna Ji. it was a lot bigger and not as well maintained. i didn't think there was anything standout about the place except it had the best tree i saw in all of kyoto. since its down the road you would come here anyway so you don't have to debate wether its worth it or not to see the best tree or not.

the best tree. look it it, its unreal

Next was onto Kiyomizu dera temple which i went to last night with Mayuko. it looks different in the daytime obviously. there is this shop that sells Tanuki statues at the bottom of the hill. these ninja tanuki statues are kind of cool. I searched for the perfect tanuki statue for 2 days and should have bought the first one i saw who was chillin' laying on his side with big magical tanuki balls on full display. I am a fool. someday this year i will get the perfect tanuki statue!

Oni, another mythical guy that was originally bad and still is but also is looked at as a protector too. I ended up buying and oni statue that i will show later.

this chinese couple was so super gay. the guy had a tripod set up and timer and they kept taking picture after picture with the gayest smiles on their faces. Asian people are so corny sometimes it makes me want to rip my hair out cuz they give asian people a bad name. at least they had nice white corny teeth though and not messed up chinese fangs.

maiko

that totoro coin bank is ssoooooooo o-some but its 30$

more oni demon statues

it actually sucked

i don't even know where this was. there are so many temples and shrines smashed into this area of kyoto that you can just wander about btwn them for hours and hours. its pretty awesome.

tons of hawks or falcons or watever birds of prey around this temple. tons of crows too.

leaves to match the color of this torii

Gion is behind me, above are the hawks. kind of unsettling.

this lion has a horn i think

Gion, basically you don't need to come here because look at it, does it look cool? probably if you visit you'll only have time to see the temples and shrines cuz thats what you come to kyoto for anyway, not for this crap

but if you explore you can find quaint little side streets and neighborhoods.

i saw this maiko shuffling off to an appointment

then saw her again later on.

pagoda towering over the quite nice little neighborhood.

homogeneous signage for multiple businesses somewhere in Gion

my feet were destroyed. this was a 12 hr walking day. i was walking along and it was getting colder and i was thinking this kind of sucks and then wam i see this! people playing lawn ball or watever (no its not croquette). in front of the Kyoto international manga museum no less. how weird but awesome that they would have this in front of the museum.

something erected next to some building on the walk home to my apt. at this point its 7 am after riding the overnight bus and def bed time.

Kyoto November 2009 - Day 1

Fall is a great time in Japan cuz it's not balls hot and in late fall the leaves change color and its all beautiful and stuff. So i went to Kyoto for this. The leaves stay until early December in a lot of places. There are a few websites dedicated to the tracking and estimating of the peak times to see these beautiful leaves (koyo). My friend Jung Eun from Korea was supposed to come and visit but her mom got swine flu 2 days before she was supposed to come so i had to go solo.

cool stylized deer

First I went to the Arashiyama area. Its a little outside of Kyoto. they say its the second best sight seeing district in Kyoto. This is around Tenryu Ji

Japanese maples are so delicate looking and have such crazy shapes. Jeanne Raish MUST get one for her Japanese garden. I don't think you could ask for a finer tree. I don't know if the novelty of the super small maple leaves would ever wear off.

Me creeping through the underbrush like the bottom feeder that i am. some random shrine along the road. There are tons and tons of random shrines and all are beautiful but you just don't have time for all of them.

end of a chopped off bamboo stalk

beautiful fall colors.

it looks like japan stays pretty fertile and ready to grow stuff all year long

this guy has like 2 leaves hanging on.

the chicken man. this chicken just sits on his handle bars obediently. i saw him the next day in another part of Kyoto, miles and miles away from Arashiyama.

a lot of shrines have kitsune statues or 2 of them. kitusune means fox. they are mischevious creatures but are also looked at as protectors too. seems like a lot of mythological creatures in japan can be both good and bad

don't know why these stones have been placed above this doorway

just a normal train, not even a bullet train

this house on the corner really slapped me in the face.

This is at Gio Ji temple.

people always sheit their pants with delight when they see a cat. don't they know he could care less and would p!ss on you if he felt like it?

lots of fruit trees ripe for the pluckin' persimmons a'plenty. Citrus fruits by the busshell, on and on

look its Mayuko formerly of FIT. she lives in Kobe now which is and hr and a half from Kyoto. We went to Kiyomizu Dera at night cuz they light it up in the fall

i dont know what the point of this super strong beam of light was

the shot everyone was trying to get

Chanko nabe. the hotpot/stew that sumo wrestlers eat. I have to admit that i would have to eat a lot of this to get full cuz its like watery soupy hotpot. so i'm gonna guess sumo wrestlers have to eat A LOTTTTTT of it to gain any weight. because look at it, its pretty healthy.

a mikoshi (portable shrine used in parades) on display on the way to my ryokan (traditional japanese hotel)

these poor kid not only have to wear short shorts but they have to wear them when its freezing outside

guy selling takoyaki octopus balls. they were small and not good. i didn't like his balls. sounds gross right.

look how small this ryokan room is. its like 3 tatamis. but its ok thats all i needed.

go to bed jason

November about town

two interestingly phrased signs

violin maker

this ad on the subway looks like its circa 1930-40

this is a typical meal for me now in tokyo. curry, rice, pickled delights, pickled plums, miso soup

Fumika's mom gave me this tea pot. now i dont have an excuse for being lazy and just throwing loose leaves in a mug and drinking it.

a scooter fairy. she asked if she cut us in line. i took a picture of her.

went to the design festa gallery yesterday and was greeted by this parade of weirdos, drummers, trumpet players, and more weirdos. it looked like they were having a g-darn good time

awesome charcoal drawings

and the youtube hiphop voilin guy was playing too. only there was no dj or hip hop he was doing various indie sounding stuff and singing too. he is pretty darn good. his name is paul something.

went to this okinawan izakaya, cool inviting place

drank some kind of sake out of this thing that has a little sake thing nested in side of hot water.

these candy jelly things have a warning on the label now saying that kids and old people shouldn't eat these cuz lots of them have choked on these.

Mie Day 3

view from Fumikas bathroom window. Small town japan

went to Mount Gozaisho with Fumika and her mom. its the highest mountain in Mie Prefecture at 1,200 something meters. i liked this poster design.

nice gondola. i felt a lot safer on this one than on ones in china for obvious reasons.

fu man chu and her mom

why is this guy copying me?

the highest point in Mie. only the surrounding tops looked higher. who knows.

a pretty bad spelling offense

Fumikas mom started skipping down this hill like a sprightly deer so I followed suit.

there were some more extreme mountain climbers

went to eat soba at this nice place afterwards then we went to the supermarket where fumikas mom educated me about japanese food. so nice

there is gold inside this pop for dinner. Oden.

various fishcake things, eggs, carrots, potoatoe like things, konyaku, etc...

and oden-kun! remember that character on the poster in fumika's bathroom that her mom hung up? here he is in real life and he is delicious.

small town japan's old station and benches

in Nagoya people were so delighted by these holiday lights.

Miso Katsu heaven "Yabaton"

asked if these doorway curtain was available for sale and they asked and said no, i need to find a cool doorway curtain and this would have been perfect.

beautiful beautiful miso katsu. it's a fried and breaded pork cutlet topped with special miso sauce, its one of the famous Nagoya foods and i was looking forward to it the whole time and it was amazing!

the same only its a "roast" cut teppan style (on that hot plate)

bye bye fu fu see you next time. thanks for showing me Mie!

Some side notes from this Mie trip

1. Fumika's grandparents live with them but in a separate part of the house so they are almost like they're roomates, popping up every now and then at the refigerator and then shuffling back to the other part of the house. Her grandfather was in WWII and said he worked with American soldiers after the war. Interesting right? he still looks in ok health too.
2. Fumika's town is a little little town where everyone knows everyone. i asked her if anything bad ever happens there and shes said "gropers". even there gropers will follow girls and grab them. she said it happened to her twice in her own town. she said she doesnt know if all they want is to cop a feel or if it goes past being gropers into rapers. she said she saw the guy in her town recently. so weird that this happens and they don't go to jail
3. Her mom goes to english class every week and her dad studies english everyday with audio lessons. interesting right?
4. Nintendo was not called nintendo. yes the company name was nintendo but the product was called "fami con" (family computer). next was "supa fami con" (super family computer aka super nintendo). next was Nintendo roku yon (nintendo 64)
5. A computer is not komputa, komputa is like some real technical computer not a personal computer so they say "passa con" (personal computer) for laptops, macs, pcs.
6. A Shrine is a shinto religous place and a Temple is a Buddhist religious place. finally got it cleared up with fumikas dad.

Mie Day 2

breakfast at the Sugimoto house. no meat, grilled eggplant, rice, steamed or boiled pumpkin, miso soup with the works, fish eggs. delicious.

woman who looked like the witch of the waste from howl's moving castle.

Ise Jingu is the holiest shinto shrine in all of japan and it is near Mie. it says that this is where all shinto believers should make a pilgrimage to once in their life. and then there was me there dirtying the place up.

according to shinto belief this bridge has to be rebuilt every 20 yrs to renew the spirits within. don't know if that applies to the other structures also.

maybe this is the foundation for the next bridge?

this forrest has tons of amazing koke (mossy stuff).

there is no photography allowed at the holiest shrine in japan, which is ok cuz all you do is go and throw money in the thing and clap twice and pray and get outta there cuz its so crowded. the buildings in this place had roofs that look like they are made out of a billion sticks like in this picture of mini shrines you can buy.

huge koi

chickens in a tree

this gum thing comes with mini post it notes like paper inside to put your gum in when you're done. what an idea

red bean soup with some kind of ricecake

akafuku, the famous food of the area. well one of the famous foods. its basically the opposite of a red bean mochi. this one has the red beans on the outside and the mochi rice cake on the inside. delish

the rice cakes were the first level of the local food pagoda. this street was just filled with food and we tried a lot.

sampled sake at this place

bought this mini barrel

ate Ise Udon at this place. another famous food of the area

ise udon

tofu icecream. surprisingly/not so surprisingly it was delicious.

tofu donuts. surprisingly/not so surprisingly it was delicious.

a small fish. you eat everythign including the bones

one stick of this Matsusaka beef from the Matsusaka region of Mie is $8.90! it is superb wagyu beef and was of course delicious. it is also one of the big famous foods.

ise shrimp croquette. ise shrimp (spiny lobsters) are also famous food

genmai cha, i bought some, its awesome. its roasted brown rice with green tea. the white things are popped rice as in popped corn.

politicians.

i feel asleep on the train

i got my revenge the next day

i saw this light up truck in tokyo advertising this service where you pay money to send and recieve happy emails from girls like this. Only im sure that most of them are just dudes in their underwear eating ramen at home making side money.