Gundam Odaiba..

Never been much of an Otaku, and to be honest, the relevance of Gundam is really beyond me. Nevertheless, while in Odaiba last weekend we decided to make the short trek over to see the 1/1 scale model of the big robot that has been built in commemoration of its 30th year. It really is quite big, and as we arrived close to the turning of the hour, we were able to see it do its little head turn and look briefly up at the sky. It also squirted some steam from various parts of its body, and then it was all over. The crowd of people were as entertaining as the robot itself, and almost as big..

In the drivers seat..

Well, behind where the driver stands anyways. Random Yamanote line action, taken somewhere between Shinagawa and Tamachi stations..

Tokyo City View..

A trip to the Mori Art Museum at Roppongi Hills to see The Kaleidoscopic Eye exhibition didn't yield many photos of art (no cameras allowed), but, did give me an opportunity to revisit the vast expanse of urbania that Tokyo is. Tokyo City View wraps itself around the outside of the 45th floor of the iconic landmark, and as the haze that is so much a characteristic of Tokyo's summer has yet to really kick in, I was able to get some pics of the said megopolis..

Increased police presence

Just about everywhere in Tokyo at the moment is a noticeably increased police presence. It had us wondering why for a couple of days and then we.. read the news! With the G8 summit being held in Hokkaido next Monday to Wednesday, the local constabulary have obviously stepped up their patrols in the hope of preventing further violent demonstrations, and also staving off any other kind of incidents that may prove embarrasingly newsworthy. Generally the cops are stationed at various points of major railway stations, but in Shibuya now they are constantly walking around the city in groups with truncheons in hand, not to mention the choppers buzzing away in the sky and police roadblocks setting up at various main points of entry into highly populated areas.

And as I'm not in the country right now I'm unable to provide a picture of anything truly relative to this post, here's a pic of some police bicycles, cool huh!

The Shiespa Gas Explosion: revisited

Today marks one year since the Shiespa gas explosion that killed three people. It was a quiet sunny Monday last year when we heard an almighty explosion that shook our apartment building more than any quake had ever done, my Mum was visiting and she remarked that it sounded like a bomb had gone off. A quick investigative trip to the balcony revealed a huge plume of smoke rising into the air, just a couple of blocks down the hill. I grabbed my camera and jumped on my bike and was there within a couple of minutes of the explosion. I arrived to a scene of chaos, dust and concrete filling the air, and a small group of people slowly converging on the scene. A couple of police sprinted past me communicating through their shoulder radio piece what they could work out had happened, and for a few minutes the handful of people stood, stared, and tried to work it out themselves. It was a good 10 minutes before the police cordoned off the area and the real media began to arrive, and for the next few days it became the centre of one of the nations major news stories. At that time we didn't know if it was a bomb or what, we didn't even know if anyone was inside the building when it had exploded, but as the chaos ensued it became pretty obvious that there were people both inside, and walking past that had been majorly injured.

Random night shot.. 07

Station kiosk lady, Shin-Koiwa circa 2003. A perfect place to buy beer, cigarettes, gum, and newspapers you can't read..

Bono in Tokyo

U2 singer, humanitarian and and philanthropist Bono Vox is in Tokyo this week, and yesterday took part in a tree planting activity with Japanese and International elementary school children. Also present were (everyone's favorite) Tokyo Governor Ishihara, designer Tadao Ando, Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mori, and ex Miss Japan Norika Fujiwara. There were environmentally orientated speeches, the kids sang, and then all took part in the initial stages of a tree planting project designed to create a forest on a man made island in Odaiba. Bono is here for the African summit, where he will encourage Japan to pledge more aid to ailing African nations. Bono was also recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work in Africa.

Photos by uber photographer and friend Andy McGovern.

Jamaica Festival 2008: Redux

The One Love 2008 festival was SO great I'm gonna dedicate another post, this time to all the party people that got and stood up throughout..

Wayoooo...

One Love: Party guy

I have no idea who this guy was, but totally encapsulated the energy of the festival, and even managed to get up on stage with the Panorama Steel Orchestra, until the friendliest security guy in the world smilingly asked him to rejoin his dancing compadres in the audience..

The Jamaica Festival: Panorama Steel Orchestra

I think I have a new favorite festival.. The One Love Jamaica Festival rocked yesterday, the highlight for me most certainly being the Panorama Steel Orchestra, a 30 strong steel drum ensemble that had everyone inescapably dancing along to a fine blend of up-tempo beats and luscious melodies. The red stripes were appropriately chilled and as the sun made a somewhat rare appearance all were seemingly transported to that place where movement and smiles become the order of the day..

In the immortal words of Bob, "let's get together and feel alright.."

Random night shot.. 06

Shitamachi house, Maruyamacho..

Yoyogi park raves..

The summer is on its way.. There were two post-Thai festival mini-raves at Yoyogi on Sunday evening, and many many people getting down to the cool tunes and laid back evening vibes. It won't be long before the parties are pumping beats through the park every weekend, making Mondays even more difficult than they already are..

Thai Festival 2008

My favorite of the many cultural festivals held at Koen dori/NHK park, the Thai Festival 2008 was once again a great weekend of eating, drinking and battling through crowds (to get said food and drink). Saturday was unfortunately rainy and cold for the second year running, but the skies cleared on Sunday and made way for a fantastic afternoon.

Maybe too good of an afternoon for some..