Daily Show’s Olympic Decision Explanation

According to the Daily Show, Tokyo lost the Olympics because of its Bunny mascot. Rio’s win is attributed to their theme, “A World of Ass.”

Municipal election noise

This Sunday, July 12, is Tokyo’s municipal elections. While I guess I believe democracy is a good thing and Japanese campaigns are relatively short, I will be happy for the loudspeakers to be turned off. In Nakano, they always campaign near the Metro stations, either with a small mobile set-up, or in a large “bus boat” that has an open area in the back and even a roof area for more loud shouting.

This particular event was especially loud: first I heard the noise, then I saw six riot police buses, many cops on the street, black limousines, and then the bus boat. My consolation was enjoying all the super-serious SP (special police) officers with their ear phones, dorky cords, and stone-cold expressions.

And the curious sight of so many riot police vehicles. What trouble were they expecting, or was it just to show-off?

Curry and coffee

Food in Tokyo is delicious. With the exception of Mexican food, you can eat any cuisine, most of it deliciuos and with superlative service. I am confused, however, by the strange twists that Indian food has taken here. Who wants “curry and coffee” as this local place near our home offers? Or “European curry”? Or “curry and cake”? And what is the witch adding to the Indian cuisine? Any suggestions of where to go for good Mexican food in Tokyo are most appreciated.

Dog in a bag on the Metro

Who can resist loving Tokyo?

Hard prune

A crew of ten has been methodically hard pruning the ginkos on the main street in front of our apartment complex. I am amazed at the skills and resources devoted in Tokyo to public trees.

In San Francisco, the city is content with a 20 minute training session and a couple of chain saws. In Tokyo, trained arborists climb the trees, use hand saws and prune the trees into perfect shapes.

Bomb found at school near house

Walking home before lunch, the small street near my house was blocked with police tape and many many young police men. Peering past the police line, I saw some official looking daddies in dark suits moving about. The location is just down the small street from the destroyed house and near or possibly inside the grounds of an elementary school.

My Japanese is so bad. After speaking to several of the police, I understood there was a missile. I asked if it came from North Korea, which has been recently threatening to launch a long-range missile in the Pacific. I was assured that it did not land today. Another cop told me it was 50 years old.

This is what North Korean’s 1998 Taepodong missile looks like. 

Once home, the husband explained that World War II bombs are still being found throughout Tokyo. It’s probably not an immediate threat, but still kind of a shock after 60 years to feel the presence of the fire-bombing.

Cram Place

Small and large Tokyo apartment buildings often have ostentatious, incongruous and hilarious names. This nearby small building is called “Cram Place.” Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Do you have a favorite Tokyo apartment building name?

Pink in Tokyo

Last Sunday’s New York Times has a fantastic magazine fashion spread, Pink Panthers, focused on men’s pink outfits modeled in Tokyo. Even the ties, shoes and flip flops are pink.

Although the designers are European and American, there’s something uniquely Tokyo about the male embrace of full-body pink. And I love how the fashion and models pop in front of everyday Tokyo streetscapes that are both ugly and evocative of my favorite mega-city.

An ancient house in Akasaka, central Tokyo

What seems like an ancient wood residence sits incongrously on the main street of Akasaka. I visited this central Tokyo neighborhood twice recently for work. Each time I was amazed by this particular house, directly next door to an up-to-the-last-minute McDonalds, dwarfed by a few street trees, and modern high-rise towers. The owners must have turned down many offers for developing their land.

Here’s another view of this small home next to fast food modernitee.

The street contains a Metro station and a number of buildings from the 1960s to this decade. My favorite is the one in the middle of the next photo. The glass facade looks like shards jutting in and out for 15 stories.

Akasaka has a wonderful mix of the slick newest building styles, the banality that you see everywhere in Tokyo, and bits and pieces of old Tokyo charm.

My work colleagues took me into an ugly mid-rise building where there was a restaurant that looked like a throw-back to the 1960s. We sat on a tatami mat, with no floor cut-outs to make sitting easier, and the stout and friendly proprietress served up delicious bento box of sashimi and tempura for me, aji-don for my new friends. The per person cost, including service, was $11.

On a smaller side street, I saw two fancier restaurants with interesting gardens. The first is incredibly simple and mostly obscured by the wall.

The second is wonderfully fussy, including the bamboo hat that is both decorative and a means to train a pine tree.

Tokyo winter gardening

My first winter garden has been a surprise for me. Japanese love to talk about their wonderful four seasons. I expected that winter would mean no flowers and scarce greenery. That’s why I left the East Coast of the United States over twenty years ago.

Yet winter in Tokyo offers many opportunities for flowers– particularly annuals like pansies, decorative kale, geraniums. Even plants I expected to die back are sprouting new growth in mid-winter, like two small roses on my balcony. Most specatcular is the tsubaki (つばき), a winter camelia I bought around new year’s. Another variety is called sazanka (さざんか). There’s even an early plum tree blooming on the path we take to the JR station.

Across from the same plum tree, we saw a tiny, surprisingly round, green bird that is active in winter, the mejiro  (目白). It’s adorable.

And, finally, I am surprised to see so many plants common in Northern California growing in the Tokyo winter, including brugsmania (called Angel’s Trumpet in Japan) and “purple princess.” Very unexpected.