Carpet treatment for queen with shovel

Now that’s how you plant a tree! Thanks, Matt, for the red carpet photo.

QEII, please be careful with your back.

 

Hakuho doing a ritual dance, dressed like a sacred Shinto tree

There is something deeply spiritual about sumo. I love that Hakuho’s belt and lightning bolts evoke the ones you see tied around Shinto shrine trees. Maybe the gods enjoy hanging out with the sumo players, as much as with the micro- green spaces by the shrines.

Mrs O in regal purple coat while planting cherry tree with shovel. Dreamy!

A full-skirted plum coat for cherry tree planting. Thanks to Mrs-O.com for continuing to provide updates of Mrs O’s triumph in fashion and good cheer. It’s surprising to see a US First Lady who looks like our generation. But with better posture and clothes ^ ^

Goodbye Xmas

After the weeks of muzak build-up, Japan retires Xmas with merciful speed. On the night of the 25th, the last Xmas cakes are discounted and forgotten. I kind of miss the US tradition of witnessing the first Xmas tree junked on the curb. The closer to the 25th the public abandonment, somehow the more worthy of attention. In Tokyo, I guess I can safely forget about the close association between Jesus’ birth and the by-reservation only consuming of fast food fried chicken. If any aficionados are reading this blog, please let me know how Mos and KFC and others compare.

It’s all about the tree

In Long Island, and around the world! (via J-son)

Selfista: The very worst Tokyo apartment building name?

As I’ve joked before, Tokyo has more than its share of strange building names, which seem to only increase in senselessness with the poshness of the neighborhood. I’ve ridiculed Movements, Zesty Minami-Koenji, Decent, and one of my favorites Cram Place.

This is a lovely modern apartment tower, lots of exterior raw concrete, beautiful balconies and views, a kindergarden on the ground floor, near good restaurants and mature trees, a place I would love to live in.

Yet, passing that name every day would be too much, right? “Selfista” reminds me of too English words: selfish, and self-fister which sounds like the master of an extreme sexual practice.

Demolition workers in summer rain shower

As soon as these workers finished chopping down a 10 meter tree and scraping a 30 year house to fresh soil, a sudden downpour appeared like a biblical reaction to the plant violence. Kind of hot, no?

It rained so hard that the demolition worker wrings out his clothes. The rain looks fake because it’s so thick.

Wishes at major shrine

Visiting a major shrine in Tokyo, I decided to stop and read some of the wishes written on wooden placards. I had thought they would all be about love and world peace. Of course, many are, but some are hilarious. Not sure if it’s bad to read others’ wishes, but they are public and I could not help myself.

Here are some of the best ones in English. Above: “I want a BMW 3 Series with real leather seats and a Bose sounds system and a GPS nav. system with a cute Japanese girl voice and seat warmers so my butt stays warm in the winter.”

“Simon has clear direction in his life and is determined to be + stay debt free with a house that owns . . . . He understands that it is all down to him– go for it tree!!!”

“Wish my daughter Linting (?) come to her senses + break away from Dario completely and never see him again. Wish good health, safe . . . Heal me + let me live a long healthy happy life.”

Below is what all the cards called ema in Japanese look like underneath the giant tree.

More wish cards after the jump.