 |
|
  12.22.01
click to enlarge
Yoyogi park is right next to Harajuku station.
On Sundays anything can happen there. They
used to have fantastic raves in the summer,
and although I usually hate raves, the sunny
setting and bizarre international crowd always
made for an enjoyable event. There's nothing
like an afternoon of slutty British chicks
and gold body glitter is what I say.
All around the edge of the park bands of
various shapes and sizes would setup. They
would be so close together that one band's
sound would interfere with its neighbour's.
Pretty soon they'd all start playing as loud
as they could so as to drown out the next
guy. On some weekends you could find twenty
or thirty groups. Most were so-so, but some
really got down, if you know what I mean.
Last summer when I was taking pictures for
Wired magazine's Japanese issue, I rented
a really nice camera and I went down to Yoyogi
park and took some pictures of people in
the different bands. That's what you're looking
at in today's posting.
------------------------------
Of course the big news is that I'm leaving
tomorrow for Toronto. Karen called the yesterday
and her and Jack arrived without incident.
She tells me my father is crazy about Jack.
I guess that was to be expected.
I'm definitely going to continue posting
to Hunkabutta over the holidays, and
I'm
going to try to post pictures of our
Ontario
Christmas, but I might not be able
to for
various technical reasons. If all else
fails,
I have a backlog of Tokyo pictures
which
I'll post instead.
The new comment system has been working
out
quite well. I recently made a small
change,
you no longer have to submit your email
address,
now its only optional. I thought the
email
thing might be scaring off a few people
who
are sensitive about that kind of thing.
So, if you haven't yet, check out the
new
comment system. It's groovy.
 12.19.01
click to enlarge
Karen and Jack leave for Toronto tomorrow
-- so sad, I'll be all alone again. Fortunately,
I'll be leaving for Toronto myself on Sunday,
so it'll only be a brief separation. In case
you're wondering, we're departing on different
days because it saved us a lot of money.
The rates go way up beginning Friday, but
I couldn't get work off before then, so Karen
decided to go on Thursday without me.
Other than the impending Christmas trip,
things have been relatively uneventful, basically
you can sum everything up in three words:
"work and baby."
Jack's doing great though. A new adventure
every day. He's really coming to life, and
couldn't be any easier to take care of. Actually,
he's the Wonder baby.
Not only does he sleep through the night,
he wakes me up in the morning if I oversleep
for work. He doesn't cry when he's hungry,
he just gives us a 'knowing look.' And at
the tender age of four months he's started
changing his own diapers, not that that's
so bad anyway, because he only ever poos
in dry little pellets, like a bunny.
I think we're all going to have a good time
in Toronto.
 12.17.01
click to enlarge
It's time for another baby Jack day. We haven't
had one in a little while. The theme of these
photos is, "How to use an infant for
fun and amusement!"
---------------------------
It's getting pretty close to the departure
date for our Christmas trip to Canada and
there is a lot of excitement brewing on both
sides of the Pacific.
On the phone the other day my father told
me to start a diet right now because I'm
guaranteed to put on a load a fat with all
of the food that my mother and other relatives
have been preparing in anticipation of our
arrival.
To all of my friends back home who read Hunkabutta,
you should email me your new phone numbers.
I'll also send you my parent's current number.
---------------------------
The new comment system seems to be working
out fairly well. No bug reports yet. If you
haven't tried the new comment system, then
do so right now. You can find the link at
the bottom of each post.
Dave Drano suggested that I take requests for photos
and I thought that was a great idea.
I think
that I'll set up a mechanism where
people
can submit requests and I'll list them
as
'pending' on the top page. For now,
I'd be
willing to consider some requests submitted
using the comment system.
Tell me, what would you like me to take a picture of here in Tokyo?
12.15.01
click to enlarge
It turn's out that my kidneys are fine --
still fat, pink and rosy.
The test that I failed on my company health
check a while back, contrary to what my translating
coworker told me, was actually concerning
my liver. The test was a measurement of an
enzyme that is an indicator of stress levels
in the liver. The test result was only a
few points outside of the average range,
which is really nothing strange at all. Not
too exciting, I know, but I didn't want to
leave you hanging in the air after Thursday's
post.
Having experiences like this teaches you
what it's like to be illiterate. I had to
count on my coworker to give me some important
information, and he let me down. Not that
I'm mad about it or blame him in any way,
I mean, confusing two organ names is an easy
mistake to make in a second language. It's
just that being here makes me appreciate
my literacy more because everyday I have
to live through the minor, and sometimes
major, troubles that the lack of literacy
always entails.
Aren't you glad that you can read?
Can you
imagine what life would be like if
you couldn't?
I'm just glad that my kidneys are all right.
|
|
|
|
3 comments so far