Moments from Tokyo!

Tokyo! was a movie released last year that was actually three short movies all set in, and one would assume inspired by, Tokyo. The three directors, it should also be noted, are foreign. To Japan that is.




The directors were, from the top image down - Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho. I liked all of the movies, but Andy and Olivia weren't sold on the middle one, an unsettling piece about a somewhat demonic foreigner who lives in the sewers of Tokyo. As a movie made up of short pieces I'd expected it would be patchy, but it was actually really strong throughout, and so - I recommend it to you.

Shin-Okubo to Shinjuku

Most of our time in Tokyo was spent exploring parts of the city, and I didn't really snap many interesting shots of the corners we found (you can see what I did take in my flickr stream). So sadly, I can't drag out the Tokyo coverage for quite as long as I'd like to. I did take a bunch of videos while riding on the train though - which is always fun, so here you go. This is going counter-clockwise on the Yamanote Line from Shin-Okubo to Shinjuku :

I could mention shopping too, let's see. I bought new sneakers at the BapeXclusive store in Minami-Aoyama (again, they had my size, I couldn't resist); and this time managed to find something I really liked at the Original Fake store, but I wish they'd stop making everything so darn classy there. I picked up a pretty unique hoody/jacket thing in Daikanyama that was either designed or made or both in some guy's appartment, I couldn't quite follow the store clerk, but he was very enthusiastic. I met up with Conrad and Rose, who I met when I first came here, and who have both stuck around in Japan for as long as I have. We did karaoke, and I have never had a bad karaoke experience with Conrad or Rose, they're awesome. Bunny got her photo taken (unsurprisingly) in Harajuku by some lady with a fashion blog, and made friends with a designer and illustrator in Daikanyama. In Akihabara, some British guy was so excited to be there he asked us to take his photo in front of a famous manga store. He was genki as all-get-out. We had incredible Italian food outside in the sun, and ate twice at the same Freshness Burger because both days when we were shopping in Harajuku it was pouring with rain and our patience ran out when we were near it. I kept up my record of always finding something unusual and cheap at Disc Union in Shimo-Kitazawa, and also have a much better opinion of Ueno now that I've checked out Ameyoko and the park. Still haven't been to the Imperial Palace. I'm sure it's very nice.

Drawing the wrath of Tokyo Tower Wax Museum

So today, I may be drawing the ire, if not the wrath of a Tokyo tourist attraction. What will this net me? Legal action? A sternly worded email? Time will tell, but since it didn't exactly seem to be a bustling tourist mecca, and since I'm not spoiling the majority of the exhibition, and since I'm posting this as a MUST! SEE! IN! TOKYO! I'd hope they let it slide.

On Bunny's list of things to do in Tokyo was go to Tokyo Tower, and more specifically the Tokyo Tower Wax Museum, which she had heard was a weird old wax museum and as such a must see. One of the interesting things there was this sign:


Which is why I'm feeling kinda guilty about this. I mean, if they go to the trouble of asking you not to... actually no, I don't really feel guilty. No one I've spoken to even knows this place exists, or why it's quite so awesome, but if you're looking around Tokyo I strongly recommend Tokyo Tower. And it's worth it to get the "Entertainment Pack" to go to the Trick Art Gallery, the Wax Museum and the somewhat underwhelming Guiness World of Records, because they're all kind of terrible and completely wonderful.

The Wax Museum is 70% a regular, kind of shabby, wax museum. They've got a whole bunch of Hollywood types, Churchill (someone's nicked his cigar though), JFK, famous Japanese people, Mao, Edison, a slightly odd corner with an arrangement of Princess Di, Ghandi, Mother Teresa and Anne Frank standing together like Heaven's Greatest Hits, and a partially hidden torture chamber. THEN at the end of the regular exhibition it all gets FUCKING AWESOME. They have a whole section dedicated to rock music. Except, it's not regular, contemporary rock music folks, it's guitarists like Tony Iommi and Richie Blackmore and a whole raft of German kraut and prog rock artists who I've never heard of. It's insane, I just cannot fathom who made waxworks of the members of Ash Ra Tempel, or Faust:


There's a big display for Frank Zappa. Y'know, as you would expect:


And for me, probably the cherry on the cake: a motherfuckin' waxwork of Robert Fripp:


Holy crap. I mean, add to that the shelves and shelves of utter junk that seems to be serving as some kind of retro-memorabilia exhibition (but which includes empty drinks cans, Starbucks instant coffee sachets and a Swatch home phone), and the gift shop which is just a kraut rock record store and punk merchandise stand, and the place really does have to be seen to be believed.

Tokyo Tower Wax Museum is one of the strangest, and best tourist attractions in Tokyo. And that's without the great view from the Tower, the cool timelapse video screens, or all the other stuff crammed in there. Easily worth the trip.

Kaerimashita yo.

OK, so I admit that I deliberately put off returning to posting duty and that I may have been back in touch with the internet for a couple of days, so that I might have spent some time posting blog posts, but I just decided to be lazy. It was probably good for me. Now, watch me recommence, daily, like a boss.

I went to Tokyo, it was pretty cool y'know, although a little rainy. We fuckin' walked the hell out of that city let me tell you; now I can recognize every cobble and kerbstone by feel through the rubber soles of my well worn shoes. Or something like that. I'll post a few things about the cool places we went to in Tokyo over the next few days for now I'll whet your appetites with some secret preview pictures. Strictly confidential, you understand:





When I got back I realised I should've taken a lot more shots, but that my dedication to documentation is still somewhat lacking. Ah well, you don't need a snap of the Mita Sneakers shop in Ueno Ameyoko, but it was cool that I could find it. I got new shoes from elsewhere, a fancy new t-shirt and lots of new clothes, so I'm happy as the proverbial pig. Bunny got all sorts of crazy stuff, like a live elephant, three stone dwarves and a three-quarter-size dirigible. It was crazy.

Tokyo Calling...

We came to Tokyo, and look what happened to us!

It warped and twisted our frail human bodies into pitiful mockeries of the human form! Behold! The wages of sin are never being able to buy clothes that fit! Ever! Again!

Tokyo report:

Weather: Sunny, then cloudy, then rainy.

People: There are several people in Tokyo.

Shopping: There are several shops in Tokyo, at some of which we have purchased things.

Tourism: Tokyo Tower was freakin' mind blowing. Meiji Jingu was beautiful as always. Were I to have to marry a shrine, it would be that one. Or possibly Hokkaido Shrine. Maybe I'd marry Meiji Jingu and Hokkaido Jingu would be my mistress. Anyway, the situation is unlikely to come up so I'm probably wasting way too much time thinking about it.

Tokyo! The official recovery post... mostly about shopping.

So a week since I left for Tokyo I think I may be taking some tentative steps towards recovery.

That's kind of a joke, I was already getting sick by the time I went to Tokyo, and staying up all night, racing around like a crazy person, meeting friends, shopping and seeing Radiohead was just a silly idea all around. It did however mean I was walking through Shibuya at 7am to take photos like this, which was strange and fun:


So what can I tell you about Tokyo this time? I feel like every time I go to Tokyo I spend 50% of my time on trains getting from one place to another. And you can never sit down on the trains. Apart from that it's always really awesome to meet my friends in Tokyo, and if you ever go to eat Korean yaki-niku in a neon lit hole in darkest Kabuki-cho where the hot plates don't even sit straight on the tables, all the furniture looks to be made out of garbage bins and you seem to be leaning on a box of cabbages - the food will actually be really good. I guess the clue was in the fact it was wallpapered with celebrity autographs. Also I still hate Shinjuku Station. Fuck that place.

After the lack of sleep, the Radiohead and the kimchee and pork, I managed to get some shopping in too. I tried to go to the Original Fake store near Omotesando once before when it was closed, but this time I succeeded, and stepping inside was like breathing the kind of bottled air that is released in a limited edition, and reserved for the unbearably trendy. I really love Kaws' work and his all-round design and visual style, and the store did look incredible (photos would have felt like sacrelige so I refrained), but his current clothing line under the Original Fake label mostly leaves me cold. It's awesome, but it's not my style. It's filling an increasingly popular space in the street-wear scene for tailored, high-end, high-quality goods, but it's just way too muted for my tastes, especially since his splashy flair was what turned me on to him to begin with (and what he still seems to be doing in his painting and design elsewhere). There was one hoody I loved, but - of course - not in my size. I love seeing the old Kaws collaborations with BAPE because they're just so fucking gharish.

And speaking of BAPE:


The BAPEXCLUSIVE store in Minami-Aoyama (practically Omotesando) is just crazy. Adrienne was just reeling around the place getting lost in mirrors and colours. These two pictures of the BAPE stores are hers because I was too chicken to get my camera out. The downstairs is a super-fancy clothes boutique, but the upstairs is just a crazy shrine to a dazzling rainbow of patent-leather sneakers. They have shoes rotating inside glass cases, floor to ceiling displays of classic BAPESTAs, and a freakin' conveyor belt displaying shoes that haven't even been released yet. All this and still somehow it feels minimal. And the crazy thing is that you're surrounded by sneakers... so many sneakers, and you can only buy the 8 styles in a tiny area on the right. The others are only for show. So goddamn frustrating. That said... they had some good stuff in the back - if you know what I mean. I left there a happy man.

And then about three blocks away is the Harajuku BAPE store, which is also a trip into boutique wonderland. Their shoe floor isn't as spectacular, but they do display their shoes in a glass bar, which the assistants stand behind to serve you.


That's me emailing a picture of some shoes to Olivia to see if she wanted them, a terrifying piece of hi-tech shopping that for better or worse resulted in the following:


Zap!

Tokyo: Outside the art gallery that was closed.

We tried to go to a cool looking art gallery thing, but of course it was closed. Instead we looked at this above a 20 metre drop and got vertigo.

Tokyo

I went to Tokyo and saw Radiohead and bought sneakers and met friends and had a wonderful time but I was running mostly on momentum and now my brain is like a small mammal donked on the head by a shovel and I seem to have lost my voice.

Good night.