昨日の淵今日の瀬となる夢の世の形見を伝えて、拙きこの小著、幸に後の日のかたり草の種ともならばなれかし。by永井荷風「日和下駄」
偉大なる先人の残したタイトルをパクリ、偉大なる先人たちが築き上げた様々な都市を見て、凡人なるryotが感じるままに記す。
i would write either in english or japanese so that more people can read.
as this blog, im writing about cities, yet in the new weblog i write both in english and japanese.
also, i started writing reviews of books and movies. if the book is written in japanese i only write in japanese. if its in english, i might write in both language.
"Ocean Waves" (in japanese, 海が聞こえる umi-ga-kikoeru) is one of the least known animation movie that the Studio Ghibli produced in 1993. its about a love-story between a high-school boy from Kochi and a girl from Tokyo living in Kochi.
in the end of september, i could make a kind of business trip to Kochi (although it wasn't, because a. its really not a business, and b. it was canceled due to typhoon attack lol). as i had plenty of time to spend there (as, again, the event i was supposed to participate in was canceled) yet it was not really the best time to enjoy sightseeings (because of typhoon), what i, as a huge Ghibli fan, could come up with was naturally to pilgrimage to the world of "Ocean Waves."
i thought the plan was better than perfect, shinier than diamond. however, there was the slightest but a huge problem about the plan, which is that I DIDNT REMEMBER NEXT TO NOTHING ABOUT THE MOVIE!!! this fact made it really difficult to accomplish my plan. SO, i ended up heading to only the high-school.
if i got another chance to visit Kochi, i will definitely try some role-plays there.
the tension between japan and china and japan and korea has been rising dramatically recently due to some islands I've never been to or I've never even cared about. these islands must be quite important from resources' point of view, but i really can't imagine myself being affected by their owner.
regardless of my lack of imagination and my indifference, many people in china seemed to get pissed off and some japanese firms there were burned and destroyed. however, apparently china cannot reach its fangs to our soil. Why?
the answer is simple. because our land is protected by GUNDAM! (as i posted before)
but there is a slightest possibility that the other neighboring koreans are looking for an opportunity to attack us as well while our national hero is busy fighting against china. but there is no worry about it. WHY???
the answer is again super simple. we have another hero residing in Kobe, TETSUJIN the 28th!
look how brutally offensive he looks, although nothing is attacking us (except radiation leaks, sigh).
while GUNDAM is mainly protecting eastern side of japan by residing tokyo, TETSUJIN the 28th keeps peace and order in the west.
these two national heroes are the main ones to protect our peace, but they are not the only ones. i will introduce more some other times in the near future.
its been almost 3 years since i left stockholm. many things have been happening since then yet friends in stockholm have never stopped me aspiring to visit there again.
the other day, a friend of mine sent me a link of a dance performance, shot in hammarby sjostad, stockholm. Hammarby Sjostad has been developed as mixed-use city and is famous for its challenge for environmental protection. and naturally it has attracted many inspection tours in recent years.
what i liked about the area when i lived in stockholm was its potential and flexibility of space. although the area was resided by mainly relatively young upper middle class, its openness attracted me kind of poor students to visit once in a while just to hang out.
generally speaking, i dont fancy luxurious development sites. but i have failed to dislike hammarby. this is probably because of earlier mentioned potential and flexibility of space that hammarby provides.
when you are there, you can feel the sky, earth and water. you can see how cities and architectures can live with them. and you can communicate with nature through urban amenities. these are some aspects of its potential i believe.
the form of urban communication could be various. it could be either linguistic or tacit. whats important might not be how to story but what to story. the clip doesnt speak anything but tells a lot.
probably many who know it associate it with beautiful beach, unique food, and interesting culture. my innocent and naive imagination about okinawa is always associated with beach and hot bikini girls.
something like japanese version of this:P (btw, this is the reason why i love to visit bulgaria again...)
last week, i made a business trip to okinawa. it was my first time to be on the main island of it. although i knew it was a business trip, i was really motivated to encounter this sort of dream girls somewhere somehow. and if i could i would be willing to move there without any hesitation.
but you know what, the life might be a box of chocolate but i reconfirmed that the reality was far from sweet, more like cruel. what came out from my box of okinawa was a pile of garbage and a pig farm.
ok, as a mystery hunter wanna-be(?), actually i felt really lucky to be able to visit these sites. these are not something that you could visit on your vacation or tourist guide books would recommend to visit. i would say it was a deeper side of okinawa.
however, at the same time as a okinawa beginner lonely single sexually-unsatisfied 27-year-old male, i couldnt give up my dream of okinawa hot girls in bikini.
however, it turned out that i was just dreaming a dream. while i was talking with some locals i got to know at a bar after work, it turned out that girls in okinawa wouldnt appear on a beach with bikini!! they wear stupid t-shirts on a beach as otherwise it would be too hot and they literary burn themselves.
no hot tanned okinawa girls with bikini on a beach...
it was the saddest wake up call ever.
somehow it reminded me of the first encounter to this weird lady, but totally opposite way.
gardening has become really popular in recent years all over japan, and tokyo is no exception. regardless of limited amount of land availability, tokyo urbanites do all kinds of things to create charming urban gardens.
the other day i spotted the latest trend of gardening in tokyo while i was cycling to west. i discovered that gardening had evolved from a mere hobby to a way of expression. people today seemed to be not only enjoying gardening but expressing their whatsoever. for example, this barber shop successfully exemplified how barber shops should garden by its unique expression.
last sunday, i made a good long cycling to fuchu city in tokyo in order to check out an abandoned US army facility, or haikyo. in japan, there are plenty of haikyos around, but i think its rare to have such an army haikyo preserved (or just left).
although this area looks really cool, its not allowed to enter. probably ordinary haikyos are not welcoming any visitors but everybody just visits them.
in this case, its too risky to intrude there as there might be a risk to be captured by american army (not by police):o
the reason why ive got interested in this place is because ive read about the two parabolic antenna (on the picture below) in a magazine. im not sure what sort of signals they can receive. if the owner wants to continue watching japanese TV programmes, probably NHK should inform the owner that it is needed to change antenna to receive digital TV signals.
they might be very useful if the owner want to follow the latest trends in the evil neighbor or wherever. who knows.
whats funny about this place is that even local people dont get close to this place, regardless of its coolness. one of my colleagues is from this area but she has told me that she has never seen this haikyo from this distance, as it is dangerous.
however, according to the sign board hanged on the fence, this area is not dangerous.
it is just "bit dangerous." and the reason of its "bit danger" is because of flashers and gropers, not rapists or murderers. what a peaceful country japan is:P
