Snapped by Mr. Pink recently with his camera phone.

Tokyo’s Asakusa Samba Carnival dances on despite showers

A Rain-soaked Samba Dancer defies downpour

Tokyo’s traditional Asakusa district once more swayed and bopped to the exotic strains of Brazilian samba music. Asakusa’s annual Samba Carnival festival took place this past Saturday, August 30th. Asakusa has been holding this event on the last Saturday of August for over twenty years and it never fails to draw a huge crowd.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is putting the palatial governor’s official residence on the block, but before you run over an submit a bid you should be forewarned that the minimum price is 4.8 billion yen.

And they ain’t selling to just anyone. The city stipulating that the property may be used only as the embassy of a foreign government.

Despite all of the restrictions, the Tokyo government says it already has received several inquiries, and interested parties have come to inspect the property.

The current official residence of the governor was completed in July 1997. It has two floors above ground, and one basement floor, with a total floor space of 1,885 square meters. The total area of the property is 2,220 square meters. In addition to a four-bedroom residence, it has a conference room and disaster-prevention liaison office.

Neat video that captures pretty well that which is Tokyo.

or yet another entry in my long series of crap that no one reads

in response to the horrible stabbing spree in akihabara, tokyo, japan a few weeks ago the japanese national police agency has once again shown why policy changes proposed during the height of public panic and tragedy have such a reputation for being well thought out, logically consistent, and effective in practice.

it has been decided that the most effective way to prevent such incidents from happening in the future is to help strengthen the familial and social bonds within japanese communities to reduce feelings of alienation and bitter isolation in the nation’s citizenry. to educate citizens on what to watch for in individuals that might indicate possible instability and what to do. to take steps to decrease the stigma associated with mental illness and the shame which prevents families and friends from reporting strange behavior to get counseling and medication for their loved ones. to increase the penalties for those who commit violent crime, and to revamp laws to favor self defense and empower people to stop criminals like this before hostile situations get further out of hand. all while recognizing that no matter what legislation is enacted, not all murders can be prevented or tragedies averted.

no, i’m just kidding, they want to ban double bladed knives and increase the restrictions on guns. to quote the article:

A panel of legal and other experts has submitted a report to the National Police Agency, saying daggers and other double-edged knives should be banned “to prevent their use in serious crimes. Such knives are “originally intended for stabbing and are highly dangerous…The panel…also recommends tightening laws on firearms

obviously all such incidents and stabbings could be prevented if only the authorities only took away every dagger, hunting, bowie, butterfly, switchblade, exacto and pocket knife, church key, and letter opener in the country. maybe they could melt them down into a healing image of hello kitty to commemorate the loss of lives in akihabara. i mean its not like people could find an alternative murder weapon. or that single edged knives could possibly hurt anybody. or that any of these blades have legitimate uses besides stabbing people. or that knives in japan are already regulated to help prevent crimes like this. or that those laws failed to prevent this massacre. or…

while they’re at it why not just outlaw the wedge? it is after all the most evil of the simple machines.

and i think we can all make the logical conclusion that a madman running down innocent people in a car, then getting out of the car and stabbing others with a knife until stopped by a heroic group of officers carrying firearms, is really an issue resulting from lax gun regulation and slap on the wrist gun crime laws. we all know that had hunting rifles been illegal the aum attack would never had happened. and if paintball guns didn’t exist, neither would takuma. seriously though, wtf?

i guess they’ll be coming after video games next. it would complete the trifecta of stupidity after all. if only children weren’t allowed to see violence they wouldn’t be violent, etc., etc.

but if japan wants to insist on banning items that can be used as weapons and strengthening laws on items already restricted then i’ll help them with my own non-comprehensive list of things to be banned.

i think this would be a good start, murder would probably vanish, and the ignored mentally ill would most likely join hands and sing songs under a rainbow.

A ceremony was held today to mark the beginning of construction work of the 610-meter Tokyo Sky Tree, which is scheduled for completion in 2012.

Tokyo Sky Tree will commence operation in the spring of 2012. NHK and the five major commercial broadcasters are currently using the 333-meter-tall Tokyo Tower to transmit both analogue and digital TV signals. But analogue broadcasting will be terminated by July 2011. In view of the change, the six broadcasters have drawn up plans for the new tower to be tall enough to transmit digital signals unobstructed by high-rise buildings.

Check out this report on gardening in limited spaces in Tokyo.

Thanks to Robert Leonard.

Here are some clips from Tokyo Decadance a monthly dance event held in different clubs in Tokyo and around the world now.

I only got the chance to record one of the shows but I was able to get some glimpses of participants in all their get-up.

The website I posted on the vid is to the Amsterdam site. The Tokyo one is under construction but you get a look at it here:

It’s also up for votes for airing on Current TV.

Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics has gotten something of a boost as the city was named by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the short list of cities being considered, along with Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. Tokyo scored the highest in the overall technical evaluation, followed by Madrid, Chicago, and Rio.

The candidate cities must now compile an in-depth file of their Olympic project and submit themselves to a visit by the IOC’s Evaluation Commission. The election of the host city will take place on Oct. 2 2009 at the IOC Session in Copenhagen.

Music by:The Exotic Ones

The last of the old takenoko-zoku group still rocks away

Tokyo rockabilly dancers of Harajuku Park

Tokyo’s Harajuku Park has become internationally famous over recent years mainly for its collection of high school students decked out in wild Goth outfits and makeup. Just about every Sunday they can be found sitting around in groups with their similarly attired peers coolly ignoring the camera flashes exploding all about them.

One of the current Harajuku Park denizens

After my natto-bagel post, I’m sure that some of you expats were wondering just where you could get your sticky fingers on some real natto, without having to travel all the way to Ibaraki-ken. Well, guess what? You can get it in Tokyo! Across the street from Tokyo station, in the Shin-Marunouchi building, in the basement, is a natural food store. And there you will find, nestled in a nice cooling bin, real natto.

Don’t thank me all at once.

Tokyo Youtube Gathering at a Hub Pub in Shibuya courtesy of Tokyo Cooney. We talk about Tokyo, Youtube, and our lives which are often intertwined.

This is the second half of the Tokyo Youtube Hanami Gathering on March 30, 2008. I missed the first part with the hanami at Yoyogi Park and the last part at Karaoke. I’m bummed about missing the first part but thankful for missing the last part.

I decided to resurrect my old intro - The Roving Ronin Report - which I haven’t used in half-a-year. I always change up the scenes in the middle with different clips of a variety of things.

The following Japan Youtubers gave commentary in the video:

• Tokyocooney
• TkyoSam
• Shotamerican
• Noellafun
• Gimmeabreakman
• Omikron420
• kkajapan
• 33sammi32
• misternes
• tokyokindel

Cameos in the background:

• dallasintokyo
• rodgerswan
• racylaicie

There might be a few more Youtubers in the background that I don’t know about so scan closely.

Intro ,usic by The Exotic Ones.

The music that fades in and out during the video is by Supergirl Juice.

CNN has an entertaining and revealing 2-minute video on Tokyo’s lost and found.  In a city of 12-or-so million people, it’s staggering how much gets turned in.  The piece discusses the 130,000 umbrellas, the change in policy of holding items from 6 months to 3 months due to storage issues, and cultural differences between the U.S. and Japan.  Suffice it to say that in the U.S. if you lose something, most of the time you will never see it again.

The New York Times has a quartet of articles related to Japan.

One article deals with a lawsuit regarding WWII forced suicides. I have not heard much about this issue before and it is quite interesting. The topic of revisionist history is a universal one. In this particular case an author wrote about these suicides and was sued for defamation but the lawsuit was just thrown out.

A Japanese court has rejected a defamation lawsuit against Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel laureate in literature, agreeing with his depiction of deep involvement by the Japanese military in the mass suicides of civilians in Okinawa toward the end of World War II.

The defamation lawsuit, filed in 2005, was seized upon by right-wing scholars and politicians in Japan who want to delete references to the military’s coercion of civilians in the mass suicides from the country’s high school history textbooks. Last April, during the administration of Shinzo Abe, the prime minister at the time, the Ministry of Education announced that references to the military’s role would be deleted from textbooks.

It has been revealed that the Rainbow Bridge, the pride of Tokyo’s waterfront development, actually is a major blunder that has shut the Queen Elizabeth 2 and other modern passenger liners out of the city’s Harumi Terminal because its clearance is too low.

The Tokyo metropolitan government had the QE2 in mind when it built the 9.1-billion-yen Harumi terminal in 1991 as Tokyo’s only pier for international liners.

But the ship has never called at the port since the Rainbow Bridge, a 918-meter-long suspension bridge, was completed in 1993.

The government believed that if large luxury passenger ships visited Tokyo as part of their cruises, it would help promote tourism and produce significant economic effects.

The bridge girder was set at 52 meters because the height of its towers was restricted under the aviation law to ensure the safety of aircraft that use the nearby Haneda Airport.

As a result, ships calling on Japan tend to dock at Yokohama.

In 2006, only 10 foreign passenger ships visited the Tokyo port, less than half of 22 in 2001. The number of visits at the Yokohama port surged to 13, up from four in 2001.

A Tokyo man has been arrested for growing marijuana in a public park in Tokyo, after his apartment became to crammed with plants that he ran out of room.

The man, who admits his offense against Japan’s Cannabis Control Law, said:

“I was growing plants in my apartment, but I ran out of space, so I started planting in the park, too.”

Tokyo is about to lose one its most popular tourist sites as the Tsukiji Fish Market adopts new rules in April that urge visitors to “refrain from coming” voluntarily.

It seems that tourist promotion activities for Tsukiji have been so successful that the hordes tourists showing up each morning create a hygiene risk and are interfering with normal business activities.

Hideji Otsuki, head of the wholesale market, said the request is aimed at getting tourists to exercise voluntary restraint.

“The situation won’t drastically change overnight because Tsukiji has become so well-known among (tourists) via the Internet,” Otsuki said by phone. “But we’d like to gradually change the situation by widely advertising the new rules.”

Tourists who arrive unaware of the new rules won’t be kicked out, but the ill-mannered may be escorted off the premises by security guards, he said.

Specifically, Tsukiji workers complain that some tourists try to touch the fish, and that camera flashes interfere with hand signals used during auctions.

Under the new rules. . .

• All outside visitors must submit an application in advance.
• Sightseers will be “asked to refrain from entering.”
• Visitors who show up unaware of the new restrictions will be allowed to enter but will be asked to abide by the new rules.
• No flash photos in the auction sites.
• No smoking except in designated areas.
• No babies, baby strollers or other large baggage.

Who cleans up those fetid pools of strange-colored liquid and piles of half-digested noodles deposited here and there in Tokyo’s train stations by people who literally can’t hold their booze?

Whose job it is to clean up after someone decides to check out of this cruel world by taking a swan dive off of a train platform?

These were the questions being pondered by JAPUNDIT reader and distinguished gentleman of style and good taste The Hairy White Prince (HWP), and so he headed off to seek the truth.

What he found out was absolutely amazing.

According to the HWP, the workers who are assigned the task of cleaning up human emissions are kind of like the Special Forces of the janitorial crew. No one else is allowed to perform their dirty work, for which they are paid 9,000 yen an hour, with a good chunk of their day spent basically sitting around with nothing to do until someone spews. Side benefits include a free pass for all JR and Shinkansen lines nationwide.

When I told Mrs. JP about all of this, she said, “Well of course, no one wants to do that type of work.” But not so fast. . . According to HWP’s report, there is a 3.5-year waiting list just to take the test to qualify for the job.

If you want something that opens up a bit quicker and pays more, you might want to consider joining the ranks of the folks who clean up human remains after an accident or suicide. These folks are paid a retainer of 360,000 yen a month, on top of which they get 12,000 yen per body when called in. The downside is that you need a four-year college degree in a related field, such as biology.

Check out the full report on The Hairy White Prince’s highly entertaining blog.