Have we all handled or seen the new yen notes yet? What do we think? Sitting here comparing an old thousand yen note with a new note, I have decided that I like the new notes better. The new notes have that layered feeling, pretty colors, Mt. Fuji (Those stupid cranes on the old notes never sat right with me.), and some sort of shiny sheen to them in places. The old notes were just dull green with some stupid birds on them – Good riddance. Anyway, here is the BOJ’s Valid Notes of Japan pdf.

There is one other thing I would like to point out. Everyone, look at the black bars located in the bottom corners of both the one-thousand and ten-thousand yen notes and the dot in the same corners on the five-thousand note. These are the new braille bars for the blind, so they can id how much they are holding. Again, this is far better than those stupid indented/raised dots on the old notes, which I could never really feel.

Good job BOJ. Good job.

I got to visit the redesigned MoMA last week. The architect for the redesign is Yoshio Taniguchi who has established himself in Japan with eight works variously completed or under construction. The museum is getting favorable reviews and the architect himself seems (mostly) satisfied with his work.

The museum is different from the more famous contemporary works of art/architecture from Gehry and Koolhaas’ studios. The ego of Taniguchi-san seemed wholly subsumed (at least to this completely untrained eye) in the service of presenting the MoMA collection. The space does not distract you in any way from contemplating art which often requires a bit more in the contemplation department. And any surprises, my own personal favorite is captured in the photo above, also serve delightfully to highlight the artworks contained in this pretty box made of glass, whites and grays.

The downside to all this is that if you are an infrequent visitor, as most are, it’s hard to tell exactly what’s changed. But the upside is that the art is what you remember when you leave, not the space it’s hung in, and you can certainly argue that’s kind of the point.

For interested persons, here’s an (incomplete) list of Tanaguchi’s work in Japan:
Shiseido Museum, Kakegawa
Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi
Higashiyama Kaii Gallery, Nagano
Ken Domon Museum of Photography, Yamagata

Today was more like a beautiful spring day. Tomorrow looks pretty bleak in terms of warm and comfy: Yahoo Weather predicts a high of 15C and a low of 8C for tomorrow, 5 Dec ‘04.

Anyway, I took advantage of today’s beautiful weather by cycling into Kichijoi from Akishima.

Fuji: 5 Dec 2004

Didn’t really think it was cold enough to warrant snow, but mother nature proved me wrong.

Greeting citizens of Tokyo. Jason Mojica of Metroblogging Chicago here. Today was my first day in Tokyo. I came here to meet up with co-founder of The Modernist, Edgar Barrington, see the Maguro Parasite Museum, eat as many octopus balls as possible and be made deaf by rock music. In just a few hours, I’ve already knocked the first three off my list (though not in that order, I decided that I might not be able to down octopus balls after being repulsed at the parasite museum, though having that rich combination of sea creature, mayonaise, and moist dough in my stomach while taking in the exhibit didn’t really help, either), and now we’re off to take in The Registrators’ last show aka=the real reason I came to Tokyo.

After that, is there really anything left to do?

As most of you know I’m no longer geographically in Tokyo but now living in HCMC, Vietnam. I must say I get homesick for Tokyo and the order in that society. Here there is no order and is complete chaos everday. I read your entries about things that annoy you and I even miss the annoyances! But here in Vietnam, I’ve met many Japanese people and can practice Japanese sometimes but they all speak English very well! I do have a question however about the Japanese character and moving to another country. Someone important to me will not come because they are afraid of “poor countries,” and then I meet many Japanese here who are quite dynamic and have settled in very nicely here. As for Westerners, I’m afraid to say that Americans are not as good as the British or Australians at exploring the world. So how about the Japanese? I previously thought that they preferred Nihon to all other countries and could not adapt well here but am being proved wrong. However, the previously mentioned person who I often describe as “really Japanese” will not come and is firmly planted in Japan.

About vacation, I think Vietnam is quickly becoming a favorite spot for Japanese vacationers. On the salaries you make in Japan you will be a king here and can buy anything..literally. There was also just a Japan-Vietnam party a two weeks ago and drew a very large crowd. I saw two young girls trying to figure out the English menu outside the bar I was drinking at and asked them in Japanese to join us. They told me they were “still thinking,” but actually did come back and had a ball practicing their English with the group I was with. I must comment that it was quite cute watching them trying to understand English with a very strong Vietnamese accent. I find it very interesting that many Japanese here open up more than they ever could in Japan.

If you are planning a vacation from Japan I completely recommend Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The weather here is always sunny and as I said, your yen will go extremely far. I also enjoyed having people smile at me when I smiled at them. This I could not do in Tokyo and people would think I was a chikan if I smiled too much in Tokyo. But here a smile will get you anything.

My final observation is that I have yet to see Japanese people eating in a Vietnamese restaurant yet can always find them at the “Sushi Bar” (name of a sushi resto). Why is it that when Japanese travel they always go to the Japanese restaurants??!!

I caught a molester on train yesterday. Grabbed his right hand, gave him full of attitude and yelled because he said “it wasn’t me”. Probably other passangers thought me as a damn strong bitch. sometimes, yeah.
Seemed the guy was frightened and almost cry. I asked him back “wasn’t you? what wasn’t yours, huh?”. I made sure three times and caught his hand while it was on my ass. I told him “I am sure, it was you. but you can say whatever at police office. okay?”.
by the way, you should keep holding his hand until police arrival. Once you release the hand, you’ll lose chances to charge him.

I asked other passangers to call police. but nobody responded. the guy who was standing next to me started pretending to sleep. Everybody looked the floor or window.
I was sad. and upset. I was upset with the molester of course but, I had another anger against other passangers.
Sometimes I hate living in this country. People igonore pregnant woman or old people on public transportation. People don’t make a single call for the woman caught a bad guy. Especially guys over 30’s are worst.

I sighed deeply, said “fine, whatever. I call by myself”. then, picked up my cell and made a call by myself. Police sent officers to trainstation. He was caught, I told police to please charge him. signed papers as a victim/arestee.

Many of victims don’t try to charge because it takes 4hrs to make a police report and other papers. They ask police to sermonize and release. It is the easiest way, then. I think it is a part of the reason why molesters never die. They need punishiment. Punish them hard!

Anyway, I was disappointed in all passangers there. Probably not only them, most of people in this city Tokyo are disappointing, maybe.