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I have been wondering to buy or not this.
And today, I bought this at last !
It’s because, well, I am collecting frog things. Actually I have lots of mugs already… but this one is very lovely ;^)
I have read that it is difficult to translate the phrase "Mono no aware" into English. A wiki says it is "the awareness of the transience of things". this blog says it is the "aesthetic empathy of things and feelings". This site says it is "a sort of sadness". Yes they are all correct, but I feel they are not enough too. We love cherry blossom so much because they are fugacious; they die just a few days after they bloom. I think the Japanese see the beauty in something dying.
Here is the interesting site "Gunkanjima odssey". Here is the English site;, they say Gunkanjima was only small reef, but it was developed for mining coal since 1870’s. Its population was 5,000 at peak, and they built many high apartments. Thus it looked like a warship, so we call this island "Gunkanjima" (warship island). However it was closed in 1974, and it has turned into ruins now.
Actually, the density of its population was higher than Tokyo at its peak. There were many high buildings and apartments, it was a kind of futuristic city in the early 20th century. Look at the gallery. It would be okay if I say "this is the movie set of Matrix".
Why do ruins have some charm? I think it would be related to the feeling of "mono no aware". There is no life, guilt, desire, joy, happiness, pain, or anything any more. Everything is over and just wind-blown. When you experience the feeling of beauty on the site, it is the feeling of Mono no Aware.
A dog walker….. it is sort of common in NYC, but not in Tokyo.
I am a dance instructor, but all my lessons start in April and most of my lessons are during the evenings,
so I decided to have a side job.
Yesterday(March 15th) was my first day taking this 90 pounds German Shaperd, Roxy.
I met her two days ago and it seemed she liked me, and I felt comfortable on that day.
However, withou her owners being around, it seemed she was little worried and curious of this stranger !!!
I am emplyed by an American couple who are in Japan working for an insurance company.
I take Roxy for a walk and play with her for couple of hours during the late afternoon three times a week.
The place I work is called, Akasaka, where there are a lot of business takes place.
The houses, people, cars in Akasaka are quite amazing… I mean those cars… will I ever be able to afford???
On the other hand, Roxy`s walk route has a shrine that is enclosed in rich green.
She likes there and I like there too.
Tomorrow is my second day…. I hope she will open up little more….
Today, they announced the launch of ‘ Tokyo Anime Centre ‘ in Akihabara and held a ceremony.
But, just wait for a while.
Grand opening is next wednesday, 15 March 2006 .
The Tokyo Tower Halo, only visible when us Tokyoites have been especially well-behaved.
By the way, is it just me, or have there been no minor tremors here recently?
Is the big one on its way?……
My Town.
Akishima (昭島市; -shi) is a city located in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded on May 1 1954. Wikipedia says:
The name of the city consists of one character from each of its predecessors. Akishima is the result of the merger of the town of Showa (昭和) and the village of Haijima (拝島 Shōwa). The first character contributes the “Aki” to the name, and it’s the first character from Showa.
What’s missing from the entry is this, “Akishima is boring. The residents are bored. Even people who live in the hills of Oume find Akishima boring.” Well, that is all about to change.
2429 Seats. 12 Screens.
Movix (Cineplex) has landed!
Movix Akishima is equipped with:
Kichijoji, eat your heart out! Tachikawa, you need to up your game. *Pauses* What if Movix only shows anime and kid centric movies? Please, God, don’t let that be the case.
It’s not quite the Copacabana, but we do have a beach in Tokyo.
It’s in the Odaiba area and offers great views back over to central Tokyo.
I’m back from snowboarding trip late last night. Half of our trip we had really sunny days.
This is called ‘Tsurara’ in Japanese, usually hanging from the edge of the roof. My friend picked this for me to take photo, but she held it upside down :)
I don’t know what is it called in other languages. Any idea ?
It is raining from late last night…
Last night, I managed to bring my snowboard to a convinience store , to send it to the hotel in Aomori prefecture.
I am going to go snowboarding trip this weekend :)
This is a photo of last year’s snowboard trip to Mt.Hakkoda in Aomori.
Fortunately we had really nice weather and great view at that time.
We do backcountry snowboarding there once a year.
Usually, we need to walk 1 hour or more, to crime the Mt.Hakkoda. There are some routes to down that mountain.
Our guides are very efficient professional, so we aren’t lost our way.
However, most of the time, we have blizzard like this …
I hope we would have very nice weather this time, so I can take more beautiful photos and show you them .
Let’s pray for that ;)
