Spotted in Harajuku, Tokyo


Via BoingBoing




We are going to start featuring weird, wonderful and wacky things that we see around Tokyo.
If you see something you’d like to submit, just click on the Suggest a Story link!

Halloween doesn’t seem to be big in Tokyo (apart from the over-commercialization of course).


However, there is plenty going on round Metroblogging.
Check out LA for example.

Cool high-resolution panorama of Tokyo

Yes, Tokyo really is this grey, but not all of it. There are some great views from the other side of the bay: Odaiba, Ariake, for example. I’ll try doing one of these from there some time.
Any other recommended spots for views of the city?

I wrote about "Men’s is the best copy". I think this is related to the "Choiwaru Oyaji" trend.  "Choiwaru Oyaji" means a little bit bad middle-aged men.  The magazine LEON coined the term. LEON says "enjoy fashion, enjoy life more" to middle-aged Japanese guys.  This is an interesting article, Chic and pushing 60, the salaryman discovers fashion about the Choiwaru Oyaji trend.  It’s a really hot topic in Japan.  Well, do I feel middle-aged guys are getting fashionable? Hmmm, maybe…maybe a little bit.  But they can’t begin to compete with Italian guys. (they talk about Choiwaru too)

Of course, I welcome this trend.  It is very boring to see nothing but grey suits.  But how can I say it…middle-aged men seem to be confused, too.  When I check on-line shops using the keyword "Choiwaru," they show pages like  this or this.   Hmm. The suits? (forget it) The leather pants? (it would be very hard to find a guy who could wear these well)  The snakeskin wallet? (too much)  The fat-burning tablets? (this one should be a priority)  I laughed so much seeing this. Guess what?! It is just mint candy. Their philosophy is "Mirrorno… it’s the essence of blissfulness" and "let’s make it stylish". Stop so exaggerating. Relax.

Fashion changes quickly, but fashion sense doesn’t.  Guys need to develop more discriminating tastes :-)  I have to laugh seeing a guy having such an overzealous mint.

The Greggman has a great write-up of his advice for using the trains in Tokyo: click here
I’ve had people who come to visit get very lost & confused on the trains here (of course I never have done myself…), so this should come in handy.

Just some advice if you are thinking of driving to an event at the Ariake Colosseum.
DON’T park in the nearby 24H Times parking lot. It is utter chaos after each event there.
We should know as it’s right outside our window! All the cars in the picture are waiting to get out and for some reason it takes each car a couple of minutes to get through the single barrier.
Even now, 40 minutes later, there are still more than 10 cars in the queue.
Use the parking lot near Lawsons, or just save yourself the money and park at Lawsons! (Just buy something in there to keep them happy…)

Tim Henman just blew World No.10 Mario Ancic off the court. He looked focused throughout & showed all his vast experience. He even wowed the crowd with one audacious flick behind his legs for a clean winner. Henman looks in great form and has a good chance to go all the way.
Being English, I’m very biased, but hopefully Tim should have no problems against Korean, Hyung-Taik Lee, in the semifinals and his likely final opponent, Federer, has looked very short of form so far in this tournament; he needed a final set tie-break to scrape past Takao Suzuki earlier today.

Now No.2 seed Tommy Robredo from Spain is on court against American Vince Spadea

Local favourite Takao Suzuki just brought the house down with a victory against Waske & will play World No.1 Roger Federer in the next round tomorrow.

Here’s a test. How many digits of pi do you know (without Googling it!)?
It’s 3 point something, right?

Yesterday, Akira Haraguchi reportedly recited Pi from memory to 100,000 places in front of an enraptured audience at a public hall in Kisarazu, Chiba.
It took him 16.5 hours. Not bad for a 60-year-old!
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