Hello, guys. This is Masanori. Please read my bio if you are interested in more about me, but I have not finished writing it, anyway. As you know, this is my first entry for Metroblogging Tokyo. And I first want to thank you Sean and James for allowing me to participate MetroBlogging.

I thought about what I am going to write for the first entry. But, I was never be able to come up with a good subject matter to start with. So, I would like to share with you what I have been doing in Tokyo these days.

I used to live in New York City by October 2006. I had lived there for more than 6 years in New York before I came to Japan. When I was in New York, I went to college, spent some time in different parts of world after graduation, and did internship in Brooklyn before I came back.
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I just got back to Tokyo from a month and a half in wintry Australia and blimey! The heat is overwhelming. It was 25+ degrees over night and like a Sauna out there again today. I don’t know whether to go drinking to cool down or just to stay off the sauce altogether. A hang-over is the last thing you need in this heat…
Luckily the Japan Times has some tips on how to avoid succumbing to heat exhaustion, 夏ばて- pronounced NATSUBATE.
They include Sleep, Exercise, Sobayu, eel, cold fish soup and no nastubating(!).

Martin has some more tips.

Thanks to Houston for the image.

Click here for a Web camera with live feed from Koen Dori in Shibuya. This street, Koen Dori, or “Park Avenue” is one of the main shopping streets in Tokyo.

(Screen shot taken tonight)

Koen Dori in Shibuya, the main street from the station to NHK, will continue to have eco events until June 10. Here is the NHK Kankyo website. The tema is 明日のエコではまにあわない (”Eco tomorrow will not be enough”) or a sense that we had better start doing something today, or it will be too late. And June 5 is Environment Day in Japan.

I had a great time at the Eco Life Fair last weekend and took some photos which I put on my regular blog, Kurashi News from Japan. Hope you enjoy seeing what is going on here in Tokyo and Japan. This event was sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and some large companies, so it wasn’t as wild and crazy as for example Earthday. Having said that, I also felt Japan is indeed taking a lead in the field of sustainable development and environmental protection.
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I don’t own a car, so I usually don’t pay attention to the cost of gasoline. But with the intense debate about climate change this spring here in Japan, and the Iraq war not going very well at all, gasoline cost is a major issue that affects everyone. Also, there is the serious issue of “peak oil” - the fact that fossile fuels are getting less economical to pump up from oil fields around the world. Guys, we are running out of oil. A global decline in oil production will have serious social and economic implications…

Today, in Japan, gas costs about 130-140 yen per liter. That is around $4.50 a gallon. Compared to Northern Europe, that is a bit less: The Netherlands appears to have the highest cost due to taxes at $6.73 a gallon at the pump. The US average is $3.20 a gallon (Note that US taxes on gas have gone down from 32% to 14% since 2000 - who is paying for the war in Iraq?).
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After the Golden Week holidays, May comes along, and suddenly peple in Tokyo start feeling weary. There is a kind of existential dilemma, trying to live in the greatest concrete jungle in the world: consume, or get consumed. So you try to survive. You try to just get by. In May, you get wonderful thunderstorms: then the next day is sunny and lovely (and you would go to the beach if you were anywhere else on Earth). Today we had 23 degrees or so, that’s nice.

So, guys, keep on posting. Let’s tell people in other cities what it is like to live and work in Tokyo. It is special.

When I was in the zen temple, they told me to “cut, cut, cut”. It meant, do not have any attachments. Don’t be caught up by stuff. Cut all that, and see reality. Focus on your breathing. That is zen. I think that kind of experience is always with us, as we wake up, take a shower, eat our rice and miso soup (or muesli or cereals, it doesn’t matter), go to work on a crowded train.

“Cut, cut, cut”. Don’t be caught up in emotions about “how you feel” and how great it is or how terrible it is. Just do it. Go with the flow. Breathe…

Hope everyone can make it to the Thai Festival this weekend, it is the 8th year this festival is held, with lots of food and drink and music.

Thailand and Japan are celebrating 120 years of diplomatic relations this year.

Location: Yoyogi Park (near NHK) in Tokyo

Website: Thai Festival in Japan

สถานเอกอัครราชทูต ณ กรุงโตเกียว กำหนดจัดงานเทศกาลไทย ครั้งที่ 8 ระหว่างวันที่ 12-13 พฤษภาคม 2550 ณ สวนสาธารณะโยโยงิ เขตชิบุยะ กรุงโตเกียว
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Homeless people (in the blue-sheeted shacks) living under a road next to the Sumida River in Tokyo. They share life under the heavy traffic with apartment-dwellers, whose view of the river was swapped for a highway.

Posted from my mobile phone

So this week’s weather is very important for many Japanese. It is the week of consequential national holidays, called Golden Week. Last week’s weather forecast projected the weather for yesterday and today to be cloudy and rainy. However it ended up that it rained only little yesterday and it was such a beautiful day today. Today’s highest temperature was 25.8 Celsius in Tokyo. It was really hot; I only needed a T-shirt, but no spring coat on. Today is also called Hachijyuhachiya;88th day since the New Year day when new tea leaves come out. For the next four more days till the end of long holidays, the weather seems stable keeping the highest temperature around 23~25 Celsius.

I’m riding the Shinkansen out of Tokyo for a long weekend in the countryside. It’s been more than 6 months since I did this journey and there is something very poignant about it.
I work in a Japanese office and have been very busy for months now, working weekends and evenings. My recent experience of Japan consists of rush hour trains, dour salarymen and working 12 hours a day in near silence.
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