Even though I’ve been here for two years now, I still get a bit starry-eyed when I see the William Gibson-esque skyscrapers right next to ancient Zen temples. Japan is a living, breathing oxymoron that’s a fascinating creature to watch whom no one can quite figure out.

I’m familiar with the city and can get around without a glitch, but it is a huge metropolis and I’ve still got loads to discover. So come with me and follow my exploration of this adopted home of mine and hope you enjoy the ride. Feel free to give me feedback or ask me a question about Japan.

「憲法9条、So Cool！」「平和が一番。9条リスペクト！」「ホントに9条、変えちゃうの!?」という意見がワールドワイドで続出な憲法9条について、在日外国人と日本人が一緒に楽しみながら考える、まったく新しいカタチのイベント.

If you are the kind of person who thinks ” Article 9 is so cool !” or “I cherish peace” and worries “Is it for real that Article 9 may be removed?”

…then this is the perfect international peace party for you to come along, make friends and learn across nationalities and cultures.

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…

Sajjad Zaidi’s Blog

12. Automated taxi doors
13. The most valuable coin in use in the world: �500
34. Great friends
35. Officers of the law can be neutralized by stealing their bicycle pumps
44. �100 shops
45. Tanning salons with names like “Black People”
55. Tell-it-like-it-is cigarette brand names like “Short Hope”
62. The little old lady in Yaesu wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with: “Get It While It’s Hot!”
67. Special high-tech, no-tatami apartments for foreigners for �2 million a month
68. Special low-tech, no-toilet apartments for foreigners for �20,000 a month
91. Slippers in the office
107. Vending machines that take notes of any denomination
115. The adrenaline rush that comes with having a wallet handed back with the month’s rent still inside
159. The sheer number of nationalities, in spite of the failure of the official internationalization policy
176. Seaweed Pizza
193. We can die and never feel we’ve missed anything on TV
194. Statistically, the nearest convenience store is an average 4 minute and a 30 second walk away
199. We never have to rent an Arnold Schwarzenegger video: at least one movie is on TV each week
239. Heated toilet seats
254. The art of reading a newspaper on a crowded train

Kodomo no shiro is (for lack of a better description) a sort of “activity center” for children (from infants on up through middle-school age). I have been taking my daughter, Satori, there once a month or so for the last four years now. It is one of her favorite places to spend time. She’s seven years old, and likes even it more now then ever. When we go there, we usually stay for 4 or 5 hours, and she never gets bored there.

It is located right on Aoyama-dori, about a 10-minute walk from either the Shibuya JR station or from the Omotesando subway station. It’s relatively inexpensive (the entrance fee is 400 yen for children, 500 yen for adults). And you can easily spend the whole day there. You may have to — your children won’t be in a big hurry to leave once they get there.

If you want more details about exactly what there is to do at kodomo no shiro, read on.

Here’s a selected list of some of the things that make kodomo no shiro such a great place:

• a big indoor jungle gym with slides, all kinds of things to climb on, and lots of places to hide (for hide-and-seek)
• an arts-and-crafts studio; when you come into the room, one of the staff will tell you what the current project. It changes every couple of weeks, and there are different projects for older and younger children (I’m not sure where the cutoff is — maybe age 10.) There is a separate area for the older kids, and projects there seem to involve hammers and saws, while the projects for younger kids mostly involve scissors and glue and magic markers.
• a music performance area, with a full-time staff of young musicians who all seem to be multi-instrumentalists; sometimes they just perform and give demonstrations/explanations of different instruments while the kids watch, but often they have a variety of instruments (tamborines, drums, marimbas, keyboards) set out for kids to actually play along on while they perform familiar songs.
• a video and DVD viewing area with hundreds of titles — animation, educational stuff, feature films
• a twenty-five meter swimming pool and a large gym next to it where they have organized games and activities (dodgeball, frisbee games, basketball, jumprope, all kinds of other stuff)
• a few different large play areas on the roof, one with a jungle gym, one with tricycles, scooters (the self-propelled kind) and some other small four-wheeled things that are hard to describe but that are very fun to ride

There is more to kodomo no shiro that what I’ve listed here. If you have young children and live anywhere near Tokyo (or are visiting for a few days), I very highly recommend making a visit to see it for yourself.

If you are a fan of nighttime road construction, Tokyo is the place for you. You don’t have to go far anywhere at night to find some serious road construction (or destruction) going on. Sucks for people who are trying to get around town at night, I guess. But I don’t care because I don’t drive any more (I sold my pickup truck after my rifle rack & rifles got stolen outside of the Kabukicho Baptist Church).