Just the sight of food...

Yesterday, I went to a place called Namjatown which is essentially a food theme park. http://www.namja.jp/guide.html
It’s operated by Namco, the makers of Pac-Man. It is divided into three food-based sections, each with about 10 specialty restaurants and stores. There’s Ice Cream City, Gyoza Stadium (contains the best-of-the-best pork dumplings in Japan) and the Tokyo Dessert Republic. Right now, there is a theme which allows the stores to have cat-shaped foods, which are created specifically for the event.




Japan places a lot of importance on how food looks. Many restaurants display realistic-looking food replicas, which actually look as though you could eat them, which simplifies the process of finding a place to eat. Many menus also have pictures for each item. The sight of food is used to draw customers. This type of advertising directly targets one’s stomach and taste buds. However, Namjatown was a visual overload.

Exploring the two floors of unique food kept me in awe for my entire stay. The size of the place was almost too much to handle, because there was no way I could try everything. I had to pick and choose. I decided to start with a mixed grape & white peach soft serve ice cream. Then I entered Gyoza Stadium.

The picture below is just the entrance to Gyoza Stadium. There is a whole square hallway of stores with equally impressive menus. I kept mouthing the words “Oh my God” as I walked down the first hallway until I reached its corner.



I couldn’t really resist any longer, so I ate at this corner restaurant which served me the best gyoza I will ever consume in this lifetime. I exited after this otherworldly meal and, within one minute, sat down at another gyoza restaurant, taken in by the visual effects of its iron skillets in which the gyoza was cooked and served. I then ate some gelato shaped like a cat then went back for more gyoza.






My stomach was overloaded as much as my other senses. I hadn’t eaten anything from the Tokyo Dessert Republic.




I also hadn’t eaten from the Cup Ice Cream Museum, which has nearly any flavor you can think of, and many that you wouldn’t. (Cactus, anyone?)



And that’s only a single store within Ice Cream City. I’m a person that is constantly tempted to buy foods if I’ve never had them before, especially sweet things. Never have I seen so many foods in one place that I may never get to eat. Even though I couldn’t eat everything in sight, the constant bombardment of visuals made it so that, as long as I was in Namjatown, I wanted to.

Reflections of Tokyo

In Tokyo, I find myself not only looking at interesting objects, but also at their reflections created by surfaces. Whether the reflective material is the glass façade of a building or the window of a subway, it offers an alternate view of concrete objects.

I first became intrigued by the different reflective materiality used all over Tokyo when I was walking down a street and saw the reflection of the Mikimoto building on the glass façade of a building across the street. I looked in the opposite direction and there it was. It was totally unexpected and I got a full preview of the building which I would’ve otherwise only seen at a sharp angle. Tokyo International Forum by Rafael Vinoly is another great glass building in Tokyo that you should check out. It casts reflections onto nearby builings creating a pattern of light.

Modern buildings here are predominately glass, maybe to open up the small spaces inside or maybe just to create a sleek look. I’ve noticed a lot of mirrors, windows, and glass that create such clear reflections that I have to think twice about which is real and which is reflection. It creates more interest, making somewhat of an extension to a design. And when the sun hits the glass of transparent buildings, there are different shapes throughout the day projected onto surfaces creating an exchange of design. Reflective materiality lends a hand to design in an unexpected way and creates a new world in what would otherwise be a blank space.

Hama Rikyu and the Fractal Universe

Today we went to Hama Rikyu which is the site of what used to be a Shogunate villa. I think a good comparison would maybe be central park in New York. One of the first things I noticed was that, even though we were in a park full of trees and foliage, the skyscrapers from the city still seemed to dominate the sky. In a city like Tokyo, I guess this is something quite hard to avoid. For someone like me, who hasn't seen much of this type of thing before, I don't mind. It was still very pleasing to my eyes. Experiencing the world here is almost like doing things again for the first time. Obviously the people are different but even the native plant life here spurs my curiosity -- especially the trees. Here are some pictures of a couple trees that are common here but that to me, look quite unusual. When I look at them I imagine the vascular system of the body. They resemble a network of veins or nerves -- things of a fractal nature. There are computer-generated pictures of the entire universe (as we know it to be) that map out the way galaxies have arranged themselves and still they follow this vascular pattern. Why? It's peculiar the way nature repeats and presents itself in this place we call the universe. In a way, I feel we are the universe. Japan: the instigator of my contemplation.

While typing this blog, a very long and interesting conversation was born on fractals. To gain a better understanding of what they are, here's a link.

Lights. Camera. Sparkle.

I don't think there is anything quite as much fine, or as raw, as taking a photo in a photobooth. The ones I am used to are four little squares, all lined up vertically, with the very hard decision making of "What border do I want? Happy cherubs or a wanted poster?" and whether it should be black and white, sepia or color. Sometimes, you don't even get to make those decisions.

When we entered the arcade in Nara, most of us girls were trying to mentally prepare for two hours of the more video game inclined to play Street Fighter and Gundam games while we were shoved into a corner with all of the claw machines.

What we found though, was about a half a dozen brightly colored pod machines, with Japanese models plastered in makeup and seqince all over the outside of them. They were the infamous photo booths that I had heard about, and were told that I needed to try at some point. I was more than game, since I had a very slight addiction to the less impressive photobooths back in the states.

We eventually walked into one, and from right off the bat you could tell this was going to be a completely different experience. Instead of huddling around a small chair, there was a lavish interior that had cubbys for your things and professional grade lighting. Its a far cry from the blinding flash that you get for your lighting at my favorite mall photobooth.

We stumbled through the decisions and buttons the first time, which we later figured out that some of them were "Do you want us to make it look like you're wearing a ridiculous amount of mascara and lipstick?" "How dark or albino do you care to look today?" "What sort of theme do you want for your pictures?" Everything was also on a very stressful time limit, so if you didn't make your decision fast enough, you were doomed to whatever the photo booth thought was best for you.

After we took our pictures, you would have to edit them, and add little stickers or sparkles. You could even give yourself more makeup and different colored hair.

Unlike the its American counter part, which can turn even the most bodacious diva into an awkward pile of florescent lighting, these ones will edit Igor into Ricky Martin.

The thing that it left me wondering, why do they care about having such intense photo booths? The thing I've noticed about the recreational activities here is that they are so much part of the new Japan. The old Japan to me is the temples and the shrines, while the new Japan is the graphic pictures, bright lights and little cartoon characters beckoning you in. You can see this in the photo booths which end up covered in kawaii stickers and sparkles. They are like little pods that help to transform you into the newer Japanese aesthetics, which is a fun experience when you go there.

It's Hard Not to be a Rockstar in Tokyo

Ah Japan...
The country is known for many things; It's culture is one of the oldest in the world, the Buddhist temples and shrines, the tenth largest population with over 128 million and of course, karaoke.
Back in the states, I enjoy patronizing the Full House Lounge (I can be found there at least once a month on Thursdays or Fridays) in Benson. Although I botch pretty much every song I sing, I really enjoy the thought of performing someone else's song to a group that may or may not want to hear the particular tune chosen. Now, as you would imagine, there are some differences between karaoke here in Japan and karaoke back home (beyond trading the Wild Turkey for sake).
After last night, I am glad to say that I have experienced karaoke both in Kyoto and Tokyo. In both areas, a small room is rented hourly and typically with a one drink minimum per person. The beers and cocktails are around 500 yen (one yen is roughly equal to one penny) as is the room per hour. Due to the size of the rooms, I recommend not setting down your beer as there tends to be a domino effect when (not if, but when) a beer gets knocked over. In Kyoto, we were lucky enough to have our friend Akira (chef and owner of kitchen Rakuraku which a few of us attended almost every night) show us the ropes. After getting a hang of the the wireless machine which just uses kanji (japanese symbols), to dial in the numbers of our selected jams, we were ready to rock.
The videos behind the words on the screen show the most awkward of moving images, from a very distraught man who gets out of his convertible to smoke a cigarette as traffic screams by on a busy street, to the most ridiculous computer animation of some sort of spaceship cruising between sky scrapers in a futuristic cityscape with a grip of missiles chasing closely behind. There is also this reoccurring video of some buff white guy being admired by a woman as he's leaning on a gas pump filling up his ride.
As you can tell from the photos, one is much more susceptible to seizures while singing in Tokyo rather than the laid back Kyoto room. As the lights flashed quickly above my head and the glowing lights changed the skin tone of people's faces from blue to pink, I looked at myself in a rounded mirror and realized that while in this room, we are all rock stars.
I'm not saying saying that I prefer karaoke in Japan, but the Full House Lounge may need to step it's game up.


P.S. I didn't post any videos that I shot, because people also shot video of me... I would be shooting myself in the foot if I posted, but if anyone back home wants some blackmail videos, contact me at j.addison0@gmail.com. Keep in mind, these videos don't come cheap.

It feels great to be alive.

Today was one of the greatest days I've had yet here in Japan and in my life as a whole. I know it's really something to say that, but I mean it. The day began with a tour of Byodo-in, also known as the Phoenix hall, a national treasure of Japan. This temple is nearly 1000 years old. This just isn't something you can find back in the states. There's something about the ages of these places and monuments that fascinates me. I imagine all the people that must have walked and interacted here and it instills in me a sense of awe, leaving me speechless really. It's hard to compare a 1000 years of blood, sweat and tears to anything else I've experienced thus far in my life. After we left the temple our group split up to find some lunch. A friend and I looked around for a while and were beginning to think we wouldn't find a satisfactory place to dine. Our efforts were not in vein because eventually at the end of the road (ironic?) we found a soba noodle place on the 3rd floor over looking Uji river. I didn't know what to expect from the food but I soon realized it was some of the best I've had since we've been here. Immediately I noticed the spectacular view of the river and mountains. Breathtaking really. The perfect place to enjoy Japanese cuisine while at the same time taking in the scenery if there ever was one. I had tempura soba with shichimi, a Japanese spice consisting of 7 ingredients. When were finished with our meal we took a stoll through the market again and bought some green tea ice cream. I wasn't aware this even existed but in Japan there's virtually green tea everything. Very delicious. From there we went down to the river I spoke of previously. This is where things really started to fall into place. There was a man playing an oboe whose music permeated the surrounding atmosphere and set the mood perfectly. In that moment time stopped and the dream was alive. One of the most memorable moments in my life, one that I'll never for get. I took this energy and put it into a sketch of the view I had from where I sat. I wanted to keep working but time is of the essence and we had a train to catch. Besides, once you stop letting these moments move through you and you try to hang on to them, they lose their meaning. I was there, I lived it and I loved it. I can't wait to return.

Because I found it interesting, and because it's pretty culturally significant, here's a link to learn more about green tea.

The Initiation of the New Head Priest

To read Balsam Ali's story, "The initiation of the new head priest," please click on the link.