A Week in Tokyo 52
None of the photos in this weeks edition of A Week in Tokyo cover one of the biggest projects I've ever worked on - starting up an anime studio ^^; Lemme prepare a post and talk more about it in detail soon. Folks following my twitter however would have already seen some sneak peeks that I uploaded to Tsubuyaku.fm ^^;
Starting off with the first photo taken in Ochanomizu. The area is popular for a load of sportswear and book shops. Here wifey is grabbing some Taiyaki for after dindins dessert.
NHK still following me around ^^;
Mmmmm. Mr Donuts to go with the afternoon cuppa tea.
Doing some cleaning and dug up some of the original Otacool logo concept designs ^^;
Inkan [印鑑] is a seal that most Japanese folks have. They use it to stamp all sort of things from delivery notices through to contracts. I was required to get some seals when buying a house over here. Is there something similar in your culture?
Tsutaya is a CD and DVD rental shop. Interesting to see that they sell blank CD's and DVD's too ^^; A CM for Tsutaya below.
Sunday morning walk in our local park.
My neck of the woods. Have always wanted to live in Musashikoyama when I first visited Japan. Wifeys brother used to live here and I would always say to myself how it would be great to live in such an area.
Very different to where I grew up - Hackney London which has always been an area that I've always wanted to escape from ^^;
What sort of area do you live in? Are you happy with where you live or want out?
Back at Ochanomizu which is full of bookshops. Any bookshop that you walk into over here will have quite a selection of manga and anime related material. Does your neck of the woods have a fair share? Are titles increasing or decreasing?
Forgot to mention that apart from sporting goods and books, Ochanomizu is also popular for the amount shops they have that sell musical instruments. Lately have been wanting to learn the Shamisen. Never played an instrument when back in school though. Do you play and instrument and if so what do you play?
At the beginning of the year, snow sculptures are displayed around the Ochanomizu area.
T'was a cute girl on the left. I need a jacket like that for my daughters.
Police watches over Totoro. I like that bicycle wheel! Presuming they cost a bomb?
Never tried snowboarding - cant ski without falling over and doing damage to my ankles ^^;
Its forbidden to smoke out n about in the Chiyoda ward - if you get caught doing it then you will be severely punished - a police will point at you telling you to stop...
No, No, No.
Completely forgot that I was in the Japan Times newspaper recently. My university SOAS back in London saw the article and got in contact with me through the Japan Times ^^;
The daughters are pleased that they got in the photo ^^;
Managed to tidy up the daughters drawer of clothes.
While it may not be as visible as some other countries, we do have our fair share of homeless folks. Here we see some folks who have built a shelter for themselves in a pedestrian tunnel.
I respect the homeless folks over here because they don't go around asking others for money. They also usually regularly bathe in the public toilets at the parks and do odd jobs here and there like collecting plastic bottles. In the Tokyo Photo Walk 5 I talk about how a homeless man went to start up his own IT firm.
I remember an apparent homeless little girl in London asking me for some money. I gave her 50 pence but after she took the money she said that she would swap the 50 pence for 1 pound @.@
View of Shibuya.
Chris at the controls.
Dusting down the girls.
How to make shoes part 1. The green thing is called a Last. They come in all shapes and sizes.
What you need to do is cover the Last in masking tape. Once that's done, you draw your desired design on top of the masking tape and then cut out the design to create a pattern. The pattern is then stuck down on cardboard. Because you need to cut down the middle of the Last to remove the masking tape, you should place tape like this down the middle first so that you have string edges.
Then cover the entire last in masking tape. The bottom does not need to be covered. Once the pattern has been cut out and stuck down on 5cm squared cardboard, it can be used to place on leather or material to create the Upper which is the top part of the shoe.
How to make shoes part 2 sometime in next month I think ^^; I used to work with my dad many moons ago back in London but then discovered that what I wanted to be doing was living and working in Japan. While now I've found a living in a completely different field however, I still have my shoe and accessory making knowledge which I want to do something with.
Probably should leave the rest for a separate post ^^;
Dindins at home while watching evening TV.
Then there were some recording shenanigans at TBS covered in this article.
In our neck of the woods we can throw out paper for recycle twice a week. Varies depending on where you live.
I typically wear my slippers and socks until they start to burn out like this ^^;
Brekkie in the morning while checking mails and doing Skype ^^;
More NHK filming ^^; Filming usually involves wearing one of these for the whole day. Need constantly remember to switch off when I do a pee, poo or fart else the cameraman hears everything ^^; At least he does not have to smell it though.
Been asked to produce a cafe in Akihabara and this is the meeting involving the marketing, producers and investor. We are currently looking for space on the first floor of a shop on the main road in Akiba. This obviously means that we need to wait until somebody moves out as all spaces are taken up at the moment.
Snapping while waiting for a taxi.
For the past few weeks this is what I see when I turn around ^^;
Then it was lunch with the lovely Elly Otoguro ( http://ameblo.jp/elly-go-round/ ) at Daikanyama.
Shes coming around to the office on Monday to go over some projects that we are going to work on.
And this is what we had for lunch. Chicken n rice.
Stopped by at Francis's offices which are also in Daikanyama. Francis is half Japanese/German and used to previously work for Steve Jobs at Apple. He now runs Focal which is one of the biggest manufacturers of Apple related products in Japan.
A couple of pics of this meeting also at his burogu.
In one of the studios at Focal.
Francis shows off his new toy - some heavy thing to get steady video from his Canon.
Lost and found in Japan. If you loose it then the chances that you will get it back are typically much higher than you would imagine. My lost n found story in this article.
This photo is a basket of stuff that customers forgot to bring home.
Lunch meeting with some traditional Japanese food.
Can never get board of taking photos of Tokyo - even if its my own neck of the woods.
Nanoha finds herself some Keroro Gunsou stamps.
Lovely Time Of Eve clear file. The ring is printed on the back so its hidden when you place paper inside. I love the photo of her with the headphones. Anybody have sauce? ^^;
A new GAP that opened not so long ago at Harajuku.
A lot of photographers in this area taking snaps of fashionable girls. The photos are used in fashion mags. None of the folks are paid to be in the mag but they get to be published in a popular publication.
Which reminds me - submissions for Otacool 3 and 4 will open soon. While no moolah is involved, you get to be part of something special and at the same time share your passion with the world. But unlike the previous two Otacool, I'm negotiating to get something worth much more than the book for everybody who gets published. There is a top prize involved which is too cool for words.
I'm not involved at all with Otacool 4 though - will be Kotobukiya x another well known CGM site.
Your type is which?
"Machi Awase" [待ち合わせ] means to meet up with somebody. All over Tokyo you will see folks flocked outside landmarks as a waiting place to meet up with friends.
Modern football trainers.
Right outside where we had the Tokyo Figure Show last year.
Met up with one of the biggest shoe manufacturers in Japan - Diana.
Outside La Foret - fashion shopping center.
Omotesando going towards Aoyama.
Lunch at Johnathans.
The regular BLT please.
Love the old style Harajuku station sign.
At this time of year there are a load of ads encouraging folks to visit Kyoto. Went a while ago and you can see photos in this article.
There are regulations regarding carrying bicycles onto the train. They need to be of a particular size, foldable and in a bag. Back in London I always saw folks with their huge bicycles on the train.
The desk this morning is a mess!
Why do I have promo idol DVD stuff lying about? Hmmm.
Kotobukiya came over for 3 hours to talk about Otacool 3/4 and another publication that they want to work on. Yoshikawa-san forgot to take home a printout of the whole book ^^;
A load of publication companies have been sending over their goodies of late ^^;
Prefer to hang up the pink pair but Karin-chan is wearing them now.
