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CIMG0767.JPG Poster for the Thunderbirds exhibit

CIMG0762.JPG Yes! Me in the command chair of Thunderbird 1.

CIMG0758.JPG Thunderbirds are go! This was from a temporary display of thunderbirds artifacts in the Parco Shibuya. They had some awesome artifacts from the show including original marionettes -- but photos were prohibited.

CIMG0749.JPG I just loved this straight-outa-1977 electronics store.

CIMG0660.JPG A couple Porsches just wating for the right time to burst forth. Also, another multi-level parking space.

CIMG0594.JPG Women's hair coloring. Really, in a normal drugstore

CIMG0696.JPG They build big buildings here a lot.

CIMG0629.JPG Roppongi Hills (that skyscraper in the background) towering over the old cemetary

CIMG0607.JPG Mostly Akasaka-mitsuke is super-modern high-rise, but a few buildings from old tokyo are still showing through

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CIMG0662.JPG More evidence of the Japanese fascination with mythical pseudo-Europe.

CIMG0729.JPG Dusk

CIMG0595.JPG The Colenol is ready for Xmas! There's a statue of Colenol Saunders outside every KFC in Tokyo, and this time of year they're all wearing Santa suits.

CIMG0750.JPG This was parked at a construction site, used for getting around the site.

CIMG0697.JPG fall color in the city

JTLOSPP2.JPG Japan is the land of single-point perspective

CIMG0608.JPG Including this Motorcycle shop on the corner!

CIMG0751.JPG This is a slimy, stringy dish called mozuku that, despite its texture, actually tasted good

CIMG0663.JPG This is an apartment building (in Shibaura)

CIMG0730.JPG Tokyo Tower at dusk

CIMG0574.JPG Three-story car parking -- and this is at Yoichi's house, an hours' train ride form Tokyo

CIMG0596.JPG Japan's Supreme Court building. Weighty, eh?

CIMG0674.JPG OK, here's the culmination of the multi-level parking space thing. Here's a Marcedes heading into the car elevator... (next slide)

CIMG0631.JPG "You kids get off of my lawn!" as expressed in Japanese Engrish

CIMG0687.JPG An abandoned building near Shibakoen

CIMG0752.JPG Kathleen and Sam at dinner

CIMG0675.JPG ...which will carry it up into this building... (next slide)

CIMG0611.JPG This building just seemed so... not... Coca-cola

CIMG0732.JPG There are lots of tiny, narrow high-rises like this.

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CIMG0763.JPG Oh, of course... high-end designer jewelry and Michael Lau figurines are a natural juxtaposition

CIMG0701.JPG The idea of having cute little mascots for every company never went away here.

CIMG0612.JPG This is an apartment building

CIMG0754.JPG Mmm, Mmm, Good!

CIMG0733.JPG Tokyo Tower at dusk

CIMG0688.JPG Never look up. Never.

CIMG0634.JPG The Shibuya "river"

CIMG0676.JPG ...which is this big!!!

CIMG0601.JPG I love Japan's comic-style guides to public behavior

CIMG0666.JPG The Rainbow Bridge peeking above the skyline

CIMG0745.JPG Japanese businessmen after work

CIMG0703.JPG A street matsuri (festival), in Tamachi right in the heart of Tokyo.

CIMG0735.JPG More miracles of Japanese Engrish

CIMG0714.JPG Barber poles speak every language.

CIMG0678.JPG These people were *very* intent on their magazines.

CIMG0757.JPG The sake we liked the best is the one in the middle. We think the waiter called it "Swiss Kick" but I can't find that in the sake catalog... after a bunch of time with my friend the Kanji dictionary, I think it's a sake called kenkyuusui.

CIMG0692.JPG Creative use of window space.

CIMG0747.JPG Did I mention parking space was a a premium?

CIMG0591.JPG Abstract in concrete

CIMG0693.JPG Hard to believe you're five minutes from Tokyo station, huh?

CIMG0748.JPG This is a "capsule hotel" near Akasake

CIMG0727.JPG A single-family house in the middle of Shibakoen in the heart of Tokyo. They must have resisted a LOT of buyout offers over the years.

CIMG0706.JPG I like to say Tokyo has "aggressive" architecture.

CIMG0681.JPG An English Tudor facade connecting two warehouses. Oh, of course.

CIMG0658.JPG This is a typical example of the rules for garbage in Japan. You sort your garbage into recycleable, burnable, and non-burnable, and each one is collected on different days.

CIMG0637.JPG This building caused a serious case of deja vu. I could swear I came to this small office building in 1990 on my first trip to Japan, because one of these companies had something to do with NeXT machines in Japan.

CIMG0592.JPG Now that's a lingerie model!

CIMG0717.JPG Did I mention the aggressive architecture?

CIMG0694.JPG ...with the Shinkansen in the background

CIMG0670.JPG Organic food is a new trend in Tokyo

JTLOSPP3.JPG Japan, the land of single-point perspective.

CIMG0659.JPG I have no idea what advantage this incredibly complex system of glass panels and wires produces for the building. This is in Hiro-o.

CIMG0593.JPG Yo baby. The perfect Tokyo car. Oh, wait

CIMG0718.JPG Only one person is home.

CIMG0606.JPG The 'hood for my temporary place

Shibuya Saturday Night — When it rains, Shibuya turns into a sea of umbrellas.

Star Wars Jacket — Licensed product? You decide.

The All-Japan Barista Championship — Be sure to get your tickets early.

Abalone.jpg — $26 abalone. Each. (this is in the basement of a department store in Shibuya. Department stores often have food departments in the basement).

PriceyBroccoli.jpg — Compare it to the mushrooms to get an idea of how small these $3 bunches of Broccoli are

SnapPeas.jpg — $4 for snap peas, and note the $5 green peas to the right! They're sure nicely packaged though.

JapaneseMileau.jpg — So much in a picture... from an izakaya in Roppongi.

APHotelAsBillboard.jpg — The Akasaka Prince Hotel at night, in December.

IlluminationAPH.jpg — Japanese love this sort of lights display. They're set up all over Tokyo right now -- this one is at the Akasaka Prince Hotel, right near my apartment.

GoldenPrince.jpg — Golden hour shining on the Akasaka Prince Hotel, around the corner from my temporary apartment.

AkasakaTower.jpg — A huge, and I mean huge, new building going up in Akasaka.

TokyosAggressiveArchitecture.jpg — More aggressive architecture, this one on Yamate-dori in between Nakameguro and Ebisu.

JTLOSPP6.jpg — Japan -- the Land of Single-Point Perspective.

BarberPole.jpg — Pixellization in real life!

GolfAndCoffee.jpg — This is a store that sells golf clubs... and coffee drinks. Oh, of course - golf and coffee, why didn't I think of that? Not sure what the connection is exactly (maybe it's just two things the owner likes!)

TheFateOfTokyoBuildings.jpg — In fact, Tokyo buildings are constantly being demolished and rebuilt. Here's a rare shot of one coming down. It's hard to see this because they erect the barriers you can see at the right around any building being torn down.

ShochuKirai.jpg — No matter how many times I give it a chance, I just don't like Shochu. I won this bottle as a door prize at the Korean-Japanese friendship dinner I went to.

TokyoGreatVisual.jpg — An awesome sign just down the street from work. I have no idea at all what it means.

MoreTokyoArchitecture.jpg

JTLOSPP7.jpg — From Akasaka.

Zojirushi1.jpg — On the way home from work one night, I found out that I work very close to the headquarters of the Zojirushi company!

Zojirushi2.jpg — Ah, Zojirushi... makers of the most archetypical of Japanese kitchen appliances!

AnpanmanTerrace.jpg — Because you just can't get too much Anpanman, there's a store dedicated to him at the Tokyo Shiodome.

AnpanmanTerrace2.jpg — Honest-to-goodness, there's nothing inside but Anpanman merchandise.

BitchPack.jpg — Seen while on the train to Joetsu Kokusai.

TheRappingCondom1.jpg

TheRappingCondom2.jpg

Engrish4.jpg — What is the opposite of "casually casual"?

NoboritoEki.jpg — I came to Noborito many years ago with (Jan) Scott Frazier, and it was a charming outlying station next to the Tamagawa and its attendant parks and recreation areas. Since then, the station has been replaced with this monstrous (and underutilized) facility.

TufteWouldBeProud1.jpg — These station exit and transfer guides can be found at most or all stations on the Tokyo Metro. They take a little while to learn how to read, but they're a fantastic example of information design once you understand them.

TufteWouldBeProud2.jpg

ShinjukuIllumination1.jpg

ShinjukuIllumination2.jpg

ShinjukuIllumination3.jpg

ShinjukuIllumination4.jpg

ArcadePrizes.jpg — When I saw this, I *so* knew I was in Japan.

JTLOSPP8.jpg — Japan is the most group-oriented country I've ever experienced, but it also has the ability to provide images of profound alienation.

TokyoMetroAbstract.jpg

SCETokyo.jpg SCE Tokyo is around the corner from my temporary apartment in Akasaka-Mitsuke.

LoveBeautyUnix.JPG I don't think these people knew the original meaning of the word Unix. Then again, maybe they did. But that would be surprising for hairstylists.

RedBullmobile2.jpg The Red-Bull-Mobiles! (there were two of them)

RedBullmobile1.jpg Yes, in real life here in Shibuya, it's...

SuperHakkaisan.jpg So I had randomly seen this bottle of sake at a store in Tokyo and decided to try a bottle. Before I opened it, we went to Niigata for snowboarding, and it was for sale at the very, very local sake-ya (Hakkaisan is brewed near there). It turned out to be awesome, one of the best sakes I've had. It's some sort of special version of Hakkaisan but we didn't know which, so I dubbed it "Super-Hakkaisan."

Commeca a la Maison

KoreanMen.JPG — An awesome bit of Engrish in a Kanazawa restaurant: they meant, "Korean Menu."

HeadShopZippy!1.jpg In between Omotesando and Shibuya is this awesome store.

A Wider Shot of Head Shop Zippy The store's merchandise is pretty much the same as every head shop, I didn't see any Pinhead merch

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TrafficMannequin6.jpg

TrafficMannequin7.jpg

TokyoCondoScene.jpg — From the mansion under construction next door to the new apartment.

CuteTrucksPart2.jpg — Almost as cute as Yasuko's family's truck!

HelloKitty1.jpg — Official Japanese post office stamps.

NakameguroView1.jpg — Looking from the entrance balcony towards Ebisu. The road is leading towards the huge Roppongi Hills building on the horizon.

NakameguroView2.jpg — View from the Living Room balcony of the apartment. The large street at upper right is called Yamate-dori.

NakameguroView3.jpg — Nighttime view from the entrance-side balcony looking across Ebisu towards Roppongi. To the right of the large smokestack is a building; to the right of that building is Tokyo Tower!

CuteTruck1.jpg — Yasuko's family's business' incredibly cute little Japanese truck.

FamilyBizNiwa.jpg — This incredibly maintained garden space is at the entrance to the family workshop.

Workshop1.jpg — The family business is to produce the wooden blanks that are used to make Japanese lacquerware.

Workshop2.jpg — ...and there were a lot of them in the little storeroom. All computer-designed nowadays, natch.

AggressiveArchitecturePt7.jpg

TaniGuchiGakki5.jpg

TaniGuchiGakki3.jpg

TaniGuchiGakki4.jpg

TaniGuchiGakki2.jpg

TaniGuchiGakki1.jpg

AlmostSakura.jpg — A Cherry Tree almost ready to bloom.

SenzokuKoen1.jpg

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SenzokuKoen3.jpg

SenzokuKoen4.jpg

KodomoNoTrafficTraining1.jpg

KodomoNoTrafficTraining2.jpg

KodomoNoTrafficTraining3.jpg

TamaGawaPlayfield.jpg

TamagawaDevelopment.jpg

TamagawaDevelopment2.jpg

MinnaNoTamgawa.jpg

NouhinTraining1.jpg

NouhinTraining2.jpg

NouhinTraining3.jpg

NouhinTraining4.jpg

NouhinTraining5.jpg

NouhinTraining6.jpg

NouhinTraining7.jpg

NouhinTraining8.jpg

NouhinTraining9.jpg

NouhinTraining10.jpg

RoppongiEvening1.jpg

RoppongiEvening2.jpg

MeguroEvening.jpg

MeguroGawa1.jpg

MeguroGawa2.jpg

InsideDoorKnifeBlock.jpg

Tamagawa2_1.jpg — Actual date May 27. Another beautiful bikeride along the Tamagawa!

Tamagawa2_2.jpg — Actual date May 27.

Tamagawa2_3.jpg — Actual date May 27.

Tamagawa2_4.jpg — Actual date May 27.

Tamagawa2_5.jpg

Haneda1.jpg — Actual date May 4th. I rode the other way down the Tamagawa to Tokyo Bay, which essentially means Haneda airport.

Haneda2.jpg — Actual date May 4th. I rode the other way down the Tamagawa to Tokyo Bay, which essentially means Haneda airport.

Haneda3.jpg — Actual date May 4th. I rode the other way down the Tamagawa to Tokyo Bay, which essentially means Haneda airport.

Haneda4.jpg — Actual date May 4th. I rode the other way down the Tamagawa to Tokyo Bay, which essentially means Haneda airport.

Haneda5.jpg — Actual date May 4th. I rode the other way down the Tamagawa to Tokyo Bay, which essentially means Haneda airport.

ChessiestSpideyPromoEver.jpg — Wow. Leave it to the Japanese to come up with the cheesiest Spider-Man promo ever!

ShinjukuFestival1.jpg — On the last Saturday in July, there are lots of girls in Kimono, and lots of dance troupes in the streets.

ShinjukuFestival2.jpg

SnoopyTown.jpg — The SnoopyTown mascot at the Queen's Shopping Center, Minatomirai, Yokohama.

CutePoliceCar.jpg — This was some sort of random Yokohama police publicity event. They had this police car, which was all cute 'n stuff, and...

SwiftPoliceCar.jpg — ...this one, which was all hip.

TodaiAntiWarNetwork

TodaiBookstore1

TodaiBookstore2

NakameguroEvening1.jpg

NakameguroEvening2.jpg

NakameguroEvening3.jpg

CeilingLampSocket1.jpg

CeilingLampSocket2.jpg

NihonNoPillow1.jpg

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CeilingLampSocket3.jpg

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ImaSweetIma.jpg

Dinner — Beef stew with egg, please.

TheLovelyMeguroGawa1.jpg — Megurogawa behind the house looking particularly, uh, appetizing.

TheLovelyMeguroGawa2.jpg — Aren't algal blooms amazing?

PovertyInJapan1.jpg — This is not an abandoned apartment complex.

PovertyInJapan2.jpg — People were actually in there.

PovertyInJapan3.jpg — The name of the complex, or whatever exactly it was.

HiDaddy1 — Now THIS is a bar name.

PovertyInJapan4 — Another place I saw in Central Tokyo.

UrbanJuxtaposition

TokyoArchitecture1

TokyoArchitecture2

TokyoArchitecture3

AJapaneseAssumption — The middle line means "Capacity 9 people." The bottom line means "Capacity 600 kg". You do the math.

ShibuyaGawaTori1 — A bird along the Shibuya river, where I work.

ShibuyaGawaTori2

ShibuyaGawaTori3

ShibuyaGawaTori4

Project16-2 — Tokyo figure heaven. I had never seen these Toy Story figures before!

Project16-3 — Oooh, monochrome Mickey.

Project16-4 — And Bearbricks. Lots of bearbricks.

Project16-5 — For me, this Lupin III figure was the highlight of the entire store.

Project16-6 — So, Depp-man, go!

Project16-7 — "Sold Out"? What is this with "Sold Out"?

Project16-8 — "SOLD OUT"? What is this with "SOLD OUT"? Nooooo!

Project16-1 — While wandering around Shibuya, I found this innocent-looking Project 16 store.

You Know, For Kids! — A store for Families. The character at bottom left means, "booze." Bottom right, "Cigarettes." Nothing like Booze & Cigs to keep the family together!

TrafficDude1.jpg — Whilst sitting in a second-story Starbuck's in Shibuya, I enjoyed good overhead perspective and sketching on this traffic director in the street below.

TrafficDude2.jpg

TrafficDude3.jpg — Traffic dude was joined by keg man.

KasaShape.jpg — And good pratice drawing umbrellas in perspective too!

MoonriseOverTokyo — The red-and-white stick is Tokyo Tower. You can make out the Westin logo on top of the Westin Ebisu just to the right of the moon.

FuguWithEsteban1

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AndThenChickenSashimi

FallAlongMegurogawa1 — The Meguro river is spectacular in spring with the cherry blossoms, but fall with the leaves turning onthe cherry trees isn't shabby either.

FallAlongMegurogawa2

FallAlongMegurogawa3 — As you can see, our fall weather has been perfect lately.

FallAlongMegurogawa4

MegurogawaWinter

Michael S. Chang is an intern at Polygon who's also taking Animation Mentor with my old friend from Pixar, Bret Parker. He had me randomly appear on web chat during office hours today! Bret was very confused for a second :-).

NationalArtCenter

DANDY-from-Redrover-1

DANDY-from-Redrover-2

Michael works the camera.

As does Atsuko.

MattNappingPeacefully

No Photoshop! Those are cherry blossom petals falling through the air.

Great example of a dapple (the pattern of sunlight on the sidewalk).

MankaiAtMeguroGawa

Fall at Keio University Hiyoshi campus.

Fall at Keio University Hiyoshi campus.

Keio University Hiyoshi campus.

Keio University Hiyoshi campus.

MattsBday2009-1.jpg

MattsBday2009-2.jpg

Best Engrish Ever

Coffee? Chemicals?

NanJiKai 何次会

PHT136　Damien

Exotic Flowers 1

Exotic Flowers 2

Exotic Flowers 3

TokyoSnow2010.JPG

Olive-oil-and-balsamic-at-once dispenser, in Hong Kong

Early morning frost and fog, near Narita

Papabubble on Kamiyama Doori near Shibuya

A fantastically ugly apartment building

Leo Hourvitz
photos

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