Kakistocracy

So I’ve been here two and a half months and the reintegration is almost complete. I thought I’d give you an extended Lifebar update:
1. Work is picking up. More clients, more meetings, more rejections (lulz), slightly longer hours. Excellent!
2. I don’t know what is going on with the protein powder in this country, but I [...]

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Facing the dome-temple below

is this weird paean to French Baroque architecture. It’s two or three levels of stairs situated behind a wide oval pond.
Sweet angles on the curve of the stone banister though.

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I normally hate this kind of photo

You know, the kind that only reflect how Japan WANTS to present itself. I always find these kinds of images very self-congratulating. There is in fact very little about Japanese life that is grandiose and glamorous, no matter what pics like these say.
Japanese people are super interested in what outside cultures think about them. [...]

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Zweihandder?

spell?

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"These kinds of hats are badass."

That was probably the exact thought that went through the sculptor’s mind as he molded this hat.
I know this, in my heart.

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Dougongz

You can’t see it from the preview pic very well, but look close…the dougong (crosspieces?) are actually golden dragons!

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Sacred flame?

Is it redundant to decorate a jar that holds burning things with fire motifs?
I understand the connection between the transformative power of fire and extinguishing the self, but still…

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I took a bunch of pics of this dong,

but this is the only one where you can see the smoke!
How long does it take to fill up this thing with incense ash? Days? Weeks? Hell, maybe they started burning this stuff before the war, and somewhere down at the bottom there’s still the ash left from Japanese praying that old standard, Death to [...]

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In the sensory overload of the temple complex

I didn’t notice these turtles at first. Dad had to point them out to me.
It reminds me of one Christmas where I got a bike, and it was sitting on the fireplace with a big red bow, easily the most noticeable gift of the bunch. I remember seeing it and consciously avoiding it (though I [...]

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Do these insignias have any meaning?

Some of them seem imperial to me, but this rock is freshly cut. With Japan, it’s always either 1) there exists an elaborate, metaphysical symbology, or 2) there does not.

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Temples…

They are many in Japan. This is the entrance to the Narita temple complex. It has a cooler name but….I forgot it. Oops.

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I want to see snow lanterns

with fat waxy candles in them, burning in the night.

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Just strolling down the road under the blue sky

I like this pic because the lighting is EXACTLY how it was that day.

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Teahouse in Narita

The facts that this teahouse exists, seems to be doing well, and has entirely native clientèle seem to blow a hole in my Narita-is-a-tourist-trap theory. Real people live here? I would never have thought so until I got here.
What follows are more pictures that show a livelier, less pretentious “traditional” Japan. The last time [...]

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The porn supplement in the hotel room.

Man, Japanese sexual norms differ from American ones. Or do they? I’m actually really surprised at the sameness and the blandness of the movie choices on the American side. Blondes = yawn. I kind of thought porn had progressed beyond fake tits and ditzy Aryan towheads.

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I should see what this looks like in black and white.

My dad visited again last weekend. We went out to Narita, which for some reason is not the baroque Dante-esque hellhole I remember.
I’ve been using the phrase “baroque Dante-esque hellhole” a lot today.

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This may not seem like much to ya’ll, but….

seen from the 4th floor of the New Sanno Hotel across the street from this building, this was the very first thing I saw my very first time in Japan, all those long years ago back sophomore year of high school…memories.

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One on the right = super hot.

Drag queens in Roppongi.

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Hadrosaurs in their native element

Seriously I couldn’t stop trailing these two girls throughout the festival, my parents following close behind.

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I

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need

Festival at Meiji Jingu. My parents loved this. Tribal-style drumming really reminded me of summer. Then later, dance numbers eschewed the traditional in favor of hip hop…two tiny girls with blonde hair, their ionosphere-voices still burned in my head…and yet, shorties can flow.

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to

Hadrosaurs!

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find

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a

Mom in Japan…posing?! Epic lulz.

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girlfriend.

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