From Japan Today: That's kind of what I was talking about.

I was thinking more along the lines of being able to walk down to my local video store and buying a DVD of a 9 year old girl dancing around in a bikini. Or the singing groups made up of 12 year old girls whose entire audience consists of men in their 30's and 40's. Or the teenage girls who...

Zatoichi was fun. Haven't seen Gohatto. I see Takeshi Kitano (Beat Takeshi) on some TV show or another almost everyday. He is looking really, really old. His sidekick on MXC - Kenny Blankenship - is actually a governor of some prefecture and the last week or so has been talking about running...

Last weekend I went to the Ghibli museum in Tokyo. Amazing place. The building looks like a lost Gaudi design. Unfortunately they don't allow photographs inside. Totoro is my favourite of the Ghibli films but Grave of the Fireflies still makes me cry every time I see it. Mononoke is good...

I wish that this was the absolutely worst thing about modern Japanese that I could think of.

I got kicked out of Western. A friend who actually graduated got me an entry level job in the giant corporation that he worked at (I might have fudged the truth about my education a little in the interview). Ten years later, I'm working for the same company in Tokyo making more money than I...

The Tokyo Giants get 40,000 to their games. 40,000 is pathetic for a metropolitan area pushing 20,000,000. They should be getting 350,000 people at every game! ;)

The parks are one of the best things about Tokyo - especially in the spring. If you are looking for a park that isn't "underused", go to Yoyogi park on a weekend. There aren't many public squares at all but I think that the temples and shrines really play that role here. And yes, the...

Sorry but I've been out of country for 2 years: Metro = A&P/Dominion?

I'm pretty sure that the ugly backing is temporary drywall to keep the weather out of the ACC. Once the glass is finished, it should be taken down.

Man, that's sad. I used to live on Dalhousie just across the street. I was at least picturing it being disassembled stone by stone but seeing it knocked flat like that is really depressing. Very undignified. I always thought that the church should clean it up and turn it into a...

Sorry to go off topic, but if you follow that Tokyo highway up, you arrive at Roppongi Hills, then a little further to Midtown Tower where I work (highway is to the right of the screen). If you follow it down instead, you come to this cool playing field built over the highway. A little...

Have they redone the food court? It is (was) by far the crappiest of the big tower food courts.

I like the comments on the Star page. Lots of "Remove surface parking?!?! But I like to drive!!!"

I'm enjoying it an awful lot. There is always something going on. Multiple festivals every weekend to check out. I can wander strange neighbourhoods late at night and always feel safe. When you get lost - and I always get lost - you never have to wander too far before stumbling on a subway...

That's what I tell people but I'm actually in Aobadai. I'm a 5 minute walk from Nakameguro station.

Thought I would share a quick photo tour of my new hood here in Tokyo. All of these are taken within a couple hundred feet of my apartment. My building: (Oh noes! Hydro poles!) It's a brand new seven story rental building with 10(!) good sized retail units on the ground floor. So...

I wish that I had been charged per bag, instead I was charged per kg. I don't know if that is based on the airport or the airline. I flew Virgin because their business class is equivalent to everyone else's first class and I was only allowed to expense a business class ticket. Think about...

Be extremely careful with this. Call the airline or check their website and find out the weight limits and the charges for being over. The charges on long haul flights are crazy. When I moved to Tokyo I flew out of the UK and ended up overweight on my luggage. Cost me well over $1,000. I...

Speaking of desperately lonely guys...