pinku

Time goes by.......so slowly

I'm excited people. We are off tonight to see Madonna play the VERY last show of her Confessions tour here in Tokyo. By all accounts last night's show ruled so I'm hoping more of that tonight. I prepared by buying these to wear tonight. Sorry for the blurry keitai photo. Darin said he was going to go as Sean Penn (as seen in Fast Times at Ridgemont High), but I think he's going to pike.

And I meant to blog this a couple of weeks ago, but never got around to it. The Bendall-Moks are definitely Queen fans. It would have been Freddie Mercury's (or Furrokh Bulsara's) 60th birthday on September 5th this year, so to celebrate I suggested to Daz that he wear a Mercury mustache for the whole day. He really did it and here's the proof. Not a bad job on short notice.

So sad!

Darin and I had our engagement party at Kichijoji's oldest and most famous yakitori bar, ISEYA. We love going there - the atmostphere is great, the beer is cheap, and the service is terrible (we don't mind because the beer is cheap). We mainly frequent the park branch of ISEYA, but on weekends we find ourselves often popping into the main branch of ISEYA on Kichijoji dori to have a beer at the street bar. It's a really special place. We heard a while ago that they are planning to knock the building down because it is too old and replacing it with a 14-storey building. That was about six months ago so we thought maybe it wasn't going to happen after all. Then Darin found this article on the weekend.

Famous Yakitori restaurant in Tokyo to be demolished for being too old

You know where we'll be drinking this weekend. I hate to see something so special being replaced by something so soul-less.

A better panorama shot put together by Daz. Click for a larger version.

Art you in SF?

If you are lucky enough to be in the Bay Area this weekend, then go and check out the opening of inhabitation modification Daz's exhibition with Alex Munn and Ian Cheng, at the Receiver Gallery in SF on Saturday night (9 Sept, 7 to 10). Unfortunately we can't attend due to being millions (ok thousands) of miles away here in Japan, but you can have our share of the refreshments! Darin did a great people watching video piece that really captures some of Kichijoji's most ordinary and captivating moments!!

We'd love to be there, but instead we'll be on a 'slow floating, pleasure boat' in Tokyo Bay. Poor us.

Crikey!

I had planned to blog about our weekend, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. Five minutes ago, I casually just clicked on the link to the Courier Mail - the newspaper for my home state Queensland and the headline screams 'Steve Irwin Dead' - whaaaat??!!

The first I ever heard about the crocodile hunter was about 10 years ago when an American friend of mine asked me if I could get him a crocodile hunter tshirt since I was Australian. I had never heard of Steve Irwin or the crocodile hunter. Little did I know Steve Irwin was already becoming a cult figure in the US with his show The Crocodile Hunter. I don't even think his show was airing in Australia at that time. It's one of those weird cultural marketing phenomenons like Fosters Beer. When you watch a Fosters ad in the US, the slogan is 'Fosters - Australian for beer'.....Um that's weird because virtually NO-ONE in Australia drinks Fosters - true story mate!

Anyways back to Steve Irwin. I like the Crocodile Hunter but never watched it religiously. Actually I've only ever seen a couple of episodes in full, BUT when I visited Australia Zoo (the zoo Irwin owns in Queensland) with my sister and her family in 2003 I was lucky enough to go on a day when Irwin actually does the crocodile feeding show himself (you see he's only there sometimes). I guess I sometimes thought he was a bit corny and over the top but to tell you the truth, he was thoroughly entertaining and I was enthralled the whole time. He was nothing short of awesome!

But my favourite crocodile hunter related story that I often tell people is something that happened to me while living in the US. A few years ago I lived in Oakland for about nine months and while I was there most people (from all different backgrounds and cities) couldn't distinguish my accent. The most common guess was British (not a bad guess), but I was once even asked whether I was from New York. Um, no. A little further than that.

Anyway one day I happened to be hanging out in one of those big sports warehouse type stores in Emeryville California. I guess I had lost Darin and the others and happened upon a young African American boy who was all of about 10 shooting hoops in the store. I asked him if I could join in and he welcomed me with opened arms. We chatted a little and he even complimented me on my shooting skill :) Cute!

After a short silence, he says 'You are Australian, aren't you!'

I was completely shocked. Flabbergasted. How could he know when even UC Berkeley professors couldn't even tell where I was from. So I asked, 'How did you know that?'

He nonchalantly replies, 'I watch The Crocodile Hunter'.

A priceless moment - that's for sure. After being slightly shocked that I even remotely sounded like the crocodile hunter, I revelled in the marvelous cultural tool that is TV.

So Steve Irwin - you were a great Australian who was dedicated to your cause and you will be missed.

Kyosaka 2006

Tadaima.

Daz and I got back on Wednesday night from our summer trip to Kyoto and Osaka. It had been about four years since Darin had been to Kansai and a couple of years since I've visited Kyoto. We were very excited about seeing familiar places, visiting new ones and meeting up with old friends. We only had four days, so we zoomed to Kyoto on the shink - it only takes 2 hours and 20 mins on the Nozomi - I barely had time to knit!

I love Kyoto to bits - always have. It was interesting to go back this time. My main impression was 'Where are all the people?' - seriously, after Tokyo, Kyoto seemed empty (which = heaven). You don't realize how much you get caught up in the frenetic pace of the eastern capital until you take a step away from it. Our main goal on this trip was to RELAX. We have both lived in Kansai before (I lived in Kyoto for four years), so we'd seen most of the famous sightseeing spots. I think I've been to Kinkaku-ji about 10 times (as part of my former job). So we were selective in activities - most involved roaming the streets, sitting by the Kamogawa drinking beer and swimming in the hotel pool. We visited Nanzenji, walked from the hotel in Keage, past Chion-in, through Maruyama park and Yasaka Shrine and wandered around Gion. It's enchanting.

The following day we visited Sanjusangendo and Fushimi Inari Taisha. Both were just as amazing as I remember.

We also found Hanjiro in Kyoto and out of the three I have been to, this is the most spectacular.

And the Nishiki Markets - don't you think these pickles look like eyeballs?

We finished up our trip by spending the last night in Osaka at our friends' new house/shop, Spiral in the Trip. Nobu and Takako have been friends of ours for years (daz used to work for them) and have a few shops selling vintage clothes and furniture. Their specialty is vintage plastic furniture from the 60s and 70s - their stuff is awesome. This year their dream came true and they built a four storey building in Osaka (not far from Shinsaibashi) which is now their home and main furniture showroom. Congrats Nobu, Takako and their cute four-year old daughter, Rui (who sings the Ramones like a professional)! And if anyone ever tells you how much friendlier and more down to earth people from Kansai are - believe it, coz it is true!

BTW, Nobu designed and produced the DJ booth he is leaning on. Only 58 were ever made and you know who owns one - PRINCE!

Ok, that's enough for now. If you want to see all of our photos, you can see them here!!!

ps - Thanks to Yoshi, Kowhai and Tyler for taking care of our pigs while we were away!!!