Vernal Equinox Day in Shinjuku Gyoen:
A perfect time and place, it seems, for brisk, coat-clad picnics near the early blossom…
…photographing trees…
…and trying to look like you’ve grown horns.
Sam in Japan
Archived Posts from this Category
March 21, 2012
March 18, 2012
One More Tick Off The Bucket List
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Whenever I die, it will be as a happier (if deafer) man than twenty-four hours ago…
…because I have seen Guitar Wolf live.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, my head feels like a bomb exploded in it: I’m going to lie down for a while. ;D
March 15, 2012
Peace on Earth, Penguins and Being Glad To Get Back To Work
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It’s been a fine first week back here in Tokyo. My adventures so far have included a first encounter with kabuki at The National Theatre of Japan, catching a bit of last weekend’s Peace on Earth tsunami memorial festival in Hibiya Park…
…and meeting these dudes:
But mostly, as on my previous visit, my life here looks like this:
I’m now over forty thousand words into the first draft of my latest book. For reasons I don’t entirely understand, right now I seem to get a lot more writing done here in Tokyo than I have been doing lately at home in London. That’s good, because this is going to be a big story, there’s a lot of work to do – and best of all, I’m enjoying it.
Life is good and I am very lucky. HEE HEE HEE HEE!
March 8, 2012
Truly we live in a Sci-Fi age. I’m surprised by how good this Vox mini preamp sounds through headphones – but I’m astonished and delighted by the satisfyingly nasty racket I can make with it through portable speakers!
This afternoon I’m going back to Japan. And this time I’m taking an electric guitar. 😀
Meanwhile, this week on TBM a T-Rex nails the central challenge in writing thrilling fiction.
February 23, 2012
New Friends, New Adventures
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The tickets are booked. We’re almost set. In a couple of weeks’ time I’ll be back in Japan.
I’ve had a lovely time in London – launching O, catching up with friends and family, doing fun stuff – but as the day of my return to Tokyo gets closer I can’t help but get very, very excited. My first trip to Japan left me fascinated, rabid to discover more. But as well as new experiences to look forward to, there are people I met there and things I saw that I can hardly wait to see again. Like these dudes…
In the Shibuya branch of Mandarake…
…by the cabinets of collectible figurines…
…there are big signs telling you not to take photos.
I didn’t use flash…
…and tried (and probably failed) to be subtle…
…but I couldn’t resist. I mean, look at this:
Here’s to new friends and new adventures.
On a related note, this week on Trapped By Monsters: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
February 14, 2012
An Old Friend, an End and a Beginning
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The one thing I didn’t like about being in Japan was that I missed my old friends. Then I discovered one living in Tokyo.
This giant monster looming over Tokyo Tower is Maman, by Louise Bourgeois. I’d last seen Maman at a wonderful exhibition of Bourgeois’ work at London’s Tate Modern on the day of the launch of my second published book, Tim, Defender of the Earth. Here’s that entry on the Tim News Page, and here’s a pic I took of her attacking St Paul’s Cathedral.
As you might be able to guess, Louise Bourgeois’ viscerally sinister oeuvre was a massive influence on Crawlers, which I’d just begun writing at the time. So with the Crawlers News Page soon to come to an end and the My Name Is O one about to begin, the timing of my second meeting with Maman was eerily perfect.
I wasn’t totally convinced by her current setting in Roppongi. Surrounded by trees and skyscrapers and Christmas trappings I felt that Maman didn’t look quite as imposing as she should.
…But the angles were there if you looked for them.
