Lost In Translation

Dragon

This fountain for purifying your hands with water was at a shrine near Sensoji Temple in Asakusa.

Monk

Sometimes you see Buddhist monks collecting money at train stations, this one was at the Sanja matsuri.

Another Mikoshi

Bring Out The Gimp

Pensioner turns young wife's lover into 'gimp'

MATSUDO, Chiba -- An old man who used a chain leash on his young wife's lover, then bound him and locked him inside a wooden box has been arrested, police said.

Hiroshi Ohashi, the 64-year-old pensioner who also nailed himself inside the wooden box in which he is alleged to have used to keep his wife's 39-year-old lover imprisoned at knifepoint for 13 hours, was arrested for kidnapping.

Ohashi, who in the past has been convicted for arson, stated only that "that court case was bulls**t! Give me a retrial."

Investigators will continue questioning the old man to determine his exact motive for the alleged kidnapping.

Police said that Ohashi demanded the younger man appear at his Matsudo home on Monday night to confront him about a steamy affair with the pensioner's 43-year-old wife.

After some discussion, Ohashi ended up binding the younger man's legs with adhesive tape, attaching the chain to his neck and then locking him in the wooden box he referred to as a "box bed." Ohashi joined the young man inside the box, nailing it shut from the inside to make it more difficult to open.

The plywood box was 1.1 meters high, 1.2 meters long and 80 centimeters deep.

Police said Ohashi armed himself with a fruit knife, an iron bar and documents from the court case where he received his arson conviction when he entered the box with the younger man.

Following a 1993 fire at a recycled goods store he operated Ohashi was arrested for willful destruction of property through arson. He was eventually convicted and, in 1996, sentenced to serve seven years in jail. (Mainichi and wire reports, Japan, May 19, 2004)

Dog Day Afternoon

This dog, wearing a traditional hapi coat, watched the matsuri perched atop his owner's head.

Seattle's Koolhaas Library

I'm excited to see the new downtown library in Seattle up close next time I visit. This is what Herbert Muschamp of the NY Times has to say:

The Library That Puts on Fishnets and Hits the Disco
By HERBERT MUSCHAMP

Published: May 16, 2004

AT a dark hour, Seattle's new Central Library is a blazing chandelier to swing your dreams upon. If an American city can erect a civic project as brave as this one, the sun hasn't set on the West. In more than 30 years of writing about architecture, this is the most exciting new building it has been my honor to review. I could go on piling up superlatives like cars in a multiple collision, but take my word: there's going to be a whole lot of rubbernecking going on.

Click here to read the whole article.

Sanja Mikoshi Bearer

Not all of the miskoshi bearers on Sunday were old, drunk oyaji (old men).

In The iPod: The Divorce

This young Seattle band was recommended to me by my Seattle friends Mike and Pat, and I really dig their debut, There Will Be Blood Tonight. They remind me of a lot of different bands: Archers of Loaf, Buffalo Tom, The Dismemberment Plan, Fugazi, etc... equal parts indie rock, emo, and new wave. My favorite tracks are "Hearts For Handlebars", "Breaker Breaker", and "Save It For The Judge."

Tokyo Murder Mystery

I read about a murder mystery written by a former Tokyo hostess in the Sunday Times (UK) newspaper supplement. Here it is on another site, she refers to the abuduction and murder of former air hostess Lucie Balckman, who met her demise while I was living here. I'm not a big mystery fan, but this sounds intriguing, perhaps I am more intrigued by the author's life than the work of fiction in question I suppose. However, I also came across this review in the Guardian as well.

Sanja Matsuri

My friend Arie was in town this week for work with Microsoft and suggested going to the Sanja Matsuri (festival) held the third weekend of May every year in Asakusa. I hadn't been to Asakusa for a couple of years, but I've been there twice in the last month. It's the first time I've been to this particular festival and it was quite a spectacle, but early evening the rain kind of ruined it, otherwise we would have stayed longer. Expect to see a number of photos from this event this week.