2010-04-25

Free wifi. Featureless desert. Shitty service.





Abu dhabi international airport is located somwhere between the middle of nowhere and Dubai. I think I happen to be here on the one cloudy day of the year which only serves to dull the dullness even more.

3 hours to go before I board another 10 hour flight that will take me to jozi. The excitement of the journey has been sucked clean from my body. The harsh reality behind my decision to go home for 8 days is weighing me down.

Grief is not easily forgotten. And the loss which has driven me from my new comfort zone in Japan is still too crazy for words.

I am anxious and more than a little scared of what awaits me on the other side of this journey.



-- Blogged in the field.

Location:Narita City,Japan

2010-04-24

Engrish on the bus.

On the Azelea airport express from Maebashi to Narita. The start of a long journey home.

A rather amusing start.



-- Blogged in the field.

2010-04-19

Shots #02 The Shanks

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Signage on the doors of facilities at the last place where we had a School Enkai.

2010-04-14

Tokyo Expressways

When they move they are the best highways on earth. as beautiful as the city itself. P1020724

However movement is something that one cannot really associate with the Tokyo expressway system. While there are some amazingly efficient trains which take care of the needs of most of the  city’s travellers, peeps need to drive and for the day to day getting of things around the bustling metropolis, these arteries are vital parts of the city’s life.

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But in order for any artery to be efficient it needs to flow. Like an ever increasing percentage of the local population cholesterol is a problem here too. Due to the narrowness of the beltways and the almost un countable interconnecting loops, curves and interchanges there is always a pint where the traffic chokes. 

 

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and if you add the scatterbrained antics of the drivers scenes like this are inevitable.

 

Though it is not all gloomy when the blood stops flowing you get the opportunity to do and see things that would not be possible when going with the flow. We played Janken with a number of the other poor souls who were stuck in the clog. and I personally thoroughly enjoyed the architecture.

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We also discovered some ingenious ingenuity :p

P1020725 The barrier reflectors have little propellers with brushes attached so that whenever a car drives past at pace, it spins the contraption up and it keeps the reflectors clean and visible. Who’da thunk it?

 

The discovery however was indicative of the pace of things sadly. If you factor in the entire trip from Shibukawa to Odaiba (for the Tokyo Anime Fair) it took us nearly 6 hours for barely 130km.

but it was all worth it in the end :D

2010-04-13

Shots #01 The Minakami Line

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I take a crapload of pics and sometimes the don’t fit into 5 hit combos or even longer posts, So I will just put them up sommer because I can :p
I will not post more than 1 a day though… I may just twitpic some as well :D
the point of the exercise is to have you tell me what you think… SO DO JUST THAT!!!!

 

the first one is a picture of a train… yeah No shit.


I am not a densha-otaku so that's all I can really tell you :p

2010-04-12

Tokyo Anime Fair 2010-03-26

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This year Luka and David joined me and we made an outing of the event to shoot an episode of Shin Yamato Damacy.
So what is the Tokyo Anime Fair? Its an Anime Fair in Tokyo. that's it. Animation companies sell their wares to buyers from all over the globe. It Japan’s biggest commercial anime exhibit featuring all the big and many small names in the Animation industry in Japan.
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Like Tokyo Auto Salon this year… it was hit by the recession. It was a record event in so far as visitor numbers are concerned, but unlike 2009, the stands were a bit underwhelming.
Maybe Last year I was hit with the HOLY CRACK WHORE wowness of being in Japan and being at a real live anime event in the land of the rising sun so It seemed more than it really was. but I honestly was not blown away this time.
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I did have fun however… and I do know that there is some interesting stuff, like a new 3d Captain Harlock and a new Trigun movie coming out… of course there was K-On season 2’s promotion aswell. I discovered Peeping Life which looks at least as awesome as The World of Golden Eggs and I found a sweet company that prints T-Shirts. As for new anime… It may have been me but there was no big huzzah about anything unlike last year.
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there were lovely ladies though… there are always lovely ladies at these things. So I guess not all was lost. and yeah It was awesome to be real press for a day. and even more awesome actually interviewing peeps for the next SYD (its been delayed by the same thing that has delayed this blog in the last week)

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2010-04-05

A stitch in time saves nine.

 

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I think Its a cool picture… your thoughts?