Author Archives: Ruben

About Ruben

A designer & amateur photographer in Tokyo.

Forgotten Places in Tokyo #1

Do you remember these two locations ?

really-japan-photo_-the-blade-runner-alley

The Blade Runner Alley

really-japan-photo_-underneath-the-bridge

Underneath the bridge

Today I was walking around the same area, this time without my camera.. however I had in my bag a small Xacti camcorder! 

So I made this small video showing these two places.. The Blade Runner Alley is a place I like a lot.. nobody’s walking around, and you can hear just the noise of the train passing on the railroad. It’s a hidden place, and entering in this narrow alley is like entering another dimension..

Honestly, it’s a pretty stupid video, but I thought to share it because it shows a side of Tokyo I like, and well, how it is my usual photo walking session after work 😉

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3XhTs3J13g

Drunk Japanese Minister

i-has-booze-i-are-drunkWhen the world economy is going to rack and ruin and a lot of people have been laid off, I’m wondering.. what’s the solution?
Well, the Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa has great advice to give: get drunk!
During the G7 meeting of finance ministers in Rome few days ago, Nakagawa was seen to be slurring his words and exhibiting other odd behavior, which some attributed to alcohol.However, he stated that the reason for his drowsiness and slurred speech was that he had taken too much cold medicine before the meeting.
Some points about this guy:

  • Nakagawa is known as a heavy drinker (although he has announced attempts to quit drinking on several occasions).
  • After winning an election in 2000, he famously painted a black “teardrop” on a daruma doll as he was too drunk to paint the eye in correctly.
  • In April 2004, it was revealed that he had not been paying into the national pension plan for 21 years (yeah, who cares, I’m a minister!)
  • On January 6, 2007, in an interview with a reporter from the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Nakagawa stated “Women have their proper place: they should be womanly…They have their own abilities and these should be fully exercised, for example in flower arranging, sewing, or cooking. It’s not a matter of good or bad, but we need to accept reality that men and women are genetically different

However, Nakagawa san is in good company!
Nakagawa’s party colleagues Yoshiro Mori found the performance – where the minister was representing Japan on the international stage – less than amusing and immediately concluded that Nakagawa’s stupor was alcohol-induced.

But Mori himself has more his own brushes with embarrassment. During his short tenure as prime minister from 2001 to 2003, he suggested that childless women should be barred from receiving social security payments once they retired.

And a former public health minister once referred to women asbirth machines.”

Even current Prime Minister Taro Aso once insulted pensioners when he accused them of constantly visiting their physicians instead of keeping themselves fit and healthy.

Aso’s Government is definitely a mess..

Anyway, he resigned yesterday..

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdyJrZonX_A

Ghost in The Shell

gs026I’m not a big fan of manga & anime, but I absolutely love Ghost in The Shell.

Why do I like it? 
The setting is cyberpunk, similar to that of William Gibson‘s Sprawl trilogy. The atmosphere is stunning, the locations somehow remind me of Hong Kong, and all the electronic gadgets are so cool.. I’d like to live some months is a place like that!

Anyway, check out the introduction

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc_jDEvGC7s

 

And a cool fan made video, where you can see the city and anyway, the graphic design.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea5JSGVT7Qw