Jon Siegel / ジョン 米岡

I took this photo at Hiroo crossing after a night on the town with Georg’s cousin, Kenneth, who is visiting for school for the next 6 months. We went out for a walk about Ueno and had a big tempura dinner that evening.

Much of my free time has been absorbed lately by the book I’ve been designing of my travels, and my new PS3. My book is coming along very nicely, I’ve just about finished the interior, working on the cover and trying to decide a name for it now. Something clever and smart, or something abstract and thought-provoking, or maybe something simply provoking. Also trying to design a custom font just for the title, even though I haven’t decided what to call it yet. Between these creative sessions I’ve been all over MGS4. I haven’t played a console game since my neighbors Stan & Mayumi moved back to America and took their PS2 with them. Technically I have been without a console gaming machine for about 6 or so years, which is like going without chocolate or pancakes for an equivalent amount of time. That’s how it feels. Now that I have my new PS3, and have it wired to my GIANT LCD TV at home, my free time is pretty much gone. My gorgeous Denon speakers which were previous used to playing jazz and rock are now graced with the soundwaves of machine guns, exploding tanks and “Snake? Snake! Snaaaaaake!!!!”*

*nerdy inside joke

Had a blast in Vietnam and Malaysia with Vitaly. We picked up our laptops and went off for a week and a half on a short holiday. I spent most of my time seeking out the most exotic food the two countries had to offer, putting my “iron stomach” to the test. Really enjoyed nyonya cuisine in Malaysia but was blown away by the fantastic food we had in Vietnam. I think out of the entire trip, Vietnam was the biggest surprise. Clean, friendly,… and the air smelled nice! Maybe it was just our luck and the places we went, but wow, very impressed and wishing we spent more time there. Had some great pho noodle soup and on our way back through, stopped for a great French dinner at Le Mekong.

Back in Tokyo now, happy to be home, but really missing the cheap giant glasses of fresh juice and cheap taxis.

*FYI, this wasn’t so much a vacation as a sort of change of scenery. Akin to writers renting a cottage in the woods to help them concentrate and/or find inspiration. We had our laptops and stayed in hotels with the usual office setup, so it wasn’t play time the whole time. Very much enjoyable nonetheless!

Aside from the broiling heat, summertime brings with it the matsuri, a Japanese festival where communities come together, dress in yukata and sing and dance till late hours while getting sloshed on sake and beer. After over 6 years of seeing them, I’ll never get tired of them. It’s always a good time and lots of fun trying all the interesting food. We hit the Shirokane Takanawa matsuri this past weekend and it was a blast. The only odd thing this time was the inclusion of a strange nature corner with birds tethered to a pole. Of course it was a little sad to see them tied there, but I’m not one to turn up a chance to get a close up shot of an owl and a hawk…

Took Ben and Rachel on a brief tour of Akihabara the other day and the maids were out in full force. On the streets they carried giant signs, cat ears, tails, and they came in small packs to lure the chubby, lonely nerds to their doom. There was even one perched on a balcony with a loudspeaker calling out to the hapless otaku lining the side streets. As an essential part of the Akihabara experience, we tried getting into @home but it was packed, as usual, so we hit a more hidden one called LittlePSX, a maid cafe where the girls play darts with you.

I have some guests visiting from California and what do we wind up doing one bright and early Sunday morning? Maidreamin’ Maid Cafe in Akihabara. A girl, maybe 15 or 16 years old dressed in a miniskirt maid outfit gave us a handout invitation to her maid cafe not far from Akihabara station. The guys wanted to check it out so off we went for a visit. Inside was a counter top and a few bar tables and stools. It was staffed entirely with young girls dressed in maid costumes. We ordered soda floats and sat back to take in the exotic scenery. After a few minutes, our maid returned with our floats and a special request. She wouldn’t allow us to drink the floats until we sang and danced the cue-cue-cute song. Altogether we made heart shapes with our hands and swayed back and forth singing, “cue-cue-cuuuute!” while aiming our hand heart shapes at our floats. After a minute our maid bowed and permitted us to proceed with drinking our floats.

The maids were super polite and super attentive. They even had an English menu! For a group of foreigners, we were actually well received there, although the other customers were keeping an eye on us the same way a cat keeps an eye on a dog. The table charge was about 500 yen and drinks were around 800 - 1,000 yen each.

Giant dog robot by Shibuya station, part of the marketing blitz for the new Yatterman movie.

Just found the Project 1/6 shop down the street from my office in Shibuya. It’s not far from the Donki Hote and Bunkamura. Project 1/6 is a shop filled with the coolest action figures and Kubrick toys. They’ve got figurines of all the classic Japanese anime and manga characters along with American movie character toys like Indiana Jones and Alien. Would love to fill my office with these. Big action figures go for about 4,000 yen - 5,000 yen(not bad!).

Here’s another sample of my foray into the blip blop world(LSDJ+Garageband):

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These monsters look like something straight out of ワンダーJAPAN magazine (English: “Wonder Japan”). ワンダーJAPAN tours Japan and takes photos of wild and bizarre places and food found in old Japanese towns and city areas. We saw these two monsters while driving through Izu and they must be in an issue of that mag. The orange gorilla almost makes sense, but what is that penguin thing? What IS that creepy head?! It’s going to invade our nightmares for years to come.

*Photos taken with Infobar2 phone camera