Sourav: Blog

... I contemplate the cityscape.

Tokyu Hands is a neat store -- the one in Shibuya has astronomical telescopes, art supplies and motorcycle accessories/gear available on the same floor.

So it snowed 3-4" here yesterday. It was right around freezing, so the snowflakes were big and moist -- perfect for making snowmen.

Two interesting things about Japanese snowmen:

* They have two segments, not three as in the US.

* They are called yuki daruma. Yuki here is snow, and daruma is literally Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen. (More here.)

Finally, I was awakened Sunday morning (after a late night in Shibuya; a sweet pic) by squealing kids running out into the snow -- I'm glad that is universal!

Via nyuanshin, Will Wilkinson writes:

I sometimes think that liberal individualism is something like the intellectual and moral equivalent of the best modernist design — spare, elegant, functional — but hard to grasp or truly appreciate without a cultivated sense of style, without a little discerning maturity. National Greatness Conservatism is like a grotesque wood-paneled den stuffed with animal heads, mounted swords, garish carpets, and a giant roaring fire. Only the most vulgar tuck in next to that fire, light a fat cigar, and think they’ve really got it all figured out. But I’m afraid that’s pretty much the kind of thing you get at the Committee for Social Thought. If you declaim the importance of virtue loudly enough, you don’t have to actually think.

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Holy crap. More at Wikipedia.

Maybe we're just being judgmental gaijin stuck in our American cultural frame, but this is hella creepy. Everyone here is into them -- we think they're putting us on! I guess otaku is the new cool.

* Let me know if you'd rather not read these Japan-related posts -- I'll create a group and exclude you (well, for the friends-only posts).

* My apartment building is served by fiber optic, fed through a 100 Mbit switch to the units; we got hooked up on Saturday. 51 Mbps download, 7 Mbps upload. Ten times as fast as those punks at Comcast, and the technician from NTT -- who owns the wires, doesn't even provide the service -- arrived on time.

* I went to see sumo yesterday (paid for by the university, because the tickets were 8200 yen), and it was everything I hoped for: enormously fat men in stare-downs, celebrating with the crowd perceived victories in said stare-downs, then losing because they were over-confident in the stare-downs. The matches with the yokozuna at the end were most entertaining, both for their excellent judo-like skills, and because they put the smack down on their inferior opponents.
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On the same night we visited Shinjuku we stopped at Akihabara to grab dinner and soak in the scene. After being creeped out by the girls in maid outfits and the hentai shops, we hit the liquor store on the way to the train station and picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels. "2000 yen, not bad!" I thought to myself; perhaps, even too good to be true ...
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The gang here visited Shinjuku on Saturday during the day. It was raining and daytime, so we probably didn't witness all the craziness one would expect.

However, we did have an opportunity to visit the Sompo Japan Museum of Art. Its largest collections are Japanese "Romantic realism" (most with a surrealistic edge) and some Grandma Moses.

But the jewels are displayed in the back of the museum, in a separate room like those that display short films in American museums. Behind the glass were Cezanne's Pommes et Serviette, Gaugin's L'Allee des Alyscamps, Arles and Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

I had seen them before in flat graphics, in print or on the computer. But to see them in person is to see them with new eyes. The textures, the authenticity of color, made all the difference. In the hue and form of every leaf I could feel Gaugin's open heart; in the grain and shadow of the table, Cezanne's still eyes; and in the uncompromising massifs of paint in the yellow petals, I exalted in Van Gogh's soul on fire.