Yokohamarama gets projected onto gallery wall

Went with D & H to the NTT gallery at Tokyo Opera City to see the installations there. One was a work where you could type in any word and its appearance in a randomly selected group of websites would be projected on the wall above you in a swirling, psychadelic type way. Of course I duly typed in yokohamarama and there we were in all our glory: my bald head twirling across the wall, Ikea photos flashing, as well as blueduck’s blue duck which, as linked to my site, making a cartwheeling appearance.

The other installations were visually pretty good too; some quirky, some noisy, some confusing. For me though, that’s the problem with conceptual art; I just can’t be bothered to get my head round the concepts.

Here is the link should you wish to investigate further.

Some sad news

Pu’s father passed away last Friday.

Clear skies

Started the week with a drop in temperature and the beautiful clear blue skies of Japanese winter and a view of Fuji from the window- may it last forever.

Pretty good mood actually – must be cos we’ve stopped drinking beer (to excess).

Paris Syndrome

As Z suggested, a great band name.

Paris syndrome hits Japanese

Japanese tourists feel so let down by Paris shop assistants that they need treatment for a type of depression known as “Paris Syndrome”.

“There are around 20 cases a year of the syndrome and it has been happening for several years,” Miyupi Kusama, an administrator at the Japanese embassy in Paris, told the Guardian. Already this year it has repatriated at least four visitors suffering from hallucinations.”

Fragile travellers can lose their bearings. When the idea they have of the country meets the reality of what they discover it can provoke a crisis,” Hervé Benhamou, a psychologist, told Le Journal du Dimanche.

Bernard Delage of Jeunes Japon, an association that helps Japanese families settle in France, said: “In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them … People using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill-feeling.”