2022/07/08 (金) Yurakucho Building

Internal shotengai.  The 1964 Yurakucho Building is fairly inconspicuous from the outside, but once you enter the world of its internal shotengai (first and second floors) and its subterranean restaurant floor, the building feels like an absolute masterpiece - the effort and aspirations of its designers and builders is so evident, and the atmosphere so nice, that the space feels like something that should be preserved for all time.  [LHS-YT]

Tokyo's eternal reconstruction is what makes Tokyo Tokyo, but I really do wish a little more of the past could be preserved.  The futuristic elements of the city are better appreciated when there's something to contrast them with.  (My meal has arrived - a rather large hamburger.)

(Post meal): My hamburger and fries were quite good, and I've been enjoying looking out the window and watching Shinkansen trains passing by, with glimpses of other trains running at lower (also elevated) levels.  This has been a very nice experience, with one slightly irritating element.

The music playing in the restaurant has included several wishy-washy songs that were often played on the radio when I was driving around in California as a high school student.  I considered most of what was on the radio back then to be generally so bad that I left the radio in my car off to avoid the irritation of having my ears harassed with mediocre songs with sledgehammer endless repeat elements that you couldn't ignore - a kind of mix of irritating advertising and bad art.

Interestingly, as I wrote the above paragraph, a couple of not too terribly irritating songs played- still in the mediocre category, but less irritating than the worst-of-the-seventies stuff that had been playing. ..... !!!!! No sooner written than a song repeating the word "sledgehammer" is playing!  I hate sledgehammer songs, but but it is at least a little bit funny how a sledgehammer song is actually using the word "sledgehammer" to sledgehammer people's ears with.  - Lyle Hiroshi Saxon

www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/  youtube.com/lylehsaxon  lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/

Connected Moments

Sitting in a train - people looking at their micro-slab computers, platform view through the open door - a view of a late April warm enough to call forth memories of happy moments in summers past.  The doors close and the familiar-feeling connection with the past... stops?

The text above was handwritten into a notebook on April 27th, 2022... it was a moment full of atmosphere and meaning for me - but too brief (and perhaps too important) to photograph.  Looking for a photo to illustrate the moment, I came upon a photo I really like - that I took on the evening of October 12th, 2018.  In content, quite different, but similar in feeling to the moment I wrote about on April 27th. - Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon

www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/  youtube.com/lylehsaxon  lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/

How have I been?

Someone left a comment on a blog saying that they would be interested in hearing how I am - how I've fared during the past couple of years.  The world's largest city (by population) didn't do a draconian lock-down, so things have been less messed up here than in so many places in the world.

So... I've been okay.  Like people in most places, I've spent more time at home than usual, but it was never illegal to go out, so there was no inconvenience as far as shopping for food, etc.  At this point, I'm pretty tired of having to wear a mask all the time, but now new variants of the virus are rapidly spreading, it doesn't look like we'll be mask-free any time soon....   - Lyle Hiroshi Saxon

www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/  youtube.com/lylehsaxon  lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/

Writing is a Habitual Thing

Writing is a habitual thing.  If you get into the habit of not writing, there's an inertia to that, and when (if) you get into the habit of writing (again?), there's an inertia to that as well.

Equal and opposite reaction?  The easier it becomes (technically) to take pictures, the harder it becomes socially.  The more easily reached audience on the Internet is countered by increased censorship pressure (from nearly all & sundry).

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/ - lookback1997.blogspot.jp/

August 14th, 2018

 Shinjuku (180814) - before the pandemic... before a steady stream of disrupted climate driven extreme weather events in the news, hinting at an existential threat to life on the planet.  Walking down the street, it was just another day, with thoughts about work, etc., and no feeling of impending doom.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/ - lookback1997.blogspot.jp/

VHS Tape - Order & Chaos

 This photo I took of a VHS tape I was decommissioning at the time (in 2018)... when I look at it now, seems to be representative of something profound, semi-profound, or at least something more interesting than normal daily mundanity.  The neat, compact order of the tape wound within its case, and then the larger chaos of the tape unwound and lying in chaos on the floor.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/ - lookback1997.blogspot.jp/