"Shinjuku Southern Terrace, Etc. (Four Video Clips)"

First, it should be noted that "Shinjuku Southern Terrace" is not actually in Shinjuku! It's in Shibuya, but it's right by Shinjuku Station, and so it gets the Shinjuku name. While you're on the plaza, it's easy to forget (if you ever become aware of the fact in the first place) that it's basically a bridge built over the Odakyu Railway lines which are unnoticed below.

Shinjuku Southern Terrace opened in 1998 and I've always enjoyed its sensible lighting (in contrast with the "the more the better" style in too many parts of Tokyo), and its wide pedestrian-only walkway. There's a section with a path that takes you up a small hill between trees, which looks (at night) like in this clip:

"Shinjuku Southern Terrace at Night - September 15th, 2009"


Near to where the above video was taken, there's a popular Starbucks. The following video is a walk past the long and narrow store:

"Walking Past Starbucks on the Southern Terrace" (Shinjuku, 2009)


Now, jumping in a (video) time machine, here's a view of the south exit area of Shinjuku Station in September 1990. The Takashimaya Department Store was in the beginning stages of construction and there is no trace of the Southern Terrace yet:

"Out & About - Shinjuku, Etc. - September 1990"


Finally, we come to the "etc." part of the title - a Peruvian band that I saw in Kokubunji. Over the years, I've seen either this band, or similar bands, in various places in and around Tokyo (Shinjuku and Kashiwa come to mind):

"Band from Peru in Kokubunji - September 14th, 2009"


I need to get some new photo pages up, but it's quicker (and funner) to get a video posted, so I've been doing a lot more of video posting than making new photo pages....

Sore dewa, mata!

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"A Few Toshimaen Rides in Tokyo" (1990)

I edited out a few more rides from my 1990 video recordings of Toshimaen Amusement Park here in Tokyo.

Swing Around:


Bumper Cars ("Auto Scooter[s]")


Eagle:


Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Only so much Time"

The limitations of what one person can do are very much in mind these days. I have several - no... make that mountains of projects in mind for my photos and videos, both material already recorded ("taken" & "shot" are the standard terms), and material that I should/hopefully-will record in the future - hopefully near future. The tendency has always been to record first and foremost, and then do editing and publishing as time is found, but a person's lifetime is not infinite, and I'm beginning to contemplate the futile scenario of a person who has spent their whole life working on the beginning stages of projects, and then runs out of time (the final deadline) with many (or most) projects awaiting more time invested.

If those projects can be handed off to someone to continue, then it's not wasted, but if the projects end up going into the trash at the demise of the individual who spent their life working on them, then... that's depressing, and... wasteful? Tragic?... or... who cares?

For some (many?, most?) projects, it's only a matter of finding help, or getting a paid team together to speed things up, and then things can happen very quickly. And then the issue of financing the projects becomes paramount. I've always wanted to do everything myself, but now time is forcing me to realize that there will have to be help, or the projects will not be completed.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Legal Screaming & Flying Through the Air"

Aside from being a bit nervous about riding roller coasters when my age was in single digits, I've always liked riding them; going up high, looking around quickly before flying diagonally through the air, etc. - and since coming to Tokyo - doing a bit of yelling from time to time. Where else can you let loose with a full-force yell/scream? There have been a few times I would have liked to have done so on the train system, but... you can't do that (for obvious reasons), so I haven't. That leaves the amusement park. Exhibit A, the Cyclone Roller Coaster at 1990 Toshimaen:

I think it's still there, but not as many people go to amusement parks as when I took the video, so the atmosphere is probably a bit different now.

Yelling on roller coasters is an old tradition, but for competitive yelling, the "Flying Pirates" ride is (or was?) better, as one group of people faces another and takes turns yelling or cheering at the other. A September 1990 example, also from Toshimaen:

Toshimaen is nice in that there a lot of trees in it, so it's pleasant to just be there on a nice day (come to think of it, the "park" in "amusement park" is very appropriate in this case). I haven't been there for quite a while, but I visited the Seibu-en Amusement Park last year, and was surprised to see very few people there... on a national holiday! They used to be crowded all the time, and really packed on national holidays. That may be why a lot of people gave up on going to them - when you have to wait in line for over an hour for a single ride, it detracts quite a lot from the day, and then, when thinking of going somewhere in the future, those long lines are remembered and a different destination chosen (if any destination is chosen at all - there is more to do at home now).

So, this may be a good time to go to Toshimaen actually. I'm thinking of going myself after seeing these videos of fun I had in 1990....

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"September - August Gone Already..."

September... sigh. Cooler temperatures are always welcome, but I never like the concept of approaching winter, with it's dry, cold winds, leafless trees, flu season, and months of dreaming of warmer weather, hoping the cold will soon be over.

Summers as a child were always so free... three months of no school, and every day I was free to do as I pleased. No wonder as a member of the working world, summer is now over in a flash. Between daily responsibilities, a quick trip to Kamakura & Enoshima one day; later in the summer, a few days in Kyoto; a summer festival in Koganei... and a few other things, but that's about it.

Ah... one reason I didn't do more, was because I used some of the free time I did have to edit photos and video. The last project of August (and early September) was a video about the Koganei Natsu Matsuri (summer festival) that I finished editing today:

For text about that festival, see my "Natsu Matsuri in Koganai - August 2009" blog post.

Sore dewa, sleep is needed!

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Natsu Matsuri in Koganei - August 2009"

I used to check out a local summer festival (natsu matsuri) every August that was held near my apartment, but for the past few years haven't done more than walk by one summer event or another without attempting to take part in it. But after editing some video I took at the 1991 Hibarigaoka natsu matsuri, I got motivated and spent some time at a similar event held in Koganei near Higashi-Koganei Station on the Chuo Line.

The nicest thing about it for me was that it was held on a field of healthy grass & clover. That might be the expected location for an outdoor festival, but every one (that I can remember off-hand anyway) that I've been to since my first experience at one in 1984, has been held on asphalt! Either on streets or in parking lots. So... the experience of the grass, which was nice to walk on, nice to look at, cooler in August than asphalt, and nice to sit on, was quite nice.

After walking around a little and feeling a bit out of place in my dated packaging and business clothes (among the yukata-clad women, children, and families with small children), I bought a beer, some gyoza, and a few sticks of yakitori (from three different food stalls), and as I began consuming those, I looked down at the inviting green grass, checked that my trousers were a darker color (so I wouldn't have to worry about grass stains), and gratefully sat down.

The combination of being on the friendly living earth (that didn't care about my dated external packaging and out-of-place clothing) and the beer & food got me into a much improved state of mind, and I relaxed and looked around. It then became a moment similar to those experienced during childhood summer vacation trips to the mountains, a stream in a valley, or some other pleasant outdoor place. (I should explain that having this sensation on a field shared with hundreds of other people was only made possible by the contrast of my typical mega-city life of always being in plant-less spaces and walking on asphalt and concrete, etc.) The other component of the moment was feeling that I was a part of the natsu matsuri. Not that I was doing anything in particular, but even just buying food and drink is partaking of the moment/event, and watching things in person is vastly different from seeing them on an electronic screen.

So... I looked up and noted a beautiful afternoon sky, with multi-color clouds... and looked over at the new station (they are rebuilding Higashi-Koganei Station as part of a track expansion construction project), noting the out-bound trains coming in at roof-line on the completed half near the festival (the opposite side of the station still has the in-bound rails on the ground).

The station. Something seemed very optimistic about it. A modern design and with more tracks to speed things up on the over-crowded Chuo Line. Thinking of car culture cities (and there are many of them in Japan too, by the way!), I felt grateful for the constantly evolving Tokyo train system. Mind you, I don't particularly enjoy myself on the trains, but they get me wherever I want to go in the city and I'm happy not to have to own a car.

The music - ranged from traditional to foreign (performed by locals), and the sound quality was okay, if a bit over-amplified at times. I found it was best to be either behind the stage, or at least at the back edges of the sides. Straight ahead was painfully loud for some of the performances.

As it grew dark, red & white lanterns strung up all over the grounds (radiating out from the center stage), glowed first against a very colorful sunset, and then against the night sky, with the moon rising behind the stage....

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Sakura (Hanami) - 2009"

The cherry blossom viewing season in Japan is vastly over-photographed, but I still decided to cover it myself this year, and I've finally put together a collection of photos from this week-and-a-half period when I ran around with my camera photographing things. I'm not especially happy with the results, but I think they show (somewhat anyway) many of the types of scenes you typically see when going about Tokyo during that time of year. I deliberately put in some non-sakura photos just to show some of the backdrop (and thus contrast) with which Tokyo residents view the sakura flowers every spring:
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgc/sakura2009a.html


"Hibarigaoka Natsu Matsuri - August 1991"

Back in the video time machine - to August of 1991 to see the annual shotengai (shopping street) summer festival (natsu-matsuri), complete with taiko drums, kimono-clad (well... yukata actually) dancers, and children having fun at the food stalls, goldfish pool, etc. As one of the last shotengai natsu-matsuri events before the Parco department store opened (it was in the beginning stages of construction when this video was taken, but not opened until October of 1993), and before the full realization of the depth of stock market woes had sunk in, it feels a lot more optimistic and fun than some later ones there I experienced. Basically, from this point forward, business began to fall off on this shopping street, particularly once Hibarigaoka Parco opened. I think they still have this (I haven't been by there at the end of August to see it for myself for about eight years now), but there are fewer stores on that street now and business isn't very good for most of them (I went by and spoke with a couple of the shopkeepers there last winter), so there's less money to spend on events like this. Also keep in mind that the scenes depicted in this video are basically the Japan of one generation ago - the little two-year-old kids at the festival (there with their siblings and parents) are now twenty-year-old adults (twenty is the legal age of becoming an adult in Japan):


"Inbound Chuo Line - August 2009"

Some mundane views out the window of a Chuo Line Tokubetsu-Tsukin-Kaisoku (Special Commuter Rapid Express - the very fast-sounding name actually just means that there are very few stops; the train has to run slow because of the high number of trains on the tracks and the limited number of stations where they can be passed). Of interest in a factual way is a view of a Tozai Line subway diving underground just after Nakano Station, and just beyond that, train maintenance sheds and then some views of Shinjuku's high-rise office buildings.

Oh - and one other thing might be interesting for people interested in Tokyo's train system. The video opens with a train running beside the train the video was taken from at almost the same speed. I imagine that two passenger trains running side-by-side at the same speed isn't all that common outside of Tokyo... or am I wrong? If there are many systems like this in other mega-cities, let me know. I know a fair bit about the Tokyo trains, but not much about other cities' trains, other than in San Francisco, where I used to live:


Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Another August Day... Another Trip to 1991"

I stayed up late last night watching a documentary movie - woke up late today, and then revisited 1991 again via a July 27th, 1991 video of taking the first train from Nakano Station, and then taking a few more trains and ending up in Toride (on the Joban Line). Other than that, I just did some things around the apartment, and now here I sit writing this, shaking my head at the time - 9:12 p.m. Where did all those hours go? It's hard to say, but as for the video, here is an edited version of it ("Tokyo Sunrise (Nakano to Toride) - July 27th, 1991"):

And here is the same text I posted to YouTube to explain it:

Starting off before sunrise, I arrive at Nakano Station with the dawn, and take the first Tokyo-bound Chuo Line train. Getting off here and there, I eventually arrive in Toride. Several views of the orange morning skies from the train windows, some with the window open. One view of a couple of late nighters asleep on a morning train, which they probably waited for after missing the last train the night before.

Thinking I'm posting too many 1991 (and 1990) videos, I posted a 2009 video (from May) of the ticket gates at Kawasaki. I was there waiting for a friend and the sight of so many people pouring through the gates seemed interesting, so I recorded a bit, edited that, and titled it: "Kawasaki Station Ticket Gates - May 2009":

The text I posted to explain it is:

Kawasaki Station is - among countless other stations in the greater Tokyo area (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, & Chiba) - quite busy during rush hour. This was taken at around 6:40 p.m. on a weekday evening in May of 2009. It gets to a point where you start to feel dizzy trying to take in the ceaseless flow. Water flowing by is a smooth blur, but people flowing by provide enough things to focus on, that the constant mixed motion becomes disorienting....

And that's about it. Those 1991 videos.... Sigh.... The thing is, I spent so much time and effort recording those pictures & sounds at the time, as I look at them again, I'm catching a bit of the old video passion that drove me in the early nineties, and feel like doing something with the material. Thus the YouTube postings. I suppose they bore most people to tears, but if they're interesting to at least a few people, I guess that makes the effort worth it. Also I'm personally very interested in documentary material, so I think they have value for anyone wishing to understand how Tokyo was at the time I recorded them.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Multi-Clouds, Nishi-Ogikubo, & Inbound Night Trains"

July 29th was one of those days where I had what felt like profound thoughts at the time, but by the time I sat down in front of a computer to pound them into electrons, things had gone ordinary again. In any case, the dual-layer clouds, with a nearly stationary layer up high and a swiftly moving lower layer, all overlooked by a half-moon visible now and then in blue gaps in the clouds, were quite interesting to watch in the evening, as I relate here (with a few photos that don't do the scene justice):
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/PhotoGlryMain/pgc/MultiClouds01b.html

After watching the clouds a little in Ebisu, I went over to Nishi-Ogikubo and took some photos there of a retro-drinking area.


"Inbound Tokyo Night Train - July 1991"

In this video, I take a Seibu-Shinjuku Line train from Tanashi Station to a station near Nakano-ku (not Nakano Station) and then take a bus towards Nakano Station, stopping midway to visit a friend for a quick hello before heading out for a day of video recording (the video ends on the night streets of an area of Nakano-ku after getting off the bus). If you have noticed how crowded the trains in Tokyo can be, this video shows how empty they can be if you're traveling in the opposite direction from the main flow! Going into central Tokyo late at night, the train is almost completely empty. The trains zooming by in the other direction, by contrast, are mostly full.

Regarding the bus ride: After my comment about my last night bus video that the voice seems to be the same for the different bus companies, I think I may have been wrong about that. Listening carefully to the recording in this video from a different bus company, the voice is of the same style, but I think is a different person.

Incidentally, one viewer of this video wrote:

"This video is especially surreal. Maybe it's the empty nighttime that does it. But I think, you'd been drinking..."

I responded to this with two messages, first this one:

"Tokyo is weird that way. One hour you're a sardine and you wonder how it is you came to be living in such a high density city, and the next you're in an empty train car. It really can be weird. Drinking? Why? No - I think I may have had a beer *after* this at my friend's house, which happens just after the end of the video though. - LHS"

- and later with:

"Okay - I'll go ahead and take the "drinking" comment as an insult then. It's interesting how you pair insults with compliments and then the insults almost don't seem like insults. I might even try that the next time I want to insult someone. - LHS"

[If I sound overly touchy in my reply, please keep in mind that I've had several similar comments from this same person, who often pairs insulting comments with compliments - so this isn't the first time.]

I suppose the viewer might watch the views out the train window, where the camera operator (cough-cough) is obviously hanging out the window, and come to the conclusion that someone could only be hanging out the window if they are under the influence of alcohol. But anyone who knows a dedicated photographer won't be surprised. Photographers will go to great lengths in the quest for interesting images! Some of these attempts turn out, and some don't, but if you really want to take interesting images, you have to try....

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Tokyo Night Bus Ride - July 1991"

August 1st, 2009 - Just when I'm feeling used to summer being here and happy that it's not winter - thinking that last winter is long gone and next winter is far in the future, the calendar clangs into August and I look ahead and see September (shudder) on the other side. Best not to look ahead too much at times like this!

My time machine travels to July 1991 continue (via video & sound recordings I made at the time). In: "Ikebukuro to Hibarigaoka - July1991", I sat right behind the driver (engineer?) of a Seibu-Ikebukuro Line train outbound from Ikebukuro, and recorded him accelerating away from... Shakujikoen Station with independent power and braking controls (they are often integrated into one control lever these days). The clip ends when I get off the train in Hibarigaoka:

Later that same day, I went back out and took a late evening bus. The "Tokyo Night Bus - Hibarigaoka to Tanashi - July 1991" video clip starts near the bus (terminal) stop in front of Hibarigaoka Station. The bus had (as most buses did at the time) a manual shift transmission, with the type of (recorded) announcement that all the buses I used back then played (is it the same woman who made all those recordings?)

The clip shows scenes and sounds from the time, beginning with the walk to Hibarigaoka Station, and then finishing with the walk to Tanashi Station (on the Seibu-Shinjuku Line) when I get off the bus on the other end of the ride:

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Long Summer Dresses"

I've been interacting with the closest thing I have to a time machine - my old video recordings - and it's a strange feeling looking at the scenes I recorded while walking around in Tokyo back then. I've spent my life watching recorded images from (nearly?) all years in which moving pictures were recordable, but it's always been someone else's viewpoint. There's something almost eerie about seeing the very same scenes I saw in real time 18 years ago, from the very same vantage point and recorded by myself. So many things that I'd forgotten about come back into active memory while watching the scenes again.

I've mentioned before (several times?) the realization that most, not some, but *most* of what we experience day by day goes missing in the dusty archives of our minds, but with a few recent video clips that I edited and posted to YouTube, women's clothing fashions stand out. I didn't notice it quite so much with 1991 winter clothing, but the summer clothing of 1991 Tokyo women looks quite different from what women are wearing in summer 2009. The most striking thing is probably the large number of women wearing long skirts. That and the different hair styles of the time make it look like such a different era....

I'm looking at what were young and modern women in 1991, thinking how they are now middle-aged women, and thinking how current modern women in 2009 will be middle aged women in their time, and I'm beginning to think that the whole concept of "modern" is a mistake. What is called "modern" is supposed to be what is coming, but more often it's just what is now that wasn't yesterday, but it won't make it to tomorrow.

Yawn... I'm putting myself to sleep writing this, so it must be even worse for people reading it! Sorry.....

Oh - here are a couple of videos that I haven't introduced in the blog yet:

"Gotanda to Nishimagome to Gotanda" - July 1991


Trip to Nishimagome from Gotanda, and then back to Gotanda.

On the way to Nishimagome: Nearly empty train (going away from central Tokyo). Since the subway is not air-conditioned, most of the windows are open. The sounds are completely different from newer air conditioned trains.

At the top of the escalator, there are creaky old escalator noises.

Near Nishimagome Station, a pair ride by on a bicycle, with a man standing on hub extenders on the back. I don't think this was ever exactly legal, but you used to see it from time to time. I haven't seen this at all lately. Maybe the police put a stop to it.


And:

"Gotanda to Shinjuku (& Ikebukuro)" - July 1991


Taking the Yamanote Line from Gotanda to Shinjuku, shopping in Shinjuku, and then taking the Saikyo Line from Shinjuku to Ikebukuro.

Of note - many women in long summer dresses that look really old fashioned by today's standards. A good look at the platform at Ebisu Station - just an open-air platform when this video was taken in July 1991 (now radically different). When coming into Shibuya Station, the view over to the Toyoko Line is unobstructed - this was before the Saikyo Line was extended to Ebisu.

July 25th, 1991... and posted to YouTube on July 25th, 2009. Eighteen years later....

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Chaos to Order to Chaos to...?"

When I arrived in Japan in the summer of 1984, the orderly lining up for trains in neat rows of three seemed right enough that I never even thought about it. On the other hand, I wondered why there were separate lines for each ATM machine at the bank, each order window at fast-food restaurants, and a near free-for-all for public phones (although there were sort of separate lines for each phone in some cases). On escalators, people rapidly stood on both sides of each step, making any walking progress impossible.

Then many things got better. Single lines were set up at banks and fast-food restaurants, and people began standing on the left on escalators, allowing passing on the right (same as the roads in Japan, although I've heard the left-right orientation (on escalators) is opposite in Osaka, possible due to the 1970 Expo there...).

And now... the one thing that was most orderly back in 1984 - lining up for trains - is beginning to fall apart. A few years ago, I began seeing people lining up in twos instead of threes, and while I could appreciate the concept of two lines evenly splitting when the train arrives, it's a bad idea when it's crowded (not at all a rare occurrence in Tokyo!), as people quickly end up lining up all the way across the platform, making it difficult (or nearly impossible, or impossible) to walk along the platform, and forcing people to mill about between the lines once there is no more room to line up. At Shinjuku Station, the platform workers used to work at getting people to line up in threes, and I heard some announcements asking people to line up threes, but now it's gotten to the point where it seems like most people are lining up in twos as though it were their religion - "Thou shalt line up in twos and disrupt the platform!".

Just as I was getting (grudgingly) getting used to everyone lining up only in twos, I began seeing (on one branch line), some people forming a single line! Now, if you're getting on an airplane or a reserved seat train, this is what you should do, but the logistics of transporting vast numbers of people in Tokyo screamingly does not allow for single lines for the cattle cars! When I saw some people doing that, I began to wonder "What are they doing? Daring people to walk around them? Something has to give here..."

And... that something appears to be the new popular rage in Tokyo - line breaking! Now, however people are lining up (in twos or threes), I'm seeing people blasting past everyone and just going straight for the door. In some situations, this is almost understandable. For example, at Shinjuku Station in the morning, each and every 11-car train (arriving & departing every two or three minutes) is full. Some are smash-'em-in sardine can style full, and a lot of people don't even try to get on, but form a line waiting for the next train. So, if you get to the platform after the lined up people who were boarding get on, there is often a ten to fifteen second window of opportunity to get on the train. In this case, you cruise past the people lined up (who are not even attempting to get on the train), and jump (or push) aboard.

So you've got this situation of people lining up for trains incorrectly (for conditions) in the first place, combined with situations where it's actually okay to walk past the line, and there are beginning to be a number of people who seem to think that they have a right to just blast in front of everyone all the time, whenever they see a door open. Having this happen repeatedly, people are getting more blood-thirsty about getting on and off the trains.

Bringing everything full-circle, I was talking with a from-birth local who told me that when they were a child (about 45 years ago), people didn't line up for trains and it was just a free-for-all when boarding. Hearing that, and looking at the current state of things, I would say Japan is just a few steps away from coming full circle with the trains, and getting back to free-for-all boarding. Not a happy development, but at least bank and restaurant lines are still orderly....

As for when things were still orderly, have a look at this July 1991 video, "Hibarigaoka to Gotanda - July 1991" (which doesn't show things in the rush, but still):

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Disposable Contract Workers must not have Opinions"

Hierarchy for hierarchy's sake... not again!

I went drinking with a few middle-management types last night and things were going okay until one of them complained that the avocados in some dish or other that we ordered were "rotten". Since they were not in fact rotten, but only slightly on the soft side (I used to buy one every day in California, I actually have pretty extensive experience and knowledge about this), I stated this fact and ran into a "You - as a lowly & disposable contract worker - are not allowed to contradict his lordship I - lofty middle-level manager!" wall.

Some people... don't know how to act like people. I think in the future if I'm in a position to go drinking with a company person I've not been drinking with before, I should first ask "Are you, by chance, in a middle-management role?". If an affirmative answer to that query bounces back, then I had better think "Red Alert! - Red Alert!! - Middle-level management demon dead ahead! Evasive emergency action, commence... now!!!" and say "Let me check my schedule... oh... rotten luck. I'm meeting some friends from out of town then. Maybe some other time!" and then get far-far-far away from the danger before the possibility of triggering some middle-management evil impulse arises.

There's this thing in Japan where it's supposed to be okay to hash things out over drinks, but that only really applies if you're a "seishain" (regular lifetime employee). Disposable contract workers aren't really considered to be human beings and are only jovially tolerated so long as they are friendly no matter what, have titanium smiles able to withstand the most uncalled for insults, and under no circumstances commit the unpardonable offense of actually having an opinion.

At the moment, I'm thinking artists are 500,000 times more human than middle-management... people.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Into Video Lately..."

"Company Event in Tokyo - 2000"

A company event held in a rented space in 2000 (or was it 2001? I'm not sure, but I think 2000 - I didn't label the tape!). The space was quite good, with good equipment, etc., but not in a very convenient location. Most of us came by taxi.

The only copy I have remaining of this is a VHS tape that I digitized for editing for this post. Bloody VHS... it doesn't last! Parts of the images in some places have turned various shades of light purple at the top of the screen.


"Nishi-Ogikubo (& the Chuo Line)" (June 2009)

Beginning with a view inside the Chuo Line, I then get off at Nishi-Ogikubo Station and walk off into the suburbs between Nishi-Ogikubo and Kichijoji.


"Tokyo Subway (Marunouchi & Tozai) - June 1990"

Tuesday, June 19th, 1990 - Starting off with a quick view of me on a public phone (they were still used in 1990), following by a quick view of the Marunouchi Line (an old Red & White one - now running in Argentina), I then change trains and get on the Tozai Line. Notice that the ticket gates consist of a live person sitting there to take tickets. Also notice that the announcement in the train is made by a live human being and not a recording. Also there are no over-pronounced, over-intonated, culture-less, half-speed, and extraordinarily irritating announcements in English. (The announcement for Kayabacho Station is a recording, but at least it's in the local language.) It wraps up with me on another public phone. There were cell phones then, but they were quite expensive, so most people didn't have them.


"Diagonal Subway Views - June 1990 (Tokyo)"

Starting with a quick view of the (by today's standards) large camera (held by myself) and then a view of the office I used to work at near Tamachi Station, then a look up at the buildings above before going underground into the subway system. First is a a ride on the Hanzomon Line, and then a transfer to the Marunouchi Line (one of the new - currently getting old! - ones, which were just being introduced at the time), and finishing with a street view at night. Notice in subway views from this time period that the windows are often open. They didn't have air condition the subway system as soon as the surface trains due to the heat generated by air conditioning units (on the trains) that would have heated the stations. So they first air conditioned the stations, and then installed air conditioning on the subway trains.


"Ontakesan Evening (Tokyu-Ikegami Line) - June 2009"

The video begins near Senzokuike Station and then I take the Ikegami Line down to Ontakesan Station, where I video the evening shopping scene and visit a nearby shrine.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Shifts Might be Nice..."

I went to the dentist yesterday morning, so I took a half-day off from work. As it turned out, I finished early at the dentist and had some extra time, so I went over to Akihabara (a.k.a. "Akiba") to check out some computer parts, etc.

Well, at least that was the plan... but arriving in Akihabara just after 10:00 a.m., I was greeted with a sea of closed shops! "Oh yeah... since the shops tend to be open until 7:00 p.m. and companies religiously avoid having shifts, they open late to avoid getting into an overtime pay situation!" thought I.

And so goes my rant, but certainly - given the choice between retail shops being from 10:00 to 6:00 or from 11:00 to 7:00, I'd prefer the 11:00 to 7:00. It only becomes irritating when I have some time in the morning and would actually like to do something before lunch! Added to the fact that Tokyo is in the wrong time zone and there's no DST in the summer to push the clock back, you could almost say that shops don't open until the afternoon.

Oh well - who needs retail before lunch anyway, hey?

I mentioned this situation at work, and a fellow biped in the office said "So what makes you an expert on this?". Being a bit flustered at the sudden attack, I didn't have a good comeback, but I wish I'd said "It's called observation and thinking. You should try it some time."

Anyway....

Sleep... need sleep... sleep... .......

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Shinjuku to Koenji on the Chuo Line + SqClRe" - June 2009

The lazy way to show what's between two points on a rail line, is to aim a motion picture camera out the window. There are three basic ways of doing this: 1) Angle the camera forward, 2) Look straight out perpendicular to the direction of travel, or 3) Angle the camera rearward. When objects are far away, #2 can be nice, but in Tokyo, generally there are buildings quite close to the railway, so looking straight out produces a very ugly effect of blurred jerky boxes, as the camera's 30-images per second isn't nearly fast enough to deal with the speed of objects passing by the lens. That leaves either looking forward or looking rearward (unless you're at the extreme ends of the train, where you can look directly forward or directly rearward). For this video I looked rearward at an angle, since that direction contained the receding skyline of Shinjuku:

This was taken in the early evening on a weekday, just before the evening crush rush got into high gear. The Chuo Line is the (or "one-of-the", but I think "the") most crowded train lines in Japan ("crowded" meaning "high-density of people in each train car"). One reason for this is that other major JR lines heading out of central Tokyo (Tokaido Line, Joban Line, Sobu Line [to Chiba]) have fifteen-car trains, but the Chuo Line is limited to just ten due to the length of its unexpandable platforms within central Tokyo. They try to make up for it by running a lot of trains, but still, the Chuo Line is basically crowded any time of the day or night. There is also the fact that the Chuo Line is a long line, with many stations in highly-populated areas, so it's not only crowded in one direction in the morning (and in the opposite direction in the evening), but rather in both directions - all the time.

"Competition for Misery" might be a good title to describe how Tokyo residents endlessly claim that their own train line is "definitely the most crowded line in Tokyo". I've heard this claim for just about every line here! The Odakyu Line, the Tozai Line, The Seibu-Ikebukuro Line (of "Actually Full Train" fame), the Chuo Line, etc. etc. The thing to keep in mind here is that most people are focusing on the morning rush, and once you're at the point where people have to force their way aboard, the density per train car is only limited by the particular size of the passengers at the time (and place), plus their strength and will to get on. (More diminutive people can fit into a given space, but larger people also push harder, so maximum density would likely be achieved with diminutive people getting on first, and then large, strong people providing compacting power at the doors just before they close.) The Chuo Line is distinctive for having a very high (the highest I think) density *on average* for *the entire day*. A lot of lines will be quite intense in the morning crush-rush, but then have several empty seats just a few hours later.

June, 2009... companies are beginning to cancel flex time!!! This can only mean that the morning trains will be more highly packed. Maybe the scene in "Actually Full Train in 1991 - Why Flex-Time is a Good Idea" isn't just a scene from the past after all! (Shudder!!!)

"Excesses During the Bubble Years"

Just when I was getting used to watching my 1991 videos and thinking: "The 'bubble years'! Not the 'excess-of-everything' that people think!", I stumbled upon myself visiting a new public restroom near Sumida River in July 1991. It was in a building worthy of something nice (not sure what), had a fountain(!) just inside the main entrance, music playing on a PA system, and was squeaky-clean:

I suppose this is probably an example of "bubble-era excess".

4:45 a.m. Ouch. I need to get some sleep!

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Sumida River Boats & Prelude to 1991 Full Train"

Another video trip back to 1991 - to July 6th, when I wandered around in an area along the Sumida River that had been recently largely rebuilt with new office buildings. Pleasure boats motor past on the river and there are a couple of old steel bridges from different eras that find their way through the lens. Since it was Saturday, the area was nearly deserted. The new buildings are in the 10-15 story range, a size that took less time, planning, and money to put up than the 50-story high-rises that were planned then (in the bubble years), but not completed for another decade.

This was at the tail end of the bubble economy, and when looking back to that era now, people often fail to realize that while the many 50-story category high-rise buildings now scattered about Tokyo were *planned* in the bubble years, at the time, they were busier knocking down old buildings to make way to the huge new ones. There is always holdover from one era to another, and there was holdover from the wooden era in 1991, as there is holdover from the bubble era in 2009, and yet there is this image of everything being new in the bubble years, which was not the case.

Just Another Day in February 1991

The train video - again! I'm almost embarrassed to post yet another variation of this, but it has been stolen and copied all over the Internet with lying titles, and so I wanted to show the normalcy of people going through the ticket barrier, walking down the stairs to the platform, walking along the platform, waiting for the train, etc. Certainly the moment of loading is pretty intense, but many people misunderstand the overall situation and the context of the whole thing, or the fact that it was taken in 1991 - it's not nearly as crowded in 2009 (increased number of trains, increased connections with the subway system, etc.). Also the population of Tokyo should never be forgotten - 30,000,000 people if you include the suburbs of Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba. Anyway, here is the video, a longer version of the many-million-seen copied-everywhere train video currently all over the Internet:

Some facts about the video. Taken in February 1991 at around 7:50 a.m., at Hibarigaoka Station on the Seibu-Ikebukuro Line. The train on the right is a "junkyu" ("limited express" in US English), and the train on the left is a "kyuko" ("express" in any kind of English that I'm aware of). Notice how I walk (with the video camera rolling) to the very front of the platform? The front of the Seibu-Ikebukuro Line trains is closest to connections with other train lines, so that's where people need to be if they're going to make tight connections, and they can't afford to waste any time. The next station (that the express stops at) is Shakuji-koen, and then the train goes all the way to the terminus at Ikebukuro, where everyone gets off.

And... that's basically it.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Togoshi-Ginza & the Grocery Store Under Hachiko"

The name Togoshi-Ginza can be confusing, as it is not in Ginza, or even near Ginza, but rather one of the old-style shopping streets that used to be all over Tokyo and its surrounding suburbs. They are in decline now, with more people shopping at large discount stores, but some of these old style shopping streets are still doing relatively well, with locals happy for the convenience of being able to shop a few minutes (on foot) from home. As "Ginza" was synonymous with "shopping" (now "fashion" and "art" would be better key words), some shopping streets used the name - thus "Warabi-Ginza", "Togoshi-Ginza", etc. This video was taken around 5:00 p.m., still a little early - it gets more crowded around 6:00 p.m.


Under Hachiko?

Department stores in Tokyo typically have a grocery store and/or food section on the B1 level underground (usually there is both a section selling prepared food and another section more like a regular grocery store). Shibuya is "Tokyu Town" (spelled with a "u" on the end, not "Tokyo"), with Tokyu Department stores (plural), Tokyu Inn (hotel), Tokyu trains, Tokyu buses, Tokyu Taxis, etc. So there's no surprise that the Department stores built over and around Shibuya Station are Tokyu department stores, and it's no surprise that they have food sections in the basement. What surprised me (for what reason, I'm not sure), is that part of the food section is beneath (part of ) the Hachiko Plaza. I guess I've visualized building basements as staying within the walls of the building above, but when you've got underground shopping malls and underground trains, it's easy enough to connect things underground.

This video starts with a view of an old Tokyu train car that is now sitting in Hachiko Plaza not far from the famous Hachiko dog statue. There is a brief view of a Yamanote Line train passing, some people waiting, leaning against one of the round sort-of-seats that are part of the large planters for the trees in the plaza, and then the trip through the crowd to the department store, down an escalator, and into the food section. The last scene is back out on the street on the other side of the overhead(!) Ginza subway tracks. (The Ginza Line runs below ground level everywhere but in Shibuya.)

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Roaring Office Voices & Whispering Trains..."

An amazing thing I've noticed at some offices I've worked at in Japan (is this similar elsewhere, or peculiar to this country?) is how there seems to be a general awareness and appreciation of a graphic artist's need for a relatively quiet workspace in which to properly concentrate on their work, but this professional courtesy does not extend to writing and translating! And so you will find a special floor with quiet music and no talking where a group of graphic artists go about their work - some with earphones in to listen to something other than the quiet background music - and on another floor of the same building, the same company will seat a translator and/or writer next to sales and service people, who are constantly talking on the phone or to each other (or to themselves - I wish I were making this up) in very loud voices. If said writer/translator attempts to block out the extraordinarily irritating surrounding noises by plugging in earphones with noise-blocking music or wildlife sounds, more often than not they will receive a reprimand from their supervisor and possible threat of being thrown out on the street for being unprofessional! (Keep in mind that most offices here have no partitions, so everyone can see everyone else.)

Why this respect for hand-drawn visual images, and yet complete lack of respect for quality text? I suppose that since the sales and service people couldn't draw a passable picture to save their lives, but can write (very badly, generally, but certainly they are not stone-dead illiterate), they equate their own mindless, sloppy writing with the work the professional writers/translators are doing? Or is it just a failure of management to find humane seating for people who actually need to concentrate on their work, as opposed to people who need to play office games and back-stabbing office jungle warfare?

And so a poor soul can be suffering appalling audio conditions at work while writing - struggling through secretaries who talk needlessly to themselves, service/sales people who talk so loudly on the phone that you wonder if they think their voice needs to carry over to the next city (or country) on the strength of loudness alone, without the electronic aid of the newfangled devices known as microphones and speakers in the communication device they have in their hands - and when said writer goes out and waits for a train with a stress level that is likely to kill their overstressed heart, the train comes in not with a roar, but a whisper. How loud that vapid secretary's muttering! How quiet the roaring/rushing train!

Of course none of this has anything to do with my own work environment, which is wonderful-wonderful-wonderful, but here's a video of a whispering, not roaring train:

Details: This video is of a Shinjuku/Ikebukuro-bound Yamanote Line train coming into Shibuya Station. It looks like a subway, but the entire Yamanote Line is an elevated system, and this effect is created at stations where they have built large buildings over the station, in this case a Tokyu Department Store. So you can get off of this train in the middle, walk straight out the ticket gates (there are stairs going up or down to other exits as well), and then walk over and get in a department store elevator at the second floor. (This only works for the Shinjuku/Ikebukuro-bound trains however - the Shinagawa/Tokyo-bound trains require going up or down to get around the intervening rails.)

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon

"Often Not Subtle"

What prompts this title? 1) Think "Subtle Japan" - if you've read a few books on Japan, you've probably run into that concept somewhere. 2) Think Canadian/Hokkaido winter temperatures in the summer - via overusing air-conditioners in the late 1980's. 3) Think Sub-Saharan heat in the winter - via overuse of heating and windows that are never opened in the years 2008 & 2009.

Now, before I get into high gear with my rant against wild misuse (& non-use) of thermostats in this city, allow me to say that there are indeed subtle aspects to the culture (as there are anywhere, really). Okay - here goes:

There is almost always some context for the way people behave/misbehave, and the background to common overuse of air-conditioning in the late eighties here was that a lot of people had grown up with no air-conditioning, and had unpleasant memories of hot sticky days in August wishing it were cooler. Along came air-conditioning, and suddenly those August dreams of winter Hokkaido breezes were realizable by dialing the temperature way (or all) the way down.

Into this environment I flew in 1984, and I listened in sympathy to women office workers saying how they suffered in the cold - how it was unfair that the men stayed in suits and cooled the air to the point where it was cool with a suit jacket still on.

Jump forward to 2008 & 2009 and - based on the offices I've been spending some time in - things have come full circle. A generation has grown up disliking overuse of air-conditioning; and recently, instead of the offices always being cool, now they tend to always be hot. For the past couple of years, I have found myself nodding in sympathy with people in thin clothing (of both genders, but most often male) fanning themselves in 29C/85F heat, bemoaning the fact that a handful of sickly people (of both genders, but most often female) in the office have hijacked the thermostats and there is nothing to do but suffer the daily purgatory of working in a constant 29C/85F heat - all year round, in winter and summer.

In winter, when questioned why company policy about not wasting energy is being violated to overheat the office, the excuse is that "Some people are cold", meaning that if it drops down to about 27C, some sickly people begin to complain of imminent frostbite. Come summer, suddenly the energy savings is very important - never mind that a majority of the people in the office are baking in the 29C/85F heat.

The thing that's quite irritating about how this issue is discussed here, is that people only say what their perceptions are, and the science of monitoring the actual temperature of the room to ascertain what temperatures are producing what reactions in what percentage of people, is almost completely ignored. Wanting to know exactly what's happening myself, I've been using thermometers (more than one, so I know the device isn't broken) to monitor the temperatures of some of the purgatories I visit, and that 29C/85F temperature is no joke - it's actually that hot.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this situation, except to shake my head in wonder and think "There's nothing subtle about this! These are fairly radical group reactions to something that should be dealt with incrementally!".

Rant... um... over for now.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon