Sandwiches?

Or sushi? You decide.

Social Politics

"Dressing me up in a kimono not only cheapens Japanese culture but enforces a negative stereotype of parents, by implying they live vicariously through their children whilst implicitly supporting the commoditisation of childhood."

Hocus Pocus

"Blow up your trend it is all the vogue human relations."

It's quite hard to surreptitiously take a picture of someone.

Azabu-Juban Shopping Street Festival

Well, we are back in Japan so I'll start blogging again for the two of you that read this. Thanks, guys.

As it's Summer here, there are a plethora of festivals to attend, if you don't mind being absolutely mauled and trampled in a surging throng of sweaty Japanese people. We don't mind so we strolled down to the Azabu-Juban Shopping Street Festival which is better than its name suggests. It is mainly concerned with shopping and it's held in a street, but everything else about it is strange enough to us to make it interesting.

As it was already banana past tomato, we had to hurry to get to the festival on time. The main part of the festival involves drinking beer and eating weird food , like these fish on sticks.

Most things came on sticks, and were, thankfully, less identifiable than the fish or we would have starved. The main mode of selling was having some burly blokes shout at you some witty repartee about how a fish with a stick in it was more delicious than the unidentifiable meat with a stick in it at the next stall. Also popular were the scantily clad girls selling beer to people who didn't need more beer.

Here are some balloons; thankfully none of these balloon dogs are wearing balloon sweaters in the sweltering heat. In Japan, dogs ride around in strollers because they get tired quickly, unlike all other dogs in the universe.

It got harder to walk the farther we walked, so we cut down a side street and sat down to watch the people walk by. Of course, with Alice the people stopped to pinch her cheeks and exclaim rather than walk past us as they were supposed to.

Good cop, ...

Baby related.

Human Tetris

Twister

A terrible punishment for saying a tongue twister wrongly.

Bearings

Some more from Pythagoras Switch, a kids show in Japan.




I used to love the similar ball bearing tracks they had on Sesame Street, with the counting and stuff. You know what I mean.

I think these are the results of competitions held for high school students. There's a book you can buy too, with some instructions and ideas.

Sydney

Well, we're in Sydney at the moment, packing up the house and getting ready to invade Japan for another six months. Sorry for the drop off in posts, but this is a Japan blog, not a sitting in my backyard blog.

To make it up to you I may post some off topic or Japan related, but our family unrelated materials. Like this.



Regular scheduling will resume after the 21st of August.