GabrielMathews.com | Biological Log

Wow…it’ s been a while. The latter part of March and all of April have been an absolute cluster of craziness at home and at work. With that enough apologizing, and more Japanyness.

So where was I? Ah, yes. Wednesday and Thursday. Let’s start with the play-list:

March 10:

• Tresspassers William_Different Stars
• Moby_Everything is Wrong
• James Brown_The Godfather
• Saul Williams_Amethyst Rockstar
• Yoav_Charmed & Strange
• Sage Francis_A Healthy Distrust
• Unkle_Never, Never Land
• Radiohead_Talk Show Host
• Serart_Self Titled

March 11 (The longest day of my life, literally):

• Andres Segovia_The Art of Segovia 1&2
• Radiohead_In Rainbows
• Mirror’s Edge_Original Score
• Me & You & Everyone We Know_Original Soundtrack
• DJ Shadow_The Outsider
• Sage Francis_The Human Death Dance
• Solar Fields_Randomized Tracks
• Sarah McLachlan_Surfacing
• M83_Before the Dawn Heals Us
• Dieselboy_The 6ixth Session
• Jose Gonzalez_Veneer

Alright. With that outta the way. Let’s talk the experience.

So Wednesday I got up in the morning. (a good time to do it). I walked over to wake up at Odaiba park some more. I was hoping to get into the science and tech museum but they opened a little later that I had time for. I wafted back to the conference hall to have lunch with my co-worker. I noticed a wonderful social etiquette behavior take place within the hall. Everyone eating on the benches faced away from each other.

I was one of 2 a-holes that decided to not follow suit. It felt pretty punk rock.

So through lunch I could barely focus on the conversation I was having with Ed, the co-worker. My mind was filled with all of the places I wanted to go and see. The bento tasted a little gamey, but made for good walking fuel. I then bowed out of the conference and walked to the local mall to do a retail audit and begin an adventure of architecture and yumminess.  I can’t say much about the mall  experience (if you are super interested, some of the photos from that can be seen in the architecture folder here.)

After the walk to the mall, I was feeling a little beat. So I came to the hotel room to rest a bit and watch some TV.

Funny thing about television. It encapsulates and compresses culture in such a fantastically truncated way, that you can really see the boiled down stereotypes and cultural symbolism in its purest uncut form. The above was from a kids show explaining the turning of the seasons from winter to spring.

After my break, I did a freaking huge architecture walk from deep Ariake to deep Ginza. It was about a 6 mile walk in total, but because of my pacing, it felt to be around 10 miles. Too many photos to post here, but again the link to the architecture set is here.

One of my favorites though was the eternal chase I had trying to see the Eiffel Tower. It must have been huge. On the skyline it appears to be right across the bridge, but the closer I thought I was getting, the further it appeared. It played as my leader while I scouted other awesome buildings.

Lots of buildings seen. My favorite shot of the evening below:

I was outside of an athletic club. The sun had set and I was beat. Time to head to the hotel, pack and prepare for a long ass day of travel.

In the morning, I woke up and stumbled into the bathroom and spotted a wonderful little refraction of rainbow on the bathroom wall. A nice little morning goodbye from my neat little bathroom before I headed back.

Long story short as far as the ‘commute’ back to Portland, I traveled back to Narita airport and waited a good chunk of time for my flight before flying for -8 hours. I ate lots of noodles, shopped a little, and drew. Milk tea is great.  I took off at 5P and landed at 9A that same day. Such a strange and long day. I came home to a completely f’d circadian rhythm and a short fuse of a timeline to find a new place to live…(but I’ll leave that for a future blog).

To summarize, Japan was an amazing experience. I have a hunch I’ll be back there in the future for business or recreation and have another humbling experience in one of the most polite and ‘smart’ places I’ve ever been. Thanks for reading.

Tuesday morning started out with a stretch, a yawn, a look out my window, and a breath of fresh Portlan…Tokyo?! What?! “Oh, right.” A rush of severe displacement fell into my mind as I turned on the hotel television to check the news. Quickly, loud and fast commercials for yogurt based dietary aids flushed my mind and I realized that I needed some coffee very quickly.

I stumbled down the hallway to the vending machine and bought a coffee. 3 of them in fact as the typical coffee is served in about 6 ounce servings. My American gut craved MORE. ~7 dollars worth later and I was only partially satisfied as I milked the teat of the machine like a sinner at a prayer bench.

I washed up in the awesome shower and got myself into form before heading over to Tokyo Big Sight. I had arrived about an hour and a half early so I decided to sit and people watch. There was an “international lounge”, however I didn’t feeling like talking to anyone in broken “insert whatever native tongue they spoke here” with as little caffeine in my system as I had. It was turning into Fear and Loathing in Ariake real quick. Thankfully you don’t have to go very far before bumping into another vending machine where I downed another 6 ounces off brown-juice.

Finally, guest check-in started and I was able to get my pass and meander the show. I saw many awesome vendors and material samples.

I’d love to show you all the show pictures, but I’m considering them IDL Worldwide property, so unfortunately, I can’t…but here is a little montage of some of the booths with thier awesome construction.

After about 3 hours of the show, I also hit the Retail Tech show, LED Today, Security Show, and a couple others. It was massive. To walk the entire show and hit every vendor would’ve taken about a week. I was pretty hungry so I went to the bento cart and had some chicken and pickled radish. Very tasty. After that, I decided it was time to head back to the hotel and put on my walking shoes.

No, just kidding. I wore my Vibram Five Fingers. So good for walking Odaiba Park.

Why did I walk Odaiba Park you ask? Because I was desperately looking for this-

I must’ve walked 10 miles through the park and surrounding territories with zero success. It was quite maddening. However, there were some good things to see regardless. Lady Liberty was there, an immense amount of crains, beautiful architecture, and a bit of cultural informing. I learned all about the way pedestrians move in Japan is quite different from the US; they pass on the right and as such, make me look like a douche. It took a bit of getting used to veering in the new direction, but after awhile it made total sense (considering they also drive on the opposing side than Americans. Second to this, which I think is an unintended side effect, considering that 71.1%* percent of people are ‘right-eyed’ when you pass on the right, you are more likely to look up and see the person you are passing, thus making for more real organic interactions with the people you encounter on your way. JUST A THEORY…obviously.

As the day went on and my legs started to die, I eventually, around 6p, ventured back to the hotel for a much needed shower and change of clothes. I then snacked on a clif bar before watching a little television, and mentally preparing for walk-a-thon 2010. Wednesday I had planned on an intensive day of walking through retail environments, more park and community studies, and architecture photo-walks. I’m pretty sure I heard my legs weeping…or at least that is what I am calling the noise…hahaha.

Next up: Arigato! Mr. Gaboto

March 9th Play-list:

• Telepopmusik_Breath
• Blade Runner Soundtrack
• Boards of Canada_A Campfire Headphase
• Sting & The Police_Roxanne
• Tycho_Coastal Brake