Pika-Pika,ne! ぴかぴか、ね！

Ahhh the shiny, glittery lights of Tokyo in all her glory. I just took this picture from the top of the Roppongi Mori building in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. (Actually I just stole this pic off the Net from a guy who took this picture from the top of the Roppongi Mori building in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo.)






This is a cool sculpture of a spider outside that building in the park. Creepy!








But I was in Roppongi Hills last week to eat with DJ Mark Saito and Yuko. We ate at an Okinawan restaurant and we indulged in a few tasty morsels. (This pic is of a 獅子 Shi-sa-, an Okinawan good luck charm to ward off demons.)









One of the fishies we ate had its crispy little head still attached and here I am crunching away at it.




Later that night, Mark played a jamming set of Reggae tunes at one of his local bars. He was grossly overshadowed by the other more experienced Reggae aficionados, but he cranked out a ripping set regardless.

In between dinner and jamming, I remained behind and saw a movie. I got to see "Letters from Iwo Jima" with English subtitles. Roppongi Hills carries the only subtitled version in Japan and there is only one show per day. (It still wasn't packed but was comfortably full.)

I see that Letters won the Golden Globe for best picture and it certainly deserves this honour. Clint captured the angst and spirit of the Japanese soldiers gloriously and it's hard to believe that he also directed the saccharine "Flags of Our Fathers".














If the Japanese decide to retain the kanji for their movie, (硫黄島からの手紙) they had better change it for their Chinese neighbours. The kanji for Iwo Jima is "Sulphur Island" and for 手紙 (te-gami) is "Toilet Paper". So the movie title in China would be "Toilet Paper from Sulphur Island". Come to think of it that title stinks on many levels!

You can see a trailer in Japanese here: Iwo Jima