On a Clear Day

The view from Kachidoki bridge, with Tokyo Tower (on the left) and buildings of various important companies (everywhere else).

A Huff and a Puff

The Hermès store in Ginza. Three cheers for their steady output of deliciously strange window installations.

Cute from Every Side

Miffy hiragana biscuits.

The cutout hiragana chart on the inside of the box. Thoroughly adorable, but the idea of Miffy using a saw (nokogiri) for の (no) is misguided, to say the least.

Recycling/Decorating

(A restaurant in Tomigaya.)

Though the empty bottles lined up in the side window are a perpetual feature, depending on the day, the wine bottles on the barrel and under the front window of this restaurant are nowhere to be seen. Could that be recycling day?

Got the Memo?

"Illegal dumping"
"Inconveniences the neighbors"

Your Heads of State in Sushi

At the Shimizu Sushi Museum in Shizuoka, various heads of state are rendered in rice and nori (dried seaweed), circling around a volcanic mountain made of sushi and topped by a pool of soy sauce that, if provoked, could flow like lava. Have mercy on us.

A sushi version of President Obama.

I'd like to see this served at a UN dinner.

Shrivelling Before Our Very Eyes

Persimmons hung out to dry in front of an izakaya in Kusanagi, Shizuoka.