When you’re in Tokyo, you sometimes get taken aback by what you see. Here’s an interesting sight I came across in Shimbashi.

Taken with iPhone 3Gs camera.
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Got on the subway this afternoon and stood near the door. As the train passed from the station platform into the tunnel, I noticed a tired-looking guy in a suit just staring out into the darkness. He had dark circles under his eyes and seemed oblivious to his surroundings. Our eyes met briefly. Then he [...]

I’m going to admit, somewhat embarrassedly, that for the better part of a decade of living in Japan, I’ve been clueless about what makes sushi-bar sushi better than kaiten sushi.
That changed for me on Friday night, though.
As I’ve mentioned before, the little town of Umegaoka in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo is well-known for a sushi restaurant called [...]

A lot of ex-pats keep blogs chronicling the daily or weekly events of their lives abroad. And most have the Hey everyone, this is my neighborhood! post.
Last year, I wrote a post about how my neighborhood (was living in Shibuya then) was a pretty good representation of how ugly some Tokyo neighborhoods really are, despite [...]

Last night, I foolishly got suckered into a heated debate with a Japanese friend on the issue of extending voting rights to foreigners with permanent residency. Opponents of a new bill granting foreigners voting rights tend to strongly claim that Zainichi Koreans living in Japan would take advantage of the system by continuing to refuse [...]

Was at the office in Shinjuku most of the day today. Was busy with the usual stuff and kept at my various projects and duties until I decided it was time to take a break and have a little sneaky peaky at da interwebz.
First stop, as usual, BBC World News. And the top stories were?
Ah, [...]

Hit the commute home on the Odayku line an hour and a half ago to find it not only snowing, but it was piling up more and more on the platforms of the stations we passed. By the time I got off at my station and started walking back to my apartment, the town’s streets [...]

I finally went and saw “Avatar” yesterday afternoon. I can’t really give a good reason why I wasn’t interested in seeing it before, but somehow the pre-release hype and the masses of people saying “Dude, ‘Avatar’ rocks!” just put me off.
Should’ve known better, I guess.
First of all, I love James Cameron (Titanic, too) and the [...]

I sat there eating my bowl of noodles while Ken Hirai’s “Pop Star” played in the backround. Then, it hit me…
Déjà vu.
I’ve had this experience before, I thought. But when and where?
Lately, I’ve been having these episodes more and more. Some I can put my finger on, others I can’t. I guess I’ve been in [...]

I’ve been working in both Yokohama and Shinjuku all month, and yesterday I found myself done with the Yokohama side early so I decided to chill in the Bay Quarter for a while since the weather was pretty decent. And, since one of my new hobbies is trying to take decent shots with my iPhone, [...]

Tokyo Filter.com was down for about twenty four hours starting yesterday afternoon (Tokyo time), and I apologize for any sadness this may have caused you, dear TF readers.
Ok, ok, I’m not that delusional. But, just in case…
Anyway, the big pisser about the suspension of service is that the hosting service provider put a message up [...]