Tokyo is Like 1986 Again - Let's Live for Today

Today is a wonderful time to begin to live for today. Let's try to give up our guilt feelings and our hate and anger. Let's give up our attachments and surrender our sins. Let's drop our defensiveness and our masks. Let's go back in time to when we were more pure at heart.

Live. Let's really live for today.

GRASS ROOTS - "LIVE FOR TODAY"

Thomas Aquinas put it nicely when he said, "Every time someone sins, they're sinning under the guise of good even though they know it's bad; they're rationalizing because they're seeking something under the pretext of good."

As Anthony De Mello wrote in Awareness:

"Charity is never so lovely as when one has lost consciousness that one is practicing charity. 'You mean I helped you? I was enjoying myself. I was just doing my dance. I helped you, that's wonderful. Congratulations to you. No credit to me."

Kabukicho crossing in Shinjuku 

Last night I went through Shibuya and Shinjuku. I rode the subway, the JR and the Keio line from Shinjuku for the first time in at least 20 some years.

It was like a time trip. It brought back good memories.

One more thing brought back good memories; as I rode the trains and walked the stations, I saw very few foreigners. In fact, I'd guess that I didn't see more than 5 foreigners on the entire trip. Why that brings back memories is that that is because it was the way it used to be; you rarely saw foreigners.

I remember a time when I walked down Center Street in Shibuya and people stared at me and whispered, "There's a foreigner." That was back in January of 1979. Those were the days when, in Japan, you were a star just because you were a foreigner.

How silly we all were. I was such a fool. And, as a young man, I loved playing the fool.

It felt strange last night to stand at the Japan Rail (JR) platform at Shibuya and Shinjuku and not see one single other foreigner standing around the platform and I even looked for them.

I hate to admit it, but it felt fine.

I felt like a 20-year-old once again as, in the early to mid-eighties, that's what it was like in those days: very few foreigners; you had to look for them to see them. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I thought that  little boy in the train walked up to me and stared at me out of curiosity.

If you want to take a time trip in Tokyo then you can do it today. Throw away your preconceptions and live for the now. See what is around you and notice what is different today than yesterday.

If you've been in Japan a long time, then look around. Really look around. Take this opportunity that we have been given to, if even for a moment, go back to a younger time.

This moment is fleeting. We rarely get a chance to go back in time. Catch it today and live it while you can.

If you have recently done wrong or felt guilty because of your actions, or you want to help, don't talk about it. Say nothing and do it. Do it for yourself. Don't do it for other people or to gain glory.

Could there be any greater glory than being happy and living in the now and being and doing "happy"?

If you need help, then say it. There's far too many who are willing to offer advice and yet, far too few who are willing to actually get off the couch and help and lend a hand.

The best advice is no advice and the best charity is the charity that one does for fun. The happiest people admit their sins and drop their chains.

"There's no begging bowl in a true community. There's no clinging, no anxiety, no fear, no hangover, no possessiveness, no demands. Free people form community, not slaves..." - Anthony De Mello

Fox News Reports on Shibuya Nuclear Power Plant

You just can't make this stuff up. Hell, I've died and gone to heaven. If I ever wanted any evidence that the western media were screwed up and exaggerating their reporting and being incredible sensationalist about it, I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Shibuya crossing

Fox News has reported about a nuclear Power station in Shibuya. I think some of you might have heard of Shibuya, that's the place where the super crowded intersection is with the giant TV screens. Come to think of it, having a nuclear power plant there is a good idea... Saves cost on extension cords.


From Media Matters:


Earlier today on Fox News' Your World With Neil Cavuto, this map popped up detailing the locations of Japan's nuclear power plants:

Notice at the bottom right: Shibuyaeggman

One name seems out of place on the graphic -- that of "Shibuyaeggman."

It doesn't show up on the International Atomic Energy Agency's list of Japanese nuclear power stations, and this map of Japanese nuclear installations from the Department of Energy's International Nuclear Safety Center doesn't have any listing for "Shibuyaeggman," and doesn't show a nuclear power plant anywhere near the location on the Fox News map. So I did a little research.

A quick Googling of "shibuyaeggman" turned up no meaningful results. A Nexis search was also fruitless. However, further inquiries revealed that Eggman is the name of a dance club in a trendy neighborhood of Tokyo called... Shibuya. And, it just so happens, the Fox graphic appears to place the alleged reactor in Tokyo. Here's a photo of Eggman -- as you can see, it's right below The @ Super Suits Store. And Johnny Hi-Fi played there in 2006.

Sounds like a fun place. But it doesn't sound like a nuclear power plant.

Hey! Laugh all you want but I have been to Egg Man many times and can tell you for a fact that it is an exciting, explosive and electric place... One time, my friend took Ecstasy there and said he felt like he had been radiated!

Thanks to Graham Pavey for sending in this gem!

Shibuya Hachiko is Going to Move!

If you've ever been to Shibuya in Tokyo then you know what Hachiko is. Hachiko is the dog statue at Shibuya Station. It's been there since 1948. It is an extremely popular, probably the most popular, meeting spot in Tokyo.

The story of Hachiko is that he was born in Akita prefecture and is known as the "faithful dog Hachiko." He would come to the station everyday and patiently wait for his master to return from work. Legend has it that when his master died, Hachiko, still went to the station to wait.

From Wikipedia:

Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo took in Hachikō as a pet. During his owner's life Hachikō greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return. The professor had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and died, never returning to the train station where his friend was waiting. Every day for the next nine years Hachikō waited at Shibuya station.

Hachikō was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, returning again and again at his old home. Eventually, Hachikō apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachikō waited for the return of his owner.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachikō attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

This continued for nine years with Hachikō appearing precisely when the train was due at the station.

Picture of the real Hachiko

I think there is some truth in the legend but I also think there's some heavy romanticism in it too. The Japanese, while they do not want to admit it, are very romanticist people; and I think it is wonderful... But "everyday" for the next nine years!? 

More on Hachiko from Wikipedia:

In April 1934, a bronze statue in his likeness was erected at Shibuya Station.... The statue was recycled for the war effort during World War II. In 1948 The Society for Recreating the Hachikō Statue commissioned Takeshi Ando, son of the original artist who had since died, to make a second statue. The new statue, which was erected in August 1948, still stands and is an extremely popular meeting spot. The station entrance near this statue is named "Hachikō-guchi", meaning "The Hachikō Exit", and is one of Shibuya Station's five exits.

Okay. I believe this part completely.

But I guess I can't complain too much because what I am about to tell you is something that I figured out today and it hasn't been officially announced, so let me be the first in the world to announce it: Hachiko is moving from its current location to a new one.

How do I know this? I figured it out. I have also figured out that Tokyu Department would want to keep this a big secret so that they can gain publicity and make a big announcement later on at some sort of ceremony to unveil to new "Shibuya Station."

Currently, Shibuya Station is under heavy renovation at the East side. I spoke to a Tokyu employee today who allowed me to take the photos (of photos) displayed below and this person also answered my questions about the renovation of Shibuya Station. 

This employee told me that, in two years, after the renovation of Shibuya East side, the West side (where Hachiko is) will be renovated. This person then went into the history of Hachiko for me. It seems that, since 1948, Hachiko has moved twice. Each time there has been a major renovation at the station, Hachiko has been moved! 

I remember when Hachiko was in a different location than it is today. That was about 20 years ago. 

So, being good detectives, if Hachiko has been moved twice, and everytime has been after a renovation (about 20 ~ 25 years apart) then it stands to reason that, when the next renovation is done in two years, they will move Hachiko again, right?

I think so.

So, once again, let me be the first to announce that, if you come to Shibuya, you should take your picture next to Hachiko at its current location because by 2013 or so, Hachiko will be in a different place.

Look at the photos below. See how much Shibuya has changed. I think you'll agree with me; it is obvious that Hachiko is about to get a new home.

I can't think of another dog more deserving.   

Hachiko Oct. 14, 2010

Train museum by Tokyu Department store in front of Shibuya Station

Front of Shibuya Station Oct. 14, 2010

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Today's Hachiko at original location in 1953

Front of Shibuya Station 1921

1921

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1949

1951

West side of Shibuya 1951

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West side of Shibuya Station 1949

West side of Shibuya Station 1949

West side of Shibuya Station 1951

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Construction on West Side 1957

East side 1962

Tokyu Train at Shibuya Station going up Dogenzaka 1968

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Shibuya West side 1971

Shibuya Station East side bus terminal 1969

Roots of Japanese anime? 24 traditional Japanese monsters

One of my favorite blogs on Japan is Pink Tentacle. Pick Tentacle is a blog about Japanese Art, Culture, Science and Technology.


I highly recommend it.


Today, they have an unusual collection of 24 traditional Japanese monsters. Have you ever wondered where the Japanese get their ideas for those silly monsters in the Godzilla movies? I have. Well, the fact of the matter is that Japan has had some very strange (or silly) looking monsters for a long time.


Pick Tentacle has uncovered a collection of 24 of them and made high quality scans for your viewing pleasure! The description reads:     


The Bakemono Zukushi handscroll, painted in the Edo period (18th-19th century) by an unknown artist, depicts 24 traditional monsters that once used to spook the people of Japan.


This is an interesting collection as, usually, the only other places you can see these spooks is at a local festival... And speaking of festivals, it's festival season now in Japan so get your notebooks out and jot down these characters now... They all look the same until you know the names...

Odoroshi (おどろし) is a red-faced monster with big eyes, black teeth, and long hair.

Yume-no-seirei ("dream ghost" - 夢の精霊) appears as a thin old man in a white robe.

Yamamba (山姥) is a mountain hag.

I like this last one. There was a while there, about 5 or 6 years ago, when Shibuya girls wore outrageous makeup on their faces and broad white eyeshadow. That fashion was called, "Yamamba" like the mountain hag above.

If you want to see more scrolls, click here.

Marketing Japan: World's Largest Record Store - Shibuya Tower Records - Goes Bankrupt!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers


The headlines read: World's Largest Record Store Goes Bankrupt!

The largest record store in the world, a world-famous landmark building in Tokyo Japan; a store that has been visited by millions of Japanese and is a must-see for visitors to Tokyo from all over the world, Tower Records Shibuya, has gone bankrupt and will soon close shop doors.

Tower Records Japan Flagship store: Shibuya

No, it hasn't been officially announced. In fact, it hasn't been announced at all by anyone involved in the management of that company. But it is happening soon. All the signs are there plain as day.

I have worked in the music business in Japan for years. I watched that store - and even worked with Tower Records during its heyday. I even ran huge events at that store! In 1996, I was the first person in the world to organize an Andy Warhol event that placed all 13 of his Mick Jagger works in the same place, on display, for the first time in history. So, I know this business and I know what Tower Records used to be and what it is now.

Tower Records Shibuya is bankrupt. You can be sure that what I have written here is as true as the fact that the sun is sure to rise in the east tomorrow morning; Tower Records Shibuya is closing due to bankruptcy and it is going to happen sooner rather than later.

Using the same very slow listening booth equipment for over a decade

The shopping there isn't anything like it used to be. Ten years ago, Tower Records Shibuya was a fun shopping experience. Today it is a crap shopping experience and quite unsatisfying. They aren't going to make it to Christmas of 2011.

I'd like to tell you what I saw when I went to this store yesterday for the first time in a couple of years, ...

But first, let me tell you that I do not rejoice, I am saddened - but not surprised - to be breaking the news of the bankruptcy of this Tokyo landmark to you for the first time today. It has been rumored for a while now, and people like me, have been wondering how they were surviving in this world when sales of physical product (albums) have experienced a cataclysmic decline for brick and mortar retailers between the years 2000 and 2009. The New York Times reported:

Total album sales, including CDs and full-album downloads, were 428 million, a 14 percent drop from 2007, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. Since the industry's peak in 2000, album sales have declined 45 percent 

The other day, HMV Shibuya, the flagship of the HMV stores in Japan, closed its doors forever last week. The Asahi newspaper reported:

Shibuya, a Tokyo district normally associated with the under-20 crowd, attracted hundreds of middle-aged people Sunday to witness the closing of HMV Shibuya, a CD store that became a cultural icon during the 1990s.

Now, it is just a matter of time before the largest record store in the world closes its doors forever. I'd also like to point out that the above article mentions that middle-aged people came to see the store closing... Tower Record's motto is, "No music, no life." I think, in this case, it should be, "No teenagers, no business."

You would have thought that HMV closing would have sent formerly loyal shoppers of HMV Shibuya to Tower Records Shibuya... Well, you would have thought that but when you realize that HMV Shibuya only had six or seven loyal shoppers to begin with (and they were all over 48 years old!) then you'd know that it wouldn't matter to the world's largest record store if they came to shop or not.

Only a few shoppers (although an exaggeration) wouldn't much help the local mom & pop shop stay solvent... They certainly wouldn't help the world's largest record shop stay afloat... Especially since any of the toilets in Tower Records Shibuya can hold more than six or seven people.

That is, excepting the men's toilet on the third floor of Shibuya Tower Records, which has a urinal in disrepair; it is a urinal that, I think, best represents what has happened to Tower Records Shibuya in the last few years; it is falling apart. This urinal is covered with tape and cardboard like something you'd see in a public railway toilet in a third-world country; not Japan. It is a urinal that also smells somewhat like a public railway toilet.

I expect to see urinals broken and left un-repaired in a government run malaise like a public train station. I do not expect to see this sort of thing in a privately-run retail store. The government is expected to take months to take action in repairing damaged items like this. The government is a boondoogle that has no customers. A private company is supposed to worry and be concerned about the "customer's  experience;" A private company has to make sure the shopper has an enjoyable time inside the store from even before the point of entry to after check-out. That is how retail gets return customers.

I think the owners of that building have a responsibility to fix things like broken toilets to their tenant... Unless, of course, tenant is late on rent payments...

Or, perhaps, I miss the bigger picture? Perhaps today's Shibuya Tower Records is a faithful representation the falling apart of the Japan economy as a whole?

But, I digress...

Though bankruptcy is not officially announced at Shibuya Tower Records, it is surely being discussed behind closed doors at the company that owns Tower Records Shibuya, Tower Records Japan (TRJ), as I write this blog. Further evidence of this lies in one of the reasons why anyone would ever visit a large record store in the first place; and that is the CD listening booths.

At Tower Records Shibuya, the CD listening booths are all in need of maintenance and headphone replacement.

Some of the headphones were disgusting. Of twenty listening booths I visited and tried, eighteen were quite a bad experience. Eighteen of twenty headphones I tried were bent and you had to hold them on your head with both hands or they didn't stay on your head at all; they were ratty and falling apart; and many times, even when pressing the tracks to "play" it took more than ten or fifteen seconds - sometimes never - for the tracks to play. Only two of the headphones sets were new and fit well.

Putting on those bent and ratty headphones was like wearing someone else's dirty socks or brushing with someone else's toothbrush. Ugh! No thank you. It's no wonder teenagers don't go there - like with a toothbrush - with their own iPods, all kids today have their very own headsets.

Most all of them were ripped up like this

Besides these problems; bad toilets, poor listening booths, there were very few customers and of the ones I did see, I didn't see anyone who looked to be teenagers. No teenagers in CD store!? I even went on a summer vacation Friday, two days after payday, and of the twenty or so customers that I did see, it looked like there was only one guy under 30. The rest looked in their 40's.

No teenagers? In a CD shop? No, I wasn't on the classical music floor; I was on the floor that sells Rock and Pop music. I'm sure that, if there were very few customers on the Rock and Pop floor, then the classical music floor must have seemed like a funeral.

To make things even more dismal, coincidentally, Tower Records Shibuya was celebrating their 15th anniversary that day. My, how far the mighty have fallen! I dare say that there won't be a 20th anniversary... There won't even be a 17th. Like, I said, I doubt that they can make it to Christmas of 2011.

If you come to Japan soon, visit Tower Records Shibuya to see an old friend before she dies and is gone forever... I'm not asking you to buy anything, just visit... Please just visit! That's all I ask. Visit and do what everyone else is doing; finding music that they like, writing it down, then ordering it online through iTunes or Amazon. But at least visit and see a relic of the past.

The queen is dead. Long live the queen!

They say at Tower Records in Japan, "No music, no life." There is music, on the racks, at Tower Shibuya, but there is no life or vibrancy at the store or amongst her staff. What a depressing and quite disenchanting experience.

Tower Records Shibuya is dead and bankrupt... It hasn't been announced and she hasn't laid down yet. But she is gone... See her while you can.


(Thanks to my good friend, Keith Cahoon, from me and millions of others, for many fun and great memories of good times in Tokyo).

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Keywords: Tower, Tower Records, Tower Records Shibuya, Shibuya, CD, CDs, record, record shop, Shibuya, Tokyo, HMV

Marketing Japan: Japan is Headed for Third World Status

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

The big news is about Japan's public debt. Even the older Japanese people have become worried. This has led to many problems that include poor old people not reporting to the government that relatives have died so that they can continue to collect on government pensions. I wrote about that here.

This problem with spiraling public debt in Japan is nothing new, but what is new is the perception of the Japanese themselves. There seems to be a growing realization among the average Japanese that serious trouble is around the corner and that preparations must be made.

I knew that something had seriously changed the day that my father-in-law asked me where he could buy physical gold! This from a very conservative Japanese government supporting former company president. I recommended buying gold in Tokyo from here.

From the recent news, and things that I am seeing with my own eyes, I am getting the impression that people here are getting nervous. Considering Japanese politics and how they are consistently in a state of inertia (except when it comes to spending money, raising taxes or sending our "defense forces" off to somewhere halfway around the world) then I think we are in big trouble and I think it is coming soon.

One thing that really set off this train of thinking in my mind was a visit to Shibuya the other day. It was the first time I had been to Shibuya in quite a while. I had to wait for a business associate in front of the station. Oh, how things have changed in Shibuya over these last 30 years.

I looked out across from the police box in front of the station at Hachiko and then it dawned on me: Urban decay. The place was starting to fall apart. It was dirty, the tiles on the street were crumbling and in need of repair, there was trash on the streets, and it was the kind of dirty that reminded me of downtown Los Angeles.

Forgive my rose-colored glasses, but Japan is not supposed to look like downtown Los Angeles or Thailand or Hong Kong...

No disrespect for Thailand or Hong Kong, I love those places, but looking out from in front of Shibuya
station, I couldn't tell if I were in Japan or some south eastern asian country! This might not seem a shock to you, but remember that this is the #2 or #3 economy in the world... It should not look at all like some broken down third-world nation.

I wrote in 2005 how America had become a third-world nation. It was the #2 most read article for the entire year on Lew Rockwell... It got me a ton of hate mail and even death threats...

No one complains about that article anymore. It is a given. Japan is now definitely headed in that direction. Unfortunately, I think that is a given also.

Tiles on the sidewalk to help the seeing impaired - this is what they are supposed to look like. 

The ones I saw were crumbling, ripped up and completely missing in some places.

The kicker for me was the tiles placed on the ground for the sight-impaired. They were ripped up and - not just in need of repair - they all needed to be completely replaced!

Notwithstanding my basic policy of being against any government spending for anything (especially social welfare or the mlitary); I did not make policy in this country. The policy has created a huge government bureaucracy and a social welfare system. It was designed to bloat the government but also to take care of the unfortunate and down-trodden.... If that is the policy, then what kind of a country doesn't have to money to take care of the most basic needs of the most unfortunate among us? What are we taxed to death for?

And this situation was painfully visible in Shibuya no less. Shibuya!? One of the most famous shopping and entertainment districts in the world for young people. A name synonymous with fun, shopping, spending and fashion... and it now looks like a rundown dump.

Here's an article from the Australian newspaper that supports what I say, though on a bigger scale.

Economists will blame the deflation trap and misguided fiscal spending. Political analysts will blame parliamentary deadlock and vested interests. Investors will blame over-engineering and timidity. The simpler version is that Japan has ceded its status as the world's second-biggest economy to China because it lost interest in keeping it. The farcical domino-run of six prime ministers in five years marked a haemorrhaging of national gravitas that few other electorates would tolerate. Even if Japan as a whole were hungry enough to give China a battle for the second-place spot, it has nobody willing to channel that energy.

Japan! How could this have happened?

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Keywords: marketing Japan, Third World, Shibuya, Mike Rogers, deflation, Mike in Tokyo Rogers,

Banana Vending Machine in Shibuya

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

I read about how in the west that people are buying gold from vending machines now that their fiat currencies are dying a slow death.

In Japan, we sell something that is gold colored as well, but it's not gold; it's bananas in vending machines.

Dole Banana Vending Machine at Shibuya in Tokyo

Dole has installed a banana vending machine underground at 109 in Shibuya.

Now, you might think that a banana vending machine that sells bananas for about $1.50 (USD) could sell any bananas at all due to the high price, but you would be wrong. According to a Dole spokesman, the banana vending machine is doing quite well.

I usually buy my bananas at OK store. OK sells bananas for about ¥20 each (about $0.22 cents) when you buy a bunch of four.

According to Kyodo News, the banana vending machine is doing well. Kyodo reports:

Despite the premium prices, more than 2,500 have been sold within a month.

So, how is it possible that a banana vending machine could be selling bananas at such a high price and still be doing a brisk business? Well, it's very difficult to find bananas or fruits of any kind in Shibuya. I've been there easily over 1,000 times and couldn't tell you where a grocery store is.

There are a few convenience stores, several minutes walk from 109, but most convenience stores in Japan only sell processed poison and few carry any fruits at all...

109 department store in Shibuya

The only other option is you don't want to buy a banana for about $1.50 is to go to Starbucks. Starbucks sells bananas in Japan for ¥80 (about $0.90 cents) each.

But the average Japanese businessman doesn't want to eat a healthy banana in a place like Starbucks... I mean, where would they have their after-healthy-snack cigarette?

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Keywords:
Dole, banana, Tokyo, Shibuya, vending machine, banana vending machine, Japanese, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Starbucks, gold, kyodo news, 109 department store