by ·Comments Off on Knock, Knock…

When you thought this had to be the place where they would not come after you…

Guess who just knocked at the door in the middle of my midday porn-browsing session, to ask me if I had accepted Jesus in my heart yet?

Yes, indeed: the two middle-aged women (actually probably in their mid-twenties, but dressing as a neurotic librarian from the bible-belt always tend to make you look older) patiently though relentlessly knocking on my door where Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Of course, being Japanese before being JW, they were reasonably easy to get rid of with a polite “sorry I’m busy”, though not before one had started digging in her religious phrase-book for ways to greet me in my own language…

Which takes us to this amazingly funny statistics page apparently kept by the JW church itself, and giving a good insight on the amount of work involved in mass soul-saving ventures. With pearls such as this graph comment:

5. How many preaching hours does it take to convert a person to a Jehovah’s Witness?

Top and bottom 20 countries of the ratio of one baptism to hours. The higher the ratio, the longer hours are needed to convert to Jehovah’s Witnesses. For example in Japan, it takes about 18,000 hours (!) of preaching to gain one baptism, whereas in Nepal it takes only 2000 hours.

So let’s not be too hard on those poor Japanese Witnesses: they got a much tougher gig than their counterparts in, say, Nepal, Congo or Tajikistan.

Another bit of some interest is that, according to these stats (let’s not forget they are provided by the JW’s church itself, therefore of more than dubious objective value, but anyway), Japan is the country where the church has incurred its highest number of defections last year, by a wide margin…

I guess the Freaky Religious Cult thing is not as popular as it used to be here…

by ·Comments Off on Rockabilly line dancers in Yoyogi koen


The rest of the afternoon sure was fun… but it certainly set the tone to start it by encountering a bunch of people decked out in full-on rockabilly outfit (three feet high hairdo included) dancing what can only be described as “rock circle-dancing” on the outskirts of yoyogi park, just outside the NHK building.

by ·Comments Off on Yoyogi Sunday Party


This was the first party, the more commercial, more trance-y one. Afterwards, we moved to another, more secluded, party in the middle of the park and danced until past sunset to some really cool old-school house and techno.

by ·Comments Off on We are to dance to the music junkie


More Guest-blogging by Atsushi (you’d have guessed). I don’t know if that was before or after he downed half of that gin bottle by himself:

To day party so fun.everyone to be filled to bursting brain but no sleep?

by ·Comments Off on Mobile Electricity


If you look carefully. You can find a socket to plug your laptop or portable microwave anywhere!
Even in JR trains…
Seems like some trains are equipped with a socket at the very end of each car.

[Map]

by ·Comments Off on US Picture Series: 3. Friends

I’ve been back and catching up with the last few falling sakura flowers for a few days now. But anyway, here are a few of the pics I managed to take during my chaotic stay in the US…

Though I’ve not caught nearly as many people on camera as I’d wanted to, I have at least sampled a bit of everything, since both family life, lesbian wedding reception and restaurant night out with friends are all covered. Can’t get more versatile than that.

Not much need for legend here, except to state that the fact two of the friends I used to go party with (Suraj and David) are now proud fathers of daughters aged respectively 1 year (Riya) and 1 month (Saskia), does not make me feel any younger… What is it with that trend to have kids these days? How irresponsible, when you could be just as happy getting shitfaced drunk and abusing pharmaceutical drugs on a daily basis…

Don’t you realize what a fucked up world it is they’ll be living in?

Anyway, they are both awfully cute and if they inherit all the qualities exhibited by their parents, they’ll probably have to fight for the presidency over what will be left of the US, 30 years from now…

On a different note, it’s refreshing to see Oliver still wears his difference high and proud. Though his boyfriend was allegedly less than happy when he decided to purchase this awesome Pink Carebear Backpack… And you better believe he’s wearing it everywhere (including in the trendiest bar and restaurants of the city: only him could ever get away with this).

by ·Comments Off on Leaving


In SFO right now. Frenchy dropped me and we are going for a last coffee before I head back to Tokyo.

by ·Comments Off on US Picture Series: 2. Pets

The cat (probably the most über-zen cat in the world) and the snake live in the same house and are part of the typical california-family yearly round of exotic pets that gets replaced when the kids get tired with them, or, as the case might rather be here, when they get to become a 6-foot long constrictor snake and you feel a bit uneasy letting him share the bed with your kid.

No: the cat doesn’t get replaced every year, he’s part of the furniture… works pretty well as a living trophy-rug.

The dogs just happened to be sitting outside some grocery store and they looked cool like that.