A witch makes a great role model in Kiki’s Delivery Service.

In honor of the late great film critic Roger Ebert, I’ll be doing a series of posts on short film reviews for about 40 movies. I’ve grouped them into what I hope are interesting sets.
During the first two years of my daughter’s life, I barely had time to watch any movies. Almost all of my TV and dvd entertainment consisted of NHK children’s shows, Sesame Street, Hayao Miyazaki movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, The Secret World of Arrietty and Ponyo, and later heavily fast-forwarded musicals like the Sound of Music, the Wizard of Oz and Grease. I’ll be reviewing some these as well.

So once Moka started pre-school, I had some free time and I peered into a Tsutaya, Japan’s biggest dvd rental chain, and was delighted to find that they were offering 4 movies for 1,000 yen. In all, I watched over 40 movies over the winter. I caught up on Oscar-nominated films for the past 3 years, as well as terribly made indulgences I had been dying to see.

A tiny thief in The Secret World of Arrietty.

The first set of movies I’ll be reviewing have women as the central character in action flicks or dramas. I won’t be reviewing the movies as much as I’ll be evaluating the heroines as a suitable role model for my daughter.

One of the central themes of Ghibli movies is that the main character is always a young girl of great courage. They are role models I want my daughter to have. And so they’re on the short list of videos she’s allowed to see. But not all of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies are appropriate for a toddler. So my favorite, Princess Mononoke, with its graphic violence and demon-possessed animals, will have to wait.

An eco-warrior adopted by wolves in Princess Mononoke.

What is the Ghibli heroine?
Most of the heroines in Hayao Miyazaki movies are in their early teens. I once heard in an interview that he felt a new age of girls is emerging and so he wanted to address that in his films. The Ghibli heroine is adventurous and courageous, but sometimes prone to recklessness. She is cheerful and undaunted by setbacks. She is intelligent but operates from the heart. She’s compassionate and also has a strong sense of justice and fairness.

Out of the 40 movies I watched only 13 had lead female characters in which the film centered around them. The five reviewed here are the action-oriented films. Let’s see how they measure up to the Ghibli heroine.

Black Swan
Natalie Portman plays a doe-eyed ballerina rehearsing for her first lead performance. She is supremely skilled, and innocent in her ambitions, but she descends into hallucinations and self-destructive behavior due to the singularity of her obsession with ballet and the pressures of being a soloist. The dominating presence of the company director and the creepy mother who lives through her don’t help either.

Good role model?
Her dedication to her art is to be admired. Dedication to the point of madness, not so much. Innocence is fine but complete lack of savvy? No.

Portman is fantastic, but Mila Kunis steals scenes. She reminds me of when Angelina Jolie overshadowed and pretty much stole Winona Ryder’s lunch money in Girl, Interrupted. How post-modern is it that Ryder plays the aging ballerina that Portman replaces! Kunis and Jolie both played smoldering off-kilter characters you couldn’t keep your eyes off of. How about those two as role models? Sure, if you want your daughter to be charismatic but self-destructive hellcats.

True Grit
The main character is a tough girl who seeks vengeance for her father’s death and hires bounty hunters to help her. Two of the most entertaining scenes are of her negotiating with a local businessman securing horses and supplies for her trip. She uses guile, legal threats, and misdirection. Though she’s only 13, she navigates the macho world of the wild west.

Ghibli material?
While she has the leadership abilities, toughness, bravery and intelligence of a Ghibli heroine, she has none of the compassion. Her goal is vengeance and all other people are just a means to reach her goal. She doesn’t look like she’s capable of having fun. Although grieving for her father probably contributed to her grimness we see a flash-forward of her as an adult and she comes across as someone no one around her likes to be around.

I want my daughter to be assertive and not be intimidated by a man’s world. But I also want her to exercise compassion. And above all, I want her to laugh a lot. Although if Moka were to seek revenge for my death, that would be pretty bad ass.

Columbiana
But if you really want revenge, why even hire someone? Why not do it yourself? That’s what Zoe Saldana’s character does after she witnesses her parents be assassinated. She seeks out her thug uncle in the US and trains to be a killer. Luc Besson obviously has a thing for girls training to be assassins because basically Columbiana is the Latin Leon: the Professional. The film itself is 87% derivative, but the formula is entertaining and the remaining 13% variation of the niche genre makes the 90 minutes not a waste of time. (And that, kids, is how you use completely made up statistics to support your backhanded thumbs up.)

Suitable role model?
While I admire the heroine’s willingness to do the dirty work herself, and train her whole life to avenge her parents’ deaths, I’d rather have my daughter spend her time doing something more life-affirming, like training to be a CIA operative and getting the Navy SEALs to do the deed.

Ability to defend herself, good. Killing people for money, bad.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
If you really want a bad-ass character, Lisbeth Salander has to be one of the most compelling fictional characters I’ve come across. The trauma of her childhood had made her develop a cold unrelenting detachment. She views the world as a pared-down calculus of what people want, especially from her, and dealing with them appropriately, like lab rats.

She’s a talented computer hacker. And though physically small, she is a vicious brawler. I read the book first and Rooney Mara’s portrayal was better than the one in my imagination.

A father’s worst nightmare?
Is there anything hipper than a bisexual punk hack avenger chick who dispatches rapists and mass murderers? Lisbeth’s survival skills are awe-inspiring. She maximizes her mind and body and is a holy terror to bad evil men. But, and this is the understatement of the year, she’s not a people person.

However, perhaps that was the best way she could deal with her trauma. Maybe there was no way to emerge less emotionally damaged, less dismissively wary of new people. Given the circumstances, Lisbeth is quite admirable.

The Hunger Games
Our final heroine is closest to a Ghibli ideal. Katniss Everdeen, played by current “it” girl Jennifer Lawrence, has survival skills comparable to Lisbeth, but in contrast, she shows concern for and empathy to those around her. Like Satsuki in My Neighbor Totoro, Katniss takes care of her younger sister.

I have a great fondness for post-apocalyptic dystopias and so enjoyed the premise: a ritualized gladiator reality show in which children from formerly rebellious provinces fight to the death. What could have been a stupid exploitation film becomes a sly fable critiquing mass media, authoritarianism, and how we shape popular narratives.

A Ghibli heroine?
Katniss uses a bow and arrow. Enough said. Cool role model.

Also, she wins the tournament without ever really killing anyone. Maybe my assessment is colored by the ultra-charm of the actress. But of the five movies reviewed here, she’s closest to the Ghibli heroine. Tough, smart, compassionate. Fighting injustice, connecting with people.

Not every movie heroine needs to be perfect. That would just be another ideal girls feel pressured to become. We just need more role models to choose from. The variety of the five here are a good start. But of the 40 movies I watched this winter very few had any women or girls of color. Even of the four Ghibli movies (made in Japan) approved for my daughter’s age, two of the heroines were white, only one was a girl of color (Japanese), and the fourth one was a fish.

Aside from Columbiana, of the other live action films I watched the only other woman of color character of significance was Sue, the Hmong neighbor in Gran Torino. She was spunky, alert, brash and assertive. She stood up to the cranky old white guy next door and also to the gang that terrorized her neighborhood. She did her best to protect her little brother from joining the gang while also acting as a bridge between her immigrant family and her host country. She did all this with a sly sense of humor.

It’s too bad that in the end she was portrayed as a victim, succumbing to Clint Eastwood’s pathological (albeit entertaining) need to be the impenetrable hero. Still, it was a promising start and remarkable in a major Hollywood film. More please!

Those were some serious movies we looked at. Next let’s look at the heroines in comedies.

This year the family went to our favorite places for hanami (flower viewing), like the stately formal Shinjuku Gyoen. But it is insanely crowded during cherry blossom season.

And we strolled along the banks of the Meguro River, where heavy white clouds of flowers dip into the water.

But with a toddler, easily bored by thick crowds, we took long walks to less popular spots, frequently stopping off at playgrounds.

Life Lesson no 1: Take the road less traveled; it’s more relaxing.

Here are some of the places we visited. All kid-friendly, not crowded, located in the southwestern neighborhoods of Tokyo.

Tako (Octopus) Park, our neighborhood playground, is one of the few in central Tokyo with grass. Most either have bare dirt or blacktop. The central feature is a giant octopus that sucks up little children and spits them out. But the best thing about this park are the kiddy pools in the summer.

Life Lesson no. 2: Invertebrates and slides are always a good idea.

Around the corner is a chic ice cream shop where sleek young ladies order Japanese flavors like sweet potato, pickled plum or red bean ice cream. This is where our daughter had her first ice cream.

Life Lesson no. 3: Sweetness comes in many flavors.

Another favorite nearby playground is Hiroo Park. It’s located on the edge of the Hiroo neighborhood, where the French, German and Chinese embassies, among many others, are located. So as you can imagine, the housing prices here are astronomical. Yet here is this massive government subsidized housing project, where many seniors live, right next to the park.

Life Lesson no. 4: Both the 1% and the 99% need parks.

Life Lesson no. 5: When in doubt, stand there and look cute.

While Hiroo has many wealthy foreigners, or at least foreigners who work for countries and companies with generous housing allowances, Shirokanedai is a neighborhood for the Japanese rich. “Shirokane” literally means “white gold” and is often translated as “platinum.” So basically these people live in a neighborhood called Platinum.
So their playgrounds are very well maintained. This one is tucked away out of view from the main road. The mothers are all dressed as if they were on their way to church, even on a Thursday morning.

Life Lesson no. 6: You can feel underdressed even in a playground, so don’t sweat it.

Down the boulevard is Donguri (Acorn) Park. There are no kid structures, which is surprising since it’s spacious by Tokyo standards. But there’s a lot of grass and room to run around. It used to be just a wild overgrown tract of land, which was much more interesting. On this day there was a woman in pink boots with a pink umbrella taking pictures of pink flowers.

Life Lesson no. 7: Wild is more intriguing than tame.
Life Lesson no. 8: Pink goes with everything, apparently.

Our main destination for our picnic lunch was the Institute for Nature Study, a nature reserve between the Shirokanedai and Meguro neighborhoods. This is one of the best kept secrets of Tokyo, one of the few undisturbed natural environments in the city. In fact, only a couple hundred visitors are allowed in at a time, but I reckon there are never more than a few dozen at any one time. The first time I brought my infant daughter here, she gasped in delight at the sight of the lush trees.

Life Lesson no. 9: Trees, good.

Now that she’s a toddler, she can’t help but run around and pick up rocks, acorns and twigs and stuff them in her pockets.

Life Lesson no. 10: Always empty pockets before doing the laundry.

You can feel the weight of the city float up into the trees.
Life Lesson no. 11: Nature, good.

Another best kept secret is Nakameguro Koen, a series of vegetable, flower and herb gardens surrounding three lawns that are opened in rotation. It’s right next to the Meguro River between Meguro and Nakameguro. But you could easily walk right by it and not notice as I had done for years before deciding to take a shortcut home one day. (Note: There is no such thing as a shortcut in Tokyo.)

For kids, there’s a small playground, big restrooms, and even a community center for nature classes. Go past the gardens and there’s even yet another playground. But kids just need nature. My two-year-old spent almost an hour arranging twigs, stones and petals into an octopus robot.

Life Lesson no. 12: Stop buying toys.

On our way back home, we discovered a tiny playground that had a fleet of abandoned tricycles. Moka was thrilled, and she tried to ride each one. The playground was near where we used to live. Somehow we had never run across it.

Life Lesson no. 13: Life is never fully discovered.

Finally, the view from home. Ever since we moved into our apartment last summer I’d been looking forward to this large cherry tree blossoming in the neighboring elementary school. The petals were already drifting down and whirling up past our windows. And the most important Life Lesson that cherry blossom season teaches us is to enjoy this fleeting life. Every moment of it.

I had planned on writing this article about my friend Michelle over a year ago when she and her husband were in the midst of an around-the-world honeymoon. I avidly followed the colorful and insightful blog of her trip. Even before she went on this epic adventure, Michelle was the most well-traveled person I had ever met. She regaled me with tales of being kidnaped in Central America, witnessing the chilly authoritarianism of North Korea, as well as the wonders of Nepal and Cambodia.

Michelle and I worked together in Japan for a few years before she returned to London, her home. With her perfectly enunciated RP/Queen’s English and polished demeanor it was hard to imagine her roughing it on the muddy banks of the Mekong, or riding for hours in a crowded bumpy bus in India. But she had a profound curiosity about people and I’d often see her deeply absorbed in conversation with someone she had just met.

And so the following is an interview I had conducted by email soon after she finished her trip. All the pictures are by her and her husband.

So how many countries have you visited? Or have you lost count.

My last count showed that I have visited 89 countries and territories so far, including Taiwan and Tibet, which I count as separate entities although they are not recognised by the UN. I will reach 90 in December (2010) when I visit the UAE for the first time.

Save the rest of us the trouble. Which one was the best?

This is indeed a tough question. For me there is no ‘best’ country, but I can say that one of the most beautiful countries I have visited is New Zealand, it also seems to be doing a good job of protecting its’ natural environment.

Namibia is also spectacularly beautiful, but you really need your own transport or to book a tour to see it. Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is another place which I would highly recommend.

What particular sites stand out?

In terms of historical sites, I would rate Hampi in India as one of the most magical destinations I have ever visited because you really can have this UNESCO site to yourself. I also found Moscow and St. Petersburg fascinating as I love Russian history. Berlin is like one huge open-air museum.

Which countries surprised you the most?

The biggest positive surprises have been Albania – it has so much culture to offer and I am absolutely sure that in the next decade this will become a popular European destination.

Bosnia-Herzegovina is amazing – a place of contrasts where you can sip turkish coffee, smoke shisha and eat Italian food outside a church as the muzzein issues the call to prayer and watch people walk past bombed ruins along repaired cobbled streets.

Bangladesh and Ethiopia are also places which break stereotypes: if you visit, you will see that their populations are frustrated by the negative perception which the international media has created by exclusively reporting on poverty and natural disasters.

The strangest place I have visited is North Korea, it is also a place which has left a deep impression on me.

Is there a worst country you’ve ever visited?

I would have to describe Chad as a place which I would not be in a hurry to return to. Primarily the preserve of international aid workers, 80 percent of the population lives in poverty. Chad is vast – it took two weeks to cross because there are almost no roads! There is not really anything for tourists to see there.

An around-the-world honeymoon seems pretty romantic on the surface, but traveling for months with just one person sounds like it could just as easily lead to a quick end to the marriage. So did you have any big blow-ups?

Never! Yes there were one or two arguments, but they were minor. We are very lucky to enjoy each other’s company as much as we do, however we are also able to do things individually, for example, my husband went into the Potosi mines in Bolivia by himself as this did not interest me and I went to the Ngorongoro Crater for two days without him.

What’s your advice for traveling couples?

The most important thing is honesty. If you don’t want to do something, be honest. This is much better than complaining or doing it grudgingly, as it will only create a bad atmosphere between you which will probably result in an argument. Talk about what you want to do and where you want or don’t want to go before you leave and decide what you would be willing to compromise on. Finally, check that your partner is happy with the pace of travel, because doing too much in too little time can be tiring and stressful and will ultimately take its toll.

Your husband is Polish and you are a very Tiger Woodsian mix of Jamaican, English and Mauritian. Did you experience any discrimination on your honeymoon as an interracial couple?

I was not aware of any overt discrimination arising from the fact that we are an interracial couple, however given the recent history of South Africa, I was acutely aware that 25 years ago we would not have been able to travel South Africa together. I also found myself taking mental note of every interracial couple we encountered in South Africa, because they are still not as common as they are in London.

I appreciate that you’re not really a resort traveler. You really do get knee-deep in the places you visit. But 90 countries and counting is kind of crazy. What’s driving this passion/obsession for travel?

My wunderlust is driven by a desire to see the world for myself and to make my own assessment of the planet’s cultures, history, politics and cultures. I am not satisfied with simply consuming what I am fed by the mass media, I want to see each place for myself.

When I visit states which belong to the so-called ‘axis of evil’ I am reminded that the people who live in these countries are just that: people. They are like you and me, they live and die, experience joy and pain, celebration and suffering.

Intercultural exchange is more important than ever in this era of massive geopolitical shifts. When I travel, I want to get beyond the stereotypes. I also hope that when local people come into contact with me they have the chance to see that Westerners are also people.

When I travel, the main criticism I get from my friends is the huge carbon footprint of air travel, and rightly so. But you seem to have to deal with another kind of controversy.

The main source of criticism has resulted from visiting ‘pariah’ states such as Myanmar, North Korea, Serbia and Sudan and as well as going to Tibet. Many people argue that isolation of these countries is the best way to promote political change. I do not agree.

I remember the first time that I visited Myanmar in 2000, Burmese people told me that they were so happy that outsiders were visiting their country and complained about how international sanctions were crushing them.

When I returned to Myanmar this year, I found a very different country. In a decade, Myanmar has acquired highways, new buses and more consumer goods as a result of its trade with China. Young people wear jeans rather than lunggis and the elections which have just been held hint at a possible change of course for the country.

Engagement with China has had a greater effect on the political elite than any number of sanctions. Isolation of pariah states just doesn’t seem to work, it only causes the average person to suffer while the elite prosper from trade with countries like China which are far less likely to encourage environmental or ethical codes of conduct.

I have been berated for visiting Myanmar and North Korea, however I have never been criticised for visiting America, China, Russia, Indonesia, India, Turkey, Guatemala, Mexico or Croatia although these countries are grappling with issues of social injustice, discrimination, human trafficking, inequality, suppression of political dissent, torture and belligerence. I am sure that a visit to Israel, would elicit fewer criticisms than a visit to Iran, Zimbabwe or North Korea. Why is this?

Yesterday was Hina Matsuri known in English as Girl’s Day or more literally Doll Festival. This Japanese holiday celebrates girls and protects them from evil spirits and bad luck for the coming year. The centerpiece of the holiday is setting up an elaborate display of dolls that represent the court of Heian Era Japan. This was my daughter’s third year of celebrating it and the first one in which she was old enough to be able to help set up the display.

This set belonged to her mother. She tells me that she was a bit embarrassed by the small size because most girls had large displays that filled the living room. But I love this one because the glass case has a built in music box that plays the Hina Matsuri song. Moka enjoyed winding it up and singing with her mother, aunt, grandma and great grandma who is now 93 (!). That’s four generations of women and girls.

When I listen to them sing together, I think of how far women and girls have come in society. Great grandma Hisaye was an aspiring big city show girl who fled to a village up north during the bombings of WWII. She was arranged to be married to a poor but hardworking farmer and worked the fields for over 50 years while raising four girls. The second oldest, a dynamic spark plug of a woman and probably my favorite in-law, was handed over to Hisaye’s childless older sister. Those are just two of the stories of the women in my daughter’s life.

Girls have come a long way. On the other hand, there’s another holiday called Children’s Day, which actually celebrates only boys and is a national holiday. Meanwhile, no one takes a day off for Girl’s Day. So girls can go a little further, I think.

The Chinese character for “hina” not only means “doll” but also “chick” and “green” and implies innocence, new life and naivete. So basically it’s a spring festival. I was surprised to find that it corresponds to a Korean holiday called Samjinnal, also celebrated on March 3rd and which signals the arrival of spring. I like the description on Wikipedia:

This day is known as the day the swallows came back from Gangnam and the day the snake came out from its winter sleep.

It presents a whole new meaning to “Gangnam style”, which is so 2012, making way for the Year of the Snake. Adds Wikipedia:

It is also the day birds and butterflies start to appear.

And thank god, because it has been a long cold winter. So I leave you with the first signs of spring this week, plum blossoms at a nearby temple.

That’ll be my personal theme for 2013, and it is the first word of my blog in over a year.  Here in Japan, they vote for a kanji at the end of each year.  Last year was “kin”, the Chinese character for gold, which happens to be the same Chinese character for my family name, pronounced, “Kim” in Korean. But if I had a word for last year it probably would have been “Fathering”.

I used to work at a natural food store and at the top of every receipt was printed, “breathe”.  None of us needs a reminder to breathe.  Thankfully, it’s pretty automatic.  But we need a reminder to breathe fully.  We need to be reminded to still ourselves now and then and pay attention to our breath.  So that’s what I’d like to do more of this year, the Year of the Snake.

The entire Year of the Dragon passed by without one blog post.  I could use fatherhood as an excuse.  I took time off to take care of my daughter in my wife’s first year back from maternity leave.  It was amazing but also pretty tough and exhausting. I ain’t gonna lie, some of it was hell, but I’d do it all over again. So I had plenty to write about and enough time to write it.  But I didn’t.

I’ll blame it on the Dragon, as they have been blamed for a multitude of ills and wrongs throughout history and literature and they don’t seem to be fazed by it.  The Dragon is not a particularly contemplative creature.  They don’t sit down and write about their thoughts or muse on the significance of their actions.  They breathe hot fire, fly towards shiny bright things, and try to sleep when they can.  That pretty much describes 2012 for me.  Except I did more fuming than fire-breathing, more limping than flying, and definitely did not get enough sleep.

The Snake on the other hand is drawn to cool shady corners and do a lot of observing, tasting the situation, slithering from one thought to another.  They take forever to eat things; an event may leave a visible lump for hours or days until it’s fully digested.  And shedding.  They are forever outgrowing themselves.

And that’s me now.  Breathing (and shedding).

The solution for most is to either have a plastic tree, which is problematic unto itself, or have a live potted tree, a fantastic idea. Or as I like to do, just go and visit all the Christmas trees around town.

There are plenty of the traditional pine and fir Christmas trees. Moka loves them and this one is her favorite. She runs up to it every time we pass by and yanks at the ornaments.

These next two are made of everyday objects. One is made of magazines and newspapers and the other is made of cork. There should be a movement to make Christmas trees out of recycled materials, like CDs, rags and euro bills.

My personal favorite was a brilliantly lit tree in Aqua City, an indoor mall by Tokyo Bay. The colors constantly changed and at regular intervals there was a light show accompanied by a lot of dramatic music. A little over the top but magical.

But nothing beats the trees, alive and festive, in nature itself. Usually, the leaves change colors in late November here in Tokyo, but this year was very late. The colors have been peaking in the last week or so just in time for Christmas.

May your Christmas and the New Year be equally colorful and vibrant.

I enjoyed reading this Nicholas Kristof column about how the world has fewer wars, less genocide, less racism and sexism, and is less violent in general.  It’s well worth a read by a writer normally fixated on the empty half of the glass.  I began thinking about how my life would be different if I were living a hundred years or so ago.

I’m thankful for being alive.

A thousand years ago, the average life expectancy was 24 years old.  And it was largely a brutal 24 years.  A hundred years ago the average life expectancy of an American was 47 for men, 51 for women.  In Korea at the time, the life expectancy during the Japanese occupation plummeted to 37 years old.  I’d already be dead by now if my family had never immigrated to the US.  And even then, I’d only have a few more years left.

I’m thankful for my freedom.

In fact, it’d be more likely that I’d be one of the 5.4 million plus conscripted soldiers and workers forced into labor by the Japanese Empire.  Most of the world at that time was under some form of imperial tyranny.  I wouldn’t be an American quietly typing in a Tokyo apartment.  I’d be an imperial subject toiling away in a mine living a much shorter life.

A hundred years ago in Oregon, one of the places I call home, I wouldn’t have been able to own land nor vote and I’d be living in fear of being lynched or have my settlement raided by white locals.  Also, I wouldn’t have been able to be in an interracial relationship, which was punishable by hanging.

I’m thankful my daughter has choices.

In fact, a century ago, no women were able to vote anywhere in the world.  New Zealand was the first in 1917.  Qatar only granted it in 1997.  Hey, Qatar, welcome to civilization!

She can now get a safe abortion.

She can get a divorce.

She has more legal protection against violence and discrimination.

I’m thankful for a healthy family.

If you have complaints about your doctor now, 90% of physicians then didn’t even have a college education.

There was no insulin.  I’m thankful that my diabetic father is in great health.

There were no antibiotics.  So the leading causes of death in the US in order were pneumonia, the flu, tuberculosis and diarrhea.  All easily treatable now.

In Japan, my baby daughter gets free healthcare until 6 years old.  I’m pretty sure that didn’t exist back then.

We don’t live in a perfect world but we do live in an improving world.  So today at least I’m thankful for all the things I have.  Tomorrow I’ll go back to the fight to make it better.

Polka Dot Dresses

The live music ranged from children’s choirs to a gospel ensemble to opera.  My favorite were the flamenco dancers and musicians.  I’d never seen so many red and white polka dot dresses in one place.  Having one of the guitarists resemble Hurley from Lost was a bonus.

Blinking Leaves

The centerpiece art installation was something even children could interact with.  Participants gathered up the ‘leaves’ made of paper with a printed eye, and placed them in slots along a towering tube.  These leaves were then blown out the top of the tube and they rained down like fall leaves.  It was beautiful and kids loved it.

The Collaborative Whale

At the beginning of the festival children were invited to paint on a massive roll of paper with an outline of a whale.  The outline probably matched the real silhouette of a small whale.  There were all sorts of colorful nautical images and the collaborative effort emanated a lot of joy.

The Bean Beard Project

The most bizarre art was a whimsical photography project.  The photographer had prepared a table full of beards made of red beans.  Volunteers pick out a beard, wear it, and pose for a traveling exhibit.  It’s pretty hilarious.

Found Art Esperanto

I also enjoyed the Esperanto that was written in pink all over the Garden Place.  Maps of where the words were scrawled were provided to the public with a list of words for each letter of the alphabet.  But I found it more fun to find the words myself.  Moka was far better at finding them, pointing and grunting at places I’d never think to look.

So I end with the letter Z.

I wonder what the restaurant was trying to advertise with this display?  Do they serve a lot of gamey pork?  Is it an establishment where ‘men can be men’?  Are hunters and taxidermists welcome?  Is it a warning to those born in the year of the boar?  Moka didn’t seem interested in finding out so we moved on.

Moka also drew my attention to this charcoal sculpture of a dog adorned in seasonal Halloween garb.  I don’t know for sure if the sculpture was made of charcoal.  She wanted to go into the store because there were shelves of these sculptures of all kinds of animals. They looked to me like charcoal.  I had never noticed this neighborhood store before.

This hobby horse was tucked away in an alley outside a very expensive children’s clothing store.  We were on the main street when Moka shrieked out in delight and pointed down to the elegant wood carving.

The beflagged mannequin in a kimono was something I noticed, but Moka had no interest in.  She was clearly on a mission for animals only.

And finally, we were both intrigued by the intentionally blurry photos of this storefront.  I especially liked the placement of the bench.  I couldn’t figure out which of the 4 businesses in the building this display was supposed to represent.  None of them were related to photography or art or rustic furniture.

Maybe it’s okay not to know what a business is before you enter it.  The zoo in the storefront is perhaps just to get your attention.  The adventure is in stepping through that door.

Asphalt Art

In the last year Yoyogi Park widened and repaved its entrance. I suspect it was done to chase off the mini homeless camp that inhabited its fringe and deter skateboarders. Now it’s a soulless blacktop. Except for these simple and whimsical silhouettes.

Esperanto Animal Tracks

My daughter Moka found these animal tracks painted on some steps at the Ebisu Garden Place. The words bovo and mustela sounded vaguely Spanish but I knew they weren’t Spanish. I later found out that a whole alphabet of Esperanto words were painted all over the area in preparation for a cultural festival that just ended tonight.

Bovo means cow. And a mustela is a weasel.

Gifts

Moka gets her share of attention from strangers when she’s out and about. Mostly, they’re warm smiles and comments about how cute she is. Occasionally, people take pictures of her.  And this past week, she got two gifts.

An elderly lady pulled out this complex origami top out of her bag and gave it to me. At first I thought she just wanted me to show it to Moka and spin it for her, which I did. But then she walked off and told us to enjoy it!

An elementary school girl and her mother were walking through a plaza. The girl had a red balloon that immediately got Moka’s attention. She pointed at it, and that got the girl’s attention. So she veered over to us and gave the balloon to Moka.

Two strangers casually handing out gifts. More random acts of kindness and giving please!

Wind Chimes

And finally, there was this cluster of wind chimes randomly hanging from a ventilation grate at Harajuku Station. Written on them are words of encouragement to the people of northeast Japan.