Watching movies under the sky – Starlight Cinema 2009

From 17th of July to the 9th of August, Yebisu/Ebisu Garden Place in Ebisu is showing movies in the big open air atrium. I realize this may be a bit late since today (Sunday) is the last day but if you come across this and happen to live in Tokyo go check it out. It is pretty popular and they do have nice movies – some international ones as well as a very nice selection of Japanese movies (though I realize there is only one movie left). I knew about this event since the Christmas time when they used the atrium for a huge crystal chandelier.

  I really like Ebisu – it is such a nice, peaceful place even though it is only 2 minutes from the chaos of Shibuya. There are so many nice places to eat at, from little cafes to an oyster bar to a “fancy” pasta restaurant. Unfortunately, in order to go there, the shortest way for me is through Shibuya, using Yamanote Line which can get extremely crowded. I still think it is worth it though – nothing beats relaxing, listening to the water flowing through the sides of the gentle incline that leads to the atrium.

Hungry in Dubai? How about McDonalds?

My three week “vacation” in Cyprus which involved about two and a half weeks of army training drained me not just physically but mentally as well. That being the case I can hardly motivate myself to write here but I came across some of the pictures I took on my way there that might be interesting to some (and me in the future) so here goes the story that accompanies those…

The fact that there would be Mc Donald’s in Dubai is not surprising by itself of course. After all, it is impossible to go to pretty much any big city in the world and not be greeted by the big yellow “M” these days. However, seeing it in Arabic script still made me do a double take. This one is in the Dubai International Airport by the way. There is a local specialty that escapes my mind right now and if I remember it correctly, no pork products are offered. Other than that, McNuggets tasted just the same and I could pay with a credit card so all was good.  Oh and unlike Japan they actually offer a 9 piece set – they only sell them by 6 here. Oh and sorry about the quality of the pictures – I took them with my cell phone so they are not the best as the light was not exactly good.

Back in Tokyo

Yup, finally the army stuff is over – at least for this year – and I came back to Tokyo last Sunday afternoon. For the first time I took Turkish Airlines instead of Emirates which I always used before. Even though the in-flight entertainment system on Emirates in unrivalled by pretty much any other airline company (there are literally more than 200 movies from animations to movies in theaters to classics that you can choose from) the ease of travel is not even comparable. Emirates does not like the newer, international airport in Tokyo for some reason. As a result, to get to Tokyo, one first needs to travel to Osaka and then fly to the smaller of the two international airports (Haneda/羽田). Add to that the fact that Emirates always stops over in Dubai and you get the pretty ridiculous itinerary: Cyprus –> Istanbul –> Dubai –> Osaka –> Tokyo. With Turkish Airlines this takes much much less: Cyprus –> Istanbul –> Tokyo. The flight is a “codeshare” between Turkish Airlines and ANA so a lot of Japanese passengers use this route too. The price can get a bit high if you get the ticket in the last minute though so if you decide to use this make sure to get your ticket nice and early.

On the road again...

I am going back to Cyprus tonight for three weeks. I guess my life in Tokyo has got into a rhythm of sorts and now, a change like this brings an almost subconscious fear that grips the excitement coming from visiting family. OK me will keep this short - I am typing on my phone and while it doeshave a full-ish keyboard it still is a bit of a pain to type. More soon assuming I make it to Cyprus in one piece :p

Tokyo National Art Center

 

Located in Roppongi, the National Art Center should definitely be on your places to visit if you ever happen to be in Tokyo. Not only the art center houses certainly interesting exhibits but the general design of the building and the gift shop themselves are more than worth walking for about 5 minutes from the nearest subway stop. There are signs to guide you once you are close enough but you may have to look for them. I recommend looking up in a map before going to Roppongi – once you know the general direction, getting there is simple.

The first thing you realize when you walk through the door, other than the ticket booth which you only need to stop by if you are going to wander into the exhibit, is the design of the building which looks extremely futuristic. It was designed by a very famous Japanese designer and in a single word, is very "curvy". This idea of "futuristic curves"  is followed throughout the building. The gift shop itself is pretty amazing and very different than the typical art museum gift shop which would be content with its offering of postcards based on famous artwork. Not this shop... There are a lot of small items that themselves could easily be called works of art - original ones mind you. The only slightly upsetting thing is that you cannot take pictures inside the gift shop so I don’t have anything to post on here but you should go check it out for yourself anyway :)

It’s rain and humidity for Tokyo…

While we may be still in the “rainy season”, a roughly four week long period that precedes summers in Tokyo, we also get the occasional sunny day. Yesterday was one of those days with the temperature reaching 36 degrees Celsius/93 degrees Fahrenheit. The problem with sunny days is that it gets extremely humid. I have survived through the humidity of Pittsburgh summers but this is something else.  It gets so humid that even when “sunny”, the sky is not blue as the clouds get lower and lower and paint the sky a gloomy gray.  Thankfully when it rains it gets better – well it gets very wet but at least less humid.

Today was a rainy day and when I say rainy I mean RAINY. It started to rain in the morning and it continued until at least 6-7pm. As people expect this kind of weather in this time of the year it became second nature to people to carry umbrellas, just in case. This is why there are “mini umbrellas” suitable for the smallest of purses widely available and quite cheap actually. I am going to have another week of this and then I will be away for a month – cooking in Cyprus. It will be even hotter than here for sure but at least it will not be humid there – for the most part…

You never know what you are going to run into…

… at a used clothing store. I snapped this at one of those stores close to the Kichijoji Station (吉祥寺駅). The tshirt is clearly a Pittsburgh Pirates (the baseball team) tshirt but it’s not just that. The design seems to be pretty old though I can’t really verify that right now. I think it is even possible that this tshirt was not made officially or that it was made simply because someone thought the Pirate Parrot was cute.

Seeing the Pittsburgh word made me miss the city though…