Many moons ago I wrote of my strange fetish for the Man Cave and how the condensed nature of Japanese life led me to create the next best thing in the form of the Micro-Man Cave, an elaborately arranged series of shelves that represented all that is good and decent in my own “dudeness”. Sadly, […]
In my constant quest to discover green space within the Tokyo-Yokohama Metroplex, I came across one of the more startling contrasts between cityscape and nature at the Todoroki Valley (等々力 渓谷) in Setagaya Ward. The Todoroki Valley is a walking path approximately 1 km long which follows a small cascading stream and terminates at a beautiful […]
It’s no secret that space is tight here in the metroplex. Tight, orderly, clean, and tight. Public and private – everything is tighter than things in the West. It’s basic physics in most respects, and you have to learn to deal with it, or risk a mental breakdown. When I visited by folks in suburban […]
Finding places to walk, hike, climb, outdoor exercise in general, can be a harrowing experience in the Tokyo Metroplex. This is especially true if you lived part of your life outside of urban centers – outside of Asia. You do need a bit of an imagination, the ability to cancel unwanted visual (and auditory) information […]