______ to heaven

Taken at Abercrombie and Fitch in Ginza. Any ideas what it is?

End of the Line

Oji Station, Japan

The Train

Is it rude to take picture of people on the train? Probably. But the odd combination of people that get grouped together on the train never cases to amaze me.

Moments before I took this picture the women with the book was glaring at girl who was shamelessly putting on her make-up. The lady with the scarf was hard asleep and the guy was staring off into the same general direction.

Shibuya Mark City

Shibuya, Japan

Seijin Shiki

The Coming of Age Day holiday is held the second Monday in January every year. The holiday is held to welcome everyone whose 20th birthday falls between April 2 of the previous year and April 1 of the current year old into adulthood. How did I stumble upon this? Well in typical Joseph fashion I was wandering around, saw something odd and decided to take a closer look.

This particular Coming of Age Ceremony was held by the city I live in. By and far the girls dressed up in kimono's, while the boys wore suits. There really was no ceremony per say, just a a bunch of new adults talking to their friends.

Hoku Topia

Funny Vehicles

One of the many Campaign Wagons that made Tokyo a very noisy place to live this past summer. The kanji on the side of this van reads, "Don't raise taxes" and "We want fair job hiring practices." Taken in: Okachimachi Station, Japan

The Japanese Armed Services putting on a demonstration in Ueno Park.

Kyu-Furukawa Teien Garden

Oji, Japan

The First Days End

Hiratsuka Beach, Japan

Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is a relay marathon from Tokyo to Hakone, which is held every year during the New Years holiday. The racecourse is about 108km (67 miles) long. The racers themselves are college students from various universities from around Japan.
.............................................I was able to watch the relay marathon as it passed through Hiratsuka. The race is divided up into 5 parts of which the 4th comes through Hiratsuka. The real hard part of the race begins in the 5th leg, when the runners enter the mountains of Hakone.
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While I did not have a chance to see the runners battle the mountain passes, I did get to see the police scuffle with a drunken old man who wandered into the race. Unfortunately it was a cold day and by the time I had taken off my gloves and gotten my camera out the incident was over.

The race is now in its 87th or so year and while it was no amature K-1 fight. It was still an interesting piece of moden Japan to see.

Hiratsuka Beach II

Wait, is that Mt. Fuji way off in the distance? Why, yes. Yes it is.

Coy Fish

Sogo Koen in Hiratsuka, Japan

Hot Dog Suicide

January 1, 2010
The Giant Hot Dog working at an American themed diner, located in Kawasaki's Lazona Shopping Center, was found eaten to death this past Friday. Witnesses reported seeing the hot dog dousing itself with ketchup and mustard seconds before a swarm of pigeons descended upon it.

An American living in Tokyo who witnessed the suicide report that, "It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I mean at first I thought it was some kind of promotion that the diner was putting on. But when that first pigeon showed up, I knew something was wrong."

Though the diner will not comment on the circumstances surrounding the suicide, a Giant Taco who had worked with the Hot Dog was quoted as saying, "I knew he had been having some problems with a few of the local condiments. But I really had no idea that it had gotten to this point."

Kawasaki, Japan

Lazona Shopping Mall

Kawasaki, Japan

Kawasaki, Japan

Kawasaki, Japan

Navi Time

This is an advertisement for a mobile phone navigation service in Tokyo Station. These ad's are plastered all over JR stations and though I don't know why, Mr. Navi has always made me chuckle.