Photos of Engrish! (1 of 3)
Engrish... what is engrish? Engrish.com defines it as the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design. English, as well as French and German, is used as a design element in Japanese products and advertising to give them a modern look and feel (or just to "look cool"). Well my friends, I have returned to the states with a bounty of engrish photos. Roughly 50 of them. Seeing as that's way too many to post, I have selected 18 of them for your viewing pleasure. Many or all of these (as well as some that won't be pictured here) will be sent in to Engrish.com to add to their growing collection. Don't expect any of them to show up soon as they have plenty of engrish to keep their daily updates going, but if any of mine make the cut, I'll let you all know. So without further adieu (since I know some of you have been expecting this ever since I left for Japan), here's part 1 in a 3-part series of my photo collection of engrish.


A jewelry store in a Tokyo shopping mall. I suppose this really helps foreigners feel welcome.


"Hotman," the new superhero with stunning good looks? Or just a bathroom supply store?


A McDonald's ad for the McRib sandwich. It seems the McRib is not for the faint at heart.


"Fiberwig: Happy infinite romances occur in a newborn oasis. Wink your future!"


The ad campaign for the shinkansen (Japanese bullet train). Grace wanted to stea--*ahem* borrow one of these posters.


From a commercial playing on a screen in the train.

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Adam, Beth, Fiona, and me (Grace took the photo) on my last night in the land of the rising sun... in a Brazillian restaurant, of all places.


Ruth of course decided to show up fashionably late (by an hour and a half). As for those of you not pictured, Natalie, Stuart, Lewis, Alice, Scott, Eric, and Jeff, I wish the best of luck to you all, and thanks for the great memories. And a special domo arigato gozaimasu to my dear sister Grace for letting me mooch off of her apartment and wallet for a month. :)


Sayonara, Korea! Er... anyung, I guess. Whatever. I was only there for 4 hours and never even left Incheon Airport.


Alas, 11 hours later, the City of Angels. Kinda looks like a big smoggy circuitboard from up here.

Posted by Bryan @ 6:18 PM -

Photos from Ueno, Japan!
Ueno... a old town in the middle of nowhere between Osaka/Kyoto and Nagoya. So what makes Ueno so frigg'n awesome? It is the home of the ninja! 'Nuff said.


The Ninja Museum of Iga-ryu. The museum tour begins with exactly what you see here: what looks like a typical Japanese farmhouse. Ninjas were assassins for hire and had to live in complete secrecy. This particular residence was inhabited by a ninja named Taroujirou. Every room has a number of hidden devices in case of a surprise attack, including revolving walls, trick doors, underground passages, a hidden lookout place, and a weapon compartment under the floorboards.


A demonstration of ninja weaponry. This guy, as you can see, is slicing through bamboo like butter with a katana. I was lucky as hell to catch a snapshot of the blade as it passed through.


More from the ninja demonstration. The guy to the left is armed with a ninja-tou (sword) and the guy to the right is attacking with a kusari-gama (sickle with weighted chain). It's interesting to note that most ninja weaponry was adapted from farming tools as most ninjas took up farming to hide their identity.


Shiruken (throwing stars) and kama (sickles) stuck to a wall. These were thrown from all the way across the stage. What amazes me is how all three sickles were thrown spinning and yet they landed perfectly. These guys are amazing.


Iga-Ueno Castle. Constructed in 1611 by Takatora Todo, the castle boasts the highest stone walls in Japan, some 30 meters in height. It's really pretty in the falling snow... something you'd notice in the full image before I shrank the resolution to fit it in the blog.


Welcome aboard the Ninja Express! No seriously, the trains that arrive at Ueno are painted like this, pink female ninjas with enormous eyelashes and ninja stars at the back. I got to ride this one back home to Kuwana.

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Photos from Nagoya, Japan! (UPDATED)
Nagoya... Japan’s third largest city was flattened by Allied bombs in World War II. Consequently, there really isn’t much to see here as most of the historical landmarks were destroyed in the air raids, and thus Nagoya isn’t exactly a hotspot for tourism. Nevertheless, I was there to see what had survived the gruesome war... with camera in hand.


JR Nagoya Station Twin Towers Building. If you ever arrive to Nagoya by train and step out of Nagoya Station, look up. I only saw this building the third time I was in Nagoya.


Some really big spike-shaped sculpture thingy in front of the JR Nagoya Station. Moving along.


The southwest and southeast watchtowers of Nagoya Castle. Nagoya Castle was built in 1612 as a stronghold for the Tokugawa shogunate and is quite heavily fortified. You can’t see it in this image, but directly in front of the high stone walls is a moat dug deep into the ground. There are trap doors under the eaves of these towers meant to drop stones on attackers. Inside the castle, downward-pointing spearheads adorn the eaves.


The small and main donjon (towers) of Nagoya Castle. The array of stones to the left mark the former site of the Hommaru Palace, which would be the largest structure of the castle had it not been set aflame during the war. So yeah, that’s about it for Nagoya.

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Photos from Nara, Japan!
Nara... the first official capital of Japan before it was moved to Kyoto and the home of both the world’s oldest and the world’s largest wooden buildings. Pretty impressive stuff.


The Daibutsuden, the main hall of Todaiji Temple. This is the largest wooden structure in the world. It’s so big that the cost of its construction crippled Japan’s economy and led to a peasant’s revolt. It’s almost literally breathtaking (is anything really?) to stand in front of this thing. I mean, look at the size of the people in this photograph. Fucking incredible. Anyhoo, housed inside the great Daibutsuden is...


The Daibutsu or the Great Buddha of Nara, the largest bronze Buddha ever cast, completed in 749 and weighing in at 165 tons. I like to call him Big Ass Buddha. Also very huge and equally as incredible. How huge you might ask (since you really can’t tell from the picture)? Well, a skinny person should be able to fit through the Buddha’s nostril. Yeah. Big.


Deer in Nara. You’ll find deer running amok all over Nara. You can’t walk down a street without getting a doe-eyed look from some hungry... does. In fact, one of the males head-butted me as I walked by. Thank God they don’t have antlers this time of year, not like during...


Mating season. This gist of this sign (thanks to a translation from Grace) is that during the months of May-July, you shouldn't touch or feed the females. That could lead to disastrous consequences from antler-toting hormone-heavy jealous bucks.


The five-storey pagoda at Kofukuji Temple. Built in 710, it is Nara’s best-known landmark and the world’s second largest pagoda. The tallest is in Kyoto and is apparently only taller by like 3 centimeters or something absurdly small.

Posted by Bryan @ 3:38 PM -

Photos from Kyoto, Japan!
Kyoto... the former capital of Japan, a site of world cultural heritage, and a city of such historical importance that the Allies left it intact while they flattened the rest of Japan with air raids and nuclear weapons. The wars of the samurai of the late Tokugawa era spilled blood throughout the streets of this city. It also made it one hell of a tourist attraction. Welcome to Kyoto now.


The Kyoto Imperial Palace. Or at least part of it. Emperors ruled Japan from this enormously spanning structure. Tokugawa shoguns stole power from them at the end of the 16th century and this grand palace has now been rendered a tourist attraction. Note broken lightbulb to the right. The emperors must be turning in their graves.


Kinkakuji Temple (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion). Yes, that's right, golden. The second and third floors of this temple have been completely covered in gold leaf. First built in 1394, this golden suckah would be over 600 years old if a disgruntled Buddhist priest hadn't set fire to the original in 1950, in which it was rebuilt 5 years later.


Ninomaru Palace in Nijo Castle. The Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan for centuries from this 401-year-old castle before power was restored to the emperor in 1867. The entire complex of Nijo Castle is really frigg'n huge and highly fortified with a moat, giant stone walls, and hidden spying rooms. If that isn't fortified enough, all the floors in the corridors of the castle squeak so as to warn of approaching assassins, like ninjas and stuff.


A structure within the Heian Shrine. I like the color scheme of this place. Note the strings with tons of little papers tied to them. Japanese people buy these papers (200 yen each, roughly 2 bucks), write wishes on them, and tie them to these strings or to trees at Shinto shrines in hopes that Shinto gods will grant them. In the meantime... profit! ^_^ Gotta love Japan.


A view of Kyoto from the main gate of Kiyomizudera Temple. Fucking beautiful, no? :)


Alas, Kyoto Tower. Not nearly as tall or pretty as Tokyo Tower. Actually I think it's kinda ugly.

Posted by Bryan @ 4:07 PM -

Photos from Tokyo, Japan!
Tokyo... the current capital of Japan, the epicenter of the modern Eastern world, and the world's most populous urban region by a margin of nearly 10 million. Yep, that's right. Over 31 million people live in the Tokyo region. It's a pretty goddamn crowded place. Let's take a look, shall we?


The Asakusa Kannon Temple. Here is where you toss a hundred yen in a box and pray to some Shinto gods to try to convince them to make your wishes come true in hopes that they'll care.


A street in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. Famed for its advanced electronics, Akihabara is home to a plethora of electronics shops, where you can find 8mm-thick digicams, GPS-powered road map devices, 2-megapixel camera phones with LCD mirror technology, and other gadgets and gizmos a decade ahead of everyone else in the world. Come here if you want to know what the future is like; it sure as hell looks pretty damn cool to me.


Tokyo Tower. At 333 meters, Tokyo Tower is the world's highest self-supporting iron tower, even taller than the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. From the main observatory, one can see the endless skyscraper metropolis of Tokyo. It looks cool at night when all the city is lit up, although all my long exposure photos turned out a tad blurry so I don't have any to show you.


A shot from inside the Meiji Shrine, built in honor of Emperor Meiji and his Empress Shoken, bombed in 1945, rebuilt in 1958. Note the flock of drunken Japanese businessmen and businesswomen. These people are everywhere in Tokyo, walking around, flooding crosswalks, running from Godzilla...


The twin towers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices. Essentially where all the deliberating by the government officials of Japan takes place. A Capitol Building or White House of Japan, if you will. Tourists are allowed to visit the first, second, the 45th floors only. I wonder what happens in all the other floors.


And here's a view from 45th floor.

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