I’m abashed to realize that I am, again, late to my own bash.
Meaning my prompt.
‘Coz I ain’t gonna make it before midnight.
But I needed a break. Alex has finally gone to his dad’s for the weekend, for the second time this year, and I’ve spent most of the day either working or catching up on the things I needed to get done.
Did I get a break? I got a break from the pressure I usually have hanging over me … but to really take a break,
you’d have to bash me over the head and drag me away.
What I need is an honest to goodness vacation.
Somewhere I have no access to social media,
somewhere that the sky is blue, the beach is warm, the sea spread out before me with waves glittering under the sunlight,
somewhere I can close my eyes.
And drift away, without a care in the world.
Hell, I’d even take a dingy hotel room in the middle of a strange city at this rate.
Tokyo is strange.
Why did the angry chicken cross the road? To get away from KFC …?
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As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
1. Make it one sentence.
2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.
3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.
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I like to think of myself as a world traveller, but there are only two places I regularly go – around my own province of Ontario, and Japan.
Yes, I know “expedition” doesn’t start with “X.” I cheat on this letter almost every year. It’s just the way I roll. Apparently also the way I roll is to post when I’m falling asleep, and this entry is no exception. So, tonight, I’m just going to post something really neat about my last trip to Tokyo.
If you were around for my 2014 trip, you might remember a video I posted: the traffic camera at the Shibuya intersection, made famous in the movies Lost in Translation and Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift among others.
Since I stayed a five-minute walk from the intersection last time I visited, I set up a “meeting” with my family at home. I emailed them early one morning, just before I left my hotel room, and had them watch the traffic camera. Although I walked around the intersection in almost every direction, only one screenshot was captured. This was me just before the lights changed–I walked directly across, towards the camera. Apparently it’s surprising that I didn’t hear Alex scream with excitement when Mom waved to him from across the other side of the globe.
I’m beside the lamp post in front of the yellow store front.
The only picture anyone took of me while I was in Japan was taken from 6,447 miles away. That’s one hell of a zoom lens. HA!
Here’s the traffic camera. It’s fun to watch:
***
With just the click of a button, you can have my A to Z Challenge-inspired novelette “All Good Stories” expedited to you! It’s a romantic comedy about two best friends who belong together – Xavier knows it, but Jupiter has her eye on another guy: a shady character named Bob.
Possibly the funniest thing about this picture is the looks I got when I came out of the bathroom stall: I couldn’t turn the shutter sound off on my phone camera.
Care to attempt a caption… or five?
PLEASE click the picture to read the note on the sign.
If you would like to participate, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do,
you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.
NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
1. Make it one sentence.
2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.
3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.
4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!
Originally written and recorded by Siouxsie and the Banshees in 1986, Cities In Dust may arguably be one of the most popular Goth songs of all time. Still haven’t heard it? Well here’s your chance.
I’m so excited to be able to share with you The Mortal’s cover of the song. Sakurai Atsushi, the vocalist, translated the verses into Japanese for his version of it. In my opinion, the arrangement of the song is even better than the original. Add to that the fact that I WAS ACTUALLY AT THE CONCERT in the video:
My name is on the ticket!
and it’s even more awesome. The video was filmed at the NHK Hall in Tokyo, in November, 2015.
Here’s the video (subbed in English), and below are the lyrics.
Courtesy of A-Z Lyrics:
Cities In Dust
Water was running, children were running
You were running out of time
Under the mountain, a golden fountain
Were you praying at the Lares’ shrine?
But oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
But oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
We found you hiding, we found you lying
Choking on the dirt and sand
Your former glories and all the stories
Dragged and washed with eager hands
But oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
But oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
Your city lies in dust
Water was running, children were running
We found you hiding, we found you lying
Water was running, children were running
We found you hiding, we found you lying
Your city lies in dust, my friend
But oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
Hot and burning in your nostrils
Pouring down your gaping mouth
Your molten bodies, blanket of cinders
Caught in the throes
And oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
Oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
Oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
Oh, your city lies in dust, my friend
Your city lies in dust, my friend
Oh, your city lies in dust, my friend…
When I saw Helen’s prompt for this week was the Blues, my mind went directly to one of my favourite Bluesy songs, “Grieve,” by Chachamaru.
Yukihiro “Chachamaru” Fujimura was the reason I went to Japan for the first time, in October of 2005. He was playing lead guitar at the time with a singer named Gackt; I went to two of their concerts when I was there. After the one in Hiroshima, I gathered up my courage and asked one of the crew if I could meet Chacha. Since I wasn’t asking to meet the star attraction of the show, and I told him I’d traveled all the way from Canada just to see the concert, the nice man told me he’d see what he could do. He got on his radio and asked backstage if I could go back. The answer was no, unfortunately. I did, however, have my copy of Chacha’s only solo CD in my purse, so I asked if I could get it signed. My CD disappeared and as I was waiting, the man’s radio beeped and he asked me how to spell my name.
This is what I got back
Basically, my CD cover met the man. I was thrilled. It remains, to this day, one of my most precious possessions.
I’m amazed I found “Grieve” on Youtube after all these years. It’s a fan-made video with pictures of Chacha and the audio of the song. Lyrics, translated to English, to follow.
P.S. Chacha, if you read this, please make another album! I’m still waiting! 😀
Grieve, from the album Air
Music by Fujimura Yukihiro
Lyrics by Nishida Masafumi
Staring at a person passing through
From a wet window
With a drop trickling down it
Holding back those tears in my misty eyes
Some day I’ll wear this far away dream out
Before I knew it, I remembered the lie
The days that the map we drew was ruined
In the rain are repeating
Alone and stricken with downpouring, subsided love
I begin my journey
I hold only to those memories of innocent times
The same wind is blowing on both of us
We go through the same nights
How I love you, oh darling…
Don’t you hear me calling
I’m searching for a person
That I can’t meet a second time
Everyone can hear the song I’m singing
I still don’t want anything
My answer is only the sound of rain
The same wind is blowing on both of us
We go through the same nights
How I love you, oh darling…
Don’t you hear me calling
I’m searching for a person
That I can’t meet a second time
Everyone can hear the song I’m singing
I still don’t want anything
My answer is only the sound of rain
I’m searching for a person
That I can’t meet a second time
Everyone can hear the song I’m singing
I still don’t want anything
My answer is…
For this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge, the prompt is “architechture.” Since I don’t have a lot of fancy tools at my disposal for altering photos, I decided to choose a building and pick it apart. I thought what better place to look than Japan, where aesthetics is everything.
Here’s a picture I took in December of 2014, of the Disney store in the Shibuya section of Tokyo. Click on the pictures for a closer look:
The whole building, for perspective
Who wouldn’t want to go in? Note the sign that says 7F… that means the store is 7 floors high.
Above the entrance The store inside is tiny in square footage. It’s all upwards, via a skinny circular staircase, on which you have to squeeze past the people going the other way.
This is where you come out – the cash registers in most stores in Japan are at the back.
Above the exit is all interesting textures – for no particular reason. There are no windows in the store.
Fancy frontage, but not part of the store. It’s all between the entrance and the exit.
And finally the roof, with the obligatory plants. The Japanese grow things anywhere they can – and it’s all beautiful.
