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In keeping pace with Japans new "Cool
Biz" campaign, my next quarterly meeting with Japans
Ministry Of Environment is having a strict dress code
enforced: No ties, and casual.
Cool! (pun intended)
I'm not even going to wear a jacket. I could really
get used to this...
What is "Cool Biz" you ask? Read all about
it at this
link.
Just between you, me and about 1,400 other people that
view this site daily, I don't think this is going to
make much of a dent in Japans targeted reduction of
greenhouse gas emmisions as directed by the Kyoto Protocol.
(Sadly the United States has refused to even sign
the document, but that is another story all together...)
But even a small step in the right direction is better
than a step in the wrong one.
Even without the (miniscule) benefit to the environment,
I still like the "Cool Biz" idea.
you see, there is nothing worse that slogging through
the summer heat or riding the train like so many sardines
wearing multiple layers of dark wool with a silk noose
tied around your neck.
Well, actually, I can think of a few things
that are worse, but they all involve dentistry being
performed with large industrial tools, without the benefit
of modern pharmacology.
There is also a side benefit to all this "Cool
Biz"....uh.."business."
For years a lot of women in Japan have complained (among
other things...) about how cold offices are. But
now that the thermostats have been cranked up to a toasty
28 degrees C (that's 82.4 deg F for the metrically
challenged in the crowd) they should be able to
put away their lap blankets and space heaters. (At
least until next winter anyway...)
--
In other news, (and with a blatent ripoff of a
famous line from the movie Waynes World)
We're not (not Webby) Worthy!
We're not (not Webby) Worthy!
Yes, it seems that 4 our of five dentists recommend
daily doses of Sushicam. We (I mean that in the
schitzophrenic sense) have been deemed a site of
at least moderate appeal by the 9th
Annual Webby Awards. Sushicam is one up from the
bottom of the page. They listed each in alphabetical
order and I would have made the very bottom of the list
on the "S" page were it not for an acronym
that stole the last spot from us.
Yes, we shamelessy entered ourselves
in this years
competition. We didn't really think that we
would get selected for any type of recognition, so this
came as a pleasent surprise.
--
Recently I made my first forray into the back alleys
of Nakano. Quite an eclectic little place. Plenty of
small shops, bars, and restaurants squirreled away in
back alleys all haphazard-like, in a Salvadore Dali
architect meets urban-fire-trap-pyromaniacs-dream kind
of way.
The place has no zoning watsoever. Just a random mix
of places all jumbled together like so many pick-up-sticks.
I think that the last time Godzilla came through Tokyo
he gave Nakano a massive stomping and the place has
yet to fully recover.
It is a photographers paradise though, with plenty
of places to explore.
Narrow alleys and streets with buildings reaching up
and crowding out the sky. It is one place where you
get a real sense of the 3 dimensional residential density
of Tokyo.
What I mean is this: In a typical building you may
have a small soba shop occupying the first floor. The
second and third floors will be occupied by the soba
shop owners family. So as you walk by and smell the
fresh soba being made you also hear the kids through
the upstairs window, or see the wife hanging the laudry
out to dry. (Or if she has had a particularly hard day,
you see the wife hanging the kids out to dry...)
The aged wooden storefronts are like so many massive
trees lining a foreast path. The laundry (or kids)
hung out to dry from second and third story windows
is the multicolored foliage of these urban "trees".
As you enter this warren of alleys and byways the sound
of surface street traffic quickly fades. You wander
for a little while, soaking it all in, and pretty quickly
you are smack dab in the middle of a place that no car
can enter. A place where the most advanced form of locomotion
is a noodle shop delivery scooter (complete with spring
dampened hanging rack) and pedestrians magically part
whenever they hear the "Ching-Ching" of a
bicycle bell coming up behind them.
Just the kind of place that is perfect for a lens with
a really wide aperture so you can get some natural light
shots as the place starts to come alive at night.
I have got to go back there again when I have some
more time.
--
In technical news, I added an updated RSS feeder from
the good folks over at feedburner. It is located on
the top right hand side of the main intro page and should
make it a little easier, for those interested, to sign
up for the Sushicam RSS feed. It will also allow us
all to see just how many people sign up for this drivel.
I activated it late yesterday and I see a couple of
people have already plugged in and are using it.
Comment 32
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