Arithmetic and Anniversaries (The Walters Come To Tokyo)

Noriko and I got married on June 1st, 2005. She would've preferred May 5th, but we couldn't make the arrangements, in time. It was important for her to have an easy to remember date. Since 5-5-05 had already passed, the best I could come up with was "six minus one equals five." After 5-5-05, Noriko was thinking about waiting a year for June 6th. I had to convince her that no preacher would marry us on that day.

6-1-06 came (rather quickly) and just happened to coincide with the day that Joey, Noriko, and Zoey(sp?) Walters would be in Tokyo. They were visiting from Oklahoma and we couldn't think of a better way to spend our anniversary. Other than seeing us, their primary destination was the Studio Ghibli Museum.

The Walters riding on the bus to Studio Ghibli Museum.

View of the museum door from its rooftop. I don't have much to say about the museum. For one, it was about two months ago. It's a fun place for fans of animation and especially for fans of Miyazake (Spirited Away, Howl's Flying Castle, the upcoming Tales of Earthsea). There's a short animated film that only plays in the museum and several exhibits that revolve around his movies and characters.

Here is my favorite decoration in the whole building. They are the little animated coal balls the boiler room in Spirited Away.

I'm not much of a Tokyo wanderer. I've been two or three times and I'm always awed by its size and sprawl. It very much seems like a city out of Blade Runner and at night, with all its lights I think of the city-planet of Coruscant. I was waiting to meet up with them for a second day of sightseeing when I turned around and saw something straight from those movies:

A famous manga artist designed one of the ferry boats that is open for passage and river cruises. I was quite shocked to turn around and see this futuristic vessel. My first thought was that Tokyo is a city of the future.

The futureboat pushing off from the docks. I was disappointed in the boatman's uniform. I at least expected them to be decked out in some kind of cross between Logan's Run and Buck Rogers.

Homeless people have set up virtual cities along parts of the waterway. They are called "kojiki" which means something like, "Give me food!" Some of hovels have a sense of permanency about them.

We met the cyborg ferry, returning from it's trip upstream. We were on a regular looking boat and I decided it's cooler to see the futureboat underway than to be on it.

This picture shows Shinjuku (I think). I was amazed at the number of people.

I looked more closely and realized, in the background, farther along the sidewalk, were MORE people! That may have been the most people I've ever seen, in one place. It was even worse than the time I went to the Muskogee Civic Center, when they had there Christmas $100,000 Drawing (See, you had to be there, in person, to win. Since then, they've changed the attendance stipulation in their contest).

Here is a shot from Shibuya. There were even more people, here!

I leave you with another of my pieced together panoramic pictures. This one shows Shibuya.