{"id":196,"date":"2009-09-13T14:15:50","date_gmt":"2009-09-13T13:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morbidcornflakes.ch\/thduggies_blog\/?p=196"},"modified":"2009-09-13T14:15:50","modified_gmt":"2009-09-13T13:15:50","slug":"supernova-and-milky-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/2009\/supernova-and-milky-way","title":{"rendered":"Supernova and Milky Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m in Japan again, and it’s another short trip, where the total travel time isn’t much less than the time spent in the country.\u00c2\u00a0 I neither slept much on the planes (Z\u00c3\u00bcrich-Bangkok-Tokyo)\u00c2\u00a0nor last night in the hotel, but I was surprisingly awake this morning when I got up for church.\u00c2\u00a0 I went to Tokyo Union Church<\/a> this time, instead of out to Chiba, because I hoped to meet Mindy and her fabulous engagement ring – I mean, her fabulous Ryotaro.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I got there with some time to spare, even though a\u00c2\u00a0film crew stopped pedestrian traffic for a while just in front of the toy store, where I encountered the Rubix 360\u00c2\u00b0<\/a>, which is like a cross between the Rubix cube and those annoying put-the-ball-in-the-hole coordination games.\u00c2\u00a0 From the film\u00c2\u00a0crew I learned that (a) the crowded street scenes are shot\u00c2\u00a0with a telephoto lens, with the crowds removed where the actors\u00c2\u00a0are, and using the background crowds down the street for the crowd effect, and that (b) one need not be a good actor to make it on TV.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

After church I stayed on for the young adults group, where I wasn’t the only newcomer.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know how I would have dealt with a newcomers group for a small group study – I found it somewhat awkward to answer personal questions in front of total strangers – but it seemed to work alright for most participants.\u00c2\u00a0 At least one person wasn’t a Christian, which surprised me a little.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe Asians are more likely to actively explore another faith than Westerners.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I went shopping afterwards.\u00c2\u00a0 Harajuku was crowded, and a store opening with the attendant lines at the entrance didn’t help.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Although my Harajuku source was out of black toe socks, the girl there pointed me to their Ikebukuro branch, which I found without too much difficulty.\u00c2\u00a0 They had the right socks, and that’s where the galactic references begin.\u00c2\u00a0 I suppose it’s appropriate that in the Sunshine city complex I came across the band ChoShinSung<\/a> (Supernova) greeting fans, and snuck in a photo before some frantic guy came to tell me it wasn’t allowed.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

From there I went across the street to a supermarket to purchase a number of Japanese food items.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d been asked to buy green tea, which brought me to the second floor, where to my surprise I found a couple cans of Ginga Kogen beer<\/a>, which translates into Milky Way Plateau beer.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the only Japanese wheat beer I can think of and probably my favorite Japanese beer.\u00c2\u00a0 I support good quality, so I bought a few.\u00c2\u00a0 (I drink responsibly, so I don’t expect to see stars…)\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

In closing, a few pictures of Tokyo, and one from the Munich airport from my last Asian trip.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ADHD
\nHere’s hoping the pilot isn’t what the plane\u00c2\u00a0ID says.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mydentity
\nI thought the ad was clever – and subtly frightening.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"10
\nNote how the rules (where they make quantifiable sense) are contravened by the mannequin’s garb.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Fashion
\nStanding in line to shop for clothes.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"No
\nHarajuku cracks down on crime – and smorking.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ChoShinSung
\nThe girl in red got in line about five times, to the amusement of the bystanders.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Krispy
\nOh, look, another person who must have stood in line<\/a> today.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The
\nI don’t know of many other places with as clear a view of the Tokyo tower.\u00c2\u00a0 I can also see a part of the Rainbow Bridge (not on the picture).\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m in Japan again, and it’s another short trip, where the total travel time isn’t much less than the time spent in the country.\u00c2\u00a0 I neither slept much on the planes (Z\u00c3\u00bcrich-Bangkok-Tokyo)\u00c2\u00a0nor last night in the hotel, but I was surprisingly awake this morning when I got up for church.\u00c2\u00a0 I went to Tokyo Union Church this time, instead of out to Chiba, because I hoped to meet Mindy and her fabulous engagement ring – I mean, her fabulous Ryotaro.\u00c2\u00a0 I got there with some time to spare, even though a\u00c2\u00a0film crew stopped pedestrian traffic for a while just in front of the toy store, where I encountered the Rubix […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}