What. #wordswithfriends

Sigh. #wordswithfriends

My favorite area of the Container Store — hundreds of colorful boxes, some tiny enough to store a single Cheerio.

Satou Fumiya, one of Japan’s top comic artists, lends her drawing to a public education campaign. I admire the sense of civic duty.

Attention to detail in the gift shop.

Frontierland coexisting with Cinderella’s Castle.

There are just a few things I truly love at Disneyland; this relatively subtle gag in Toontown is one.

Neatly parked strollers outside the line for a ride.

I bought a cup of coffee. The lady put it in a bag.

Being in Japan in the days surrounding Barack Obama’s inauguration, I got to hear a lot about him from another country’s perspective. The general sentiment was, as you can see here, excitement and anticipation.

Or, if you prefer, “Merge”.

Shopping in Shibuya, we saw this giant 20th Century Boys movie advertisement.

We visited a Zen garden and enjoyed the tea ceremony. This was one of the most pleasant experiences of my life. With everything from cereal to wastebaskets getting branded as “Zen”, it’s easy to forget that it means more than “kinda naturey and relaxed”.

This kitty pretty much had the run of the temple grounds.

Big huge pickup trucks are the norm for many areas of the USA. But to see one in Japan is photo-worthy.

I am not sure what this rock is for. But it is important enough to have a convenient handle.

This is, I believe, at Hokokuji temple in Kamakura. But it’s been 14 months.

In the middle of a hyper-dense urban area is this fossil park, where you can see the layers of sea creatures that used to live there.

20th Century Boys, our beloved comic series by Urasawa Naoki, was made into a movie. I heard it was awful.

Part six in an ongoing series, “Kabukichou from above”. 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007. Every geeky trip to Shinjuku gets more focused, as I care less and less about the trends of the day and instead hunt down specific items. Even so, I ended up with five artbooks, ten games, and 13 comic tankoubons.

Game shops have these poster-saturated stairwells between their many floors. This one is rather tame. They usually make me wonder at how much product there is out there, probably dreck but just maybe good enough to be my next Sakura Taisen or Ar tonelico.

Walking the huge main corridor of Shinjuku Station always brings me back to 2002. One of my favorite places in the world.

It was a good dinner, and somehow I managed to have a conversation about literal interpretation of the Bible.

On the way to the house, we took a little detour to see the view of Mt. Fuji, one of the better ones in Tokyo. Aunt K told me I could get a clearer shot if I moved over a bit, but I wanted to capture the characteristically Tokyoesque utility poles too.

Oh yeah, big dining table get!

Absurdly high-qual chaise GET

Wait a second. That is not how dish antennas work.

Whoa, they hot-swapped in some new parking stall lines around my car.

1. So awesome to see the Exotic font in a modern game. 2. CONGRATURATIONS!