ソ運dsおf手ぇ四ty - sounds of the city
The local train to Tokyo sounds EXACTLY like the intro whine of Killer Queen every time it pulls into a station.
The Phillip Glass music from Koyannisqatsi is either sampled or used by the Tokyo subway system; manic electronic keyboards telling you to get a wriggle on.
They also play bird calls throughout the underground; suppose the users aren't chirpy enough by themselves.
Starbucks plays jazz-lite versions of Marvin Gaye.
In Yoyogi park there are various live bands complete with drum kits and sound-systems; they play next to the sign prohibiting unsocial noise-making. Drummers play in a big group in the middle. Guys and gals in hip-hop attire play badminton. Students play frisbee. A large group practice an elaborate sword-fighting sequence; looks like they're a theatre group training for a Kurosawa epic. Violinist, accordionist and guitarist play wandering across the grass. Close behind solitary singers/poets/story-tellers preach to no-one.
This week I got a late Valentines card with the message "I'm always thinking of you" signed in undecipherable Japanese left on my desk. Before I got the chance to embarrass myself by asking what it said, one of the lady-teachers came to explain it was from all of them.
Also this week, one of my male students leaned out the window as I left school and yelled "See you darling."
posted by Jyon-sensei at 1:27 pm
2 Comments:
I'm familiar with the adage: ask a silly question, get a silly answer... but who is the guy in the dark red costume with the ears??
I also want to know what it said on the red-framed walkway, what the brown paper tags are for and what's going on in the picture that looks like a bamboo standpipe from Wednesday's post... but the guy with the ears really begged the question the most.
Oh and the capsule hotel reminds me of either a. a laundrette or b. the set for the song "shuffle off to buffalo" in 42nd Street (set in a sleeper train, but with little curtains that the chorus girls put their heads through to sing a line)! In any case I'm sure it's a great cure for taphephobia!
He's one of the funky monkey babys.
Don't know what it says on the gates; they're typical gates used at the entrance to temples, so probably the name of the temple or some kind of pryer-chant I'd imagine.
The brown tags are wood; they're prayer tablets; people leave their wishes for happiness and such written on them with a donation to the temple.
The bamboo water fountain is common; it's also used at the entrance to temples so that visitors can cleanse temselves before prayer. Some are used for drinking too.
Also, my mistake, the whining sound the train makes isn't from Killer Queen; it's from Play the Game.
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