Tommy Lee Jones Is Your Boss

They have a lot of vending machines here in Tokyo. You can't even walk a few blocks without seeing another one. You can find a variety of things in these vending machines. Water, soda, coffee, hot coffee, tea, a weird jello drink, cigarettes, etc.

One particular popular brand of coffee is called 'Boss Coffee'. I found it interesting because they have selected Tommy Lee Jones as their spokes person. Not only can you find this picture I have displayed on vending machines, you can also find it on buses, buildings, and billboards.

Every time I see one of these pictures I smile to myself because it reminds me all to much of the movie 'Lost in Translation'. If you haven't seen it, in this movie Bill Murray plays an famous movie star who has come to Japan to do a model shoot for a brand of alcohol. From that photo shoot, you see the pictures posted up on buses, buildings, and billboards. So I like to pretend that that movie actually happened. Except instead of Bill Murray we have Tommy Lee Jones.

In the movie, the leading female role is played by Scarlett Johansson. But since Bill Murray has been replace, she has to be replaced too. In my mind I have replaced her with Natalie Portman. Which I think is a good trade.

HIDDEN PLACES

This is a photo of Akasaka. Back in Salt Lake City there is a small sushi shop with the same name. I never knew that Akasaka was a place in Tokyo, so I thought I would check it out. I didn't walk around all of Akasaka so maybe there was something extremely cool I missed, but for the most part I was disappointed.

It seemed to be nothing but tall business buildings. Nothing I can really go around and look at cool stuff to buy. But this seems to happen in random places all over Tokyo, but if you were to turn around in the picture above you would see this place.

A shrine right in the middle of the city. They have lots of these shrines scattered all over Tokyo. The trick is you have to find them. This shrine was on top of a hill and surrounded by trees. It could almost make you forget that you're in the middle of a metropolis.

Here's another shrine in the middle of Shinjuku. Shinjuku reminds me a lot of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Except where Bourbon Street is just one street, Shinjuku is a large development in the city. Shinjuku is kind of sleezy with it's strip clubs, host bars, and scattered trash everywhere. But in the middle of all that you find this shrine and somehow all that city noise seems to disappear and you are transported into another place.

These are only two places but there are more. As I walk around I hope to discover them and take pictures to share.

Yoyogi-Koen

Yoyogi Park is much like Central Park in New York City. In that it's a giant park in the middle of the city. I've only been to Central Park once and I don't remember much of it. But I can tell you what I do remember involves me running around trying to hit a squirrel with an umbrella.

Yoyogi-Koen is huge. Dare I say bigger then Central Park. It's a great place to go on the weekends. People brings their dogs, bring frisbees, throw a baseball around. People even practice their dances there or practice Kendo or Karate. It was fun to walk around and see what people were doing. Not to mention that it's a very pretty place.


-Blake