Hunkabutta Archives
01.16.02

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Here I am on the Yamanote train again. I'm on my way home from work. Just me, my trusty IBM ThinkPad laptop computer, and about two million stone-faced, impeccably-dressed Asian strangers.

No matter how many times I use this computer in unusual locations, I don't think that the 'neat-o' factor will ever wear off.

Have you ever wished that your life was like a novel? Well it is. A 1950's futuristic sci-fi book.

We live in a truly wondrous age. Don't forget it, and never take it for granted.

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In other news, I've decided to coin a new term: Butta. Its an adjective meaning 'cool', 'hip', 'great', that sort of thing.

Let's see our new word in action...

There have been a lot of butta sites posted in my dynamic links page lately.

You should all check out frankieboots.com. He takes great pictures and posts a new little gallery every few days, and the best part is that he sets music to each gallery (note: if you have a slow connection you might not want to wait for the music). He doesn't give much information on the pictures, but if you check the title bar at the top of the window it often gives you a clue as to the location of the photos. My favourite is the derelict smallpox hospital.

Another butta site is documentedlife. It's an autobiographical adventure structured heavily around yearly photos. It also goes into the author's genealogy. Very well written and put together.

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(In other site news, here is where, unbeknownst to me, my sassy songbird wife Karen has broken into my code and is inserting this paragraph. What a smart cookie!)


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01.14.02

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It's Monday and here in Japan it's a national holiday -- a three-day weekend. I don't know why it's a holiday, I think they just chose the day arbitrarily. Like Canada, Japan tries to have at least one three-day weekend a month.

Just in case you're wondering where I am right now, I'll tell ya -- I'm in the Narita Airport cafeteria. Jack and Karen should be arriving in about 45 minutes. Their plane was delayed for an hour so I came here.

The cafeteria looks surprisingly like any Denny's around the world, the only difference is that people are using chopsticks and wearing fine-looking clothing. Not a beer belly hanging over the lip of greasy track pants in sight. No three-year-old runners covered with paint from last year's renovations to be seen. Yes, people certainly take care of their appearance in Japan.

I, on the other hand, am unshaven, wearing army pants with a small hole in the right leg, construction boots, and Karen's black hoody which says DISSENT on the front. I am surprisingly rough and threatening looking if I do say so myself. And just think, if I were back in Canada I'd just be another Joe-anybody coming out of the doughnut store getting into my pick-up truck. But here in Japan, I'm something much more. I am ominous.

Yes, that's my take on things. What in one country is 'slack-dressed-beer-slob' is in another country 'big-rough-looking-stranger'. It's kind of empowering, don't you think?

Anyway, time to go to the gate. They should be here soon.


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01.12.02

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Only two more days until Jack and Karen come home. I'm itchy with anticipation.

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Today's pictures have a night-time theme and a streetsy feel.


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01.10.02

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The pictures in today's post were taken in December, about a week before we went back to Canada.

Normally I'm not a big fan a graffiti, but the sheer size and scope of the murals around Sakura-Gicho train station in Yokohama are in a class all their own.

The station's tracks are on a raised platform that runs parallel to a major road. All along the base of the platform, for about a kilometer, is mural after mural of graffiti art. Of course, it seems that this graffiti was sanctioned, if not commissioned, so it lacks that bad-boy-vandalism quality that graffiti usually has. The plus side of this though it that some of the artists obviously took their time while painting and there are a lot of really high-quality pieces.

I took over 100 photos that day, and my intention was to stitch them all together and let you walk the length (actually only half the length) on the scene. Unfortunately, the software that I thought could do this for me actually can't. So, you're stuck with a few still shots of some of the cooler pieces that were tucked in corners and such, and a few smaller sections of the kilometer-long mural stitched together.

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In other news, I officially stopped looking in the mirror because I got so fat over the holidays I can't stand the sight of myself. Thanks for nothing mom....

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