I love Tokyo. Amazing food everywhere, huge subway and train networks, a great photography gallery, an incredible interactive technology & science museum, bright lights, ultra-fresh sushi, tangled streets with cables and infrastructure everywhere, rain, umbrella locks, and the omnipresent Tommy Lee Jones-fronted drink vending machines.
One of the most amazing ideas I've seen recently is the idea of creating a fake bus stop outside homes for the elderly so that when the patients with Alzheimers, which destroys the shorter-term memory that could tell them there is no old family home to go to attempt to go there, see a bus stop outside and still have the longer-term memories that tell them that bus stops are how they get to the old family home and so wait there, they can simply be picked up from the bus stop by the care staff – since the bus company who provided the fake bus stop will never stop there and pick them up. (Via the always-excellent Bldgblog)
Janne posted this amazing video of a very carefully set up illusion where the marbles appear quite clearly to run uphill. Good work Koukichi Sugihara!
My last stop on the way back from Europe last year was Japan, where I had a few days and spent one on a day trip out to Nikko, a smallish town with several temple complexes and beautiful stands of forest. I was lucky to be there at that time and caught it in autumn as the maple leaves were all lovely orange shades and despite it absolutely hosing down – I got soaked through – came away with some beautiful memories and pics!
Expat John Clarke does a sterling job explaining the BP oil spill response:
After we visited Parc Güell and La Sagrada Familia we went to see the two amazing Gaudí buildings just a couple of blocks away from each other in Eixample, the district in Barcelona we were staying in (good choice Mary!). They are both incredible buildings, utterly unlike the conventional boxes we're used to, and Casa Batlló in particular is a great example of designing a place to suit the way people want to live in it.
I'm a Wellington, New Zealand-
Need to get in touch? Try me at my public email address, or by phone at
