A White Boy in Japan (日本での白人)

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy year of the monkey (2016). Here are a few pictures I snapped while walking around Tokyo. 明けましておめでとうござ...

The koi from Asakusa’s traditional Japanese restaurant. I first met these guys (girls?) nearly ten years ago when they...

The National Diet Building (with unrelated school field trip photo in the foreground). I spent some days researching a...

Picture of the Christmas Market at Hibiya Park. This wooden tower was imported from Germany specifically for the event...

Looking down the famous Takeshita fashion street in Harajuku.

The Wako Building in Ginza is always a stunner. It was one of the locations Godzilla destroyed when he went on his fir...

Not in Ginza, but here is a look at the still new(ish) Skytree in Asakusa. The weather has been clear for the most par...

Thought the snake wrapping around the building was quite nifty!

Ginza Street was all decked out for Christmas with lighted trees lining the avenue.

I had the privilege of giving an invited lecture at the Kyoto International Manga Museum on the influence of manga artists on early Japanese...

Always nice to be back in Kyoto!

The Kyoto International Manga Museum (京都国際マンガミュージアム) building as seen from the outside. I never even knew this place e...

The Phoenix (火の鳥) from Tezuka Osamu’s manga of the same name watches over the entrance to the Manga Museum.

Here’s the poster for our mini-symposium The Hidden Layer: Video Games as Indebted to Comics. My talk was titled “8-bi...

Then I headed off to Tokyo. I always enjoy riding the bullet trains and the yummy o-bento you can buy for the journey.

I’m back in Japan for a short research trip this December and looking to posting some fun pictures and stories. Here is a shot of Mt. Fuji ...

My last full day in Japan was spent visiting Mount Takao. Takaosan is located a little over an hour outside of Tokyo by train and is a nice ...

We took the chairlift up the mountain and hiked down. The ride was pretty fun and made me wish that the chairlift opti...

Here is the view from atop Mount Takao. It was a bit hazy when we went so you couldn't see very far. Word is that on a...

Can you spot all the tiny stone statues hidden in the grass? ANSWER: 5 (I think...)

Here is the adult tengu guarding the top of the mountain. There was also a "child" tengu who looked more lik...

We took a 1.5 hour nature hike down from the top of the mountain. This photo represents the most treacherous part wher...

On the way down we stopped to visit the waterfall. Sadly they had already chained the gate to the small viewing area, forcing us to lo...

I have been staying with my friends in Yokohama for the past week. I had only been to the city two times prior to this trip, so I have been ...

Presenting Yokohama's beautiful skyline as seen from the Minatomirai neighborhood. Included is the Landmark Tower (lef...

A similar view of the skyline taken behind the Akarenga "red brick" warehouse, one of Yokohama's premier tou...

Here is a view of the dock area near the station home to the (formerly) world's tallest ferris wheel and the Nippon Ma...

Yokohama's Landmark Tower used to be the tallest building in all of Japan. Now it is sadly reduced to number two b...

The Minatomirai neighborhood of Yokohama is having a special summer Pokemon campaign in conjunction with the new film....

Here is another installation art from the train station. I call him (her?) Trash Man.