Japanese Giant Salamander

The conditions were very bad for taking pictures, but you get a sense of the size from the head in the foreground.

the eyes are specks

I think I first became aware of the Japanese Giant Salamander through the 1983 Guinness Book of World Records. It was, and is, the world's largest amphibian by a huge margin, they max out at just under 5 feet in length. On Saturday, M (he is Japanese but lived in Buffalo for 8 years) and I went to Ueno park in Tokyo to see the cherry blossoms. He informed me that the Ueno Zoo had Giant Salamanders on display, and we both decided it was worth going, despite the fact that it was probably the zoo's busiest day of the year. I was not disappointed. It is one thing to read about a 4' plus salamander, it is quite another to actually see it. It is not so much the length that is shocking but the overall volume and features; the huge mute head, the flaccidly phallic body, the specks for eyes, the wide gummy mouth. You get the feeling that you are looking into the very distant past when large amphibians rule the earth. The idea of stepping on one of these in a mountain stream is horrifying.

This picture comes from here.

An Interesting Weekend

I had an interesting weekend that included cherry blossoms, a parasite museum and a Giant Japanese Salamander. More later, pictures here.

Turn of the Century Japanese Toy Design

There is an interesting set of images of turn of the century Japanese toy design at BibliOdyssey. They link to a large archive of images here. For the greatest Japanese children's television program about a rageful red octopus go here.

Portrait of a School

cataloguing different kinds of tape (grade 4)

clock (grade 4)

Emergency exit button (grade 5)

Umbrellas

kindergartner's photo of blue

Today is the end of my first week of working with the students of the YMCA Tokyo International School. So far the project is going pretty much as planned, although Mr. Ed (the art teacher) and myself are constantly making adjustments. The basic concept presented to the students was that we are going to try to create a portrait of their school by looking at all of the little mundane things that make up the physical contents of the building. Each child is to document, through drawing or painting, four instances of a specific physical object found in the school, (it's a long list, it includes things like; umbrellas, tape dispensers, pencils, buttons, plants, faucets, chairs, etc.). The assignments were decided upon by group discussion with each class. The project will culminate with each student gluing their four best drawings or paintings, of their assigned subject on a 25x25cm board. All of the boards will be hung together somewhere in the school. I think the results will be pretty interesting. The very small children, kindergarten and 1st grade, are too young to handle the drawing so we gave them cameras and had them shoot a specific shape or color. The results can be very abstract.

Looking Around the School

Some Recent Purchases

A panda in a bowl of soup

Cross section of a cow

A gendered block of tofu

Ball of string samurai

I am not an aficionado or collector of Japanese toys, but I do like them a lot. I have been buying the small charms that people attach to their cell phones. The best stuff comes in capsules from small vending machines, the price ranges from $1 to $3 dollars and you never get the one you are hoping for. I plan on bringing a sack of these home.

More Tokyo Images

More Tokyo images at Flickr.

Turning 35 in Tokyo

Today is my 35th birthday (it is already the 24th here but this post is going up on the 23rd EST). I am a bit alarmed to be at the mid-point of my 30s, but that's the way it goes. I'm in Tokyo to do an art project with the students of an international elementary school. The classes are taught in English and the student body is composed of Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indian children (ages range from 4 to 12). Today was my introduction to the students, I gave them a short, simplified Power Point presentation of my work and outlined the project I have in mind for them. I was not sure if they would have a frame of reference for the Stray Shopping Cart pictures but they howled with laughter at the first one and then continued to do so for each following image. Clearly they were enjoying making noise more than they were truly amused, but I was a better than expected reaction. During the question and answer period a tiny little Kindergartner in the front row had his hand raised and seemed desperate to ask me a question. His question turned out to be "Who is your friend?" The kids sang Happy Birthday, which was nice. It was also funny when the song got to my name which they had all forgotten.

The images above are from yesterday. Matt and I went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku. We did a lot of walking and ended up in Akihabara, the center of Otaku culture. We spent a couple hours going though stores that sell a mind bending variety of anime related toys and models. I will have more to say about that later.

I am adding daily to my Tokyo Flickr set HERE.

Tokyo / Second Half of First Day