matt's pictures

in search of food and other things

So, after we exited the TeamLab building, we were pretty hungry and the building next to it was kind of a mall, so we wandered in in search of food. The mall was a little weird, oddly empty, but I have no idea what qualifies as normal there. The whole thing was like they’d seen the inside of an Olive Garden once, described it to their designer, and said “Go nuts on it.” Faux aging paint jobs, fake marble, tile floors, the whole deal, but executed with this precision and workmanship that made it kind of alien?

Posted by matt on 2019-05-23T07:22:17Z GMT

teamlab borderless

Projections and lights and mirrors. Interactive, sometimes. I can’t say it was a place made for instagram, in the vein of the Museum of Ice Cream, since it was kind of difficult to photograph in all that dark, projector filled space. Still, neat. I can tell that the place was designed so that you really had to see what the creators wanted you to see.

Anyway. Working on trying to find financing to buy another Leica. Shooting with it doesn’t endear me to it, but working on these files sure does. I don’t know how, exactly, to make this work, because consumer financing at the point of sale has ridiculous interest rates; highway robbery by another name. If I had a business entity, it’s possible I could lease it, and that’s a bit more reasonable. Might look into that a bit more.

Posted by matt on 2019-05-22T07:16:38Z GMT

tokyo at night

So, after the robots, we came out and it was nighttime, and I don’t really remember what happened. I think we probably walked somewhere and got some food and went back to the hotel. The pictures seem to indicate we walked through Shinjuku some more, getting closer and closer to the hotel.

Posted by matt on 2019-05-20T08:44:49Z GMT

too many robots (robot restaurant)

Maybe this isn’t too many robots. I was thinking I needed to cut this down some, but decided to throw out a twitter poll and see if I needed to. The people have spoken, so here are 34 pictures of the act inside the Robot Restaurant.

The place is not <em>really</em> a restaurant. There is technically food, and while I’m sure, in that Japanese way, just like food from 7-11, it’s perfectly fine, it’s not a place you go for food. There are good drinks, strong. How can I describe it? It’s sort of like what happened to opera when they mixed in rock to make rock opera, but done to Kabuki theater and then with a shit ton of LEDs and shiny costumes and sort of real robots? Wild stories of nature versus technology, silly dancing, and a fire breathing dragon, briefly. Everything is dialed to 11, and then multiplied. I could hardly keep up, and I was sitting the whole time.

And then there was a brief calm period, with rave dancers and lasers. Then, to giant silver robots came out and danced. Then, just because obviously that wasn’t enough, there was a fish show. No, not Phish. Fish. Well, an aquatic themed dance number, complete with more giant platforms with drums and dancers. Really, a hell of a show.

Posted by matt on 2019-05-17T05:02:24Z GMT

getting around Tokyo

This was that same day, just making our way from one place to another. The byways of Tokyo were something else. The city seemed to have a good handle on ways for people to get around, as if it weren’t designed just for cars, but rather, for people on bikes or on foot as well. That said, there was always traffic, of all types. Always people moving around.

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