Posts Tagged ‘Tokyo’

Godzilla Christmas Tree

Tuesday, December 25th, 2012

The search for the coolest Christmas tree is officially over. You’re never going to beat the giant, fire-breathing Godzilla Christmas tree of Aqua City Odaiba shopping mall in Tokyo.

Merry Christmas!

Shoegazer Sunday: Tokyo Shoegazer’s “Back to My Place”

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

A while back I put up Tokyo Shoegazer’s “Bright.” Here’s “Back to My Place,” another long song, that starts off all ethereal but just after 2:30 in turns back into a soaring, reverb-drenched wall of shoegazer guitar goodness.

Off their debut album 「crystallize」, which is available through iTunes.

Tokyo Shoegazer’s “Bright” Take 2 (The Complete Song)

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Little did I know that almost immediately after I put up the short version that Tokyo Shoegazer would put up the complete 8 minute, 29 second version.

Well, because I run a full-service blog (full service, I tell you!), here it is:

Shoegazer Sunday: Tokyo Shoegazer’s “Bright”

Sunday, December 4th, 2011

I was poking around YouTube looking for more Shoegazer songs when I came across “Bright” from Tokyo Shoegazer, an accurate and wonderfully self-referential name.

That’s only part of the song; the full track comes in at 8 minutes and 19 seconds of reverb-and-sustain drenched fuzzy, blissed-out shoegaze goodness.

That track is off of their debut album 「crystallize」, which evidently just came out November 23. For once I’m not ten years behind the curve! All the tracks are available on iTunes. I’ve already picked up “Bright” (which hits very close to the heart of my Shoegazer sweet spot, which is still Slowdive’s Just for a Day), and may end up buying the rest.

Even if you’re not a Shoegazer fan, you have to admit that this collection of guitar effects peddles on the album cover is impressive:

Japan Earthquake News Update

Friday, March 11th, 2011

The current news, as near as I can gather:

  • Death toll is now estimated at 1,000. Let’s hope that wrong (like the early reports out of Katrina), but looking at footage of the debris wall the tsunami swept in, it might not be.
  • Phone lines down, trains down, subways down, two runways at Narita open.
  • There’s evidently a possible danger of a meltdown at a couple of nuclear reactors due to the destruction of the cooling system. And that’s even after the control rods have been deployed.
  • More Videos

    A grocery store during the quake. Don’t know us this is Sendai, Tokyo or somewhere else:

    The Ichihara oil refinery on fire:

    The tsunami coming in:

    More tsunami flood footage:

    Still more:

    8.9 Earthquake, Tsunami Hits Japan

    Friday, March 11th, 2011

    The quake hit at 2:46 p.m local time about 230 miles off the coast of northern Japan near Sendai. A Wikipedia entry is already up, and they’re calling it the largest earthquake to hit Japan in recorded history. It looks pretty bad, although thankfully not “sink into the sea” bad.

    But it looks bad enough:

    This CNN story also has embedded footage of the tsunami coming inland carrying debris, boats and burning houses with it.

    This NNK report is saying the tsunami waves were 10 meters high.

    Compilation of live quake footage:

    Here’s footage of the tsunami inundating a Japanese airport:

    If there’s one comfort in this, Japan is very good at earthquake and tsunami preparation. If something this big hit, say, Haiti, just about everything on the island would be gone.