Art of Taro Okamoto

I had friend coming over from Nagoya and went shopping in Aoyama. Aoyama is a very nice area to walk around and do shopping.
While wandering around, I saw this interesting statue and had to find out what is is. It also reminded me of something familiar... I went closer and noticed what it was. It was the same artist of "Tower of the Sun" in Osaka Park; Taro Okamoto.
Very interesting figure, I enjoyed them.


Also, it was funny to see this cause I have been reading this manga (comic book) called "20th Centry Boys" recently, and this Tower of the Sun plays a big role in that story. This manga is very popular in Japan now, not my type of the manga, but sooo interesting that I cannot stop. Mystery and futuristic story. I cannot read alone at night because it's too scary ... I heard that it'll be a movie soon and maybe it'll come out in foriegn countries sometime. I know there's already an English translation book.

Anyway, the Golden Week Holiday has started in Japan! Just sharing with you some of my activities and update you more later.

Hanami with Prime Minister

I went to the event which was called "Hanami with Fukuda prime minister" @ Shinjyuku Gyoen Park.

It was very very interesting. I was invited from a friend's friend who has some connection with the goverment, you need to have the invitation from prime minister, or I guess LDP is the host . The whole park was reserved for this and there were so many people from all kinds of world; politicians, ambassadors, soilders, TV stars etc. Many people I see on TV news!
Since my friend is dealing with in the middle eastern countries, I met many ambassadors from Africa and Middle-East. I remember Eygpt ambassador was a very nice guy.
The second picture below, who's drinking sake is the prime minister, Fukuda Yasuo. Since many flowers were already fallen, someone expressed that "Fukuda government is almost over like the cherry blossom here..." haha, quite a harsh comment.

Spring has come

Spring has come!
My favorite, sakura (cherry blossom) season.
This is inKyoto, Maruyama park, one of the most beautiful place to see sakura. I used to see this every year when I was in Kansai area, but this year I couldn't. but my friend sent me this photo and made me very happy. (Senpai, sorry for using this photos. it was too beautiful.)