Tag: bizarre
Taman Festival: Abandoned Theme Park in Bali, Indonesia
by joostay
Exploring the Indonesian theme park with no visitors – not living ones anyway… Right now I’m back on mainland Bali after spending a week on the small island of Lembongan off the east coast. During my time on the island I spoke a few times to a local guy called Niko about ghosts and Indonesian folklore: I specifically wanted to learn about the Pontianak – vampiric ghosts which are said to be the spirits of women who died while pregnant. (The city of […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: abandoned, bali, bizarre, CREATIVE, ghost hunting, ghosts, haikyo, indonesia, old, photography, sanur, spirits, street, taman festival park, travel, unusual, urban, urban exploration, video
IKIMASHO! x The obscure micronation of Austenasia
by joostay
Auste-what? Learning about this tiny country from its new Consul General for Northern Ireland. Stories really don’t get any more obscure and fascinating than the one I am about to share with you regarding the tiny micronation of Austenasia – a landlocked country whose border with the UK is merely a line separating a driveway from a footpath in the south London suburb of Carshalton. The country has a flag, a border and a government. It even has an Emperor […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: allan wilson, austenasia, bizarre, blogging, country, fitness, ikimasho, independence, japan, jonny blair, micronation, story, tokyo, travel, uk, weird, wrythe
Kagurazaka Bakeneko Parade (Ghost Cat Parade)
by joostay
Nya-nya-ing our way through the cat-strewn streets of Tokyo Working in a Japanese kindergarten not only affords me the luxury of coming into close contact with every single germ known to man, it also provides me with an abundance of information that is essentially useless to anyone over the age of six. For example, did you know that in Japan dogs don’t go woof-woof, they go wan-wan; frogs don’t ribbit, they go kero-kero; cats don’t meow, they go nya-nya. Now I say this information is useless but actually it came in quite handy […]
Categories: Traditional Festivals • Tags: asia, bizarre, blog, cat, cats, festival, ikimasho, japan, japanese, matsuri, neko, parade, se asia, surreal, tokyo
Institute for Nature Study, Tokyo
by joostay
An oasis of calm in the heart of metropolitan Tokyo Established in 1949, The Institute for Nature Study (Shizen Kyōikuen) is a nature reserve set right in the heart of downtown Tokyo. Within a 20-hectare park, the Institute is home to 1,436 species of plant, 2,130 species of insect and 130 bird species. Its aim: to preserve the natural environment of Tokyo’s forests and marshlands. The grounds are used for research and education, although anyone may enjoy the park’s trails and natural beauty. […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, backpacking, bizarre, blog, caterpillars, culture, guidebook, ikimasho, insects, japan, japanese, meguro, nature, south east asia, tokyo, travel, turtles, urban
OMEILAND: Sonic Assault on Shinjuku
by joostay
Introducing OMEILAND, the extreme noise crew destroying Tokyo one scream at a time… Omeiland [ 汚名ランド ] is an extreme noise crew based in Tokyo. Their chaotic public appearances are visually and sonically violent, regularly shut down by the cops when things get too extreme. I randomly saw Omeiland ‘perform’ last night as I was walking to Shinjuku station. The look on some of the unsuspecting pensioners’ faces was as expected. Japan is no stranger to the harsh, dark world of […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: bizarre, idm, industrial, japan, merzbow, noise, omeiland, power electronics, random, shinjuku, surreal, tokyo, travel, 汚名ランド
Kraftwerk 3D: Man Machine in Tokyo
by joostay
4 men. 1 album. 3 dimensions. After a sell-out (and computer crashing) run at the Tate Modern, Kraftwerk brings its catalogue retrospective to Tokyo: 8 consecutive gigs at the intimate Akasaka Blitz. It’s raining heavily in Tokyo. Outside a venue in one of the city’s central business districts, lines of people are waiting patiently, colourful umbrellas hoisted in the air. An almost fittingly minimalistic hand-drawn sign is taped to the door: KRAFTWERK. STARTS 5PM. Inside, you are immediately struck by the intimacy of […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: art, asia, bass, berlin, bizarre, clubbing, culture, electronica, germany, japan, kraftwerk, moog, music, ralf, south east asia, synths, tokyo, travel, urban
FRANCIS BACON / Tokyo Exhibition
by joostay
“You can’t be more horrific than life itself.” Your last chance to catch the master of the macabre in Tokyo. Described by Margaret Thatcher as “that man who paints those dreadful pictures,” Francis Bacon was one of the most exalted, most disliked artists of the postwar era. His abstract images of psychological and physical brutality still have the power to unsettle today – achieving on canvass what David Lynch achieves on film or what Beckett did on paper. The Tate gave […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: art, asia, bizarre, culture, drawing, francis bacon, japan, modern, popes, retrospective, south east asia, surreal, tokyo, weird
IKIMASHO! 