I hope this is OK but here is an excerpt from William Gibson‘s blog … shown here partly ’cause it may interest and partly as archive, so that when (if ever) i finally make it to Tokyo, i'll know what to do!!

Thursday, August 07, 2003 posted 5:01 PM

THINGS TO DO IN TOKYO

Re the recent thread, here, in no particular order, are the things that I‘d be sad if I hadn’t managed to do all of on a given visit:

Go to Shinjuku and hang out in the streets. Do this by day, but also, most particularly, and preferably at great length, at night. Eat things from street stalls. Shinjuku at night is one of the human world's greatest wonders.

Shinjuku Watch Kan, a multi-floor watch depato, for esoteric Japan-only Casio, and, often, clearance prices on discontinued Japan-only Seiko. (The Japanese won't export their coolest watches, for some reason.) I like watches. I also like crazed, in-depth retail operations offering thousands of different varieties of the same object — something the Japanese to with great vigor.

Go to Tokyu (not Tokyo) Hands, a sort of hobbyist department store (and much, much more). if you like the retail experience, and like any of the sorts of things I like, an initial visit to Tokyu Hands is good for about four hours of in-depth browsing and a solid denting of wallet-plastic.

Go to whatever branch of Parco, probably more to marvel than to spend. If you haven't already done so at Tokyu Hands, buy an all-synthetic wallet or shoulder-bag by either Porter or Luggage Label (both brands of Yoshida & Co.). They last forever.

The Akihabara experience. Try to give equal time to the areas that sell last year's stuff that nobody wanted, Soviet-made vacuum tubes, etc.

Kiddyland, near Harajuku. Multi-floor toys. Beyond Hello Kitty. Way beyond.

Harajuku — preferably when the kids are out in force, as this is more a people-watching than a shopping experience (for me, anyway).

Eat. Lots. Okonomiaki, the pizza-looking stuff, which actually seems to be griddle-fried cole slaw (or something that looks like it) is, as one of our posters indicates, not be missed. (If you're in Vancouver and want to try okomomiaki, find a place called The Modern Club on Dunbar.)

Whisky, Uisgae Beatha, meaning the water of life, truly lives up to it´s name. Name one more interesting, mystical, noble, beautiful, magnifique and of course wonderfully well tasting drink than whisky, and I´ll donate any part of my body.

See the rest of the site HERE including this: a beginners guide.

A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who, when he was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII, was called by adoring New Yorkers ‘the Little Flower’ because he was only five foot four and always wore a carnation in his lapel. He was a colorful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids. One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself.

Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter‘s husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving. But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. “It’s a real bad neighborhood, your Honor.” the man told the mayor. “She‘s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.” LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions—ten dollars or ten days in jail.” But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying: “Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Baliff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”

So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.

Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Multnomah, 1990, pp 91-2.

Inspired by one of the coolest sites I have seen in a muchly long time (well since I found freitag bags) I wanted to share this (threadless) little beauty with you.

Why are these 2 sites so great (IMNSHO(!)); for me one of the biggest failings of the net is that it is so virtual. OK; in some ways that‘s kind of all it can be - it is by its nature a virtual thing, but that’s why I just love it when something comes along that actually affects “real” space.

The freitag bags link takes you to a shop where you can design a bag using recycled pieces of lorry sides, which are then cut out and the bag is sent to you. It is completely unique because of the materials used and its completely individual because YOU design it. Fantastic.

Threadless is the online community thing taken a bit further; you can submit t-shirt designs, vote or comment on submitted designs; and if your design wins, it is created, and sold in their shop - you get a certain cut. It changes the dynamic of shopping. The idea of an interactive shopping experience takes on a whole new dimension.

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