Apocalypto

Apocalypto is the story of a young Mayan tribesman, Jaguar Paw, whose village is destroyed and the villagers killed or taken captive by a party of fierce raiders led by the intimidating Zero Wolf and taunted by the cruel, menacing Middle Eye. Because of a recent plague and drought we discover that the men will be sacrificed to appease the gods, and the women will be sold to slavery.

As in all of Mel Gibson’s movies there are many inaccuracies or distortions. For instance, mass human sacrifice was more a feature of Aztec culture, and was only practiced by some Mayans that neighbored the Aztecs. The first Spaniards arrived long after the Mayan civilization had collapsed. There is no evidence to support mass graves, or even widespread slavery.

The movie also ignores Mayan achievements, focusing on imagined depravities instead of their mastery of mathematics, agriculture, astronomy, literature and art. However, the film is a fable of the collapse of a society. Many of the reasons for their collapse correspond to what Jared Diamond writes about in his book, Collapse. Diamond devotes several chapters to the Mayan case study, citing drought, possibly lasting 200 years, as a factor.

Historical inaccuracies aside, Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto is gorgeously made. The costumes, the hair styles, the tattoos and piercings were all copied from Mayan artifacts. Although, elements from various historical periods and geographic locations were conflated into one Mayan aesthetic. The Classical Period, for instance, lasted almost 700 years. So I imagine it would be like mixing George Washington’s wig and breeches, with Kennedy’s pinstripe suit and Lincoln’s top hat to represent an American aesthetic. Still, for someone not well-versed in Mayan culture, it was pure, enjoyable eye candy.

The use of the Mayan language is an inspired layer of realism, with most of the cast actual Mayans. Several of the leads weren’t Mayan, but the exclusive casting of an all Native American cast lends an aura of credibility to the film.

From a narrative standpoint, the story moved briskly, with lots of action. Jaguar paw’s escape is one of the highlights of the film as he begins to hunt his pursuers in his own element, the jungle. But if you’re sensitive to graphic violence, this may be a movie you might avoid.

Knowing Mel Gibson’s evangelical Christian bias, the arrival of the Spaniards probably represents the salvation of a sick, heathen society. The allegory of a decaying society, rotting away from within, is reinforced several times throughout the film. A shaman tells of the story of a never-satisfied man. A girl, afflicted with disease, prophesizes destruction of the captors.

All of these commentaries within the story are warnings of the possible decay that we may be facing, contributing to our own collapse. Intended or not, we are warned of the false embrace of religion that arises out of fear, whether it be sacrifice to one priest in a headdress or another bearing a crucifix.

Mr. Vey the Tuk-tuk Driver: Khmer Notes no. 8

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about my Cambodia trip. It’s been over 6 months now and I still haven’t finished downloading all the pictures from that trip into flickr. I put in another batch tonight and now I’m halfway through. While linking to those pictures, I’ve decided to reprint some parts of my journal from the trip.

In this excerpt, I’ve put together some passages about our tuk-tuk driver, Mr. Vey. A tuk-tuk is a moped-driven carriage. I’ve seen them all over Southeast Asia. I was surprised that T wanted to travel around exclusively in them. They’re open to the wind, dust and exhaust. The ride is bumpy and in the early mornings it’s quite chilly. But T loved them and that’s how we got around. Thankfully, we had the good fortune to have a great, reliable, courteous driver.

Mr. Vey, December 2007
Our driver is a young-looking man named Mr. Vey (pronounced “By”). The hotel referred him to us on the first day, and we’ve been hiring him every day. We like him because he’s not aggressive, pesky or talkative. Most drivers try to arrange other trips or take you to shops where they get a commission. But he’s totally mellow. We like that.

In fact, he seems reluctant to be hired every day. It’s almost comical. Maybe he’s doing pretty well already. Doesn’t need the money. Or maybe he doesn’t want to pick us up at 7:30 am. I know I wouldn’t. But he’s stuck with us. And leaving for the temples at 7:30 is the only way to avoid the heat and the busloads of the tourist hordes.

On the second day, in a hushed tone he asked us to pick us up around the corner because the hotel charges him some amount. I’m not sure what the system is but the hotel staff appear to be very powerful since they can heavily influence where and to whom tourist dollars are spent.

After a few days he warmed up to us and I started asking him questions about him. It turns out that he’s not so young. In fact he’s 38, a little older than me. He shook my hand when I told him I was 37. It also turns out he has a wife and two daughters, lives in a village near the Central Market, and has been driving for seven years. He couldn’t understand that I didn’t have kids. He asked me several times just to be sure. And then looked on us in pity.

He has an understated sense of humor like when I asked to take a picture with him and he mimicked a street urchin and said, “one dollar, one dollar” with a straight face that broke into a mischievous smile. I get the feeling he’s a pretty sarcastic guy when he’s relaxing with his buddies. But he’s low-key about it.

On the last day, he was supposed to pick us up to go to the airport. But, uncharacteristically, he never showed up. After an hour of waiting we hired another driver to take us there. After over a week of punctuality, we were afraid that maybe he’d gotten into an accident or had some kind of trouble. Hopefully he’s okay.

Thank you Mr. Vey for driving us around safely!

For more posts about Cambodia click here.  For the burgeoning photo set click here.

World Press Photo 08

The Exhibit
Finalists of the World Press Photo 08 awards can be seen at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Ebisu. While a journalistic award, the judges make it a point to explain that the artists are chosen based on the artistic merits of the photographs and not as representative of important issues. Nevertheless, there are plenty of important issues touched upon.

For instance, the 1st prize series captures activities of US and Afghan soldiers in a backdrop of stunning forested mountains, as well as blurred intimate moments of anguish. There’s a Kurdish women’s rebel/resistance military camp. And the sad stories of violent elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.

Akintunde Akinleye, Nigeria, Reuters

Apart from war, other categories include sports and nature, conservation and social issues. The removal of a gorilla by park rangers is especially poignant. It was inexplicably killed execution style by militias. Or the narwhal hunts by Inuits using power rifles seemed like a troubling misuse of “traditional” hunting rights.

Social issues like the depressed community of a coalmining town in Ukraine, and the out-of-work Polish circus performers represent the hidden story of the capitalistic processes in former communist East European countries.

A particularly powerful display was the juxtaposition of portraits of sexual abuse survivors in Spain with photos of the everyday places where they were victimized. This served to show how commonplace abuse is and un-taboos the subject matter.

I found it interesting that in the age of high-definition, so many of the photos were blurry, and some had a painterly quality with fuzzy definition. Perhaps, this is a reaction against the ultra-clarity of today’s imagery. I sometimes feel distracted by the details of high-definition, when all I really want is the big picture.

The World Press Photo exhibit runs until August 10, 2008. The museum is at the Ebisu Garden Place. Tickets are 700 yen. If you have an Atre department store membership card, it’s 560 yen. It’s also free with the Grutt Pass.

The Museum
The photography museum usually has 3 exhibits going on at one time. Each of them must be paid for separately. The other two exhibits are about insects (cool!) and early American daguerreotypes. There is also usually a short art film or documentary in the theater. Don’t miss the enormous murals of iconic photographs just outside the museum.

The museum shop has a decent selection of trick cameras and photography books.

The Café
A museum review isn’t complete without a word on the museum café. Chambre Claire is a comfortable café with the usual over-priced museum coffee and unimaginative food. But that’s never the point. The point of a museum café is to be in a stylish relaxing place and talk about the art just seen, or write in your journal. It’s a good place for either. T and I had a good time chit-chatting and didn’t feel hurried to leave, which is a good sign for any café.

I like the large windows, and there’s a wide selection of Belgian beers. I might go back one evening to try one of those.

Venus Williams: Activist and Champion

Venus Williams just defended her Wimbledon title and I couldn’t be happier. Last year Wimbledon finally decided to pay the men and women players equally. After over 130 years, this happened just last year! And it was due largely because of Venus.

She met with Wimbledon officials to reason with them. When that didn’t work she wrote a widely publicized editorial that easily toppled all their excuses. This led to British Prime Minister Blair and Parliament to vote to censure Wimbledon. Even UNESCO and the World Tennis Association pushed for sports gender equality in general and asked Venus to spearhead the movement.

Soon enough Venus’s tireless efforts provided enough public awareness and pressure to shame Wimbledon into modern civilization. A day later, the French Open, the only other major tournament with unequal pay, followed suit. I guess the French couldn’t stand the thought of being the only sexist tournament.

To read the eloquent editorial, click here.

And just to make it sweeter, Venus won Wimbledon last year, and became the first recipient of equal prize money. I guess you could argue it’s just millionaire women athletes getting a little more money. But the message of a men’s and women’s tournament being played side by side in the game’s most prestigious tournament, in England (self-styled bastion of high civilization), and the men being monetarily valued more, sent a powerful message that unequal treatment was acceptable at sport’s highest levels. (And that was a terribly structured sentence but you get the picture.)

I wish more powerful athletes would use their power, celebrity and influence to effect positive change. Do you think if Tiger Woods pressured Augusta National Golf Course, where the Masters is played, to accept female members and more than one African-American, they’d do that? Or if they didn’t stop discriminating, and he pressured the PGA to hold the Masters at a golf course that accepted standards that met basic human rights, they’d do that? Uh yeah. But Tiger doesn’t and what a shame.

Many believe that athletes like him and Michael Jordan avoid political issues because they don’t want to sully their marketing potential. This is nonsense. It would add so much more to their legacies, and create an aura of a true hero, a champion of justice. Who wouldn’t want to buy their shoe then? (Insert sarcasm here.)

That’s why I respect athletes like Venus all the more. In American sports history, I’d also add, Mohammed Ali, who protested the Vietnam War, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is politically active in many areas. So thank you Venus, for bringing a little more justice into the world, and also for your breathtaking athleticism.

The Fourth: A Few Thoughts on Being American

For the 6th year in a row, I’ve spent the Fourth of July, America’s Independence Day, outside the US. As you can imagine, it’s uneventful outside the 50 states. I almost forgot about it today until someone at work reminded me. I immediately went into an impromptu, semi-sarcastic, quasi-nostalgic, rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner”. As usual I forgot a few lines and mangled some others, and even slipped in a little “O Canada” in there just for fun. It wasn’t pretty, but I did my patriotic duty.

Picnics, Fireworks and Perfect Weather
The Fourth is one of the best holidays in the US. It’s never been about patriotism for most of the people I know. It’s a day off work to get out and have a barbecue, drink some beer and hang out with friends and family somewhere outdoors. At night, there’s fireworks. I don’t remember a rainy Fourth of July, ever. The weather has always been perfect. And everyone is chilled out, happy to be relaxing with people they like.

Some of my July Fourth memories include:
• Climbing Cucamonga Peak that overlooks the Los Angeles basin and watching over 50 fireworks shows going off simultaneously, like tiny distant supernovas.
• Hanging out with friends at a Eugene Emeralds game (a minor league baseball team). I think there were a dozen home runs during that game. And then lying on the outfield watching the fireworks.
• Looking forward to my allergies magically disappearing. My theory is that all the fireworks burns off the pollen in the air.
• Picnics, picnics everywhere. On beaches, along rivers, in backyards, in the forest. And always some live music.

Views of America
For every year I’ve spent away from the US, I’ve grown to appreciate a little more of some of the good things about America, and being American. This has been no easy task mind you. I’ve spent most of my life critical about my country. Still am, actually. But being away, in the rest of the world, I’ve developed a wider perspective. Okay it’s not really the whole rest of the world. It’s some parts of Western Europe, East Asia and Southeast Asia. And these are some of my observations of the good things about America.

America is More Evolved in Terms of Race Relations
For all the terrible racism that exists in the US, it’s a lot worse elsewhere. America has evolved to the point where if you have racist views, you are roundly criticized if you voice them. A popular sports radio personality, for example, was recently fired because he said some ignorant things on air. Elsewhere, people just shrug their shoulders and wonder what’s the big deal. In the US, there’s heated debate and discussion at the very least.

I experienced more racist comments directed at me on the streets of England in two years than I have in all my life in the US. It was unbelievable. In fact, what would be considered highly offensive racist and sexist comments in the US, are casually spoken on TV, by politicians, and in the newspapers. There was virtually no awareness of or debate about the institutional barriers to opportunities for women or people of color. This was remarkable especially in academia.

American Cultural Influence Extends Beyond Starbucks
People outside the US separate the US government and the American people. The government is roundly ridiculed, but the culture and people are admired. Rap, movies, TV shows, books, academic journals, dance, basketball, the anti-smoking movement. I hadn’t realized the extent of the spread of American culture beyond the platitudes of fast food and malls. It’s genuinely admired by most people I’ve talked to on the street.

America Accepts Everyone
I took for granted that almost anyone can come to the US and get citizenship eventually. This is just not the case elsewhere. Most countries make it very very difficult to impossible to naturalize.

America is the Most Diverse Country on Earth
It’s no contest. Growing up in California especially, the most diverse State in the Union, I was surrounded by people from all corners of the world. Even in the middle parts of the country, it’s a myth that there are only white people there. It’s just not true.

The US is the European Union Evolved
I find it increasingly useful to think of the US as a continent, rather than a country. Geographically and population-wise, it’s comparable to Europe. Just like you wouldn’t generalize Scots and Greeks, French and Germans, or even Catalonians and Basque within Spain, you wouldn’t generalize between New Yorkers and Californians, or even Los Angelenos and San Franciscans within California. Heck, there are huge cultural differences even between cities separated by a highway.

There are Few Places Freer
Liberties have been badly eroded in the US over the past decade by the Bush Administration and by increasing corporatization of the mass media. But the press is largely unfettered. And joining the political process is much easier than in France, where all the political elites graduate from one university, or in Japan, where the one party system rotates power among a handful of families.

America is far from perfect. However, most of the destructive, negative tendencies are magnified because of it’s continental size. The same destructive, negative tendencies exist in most countries but on a smaller, less-scrutinized scale. That continental size could contribute to a powerful positive global influence. Let’s hope that happens during the next presidency.

In the meantime, I close with THE best version of the “Star-Spangled Banner”. Formerly, it was Marvin Gaye, singing a transcendent version back in the 70’s. Now, it’s this version, of his daughter Nona Gaye harmonizing with him on that version.

Rue Favart

On the edge of the Ebisu Garden Place is the coolest little café in my neighborhood.
I walked past the Rue Favart for years and was always intrigued by the glimpse of the sumptuous poppies painted on the ceiling. I don’t know why I never went in. It was always on my way back home or to some place. I also liked that there were places I’ve never entered but would like to. What’s more delicious than an unopened present?

Today T and I opened the present and it was indeed delicious. One of my favorite things about Japan is the lunch special. For about a 1,000 yen, almost all restaurants serve a choice of main dishes, and a drink. The lunch specials in Rue Favart, at 1260 yen is a little more than average, but it also includes a salad and dessert. I paid an extra 100 yen for wine. And it includes all you can eat fresh-baked foccacia. The food was quite good. The pumpkin custard was excellent. And the wine appeared to be a nice mellow Bordeaux.

The theme of the café is rustic French, rural Italian. The second floor is casually charming with dark wood, ironic iconic art and weathered leather chairs. The 3rd floor, with plush blue chairs, had a brighter bistro feel.

We got there early for the lunch special around 11:30 and got to sit anywhere. We picked the counter facing the window. It got pretty busy by 12:15. From 3 to 5pm there’s a light meal and dessert set. I imagine there are fewer people then if you want to do some reading or writing.

There’s no elevator and the stairs are steep, so it’s not wheelchair-accessible, but I have seen tables on the first floor and outside on occasion.

Other People
The clientele was mostly young office workers, nearly all women, with the usual pockets of housewives and madams that often take over cafes in the afternoons. Claimed by hipsters in the evenings.

Recommended Company
It’s a beautiful place to relax with an old friend who you’ve traveled with, and imagine yourselves stranded in a Provencal village, killing time before the next train arrives.

Recommended Reading
Baudelaire or e.e. cummings.

Notebook Activity
Sketching summer flowers with watercolors.

Directions
From Ebisu Station, take the East Exit and get on the walkway to the Ebisu Garden Place. At the end of the walkway go left along the street. At the end of the block you’ll see it diagonally across the street from the police substation.

Disney Sea

It’s my dirty little secret. I enjoy going to Disney Sea and Disneyland. I might even love it. And since living in Japan I’ve been there quite a few times. I blame T. She did it to me.

Even though I grew up in Southern California, I think I’d only been to Disneyland maybe 4 times before coming to Tokyo. Mostly, my family wasn’t very rich and both my parents worked their asses off so they didn’t have much time to take us to Anaheim, a good hour drive away. Later, as a cynical teenager, I felt that Disneyland was just a terrible commercialized abomination and a waste of resources, the circus that kept the masses in la-la-land. I’m still of this opinion actually. So why do I go there then?

First, I’ve got to tell you about Las Vegas. The first time I went to Las Vegas I was just driving through with my friend Tracy on our way to hike and camp in the Grand Canyon. It was just a one night stay, a necessary inconvenience on the way to the real destination.

The one night we stayed there we had a blast. Each casino hotel was so over-the-top that it was just mind-blowing. There were scale-model replicas of the Pyramids and the Eiffel Tower, an indoor Venetian canal with gondolas, an artificial lake with a dazzling water show, mesmerizing lights everywhere. In short, I developed a respect for the detail, artistry, and awe-inspiring magnificence of the Las Vegas experience. And I was fascinated by the post-modern pastiche of the architecture, the strange mix of global visitors, and the hard-working Oz-like machinations behind the glittery veneer.

It’s like any world wonder. A lot of resources went into building something that wasn’t necessary. But damn, it’s pretty spectacular to behold. In fact, in a lot of ways, it’s better than the Pyramids, or the Great Wall, or any of the temples of Angkor Wat. It’s better because those things were built for the ruling elite, for priests and kings, to protect their riches and intimidate the masses into submission.

Las Vegas, on the other hand, is for the people. Anyone can go there and enjoy it. You don’t need to be a sacrificial virgin or a power-hungry priest or conscripted soldier to enter. You can go there and spend all your money. Or you can go there and get free drinks while you play the slots. It’s your choice.

And Disneyland is a lot like that. Actually, the last time I went to the original Disneyland, I went with my friends Kevin and Shamron. We were all 18 and it was the first time that we didn’t go with our parents, as adults, more or less. We had a great time, riding the psychadelic kiddie rides and making cheesy poses with Goofy and Minnie.

Tokyo Disneyland is almost an exact replica of the original. Even the Pirates of the Caribbean has the same outdated robots doing the same repetitive mechanical movements. It’s so outdated it’s retro and cool.

Disney Sea, on the other hand, is an original. First of all, you can buy beer and wine. I always tell people Vegas is Disneyland for adults. But actually, Disney Sea is the real Disneyland for adults. There are fewer children running around, and many more couples. If you go after 6pm, the tickets are half off and there are virtually no kids. It’s terribly romantic. From where we live, it’s a half hour by subway and train.

T and I went last week to celebrate her birthday. We went on a Thursday and we didn’t have to wait for any of the rides. The newest scary ride, the Tower of Terror, was pretty gut-wrenching. I wanted to go again.

After going on all the big attractions we decided to go to the shows that we never had visited before. In the American Waterfront area we attended the Big Band Beat show which was a jazz concert with a tight big band, and fantastic singers and dancers. After the performance, T and I just looked at each other and said, “Wow!”.

Other things you can do there:

• Get drinks at the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge in the cruise ship, and listen to a ragtime pianist.

• Check out the AquaSphere that’s at the entrance. I can stare at this globe of the world for hours. It’s hilarious to see people line up to take a photo from the front.

• Watch the fire and water show that’s on the lake. This is really cool.

• Visit the Planetarium that’s in the castle. I love turning the hand cranks to make the planets revolve around the sun. When I win the lottery, I’m building one of these in my mansion and throw parties for all my geek astronomy friends.

In short, things like Vegas and the Disney theme parks are indeed wasteful capitalist monstrosities.  And do be sure to take up arms when the revolution happens.  In the meantime, go ahead and visit and marvel at the detailed artifice of imagined aesthetics.

For more pictures, click here.

A Tokyo Rail Survival Guide

In a recent post I wrote about the stress of urban living and blaming a lot of that on the sometimes inhumanely crowded stations and trains. Well, as crazy as it gets sometimes I’ve gotten to know the Tokyo train and subway system pretty well now and I’ve accumulated quite a few strategies and tips.

How the Rails are Organized
The rails around Tokyo can be separated into three sections. It’s best to orient yourself from the Yamanote Line that circles around central Tokyo. On maps, it’s a green circle. In real-life, it’s shaped like an upside down pear. Conceptually I like to think of it as a square with four major stations as its corners, kind of like a castle wall with four corner gates. On the west, the wall stretches from Ikebukuro in the northwest corner down to Shibuya in the southeast. This is by far the busiest length with Shinjuku, the busiest station in the world, in the middle as the west gate. The north wall stretches from Ikebukuro to Ueno. The west leg is a short jaunt between Ueno and Tokyo stations, and in the south it’s Tokyo to Shibuya, with Shinagawa in the middle as the south gate.

Enclosed in the Yamanote are the subway lines that zig-zag about like a gopher colony.

Radiating out from the Yamanote are the private train lines that feed Tokyo all the suburban commuters that double the city’s population during work hours.

How to Move through a Busy Station

Get a pass. The public transportation system offers two passes, called the Suica or the Pasmo, that you can use on all trains, subways, and even buses. You add credit to it and just zip through turnstiles by hovering the pass over the electronic sensor. You can even use it at restaurants and shops in the stations. It’s brilliant and convenient. However, if you harbor any paranoia about the government tracking you, you can always just register it under a false name. Or tediously pay for each ticket every time you hop on.

Know your exit strategy. If you are a daily commuter, try to get in the train car that directly empties into your exit. This is the difference between being jostled by a slow-moving crowd to just zipping out of a station unimpeded. Also, know which side will open at your stop. Sometimes I wait for everyone to get in before standing right in front of the door, poised to surf ahead of the wave of people.

Slip through the cracks. In American football, the running back is the player that runs with the ball through the defense. The most successful are ones who can anticipate seams in the wall of people and slip between them. This makes it a game and makes it more fun than just slugglishly shuffling with the crowd.

Go with the flow. Get into the stream of people going in your direction. Otherwise, wading upstream is both a nuisance to yourself and all the other people going the opposite way.

Be aerodynamic. In bicycling, one strategy is to ride behind someone to cut down on wind-resistance and conserve energy. It takes a lot of energy to get through a crowd. So whenever you see a big person successfully plowing through a crowd, get behind that person and ride his or her wake. Let them do all the work. This is good for the surrounding people too because it’s one less person getting in their way.

Don’t block the flow. If you need to use your phone, or stop and figure out which way to go, get out of the stream of people. Stand against a wall or beside a pillar and get yourself sorted.

Take a stand. When using escalators, it’s customary to stand on the left, and walk on the right. I hear it’s the reverse in Osaka.

Inside the Train.

So now you’re inside the train or subway. Where do you stand? If it’s not that crowded, anywhere is fine. I like to stand beside the doors because I can lean on two sides, and I’m poised for a quick escape. I generally avoid sitting because I often end up with two people falling asleep on my shoulders, while having to stare at some guy’s crotch standing in front of me.

In a crowded train, the best place is to be that guy standing in front of the seats. Because the people in front of you are seated, you have some empty space around your head.

In general you won’t run into many problems on the train. It’s surprising how well-behaved everyone is on the trains and subways in Tokyo. No one eats. No one talks on the cell phone, except in brief hushed tones with the mouth covered. There’s no litter, not even newspapers. And except on weekends, no one really speaks loudly. There’s some controversy about young women applying make-up in public, but geez, why is that a big deal?

Of course, groping is frowned upon. There’s been greater awareness about sexual harassment on the trains. So I’ve noticed guys generally try to face away from women and keep their hands up in a visible place. I don’t know how prevalent a problem it is but I do know that under similar crowd conditions, it’d be a lot worse in the US or Europe. During rush hour there are separate women-only cars, which was begun just a few years ago. So that helps.

It seems most kinds of behavior are looked down upon. What seems to be acceptable is: sleeping, listening to your music player, playing handheld video games, sending texts on your cell phone, reading small books with anonymous dust jackets, and most acceptable of all, doing nothing.

Or maybe it’s just meditation.

Spinning in the Wind

What is this? Go to the Ebisu Garden Place and you’ll find tons of them spinning in the wind. Awesome. I love my neighborhood.

Nothing for Sale

On one of my breaks I wandered around Meguro station and stumbled across a row of building facades that resembled a New York tenement, and then a Paris row house. It was cool and unexpected, snuggled up against a run-down dress-making school, over the rumbling Yamanote Line.

I entered and found three floors of mostly furniture, every kind of furniture. There was furniture you might find in an antique store, an Ivy League library, a chic hippie café, or in a dusty attic.

Aside from the furniture, there’s every kind of household paraphernalia you might find in a typical American garage sale. I saw everything from gumball machines to surfboards to books organized by cover color.

The business is separated into two themes housed in the two main buildings. Ease New York houses Americana, and Ease Paris has all things European.

It’s just a crazy jumble of everything and nothing has a price tag. And that’s because nothing there is for sale. I was approached eventually by one of the casually dressed employees who started chattering away in Japanese. When I explained I didn’t speak Japanese, he proceeded to speak Japanese anyway but more slowly. What I understood was that everything there is for rent only. Most of their customers were photographers for magazines and ad companies who needed access to a variety of things that would be difficult to get and expensive to buy, especially since it’d be used only once.

I realized that even the building facades could be used in photo shoots. They could be customized, repainted or fitted with different doors as needed. There was even a charming little provencal garden between the two buildings.

I enjoyed nostalgically perusing all the things that reminded me of home, common to me but completely exotic in the heart of Tokyo. Foosball tables, nerf balls, banana skateboards, big wheels, and bean bags. It was all there. And for a furniture design fetishist, it’s hours of museum-quality exploring. For more pictures click here.

Directions: From Meguro Station, it’s a 3 minute walk. After exiting the station, go to the Atre 2 building. Go down the little street to the building’s right for a few minutes. It’s on the right.