Tsunami caused Train Interruption Announcement

Today on the way to Yokohama I saw this announcement in the Yamanote line. One train line got interrupted because of Waves, which referred to the expected Tsunami. Later in Yokohama practically the entire coastline was closed and guards and loudspeaker equipped cars warned the population not to go closer to the shore.

After asking one of the guards “Can you please tell me when the Tsunami arrives?” (a question I never asked anybody in my entire life before), I decided to stay and wait for the spectacle. 1,5hours later I was deep frozen and after reading in the news that the Tsunami might be much smaller than expected, I gave up. But still amazing how small this planet has become…an earthquake in far away Chile affects us here in Japan!

The Creature

Salaryman after a hard day of work

Just another day in Japan

Today I decided I needed a break and did something I used to do quite often years ago…pick a random train station, step out and walk around. So far I was never disappointed, I always found something amazing and unique to photograph.

At first I stepped into my local train and passed some stations, until the car looked like this.

After I was alone, I left the train at the next stop, which already appeared like a ghost station. In fact, the area was so abandoned, the only people I saw where naked boys playing flute on the street and the occasional grandmother on a bicycle. How suspicious must I have looked with a big camera dangling around my neck in the middle of nowhere?

While walking down the street, I was thinking about a friends tempting offer to make a photo trip to visit a huge car junkyard in the USA as I suddenly found…

…a car junkyard in my very own backyard, just a few stations from where I live.

Just me, old cars and the occasional grandmother on a bicycle.

Oh, this is not an American car, but in fact a very, very rare find: A Mitsubishi Debonair Saturn 6, first generation! Obviously inspired (cough, cough) by American cruisers of the 1960s, this car has an interesting background.

The Mitsubishi Debonair is a four-door luxury car, introduced by Mitsubishi Motors in 1964 to serve as their flagship passenger vehicle in the Japanese domestic market. Three distinct generations were available during its 35-year production run until it was discontinued in 1999. The first and second generation models were used by senior level executives of the Mitsubishi Group and affiliated companies, or essentially a Mitsubishi senior executive company car made by the motor vehicle division of Mitsubishi (from Wikipedia and more info here).

To find one here, in pristine condition between all the other junk cars was quite a surprise.

Just next to it was this van, followed by a covered Porsche in unknown condition.

The entire collection I found can be seen below.

After this highlight, I walked some more and finally found a small abandoned factory Haikyo. But it got already late, so I leave the exploration of this place for another day.

And all of this just a few stations from where I live since years! I had no idea…

Man at work

I am currently working on an interesting new project, which unfortunately takes all my time…there will be no updates here for a short while, but it will be announced here. Stay tuned!

24h hours later…

The update saga to Aperture 3 continues…24h later my Aperture 2 library is almost converted…

I followed this curious Flamingo around with my camera.

The Pollen Season starts again

Every year around this time the pollen season starts in Tokyo. The weather agency predicts that this year the pollen levels will be 60% (!) less than the average levels of the last few years. Now that’s good news, because the picture above shows just how much pollen these trees push out into the air. I saw video footage of huge pollen clouds coming from the forests around Tokyo. But I just wonder how this can be predicted, I for one will better get a huge stash of tissues.

Aperture update – 10 hours later…

I guess this little detail was missing from Apple’s upgrade document…

Love Beauty Unix

It almost fits…

It just fits!

Exhibit B:

Yes, this girl was actually sitting on a horse at the opening show of the days races at a horse race track.

After:

Greenland was built in 1973 but had to close a short time later. Eventually it reopened in 1986 and closed its doors forever in 1999. Since a removal of all the rides would cost quite a bunch of money, the management decided to let nature do its work, turning Greenland into Rusty-Brownland.

Lying on the side of a hill and sporting Hollywood style big letters, it was easy to see even from the nearby express way.

The original entrance card definitely looked very optimistic.

11 years ago this car made its last ride.

I was brave enough to enter the rusty tracks of one of the roller coasters.

From the top of the ferris wheel you could have a great view over the park and the surrounding landscape…

…of course it didn’t looked that great anymore with all the tumbled props.

The local youth seems to understand English!

What a great view from the top, it must have been fun to ride this roller coaster.

Some of the smaller rides were in pretty bad condition, but nobody stole the horses.

They also had a huge community hall and restaurants, but left the dishes in the kitchen.

The biggest room was entirely covered with Tatami mats.

Another poor looking former ride.

I could not get enough of this amazing view…

…and the horses.

More sightseeing.

As the map shows, the park was rather big and only one ride (the big swing) was actually removed, the rest remained to rot.

Since my visit to Greenland 5 years passed and its very possible that the park was already removed, sooner or later this always happens.

The curious cat on the sidewalk

The Internet loves cats – here is another one.