Revisiting Tokyo
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Today I took my brother out on the city to find a gift for his wife. Perhaps predictably, we started with Omotesando. It was there that he got a fine idea.
He decided on a Happi coat. So I quickly pinger my wife with the question of where we cold find one of the things, and she suggested Asakusa. Right back where we'd been recently. But being otherwise clueless, we crossed town and indeed struck gold.
Traipsing back home, I dragged Ken along to one of my favourite out of the way hole in the wall camera shops and dugvthrough the bins looking for a decent flash unit with a guide number of at least thirty. The one I want to replace has a GN of only twenty, and it's not quite strong enough for the product photography I've been doing.
In the end I only came away with filthy hands, but that's how it goes when you're panning for gold I suppose. I also found that the iPhone makes a fine shopping aide in this respect, as I was able to research flash unit voltages and hat sort of thing while inspecting the options. Don't want to fry my camera with a unit that puts out hundreds of volts!
On the evening we met up with Nate, Julian, and Jon for a night that wound up in Roppongi. I'll just say that a) my rather nice umbrella got lifted outside some meatmarket and b) that Roppongi has gotten much sleazier in te few years since I lived nearby and could go to the Citibank ATM at the crossing without being pestered. What used to have a nightclubby knd of vibe has become decidedly more cash-oriented, shall we say.
I guess I've got to go back to the distant Arakawa area to see if I can find the store where I found that umbrella.
Three good things that happened today:
1. Found some great gifts for Heidi
2. Had a strange night out with the boys
3. Have an excuse to see the Arakawa end of town