Back in Cali
We returned home from Tokyo a couple of days ago. I downed several glasses of sake on the plane, fell promptly asleep and didn't wake up until we were descending into LAX.
Nice.
It's still a little disorienting to be back on Pacific time. After ten days in Japan, my internal clock was just starting to recalibrate, and now I've thrown it all off kilter again, but I should be back to normal tomorrow (or so I hope).
In the meantime, I wanted to offer some hi-rez versions of a couple of the photos I took so that some of the detail that's lost in smaller versions can be truly enjoyed.
The first couple of photos are of the giant sculpture in the Mitsukoshi Department Store. Click here for a full-size, head-on shot that might give you an idea of the staggering height of the piece, and click here for a lower angle shot that displays its depth and breadth. It's an awesome piece of work, full of color and detail, and I found it curious that, instead of gracing the halls of a national museum, it towered over the staircase of a mere department store -- albeit one of the oldest department stores in Tokyo.
Here's a full-size of one of the Mitsukoshi holiday window displays, and it's a must that you see a full-size shot of the teenage fashion poetry on the back of the sweatshirt I bought for my niece.
And here's a photo of just your average residential alley. We walked through this quiet neighborhood on our way to the Contemporary Museum of Art, following the signs pasted to telephone polls, and I was struck by its ordinary beauty.