Now sitting in front of a whole class of university girls doing a self-introduction (自己紹介)was not something I anticipated coming anytime soon, but today while visiting a Sensei ( to discuss a summer trip to Korea ) at Musashino Joshi Daigaku (武蔵野女子大学) I was caught right in the middle of her class and had to yield helplessly. Giggles, curious stares like I was some wierd zoo animal, I was feeling dizzy immediately with all the blood from my brain drained to swell my then completely reddened face.

That position however, had a heck of a paramount view below, haven’t seen such a spectacular vista for a while. Now there was Yumiko…Mai…Ayumi…what’s your name again ? *laughs*

Heat, an explosive and highly entralling crime genre piece was the first exposure I had of director Michael Mann’s outstanding work. His sleek portrayal of the 2 hardened protanganists, namely De Niro and Pacino, ( especially the tense exchange in the cafe has come to be remembered as one of recent crime cinema’s most memorable scenes. ) as well as the film’s many electrifying scenes have had palpable influence in the film industry, including Hong Kong’s laudable Infernal Affairs and PTA.

The Insider is an equally impressive piece, with much less action set pieces but no less engaging plot. Al Pacino once again, together with Russell Crowe and Christopher Plummer ( forever remembered as the handsome Captain in the Sound of Music, having lost none of his charisma ) lend themselves to powerful performances, topped by Mann’s sensuous use of music and Dante Spinotti’s beautiful cinematography, and you have a masterful piece at hand.

Michael Mann is fast becoming one of my favourite directors.

A Sight and Sound review of the Insider is posted on the comments page.

For the uninitiated, learning the Japanese language is an exhaustive, detrimental exercise that hacks away at your english roots, enervate and debilitate, period. Its 3 form writing system, namely Hiragana, Katagana and Kanji ( chinese characters ), scares the bollocks out of non-native learners and make Japanese one of the toughest language to master. For english speaking folks, its the katagana form that carries the heaviest destructive payload. Katagana is used extensively to pronounce foreign names and subject matter, so for example “Tape Recorder” in english would translate as :

“Te-pu-re-ko-da”

1) Curtain – “ka-te-n”

2) Locker – “Ro-ka”

3) Mechanical pencil – “She-ya-pu-pen-she-ru” ( sharp pencil )

And don’t even get me started on the word “accessories”, or “whiteboard”.

Tsukiji Fish Market, located near Ginza in Toyko, is the largest of it kind in the world, trading about 90% of all the fish products consumed in Tokyo. Shige, my landlord’s good friend, offered to take us there after a casual conversation once about me wanting to go take a look. We set off this morning at 3.30am ( most of the interesting action happening at Tsukiji are during the auction hours, where bids are made for the ridiculously sized tunas ( Maguro ), around 430-530 am ). The market grounds span huge warehouse like buildings, for display of auction items and after sold, they are moved to another area where restaurant chefs and other regular buyers make their pick.

As we made our way through the auction markets the widest gamut of sea food products laid before us, one more bizzare than the other. Shige points to me some huge chunks of red bloody meat in a big foam box, whispering “whale-ru“, and I felt my heart sink. We ended up spending most of our time at the tuna auction areas, seeing these uncanny, gigantic sized fishes been traded, each weighing up to a ton and priced a couple million yen. As daylight drew and the shouts sizzled, we headed for a nearby eating place and had maguro-don for breakfast, fresh from the catch.

For all its high tech gadgetry and advanced technology, Japan is in primeval times when it comes to international film releases dates. Only now are Master and Commander, Peter Pan getting ready to kick off screening here in Tokyo. New films are going to have to take a backseat here while I’m in Japan, the pricey tickets not helping either.

If there’s any consolation, the dvd stores here are really good; they stock titles you can never find in Singapore, and its probably a good time to catch up on good films that I have missed or simply haven’t been exposed to yet, and that’s alot. Going to be adding a new list on the side menu here under new dvds watched, so far, Soderbergh’s Limey and a totally unknown but fantastically shot film called Dinner Rush.

Greetings everyone. :] Its already my fourth day in Meguro, Japan and have finally gotten online. A swell place to be for starters, exciting and interesting sights at every corner, but I’ve also quickly discovered the exorbitant price of life in Tokyo. Just yesterday I was in a cafe in Shinjuku with my friends and forked out 760 yen ( more than S$10 ) for an ice Teh Tarik of sorts. Thankfully, my senior Martin and landlord Mr Takeshi have been most hospitable, offering valuable help whenever they can.

Also a very big thanks to those who sacrificed their sleep on my departure day to see me off, and many apologies that I had to leave in such a flurry. Big thanks folks. :]

Anyhoo, there’s a river about 5 minutes from my place where the cherry blossoms are blooming, beautiful sight. Folks are just lined up along the river pavement carousing and partying, i’ve even spotted a group Shabu-shabu-ing away. These blokes sure know how to enjoy life . Picture on the right is my apartment in Shimomeguro. Click on the image for a bigger version.