blogging the shit out of tokyo; part the first.

Every time I go to Tokyo, I have a different experience. I speak japanese better each time, go to different and better destinations each time, and I just grow more patient with each visit. My first few trips to Tokyo were full of rushing from place to place without really knowing where I was going or what to do when I got there.

This time, I only had one real goal in mind, the Odaiba Bouken, and going for a ride on the going merry. I accomplished that mission in a hurry, and spent the next couple days just taking in the sights, sounds and the odd smell. The next couple entries will be about that stuff, and I'll put up a some pictures. By the way, most of my pictures are links that will show the full size picture when clicked.

Today's quick observation:

They've got the dove real beauty ads that I wrote a bit about before in Japan too now. They're different in a lot of ways, but the thrust is simlar. Women don't need to fit within a small definition of beauty. But there's a really important difference.

The campaign focuses on aging, not having super white skin, not having big boobs, and not having long hair (lord, the short hair example girl is beautiful). Notice something different? That's right, they're not down with the big girls. Japan's real beauty campaign is more about loving yourself, even the things you can't change whereas the US campaign is about forgiving yourself for failing to change the things you can and probably should.
I guess that's one upside to living in a culture of self-discipline. Now if only I could get my gut to be really beautiful.