Hidden away in the massive bulk of Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa lies the best dosc golf course in all of Japan; 18 holes of longish straightaways, doglegs round hills and trees, paths cut through bamboo forests, and leaps over water. Disc Golf is a lot like regular golf, but with a specially moulded set of frisbees instead of balls and clubs. You toss the disc towards the ‘hole’, a metal chain-link basket, counting your throws like in golf. You use variously shaped discs like a driver or putter just like the various clubs in golf. You shoot for under …
Leanna Drew the Moon @ The Harrow
My story Leanna Drew the Moon has just gone live for May at The Harrow.
Arakawa River Ride
Last weekend Jason and I took a cycle-camping trip north up the Arakawa river (wild river) into Saitama. We set out on April 27th and came back on my birthday, the 28th, covering 170km in total, free-camping overnight in the grass by a day-time BBQ area. It was an incredibly liberating feeling to get out of the city under our own steam, without having to rely on crowded commuter trains or pass through one of the city’s manic transit hubs. Once we were clear of the city, rolling on the excellent bicycle path that tracks the Arakawa for most of …
Sagasu’s Life
Sagasu was watching the child in the corner. The corner was dark, and the child was dark. Its mouth was open, always. Sagasu was grinding butterfly’s wings. He was mixing them with chalk dust and melted ox fat. He used a pestle and mortar and he ground them so the smell of ivory burning filled the air, and he clicked his teeth and sometimes he spat into the paste. He shaved a hammer and dropped the fine iron filings into the mixtures. He poured them out into a dimpled tray of eight metal cups, each as big as an egg, …
Namie Amuro, Double
In mid 2008 Namie Amuro and Double got together to shoot a music video- Black Diamond, and I was one of the extras on the shoot. I didn’t get to meet them, nor take a photo with them, this is the story of my experience on the shoot. The photo is me with one of the other extras.
Mike buys a camera!
What with all the blogging I’ve been doing recently, and posting photos and icons with every post, and recently buying a headset mic for doing podcasts and just generally gearing up, I figured it was about time I bought a half-decent camera. I’ve been shooting so far with a Sharp 910 camera phone. For a phone, it’s a pretty good camera. 4x optical zoom, 5 mega pixel. But because it’s so compact, the lens is tiny and junk, little light gets in, and it performs abysmally in anything less than bright day-light. Recently my buddy Canadian Mike got married (post …
Gundam Statue
I’ve always loved Transformers. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Hot Rod, the lot. When I was a kid I collected them, once narrowly missing out on an original Megatron (used of course) at the Corn Exchange in Manchester due to not having the requisite fiver, though I partially made up for that by hunting out several of the Dinobots hidden deep in the shelving on the second floor of Boydell’s toy store in Bolton. Once in Boston, MA I found a used Soundwave (tape recorder) and snapped it up at once, along with I think Ravage the puma-tape, but I’m not sure, …
Rock Band!!
Mike and some friends rock out with Rock Band!!
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Celibate Jayne the Hammerhand @ TQR
My story Celibate Jayne has just gone live for the quarter at TQR!
Mike’s ‘new’ apartment!
So, I moved into Ikebukuro area in the city center almost a year ago, but am only now getting round to putting up photos of my apartment. Here it is: