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My colleague Ricardo was able to score some free tickets (because our company is one of the sponsors) to the World Press Photo 2004 exhibit going on now at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, so we went to check it out. It was quite good.

For those who are unfamiliar with the World Press Photo organization, it operates out of the Netherlands with patronage from the royal family. Its sole purpose is to promote the work of professional photojournalists. Each year it holds a contest to determine the best examples of photojournalism in the preceding year. This year’s jury had the daunting task of sorting through 63,093 entries from 4,176 photographers in 124 countries to select the pictures it felt were the most important. The best pictures in each of several categories make up the exhibit.

The winner was Jean-Marc Bouju’s now-famous picture of the hooded Iraqi man trying to comfort his terrified son. Other pictures from Iraq also featured prominently in the first half of the exhibit, as did a number of pictures taken of armed conflicts in other parts of the world (the spot news category was populated almost exclusively by pictures of people involved in some type of conflict).

As with the pictures from Iraq, much of the rest of the exhibit was a vast showcase for tragedies; among them were stories of villagers in China who have contracted AIDS from blood donations they made to earn money, women brought from Nigeria to work in the European sex industry, the story of a woman’s struggle with and eventual defeat by leukemia, and many others.

But there were also touching pictures, like those of the Russian acting troupe made up mostly of people with Down’s Syndrome or the ones of the Sierra Leone national amputee soccer team. And funny pictures, like the annual Twins Days festival in Ohio. There were also many pictures of amazing acts of nature, surprising feats of architecture, and of course, sports. There was no shortage of newsworthy events last year; this exhibit brings out the best and worst of them.

If you have a chance to see this exhibit, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. 

Golden Week is now upon us—and not a moment too soon! The last six weeks or so have been incredibly busy, so I’m glad to have a few days off.

My wife would willingly attest to the fact that holiday seasons in Japan used to bother me a lot. It’s true. I used to hate Golden Week in particular, partly because it took a big bite out of my pay (when you’re working on a contract basis, a week without work is a week without pay), but also because I thought it was dumb for the whole country to go on vacation at the same time (anywhere you go—no matter where, be it the beach or just the local convenience store—you find everyone else is already there). This year, though, I’m really looking forward to it. Perhaps this is a sign that I am growing too accustomed to life in Japan? Perhaps.

One thing that I’m really looking forward to, though, is getting caught up on a number of pet projects. Among them is one that I’ve been meaning to get around to for quite some time, moving this site to a new server. That said, the site may be down for a day or two while I make the transition. (My e-mail may also be temporarily disrupted, so let me know if you are expecting a response from me—I may have missed your message.)

Please, somebody tell me that I’m not the only person who sees the logo for the new Minatomirai line:

And is reminded of this one:

Maybe the same monster made both designs?

I’ve noticed that most of the private railways in this area have removed all the trash cans from their platforms. Prominently posted signs and regular announcements claim that this is intended to reduce the threat of terrorism. I guess the idea is to keep terrorists from putting bombs in trash cans, but it just seems kind of silly to me.

Call me a cynic, but I think these train lines are just looking for an excuse not to pay someone to remove the trash each day. I’ve noticed, for example, that these same train lines have not gotten rid of their coin lockers, which would probably be as good a place for a terrorist to stash a bomb as a trash can, so I don’t see how it would foil any dastardly plot to blow up rush-hour commuters. (Besides, any serious terrorist knows that the JR Shinjuku Station would be the one to blow up—and JR, as far as I have been able to determine, is keeping its trash cans.)

What it does, though, is inconvenience the hell out of the passengers, who are now asked to take their trash home with them. So please buy a bottle of tea at the platform kiosk, but take the empty bottle home with you when you are finished drinking it. The same goes for the wrapping from your tuna sandwich and the plastic box your o-bento came in. Is that the idea? Nice. Maybe if I actually felt safer, I wouldn’t mind, but I don’t, so instead I just feel less like buying anything at the train station kiosks. I wonder how many others feel the same way. I bet those trash cans will come back pretty quickly if the kiosks notice that sales have slumped after they were removed—terrorist threat or no.

On the other hand, I suppose it would almost single-handedly do away with all the porn you see salarymen reading on the trains all the time. I mean, come on, you don’t really think they take those magazines home, do you? 

If so, seek help. Buy a cat. Sleep in late. Eat a well balanced meal. Go for a walk. Take a day off work. Whatever you do, don’t jump in front of a crowded commuter train in the morning!

Today marks the fourth time this year—and the second time in two weeks!—that I’ve been held up by people who have thrown themselves in the path of moving trains. Whenever this happens, all the train lines in the area have to stop and readjust their schedules, which greatly inconveniences literally tens of thousands of people who are just trying to get to work.

This morning I was actually on the train that hit the jumper, so in addition to the readjustment time, there was additional time needed to clear away the body. Although I left the house this morning in plenty of time to get to work, I ended up being half an hour late because of this. As per company rules, I have to take a half day off if I am even a minute late, regardless of the reason.

My boss warns me that I should be careful because suicides are common during this time of the year (Japan’s suicide rate tops 30,000 annually, almost like clockwork, with most of them happening in the spring), which is a really unfortunate fact of life in Japan, but what on earth can I do about it? I already left home with time to spare; short of never going home, there’s not much more that I can do. Shouldn’t some steps be taken to prevent this kind of behavior? Some train lines have guardrails that prevent people from getting close to the train before the gates open, which seems like a sensible precaution.

I’m sorry if you’ve lost your job or if you didn’t get into your school of choice or whatever, but please, jumping in front of a train is really not the way to go about dealing with your situation—no matter how bad it may seem at the time.