The G-Cans Project is a massive underground system intended to collect water in the Tokyo area in order to prevent floodings. The G-Cans control center and main facility are located at the Edogawa River Office, Kasukabe City, Saitama Prefecture.

(source - JPDN.net)

So far, so good.

What makes things really special is that you can tour these massive underground drainage tunnels, and there are some truly stunning pictures available both at the official site & at jpdn.net

A lot of the comments over at reddit.com (where I found this little gem) compare the photos to a selection of video games, and the Riddick films. Personally, the first thing that struck me when I first saw them was a recollection of a book : The Ark Sakura written by Kobo Abe in 1984. Whilst I enjoyed the premise of the book - nutjob outcast builds a nuclear shelter in an abandoned quarry - I’ve never been sure if the translation was awful, or if Kobo Abe couldn’t write.

Still, the images of the G-Cans brought some of the scale of Abe’s imagery to mind. I have to get myself to Tokyo, methinks. Take in some of this gloomy beauty for myself.

update: First hand account of a G Cans tour at this site. Turns out the tours are free… Sign me up!

Gamera is a rather bizarre monster. He’s essentially a giant mutant turtle. Except he has rockets under his shell, which allow him to fly, and spin round and round. Just like Godzilla, he’s sometimes friend, sometimes foe; this April, there was a new Gamera film released in which he was very much our friend - Gamera The Brave - you can see the trailer here.

What then, is the connection with Kim Jong Il?

Well, there was a report on the news this morning about the worrying possibility that the dear leader is ready to fire his Taep’o-dong-2 missiles at Japan, and it turns out there’s an early warning installation in Chiba Prefecture:

Its name? Why, Gamera Radar of course. Pop culture meets military defence. Nice.

I saw The Last Samurai at a cinema in Hamamatsu, and enjoyed most of it - the parts where Tom Cruise wasn’t doing his snarl instead of act routine. Actually, I’d be being more honest if I said I enjoyed the parts where Tom Cruise wasn’t doing much.
Read the rest of this entry…

I wanted to do a post on this ages ago, because it’s something that can drive you mad if you’re looking for something at the video store: the names of films are quite often different.

Sometimes quite logical. Sometimes completely mystifying.

There’s a whole round up of some classics at about.com which reminded me that I wanted to do a post on this. Now it’s too late. ho hum.

I will add though, that if you’re looking to see Nicholas Roeg’s classic horror Don’t Look Now (the one with the ‘was it real or wasn’t it’ sex scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) it’s called 赤い影　(akai kage), or ‘Red Shadow’ in Japanese.

There’s a title that’s way cooler than the English one.

Apparently the oldest Hindu temple in Japan is Shitennoji Temple, dating back to 593. I found this gem of trivia -

- over at The Chicago Sun-Times, in an article entitled “Weekend Trip To Japan leaves no time for jet lag.”

Or fact-checking…

I found this gem of (more accurate) trivia -

- over at the Osaka Vistor’s Guide.

Prince Shotoku seems to have been playing for two teams then - building Hindu temples and introducing Buddhism to the country? Naughty, naughty.

(In fairness, the rest of the article at The Chicago Sun-Times is a fairly entertaining read for the right reasons. Link again in case you missed it.)