東京時間凍結再興 Resurrection Tokyo Time Freeze

時間凍結 Time Freeze

Many of you will surely have seen the video of the Time Freeze in New York Grand Central Station, but if not have a look right here:

Frozen Grand Central

Looks preety awesome doesn't it? I found this video created a world wide movement to perform similar random meetings and after a while I was able to find one in Tokyo too.

東京時間凍結再興 Resurrection Tokyo Time Freeze

So there were some girls and guys in the internet planning a time freeze event for Tokyo and I was eager to join in. But the more the merrier, so I advertised for the event at work and was able to convince most of the other interns in joining either as actor or as photographer.

We met in Yoyogi Park near Harajuku and got briefed by the organizers. we would make two Time Freezes, one in 竹下通 Takeshitadoori in Harajuku, and another one in 八子 Hachiko in Shibuya 2 hours later. There was still 1 hour to the first one, and we watched some of the strange creatures living in Yoyogi Park, like Elvis Presley performers, a Kendo group and a Japanese / Scottish back piper.

from left to right: mark, mika, alex



mission briefing

Kendo



and a back piper

原宿凍結 Harajuku Freeze

The location was badly selected. While being the most popular spot in Harajuku, 竹下通 Takeshitadoori is crowded like hell, especially on weekends. So even though we froze neatly in time, the frozen people were only a tiny fraction of the ever on moving crowd, and therefore hardly noticeable. Anyway some curious people stopped and wondered, why there is a couple of people frozen in time.

too many people to ...



notice two guys with a map

video 01

I performed together with Mark holding a map from Atsugi and a Compass wondering where we were. Some crossing people uttered a surprised "Atsugi?!", when they saw us and our map. But when they saw that we didn't move and were frozen, they didn't bother offering us some help. Some other people posed for a picture, and just when the photographer pressed the button, all of them froze in time. Brian froze reading a book, Marko and Satsuki walking holding hands, Ningning taking a picture and Pedro walking with some friend.

note the sign in the upper left corner

video 02

渋谷凍結 Shibuya Freeze

Two hours later we found each other again in Shibuya, where the next freeze was going to happen. We gathered in front of the station in 八子 Hachiko right in front of the 交番 police box, daring as we were. When the signal came again everybody froze into time. This time with less people around, we could draw much more attention and a lot of people took pictures of us and asked us what we are doing. Of course they didn't get an answer, since we were frozen in time.

This time me and Mark borrowed Alex Frisbee, Alex was taking pictures, and we started throwing the Frisbee to each other. When the signal came we froze with Mark just in the moment of throwing the Frisbee to me and me ready to catch. When we unfroze Mark actually was able to throw the Frisbee from his pose and me luckily able to catch it. What a show! Brian this time lost some money and started to pick it up, when he froze in time. Marko and Satsuki were again performing together and Pedro was playing Rock Paper Scissors (Jankenpo) with some guy.

ningning wondered what was going on, when she froze



brian was picking up some money, when he froze



Pedro lost when the time froze



marko said, someone looked in his bag, while they were frozen

mark threw the Firsbee when we unfroze

---

It was a lot of fun and a great day. My thanks to the great organizers, who made this possible. One single remark of criticism is, that because we were somewhat between 200 and 400 people, the organizers decided to split us into three groups. I think this decisions was bad, because all acting together would have given a much more incredible picture of so many people freezing together at the same time.

pictures from the second Harajuku Freeze group

Anyway it was really great, and I am also grateful for the video and the sideshow, the organizers put together:

Slide Show

Video

Following The Foot Steps Of Tennos And Shoguns Under Sakura

Time Traveling



The stay of my friend Juliane, who is visiting me for two weeks draws to an end. Thus I decided to take a holiday on Friday and explore some more unseen spots in Tokyo with her.

We decided to follows the foot steps of the people who ruled Japan.

明治神宮 Meiji Shrine



We started our journey backwards through time starting from the present. Since we lived with the current (平成 Heisei) and last Tenno (昭和 Shouwa), we started with their predecessor, the very famous 明治 Meiji Tenno who revolutionized Japan and led it into the modern age.





Because of his great deeds his soul and the soul of his wife were enshrined in a huage shrine areal in 原宿 Harajuku, called after his name the 明治神宮 Meiji Shrine. Around the shrine a huge amount of wonderful trees has been planted and it is truly wonderful to walk below them, being shaded by their high coronas. And since the shrine is dedicated to the Tenno, you can see his chrysanthemum emblem everywhere, on every 鳥居 Torii and on every gate.



the main hall of the shrine



the chrysanthemum emblem is the symbol of the Tenno family





it could be found all around the shrine





If you are lucky you can see Japanese Weddings

The shrine itself was actually not that special, but the trees around it and the paths below the trees were wonderful and dreamy. At the end of the road we also needed to activate all of our Ninja skills not to fall into the hands of a mad artist who tried to lure us into a trap, he had prepared with his paintings.








the trees around the shrine are really beautiful

増上寺 Zoujou Temple



Having visited the great Meiji Tenno we continued the track back through time to the family who rules over Japan for 300 years, the 徳川将軍 Tokugawa Shoguns. Six of them are buried in a temple in 港区 Minato-ku close to the Tokyo tower.





We have been really lucky, because the Zoujouji temple area is surrounded with really wonderful 桜 Sakura trees. And even more with the soft wind we had that day, we could see 花吹雪 Hanafubuki Sakura leafs flowing through the air like snow. A truly wonderful sensation. Also the ground was completely covered in the wonderful white of the Sakura blossoms.









Now at the temple instead of the chrysanthemum emblem we found the three leafs of the 徳川　Tokuagawa family emblem everywhere. Because of the Sakura time, there was quite some activity with sales stands, food and tea everywhere. One stand roasted fresh tea, which clothed the whole temple area in a wonderful smell.



the family emblem of the Tokugawa family





the Sakura clad the ground in wonderful white/pink

We visited the Shoguns, found some very cute Jizou with wind wheels and made a break under the falling Sakura blossoms, where we found some 団子 Dango (Japanese Sweets) someone bought and left for us unopened at the very spot we decided to sit down ^_^



東京タワー Tokyo Tower



Afterwards we used the Tokyo Tower, a more modern replica of la tour d'eiffel (the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and 9 m taller) to let us catapult back into out own age. This tower also bears the byname Tokyo's biggest tourist trap. Entering alone costs 800 Yen, if you want to see the highest observatory you have to pay an additional 600 Yen and this little game is kept for every attraction of the tower until you will have paid as much as 3000 Yen.



those dogs are guarding the tower and will look that you will pay a lot of money

The tower looks really magnificent though, however of course from the outside! So entering the tower is actually not that special, and if you want to get a great view on Tokyo, I recommend visiting the Metropolitan Office Building in Shinjuku, which's observatory is higher and for free.



That is why we just marveled about the tower from the outside and enjoyed its magnificence. :)

However the money I saved I spent later three times when we made a brief stop in the future (Akiba), where I finally bought a Nintendo DS, Zelda the Phantom Hourglass, and the R4 Module (a little tool that lets you download roms of DS Games and play them on your DS). We also met a good friend of mine from Erlangen/Nuernberg who studied with me Japanese and Computer Science, just like this on the street ^=^.

Truly a day full of luck and wonders

mika (playing Zelda on his crimson black brand new DS ^^)