Jérôme Sadou

Traditional Wedding in Japan

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:51:45 GMT

First I want to apologize for the last 15 days without any updates here. Thing is, my wife and I got our wedding ceremony the first of November. I talked about this already a little bit last year (if you want to know the whole story ;)

Anyway for once I will share something more personal than usual.

Indeed as we chose to do the ceremony in a Shinto Shrine (Ogamiyama Jinja) in Daisen (Tottori Prefecture), I guess it could interest some of you.

The place is quite popular at this time of the year for momijigari, so to avoid the groups of tourists walking around we had our ceremony starting at 9AM which implied we had to be at the shrine at 6:30AM.

I wore the Hakama and my wife wore the white kimono and special hair make the whole took almost 2 hours to complete. Moreover the shrine is at the top of a long stone way in the mountain finishing by a fair amount of steps... We arrived at the top just when the sun was rising. Guests arrived around 8AM (some of the present shots are taken by my bro and a friend).

As I was ready before my wife I took some shots of her dressing. I manage to convince her to show you some of the photos ;-)

Actually before reaching this phase it took close to 1.5 hour to get dressed this way!

Auto-portrait... kind of :

The hair make

Under supervision

Studying the Chikai no kotoba :

that I had to read during the ceremony... I went for the Hiragana to be sure not to forget anything (and the hand writing of the original by the priest was quite unreadable for me...).

Hair make almost done :

Last corrections :

It's quite heavy if you wonder.

Wifey ready for the ceremony :)

Inside the Shrine :

Kanushi San (Shinto shrine priest) and Miko San (woman helper) :

Critical moment for us :)

Details of the shrine :

Miko San :

Japanese family side :

and leaving the Shrine... to the lunch with family and friends at Daisen Lake Hotel.

(I still don't have the pictures by the pro cameraman, once I'll have it, I may upload some of them)

Japanese Sneakers Supermarket

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:23:45 GMT

I know I still have a photo article about the bicycle market to upload but as I promised a while ago, here is my visit to one of the sneaker supermarkets in Japan, an ABC Mart, we can find them a little bit everywhere here in Tokyo.

As you see for this fall collection it's a firework of colors!

And all the brands are playing the game, Nike :

Reebok :

New Balance :

(ok this one is actually a real running shoes but I could not resist to post it here)

The women version.

Vans with a cute model...

A goldy Timberland :

Some Adidas now :

I quite like what they do recently. I went to their Jiyugaoka shop and was tempted by one of their model...

What do you think about the prices?

[Knowing that 10000 yens is about 109US$ (quick tip for money conversion, just type in google, it will do the job, for example : 10000 yen in dollar) or 72,5 Euros]

After Adidas of course I must show some Puma :) [But they did not have many models in this shop]

Talking about Adidas and Puma, as you must know these two companies were created by two brothers in Germany before the WWII; sadly, they hated each others and their rivalry even divided their village (that's what I read at least). Point is that last month, for the "Peace One Day" event, both companies agreed to join their effort to sponsor the event and finally terminate this long "hate" story (you can find a lot about this on the net).

Anyway to illustrate the event here is my little contribution ... he he ... :

[On other thing they have in common : both of these shoes were Made in China...;-)]

To finish with, Shoes Master magazine is celebrating its fifth birthday and for the occasion is selling a book entitled : Sneaker Tokyo, The past, present, and future of Sneaker culture in Tokyo.

In the introduction they explain that its was so crazy in Tokyo (and mainly Harajuku) for sneakers that they talked about a "bubble" of sneakers, same as it was for the Internet start-ups 10 years ago, that's funny (well kind of).
Not related to the content of the book I want to add that it is really cool that the book is in Japanese and in English, a nice way for me to improve my Japanese!

SekidoBashi Bicycle Market Part 2

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:58:50 GMT

The market welcomes any kind of bicycles but as they are (still / more and more ?) popular, fixed gear bikes (ピストバイク＝pist bike) are quite numerous to see. So here are some of them :) [Don't forget that you can click on the photos for large view]

The classic style,

and the modern street one :

I had a nice chat with the two correspondents for COG in Japan :

前田さん[Maeda San, here is his blog and flickr ] and
沼田さん[Numata San, his flickr and his tumblr]

and their COG Camera!

In Japan, bicycles grow in the woods :) Enjoy!

Still one or two articles to come next about this bicycle market ... keep on eye on your RSS reader :)

Tokyo Bicycle Market Part 1

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:50:44 GMT

I took about 90 pictures so I am going to divide the "report" into 4 parts.

This is already my third time at the SekidoBashi flea market and second time for the autumn's one. Nice weather but a bit too much cloudy, not the best conditions for photography.

Anyway once again it was great to see the parts and bicycles presented for sale (or not) to the 自転車オタク (Jitensha Otaku = the Bicycles Otaku).

I had the great pleasure to finally meet Tomity San, ambassador of Keirin!

We exchanged some mails before and messages through the comments of the blog but it was the first time we met.

Tomity San has really a big heart! Always keen to share his knowledge and giving presents. Tomity San is still racing, of course always on a Kalavinka frame mounted with a 48x13 ratio (I asked him to write that, it is no tactical secret :) he used to have a bigger ratio... but hey he is in his 50's!! I hope I'll able to visit Kalavinka's atelier with him... [You can check the video he did from Tanabe San building a frame]

This is a cog from a world champion that he gilded!

He was also selling some of his parts :

See you soon Tomity San!

Let's check some other booths.

Anime Fixed Gear anyone?

I already took the pictures of anime bike last time, but it seems to become a small trend, interesting mix of 2 cultures![a cycling version of the Itasha]

This is it for the first article. I'll try to upload the 3 other articles during the week.

Reminder : Sekido Bashi Flea Market

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:14:02 GMT

Tomorrow will take place the Sekido Bashi flea market, if you are around Tokyo, don't miss it!

More info in my previous articles : Sekido Bashi Bicycle Flea Market.

See you there!

Japanese Sneakers, Onitsuka and Co.

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:22:52 GMT

Few shots from a ToptoTop shop in DaikanYama (yes again DaikanYama :) specialized in Japanese sneaker brands.

First we have DragonBeard, it seems the company is about 10 year old.

I like their sneaker models but they also have casual and walking shoes (less my type).

The most famous brand abroad is certainly Onitsuka Tiger by Asics (same founder, Mr. Onitsuka... obviously).

The two brands share the same logo, if ASICS is a sports label, Onitsuka Tiger is more of a fashion sporty shoes :).

Uma Thurman wore the model "Mexico 66" in Kill Bill by Quentin Tarantino and helped to make the label "Onitsuka tiger" popular around the world.

The Möbus shoes : they are sold as a German brand...

... But it seems more tricky than that. I found an interesting article about it. In fact, Onitsuka seems to be also behind this brand in Japan...

Apparently dragonbeard's owner runs also this label TopSeven :

Some good things imho.

And finally there is also some HO&OH shoes.

I have no idea from where this brand is actually...

That's about it for the Japanese sneaker brands, I think. Are they new to you (apart from Onituska)? Could be popular or are sold in your area?

For the next "Sneakers in Japan" article I will visit the shoe supermarket ABC Mart...

London to Paris on Fixed Gear!

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:40:17 GMT

Really cool project and the video seems to be great too.

Can't wait to see it!

LONDON TO PARIS from Amazing Grace on Vimeo.

Official site : AllOrNothingProductions.com.

In a same spirit, check this one also : some guys want to ride Paris - Roubaix on fixed gear next year!

L'Arbre Paris Roubaix Fixed Gear Bicycle from Alexandre VOISINE on Vimeo.

Check it for more information : Paris-Roubaix-Fixie : L'Arbre

Everyday Life in Japan - 6

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:58:49 GMT

These photos were taken during August and at the beginning of September, this is a last taste of summer 2009 (right now (1:45 AM) we are in a middle of a typhoon, heavy rain ... worse forecast is expected tomorrow morning just when we go to work...Gambarimasu! ).

I sorted the photos by themes this time :

City :

Shots taken after a day at the office in Shibuya.

Time to relax with a beer and yakiniku for the salary men.

Sometimes we can find some graffiti in Tokyo (in Yokohama the long wall dedicated to it has been painted white... end of an ere)

Messenger!

No Skate-boarding!

Under the bridge, the river ...

The iceman truck, there's an ice factory not far from the office. Kanji for ice is 氷 (kooli), and water is 水 (mizu), so easy to remember.

Food :

Our usual kaiten-sushi in Yokohama : the basic and good maguro (tuna).

Kit kat , mango purin taste...

Bananas direct from Okinawa, うまい！(umai : gooood)

Cake set in Daikanyama with a sand timer for the tea.

A good avocado hamburger, typical Japanese food ;)

Some Kit kat in vending machine

I did not know we had a special curry in France o_O

Disney has also its vending machine, spotted in Haneda Airport.

Quiet airport on this pic, but it was an other story during the silver week.

Beach Party Time :

We went to Oiso for a "fishing party".

Yoga was also on the menu

As well as eating :)

At Work :

Building currently an in-house application to retrieve and display top-secret datas from the Ninja Tools and other services produced by the Samurai Factory.

Lunch time :

I like to go out for lunch and have a walk in the neighborhood. This park is not too far, about 10mn, I like to rest for a little while there.

It is nice to find some green in the heart of the city.

Random stuff :

The Olympus-pen has good press everywhere. I have to say it is really nice, I especially like its vintage style.

Lego sold in a conbini (convenience store) ! I almost compulsively bought a box as I was a hardcore Lego player as a kid.

I saw this mac box and the week after an "old" flower iMac was at the same place, I guess someone in the neighborhood upgraded nicely!
It was kind of sad to see the flower one in the garbage, it's almost a piece of collection (for a geek I mean...)

And to finish with, Yokohama :

A little bit of China town

And the Yamate :

The old colonial neighborhood.

Very peaceful area.

They have a nice Olympic outdoor pool over there, I promised myself to swim in it and then completely forgot about it; and now of course they closed it until next summer...

Tokyo Fixed Gear

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:48:30 GMT

As I was busy far from Tokyo I completely missed the CMWC, which is quite frustrating, and so, I have nothing to show about it... :/

I guess like me you found blogs and flickr accounts covering it. Maybe you can also check this list of J-Blogs, they are all about fixed gear : cycle.blogmura.com/pist/, some have covered the event.

As for now, here is an other safari-photo in the jungle of Tokyo :)

Photos where taken in Harajuku, Omotesando, Aoyama, Daikanyama and Shibuya.

As usual now, they are click-able to see a larger version.

I think I've already shot some of the bikes of this article in my previous photo-walks...

It may be time to visit some other areas, like Shinjuku one of the most famous station in Tokyo, though I almost never go there.

If you know places or shops you would like me to cover, don't hesitate to ask in the comments ;)

Silver week in Tottori

jerome@jeromesadou.com (Jérôme Sadou) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:51:15 GMT

I am currently enjoying the Silver Week in Tottori Ken. My only connection to the Internet is my iPhone one so even if I can use the tethering (non officially supported) function with my Mac to surf the web, I won't upload dozens of photos through this channel, so this a light article...

That said I've some articles in preparation and as soon as I'll be back in Yokohama I'll upload them.

For now I can just show few shots that sum-up my week for now :

We are in the countryside.

We eat quite a lot!

Giant grapes.

The best cheap sushi I ever eat (105 yens any piece)

And we are busy preparing our wedding ceremony that should be awesome :)

(I tried the Hakama and the Haori that I'll wear for the D-Day : give me a lightsaber and I can tell you I could easily be taken for a Jedi :D ... You can understand I can't upload photos for now but I'll do it at the begining of November - and Yeah I am teasing you :)