Archive for June, 2004

Flat people invade Shibuya


In Shibuya there is so much weirdness that most people don’t even pay attention to the strange sights. Yesterday I was a strange sight in Shibuya. My sisters back in the US are creating a tribe, I have my share of nephews and nieces. They’re coming to the age where their schools are introducing them to the world at large. I wish I had that sort of encouragement when I was that age, I guess I had some since I call Tokyo my home. Back to the kids. The one thing their classes are using is a character called Flat Stanley. He travels the globe and the kids get the views of different cultures through his eyes. Neat idea. Many of the classes take it an extra step and have the kids send Flat Stanley to a distant relation to get a photo and maybe some words. In my family I am the distant relation, so far I’ve gotten two request to take Flat Stanley and show him Tokyo except my niece’s class had the kids make a paper life-size cutout of themselves hence the strange sight I displayed in Shibuya. In my laziness I took care of all the requests in one photo session. I hope the kids grow up to be airline pilots cause I have a lot more of the world to see.