On the Rails Again

I remember when I first got to Japan, the new Kyoto station was in the midst of becoming the monstrocity it is today. Wandering through it was to traverse long featureless corridors enshrouded in white Christo-wrapping. (In fact it looks like Shinjuku station at this current moment of typing. Two weeks back, had much fun, drunkenly trying to find my locker with minutes to go until the last train. But at midnight in Shinjuku everyone else is drunk, so...)
I digress. The present Kyoto station building looks like a big Boom Box circa 1982. Pure Radio Shack architecture. Everytime I pass the place, I expect to hear Run-DMC blaring loud.

With each trip to Tokyo I also pass through Nagoya and therefore get to see the ongoing destruction of the Expo grounds. The now bare plots have been heavily pressed by Caterpillar treads. From above it looks like one of Mondrian's minor works.


On the turntable: Putumayo Cover the World
On the nightable: Hanif Kureishi, Midnight All Day"