My very very ace old friend and former music colleague, Justin Dee (aka Juggs) and his partner Evette stayed at my place for a few weeks, and reluctantly packed up their mouldy futons a few days ago to head back to the Gold Coast. I have mentioned their regular shopping spree trips in other posts (they are both avid collectors and their impressive collection of dolls and character figures would put the 40 year old virgin to shame) but this trip was actually fueled by an even greater passion.

Technorati Tags: documentaries, friends, japan, kichijoji, portraits, streets, tokyo, video

Justin is an amateur documentary maker and has made some impressive pieces over the past few years. He is also a huge fight fan - especially of MMA (mixed martial arts) and shooto, and actually fights a bit himself. He was in town specifically to film around Tokyo's various gyms, dojo's and fight arenas (a big Pride Final was on last weekend) and interview the players on the Tokyo scene. I followed him around a few times to film his intro's and to photograph him for the doco DVD's publicity, and I really liked some of the photos I got so I thought I'd share them here. Front, back and sides..... he he. You can check out what he blogged about while he was here (if you're into fights and fighters and stuff) here. I'm quite sure the footage and interviews he got during this trip are gonna make a kick-ass, eye-opening doco, and well, you couldn't meet a nicer, more honest guy in the world, let alone the fight biz. Make sure you check back to his blog to get details about where you can get your own copy (if you're into MMA & Shooto & fights...).

I must apologize for the site's mischievous linkage and navigation behavior over the past week, it should all be fixed now but if anyone notices anything strange please let me know.

In other news, the media would have us believe that Japan is all in a tizz about the recent imperial birth, but my own personal experience suggests otherwise. Most J-friends think it's all a big yawn, apart from the fact that it's a shame they are so scared of letting a female ascend to the chrysanthemum throne. In a similar fashion, Japan's approaching change of leadership is inciting similar levels of yawn-a-steria. It seems no-one in the real world likes Shinzo Abe, the man currently considered “a shoe-in” to replace Koizumi in the coming party vote. It kind of shocks me that when Koizimi retires, the country will be ruled by some guy no-one actually voted for (well, apart from the members of the ruling party, the LDP) and no-one seems to care about that. In an interesting bit of gossip, it seems that Abe went to the private school/university where I've been teaching for the past coupla years. Apparently there's a bit of a shindig planned if he does take over leadership. But I have to wonder how many of the (predominantly liberal minded) staff will really be celebrating the conservative politicians win.