The Mystery Cupboard

Har! Myspace has a blog function but is really annoying, Facebook is less annoying but has no blogability, so I thought I’d come here as Warren Ellis uses WordPress too and he’s my hero.

So, moi. My name’s Joseph Robson, I’m 24. I’m from Merseyside in England and have been living in Japan since April 2005.

It’s ridiculously great here, if you don’t read the news. Remain oblivious to local events and it’s like Toytown. I bought a new HDTV last week, I practically skipped home. Then I read on Japan Today that on Tuesday, no more than 5 minutes away from me- in fact, I can see the apartment block from here- A woman threw her two kids out of an 11th floor window then jumped out after them. The last time my town (Fujisawa) was in the news was when a guy was doing drive-by fire extinguisher attacks. The local government keeps the Yakuza in check by paying earthquake safety inspectors to declare mob headquarters, bars, saunas etc. unsafe so they can be condemned, knocked down and put in a state of indefinite reconstruction.

With this in mind, I’ve recently decided to live less of a “tra-la-laaa”-type life. Meaning I’ve started to take notice (and photos) of things that look important. I have a Youtube channel, username joehumanity. I’ve just uploaded six videos (all slightly crap) of a police antiterrorism demonstration that went a bit wrong at the end.

I plan to make a video of the right-wing black vans in Shibuya next. But I might get distracted by Gran Turismo 5.

Joseph