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Masakatsu Sashie’s fantastic “orb” paintings depict large, city-like spheres that float gently above the remains of a failed civilization. The giant orbs, which seem to be self-contained worlds unto themselves, are pieced together from the scraps of old Showa-period buildings and bits of consumer culture, such as vending machines, pachinko parlors, fast food signs, and video game components. Part retro and part sci-fi, the orbs appear to hover gracefully between the worlds of a nostalgic past and a dystopian future.

Secret Base [+]

Slingshot [+]

Electric Mushroom

Closed Town

Cradle

Bazaar [+]

Hoodia

Scratched Achievement

[Link: Masakatsu Sashie]

As summer progresses, crops of rice paddy art are beginning to emerge in Japan. The crop art — created by strategically arranging and growing different colors of rice plants — can be seen in farming communities across the country. The largest and finest work is grown in the Aomori prefecture village of Inakadate, which has earned a reputation for its agricultural artistry. This year the enormous pictures of Napoleon and a Sengoku-period warrior, both on horseback, are visible in a pair of fields adjacent to the town hall there.

View from roof of Inakadate town hall [Photo]

Warrior [Photo]

Napoleon [Photo]

View from top of warrior’s head [Photo]

Warrior’s arm [Photo]

Close-up of rice plants [Photo]

* * * * *

Another relatively famous rice paddy art venue is located in the town of Yonezawa in Yamagata prefecture. This year’s work depicts the 16th-century samurai Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife, Osen, whose lives are chronicled in Tenchijin, the popular, year-long historical fiction television series now airing on NHK.

Naoe Kanetsugu and Osen [Photo: contri]

Osen [Photo]

Naoe Kanetsugu [Photo]

View from top of Naoe Kanetsugu’s head [Photo]

* * * * *

Smaller works of crop art can be seen in other rice-farming areas of Japan. Here are a few more examples.

Doraemon and deer dancers (shishi-odori), location unknown [Photo]

Ladybug, Nishio, Aichi prefecture [Photo]

Cow, Omi-Hachiman, Shiga prefecture [Photo]

Ducks, near Fukushimagata Lagoon Water Park, Niigata prefecture [Photo]

[Links: YouTube, Vimeo]

Tokyo Station [heiwa4126]

Ueno Station [heiwa4126]

Shin-Arakawa Bridge [heiwa4126]

Higashi-Ayase Park [heiwa4126]

Shibaura [heiwa4126]

Adachi Ward [heiwa4126]

Katsushika Ward [heiwa4126]

Ueno Station [heiwa4126]

Tokyo Dome City [heiwa4126]

Shiodome Sio-site [heiwa4126]

Check heiwa4126’s photoset for over 150 more high-resolution stereographic projections, and see gadl’s “Wee Planet” set for background information and instructions on how to make your own.

Only rarely does Shinjuku look as magical as it does here in this time-lapse video shot over the course of a year from various locations. The dreamy ambient track is from Cliff Martinez’s score for the movie Solaris (2002).

(Thanks, Sam!)

[Links: YouTube, Vimeo]

In his “Blast” series of photographs, Naoya Hatakeyama uses remote-control cameras to capture the drama and destruction of Japan’s limestone blasting operations from point-blank range.

The dangerous, close-up views of exploding debris inspire the viewer to consider the human capacity for destruction, while providing a unique perspective on the instant obliteration of these ancient rock formations.

Hatakeyama began photographing Japan’s limestone mining operations in the early 1980s. In 1994, he published Lime Works, a photo book focused on limestone processing facilities.

In 1995, he turned his camera toward the detonation side of the mining process, which he has been photographing ever since.

Limestone, a sedimentary rock consisting mainly of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), is one of the few natural resources in which Japan is totally self-sufficient.

It can be argued that Japan’s (and the world’s) entire way of life is dependent on limestone, a key ingredient in the production of concrete, steel, glass, plastic, and even medicine.

Japan extracts about 200 million tons of limestone from quarries each year, scarring countless mountainsides in the process.

The nation is believed to have an additional 10 billion tons of limestone deposits at its disposal — enough to last another 50 years at the current rate of consumption.

[More "Blast" photos: 1, 2, 3]

Here is some awesome time-lapse footage of the eruption of Mount Asama, an active volcano straddling the border of Gunma and Nagano prefectures north of Tokyo, which suddenly awoke in the early morning hours of Monday, February 2. The video was shot between 1:55 and 2:30 AM.

- – - – -

Other cameras captured the volcanic activity from different angles. The time-lapse videos below were created from photos shot at 10-minute intervals. The eruption occurs toward the end of each video.

[Video link]

[Video link]

[Video link]

Latest photos of Mt. Asama: 1, 2, 3.

[Link: Maechan.net]

[Link: Google Maps]

Related: Japanese manhole covers

[Link: Tokyo Twilight Zone]

See also:
- Suburban Tokyo nightscapes
- Highway interchange photos
- Fantastic Japanscapes

Hit the beach anywhere in Japan, and you are likely to see endless piles of tetrapods — enormous four-legged concrete structures intended to prevent coastal erosion. By some estimates, more than 50% of Japan’s 35,000-kilometer (22,000-mi) coastline has been altered with tetrapods and other forms of concrete. Critics, who blame the tetrapod invasion on decades of excessive government spending designed to bolster the construction industry, argue that in addition to posing a danger to swimmers, surfers and boaters, tetrapods actually accelerate beach erosion by disrupting the natural processes that shape the coastal environment. Meanwhile, others have developed an aesthetic appreciation of the tetrapod landscape, as evidenced by a host of stunning Japanese tetrapod photos on Flickr.

Location unknown (Photo: saksak)

Location unknown (Photo: f l u x)

Kawasaki (Photo: gullevek)

Kobe (Photo: Joshua Richley)

Hamamatsu, Shizuoka (Photo: seotaro)

Yakushima (Photo: TommyOshima)

River bank, Shikoku (Photo: kodama)

Amarube (Photo: shikihan)

Tetrapod molds — Location unknown (Photo: Toru Aihara)

Location unknown (Photo: electricnude)

Location unknown (Photo: takay)

Location unknown (Photo: saksak)

[Images: Flickr photos tagged "Tetrapod" & "Tetrapods"//Further reading: Japan Times, Wikipedia]

Shibuya

Akihabara

Shinjuku

Shibuya Center-gai 1

Shibuya Center-gai 2

Shibuya Center-gai 3

[Link: Tokyo Fantasy]

Related:
- Neo-Ruins: Lithographs of post-apocalyptic Tokyo (Hisaharu Motoda)
- Mickey the Knight (Kenji Yanobe)
- PET bottle armor (Kosuke Tsumura)

Ibaraki, 1997

Tochigi, 2006 // Saitama, 2007

Saitama, 1999

Chiba, 1997

Saitama, 1999

Saitama, 2006

Saitama, 2006 // Saitama, 2007

Ibaraki, 1998

Saitama, 1998

Miyagi, 1998

Visit Sato’s Floodgates site for about 600 more photos. (Use the links at the top left to scroll through the 37 galleries.) There is also a book.