Manhattan.
Crazy wind-whipped trash fire near Columbus Circle.

Inside the deli on the corner: "Fire? What fire?"

Excerpts from an e-mail about my Japan photos:

From: "Tomo" <...@ma2.justnet.ne.jp>
Subject: Hello

I'm a 19-year-old Japanese. You want to say in your website that in Japan there are imitations of foreign cultures. But in US and Europe, other countries there are imitations of Asian cultures, too. There are products with English in Asia, but in US and Europe there are clothes printed with Kanji [Japanese characters] and tatoos of Kanji. Many white people don't know meanings of kanji but they think kanji is original and nice, so they make clothes printed with it. Europeans wearing kanji clothes make Chinese and Japanese laugh a lot. They ask Asians what kanji means. Many Americans and Europeans like imitating Asian cultures (martial arts and eating Asian foods, etc.) very much, and some people use chopsticks as well as Asians. [...] Imitations of foreign cultures are everywhere. Not only in Japan. So why do you talk about the phenomenon in only Japan?

Tomo:
I was in an Asian-fusion restaurant the other night. There were big Chinese characters painted on the wall all around the top of the room. I bet that none of the restaurant patrons had any idea what they meant. I think this is the kind of thing you are talking about.
Are there any sites that have pictures of pseudo-Japanese things seen outside of Japan? I would really like to see this. Maybe you should start one (with English translations, please).
David