Our Fenton Bailey is currently in the Pacific Rim, if you’ll pardon the expression, with WOW producer Jim Eckels and director of photography David Kempner, involved in an upcoming WOW production that requires research in Japan: a five-hour history of the video game. “No barbecues,” he writes on Independence Day, “but it’s broiling hot.” Of course he’s been inundating us with zany snaps (and captions) from Tokyo:

From above left: First we went to shoot the Hajaruku girls at Hajaruku Station, little realizing that the esplanade adjacent to the station has a World of Wonder welcome and an extra from Party Monster on hand. • Next stop, once-trendy capsule apartments now trashed; not all pods are trendy. • Meanwhile, across the street, welcome to the Shiodome! This is probably where they make Soylent Green. • Vacuuming doesn’t have to suck – you can look fabulous in mint green and blue with purple Hoover inside the Izumi Garden Tower, an Emerald City of green glass.

– Fenton Bailey