Yesterday, 2km from the G20 security perimeter, a group of people were holding a protest at Queen’s Park, an area which the Toronto police chief had previously called a designated protest area. The people in attendance, many of whom were middle-aged or seniors, seemed content to protest peacefully, away from the violent confrontations happening closer to the summit.

In the late afternoon hundreds of police officers converged at the South end of the park. The protesters maintained their peaceful vigil. Eventually, without provocation or justification, the police moved in. The crowd was pushed to the North end of the park and into the streets, resulting in numerous protests scattered throughout the city that would not have occured if the park had been left in peace.

As they moved the crowd back, the police assaulted people with batons, pepper spray, and projectiles. Some people were trampled by horses. Numerous random and illegal detentions were made. At least a few of those detained were not informed of the reason for their detention upon being taken into custody.

Life’s finally returning to normal in this land of sea cats.

Home now is Ishigakijima aka Welland on a Japanese Island. I’ve made acquaintance with the possible future mayor of this island, yet another honorable Japanese person that I pray doesn’t google me.

Not anymore. I used to when I was growing up, but I have enough, man. I have too many.

- Danzig on collecting skulls, from an interview with Rue Morgue Magazine.

Illustration by Tom Neely.

Despite all my best efforts, I find myself gainfully employed once again.

Everyone’s been asking about my trip to Gary and Yoshie’s wedding in Japan from a few weeks ago. Rather than repeating the same stories over and over again, I thought I’d sum it all up in one place.

My first night there Gary, Bobby and I hit the town. We wandered around Namba, Amerikamura and Den Den Town until the morning trains started running. Sorry for the blurry photo. I had been awake for 32 hours by this time.

The next day the entire family visited Osaka Castle. The castle was nice, if choked with tourists wearing identical Roots jackets. I preferred the grounds surrounding the area, with its battlements and giant rats.

The wedding ceremony took place in a temple nestled within a lovely hotel not far from Osaka Castle. I was unprepared for the group clapping that takes place in a Shinto wedding and did not take part. This was my one regret for the entire trip.

The only excursion we made outside of Osaka was a day trip to Kyoto, where we explored various temples and walked among the cherry blossoms. The perfect capper to an altogether wonderful journey.