And that's it...We're out of ingredients

Whoever knows the reference in my title is a champ.

That is all folks. Tonight I pack and leave for Narita in the morning. I had the most amazing time I could possibly imagine. My thoughts right now are split 50/50 with "I can't wait to go home (and even back to school)" and "I want to come back as soon as I can."

I have known I was meant for city life for a long time. I have New Haven, but everyone knows that doesn't count as a city. I think it's genetic. My Dad is from New York, and four of my cousins (all raised one town over from me) live/go to school in New York. As for me, I have probably spent only a couple weeks worth of total time in New York City during my life. After these two months, I feel attached to this city. It is the first city I have lived in, so now it feels like "my city."

As I am writing this, I can't help but laugh at my last statement. How can I make such a claim when I was never a part of this city? I merely adapted, rather than integrated. The collection of my actions here, though varied and vast, do not amount to more than that of a tourist. A tourist takes experiences and confines to the frame of their life, but the experiences themselves are not their life. On top of this I have made no lasting friends in Tokyo.

I do feel like I have discovered a lot. I am in that halfway state of knowing a lot of the city, but still having much to explore. Also, I saw more of Japan than just Tokyo. I meet several Tokyo natives who marveled at the fact that I had seen more of Japan than they had.

I am returning to the States with several things. Among these, obviously, are my new T shirts, my Jisho (dictionary), ticket stubs, fliers, my Japanese cellphone (keitai), my suica card, and the 10 CDs I bought today (bringing my total to 12). However, I also have a renewed devotion to the study of the Japanese language. My time here has improved my comprehension considerably, but I still cannot hold a casual conversation (I am limited to basic questions and answers). My course schedule will continue to have Japanese in it for as long as I can keep it that way.

I have no idea what I want to do with my life. These two months around music make me feel like I should give it a shot after college (I wasn't planning on going to grad school immediately after anyway). There's something romantic about the lifestyle, but I also want a family. I just don't see the two working out together and I know which one I give priority. However, now I do know that Tokyo will be making a bigger appearance somewhere in my life. I am coming back here. Next time I will actually integrate. I may want to live here, at least for some of my life.

Until then, this blog is pretty irrelevant. For now, this is the final post.

The Grand Finale

Tomorrow I leave for the Fuji Rock Festival. Though the actual festival doesn't start until Friday, I thought it would be better to get settled in my hotel and not be rushed on Friday.

I am really excited. I will be seeing a bunch of artist I haven't really checked out before, and finally see some artists I have listened to for years.

Friday will probably be something like this:

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
Longwave
White Lies/Curly Giraffe (leaning towards Curly Giraffe)
Ebony Bones (if I can catch any of it, or if the two above are boring)
M83
Low I.Q. and The Beatbreaker
The Virgins
Peaches/Tortoise (probably going to do a half and half thing)
Simian Mobile Disco
Clammbon

And then at night I will see Eye, DJ Towa Tei, and maybe Gang Gang Dance.

Saturday:

A Flood of Circle (that or I sleep through them, since no one else is playing)
9mm Parabellum Bullet
Funeral Party
Ida Maria
Gaslight Anthem/Cool Wise Men (or nothing, this slot is kind of a dud)
Comeback my Daughters
The Melvins
Ben Harper
Zazen Boyz
BAD BRAINS!!!
DINOSAUR JR!!!
Public Enemy

Sunday:

Mass of the Fermenting Dregs
Polysics
Holy F*ck
The Airborne Toxic Event/Dachambo
HiGE (maybe)
De De Mouse
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Rovo (maybe)
Yukihiro Takahashi
Animal Collective
Weezer
Royksopp
Basement Jaxx

Sunday really worked out especially at the end there. Too bad I am missing Disco Biscuits again.
Saturday Morning is weak, but the night is the best of the festival (How in the hell did they schedule that so perfectly). Nothing too monumental on Friday, but some new stuff to check out. Why did they schedule Peaches and Tortoise at the same time?

Time to catch up

A lot has happened over the last weekend, so now it is time to catch up on everything. For some reason, my conclusion of my week of travel appeared below my last post.

Every once in a while, you spontaneously find yourself in a situation you were not expecting. Like for instance, ending up at Tokyo Disney. It was the birthday of a friend of a friend who is studying in Tokyo, and I was invited along pretty last minute. I met a bunch of new people, and had a blast. The magic of Disney and the absurd detail in a Disney park's decoration get me every time. The park was right by the waterfront, and everything was water themed. The rides were decent, but I think the highlight was the crazy show they performed in the Aladdin area at night. They were doing this crazy dance and all the Japanese people in the audience knew it by heart (How do they do that?). I thought it was odd that there was a Disney in Tokyo, because Tokyo is also right there. It just seems weird to go on a Disney vacation if you are in Tokyo. There isn't really anything but theme parks in Orlando, and that makes sense to me.

Jump to Friday evening. I am at the Shibuya O-nest (for the third time). I am there to see Kirihito, a band whose album I liked in the record store, but I get a very interesting group of openers as well.

First was LOVES. I liked this band a lot. I couldn't really find a genre to describe them. Sometimes they sounded like Sonic Youth, other times Gang of Four, and sometimes it was dance-punk. The band had a sax player who would just free jazz wail in the background. Their beats were pretty intricate too, and most of the songs were in English.
http://www.myspace.com/lovesaihahigurashi

What the heck? U.G. Man was next and they were hardcore hardcore hardcore. The singer didn't mess around and jumped right in to the audience. There were people moshing. I didn't even know that could happen in Japan (I had seen no evidence of it). They were really fun and skilled too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW2N6CzqMyU

Then there was this clown. イルリメ, or Illreme is a comedic hip hop DJ/MC(?). Mostly he reminded me of a bar mitzvah dj. Super happy, pretty quick, and he even had some flow, but overall it was just tacky. I did get a kick out of when he grabbed a salary man out of the audience and had him freestyle on his sampler.
Kirihito was pretty interesting. It had been a while since I heard their record in the store, so I had forgotten exactly what they sound like.
For just two guys they get a huge sound going. The guitarist has some kind of crazy filtering going on for his guitar. The low end has sub notes to it, and the high end sounds like a trippy sitar. The drummer had minimal kit (crash, hats, snare, tom, floor tom) and a drum machine. Together they make some seriously spaced out funk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM9whUJ_m7U
http://www.myspace.com/kirihito0o0o

Saturday was an odd experience for me. I went to an all night event at a club called Wire. There was a shoe-gaze band called Luminous Orange playing and a lot of DJs. The crowd was pretty young and I found out that I had actually missed the band. I was a little disappointed, but the night was saved by the fact that the DJs started pulling out some crazy stuff. They were spinning My Bloody Valentine, Wavve, Pheonix, The Beatles, and even "Video Killed the Radio Star." The most amazing part was the audience was flipping out and singing along to all of it. It was a very enjoyable evening.

Now for Sunday. I had been psyched about this for a while. I was going to the Urban Tribes 09 show...at a ballroom Roppongi Hills? I had assumed from the title, the abstract graffiti art on the website, and the name DJ Krush (the most innovative and famous Japanese Hip Hop artist) being on the list of DJs that I was going to a Hip Hop show. When I entered the place, I quickly realized that one of two things had happened. Either the Japanese people were misinformed about what Hip Hop was, or I was misinformed about what type of show I was going to. It was very, very much the latter.This is the swankiest thing I have ever been to. There was glamour everywhere. Intense Fashion, Discoballs, Candles in the VIP section, a huge drink line, drag queens, and pole dancers. This show had it all. Mostly, the DJs played trance. Kenny Larkin was spinning at the end of the night and he was great. Also, I got asked twice if I was selling drugs (a win in my book because I am that legit).

None of that was important though. For me, that night was all about DJ Krush. I was absolutely annihilated by him. I think he affected me more profoundly than any one else I have seen in Japan. The quality was just so high. He sounded like he should be on Warp Records (like a super dark Prefuse 73). I have never heard anyone come close to the things he did with his turntables. It was just the eeriest, ambient scratching I have ever heard, on top of being the most musical scratching I have ever heard. The performance was flawless. Perfect transitions, range of beats, and just entrancing at every moment. I've read that Japanese Hip Hop was most directly influenced by the old school Hip Hop when Hiroshi Fujiwara returned from the US and started playing hip hop in Japan in the early 80s. When I hear such a focus on turntablism and pushing the musical side of Hip Hop in DJ Krush, I believe it.
The audio sucks, it was so heavy live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaMDYzLLyfU
Here's a good live video of him cutting loose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BYR0Es6U_A

But wait, there is more. Today I went to the Studio Ghibli Museum. It was marvelous. Everything was harmonious and adorable. They had a huge Neko Bus (cat bus from Totoro) that kids were climbing all over, and I saw a short film about a whale.

I also went to the Square Enix store, and watched all of the previews for the upcoming Final Fantasy and Kingdom Heart games. I want them all.

I will post soon

I have been slipping, hardcore. What happened is that I realized that these are my last days in Tokyo. I leave for the festival on Thursday, and then I only have a day and a half in Tokyo before I leave. Because of this I have spent as much time as possible out doing things, crossing out the items of my "stuff I still have to do" list. Tuesday I will go to the Studio Ghibli museum, and perhaps Wednesday I will finally go tour the palace.

I will give the mini update now, with a more in depth one on the way.

The second half of my week was amazing. I loved Osaka and really enjoyed seeing my friends and making some new ones in Sapporo.

Friday I saw Kirihito. The whole show was great. Each of the openers were very different. There was a hardcore band (Japanese people moshing?) and a comedic MC (Sort of like a Bar Mitzvah dj).

Last night I went to a club in Shinjuku where there was a Shoegaze band playing live and a bunch of DJs. The craziest part was how the DJs were playing the Smiths, My Bloody Valentine, Beatles, and a whole bunch more surprisingly amazing selections. Even more impressive was how everyone in there was singing along.

Tonight I am attending the Urban Tribes 09 all night event. This is the one of the premier Hip Hop events in Japan, and DJ Krush is going to be there.

There will be a flood of posts soon.

My Week Part 2: Osaka and Sapporo

After Kyoto, I had almost had my fill of Japanese cultural treasures and historic buildings. So I would return to my natural habitat of a bustling city by going to Osaka. Instantly I felt that Osaka was far more manageable than Tokyo or even Kyoto. The reason behind this is that on top of Osaka being divided into city blocks, the main points of interest for me were all centrally located in the 南 (south) neighborhood. Unlike Kyoto, I was sure I would manage to see every thing I wanted without pulling any crazy stunts.

As it turned out, I wasn't quite done with the Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Temples yet. This was mainly for the historical significance of these buildings, rather than their grandeur.
The Shitenno-ji is the oldest Buddhist Temple in Japan, and was built in 593 AD. I was excited that it possessed a pagoda you can actually go inside. When you enter, you find two spiral staircases (one for up, one for down) which stop at each floor. Small Buddhas and other statues are on each floor and a glass encased gold object is on the top floor. The also had a main hall with several statues.

The other place I went was the Sumiyoshi Taishi, one of the earliest shrines in Japan, founded in 211 AD. I got a kick out of crossing the bridge.

After that, I was ready to check out what I was really interested in. Osaka is the third largest city in Japan (The number two, Yokohama is just south of Tokyo and is practically a continuation of it). There were a few important neighborhoods I wanted to check out, and I was lucky to discover that they were all adjacent to each other in the center of the city. The first of these was Dotonbori, the food district of Osaka.

Osaka boasts itself as Japan's Kitchen. There are several regional dishes and specialties, but over all, everything tastes better in Osaka. Unfortunately, I am not much of a fish person, so I probably missed out on a lot. I did, however, get to experience the true standard of Osaka: Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is this amazing pancake with all sorts of vegetables and meat mixed in. I also had some curry udon (as in combine two dishes I love into one). I don't know if anything will ever live up to Osaka food.

Next was Namba, the shopping district. It was just massive. All I could do was walk from one end to the other and take everything in. I explored some department stores, and saw the largest Don Quijote I have seen in Japan (It had a Ferris wheel).

The name of the next place made me skeptical. It was called Amerika-mura, which basically means American Town. I had read that this area was the center of youth culture in Osaka, much like Shibuya in Tokyo. I was much more than pleasantly surprised. The atmosphere was incredible. Every shop was small, hip and culturally rooted. There was such a variety of fashion that I ended up finding a T-shirt that suited me and bought it. I walked into one record store and there was a DJ scratching behind the counter beat juggling. I went into a larger fashion store, and found that they had Dinosaur Jr. and Bad Brains shirts. I wandered that entire neighborhood, until everything shut down. Then I called it a night and got ready for the next day.

The game plan for day two in Osaka was museums and the like. I began with the Freedom Osaka human rights museum. It was a very interesting experience. I was given some English audio for my tour and an employee followed me around. Unfortunately, the audio was sparse and the employee had set lines prepared, but couldn't really answer my questions (I kind of liked being in a situation where someone understood your language as much as you did theirs, and how you had to try to reach a meaning somewhere in the middle). I thought it was great how the museum put so much of the history of discrimination in Japan up for the public to see, but sometimes it felt a little insincere (a lot of the events were very recent if not ongoing but they were referred to as if long forgotten. Also, there was no mention of discrimination towards Chinese immigrants). I am probably being too critical.

Next was one of my highlights of my trip. I went to the Osaka Aquarium, the second largest aquarium in the world (I guess I need to check out Atlanta now). They had two whale sharks and a manta ray. There were children everywhere, and they were pretty loud. I had to out run them a couple of times for some peace and quiet.

From there, I took a subway to the other side of the city to see the biggest landmark in Osaka, the Osaka Castle.The walls were massive. There was a fireman training (initiation?) on a high rope across the walls. Children waved as they passed on a train shaped tram car (I thought it was weird that they all chanted "bye-bye" because if I was that age on a train I would be saying "hi" or rather "konichiwa"). The castle was pretty fantastic. The interior had been remodeled into a museum that told the story of the builder of the castle and its history over the years. I especially enjoyed the view from the top.

With the day almost done, I took the last bullet train for Tokyo and spent the night at my apartment. I would be getting up bright and early for Sapporo the next day.

I am fairly indifferent when if comes to travel. I am not bothered by it, nor do I get excited about it. However, it took 11 hours to get to Sapporo by train and that is the same time it took for me to fly to Japan. Apparently, the bullet train that will go all the way to Sapporo won't be completed until 2020.

Sapporo was a very nice city. Everything was walkable, and centralized like Osaka. It was a calmer version of the cities I had already gotten used to.

For Jamar on the other hand, who had been in the very small Hakodate for the last month, it was a much more exciting experience. I was more or less there to hang out with him and anyone else I knew who was doing Light Fellowship in Hakodate. I met his friends in the program who were from all over the place (Grad students, Canadian University students). We also met this guy.We did a lot of souvenir shopping for our friends back at school, and caught up in general. We also did some intense arcade visits. Jamar always warned me about the Japanese School-girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1fgpCRecUM
Also, this made my day:
That is a Bruce Lee themed Pachinko machine. I think Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the boss (of the Pachinko machine?).

It was all over too soon, but I loved every second of my trip. More and more I started thinking in terms of "when is the next time I will get to come here?"

I Just Saw The Pillows

That is all. I just saw the band that got me into Japanese music. I thought that their mix was a little off. Too much vocals and not enough bass. On that same note, I wish they had Tatsuya Kashima, their bassist during the 90s. He wrote lines with lots of movement, leading tones and fills (stuff I like).

My Week Part 1: Kyoto

I woke up at 4:15 on Monday the 6th and hopped on a Shinkansen for Kyoto. The Shinkansen is so fast and quiet, I ended up dozing off and suddenly I was there. It was too foggy to see Mt. Fuji, which was kind of a bummer. Kyoto was a change of pace for me. It is still a city, but the JR lines don't really run anywhere except east to west, and there are very few subways (these modes of transportation have become my forte in Tokyo). I knew that I only had two days in this historic city, so I didn't waste a moment. Right off the train I bought a tourist map that had all the shrines and temples in Kyoto, and, having left the station, I made my way to the nearest one.

That was the To-ji, just south west of the station. The To-ji has three main buildings: The Main Hall, The Lecture Hall, and a 5 story pagoda that is the tallest in Japan. The buildings were gigantic and fantastically old. The area around the buildings had a nice pond and garden, where you could rest. However, the rule for Buddhist temples is that pictures of the interior are strictly prohibited, as it is forbidden to photograph the sacred Buddha. This means that the greatest sights of my journey will only exist in my memory, and that I cannot share them with anyone.

After stopping by my hostel to drop off my luggage, I decided to go to the Kiyomiza-dora next. It is a temple built on the side of a large hill with some amazing structures. On the way up, however, I was amazing by the discovery of a massive graveyard.

This picture is not enough to show how large this place was. Here is a video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UnQl3LlTzw

The temple itself was stunning and had an amazing view of the city. This is where I noticed that every temple and shrine I went to in Kyoto was swarming with children. The Gion Matsuri festival lasts the entire month of July, so that was probably the reason.

Fushimi Inari-Taisha was nearby so I decided to go there.

Soooooo many Tori gates. It was quite fun to go through there, but when I made it to the Shrine, I heard thunder. I ran back through the gates and made it to the souvenir shop before the downpour came. I actually greeted this storm happily because it had been unbearably hot out and I was walking a lot that day, as the shrines and temples are concentrated on the perimeter of the city.

Unfortunately, all the temples and shrines close around 5, so that was all I had time for that day. I spent the night exploring the shopping arcade and the urban side of Kyoto. The shops were mostly run-of-the-mill fashion places, but it was still interesting. There were some pimped out cars hanging around on the side of the road.

I wanted to say how much I enjoyed staying at hostels for this week. Everyone at the places I stayed at were so relaxed and welcoming. The other tenants were quick to start up conversation and discuss travel plans. Apparently there are a lot of hostels in Japan with strict rules (bathing time, curfew) and the Osaka one was sort of like that. I guess the other two were just lucky picks by me, because they were extremely flexible. If anyone wants to travel to Japan (especially if you don't speak any Japanese) hostels are what I recommend.

The next day I woke up at 6, determined to see everything I wanted before the Temples closed at 5.

I started with the Heian Jingu. Though the shrine was fairly large, this was the only attraction that was free out of everything I saw that day. It was very picturesque and had a classic feel to it, though it is a very modern shrine, having been built in 1895.

Next was the Sanjusangen-do, the temple which houses the 1001 carved Buddha statues along with a complete set of Buddha's guardians (which is highly uncommon) and a giant Buddha in the middle of the temple. This was one of the coolest experiences in my entire trip. It was such an amazing sight. It looks like someone broke the rules, but words can't describe what I saw:
http://www.chrisandsherry.com/Japan/8KyotoBuddhas.jpg
What is visible in that photo is only the majority of the right half of the temple. It just seemed to go on forever. They had signs in English that gave the information of each guardian. Despite being a temple, the information was presented in a very historical fashion, by stating what the original Sanskrit name was, what the guardian was in Hinduism, and what they were adapted to be in Buddhism.

The closest place of interest after that was the Kyoto Castle. To my dismay it was closed. It would be fine in the end, as I was able to go to the far move impressive Osaka Castle later in the week. Compared to the Osaka Castle, the wall and defenses of the Kyoto Castle were laughable.

Next on my list was the Osaka Botanical Gardens. Right around the time I got there, it started raining heavily. I made refuge and had some lunch. For lunch that day was Curry Udon (a combination of two of my favorite dishes). The gardens were pretty interesting. I feel as though I had missed the best blooming period for most of the Japanese plants (the Cherry Blossom happens months earlier), but there was a bonsai exhibit and a crazy collection in the greenhouse.

After managing to pull off bus riding without a hitch, I got myself to the other side of Kyoto to see the Kinkaku-ji.

The word Kin is gold in Japanese. The entire temple is coated in a thick gold lacquer and crowned with a golden Phoenix on top. I don't know how many gold buildings exist in the world, but this was pretty amazing. The area around the temple was interesting as well, and the temple is right next to the Daimonji Mountain, one of the mountains lit aflame to spell out the character for "big" during the fire festival in August.


There was one last place I wanted to go to in Kyoto, and fortunately it was just south of the Kinkaku-ji.

That was the Ryoan-ji and it's famous rock garden. It was a little crowded at this temple, and made the experience a little less enjoyable. The garden itself was quite cool. It is constructed in such a way that of the 13 large rocks in the midst of the garden, you can only see 12 from any angle other than above. They say that being able to see the 13th stone means you have reached enlightenment.

Believe it or not my day was not through. Though I had seen what I had wanted to in Kyoto, I still had to hop on a train to Nara, the old capital. The city is just south of Kyoto and really had an old feel to it. It felt as though the city was about 5 years back in time (just a strange feeling I got). The oddest part of all was that after walking for about 3 city blocks, I found myself in a completely different setting as I entered the park where all the temples are. The most amazing part of this trip to Nara (and perhaps my entire trip) were the deer.

They just roam the area, even though they are a block away from a busy city. I really can not explain how amazing this was. They had no fear of humans. You could walk up to them, feed them, and I even got so bold as to reach out my hand and pet them. There were so many around, at least 200.

The main temple I came to Nara for was the Todai Shrine, the largest wooden building in the world. The greatest disappointment in my entire trip, was discovering that I had arrived after closing time for this temple. I was determined however, and the above shot was taken from atop some scaffolding being used for lights outside of the temple gates. Here is a picture I found on Google that has people in it for size comparison. Though I could not see the magnificent interior and the largest Buddha statue in Japan, at least I had the deer to comfort me.


Part 2 is on the way...

And So It Begins

I am waiting for my laundry to finish, and then I will take a nap. When I wake up around 4:30, I will complete the packing process and I am off to Tokyo Station to start the first leg of my explorations in the rest of Japan by spending two days in Kyoto followed by two days in Osaka.

Kyoto may be a city, but it is home to some of the greatest pieces of Japanese cultural history. My main focus will be to go Temple and Shrine hopping, taking a ton of pictures. I don't care if I go hyper-tourist, because it will be worth it. My pride can take the hit for this awesome experience. Beyond the historical structures, my friend informed me that Kyoto had some of the best T-shirts he had seen in Japan, so I will be on the look out.

Osaka is the Chicago of Japan (I say this because Osaka and Chicago are actually sister cities). It has the largest Aquarium in the world, a huge castle, a great nightlife, and a Japanese civil rights museum that I have heard great things about. On top of this, it is known as the kitchen of Japan, boasting the greatest cuisine in the country. I will sample as much as my stomach can handle.

I am not sure when I will get around to posting, as my time will be focused on running around and seeing things. I do have my computer with me, so I will be checking email and such.

Wonderful Weekend Part 2

After the Friday variety show extravaganza, I was ready to do some chilling out. Thankfully I had made plans with my friend Tommy, who is doing Light Fellowship at Sun Academy, to go to the Tanabata Matsuri star festival in Aksakusa. It's this festival based off of Chinese folk-lore celebrating the only annual meeting of two stars that represent two lovers. The whole street was lined with vendors and paper streamers. There was the performance of a traditional dance, complete with the playing of classical Japanese folk music. I also saw a man dressed as Darth Vader and a shop that only sold plastic replicas of food, which restaurants use for advertisement. We had Okonomiyaki for dinner.

Afterwards, I was invited to return to the Sun Academy apartments, and celebrated 4th of July by going out clubbing. In a fairly hilarious turn of events, we went to the happening part of town someone read about in their guide book, only to discover that it was the gay club district (Tory, you warned me). Both the guys and girls were a little upset about this. Instead we hung around Kabukicho for a while before heading back to our apartments.

Now I need to plan for my week long trip. Fortunately, I will be spending Thursday night back here in Tokyo as a half way point on my way from Osaka to Sapporo. This way I can have a rest stop, and I only have to pack for 4 days.

Wonderful Weekend

Have you ever seen something so awful, that it ended up being absolutely amazing? That is what happened to me on Friday. I decided to go to a club called Lush for a show. I was interested in seeing these acts:

http://www.myspace.com/josephnothing

http://www.myspace.com/comajapan

http://www.myspace.com/lowbornsoundsystem

The show started at 8 and there was a long list of acts, so I assumed it would be a long night.

I am going to give you the exact order of events that unfolded, while posting some youtube videos I took, allowing you to share in my confusion.

First was a possible singer/songwriter named Akira with a traveler's guitar and a cd player. When he discovered the cd player was broken, he kicked it across the stage, and started the song on his guitar. Upon discovering the guitar was out of tune. He placed it down on the stage and announced he would sing a cappella. After 30 seconds, he gave up and told the DJ to start playing again.

Second was another singer/songwriter. He had an actual set, but could not really play guitar well, and could not hit the notes he was trying to in his vocals. For his last song, Akira came back out and played drums. Akira could not play drums, so the song was harmonious between the two musicians.

Then there was a DJ who played a jungle set. The first half of his set was ruined by the fact that Akira tried to play along, and kept losing the beat. Fortunately, the DJ stopped him and the second half of the set was great.

Then came the big act that was advertised. They were called Vanilla Bean. They sang awful pop music and had atrocious choreography, which 6 middle aged men knew by heart and did with them. It was a spectacle, and for that I loved it.

Then there was a Japanese stand up Comedian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHkxoncv1Pc

From what I hear, Japanese stand up is awful, and this certainly seemed like it. The focus of his humor, was repeating absurd sounds and facial expressions after every joke. He made a joke about Jackie Chan and one about Street Fighter, but the rest was above my ability to understand. I may have been better off.

Then there was an interview, featuring some actor, who may be in a film that is about to come out. I think what they showed us was a preview for it, but it seemed like a indie film that was only playing in one theatre. Akira was one of the interviewers.

Then there were five guys in tuxedos doing insane dance routines to heavy metal pop songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7CLnwNgQDs

Did you see the man in the deer mask? The bad boy of the group was the one whose shirt was unbuttoned. His trademark move was to zip and unzip his fly like he was picking a guitar.

Then there was a DJ who played DDR style pop tracks and sang along.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHGQjMLwQIs

Then there was a grindcore band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr_iZwCaSHY

After this, I was done. I had had enough. It was 1 AM and I went home, having not seen any of the acts I intended to. That night messed with my mind.

Back to the O-nest

Tonight I went to a show at the Sibuya O-nest. It was a fairly quick decision, because I had been feeling guilty about having not been to a show for three days. I was using that time to figure out my week long trip which starts on Monday (I now have all 8 train tickets and all 4 hostels reserved). When I got off the elevator, I was presented with a surprise.

A fifth band was added to the line up, and they performed a set right on the bar floor (the stage floor is one below). The were called Not Great Men (an excellent Gang of Four reference) and they played a hardcore set. They were really good. Very tight band, and the singing/screaming was divided between the two guitarists and was legitimately in the hardcore style. The best part was their final song, where one of their friends did guest vocals and paroling the front of the crowd intensely. The also had a few moments where their chord progressions were very melodic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsrMocZ3vX4
http://www.myspace.com/notgreatmennnn


Next was Toddle. They come out to a recording of King of Carrot Flowers part 2 by Neutral Milk Hotel.They were a pretty straight forward, poppy indie-rock sound. Every once in a while there would do some cool root substitutions and play high pitched chords, giving them a pop post-hardcore sound. The bassist stole the show in my opinion. He had some crazy footwork and was going around all over the stage. He also became obsessed with my "Say What?" T-shirt because I was in the front row and shouted it about seven times. I caught this after the set:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niuToGoGybQ
http://www.myspace.com/toddleto



After that came Merzbow. I had just seen a hardcore band and an pop/indie band, so this guy came out of waaaaay left field. He is a noise artist. He had two laptops and a home made spring thing, and just let loose the endless throbbing, bass heavy, black noise. It was as if he was seeking out every frequency your ear could hear, and then blasting you with it until that was added to the collection of ringings. I was just so surprised about how large the crowd was and how intent they were on him. The Japanese just seem to have greater patience and appreciation for weird music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbBBczzDeCA

My ears had not recovered when Music from the Mars took the stage. To be honest, I thought they were the least interesting of the night. They were a funky jam band with a guitarist who was trying to be a rock star in the wrong setting (and kind of failing at that). They were quite talented, however, and had two guest musicians, a french horn player and a saxophonist, who really added to the sound, but where under-utilized.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2iUUVDSJq0
http://www.myspace.com/musicfromthemars



The headliner this evening was Far France. Their guitarist/singer warmed up by playing the riff from Merchandise by Fugazi, so I was really excited. Sure enough, their post-hardcore influences were easily heard in their songs, especially in the lead guitarist's top-of-the-neck speed-strumming, dead notes, and harmonics. They sometimes sounded a little more straight rock, but their stage presence was nothing but hardcore. All of them were swinging their necks into the air, wandering the stage, and collapsing after their big finishes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG-_dj8Y4VM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU9IQ1Y7BCs
http://www.myspace.com/ecnarfraf

Halfway Over/Halfway Home

Today was the start of the new month, and with it, I have spent 4 weeks in Tokyo. I've gotten to the point that I accidentally got on the wrong subway, because I am so used to taking that one. I eat curry and ramen pretty much everyday. Above all, I have really experienced some incredible music here. I've done my best to see everything from experimental concrete stuff to horrible pop-funk (the only ticket I regretted thus far). I have been amused. I have been spellbound. I have danced like there is no tomorrow.

Next month represents further exploration. I want to break the rituals I have fallen into. I want to try some weird food. I want to see new sights. I have been to every major part of inner Tokyo at least once, so in order to find these new experiences I will travel outside of the city. Starting Monday, I will have a week long JR pass. With this I can take any non-first class train in Japan including the bullet trains. I have booked all the youth hostels, so my plans are pretty much finalized. I will leave as early as possible for Kyoto on Monday, spend two days there, spend two days in the adjacent city of Osaka, take a sleeper train all the way to Hakodate during Friday, spend part of Saturday with the HIF folks who stuck around, and then finally head up to Sapporo to see the rest of my friends. I think the rules work so that I only need to be on the bullet train back to Tokyo before Sunday is up. It is going to be an insane week. I will sleep somewhere different every night. Internet access isn't guaranteed and I wonder if leaving my laptop is the smarter thing to do.

However, the new horizons don't end there. When I return to Tokyo I have already selected a bunch of shows to attend. The day I get back there is a psychedelic show at the Liquid Room (this will be my third time there) featuring DMBQ, whome I have heard a lot about. The day after that I will get to see The Pillows. Today I just bought a ticket for Urban Tribes 09, an all night Japanese Hip Hop showcase featuring the most innovative J-hip hop dj of all time, DJ Krush. I am thinking about seeing Kirihito on the 17th and The Brixton Academy on the 18th. I just realized that I have mapped out my life for the next two weeks. I don't think that has ever happened before, at least not this intricately.

The scariest part of all is that when that weekend is over it will be the week of the Fuji Rock Festival, my last horrah in my musical exploration. Following the festival I will only have another two days in Tokyo. I plan to blow what is left of my fellowship money on souvenirs, t-shirts, and as many CDs that I can fit into my suitcase (Japan is still a predominantly CD based nation when it comes to music, so that is the only way to get it). I have my eyes on sooo many.

Some quick side stories:

Tonight there were four English speaking girls sitting near me on the subway. They were obnoxious, and kept complimenting each other's fashion. I overheard their conversation as it continued, and it turns out (I could have guessed from the outfits) that they are really into Visual Kei music. They must go to school here because one was saying how she burnt herself out on lives (shows) when she was going to about 10 a month earlier this year. They quickly fell into discussing which members of which visual kei bands were hot, how people seem to like the drummers who stand out so they shouldn't have "de-keied" that one guy, and how so and so got less chubby. Visual Kei has never had any appeal to me. I think I would rather listen to Rip Slyme. At least they can rap (I wonder if rapping in Japanese is easier with the ample amount of homophones).

I forgot to mention this, but another reason why I like The New House so much was the fact that they opened their set mouthing a recording of this

Philippe Chatelain Video

Here he is. He dimmed all the lights so that it was pretty much just his laptop monitor providing the light. Halfway through, he brings in a track to go under his noise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIPWZPWnVk4

Concerts Update

Here's everything that has happened this weekend

First off there was Shugo Tokumaru on Thursday. He was playing at the Liquid Room. I bought the ticket the second I heard about the show, but didn't really know the details of it. It turned out that there were only two acts, and Shugo was the first one. His show was stunning. I got his album earlier this year and just fell in love with his sound. He has the approach of a singer/song writer with his vocals and acoustic guitar as the centerpiece, but he surrounds his simple pieces with every manner of percussion, whistles, chimes, accordions, and toy pianos to create dense soundscapes that are just beautiful. He had four supporting musicians with him: a drummer and 3 multi instrumentalists. They played every small, handheld instrument you could think of, and had to follow sheet music for the entire show because there was so much going on. He also played the most amazing cover of Video Killed the Radio Star on banjo. Unfortunately, there was a security guy watching me like a hawk, so I have no pictures or videos from that night. I will just give some links instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FJ99ju9rfw
http://www.myspace.com/shugotokumaru
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubq3a1LScTw

So the real surprise for me was the fact that there was another band at the show who was the headliner. I had no idea who they were, but I realized that a large part of the crowd was there to see them. They were called Kicell (キセフ) and after researching them, they claim to be a post rock duo made up of two brothers. The set they played was more of a straight soft rock set. To be honest I found it a little boring, but their singing was excellent. It was a good thing I stuck around because halfway through the set, the backing drummer and keyboardist left the stage and then they switched to an acoustic guitar and music saw set up. I really enjoyed that part of the show more than the early part, as they accentuated the vocals, which were the best thing they had going on in my opinion. I even managed to understand a couple of their songs with my limited vocabulary (One about an aging lonely man and one love song). I'm going to have to check them out some more.
http://www.nidan-bed.com/english.html

Friday came in two parts. First there was a Alternative show with some other genres thrown in there as well.


The first band was called Highered-girl (above). They had the White Stripes set up with a girl drummer and a male guitarist. They went right into it with a wall of fuzz and furious drum fills (lots of energy in their playing). Some songs had noise aspects to them and were pretty hardcore, while others got very melodic. The vocal lines were well written on top of everything else.
http://www.myspace.com/higheredgirl

Next was You Got a Radio!. They were a new wave/early west-coast punk band. They were very reminiscent of X. The male and female guitarists doubled on vocals for a lot of songs. The bassist was wearing a tie and swaying all over the place. Really danceable stuff, but more than anything I noticed how well rehearsed and tight their whole show was. They also had one song towards the end that was intentionally dissonent which I enjoyed.
http://www.myspace.com/yougotaradio


The third act was called Poetry of Bathroom. This was a weird one. First you have a guitarist/singer, a bassist playing an acoustic bass guitar, and the most unobtrusive drummer I have ever heard. You take these three and you have a lo-fi, Velvet Underground style folk rock band. Now add into the mix a bassist with his strap between his legs, gloves, a German double bass bow, and a slide. This guy steals the show and totally morphs the sound into something noisy and trippy. On the last song, the guitarist joined the crazy bassist in his fun by shredding out some heavy distorted noise of his own.
http://www.myspace.com/poetryofbathroom

The last band I saw (there was actually one more, but I needed to stop by my apartment before the second part of my night) was called Condor44. They were an Alt. rock three piece with an open handed drummer. The best part of their performance was the fluidity. The set was continuous, and every song change and part change within a song was so smooth you couldn't notice it. They got very soft and decently heavy at different points but everything just transitioned perfectly. Their sound sometimes reminded me of Sebadoh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q_oo2J433Q
http://jp.myspace.com/condor44

After all of that (I must be insane) I went to another show that started at 12:30. This wasn't a rave like last week, but rather a legitimate show with electronic dance bands and dj in between each set. I took a lot of videos here because everyone seemed cool with it.


Nu Clear Classmate (above) was playing when I walked in. They were an electoclash duo who performed on the floor with the crowd around them. Heavy distorted guitar leads overlayed the electro drums and synth lines. They had balloons drop from the ceiling when they announced they would be releasing an E.P. in the near future. Some of their songs really reminded me of Dan Deacon's stuff.
http://www.myspace.com/nuclearclassmate





The next group was called AAPS. They had an experimental house sound. They would get some jazzy piano every once in a while like in the video above, or sometimes they would rock out (while still having a dance style). The keytarist played the bass lines and jumped out into the audience a few times.
http://www.myspace.com/tuneaaps




Up next was White Scooper. They played hard edged disco house with a lot of vocals and live bass and guitar. The genre was good mix of old and new sounds. I heard 80s and modern influences in the songs.
http://www.myspace.com/whitescooper




This band was the one that was most memorable for me out of the whole night. They are called The New House. I had seen them out on the dance floor and they seemed like cool guys. I didn't realized they were a band. They were like nothing else that evening. Almost entirely rock instrument based, the band was an indie rock/experimental group. The first thing I thought was these guys sound like an American band (all of the lyrics were in English). If you take a look at their myspace influences, you will see was on the money (also I have 80% of their influences on my ipod). Unfortunately their myspace recording do great injustice to what they sounded like live (the video is decent though). Their sound went in some cool directions. The second video is almost like Animal Collective (I think the singer reminded me of Avey Tear somewhat). Cool note: the rack toms of the drummer face outward for the rest of the band to play, he only uses floor tom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF8tD3T8BVU&feature=related
http://www.myspace.com/thenewhousetokyo


Saturday was the Acid Mothers Temple show in Akihabara. The club was cool and pretty crowded. Two guys were operating a liquid light/laser show the entire time. The opener was called Kinski.


They are a Seattle based Psych Rock band doing a tour in Japan right now. A four piece classic rock set up, they had that driving heavy sound, with steady pulsing bass and drums. They used the classic, warm fuzzbox sound on their guitars. They definitely were staying true to the rock aspect of psych rock.
http://www.myspace.com/kinskispace

Acid Mothers Temple, on the other hand, were Psychedelic in the fullest sense of the word. Old synths made spaced out hums and whistles, a variety of acoustic instruments made appearances, and the singer had mastered Tuvan throat singing. Other times, the whole band would just wail out with furious droning noise.


The experience was pretty intense. I forgot where I was from time to time and disappeared in my own thoughts. I caught their last song before the encore on video. This was the softest of their tunes, that ended with them all singing in eastern harmonies.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUZL6wbxKok
http://www.myspace.com/acidmotherstemple

So didn't think that I could top the musical strangeness of the Acid Mothers Temple show. However, yesterday I was treated to insanity. I attended an Experimental music show featuring a bunch of artist on this collective label called Intervall-audio. It was a night of heavily artistic expression, the kind that reminds you that art has no definition, and music, therefore, does not have a set sound.


I had some trouble finding the place, but when I did get there Scriptones was playing. He was a field recorder/circuit bender. What this means is that he had a recordings from nature and cities that he maniplulated, while also created new connections on open circuit boards to create original sounds of popping static and noise. His music had a random uncontrollable factor to it, and he often would make a face when he stumbled upon a harsh sound he didn't like. I thought that it was awesome that his main way of manipulating the circuits by using his hands to make connections.
http://www.intervall-audio.com/artists/scriptones.html

For anyone unfamiliar with circuit bending here is a short explaination


I don't actually know the name of the next artist. He was not one of the featured names, and I haven't been able to dig him up anywhere yet. He was a guitarist who used the five pedals above to morph his extremely violent and fast guitar techiques to create a sonic spectrum of noise. It was all just so fast paced. The weirdest part was his use of the bass synthesizer pedal (pictured in the middle) which I myself have looked into. Using his guitar as the trigger, it would make random sweeping filter bass notes fall down to ranges outside of the guitar. He even grabbed an ashtray and used it as a slide and pick. Everyone there was blown away.

The big name of the evening was Philippe Chatelain, a Tokyo based French musician. He is the leader of the influential experimental group The Laptop Orchestra. Compared to the other two, his music was much more regular and rhythmic, though complrised almost entirely of white noise waves. He would bring in recorded music that he manipulated extensively. I was able to make out Billie Jean , likely a homage to the recently late artist. I made a video but it is taking way too long to download, so I give up. Maybe I will put it on Youtube.
http://www.iamas.ac.jp/~phhat99/

This was a really long post. I will try to space it out more in the future. If you read this whole thing you are a champ.