Greeno in Japan

Time slips by

2010-06-12T13:44:00.003+09:00

It's looking like the end of week 2. Wow, how did that happen?

This week was spent traveling with my class. We met everyday for something or another.

On Monday we went to the publishing company of Shonen Magazine, the second most popular manga weekly in Japan. We all learned as to how intense the process of making a weekly manga magazine is. Sometimes the artist and editors go back and forth for 30 hours straight just during the planning stages.

Tuesday we went to the Edo period museum and Asakusa. The museum was nice, but I still hate Asakusa. Tourist traps left and right.

Wednesday was just class. Way to go Wednesday!

Thursday we went on a tour of the imperial palace. I was happy to do this because it was something I failed to do last time. It turned out to be a mistake. It was extremely hot that day and standing around exposed to the sun was not really a priority. The palace itself was pretty awesome, but the tour was way too long for the extremely small distance we covered. I chilled out afterward by going to the Sony Building.

Highlight of the week was the concert at Club Quattro on Thursday. I saw Ogre You Asshole and Eastern Youth. They were both pretty fantastic. I didn't really know how big a deal Eastern Youth was before the concert, but the crowd was flipping out. They seemed really Fugazi influenced (even had a bell above the ride cymbal). I am definitely missing out by not knowing the lyrics. OYA was great live. Their drummer is unbelievable. He was consistently using rudiments and one handed rolls, and was just so fluid overall.

Friday was spent at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. The museum there depicted WWII as a defensive war for Japan, brought on by America pressuring Japan with cutting off our exports to them. Not once was the alliance with the Axis mentioned, nor Nanking, nor anything else one would think would be a slightly important historical detail that might portray Japan in any sort of negative light. Yeah.

Later in Akihabara, I discovered a shop completely devoted to selling sd cards to hack a Nintendo DS so you can put music and however many games you want on it at the same time....

Such a wide range of emotions

2010-06-09T12:39:00.002+09:00

So for homework I had to watch Grave of the Fireflies. It is the most depressing movie I have ever seen. It was like Life is Beautiful, except instead of a Father and Son its a Preteen and his 3 year old sister. Also, there are no Nazis as evil figures, only the circumstances of war. I was devastated.

So how do I turn that sorrow around? THE TAIKO GAME FOR WII! It suddenly appeared at my home stay house (along with a wii). Here's a video for anyone not familiar with what I am talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KATvgGfJ2f8

To top it off, before class today we watched the Chinpokomon episode of South Park. Awesome.

A week gone already?!

2010-06-05T11:12:00.002+09:00

Right about now marks a week from when my plane touched down.

It's been great so far. All in all pretty much the same place it was last year. I have put my knowledge to good use and have managed to hit up most of my favorite spots in a week. I have been met with some great success.

1. Super Smash Brothers (Japanese N64 version)
Picked this up in Akihabara. I swore I couldn't find it last year, but this time they had like 5 all lined up in a row. The 12-pack is psyched (especially Jamar who will get to play Purin).

2. New CDs
I got these in the Shinjuku Tower Records. The new Shugo Tokumaru and the other Mass of the Fermenting Dregs E.P. They are both quite excellent, but the new Shugo really got me. He focused a little more on his intricacies that I love, and spent a little less time on the bubbly folk tunes. Also, he kicks ass on a banjo too.

3. Nintendo DS with dictionary software
This one is a bit of a funny story. I bought a Casio Japanese dictionary last summer. It's main purpose (other than to look up words I don't know) was for me to write Kanji that I could not read and give me a meaning. I hadn't really used it since last summer, so when I pulled it out on the airplane when I was brushing up on Japanese, I was really surprised when it froze at the starting screen. Even changing the batteries did nothing. Every time I reset it, it would just freeze shortly after. Without my warranty to get a new one, and not finding anyone who could fix it, my parents were just urging me to buy a new one. However, these things are waaaay to expensive and I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I decided to ask around the shops in Akihabara about this dictionary software I heard about for the Nintendo DS. It was the standard for English speaking teenagers visiting Japan a few years ago. I managed to find it in a small store, and bought it with a DS lite for about half the price of a new Casio.

Yesterday my class went on a field trip to Harajuku and Akihabara. I found some actually funny tee-shirts that I would consider buying, and some cool CDs. I didn't have time to check everything out in the Record store so I will go back there, and as for the shirts, it is so rare that I find a tee-shirt in tokyo that isn't super trendy ($$$) or super nerdy ([]_[]). However, this time around I am on a budget. I have about a third of the funds I had last time I was in Tokyo (to be spent in a time span of half the length), so I haven't bought any concert tickets yet. I do have my eye on one that looks really good (Eastern Youth and Orge You Asshole) and I will probably end up going to it. Also the Fuji Rock Lineup this year is kind of ridiculous (what is this Tom York and Flea project?).

So far some of my best adventures this time around have been the result of messing up and having to run off someplace in Tokyo to try to fix it. On that note, time to find my lost ID at the Ueno station.

P.S. Went to a maid cafe with my class. Extremely tame. Somewhat of a let down.

For reals-I am back

2010-05-31T16:20:00.003+09:00

Waseda University to the rescue. Although they had like 30 layers of protection, I finally have fast, reliable wireless internet that I can use anywhere on campus. Adventure 2 for the day is getting my phone to work again.

I am back in Tokyo, and things feel about the same. Unfortunately I am in the Funabashi area and am about an hour from Waseda and Shinjuku. I did not realize how perfect it was to be living in the Iidabashi area until now.

Waseda is pretty amazing. The campus is really nice, and it was packed with people today. The other Yale students and the one Princeton student are awesome as well. I have already had one experience in a restaurant this morning where a bunch of the other students turned to me to translate and give advice. Apparently I might have the second most Japanese speaking experience out of all of us. Interestingly enough, the student who speaks Japanese the best has been abroad since last summer. We actually hung out a little last year.

Mostly I have been sleeping and fretting about not having internet, so I have not explored that much at all. Although my first internet cafe experience was pretty cool. It doubled as a Manga kissaten, but I didn't see anyone browsing. It seemed like the focus was the internet/reading in private.

Hopefully next time I will have more interesting stories to tell.

This post cost me 200￥

2010-05-30T18:07:00.003+09:00

Just after I found out how to get the yen symbol. I spent a few minutes figuring out how to write in roman characters again.

I am in an internet cafe and the clock is ticking. Back in Tokyo and it feels great. But really? No internet.

My host family has dial up and there is no open wifi for me to use. Seeing as I have not been able to reactivate my phone yet, the internet would have been the only way for me to contact the outside world. Other important questions, such as what is there to do in Funabashi and what is the cheapest way to get back and forth from Waseda, remain unaswered.

Hopefully it will work out, since I would really like to get this blog going again.

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

2009-07-28T21:33:00.005+09:00

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

2009-07-22T19:14:00.002+09:00

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

2009-07-21T23:07:00.006+09:00

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

2009-07-19T23:00:00.002+09:00

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

2009-07-16T20:24:00.014+09:00

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

2009-07-15T02:09:00.003+09:00

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

2009-07-13T01:02:00.013+09:00

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/Jap an/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

2009-07-06T01:34:00.002+09:00

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

2009-07-05T11:50:00.002+09:00

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

2009-07-05T03:10:00.003+09:00

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

2009-07-02T23:49:00.006+09:00

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

2009-07-02T02:05:00.003+09:00

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

2009-06-30T12:25:00.003+09:00

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

2009-06-28T01:29:00.023+09:00

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.

Another Crazy Weekend

2009-06-26T23:13:00.003+09:00

I saw Shugo Tokumaru at Liquid room yesterday. I just came back from a show in Shimokitazawa. I am going to another all night event tonight, just like last week. Around 10 am tomorrow, I am getting a lesson in Japanese calligraphy/brush painting. At 4 tomorrow I am going to see Acid Mothers Temple. I will then collapse.

This is all I can post for now. The long post will be Sunday morning, just before I go to an all day experimental music show that starts at 2. I am having so much fun that I need a vacation (10 days till my Rail Pass week, the rest of Japan here I come).

I've been getting lazy with the posting

2009-06-24T22:03:00.005+09:00

Time to catch up.

One of my main endeavors the last couple of days was to work out my travel plans. I have had the itching desire to explore more of Japan, and the Osaka/Kyoto region has been highly recommended. On top of that I want to go see all my friends who will be in Sapporo/Hakodate when they are on break for a long weekend starting on Friday the 10th. With that date only a little more than 2 weeks away I needed to figure out how I was going to get there and when I was going to fit in my Osaka/Kyoto visit. I was really bummed because Japan offers one of the greatest deals for tourists in the world: The JR Rail Pass. This only costs around 30,000yen ($300) and you can ride any rail in Japan (including the bullet trains, just not first class) for an entire week. Unfortunately, you can only get the exchange order for this while you are still abroad (you get a ticket mailed to you in America that you take with you to Japan and get the actual ticket with). I was preoccupied with Dead Week, preparing for the trip and seeing friends that I never got around to this. Fortunately, Thanh had an awesome idea, which was to get the thing online, mail it to my house, and then have my parents mail it here. The JR companies will never know...

I had one more snag I had to figure out. If my Rail Pass week had to encompass at least some of the dates that my friends were on break, when should I be doing the rest of my traveling? The deciding factor came in the form of a gift from the gods. The night I was raving, I was waiting around the Shibuya-O clubs for the Loft to open up (when I first went there, two guys waved me off, "Come back....15 minutes"). I started grabbing all the fliers for upcoming shows that were sitting outside. I was going through my enormous pile of these the other day (I collect these things from everywhere I go and the clubs tend to give you another twenty or so when you enter) when I discovered that one of the fliers I grabbed was for J-Wave PLATOn Live. PLATOn is some kind of radio show apparently, but the line up for the show is くるり, サカナクション, and The Pillows...THE PILLOWS! One of the biggest names in Japanese music and one of the few Japanese bands I knew and listened to before I got here. All of their other shows for these two months sold out in a day, but I thought it was worth a shot. Turns out that there were still tickets available and I got one. I am going to see The Pillows (in some sort of capacity). With the show on the 14th, my week long adventures will begin on the 6th.

Yesterday I spent time in both Shibuya and Ginza. I went back to Shibuya because another one of my trusty fliers said that there was an instrument district of shops. I specifically wanted to check out a place called Bass Collection and a place that specialized in synthesizers (I had not been able to find a synth shop in all of Tokyo until then). The Bass Collection was ridiculous. Every high end custom name I had heard of and some that I hadn't. They had Alembics, Ritters, and even a certified 1950 Fender P-bass. Some ran as high as 4,000,000yen ($40,000). I didn't take pictures; I was afraid to. The synth place was the same thing. They had every single high end synth on the market as well as vintage stuff. I messed around on some Minimoogs and threw on some Moogerfooger effects (Moog overload). They also had a Revolution there, which is a 303 knock-off. I love the 303 sound. I wish I could get one, but they go for $1500 on Ebay.

I had never been to Ginza before and I think it was pretty cool. I felt like it had a little more of a Manhatten feel to it, bustling but with a calm sophistication. It isn't like the youthful madness of Shibuya and Harajuku that I have fallen in love with. There I went to the Sony Building and tried out electronics. They had a robot there that I think it's sole purpose was to roll around on the floor in you house, that's it. I also saw this awesome sunset.

Today I checked out Tokyo Dome City for the first time, and went to Yoyogi Park and Harajuku again. The Tokyo Dome City is a shopping/entertainment/amusement park that is right next to the Tokyo Dome. It was raining this morning, so the park was not active. I left without doing too much, but I will be back there to ride the Thunder Dolphin.

The park was much calmer than the first time I went there. I wandered around a bit and then I took this really artsy photo (Um...okay, me).

There was something going on at the stadium by the park.

Dreams Come True is this big pop jazz group in Japan and this is the name of their new album, celebrating their 20th anniversary of their first single. The place was packed, but I checked out the vendors and tailgaters for a little bit.

Speaking of Engrish:

There was some weird stuff this evening. I had a desire for a fruit-tea beverage of some sort, so I went to the convenience store. On the way there was a man passed out on the side walk with a water bottle. Traffic cops who happened to be on the scene were helping him move off of the sidewalk and into a park for children. Speaking of parks for children:

What are you? How do I work you?

Wheeee!

The reason I discovered this park was because Ted Everheart, a class of '09 Sebrugian, told me that visiting a temple or shrine at night is a must while in Japan. I will probably do so again in Kyoto, as that is where the serious shrines are.

The final thing is that today I decided to immerse myself in Japanese youth culture in two ways. First, I finally broke down and went to a McDonald's and had a Teriyaki McBurger. It was delicious. Secondly, this thing caught my eye, and I just had to:

I have bought my first Japanese cellphone strap. I will call him Hitome, a fitting but bad pun. Also I don't think this cereal is sold in the US, so I might have to immerse myself by buying it, and perhaps some Gemnai Flakes.

Let's go have a beach party!

2009-06-21T23:42:00.005+09:00

Right off the bat, happy Father's Day dad. It's still Sunday here and it's only close to 11 over there so you probably aren't back from church yet. I tried to find the special dinners commercial again this year, but I couldn't. Instead:

Apparently there aren't many left in the US. The nearest one to us is in Georgia.

So today I actually did go to a beach party in Otadama, by the bay. I was really worried because it was pouring this morning. The venue was called the Otadama Sea Studio, so I wasn't sure if it was an indoor thing or not. I got a little lost and wandered around, but then I found it.

It turns out that the place is a hut right on the beach. The floors inside were sand, so everyone just took off their sandals and danced in their bare feet. If you needed a break, you just went outside and sat by the water.

I came there specifically for two acts. The first was a singer named Hitomi Toi, which in Kanji is 一十三十一, the first Kanji palindrome name I have ever seen. She had a whole band with her and played a pretty good disco set. She definitely had a knack for working the crowd. Some of the songs featured more electronic instruments (bass player switching to a microkorg) and I was a fan of that.
http://www.myspace.com/hitomitoi

The act I was really excited about was De De Mouse, and he did not fail. He came out in some stylish duds and played a seriously dope house set. He was a great performer. He came out and started cracking jokes, and getting the crowd wild. Unlike a lot of DJs, he doesn't stand at the table grooving out by himself. Instead he is dancing, mouthing the lyrics, and being interactive with the audience the whole time. For most of his songs he played synth parts and jumped up on the table a couple of times. The only shame was that his set was a little short.
http://www.myspace.com/dedemouse

A great surprise today was when I figured out I can take videos with my camera. This is all I got before they yelled at me (politely informed me that I can not take photographs). I think this will happen to me a lot in the future.

Last Night

2009-06-20T14:06:00.003+09:00

Last night I biked to Shibuya. I had some food and explored a little bit.

At 6 P.M. I went to the Shibuya O-Nest. The opening act was 世武裕子, a pianist singer with modern french composer influences. She even sang in french for a few of the songs. Her compositions were playfully elegant and she had a beautiful voice.
http://www.myspace.com/sebumusique

Next was Mouse on the Keys. I had heard this band in a record store and was very interested to see what they would be like live. They were flawless. Fast and intricate Mathy Jazz with two keyboardist that were never off rhythm (not by a microsecond) and one of the most absurd drummers I have ever seen. They featured Trumpet/Cornet on a bunch of their songs, and the trumpeter was intense as well.
http://www.myspace.com/mouseonthekeys

The headliner was actually an Irish band called Enemies. They were an instrumental post-rock band with a lot of two hand guitar tapping. One of the guitarists would play drums from time to time, and overall they were much more lively than a lot of the bands I have seen here (the bassist jumped into the crowd). The show hit an interesting spot when the other guitarist broke his string, and then frantically changed it while the rest of the band improvised on a vamp.

The show got out around 9:30 P.M.

This gave me just enough time to wander until I found the club called Womb. You see, I had also bought a ticket to see Shadow Dance and a few other DJs. This "show" was actually a rave. It was spectacular. All of the DJs had a different style. First was a DJ called SOBE! who played a lot of modern techno. Second was Poney Poney who played a lot of remixed Hip Hop (my favorite was them pulling out O.P.P. by Naughty by Nature). Then came the featured artist, Shadow Dancer. He was incredible and played a Techno/Trance set but had a lot of break beats, which I love. He also blew me away when he pulled out Blue Monday by New Order. Following Shadow Dancer was Dexpistols, who had a little more of a hardcore edge. At one point they played the intro to Aerodynamic by Daft Punk, slipped into Omen off the new Prodigy album, and then went into Sandstorm. To round out the night was Metal Mouse, who were hard techno. I didn't stick around for their entire set because I knew I had to bike home. When I walked outside, it was light out, but there were still Japanese people strolling about everywhere. The Japanese do not sleep. When I got back I left my previous post.

P.S. If you did not know, the crowds at raves are the friendliest people in the world. People just hug you and want to be your friend.

It is 5:52 A.M.

2009-06-20T05:53:00.000+09:00

I just walked into my apartment. I am going to sleep now. When I wake up it will be story time.

The Last Three Days

2009-06-18T22:42:00.000+09:00

So, a lot actually happened over the last few days.

Tuesday Tasia came to visit for the day. She is doing Light Fellowship in China, but changed her travel arrangements slightly due to her love of Japan (and Japanese food). We did a grand tour of the city hitting up all of her favorite spots from when she was here last summer. We also took in some new sights. One of which being the Tokyo Tower pictured above, but the magical thing pictured below.

Yes. It's a freaking Gundam. A LIFESIZE GUNDAM! I used to make models of these things that were 1/144th the size of an "actual" Gundam. Also, yes, it was entirely necessary to do the epic Gundam title pose.

Besides being in absolute disbelief that anything so awesome actually exists, we went to Akihabara, Odaiba, and Harajuku. Tasia introduced me to the Harajuku Crepes. My mind has continually thought about them from that moment on. I will become large.

Wednesday was me getting back on the ライーブ scene. I attended a show north of Shinjuku Station at a club called Motion. When I got there the crowd was small and the first band was the youngest I had seen since I came to Tokyo. They were called ひらくドア (He Luck Door) and were a sort of poppy soft rock group. The had a pretty kooky tambourine player who would do some funky dances while mouthing along to the lyrics.
http://www.myspace.com/takayukikato

Second was 東京 Freestyle CLUB. They were fairly straight forward j-pop/j-rock. The bassist would go for a run from time to time, the drummer was pretty tight, and the singer had the j-rock voice down. Unfortunately, I wasn't extremely interested in it.
http://www.myspace.com/tokyofreestyleclub

Up next was VIRIDIAN. A drummer in a sparkling pink shirt and two women in matching themed outfits with the same accessories, stood on stage. Based on the other acts of the night, I was not prepared for what happened next. The bass come booming in with heavy drive and I was wowed by a dance punk number featuring perfectly shrieking vocal harmonies that I think only two Japanese girls can pull off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl7AqLYIPeg&feature=related
Following that song I would say the rest of the set was a little more straight rock, but those crazy harmonies stuck around for the show. They even had a blues song and a song with a ska guitar riff.
http://www.myspace.com/viridianviridianviridian

The following band was called Knock Note Alien. This was one of the weirdest bands I have even seen live. For the record I have seen some crazy stuff. The set began with them playing a recording and wandering out into the audience with a lamp, mouthing the speech they had recorded to go with this introduction song. The band had crazy rainbow colored instruments and transitioned into their first song right out of the recording. I don't even know what they were. "Absurd experimental funky something" is the phrase I wrote down that evening. The singer was a ball of energy who's pep NEVER diminished. She would run around, point out at the audience, count things, jump up onto her tippy toes, lean over the railing, and hop on the set play four hand drums. All of this for pretty much every song. They were wild and really good musicians.
http://www.myspace.com/knocknotealien (I wasn't able to find media to show how weird they were)

The Headliner was called Metro-Ongen. They were a very polished, professional sounding J-pop band. The singer was great, and the band was really together. They had a projector behind them displaying all kinds of crazy images of space. On their last song they added a some nice guitar effects (reverse delay with lots of swells) and it gave them a big finish. I can't really say too much more, just give it a listen:
http://www.myspace.com/metroongen

As for today, I went to Asakusa and visited the Senso-ji. Alert: TOURIST TRAP! Too many westerners with souvenirs. The temple was amazing though, even though there was scaffolding on the outside of it. On my way back I discovered that right near Akihabara is the instrument district of Tokyo. It was literally a street of guitar shops. I arrived a little late so most of the shops were closing, but I will definitely be going back soon. Also, as I walked back to my apartment, I discovered that I am walking distance from Tokyo Dome City, which has a crazy amusement park.

Big Weekend Ahead of Me

2009-06-17T13:19:00.000+09:00

So I decided it was time to get back down to business. I spent the last four days exploring the city with friends. I went to Odaiba, Shibuya, Harajuku, Roppongi, Minato, and Akihabara. My feet don't like me anymore. So this morning I researched what was going on this weekend. I discovered that the question I should be asking is what isn't going on this weekend.

I now plan to attend 5 shows between now and Sunday and the shows are a wide range of genres. I discovered a interesting Indie show at Motion in Shinjuku tonight and I think I will go if I get my act together in time. I decided to just skip Thursday because I found out about roughly 15 shows to choose from on Friday. I think I have decided on seeing Enemies and Mouse on the Keys at the Shibuya O-Nest. That show is sort of an experimental/ambient sort of thing. The surprise of the night is that I found a show being advertised that starts at 11:00pm. This is the first such show I have heard to start so late. I ended up putting two and two together when I realized that this is a techno show, and therefore I think I will be taking a dive into the club culture of Japan. Saturday is a New Wave concert in the Basement Bar of Shimokitazaw with Nacano and Metalchicks. Last on the list is a borderline festival. The Otodama Beach Party 2009 Vol. 1 with De De Mouse, 一十三十一 (hitomi toi), and a bunch of DJs.

This is going to cost me.

Just chillin

2009-06-15T23:45:00.000+09:00

Yeah, not doing too much right now.

I went to Akihabara on Sunday. Akihabara is nick-named the electric city. I went into a department store and there was endless everything. Main Highlights: endless video games and endless gundams. I also bought a 12 pack souvenir. It's a part of my childhood, but now it has a new twist.

Today I mostly hung around Shibuya and Harajuku. Found some awesome clothing stores and a seriously cool record store in Harajuku. Highlight: The Third Unheard: Connecticut Hip Hop 1979-1983. Sooooo many shout outs to New Haven. This happens to be the four years my parents where at Yale together.

The perfect way to relax, having fish eat me alive

2009-06-14T01:10:00.000+09:00

I went to an Onsen today. It was the definition of a cultural experience: trying everything that is going on, while trying not to screw up. The whole place had a magical, but retrospectively slightly tacky feel. There where lovely decorations and atmosphere, great food/ice cream, and ninja throwing star games. First on the agenda was the foot bath, which is more like an obstacle course path of rocks meant to tenderize your feet. The highlight was at the end of the path where you could spend 1500yen (money well spent) to have live fish swarm your feet and tickle you like crazy. This service was known as ドクトルフィシュ (Doctor Fish) and actually left my feet feeling amazing.

After that it was on to the Baths. There were so many things going on in there I felt overwhelmed. There were showers, bathing stalls, a tub of hot water you would fill a bucket with and poor on your self, a sauna, a massage parlor, and 7 different pools of hot water. I did my best to try everything, but it got pretty hot in there pretty fast. After the baths I had some green tea soft serve and was treated to a dance show with breakdancing ninjas.

I also bought some fruit today. I haven't had fruit in over a week.

New Sonic Dimension of Awesome part 2

2009-06-13T23:43:00.000+09:00

On to the show. The venue was the Liquid Room in Ebisu. By far it was the most professional club I have been to and the first that had a true venue feel. Everywhere else had a more bar/club feel to it, but here they had fencing in front of the stage (completely unnecessary as the crowd was extremely polite and there was no moshing to be found) and a superb light show.

The first band was called Nenem. They were a post-rock quintet with a truly smooth sound. Due to their jazzy rhythm section, spacey organs, and the bell-like tones of the guitars, I couldn't help but compare them to the American post-rock legends Tortoise. There were some pretty trippy visuals of organisms in space and Tinkerbell being projected on a screen behind the band for the whole set. There were even times when the songs seemed perfectly synced up to the images.

The second band (pictured above) was called Cro-magnon. This band really surprised me. There was a drummer, a bassist/guitarist with what seemed like several pedals on the floor and on a stand, and finally a keyboardist with two glorious looking Nords (one of them was a Nord Lead). To explain my previous comment, when it comes to electronic music instruments, I am kind of a tech nerd. I can relate several signature sounds in electronic music to the names of the instruments that produced them. It was for this reason that I flipped out a bit when the band suddenly came out of their jazzy intro. The drummer suddenly started hitting a foot pedal that emulated the Rolland TR-808 Bass Drum and the bass player reached up to his stand and triggered a TB-303. I was suddenly listening to an acid-house concert. To blow my mind further the band switched to funk, and then switched once again to acid-jazz. I got my dance on. This is for sure.

To follow Cro-magnon was a heavy group ironically called LITE. When the band started off, I was a little apprehensive. The began with a series of intricate riffs that had the sound of a metal band. I am not a big metal fan. However, the group gave me a pleasant surprise when they took on a much more math-rock tone. Still heavy as hell mind you, but the intricate part relations, time signatures, harmonies, and sonic density allowed the band to really offer a lot.

After the set a curtain went up. I made some friends in the crowd. Particularly a wildly fun, inebriated fellow who made sure that I called him Yuki-chan (the chan is a cute suffix usually used on small children and girls) and an American who turned out to be from Vassar and on the same program as one of my friends from high school here in Tokyo.

Boris was amazing. I don't really know how to describe what happened. There was smoke everywhere. The music was like a somehow serene explosion that never died down. It was utterly beautiful and very loud. Yuki-chan was hugging people and throwing up the "rock on" hand sign. A salary-man was headbanging along to the foreboding pace of the music. The set was mostly their bread and butter of absolute epic noise-rock and drone. They kept it quite slow for the whole set, which is only surprising because they have been known to play some hard and fast stuff, like what can be found on their album Pink. On the whole, this was definitely the best Tokyo concert so far. My ears were ringing in ways they have never rung before.

New Sonic Dimension of Awesome

2009-06-13T00:58:00.000+09:00

After my morning ritual, I decided to ride my bike to Shibuya. I knew I would be seeing Boris in Ebisu that night, so I thought I would stay topside for once. There are about 14,667,000 people in Tokyo during work hours. Out of all those people, I managed to run into Ming and the rest of the SUN Academy crew in the middle of the sidewalk. How does that happen? We all exchanged cell phone email addresses and went our separate ways.

I had a blast in Shibuya. I think that it is my kind of area. I saw cool graffiti on buildings, went to an awesome guitar shop, and checked out club Sega. There is nothing quite like the feeling of watching people play the game Gundam vs. Gundam and then wanting to try it so badly, but simultaneously being absolutely horrified of how badly you are going to get your ass kicked by that school girl if you try. She is a killing machine.

I am too tired to write about the concert. I will do it in the morning. But know this: my ears are experiencing a symphony of ringing. So many vibrant frequencies.

Aw dang....wait, massively glorious win

2009-06-11T23:53:00.000+09:00

So my day started out with me discovering that, just as I had suspected, The Pillows were sold out for their concert on Saturday. I wandered to Shibuya kind of depressed. I then proceeded to have soft serve and go to Tower records to cheer myself up. I got a huge list of new Japanese Indies and some of it I really liked. There was a pretty big selection of J-punk and J-hip hop and I also finally started to take a look at the J-Club scene. I don't really know too much about it, but there was a DVD of this one band called Soft playing in a loop in the store. It seems like a kind of jazzy/fusion jam kind of music with big ensembles. I will have to look into it further.

http://www.myspace.com/softribe

However, the night took a surprisingly amazing turn when I went to one of the coolest concerts I have ever been to in my life. The club was called eM7 and right when I walked in I knew I was in the right place. I was surrounded by people who I could only describe as "not meant for life during daylight." There were Dreadlocks a plenty, people in leather, and every other sign of a good crowd in my opinion.

Drums Drums Drums. That was the name of the game this evening. I walk in and I see a man alone on stage with just a drum kit and some monitor speakers. He explodes into a furious drum solo synced up with insane free jazz horn parts. Everything he played went along perfectly with the articulation of the instruments in the accompanying track...for 20 minutes straight. The artist goes by Ruins-Alone. What really did it for me in his set was his energy and his falsetto.

Now my mind was in a very interesting place after what I had just seen, so I was no where near ready for what was next. I looked up and found myself surrounded by drums. Three kits all with entirely different cymbals, toms, everything. The only thing they all had in common was a glowing bass drum that pulsed when hit. The group was called Drumno and they blew me away. Drumno writes spatial compositions. You stand in the center of the room and you hear as drum hits circle around you in opposite directions. The complexities of the beats were only matched by what your mind was doing to try to sort what was coming from where. When the bass drums came in it was over. The whole crowd fell into a tribal frenzy, wailing after every break in the song. I won't post a link, because recorded media does not give justice to the effect this group had live.

So what could possibly follow that? How about ELEKTRO HUMANGEL. A four piece noise explosion is the phrase that comes to mind. Three percussionist: A kit player with hair like Confucius, a woman who was obviously a trained Taiko drummer by her form, and a dreadlocked mad man who destroyed his kit and had a solo section that consisted of him dropping his cymbal onto his floor tom and seeing what would happen. The leader of the group though was a synth player who literally played noise in the most surreal ways imaginable. He was a master of throwing the back of his hand onto 5 or so adjacent keys, layering on all kinds of effects, and using the pitch bend like I have never seen it used before. Then he put a microphone into his mouth and did the same things to his voice. I was shocked by what I was hearing, and by how much I loved it.

Here is the myspace link. I recommend the videos, but overall you need to be "in it deep" (do I mean a little insane?) to enjoy it. http://www.myspace.com/elektrohumangel

Such a good day

2009-06-11T02:02:00.000+09:00

So things started a little slow today. I was doing laundry, lounging about my room. But then I get a facebook chat from Thanh saying that everyone from Yale on HIF was in Tokyo for the night. Unfortunately, I missed the big crowd on their way out to ラメーン。At least I got to see Thanh, Brown-san, and, the one who really made my evening, Jamar. I wasn't even sure he was going to be with the group or if he was visiting his Grandparents or something. I was looking on the list at the front desk to see which room Brown-san was in, and then I spied Jamar's name on the list. Nothing beats having one of your best friends from college show up when you are in another country. He and I wandered around Shinjuku for a while and then parted ways. The visit was much too short and I didn't even see half the people I know who will be at HIF, so I plan to visit them all at their mid summer break sometime next month.

Right after parting ways with Jamar, I quickly took the JR and met with my friend Lauryn from high school. She is here on a summer program through Vassar, and invited me to Karaoke. It was an absolute blast. I got to meet some of her friends, and our song choices quickly devolved into pop and anime themes, as those were the only songs we knew the lyrics to. I will definitely be going again sometime.

To top the night off, I decided to check on all of the anime theme writing J-pop bands that we had just sung to, and I discovered, in absolute disbelief, that The Pillows are playing this Saturday. I was sure that would be the one band I triple checked to see if they were playing while I was here. I haven't found any indication that the show is sold out, so despite my logic, I am remaining hopeful and will go to the club to investigate tomorrow. I also found a really weird looking show that I think I will go to tomorrow. The genre of the show, according to this one guide site, is "WTF?"

Ueno Park

2009-06-10T17:20:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I decided to take a stroll to Ueno Park, a large historical park with several shrines, memorials, and a zoo. Unfortunately, the giant panda was not there today. I still had a blast despite my panda-lessness, and finished the evening with a concert.

The venue was one of Tokyo's most historic, The Loft. Many important bands have come through the venue on their way to stardom. For me, the night ended up being a bit of a let down. I got there so late that I only saw the headliner. They were a four piece funk rock group with decent ability, but I wasn't very awed by their music. The bassist had some chops, and that was cool to watch, but the rest of the band didn't quite bring the same intensity. At least the crowd really got into the last couple of songs they played, and that made a noticeable improvement in the bands energy.

Even though the show could have gone better, it's all good. The reason I was late to the show was because I was getting tickets for...BORIS! I didn't even know they were playing Tokyo until yesterday, and now I am going to see them on Friday. I am very excited.

Pictures of the park are on facebook

Today was Sunday...

2009-06-07T20:17:00.000+09:00

I think everyone knows what that means...HARAJUKU. I love crazy people, who dress up and get photographed by tourists every week. Pictures are up on facebook (maybe I should get a flicker or something). Yoyogi park is actually quite nice. I really enjoyed walking around it.

The other major happening is I got a cell phone. Score! I want to thank Michael Thorton for his amazing, and much needed help in this endeavor. I am not sure what I will do this evening, perhaps I will go exploring somewhere.

I decided that this should be its own post

2009-06-07T00:23:00.000+09:00

THE BIG STORY OF THE DAY is that I finally got to a Japanese Live (as in show). It was in this underground bar in Yoyogi called Zher the Zoo. It was a cosy little place with stone walls and hazy smoke filled air. I only caught the last two acts because my convenience store struggle set me back on time. The first (or rather second to last) was a singer songwriter on an electric from Osaka. Her name was Mai Mishio and she is originally from this band http://www.myspace.com/uzumibi. She had such control over the texture of her voice, sometimes being harsh and raspy while sometimes being soft and fleeting. The best part was that she had the same control over her guitar technique. My favorite parts of her set was whenever she would seamlessly transition any power in her voice into the guitar part, having the energies of the two dance between dominance and submission.

The headliner was a mainly instrumental three piece call Euphoria. They were a mix of alternative that became much more post rock towards the end of the show (generally a progressive song structure). They had an odd formula for the first couple of tunes. The guitarist would finger pick some intricate, moving arpeggio, and the rhythm section would just have at it, constantly shifting and morphing into new parts and rhythms. The drummer and bassist were pretty fantastic (drum fills everywhere and the bassist was all over the neck), so the guitarist could have kept those arpeggios going practically forever. They even got pretty dancey a lot of the time. The fourth song in was the only song to feature vocals, and it shifted the set to something more ethereal. By the closing song the guitarist had suddenly stolen the show, pulling something out of the Explosions in the Sky playbook with his wailing, delayed, distorted shredding. http://www.myspace.com/euphoriamyspace (White pattern was the closing song, and Come and Go gives an example of the formula I was talking about)

I ♥ the Oedo line

2009-06-06T23:27:00.000+09:00

Wow. So now I have the Tokyo Metro system down. I pulled the transit at the end of the Oedo line without a hitch today. It's a funny route because it is basically a straight line that suddenly becomes a big circle around the middle of Tokyo, doubling back on itself like someone losing a game of Snake. I have to switch from one Oedo subway to another one every time I want to take it all the way to Shinjuku station (which is Grand Central for Tokyo if you haven't figured out by now) or beyond.

This morning I had three goals: to fix my ticket situation for Fuji Rock, to get a ticket for Shugo Tokumaru, and possibly to get a prepaid phone to use on occasion/use as a clock (when was the last time I had a watch?). I have discovered that my alarm clock from the US is running slow. To be precise, 70 seconds are required for a supposed minute to pass. I don't know what the deal is, but I have decided to set my clock every night 1 hour and 40 minutes ahead so that the time will be accurate about 10 hours later when I wake up.

My first goal took me to Shibuya, the hip and happening part of Tokyo. I didn't quite wander with the same aimlessness I have in Shinjuku, so I don't think I got the full experience of the place. Despite my poor track record, today I ended up everywhere I intended to, directly and without confusion. Well the only confusing part was the fact that Ganban, the place where I had to buy the ticket for Fuji Rock, was tucked away in a corner surrounded by male apparel stores. I seriously thought I was in the wrong place. Now that I have a ticket in my possession, I need to get the wire transfer, which didn't work out for the first ticket, canceled.

Next I traveled down a main street to the Liquidroom, a club I have heard a great deal about. Shugo Tokumaru will be performing there on the 25th so I wanted a ticket. However, when I arrived there was no box office to be found. Rather there were a bunch of teens hanging around, a dude selling African-style jewelry, and a bar. My instinct was talk to the bar tender. Turns out this was the right move as she had the tickets. She rummaged through the metal box then handed me a flier while giving me an explanation that I completely did not understand. She pointed to the numbers at the bottom which said L code and P code. Disappointed, I left.

Fortunately, the Internet had the answers I needed. These codes are used to look up the intended shows on machines at convenience stores. However, these machines are completely in Japanese and very confusing. After a long attempt and making up a supposed Japanese phone number that I had (Tokyo numbers go 03-xxxx-xxxx), I paid for the ticket at the cashier.

My only hardcore failure of the day was the cell phone front. A prepaid phone is something that is known to exist in Japan. You pay with a card that you buy at a convenience store for the minutes you want. The badass part is that I would have a Japanese cell number, perhaps indefinitely. However, both stores I went into kind of said they don't do prepaid phones (the site for one of these companies said otherwise). I will try again tomorrow. If I fail again I may seek the help of the YPMB's own Tokyo native: Michael Thorton.

Even the rain is beautiful

2009-06-06T09:35:00.000+09:00

All of yesterday and into this morning it has been raining. I had a poncho, but everyone here has umbrellas, so I think I will get one so I don't stick out.

I met with my landlady about possibly having her lend me an old bike she had, but we couldn't find the key. It's a bit of a shame because I've realized how large Tokyo is.

(Make sure the zoom is the same for all three and on satellite mode for the full effect)

This is New York: http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?q=new+york&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=jp&ei=rKgpSsbrD46MkAWp5LnxCg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1

This is L.A.: http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?q=L.A&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

This is Tokyo: http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?q=tokyo&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=jp&ei=KKgpSseAMoyHkAWR-YjsCg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1

If I am not getting that bike I am going to have to master the public transit system. Fortunately I had a very easy experience with the Japanese metro yesterday. I observed how others were going about the process I was able to duplicate without a problem. What you do is buy a ticket (prices vary for distance traveled) and swipe through. However, unlike the New York Metro, they give you back the ticket, which you then have to swipe at the exit terminal. If I didn't notice the ticket had been given back to me, that could have meant trouble. Unfortunately I took the train too far and ended up near the royal palace.

Before my transit adventure, I did manage to get some research done (My intent here in Tokyo is to learn about modern music culture). I was in an electronics building (9 floors of electronics everywhere) and Between the third floor, which had TVs, and the 4th floor, which had recordplayer and insane headphones, there was a small half floor on the far side of the shop for DVDs and CDs. I got on one of the electronic menus in there and selected new music, then hit the sub menu for "indies artists." Indeed, these were Japanese Indie artists, though the meaning of independent seems to be lost in translation. Some artists that interested me were Kirihito, The Brixton Academy, Momokomotion, and Doping Panada. I have discovered that Doping Panda in actually on a major label at this point, but the rest of the artist are unsigned or on indie labels. The fact that they are unsigned is good for me, because they are playing exclusively around Tokyo, and somewhat frequently. The major label artists seem to go all over.

I managed to get myself lost again. I started at Shinjuku station and accidentally headed west instead of east. I ended up in Shibuya somehow. I think it was worth it, because now I think I really have a sense of Shinjuku. Also ending up in Shibuya (another main part of Tokyo and the supposed center of youth culture) has inspired me to spend my day there today. I will try to finally see a show tonight, and hopefully pick up tickets for the Fuji Rock Festival and the Shugo Tokumaru show later this month at Liquidroom (super psyched).

My absurd second day in Japan

2009-06-04T20:06:00.000+09:00

After my land lady took me by taxi to my apartment last night, she informed me that this location was the only part of Shinjuku (A Ward of Tokyo, similar to the Boroughs in New York) that still was built by the city planing of the Shogun period. Meaning that it was designed as a maze so that ninjas couldn't escape (or so she told me). The only part of the story she left out was the actual name of this place.

I wake up the next morning. I don't know where I am. My computer, my only possible why of trying to map things out, is dying and cannot be recharged (apparently they only use two prong outlets in Japan). I don't know where I would go to fix any of these problems (literally, as in direction). Lastly, I realized that I in fact cannot hold a conversation in Japanese, just sound like an idiot and blank up.

So I let fate do its thing. I walk out onto the street, knowing full well that I am not going to remember how to get back to my apartment, and start following roads that I have a good feeling about. I was lucky to realize that a certain street sign I had paid no mind to prior to this morning, was actually my address. So I wrote down the Kanji without having any idea what it said.

Spectacularly enough, I managed to fairly quickly arrive in the main shopping district. I was able to find an electronic Japanese-English dictionary and a three to two prong adapter to save my life.

However, as expected, I had no idea how to get back. I pretty much walked around the entire Ward, going in circles half the time. People I asked were unfamiliar with the that area. I walked through parks, watched kids have intense Gundam battles in arcades, checked out a kitten store and a guitar store. Eventually, a policeman was able to give me directions. It was only then that I realized that I am conveniently located clear on the other side of Shinjuku, opposite all the skyscrapers and business it is known for.

My first day in Japan

2009-06-04T19:36:00.000+09:00

I spent my first day coming to the realization that I was in Tokyo, the most vibrant and overwhelming place I have ever been. I also realized that I was halfway around the world, alone, in a place where I can rarely understand people. I managed to make it work none the less. With my luggage dangling off me I called up my landlady, and met at her apartment. She treated me to a great dinner and then sent me off to my place, which was actually quite a distance away. She assured me that I would be able to find my way around...I ended up just falling asleep without packing.

Odd note: Everyone in Shinjuku has absurdly good fashion. Either everyone is in business attire, or wearing top of the line, hip outfits with crazy hairdos and accessories. I felt severally under dressed wearing just my usual jeans and tee-shirt.

One day left

2009-06-01T15:02:00.000+09:00

The time is almost here. My plane leaves around 11 AM on Tuesday. I haven't quite finished packing but I have already started planing things out for when I arrive.

The main challenge I will face is trying to decide which concerts to attend for my research. From what I have gathered there are approximately 273 music venues in Tokyo. Add in people performing in parks and you will see that I am close to drowning here with options.

Fortunately one show caught my eye for this Wednesday. It is an eclectic mix of free jazz and experimental music, but what really peaked my interest was the opening act. She seems ridiculous. I must see her perform live. http://www.myspace.com/hennadress

As long as everything works out, I should be going to see Shugo Tokumaru, who I am a big fan of, later this month and get to Fuji Rock Festival at the end of my trip.
http://www.myspace.com/shugotokumaru
http://www.smash-uk.com/frf09/lineup.html