Teenage Kicks/Quest Bar

Had a pretty busy weekend. On friday night I went to the Teenage Kicks party in Shibuya was at the J-Pop Cafe which is an awesome venue. The night featured two Sydney artists: the Valentinos & K.I.M. (from the Presets). Both were suitably impressive. The Valentinos played a good, energetic show and K.I.M. played a whole lot of good music in his dj set. Was good, got loose, had fun, went home.

Saturday night I worked at a bar in Roppongi called Quest Bar. I had never done it before so i wanted to see what it was like... and it was shit. I was a kind of glassie, which meant that if it was quiet I would have to walk around trying to look busy and when it was actually busy I had to battle through drunk dancers on the dance floor. It was quite tough physical work, which I don't mind; but the main problem was the lack of socialising with customers and the lack of comradery between the staff. It was all a bit too serious for a job that it not so important. Nothing bad is going to happen if there are 4 ciggarette buts in the ashtray instead of 3. Basically it wasn't fun, also it was too friggin long (11pm-10am) basically it kills my weekend so i doubt I'll do it again.

Then last night had some Mexican food with Eri & spent some qt (quality time) together. Which was nice cause things have been a little rocky recently. Back at the junior high for the next 3 weeks so I will be a busy man again which is a mixed blessing. Going to Nikko on the weekend... sick!

Pharrell & Uffie

Last Friday I took Eri to Womb in Shibuya for her birthday. We went to see my old hero Pharrell & Uffie (from Ed Banger records) play for the Ice Cream Store 1st anniversary party. It was one of those presents that is really for yourself.

Womb looks small from the outside but is actually pretty huge. Predictably it was crowded with young Japanese hipsters wearing Bathing Ape clothing. The dj's were all playing standard hip hop (yawn), but things heated up when Dj Feedz from Ed Banger got on the turntables. For those of you who don't know Ed Banger is the French record label that is home to Justice & Sebastian and other artists like Dj Mehdi & Kavinsky. If you don't know their stuff I highly recommend checking it out.

He mixed a variety of great electro influenced music, warming up for Uffie to come out and perfrom her current hits like 'hot chick' and 'ready to uff'. They are great tunes and she gave a good performance but the crowd were not so receptive. It could be shyness, but more likely the fact that there was no room for moving. It was just like a peak hour train where you are permanently attached to the person next to you. After a while I was sick of being brushed past and touched so I began to dance out of frustration to clear some space.

The shyness dissappeared though when the man of the hour came out. He has amazing presence and is unfairly good looking. The crowd all rushed forward, girls were screaming, it was like Beatlemania. After a while though the gig had to be stopped, cause some girls at the front were passing out from the weight of the crowd. His gorilla-like security lifted the tiny Japanese girls to safety with ease, and the crowd politely stepped back at Pharrell's request so the gig could continue.

Pharrell quickly went through his hits that he had produced and sung on like 'drop it like it's hot', 'frontin', etc with a dj providing the beats. While he has so many great songs and is a good performer, I got the impression that he didn't really want to be there. The 1 hour set was reduced to 45 minutes during which he rushed through the songs and sometimes barely sang (only the chorus on 'beautiful'). Then the gig ended abruptly and Nigo made a brief appearance, before another mediocre dj came out to fill in the last 2 hours before trains started. Pharrell is super-talented, a good performer and has great stage presence, but he just wasn't into it.

Roppongi/Kabuki in Ginza

Last Friday me, James & Ish headed to Roppongi to get James acquainted with Tokyo's sleazy quarters. I compiled a list of the sleaziest joints in town and we hit them up one by one. Got kicked out of the first one cause I was a smart-ass to the manager. He was being a prick so I told him. No loss. Then we went to the cheap places to get properly boozed before heading to Gaspanic, the king of them all. It was dissappointing though so we went to the good old Brazilian bar underneath it, which is always a nice place to be.

When 5am came aroud Ish headed to work and me & James kicked on. After revisiting the cheap place and harrassing some American girls who thought they were pretty hot stuff, we (mostly James) managed to get into some trouble which occupied the next hour or so. Was pretty hairy but everything turned out okay, although I should slap James. Then we met a crazy Japanese guy who took us to a few other bars and bought us drinks, before we stumbled home in the early hours of the day. Can't go into too many details cause it was a week ago now and I don't remember most of them. But we did get job offers at a bar which I will try out this week.

On Sunday I went with Eri to see my first Kabuki show at the culturally important Kabuki-za theatre in Ginza. It was fairly interesting, the costumes & make-up looked amazing. However the music and story was fairly bizarre and boring for me. I'm sure the Japanese people in the Edo period loved it, but for me it all went over my head.

I did enjoy one scene where an 8 year old boy had a (dancing-style) sword fight with an elderly man. The choreography was quite nice and just seeing a little dude painted completely white and in all-samurai gear was cool. Plus it was nice to just walk around Ginza on a Sunday evening.

Kabukiza/Ginza

Jimmy P

This is the official welcome to my dear friend James to Japan and to say that he is a lucky bastard for having me. In the space of a couple of months I have shown him the way to a good job in a new country, a great work location, an awesome house, helped him register at the city office, buy a bike, countless local info & tips and after tonight gotten him some instant friends. Motherf**ker. Brad! Where was the love when I got here!?!

In all seriousness, I am very glad to have him here to share some good times with. I think he will enjoy himself very much and I hope he appreciates just how friggin easy it will all be. In about two weeks he will be further ahead than where I was after two months.

Yesterday we got him some sleek new wheels and established 'the 93-83s' (our shared birthday) bike gang and macked out in Komazawa park. Tonight we are celebrating by going out to Roppongi, getting mashed and meeting loose women. Leaving the girl at home tonight. More tales to come in the near future...

Our Pad/My Room/His Wheels/Straight Mackin

Hakone

Me & Eri took a trip West of aTokyo to the tourist mecca of Hakone. It is famous for it's onsens (hot springs) and the view of Mount Fuji. Eri borrowed her mother's Toyota Estima for the trip, which was pretty cool in itself because over here satellite navigation is standard.

After the one and a half hour or so drive we headed straight to the biggest onsen: Funesans. A typical onsen has a few different baths you can soak in but Funesans is more like an onsen amusement park with maybe thirty different baths and pools to enjoy. We enjoyed indoor and outdoor baths, spas, waterslides and a variety of themed baths, such as milk, wine and green tea baths. We even went in a bath with salt water imported from the Dead Sea (Israel). The craziest one was a foot bath with little fish who come and eat the bacteria off your feet but the queue was too long.

After soaking it up for a good four hours it was time to head to the nude section. It was my first time to bathe with a bunch of naked Japanese men (they don't trim the bush) but it wasn't uncomfortable because there were so many naked dudes, I was just another one. You do have a hand-towel you can use to casually conceal your manhood when walking but not so much as to look like you care. These hot springs are about 40 degrees and are indoor and outdoor. Outdoor was much better, especially under the full moon. Ah, so fresh and so clean! After a good five hours soaking we couldn't do much except eat, shag and go to bed.

Sunday was the touristy sight-seeing day, so we hit up the Ropeway cable car to the top of a mountain for views of the area, to hike around a little and take some photos. Then it was into town to take a look at the local jinja (Shinto shrine) by the lake and then the Hakone Open Air Museum where they have a big Picasso gallery with about 300 original works and a bunch of photos of the man in his French house. There are drawings, lithographs, a tapestry, lots of ceramics and some paintings; very inspiring stuff.

In a different installation work by a Japanese artist, you walk down some stairs into darkness, along a small corridor and then up & out a different staircase. I scared the shit out of these two girls who came into the exhibit and didn't know we were there by yelling 'boo!'. Man, I've never heard anyone scream so loudly then they ran out the entrance. It was funny as hell. Much funnier than I expected it to be. They screamed so loud that I got a fright too.

After that we headed to a local gyoza restaurant to avoid the traffic and then back to Tokyo. Great weekend, great getaway spot and not too expensive. There are a bunch of nice places around Tokyo you can get to easily for a weekend retreat. I look forward to the next time.

Ropeway/Jinja/Open-Air Museum

Frickin Wicked

The other night me & Eri went to see the first Bloc Party show since they took a break after the European summer festival circuit. Suprisingly they played at the small (but very nice) club Unit in Daikanyama. Turns out Eri is friends with the owner so she could get us in to the gig which had sold out in one hour. Talk about a good girlfriend!!! What a winner!!! I don't deserve such a woman.

The gig started at 7pm so I had to call in sick to work for the first time. I need the money but this was too good to pass up & sometimes you have to live a little. Bloc Party came onto the stage punctually and proceeded to kill it. They played most of the good songs from their sublime first album and road tested a bunch of new ones from their forthcoming album... 'A Night in the City'. I enjoyed the old ones much more but that could just be because I know them well.

They are a great band, the Kele's songs have a real empathy and humanity to them, a nice sentiment which is rare in modern music. It would make sense that they are called Bloc Party because I get the feeling from their music that everyone is welcome. Although they are quite fashionable, in reality they are guy-next-door types that happen to be really talented musicians.

The drummer is great & his high-intensity, technically-complex patterns provide the propulsion of their sound, while Kele is an enigma of sorts who switces between the roles of nice guy & pained artist frequently. He has a real joy of making music which is evident and infectious. It's a good thing he has personality because the bass player doesn't seem to get into it much and the other guitarist's fringe is so big you can't see his face... he looks like he's having a good time though.

They tried their best to use some nihongo which was appreciated. The crowd was very receptive to them, even if they showed their appreciation in quite a an orderly and civilised (read: Japanese) way. The mandatory in-between-songs ramblings were amusing as Kele and the band continuously made jokes that 90% of the crowd didn't understand.

Small intimate venue = great gig. Free gig = even better. It was definately a good night, arigatou gozaimashita Eri-Sama. You can have 'takoyaki tits' whenever you want.