After the internet café and another trip to the sento, we went for lunch at Lotteria Burger. Interesting to note is that inside the restaurant was a sign saying "Please use the rest room". Also interesting to note was the lack of restroom in the restaurant.
We went to Yoyogi Park next. On Sundays, Yoyogi plays host to Japanese… er, I’d say indie but that’d be an insult to indie music… bands of all different genres. One band, LooVee, looked as if they belonged on American Bandstand back in the 50’s. Matching red costumes, lots of brass, 2 girl singers and a male lead. At one point, the lead singer removed one of the guitarist’s pants, which was very nice of him. I guess that doesn’t happen on Bandstand too often.
Another band was very punk. The guitarist was pantless to begin with, making things easier, and the lead "singer" enjoyed shouting while writhing in pain apparently on the sidewalk. There were two somewhat decent bands though, and my favorite was a single guy jammin’ on the drums alone while waitin for his band members to show up.
Me, Keith and Mark played some hacky sack in the park while listening to a band play the same 5-second beat on the African drums, over and over, for half an hour. Boon Hau, Tyson, and Byron were exploring the park, and when we met up with them, they had joined a ukulele troupe. They even tought me how to play (I sucked) and gave us drinks, it was quite fun.
Next we went to Harajuku. I won’t try to describe it, because the pics here speak for themselves.
For the last part of our trip we met up with Clem and Neil and went to a Maid Café in Akihabara. Basically at this café, the waitresses are dressed up in maid costumes. Not revealing costumes or anything, quite covered up actually. For a fee you can do stuff with the maids.
No, not that kinda stuff… For 800-en you can play a PS2 fighting game against the maid, and you get your picture with the maid "if" you win. Or you can order a song or dance (500-en) which a maid will perform on the stage.
When not playing with the maid, the screen on stage keeps repeating a minute long video of a maid making coffee, then washing the cup, then making coffee, then washing the cup…
At the center table were some hardcore otaku. I will rely on the power of the human imagination and only state a few facts:
They were dressed up as anime characters.
The anime characters were female.
They had magic wands, hand puppets, and anime porn on their cell phones.
They sang and danced (and had all routines memorized) along with the maids.
This appears to be rather common for maid cafes (at least in Akihabara).
We left after one drink (600-en), and went to get food. After a quick meal and a game of DDR and House of the Dead 4, we headed back to Tokyo Station. Tyson bought what were apparently "Fried Dolls" as omiyage… which brought back haunting images from the previous day.
The journey back on the night bus was almost as fun as the journey there, but it was nice to go home and sleep after. In all, very fun trip, the Kansai Invasion was a success, thanks to Keith for his planning work.
This weekend (Sept 22-24) I met up with Anton at Kyoto Station to retrieve my pants (I left my pants at Anton’s when he had Jen’s welcoming party… because somebody spilt alcohol all over them), and to watch a high school dance performance at the station. Rather busy, and rather impressive actually, it was cool to see. Each school had a group of performers and a different dance, maybe I’ll be able to get some pictures off of Anton later and put em up on my webalbum.
Then it was off to Wakayama, where I met up with Keith, Boon-Hau and Tongxin. We stayed up till 4:30 playing cards, slapping each other, and eating excessive amounts of junk food, then on Saturday we went skimboarding <-- Video Link! I also had a sumo fight against Boon Hau on the beach (I lost of course) and we practiced our nunchaku skills, and frisbee skills, and swimming skills (you know! Skills!). We attempted a group study session for the JLPT test, then headed home.
Ja…
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
When You Hear Hoofbeats, Just Go Ahead and Think Horses, Not Zebras
Turning... Away from the light
Becoming... Adult
Turning... Into my soul...
Byron messaged me over Gtalk at work yesterday afternoon, saying one of the guys he met last weekend had invited him out that night. Apparently he had met a group of Japanese guys and girls at the Hub (Brit Pub) last week playing pool and had given them his email. After asking what we were gonna do, Byron replies with “He mentioned something about karaoke”.
Byron wasn’t sure whether the Japanese guy was bringing friends or not, and kinda wanted me to come along; I figured it would make a good blog story at the very least. Byron could also not remember which member of the group this guy was, so we really didn’t know what to expect.
So we met the guy outside the Hub. He’s my age, 21, rather thin, wearing tight low rider designer jeans and a fancy shirt, gold watch, earring and ring. Byron introduces me and we head off to the nearest karaoke place.
The karaoke place made me sad. It’s very new and fancy, probably a dozen floors high, each with little rooms that you karaoke in. Our room had a booth which seats 4 or a squishy 6, a tv and sound system, a phone for ordering food or drinks, and most importantly, a tambourine. What made me sad was I’m pretty sure this was the karaoke joint was the one that replaced Maruzen, one of the best bookstores in Kyoto. There’s enough karaoke places, don’t get rid of the best foreign book collection in the city!
We rented a room – sorry, I just figured out that every time my co-worker puts someone on hold his phone plays “My Grandfather’s Clock” – and Byron’s friend orders us all a gin and tonic.
“It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or gin and tonic, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian "chinanto/mnigs" which is ordinary water server at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan "tzjin-anthony-ks" which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.”
So the singing begins. The Japanese guy opens up with a song by the KinKi Kids (KinKi is another term for Kansai I believe, and Kansai is the region of Japan that I live in). He’s not too bad of a singer either. Byron then opened up with Sweet Home Alabama. I opened up with telling Byron I won’t sing till he does Eminem.
In the end I was a major part of the singing of 5 songs. Oh, they had weird music choices… multiple songs for The Music and Bloc Party, and no songs for way bigger artists. Maybe they have good taste and really like the Brit rock ^^. Anyway, the songs I sang:
Eminem – Lose Yourself
Beatles – Hey Jude
U2 – One
Bloc Party. – Banquet
And finally, Byron’s friend puts on the Aladdin song “A Whole New World” and gives me the second microphone, so I do a duet with him, taking the part of Jasmine ><. Least I was a good sport about it.
The only other english song he sang was Enrique Iglesias – “Escape”, one of the few songs that I really can’t stand. I was forced to listen to it hundreds of times within a span of 2 weeks and quickly became sick of it. Luckily my weeks of intense accordion music strenghtened my ability to withstand song torture.
After karaoke we went to the Hub for drinks. They have good fish and chips, I could eat (and have eaten) multiple plates in a row. Oh, side note, I’ve gained another 3 pounds this month, meaning I’ve gained 7 pounds in the 3 months I’ve been here. That’s a big deal for a lil guy like me.
We talk for a bit about various things (does any CJP person know how you’d say various colors in Japanese? Is it iroiroiro?) such as Canada and Japan, school, work, and music. Along with asking if we have girlfriends (and him saying that he doesn’t), he asks an odd question about… er… “relative proportions” between white guys and Japanese guys. Using colorful language too. Dunno if this is normal for Japan or not, Az’s (English teacher in Japan) junior high school students were overly curious too. It could just be Japanese culture, I’m sure many of you have seen pictures of the crazy Japanese youth with their weird cool clothes and hair.
We say farewell at the train station and go home, with another interesting adventure for the record books.
Becoming... Adult
Turning... Into my soul...
Byron messaged me over Gtalk at work yesterday afternoon, saying one of the guys he met last weekend had invited him out that night. Apparently he had met a group of Japanese guys and girls at the Hub (Brit Pub) last week playing pool and had given them his email. After asking what we were gonna do, Byron replies with “He mentioned something about karaoke”.
Byron wasn’t sure whether the Japanese guy was bringing friends or not, and kinda wanted me to come along; I figured it would make a good blog story at the very least. Byron could also not remember which member of the group this guy was, so we really didn’t know what to expect.
So we met the guy outside the Hub. He’s my age, 21, rather thin, wearing tight low rider designer jeans and a fancy shirt, gold watch, earring and ring. Byron introduces me and we head off to the nearest karaoke place.
The karaoke place made me sad. It’s very new and fancy, probably a dozen floors high, each with little rooms that you karaoke in. Our room had a booth which seats 4 or a squishy 6, a tv and sound system, a phone for ordering food or drinks, and most importantly, a tambourine. What made me sad was I’m pretty sure this was the karaoke joint was the one that replaced Maruzen, one of the best bookstores in Kyoto. There’s enough karaoke places, don’t get rid of the best foreign book collection in the city!
We rented a room – sorry, I just figured out that every time my co-worker puts someone on hold his phone plays “My Grandfather’s Clock” – and Byron’s friend orders us all a gin and tonic.
“It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or gin and tonic, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian "chinanto/mnigs" which is ordinary water server at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan "tzjin-anthony-ks" which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.”
So the singing begins. The Japanese guy opens up with a song by the KinKi Kids (KinKi is another term for Kansai I believe, and Kansai is the region of Japan that I live in). He’s not too bad of a singer either. Byron then opened up with Sweet Home Alabama. I opened up with telling Byron I won’t sing till he does Eminem.
In the end I was a major part of the singing of 5 songs. Oh, they had weird music choices… multiple songs for The Music and Bloc Party, and no songs for way bigger artists. Maybe they have good taste and really like the Brit rock ^^. Anyway, the songs I sang:
Eminem – Lose Yourself
Beatles – Hey Jude
U2 – One
Bloc Party. – Banquet
And finally, Byron’s friend puts on the Aladdin song “A Whole New World” and gives me the second microphone, so I do a duet with him, taking the part of Jasmine ><. Least I was a good sport about it.
The only other english song he sang was Enrique Iglesias – “Escape”, one of the few songs that I really can’t stand. I was forced to listen to it hundreds of times within a span of 2 weeks and quickly became sick of it. Luckily my weeks of intense accordion music strenghtened my ability to withstand song torture.
After karaoke we went to the Hub for drinks. They have good fish and chips, I could eat (and have eaten) multiple plates in a row. Oh, side note, I’ve gained another 3 pounds this month, meaning I’ve gained 7 pounds in the 3 months I’ve been here. That’s a big deal for a lil guy like me.
We talk for a bit about various things (does any CJP person know how you’d say various colors in Japanese? Is it iroiroiro?) such as Canada and Japan, school, work, and music. Along with asking if we have girlfriends (and him saying that he doesn’t), he asks an odd question about… er… “relative proportions” between white guys and Japanese guys. Using colorful language too. Dunno if this is normal for Japan or not, Az’s (English teacher in Japan) junior high school students were overly curious too. It could just be Japanese culture, I’m sure many of you have seen pictures of the crazy Japanese youth with their weird cool clothes and hair.
We say farewell at the train station and go home, with another interesting adventure for the record books.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Questions of Science… Science and Progress…
Do not speak as loud as my heart
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard…
I’m going back to the start.
Hoooo boy, another blog, I’m sorry. I’ll try and keep this condensed as possible. And I’ll put the most important stuff first, since I imagine you CJPers are bored (or will be) of reading all the other Gion blogs.
So first of all, I Saw Azrael!!! He was on a train, I recognized him from his picture online. I asked if it was him for sure, and said that me and my friends all liked his blog. He was with friends so I felt a bit bad interrupting though. And I’m sorry to my friends who thought it would be a good idea for me to shout "Breasts!" at him and teleport away.
Oh yeah, if you don’t know, Azrael (or Jeff, his real name) is a 6’6" black guy who lives in Kyoto teaching English to junior high students. He’s been chronicling his adventures on his blog for many years now, and is one of the funniest things on the web. You can find his editorials on www.gaijinsmash.net, or it’s the first link if you type "Japanese school teacher" into Google.
Another interesting thing that only one other person will blog about… I saw Coldplay!!! Woohoo!!! Took 5 trains and an hour trip to make it down to Intex-Osaka Saturday night, where Coldplay was playing. After spending a fortune on a ticket at the door (unfortunately far to the back), and waiting in line to go in, I got to see the concert. No opening band, which was disappointing, in 2003 they had the awesome Brit band "The Music" open for them. But the concert was quite impressive, opening with Square One and Politik, and playing some of the most important songs, Don’t Panic, Swallowed in the Sea, and the best song ever, The Scientist (which was extremely well done, much better than their 2003 version). Very cool stage though, they showed video of the band playing on the background, and had some laser effects too.
And I could write it down
Or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found
And you'll come back to me
Not swallowed in the sea
I was kinda hoping they would play some new or some less popular songs though. I would have loved to hear Sparks, or A Message, or For You.
But anyway, back to chronologicalness… What a fun weekend! Basically the first large scale CJP reunion, as many people came down to Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka/Nara/Kobe) from Kanto (Tokyo). Oh crap, (was gonna say another word but Bush already said it), forgot about Thursday. Anton and I went to pick up my very sexy Yukata from Kinsho near his house. I chose the light brown one, which meant I stood out a bit compared to everyone else in their blue/gray/black ones. Then we stopped at Mister Donut, I got a double chocolate donut, expecting it to be tasty and sweet. It was neither… like 0 sugar at all, bleh… on a double chocolate donut! Gosh!! Then we met up with Uncle Masa and went to an Isakaya. Wasn’t too bad, only stayed for an hour and a half, and Anton did most of the talking since I’m maybe shy (sorry Anton). And then I went home just in time to miss shower curfew.
Accordion Friday, then I met up with Anton and then Billy at Kyoto Station. We went for dinner at the nearby isakaya (the one with the supercool owner and the two nice waitresses). Good meal, and we talked for quite a while. The owner remembered us, and Billy signed his gaikokujin book. Then we went back to Anton’s flat in Nara.
Saturday morning we met Clement, Neil, and Victor at Kyoto Station and went Yukata shopping. Along the way we were stopped by our obligatory old man, who gave us directions, even though we weren’t lost and didn’t need em. Not the most interesting old man experience, but with Uncle Masa on Thursday, I think we filled our quota for the week. I left the group around 2 to go to the concert.
Went back to the dorm first to figure out how to get to the concert, with a complex route involving 5 trains, and tried to buy a ticket from Lawson using my very limited language skills. That failed, mostly because Lawson stopped selling the tickets, since the show was starting in 3 hours, but at least I failed at speaking all by myself! So yeah, got to Intex-Osaka, ran around looking for the ticket selling place (veery hard to find), and saw an awesome concert, woot!
So I head back to Kyoto, and call Anton from Tambabashi station, to see if they’re still out at Gion Matsuri. We arrange to meet at Yasaka Shrine (basically the most important part of the festival, and about the easiest temple to find in all of Kyoto). When I get there… nobody. I call back, they say they’ll meet me between Yasaka and the train station… after running back and forth 3 times (and meeting Clarissa and her friends along the way, Random Encounter #1), we decide just to meet back at Anton’s… Turns out they were lost and nowhere near where I was… they needed my GPS abilities (but that’s later).
On the first train home I was standing beside someone who I swear was my arch nemesis from grade 7. Well, one of them at least… I had many. Stupid junior high. Anyway, if it wasn’t him, he looked identical. Then on the second train home, I was standing right near Mr. Azrael of OutpostNine! Three random encounters in under an hour, that’s a new record methinks.
Anyway, get back to Anton’s, and there’s about 11 of us total now… going to sleep in 3 rooms… with 2 futons… Yeah, not overly comfortable. Still better than camping last summer where it rained heavily for 3 days, man that was cold. What was I thinking… anyway… we had the door open between the two rooms, since there was only one AC… and Billy gets cold in the night, so he closes the door, leaving the other people to freeze. Clement wakes up and instead of turning the AC down (the obvious idea), goes to sleep and snore next to Billy! Interesting night.
Sunday we split up, and try to check out downtown, but we got caught in quite a storm. After me, Billy and Neil sacrificed ourselves to buy umbrellas for the group, we sheltered in a dessert place for dessert. Mmm large chocolate shake. Then we met with the others back at Kyoto Station for dinner at an Italian place. Our group now numbered 15, since the Osakans had arrived. After a lengthy changing process (some people wanted to wear their Yukatas), we headed downtown for the festival. Quite cool to see, massive crowds all over the place. We wandered around for a while, takin pictures, then using my mad GPS skillz I led everyone back to Kyoto Station for another lengthy changing process.
Another fun night, I gave up sleeping on the floor and slept with my head resting on the kitchen table. Oddly enough, it was an improvement. We got up too early and headed back to Kyoto to see the parade. Unfortunately it was still pouring, and we couldn’t get very close to the parade to see much, so we headed back to Tambabashi Station, met up with the Osakans for lunch, and headed back to Nara to change out of Yukata and to head home…
Ideas that you'll never find
All the inventors could never design
The buildings that you put up
Osaka, Japan... all lit up
The sign that I couldn't read
Or a light, that I couldn't see
Some things you have to believe
While others are puzzles, puzzling me
Gion Matsuri was a ton of fun, not really for the festival itself (which we were barely at), but mostly just spending time with so many of the CJPers again… Thanks to everyone who came down from Kanto and other areas, and especially to Anton and Tongxin for providing accomodations.
Looking forward to Pirates and surfin this weekend, too bad I have to work Saturday. And MIDI Wednesdays are almost as brutal as Accordion Fridays… I wonder what they play on Saturdays /cry.
And pictures will now be posted on my web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link You can see me in a dress on there now!
Oh, weighed myself today, i've gained about 3-4 pounds since I've arrived here! Go me!
Until we meet again…
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard…
I’m going back to the start.
Hoooo boy, another blog, I’m sorry. I’ll try and keep this condensed as possible. And I’ll put the most important stuff first, since I imagine you CJPers are bored (or will be) of reading all the other Gion blogs.
So first of all, I Saw Azrael!!! He was on a train, I recognized him from his picture online. I asked if it was him for sure, and said that me and my friends all liked his blog. He was with friends so I felt a bit bad interrupting though. And I’m sorry to my friends who thought it would be a good idea for me to shout "Breasts!" at him and teleport away.
Oh yeah, if you don’t know, Azrael (or Jeff, his real name) is a 6’6" black guy who lives in Kyoto teaching English to junior high students. He’s been chronicling his adventures on his blog for many years now, and is one of the funniest things on the web. You can find his editorials on www.gaijinsmash.net, or it’s the first link if you type "Japanese school teacher" into Google.
Another interesting thing that only one other person will blog about… I saw Coldplay!!! Woohoo!!! Took 5 trains and an hour trip to make it down to Intex-Osaka Saturday night, where Coldplay was playing. After spending a fortune on a ticket at the door (unfortunately far to the back), and waiting in line to go in, I got to see the concert. No opening band, which was disappointing, in 2003 they had the awesome Brit band "The Music" open for them. But the concert was quite impressive, opening with Square One and Politik, and playing some of the most important songs, Don’t Panic, Swallowed in the Sea, and the best song ever, The Scientist (which was extremely well done, much better than their 2003 version). Very cool stage though, they showed video of the band playing on the background, and had some laser effects too.
And I could write it down
Or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found
And you'll come back to me
Not swallowed in the sea
I was kinda hoping they would play some new or some less popular songs though. I would have loved to hear Sparks, or A Message, or For You.
But anyway, back to chronologicalness… What a fun weekend! Basically the first large scale CJP reunion, as many people came down to Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka/Nara/Kobe) from Kanto (Tokyo). Oh crap, (was gonna say another word but Bush already said it), forgot about Thursday. Anton and I went to pick up my very sexy Yukata from Kinsho near his house. I chose the light brown one, which meant I stood out a bit compared to everyone else in their blue/gray/black ones. Then we stopped at Mister Donut, I got a double chocolate donut, expecting it to be tasty and sweet. It was neither… like 0 sugar at all, bleh… on a double chocolate donut! Gosh!! Then we met up with Uncle Masa and went to an Isakaya. Wasn’t too bad, only stayed for an hour and a half, and Anton did most of the talking since I’m maybe shy (sorry Anton). And then I went home just in time to miss shower curfew.
Accordion Friday, then I met up with Anton and then Billy at Kyoto Station. We went for dinner at the nearby isakaya (the one with the supercool owner and the two nice waitresses). Good meal, and we talked for quite a while. The owner remembered us, and Billy signed his gaikokujin book. Then we went back to Anton’s flat in Nara.
Saturday morning we met Clement, Neil, and Victor at Kyoto Station and went Yukata shopping. Along the way we were stopped by our obligatory old man, who gave us directions, even though we weren’t lost and didn’t need em. Not the most interesting old man experience, but with Uncle Masa on Thursday, I think we filled our quota for the week. I left the group around 2 to go to the concert.
Went back to the dorm first to figure out how to get to the concert, with a complex route involving 5 trains, and tried to buy a ticket from Lawson using my very limited language skills. That failed, mostly because Lawson stopped selling the tickets, since the show was starting in 3 hours, but at least I failed at speaking all by myself! So yeah, got to Intex-Osaka, ran around looking for the ticket selling place (veery hard to find), and saw an awesome concert, woot!
So I head back to Kyoto, and call Anton from Tambabashi station, to see if they’re still out at Gion Matsuri. We arrange to meet at Yasaka Shrine (basically the most important part of the festival, and about the easiest temple to find in all of Kyoto). When I get there… nobody. I call back, they say they’ll meet me between Yasaka and the train station… after running back and forth 3 times (and meeting Clarissa and her friends along the way, Random Encounter #1), we decide just to meet back at Anton’s… Turns out they were lost and nowhere near where I was… they needed my GPS abilities (but that’s later).
On the first train home I was standing beside someone who I swear was my arch nemesis from grade 7. Well, one of them at least… I had many. Stupid junior high. Anyway, if it wasn’t him, he looked identical. Then on the second train home, I was standing right near Mr. Azrael of OutpostNine! Three random encounters in under an hour, that’s a new record methinks.
Anyway, get back to Anton’s, and there’s about 11 of us total now… going to sleep in 3 rooms… with 2 futons… Yeah, not overly comfortable. Still better than camping last summer where it rained heavily for 3 days, man that was cold. What was I thinking… anyway… we had the door open between the two rooms, since there was only one AC… and Billy gets cold in the night, so he closes the door, leaving the other people to freeze. Clement wakes up and instead of turning the AC down (the obvious idea), goes to sleep and snore next to Billy! Interesting night.
Sunday we split up, and try to check out downtown, but we got caught in quite a storm. After me, Billy and Neil sacrificed ourselves to buy umbrellas for the group, we sheltered in a dessert place for dessert. Mmm large chocolate shake. Then we met with the others back at Kyoto Station for dinner at an Italian place. Our group now numbered 15, since the Osakans had arrived. After a lengthy changing process (some people wanted to wear their Yukatas), we headed downtown for the festival. Quite cool to see, massive crowds all over the place. We wandered around for a while, takin pictures, then using my mad GPS skillz I led everyone back to Kyoto Station for another lengthy changing process.
Another fun night, I gave up sleeping on the floor and slept with my head resting on the kitchen table. Oddly enough, it was an improvement. We got up too early and headed back to Kyoto to see the parade. Unfortunately it was still pouring, and we couldn’t get very close to the parade to see much, so we headed back to Tambabashi Station, met up with the Osakans for lunch, and headed back to Nara to change out of Yukata and to head home…
Ideas that you'll never find
All the inventors could never design
The buildings that you put up
Osaka, Japan... all lit up
The sign that I couldn't read
Or a light, that I couldn't see
Some things you have to believe
While others are puzzles, puzzling me
Gion Matsuri was a ton of fun, not really for the festival itself (which we were barely at), but mostly just spending time with so many of the CJPers again… Thanks to everyone who came down from Kanto and other areas, and especially to Anton and Tongxin for providing accomodations.
Looking forward to Pirates and surfin this weekend, too bad I have to work Saturday. And MIDI Wednesdays are almost as brutal as Accordion Fridays… I wonder what they play on Saturdays /cry.
And pictures will now be posted on my web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link You can see me in a dress on there now!
Oh, weighed myself today, i've gained about 3-4 pounds since I've arrived here! Go me!
Until we meet again…
Thursday, June 22, 2006
How Am I Supposed to Write My Blog When I'm Trapped on the Ceiling? It's Impossible.
Explorers are we, intrepid and bold,
Out in the wild, amongst wonders untold.
Equipped wit our wits, a map, and a snack,
We're searching for fun and we're on the right track!
- Watterson
Continuing on where I left off, I stayed at Anton’s Saturday night, along with Vincent and Keith (and anton was there too). Somehow I got cold during the night, so I slept on the floor underneath my futon… I’ve had better sleeps… I’ve had worse too though, stupid mosquito.Eventually we all woke up, and decided to go get breakfast.
Anton’s Old Man Luring Gaijin Powers (OMLGP) benefited us again! We were discussing plans outside a coffee shop, when an older gentleman came out to usher us in, saying what a great place it was, and to come in and eat! Only he wasn’t an employee, he was a customer! Turned out good though, toast, hard-boiled egg, ham, potato salad and ice coffee (I still don’t like coffee, bleh).
Next on the agenda was climbing to the top of Fushimi-Inari. Anton was sick last time, so I was the only one to have been there… We climbed to the very top this time, which took us quite a while, since we took some detours, but it was fun. Once again there were high schoolers doing endurance training on the stairs up the mountain. Anton got some very good pictures, here’s one or two:
We came back down and went to get some food. Anton and I got the same thing. Anton asked what it was, and he thought the waitress said fox o.O… When he asked her again, "Is this fox?" she confirmed that it was indeed! No, kidding, she laughed a bit, and said, no, no, it’s tofu. So yeah, cold tofu and noodles in a very sweet broth, wasn’t bad, but quite different.
By this time it was time to head to Kyoto Station, Vincent’s bus was leaving at 4. Only Keith’s ticket got stuck in the ticket booth! So Anton and Vincent went on ahead, I stayed with Keith. We hopped on the next train and went to downtown Kyoto, hoping to cross over to the subway line and take it down to Kyoto Station… only we weren’t really sure where the subway line was (I take responsibity for choosing the route). We walked for about 15 before we found it, then met Anton at about 4:15… he was waiting for about 25 minutes, he took a much much shorter route not involving getting lost in downtown, and made me feel rather dumb, but oh well.
So Vincent departed from us, and we continued on our adventure by going exploring around Kyoto Station. We pass by a large hotel, and Anton sees an attractive Japanese Policewoman. He asks to take her picture, but she seemed hesitant… and eventually said no. There were a lot of cops around, and it probably wouldn’t look too good for her. So we move on, then start thinking why there’s so many cops… at least one on every street corner! I suggest some sort of famous person passing through soon. So we pass by another cop and ask him, turns out I was right, in an hour a Japanese prince was to be passing through.
Not wanting to miss an exciting opportunity like that, we decided to hang around for awhile. Keith and Anton figured this was a good idea to do something that would be considered illegal in Canada.
I should also mention there was a cop standing about 6 feet away at this point. We also saw a Japanese tour guide, even in Japan they have their flags to direct tourists.
So went back to where the prince was passing by, and met a good looking Japanese girl. Anton of course asks for a picture, that seems to be his favorite Japanese phrase :P. They take a picture of us too on their fancy phones. And we got pictures of the prince too, he passed by with quite a large escort.
Kinda reminded me of the one scene in Kill Bill, with Lucy Liu in the anime scene as the assassin on the roof… I mention this, and we look up. Sure enough, there’s cops on the roof for security purposes.
So we go back to visit the policewoman, where, after waiting for her for about 15 minutes (she did tell us to come back after the prince and she’d let us take a picture), we got some of her posing for us.
At this point it was about time for Keith to head home, so we took him back to the station and found a good route for him to get home. Sounds like he had some good luck on the train! Anton and I went wandering around looking for a place to eat.
Anton’s OMLGP worked again, only not in a good way; an older man came up to talk to us, asking if we wanted to take his picture. Anton does, then takes one with me in it as well. Then the man tells us he’s homeless, and if we had any money, since he posed for us. Anton tells him we don’t really have any to spare, since we’re students, so he left us… Wow, we really seem to draw attention to ourselves, I’ve never heard of any panhandling in Japan, not to mention such creative panhandling.
Dinner time, we pass by a little sign saying dinner bar, and some stairs leading down, and Anton and I, the adventurous type, go right ahead down. We’re greeted by some very cute Japanese girl waitresses, who seat us right away, then the owner comes to talk to us. He gives us a sheet of paper, explaining that he’s very happy we have come to visit, but that he can’t speak any english besides "Hello" and "I love you"! He was extremely cool, he was palm reading at other tables, managed to tie a piece of wire into a knot inside his mouth, and was wearing a Tom and Jerry sweater! He also showed us the notebooks he had collected… All the foreigners that come to his restaurant he has sign a page in his book and write/draw whatever they want. He’s had people from all over the world, a lot from Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia.
We order a beer each and our meals, Anton got Tuna and Mushroom Spaghetti, I got Grilled Chicken. Anton was also quite happy about the seating arrangements, he was facing the two cute waitresses. We chat with them too, find out their names and what they do. The food was quite good, and we even got dessert (Sesame Ice Cream, since it was the waitress’ fave ^^). Anton got one of their emails, so that they can practice their english together!
Time for me and Anton to head home, we go back to the station and take the Keihan line home. Another adventurous weekend complete!
- - -- --- ----- -------- ------------- ---------------------
Ok, so I'm combining two posts together just cause there's a lot to write about, and I'm four days behind on the Kyoto one, so please forgive the length...
Music in Japan Part 2 - If I Wanted American Music I Wouldn't be in Japan!
Music in Japan, as I have mentioned, is a mixed bag. A lot of what you hear wandering around is very old American music that you don’t really need to hear (Funkytown), or just downright bizarre (Accordion music at work, or the Midori theme song that was written by the Devil and sung by Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light).
However, the actual bands (least the 4 indie bands we saw on Saturday), were really good! I guess being in a band isn’t exactly a well respected career in Japanese society, where everyone is expected to fit in, so if you’re going to be in a band, you had better be good. But then again, I've only heard 4 bands so far... gotta check out Tokyo before I make a professional opinion.
I don’t particularly like the American influence however. In general, I much more enjoy Canadian and British music than American (with a few exceptions), So like the second band’s whole "What!" thing really worsened their songs… and the fact that they did it every single song, well… I think it would be better for the bands to find their own style, rather than trying to copy the United States, but maybe that’s just me.
If It Ain't Broke, It Doesn't Have Enough Features Yet!
Shoes are loud! I got dress(y) shoes to wear at work, but they’re extremely loud and clunky. I can hear myself coming a mile away. And I can hear other people from half a mile. I quite enjoy walking completely silently at all times, and find it funny when I can sneak up on people, so this is fairly annoying… ah well.
The person beside me at work likes to talk to himself. Normally I would find this annoying, but he has a very cool voice. It sounds like Vincent Valentine! Check back in a few weeks to see if it’s still cool though, or whether I'm annoyed yet.
I’m not the newb anymore. I got called to a meeting yesterday, where my boss introduced the new guy! Though to be fair, I haven’t seen him around since, so maybe he’s in a different department? And either way, I’m still the lowest on the pagoda, since I don’t speak Japanese very well (or English either, for that matter).
Also, I got paid! (I hope… I should probably double check that…) Hurray, now I can buy a big screen tv and a stereo system and the pet gecko that I always wanted! Or I could save it for travelling to Tokyo for Canada Day!!! Wooooo!!!
14A Alert for the next paragraph!
Hmm, I’ve received multiple requests (from the same one individual) for confirmation that there was some scary equipment at the Onsen. So, to clear things up, I shall describe! Lucky all of you! Here goes… if you have long hair, it could get caught in the equipment that cycles the water. That would be scary. Burning yourself with the hairdryer equipment, also scary. I guess if you were very very clumsy and slipped while showering you could manage to strangle yourself with the shower equipment? Ok, enough! I’m out of ideas, and it was lame, but my point is, I wasn’t considering your feelings and I’m sorry I didn’t take notes of what I saw in the Onsen. Maybe next time…
I Like Maxims That Don't Encourage Behavior Modification
Onto more attractive topics, Anton and I got our cell phones yesterday, though I won’t post my email or phone number on here for obvous reasons. We looked around for Vodafone since we heard they were cheapest, but the only one we saw was closed, so we went to AU. We got a family plan, which worked out quite well, but we were in the store for an hour, signing all the paperwork and activating the phones. Rather fancy though, if I get a mem stick (Stupid Sony and their expensive Duo sticks), I can play music on it. Haven’t looked into what else it has yet.
Umm, afterwards Anton was pretty hungry, so we went into the Tomato Cooking Club and faked dumb, asking if it was a restaurant (obviously not, but there were girls our age inside, so, yeah, you know…). Nothing much came of thatthough. After asking a few random peopleon the street for a good place to go, we found an isakaya (Japanese pub). A very loud group of girls and guy was beside us, Anton wanted them to invite us over, but they never did. He even tried to get the waiter to ask how old they were. Crazy Foreigner.
Both of us were too tired to try and decipher the menu, so we asked the waiter to bring us whatever. (Note to others: while in Canada, this may be an ok idea, since you’re unlikely to get much weird, in Japan it’s a different story. But being the brave adventurers that we are…). So yeah, first dish was sashimi, which was quite good. The second dish, mmm some sort of shellfish! This did not look appetizing to me, and I wouldn’t have considered eating that in Canada, but I haven’t refused to try anything yet… It was squishy… Last dish was some sort of pasta with peppers, sausage, and asparagus, quite tasty. We pay the bill and leave the bar. Once again, too late to head back home, so I crashed at Anton’s for the night.
Not an overly eventful night, but the Tomato Cooking Club, the oyster things, and Anton acting like a dumb foreigner like myself to get a family plan kept up our adventurous streak.
Anyways, heading home from work now, where I have the night to prepare for the inevitable Accordion Afternoon. Next blog after next adventure!
Out in the wild, amongst wonders untold.
Equipped wit our wits, a map, and a snack,
We're searching for fun and we're on the right track!
- Watterson
Continuing on where I left off, I stayed at Anton’s Saturday night, along with Vincent and Keith (and anton was there too). Somehow I got cold during the night, so I slept on the floor underneath my futon… I’ve had better sleeps… I’ve had worse too though, stupid mosquito.Eventually we all woke up, and decided to go get breakfast.
Anton’s Old Man Luring Gaijin Powers (OMLGP) benefited us again! We were discussing plans outside a coffee shop, when an older gentleman came out to usher us in, saying what a great place it was, and to come in and eat! Only he wasn’t an employee, he was a customer! Turned out good though, toast, hard-boiled egg, ham, potato salad and ice coffee (I still don’t like coffee, bleh).
Next on the agenda was climbing to the top of Fushimi-Inari. Anton was sick last time, so I was the only one to have been there… We climbed to the very top this time, which took us quite a while, since we took some detours, but it was fun. Once again there were high schoolers doing endurance training on the stairs up the mountain. Anton got some very good pictures, here’s one or two:
We came back down and went to get some food. Anton and I got the same thing. Anton asked what it was, and he thought the waitress said fox o.O… When he asked her again, "Is this fox?" she confirmed that it was indeed! No, kidding, she laughed a bit, and said, no, no, it’s tofu. So yeah, cold tofu and noodles in a very sweet broth, wasn’t bad, but quite different.
By this time it was time to head to Kyoto Station, Vincent’s bus was leaving at 4. Only Keith’s ticket got stuck in the ticket booth! So Anton and Vincent went on ahead, I stayed with Keith. We hopped on the next train and went to downtown Kyoto, hoping to cross over to the subway line and take it down to Kyoto Station… only we weren’t really sure where the subway line was (I take responsibity for choosing the route). We walked for about 15 before we found it, then met Anton at about 4:15… he was waiting for about 25 minutes, he took a much much shorter route not involving getting lost in downtown, and made me feel rather dumb, but oh well.
So Vincent departed from us, and we continued on our adventure by going exploring around Kyoto Station. We pass by a large hotel, and Anton sees an attractive Japanese Policewoman. He asks to take her picture, but she seemed hesitant… and eventually said no. There were a lot of cops around, and it probably wouldn’t look too good for her. So we move on, then start thinking why there’s so many cops… at least one on every street corner! I suggest some sort of famous person passing through soon. So we pass by another cop and ask him, turns out I was right, in an hour a Japanese prince was to be passing through.
Not wanting to miss an exciting opportunity like that, we decided to hang around for awhile. Keith and Anton figured this was a good idea to do something that would be considered illegal in Canada.
I should also mention there was a cop standing about 6 feet away at this point. We also saw a Japanese tour guide, even in Japan they have their flags to direct tourists.
So went back to where the prince was passing by, and met a good looking Japanese girl. Anton of course asks for a picture, that seems to be his favorite Japanese phrase :P. They take a picture of us too on their fancy phones. And we got pictures of the prince too, he passed by with quite a large escort.
Kinda reminded me of the one scene in Kill Bill, with Lucy Liu in the anime scene as the assassin on the roof… I mention this, and we look up. Sure enough, there’s cops on the roof for security purposes.
So we go back to visit the policewoman, where, after waiting for her for about 15 minutes (she did tell us to come back after the prince and she’d let us take a picture), we got some of her posing for us.
At this point it was about time for Keith to head home, so we took him back to the station and found a good route for him to get home. Sounds like he had some good luck on the train! Anton and I went wandering around looking for a place to eat.
Anton’s OMLGP worked again, only not in a good way; an older man came up to talk to us, asking if we wanted to take his picture. Anton does, then takes one with me in it as well. Then the man tells us he’s homeless, and if we had any money, since he posed for us. Anton tells him we don’t really have any to spare, since we’re students, so he left us… Wow, we really seem to draw attention to ourselves, I’ve never heard of any panhandling in Japan, not to mention such creative panhandling.
Dinner time, we pass by a little sign saying dinner bar, and some stairs leading down, and Anton and I, the adventurous type, go right ahead down. We’re greeted by some very cute Japanese girl waitresses, who seat us right away, then the owner comes to talk to us. He gives us a sheet of paper, explaining that he’s very happy we have come to visit, but that he can’t speak any english besides "Hello" and "I love you"! He was extremely cool, he was palm reading at other tables, managed to tie a piece of wire into a knot inside his mouth, and was wearing a Tom and Jerry sweater! He also showed us the notebooks he had collected… All the foreigners that come to his restaurant he has sign a page in his book and write/draw whatever they want. He’s had people from all over the world, a lot from Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia.
We order a beer each and our meals, Anton got Tuna and Mushroom Spaghetti, I got Grilled Chicken. Anton was also quite happy about the seating arrangements, he was facing the two cute waitresses. We chat with them too, find out their names and what they do. The food was quite good, and we even got dessert (Sesame Ice Cream, since it was the waitress’ fave ^^). Anton got one of their emails, so that they can practice their english together!
Time for me and Anton to head home, we go back to the station and take the Keihan line home. Another adventurous weekend complete!
- - -- --- ----- -------- ------------- ---------------------
Ok, so I'm combining two posts together just cause there's a lot to write about, and I'm four days behind on the Kyoto one, so please forgive the length...
Music in Japan Part 2 - If I Wanted American Music I Wouldn't be in Japan!
Music in Japan, as I have mentioned, is a mixed bag. A lot of what you hear wandering around is very old American music that you don’t really need to hear (Funkytown), or just downright bizarre (Accordion music at work, or the Midori theme song that was written by the Devil and sung by Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light).
However, the actual bands (least the 4 indie bands we saw on Saturday), were really good! I guess being in a band isn’t exactly a well respected career in Japanese society, where everyone is expected to fit in, so if you’re going to be in a band, you had better be good. But then again, I've only heard 4 bands so far... gotta check out Tokyo before I make a professional opinion.
I don’t particularly like the American influence however. In general, I much more enjoy Canadian and British music than American (with a few exceptions), So like the second band’s whole "What!" thing really worsened their songs… and the fact that they did it every single song, well… I think it would be better for the bands to find their own style, rather than trying to copy the United States, but maybe that’s just me.
If It Ain't Broke, It Doesn't Have Enough Features Yet!
Shoes are loud! I got dress(y) shoes to wear at work, but they’re extremely loud and clunky. I can hear myself coming a mile away. And I can hear other people from half a mile. I quite enjoy walking completely silently at all times, and find it funny when I can sneak up on people, so this is fairly annoying… ah well.
The person beside me at work likes to talk to himself. Normally I would find this annoying, but he has a very cool voice. It sounds like Vincent Valentine! Check back in a few weeks to see if it’s still cool though, or whether I'm annoyed yet.
I’m not the newb anymore. I got called to a meeting yesterday, where my boss introduced the new guy! Though to be fair, I haven’t seen him around since, so maybe he’s in a different department? And either way, I’m still the lowest on the pagoda, since I don’t speak Japanese very well (or English either, for that matter).
Also, I got paid! (I hope… I should probably double check that…) Hurray, now I can buy a big screen tv and a stereo system and the pet gecko that I always wanted! Or I could save it for travelling to Tokyo for Canada Day!!! Wooooo!!!
14A Alert for the next paragraph!
Hmm, I’ve received multiple requests (from the same one individual) for confirmation that there was some scary equipment at the Onsen. So, to clear things up, I shall describe! Lucky all of you! Here goes… if you have long hair, it could get caught in the equipment that cycles the water. That would be scary. Burning yourself with the hairdryer equipment, also scary. I guess if you were very very clumsy and slipped while showering you could manage to strangle yourself with the shower equipment? Ok, enough! I’m out of ideas, and it was lame, but my point is, I wasn’t considering your feelings and I’m sorry I didn’t take notes of what I saw in the Onsen. Maybe next time…
I Like Maxims That Don't Encourage Behavior Modification
Onto more attractive topics, Anton and I got our cell phones yesterday, though I won’t post my email or phone number on here for obvous reasons. We looked around for Vodafone since we heard they were cheapest, but the only one we saw was closed, so we went to AU. We got a family plan, which worked out quite well, but we were in the store for an hour, signing all the paperwork and activating the phones. Rather fancy though, if I get a mem stick (Stupid Sony and their expensive Duo sticks), I can play music on it. Haven’t looked into what else it has yet.
Umm, afterwards Anton was pretty hungry, so we went into the Tomato Cooking Club and faked dumb, asking if it was a restaurant (obviously not, but there were girls our age inside, so, yeah, you know…). Nothing much came of thatthough. After asking a few random peopleon the street for a good place to go, we found an isakaya (Japanese pub). A very loud group of girls and guy was beside us, Anton wanted them to invite us over, but they never did. He even tried to get the waiter to ask how old they were. Crazy Foreigner.
Both of us were too tired to try and decipher the menu, so we asked the waiter to bring us whatever. (Note to others: while in Canada, this may be an ok idea, since you’re unlikely to get much weird, in Japan it’s a different story. But being the brave adventurers that we are…). So yeah, first dish was sashimi, which was quite good. The second dish, mmm some sort of shellfish! This did not look appetizing to me, and I wouldn’t have considered eating that in Canada, but I haven’t refused to try anything yet… It was squishy… Last dish was some sort of pasta with peppers, sausage, and asparagus, quite tasty. We pay the bill and leave the bar. Once again, too late to head back home, so I crashed at Anton’s for the night.
Not an overly eventful night, but the Tomato Cooking Club, the oyster things, and Anton acting like a dumb foreigner like myself to get a family plan kept up our adventurous streak.
Anyways, heading home from work now, where I have the night to prepare for the inevitable Accordion Afternoon. Next blog after next adventure!
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Weekends Don’t Count Unless You Spend Them Doing Something Completely Pointless
I made a big decision a little while ago.
I don't remember what it was, which prob'ly goes to show
That many times a simple choice can prove to be essential
Even though it often might appear inconsequential.
- Watterson
So another fun weekend has passed, and once again, I get to brag bout the wild and crazy events that took place! And then since it’s three weeks today that I arrived in Japan, I shall update with my thoughts and impressions.
Ok, onto Osaka Adventure Vol 2!!!!! And there was much rejoicing.
Saturday morning started exactly the same as last Saturday morning… well, besides meeting Uncle Masa… I met Anton in Nara at 10 in the morning and we both went down to Osaka. At Kyobashi Station, we ran into a slight snag in our plans; We had arranged to meet Keith, Boon-hau, and Tongxin here at 11, but failed to realize the size of the station. Me and Anton split up, and Keith managed to find me, and fortunately when Anton returned we spotted the other two as well.
Tongxin wanted a camera, so we decided to go to Nipponbashi quick before we had to meet Vincent. Wandered around in the stores there, and since I was wearing a red shirt in front of a red Vodafone booth with a red phone, I may as well advertise for them.
Off to Osaka station, a little late at this time, and a little lost too. After taking the wrong train, we arrived 40 minutes late. Luckily Vincent was still waiting for us (Sorry bout that Vincent), so finally we were all together. Now for the adventure to start! If only we had a plan…
Everyone was very hungry, so we decided to find somewhere to eat. We found a food court type place, and looked at all the restaurants. There was what appeared to be an All You Can Eat Desserts restaurant… 90 minutes to consume all the sugar you can… I must take note of this. We went to a smaller place where you sit at a counter to eat… we all got the same thing ><. So we got some stares and laughs from the other customers, but it was all good. Went for dessert at a café a few doors down (sadly not the all you can eat place), got some cake, and Keith, well, the cake came with a plastic wrapping around it…
Anton took a picture of the girl that worked there. He seems to take pictures of everything, which means he’s slow at processing and uploading everything, which means it takes me longer to steal his pictures!!! Dang him!!! Nah, I’m very grateful that he’s letting me borrow them for my blog.
We explored the nearby mall. And then I heard what I had been waiting for since the first week in Japan… they were playing Funkytown o.O. Craaazy… Then we started heading back to Nipponbashi (Tongxin still needed her camera), but we got distracted by arcades. Keith and Boon-hau battled to the virtual death at Dragonball, and Keith won… before he was challenged by a Japanese Highschooler!! Boon-hau took over for Keith, and was beaten, but it was a close match. Though the student may have just been playing with Boon-hau o.O.
We took some pictures in the picture booth and then spent a good five minutes decorating them all… unfortunately they turned out very very small when they printed. Vincent played some Initial D racing, and Tongxin and Vincent played the drum game. Vincent’s a madman, he’s very good. It was around 5:30 around this time, so it was time to head to the big event.
Anton and I saw a band called Kaede playing near Osaka station last week (I may have blogged about it), and they were playing again this weekend! So we decided to check it out. In classic Link and Anton style, all we had to go by was the name of the place they were playing, Esaka Muse, and the time (Anton forgot the map). So we headed to Esaka station and asked one of the workers for assistance. Took the guy 5 minutes to find the place on the map, but was eventually able to help us.
Esaka Muse was basically the fifth floor of some sort of store maybe? We get up there, looks pretty small, there’s a dozen young Japanese guys hanging around. And we’re a gang of six gaijin… we got some looks yes. We go up to the counter, and I’m not sure exactly what the conversation was, but apparently it was more expensive than we thought, 30 bucks a ticket since we didn’t have reservations. But fortunately, the guitarist from Kaede, Atsushi, recognized me and Anton, so we got a reservation and 5 bucks off the ticket price.
Now, we weren’t sure what we were getting into exactly, we weren’t really expecting a concert to be held on the fifth floor of a store… Anton and I were up for anything as usual, but we would have felt bad if this was not a concert, and the others paid for nothing. Buuut…
We go inside, there’s a small stage (good sign), about 5 small tables, and a counter around the back corner with a bar. There’s probably 15 or so people inside, me and Anton were (of course) the only white guys. And we were pretty fly… or something. Anton proposed a toast for being the first white people to set foot there… which may or may not be true, but this was an extremely out of the way place, not a tourist attraction whatsoever. It was a place for indie bands to start out, basically, so most people in the audience were either very big fans, or friends of the band.
The first band were quite good. Their name was Re:ing (which doesn’t make sense to me either)… and according to their sticker, they advertise themselves as "Non Genre Pop" (I always thought pop was a genre, but what do I know). The band was made up of three guys, guitarist, bassist, and drummer, and they were quite good. Keith bought their CD.
Nobody was super close to the stage at this point… except for one brave soul. He was getting his groove on pretty good, dancing close to the stage with some very good moves! I was jealous of his mad skillz. Oh, perhaps I should mention, he was about 5 feet tall, and about 65 years old. The bands and the fans were very nice to him! Anton got a photo of him while he was taking a break… Some of the younger guys were copying his dancing moves too.
The second group (don’t remember the name) was decent, but waaay too American influenced… Every song the girl singer would shout "What! What! What!…". Very dumb, that’s what, but I guess to be expected. American music is everywhere in Japan, and not necessarily the good music either. Third band was better than the first two, they were called Wedding… (Yes, I use a lot of … when I type, but that’s actually part of their band name). The lead singer, female, had a very good voice. Anton and Boon-hau each got one of their singles CDs.
Yay! Kaede is next! By far the crowd favorite, people were standing right next to the stage, and kinda punching the air while cheering, guess that’s the thing to do here. And three guys were getting a little… rambunctious? But that’s the thing to do at rock concerts everywhere. Anyway, Kaede played really well, even coming out for an Ankoru (encore)!
When we left the concert Chii was in the lobby area. She remembered us from last week, and thanked us for coming, and we got a group picture!
This is getting very long… like Anton’s blog long almost, and I’ve only wrote about Saturday, so I’ll speed through the next part. We went for dinner at a Ramen place, and the only eventful thing was while we were waiting to be seated. A nice looking Japanese girl was leaving the restaurant, and just as she passed us, Anton said, mostly to himself, "She’s cute!"… The girl turns around, smiles, and thanks him!
Anyway, Boon-hau and Tongxin left to go to their dorms, and we headed back to Anton’s place in Nara. Got to the stop 2 stations from Anton’s and the trains had stopped, so we had to cab it home.
I shall return with installment two shortly, perhaps later tonight, so stay tuned!
Mmm Japanese Jolly Ranchers.
I don't remember what it was, which prob'ly goes to show
That many times a simple choice can prove to be essential
Even though it often might appear inconsequential.
- Watterson
So another fun weekend has passed, and once again, I get to brag bout the wild and crazy events that took place! And then since it’s three weeks today that I arrived in Japan, I shall update with my thoughts and impressions.
Ok, onto Osaka Adventure Vol 2!!!!! And there was much rejoicing.
Saturday morning started exactly the same as last Saturday morning… well, besides meeting Uncle Masa… I met Anton in Nara at 10 in the morning and we both went down to Osaka. At Kyobashi Station, we ran into a slight snag in our plans; We had arranged to meet Keith, Boon-hau, and Tongxin here at 11, but failed to realize the size of the station. Me and Anton split up, and Keith managed to find me, and fortunately when Anton returned we spotted the other two as well.
Tongxin wanted a camera, so we decided to go to Nipponbashi quick before we had to meet Vincent. Wandered around in the stores there, and since I was wearing a red shirt in front of a red Vodafone booth with a red phone, I may as well advertise for them.
Off to Osaka station, a little late at this time, and a little lost too. After taking the wrong train, we arrived 40 minutes late. Luckily Vincent was still waiting for us (Sorry bout that Vincent), so finally we were all together. Now for the adventure to start! If only we had a plan…
Everyone was very hungry, so we decided to find somewhere to eat. We found a food court type place, and looked at all the restaurants. There was what appeared to be an All You Can Eat Desserts restaurant… 90 minutes to consume all the sugar you can… I must take note of this. We went to a smaller place where you sit at a counter to eat… we all got the same thing ><. So we got some stares and laughs from the other customers, but it was all good. Went for dessert at a café a few doors down (sadly not the all you can eat place), got some cake, and Keith, well, the cake came with a plastic wrapping around it…
Anton took a picture of the girl that worked there. He seems to take pictures of everything, which means he’s slow at processing and uploading everything, which means it takes me longer to steal his pictures!!! Dang him!!! Nah, I’m very grateful that he’s letting me borrow them for my blog.
We explored the nearby mall. And then I heard what I had been waiting for since the first week in Japan… they were playing Funkytown o.O. Craaazy… Then we started heading back to Nipponbashi (Tongxin still needed her camera), but we got distracted by arcades. Keith and Boon-hau battled to the virtual death at Dragonball, and Keith won… before he was challenged by a Japanese Highschooler!! Boon-hau took over for Keith, and was beaten, but it was a close match. Though the student may have just been playing with Boon-hau o.O.
We took some pictures in the picture booth and then spent a good five minutes decorating them all… unfortunately they turned out very very small when they printed. Vincent played some Initial D racing, and Tongxin and Vincent played the drum game. Vincent’s a madman, he’s very good. It was around 5:30 around this time, so it was time to head to the big event.
Anton and I saw a band called Kaede playing near Osaka station last week (I may have blogged about it), and they were playing again this weekend! So we decided to check it out. In classic Link and Anton style, all we had to go by was the name of the place they were playing, Esaka Muse, and the time (Anton forgot the map). So we headed to Esaka station and asked one of the workers for assistance. Took the guy 5 minutes to find the place on the map, but was eventually able to help us.
Esaka Muse was basically the fifth floor of some sort of store maybe? We get up there, looks pretty small, there’s a dozen young Japanese guys hanging around. And we’re a gang of six gaijin… we got some looks yes. We go up to the counter, and I’m not sure exactly what the conversation was, but apparently it was more expensive than we thought, 30 bucks a ticket since we didn’t have reservations. But fortunately, the guitarist from Kaede, Atsushi, recognized me and Anton, so we got a reservation and 5 bucks off the ticket price.
Now, we weren’t sure what we were getting into exactly, we weren’t really expecting a concert to be held on the fifth floor of a store… Anton and I were up for anything as usual, but we would have felt bad if this was not a concert, and the others paid for nothing. Buuut…
We go inside, there’s a small stage (good sign), about 5 small tables, and a counter around the back corner with a bar. There’s probably 15 or so people inside, me and Anton were (of course) the only white guys. And we were pretty fly… or something. Anton proposed a toast for being the first white people to set foot there… which may or may not be true, but this was an extremely out of the way place, not a tourist attraction whatsoever. It was a place for indie bands to start out, basically, so most people in the audience were either very big fans, or friends of the band.
The first band were quite good. Their name was Re:ing (which doesn’t make sense to me either)… and according to their sticker, they advertise themselves as "Non Genre Pop" (I always thought pop was a genre, but what do I know). The band was made up of three guys, guitarist, bassist, and drummer, and they were quite good. Keith bought their CD.
Nobody was super close to the stage at this point… except for one brave soul. He was getting his groove on pretty good, dancing close to the stage with some very good moves! I was jealous of his mad skillz. Oh, perhaps I should mention, he was about 5 feet tall, and about 65 years old. The bands and the fans were very nice to him! Anton got a photo of him while he was taking a break… Some of the younger guys were copying his dancing moves too.
The second group (don’t remember the name) was decent, but waaay too American influenced… Every song the girl singer would shout "What! What! What!…". Very dumb, that’s what, but I guess to be expected. American music is everywhere in Japan, and not necessarily the good music either. Third band was better than the first two, they were called Wedding… (Yes, I use a lot of … when I type, but that’s actually part of their band name). The lead singer, female, had a very good voice. Anton and Boon-hau each got one of their singles CDs.
Yay! Kaede is next! By far the crowd favorite, people were standing right next to the stage, and kinda punching the air while cheering, guess that’s the thing to do here. And three guys were getting a little… rambunctious? But that’s the thing to do at rock concerts everywhere. Anyway, Kaede played really well, even coming out for an Ankoru (encore)!
When we left the concert Chii was in the lobby area. She remembered us from last week, and thanked us for coming, and we got a group picture!
This is getting very long… like Anton’s blog long almost, and I’ve only wrote about Saturday, so I’ll speed through the next part. We went for dinner at a Ramen place, and the only eventful thing was while we were waiting to be seated. A nice looking Japanese girl was leaving the restaurant, and just as she passed us, Anton said, mostly to himself, "She’s cute!"… The girl turns around, smiles, and thanks him!
Anyway, Boon-hau and Tongxin left to go to their dorms, and we headed back to Anton’s place in Nara. Got to the stop 2 stations from Anton’s and the trains had stopped, so we had to cab it home.
I shall return with installment two shortly, perhaps later tonight, so stay tuned!
Mmm Japanese Jolly Ranchers.
Monday, June 12, 2006
The Conversational Equivalent of an Out of Body Experience
I think I felt an earthquake yesterday! I was on a pedestrian overpass, next to a train station, listening to a rock band perform, with people jumping up and down… hmm, maybe it wasn’t an earthquake o.O.
But anyway, that’s later on, I prefer to write my adventures in semi-chronological order so as not to confuse anyone (including myself).
First, I should mention work this past week… but not too in depth, I don’t want to violate the confidentiality agreement in my contract (or bore you all, this blog will be loooong)… I have 4 themes I’ll be working with during my 10 months here, and the first is improving upon a video memory circuit board. Only I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing. My first assignment is to check over the board, the circuitry, the signal, the VHDL code… only it’s not a very big job for the time I’m given to work on it. So maybe I’m doing something wrong? Or maybe I’m just prostar? I’ll let you all decide! I’m also helping a co-worker on one of his assignments, which involves me analyzing a nasty circuit diagram and figuring out what’s goin on.
Had another Monday meeting today, which means sitting for two hours, listening to things I can’t understand, and mostly trying not to sleep. Also, I’m supposed to describe what I did the past week (in Japanese).
Work’s not bad, it seems very independent, so I’m never sure if I’m going about it the right way. Anyway, not much happens after work during the week, I get home between 5:30 and 6. They tell me to leave if I’m not gone by then, not like poor Anton, who works till 9 every night. I have decided to devote 1-2 hours every night to learning Japanese… and I try to learn a bit at work too online.
Now to the good part of my blog… Osaka Adventure Vol. 1!
On Saturday Anton and I, armed with everything but my camera and a plan (both would have been good to have), went to Osaka for the day! First off, I would like to give a big thanks to Mr. Anton for letting me steal his pictures for my own use! So anyone reading the planetcjp blog gets to see the amazing pictures twice, lucky you!
We decided to meet in Nara instead of Osaka, seeing as how neither of us know Osaka at all, and didn’t want to get separated before we even met. So I went down to Yamato-sadaiji station and then we both headed towards Osaka.
We had our first… umm… experience?… within a few minutes of leaving; an older man (probably 50ish) started talking to us on the train, practicing his English. He asked where we were from, where we worked, our hobbies, all good. He said he had been to Canada (Banff of course). Eventually the topic turned to Onsen (for those who don’t know, Onsen are hot springs that you basically go in to bathe… naked… with other people. They’re supposed to be really good, and I’ll have to try one sometime.) . The older guy told us he likes to visit the Onsen once a week, and that since Anton lives close, he should come with him sometime! Perhaps on Sunday? He even offered to pick Anton up! Now coming from North America, this seems rather disturbing, but maybe it’s normal in Japan to be asked by strangers to go to Onsen? Thinking of how weird this was kept us laughing all day.
*Note: Asking the people at my dorm, and Anton asking at his work, this is considered weird even for Japan. Just so you know…
Next we went to Nipponbashi, Osaka’s electronics district. Interesting place, saw a store that sold miso paste, another that sold old photographs. We passed by a bookstore, Anton decided to go in. "Seems like most of the books in this store are about travelling" he says… look up, I says. The shelf above is loaded with a lot of porn books. Porn is rather, umm, accessible here. People had stands set up on the street with porn videos. Normal video stores had large cardboard cutouts of the very famous Razor Ramon Hard Gay. And yet, all their porn is censored apparently. Very odd…
We wandered around there in circles for a few hours. Anton needed some camera supplies (lens case and mem card), and he needed to change some dollars to Yen. Not sure where the bank was, he asked a lady at the department store, who was nice enough to take us halfway across the mall to the foreign exchange bank! That’d never happen in Canada. We also found Kitchen Alley (least that’s my name for it)… a long back street with every store selling miscellaneous cooking and kitchen supplies. Anton suggested that if I ever get fired from work (say from breaking the confidentiality clause), I should open up a sausage stand in Kyoto! It’s a great idea of course, Anton even found a good apron for me to wear! He suggested the blue, but I think the orange one woulda been better.
Eventually we decided to head more downtown, to Osaka Station.
This was an excellent idea! Just outside the station, on a large pedestrian overpass, were a couple Japanese rock bands giving a free live show! We stayed to watch for well over an hour (there were 2 bands, not playing at the same time, unlike some places in Japan. Speaking of which, anyone know where the park where all the bands play in is? I love live music (except Country).). Anton took way too many pictures, but got some good shots (below) and I bought the one band’s (Kaede) CD, and even got my picture taken with them! Very cool…
Kaede is having another live show next Saturday in Osaka, me and Anton are thinking of going, if anyone in the Osaka area wants to join…
Next we went for lunch… Anton tried to force me to finish, but as all who know me know, I have a small stomach, /sigh. Was good, I got katsudon, but raw egg tastes a bit weird. Oh yeah, you order by vending machine, then take your ticket to the counter, I thought this was quite cool. Then we went to the Osaka Science Museum, which was a bit lame… not very unique, and we couldn’t read anything anyway. And having taken three years of electrical engineering, I didn’t learn anything. But we got some good pictures (of me sticking my head in a magnetic field).
Near the museum we saw some semi-engrish, the following street sign:
Now at first glance you may think this sign means "Ok, if you’re with children, hold their hand"… but then you notice, hmm, it looks like the girl is either struggling to get away, or perhaps dancing? Her dress is also quite short. Then you notice the weirdest bit; the man has tentacle arms! And they’re unequal length! And what the heck’s he wearing?! No, something’s not right here! Not right at all!!!
Anton says "Some signs are better left uninterpreted." But what’s the fun in that?
Anton wanted to stop at an internet café to check his email, hoping Tongxin (from the Co-op Japan program) emailed him. Tongxin works at Sanyo in Osaka, and she was supposed to have arrived a few days before. We were kinda hoping to meet here in Osaka…
But first, we saw this fancy pants bit of Engrish outside the Metro Media Café:
By the way, the only Special Memories Anton got was getting ripped off…390 yen just to check his email.
Still completely without a (logical/workable/sane) plan, and without an email from Tongxin, we did what any normal person would do… we went to her neighbourhood and try to find her randomly! What? You say that’s not what a normal person would do? You’re right, sue us.
So yeah, after asking around where Sanyo was located, we headed to where we thought Tongxin may be. Got near to the Sanyo building and actually passed by the dormitory… so we went floor by floor seeing if Tongxin’s name was on any of the doors. I told Anton he gets 50 million bonus points if his super Random Meeting Gaijin Powers led us to Tongxin.
No luck at the dorm, but Anton won 30 million a few minutes later: A few doors down was a man outside a restaurant, Anton asked if there were any other Sanyo dorm buildings around. He explained our situation, and it turned out that Tongxin may have been there the previous night! The man knew someone who worked at Sanyo. He called the person, and let Anton talk to her; turns out she knew Tongxin! Wow, the likelyhood of this is… wait! Was there an Infinite Improbability Drive nearby? Was that creepy street sign warning us of Zaphod Beeblebrox? Am I going off on some tangent here?
Anyways, the lady (Tomoe-san) actually came down to the restaurant (she lived close) to talk to us in person. Unfortunately, she couldn’t contact Tongxin and wasn’t able to tell us where she lived (for obvious reasons), but we gave her a note to give to Tongxin. We invited us to have dinner with us, she declined dinner but stayed and talked with us while we ate. She spent nearly 3 hours talking to us, teaching us some Japanese while we helped her practice English. It was very cool.
The restaurant was also quite good, very small, 3 tables and a bar, but extremely nice inside. It’s actually owned by Tomoe-san’s mother in law… even more coincidences! Dinner was the specialty, basically fried, squid filled doughballs. Not really something I’m used to but managed to eat it all, it was pretty good.
By this time it was well after 9, and a long trip back home. I didn’t have much chance meeting curfew even, so I stayed at Anton’s for the night.
Two weeks down, 40 more to go… aaaah, time’s going so fast! So much to do!
Oh, side note, Music in Japan!!!
Music in Japan is quite unique… some of it (J-pop or J-rock) is quite good, but there’s a lot of music borrowed from the US… let me recap the most interesting musical selections.
The Electronics Store Theme Song – Written by the devil maybe? Pure torture!
Auld Lang Syne – Yes the New Year’s Song, I heard it in Joshin (similar to Future Shop in Canada).
Ice Candy! – We saw this ad in a store, it had very annoying music plus one of the weirdest videos ever… and it looped every 10 seconds o.O
My Grandfather’s Clock – In Japanese, playing in my dorm lobby at lunchtime…
And the most important… my office has music playing in the background. A lot of it is American music, minus the actual lyrics (just the music). I’ve heard (at least once):
Culture Club (Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?), Queen, Disney (Whole New World, Under the Sea), Uptown Girls, and the Macarena!
Also, Friday afternoon had me listening to 3 hours of accordion music… /cry.
Second side note, cause Anton forgot... we saw our first really big person on the train in Osaka. He was big enough to be a sumo wrestler... and he had a very funny haircut too! But he was too far away to take a picture...
Third side note, which involves me making a bad joke… but since Anton has already posted it… In Japan, certain train cars are designated as ladies-only during rush hour. As many of you know, there has been a problem with ladies being groped on the train when it’s super busy, so these trains were set up to reduce the problem. This sign is on the platform so people know where the train cars are.
I suggested that that would make a good welcome mat for Anton’s apartment ><.
It’s now Monday night, and the World Cup game is on, Japan vs Australia. Sounds exciting, think I’ll go watch for a bit. Next blog probably next Sunday, after Osaka Adventure Vol 2.
But anyway, that’s later on, I prefer to write my adventures in semi-chronological order so as not to confuse anyone (including myself).
First, I should mention work this past week… but not too in depth, I don’t want to violate the confidentiality agreement in my contract (or bore you all, this blog will be loooong)… I have 4 themes I’ll be working with during my 10 months here, and the first is improving upon a video memory circuit board. Only I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing. My first assignment is to check over the board, the circuitry, the signal, the VHDL code… only it’s not a very big job for the time I’m given to work on it. So maybe I’m doing something wrong? Or maybe I’m just prostar? I’ll let you all decide! I’m also helping a co-worker on one of his assignments, which involves me analyzing a nasty circuit diagram and figuring out what’s goin on.
Had another Monday meeting today, which means sitting for two hours, listening to things I can’t understand, and mostly trying not to sleep. Also, I’m supposed to describe what I did the past week (in Japanese).
Work’s not bad, it seems very independent, so I’m never sure if I’m going about it the right way. Anyway, not much happens after work during the week, I get home between 5:30 and 6. They tell me to leave if I’m not gone by then, not like poor Anton, who works till 9 every night. I have decided to devote 1-2 hours every night to learning Japanese… and I try to learn a bit at work too online.
Now to the good part of my blog… Osaka Adventure Vol. 1!
On Saturday Anton and I, armed with everything but my camera and a plan (both would have been good to have), went to Osaka for the day! First off, I would like to give a big thanks to Mr. Anton for letting me steal his pictures for my own use! So anyone reading the planetcjp blog gets to see the amazing pictures twice, lucky you!
We decided to meet in Nara instead of Osaka, seeing as how neither of us know Osaka at all, and didn’t want to get separated before we even met. So I went down to Yamato-sadaiji station and then we both headed towards Osaka.
We had our first… umm… experience?… within a few minutes of leaving; an older man (probably 50ish) started talking to us on the train, practicing his English. He asked where we were from, where we worked, our hobbies, all good. He said he had been to Canada (Banff of course). Eventually the topic turned to Onsen (for those who don’t know, Onsen are hot springs that you basically go in to bathe… naked… with other people. They’re supposed to be really good, and I’ll have to try one sometime.) . The older guy told us he likes to visit the Onsen once a week, and that since Anton lives close, he should come with him sometime! Perhaps on Sunday? He even offered to pick Anton up! Now coming from North America, this seems rather disturbing, but maybe it’s normal in Japan to be asked by strangers to go to Onsen? Thinking of how weird this was kept us laughing all day.
*Note: Asking the people at my dorm, and Anton asking at his work, this is considered weird even for Japan. Just so you know…
Next we went to Nipponbashi, Osaka’s electronics district. Interesting place, saw a store that sold miso paste, another that sold old photographs. We passed by a bookstore, Anton decided to go in. "Seems like most of the books in this store are about travelling" he says… look up, I says. The shelf above is loaded with a lot of porn books. Porn is rather, umm, accessible here. People had stands set up on the street with porn videos. Normal video stores had large cardboard cutouts of the very famous Razor Ramon Hard Gay. And yet, all their porn is censored apparently. Very odd…
We wandered around there in circles for a few hours. Anton needed some camera supplies (lens case and mem card), and he needed to change some dollars to Yen. Not sure where the bank was, he asked a lady at the department store, who was nice enough to take us halfway across the mall to the foreign exchange bank! That’d never happen in Canada. We also found Kitchen Alley (least that’s my name for it)… a long back street with every store selling miscellaneous cooking and kitchen supplies. Anton suggested that if I ever get fired from work (say from breaking the confidentiality clause), I should open up a sausage stand in Kyoto! It’s a great idea of course, Anton even found a good apron for me to wear! He suggested the blue, but I think the orange one woulda been better.
Eventually we decided to head more downtown, to Osaka Station.
This was an excellent idea! Just outside the station, on a large pedestrian overpass, were a couple Japanese rock bands giving a free live show! We stayed to watch for well over an hour (there were 2 bands, not playing at the same time, unlike some places in Japan. Speaking of which, anyone know where the park where all the bands play in is? I love live music (except Country).). Anton took way too many pictures, but got some good shots (below) and I bought the one band’s (Kaede) CD, and even got my picture taken with them! Very cool…
Kaede is having another live show next Saturday in Osaka, me and Anton are thinking of going, if anyone in the Osaka area wants to join…
Next we went for lunch… Anton tried to force me to finish, but as all who know me know, I have a small stomach, /sigh. Was good, I got katsudon, but raw egg tastes a bit weird. Oh yeah, you order by vending machine, then take your ticket to the counter, I thought this was quite cool. Then we went to the Osaka Science Museum, which was a bit lame… not very unique, and we couldn’t read anything anyway. And having taken three years of electrical engineering, I didn’t learn anything. But we got some good pictures (of me sticking my head in a magnetic field).
Near the museum we saw some semi-engrish, the following street sign:
Now at first glance you may think this sign means "Ok, if you’re with children, hold their hand"… but then you notice, hmm, it looks like the girl is either struggling to get away, or perhaps dancing? Her dress is also quite short. Then you notice the weirdest bit; the man has tentacle arms! And they’re unequal length! And what the heck’s he wearing?! No, something’s not right here! Not right at all!!!
Anton says "Some signs are better left uninterpreted." But what’s the fun in that?
Anton wanted to stop at an internet café to check his email, hoping Tongxin (from the Co-op Japan program) emailed him. Tongxin works at Sanyo in Osaka, and she was supposed to have arrived a few days before. We were kinda hoping to meet here in Osaka…
But first, we saw this fancy pants bit of Engrish outside the Metro Media Café:
By the way, the only Special Memories Anton got was getting ripped off…390 yen just to check his email.
Still completely without a (logical/workable/sane) plan, and without an email from Tongxin, we did what any normal person would do… we went to her neighbourhood and try to find her randomly! What? You say that’s not what a normal person would do? You’re right, sue us.
So yeah, after asking around where Sanyo was located, we headed to where we thought Tongxin may be. Got near to the Sanyo building and actually passed by the dormitory… so we went floor by floor seeing if Tongxin’s name was on any of the doors. I told Anton he gets 50 million bonus points if his super Random Meeting Gaijin Powers led us to Tongxin.
No luck at the dorm, but Anton won 30 million a few minutes later: A few doors down was a man outside a restaurant, Anton asked if there were any other Sanyo dorm buildings around. He explained our situation, and it turned out that Tongxin may have been there the previous night! The man knew someone who worked at Sanyo. He called the person, and let Anton talk to her; turns out she knew Tongxin! Wow, the likelyhood of this is… wait! Was there an Infinite Improbability Drive nearby? Was that creepy street sign warning us of Zaphod Beeblebrox? Am I going off on some tangent here?
Anyways, the lady (Tomoe-san) actually came down to the restaurant (she lived close) to talk to us in person. Unfortunately, she couldn’t contact Tongxin and wasn’t able to tell us where she lived (for obvious reasons), but we gave her a note to give to Tongxin. We invited us to have dinner with us, she declined dinner but stayed and talked with us while we ate. She spent nearly 3 hours talking to us, teaching us some Japanese while we helped her practice English. It was very cool.
The restaurant was also quite good, very small, 3 tables and a bar, but extremely nice inside. It’s actually owned by Tomoe-san’s mother in law… even more coincidences! Dinner was the specialty, basically fried, squid filled doughballs. Not really something I’m used to but managed to eat it all, it was pretty good.
By this time it was well after 9, and a long trip back home. I didn’t have much chance meeting curfew even, so I stayed at Anton’s for the night.
Two weeks down, 40 more to go… aaaah, time’s going so fast! So much to do!
Oh, side note, Music in Japan!!!
Music in Japan is quite unique… some of it (J-pop or J-rock) is quite good, but there’s a lot of music borrowed from the US… let me recap the most interesting musical selections.
The Electronics Store Theme Song – Written by the devil maybe? Pure torture!
Auld Lang Syne – Yes the New Year’s Song, I heard it in Joshin (similar to Future Shop in Canada).
Ice Candy! – We saw this ad in a store, it had very annoying music plus one of the weirdest videos ever… and it looped every 10 seconds o.O
My Grandfather’s Clock – In Japanese, playing in my dorm lobby at lunchtime…
And the most important… my office has music playing in the background. A lot of it is American music, minus the actual lyrics (just the music). I’ve heard (at least once):
Culture Club (Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?), Queen, Disney (Whole New World, Under the Sea), Uptown Girls, and the Macarena!
Also, Friday afternoon had me listening to 3 hours of accordion music… /cry.
Second side note, cause Anton forgot... we saw our first really big person on the train in Osaka. He was big enough to be a sumo wrestler... and he had a very funny haircut too! But he was too far away to take a picture...
Third side note, which involves me making a bad joke… but since Anton has already posted it… In Japan, certain train cars are designated as ladies-only during rush hour. As many of you know, there has been a problem with ladies being groped on the train when it’s super busy, so these trains were set up to reduce the problem. This sign is on the platform so people know where the train cars are.
I suggested that that would make a good welcome mat for Anton’s apartment ><.
It’s now Monday night, and the World Cup game is on, Japan vs Australia. Sounds exciting, think I’ll go watch for a bit. Next blog probably next Sunday, after Osaka Adventure Vol 2.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
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