GUESS WHO
I guess if you don't know
you can wait a paragraph or two
On Christmas Eve, I set out with a couple of friends to Fukuoka once again. This time instead of a day trip, we went to stay for two nights. My friends were going to Fukuoka Airport to fly out to Thailand for their winter vacation, and I was accompanying them for fun, and so that I could go see a concert going on in the city. When we first got in, we got all settled in the hotel, which was placed right near the HIP and HAPPENING area of town, and was super convenient for pretty much everything we wanted to do.
After that, we set out to explore the city a bit, and came upon a huge toy/comic store that had all sorts of stuff for sale. I found a whole bunch of bearbricks and kubrick figures, and picked up a tron lightcycle in wireframe. It's fantastic; the stand that it comes with is supposed to be the trail that the lightcycles leave, and there's a little wireframe dude to go along with it.
Some fool on ebay is trying to sell this for 50 bucks
The rest of the day we pretty much just walked around looking at stuff, ate, and then went to karaoke. The next day I walked around with Ryan, a dude from Vancouver, and we just started wandering around, looking into stores and exploring. Eventually we ended up in an indoor snowboarding hill and we were all "Whaaaaaa? Where did this come from?" It probably wouldn't have been so surprising (I mean, they have these things elsewhere), but most everyone we had talked to had no idea about things like this, or even just an average skate park (Ryan is a big BMX dude. I uh, I didn't really care all too much).
We also found a ton of different stores just by walking around. Ryan happened to share a big interest in sneakers with me, so we wanted to hit up all the same places and things worked out well. Unfortunately, neither of us are really able to find sneakers in our size, because we both have pretty big feet (sizes 13 and 14), but that doesn't stop us from looking around.
For dinner we found a Jamaican restaurant near the hotel. Some of you may be thinking "Why is he eating Jamaican food while he's in Japan? How silly," but after having Japanese food every day for a while it stops being "WOOOO JAPANESE FOOD EVERYDAY" and becomes "food." It was my first time having for real Jamaican food, and it was pretty dang delicious. We talked to the owner of the restaurant, who cooked our meal. Turns out he was born in Jamaica, but moved over to New York later on.
After all that, Ryan and I went to go see Carl Cox at some club near the hotel. It was a bit odd though, because the venue limited the audience to 300 people, and even then there couldn't have been 300 in the club. The Japanese don't seem to do concerts and live shows like we do back in the States, or anywhere else for that matter. It seems that instead of going to see a huge name play at a local club, they would rather go and sing at a television set. Go fig. Also, even those who do go out to the club just kind of end up being sweaty, dancing out of time and making a lot of noise. However, as much of a bummer as that sounds, the awesomeness of Carl Cox totally made up for it (his dancing was supreme).
The next day I saw my friends off and went off on my own to walk around and look for stuff. I didn't find all too much, but I did manage to snag a fantastic photo in one of the bookstores.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Fukuoka once again
Saturday, December 22, 2007
It's nearly Christmas in Japan
Presents came in the mail today, including cookies, clothing and a, uh, a chicken. The weirdest part about it wasn't the fact that a chicken came through the mail, but that my host mom actually called it. She was holding a big box and I asked her if it was a present, and she said, "Yes. Probably chicken," opened it up and BAM, chicken.
Today was the first day of break, and I did nothing, which was nice. For the past two weeks or so, I haven't had a day like that, so it was good to just sit around. However, my delicious red bean paste bun was stolen by the small yappy-type dog at breakfast, and then he bit me afterwards, just to be a dick about it. The worst part about it is that I can't do anything to get back at him. It's not like I can be all "WELL YOU'RE FAT" or "YOU GREEDY LITTLE PIG-DOG I HOPE YOU GET INDIGESTION" because he's a dog and can't understand English. At least I can spread the word that he's a little porker all over the internet, and really needs to lose weight.
Seriously. I think he's like 17 kilos when he's only supposed to weigh 12. He's a pudgy little sausage dog. My host parents have just recently started him on some diet food because he is SO FAT.
Also last weekend the Rotary club threw a Christmas party for the exchange students and past exchange students. It was at Huis Ten Bosch (again) and we hung out there for a little while afterwards. They had a bunch of lights up for Christmas, and we happened to catch the lighting ceremony, which involved a bunch of elves, gospel singers from NYC, and some lady singing Silent Night.
The party and all was fun, but they kind of dropped a big disappointment bomb on us while we were there. Apparently the Rotary exchange students won't be meeting again for a Rotary thing for another 5 MONTHS. That is ridiculous. Back at home, the Rotary students met almost once every month. Even after we meet next, there's no saying if we'll have any other meeting afterwards. Probably not, because the next time we meet is pretty much the last month of our stay. BUMMER. Also, it was revealed to us that they hadn't really planned to bring us to meet other exchange students in other districts, like they do pretty much everywhere else in the world. I don't think they've totally got the whole "socializing" thing down here in Japan.
But anyway
I'll leave you on a good note
I'll leave you with a photo of me looking like a TOTAL STUD
UPDATE: Apparently the presents were end-of-the-year presents, not Christmas presents. Also we ate the chicken and it was delicious.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Big ol' music post
Let me tell you something about Japan: they have horrible pop music. Not like the average terrible pop music we experience in America, but rather some sort of mutant strain that has grown invulnerable to all criticism from more sensible beings and because of this, has flourished. I think that if I were forced to live with no music other than J-pop, I would choose to ease the pain and off myself early. Seriously. It's that bad.
The worst part about this, however, is that unlike America, where other genres of music are also popular and are listened to, it seems that every high school student listens only to the pop music of the time, and knows nothing about other types of music. Well, that's kind of a lie; they also listen to American pop, like Green Day, Avril Lavigne and Dumb People. So pretty much if it weren't for my iPod and my wonderful internets, I'd probably be bashing my skull into concrete over here.
Anyway, since it's December, the month of lists, I figured I would just name a couple of songs that are keeping me sane over here right now. Some are new, but most are probably older seeing as it's kind of hard to keep up with the tons of music available on the internet by oneself.
ANYWAYHEREWEGOLIST
ACTUALLYWAITHOLDUP
Are you sure you want to click that link? This is really just a big post of me rambling about music. There's absolutely nothing in here about Japan. Just wanted to let you know before you trudge through half a page of boring half-assed descriptions of songs.
Feist - Pretty much anything and most remixes
I heard that Feist was nominated for a Grammy in the catagory of "Best New Artist" which is kind of funny, seeing as she's really not all that new. For all of you who don't know, she's been doing a bunch of music stuff for a while, and is a member of Broken Social Scene, another band with fantastic music. But anyway, it's good she's being recognized because her music is great. And not only that, there's a ton of great remixes of her songs out there as well. A couple of the ones on heavy rotation over here are Mushaboom (K-Os Remix), Sea Lion (Chromeo Remix), and 1234 (Vanshe Technologic Remix). The originals of all those are also really great songs.
Mystery Jets - You Can't Fool Me Dennis (Justice Remix)
When most people hear the words "Justice Remix" used to describe a song, they usually expect gut-busting bass and grungy, cranking synths. This remix, however, is very much out of character for Justice. Sure when you compare the original to the remix, the remix sounds more like Justice I guess... But really, it doesn't have the same Justice feel as their other songs do. However, this isn't a bad thing, I just wanted to let you know before you jumped in. The original of this song is also quite good, and quite different. I really feel that a good remix is different enough from the original that they can both be played back-to-back and be enjoyed and two separate songs (Unlike the Daft Punk remix of Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out"). Also, it might be interesting to some that Erol Alkan actually produced the Mystery Jets' new album. Apparently they're one of his favorite bands. Go fig.
Peter Bjorn & John - Let's Call It Off (Girl Talk Remix)
Some of you might remember Peter Bjorn & John's song "Young Folk" from earlier on, and Diplo's fantastic remix of it (which is a great song, no matter what stuck-up naysayers like Ry Lester say I AM CALLING YOU OUT, RYAN). Well, here is another remix of a different song of theirs, this time reworked by Girl Talk. Somehow I seem to find remixes that simply don't fit an artist's MO; first the Justice remix, and now this. Girl Talk's glitchy and hyper style is noticeably absent from this remix, but like the Justice remix, it's still solid and definitely worth listening to.
The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose to Give It (Boy 8 Bit Mix)
This song is absolutely too much. This song makes me want to high five a velociraptor on a dirtbike while fighting terrorists. Tora Bora, here I come.
But seriously, this is remix is full of WIN. I first heard it on the Light Sound Dance mix by the Aussie outfit the Bang Gang Deejays, and it was one of the tracks that just stuck. There's something about the chiptune-y clicks and blips juxtaposed to the crunchy bass that makes a perfect bed for the vocals to shine through. The vocals themselves are provided by Simon Lord, the singer for a certain british band named Simian. If this sounds at all familiar to you, it might be because the members of Simian Mobile Disco both came from Simian, and Justice's hit "We Are Your Friends" was remixed from a song originally recorded by Simian. Again, full of WIN.
However, be a little careful when choosing which version to listen to. There are two versions by Boy 8 Bit, the Dub and the Mix. The main difference between these two is that the Mix has vocals while the Dub is just the beat. They're both good, but I find that the vocals add so much more to the song that the Dub version just feels like it is missing something big. Also, the original is also quite good, and you can find that at their myspace.
A-Team - Get Money
Slow money is fo' sho' money
Fast money, that "won't last" money
Yelle - A Cause des Garcons
Plenty of good remixes for this song, but I like the original quite a lot, so I figured I'd just go ahead and post that. Yelle's other stuff is also pretty fun to listen to, and a bunch of her songs are being remixed by some good electro artists and are getting pretty decent exposure all over the interwebs.
Justice - Phantom Pt. II (Boys Noize Remix)
It's taken a while, but people are starting to remix more and more of Justice's new album other than just D.A.N.C.E., and the results are fantastic. AND YES I KNOW I'M A LITTLE LATE IN SAYING THAT. However, that being said, there are still some D.A.N.C.E. remixes that are pretty good. I know a CERTAIN SOMEONE (cough cough CHRIS cough achoo) will disagree with me, but I think the recent Benny Blanco remix of D.A.N.C.E. featuring Mos Def and Spank Rock is pretty solid. Also check out the Chewy Chocolate Cookies remix of Genesis.
Muscles - Ice Cream
This is a FANTASTIC song. Really there isn't another way to describe it. Muscles has some other good songs as well, including a remix by Riot in Belgium. The singer sounds kinda weird, but that's not a bad thing.
Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor & Shake a Fist
Hot Chip's last album, The Warning, was full of tons of great songs with beautiful melodies, though I didn't really know that a couple of months ago because I was just sticking Over and Over on repeat (coincidence!). However, after missing the back button on my iPod a couple of times, I was exposed to the rest of the ablum, and I was pleasantly surprised. They're releasing a new album soon, and I won't be making the same mistake. I've been giving each of the songs that they leak on the internet a good listen, and they've all been solid songs, including the two above. If anything, give "Shake a Fist" a listen.
Kriss Kross - Jump (Customised by D*L*i*d)
I'm not gonna pretend to be all nostalgic about this track and say "Oh I remember when those dudes just came out, man I am OLD SCHOOL STREET CRED" because I had no idea who these people were before this remix, and plus, I was three at the time these guys came out. However, none of that stops me from liking this track, because it is a solid, crunchy bass banger. Also apparently these guys are planning a comeback. We'll see how that goes. Personally I don't see too much comeback potential in a rap group remembered for being a couple of teenagers who wore their clothes backwards (thank you Wikipedia).
Well anyway
I think that's about it for now. I don't want to be making this post TOO huge. Maybe I'll have another big ol' music post later one. You know, if I have the time. HO HO that was a joke because pretty much ALL I HAVE IS TIME HERE. ALL I HAVE IS TIME.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
They do Christmas wrong here
Yesterday was Chinzei's Hallelujah Chorus concert. They had practiced it every day after classes at school for the past three days, and even though I wasn't going to participate in the singing of it, I had to stand with the rest of the students for an hour each time as they practiced. The concert itself was pretty nice though. They held it at some big concert hall instead of the school so that others could that others from the city could come and watch, and so that other acts could participate. The stage had a big drop-down mural/curtain that depicted various scenes of Isahaya, including the Buddhas carved into stone I had written about this summer, and the bridge that they have on every storm drain throughout the city. I'll try to get a picture of the actual bridge itself sometime soon.
I was a bit tired when we got to the concert hall, and I tried my very best to stay awake, but after the first performance by a bunch of kindergarten-aged children, I passed out. I managed to wake up during the next performance, but it was just a bunch of middle-aged women singing Christmas stuff, so I fell asleep again. A Jazz big band performed after them, and managed to hold my interest enough so that I wouldn't fall asleep. However, they didn't really play stuff that was all too interesting. It was all stuff like Sing Sing Sing and In the Mood and other stuff I haven't really heard since middle school.
The Hallelujah Chorus wasn't really all to much to talk about, seeing as they forced all the students in the school to participate, so on average, not a whole lot of effort was put in. The school's band, however, was fantastic. I don't know if I've written about them before, but they're seriously good. Whenever they play anything, it is flawless, and I'm pretty sure it's because of the fact that the Japanese are ridiculously well-behaved when it comes to stuff like practice. For the sports teams they don't even have a coach there most of the time; In the entire time I have been here, the Kendo coach has been to practice probably less than twenty times, yet each practice the kids go through the whole routine and actually work on stuff on their own. I'm sure the band is no different.
Today I didn't really do all too much. Woke up, ate some cereal, looked around on the internet, had lunch. After lunch my host parents took me to see their new house. I think they've lived there before staying here (they refer to this home as their "temporary home") and they've just rebuilt the house on the same property. We tried getting in, but my host mom couldn't find the key she had hidden before.
When we came back the house we're currently staying at, we drove around a bit and they showed me some stuff that's near to the house that I never really knew about before. They showed me a tree that's apparently 600 years old, and is actually not a single tree, but two trees that have grown together and are now intertwined or something. It had a bunch of supports and metal bands holding it together, which looked a bit odd. I'll try to get some pictures of it sometime, if I get the chance.
Also nearby is a jail, but we couldn't really see much of that except the fence. Also they had an apartment building literally next door to the complex, which I thought was a little weird, but then again it is Japan and they probably figure "It's jail! No way they're gonna break out, that's why it's a jail!" or some other strange logic.
I would like to point out that this was the first super-short weekend I've had in quite a while now seeing as all my other would-be short weekend were elongated either by Rotary events or special circumstances, and I must say that I hate them. One day is not long enough to make up for a whole week of school. I am making a promise to myself right now that after I get back, I am never giving up a weekend day to do work- or school-related EVER. And if I absolutely can't avoid it, I will take the following Monday off. One day is totally not enough.
Also there is a new poll
ROCK THE VOTE on pancakes
Monday, December 3, 2007
At least you have your health
I hate it whenever something bad happens, or when you get disappointed about something and someone says, "Well at least you have your health." I'm always all, "Yeah health is nice and all, but I still really want that pony/wish I didn't have to deal with all this junk." However, this usually changes whenever I get really sick. Like Sunday. Whenever that happens I'm always groaning, "Oh noooo, my health, where did you goooooo?"
But before I start talking about being sick and all, Let me tell you about my weekend before this grossness all started. Because, really, if it weren't for getting sick, it would have been a pretty alright weekend.
It started off with me heading off to Nagasaki to meet up with Alex, one of the other rotary exchange students. We both had school off because our schools both had testing going on which we don't really need to care about at all seeing as we are exchange students who don't understand a word of what the teachers are saying. I met him at the Nagasaki train station, and we went to an Indian restaurant nearby that I had heard of from a friend. I was pretty excited to have some Indian food because it had been months since I'd eaten any. The food itself was pretty tasty, but afterwards it felt a little like a brick in my stomach. At first I thought that this was just because it was a relatively big lunch to what I normally eat, but now I believe it to be the culprit for my illness.
Also, while we were at the station waiting for a table to open up at the restaurant, I found a Half Life 2 arcade machine and tried it out a bit. It was pretty fun. That's pretty much it about that.
After lunch, we were faced with deciding what to do. When faced with an entire city to explore, usually I would be up for anything and ready to spring to action. However, when the entire city speaks a language that I only have a small understanding of, and I've got a stomach full of toxic cement, I act a little differently. Plus we had plans to work around; apparently there was a Christmas party that Alex was invited to, so I was going as well. So we just decided to wander around the shopping streets in the area.
We found a couple of stores that were interesting, mostly shoe stores and the whole streetwear themed thing. In front of one of the stores was a bargain bin of sorts, and they had some of the worst clothing ideas I have ever seen. Most of them had these weird button-on sections that were meant to fool other people into thinking you were wearing more layers than you truly were. Like there would be a hoodie with a button-down shirt on the inside, only it wasn't truly a button-down shirt, just a collar and button section from a shirt, secured to the hoodie by more buttons. They even had fake cuffs buttoned into the sleeves.
After a while we went back to Alex's host house, which is absolutely ridiculous. First of all, it is located in an area called "Temple Town," which is pretty much just made up of a ton of Buddhist temples, so while walking around, you can see a ton of really nice looking temples. And then to top it off, he actually lives in one of them. His host family looks after the temple or something, so their house is built right onto the side of the temple. It's a pretty nice house, and the temple itself looks awesome too. However, it's not exactly what you would expect from a Buddhist temple. The Japanese don't really "do" religion the same way everyone else does, even if it's the exact same religion. So instead of having a humble temple to go and meditate at, their temple is totally decked out in gold. And instead of the monks being celibate, vegetarian, and living a spartan lifestyle, Alex's host dad is married, eats everything and pulls out two separate two-litre bottles of sake to sip on each night at dinner.
Anyway, we hung out at the temple for a little while and headed out to meet up with the Rotarian who would be taking us to the party. We were waiting for him at the station when we noticed some girls walking by in high-heels, and we got talking about how even though almost every girl in Japan wears high-heels, none of them know how to walk in them, or have this weird bow-legged thing going on that makes it just look odd. Then we starting doing impressions of the walk, the girls see us, start copying us and right as we look the weirdest, the Rotarian shows up all "Oh hey guys here are presents." (Alex got a fleece. I got a weird t-shirt)
At the party we met quite a few people who could speak some English, because it turned out to be put on by a local English school. There were some Americans there, and one really tall guy, Mark from Perth. When I say really tall, I mean really tall. He was slouching a bit, but he was still a bunch taller than I was. The party was fun enough. We talked to a bunch of people, mostly about the same stuff I always talk about here (Where I'm from, born. What am I doing here. Can I speak Japanese. How long will I be here...Also if we are eating someone will undoubtably comment on my skill with chopsticks). At the end of the party, there was a raffle and some lady won an all-expense-paid trip to Osaka. Mark from Perth was all "Man if I win this I'm slipping the ticket to you guys" which was nice but the lady next to him ended up winning instead. She was really apologetic about it though, which I found pretty funny. In the US whenever anyone wins anything they're all YEAAAAAHHHH GIMMME THAT I WON I WON I WON (maybe this is just me) but instead here they're all "oh man I'm really sorry I won and took away the chance for others to win this fabulous prize."
When the party was over, the others headed off to a Karaoke bar, but we opted out because I was feeling pretty awful by that time, and also because I kind of hate Karaoke. I've never really been one for singing things unless it is really loud, obnoxious and includes guitar solos (Guns 'n Roses - Welcome to the Jungle).
That was pretty much the end of good times fun times. The next morning I woke up with a headache and stomachache. Later on I found out that I also had a fever going on. No idea what it was when I woke up, but by the time I got home it was already around 38.5 C (101 F). I had some breakfast with Alex, and explained to him that I felt absolutely awful, so we would have to wait until a later time to do stuff. I had actually thought about going out that day when I woke up, but looking back it's a really damn good thing I decided not to. Instead we just hung around the house again for a bit, and then I had to bounce to catch the train home.
I planned on getting a 1:59 train back (dumbest time, just make it 2) so I left with enough time to quickly buy a ticket and walk on board casually. However, when I got off the streetcar, the clock read 1:55 so I hurried over to the ticket machine and put the only bill I had left in my wallet, a \5000 bill (apparently the "\" just shows up as a slash on western computers, but it's the yen symbol over here. Just uh, just pretend it is a yen symbol for me), and chose the first button I saw with the kanji for Isahaya City on it. However, I should have taken more time to examine my choices because after I noticed that the machine was taking longer than normal, I looked up a little above the button I pushed and there was a little sign that said "6回" which means "6 times". Before it really hit me how big of a mistake I made, a thick stack of tickets popped out of the machine, along with my change. The normal ticket costs about \450, so this mistake left me with around \2500 instead of the \4550 I was expecting, and I wasn't pleased. However, at this point I was already afraid the train was about to leave and the next one was an hour later, so I had to decide whether to accept that I was an idiot and keep the extra five tickets and hopefully use them one day in the future, or somehow try to return them. I decided to see what I could do with my limited Japanese in the help booth, so I ran inside and just blurted out "Excuse me. Mistake. I have six, I only want one. I don't understand kanji," which I guess was enough for the person to understand that I was just a confused foreigner, so she tallied up what the tickets were worth and handed me back the change, and I booked for the platform.
However, that wasn't even the end of it all. The train I had thought was the one heading to Isahaya turned out to be a completely different train, and so when I ran up to one of the conductors and asked him where it was heading, he responded, slowly, that this train was different, and pointed me in the direction of another train, further down the platform. I didn't really wait for him to finish whatever he was saying (not like I would have understood it anyway) and started running to the other train, and to my relief it was marked "Isahaya." What a relief.
Now this should have been the end of all the terrible stuff I had to go through while sick, but when I got to Isahaya, I noticed that my cell phone had run out of battery, and I didn't have my current host family's number written down. I had a bunch of other numbers that I tried with a pay phone but absolutely nobody picked up. My only choice to get back home was to walk. It was four kilometers and it was a big bummer. I did, however, see an Impala on the way back which was pretty cool, but not really cool enough to make up for what was going on.
When I finally did get back, my host mom took my temperature and oh noes I had a fever so she told me to rest in my bed. She also put an ice-pack type thing on my forehead which I guess is sort of like when people put towels on their head when they have a fever, only this one was disposable and smelled like a mix between Takoyaki (balls of fried octopus), windex and rubbing alcohol. Pretty much the next two days after that have just been staying at home and recovering. Now I'm doing much better and I've started going back to school again.