Tokyo Mon Amour

updeezy

2007-05-01T16:01:00.000+09:00

So remember that job I had an interview for? well the interview was like 10 minutes long and then they gave me the job. So far I've only worked a few times, i def want more hours, but its the easiest damn job i've ever had besides that one that Max's mom gave me - shout out mari maeda! anyway, i basically sit and drink tea for three hours and host a conversation with japanese people about whatever the fuck in english so that they can get some practice. sometimes i do the beginners table, which can be hard and not go beyond what kind of food they like and shit, and then there are the advanced people who are really amazing at english and we talk about everything from lifestyles to politics to the lack of mexican food in tokyo. theres a two real cuties who work there too ;) the job is also only two stops from my school so it aint too far on weekdays. one guy I hosted a chat with one day is a medical engineer and is running a team of people who create artificial bones using a three dimensional printer...like...a computer paper printer (he said this) but in three dimensions and with like crystal material. that is insane! another girl i met is a huge fan of american pro-wrestling and is going on a trip to New Jersey of all places to see a big WWE match...go figure. this old dude, in his 60s and rocking a nice tupee, told the story of how his mother has dementia and he started learning english 4 years ago to keep his brain working and also took up the piano so he wouldnt go senile, kinda sad but endearing. i really like the people i meet there and i wish i could hang out with them, no matter what age, but always at the end of every session they just go "oh time for me to go, bye!" oh well. that old guy also got two steel heart valves to replace his real ones when he had a heartache so i told him that makes him half man - half machine, and he just laughed at me with a puzzled look it was great.

I wish i had pictures to post for ya'll...maybe they'll work maybe they wont.. we'll see pray my laptop starts to fuction like it should

updates and updates and updates and updates and updates and...

2007-05-01T15:44:00.000+09:00

So yes. the blog has gotten stale and I apologize. 1 reason for this is the fact that my laptop has been acting like a lil skank ass ho and having trouble with all the pictures i've been puttin on it. so let us begin the recap starting with what...two weeks ago? yeesh..

So last last friday I had a drinking party with one of the circles i joined, B-Pro, the film making circle. it was dope, i met a few new kids and talked to some ones i already knew as i got drunk and drunk and...so forth. japanese kids are real weak with the alcohol ya'll. after a while they all put their drinks down but i kept going surrounding by a wall of empty beer bottles. i don't really get why they stopped but whatever, red faces galour. then i had to high-tail it out of there to make it to another drinking party with my dj circle friends. when i got there they were already to' up and so i downed a few more beers and told them that the dj krush/a guy called gerald/fumiya tanaka show was going on at club womb that night. surprised and excited, a few of them accompanied me to the show and it was fucking awesome. i really like club womb and it's atmosphere. surprisingly, lots of kids were dancing their asses off just as i was. the show began kinda slow as there were three graffiti artists, famous ones, from the UK, Germany and Spain, spray paintin up big pictures while the first couple djs spun. Then came the king himself, DJ Krush to blast heads and meld minds. followed by a guy called gerald, who i've heard of but never saw before, and he was really kick ass. then fumiya tanaka, real famous japanese progressive house dj. he killed that shit too. i was dancing my ass off to his shit cuz he was rocking a massive ear blasting pulse beat under his music. towards the end i met some british chick and we were making out on the dance floor and she kept making sure i was 20 or something for some reason? i dunno, she was drunk and i was probably drunker. we eventually left the club together and she was trying get me to go to her spot but i wasnt havent it so i jus gave her my number and peaced on out.
after going to womb i realize how much i miss/love drugs such as ecstacy when in a club/dance music/rave-y environment. womb has really good lasers/lights and visuals accompanying all their djs and it is pretty much a must have in my opinion. psychedelix where are you!>?!

p.s. right now i'm watching videos from Coachella this year and really wishing i could have gone...

anyway, tokyo kicks ass minus everything being really expensive and i wish i didnt have to leave..who knows maybe i wont ;)

Updizzles

2007-04-11T11:04:00.000+09:00

Last week was a lot of Hanami (flower viewing) which really means drinking and eating under the cherry blossoms trees. Here are two pix I snapped at the film makers club's Hanami party. The dude with blonde-ish hair, his name is uh...shit I forget...oh wait its Shohei - but I call him Matthew after the Japanese comedian Fujii Takashi's character Matthew from Matthew's Best Hit TV which you can see in the movie Lost in Translation. ANYWAY it was fun, but cold, free booze and food is fine wit me! All the Japanese kids remember I like beer, so everytime I would show up they'd be like "GET HIM BEER!" an hand me a beer right away, it was sweet.

This Friday I got two circle parties to go to. Word, I'm mad famous in these parts ya'll. From 530-730 I gotta hit up the film makers club's drinking party, then 730-9(930) its the DJ circle. The DJ circle kids said I had to come cuz I'm popular wit em. What can I say? From American to Japan I'm the DJ, man! Then at 10-1030 is DJ Krush and some other folks at Womb nightclub in Shibuya, that is a must to go to. Oh yeh, all these parties? FREE haha FREE DRINKING I LOVE IT - helps wit the cost of last weekend, $60, for few hours of drinks and some munchies.

This sunday I gots me a job interview for some part-time work at an Eikaiwa Kissaten (English Conversation Cafe) thanks to Julia Schumann, SHOUT TO HER, for hookin it up. I hope I land this job so I can have more money to buy more things (clothes, clubs pretty much). I also been researchin some new spots to hit up and I found some interesting shits. Theres a bar called The Cavern in Roppongi that has a Beatles cover band and all Beatles themed. Then there's Bessie Hall that has a bunch of awesome shows coming up, MAD3, Polysics, Bloodthirsty Butchers, etc, that I wanna check out. Hopefully see MAD3 with Stefan when he comes, in a week or so, hollah!

The other Friday I went to this huge 6 story tall Arcade/Game center with my brother and his gf and her friends from the US. It's called Round 1. It has everything, seriously, everything. And with my student discount it was only $13 for three hours of all free games. Here it is:

They also had these awesome mini-bikes that you could ride around in and do a little race. So, we had to hop onto these and see what it was like. It was mad hard for me and my bro being tall but it was really fun. He beat me...these pix are of Lindsay and her friends racing

Last night I smoked fake weed. It looks like weed, as you can see, but tastes/smells different and doesn't make you high. Man I thought this was gonna be funny but it just made me more depressed...I WISH I HAD REAL WEED

On monday there was a big banquet for all the exchange students. They really hooked it up with the food. There was even a cheese platter - very rare. I hung around the cheese platter like a fly, foreal, I can't resist some fine cheeses - goat, brie, you name it. I also got to serve the President of the University some coca-cola. Thats the Issamu slick style. Sophia's cafeteria is dank too, real good food served up for real cheap - suck on that America. Anyway, I chatted it up with this girl Yukako for a while, who says shes going to take me to a maid-cafe (in which all the waitresses are dressed in those french maid outfits) and also to Tokyo Disneyworld. I kept telling her that Disneyworld was lame since I'm not a kid anymore but she insisted. So long as there are hot girls there, I guess I'm down? Whatevz. That day I spoke Japanese for like an hour straight that was difficult but fun. Classes start tomorrow, we'll see how that goes.

Updatin

2007-04-05T23:13:00.000+09:00

Alrite it's time to update. So this week marked the beginning of school and school related activities. Classes don't actually start until next Thursday but you know. Tuesday was the Orientation for all exchange students. There were a lot more than I thought there was going to be and quite a few from places other than the States, France, Germany, Korea, China, Taiwan for examples. Our first presenter I guess you would call it, was the Dean of Faculty of Liberal Arts, the school we all take part in, and the first thing out of his mouth was warning us not to get involved with drugs here. Wtf?? haha, he straight up said "every semester I visit an exchange student in jail for drugs", totally fuckin flippin me out because the entire week prior I've been thinking about and/or devising a way to get my hands on some weed. That sufficiently killed my buzz. We were also advised to avoid any cults that might try to get us to join them...haha I didn't get it either.

Next there was a Japanese counselor from the Student Counseling Center basically telling us to come by if we feel lonely or under go culture shock. This was probably directed at all the exchange students who had in fact arrived only the day before. A lot of them seemed chummy chummy to me because they either knew each other previously, connected over the interwebz (facebook and myspace) or they all live in the same dorm, I dunno, I've been here for four weeks and live in a house. Anyway, this counselor went on to say "and if you find yourself hating Japanese people, please come by to see us" haha foreal. The fact that she said it so matter of factly as if hating Japanese people came easily to us foreigners or that it is bound to happen made me laugh out loud. The rest of the orientation went by without much else to report, except that I finally was able to get my commuter pass and save money on these godforsaken subway fares.

On another note, I saw many a fine looking hapa girls in this exchange student group...and I certainly do like me some wasians ;) -- met a 1/4 Japanese girl from Hawaii - woowee. nuff said right? There were also plenty of white people in the bunch who looked as though they were trying really hard to rock Japanese style, from the pointy toed boots to the fancy haircuts. Real weird.

Tuesday I had my Japanese placement test which fucking sucked. I had been cramming like whoa, when I should have been studying since fucking January...but thems the breaks. The first section was mad easy. And then the second section was mad hard. There was no middle ground, it went from super easy to super hard, it was real wack. Tomorrow we find out the results, six years I've been studying Japanese and I probably still suck a lot.

Aside from exchange students swarming the spot, the new Freshman (ichinensei) for Sophia have also begun to arrive and thus begins the activities fair type deal thats been going on. Basically all the clubs and "circles", which are just more informal clubs, gather in the main area and harass you to join them. Out of 12 flyers I was handed, among them The Walking Society, Catholic Student Association, and various martial arts groups, I took interest in only four: DJ Circle, Film Makers (B-Pro) Circle, Brasilian Music club, and one other I can't remember. There's also this awesome "Folk Rock" club, that doesn't play folk music at all and I can't understand why that's their name, but they gave a performance of just straight up jamming out like Sonic Youth, Animal Collective style that was really sweet. They are pictured below. At the end all the guitar players and bass players decided to jump into all the drum sets, I dunno why, it was kinda cool? Anyway, that club seemed awesome and I figured the kids would know where all the dope shows are but its fuckin $60 to join and $10 for every month after that....prolly not gonna happen...

These are the Sophia University cheerleaders, they look, talk and act like American cheerleading squads. They are called, and no joke, The Lollipopperz.

More harassment, More placards

Some band ensemble giving a performance. I was told they were doing a theme song to the anime Evangelion, but seeing as I don't like anime, I wouldn't really know.

Finally we get to the most important of all the clubs/circles. The DJ circle. I fucking love this shit. Today I got to DJ for the first time in a long time. I didn't have any of my stuff with me but I hooked up my mp3 player to the line input and messed with some of the other kids records and ipods. It felt sooooooo good. These kids are real passionate about it to. The club has their own set of Technic 1200s and mixer/speakers/amp and they said I can hop on those anytime I want. Now I just need to get my laptop fixed foreal and I can show them motherfuckers how its done. In circles and clubs there is always a Leader and people who are older than you, by age or class year, you gotta treat with respect and all, but I can def see me rollin up there an highjackin this circle and turning it into my own vision. I asked them if they ever throw parties an they were like "ohhh no no not yet" and right away I knew, I knew that this group was gonna have to help me organize and throw some dank ass fuckin parties. They kept asking me what kind of music I like, and I said everything, always, and this one dude was like "Hm yes, do you like electronic beats?" to which I replied, "Hell Yes son, i love electronic beats!" Pictured below was this darling girl, whos name escapes me, but she likes to spin hip hop and RnB (the other dudes perfer house/electro) and she kept laying down Sean Paul right into like Naughty By Nature and shit. I was straight buggin out. This Japanese girl, yes although she wasn't that technically skilled, but still, tossing these tracks around, something I've never seen. It was awesome to see and got me totally re-energized. Why don't more American girls try to DJ? whatsup with that?

I also joined the film makers circle, not because I want to make films (although I do want to do that at some point) but because the girls were really hot and this one really hot girl kept getting close to me and asking me questions and being enthusiastic, touching my elbow and such. Naturally, I confused that for her hitting on me and signed up immediately. Today I went to Hanami, or flower viewing, next to the schools cherryblossoms with these kids. It was free food and booze and a chance to talk to some non-english speakers. Met some ill folks. Met some weed smokers, but they told me its too expensive here and that I could find it for cheaper in Osaka...drag. I befriended this dude Masashi Ishikawa who used to live in Cali and his english is spot on. He also went to high school in Bangkok and knows Chris Ro's gf. Small fucking world. These kids seem rad and invited me to a party they're having next friday at an all you can drink spot. I couldn't resist. Anyway thats all for now - over and out -

THE GREATEST FUCKING NIGHT OF MY LIFE

2007-04-01T22:40:00.000+09:00

Plain and simple, Friday night was the greatest single night of my life. Probably better than being born but, I guess if I wasn't born I couldn't have done what I did on Friday but whatever, greatest night since birth.

Let's start from the beginning.
First, I met up with this dude Dave, from Boston College, who is a fellow exchange student going to Sophia University. We got some foods to eat and some beers to drink then headed to the Liquid Room in Ebisu where GUITAR WOLF was playing that night. Having been a huge fan of theirs for the last 5 years or so, I was stoked as all hell. They played in Baltimore maybe 3 years ago but I was at William&Mary and was like "oh its far away I'll see them another time". But then, tragically, Bass "Billy" Wolf died of exhaustion - too much rock, the only honorable way to die in my opinion. So I was stricken with grief, not sure whether or not they were going to continue on as Guitar Wolf, in his memory. As luck would have it, they got a new bass player, some 22 year old punk ass, and they continued on. When I found out I was coming to Tokyo I pledged to track them down and watch a show and thats what I fucking did. The pictures and stories below are what transpired on that magical evening.

As expected, the Liquid Room was full of leather-clad Japanese youth and some older generations out for a good night of pure, unadulterated Rock and Roll, just like this little guy-->
Not only is he wearing badass shades, holding a toy gun but he's also flicking off the camera. I love his style:

The crowd anticipates the arrival of Japanese #1 Jet Rock n Roll group:

What? Do my FUCKING EYES DECEIVE ME? NO, its a fucking mirage a goddamn dream, it can't be true...GUITAR WOLF?

The BADASSNESS of it all permeated the fucking venue. The crowd, myself included, went nuts. Let it be known that Guitar Wolf and Drum Wolf, are each one quarter wolf. Their grandmothers were wolves, hence their insatiable appetite for rock and beer. The new Bass Wolf however, is just a mortal. Seiji, the lead singer/guitar player, began the evening's concert in his traditional style of drinking a can of beer in one gulp and then crushing it right before striking the first chord to end all chords.

Then, maybe a third way into the set, a fleet of Trannies, Transvestites and people in really weird costumes (one of which I'm pretty sure was a villain from the Power Rangers) emerged onto the stage to assist Seiji in a little choreographed rock number. This was only a handful of scenarios throughout the night that proved that they truly are the world's greatest rock and roll band.

They also did their signature move of pulling one audience member up onto the stage to play the guitar while Seiji jumped around screaming into his mic. Probably one of the best moments was when Seiji started bleeding from the face, god knows who that happened, but he wasn't detered. He kept rocking, mixing sweat, blood, and soul into one fierce display of rock and roll prowess. He also sang into a mic stand with no mic without realizing it haha. His glasses were so fogged up he probably couldn't see anything let alone care. Perhaps one of the main highlights was when Seiji pulled about 10 people up onto stage to form a human pyramid. This took a while and was hilarious to see but when it was finished he mounted this human pyramid and from atop this peak of sweaty, teenage bodies, he continued to rock his heart out to the fullest. Truly a god among men:

According to Guitar Wolf, the three main tenets of Rock n Roll are 1) Style 2) Energy and 3) Talent, in that order. I probably couldn't agree more. In fact it put a big fucking smile on my face when I saw Drum Wolf combing his hair whilst drumming at the same time. How much more badass can you get? How is it that these guys so easily embody this Rock n Roll dogma and spirit and bring that forth all the fucking time in everything that they do? Its beyond comprehension.

All in all Guitar Wolf performed FOUR fucking FOUR encores. That's a record for any show I've ever been to. Four encores? It was glorious. The final being a solo effort by Seiji singing their only ballad, "I Love You, Ok".

I got a hand it to these Japanese rocker kids. I wasn't expecting them to bring the energy and motherfuckn ruckus, but they definitely did. My voice was gone, my body was sore and I had fucking rug burns on my arms from all the leather jackets rubbing up against me. Pain never felt so good. I'm forever grateful to Guitar Wolf and their fans for showing me a good time and what Rock n Roll really is. None of that Strokes, Jet, Velvet Revolver, Nickelback bullshit that poses as rock. I'm talking real fuckin rock n roll, Link Wrays, New York Dolls, The Stooges fuckin rock n roll.

After the show, Dave, Myself and this guy we met from Vancouver, Kevin, were chilling in the lobby with most of the other concert goers trying to regain our ability to hear as we recovered. It was only 11 by then, since concerts start fairly early in Japan, and we were lookin for some more ruckus party action to get into. I struck up a conversation with this dude, Yo, who happened to be long time friends of Guitar Wolf.

I told him that we had come from America for this show and he was impressed with that bit of information. Then, much to our pleasure, he invited us to the After Party. I couldn't turn that shit down. Even the mere thought of meeting Guitar Wolf made me go bananas in the head. The After Party was in a cafe area of the Liquid Room and was all you can eat/drink for $30. We go in an get our drink on and partake in some of the food they had out. Next, my life changed forever. For, none other than Guitar Wolf was walking amongst us. At first, I was literally speechless. They walked right in front of me an I was dumbfounded. Fuckin dumbfounded. It was like seeing Jesus drinking beer at a party or something. Finally mustered up the courage to say something and introduced ourselves to Drum Wolf with my shitty Japanese skills. Told him again, how we were from America and big fans and he was like "oh you should meet Seiji" and called him over. Before Seiji came over though, he jumped behind a booth to get his leather jacket signed by Joan Jett on the back...so badass.

^^ Me, Drum Wolf, and Kevin

^^Kevin, Seiji, Me, and Dave

What followed was pure dream. I always joked with Max and others that when I came to Japan I was gonna track down Guitar Wolf, hang out with them and drink with them. HOLY SHIT. THATS WHAT I FUCKING DID. The room was filled with friends and family of Guitar Wolf and us. Straight chillin, knockin back gin and tonics and meeting all the cool fucking people there. I had a half hour conversation with Seiji's sister-in-law and I also met his wife! (pictured below)

They were surprised to find out that Dave and I were 21 and 20, respectively. We talked about how they are bigger in the West (America and Europe and parts of South America) than they are in their homeland of Japan. I also found out that Seiji is 42 and Drum wolf is 38 but that, according to Seiji's sister-in-law, they have the bodies of 20 year olds. Apparently they don't even live in Tokyo but in the countryside of Japan and go running every day to maintain their health so that they can rock as hard as they do and drink even harder! Wish I could remember her name but I was well on my way to being really drunk and usually Japanese names don't stick with me.

Here is Drum Wolf's passed out girlfriend haha:

And the prickish new Bass player:

While sitting down talking to two people who worked for Sony, I was handed a piece of paper with some writing in Japanese and a map to another restaurant. This would be the After AFTER party. Another all you can eat/drink spot where we would stay until 5 am!
Fretting about not having enough money left, Yo said he would treat Dave and I, because we were in his country as he put it. Then he passed out haha. I mean, the dude is in his 40s and was talking bout his kid and shit and it was late...we had also been drinking nonstop. I'm really glad I didn't blackout that night.
Here are some pictures from the After AFTER party:

my new Tattooed/Tattoo-er friend

Some Rock n Roll Youth

the spot where we stayed drinking until the wee hours, me, Dave, Kevin and this cute chick Mari who thankfully spoke english really well

Yo passed out and maxed out

haha this guy looks like he's been around the rock block and back about a thousand times

and lastly, this crazy ass English rocker dude who is friends with everyone from Guitar Wolf to the Stooges. He also brought his four-year old daughter to the show haha, he was awesome.

And thus, an amazing fucking night came to an end. I had no money left and was close to passing out in gutter so I hoped all the turnstyles on the train lines home, stumbled down the street to my house and passed out at 6 am...my ears rang for the next two days and my body was sore as fuck. But given the chance, I would do it all over again. The end.

Sophia University

2007-04-01T22:32:00.000+09:00

On Friday afternoon I decided to head to my campus to check it out and see how long the commute was. The commute took about 45 minutes, which is fair and about average for most commutes in Tokyo. When I got there I realized that my school, Sophia University (Jouchi Daigaku in Japanese) is quite nice, with a pretty good campus (smaller than UVA's definitely) but dope because all the sakura - cherry blossoms - are in full bloom. Here are some pix of the school and the surrounding area of Yotsuya.

Today was a good day with an Ice Cube flow

2007-03-26T18:58:00.000+09:00

Today was a good day for various reasons. Allow me to expound ya'll--

First, I started the day off gettin up early for a change, early being 10:45 am. Yesterday there was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake on the western coast of Japan near Ishikawa-ken. Shoutouts to Ishikawa for being the birthplace of my grandfather! But anyways, they say there were aftershocks felt over here in Tokyo, on the East coast. But uh, I didn't feel em. In fact, I slept through em. But I digress.

Chelsea and I decided to get some shopping in today at the hip spot down the Seibu-Ikebukuro line, Sunshine City. They have this really lame diagram there that shows Sunshine City in the middle with all this sunshine obviously and then on the eastern side lots of heat and humidity and on the western side lots of cold chills and shit. Whatever, I don't think that is foreal. On the train there I saw a mom with a baby wearing matching outfits. Being real cute, I had to snap a pic:

There is some good shoppings in Sunshine City and the one spot I like to hit up is called "Spot Check" which carries NY and LA fashions but also Shmack shit from VA Beach, holler. They also have all the flyers for the upcoming reggae/dancehall and hip hop shows around Tokyo so, I copped a few of those. Whilst there I picked up an ill hat for $35. A lot for a hat yes, but I really wanted a hat and also check out how fresh it is:

and this awesome shirt at another kiosk thing:

Here's Chelsea, wearing her very necessary face mask, outside the big malls and right after her two hour long haircut which actually turned out really well. Yes, I waited for two hours but I got to read good magazines about clothes, Japanese GQ and one really cool music magazine called Brutus. They also gave me candy and evian just for sitting there. In one magazine they had pictures of American/British actors (read: attractive white men) and then explanations on how to replicate their styles and where to get their clothes. That would explain why Chelsea's hairdresser resembled a Japanese Johnny Depp so much...

Last but not least, two funny store names and one funny t-shirt. The store about dogs literally had a dog or dog-related item on every piece of clothing.

A lot of good shows are coming up. Most notably, Guitar Wolf this friday, in which I hope to die from rock overdose (mixture of drugs, booze, and guitar wolf). Then in April is Cornelius Group which I may or may not skip in order to go see Sonic Youth and the Boredoms, playing together, on the 20th. That show is $65 but worth it I feel. And right before that Digitalism is playing with Takkyu Ishino. And again after that is DJ Krush and a slew of other djs performing with world famous graffitti artists The London Polie and two other graff crews from Spain and Germany, which should be really awesome and I wil try to get my brother to go to.

SRIRACHA

2007-03-24T18:29:00.000+09:00

I finally found some sriracha! that loveable vietnamese (some say thai) red chili sauce that holds a special place in my heart. I had to go to two different grocery stores before finding it. And it was $4 for a tiny tiny fuckin bottle...oh well, I gotta get something besides soy sauce to flavor muh dishes...

UNDFTD and...

2007-03-24T13:25:00.000+09:00

Last night I trekked over to Harajuku for the opening of the UNDFTD store. UNDFTD is an American-based (LA, NYC) clothing label and shoe store. There were mad people there in the small little shop and tons of free booze (i chose the champagne cuz how often do i get to drink free champagne?) as well as an awesome DJ/store manager - Yoji Tsukada. Everyone there was dressed really doe boy fresh in the illest streetwear. I def felt uncool, which is rare. The store specializes in nikes, pumas, vans, and new balances. All the fly shoes were $200 and up.

Then after that I headed to Shibuya again to meet up with Chelsea and her posse to go to another all you can drink/eat spot. It was a lil pricey I thought at $36 (which is like a weeks worth of groceries for me) but I guess it makes sense in Tokyo - that and we all thought we were paying just $20 until the bill came haha, but that's because our Japanese (read: Chelsea's Japanese haha just kidding Chelsea...) was bad. Anyway it was like this better version of fondue. In the center of the table was hot oil and dishes for batter and crumbs to dip and cover a variety of foods in. They had all sorts of meet, veggies, and even tater tots! that was the best part, yall know how I love my fried potatos. They also had rice, noodles, soups and awesome desserts. Over all I drank a lot and ate a lot so that was awesome.

They should bring this shit to the states because those fondue restaurants are way overrated and your selection of delicious items to dip is way limited.

Friday night on the subway is always an awesome time for people watching. Especially when you're a little drunk because shit is just that much funnier. You can always see really drunk businessmen, groups of women in their thirties, and just young kids. I saw two mid-age chicks trying to help their drunk ass friend stand up but she was not having it haha. The Japanese love to drink!

That dude was so drunk standin up he was jus leanin from one side to the other back and forth haha I had to get a pic of him. And check out this guys awesome knit sweater......

The other day I called Katsu, my housemate, a retard in Japanese, thinkin it ain't no thing because I call my friends and myself, retarded all the time. But apparently it's a really offensive thing to say in Japan and he didn't take to it very well haha. Mentally handicapped people and the physically disabled are pretty much treated as though they are less than human, defective people in Japanese society and are shunned. My brother's girlfriend has a student who has mild Autism, but the Japanese don't recognize mental disorders like that, they just think you're not right, so as nice and cool as this guy is, its really hard for him to get a job. So to call Katsu a retard like that, you can see why he reacted the way he did. But at the same time, thats just another example of how Japanese people can be real assholes towards people who are not a part of their homogenous status. Very close-minded and cold sometimes...

Over and out--

Dinner With the Maeda's

2007-03-22T00:00:00.000+09:00

Tonight I had dinner with Smaxwell's grandparents, the Maedas (shoutout to the Max-$-Amillion). It was great because this ol' couple are so hilarious and dope. They've only been married a few years, they met on an old peoples vacation trip, both were widowed and they decided to get hitched and they're an awesome pair. Yoriko, on the right, is probably the coolest old person I've ever met haha. She's a concert pianist turned piano instructor, and she is a hoot. Mr. Maeda has been taking haiku classes and showed me some of them and also went into great deal about his history working for the Mitsui company. He's also been taking cooking classes so they prepared a nice salad and some delicious shrimp curry. Mr. Maeda bought me some beer because he remembered I liked it but Yoriko said he shouldn't be drinking beer but he was like "oh I like beer this is a new brand (Yebisu Gold) and I want to try it." So we shared some brews and just chatted about their recent travels and where they want to go. Yoriko always acts really excited and interested in everything but at the same time like she's not paying attention at all haha it's such a weird dynamic but I love it. Max's grandpa also has the coolest way of speaking English, real wise like and says "mm yes, I sink so" a lot, which kills me. He had pictures of him dressed up as Santa Claus for last christmas ahaha - classic. Maxwell is def lucky to have such an dope Ojichan!

I spent most of the day time having impromptu English lessons with Katsu, which always turn out ridiculous. He recently learned "Go fuck yourself" and likes to say it a lot. So we basically go back and forth teaching each other how to say something in both English and Japanese. I like to watch him try to say "squirrel" and "ridiculous" because it's pretty much impossible for a Japanese person. Whenever he fucks up he makes an X sign with his arms and goes "I'm too wacky" haha. Yesterday when we went to get a phone I told him that I was a "slick talker" and thats how I got the phone and now he likes to walk around with his sunglasses on an go "I'm so srick". But its true, dudes got style. Being a designer, he wears perfect matching outfits all the time. He has multiple pairs of sunglasses to make sure that the color compliments whatever he's wearing. He's tryina get a job at a major design firm here and I hope he gets it cuz dude's got some skills.

I've also noticed that Japan, Tokyo rather, has a lot of hot young moms. I always see hot chix on the subway and then look down and see their toddler in a stroller. Its awesome. I wonder if they're lonely housewives =)...

Ride back from Maeda's place:

New Trax

2007-03-21T11:03:00.000+09:00

Martin Bros. & Clipse - Stoopit/Wamp Wamp (Red Foxx Chopped n FX edit)

KIM - Wet n Wild (Riot in Belgium Mix)

ILL remix of prodigy track:

Prodigy - Girls (Gehts Noch Edit)

Toire means Toilet

2007-03-20T22:35:00.000+09:00

Okay, the toilets here are the fucking ish ya'll. This might be weird to talk about but I gotta. The seats are ALWAYS heated. You can lower and raise the seat WITHOUT even touching it, just hit a button. It has various types of bedets built into it, hidden under the seat, that spray warm water on yer junx to get that shit sparkling clean in all sorts of formations. It even has a fan built into the bowl to clear that stankness. It's also got a sink on the back of it built in. Shit don't get much hotter than that. WHY do we not have these in states?? must we continue to suffer in the winter time with the cold seats?? the FUTURE is the ANSWER

Aoyama & Omotesando

2007-03-20T22:14:00.000+09:00

Adjacent to Harajuku is Aoyama/Omotesando hills. Strangely enough this area is fancy shmancy like whoa even though its right next to the weird world of Harajuku. In Omotesando it isn't uncommon to see doormen with top hats, Bentley's galour and Benz's even more! I was really sweatin those Bentleys though. Just seeing something that pricey makes muh eyes bug out O_O. So Katsu and I walked around, took pix of the cool architecture in the area and the dope, high end shops. Here they are:

Next to the Louis Vuitton store was a Church? wtf?

The Japanese like to abbreviate words, especially Western words, for example Brad Pitt is "Burapi". Today I learned Dolce & Gabbana is "Dorugaba", I def wanted to check that store out in the Omotesando Hills shopping mall.

In this area you can also spot a lot of foreigners (read: Europeans). My guess is that they are fashion people and/or just rich because they just chill at all these cafes that are reminiscent of the cafes in Paris with open areas that face towards the street, chatting away all day with their $20 drinks and $30 treats. But this area does have some awesome architecture and art areas...

Haha these kids were having tons of fun running around and posing for pictures. I wanted to get a picture with them but I figured their moms would think I was weird so...I did the un-weird thing and took my own pictures of them..haha uh...

This shit outside the Tokyo Theatre took the cake. It's a poster for a production of Annie but all the cast members are well..Japanese..haha man I dunno why that amuses me so much but it does. Maybe cuz Japanese people aren't redheaded and they hardly adopt, in fact as I understand it that is kinda disgraceful? Maybe I'm wrong but I'd like to see them sing "Hardknock Life" in Japanese --

What it Do Harajuku?

2007-03-20T21:33:00.000+09:00

So, today I finally got a phone, prepaid style, from Soft Bank in Harajuku after going there once yesterday with no luck because of this short mouse looking chick who couldn't speak english and/or spoke Japanese too fast. But today I busted out some slick talk and this dude helped me out. Katsu came with cuz he had to go to Aoyama to pick up a book from the Aoyama Book Center on design. This place, the ABC, has every imaginable fashion/design magazine/book ever. It was tite to see all the different mags from around the world. Anyway, glad I got this phone finally.

Yesterday I hit up Harajuku, the infamous Harajuku, a mainstay district when it comes to Japanese fashion, especially for the youth out there. This is the place where you can find a lotta people dressed like complete weirdos in gothic lil bo-peep, lolita style outfits, and even weirder shit beyond that.
I went with my brother's girlfriend, Lindsay, her friend from work, Jennifer from Montreal, and two people from Switzerland who were on their honeymoon, I'm not too sure how they got mixed into the deal but they were nice so whatever. Here are some pix of the area and what you can find:
My favorite has to be these shoes that I can only describe as "Bernstein Bear" shoes. Check em out and you'll know what I'm talking about (almost $300 too!):

We all decided to get some "purinkura" too to mark the occassion. Those are the little photobooth photos that Japanese girls/couples love to get and fill little mini scrapbooks with. I actually think these are fun and at $2 not too bad. You can draw on em and put little pictures all over and stuff, girly but whatever:

Thats Lindsay on the left and Jennifer flashin a big smile and of course our awesome purinkura.
Outside the Harajuku station were mad girls/school girls waiting for SOMETHING. Lord knows what. It was a retarded amount of girls and I feel like maybe someone famous was about to show up...but I wasn't tryina stick around for that chaos --

In the Laforet department store, which was a little fancy for me (blazers in the $700 range) I finally got a good shot of those three Half Japanese - Half Brasilian lingerie models that I see around. A trio of trouble foreal -

Dipped into Snoopy Town for a minute too

At twilight the area became real nice looking and I almost forgot that I was about to hit rush hour on the subway and get smothered by some not too pleasant salarymen (-_-)

込んでるね！

Before leaving though, Lindsay, Jennifer and I took advantage of spotting another Mexican spot (I'm getting good at this) and we got to eat some non-fish related, non-Japanese cuisine. God, I love me some beans, rice, cheese and sour cream. Throw in a tortilla and I might as well be high as a giraffe's ass in heaven. I've decided that I'mma open up some Chipotle's here in Tokyo. It's an untapped market! There are no burritos! I tried explaining them to my housemates but they've never had one so they got no idea what I'm talking about. They tried to tell me KFC has them, but they were referring to wraps, which is NOT a burrito. So, in order to help the cultural exchange along, I told them I'd find an international market and make em some, its the least I can do to enlighten these poor souls to the glory that is the burrito!

MADDDD UPDATES

2007-03-20T18:31:00.000+09:00

Ok, I been lazy on getting this going and updating but I have maybe 5 days worth of pictures and updates to share with ya'll so get ready for the long haul. Should I start from the present and work back or the other way? Since the pictures go the other way, I'll start with moving in.

So I moved into my new place and its dope. Its a small house I share with two Japanese dudes, Katsuhiro and Ryo and an American guy, Peter. Katsuhiro moved to Tokyo recently from Kagoshima which is way south Japan where the weather is always warm. He's a designer, clothes, logos, stores layouts etc and is looking to get work around here showin his portfolio off. He's 21 now and by 18 he already had his own little shop and "original brand" clothing as he says, in Kagoshima. His brand was called "$ Marine" which I think is supposed to mean Money Marine. Katsu says he has already achieved status in Kagoshima and now wants to dominate Japan from Tokyo and then, the world. I told him that I too want to make clothes later in life and he said that was a positive dream to have. Japanese people speak in really awesome terms especially when they try to speak english. When you can't do something they say "hm maybe it is impossible" and when something is not as I expected they tell me "sorry you have been deceived".

Ryo is a student at Waseda or was a student, I can't remember, he comes from Osaka area. He wants to be a pilot I think and is currently "job hunting" - a phrase he likes to use a lot. His english is good, Katsu's is bad but its funny to hear him speak. They both like to say "cheddar" a lot when referring to money and rub their fingers together in that "i got cash" motion - so instead of saying "okane mochi" meaning, "rich" they say "cheddar mochi". I spent a good half hour telling them about C.R.E.A.M - Wu Tang style. Cash Rules Everything Around Me. They thought that was a very Japanese way of thinking haha. We spend a lot of time talking about Japan vs. America and things that Japanese people like, like their girls. Japanese guys like their girls to be kawaii - cute - and young, girlish pretty much always verging on pedophilic status. Most Japanese chix walk with their toes bent inwards which is supposed to be cute or something but really just looks like they can't walk in heels too well and have high voices that are shrill as fuck sometimes. Ryo spent the last year in Brasil and Colombia and he speaks some Portuguese and Spanish which is cool cuz he knows Brasilian style. He thinks Latin women are the best looking (agreed) and Katsu is partial to Indian women. On Saturday I showed them pictures of my friends and UVA on facebook and as I watched their faces grow with interest, I realized that all their friends are Japanese people but all my friends come from all sorts of backgrounds and it must suck to have friends from just the same background as you. That must explain why they speak about other races as if they are other species - its pretty ridiculous sometimes, but more on that later.

I introduced them to beatboxing and I've pretty much created a monster haha. They like to practice all the knew things I or Peter have taught them. For example, Peter showed them "Baby Got Back" so they like to say that a lot as well as "Smack That Ass" and make the hand slapping motion. Katsu's hair is real curly so I asked him if it was naturally that way and he said "no no perm desu". I laughed outloud at the thought of this young Japanese guy getting his hair permed and told him only old women do that shit. He said he did it to "seem more black" haha, that in and of itself was a ridiculous response.

My Japanese is getting better I can feel it, just from using it everyday with these guys. I learn new words and forget them easily but eventually I'll practice and remember them. They also teach me Osaka-ben which is like the Kansai style of speaking, which is different from Tokyo. Now I just need to start practicing my Kanji for my placement exam coming up in a couple weeks.

Friday night was...insane. I went out with Chelsea and her friends from Temple University in Japan and it was scary/fun haha. First we went to an awesome ramen shop, at a fuck load, then we headed to Shibuya on the train. I drank a bottle of wine really fast on the train - which would later prove to be a terrible idea. On the train we saw a really drunk old salaryman and we were talking about him being wasted and he over heard us an was like "im not drunk!" clearly he was. We laughed at his inability to stand up without swaying and said he should be careful and he was like "I'm going home now" and he stumbled off the train looking lost and old and drunk.

When we got to Shibuya, it was crowded like whoa - it being a friday night and all - there were peopple all over heading to party and drink the night away like we were. Since the trains end at midnight, if you're going to go out, you gotta STAY out till 5 am when the first trains start running again lest you wanna drop mad $$ on a taxi. We all decided to hit up a "nomihodai" bar or "all you can drink" but all we could find was a Karaoke spot that would seat the 13 of us. So Karaoke it was and boy was that shit fuckin fun! After the 5th jug, these weren't pitchers folks but jugs, of beer, we were all to'ed up and singing our hearts out. Chelsea was making out with some guy, this other guy was making out with his girlfriend and I was rippin on the mic to some Mariah Carey shits. Haha one of Chelsea's friends also got a tattoo that day of a carebear on his arm made up to look like Tupac that said "Hug Life" across his stomach. Ridiculous.

Next we uh...oh wait thats right I can't remember because I BLACKED OUT...haha I paid $22 for this nomihodai so I thought "might as well get my fucking money's worth" and drank a shit load of beer on top of that bottle of wine and the next few hours are a complete fuckin blur but luckily I have tons of pictures to "detail" what I did. Apparently after karaoke, I split with Chelsea's group after a while met up with a bunch of random black guys, went to the Gas Panic 99 club in Roppongi (an area that is far from Shibuya but I dunno how I got there), drank some beers there, took mad pictures with these peoples and then BAM the next thing I remember is being shaken awake on some random ass train AN HOUR OUTSIDE of Tokyo in the countryside somewhere. I musta rode to the end of the line and thus I had to pay $40 for a ticket and ride for an hour back into the city. So I began the night with $230 and wound up the next day with around $60. I also have half of a $50 bill and the other half is missing which makes it pretty much useless as useless can get. That morning I kept falling asleep on the subway and missing my stop. When I finally got to my stop there was an old man yelling at this young woman who was smoking on the platform, i guess about how she shouldn't be smoking on the platform. ANyway, they were just yelling back an forth at each other and I had such a hang over that I meandered right up to both of them and was like "SHUT UP SHUT THE FUCK UP BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP" an they looked at me with this look of surprise at this crazy ass drunk Gaijin yellin at em. It was great. I managed to stumble into my town's Family Mart store, drank an orange juice without paying, walked out then vomited. Man that was bad haha. I've vowed to never let this happen again, blacking out, losing money. Consider it a LESSON LEARNED. The only thing I have to somewhat remind me of what happened that night are these pictures, enjoy

New Place

2007-03-16T14:53:00.000+09:00

Here is a picture of my small new room

Man o man...

2007-03-15T12:32:00.000+09:00

I keep finding more and more things to post about and this one is just outta this world haha. Only in Japan right? I think perverted behavior is pretty much natural amongst the Japanese, especially the men. It must be in the genes because I see no other way around it. Did I mention Tokyo is the porn capitol of the world? something like 20 films are made a day...

Enjoy!

Sakura no HANAMI

2007-03-15T12:26:00.000+09:00

The official report is in and the Cherry Blossom wave will begin hitting the land of the rising sun NEXT wednesday. The Japanese meterological agency originally reported that the cherry blossoms would be coming three days earlier, but that was due to a computer glitche and so they had to apologize profusely to the whole country because Sakura viewing, or Hanami is a big big deal here. Tourist agency, corporations and all sorts of businesses plan their work and time around the coming of the cherry blossoms, and so to fuck up is to fuck with a lotta peoples plans!

I dunno what i'll be doing those days or who i'll be viewing them with. I still don't know many people here so we'll have to see -_-;;

New Trax 4

2007-03-15T11:39:00.000+09:00

Vicarious Bliss - Electroluxe

some dope electro

Mexican Food at Last!

2007-03-15T11:20:00.000+09:00

So, my bro and I finally found a Mexican restaurant "Salsito" that we're gonna hit up later tonight in Ebisu. The Japanese don't eat much in the way of "beans and rice" like we Latin American blood types do, which sucks. I'll prolly have to go to the international grocery store and pay a lot just to get some tasty black beans and collard greens :O ykno I rep that southern style.

I'm gonna meet my cousins soon, for the first time. They speak some English and Japanese but I'm sure they'll be expecting me to speak Portuguese...but little do they know..I CANT! whatever, it's always good to see family, even if its for the first time. I remember last time I came here, three years ago, I met my Aunt for the first time and she just cried half the time and I had to have one of my friends, Shiori, translate the conversation. It was exciting/sad. Connected by blood and separated by an ocean.

I still haven't Karaoke'd yet which is a bit distressing. I gotta do that soon foreal. Japanese Karaoke is far superior to the Noraebang's back home because they have way more music choices, even incredibly obscure shit. The Karaoke bar from Lost in Translation is in Ikebukuro I think, and I'mma def try and hit that one up.

There are a lot of concerts I need to see here, lotta rap and reggae shows and of course shows like Cornelius, the amazing Japanese indie/electronic rock mastermind. Aite I gotta head to the grocery store and get some shiz - pc

Around and Around

2007-03-15T10:18:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I spent about $30 on just train fair going from one place to another looking for new housing. I finally settled on the small room in Fujimidai, because I figure I won't be spending much time there anyway, just sleeping and such. I almost got lost in the Shinjuku station trying to find the Marunouchi line...I made a big circle about 3 times before finally deciding to ask the information people where to go. At one point I found myself in Tama-plaza, off then Denentoshi line. I stayed in Tama-plaza three years ago when I came here with Max and Harry.

When I was in Shin-Nakano checking out another spot I saw this old woman:
When I first saw her I did a straight up cartoon double take. wtf? she was carrying at least, AT LEAST, 150 lbs of bananas right there...4 foot nothing old ass Japanese woman stronger than I am I swear. That's how they build em in Japan I guess...she moved ever so slowly too haha it was nuts.
Then I hopped onto the Marunouchi line again and saw these lovely 'anti-suicide' rail guards...Japan is neck and neck with South Korea for the highest suicide rights per capita I think. Something like 25,000 last year. A lot of times people meet up on the internet with other sad folk and committ group suicide so they aren't alone when they do it. Other times they choose to just jump in front of the subway, a quick death. But that had gotten out of hand, not too mention messy, so they erected these guards:
p.s. thats a dude standing there...at first I was like "I wonder what instrument this girl plays..." then when I got on the train I saw I was mistaken...that can happen a lot here.

see what I'm saying bout these short skirts? is that shit regulation length? foreal. and it was cold as balls outside yesterday! theres a nice older woman in a kimono behind her if you can see that. Here are some little school girls in their hilarious "Madeleine" inspired outfits. They were really loud and causin a rawkus on the train but I was just laughing:

Like I said, Flannel is back on tha attack. I feel like Japanese people could wear whatever tha fuck and still make it look cool. I saw a dude wearin a sweat shirt that he had cut a buncha holes and gashes into and it looked fly.
and heres a shot from the Shibuya train station that took me forever to get to from Tama Plaza. I keep taking the local lines to be safe and avoiding the Commuter/Express Rapids.
and last but not least:

HAHAHAHA this dude was the best. He kept like..mushin his lips so I had to sneak this picture. Japanese people can sleep ANYWHERE and in ANY position. I'll try to get some more scenes of that, its unreal and hilarious.

Tomorrow I think I'mma go check out the Prada store because I here it's architecturally awesome. I'll look for and try to find some other dope architecture around the area. And also get to know my new area. I def foresee me getting lost on my way home from the train station, it looked mad complex on those tiny, winding streets.

This Friday there is an opening party for the new FTC (san francisco based clothing label) store in Shibuya that I'mma hit up. I also emailed Shmack (VA beach label) about seeing a buncha their new hoodies around the city and I got a reply from none other than Todd, the owner, himself. VA is going global yall!

Yesterday was White Day. On Valentines day women give men gifts/chocolate and on White Day men are supposed to return the favor, but I hardly saw any White Day advertisements except for a few. As I understand it, I don't think the men really participate in it that much. There's a Japanese proverb that says "Once you've caught a fish, there is no need to feed it" haha which I guess explains why Japanese women are marrying at a lesser rate and seek love in the arms of foreigners. Japanese guys are just too cold, like that Rick James song "Cold Blooded". Speaking of chocolate and shit, Japanese people LOVE cake and chocolate. I see bakeries/pastry places all over as well as Chocolatiers. It must be a real weak spot for em. There are also a lot of hot Japanese chix with ugly foreigners. God its sad to see. These women could do so much better but they got real slim pickins out here. Time for me to step muh game up! Anyway I think that's all for now. If I don't get my laptop fixed anytime soon then I might be outta commission for a while, we'll see.

New Trax 3

2007-03-13T20:37:00.000+09:00

Here is a sick re-edit of Swedish indie group Peter, Bjorn and John:

Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks (Cousin Cole re-edit)

What do Japanese People do when not Shopping?

2007-03-13T19:13:00.000+09:00

Sleep? Study? I dunno --

Right now I'm eating cold rice I left in the rice maker...it kinda sux but whatever
Mad pix today ya'll,

The money finally cleared into my bank account so, I started off the day going to Ikebukuro and checking out Sunshine City:

Then I hit up the Sunshine 60 Building, specifically the observatory on the 60th floor to take some panorama shots of the Tokyo city skyscape. The elevator was ridiculously fast, something like from the basement to the 60th floor in about 4.5 seconds. My ears definitely popped. Then inside of the elevator was tite too, after the attendant let you in, pressed the button and bowed, it lit up like this:

it looks kinda like when you're on e, or acid, or both...
Then I get to the top floor and what do I see??

A lot like Charlottesville right? Pssh...They had a whole area full of lil notes people can leave there about their experience lookin at Tokyo or whatever, I dunno, a giant scrapbook if you will. Guess which ones mine?

I then headed down into the big underground mall that is under all of tha Sunshine City complex (its partly overground too, because its like three shopping malls put together). Jesus christ, I almost spent my life savings. Every store was dope. So many fly clothes, so much fly gear. I can't help it if I love clothes and shopping man, it's in my nature. But I resisted, hardcore, mostly because all the shit I wanted was like banana prices. This cutie workin at this one streetwear shop was pressurin me real hard to get this ill colored hoodie...flash a smile at me and I might just do whatever you please - foreal. They had a really ill vintage clothing spot with a varsity jacket I just might go back to get (it was only $30, a steal foreal).
Here's some fake wax food. Outside most restaurants they'll have fake wax food to show you what the meals look like. There's a whole industry devoted to makin this stuff:

I took a lot of, what I call "sneaky" pix today. Here's a dude rockin a man purse AND those pointy toed boots I told yall bout. I'm startin to notice more and more man purses. I'm also starting to think they ain't such a bad idea...wallet, cellphone, notebook, mp3 player, camera...shit I can't keep all that in my pockets yo.

$10 says this style will hit the US in a year, two years max.
This hat says a LOT, I think, about Japan and Japanese youth and their approach to life:

These boots are definitely saying something but I dunno what...maybe "If I bought these I'm blind"?

It's good to know Hello Kitty will always be my friend, but peep her (his?) eyes -- that cats on some hypnosis shit!

Whenever I see a shoe store I always go in because Japan has a lot of limited edition sneakers that don't pop up in the states and I like to check out whats goin on in the sneaker world. I saw a saw for "St. Patty's" themed shoes, i.e. with green on em. Why do the Japanese even care about St. Pattys? Same reason we do I guess: drinking. Anyway, these shoes are for kids. Little kids. Like 5 year olds. I supposed toddlers gotta be fresh too right?

I'd say about 60-70% of the women I see are hot. Bangin. Straight up Bangin. Japanese chix spend a lot of time on their appearance and it shows. They may look uncomfortable as hell in them jeans and pumps but damn do they look hot. And I can't help but feel really sad for them. Pity in fact. Why? Because 80-90% of Japanese men are straight up fugly yall. An attractive male is so rare no wonder they marry foreigners and crush on all those Korean actors/singers. Mad dudes be lookin like busted heroin addicts. I guess thats why Allah sent me to Japan...to cure these women of their lack of fly-guys depression? no? haha sike ;) no but really, LL Cool Issamu.

The other day I met a Japanese rapper named Yen Yen when I was walking through Shibuya with Chelz. He was pretty cool, really good english and he said he was on some NYC Underground rap type ish, which I can respect. I also respect his grind, playin his music and tryina push some discs out there in Shibuya. He was legit and I should asked him to spit some bars (those are sections of rap verses for the less informed) and bought his disc but I didn't. To make up for it I picked up some flyers to some upcoming DJ/Rap shows at some clubs in the city. I plan on going to this one show featuring DJ Masterkey, a Japanese hip hop dj I dig on. We'll see how that goes.

In addition to driving on the other side of the road. Japanese people also WALK on the opposite side. This fact ALWAYS seems to escape me when exiting a train station, store or just strolling along the sidewalk. I've had prolly 5-8 near misses daily running into baby carriages, men/women on bikes and other pedestrians. I'm straight retarded. I've also noticed I can't listen to Michael Jackson (circa Off The Wall & Thriller) in public or else I start dancing/pop n lockin. I think Japanese people must shrink exponentially as they age, the old folks here turn into the smallest, cutest lil people. I wish I could pick them up and carry them to wherever they're going because I'm sure it takes them an hour to walk 50 feet.

This leads me to a discussion my brother, his girlfriend Lindsay, and I were having on the disconnect there is these days between older Japanese people and the youth of today. My brother and his gf teach english for this private company, Nova, and their students range from 4-5 year olds up to 60-70 year olds. They mentioned how the older people are still very polite, bow when they walk into class, and are more jovial and open to admitting mistakes. They like to learn and have fun doing so. The younger crowd however, teenagers to mid-30s, are all about frontin and lookin cool. They freak out when they get things wrong and don't really like to participate in class. I definitely get this vibe from some people I encounter. They're too cool for school, figuratively and literally. I think it all boils down to feelings of insecurity. There's a lot of insecurity in Japanese society these days, regarding the economy, relations with neighbors, job security and most of all, the population problem. Men keep getting mad at women for not wanting to marry and have babies and they're freaking out about it. But foreal, more power to the women for standin up to these fugly dudes and their outrageous domestic demands. Gotta change with the times yall!

I went looking for housing today with this real estate manager for the western tokyo area named Hiroto Yamakawa. Dude was hilarious. He was this bumbling guy who drove this tiny lil cluttered van but he was mad nice and fun to talk to. I asked him if he's ever been to America and he said one time he was in Toronto and his choice was either to go to NYC or Cuba, and he was running outta money so he went to Cuba instead. GOOD CHOICE. Why see America when you can visit Cuba? America is predictable, go see a movie and you know what America is about. But Cuba, maybe I'm biased because we Americans are unable to travel to Cuba, or else we risk heavy fines or imprisonment! I'd rather see Cuba than NYC any day. He drove like a taxi driver, real erratic, but you gotta in these tiny Tokyo streets. I thought he was gonna run over some lil kids maybe five times. When I told him I was majoring in Anthropology he laughed and asked if I was doing fieldwork. I said "meh, you could call it that". Then he told me to go to Shimbashi and observe all the Salarymen getting drunk at night and take notes. I'm definitely gonna do that haha it sounds awesome. He said he never wanted to be a Salaryman. They're companies become their religion and they develop tunnel vision only thinkin about work work work, he said. In his job he gets to meet a lot of backpackers and people from all over, which is totally legit. He showed me this one spot in Fujimidai that was pretty alrite, 40-50 minute commute to my Campus in Yotsuya. Thing is, the room was 3 tatami mats big, thats 9 ft x 6 ft...TINY. $500 a month too! That's typical Tokyo. So tomorrow I'mma go peep some other spots that are hopefully a bit bigger and a bit better...doubt the price will be lower tho...March-April is high time for real estate because universities, schools and businesses are all starting up.

Here are my prize pix of the day. I took em standing outside a 7-11 waiting for Hiroto. BEHOLD! goofy old traffic directing dudes (they kinda remind me of hall monitors from elementary school) and little schoolboys in their hilarious outfits that I can't believe they actually wear:

That's all for now, over and out.

Two Things

2007-03-12T21:06:00.000+09:00

1) Japan's population is shrinking which means less young people and more old people, which also means less labor force. What to do right? Oh yeh, why not put all those old people to work! and thats what they're doing. It's awesome. Old people are now the official 'traffic directors'. They don't direct traffic at stoplights or anything but rather at the entrances to department stores, businesses, grocery stores etc. They stop traffic, let you go in, and then resume directing pedestrians. It's hilarious because they give them the best looking outfits. Blue jumpsuits, white helmets and white gloves, I'll def take a pic of these dudes at some point. They look half bored as fuck standing around in the driveways, half real serious about their job like their doing a big service and half a bout to keel over an croke (as chelsea thinks)

2) Today I was walking past the grocery store and I saw a mom pushing her toddler in a stroller. The lil girl had a cute lil outfit with matching hat, big ass smile on her face and a big ass cone of soft serve ice cream. It was adorable. 　かわいすぎた！

Tomorrow I'll try and snap a shot of Japanese school kids in their uniforms. I can't believe they make kids wear this stuff. But at the same time, I'm glad they do so I can laugh on the subway.

New Trax 2

2007-03-12T20:11:00.000+09:00

Like earlier, I'mma be postin some new trax on here, mostly from the various sites I visit throughout the days, so there will definitely be multiple links to the same site...

Ya'll heard this Amy Winehouse chick? she got a dope voice, might be overexposed on the interweb but whatever. plus she's a huge drunk and cokefiend which is dope -

Amy Winehouse - Rehab (Desert Eagle Remix)

Redman's got a new album droppin soon and its prolly gonna be really awesome but sell really shittily cuz he isn't Young Jeezy which sucks but we'll see:

Redman - Gimme One (Produced by Pete Rock)

Ratatat is droppin a new remixes album, vol 2: heres an exclusive

Jay Z & Beanie Siegel - Glock Nines (Ratatat Remix)

For those of us who love electro:

Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Cold Night (Les Petits Pilous mix)

Beastie Boys - Three the Hard Way (Young Lovers Pre-Dinner mix)

Headman - On and On (Riot in Belgium Mix)

i'm also thinkin of changing my dj name to dj astro boy, possibly 'boi' because there's already a "dj astroboy" but fuck him tho.
over an out

Recent Trends

2007-03-12T17:56:00.000+09:00

HERRO

I've noticed some new trends in the old Nippon (Japan):

-Flannel is BACK and boy does it look cool (def gonna cop me some)
-Tim Burton-esque/Clown Shoes are IN: not like big bulby clown shoes, but stylish boots that extend for about 3-4 inches past ones foot and come to a nice upward point. Tres chic right?
-Incredibly tiny pets. Japanese people live in small apartments and small spaces, but they love dogs, so to reconcile these two opposing conditions, they've started to breed smaller and smaller dogs. Now, this has become kinda a big problem because Japan doesn't have strict breeders laws, like the US, and this leads to massive inbreding by breeders that results in like 1 dog being fine out of a litter of 10 and the rest come out all deformed an shit. There was an NYTimes article about it recently. Chelsea and I hit up a pet store in Roppongi today and yes, the dogs were superduper cute (and expensive, about $2000 a pup!) but I couldn't help but think of all the genetic disorders they'll have later in life. Also, it seems that because the Japanese pamper their pooches so much that these dogs are starting to develop human-like problems in their old age i.e. alzheimers and such.

I was gonna go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Govt Building in Shinjuku today but I couldn't because of CHELSEA (jk). Its free to ride on the elevator up to the 90th floor and you can get awesome panorama shots of the city. I guess thats for another time.

Issamu 1, Family Mart 0. DAMN STRAIGHT, picked up my Guitar Wolf ticket today FINALLY at the Family Mart in Roppongi, but it was kinda a bitch tryina figure out how to work the machine because my Japanese sucks ass. I know the first two alphabets fine, its the third, the Chinese characters, Kanji, that is a huge fucking assfuck.

Went to check out some cellphones,
which one should I get?
Cameron Diaz also advertises for Soft Bank cellphone company:

Tomorrow I'm going to Habarigaoka and/or Fujimidai in Northwest Tokyo to look for an apartment with this dude Hiroto Yamakawa. I hope it proves to be fruitful. Every apartment/guesthouse close to the city is $700/month and up in rent. Which I feel is rather redonkulous especially for a room thats the size of a bathroom back home. Not really, but you get my drift, small. They even have rooms to rent called "Compartment Rooms" (not to be confused with capsule rooms) but are tiny crawl spaces where the ceiling is 4-5 feet high. I'm pretty sure they just take these extra spaces an are like "might as well sell em off to poor Japanese salarymen and Gaijin (foreigner) students!

So my brother informs me that they got these bars that are "Erotic Bars" where the floors are mirrors and the waitresses don't wear panties. Sometimes a male chauvinistic societies come up with the best ideas. Def gonna hit that up too. There's also a fairly cheap hookah bar that CHELSEA (shoutout) has alluded me too that I might have to go to in order to replace my hunger for maryjane. I was bumpin Collie Buddz (Canadian/Bahamanian reggae artist, he performed at Sig Chi in Cville this fall) and Pharcyde's "Pack the Pipe" and man o man did it make me wanna put a pipe to my lips. I was singin along right in front of these two hot jailbait schoolgirls with shorty skirts.

Here's a pic from the ride home on the subway:
As you can see, there are some people rockin the very ubiquitous surgical masks. Japanese folk like to wear these when their sick, so as to not get other people sick, or when they are afraid they're gonna get sick and thus don't want to inhale the germs in the air. In the convenient stores where they sell these, they have awesome little graphics about how this brand of mask has three layers to shield you from air germs. I think its all rendered moot when you hold onto the metal handrails that everyone else has been touching on...knawmsayin Japanese people?? Not so smart now.

The egg yolks are orange here. Not yellow. Either because of A) they're less chemically fucked with and more organic or B) because we're in the future, and eggs in the future have orange yolks:

Here are some ads:
Poor Tommy Lee Jones, he looks so lost :( "What am I selling? What's my inspiration?" "uhh...coffee drinks?"

Speaking of vending machine shit. They sell everything in vending machines here (and no I have not see the used panty ones) but I have spotted t-shirts, dress shirts, ties, underwear, socks and a host of other shit all in vending machine form. As well as beer -- which is again, a genius move. They should have beer vending machines around grounds at UVA or in my house. Moving on though, I'm getting pissed off at how small all the drink portions are here, for $1.30 you get these tiny fuckin-one-gulp little nothing of a drink. I guess the Japanese don't need to hydrate or thirst for much, its really annoying. I'm used to just pickin up a thing of OJ or Cranberry Juice when I'm high with Maxwell and crushin that shit in a few gulps. now THATS satisfaction. THATS another thing. NO FUCKING CRANBERRY JUICE. I have yet to see that shit. I hope its not like tha Root Beer situation. Japanese people don't like Root Beer and don't sell Root Beer because they think it tastes like medicine or something. That was the explanation given to me.

This player is from the really famous, but I think shitty, male pop group "SMAP" they've been around for ages. He's pushin one of my favorite beers, ASAHI --

Thats all for now - じゃまたね！

Efficiency

2007-03-12T09:44:00.000+09:00

So, Japan seems like a really efficient place but I might just be saying that because I'm used to America where nothing is efficient and no one uses their brains to figure out problems, instead we just throw money at it and hope it goes away.

The trains all run on time, every 90 seconds there's a train to board. Everything runs like a well oiled machine. Speaking of oil, the other night there was this oil truck going around town playing music and when people heard the music they'd come out of their houses and get their tanks filled. There's a very strict manner in which you separate your trash for recycling. You phone only needs charging maybe once a week, same goes for cameras. No one has a drying machine, everyone hangs their clothes because dryers use a lot of energy and in Japan energy costs a fuckload. All the cars are kinda small, pretty thin because the streets are narrow and the tires are small (again another point on efficiency). American cars do not exist here. Only yakuza (japanese mafia) drive around in big cadillax. The only foreign cars are luxury ones like maseratis, beamers, benzs and yer occasional VW. There's no such thing as central heating or AC, because that is wasteful, instead everyroom has its own little AC/Heating unit that can be turned on and off depending on if the room is being used. It's smart to say the least. The Japanese are big on inventions too, they have something for everything. The world record holder for patents, something like 4000 patents, is a Japanese businessman here. I'll try an take some pix of the weird shit I see around.

Here is my brother's "suburb" Toda-koen:

Before Tokyo There was San Francisco

2007-03-11T22:01:00.000+09:00

mmm

So I got a new camera today (Casio EX-Z60) for pretty fuckin cheap at an electronix store called Sofmap in Omiya, as well as an electronic dictionary at Bic Camera. I loaded up my SD card and remembered I had these lovely pix of the weed plants I came across in San Francisco (came across is figurative, I'm just protecting the innocent. Here they are:

and here is my brothers apartment (kinda a mess thanks to me), myself in a mirror trying to show the new camera, and my brother and his girlfriend lyin on their futons all cute an what not.

New Trax

2007-03-11T19:25:00.000+09:00

In addition to talkin bout Japan and Tokyo etc. I'll be postin pix and music for yall and those I can't reach over IM or something all the time (MAX) so here's a new track by Devin tha Dude ft. Snoop and Andre3stax

Devin the Dude ft. Snoop & Andre 3000 - "What A Job"

Tokyo is ______

2007-03-11T16:52:00.000+09:00

Whatup Amerikids?

Let's start from tha beginning. I left San Francisco (shoutouts to jesse, stefan and jackie) on Thursday and arrived here in Tokyo on Friday. Now, its Sunday. When I got here my bro's girlfriend's parents were here, the Martins, an they are good folk. The Dad is a medical marijuana scientist for the government, so we got something in common there (dedicating our life to the weed). Speaking of weed, guess how much that shit costs here....$70/gram WHAT THA FUCK? I don't even know if that shit is like headie or what, for that price it better shine my shoes and suck my dick while I smoke it...
So yes, I'm stayin with my brother and his girlfriend in Toda-koen (Toda Park) in Saitama-Ken which is basically North Tokyo. A good analogy would be Toda-Koen is to Tokyo as Rosslyn is to DC.

Moving on, I totally forgot how ridiculous this place is. Specifically, the people and how they dress. There are regular lookin folk but then there are the fashion forward youth of the main shopping-hang out areas of Tokyo like Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro etc. And these kids pretty much go from ridiculous to ultra ridiculous. Pictures will be forthcoming but here is a sample.

Some Japanese folk find it cool to tan their bodies to an unreal color of dark orange. Some say this is because of hiphops influence but only in some cases, most other cases their just kids obsessed with being tan as all hell.
The skirts here are short. real short. i love it cuz its pretty much all girls wear besides skinny jeans. Especially the school girls woooweee. Yo, its totally cool I talk like that cuz I'm in Japan now and Japan is mad pedophiley, so its legit.

Another thing is that Japanese people are RICH. or at least it seems that way. they have a massive inflated disposable income and they just shop shop shop like its their job. Old people, young people, all people are always shopping. The old people here are real techno-savvy too, unlike say, my mom. Everyone's rockin a dope cellphone with cute lil phone charms, hardly ever talking on it because you're not supposed to be loud in public, so they just text away. I think Japan has something like 80% cellphone use by the entire population and thats a lot.

I was in a store today and they were selling Michigan State and Penn State t-shirts for $50. All haircuts are over $40. most jeans are $130 and up.

Japanese people from the age of 1-6 and 60 up are so funny. The kids are wicked cute all the time and the old people are hilarious to look at. I'm constantly giggling to myself on the subway. I was thinkin the other night, if asian babies are so cute, and they only choose cute babies to go in commercials and ads, then Japan must be like a reservoir or hotspot for just pickin babies outta nowhere an ploppin em in commercials.

Another great idea of mine is to create one really cute, irreverent character and then market that shit like none other and get these Japs hooked on it because they will buy anything and everything that is cute. They have whole stores dedicated to Whinnie the Pooh and Snoopy.

Right now I'm watchin Sumo matches on TV and I always love it when the Japanese ones beat the Foreigners, like the Hungarians and Mongols. Ykno, Japanese people are loving that shit too cuz they always nationalistic to some extent. I want a Sumo for a friend. Sumo's pull mad bitches here apparently, like sport star status.

I also see a lot of American actors in ads a la Lost in Translation. I saw Tommy Lee Jones hockin Suntory BOSS Coffee drinks, Brad Pitt advertisin for a cellphone company called Soft Bank (whatever that is..) and Richard Gere selling cars or something, I couldn't really tell. Both him and Tommy Lee Jones just look like lost, senile old men in their ads.

Anyway, thats all for now, I gotta cook for my bro and co. I'll have pix next time and talk about how Japan is efficient. Pc easy yall.