jimmy in japan

Getting Internet In Japan

2012-01-20T20:25:00.001+09:00

I took it for granted. Alone in my new apartment, there I was staring at the ceiling. You have no idea how boring it was not having internet!

I tried real hard trying to do without it. My plan was that I'd be able to concentrate on more important things rather than wasting time online. Sad to say, I AM the king of procrastination, and it looked like it was easier just to do nothing and be bored.

I thought checking the internet at known open wifi points would be enough. I waited patiently in three degree evenings for my FB and email to download. Most times I hadn't missed a thing, but the lack of it was akin to not having a mobile phone. You know just in case someone MIGHT call you, when in actual fact they hardly do.

It might sound strange but this is the first time in all these years of living here that I actually have my own internet connection. I was fortunate enough to have an open wifi in my first apartment, and after that my other half took care of the later net setup.

What also helped pushed to get a connection was that I somehow managed to kill one of my Mac laptops (on my birthday no less), and I had been thinking to upgrade the one I had been using since I got here. Combined with an internet connection you can save a LOT of money on a new computer.

So where do you start?

I thought that you needed a phone landline in order to get connected. Actually you don't! The cheapest option is the hikari fiber optic mansion (generally highrise apartment, not a rich person's house) connection.

There are 2 companies involved - the phone company (NTT Flets), and your chosen ISP provider (eg. Yahoo, OCN, AsahiNet). If you go to the big electronic stores BIC, Yodobashi or Sofmap you will find each have their perks for signing up with them, so it's worth going around to find the best deal. They can also do a building check to see if fiber's available.

I signed up on the 5th of January. Along with the discounted Mac, I got 3 months free internet. They coerced me into taking an optional wireless router and helpline support that I won't use, but they tell me I can cancel that without penalty in 2 or 3 months. First payment will just be the 2,100 (+840 yen admin) NTT connection charge.

They sent a LOT of papers but the setup was quite painless. I just had to go to Network settings on my Mac - create a PPPoE connection by adding the ISP service name, account name and password to get up and running.

Easy!

My DNA

2012-01-15T21:24:00.000+09:00

I knew my self-imposed ban on buying another guitar couldn't last.

It caught my eye near the door of the music shop on December 18th. It was just the body, but from that first glance I knew exactly what it was. The way they do this special finish I mentioned in this post.

I immediately asked to put it on hold. He was reluctant but after I offered a deposit he agreed. I knew if I passed it up I'd never see it again. It took a while to actually get it, a whole month! But now it's mine all mine.

Blades of Glory

2012-01-04T23:59:00.000+09:00

I woke up early today at about 8am. I wanted to go out. Technically it's the last day of the holiday break, (although I am fortunate enough to have Thursday as my normal day off giving me an extra day).

I was out of bed, had breakfast and showered. I was outta there by 930am. She.. took a while. We would not get to Yokohama until about 1pm.

We had a double plan, no actually a triple plan, but only managed two of them because of the late start.

First mission was the Cup Noodle Museum in Minato Mirai. It took a while of walking around but we found it. As part of the 500 yen ticket you get to make your own noodles, but seeing as we were late, the spots were filled so I'll have to tell you about that in another attempt in the future.

Another BIG reason to come here was to go to Art Rink. I mentioned it before, but last time we didn't didn't actually do it.

It's been over 20 years since I last put on a pair of skates. I can remember Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" was playing over the loud PA. Also I can recall how lousy I was.

True to form I was not a gazelle from "Swan Lake". As much as I wanted to move with such grace, it took a LONG time for me to even get my center of gravity in balance.

What probably made it harder was being one of the few gaijin on the ice, I felt any fall would have been noticed and ridiculed by watching Japanese ready with cameras to capture my folly. Also too, I had my camera with me that I was quite terrified of breaking had I fallen over. Luckily I managed not to fall at all.

After three hours of perseverance, I maintained an acceptable level of balance, but even as we left my only way of stopping was banging against a wall. It was getting cold so I had to admit a little bit of defeat. I had fun though! I'm sure to come again. Maybe this will be like Zushi was for me in Summer.

Quite cheap too. Only 500 yen to get on the ice, and another 500 yen for skate hire. Being outdoors, it's only open until February.

While we were in Yokohama we took advantage of a free butter chicken curry from Muji. There IS a catch though.

To claim your prize you have to play their Sugoroku game. It asks for a twitter, Facebook or Mixi registration, but it's otherwise straightforward if a little frustrating to play.

It took me over 240 tries to claim my prize, so have nerves of steel and you will be rewarded. Be quick. This freebie is only till the 10th.

Ok, so until next time. Bub bye!

Trick Me Once

2012-01-03T23:59:00.000+09:00

We've been to Mt Takao numerous times before, but it's strange I never really noticed the Trick Art Museum, a VERY short walk directly across the road from Takaosanguchi station (Keio line). Haven't done much this New Year's break so a good reason to get out of the house.

The museum has predominantly an Egyptian theme. I love optical illusions, so it's definately in the highest part of my top five museum exhibits. They encourage hands on, so it was quite a bit of fun to pose directly incorporating yourself as part of the art.
They allow photographs. Actually you HAVE to bring your camera to get the full effect. Somehow seeing it directly takes a bit more to fool your mind, but in a photo it looks pretty amazing. If you've ever been to the Leaning Tower in Pisa and taken a photo "holding it up", this is the place for you!

The only real negative is that the place is quite popular and now that it's holiday time, it was FULL of kids, so taking that photo was sometimes frustrating and ruined a good illusion. Go when it's as least busy as possible.

A discount ticket can be printed off from the website. You'll get a free drink token for the vending machine outside the entry on your way out.

We wasted a lot of time in the museum so we didn't have as much time as we liked to go up Mt Takao. We usually hike up. Ironically being winter it would've been the easiest time to walk up, but as time was cutting it fine, we took the chair lift.

This is a first for me. I thought there was only the cable car. Chair lifts are MUCH more fun. Brings out the kid in me.
We only had less than an hour so it was almost time to go down not long after we got to the top. I managed to take a photo of Tokyo in the distance. Now it's finished it's quite easy to identify the Tokyo Sky Tree as part of the skyline.

If you want to do both the museum and Mt Takao it's a good idea to leave as early as you can. Both highly recommended!

The Year Of The Baka

2011-12-31T23:59:00.004+09:00

So I've come to the end of another year in Japan. Sometimes I think I should just copy and paste what I wrote in previous years, but this year was a little different I guess.

The big mother quake certainly shook things up in a big way. Contrary to overdone media reports I was fine, but it was a perfect time to make a graceful exit.

But I stayed. Why?

Because I don't know when to quit even when sometimes I know I should. For example, I CAN'T stop buying music gear. While I haven't bought another guitar (yet). I did buy some very groovy 80s Roland boxes and a Korg. Even this blog. Maybe it's ran it's course and I'm just treading water waiting to drown.

Catalyst? Yeah there was. I moved out.

I hesitated, but it was the right thing to do, although I STILL question my decision even now. The apartment is great if a little noisy for damn right wing protesters not shutting the f*ck up!

While I've started this rant I may as keep going for a while. Not so long ago I was thoroughly searched by police. Through my jacket AND wallet. I WAS wearing a big jacket. Very suspicious when it's 6 degrees! I was riled. I was going to write a "Don't come to Japan" post, but I relented.

A few days later I lost my bank security token and memory key on the street. With the help of the koban and some kind person I got it back within 30 minutes. Just when I thought all was good, I went to do my washing in my inconvenient coin laundry. I put my clothes in and started the cycle. No sooner had it started, an old man in the confined space lit up a cigarette!

First I said "sumimasen" (excuse me), then "kusai"(stink) and finally "baka" (idiot). For each time he ignored me. I have to deal with smoke because of the so-called "polite" Japanese in public spaces. The straw is getting shorter.

So that's it. My year in a nutshell.

I haven't connected my Internet and even though I've been extremely bored out of my mind, it's been a GOOD THING. Just don't expect a post so often, ok?

H N Y

Car Girl Exhibition

2011-12-04T23:33:00.003+09:00

While it's called the Tokyo Motor Show, it REALLY should be called the "Car Girl Exhibition".

The cars seems to play second fiddle to the girls strategically placed around said vehicle to make it oh so more desirable.

This year they have made a wise decision to hold it at Big Sight in Odaiba instead of far, far away at Makuhari like previous years.

Coming around every two years the anticipation builds up, but the outcome was not going to live up to my expectations. While the concept cars were interesting, there didn't seem to be anything really new.

Even watching Honda's Asimo robot didn't really excite. Apparently now they have made him able to run, but it felt like he was doing the same old poses. Still kind of cute I guess.

Today the place was packed and it was VERY easy to get lost. I hated how families brought their kids here to "play" in the cars. I didn't get to sit in many cars, mostly sitting on Harley-style Japanese motorbikes instead for a few photos.

There's Porsche here for the first time, but nothing new. The Lady Gaga styled car demo was laughable. Most of the car girls weren't that stunning either. Didn't stop all the perves coming along with their cameras though. Almost more fun watching the dweebs get their one day of gratification for the year.

Top prize goes to the Subaru girls. Like two years ago, whoever designs their outfits knows how to turn the heat up on a lukewarm motor show.

The show is on until the 11th (Sunday), so be there, or don't!

Aerosmith In Tokyo

2011-11-30T23:01:00.000+09:00

Last year I was lucky enough to finish work on Mondays early enough to be able to go to quite a few live concerts.

Unfortunately most touring acts do their concerts on weekdays and start and finish early, and this year all my lessons finish late in the evenings.

It's been a while since Aerosmith came to Japan last (2002), and they're one of the classic rock bands I'd been wanting to check out. I thought it'd only be worthwhile if I could get an arena ticket for Tokyo Dome.

I was almost prepared to spend double the face value for a B area ticket, but luckily I found one that was cheaper than the selling price and still a reasonable D section one.

So how was it?

Although my seat wasn't the closest in the house, I was pleased where I was positioned, a little off centre on the right-hand side. I mirthed when I saw the advertising for the language school I work at high above in the stands.

The show was polished, and judging by the setlists online they don't change their presentation too often.

For a band being around this long I guess it's hard to please everyone. My favourite songs are the ones from Pump and Permanent Vacation. I liked the harmonies of "Love In An Elevator" and "Janie's Got A Gun".

I kinda wished they played "Rag Doll" and "Dude Looks Like A Lady" or "Pink".

The mix was sometimes lost, losing some of the punch in the choruses, but I guess that was probably due to the less than ideal acoustics of Tokyo Dome. Still I got into "Jaded", "Cryin'" and "Sweet Emotion". Like usual, I listened to a mixtape of Aerosmith to be psyched up for the concert.

I think there was a lull in the performance when they went on a prolonged blues trip, and sometimes the songs went longer overstaying their welcome. And drum solo? While the drummer is a fine player my eyes and ears glaze over when there's this 80's self indulgence.

The crowd revived itself when "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" was played. I get the feeling the band doesn't really like to play this one. Among their other songs it feels almost completely out of place.

Having said that, I had a fun time, and was happy enough to endure the crazy merchandise stand line to get myself a t-shirt.

Everyone should have an Aerosmith T.

Mt Mitake Take Two

2011-11-27T22:45:00.000+09:00

We came here last year a little earlier in November.

Although there wasn't as many colourful leaves from what I vaguely remember last time, it was a pleasant walk through the wilderness. This time we caught the cable car both up and down to maximize our walking time.

In doing so we covered a much wider area over six hours. By the end my calf muscles would be aching for another day or two.

Well worth a day trip out this way if you like hiking.

Yoyogi Park Sunday

2011-11-20T22:32:00.000+09:00

Usually if I go here, it's usually a Thursday. It was too late to go to the mountains, so the next best thing was Yoyogi Park.

It's been a while since I came here so I was surprised to see how many people were here. Especially so as it's getting colder and colder these days. We walked around the back end of the park to find a dog running fenced-off area.

We watched as the dogs were chasing each other, barking, and sniffing their asses. Dogs being dogs. One black dog was adamant to mount a girl dog which was quite fun to watch the owner prying him off.

Going out an alternative exit we made our way towards Shinjuku. Along the way we ran into an 88 yen shop. This place was quite cool. Not only did they have 88 yen stuffs, but also a lot of secondhand gear like um.. music gear.

I've been wanting for a while now to see Aerosmith live in concert, but getting a desirable Arena ticket was nigh on impossible without paying an exorbitant markup.

As luck would have it, I managed to score one at a bit of a discount as well!

To "celebrate" we had some sushi. Good way to end a Sunday, ne?

St Mary's Cathedral and Seoul Market

2011-11-13T23:59:00.001+09:00

She wanted to go hiking, to see the Autumn leaves around Mt Mitake, but.. as usual I was drinking the night before and I didn't get up early enough to make it worthwhile to do a pleasant hike among the browns and yellows.

So.. What to do eh?

At the Metabolism exhibition I was wondering which of these places would be cool, (and not too far away) to go check out.

One such place was St Mary's Cathedral in Waseda. It just so happens that it wasn't too far away from where we live, so getting there wasn't going to take too long.

The church was designed by Kenzo Tange. What makes this church particularly different is that the walls ARE the ceilings and the whole building is shaped like a cross. With the silvery shine of the roof, it looked a bit Guggenheim to me too.

Inside the place was very peaceful. It was calming and relaxing. I wanted to stay longer. Although there were signs not to take photos, I snuck one in. I hope God didn't see that one. I'll have to do a few Hail Marys I suppose.

I wanted to go to Shin-Okubo to get a few Korean things. Along the way we came across a Korean market selling good luck ornaments and yummy food. I got a cheap ￥120 cheese-filled cake. Yummy indeed.

Shin-okubo is SO busy on Sundays. We went to the main Korean supermarket. I was looking for sauces to do my own yakinuku, but somehow I ended up with Topokki spicy korean snacks, and drinking vinegar.

For some reason drinking vinegar seems to be the next big thing. With popularity with Korean girl's groups, their image on the bottle helps to sell the overpriced bottles.

I bought some. Not the ones with the girl's faces on it. The cheapest one ;) The pomegranite flavour tastes pretty good and it's supposed to be healthy too.

I saw another guitar I liked and tried it. Got to be strong.. Or a least sell one of my other ones.

Cheese Day

2011-11-12T23:59:00.000+09:00

I've done Cheese Day twice before in the past.

This year was QUITE different. Last time I came on a Thursday, but this year, Thursday was invite only, of which I didn't have :(

As soon as I got there on Saturday, I noticed a line! While it didn't take THAT long to get in, it was a sign of things to come.

This year they decided to make it more orderly. In other words more "Japanese". I mentioned before how people were like animals getting the cheese when it came out in past years.

This time it was queue time, and I panicked at the length of the lines, that I used all my tickets in the first round that I went in. Initially I was disappointed that they used this system, but later it made sense.

I watched a talk I didn't understand in order to get more samples, and even snuck back out and in to get more tickets. I went back AGAIN, but this 3rd time I just asked. I played dumb gaijin so it wasn't too difficult.

In the end I bought some Dutch smoked cheese and American Pepperjack. It's been a while since I finished the Swiss cheese I bought in America, so this was a welcome return to that sweet cheese taste.

Number 5 Is Alive

2011-11-10T21:05:00.003+09:00

If there was a Jeopardy game show question about a word that comes into your head when you think of Japan or Tokyo, I'm sure one of the top answers would be "robots".

And so it is, when the International Robot Exhibition rolls into town, you better have a good excuse not to go, right? I first saw a poster with a gorilla with it's robot equivalent, when we were in Yokohama for the Music Fair last week, and decided then and there that I had to go.

I was ably informed that it would run from today till Saturday only, so I had little choice but to go today. This year it's being held at Big Sight, a suitably futuristic venue if there ever was one.

It's open from 10-5 every day. I didn't leave my apartment till around 1ish so I had to rule out my usual Rainbow Bridge walk, instead catching my trains to link up with the nearby Rinkai line.

As soon as I walked in, I was surrounded by salarymen in suits. I was tragically underdressed, but revelled in my individualism.

I was quite disappointed at first to see the "robots" were merely mechanical arms performing menial tasks. In the most cases quite yawn inducing. There were few booth babes, but even if there were it would've felt truly perverted to ask any of the girls for a photo.

The first exhibit to catch my interest was an air driving demonstration. It used the wii concept without a controller like kinect. Myself, and all the other geek boys wanted to have a go, but I didn't bother to wait.

After all the industrial machinery I finally found what I had been looking for.. *real* robots!

They were cute, voice responsive, and in some cases freakingly life life. A few gave me the flashback from "Short Circuit". I can't watch that movie again. It'd totally destroy my childhood memory.

I took a long time to see everything. Even once they played the closing song ("Auld Lang Syne *natch*) a lot of people were still milling around the exhibits.

Before I went back I decided to look around Venus Fort. I vaugely remembered the Lego shop, and decided to get a ￥500 Buzz Lightyear keyring.

Yeah they had cool Darth Vader, Jack Sparrow, Spongebob, and Indiana Jones that I also wanted, but being a "robot day" Buzz seemed the right choice for this occasion.

Running With Scissors

2011-11-09T20:47:00.005+09:00

It's been over two years since I got my hair cut, and recently there's been some pretty big changes in my life. So..

They say a change is as good as a holiday, but I want a f*ing holiday!

I did it myself. I tied my hair back and proceding to ~~cut~~, hack away. It was much harder than I expected. My hair was so thick it was literally like slashing my way through a forest.

Maybe it was not the best time to cut it seeing as we're heading towards Winter here, but I really needed to do this. I needed to react against what is happening around me, and it's an act of regeneration.

I kinda needed a new me.

And I had way too much hair.

Yokohama Music Fair 2011

2011-11-03T23:39:00.005+09:00

I had an almost all-nighter last night. Against my better judgement, I thought I'd do something different and go with some co-workers to small bars in Dogenzaka and Shinjuku.

Preceding a public holiday you'd expect them to be a little better patronised. Both places we went to were quite sparse in people, but made up for it in exorbitant beer prices. The loud Belgians in the Shinjuku bar convinced me NEVER to do this again. I got shortchanged on my beer too which didn't make me happy either.

We DID make a deviation beforehand at my favourite English bar in Shibuya, so not all bad. I got home around the 430am mark.

I woke up slightly later than my usual at 1030am to the sound of right wing extremists blaring their propaganda from their vans. I wanted to go to the biannual Yokohama Music Fair at Pacifico in Minato Mirai. I've been good and haven't bought any more guitars (for now). But not so good for other musical things.

By the time I could drag myself out of bed and make my way, we'd arrive there a little bit after 2pm. Because I was going to a music exhibition I thought I'd do the rockstar thing and wear my hair out which I rarely do. Always worth repeating a bit of the Halloween scares I did last week!

Like last time ESP had the most impressive guitar display with weird shapes and colours. Fender also had an interesting stand with some very nice flower-cloth covered telecasters inspired by the paisley Fenders, or Flower pattern JEMs. It's surprising I've never seen Ibanez at these events. I REALLY liked the black one, so I tried it out.

Yes, I like it!

I also tried the Moog guitar. I expected it to be a better version of my Sustainiac-equipped Steinberger, but it was overly complicated, and for the money I like what my guitar does more than this did. Good. A guitar I can cross off my "want" list.

While most of the gear I could easily have tried already in a music shop, it was nice to try them here without the added pressure to buy. I saw the new Boss RC-300 loop station. I didn't get to try it, because a Japanese guy was hogging it for a long time. Korg has a few interesting new virtual analog toys.

I haven't touched the guitars I already have for a while now, but this Fair has encouraged me to get off my ass (for a while at least). After we left Pacifico we walked in the dark into the adjacent Rinko Park.

It's funny that I've never been here before. By night it looked quite nice. My camera is with Panasonic to clean a bit of dust behind the glass in the EVF that was bothering me, before my warranty was up. They say that's going to take 3 weeks!

Sometime after I get it back I'll come back here during the day to take some photos. The Music Fair is on till Sunday. It's not just guitars, so anyone musically inclined should take the opportunity to check it out.

Back To The Future

2011-10-30T23:39:00.001+09:00

Before I'd ever been to Tokyo, I had the idea that it'd look like the most futuristic city, like something out of a Sci-fi movie, or Astroboy. My first impression was a huge letdown.

What I saw were drab, ugly apartment blocks that lacked any creative imagination whatsoever. And looking out from the train window it looked like it was repeated over and over as far as the eye could see.

One of the most interesting architectural ideas to come out of Japan was called Metabolism.

It has the idea of a building being a living thing that could grow and adapt like organisms. The most well-known example of this in Tokyo is the Nakagin Capsule Tower and Shizuoka Newspaper building in Shinbashi.

Today I went to see Metabolism : The City of the Future exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi.

It was really fascinating. There were examples of works that still exist today, as well as ideas that sadly never reached fruition. It's definitely the largest exhibition that I've seen since I've been here.

They showed lots of videos, as well as many scale models. What blew my mind was that these ideas were thought of in the 70's and yet, still today they would still be ahead of our time now.

If you go there I recommend to check out the Tokyo City View observation floor. As an additional charge to your ticket, you can see a great view of Tokyo. While there we had an overpriced "slime" nikuman, but it looked so cute, it had to be done. We just made sure to eat the face last. Unfortunately because of rain, the outdoor Sky Deck on the roof was closed.

The exhibition is on till the 15th of January so if you're in Tokyo, it's one not to miss. On Roppongi-dori there is one of the Nakagin capsules on display outside, so if you're passing through keep a look out for that.

Not many chances to see what the "future" looks like.

Adachi Fireworks

2011-10-08T22:58:00.001+09:00

After another long day's work in Kita Senju, I noticed a whole lot more people around than usual, and many places were setting up shop outside selling a lot of festival food.

My original idea was to do my usual drinking in Shibuya. My friends had other plans, so before I'd jump on the subway, I thought I'd satisfy my curiosity by following the crowd towards the river.

Along the way I saw a poster with some fireworks and then it hit me. Hanabi!

This year the only fireworks I'd seen were the Meiji Jingu fireworks viewed from far away close to where I live. I totally forgot the date of the Yokohama fireworks and missed Sumidagawa as well. Like the other fireworks, the Adachi fireworks had been delayed out of respect for the tsunami victims.

I bought some strong plum chu-hi and inarizushi and asked her to join me. The place was packed full of people. We set up camp on the slope and I got stuck into my chu-his.

Of all the fireworks I have seen in Tokyo since I've been here. These were the best. No obstruction of buildings like Sumidagawa, and much, much closer than all of the others.

There were hearts and smiley faces. I was a like a kid again, a drunk kid! lol

The chuhi was so strong that by the time I got home I was tired and fell asleep almost instantly.

Softbank VS Wimax

2011-07-25T00:29:00.004+09:00

It's quite funny how the docomo phone company used Darth Vader to star in their ad campaign.

In my mind the evil empire is Softbank.

My first beef was when I arrived in Japan they would NOT let me get just a SIM card for my unlocked phone. They vehemently insisted that I sign up with one of their "free" phones therefore locking me in for two years in which I'd have to pay for that free phone if I left. It added to injury that a co-worker managed to get a SIM only a few months later.

Secondly, when I foolishly decided to lower my Internet rate with Softbank, not only did it extend my imprisonment, but also auto-renewed my contract. Now in Australia once you finish your contract you can stay with the network as long as you like, or leave as you please.

Here, if I stayed with Softbank and decided to jump ship I would be subject to a 9,975 yen cancellation fee. Er, no thanks.

I asked what I could do. They said I could change my contract to 5,985 yen flat rate Internet contract (+ white plan, extra charges etc.) with no cancellation fee. Wow, pay even more. Thanks Softbank!

Finally I asked if I could go on their prepaid service. No.. Not with an iPhone! A phone that they provide, and locked only to them. What a fantastic company.

So, come July 10th, the last day of my Softbank contract I decided to cancel my phone. As soon as I left the shop my phone was completely dead. Thanks for cutting it off before the end of the day ********!

For virtually the first time since I got here I was phoneless, without contact with the outside world. Bit scary.

I was looking at my options, and what I had been thinking about doing is switching to a data only pocket wifi service. Most people in Japan rarely speak on their mobile phones, instead messaging by email so it's not as bad as it might sound.

I saw plenty of ads around, mostly with a blue Gachapin advertising the WIMAX service.

They talk of speeds up to 40Mbps, so I wondered if it was worth signing up with them. At this time of writing they had a free two week trial of their service, so it seemed a good time as any to see if I should switch.

They asked for a credit card in case I lost or damaged the wifi box. A few days later I noticed they deducted the 19,800 yen already. Thankfully before the end they did actually put it back. Maybe to test to see if the card was valid?

First thing I noticed is that the pocket wifi gets very hot. While it's not that big it is a nuisance carrying around an extra box and getting hot in this Summer swelter does not add to it's charm at all. Note that the running time is only 3.5 hours so best practice for me was to switch it off when I wasn't accessing my email, or have the power cable handy to recharge.

How was reception?

In most of the city areas I had no problem. At the beach in Zushi, the signal was extremely weak. Worse was underground. With a phone network you're able to get a signal at least at each subway stop. Totally dead here. Even on the first basement level of a pub in Shibuya I had nothing. Quite frustrating!

With a very unscientific test at home, I found that I was only getting about 3Mbps. In comparison my broadband is 20Mbps. For usual browsing with email and Safari it wasn't bad at all, but trying to download anything substantial would take quite a while longer.

So was it worth it? As much as I hate Softbank I sadly have to say no. For someone that's willing to put up with these shortcomings it may be ok, especially if you don't have any other kind of Internet access at home.

As of today I'm back with Softbank, BUT on their prepaid service.

I had a lot of hoops to jump through walking from Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya to get past lies and some not unexpected poor customer service. Yes, I AM using an iPhone (although for now my 3G), and it's working as I expected.

I'm paying even less than before. Almost half! So maybe I should thank them for that.

Wonderswan

2011-06-22T23:52:00.002+09:00

I never played Crazy Climber before, but it seemed like it was one of those classic arcade games that even predated Donkey Kong.

The controls were said to be quite a challenge. I attempted to try it out on various sims, but the required double joystick made it even more hard to get the hang of it. I saw an LCD reproduction at Donki. It was about 880 yen. Not a huge amount but I figured maybe for a little more, I may as well get a Wonderswan.

A Wonder what??

In competition with Nintendo, Bandai released a handheld by the former Nintendo legend Gunpei Yokoi.

There were three versions released. The best one was the SwanCrystal, which is not only colour, but also has a sharper TFT LCD screen. On Sunday I looked through Akiba, and the cheapest one I found was a wine red one from "Friends", unboxed for 3,000 yen. It was in good condition so I grabbed it.

Before I bought this I saw a Wonderswan "set" in a secondhand store in Ayase. It had five or so games, and a Wonderswan Color. Most of the games were Japanese, but it DID have Crazy Climber. Today I went back and asked them if I could just get the game. On each box it had 300 yen. There was also a Space Invaders so I offered 300 yen for both. Quite easily he agreed, so my game collection was off to a good start.

Even more so, when back in Kitasenju in a game shop's junk pile was a 100 yen Gunpey cart, which is an interesting variation of a Tetris-like puzzle game.

Interestingly enough while in Funabashi, I found a huge warehouse shop FULL of everything I love about Japan, including retro games and consoles and UFO catcher stuffs. Even guitars! I asked the staff if they had any Wonderswan software, and after he asked another employee told me no. Untrusting as I am, I found that they actually DID have them. Not the first or last time I get a bum steer in this country.

For now I gave them a miss. Although not the worst place (like say Akiba), I had tips on other places I could buy these for cheap. It just so happened that I found them some more in Yokohama on route to the beach. I picked up a Beatmania and DJ Turntablist for Crunky money.

Bit of a crazy quest, but just another of those things that keep this place interesting.

Boss V-Wah

2011-06-21T23:59:00.001+09:00

I won the bid for 6,000 yen. If I checked a bit closer, I'd have seen that he won the Yahoo Auction for the same thing for 1,000 yen cheaper. Oh the tangled web..

First impression was this was a little rough. Definitely not as pristine as the Harmonist. For the bucks I saved I shouldn't complain too much. After a pretty thorough play it did what it's supposed to do. To my ears this has a nice selection of wah sounds. The built-in distortion is useful although the switching is probably more confusing that it should be.

I found a cheap 400 yen-ish daisy chain at a Hard Off that allows me to power all the pedals from the Music Booster battery.

I'm really pleased with it. I don't notice any problems with having these all chained together - nice and quiet and powering it all nicely.

I did an experiment to see how long the battery would last running loops solely with the Boomerang connected. I'd thought the unit would be pretty power hungry. I only expected about two hours. To my surprise, it got pretty close to eight hours!

I'm really pleased with my setup so far. In terms of effects, I have what I need to keep me happy at least for a while.

For The Love Of God Kids

2011-06-16T13:37:00.005+09:00

I don't write much about work. For good reason, they asked me not to.

But this time I can't keep this one silent.

If you come to Japan you better love kids classes. I mean LOVE them. A kids class can have up to eight (unruly) kids in the room. In the little kids class that includes their parents, so you can imagine how crowded SIXTEEN people in a modest kids room can be.

On any given day there can be three or four of these classes. So days like these can be extremely tiring.

In my case Mondays were only the days where I was sure to have a reprieve from having any kids classes, and I was truly thankful that I had at least a break from them. But today I'm told they want me to take over kids classes on Mondays, which includes a large, crazy kids class on my only real day without them. I thought this might be coming as the quitting teacher informed me of his departure.

They say that a replacement won't live close enough, but even for me it's my furthest school, and takes a considerable amount of time to get there.

I REALLY DO NOT WANT THIS. I'm really hoping they find an alternative teacher, because an exhausted teacher is not a happy teacher.

Korea Town

2011-06-12T22:44:00.002+09:00

I went to Shin Okubo.

It's located about a five minute walk north of Shinjuku. Just behind Kabuki-cho. OH, now you know where I'm talking about ;)

Usually the only time I go there is to check out the TC Gakki music store. Before that I went back to try out that Behringer Hellbabe wah again in Shinjuku. Nope, still a piece of junk! I also had a play of the POG2, which does similar octave things to my PS-6. For the money it cost (over 50,000 yen), I expected a LOT more.

This place is often referred to as a prominent Korean precinct of Tokyo. The place was bustling with people mostly eating at the amazing amount of Yakiniku (Korean BBQ) joints. Often you would hear me grunt, "MEAT!!"

This would actually not be such a bad place to live. It just so happens that this place that I thought was getting torn down is actually being restored! There is a strong geek part of me that wants to live here, if only for dubious bragging rights. Surprisingly we got inside easily, and up the escalator to the roof, but were thwarted by security-coded locked doors :(

Anyway, other surprises in this area was another Don Quijote store that I never knew existed. I was looking for certain spare parts, but unfortunately were not available here. I DID see some LCD reproductions of "Crazy Climber" by Pocket Toy, and a racing "Hang On" by El-Spirits at 880 yen. There was even a pretty crappy looking panarama screen rip-off that looked like a cheap toy.

These Sakubai scooters caught my interest. Kind of a cross between a bike and a scooter. The idea sounds great, but I don't know how well these would ride on Tokyo sidewalks.

There are a lot of cheap korean supermarkets here. My FAVOURITE noodles here are these Nongshim noodles. They are nice and spicy. The red of the package gives it away right? Ever so slightly cheaper here, so we stocked a bit on those. Bring on the MSG! And we got some special Korean pancakes packed with calories, and red pepper paste snacks that I'm addicted to, for good measure.

I could not come here and not go to TC Gakki, just looking of course. I tried a Fishman Rare Earth single coil acoustic pickup *face palm* I've been toying with the idea of putting all my gizmos through my effects acoustically so this would be necessary here (not back home where I have my semi though). It sounded nice and warm, but do I need it? Do I REALLY need it?

Harmonist

2011-06-07T23:59:00.001+09:00

I got myself another present, and it's not even my birthday!

I won the Yahoo Auction on Friday. Paid for it on Monday. The guy sent it with Japan Post's Letterpack 500 (as in 500 yen) from Hokkaido, and it arrived today. All I can say is "wow". Now THAT is what I call fast, super fast.

Considering the distance, that would usually take at least two days back home. It makes me wonder why people send stuff here by Kuroneko Yamato and Sagawa, the "preferred" couriers for Yahoo Auction sellers. They use the same type of tracking as their EMS too. In this case it was accurate enough to let me know it'd arrive today.

My new toy is a Boss PS-6 Harmonist. It's quite a cool box of tricks. Part intelligent pitchshifter, part chorus, and part Whammy.

Why did I get this?

I sent my other multi-effects back home, and now I'm looking into battery-operated, or DC powered stomp boxes for possibly my busking project. I saw a nice shiny 20th anniversary Whammy, but was put off by the AC only requirement, and it's quite pricey for what it is.

I looked around for other alternatives, and this Boss looked like just what I was looking for.

The guy had it marked for free shipping, but after I won the auction admitted he made a mistake :( Still, it looks brand new, save for the slightest bit of dust, and I saved about 4,500 yen off a new one, so I'm pretty pleased. It's a LOT of fun to use.

With my sustainer-equipped Steinberger, I managed to coax some very trippy S-Bend (Whammy) tricks from outer space, and organ-like drones playing three part harmonies on single notes! It's very handy for my White Stripes "7 Nation Army" style bass lines, and Radiohead "Iron Lung" impersonation. The detune is convincing enough to make me not have to buy a Chorus pedal.

I think I'll have to get me some more guitar leads to connect this up to my looper and delay pedals, but I think it's going to take it to the next level!

Speaking of the Echo Park, I gave it a pretty good run through finally, listening to it through my laptop. I'm really digging the "old school" analog repeats, and self-oscillation. I think it sounds amazingly awesome to my bad ears. I wanted to sample some lines for some trip-hop style inspiration.

Only thing I'm not too pleased about is its attitude to batteries. I put a just bought (although a 100 yen shop 9V) battery inside, and I swear after only a couple of minutes it was already saying the battery was low and flashed red! I tried the same "low" battery in the Boss, and it was as happy as a pig in ****. It works fine on my Eneloop power supply though. To you Echo Park users, is this normal battery performance?

I kinda wished I didn't send my Wah home. That's on my next "to get" list. I tried a Behringer Hellbabe, that sounded and felt completely amateur, but a nice and cheap 2,100 yen. The Ibanez Weeping Demon was the second I tried, and it wasn't bad at all. I also liked that it turned on automatically from placing my foot on the pedal. REALLY nice idea. It was 5,980 yen.

I'm thinking of getting a Boss Pw-10 V-Wah. I tried one in Shinjuku and quite liked the variety of wahs, and the univibe. It could double as a dirt box, but I wasn't overly pleased with the overdrives. Anyone want to sell me one cheap?

I can't wait to put all this stuff together. It'll be like the keymaster and gatekeeper getting together for world domination, or something like that. Mmm.. harmonist. I definitely need more "harmony" in my life.

Eneloop Music Booster

2011-06-02T23:59:00.002+09:00

With the "rainy season" supposedly in full swing, my hopes for a break in the weather today allowing me to go to the park and play me some guitar, were dashed.

I didn't want to stay in the apartment AND I did want to go to Ochanomizu/Akihabara, so at about 2.45pm I grabbed my umbrella and even decided to walk there. It's a bit of hike made longer by the rain but better than staying in on my day off.

Letting me go to Ochanomizu with the ever present temptation to buy more stuff I don't need is like giving drugs to kids. It just ain't right, is it?

Anyway, while I was there I was looking around for some neat pedals to go along with my newly acquired looper and delay. I've got on my mind a Whammy, and a Wah. The Whammy can't be DC or battery-powered for my busking project, so I looked at Boss for any alternatives.

I tried a secondhand PS-5 Super Shifter which could be useful for bass, harmonising and Whammy, but the newer PS-6 seems like a better unit so I'm on the lookout for one of them.

I have my Zakk Wylde Wah but I already brought it back to Australia *oops*, so I think I'll be on the lookout for a reasonably priced Boss PW-10, that can also double for a bit of a distortion pedal as well.

I saw a Crybaby that had "junk" written on it. I asked what was wrong with it, and the staff struggled with his English to explain what was wrong. Apparently the AC didn't work, the battery cover was broken, and the pedal didn't make sound! Ok, that was easy to pass on it.

One of the usual secondhand guitar shops was closed for renovation. I tried an acrylic telecaster that looked pretty cool, but weighed half an elephant. Sounded better than I expected, and the price was good. Shame on that weight.

My REAL reason to go out was to get a Sanyo Music Booster to give me portable power for my looper. The cheapest I could find it was in Akihabara. In other parts of the world it looks identical to their Pedal Juice. The only difference I could see was the carry case wasn't black.

The power cables are 2.1mm internally (like Boss pedals) so I also needed a DC 2.5mm plug adapter for my connection. I found online one for 60 yen, but the shop guy was a bit confused on the dimensions, so I got one in another shop for 100 yen, that was clear it was the right one. Better safe than sorry!

While I was in Akihabara I played a few cool retro LCD games - a beat-up Bandai Solar-powered Hikyo Amazon, and an immaculate Gakken Searchlight. I was *this* close to buying the latter. It was a little more than I wanted to pay for it, even with a 10% off today, but the deal breaker is that it had no mute for playing on the train, besides I can play this and many more great LCD Simulations here. Check it out!

Four Years In Japan

2011-05-31T23:56:00.002+09:00

On this day the 31st of May 2007, I arrived in Tokyo.

I had high hopes for a major seachange in my life, and what better way than get out of your country?

I remember on arrival that it was pouring rain and the humidity was fairly high. Shinjuku was slightly familiar from a few years traveling through Japan before, but there was a nervous excitement of something new.

The apartment was very far away from Tokyo. I had to pay my rent money upfront. With nowhere else to stay I'd stay there for the first six months.

I met my first flatmate. He seemed indifferent to me. He didn't look like someone I'd call "friend". I learned later that he spoke unfavourably about me in his blog. He took a LONG time to remove my name once he found out I knew.

Other teachers that started at the same time as me are long gone from Japan. It doesn't really matter as I never really bonded with them either while they were here.

Have things changed?

Well I put up on that "wonderful" social network of my four year anniversary and the reaction from my "friends" in Japan. What reaction? Wow.

Have I changed?

I thought that I had, but the more I think about it, I don't think a person can really change their fundamental characteristics. I believe I'm still the same person that got off that plane four years ago. Japan puts you in that false sense of confidence because you are the novelty here, and just about anything you do makes you more "interesting", because you are a foreigner. My job gets me to feel confident because well.. that's my job to make conversation, and I get paid for it.

BUT.. put me back home and I think I'd be back where I started. That scares me a lot.

My recent outings at the park with my guitar remind of my favourite memories of relaxing at Roma St Parklands. So peaceful and calming. The true friends I have here have been more than great, but there's something.. missing. It's hard to put into words but this song sums up my feeling. The production and singer hides the message a bit, but it's a great song.

If I left tomorrow I'd feel incredibly disappointed. Yet, I wonder why I'm still here. After the earthquake, my family were urging me home. But I'm not ready.. yet.

The Battery Hazard

2011-05-25T23:59:00.005+09:00

This is strange.

Did you know that you can't send batteries in the post?

I intended to send the shaver that I bought my father by EMS from Japan to Australia. They ALWAYS ask at the post office if there are any batteries. I feigned ignorance and persuaded them to accept the package. Time was tight and I had to get to work. I didn't want to waste time.

I checked the tracking and my heart stopped when I saw "Return To Sender". I immediately thought I'd wasted all this money on a shaver that was un-sendable, or somehow unscrewing it to remove an non user-serviceable internal battery.

Strangely though, the problem they had was just the cleaning alcohol. I removed it and it was magically back on its way. Originally posted Tuesday the 10th (and resent on the 12th), arrived a whole week later on the 17th!

Now that I'm using my GH1 as my main camera, I decided to send my old Nikon back home. I thought if the shaver got through, I'd try not only the camera, but my iPhone 3G as well.

Again I checked the tracking and BAM! Return to Sender again..

I got the call on Saturday that it was in Shinjuku, so I diverted my drinking plans to make an emergency rendezvous with my package. Of course this time it HAD to be the battery.

Again strangely it was ONLY the iPhone that was red-marked as undeliverable. Looks like with their x-rays they could tell. With a crossing of his hands to say no, the post clerk told me "Smartphone". Once again removing the iPhone, the camera was allowed through. I was relieved that at least the camera could go. May 19th arrived May 25th - Not too bad but it would've got there quicker without this debacle.

I don't get it. Why can you fly on a plane up to your eyeballs with mobile phones, laptops, and bottles of intoxicating, yet flammable alcohol, yet with the post they make you jump through hoops trying to send them?

My guess is a curbing of overseas parallel imports, and international internet auctions. Sure, there was a case of exploding laptop batteries in a Sony laptop years ago that might have prompted this, but what doesn't have a battery these days?

Crazy. Seems like it's not just Japan though. In Australia lithium batteries can only be send by road with Australia Post.

What a headache.

Boomerang Looper

2011-05-25T23:59:00.004+09:00

After I watched Heth and Jed in New York, and playing a lot of guitar in Yoyogi Park now that the weather had turned from freezing to heatwave, I've been inspired to push myself a little bit more to get out there.

I've given up on waiting for someone to jam with, instead figuring out a way just to do it all myself. Watching the guys on Staten Island gave me the idea of using a looper to add my own accompaniment on the fly. I thought of pre-recording some tracks onto my iPod, but I like the idea of a one man band doing it "on the spot".

So my search for a looper was on. I watched Heth explaining his setup on Youtube, and noticed he had a Boss RC-20XL loop station on his pedal board.

I looked it up and a LOT of other loopers.

It's advantage is it's battery powered, but I wanted more than a single overdubbed loop. Although, check out KC Tunstall and her E2 Headrush performance here and a Jackson 5 cover here. Great stuff.

The Boss RC-50 looked like just what I was after but it looked pretty big, and required to be plugged into a power supply. The reviews weren't that great, but there is a fantastic demo of it here that almost convinced me to get it.

Another option was to just buy a midi pedal board, and use the great (and free!) Mac program "Sooperlooper". It's quite easy to use and a lot of fun! The only negative here is that I'd be carting along a laptop where I play. Not the most ideal busking situation, but it was one I've been close to going for.

For something different I played around with Everyday Looper on the iPhone. This was a lot of fun too, but using it live with a guitar might be a little tricky trying to keep my hands free to play, rather than touching the screen. Highly recommended though!

Finally I wanted something small, but ticked all the boxes of what I was after. There are many favourable reviews of the Boomerang III phrase sampler.

I watched this video that shows just what this baby is capable of. You can have up to 4 loops with one of them being a master percussive loop that can continue behind all the other loops. That's what I had in mind so this should be perfect! Well, almost perfect. One "problem' is that it can't be powered by batteries.

Mike suggested a Duracell Powerpack but unfortunately here in Japan they can't be found. The closest I'm thinking of is an Eneloop Pedal Juice. Here they call it "Music Booster". It's a 9V Lithium-ion battery pack. According to the manual it says it can run off DC power, but I'm still waiting for Boomerang Music to get back to me about that. It might only give me 2 hours power but the Eneloops are much cheaper here in Japan that I could probably get two.

The Boomerang's made in the US and is probably considered a boutique pedal that it's hard to come by it here, but out of the blue like someone read my mind I saw one in a local music shop for sale and I jumped on it!

I made the trip out to Ikebukuro today to buy it. My first impression is that it looks bigger than it does in photos. For some reason I expected it to be about the same size as my Adrenalinn. In hindsight that would be totally impractical. This size leaves enough space to comfortably hit the footswitches.

They had trouble getting an input level, but it looks like the cord inputs are auto-sensing, so I suggest powering it down and on again, and it worked. It was mostly intuitive, but for all it can do I really needed a bit of owner manual help to know how the buttons functioned.

But you know I'm excited. Finally I might be able to realize those sounds in my head of my songs, and covers, that I don't need anyone else to help me do.

Busking may be my answer after all. Back to the boys for some more inspiration. Check this out too!

Three Year Visa.. Again!

2011-05-19T23:59:00.001+09:00

I received my postcard to come back into the Immigration office on Friday the 13th (lucky for some I guess). I was surprised that it only took 11 days to get my notification. I thought that the best time to go would be on my day off.

I planned to go to the park as well later in the day, so I decided to take my acoustic guitar along for the trip. It was a pretty hot day. It probably wasn't such a good idea as I also decided to walk from Shinagawa like I usually do. Even though it isn't the heaviest instrument, it was more of a burden than anything. The chu-his I put in my pocket probably didn't help too much either.

I arrived at 1pm and was fortunate enough that I was at the front of the line at the Permission Counter A. Before waiting in line I made sure to get my revenue stamps from the AMPM convenience store on the ground level - 4,000 yen for the visa extension stamp, and for good luck I got a 6,000 yen multiple entry stamp.

The approval counter is located on the same second floor as where I put in my application, but is on the right hand side. I followed a yellow A line on the floor. Once I handed in my revenue stamps and passport, I waited patiently for my number to be called. I wasn't feeling lucky. My passport expires before a whole three years is up, so I was figuring I'd only get a one year approved.

After about 35 minutes I went to the counter... and I got another 3 years! (I can see my parents reaction now as "LOL Wut?!?")

Whether I stay that long is probably doubtful, but it made me happy that I HAVE this option if I want it. Another teacher got another one year, so I don't know what it was that made them give it to me. The multiple entry visa (which costs more)? or my happy, smiling face?

As if I needed a reason I wanted to drink, so with a little extra spring to my step I made my way to Yoyogi Park to celebrate my "win". The other guys couldn't make it, but I didn't care. I had a little victory and I wasn't going to waste it.

I got there about 230-3. There's always quite a few people around enjoying the park. I sat down under a bit of shade that looked out onto the pond. This reminds me of Roma St Parklands where I did much the same thing.

I waited a short while to take in the tranquility, then broke open my first chu-hi and took out my guitar to play some tunes.

Although no one came directly up to me, quite a few people came fairly close sitting nearby and listening to me play. Two girls even managed to fall asleep on the grass. I guess my playing has that effect on some girls. A Japanese guy said he liked it, and asked to take my photo. I said ok, but I didn't look at the camera while I played. This definitely didn't happen back home.

As it got much cooler and closer to six I made my way to Shibuya to continue drinking with a friend at a bar. I had an "interesting" confrontation with one of those bad gaijins you hear about, but once they were gone, things were back to normal.

Well normal enough for Tokyo.

Echo Park

2011-05-15T23:59:00.001+09:00

Of course I didn't need it but G.A.S. is hitting me bad. I haven't bought a guitar for a while, but going into guitar shops is just asking for trouble.

I liked to have a cool delay pedal and the Line6 Echo Park was looking at me being the glass and said, "Buy me". It was only about 6,000 yen, so not such a great loss. I knew I'd be kicking myself if I passed it up. It wasn't brand new but good enough for the price.

There Were Pandas?

2011-05-04T23:59:00.009+09:00

In Japan the fourth of May is Greenery Day.

Apart from being a nice perk of a national holiday, it's also a day of free entry into Ueno Zoo! The last time I came, almost two years ago was also on a free day, but it fell on a Thursday so it wasn't this crowded.

By the time we got there, we found a line that seemed to have no end. It felt like we walked around the whole circumference of the park and gave up near the entry where we found a much shorter line. Apparently that line was to see the pandas. Sure, I'd like to see the pandas, but I'm not waiting all day in a queue to see Pandas for only a few minutes. Even more bizarre were people cueing up to take photos of their kids with panda statues!

The tiger and gorilla enclosures weren't the best suited for crowds of this size, so I joked to myself we would not see any animals at all today. There were bottlenecks in a lot of places, and kids rudely pushing in front of me quite often. Little s**ts.

I brought along my GH1 camera. Since I bought this one with the smaller zoom lens, I threw on my Nikon adapter and connected my 18-200mm. It's been a while since I used it, so my first photos were terrible. The Nikon lens has to be exposed and focused manually. Getting used to it again, my photos were turning out much better.

With this long zoom lens, it was pretty easy to get this close up to a giraffe.

Even better is getting some nice examples of Japanese English like this.

Who needs pandas? The real stars of the show have to be the penguins. I could look at these guys all day.

Even as we left the line for the pandas for as big as ever. I had great timing getting this picture of the "End of Panda line" guard losing his hat. I don't know how that happened!

Since we were in Ueno, I thought it'd be a good idea to check out Yamashiroya. Another teacher told me about it a while ago. Since Kiddyland is a little smaller these days, this looks like the best big toy store of the moment. After getting a bit burnt out wandering the zoo, we didn't stay there very long though.

The Uniqlo store was right next door and they had their T's on a 990 yen sale, so I got these two. Yes, that does say rubber band. I like a shirt with some kana on it too.

As we left Ueno we made our way close to Akihabara. My father wanted a Braun shaver, and I found a limited edition one considerably cheap than in Australia, so I decided to buy it to send it to him. Later I'd find it a bit of a headache, as you'll read in a later post.

We asked Yamashiroya if they could match a deal we saw at Toys R Us in Odaiba for Singamajigs, they said they don't match prices *big thumbs down*, so we decided to make our way back to Odaiba.

We passed through Ginza to get some anpan, then through Shinbashi where I noticed the Nakagin Capsule Tower.

To me this is a good example of a cool haikyo-style building. With the ever present threat of being demolished, I hope they choose to restore it. Tokyo needs more of these amazing structures.

By the time we got to the Rainbow Bridge it was getting late. We made our way across going along the walkway. I could never get sick of doing this. Our sole purpose was to get a pair of singamajigs that were about 3,000 yen for two.

How old am I. Crazy? Was there any doubt? I think they're cool no matter what. And yes that is a bubble blower you see between them. Oh.

Visa Renewal

2011-05-02T23:59:00.000+09:00

I have this theory that when you wake up feeling depressed it's because you had a sad dream, or you realize you have to go to Immigration because your visa is almost expired.

My Visa is up for renewal by the end of this month. You can renew it up to two months before, but this year I was putting it off for as long as possible. I REALLY hate going there.

I don't think I explained what you have to do, so here you go -

There is a 200 yen bus that goes from Shinagawa Station to the Immigration Office, but like the other times, I walked there. It was a nice day and it's a pleasant walk.

Once inside there is an AMPM convenience store to get revenue stamps. 4,000 yen for your renewal, 3,000 yen for a single re-entry, and 6,000 yen for a multiple. NB: YOU DON'T NEED TO BUY THESE UNTIL YOU ACTUALLY COME BACK IN ABOUT TWO WEEKS AFTER APPROVAL.

You go up the escalator to the second floor and on the left side you'll see counters and a seating area. You go to Counter (B) to get your documents looked at (about 30 minute wait here), and there you'll be given a paper slip with a ticket number.

What you need is your passport, gaijin card, proof of employment and enrolment in National Health Insurance, and filled in application forms for visa renewal, and it's a good idea to do the form for re-entry to save you having to make an EXTRA unnecessary trip back to this place.

Once I got my number I waited about an hour to hand my forms in. YMMV depending on what time you get there, and how busy it is. Once forms are in, they'll get you to fill in a postcard with your address that will be sent when you come back in approximately two weeks to get those visa extension stamps pasted in your passport. I asked if 5 years was possible. After checking the guy said max was three years. Usually you get a approved a 1 or 3 year extension, but I heard a rumour that five years may be available in the future.

Walking back I could see that we weren't that far away from the Rainbow Bridge, so since it wasn't that late we decided to walk to Odaiba. Getting to the bridge took about 30 minutes. I'm sure people are sick of hearing me rave about going across the bridge on foot, but there are many great photo ops. This is my panorama "miniatures" version of the "island" you can see on the southside footpath looking across into Odaiba.

At the moment they are doing a trial of letting you take a bike along the bridge.

Unfortunately you can't ride it across, as they'll put a bike "skateboard" on your rear wheel. Still it's a great idea. Odaiba would be ideal to ride around.

This is a good place to take a date. We sat in a grassy area near the beach and had some onigiri (riceballs). I brought my 105 yen badminton set for a bit of exercise. They have quite a few mall shops to browse around too.

Being the big kid I am, we went to Toys R Us. We saw some really cute "Singamajig" talking plushies that we regretfully didn't end up buying. Who'd have thought in less than a few days we'd be making our way back here JUST to buy these?

Watch Back Remover

2011-04-24T23:59:00.002+09:00

On Saturday night after coming back from drinking I had a eureka moment to use scissors to open the back of my Trapezoid watch to change a battery.

I saw a video that showed the same idea that I had, so I thought then and there to give it a try. I managed to cause a few tiny scratches on it so I gave it up feeling defeated (and drunk tired).

I went into Akihabara today to buy a tool specifically for this purpose. It's three points fit into the notches giving it enough traction to screw open the back.

I found one place on the Internet that was a little over a thousand yen. We looked around if I could find it cheaper, but of that type it was the cheapest.

Along the way I bought a pink multi-card reader, and batteries for the watch. I didn't bring my camera for maid photos although it was the perfect sunny day for it.

Arriving back I wasted no time putting it all together. The back was screwed in VERY tight. There's no way I could have done it with scissors (or say, needle nose pliers). If you do this, get this tool. It will save you a LOT of heartache, and scratches. Trust me.

I like the old proverb, "If you get given a fish you eat for a day. If you learn to catch fish, you eat for your whole life".

Yoyogi Park Hanami

2011-04-14T15:50:00.002+09:00

With some good friends I was goin' to hanami like it's 1999!

The cherry blossoms were dropping their petals like snow.

There were quite a lot of people eating and drinking, and playing badminton!

The weather is finally warming up, so I'm looking forward to more park drinking. Let's drinking!

Chidorigafuchi Cherry Blossoms

2011-04-10T23:39:00.000+09:00

We'd been coming here every year to see the cherry blossoms but this year it feels kind of sad that they decided not to set up the floodlights.

Another kick in the face was the remark from Tokyo's governor, Ishihara stating that we shouldn't celebrate cherry blossom parties in respect for the victims of the earthquake.

I think if anything the people here in Tokyo need this more than ever. The cherry blossoms give us a bit of solace, and being able to forget about the troubles (and aftershocks) is really necessary.

Cheers.

New York 2011 Day 4

2011-03-27T23:59:00.001+09:00

Last day and the final time we'd get to eat this..

..and see this. *sniff*

My main regret is I didn't buy any to take back to Japan. Today was the last day in NYC, so we didn't have much left to do. I wanted to buy some guitar accesories that are cheaper than Japan and Australia from Guitar Center in Union Square. She bought some red shoes.

From there we made our way to the Central Park area. I wanted to go to the Apple Store, check out FAO Schwartz, and walk around Central Park.

The iPad 2 was out but I didn't feel compelled to have one. Biggest feature seems to be the camera that should have been on there from day one.

At FAO Schwartz they had the piano from the movie "Big" on display.

Being the final day, the weather was just about as perfect as it was going to get. The sun was out and the chill was almost gone. Just my luck. We walked around Central Park.

I was secretly hoping to see my squirrel friend and here he is to say goodbye!

New York 2011 Day 3

2011-03-26T23:40:00.017+09:00

Even since the last Cheese Day, I've been on the lookout for the best cheese I tasted that day, Tete De Moine.

As just about any food imported into Japan costs a lot, this cheese will set you back about 7,000 yen! In Australia it's pretty expensive but here in America it's still expensive, but a more digestible US$40 for almost a kilogram.

Luckily the cheapest place I could find it was conveniently located only about two blocks from the hotel at Ideal Cheese. Sampleman was happy and there is a nice aroma of fresh cheese. The guys were kind enough to let me take some photos too.

It was fortunate that we bought it today. As a last minute check I found out they'd not be open on a Sunday. Taking cheese back into Japan seems like it's ok.

Before we got the cheese, I thought it'd be a good idea to stock up on things that I can't get so easily back in Japan. Namely good anti-perspirant deodorants! I had a wonderful, long time in Bed, Bath and Beyond merrily throwing things in my shopping basket. Colgate toothpaste, sunscreen, Mr Bubble bubble bath and two Arrid XX Cool Shower deodorants. I picked up a cheap Moka Pot and a stainless steel thermos as well for good measure. I didn't really account for the sales tax, but it was worth it.

After wasting too much time doing all this we walked into midtown Manhattan's Rockfeller Center area.

Moving right along we made our way towards SoHo and decided to have lunch at Katz Delicatessen, most famous for the classic Meg Ryan "orgasm" scene in "When Harry Met Sally".

We had to wait in a line outside and inside the place was totally packed as well. As you can see from the sign, we were sitting very close to where the scene was shot.

We had one of their famous pastrami sandwiches. I'm pretty sure it's what Meg had :) It was amazing.

Feeling well fed we walked nearby to the Bowery area. I wanted to see the legendary CBGB, or at least where it once was.

Now the place is John Varvatos, an expensive rock'n'roll boutique selling overpriced wares to wannabe rockstars. Sure, it's slightly better than being turned into a bank, but this place smells like Ed Hardy consumerism. The punks must not be too pleased.

It's nice that they left a lot of the graffiti memorabilia on the walls and vents.

For the money I shouldn't have, but I ended up buying a pair of limited edition green Connies from there. They cost a bit more than they'd cost in Japan, but here in America I could've bought something similar for a whole lot less. Still about the same as in Australia, so not all bad.

She bought an "All My Friends Are Dead" book at the New Museum on Bowery. Her birthday was the next day so I got her a Marimekko bag from Crate & Barrel in Soho.

New York 2011 Day 2

2011-03-25T23:39:00.001+09:00

We packed so much into our first day the remaining days were quite lax in comparison.

The weather was much colder than last time, and definitely colder than Tokyo, constantly around the zero mark and even dropping below that. It didn't really make us want to do a whole lot.

After scoffing our morning Ess-A-Bagel, we decided to go downtown to the Ground Zero again. There's been a lot of progress and the site seems to really be taking shape. The towers are quite recognisable, as are the footprints of the former twin towers.
Inspired by the movie, "Working Girl", and the tightness of my wallet we caught the free Staten Island ferry to take a few photo ops of the Statue Of Liberty. I REALLY wanted to go up to the crown of Ms Liberty, but tickets to climb weren't available until May so the cheapest way to get a close enough view was to catch this ferry.
It was much better than I expected for the (zero) price. You don't have a lengthy security line, and the queue itself passed through very quick. It was going to just be an up and back trip. There doesn't seem to be too many people hanging around to look around Staten Island.
While waiting to catch the ferry back we heard the cool sounds of Heth and Jed. I liked how they fed their sound in a looper to provide a bit of a beat, and echoed sounds. Quite trippy.

Around Wall St I noticed a lot of fire escapes. I took a few pictures of them. Why? I don't know. It kind of reminded me of West Side Story.

Next stop was Little Italy. It's our first time here. It felt pretty much like a tourist trap, but we couldn't leave without having the delectable cannoli, and by night we had a pizza at Da Nico. Even with tax and service, it was much cheaper than pizza in Tokyo, and definitely closer to the real thing from Italy than Japan's version of what it should be.

New York 2011 Day 1

2011-03-24T23:05:00.003+09:00

Before the earthquake happened I had planned to go overseas using my "use or lose" leave days.

Out of all the places I'd thought of, America seemed to have the best fares. It was between San Francisco or New York. We probably SHOULD have went to San Francisco, but there were places, and things to do that we missed last time that it was a good enough excuse to go again.

I was in New York between the 24th and 27th of March. I intended to go the week earlier and changed because of what was supposed to be the last week of the kid's classes, but now in hindsight of all the disruptions caused by "311", I'm really glad we went when we did.

Our flight was to leave Haneda airport at 6:40 am, so we decided to get there the night before and "sleep" at the airport. There were less train services going towards the airport. The Chuo line even completely lost power for the longest few minutes. We were extremely lucky to make the last service going to the airport for the night.

It's fantastic that they are doing international flights to and from Haneda now. It's far preferable than taking the long trip out to Narita. The airport is nice. While we didn't get much sleep, there are plenty of places to crash for a snooze. There is also free wifi internet available.

Leaving when we did allowed us a full day arriving in NYC at 6:15 am.

We booked into the Pod Hotel in Manhattan again. For a nice clean place with the privacy of your own room, the price is great. I thought all the rooms were the same tiny size, but this one actually had a bit more walking space around the beds. Nice.

I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but one big reason of coming back to New York was the chance to get some more Ess-A-Bagel goodness. As soon as we offloaded our baggage, we made a bee-line to get some. I once said that there was a bagel shop in Tokyo that was close to these ones, but having these again, I have to say these can't be beat.

Suffice to say, every morning we'd be having bagels for breakfast. If I stayed in America too long, I'd be filling out my bones in no time.

Although we could see the Chrysler Building from a distance near our hotel, last time we didn't go up and take a closer look. Strangely we totally forgot to check out Grand Central Station too.
I'm a fan of the original Ghostbusters movie so the New York Public Library was on my "to see" list. None of the rooms looked like the haunted rooms of the opening scene (believe me I searched), but it was a bit of deja vu to see an exhibition called, "Radioactive". That hit a little close to home.

From here we made our way to Times Square. Nearby there were fliers informing of closed streets for a film shoot. Interesting!

An unusual building not too far away from here is the Flatiron Building. From seeing it in pictures I imagined it to be a longer building. Across the road we had some cannoli from Eataly. Mmm.

A cat was behind a restaurant window that although looking nothing like Nikon (the cat, not the camera), reminded us of our little camera-shy buddy in Tokyo. At first I thought this one wasn't real. She didn't move all that much. This one didn't care much for the camera either. Bah, cats pfft!

One very interesting urban renewal project in the meatpacking district around Chelsea is the High Line, an above ground disused railway track turned into a kind of park walkway. It's not totally finished yet, but it gives an unusual perspective of NYC elevated from street level.

Nearby there are quite a few boutiques taking advantage of this location. Another surprise here was Chelsea Market, a former biscuit factory turned into food shops and restaurants. Looks great.

We were both disappointed that last time we missed out to see the broadway musical "Wicked". So to end our first day we decided to try our luck hopefully scoring a set of tickets.

Being a weekday we thought we might have a chance. Close to showtime hordes of people poured into the foyer in large groups. I thought we'd have no chance at all BUT.. we got in!

Our seats were fairly close to the stage.

What did I think of the show? The story, acting and sets were great. I was a little disappointed with the songs. There was nothing particularly memorable. These weren't songs you'd be whistling on the way home.

Still, I was totally wrapped that we got to see it and it was a great way to end our first day back in NYC!

Earthquake Weekaversary

2011-03-18T14:45:00.005+09:00

Usually weeks pass by extremely fast here in Tokyo, but this week has been the slowest week ever.

I felt now was the right time, a week since "the big one" that I should update everyone and hopefully inform them of my experience here in Tokyo.

The overblown media attention has got my friends and family back home in hysterics worried about my safety here in Japan. So it needs to be said that I am safe and well.

People should firstly understand that most of the damage occurred around the Sendai/Fukushima area which is around 300km away. The destruction in Minami Sanriku was largely caused by the tsunami that followed the tremors. This photo essay by Max Hodges shows some tearful, but dramatic images.

Please have a good look at a map of Japan, people!

There have been so many reports of higher radiation in Tokyo, but from what I read even in a worse-case scenario of a meltdown or windblown radioactive debris and acid rain, the risk being far away here is reasonably low.

This video is a good representation of the Fukushima plant as depicted with Nuclear Reactor Boy wanting to have a poo.

Although there have been reports of rolling blackouts, I have yet to experience any shortage of power. It's strange seeing the vending machines switched off. Surely that will be enough to supply a small town of electricity! The train schedules have been cut back to save electricity but knowing exactly how they're running is still a bit vague.

The supermarkets and convenience stores are still devoid of bread, milk and noodles, (and toilet paper!) from people's unnecessary panic buying, but other foodstuffs are plentiful and I am not worried about that at all.

Reports that people are panicking and leaving Tokyo in droves is just not true. I was out yesterday and today people are going about their normal business as calmly as before.

What may be of concern are the ongoing aftershocks.

Usually in Tokyo it's not unusual to feel earthquakes, but ever since last Friday there have been so many I've lost count. What is a little more comforting is that they are about the usual strength (between 4.6-6), and last only around ten seconds. I'm not scared, but it does put one "on edge".

I am weary, but not so much from what is happening around me. The calls to come home make me tired. Four years here I have a lot to prepare, and with that a lot of "baggage". I'm not quite ready to leave just yet. Still a lot of unfinished business.

Before this all happened, I had already planned a short time-out of Japan. So, next week I'll be in another country, and have a much-needed reprieve from what's going on.

Earthquake!

2011-03-11T22:01:00.002+09:00

I guess this is one way to get me to write a new post.

I was just minding my business at about 2:50pm waiting for my train to leave, and there was this shaking like they were trying to lift the train up, and it got all rickety and started shaking more and more.

This was definitely the biggest quake that I felt since I've been here. Later I found out it was an 8.9 quake, bigger than the famous 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake!

We were told to leave first the train, and then the station. The announcements were in Japanese so I didn't know what was going on. For some reason I was thinking that I was going to be late for work.

I tried calling my workplace and the line was dead. People were lining up to use payphones. Cars everywhere were in gridlock, and people were walking around everywhere like it is when there is a festival on. So many people!

I found some wifi and let my family know I was ok. I even Skyped so I could show them what was going on around me. I waited and waited, and just decided to walk home. Lucky I have good bearings (and gps) to get back. Thankfully I wasn't TOO far from home, as they even decided to shut down every train line for the night.

From then, up to the time I write this there have been a lot of aftershocks, but nothing more than what is a usual rumble in day to day Tokyo.

Let's hope it stays that way.

Never one to miss a video opportunity I filmed the event as it happened. Yes, my heart was in my stomach.

What would you do in a situation like this?

The Gaijin Menu

2011-02-28T16:57:00.003+09:00

If you've ever travelled in Europe, I'm pretty sure most people have heard of the "tourist menu".

It's conveniently all the meals translated for you in English. There is also an English translation for the price, which with exchange rates in the SAME currency, means you pay a higher premium more than the locals.

Now in Europe I can kind of understand the rip-off mentality, but with Japan's reputed honesty, I'd thought that this would just not happen here. I never noticed it before today. I guess I was wrong, wasn't I?

Let's open up the shame file!

After watching the concert we went to Tsurutontan, an udon restaurant.

The food itself was very delicious. I had the Spicy Sesame Udon, and she had the Tomato Creamy Udon. See those prices?

Now, have a look at this receipt. Notice anything a little different?

Sure, the prices on the receipt are cheaper. I was with a Japanese person. Had I been with other foreigners, I have no doubt that I would have gotten the "special" inflated prices.

Has this happened to you?

Shame Japan Shame.

Andy Timmons Band in Tokyo

2011-02-28T16:25:00.001+09:00

Almost all guitarists are familiar with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. But Andy Timmons?

I heard the name fleetingly, but before today I hadn't heard his playing. I watched a few videos on Youtube and liked what I saw. In my opinion he sounds like a bit of a bluesier Satriani.

I saw tickets to his concert here in Tokyo, so as a last minute grab we decided to see him play at STB 139 in Roppongi.

STB is a great looking venue. It looks like a restaurant more than a bar. Everyone is seated and candles are placed at the tables. The size was perfect to watch an intimate concert. I can imagine jazz would be a perfect soundtrack to the ambience.

You actually feel obliged to buy food and drinks, but we didn't. It felt a little strange when we left as others paid at the exit.

Andy and his three-piece band played a great two hour set. His own original tunes are filled with cool melodies. There were moments of widdly-widdly guitar solos that could be seen as self-indulgent to a non-guitarist, but this guy sure has chops. His slower songs had more universal appeal. I don't think that really mattered though, as I had a STRONG feeling the majority of the audience were guitarists.

He's endorsed by Ibanez and has a signature model that obviously derives a strong influence of a strat, but with an Ibanez headstock. To me it looks too strange. Sound-wise it's a strat sound. I couldn't help but think he probably rather have wanted a Fender endorsement instead. Call me a purist, but I reckon he should be rockin' a real strat.

From what I heard about the show, I thought he'd play a lot of the Beatles Sergeant Pepper's tunes from his latest release, but he only did three. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" blew me away. Definitely one of my favourites. Good move to play as it again gave the general public a familiarity among his own songs.

His rhythm section was tight. The bass player did a solo spot that sounded good. He used an eBow with his bass that at first I thought was a sustainer pickup. It's the first time I heard it with a bass. Very creative.

I'd like to have taken more pictures, but again the photo nazis put a stop to that pretty quickly. As a guitarist if you do get the chance to catch ATB in concert I recommend you check it out.

It's not bad for a first night out for me in Roppongi!

The Battleship Building

2011-02-28T15:27:00.001+09:00

In other parts of the world it's called Urban Exploration ("Urbex"), or "infiltration". In Japan it's called Haikyo.

Basically it's the hobby of taking photos in abandoned spaces, such as old buildings, theme parks and factories. My brother had taken pictures of an old power station in Sydney that was used in the Matrix film, that looked quite cool.

Strange as it might seem, I like the look of decay, how the elements have taken over man-made objects and turned them into a "living" thing. Rust never sleeps.

I like the stylised "distressed" look of a Marilyn Manson video, or the stench you can almost smell in a typical J horror film, like "Dark Water" or "The Ring".

While not quite a haikyo yet, I heard about one place conveniently located close to Shinjuku that I really wanted to see. From information I found, it has been scheduled for demolition since last year.

EDIT: It's actually been restored, and was not to be torn down.

I was in Shinjuku today, but it was raining so I didn't bring my SLR. In fact I was probably not going to go there. The rain didn't seem too bad, so I decided to have a look.

If I didn't know of it I'd have walked straight past it. It's sandwiched quite tightly between two tall buildings, so it's quite easy to not see it, but when I did I was so happy it hadn't been torn down yet.

By the look of the top of the building, and the compartments it bears a resemblance to a battleship.

I would've attempted to enter had it not been raining, and that I only had my iPhone camera for pictures. That, and this sign also deterred me from attempting an entry. I don't understand much kanji, but I got translated "立ち入り禁止", as in "no entry" :( There were quite a few workmen, and the hallway was lined with blue tarps, so no real way to sneak in.

I hope to go there again though. If anyone knows a way in, let me know. I don't want to get in trouble, or worse, deported for doing this, but haikyo adventures sound really interesting, ne?

Mindcontrol

2011-02-23T22:02:00.003+09:00

I bought this red Uniqlo shirt a long time ago with the intention of screenprinting the Nintendo-inspired "Mindcontrol" logo on the front.

Looking around the DIY stores around Tokyo, I couldn't easily find the materials I'd need to be able to do it. I put it off for a while until I chanced upon a few shops that looked like they might be able to do it.

On Sunday we went into Shibuya and found a new store called smalldesign.

While we were there the guy was doing a "live" screen-print of Hello Kitty for a customer. I didn't hang around to have a chat but it seemed like he did prints using the templates that were already there.

Arton is another small shop in Central Shibuya. I decided to get the print done with these guys.

You bring the design you want and he does the print directly onto the shirts in about ten minutes. I already had the shirt, so the printing cost 1,900 yen. If I used one of his shirts it would've been 2,400 yen.

The print is ink as opposed to paint, but for a quick and dirty custom shirt it did the job. You can have it printed in any colour you want, as long as it's black though. I REALLY wanted white.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. With all the fervour of the new 3DS, I wanted to make my "statement". Let the games begin!

3DS My Two Cents

2011-02-16T12:16:00.001+09:00

With all the hype of the new 3DS, I thought I'd actually dig out my old DS from its Nintendo "house" under a pile of mess.

Since my world has become iPhonic, I really neglected it for a long time. It's still quite a bit of fun! I love the old Rhythm Tengoku, and Elite Beat Agents (wasn't there meant to be a number 2?).

Before getting to work I saw that they had some demo 3DS models for us to try out at Sofmap in Yokohama (7th floor of Atre).

I tried Asphalt, Street Fighter, Samurai Warrior Chronicles and Professor Leyton.

Overall the 3D effect is pretty trippy. It kind of reminded me of a pop-up book. It gave some nice depth to a 2D Street Fighter. With the faster motion of Asphalt, it didn't take long for me to get a bit of a headache though.

Should you get one of these?

If you take away the 3D effect (which you can do), the games don't look any better than a standard DS. It would've been great to see them up the resolution. The analog circle pad felt nice.

The region locking is a big letdown, especially for us foreigners here in Japan. Although I SHOULD be learning more Japanese, I appreciate some games in English. What if I want to buy a game in Australia? Too bad I guess.

Nintendo must've been annoyed about the flash cart "problem", but I see it as more sales of hardware. One of my favourite homebrew games is Still Alive DS, quite a cool 2D version of Portal. (If only they'd bring the real version to the iPhone).

With these restrictions I wouldn't be surprised if the hacking community race to break it wide open.

I think they have priced it too high here. Sure, the 3D is its dangling carrot, but is it really worth almost double a DS? They will retail here for 25,000 yen ($298 AU) without a game. In Australia, Dick Smith Electronics had a more reasonable pre-sale deal of $298 with a free game.

So for me it's a definitely maybe, at least when they'll inevitably bring the price down to a more practical level, and here's crossing my fingers to getting rid of that region locking.

Snowy Valentines

2011-02-14T22:33:00.003+09:00

Even though I've been here a few years now, it still feels weird getting chocolates from the women. Especially when there's often no romantic connotations involved ;)

The only thing I have to worry about is the "payback" on White Day next month.

The "wife" gave me these Demel Les Langues Dorées cat tongue chocolates that I remember getting before from her, but surprisingly I didn't document the last time so I can't tell when, but I have a strange feeling it was a Val's day in the past. Her and her cat fetish. Hmm.

This evening we had a fairly heavy snowfall here in Tokyo. From memory it's probably the heaviest I've seen since I've been here. According to this, quite a few people were either injured, or inconvenienced by it.

Luckily for me, I finish work earlier so it didn't cause me any problems. I got home before it really got started.

It felt like Christmas. Yes, the snowflake light helps to create the illusion, doesn't it?

I'm still waiting for the snowfall that lets me make the snowman I'm itching to build. Probably better that way though.

CP+ 2011 Camera & Photo Imaging Show

2011-02-11T21:37:00.005+09:00

You might remember this show from the time I went there last year.

I can't remember the last time it rained, but today was a virtual blizzard of snow. It's also a public holiday so with events a little thin on the ground lately, I didn't really want to miss out.

Shows like this are always going to be packed with some very fine Japanese booth girls. Myself, along with other *ahem* "camera enthusiasts" took the opportunity to take lots of pics of sweet young things. OK, I admit it, it's a nice incentive to come check out the camera company's wares.

I failed to mention in the past that I re-bought another Panasonic GH-1. This time I made the menus English, and did a few mods.

I actually bought it virtually to this day in November, but I was still using my Nikon the whole time. I did a quick test yesterday with all my Nikon lenses with a Novoflex adapter. At first it was a bit confusing how to set it up, but once I figured it out, it's actually pretty easy. With third party lenses I have to set aperture, shutter speed, and focus manually.

So today would be my first official outdoor test. I was going to use the 50mm, but I didn't want to change lenses, so I settled for the more versatile 18-200. Apart from forgetting to check the exposure, most of the photos came out really good!

Like I've said before, for indoor photography I think the Nikon has less misses, but what I missed with the GH1 was the video. With my lens adapter, I plan to have quite a bit of fun trying some interesting things out.

I didn't do any video from this camera. Instead while resting my weary feet (and eyes), I did yet another brief time lapse from my iPhone.

The Drugs Don't Work

2011-02-03T21:00:00.000+09:00

I really try to avoid going to the doctor.

In Japan it's pretty easy to get sick, with the close proximity of people on the trains, and to quote another teacher's comment, the "germbags" that come into the kids classes. After they cough, I REALLY don't want to touch the flash cards after they have.

Anyway, like I said, if I can withhold paying a visit to the doctor I will. There've been times when I thought I had a cold or something, but it wasn't worth the cost of seeing a doctor, or missing a day of work.

On Saturday afternoon I had some aches in my shoulders, and I was unusually exhausted by the end of the day. At the end of that shift I made a makeshift bed out of cushions to rest a while before going home.

On almost arriving home I felt short of breath, and had to take quick, sharp breaths. I couldn't sleep on my stomach or on my side. My chest felt tight, and uncomfortable. You'd think that'd be reason enough to see a doctor immediately, but luckily by the next morning I was breathing normally. Only this time I was feeling dizzy.

Going to work on the Tuesday my head was spinning a little. It's not the worst I had it, so I just soldiered through the day reasonably ok.

It was still lingering on Wednesday so I called in sick. I was going to see the doctor in the afternoon, but it looks like it just so happened that he was finished by midday, so I had to go in today.

He gave me some drugs, and organised a blood test. According to the test he figured I just had something like a cold. I don't know if its just me, but I think medicine in Japan is quite weak, and while I was feeling better eventually, I swear the same symptoms back home were alleviated in a day or two.

For days after I was still feeling weak. It just makes me think this medicine is just a placebo. A good but virtually unavoidable rule in Japan, is that you just don't get sick here, it sucks. If you don't know where your nearest English speaking doctor is find out now, before you get ill.

Super Great! Welcome To The Cheap Seats

2011-01-20T22:53:00.004+09:00

I saw this on a truck ages ago but I didn't have enough time to stop and take a snap. While the guy was unaware sleeping behind the wheel, I stealthily moseyed up with my iPhone and took a quick one. Yay!

Apt to this title, I was feeling "super great" when on Monday I snapped up cheap tickets to both Sting's "Symphonicity" (17th Jan), and Mary J. Blige's "Music Saved My Life" (20th Jan) tour.

When Sting came to Japan last with the reformed Police, I was kicking myself for missing out on what would've likely been a last chance event. I've never seen him before live, and with an orchestra my interest was more than piqued.

The tickets were listed at 12,000 yen. I thought the orchestra was an interesting gimmick. Sting's material suits an orchestra quite well, particularly "Russians" and "Fields of Gold". The rockier songs made the orchestra seem a little redundant though. While the mix was extremely clear, I'm sure he could do a concert like this with keyboards filling out the sound perfectly well.

His singing was top notch. When singers that have been around as long as he has, you always wonder if they've lost the magic. Sting's still got it. His backing singer on the other hand, didn't quite "wow" me. She sang good enough, but her movements seemed a little overdramatic for me. Speaking of drama, did we REALLY need to have couple dancing for "When We Dance"? OK, I get it. Where's the cheese?

The guitarist pulled some great tone from his Les Pauls. Listening to the recordings I never suspected they were Gibsons.

Our seats were practically right at the back of the (legendary) Budokan (actually 2nd last seat). I shouldn't have expected that much for the price I paid. At times I looked at the stage and thought, "Is it really him down there?" He did an almost 3 hour set, so you can't say it wasn't worth it. Definitely a Symphonicity show to catch.
I have to say that before I bought the ticket, I wasn't a big fan of Mary J. Blige. In fact most R'n'B leaves me quite a bit "meh" with its sameness. Listening to her setlist before we went didn't change my mind on this. Her most recognisable classic song is "Family Affair", which undoubtably brought the house down.

Tonight she owned this crowd. Ms. Blige definitely knows how to work the room. If there wasn't a person moving, that person would not have a pulse. There was some serious booty shaking going on. Oh, and I loved her "lightsaber" mic stand. Very cool!

Unlike someone other R'n'B "acts", the tight backing band weren't hidden, and the backing dancers weren't onstage outstaying their welcome either.

I didn't get the chance to see Whitney Houston, but from what I've heard of her lacklustre performance, Mary J. has the well-deserved Queen's crown of R'n'B. She did short versions of a lot of the songs but her set was close to two hours, so I guess she had to do that to fit as much of her repertoire in!

The JCB Hall is a smaller room than the Budokan so our seats were much closer to the stage making it a much more satisfying experience. I didn't like how we were "obliged" (meaning "HAD TO") buy a 500 yen drink on entry. What's up with that? We didn't have to do that when we saw John Mayer in the same venue.

Check her out, even if you aren't a fan. This is a great show.

Kinshicho

2011-01-05T23:59:00.002+09:00

Usually Wednesday is my Yokohama day.

Coming back to work on the first day I was instead stationed at Kinshicho. I often pass by this station. It's a very active area, although there aren't too many shops to my liking. How do I judge that? No UFO catcher arcades, or guitar shops.

One great thing about coming here is that I get the chance to take some pictures of the Tokyo Sky Tree. Last time I came here it was 398m high. Today it's already up to 539m.

Like before there are still many people watching it's progress. I've even saw tour groups! There was a strategically placed Sky Tree cafe along the main road, so there's no shortage of people looking to cash in on it's location.

Even though it's not completed yet, the main structure is quite visible with only the last 100m of spire/antenna left to go. As well the neighbouring building is taking shape.

Passing by on the train everyone always checks out its progress, including me.

Won't be long till it's finished.

Price Off! Off! Off!

2011-01-04T23:59:00.002+09:00

We made our way to Yokohama a second time these holidays.

Often Ishibashi has 10% off sales on it's used music gear, and this weekend I put on hold a very new Ibanez floral Jem. Before I was planning to buy it, I had to try it out, so that's why we went out to this part of town. I love Yokohama though. So it's not like I need an excuse to be here.

I found the shop that sold the Korean snacks that I got as my secret santa present at the Yokohama Christmas party. I don't know what these are called but they taste like heaven. Best way to describe it is sweet and spicy. I'd give the link to their website, but it brings up a malware warning, so maybe that's not such a good idea.

Before we went there we walked over to Minato Mirai, towards the red brick warehouse. Something that is really cool there is a temporary outdoor skating rink, Artrink. It'll be there until the 28th of February. Entry is 500 yen (adults), and 500 yen for skate hire. What a great idea! All I need to do is learn to skate.

We've walked along the Osanbashi pier area before, but I thought it was a restricted area leading onto the freeway. It's actually a port terminal for cruise ships! This time there were two cruise liners docked, so we had a closer look this time. From underneath it looks like an airport terminal, but you can walk along the roof which resembles waves. It was very cold and windy. I think this'd be a good place to come during the day.

We were thinking of walking to Yokohama's Chinatown, but it was getting late, so were headed back towards Yokohama station.

So what about that guitar? I got cold feet. (I heard my mother's voice). To be honest I like the original 80s floral design a whole lot better, AND there was another one on my mind too, so I hesistantly (after trying for a further discount) let it go. Saved yet again.

We had a Gyu Kaku dinner before heading back home.

Valve Pack

2011-01-03T23:55:00.000+09:00

I don't really have to mention when the coffee runs out, but I picked this up in Yamaya today. The only reason I chose it was because it was the cheapest one to get.

Only later did I notice the typo, "Valve pack".

As a guitar player with a preference for tube/valve sound, I thought this was pretty funny. And wouldn't you know it, this coffee actually tastes pretty good. If you're like me and prefer moka pot coffee to instant coffee, keep a look out for the kanji 粉 ("kona"), or else you'll get coffee beans, meaning you'll have to get a bean grinder, and if you get a manual one it's a real pain to use every time you want a cuppa.

Mmm.. コーヒー

Open House - Imperial Palace & Meiji Jingu

2011-01-02T23:13:00.002+09:00

Most days it was extremely difficult getting up before midday. Some days it was something crazy like 2:30pm. With the constant rain around my hometown I would've probably slept most days there too. An expensive sleep!

Since I was hanging around Tokyo this year, I thought I should experience what Japanese people do this time of year.

It was WAY too cold to go to a shrine to ring a bell on New Year's Eve, so instead why don't we go to the most fricken busy shrine there is, Meiji Jingu instead! While we were at it, the Emperor opens the Imperial Palace to greet everyone a happy new year.
I expected the Palace area to look a bit more lavish. They gave us all paper Japanese flags, and once the royal family came out everyone waved theirs excitedly while yelling out, "Banzai!" They had sessions almost hourly throughout the day. It was crowded, but not as much as I expected. I enjoyed getting frisked by the female security. What was that bulge in my pocket? My wallet :(

There're plenty of shrines to welcome in the New Year, but it seems like the whole population of Tokyo chooses Meiji Jingu. I realized it's been three and a half years since I've was here last. Wow. Time has passed so quickly!

During this time I had mochi (rice cakes). I'm pretty sure I've had it before, but it's a traditional thing to have to welcome in the new year. It's also tradition for many people to die choking, eating the sticky cakes. This year's toll was six. A not so happy new year to them. It's also year of the rabbit. I'm hoping with that, certain areas of my life pick up a little.

Giddy up!

Expectation Leads To Disappointment

2010-12-31T22:16:00.003+09:00

Well here I am. This is the last post for 2010.

For the first time since I have been in Japan, I'm staying here instead of going back to Australia for Christmas and New Year's. Just for that reason it feels incredibly strange, even a non-event.

Outside at the moment it's 6 degrees outside. I find it strange that fireworks are not a part of the New Year's celebration, nor is "Auld Lang Syne" which although you hear it everyday as the shops close, it means nothing to Japanese as a NYE song.
What they do here is go to a shrine, pray and ring a bell, maybe watch a sunrise. Fireworks I hear, are probable at Tokyo Disneyland.

At least it's warm in the apartment. I hope to ~~catch a live stream of the fireworks from home~~, drink a chu-hi, eat a rice cake, and maybe blow my fake iPhone paper whistle.

Usually I try to reflect on the past year and make my resolution for the following year so here goes..

I thought that coming to Japan was necessary for me to change things that maybe I'd done wrong, in a sense starting over again. I think that life is quite cyclical, and this year (in fact every year since the first) has had it's share of deja vu's.

In short, I don't think that I've changed that much at all, and the a*holes will always be around! One of my biggest changes is that recently I've slowly backed away from Facebook. I was reluctant to become a part of it. For a while it was great. I got in contact with a lot of people from school, some people around here, and my buddies in Italy.

But then I noticed the lurkers, the requests from people I didn't know back in the day, generally the ones that I have no interest in keeping in contact with. I could say something about the lack of privacy, but then why have a blog, right? Same thing with email. I miss the lost art of the written letter.

Anyway, my friends know who they are, and I hope the ones that aren't, know that too. A big thanks to them for making me what I am, both good and bad. Oh, and a big shout out to the people that stop by here and say "Hi". Lurking around a blog is a bit creepy. I think on the interwebs it's easy to forget there's a person behind the words.

I'm not making any big predictions for this coming year. Maybe learn that guitar a little bit better, but plans? No, I have no plan. What happens happens. Expectation leads to disappointment.

Happy New Year.

KitKat Guitars

2010-12-30T23:59:00.005+09:00

Wow. Slept in till 2:30pm. Nice.

I usually put it off until the very last minute, but I decided to pay my ~~extortion money~~ NHI today. At the combini I also bought this Nestle mug pack. It was only 250 yen! I thought it was some kind of end-of-year gift thing, but it looks like it's an encouragement promotion for students about to do their entrance exams early next year. Anyway, can't argue with getting an (almost free) mug and coffee with a kit-kat.

After a very quick stint in Shinjuku, we went to Ochanomizu. Yes, guitar heaven so to speak.

I saw this clear plexiglass Les Paul copy and really wanted it. Why? The whole guitar is plexiglass, including the neck and headstock! Unfortunately, they said it was already sold, so boo hoo to me. Apparently it's a no name guitar, but for the 60,000 yen they wanted I think I would've bought it.

Later on in the day I saw the Ibanez Jem20th for 398,000 yen. No, they wouldn't let me play it. No sale to you buddy!

I tried out this Fender Splattercaster today. They want 54,800 yen for it. This is like the blue one I saw last year in Ikebukuro. Like that one, this one sounded nice too. I haven't decided whether it's ugly or beautiful. But do I need it?

I have so many now, you'd think I bought them as investments. WAY back in 1994, while we were trying to make it big *cough* in Sydney, I saw a Fender Custom Shop Playboy Stratocaster. T'was quite a shock when I saw one here. Shame they're asking 1,280,000 yen for it! Told my mamma I'm going to buy it, for a joke. She didn't get it. Anyways..

Before we left I bidded 21,000 yen on an desktop Evolver synth. I got outbid. There was one in the store so I tried it out. The unit doesn't have a headphone out so I was listening to it through only one of the speaker outs. I didn't get a good listen, but it sounded like the demos I've heard on Youtube.

Also there was a Korg MS2000. It has a lot of useable sounds here too. I didn't buy them. It's nice to be able to try these things out. I did notice a Roland Juno 106 synth. One thing I LOVE about Japan is all that yesterday gear stuff isn't that hard to come across, and all those sweet, sweet guitars are here too. Why would I want to leave?

Mickey is De Gas

2010-12-29T23:30:00.001+09:00

We bought discount tickets to see the Degas exhibition at the Yokohama Museum of Art yesterday.

Although I got up about 10.30, it wasn't until about 2pm that we finally got there. It's the last days of the exhibit so the line was long, and inside was almost uncomfortably crowded.

Most of the art were portraits of old people, ballet dancers, and a few tasteful nude paintings. While Degas was for sure very talented, this just reconfirmed my feelings that I prefer modern art and styles.

Once we left the final room, my eyes were drawn to the Surrealism section. If I have a favourite, Dali is it. It's like a warped dream. I could look at these paintings and art all day.

For some reason I like taking pictures of reflections. I took this picture of us in an inverted Q sculpture. Looks cool. Very surrealistic, no?

We spent a short time at Minato Mirai before making our way back towards Yokohama station. I had a sickly strawberry cream filled chocolate from Pocket Mart before we caught our train onwards to go to Kawasaki.

Before I came to Japan I only thought of Yokohama as a tyre company and Kawasaki for motorcycles. Funny.

The reason I wanted to come here was to check out the local Hard Off store. As soon as we got to Kawasaki, we started on the 30 minute trek to get there.

It's still my favourite. As usual there were a few things I was itching to get. I walked out only with a Buzz Lightyear. Don't look at me like that. It was only 300 yen! Did I mention it has a "big one" rocket with it?

While she looked around Lazona, there were a few shops I wanted to check out.

Not that I needed it, I picked up a Mickey Watch. I'm a sucker for old school Mickey. I like the subtle cues. It was a 5% off day and I had an additional 50 yen off, so I saved some small Crunky money change. Only 2,325 yen :D

Before heading back, we went to the Sanwa supermarket in the Lazona basement. We had some limited edition Walnut and Maple Haagan Daaz. It gets Jimmy's tick of approval. Get!

Avenue Q Ginza

2010-12-26T23:44:00.017+09:00

It seems to be an unwritten rule that if I leave my camera at home, photo opportunities will be more prevalent.

And so it was today when we got to use the Christmas present I gave, that I was REALLY wishing I had brought it along. As I mentioned last post, said present was a ticket to see Avenue Q at Tokyo International Forum in Ginza.

The first I heard about this show was while listening to InterFM on my way to work last week. They played one of the songs, and from what they said it seemed like an adult version of Sesame Street. I thought that I'd like it, but I have to say it was a fantastic stage production. Although a totally different concept, I liked it even better than "Chicago".

The parallels with Sesame Street are hard to miss. If you always thought Bert and Ernie were gay, and the Cookie Monster surfed places NSFW on the internet, then I think you'd like it too. The icing on the cake is a "cameo" with Gary Coleman. Yes, that one. And in this case he is played by a woman.

The sets, puppets, story and singing were practically faultless. The puppet actors are visible but not really acknowledged as part of the show. At first this was strange, but you soon accept it. We were on the second floor, at a little bit of a distance from the stage, so if anything I'd have liked to have been closer.

I laughed a lot, got a little misty eyed, and really loved this show. Unfortunately today is last day so I'm afraid it's too late if you're in Tokyo. If you get the chance to see it, I HIGHLY recommend you go. Just do it.

When it was finished we decided to walk around the forum complex. Also on today was the Hot Toys 2010 figurine exhibition in the main building. It was free so we thought we'd take a look.

We were led down narrow corridors by cute girls dressed in white. Made it look like something really special. When we got to the main room, we were presented with a whole lot of glass-cased figurines with extremely high price tags, and bass heavy "doof doof" dance music pulsating through the room.

We almost accidentally bought this one by going to the store area checkouts. "Only" 18,000 yen, yikes! I was thinking this would be the perfect place for guys that have absolutely no interest in women.

This is one of those situations I wish I'd brought my real camera. You can see the flash reflecting off the glass, and the exposure being too dark. The figures outside the glass came out a little better.

How about a Tokyo Tower-sized "Godzilla" Rocky Balboa?

I liked this Aliens recreation..

..but while a lot of the figures looked cool and all, I prefered the girls in white. Damn you, blurry iPhone camera! :(

Right next door to the Hot Toys exhibition there was a Omani Cultural Days exhibition. Quite interesting. It got me thinking that this part of the world would be interesting for a holiday.

The last two times I was in Ginza I missed out on anpan from Kimuraya, so this time we wasted no more time, and got there to a plentiful supply of anpan goodness. There were a few bread samples to abate Sampleman™ 's hunger too.

Yamano music is right next door, so I took the opportunity to check out the small selection of sweet guitars. Often on the ground floor they play jazz outside the main entrance which sounds really cool. Today's selection was the "Sonny Criss - This is Criss" album. In my old age, I'm developing a mature admiration of jazz and classical. Uh oh.

Next stop.. Sony Building!

At the moment they are showing (off) their 3D film of Hokkaido's Asahiyama Zoo.
Of course I made sure to have the way cooler, kids polar bear 3D specs. Hot, huh?

It's always fun to check out the cool gear in the Sony building.

Sony's mp3 players aren't as easily intuitive as iPods, but I liked the sound quality helped along by their groovy MDR-XB500 cans.

The bass was nice, and the rest of the sound was very clear. There was a little bit of leakage, but maybe not too much to be a problem on the trains. The price is quite reasonable too. If I didn't have the ones I have these would be a strong contender for my next pair. I was listening to Miliyah Kato's "Rose". I'm not really into J-pop stars doing American R'n'b, but there are some really, nice tunes on this CD!

There was some snow put outside the Sony Building to promote the 3D show. "Please Don't Throw The Snow Balls" is like asking for it, right?

After the disappointment of the temporary Kiddyland in Omotosando, I remembered there's a four storey toy store called Hakuhinkan Toy Park here in Ginza.

Coming here made me happy. Lots of cute and fun toys to bring out my kid ego. I wanted to take this cat home. It says "Meow" in Japanese ("Nya!"), but in English, "I wuv you!". かわいい!

Just before coming home we went to the Chinese gyoza restaurant in Yurakucho. I've mentioned it many times before, so look it up if you're in this area. Many delicious food.

Wow. Long post, long day. A good start to my New Year's break! Phew.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T23:52:00.007+09:00

I'm glad that the Christmas craft lessons have come and gone.

My favourite activity though was making the Christmas stockings. The needles were impossible to thread, but when they were finished they actually looked pretty good!

Unfortunately even though we had the Emperor's birthday holiday off, the powers that be made us work an extra day before Christmas. Luckily no kids, but it meant a fully booked seven lesson day. Thankfully it went relatively quickly and seeing that it started a whole three hours earlier it gave a bit more time to start to enjoy the Christmas holidays.

I thought to catch happy hour in the local pub only to find the place practically empty. They had the great idea to put me away in a corner away from other people. Great. May as well do this at home!

Anyway I made a very quick change of plan. Without buying any drinks, I caught the subway to Shinjuku to look at the Christmas lights around Takashimaya Square.

There were lots of people despite a windy five degree chill. As usual the penguins were out on show.

Here's a video time lapse I did on my iPhone. Brrr..

Before heading home we had some okonomiyaki here again.

It starts like this..

and ends up like this :D

Christmas day was fairly quiet, and sleepy. I gave her the Avenue Q theatre ticket, and I got two graniph t-shirts, this Animal Matrix, and this Control Bear one. cute huh?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Tartan Days

2010-12-21T22:56:00.002+09:00

I have to say I really love the EMS service. The first box posted on Thursday was already delivered by Monday!

The second box posted on Friday would've arrived on the same day if the Aussie Post didn't fluff the delivery address. Instead it, and the third box arrived today. Still, considering it travelled over the weekend, I think that is super fast. They mentioned that one of the boxes had been damaged, but I heard that all was received in good order.

I was in Shinjuku on Monday, so after work I picked up tickets to a theatre show I decided would make a good Christmas present.

There are many Christmas sales so we looked around and I saw some tartan pants in Taka-Q, next to ABC Mart.

I dismissed this shop in the past because it seemed like a very um, "metrosexual" kind of fashion. Quite appropriate when you look at the J-boys around here.

You're probably thinking "tartan?". Well, these are a bit more "punk rocker" than "avid golfer". I used to wear a pair back in the old gigging days playing in a band. I tried on a black and white pair, and a more reddish one. They actually looked pretty good.

I didn't have enough to buy them right then.I'd spent most of the money I had on me on the tickets, so I got them to hold them and I went back again today.

While I was there I went to the guitar store to try a Jackson PC-1. I tried it out a long time ago when it was something like 350,000 yen. At the moment it's 198,000 yen , and calling me. The gold hardware has a little bit of tarnish, but the transparent finish looks incredible, like 3D. I like Jackson guitars, but I've gone off pointy headstocks. This one has a Fender shaped one which appeals to me more too.

A Fender Triple Tele and maybe another Jem is also whispering sweet nothings in my ear. After the headache with that drum kit, you'd think I'd learnt my lesson.

Doesn't seem like it.

Choco Ring

2010-12-20T23:59:00.003+09:00

If you're in Shinjuku, go to the Marui, next to Bic Camera and Kinokuniya. There is a temporary Heart Bread Antique shop stall just outside selling Angel Choco Rings for 500 yen.

Basically they are bread pastry in a donut shape with lashings of chocolate and walnuts. To me they have a taste similar to Panettone, but more crispy than soft.

There is a playful website where you can control the rolls here, but it's much more satisfying eating them, and getting fatter.

I'm currently on my third one. You know you want it.

GET!

Omotosando Illuminations

2010-12-19T23:28:00.001+09:00

I've managed to survive three Christmas parties. (Yokohama's last week was a REAL struggle getting home I can tell you). Number three, although an almost total sausage fest, was entertaining enough for me to stay and get drunk.

At all three, I participated in the "secret santa" gift exchanges. Two out of three were bath products. This "Otome No Nayami" one was by far the scariest. Eww..It's going to take a while to get that visual out of my mind.

Anyway, let's just say I wasn't as hungover as I normally am, so it was that we decided to go to see the "unmissable" Omotosando Illuminations.

In my mind Omotosando is like a lesser Ginza. It has quite a few classy and pricey boutiques like Ginza, but nicely bypasses the snobbery. It's a stones throw too from both the more youthful Harajuku and Shibuya.

Apparently from 2009 someone decided after eleven years to put up a whole lot of Christmas lights on the avenue of trees lining Omotosando once again. There were lots of people taking photos.The authorities inconveniently blocked off the overpasses, likely to prevent the shutterbugs from clogging them up taking photos from above.

I'm sure it's a real PITA to put the lights up, but it'd definitely have looked a lot more impressive with a bit more colour.

Off the main thoroughfare there are a whole of small clothing shops. As we made our through the back streets I walked into "Sevens", a 700 yen clothing store.

I saw this Batman shirt on a mannequin. I thought it looked pretty cool, so I tried it on. For the loose change, I thought it wasn't a big expense so I got it. At the counter I quickly learned, just like the 100 yen shops that aren't, these guys conveniently left out the extra 5% tax you have to pay. 735 yen though, I can live with that. Just keep it honest, right?

One store i really like here is the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) store, in the Gyre building. They have a lot of cool stuff that would make great presents. It was here that I first saw my Issey Miyake watch.

Right next door there is an "Eye of Gyre" art space where they often show a free exhibition. On this occasion we saw the photographic work of Mika Ninagawa.

Most of the photos had a lot of saturated colours which really made the images pop. If you're in the area this is definitely worth checking out.

In the basement of Gyre there was a small food shop that gave out coffee and food tastings. Sampleman™ definitely got his fill.

Just before we were about to leave, I wanted to see the temporary Kiddyland store. They are doing a major renovation, so they have relocated to smaller premises for the time being.

Sadly, it doesn't have the "magic" that the old store had. This abridged version kept me wanting more. It feels like how "Blister" in Shibuya shrunk down and relocated in Harajuku, them too losing what made them great in the first place.

+1 to the lightsaber chopsticks and Heely's roller sneakers they had, but a big boo hiss to leaving out the Domo-kun toys.

What's up with that?

By this time we were both really hungry. At the moment Macca's are doing 200 yen Big Macs, so we had that before being on our merry way back home.

Drums Say Bye Bye

2010-12-17T23:59:00.001+09:00

I don't know what it was, but definitely the freaks were out in force on another leisurely Wednesday night station beers.

I was first accosted by what was probably the most busted sumo girl in Japan.

I thought she wanted to ask directions or something. She asked, "What is your country?" The first thing that popped into my head was "America". They all think we're American, so I thought nothing to perpetuate the stereotype. In hindsight I should've said, "Japan". Now THAT would have done her head in!

While I was sipping down a pretty bad, kiwifruit chu-hi (hey, it was on sale), there were a few other near miss Japanese "objects" coming our way.

As one woman approached, the other guys moved to the side leaving their bags unattended. She went right up to their stuff. I thought she was going to do a runner. I had my mouth safely buried in an anpan.

All i can say is it must have been a full moon.

The good thing about Wednesdays is I pretty much drunkenly fall asleep straight away. The not-so-good thing is that my day is at least half over before I wake up.

Last Thursday I attempted to post the electric drum kit back to Australia. I can't set the whole kit up, and it's taking a lot of space up in the apartment.

This time I was going to do it via International Parcel Post (or "by ship" as you might say). The general idea was that I didn't really need it in a hurry back home and it's a whole lot cheaper than EMS (Express Mail Service).

The English Japan Post pages are reasonably easy to understand, but you have to look around pretty hard to get the details you have to understand, like size and weight limits as it pertains to your country.

For the International parcel post I looked here.

The picture shows the "formula" for size. According to this (Japanese only), Australia is B. That means maximum length is 1.05m, and the length PLUS the CIRCUMFERENCE must not be more than 2m. Furthermore, for Australia the maximum weight allowed in is 20kg.

Still with me?

With EMS the sizes are a whole lot more flexible. According to this on another far away page you can send a 1.5m long package, with a combined length and circumference up to 3m! Still only 20kg though.

Anyways, the two boxes I had neatly packed were both too heavy, and too big for Surface Mail. It was a pain getting the boxes to the post office, and I just didn't have time to unpack and repack. By this time my morale was pretty low too.

It was going to have to be another day.

So, fast forward one week, and I tried it all again. The problem was the drum rack. The poles were quite long, and the only way I could do this was to make a custom box out of the plentiful cardboard I have in the room. Wonderful!

Even with the best I tried, I STILL couldn't make it fit the restrictive dimensions. I gave up and sent it EMS. The other two boxes I decided to do the same. I even threw in the Tickle Me Elmo as I don't use it anywhere near as much either.

It cost a LOT to send three boxes of almost 20kg each. The last was 150g over, so I had to remove one item from the lesser box to let me send them. Although I'm a little sad to see it go (for now), it's a relief I finally got it able to be sent.

What this has taught me is not to buy any more drums, or other big and heavy stuff. More guitars? Hmm.. I got to send two more of those back home sometime.. :'(

Jingu Gaien Leaves

2010-11-28T23:59:00.001+09:00

The Autumn leaves are still in full swing, so we went down to Jingu gaien to look at the avenue of yellow-leaved trees. Lots of people thought the same thing.

We walked close by through Aoyama as well. We went to Cafe Madu to have a matcha latte. The last time we did this was in October 2007! It's good having a blog to remember these things.

Walking back we were hungry so we stepped into Pizza Salvatore for some pizzas.

DS-1 Distortion Mouse

2010-11-23T10:34:00.002+09:00

This was a NICE present. Quite totally unexpected too.

It looks like your average Boss DS-1 Distortion guitar pedal, right? It's actually a computer mouse! I first saw one at Rock Inn in Shinjuku, although it wasn't for sale.

I looked it up online to learn that it was a limited edition item only available on the UK site. Understandably, it sold out in no time. So, the only way to get it is mostly third parties like eBay, or online somehow.

The tone and distortion "knobs" are left and right click, and you can see the scroll wheel on the side there. Very cool indeed. It definitely made my day.

Thanks.

Mt Mitake in Autumn

2010-11-21T23:59:00.000+09:00

I've mentioned Mt Takao quite a few times, and the last time we went to Oku-Tama. Today we went to Mt Mitake.

It's on the same Chuo, Ome lines as Oku-Tama, and takes almost as long to get there so we had to get up fairly early. For a Sunday this is always a struggle for me. But, before 10am we finally got to the station.

There is a bus to the cable car, but we opted to walk which didn't take that long and allowed us to take in some nice scenery. By the time we got there one of the buses just unloaded a full crowd so the line for the cable car was about an hour long, so we decided to walk up taking about the same time anyway.

I think Autumn really is the best time to go hiking in Japan. Lots of colourful leaves.

The highlights were the Nanayonotaki waterfall, the big Tenguiwa rock and Musashimitake Shrine. The view up top is quite nice too. On the way down we caught the cable car.

For me Mt Takao is still my favourite place to go hiking, but I really enjoyed coming here. It's definitely better than Oku-Tama was, a bit more interesting scenery, and things to see.

Essential Japanese iPhone Apps

2010-11-13T01:48:00.004+09:00

I must be bored or something.

I decided to make this video of the apps that get me half coherent, and living relatively comfortable in Japan.

First on the video is Human Japanese. It's one of the few teaching aids that keeps me interested with my ever-shortening attention span.

Japan Transit is the only English language train planner that I could find as an iPhone app.

It's a little bit limited that it only shows the next and last trains, but it gives good results, and considering it's the only one of its kind I'm happy to have it. There is a better Yahoo!路線情報, but it's Japanese only.

iKana was one of the first Japanese learning aides I used. It has a simple layout, and gives a painless way to practise learning, and memorizing the hiragana and katakana.

Kotoba! is definitely the MOST essential app I'm probably most thankful for. Many a time I have been totally misunderstood, I could get myself out of trouble by using this free one.

I've mentioned this one before. Radirou is great for listening to Japanese radio stations on the go. Unfortunately Japan only to you outsiders. I have the radio on my Nano, so I'm not using this one so much since I got that.

Fruit Ninja is the least essential of this bunch. It has taken its cues from a mini game of Rhythm Tengoku (nee "Rhythm Heaven" everywhere else.) It's a fun little time killer, and it kind of keeps to the Japanese theme of my post.

Make Out With Japanese reminds me of the "Make Out In Japanese" phrasebook that I had. Dang, I lost it around here someplace. This's a kind of Japanese girl dating sim.

Kind of fun. Ja ne!

Cheese Is Awesome

2010-11-11T22:22:00.012+09:00

On the way home from Cheese Festa 2010, I was thinking what would make a good header for this post.

I REALLY miss eating cheese.

Living here in Japan the variety is sadly lacking to what's available back home. You can get it in specialty International food stores, but you usually pay a premium for the privilege.

I'm always surprised, nay shocked, that virtually everyone there was Japanese. Japanese aren't too well known for their taste in cheese. There weren't too many foreigners around.

Just like last year, we got 4 sample tickets, A-D, that gives you a cheese sample from one of the four tables.

Again the assumed politeness of Japanese people went out the window. I likened them to animals, pushy and uncaring of others around them to get that morsel of cheese on a toothpick.

As it reached the last hour, it was peak hour from people finishing work, although the room was constantly full from the time I arrived.

We got some extra samples from the demonstration area. I didn't understand a word, but I was all too happy when I got some food. All this cheese was making me real hungry!

These Eru cheese samples from Holland were really delicious. There's a blue cheese one that tasted real good, and I'm not usually a fan of that kind of cheese.

The Parmalat Mascarpone was first served on a spoon and just tasted like whipped cream to me. The second serving was on a pancake with syrup, and made a good combination. Like I said I was hungry. I was very thankful.

It's hard to take these guys talking about USA cheese seriously with their cheese hats and ties. Still, I'd love to wear that long tie for my English classes. Laughter and frivolity would no doubt ensue.

Don't eat the green cheese! Well, I didn't. Not that I didn't want to, I just didn't want to use up one of those sample tickets.

While I really like the smoked cheeses, the easy winner of today's cheese tasting was far and away the Tete De Moine Swiss cheese. It WAS like there was a party in my mouth and everyone was invited.

They also gave an interesting alphorn demo. Now, I just got to find a place where I can buy some of this awesome cheese.

I'm actually posting this in real-time, rather than my usual backdating posts to give anyone that reads my blog every day (ha, I crack myself up), a chance to go. Even though it is Cheese DAY, it is held over two days, so there is still a chance to check this out tomorrow.

It's at the Belle Salle building in Harajuku. Put this address : 東京都渋谷区神宮前2-34-17 into Google Maps and you're golden.

What're you waiting for? Do you REALLY want to wait another year for this cheese-tasting goodness?

When The Morning Comes, I Won't Be Around

2010-11-04T17:44:00.004+09:00

Back in the 80's I used to watch "Countdown", seeing bands that inspired me to pick up the guitar, and perform.

One of those bands was called "The Models". In Australia, this group was easily as popular as INXS. One of the lead frontmen was James Freud.

Today I heard he took his own life. It's always sad when one of your heroes lets you down. It feels very similar to when Michael Hutchence did the same thing in 1997. A little bit empty.

I'm glad that I had the chance to be a part of the great 80's Oz rock pub band days. Sadly nowadays people don't care about the scene anymore, so bands like these may never happen again.

Thanks for the great songs and inspiration. RIP James Freud :(

Circumnavigating the Yamanote Line

2010-11-03T23:35:00.006+09:00

Today is the Culture Day national holiday.

If I realised in advance that I'd have two days off in a row, I'd have planned something really special to do. Anyway, we'd thought to make the complete circle of the Yamanote line.

To those that don't know, the Yamanote line is the main train line, that does a complete 35km circle around Central Tokyo. It takes about 1 hour on the full loop. Instead of doing it like normal people, actually CATCHING the train, we did it the more DIY way, and took over 9 hours!

At 2.24pm we said goodbye to Nikon, the camera cat, sleeping blissfully unaware of our adventure, in her box bed under our apartment.

We thought it'd be best to start in Shinjuku and head south.

First stop on the line is Yoyogi at 2.50pm. Not much to see here. Probably most known for the Empire State doCoMo building, and also a common place to change trains to other lines .

At 3.05pm we reach Harajuku, a really popular youth district of Tokyo.

LOTS of people around today. I stop to take a picture at Takeshita street.

By 3:20pm we were in Shibuya. Here is one place that I think it's safe to say the most popular youth area. If you're in Tokyo, it's well worth a visit. At the front of the station there was some kind of political spokesperson blaring loudly atop a van, and people were as usual taking photos around the Hachiko dog statue.

We got to Ebisu at 3.40pm. Most noticeable around here is the Hinomaru driving school building which looks like someone lobbed a huge red ball into the building. Quite unmissable from the train line.

By 4pm we were in Meguro. Like Ebisu, this area looks very clean, and it looks like quite an upmarket exclusive place to live in. When I took a photo of the Meguro station sign a woman thought I was taking a picture of her feeding some pigeons. As if!

Gotanda(4:05pm), isn't very far away from Meguro, but there is a definite contrast of surroundings. There are many more office buildings, and in my opinion this area's kind of boring.

Just before we arrived at Osaki Station (4:20pm), I couldn't resist hamming it up with photos of the cool Art Village gnome.

You can't tell from this picture, but his hat rises up high into the sky. You can see this quite easily from the train too. Not a whole lot to see in this area. Just a lot of business parks otherwise.

Getting to Shinagawa station (4:40pm) felt like the longest gap between stations. Here is a big station which serves as another hub where many train lines come together.

By this time it was starting to get quite dark, and markedly cooler.

Before arriving at Tamachi (5:05pm) station, we made our way over a big street overpass where you can easily see Tokyo Tower peeking between the buildings.

You might remember from my other posts, Tamachi is a good place to get off to walk along the Rainbow Bridge to Odaiba.

Also, if you happened to be at this station it's possible to walk to Maruichi Bagel in Shirokane-takanawa a few blocks away for a good bagel fix.

We pass Hamamatsuchō at 5:30pm and Shinbashi at 5:43pm.

We got to Yurakuchō at 5:53pm. If you're on this line , here is an easy stop to make the short walk to the expensive Ginza area.

While we were here we first went to Kimuraya to hopefully get some anpan. We JUST missed out. Instead we went to the Chinese Tiger gyoza restaurant and had a spicy sesame mince noodles, fried rice and dumplings. Delish!

After eating we finally get to Tokyo station at 7:15pm. For a place that IS called Tokyo, this area seems really devoid of life. Just another area full of tall office buildings. As a policeman might say, "Move along, nothing to see here".

We pass Kanda at 7:26pm and Akihabara at 7:35pm. It must be the first time that I didn't notice any maids around! We had to take a short break because someone had to buy some stuff from Uniqlo!

Between Okachimachi (8:05pm) and Ueno (8:20pm) is Ameyoko, a great little market. I'd never been here before. Lots of shoes, and clothes, and other stuff.

I saw some "Basic Creative Reasonable" shoes that were a VERY close copy to another brand for only about 6,000 yen. I'll have to get a pair or two next time I'm here. Also worth checking out Ueno Zoo here too.

In Uguisudani (8:33pm) you can't help but notice a LOT of love hotels in this place.

The neon signs have enticing names like "Hotel Charme".

Rest or stay?

Passed Nippori (8:47pm), Nishi-Nippori (8:52pm), Tabata (9:02pm), Komagome (9:12pm), Sugamo (9:23pm), and Otsuka (9:31pm). These places are just about entirely residential. From the train these places look quite uninteresting. From the outside they don't look as bad. Only come here if you live here or visiting someone from here. There was a busker girl singing sweetly in Otsuka. She might still be there if you go ;)

Things start to get more interesting once we got to Ikebukuro (9:50pm).

I used to not like this place, calling it "Ikky", but it has definitely grown on me, particularly the higashi (east) side of the station.

Someone once told me it's like a little Shinjuku, and that's pretty close to the mark.

We got a bit disorientated getting to Mejiro (8:06pm). Didn't see anything of note here.

Next stop was Takadanobaba (10:20pm). Most notable as the "birthplace" of Astro Boy. The JR line departure song is very recognisable. There were quite a few drunk university students around here tonight.

I'm quite familiar with Shin-Ōkubo (10:30pm). I come here (too?) often to check out the wares in the "TC Gakki" music store.

Finally we get back to Shinjuku at 10:40pm.

Was it worthwhile doing this?

It's one thing to catch a train and watch the world go by, but to actually walk around and see what's around gives you better bearings, and a sense of place, and knowing where things are.

BUT..

next time I'm catching the train!

iPhone 4? Hai!

2010-11-02T21:10:00.002+09:00

I was really disappointed I missed out on getting that iPhone in Hong Kong.

I had a few choices - 1. Go Back to Hong Kong 2. Buy one in Australia 3. Get one from Softbank, and re-sign for another two long years or, 4. Buy a phone locally or from the auctions.

Yes, number 4!

I came back unexpectedly earlier on Halloween night, and scoured Yahoo Auctions for one. The one I found was still locked to Softbank, but was only 5 days old! The "Buy It Now" price was less than the "sell your soul" contract, and even cheaper than the unlocked phone from Hong Kong.

On Monday I went to do the bank transfer with the details directly from my phone. I usually translate the kanji at home before I came but there was the bank branch I couldn't make out, so I had to ask for a little help. Funnily enough it was 六本木, meaning Roppongi, which is typically a foreigner area of Tokyo.

The guy lived locally and sent it quick so I received it the next day. It was the same Kuroneko delivery guy. He must think I'm rich with all the junk I buy. It looked brand new, still covered in the protective plastic.

Because my SIM is normal size, I had to cut it. I was a little hesistant with the 980 yen MicroSIM cutter I'd bought in Akihabara on Sunday. It didn't have any instructions, nor did it even have a company name on it! There was a slight movement, but I just had a beer and made sure as much of the gold contacts was NOT getting cut. I only had one chance to get it right.

With a count of 1,2,3, I just pushed down swiftly, and was quite surprised how easily it cut. I wasn't game to use the supplied adapters to try it back in my old iPhone so there wasn't really any going back.

Thankfully the cut was perfect and it fit into the iPhone 4's tray exactly. I turned it on and plugged in my laptop. I was holding my breath those few seconds while I waiting for the phone to register on iTunes. YAY, it worked!

So far, so good. I've just about finished "terraforming" it to my liking. All I need is to wait a short time for the carrier unlock which is just around the corner.

Me so happy!

Kids With Knives

2010-10-31T23:59:00.000+09:00

With so many kids classes I have this year, I was thinking about the "fun" Halloween craft lessons I'd have to do.

If you remember last year I bought my Spiderman outfit and put it to good use, so in a way I was kind of excited to get into my "Spidey" persona once again.

Most of the younger kids, (and their parents) really appreciated the effort that I got dressed up. Even mothers of kids I didn't teach asked me to pose for their children! The older ones were a little bit blasé about it. I swear I heard "baka" a few times.

With the activities I got real tired blowing and tying a whole lot of balloons. There was a Jack O' Lantern lesson with real pumpkins that because they didn't want the liability of kid's cutting themselves with knives, they first expected me to do it with a spoon, but later relented and gave only me a knife to cut 4 pumpkins up.

Finally I was really looking forward to the Halloween party, but because of a lame ass typhoon, it got cancelled. Instead I went to a bar. There was a free shot for people in costume. Because there were already two others in Spiderman costumes, I just settled comfortably into my Long Islands.

On Halloween day I went into Akihabara to look for an iPhone 4, and buy some accessories. I found one in good condition for 57,800 yen, but as much as I tried, the salespeople wouldn't bring it down a smidgeon to make me plonk down the cash.

I bought the accessories though, a 980 yen MicroSIM cutter, and a 380 yen bumper case. All I need is the phone now!

Being in geek central, I expected more people dressed up, but it was very low-key. I guess with last year having Halloween on a Saturday makes a huge difference.

As such, contrary to last year, I didn't wear my Spiderman costume like I did last year on the trains. The Japanese and law enforcement would just not understand.

Happyish Halloween!

Last Day In Hong Kong

2010-10-14T22:06:00.001+09:00

Our plane would be leaving not long after lunch, so we checked out fairly early to have a nice breakfast at the Honolulu coffee shop at 33 Stanley St in Central. I had the satay beef and macaroni, coffee, and an egg tart.

Hong Kong feels like a place made to shop, the best sightseeing is the just wandering around the place, the harbour and Victoria Peak the obvious highlights. Although my phone search proved fruitless, I really enjoyed my time in Hong Kong, and I can see myself coming here again. I'd probably stay in Causeway Bay on HK island next time. It's cleaner, and far away from those street hustlers. Can't beat the price on Kowloon though.

My last chance was at Hong Kong airport for the iPhone. Unfortunately even there they were sold out. Every time I see someone with a new phone, I want to shove it to the ground. I might have to succumb to the "dark side" again.

This Is Shitty

2010-10-13T23:59:00.001+09:00

In Mong Kok there is a centralised building with little shops selling all kinds of mobile phones.

I was hoping here I'd be getting a reasonable price for my hopeful purchase. Strangely enough they already have it in white. It's fairly obvious that it's not the real deal, but a good chance to see it in that colour before it's official. (I prefer black) The prices here weren't all that great, so the search continues.

For the first time today, we're finally getting a taste of the local Yum-Cha food at the London Restaurant in Mong Kok.

It's quite a big place. It was packed with locals, and by the looks of things we were the only tourists there. Ironically with a name like that no one spoke any English which made ordering quite difficult. Lots of delicious food though.

After here we went back to Tsim Sha Sui, to The Peninsula hotel for afternoon tea.

For two people it costs about $HK440, including a service charge. It is VERY sweet and filling. The Peninsula is a luxury hotel, so it's a good way to spoil yourself while you're here.

From here we walked along the Avenue of Stars along the waterfront. It's kind of a "Hollywood Walk of Fame" with famous HK stars handprints in the ground. I didn't know most of the names other than Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee.

Finally we took the MTR to Kwun Tong. Here you'll find another mega mall, APM. Just so you know. No luck here either :(

Guess what I was thinking?

Once more in defeat, we went back to the hostel area, just in time before happy hour finished, I went to get my pint of Guinness, this time a little cheaper. It's been a long day. I needed this bad.

An Apple A Day

2010-10-12T00:47:00.000+09:00

One strong reason for coming here was to seek out an iPhone 4. Damn, even the name of the hostel was a dead giveaway!

From what I read, it looks like Hong Kong is the cheapest place to get the phone outright and unlocked. I could get it through Softbank, but it will cost about the same, they'll lock me in for another two years, and lock the phone itself forever. Sure I could go through all the unlocking, jailbreaking, finger-snapping to have it my way, but I've had enough!

I had a chance already to get one, but at the time I made a wrong, wrong decision, and I'm still wandering the streets muttering, "the one that got away".

We started off in the morning at Maccas for a sausage McMuffin breakfast. I know, I know, I'm in another country. I should be sampling the local food, but there is a lot of reassuring comfort in ordering what I know, quickly and easily, and getting it.

After breakfast we thought it would be interesting to catch the Star Ferry across to Causeway Bay. It's reasonably nice to cross the harbour instead of going by subway, but it was all over all too quickly.

I intended to continue my "search". The stores weren't open until 10 am, most even later at 11 am. I saw a Tom Lee Music store which looks to be the major music instrument chain in Hong Kong. It wasn't open yet, so we kept a move on, passing a live fish market, and looking around Times Square.

Times Square, Causeway Bay.

This place is absolutely great if you're a shopaholic. Hong Kong does a LOT of malls. Great to blow your money. The customer service though is sadly lacking. One thing I noticed is that staff are often rude. I got told HK$6,000-6,400 with straight faces for iPhone 4's that were in stock. No surprise they were available. Probably because of these ***holes, it's so hard to get one from the legitimate sources. How about a smile, f******? It's easy to take for granted the best shopping "experiences" in Tokyo.
The Landmark, Central.

Not ALL bad though. We had a great sampling demonstration of Fook Ming Tong tea at Exquisivites in Central, which to me is kind of like Ginza, It feels very upmarket, and swanky 'round here.

From there we went up the "endless" hill-side escalator through SoHo. Lots of cool and funky cafes here. We came across a nice Italian deli, ilBelPaese, and shared a big, and very delicious grilled Focaccia sandwich (HK$56). Yum!

Next we rolled back down the hill and went to Admiralty. I wanted to take a picture of what I think is Hong Kong's most recognisable skyscraper, the Bank of China Tower. Some say it looks like a praying mantis. It definitely stands out among the other less "out there" buildings.

As it was getting late we caught the subway to Central again, to catch the tram to Victoria Peak. Coming out of the station, I face-palmed myself when I got just a good a view of the Bank of China building from this side. The HSBC building looks interesting around here too.

Victoria Peak is definitely a must-see place to come to here. We stayed from afternoon to dark where I did panorama photos of the day and night transition. Simply wonderful.
By Day.

At Night.

We started walking to the International Finance Centre near the harbour side, but u-turned shortly after as it was getting late, and I was hungry!

We saw the previous night that Delaney's, near our hostel has a two for one pizza night (HK$105-110). We missed happy hour by twenty minutes but a Guiness pint wasn't too expensive at HK$63. It's been ages since I had one, and it went down nicely.

*burp*

The travel adapter I bought in Japan was the wrong one, which caused quite a bit of stress. We bought what I thought would work in the Japan Home Center today. Arriving back to my power-starved accessories, I first plugged in my expendable Nano to watch it go to charge mode happily.

Stupidly I then plugged in my laptop adapter to have the fuse blow immediately. You could hear my silent "NOOOooo!" scream on the inside, by the instant look of disappointment in my face. I was considering options such as unscrewing the fuse out of the useless adapter I had with a paper clip. Hey, I was getting desperate!

Finally, a light bulb lit up, and I tried my luck with asking reception if they had an adapter. They did! A savior of the Chungking Mansions. I am humbled.

Really.

Jimmy In Hong Kong

2010-10-11T23:59:00.007+09:00

Surprise!

I needed to get out of Japan. Tickets to Australia have been quite pricey, so going home for a while has been out of the question. Even Christmas looks like not happening. It's going to cost me around AU$2000 round trip. Ouch.

I looked at a few airfares to Shanghai or Hong Kong, and the latter wasn't too bad. We checked with the local Japanese travel agent, HIS, and they were a rip-off. I just made reservations myself online. The Monday is a holiday, so taking two days off I had five days to do what I wanted. For the best price and time I wanted, I booked from Monday the 11th, to the 14th.

It took about five hours with a stopover in Taipei. From the plane window I could see the whole of Tokyo, Yokohama and even Mt Fuji!

Tokyo and Kawasaki.

Yokohama.

Mt Fuji. There isn't any snow yet, so not as beautiful.

I'm quite lazy at making itineraries so booking a place to stay was done just about the day before. Probably the most (in)famous lodgings in Hong Kong is the Chungking Mansions.
It's located in Tsui Tsa Tsui on the Kowloon side. From the outside it looks like a slum, but to be fair, a lot of the nearby alternatives look pretty much the same. There are a LOT of hostels in the building, and the lifts are SLOW.

This is the place to come if you want to be immediately turned off about Hong Kong. As soon as you get close the hounds come out and attack you with, "Need a room?", "Wanna buy a rolex/hash"? I had second thoughts about coming here at that moment. Definitely a lot of "interesting" types for tenants too. Being a female by herself here, would be terrifying. I was!

We went up to the hostel, and it seemed like ages to check into our room. The room itself is actually pretty good. It looked newly renovated, and wasn't too bad space-wise. The only little detail is that the shower and toilet are the same space, so splashing water all over the place is unavoidable.

We had woken up at 4:30 am to be at Narita for our 9:40 flight, so that and the effort getting here, I was quite drained by early evening. We went to the waterside and it was then, that I changed my mind about Hong Kong. The view of the harbour at first sight is fantastic. Million dollar view. We watched the "Symphony of Light", the Hong Kong Island skyscrapers doing a cool light show.
The meal on China Airlines was so-so, but quite filling, so I didn't feel so hungry till much later. For dinner we had a HK$40 chicken Istanbul kebab in a parallel street from the hostel. I hadn't had one for SO long, back in the post-night out drunk days.

Hit the spot right there.

Bi King

2010-10-09T21:55:00.002+09:00

For a quick and dirty translation of the current promotion by Burger King, this is basically all-you-can-eat Whoppers for 30 minutes!

I'm always up for a challenge. I wish I chose a better time to try it out though. I was in Shibuya for my usual Long Island Iced Tea Jumbos. I only had some peanut snacks, rather than the chicken and chips I usually get, so at the time I thought it was as good a time as any to put this, and my stomach, to the test.

To get it, you have to buy a set, a medium or a large. In my inebriation I heard "large", so my illogical thinking said of course large! So I had a large orange juice and onion rings to scoff through as well. 830 yen please.

Thirty minutes goes so quickly when you're trying to beat the clock. After getting through the first two, my stomach couldn't take any more so I just put the next two I got in my bag for a quick breakfast the next day.

While eating I had a nauseating flashback from the time I had the Windows 7 burger, so I'm glad I stopped when I did. The promotion is on till the 15th.

It's Automun!

2010-10-04T22:41:00.003+09:00

While on the subject of food..

It seems like ages since I'd done yakiniku (ok, that is a lie, I went there after I went to Zushi). Gyu Kaku is a great place that's worth it to get an all-you-can-eat fill. Unfortunately tonight we didn't do it, so the bill was 7,000 yen which seemed a little steeper than usual.

I happened to be in Shinjuku today, so I brought along her laptop, and my SLR.

I fixed the old laptop, but I wanted to see if her better, and newer laptop had a real problem, or just needed a new AC adapter. I went to the Sofmap section of the Odakyu Bic Camera where they had a secondhand one to try the power.

At first the sales guy hesitated, but he connected it up, and it worked. So there's one longer than necessary, previously unresolved problem fixed. I was hoping I could get an adapter than would do double duty on my midi guitar, but this Toshiba needs 15V, and the multi adapters here were only up to 12V.

In a fix-it mood, I also bought a bathroom towel suction cup from a 100 yen shop to attempt to improve the home button on my iPhone using this Youtube video. The home button pins are incredibly tiny, so I didn't lift them much at all. I'm possibly getting a new iPhone soon, so I think I'll leave it for now to give this a second try. I got a belt in a temporary shop too. 600 yen, nice.

My bag was heavy from bringing my camera, so I felt I should take a few shots. You might recognise this from a background of my blog.

I can't resist a few "typical graphical" errors that I see everyday. "automun" (Autumn) collection, and Look AT (through) here!!

I don't know if she's meant to look fallen over, but it's funny all the same.

On The Dole

2010-10-03T21:56:00.001+09:00

Sunday in Japan is 30% off icecream day at a few supermarkets here in Tokyo. It's usually my opportunity to stock up on the Haagen Dazs, and "ice candy".

It brings the cups down to about 198 yen. Haagen Dazs have brought out a few interesting deviations in flavours. I often get the Cookies & Green Tea, but I've also sampled the Salty Butter Biscuit, which tastes like slightly salted vanilla icecream, with shortbread biscuit, and Cream Cheese Raspberry, which really has a cheesecake taste! I've yet to try the pumpkin flavour but I'll be onto that shortly.

At the top of my list for best icecream in the world, you can't beat a gelato. One of the many things Italians got right. Just like back home, Italian gelato commands a premium price.

BUT

I found an excellent substitute right here in Tokyo that won't break the bank. Quite by accident I found this 6 cup pack of fruit icecream sorbets. The apple just tastes like, well, apples, so it's not the best of the bunch, but the peach and mango taste great. All for less than 400 yen. Nice.

The name "Dole" is quite funny because in British English, the dole refers to government payments to the unemployed. Maybe it quite apt then for Italian-style icecream on the cheap.

It's also cheap eggs day before midday, so I have to drag myself off futon with often bad hangovers to make the trip. Also worth noting is that a lot of supermarkets have a 100 yen day on Mondays. Things we do to eat around here.

T Shatsu

2010-09-26T19:48:00.011+09:00

I like a good t-shirt.

Being in Japan, I'm always on the lookout for cool shirts in bad english, but I haven't seen ones I've wanted to buy lately. Nevertheless, if I see a shirt that catches my eye, I'll break the piggy bank and get it.

A place that has some good contemporary street wear is Jackpot in Shinjuku. It's where I bought my first pair of red docs.

On the 23rd of August I got this Tuesday Night Band Practice shirt. It says, "If I wasn't born already, rock'n'roll would have to invent me". It looks like something someone in a band would wear. It was only about 1,000 yen, marked down from something like 7,000 yen, so I decided to get it.

A long time ago I saw this "Let Go" t-shirt by Imaginary Foundation. It has some really cool graphics that remind me of Ryuji Otani's artwork. At the time it cost over 5,000 yen so I hesitated. By the time I went back it was gone. Fortunately I saw it again on the 13th of September at half price so I snapped it up for 2,520 yen. Lucky I found it too, as it's been discontinued.

The shirt on the right with the dog is a Grinspoon t-shirt that I won on the 17th off the local radio station, InterFM. They posted it to me and it just arrived yesterday. I think it's pretty hilarious winning an Australian band's t-shirt in Japan. (I'm easily amused though). I really like it. It saved me $40. The "Grinners" are a cool band so I'll happily wear it out.

I highly recommend 76.1 InterFM, especially Global Satellite with Guy Perryman and Sayoko, and the Dave Fromm show, that plays a nice mix of hard rock. It was on his program that I deciphered puresento T shatsu, and shot off an inquisitive email to win the shirt.

While I'm on the subject of t-shirts, I saw online this line of interactive shirts by Noto Fusai. Strangely cool huh?

Tokyo Photo Exhibition 2010

2010-09-20T23:59:00.002+09:00

Today is "Respect for the Aged" day. To me it's another Monday off ("Yippee!"). I'm pretty sure most Japanese people are thinking the same thing. Usually when I ask what these national holidays are about, they are as clueless as I am. This is how I find out these things. Click here.

Like most of my days off when I have nothing in particular planned, it means a wonderful day of sleeping in, and dreaming of things I wished for in reality.

So I can tell people all the exciting things I get up to in my free time, I actually sometimes have to get off my ass, and go places. Today's place had to be Tokyo Photo 2010. I say had to, because today's the last day.

This photo exhibition was held at the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills. I didn't think I'd need my SLR, so I left it at home. As soon as I got there I regretted it. Being on the 40th floor, the view from the windows is great. At times it distracted me from looking at the photos of the exhibition.
As expected there were a few gratuitous shots of full frontal naked girl photos. It's funny how in these surroundings it's classed as "art".

There were photos that I thought weren't that impressive. Anyone could've taken them, and mounted them in framed glass. I really liked the city montages from Sohei Nishino though. The Tokyo one looked great. The cheapest was 70,000 yen for a small one. Yikes.

Yesterday I missed TGS, which by most accounts was a bit of yawn. I did want to try out, "Gal Gun".

Only in Japan.

Serengeti Via Veneto Sunglasses

2010-09-18T23:59:00.000+09:00

Anyone that reads my blog knows that I like my Oakleys, especially those wonderful 80s vintage Frogskins.

Before I came to Japan I also had, and still do, a pair of Serengeti Via Veneto sunglasses. While I prefer the Oakleys, and the $20 cheap Polaroids do the job fine here in Tokyo, I saw a pair just like my Serengeti's back home.

In Australia this brand retails for up to $300. I didn't want to bring mine here, in case I lost or broke them.

I went to Bingo in Shibuya, a recycle shop that's part of the Book Off chain. I saw them for 9,900 yen. I asked the sales guy if he could bring them down to 9,000 yen, but as usual he refused, so I let it go for the moment.

The following week they had a 30% off sale (6,930 yen!). I was really surprised they were still there, so I snapped them up. They look practically new, the lens and frame are unscratched, but the nose pads are slightly yellowed.

This model (6732) has been discontinued so I think I'm quite lucky to get a second chance to find these again. The lenses are photochromatic and I think they look great.

Zushi Beach

2010-09-02T23:59:00.000+09:00

Out of all of the beaches I've been to, Zushi is definitely my favourite.

Zushi is located in the Kanagawa prefecture. From Tokyo you'd be looking at about hour, to an hour and a half on the Keikyu, or JR lines. I've been to Shonan and Enoshima not too far away from here, but to me Zushi looks cleaner and more beautiful with it's nicely curved cove-like shape. I regret not coming here when I lived a whole lot closer in Tomioka.

I always intend to go more often in the Summer, but it looks like this will again be a one-off for the year. The temperature was about 35 degrees, and the water was very warm. Once I was in there, I didn't ever want to get out. There weren't any waves though. The few windsurfers that were in the vicinity looked like they were going nowhere. I saw fish jumping out of the water. Maybe it was too hot for them too!

I came prepared with sweet potato, and pizza flavoured chips, two cans of my cheap chu-hi and my guitar. The others were thinking to buy food and drink there. We looked around to find only one AMPM convenience store that didn't sell any alcohol. That's quite unusual when just about every other combini sells it. So, I was the only one drinking. Bringing the guitar was probably more hassle than it was worth, but it was kind of nice banging out some music while looking at the sea.

Being the middle of the week, there weren't too many on the beach. It was sad to see workers pulling down the beach huts that were lined along the sand. I envisioned the awesome evening beach parties I must've missed.

I didn't bring my SLR for fear of sand getting in, so I just took some snaps for a sweeping montage that you can see at the top. It was going to be a panorama, but I couldn't find enough control points to make it all match. Still, I think it looks pretty cool this way, don't you think?

Casio PG-380 Midi Guitar

2010-08-21T23:59:00.001+09:00

I've felt a huge amount of guilt, because yes, I did it again. I have another guitar.

I've kept it secret for quite a while now. As of the time of writing this (Sept 21), it been a month since I actually got hold of it. I won the auction on the 19th of August, and it arrived two days later.

This one's a little different though (that's what I tell myself). The guitar in question is a Casio PG-380 MIDI guitar. Around 1987, this was the top-of-the-line instrument in the line up - alder body, ebony neck, Gotoh licensed Floyd Rose, and it's own internal synthesizer.

I think when people hear the word "Casio" they think of cheap watches, but this's pretty cool. The guitar was produced in the Fujigen Gakki factory, so essentially this is a Casio-branded "Ibanez" strat! The passive pickups remind me a bit of the active pups on the Charvel I had, the single coils sounding strat-like, but a little fatter. It's kind of an 80s sound I'd think.

The guitar weighs similar to my Les Paul. I think it's due in part to all the electronics in the body. If Darth Vader was a guitar this would be him for sure.
The internal synth has quite a few useable sounds. There aren't any effects on the patches, but adding a delay or reverb externally they really come alive. There's also a ROM card port for even more sounds too. Casio no longer makes midi guitars these days. Roland has soldiered on with their models, but I think this system has a few advantages.

Roland uses a proprietary system which forces you to use one of their (sound) modules. The external Roland pickup has to be mounted either with double-sided tape, or screwed into one of your guitars.

The Casio system on the other hand is all built-in. It's as easy as plugging a standard midi cord directly from the guitar into the midi port of a external synthesizer, or into a USB to midi interface, controlling a soft synth on a computer. (I bought a Hong Kong USB to Midi from eBay Australia that does the trick).

I tried a Roland, and I find the tracking to be comparable. I can understand why guitarists haven't quite turned onto the midi side of things. This unintentionally funny Roland promotional Youtube video doesn't really do any favours towards the cause.

It does open up some nice possibilities of interesting sounds though. This impressive saxophone demo played on the cheaper MG model shows what these Casio guitars are capable of. I just have to decide whether I REALLY needed to have it :( If anyone makes me a nice offer, I might let it go.

While we're on the topic of Casio, I thought I'd mention a free fun, time wasting iPhone app I discovered called "Number Invaders". It's based on the Casio MG-880 space invaders game calculator. I don't remember owning it myself, but I remember playing it a long, long time ago.

I've been catching up on the 80s lately a lot. I've been listening to the "Electric Dreams" soundtrack. Remember that? A computer falls in love with the owner's girlfriend. "Moles!"

Damn I miss the 80s!

Kiss The Dirt Falling Down The Fuji Mountain

2010-08-16T23:59:00.004+09:00

A great INXS song, and something that crossed my mind while climbing the biggest mountain in Japan. Ladies & Gentlemen, it's time to meet the one they call "Fujisan", otherwise known as Mt Fuji.

Every year I told myself I was going to do it THIS year, but due to circumstances, weather and just not finding willing people to join the "adventure", I kept putting it back.

The planets were aligned. I had time to go, and the weather could not have been more perfect.

On Monday we caught the 4:50pm highway bus (2,600 yen one way) from the Keio terminal, opposite Yodobashi Camera. During the day it was 36 degrees. I couldn't wait to get away from this heat for a while.

The night before I had trouble getting to sleep. There was a mix of nerves and excitement. For the two hour and twenty minute bus ride I was hoping to get a bit more rest but I found myself staying awake. As soon as I saw the first glimpse of Fuji I hurriedly grabbed my camera to capture this moment.

Everyone else was sleeping.

Almost everyone starts the climb not from the bottom of Mt Fuji, but from one of the 5th stations. For people from the Tokyo side, the most popular station is the one closest to Kawaguchiko. Arriving about 7:10pm everywhere was dark. There was only one store open selling (overpriced) souvenirs, food and walking sticks.

They say that at the top it's about 20 degrees colder than the normal temperature and windier, so we didn't leave until 9pm to time our arrival at the summit as close to sunrise.

By 9:39pm, we were already at the 6th station and didn't realize it. The path initially goes downhill a bit before accending so we thought we might be going the wrong way, but instead we were well ahead of time.

We arrived at the 7th station at 10:45. Still the climb is quite manageable. This first part of the climb gave us a false sense of security that this climb was going to be a piece of cake.

Wrong.

Between the 7th and 8th stations, you are literally rock climbing. Pulling yourself up large size boulders and using your walking stick as leverage, and the chain to pull on as well as roughly guiding the way. I had absent-mindedly left my backpack on the 7th station seat. I was wondering why it seemed easier until 50m up I realized my mistake. It sucked going back down the rocks in the dark, but luckily it wasn't too far away.

At each station you can get your walking stick branded for 200 yen. It would've been a nice memento, but I doubt I'm going to send my stick back to Australia.

Climbing Mt Fuji at night is the best way.

You don't have the sun in your face, and the view of the town lights getting further and further away, people's torch lights and the stars are truly beautiful.

Although I had a flashlight, I mostly had it off because there was ample light from the others. I DO strongly recommend a headlamp. I really had to keep one hand free to navigate up.

Getting to the 8th station was SO hard. I'm sure I said, "I'm dying" more than a few times. There's more than one 8th station so it felt like we were never getting much further. It's just up and up forever. We would finally be there at 1am.

After this point, the track becomes manageable for a while. It's mostly a sandy zig-zag path towards the 9th station. Around here there seems to be a lot more people, probably from converging trails and the inevitable bottleneck as we got closer to the top. My thighs were hurting quite a bit by this stage.

I passed by the 9th Station about 3:45. From around this area it was going to be start stop traffic until I reached the top. I was kind of relieved as it gave me a chance to catch my breath. From here on in, it's more rock climbing, but with up to five rows of people wanting to be at the summit by sunrise.

I think we all had a little inner panic when we saw day breaking. I passed through a torii gate etched with what looks like hundreds of coins, and then, two white lion statues. I reached the top at 4:40. I easily lost the others climbing up, but what do you know, my cell phone had perfect reception at the top of Japan!

The sun finally made an appearance about 4:55 and it was fantastic. Everyone sighed "sugoi" as it went from a semi-circle to a full glowing orb lighting up the mountains and Lake Kawaguchiko below.

Most of the way up I was wearing long cargo shorts and a t-shirt. I got hot from all the walking but once I finally stood still, I started getting cold shivers, although I wasn't feeling cold. Strange.

I had a hot tea, that warmed my body up, as well as rugging up a bit more, and I felt much better.

One of the others was feeling sick from the lack of oxygen so she started to go back down. I didn't want to leave until I saw the crater. It's not so often you get to see inside a volcano!

I'd have liked to have stayed longer to walk around the perimeter to the post office (yes there is!), and to the actual highest point but it wasn't going to happen.

About 6:00 I started my way back down the different Yoshida trail. The signs said 340 minutes to get back which made us panic a little. The time is a little incorrect meaning this is the time it takes to the 1st station, NOT the 5th station. It took only 3 hours (and fifteen minutes) for me to get there.

Going down was always a 40 degree sloped zig zag trail of volcanic sand. Here is another situation where a walking stick (two's even better) is ESSENTIAL. The sand is very slippery. I only slipped once, but it was one more than I wanted. Much funnier watching others kiss the dirt. It was cloudy on the way down, but thankfully we didn't get any rain at all.

At 9:15, we arrived back at the 5th station. Lots of people were around. It's much more lively during the day, and easier to see where everything is. Our bus was booked for 11am, but they let us catch an earlier bus at 10.

I think it's easier going down, helped along with gravity, but my knees were wrecked, and I had two massive blisters on my big toes. I wore my most comfortable shoes. Boots are better to stop sand getting in, but don't wear Docs. Some steps on the way up are quite high. It took about three days for me to get back to my normal self.

Was it worth it? After I got back I immediately thought not, but now that it's been a while since I got back I'm glad I did it, and if I exercised more I'd have handled it better for sure.

Here's a video of my way up. Enjoy.

Two Year Old Chocolate

2010-08-13T17:39:00.005+09:00

I planned to use my old backpack for Summer Sonic and the Mt Fuji climb.

Cleaning out my bag I found a whole lot of things that I'd either forgotten about, or spent ages looking for elsewhere. One was the awesome train map that shows EVERY train in Tokyo and Kanagawa in English and in Japanese. Ever since I had my iPhone though I haven't had as much need for it as before.

Another surprise was a completely unopened Ghana chocolate block. The only thing is the due date was "2009/10".
I hate wasting chocolate, so I checked on the internet if it's ok to eat old chocolate. (I also found out how to unstuck two glasses we had together) On most sites it said that it was ok, so I went forth and chowed it down.

It was quite dried out, brittle and a paler brown colour but otherwise tasted all right. I hope I don't have to do that again. It definitely wasn't the same as eating a fresh one, that's for sure.

After I consumed the whole thing, I found the old Donki receipt where I had bought it.
On the receipt it said "2008/11/26". So in actual fact the chocolate was close to two years old. Seeing that made me feel slightly queasier, but now that it's been a while since I ate, I give it the all clear!

Summer Sonic 2010

2010-08-08T23:59:00.004+09:00

Last year I had to decide between getting a cheap ticket back home for two weeks, or seeing the 10th anniversary Summer Sonic three day event. The $500 return ticket was too hard to pass up, so I had to forgo the festival. Shame that. There were a lot of great bands playing such as Placebo and Nine Inch Nails.

I have quite mixed feelings though about Summer Sonic. On one hand the lineups are pretty impressive, BUT on the other hand, the way they scheduled each band there was inevitably going to be some compromises to how many you can actually see.

This year was no different. The best bands were playing around the same, or close to the same time, and because of the size of the location, getting to another stage by start time was no mean feat, even with those buses.

The second issue is tickets. The two day ticket "sold out" on the Thursday, and yet the one days were still available? This looks clearly like a grab for cash. Fortunately I managed to get the two day ticket, and at a nice reduced price as well.

For those outside of Japan, tickets can be purchased at Lawson (convenience stores) Loppi machines, so you might avoid the uncertainty of buying them over the internet.

Another thing that annoys me is the banning of cameras. At events like these, it would be great to take some "real" photos of your favourite bands. I had to resort to using my crappy iPhone quality for photos, which looking at them now pale in comparison to what I could take with my SLR.

Ok, enough of that rant. Let's get on with the show, shall we?

We got up nice and early to be able to see the opening bands of the day. None of the bands held my attention long enough to stick around.

Many people around this time took the opportunity to LINEUP to buy t-shirts from the "OFFCIAL" (lol) goods stands. By the end of the festival, there weren't too many shirts left. A lot of Japanese wore their Summer Sonic t-shirts from this year, and past years gone by. To me it's like wearing a Brisbane shirt in Brisbane, but I digress.

General Fiasco kicked off a great set on the Mountain Stage. For a three-piece, their sound was really full and they oozed a fair amount of stage presence.

It Hurts to watch this band (With a name like that, it's kind of like, asking for it). I heard their songs, "Better than Love" and "Wonderful Life" prior to coming here, and I REALLY wanted to like this band. The lead singer did a lot of strange "flourishes" with his hands. It came across as a more gay BROS (if that can really be possible).

Their backup singer looked way out of place looking like a supper club waiter. I liked their 80s sound (could use a guitar though), but too many overblown ballads. "Sunday" has a nice Killers kind of vibe though, if only the singer took stage presence tips from Brandon Flowers. Better still, go see The Killers. They're absolutely awesome live.

Yes Giantess had a nice disco sound reminiscent of early Michael Jackson, but a lot of their songs sound quite similar. Maybe they should change their synth presets a bit more often. Not a bad set though.

Jasmine and Maika had their times switched around. I prefered Maika's performance more than Jasmine. She had a Japanese "Alannis Morissette" vibe going on, whereas Jasmine was a wannabe Beyonce, incomplete with distracting (not in a good way) dancers.

We made our way back to the Marine Stage stadium to watch Eikichi Yazawa. For a 60 year old, he kicked off a rocking set and it was obvious he is revered among the Japanese.

It was quite bizarre watching everyone throwing their towels though during his set. What's up with that?

On the Beach Stage one band that I'm recently really digging was Clammbon (クラムボン). The singer has a really unique voice. Slightly similar to Chara, so much that the first time I heard this group I thought it was her. These guys have a bit more of a jazzy freeform sound, which live was a bit hard to get into. Want to know if you'd like them too? Listen to "Folklore" and then "Chicago". What do you think?

Next we watched Nickelback. I had to confirm how much I dislike this band. Yep, still do. Even before they came on stage, I saw the wall of guitar speaker cabinets. Nothing wrong with that if the songs are any good.

I liked "How You Remind Me" when it came out, but any band that starts a song with, "I like your pants around your feet" has lost me forever. Please learn a bit of street cred from Slash. Arigatou.

One of the big lures for me to this festival was a-ha. Being a kid of the 80s, I grew up with their hits, and hearing that they were disbanding, I had to see them live. Morten has a great voice but he was struggling with his foldback earphones and looked uncomfortable.

They played a lot of new songs which didn't do them any favours. The hits sounded great. I was hoping for "Manhattan Skyline", but it never came. A little disappointing.

We had a nice break after them, so we chilled with some African kebabs, while watching The Offspring on the live video feed from the Marine stage. I saw them many years ago back in Oz, so not a big loss there. We caught the end of Richard Ashcroft's set singing "Bittersweet Symphony". It sounded great.

I had to choose between Jay-Z and Smashing Pumpkins (Thank you organisers). I knew more Pumpkins songs so that's where we went. Like a-ha, the hits sounded awesome, but his newer material pales in comparison as well. Interesting ukelele bit. He worked the crowd well. Instead of catching the last set by Orbital we went home.

Day one was more consistent, but the second day had a LOT of filler. If it hadn't been for Stevie Wonder and Slash, I probably would've done just the first day.

I was hoping to arrive in time for Monkey Majik, but we only just got there at the end of their set. Damn.

K'naan did nothing for me, neither did My Passion coming across like a bad "My Chemical Romance". Surfer Blood weren't too bad, but it didn't hold my attention long enough to stick around. That's the nature of the music fest I guess.

In the lull, she got a t-shirt. I probably should have got one too, but none of them were calling out to me.

Next Orianthi. I can't help but think that without her "break" in Michael Jackson's band, she wouldn't be at the level she is now. She's not a bad guitarist. Her instrumental, "Self Esteem" certainly has some nice "Vai"-isms, but I felt like she's still finding her feet. "Bad News" sounded like "Get Me To The Bathroom". Go figure. I don't think she has commanding stage presence just yet.

Having said that.. Big Bang made Orianthi look like the next best thing since sliced bread. This Korean boy band were woeful. They have a lot of young adoring Japanese fans, but it's hard to sing and dance without microphones, right guys? Good thing ripping off the kids too with 4,000 yen plastic necklaces. Sheete.

SUM 41 had the arena floor fill almost to capacity. They sure had a lot of fans. I only knew "In Too Deep". Not my kind of music but what they did, they did well.

Courtney Love of Hole probably still has a hard time shaking the "Mrs Cobain" stigma. No one is going to say she has a good voice, but she put in a good enough performance with "Malibu" and "Celebrity Skin" hitting the high points.

Had a super quick look at Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, before making my way to see Slash.

I have to say it right now. Slash was hands down the best performance of the weekend. Ably helped along with fantastic vocals from Myles Kennedy, I was enthused from the very beginning.

Usually when the singer is replaced, the remaining guys feel like a cover band (eg. INXS, RIP Michael). In this case, when I heard a G'N'R tune, I believed I was hearing Guns and Roses! It just goes to show Slash was just as much G'N'R as Axl. His solo record material killed as well. I wished I could've stayed till the end of the set, if it hadn't have been Stevie Wonder I wanted to see.

It didn't help that Stevie Wonder got on stage a whole twenty minutes late. What can you say about Stevie? He was in fine voice. He knows how to work a crowd. His sing-a-longs sometimes were hit and miss with a mostly non-English audience.

He attempted to get us all to sing Jay-Z's, "Empire State of Mind", which even I didn't know the words to. All was forgiven when he got us singing, "I Just Called To Say I Love You". Corny as ****, but everyone could sing this.

I DID get a little bored with the ballads, and was thinking of Dream Theater that I was missing on another stage though. We made our way out when the end was near, to make a quick bus dash to see The Pixies.

I only had to hear one song, "Debaser", and I was able to go home satisfied.

Yokohama Fireworks

2010-08-01T22:07:00.000+09:00

This summer I didn't want to miss a fireworks show.

We were going to go to the Adachi fireworks in Kita Senju but it didn't end up happening, and the Sumidagawa fireworks were on the same night as a party I said I was going to. So, I made sure we would go to Yokohama's Kanagawa Shinbun. We went last year and I really enjoyed it.

Last time we were a little far away, with the Intercontinental hotel blocking some of the view. This year we hoped to get to Rinko Park, much closer to the action. Unfortunately a lot of other people had the same idea, so instead we, along with many others sat down on a closed-off road just outside the Pacifico complex which gave an almost unobstructed view.

This time we brought some cracker and cheese snacks, along with some limited edition green tea Krispy Kreme donuts we bought nearby. Of course I had the mandatory chu-hi to celebrate the spectacle. I also brought along my tripod this time to avoid camera shake and "alcohol hands".

I took a LOT of photos. They turned out much better than last year. But due to the unpredictability of fireworks, the best came about solely by chance. Here's a few.

Peektures

2010-07-31T23:59:00.000+09:00

I went to a party tonight, which meant taking along my SLR.

I'm not going to post any pictures from the party itself *secret squirrel*, but along the way I took a few happy snaps.
This is a billboard at Yotsuya station. This is Norika Fujiwara. It just goes to show that Japanese women age gracefully in this country. You've got to love that.
Speaking of age. Don't these oldies look real happy with that watermelon? I'm hoping that when I'm that old, a nice piece o' melon is all I need for happiness. The ad is for dentures. Probably after getting a set, soft melon is all you can eat.
I thought this was yet another English grammar error like it's meant to read "It's A Demo", but I was told it's actually Japanese, Itsudemo meaning "whenever/anytime". My bad.
Only I could read the dirty in this. I'm still looking for my mega goddess.
You might remember my train manners posts from quite a while back. This is a smoking manners poster produced by Japan Tobacco. It's strange that a cigarette company does this supposedly to improve the negative image of smoking in Japan.

I've got a better idea. How about quitting smoking? Damn I hate smokers.

Do you want Fries ストラップ with that?

2010-07-30T23:59:00.003+09:00

When I first came to Japan one of the first things I noticed was that just about everyone had a phone strap/charm hanging off the ends of their cell phones. Some of these were quite big and laughable. Yes, the need to conform was so strong that even I had one on my phone too.

I'm guessing since the iPhone, this "trend" has thankfully mostly faded away because there is nowhere to actually hang one off it, and contrary to what most outsiders might think, the iPhone IS incredibly popular in Japan.

In my opinion, Japanese phones are quite ordinary in comparison. Maybe five or so years ago, a Japanese keitei was better, but since "western" smartphones came to being, the rest of the world caught up.

Macdonalds are doing a food strap promotion at the moment.

From what I've just said, I find it amusing there's an iPhone in their promotional photos.

There's six to collect. You can either buy a set of them for 3,980 yen *yikes* , or you can buy a large happy meal and get a random choice for "free". I say "random" meaning no choice at all, because they are in a sealed opaque packet that they just hand you. I made a video just for you to show you an unwrapping.
After little over a week of posting my video, I've already got 130 views! I guess it helps writing the tags in Japanese. Ha.

So, the "cheapest" way to get hold of these is to get a cheeseburger large meal, which depends where you get it from, it'll be 550-600 yen. So, this is my new "pursuit" in Japan. Show me the carrot and I'll chase it.

First I got the fillet o' fish burger strap, followed in the same day (yes two, "not so happy" meals), by the fries one. Since making the video, I've also got the Big Mac and the Coffee cup. Now all I need is the quarter pounder and apple pie straps to complete my set!

Wish me luck.

Chu-Hi 9%!

2010-07-14T23:59:00.000+09:00

Since I've been in Japan, I'm probably drinking more often than when I arrived, or else it seems like that.

For quite a while now I've had most Saturday nights on alcohol-fueled highs. Station beers haven't been as satisfying as they were in the past, but I think my Saturdays are definitely making up for that.
The alcohol companies seem to try to up the stakes in their alcohol content. This is one that I had on a station beer night. It proudly states 9%, but I think it's just a clever marketing strategy to coerce you into buying it. My cheap and nasty Daiei chu-hu is 6%, but it's made me feel much more light-headed than this one.

On this particular night, we had an old Japanese women come up to us saying, "Give me money!" We just looked at each other in disbelief. Ah, you Japanese. Always the jokers.
While a little bored on this particular night, I thought I'd make a quick time-lapse video from my iPhone. There's no sound and it was shot in portrait, so just a little something to show you life, or lack there-of on a typical Wednesday evening.

If you want to see a much cooler Yokohama video, check this time-lapse out. I ♥ Yokohama.

Mitami Matsuri

2010-07-13T23:59:00.005+09:00

This was the first night of this mid-summer festival that runs from the 13th-16th. I went there straight after work.

There are food stalls lining the walls of lanterns. Great timing on this shot.

This was probably the first night of summer that I started seeing the yukata that you see a lot of women wear at this time of year. Was the gaijin taking a photo of the stall or the girls?

Another Day, Another Hard Off

2010-07-12T23:59:00.002+09:00

It's been a while since I've mentioned my favourite recycle shop chain, Hard Off. Even after all these years, that name still puts a smile on my face.

For some reason I decided to grace them with my presence in Nagayama. I REALLY wish they had these shops in convenient places (like Central Tokyo perhaps?), and less than thirty minutes walk from a close train station.

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise though. If they were more accessible to get to, I'd probably have a hard time (pun intended) finding any bargains at all.

Although it's not the worst of the Hard Offs, there weren't as many bargains as I'd liked to have found. Still, it was interesting to see an old Yamaha V50 synth that I used to have, and old relics like effects units that all the 80s FOH guys had in their live rigs back in the day. Even saw an old Portasound keyboard that we had as kids. Oh, nostalgia!

I saw a very old Wacom Artpad that was only 525 yen, but I don't think it was even USB. Not that I needed it now anyhow. After all the slogging to get there I only got some bridge pins for my acoustic. For 189 yen, it was cheaper than in Shinjuku.

I had 188 yen in loose change, but the checkout guy insisted I use the 500 yen coin instead of being the good guy, and waiving the measly 1 yen [insert frustrated Japanese confrontation moment] *sigh* I pity the next Japanese checkout person when I give them the correct change in a whole lot of 1 yen coins.

After work in Shinjuku I found myself in Taito Station. A "reformed" UFO catcher addict had no good sense to be in a place like this, and as such I relapsed once again and played for a cute motorised dog.

It took 700 yen. I'm happy to get it, but I was a little perturbed when the guys after me got theirs in just two tries.

"Shoganei"

It had been raining a lot today. All my shoes (except the docs) have turned leaky. Yes, even those f**** ones I bought not THAT long ago from Fareg (Never again).

I bit the bullet, and bought some Rockport Onboard shoes that cost considerably more than my "cheapies". Hopefully they will last a whole lot longer than the others.I got my new best friend, "One One" ('wan wan', geddit?) to model them for you.

Aww..

Tokyo Sky Tree

2010-07-10T23:59:00.005+09:00

Saturdays have been my night for hitting the Long Is Iced Teas for quite some time now, and for the most part it's been great to be out socialising and letting my hair down after a week's hard work.

On this occasion the guys piked on me, so I was left to my own devices tonight.

On the way to Funabashi I'm always keen to look out the train window to check the progress of the Tokyo Sky Tree.

For Tokyo, I think it's the most exciting development for quite some time, and by the look of all the people taking photos already even at this stage, I think a lot of Japanese think so too!

Ishibashi are having a 10% used sale this weekend, so finally I'm getting a kick drum pedal in Shibuya tonight as well. Seeing that it's "on the way", I decided to get off at Kinshicho.

This is what it looks like from the station platform. It took about fifteen minutes for the easy beeline walk to the tower.

As you can see from this photo, they've hit the 398m mark. To give some comparison, Tokyo Tower is 332.5m high, so it's already surpassed that height by quite a bit already.

From a distance and up close this tower looks impressive on first sight, but after a short while I was there, the proportions looked a little strange as it moves up from a triangulated shape to a circular one.

Even though Tokyo Tower clearly ripped off the Eiffel Tower, I think it's presence is more commanding that this one is. Time will tell of course. Once it reaches it's final 634m height I'm sure I'll eat my words. I just hope I'm still here to get the chance to see it's completion sometime in 2012.

I spent quite a bit of time taking WAY too many photos and getting lost trying to find the entrance to Oshiage station which is a lot closer (Narihirabashi station is a very close station too), than walking back to Kinshicho, and conveniently able to get me to Shibuya.

I didn't want to miss happy hour, so I quickly picked up my Tama Cobra kick pedal for a nice 5,382 yen, and went straight to get my two drinks before it was over. The pedal was heavier than I expected, and a bit of a burden to carry around but not as annoying as the bar staff not giving me the 5% discount using my membership card. I was preoccupied with my bags to notice and they hadn't given me the usual receipt to fight my case. I shrugged my shoulders and thought at least I saved a few bucks with happy hour anyway.

I got a seat. It had the potential to be a good night until I heard that night-crushing line.

"Are you American?"

Oh no.

A Different Pill

2010-07-08T12:59:00.004+09:00

Not long ago I tried graphics tablets in Bic Camera, and although I don't consider myself an artist per se, I had thought in the past to get a graphics tablet.

Yahoo Auctions had a few Wacom tablets, and even some screens that you can draw directly on, that would definitely be cool to have. On train beers night I even placed a bid on one that I thought wasn't too badly priced.

Seems like they're quite in demand and the price rose quickly towards the end of the auction so no surprises, I lucked out. That night I found a secondhand A4 Wacom tablet online for 12,800 yen which was about as much as the bottom-of-the-line, small size one goes for new, so I made it my mission to go there first thing, assuming I wouldn't drink too much the previous night.

If you're hunting for used computer gear, Sofmap and Janpara are places in Akihabara that are definitely worth checking out.

In this case, Janpara were the guys that had what I was looking for, so I arrived there not too long after they opened shop and after a bit of interesting communication, I managed to find it in quite good condition, still in the box, only missing the mouse. I managed to knock off 800 yen, so I think I got a good deal.

Tablets take a bit of getting used to. My first efforts were pretty lame, but after a bit of practice I'm getting better at it, I think. I bought it for a bit of fun, and to help with editing photos and for that, I think it will serve it's purpose well.

iPhone 4 and iOS4

2010-06-28T23:59:00.003+09:00

I saw the new iPhone 4 today.

I had updated my iPhone 3G to iOS4 over the weekend, but I found it to be seriously lacking. Apple in their usual wisdom blocked the features of background wallpapers and multitasking when it has already been proven to work sufficiently on an iPhone 3G.

Just like the omission of video, it just smacks of a push to upgrade to the newer phone. The deal breaker was that my Mobilepoint wifi was seriously screwed up, frustratingly not allowing me to log in to use the service.

I rolled it back to 3.1.3 and it's working as it should.

After work I saw the new iPhone in Bic Camera. It looks nice and makes the old phone look a bit dated. I'll give it that. The squared off and thin design has a nice, minimalistic German look to it. I had a good play of some of the new features.

I like the dual cameras, and the video it takes looks good. "Skype"-style video calling could be fun on this. Web pages too like they've said, look very clear and sharp. They say the mail app has been improved, but to me that's a non-issue on the old phone.

One MAJOR issue that has come up is that of dropped calls for left-handed people (yes, that's me).

That, and Softbank's great idea of locking their phones (yes, even after the contract expires), leaves me hesitating. I'm happy with my 3G for now. If it's not broke, well, not yet, no need for a fix, is there?

Tokyo Guitar Show 2010

2010-06-27T23:59:00.003+09:00

I went to a fun party the previous night, so I didn't know how I'd be feeling to go to the Tokyo Guitar Show today. It was held in TFT Hall in Odaiba, a stone's throw from Big Sight. I missed out last year, so for something new I thought it'd be interesting to have a look.

As usual when I go to Odaiba I took the opportunity to walk across the Rainbow Bridge again. The weather has been horribly hot and humid. Today was no different but being overcast, it was (slightly) cooler than usual.

It cost 1,000 yen to get in. It was no where near as big as Yokohama's Music Fair, that I went to last, so I wasn't as impressed as that show. This was pretty much a buyer's market. They had quite a few interesting guitars on sale, and VERY expensive ones too. Lucky for me, my Greco arrived the same day, so I didn't have the insatiable desire to buy a guitar here.

In another room they had Fender, Boss and Roland music gear that you could discreetly try out with headphones. It was a bit of fun.

After looking at a few outlet shops once we left the show, we made our way back across the bridge. You can see Tokyo Tower lit up with blue lights in support of Japan's soccer team playing in the World Cup.

Go Japan!

Greco Mirage

2010-06-27T23:58:00.001+09:00

I've been good for a long while, trying REALLY hard not to buy another guitar.

It doesn't help when I live close to Ochanomizu, which is a guitar junkie's paradise. I was THIS close to buying (another) Gibson, the Buckethead signature no less. It looks and sounds great. I love a nice ebony fingerboard. The arcade kill switches are fun, but just one button would have been better I think.

I was a little saddened when I saw a Greco Mirage I tried a week earlier had already been bought. The Mirage has the same shape as the Ibanez Iceman. Not a copy, but from what I've read Greco shared the design with Ibanez. Ibanez had worldwide rights, while the Greco version was only sold in Japan.

While the latter day Icemans, both Ibanez and Greco were made in Korea, the late 70's models were made in Japan. With that being the case, those models in great condition are pretty hard to come by.

Two words.. Yahoo Auctions.

Ok, I was a little drunk on my cans of Chu-hi but after work on Wednesday, I put my winning bid on my very own 70's Greco Mirage. I was feeling extremely guilty, but pretty elated as well.

The guy was only in Saitama, but as usual too scared to allow me to pickup (and save a bit of money) on the 1,470 yen delivery, and 420 yen bank transfer.

I was surprised that the courier delivered on a Sunday, so at about 10:00 I got the knock on the door. The case was only covered in bubble-wrap. With the unusual shape, I'm glad that the guitar came with the original form-fitting hard case too.

Opening the case for the first time I knew straight away that I made the right (albeit, drunk) decision to make that bid. The guitar looked immaculate. No belt buckle rash, and very few other imperfections to speak of. The serial number began with "D78", "D" is the alphabetical month, April, and "78", is made in 1978. Very, very sweet.

The vintage look of the guitar reminded me strongly of my old Gibson L6-S. Acoustically the guitar was very resonant and plugging her in, she sounds very nice too. The fingerboard feels comfortable to move around on. Unlike that Gibson this feel great.

Speaking of the Gibson, on Yahoo Auctions I saw this..

This is a very old Ibanez OD-850 Overdrive stompbox that was thrown into the sale when I bought my very first electric guitar, that Gibson L6-S over 25 years ago. Through my crappy Roland amp back then it sounded horribly woolly and fuzzy. Through the high school PA system playing a cover of Cheap Trick's cover of "Don't Be Cruel" it was rockin'.

When I got rid of that Roland amp, I threw in that pedal as well. The guy on this auction wants 55,000 yen! I wish I knew back then, like my long gone L6-S of what worth it would be now.

Here Come The Drums!

2010-06-13T23:21:00.006+09:00

Ikebe Gakki is one of the biggest musical instrument chains in Tokyo.

This Sunday in Akihabara they had a HUGE sale with some very enticing discounts on a lot of music gear. I don't need any more guitars, but it doesn't hurt to look, does it?

In their advertising material I noticed they were selling an older model Yamaha electric kit for 98,000 yen. I don't consider myself a drummer, but for that price I think that's as cheap as they'd ever get.

We left later that I expected and arrived there about 10:45. The crowd was quite large, but they had a workable ticket system to stop a mad rush. For the Drum Station we were number 50, but the more popular Revole guitar store we were a much further 270.

By the time of the 11:00 opening, you could see quite a sizeable crowd forming. I waited in the drum line while she waited a LONG way around the corner and across the bridge in the guitar line.

It didn't seem to take that long to make it into the drum store. I asked one of the staff about the kit, and he said it was already sold. I was a little disappointed, but he soon came back to me to say that it was actually still available.

The drums were an instore demo so I could easily see a little bit of wear on the pads, but it didn't look too bad at all. My main concern was how big and heavy it was, and I had to consider the logistics of A) being able to set it up in the apartment and B) shipping it back to Australia.

I had to make an after hours withdrawal at the bank, but in no time it was mine. Luckily they offered free delivery to the apartment.

The guitar line took about 3 hours to get in. Since we had a number to get back in line, we decided to go to Maccas for some free coffee to escape the heat, and relax for a long while.

Not surprisingly by the time we got inside all the good stuff had been snapped up. There was a 9,800 yen Squier "Hello Kitty" guitar still up for grabs, and more interestingly a Fender Am Deluxe Strat for 69,800 yen, but neither made me want them. I think I secretly didn't want to find myself buying yet another guitar.

The drums arrived on the Thursday, about the usual 11am. Lucky for me it was my day off, so I had all day to be at home to sign for it.

I almost died when I saw the boxes. Not one, not two, but three of them. The largest was SO big. They were all quite heavy too. All together they were about 50kg. "Holy Shipping expense Batman!"

I found a tight corner where I managed to set up just the kick, snare and hi-hat to test some sounds out. Unfortunately chopsticks were my only drumsticks at that time, but they did the job.

I dread the time when I have to pack and cart this to the Post Office. For the time being I'm going to have a bit of rhythm fun.

3 Years In A Fishbowl

2010-05-31T23:10:00.001+09:00

I'm actually writing this almost a month later (28 June) trying to sum up my three years of living in this country, and I'm virtually speechless.

I really don't know how to say how I'm feeling right now. Looking back at last year's post, I admit that my feelings are pretty much the same as what I said before.

Lately though, I've been going out drinking socially a bit more with like-minded associates, which has given me more of feeling of belonging, whereas previously I felt like a high school outsider looking in.

Also too, I've been attending a few parties which have been enjoyable, so I think things have gotten better. How long can I sustain this? I have no idea.

When the ride's over, I can hopefully say I haven't had too many regrets.