Adventures in Japan

Titled

We've been busy these last few days. Not so much with work. This here is called Golden Week. A week of non-working for most of Japan. Kinda nice. The weather, for the most part has been pretty fab to boot. Hot, but not nuts hot. That comes later.

So, if we ain't working so much, what have we been up to. Well, we've been trying to find a decent place to live. Haven't found one yet. That's not true. We found one place that we absolutely loved. It had a skylight, two bedrooms, a full sized bathtub, a fancy toilet, a television in the bathroom, big kitchen, two balconies, plenty of light. It was perfect. We didn't get it. Weren't quite quick enough. Dang. All the other places have been found wanting. But still, we soldier on.

On the 30th (Happy Birthday James!!!) we went and saw Shonen Knife again. Once again, they rocked. Once again, they were the opening act. Once again, the drummer was beyond cute. Once again, they all rocked out in the most smile-filled way possible. My face hurt 2 songs into their set. Shonen Knife is just happy-making music. And their cover of "I Wanna Be Sedated" was superb.

Seriously, that drummer is so cute. Both Carla and I have crushes on her. Watching her have so much fun playing the drums is infectious. Her lips start off with a determined set to them. Soon, however, they begin to curl upwards. Then they part into one of the happiest smiles ever. Then she starts singing along with the song even though she's not mic'ed. And you realize that you're singing along too. Even though you don't know the words. Not that the words to "Rubber Band" are that hard to figure out. The other, older Shonen ladies were compulsively chipper as well.

But they weren't the only reason why we were there. No. Our friend Ben has seen a lot of live music in his day. And he's been bugging us to go see this one Japanese punk band he saw when they opened for the Killer Dwarves. He's seen them... I think about three times now and he just loves them to pieces. So we had to see them, had to experience Akainu for ourselves.

Shonen Knife, as I obsessively detailed, made the crowd pretty happy. There was a lot of jumping up and down during their set. All that jumping, we soon found out, was merely prequel.

Please keep in mind that the weather has been glorious these past few days and I was dressed accordingly.

Akainu means red dog in nihongo (nihon means Japan and go means language. Nihongo means Japanese). Akainu is a band that I will not be able to properly describe. During the intermission between musical acts, odd looking fellows began to fill the stage. There was a man in a sequin covered hot pink cowboy hat with matching tight pants and mesh shirt, he was the guitarist. There was a guy wearing oversized sunglasses, a bowler derby and long johns. He was the percussionist. The drummer looked normal. Ish. As did the trombonist, saxophonist and trumpeter. The dude with the fiddle was wearing a frilly shirt that even a gay pirate vampire would have second thoughts about. I forget what the bassist was wearing. Maybe he was dressed up like an old time convict, all big thick white and black stripes. That makes nine people, and their assorted noise makers, crowded onto a stage that seemed too small for 3 tiny Japanese females. Then the singers hit the stage.

Oh. My. God.

Seriously.

One was dressed up like Marilyn Monroe. One like the cop from YMCA crossed with a martial artist. One had grey in his beard. The other was obscured by his long, long hair. That makes for 13 band members on stage. Then they all just started talking. Kinda shooting the breeze. Or maybe it was pointed philosophical theorizing. I don't know, I don't speak the language all that well. But the audience was laughing uproariously. And there was a lot of girlish shrieking and squealing. Oh yeah, there were a LOT of cute girls at this gig. So they talked and talked and talked.

Then the music started.

BANG!! Like a shot. And the place just exploded. Everyone was jumping. Everyone was singing along. There were specific dance moves and arm movements that everyone knew and they all knew when to do them. I just tried to keep up. It was insane. The best kind of insane possible.

If I had to describe their sound, and please keep in mind that this is just an approximation because you can't possibly know what they are like until you see them live, I would maybe say they were like NOFX mixed with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones mixed with The Village People. On acid. The one dolled up like Monroe sure could scream. He looked a bit like a professional wrestler.

So the show continued on like this for a while. Loud, cacophonous yet melodic music and shouting interspersed with apparently stand-up caliber comedy. During one of the songs, all of the singers began changing their clothes onstage. They went through a fair few costume changes. For one of the changes in costumes, the singers left the stage while the musicians kept on jamming. I can't recount all of their various and sundry guises.

I will say this. They spent a lot of time in just their undies.

During one such gitch (or gotch, or gonch depending on where yer frum) clad time, the old grey bearded guy climbed onto a table right next to us and did a headstand. Still singing. The professional wrestler-ish guy ran through the crowd, spitting on random people (Including me! WOOT!!) before grabbing some guy in the audience in a bear hug and running around some more.

It was a singular experience.

I really want to see them again.

After the show, we just kinda hung around. Ben talked to all sorts of people because he knows all sorts of people. It turns out the cute drummer from Shonen Knife had been behind us for who knows how long. I wanted to get a picture of her, but her cuteness was much too intimidating. Plus, I was bleeding from the foot.

There was a lot of jumping up and down over the course of the evening. And I was wearing sandals. Not my best wardrobe decision. Coming from me, that's saying something.

But it didn't hurt.

After the gig, we went and ate some delicious burgers. Prepared right in front of us, nice juicy patties, bacon, eggs, tonnes o' toppings and a heaping helping of melted Cheddar cheese. Fantastic way to end a fantastic night.

The next day wasn't near so great. It rained for most of the day. We went and checked out a few apartments in a neighbourhood that was a little too out of the way. The apartments were a 15 minute walk from a station 12 minutes off the main train line. If that makes any sense. After we looked at the places, we decided to snoop around the neighbourhood. Nice place. University right near by. But kinda dead. Boring. And just too far out of the way. And right near some kind of stadium. Which made the train ride back into Osaka a lot more crowded. Also, we were soaked. And the seam of my sock kept finding its way to the most sensitive, recently bleeding, parts of my toes.

Once back in Osaka, we met Ben at the Hub. Just to make the day even less great, we found out that the Hub has bumped up their prices. The prices aren't bad, but they aren't what they once were. Dang.

I assure you that photos were taken. They didn't turn out all that well, but they WILL be posted at some point. When the internet is working better.