Adventures in Japan

Onegaishimasu!

That there title kinda means: Please. We're gonna ask y'all for a little favour.

Here's the thing, Carla and I are in Japan. It's true.

Seeing as we're here in Japan, we cannot go and see Serenity on Friday. That hurts us in ways you may not be able to imagine. Serenity is a new movie, now this would be the part where we try to sell you on the movie but we are not going to do that. You can click on the links if you need to be sold. We are just going to ask you nicely to go see it. We, the both of us, strongly urge you to go and see Serenity at your earliest possible convinience. Even if it's slightly inconvinient. Please.

And once you do go, please do not tell us about it. You'll want to, partly because some of you are jerks and all of you will just be jazzed because you will have watched a fantastic film. You will want to tell us how fantastic it is. Don't worry about it, we know.

So yeah, go see Serenity. You'll be glad you did and so will we.

Birth Related

Happy Birthday to my brother Seve and the loveliest lady in all the lands. Carla and I went out for dinner for her birthday. To an Outback Steakhouse. Back in Canada, that wouldn't be so great, but man it was a nice change. No chopsticks, lotsa meat, free bread, attentive service. Hell, we even tipped! That's how nice it was. I'm sure Sev had an equally nice birthday, but probably less Asian.

Also, I will be in and around the Regina region from December 24th to January 6th. Plan your Holidays around me accordingly.

The Catch-Uppening Part Deux: Le Roque!!!

I'm gonna pull a Quentin on y'all. I'm gonna split my Summer Sonic recap in to two halves. It's just too long for one post. Plus I'm not done the last little bit yet. But will I throw in a twist at the end of this recap to make you look forward to the second installment even though said twist dulls the drama in the second part? Read on and find out!

First of all, in response to Carla's query: Yes, it was totally worth the money!

Carla had to work on Saturday, so I took off to the Summer Sonic site all by my lonesome. Lonesome and late. Always late.

Luckily a lady from Rock Rock recognized me and we chatted on the train on the way to the festival. She and her friends had custom made some Summer Sonic shirts. They were very nice, very cute and very pink. Did they make these shirts because they knew something about the availability of merchandise at festivals such as these? Read on and find out!

Okay, I'll stop with that.

Or will I?

Read on and finYeah I'm done.

Luckily I managed to meet up with Ben and his group almost as soon as the crowd of people separated me from Rock Rock girl. I told Ben how Weezer had been at Rock Rock last night (so swore Rock Rock girl) and he was a bit miffed. He had popped into RR last night and didn't meet them. He had been to RR a lot the past week. Mainly because of his sister. Ben's sister was in town, by the way. Nice girl. Very friendly. Not in the country two weeks and she had already been invited to stay over at Japanese people's houses. There were crying Japanese people when she left. Two weeks. We'll have been here for nearly three years before we're done, ain't no one gonna cry for us.

Where was I?

Right: Summer Sonic. Kishin and Yayoi (part of Ben's Big Band of Merrymaking) went to go take in Billy Talent and Alexis on Fire. I figured I'll get to see them for cheap once they crash and burn in a few years time.

Instead we went to take in The Caesars. First we stopped by the Rock Rock booth, said hello to some Rock Rock regulars and bought the first of many, many beers. We then went where our official guide told us to go, but the official guide was wrong. It was also free, so we weren't too fussed. Instead of The Caesars, Bullet For My Valentine was playing. Before Summer Sonic, weeks and months before, Carla and I thought it would be a good idea to harness the awesome power of the Intranets to listen to as many of the Summer Sonic bands as possible. Being lazy, we only got about half the bands. Bullet For My Valentine was one of those bands. My quick review of them: meh. But they had one song that I liked. Which is the song they started playing as soon as I walked in. As soon as it was finished I left and sauntered over to where I assumed The Caesars must be playing.



They were playing. They were playing some song that sounded slightly similar to the song that they're known for. Soonafter they played the song that they are known for. The crowd sang along to the chorus. Luckily, no one did the action that the song brings to mind. Sorry, that was a bit blue. After the popular song most of the crowd started to disperse, even though The Caesars were still playing. Poor The Caesars. I stuck around. My review of that song they played as everyone left: Like Jerk It Out but not as catchy. Really, The Caesars are basically this decade's Edwyn Collins but in band form. Just my opinion. Therefore, it's the right one.



Also, in my opinion Little Barrie are a pretty good blues-y rock-y band. Just three guys on the stage, but a nice big sound. Seriously, you should check them out.

I checked out Yellowcard. They were pretty decent. Pop punk with fiddle has always appealed to me. One of the leads, the fiddler actually, made the mistake of calling Osaka Tokyo. His bandmates joined the crowd in booing him. He then apologized in Japanese and everyone cheered.

After that I wandered around for a bit. I reflected on how lucky I had been in seeing the bands I wanted to see and hearing the songs I wanted to hear. Also, not a lot of line-waiting. As I thought that, I passed by a massively long line. It snaked back on itself so many times I had no idea where it started or where it was going. It wasn't for a musical act. We'll get back to this line later. "When?" you may ask. "The smell of chocolate," I reply.

HIM was amusing. The lead singer looked like a vain jerk who was dressed up in a purple crushed velvet goth type suit who knew that he was a vain jerk who was dressed like a ponce. The look worked for him. His band was... eclectic. One of the guitarists looked like Meatloaf's mentally challenged brother. With a bad haircut. Another guitarist looked like an ugly cross between Kid Rock and Axl Rose. The drummer was fat and bald and had a bad mustache. I only got to see two or three songs by HIM, but they did play my favourite song of theirs, so I my luck seemed to be holding out.



Except for when it came to my phone. Not just my phone as it turns out. At the time I thought it was just my phone, but it wasn't really the fault of my phone at all. The system was overloaded, there were just too many phones and so there was a logjam of information. Which made meeting up with Carla not all that easy. But I managed it, cuz I'm just that good. Didn't get to see any PuffyAmiYumi tho, so that sucked a bit.

Asian Kung Fu Generation was odd. They are a very, very good rock band. A very, very good Asian rock band. So they would expertly play a well crafted rock song and then expertly play another well crafted rock song. Not a lot of banter. Maybe we missed the banter as we were moving about, trying to meet up with Ben and his buddies. The sound system wasn't too crash hot for Asi Kan, could hardly hear them when near the back. Maybe the lead singer is just really soft spoken.

We thought we'd catch the end of Rammstein, just to say we've seen Rammstein, but we didn't get to see Rammstein. Rammstein. Instead of German Industrial Techno angry music we saw Minmi. Which was a cute girl backed by multiple other cute girls, all in hot pants, swinging towels around their heads. The audience was also swinging towels madly. I don't know where all these towels came from. Maybe they were gearing up for that there Hitchhiker's movie. Man, that was odd. Not at all what we were expecting. Don't really know what was up with Rammstein. I imagine they're just jerks.



I imagine it was a drug problem that kept Flava Flav away. They said it was a passport problem, but I prefer my proposal. Still, Public Enemy put on a decent show. Not that we saw all that much of it. We did, however, get to hear the sound of a funky drummer.

The drummer of Bloc Party may well have been funky buty the mix was so muddy and the sound so tinny that I can't say for certain. Easily the worst sounding mix all weekend. So of course I took the best pictures. They played that So Here We Are song, and it sounded decent at least.




Weezer was quite enjoyable, I might have enjoyed it more because I was with two huge Weezer fans. I also liked how Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer, rolled his eyes so hard it affected his voice whenever he mentioned Oasis.




The problem with festivals like this is that you don't get to see all the bands you might want to see. Not that we missed any band we really just HAD to see, but we just couldn't find the time for The Black Crowes, Teenage Fanclub and The La's.



Even from a distance, Oasis sucks.



Punk covers are just awesome fun live. An album of them might get annoying, but being there, watching the moshing, it was awesome. I'm going to see if I can remember what all they covered. Leaving on a Jet Plane, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, Come Sail Away, Stairway to Heaven (right up there with Dave Grohl's cover, which is to say very good), Uptown Girl, and many, many more. You can fit in a lot of songs when you crank the tempo to 11. Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies's take on Wonderwall would clock in at under 2 minutes I'm sure. Speaking of which, my favourite cover of the night may well have been... This is how Fat Mike introduced it, "In honour of tonight's headline act (Oasis) we will cover one of their most famous songs." And then they launched into a Beatles Medley. All their other banter sucked, though. But their Hawaiian Shirts and matching guitars were totally fab!



Walking back to the train station we heard Oasis murdering a cover of (whining bout)My Generation.

What the hell was up with the people and the girls in the short shorts swinging towels? That was weird.

Ahoy me geriatric hearties!

While internationally September 19th was International Talk Like A Pirate Day, in Japan it was Respect for the Aged Day. Hooray for old pirates! Hooray for a long weekend! Which for Tyler & me means two days off in a row! We celebrated by riding our flashy new bikes about town. It was fun, and not altogether painful. Know why? Because I splurged a bit for a bigger bike with three, count 'em, three, speeds. The extra inch in the frame was worth the money in and of itself, but I didn't think the extra gears would matter much because the terrain around our apartment is pretty flat. But man, what a difference they make. Now I feel bad that Tyler's bike can't go all fast too. Plus my bike is better because it's red.

There's another national holiday on Friday for the equinox, but I don't know if that one will have anything to do with bikes.

What you may have missed

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous! Reasonably cool and a bit breezy, not oppressively sweltery hot like every day for the past four months. I guess maybe that means summer is over. A bit sooner than I expected. Probably too good to be true.

In honour of the changing of the season (hopefully) I present to you the essence of a Japanese summer:


Watermelon and yukata (yukata being a cotton bathrobe-type garment you can wear out on the street without people looking at you funny).


Ice cream, usually served soft and in a cone. Another popular way to stay cool: kakigori (fancy Japanese talk for shaved ice & syrup). Unnaturally coloured and powerfully sweet. Like a Slush Puppie, but not.


I swear, there's a festival every day in this country. At least during the summer. Crowds of people dressed up and deep fried food. Did I mention the crowds?


And what's a festival without fireworks?


The other thing we saw a lot of was kids catching cicadas, either with nets or with little plastic boxes. Bugs seem to be very popular with the kids here. Especially big ugly ones. The kind you can battle against each other in a combination of a collectible card game and rock, paper, scissors...


I mean, look at that thing. It's big and horrible and ugly and loud. Loud before 5 AM. But at least they don't bite.

And of course there's the humidity. But we didn't take any pictures of that.

It's all about the hair

Japan just had a national election. Koizumi, the incumbent, won by a landslide. Now he's going to privatize the postal system. And that's about all I can tell you about Japanese politics. Except that apparently a lot of politicians are corrupt. But that's hardly unusual, is it?

At least Disneyland's got rides

Well I guess if Tyler's finally gotten around to writing about fireworks, I should probably say something about the World Expo we attended last week in Nagoya/Aichi.

Even though we went on a Monday, lines for all the "best" attractions were obscenely long. I don't know if they really were the best attractions because I sure as hell wasn't about to stand out in the sun for 3+ hours to find out. But here's what some of them looked like from the outside.


The Toyota Pavilion had some sort of robot show, Hitachi's had something to do with endangered species, and I think Mitsubishi showed a show about what life would be like without the moon. There were others. They were all crowded.

The corporate pavilions weren't the only ones with impossibly long lines to get in. The remains of a frozen mammoth were apparently very popular. Same goes for the world's largest kaleidoscope. I mean, look at it! It's almost 50 metres tall.


There were kaleidoscope-type images around the outside, but somehow I think it just wasn't the same.


So if we didn't see any of the corporate pavilions, and we didn't see any of the big non-corporate ones, what did we see? Well, we spent a lot of time wandering between the various Global Commons and checking out the national pavilions. (But, you know, none of the popular ones with lines.) It was kinda like Mosaic, but with bigger budgets and less raucous drinking.

One of the longest lines we actually did wait in was for food. Foolishly, we weren't keeping track of the time and didn't realize that it was noon until we discovered we were absolutely starving. So yeah, we queued for what felt like a very long time to buy some African food, because we had heard it was some of the best at the Expo. Meh. I've had better. Better and cheaper.

Near the African food was a collection of stalls/booths representing various African countries. They were all selling coffee. Some handed out free samples. My sympathies to anyone unfortunate enough to come between a middle-aged Japanese woman and free coffee. All elbows and shoving, they are. Poor Tyler. He didn't even get to try it. The coffee, I mean. He got plenty of shoving.


Many of the African stalls also had really old skulls on display. It was almost like a competition to see whose heads were the oldest. The Ethiopian corner had the remains of Lucy under glass, which was kinda cool, but no one paid much attention to it. I guess because it wasn't handing out free coffee.

We also waited to see the Croatian Pavilion, which turned out to be mostly about salt.


Luckily, our compatriots over at the Canadian pavilion let us cut to the front of their line. Or rather, they let us sneak in the back door. Lovely people! I even let them take my picture. If you poke around on their website and look for the Teku-Jin Webshots, you can find a picture of Tyler & me on August 29 in the 10:00-11:00 timeslot.

We visited other pavilions, but I can't think of much to say about them. Singapore's looked pretty impressive, but it was impossible to get in without a reservation. The food in the restaurant around back was really good though. And we caught a teeny bit of Korea's pavilion as the park was closing down. It seemed really well put together and I would have loved to spend more time there (or at least seen the 3D movie) but we made the mistake of stopping to eat once more before we left and the Turkish ice cream slowed us down. It's like ice cream, but stretchy!


So Tyler, what of that big summer rock festival? Worth the ¥50,000 we paid to see it?

P.S. The Shinkansen bullet train is awesome!

Soggy Odds

When I talked with Ry the other day, he asked me if sushi in Japan is better than sushi in, say, Vancouver. I told him my tastes weren't refined enough to really detect a difference in taste, but that there was a lot more variety here. Last night we ate at a place that proved me more right then I ever dared dream. Of course, I forget the name of the place. But if you come to visit us, I totally remember how to get there.

Let me see if I can remember some of the more interesting sushi. There was corn sushi, that was odd, and the corn tasted old. Fried chicken sushi, which was nice and onion-y. Pastrami sushi, which was probably my favourite sushi of the evening. An unidentified yellow sushi that tasted bad and had a worse texture, that was my second least favourite sushi of the night. My least favourite was the meatball sushi, the meatballs tasted as if it was illegal to spell the word 'meat' properly in describing the dish. The mayonnaise didn't help. Oddly enough, the hamburger sushi was just fine, Carla didn't much care for the ketchup. It was a dining experience.

We bought a bike.

When I was on the phone with mom, she said she wanted to see a picture of the two of us. Well, we don't much like having our photos taken, but I do kinda like this one.



While I'm posting picture, let me show you this:



It's a refresh drink. What's so refreshing about this drink? you may ask. I'll let the bottle's blurb explain...



That's right, Skal is skim milk soda. But they don't use just any milk. Oh no! They use only the freshest milk. And then they ferment it. As we speak Japanese food scientists are working desperately to produce carbonated sour cream.