Adventures in Japan

Two Bands, a Birthday and a Wedding (Kinda)

We have to get better at this. Just plain have to. Otherwise it gets all backed up and we forget to mention stuff and then, years from now, when we try to remember what we did we'll look at this blog and go... we saw Aka Inu a bunch of times and that's about it.

We saw Aka Inu again recently. This time at an all day music type thingee. At Festival Gate. I do believe we have mentioned festival gate before. It's a shopping mall, a quite funky one, one with a roller coaster and a boat. But it's in a scuzzy area of town. The plan, I suppose, was that it would be the start of a reclamation kind of thing. Or the backers wanted to lose money. Cuz it never all that busy. It's a good site to see music at, tho.

There was a tonne of bands playing there that day. We did not see a tonne of bands that day. We saw a couple handfuls of bands, and of them I can only remember one as being good that wasn't Aka Inu. There were a fair few Aka Inu-ish bands: lots of members, lots of varied instruments, lots of yelling, lots of energy, not a lot of fun. Except for the one three piece. They played surf funk and played it well. Don't remember their names.

Aka Inu were fantastic as always, and the venue was real interesting. A bridge. A bridge between two towers of the shopping complex had been converted into a space for bands to play in. Lots of big windows so you could see the roller coaster whip by from time to time.

The roller coaster costs seven bucks and lasts for seven minutes. At no point that day were we drunk enough to think that a good deal.

As I've mentioned a couple o' times, there were a lot of bands that day. Bands being bands, they all went a bit long so by the end of the day, Aka Inu took to the stage long after they were scheduled to. They were great as always. The highlight this time? Two of the members got into a wrestling match in the middle of the audience.

The people wanted an encore. Verily, they demanded one. The management wanted everyone to clear out. So Aka Inu took to the stage, but they didn't play. One of the lead singers had a small bottle of something. He invited one of the fans up on stage, opened up the bottle... and... it stunk. It really, really stunk. He, the lead singer, jumped into the audience, dared anyone to take a good whiff. The place cleared out pretty quick.

Or it would have if the exit policy made any sense. All of the stairwells were blocked off. As were all the elevators but one. That elevator was backstage, with all the bands and their equipment. Not sure whose idea that was, but it was a bad one.

Another band that rocks is K maru ichi. You might be able to find some of their stuff on the intrawebs, just search for k 106 in whatever completely legal music finding doohickey you use.

Ben and I saw them a few weeks back at a place called Shangri-la. Great space. Not overly big, but well layed out. And packed to the gills. Ben and I were the only white folk there and nearly the only males there. Good times. k 106 are a nice brassy rock instrumental band. They took to the stage at 7 and didn't leave for good till 9:30. That's a lot of playing. And not a lot of talking. But I was quite happy that I understood most of the banter.

I especially understood the part where, betwixt a couple songs, the lead non singer singled Ben out of the audience and thanked him for being so energetic and into their groove. Ben was a bit gobsmacked. It was a good scene.

We talked to some of the band afterwards and it seems they play weekly in Kobe. If anyone comes to visit us, we may have to make a trip out there.

Oh yeah, if anyone wants to come visit us, don't do it around Xmas time. Our place is all booked up.

What else? *looks at title* Right, Carla had a birthday. She got some Animal Crossing toys, a black DS light and a video ipod. She was pretty happy.

The same night that we celebrated Carla's birthday we also had a small wedding party. We ate and drank and sang karaoke.

If I remember anything else, I may post it.

Plea

We're gonna be having a wedding kinda party sorta thing here in Japan this weekend. I know there were all sorts of shutterbugs at our wedding bugging their shutters. If any and/or all y'all good send us yer stuff that would be mucho...

good?

Onegaishimasu!!

Careco

Today was our first trip to Costco since we got back. Still full of large foreigners and screaming children of all nationalities. I had forgotten how big the frozen food section was in Costcos in Canada, the one here is puny and pathetic. That's what you get for living in a country without freezers, I guess.

But that's not why I'm writing. I'm writing because someone from Costco called us. He called to tell us that one of the things we were having delivered (we didn't take our bikes today. It was supposed to, and did, rain and someone is constantly sabotaging my bike. Always stealing stuff from it or throwing garbage on it. At the moment my rear tire is completely flat. But that's not why I'm writing) was scratched.

You see (Theo), Carla had found a cookbook all about vegetables. Being the son of Tom and Jerry, I never really learned what to do with vegetables. Other than have them go bad in the fridge. There was only copy of the book there, and it was banged up. But still perfectly usable, all the words were still in the right order.

But the dude readying our delivery saw fit to check with us that it was okay that they ship us damaged goods. He was very polite and apologetic.

Dunno if that would happen back in the land of deep freezes.

Idle Tidings

Hey y'all. Just trying to get back into the swing of things here. Wanna try to update this thingee at least once a week from now on. Try to commit to a schedule. Trying to study Japanese on a regular basis as well. And exercise. And you thought we would let ourselves go once we got hitched. Well U wuz rong!

So what has everybody been up to? I'll go first!

We went to USJ. That is Universal Studios Japan. Ben knows a couple of people who work there and they gave him some free passes, but he already has year passes. As do Kishin and Yayoi, so we got to go! Yay! Way better than the Universal Studios in Cali. At least rides wise.

Here's a hint: if the sign outside of a ride says that there is a 90 minute wait, get into the singles line. Hell, just always get into the singles line. Unless you have kids, in which case that's illegal. And what the hell are you doing bringing kids to an amusement park anyways? That's no place for a child!

Yeah, so we basically walked straight onto every ride in the park and ended up sitting with each other anyway. Worked out well, that.

Quick reviews!!!

Spiderman: the 3D was a bit iffy, but good enough for me and the motions of the ride were quite well done.

Jurassic Park: Way better than I remember the Cali one being. Way bigger and steeper drop. It made a kid in front of me cry. Awesome!

Jaws: The guide is what made this ride. He was hella relaxed. I have no idea what he was saying, but the way he said it amused me. He was basically giving a tour of Amity, but Jaws would turn up from time to time. He would excuse himself, aim in the general direction of the great white, shoot a few times and then go right back into his spiel. Good stuff.

The Sesame Street thingee: I really don't like Elmo.

USJ doesn't really have a lot of rides. But it does have crazy old ladies who look like old men who like to dance to and stalk the Blue Brothers.

I'm uber tired so I'll tack some more onto this later. L8rz!