So I'm off to India tomorrow night. Will be nice to go back. I'm looking forward to the two weeks of doing absolutely nothing except trying to read Winnie the Pooh in Japanese and eating various Aunties' wonderful food. The most difficult decision of the day will be whether to have mango or coconut for breakfast :o)
Today I am crazily busy. Packing, buying last minute presents and food, trying to find what the hell kind of wall plug India uses, tidying, sending things to England, practicing for playing the school song in the closing ceremony tomorrow, buying paint to cover up the latest scratch on my car (its a small one, I must be getting better...), and generally Getting Things In Order.
Anyway, today while practicing for the school song with the kids, afterwards I stayed behind to practice a bit, and having not played on a grand piano for a while, starting playing anything and everything I could think of, was fun. After a while, three of my second year kids crept back in, under the guise of looking for something they'd lost (they kind of gave the game away when they couldn't remember what it was they'd lost). Turned out one of the kids, an ever so slightly nerdy guy from the lower class, wanted to play the piano a bit. He played one of his compositions, a little emotional piano piece (name: "Snow Night") and some classical pieces. He was really good! I showed him some bits and then we had a little jazz jam with him improvising. Him and his friends were trying to speak english, too (in Hikami Nishi?? OMG). One of those things that comes out of nowhere. My kids are awesome.
Wherever you are, have a great Christmas and New Year!
See you in 2007!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Tokyo Calling
This weekend I went to Tokyo.
I flew out rather than get the Shinkansen as it works out cheaper. Kobe airport is a small internal airport made on a man made island, think it only opened this year and its really cool. As I ate soba in the departure lounge I was crying tears of joy. Or tears of adding too much chilli to the soba. It's not important.
Arrived in Shinjuku late in the evening and just had time to pop into DUG Jazz and Booze (the owner is a jazz photographer, original photos of Bill Evans, Miles, Louis on the walls.) They were playing some Red Garland when I got there, then they put on a cd of stevie covers called "Songs in the Key of Jazz" which is much better than it might have been, check the version of Visions. As I left they had on a uptempo version of Misty, nice.
I was excited about staying in a capsule hotel. The one I wanted to go to was in the heart of Shinjuku's red light district, Kabukicho. Interesting to see girls all standing outside in their long jackets and touts everywhere. The Japanese touts in general ignore foreigners, but a couple of African touts chased after me (both strangely thought I was French at first.) They all have a different game, one is trying to be really smooth (with a pimp hat) giving it all 'heyyyyyyyyy... so there are a variety of places round here...` I admired his smoothness. Much better than the scraggly European man with a front tooth missing who shouted at me in some grainy as hell voice as I walked pat "OI! fuuull sex for twenty five foouuusand yen!" No thanks, guy.
Having sucessfully navigated Kabukicho, I along with 659 of my closest salaryman friends lined up to get a capsule at Green Plaza in Shinjuku. I cannot stress how much fun this was. Pay your fee, get changed in a locker room and put on a light cotton robe thing, then go to your capsule. 600 odd people wandering round the 5 story facility all in little robes is pretty funny, felt like a school trip or a sleepover or something. Chuck your stuff in your capsule then time to go and get naked with salarymen at the massive bath on the 6th floor. Fall asleep watching some random anime on your little screen.
Next day started to walk round Tokyo, just wandering and looking in shops. Went from Harajuku down to Aoyama, to Shibuya then back to Harajuku. Harajuku is nice and all, but I reeeaaallly like Aoyama. Compared to Aoyama, Harajuku is much more of a kids place, but Aoyama feels really cool. Got a new favourite shop, Tsumori Chisato, but I'm gonna have to save before I can get stuff there. Awesome shops round that area, Frapbois, Y-3, Undercover, Commes des Garcons, where I finally gave in to a little consumer lust. They were playing a female vocal version of Here There and Everywhere which may have swayed me. (Check the crazy looking building - it's the Aoyama Prada. Didn't go in cos its not really my thing but fantastic building.)
These pics are of Undercover, one of the coolest shops I've been in. Retro Star Wars figures all in the window, studio apartment meets gothic church interior, and this slightly creepy wall next to the staircase stuffed with cuddley toys where something just isn't quite right.
Wandered round Shibuya, nice area. Went to Jazzy Sport just like I did first time in Tokyo - even knowing where it is it's really hard to find. Picked up a couple of crazy good CDs, a hiphop/broken beat collection from Jazzy Sport and a abstract hiphop beat collection produced by Jnerio Jarel from Dr. Who Dat? There was a mad good broken beat tune on the stereo, asked the guy what it was, and it turned out to be on the Jazzy Sport CD! Lucky!
Popped into HMV to pick up Shuya Okino's new CD United Legends (its a series of collaborations overseen by him, dream collabos - Phil Asher with Blaze, KJM with Fertile Ground's vocalist, Dego with Yukimi Nagano, list goes one.) Taking it to the counter as I heard a craaaaaaazy good soul song, asked the assistant what it was, and it was the Mark de Clive Lowe and Vikter Duplaix track off the album I was buying! Lucky!
Headed back along Meiji Dori to Harajuku checking shops along the way, some niiiiiice trainers around but no money at all for them... very sad. (I really like the Mork high dunks, based on Mork's red and silver costume from the TV show, bottom right of the photo) Hysteric Glamour was okay, but to be honest the shop itself and the signs were more interesting than the clothes. Finally popped into Supreme, but they didn't have the bag I wanted. Was the only place that didn't Irrashai me all day (Japanese shops always greet you like this), I guess they're too cool for that, but Curtis Mayfield's "Trippin Out" was on the stereo so I forgive them. On the way back to the station popped into a Bape store with all the Bapestas laid out like sweets - I think they must have been fake, even a Busy Workshop store doesn't have, like seriously, about 30, 40 colourways all aranged like sweets on the shelf. I don't really like bapestas, but arranged like that they look good. Bape is so old though, the only people I saw wearing it all weekend were a kid kitted out from head to toe in Bape as his mum took him shopping, a fat guy in a computer game store in the a Bapesta sweater, and then finally a British guy who I always seem to see in Osaka in the way back (I know its always the same guy as he is head to toe in the outrageous bape stuff - purple camo hoodie, the Milo Shark zip up etc.)
Dumped my stuff in a locker in Shibuya, then on the way to the TOKYO CROSSOVER JAZZ FESTIVAL OMG stopped off to see what Ginza was like. Answer: upmarket shopping district which is also a bit like Kabukicho but all the girls in those kinda clubs wear stunning evening dresses rather than long coats.
Then off to Shinkiba to ageHa for this:
Woop woop. Words cannot describe how good the night of music was. From 10.30 til 7.30 the next morning, there was about 10 mins of music that wasn't fantastic (which I'll cover later). Unfortunately, during the security search I was told to leave my camera outside, so all following pics are from my keitai.
Arrived as the DJ Masoto Komatsu was playing a wicked remix of Common's "Go" and soon after Mark de Clive Lowe came on main stage. I've seen him once before, but that time I'd had an argument with my ex, we'd missed Airto Moreira and so I was in a bad mood and didn't really 'get' it, thought his beats were a bit wanky. But this time, dunno if him and Bembe Segue (vocalist) have become tighter by doing this so much, or I was just in the mood, but the music was fantastic. He uses a samper/sequencer MPC and builds beats and tracks live with loops played on various keyboards while she floats some vocals on top. Deep musical sculpture stuff.
Cro-magnon were up next, and that was the thing that wasn't amazing. It was more straight up synth funk, which is good, but in this line up it stood out as being not as good [the best I can describe it is something like a more jazzy soulwax who I saw last year with Ali in Nottingham] - however this was completely saved after about 15 mins of the set, when the music stared to get a little latin style, and then Tabu Zombie (trumpet) and Motoharu (sax) from Soil and Pimp sessions jumped up and made it funk with jaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Next up was Frank McComb, a jazzy soul singer from the US, but I didn't know he plays the Rhodes himself, he's almost better on that than on vocals. Listened to his CD in a shop before, it was one of those ones that sounds so tight and studio like that as a CD it's not amazing, but you know as a live band it'll be good. His band were really tight, and halfways through, in addition to his current e bass player, he introduced Tetsuo Sakurai, Japanese jazz e bassist who came up and started doing some Jaco licks and crazy soloing, then the two bass players had what i would call a 'bass off'. Fun.
Shuya Okino DJ'd next, started with that tune 'endless fliiiiiiiiight' which is another deeeeeeep kjm tune (great piano solo from Hajime Yoshizawa). Diviniti (female vocalist) was there and did a live PA for her tune on his album "Shine".
Then was the highlight of the night for me, the Japanese jazz band Sleepwalker. Raw, earthy jazz, post hip hop post club culture jazz, jazz that sounds like a mix of 70s afro jazz pharoah saunders style and expansions mccoy tyner style but taking into account everything that's happened since, not playing it but somehow you can tell it influenced this note or that solo. You might be able to tell I'm a fan. They had featuring on different tracks, Yukimi Nagano from Sweden and Bembe Segue from UK. I am ten times over in love with Yukimi Nagano. Ever since I first heard her on Hird's 'Keep You Kimi', her drawling complex yet sweet vocals have made sooooo many tunes. Combined with her cutely nervous stage presence and this little strange shuffle she does while singing, she's pretty much my favourite singer of anyone. Sleepwalker and Yukimi. Same track but from the solo. So combine this with Hajime Yoshizawa's deep searching jazz outfit (who were the first band to get me to understand about this kind of music) with the amazing Masa on sax, I tell you, I was in HEAVEN. Unbelievable sound waves.
How do you follow that?? Well, stick Ryota Nozaki (Jazztronik) on the decks, get him to introduce himself like a shy schoolboy then drop some latin bangers! WOOOOOO. By this point I was practically overdosing on happiness.
Followed by Koop, Swedish jazz band, pretty big in this scene. European nu-jazz business, double bass, vibes and programmed beats with a live drummer as well. Halfway through the set the two main guys took off their jackets and waddayaknow they were in serious drag. Europeans eh! Yukimi came back on stage for a couple tracks off the new album, and of course they played their biggest tune 'Summer Sun'. I like. By this point (bout 5 in the morning) people were TIRED - seriously it had been so upfront since it began - and nodding off wherever they could.
So Shacho from Soil and Pimp gets on the decks. He's like "everyone, you must be tired." Then plays an INSANELY LOUD klaxon for about 15 full seconds. Worked though. He's a pretty good dj, club jazz/jazzy house kinda stuff.
Final live set of the evening, Kyoto Jazz Massive. Okino brothers behind the mpc and decks, Midori from Soil and Pimp on drums, Hajime Yoshizawa on keys, and a few I didnt know on synths, perc and bass (young bass guy seemed to be over the moon to be playing with KJM.) Vanessa Freeman from the UK on vocals, absolutely killllled it. Works so well live, might go and see them again next week down in Kobe. Beautiful stuff.
The only thing left to say was that the encore was SERIOUS. Pretty much everyone jumped up on stage, hajime, mark de clive lowe, bembe, vanessa freeman, diviniti, frank mccomb + band, okino bros, masa, midori, motoharu.... maaaaaaaaaaaaan. Jammed on a improvisational wave of energy off of the back of the 7 or so hours of seriously out there music we'd just heard for about an 45mins. Amazing.
Stumbled out a bit before 8ish, stopped in Shibuya to get a 3 hour rest at a different capsule place. Wasn't so good. You think adding a porn channel in the capsule makes me not notice the lockers are smaller and its more cramped and less plush than Green Plaza, huh Capsule Land? No.
So anyway after my brief sleep it was off to Yokohama to meet up with Mahoko from Nottingham. We did some sightseeing from the comfort of a bus, which was fortunate as the weather was pretty drizzly and grey. Did a teeny bit of walking before looking round some shops. In this shopping centre, they had a big Christmas tree made of Swarovski Crystals which they were lighting in a really cool way, and we happened to arrive as they were having a special thing with lighting and music and indoor snow! Cool.
Then we popped back to Mahoko's place to have a delicious meal, made even more so by the fact I'd eaten at Yoshinoya the entire weekend apart from this. Really good to catch up and Mhk's family is so friendly. Was really nice to be around a family again.
Sunday, headed down to Akihabara before heading back, to get a videogame. The tube map I have I think is a little out of date, as I kept somehow shuttling between the two stops surrounding it, until I gave up and decided to follow a bunch of nerds, figuring they were probably going there. They were. So Akihabara is an area full of game, computer, technology shops etc. Got my nerd fix by playing on a Playstation 3 for a while, and picked up a few games finishing off the last of my money in the world.
Back to Aogaki via Shinkansen after buying delicious omiyage (souveneir gifts) for my staff. Great weekend, and to top it all off, on Saturday VISSEL KOBE WON (well drew but away goals count for more) and so we're going to J1! Yeeeeaaaaaah.
I flew out rather than get the Shinkansen as it works out cheaper. Kobe airport is a small internal airport made on a man made island, think it only opened this year and its really cool. As I ate soba in the departure lounge I was crying tears of joy. Or tears of adding too much chilli to the soba. It's not important.
Arrived in Shinjuku late in the evening and just had time to pop into DUG Jazz and Booze (the owner is a jazz photographer, original photos of Bill Evans, Miles, Louis on the walls.) They were playing some Red Garland when I got there, then they put on a cd of stevie covers called "Songs in the Key of Jazz" which is much better than it might have been, check the version of Visions. As I left they had on a uptempo version of Misty, nice.
I was excited about staying in a capsule hotel. The one I wanted to go to was in the heart of Shinjuku's red light district, Kabukicho. Interesting to see girls all standing outside in their long jackets and touts everywhere. The Japanese touts in general ignore foreigners, but a couple of African touts chased after me (both strangely thought I was French at first.) They all have a different game, one is trying to be really smooth (with a pimp hat) giving it all 'heyyyyyyyyy... so there are a variety of places round here...` I admired his smoothness. Much better than the scraggly European man with a front tooth missing who shouted at me in some grainy as hell voice as I walked pat "OI! fuuull sex for twenty five foouuusand yen!" No thanks, guy.
Having sucessfully navigated Kabukicho, I along with 659 of my closest salaryman friends lined up to get a capsule at Green Plaza in Shinjuku. I cannot stress how much fun this was. Pay your fee, get changed in a locker room and put on a light cotton robe thing, then go to your capsule. 600 odd people wandering round the 5 story facility all in little robes is pretty funny, felt like a school trip or a sleepover or something. Chuck your stuff in your capsule then time to go and get naked with salarymen at the massive bath on the 6th floor. Fall asleep watching some random anime on your little screen.
Next day started to walk round Tokyo, just wandering and looking in shops. Went from Harajuku down to Aoyama, to Shibuya then back to Harajuku. Harajuku is nice and all, but I reeeaaallly like Aoyama. Compared to Aoyama, Harajuku is much more of a kids place, but Aoyama feels really cool. Got a new favourite shop, Tsumori Chisato, but I'm gonna have to save before I can get stuff there. Awesome shops round that area, Frapbois, Y-3, Undercover, Commes des Garcons, where I finally gave in to a little consumer lust. They were playing a female vocal version of Here There and Everywhere which may have swayed me. (Check the crazy looking building - it's the Aoyama Prada. Didn't go in cos its not really my thing but fantastic building.)
These pics are of Undercover, one of the coolest shops I've been in. Retro Star Wars figures all in the window, studio apartment meets gothic church interior, and this slightly creepy wall next to the staircase stuffed with cuddley toys where something just isn't quite right.
Wandered round Shibuya, nice area. Went to Jazzy Sport just like I did first time in Tokyo - even knowing where it is it's really hard to find. Picked up a couple of crazy good CDs, a hiphop/broken beat collection from Jazzy Sport and a abstract hiphop beat collection produced by Jnerio Jarel from Dr. Who Dat? There was a mad good broken beat tune on the stereo, asked the guy what it was, and it turned out to be on the Jazzy Sport CD! Lucky!
Popped into HMV to pick up Shuya Okino's new CD United Legends (its a series of collaborations overseen by him, dream collabos - Phil Asher with Blaze, KJM with Fertile Ground's vocalist, Dego with Yukimi Nagano, list goes one.) Taking it to the counter as I heard a craaaaaaazy good soul song, asked the assistant what it was, and it was the Mark de Clive Lowe and Vikter Duplaix track off the album I was buying! Lucky!
Headed back along Meiji Dori to Harajuku checking shops along the way, some niiiiiice trainers around but no money at all for them... very sad. (I really like the Mork high dunks, based on Mork's red and silver costume from the TV show, bottom right of the photo) Hysteric Glamour was okay, but to be honest the shop itself and the signs were more interesting than the clothes. Finally popped into Supreme, but they didn't have the bag I wanted. Was the only place that didn't Irrashai me all day (Japanese shops always greet you like this), I guess they're too cool for that, but Curtis Mayfield's "Trippin Out" was on the stereo so I forgive them. On the way back to the station popped into a Bape store with all the Bapestas laid out like sweets - I think they must have been fake, even a Busy Workshop store doesn't have, like seriously, about 30, 40 colourways all aranged like sweets on the shelf. I don't really like bapestas, but arranged like that they look good. Bape is so old though, the only people I saw wearing it all weekend were a kid kitted out from head to toe in Bape as his mum took him shopping, a fat guy in a computer game store in the a Bapesta sweater, and then finally a British guy who I always seem to see in Osaka in the way back (I know its always the same guy as he is head to toe in the outrageous bape stuff - purple camo hoodie, the Milo Shark zip up etc.)
Dumped my stuff in a locker in Shibuya, then on the way to the TOKYO CROSSOVER JAZZ FESTIVAL OMG stopped off to see what Ginza was like. Answer: upmarket shopping district which is also a bit like Kabukicho but all the girls in those kinda clubs wear stunning evening dresses rather than long coats.
Then off to Shinkiba to ageHa for this:
Woop woop. Words cannot describe how good the night of music was. From 10.30 til 7.30 the next morning, there was about 10 mins of music that wasn't fantastic (which I'll cover later). Unfortunately, during the security search I was told to leave my camera outside, so all following pics are from my keitai.
Arrived as the DJ Masoto Komatsu was playing a wicked remix of Common's "Go" and soon after Mark de Clive Lowe came on main stage. I've seen him once before, but that time I'd had an argument with my ex, we'd missed Airto Moreira and so I was in a bad mood and didn't really 'get' it, thought his beats were a bit wanky. But this time, dunno if him and Bembe Segue (vocalist) have become tighter by doing this so much, or I was just in the mood, but the music was fantastic. He uses a samper/sequencer MPC and builds beats and tracks live with loops played on various keyboards while she floats some vocals on top. Deep musical sculpture stuff.
Cro-magnon were up next, and that was the thing that wasn't amazing. It was more straight up synth funk, which is good, but in this line up it stood out as being not as good [the best I can describe it is something like a more jazzy soulwax who I saw last year with Ali in Nottingham] - however this was completely saved after about 15 mins of the set, when the music stared to get a little latin style, and then Tabu Zombie (trumpet) and Motoharu (sax) from Soil and Pimp sessions jumped up and made it funk with jaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Next up was Frank McComb, a jazzy soul singer from the US, but I didn't know he plays the Rhodes himself, he's almost better on that than on vocals. Listened to his CD in a shop before, it was one of those ones that sounds so tight and studio like that as a CD it's not amazing, but you know as a live band it'll be good. His band were really tight, and halfways through, in addition to his current e bass player, he introduced Tetsuo Sakurai, Japanese jazz e bassist who came up and started doing some Jaco licks and crazy soloing, then the two bass players had what i would call a 'bass off'. Fun.
Shuya Okino DJ'd next, started with that tune 'endless fliiiiiiiiight' which is another deeeeeeep kjm tune (great piano solo from Hajime Yoshizawa). Diviniti (female vocalist) was there and did a live PA for her tune on his album "Shine".
Then was the highlight of the night for me, the Japanese jazz band Sleepwalker. Raw, earthy jazz, post hip hop post club culture jazz, jazz that sounds like a mix of 70s afro jazz pharoah saunders style and expansions mccoy tyner style but taking into account everything that's happened since, not playing it but somehow you can tell it influenced this note or that solo. You might be able to tell I'm a fan. They had featuring on different tracks, Yukimi Nagano from Sweden and Bembe Segue from UK. I am ten times over in love with Yukimi Nagano. Ever since I first heard her on Hird's 'Keep You Kimi', her drawling complex yet sweet vocals have made sooooo many tunes. Combined with her cutely nervous stage presence and this little strange shuffle she does while singing, she's pretty much my favourite singer of anyone. Sleepwalker and Yukimi. Same track but from the solo. So combine this with Hajime Yoshizawa's deep searching jazz outfit (who were the first band to get me to understand about this kind of music) with the amazing Masa on sax, I tell you, I was in HEAVEN. Unbelievable sound waves.
How do you follow that?? Well, stick Ryota Nozaki (Jazztronik) on the decks, get him to introduce himself like a shy schoolboy then drop some latin bangers! WOOOOOO. By this point I was practically overdosing on happiness.
Followed by Koop, Swedish jazz band, pretty big in this scene. European nu-jazz business, double bass, vibes and programmed beats with a live drummer as well. Halfway through the set the two main guys took off their jackets and waddayaknow they were in serious drag. Europeans eh! Yukimi came back on stage for a couple tracks off the new album, and of course they played their biggest tune 'Summer Sun'. I like. By this point (bout 5 in the morning) people were TIRED - seriously it had been so upfront since it began - and nodding off wherever they could.
So Shacho from Soil and Pimp gets on the decks. He's like "everyone, you must be tired." Then plays an INSANELY LOUD klaxon for about 15 full seconds. Worked though. He's a pretty good dj, club jazz/jazzy house kinda stuff.
Final live set of the evening, Kyoto Jazz Massive. Okino brothers behind the mpc and decks, Midori from Soil and Pimp on drums, Hajime Yoshizawa on keys, and a few I didnt know on synths, perc and bass (young bass guy seemed to be over the moon to be playing with KJM.) Vanessa Freeman from the UK on vocals, absolutely killllled it. Works so well live, might go and see them again next week down in Kobe. Beautiful stuff.
The only thing left to say was that the encore was SERIOUS. Pretty much everyone jumped up on stage, hajime, mark de clive lowe, bembe, vanessa freeman, diviniti, frank mccomb + band, okino bros, masa, midori, motoharu.... maaaaaaaaaaaaan. Jammed on a improvisational wave of energy off of the back of the 7 or so hours of seriously out there music we'd just heard for about an 45mins. Amazing.
Stumbled out a bit before 8ish, stopped in Shibuya to get a 3 hour rest at a different capsule place. Wasn't so good. You think adding a porn channel in the capsule makes me not notice the lockers are smaller and its more cramped and less plush than Green Plaza, huh Capsule Land? No.
So anyway after my brief sleep it was off to Yokohama to meet up with Mahoko from Nottingham. We did some sightseeing from the comfort of a bus, which was fortunate as the weather was pretty drizzly and grey. Did a teeny bit of walking before looking round some shops. In this shopping centre, they had a big Christmas tree made of Swarovski Crystals which they were lighting in a really cool way, and we happened to arrive as they were having a special thing with lighting and music and indoor snow! Cool.
Then we popped back to Mahoko's place to have a delicious meal, made even more so by the fact I'd eaten at Yoshinoya the entire weekend apart from this. Really good to catch up and Mhk's family is so friendly. Was really nice to be around a family again.
Sunday, headed down to Akihabara before heading back, to get a videogame. The tube map I have I think is a little out of date, as I kept somehow shuttling between the two stops surrounding it, until I gave up and decided to follow a bunch of nerds, figuring they were probably going there. They were. So Akihabara is an area full of game, computer, technology shops etc. Got my nerd fix by playing on a Playstation 3 for a while, and picked up a few games finishing off the last of my money in the world.
Back to Aogaki via Shinkansen after buying delicious omiyage (souveneir gifts) for my staff. Great weekend, and to top it all off, on Saturday VISSEL KOBE WON (well drew but away goals count for more) and so we're going to J1! Yeeeeaaaaaah.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Seasons Greetings from my kids
My kids are cute:
Dear Tomofumi, Happy Christmas! This year was good for me and I hope it was for you too. My best memory is made a girlfriend. I hope that you strong came to high school. Thankyou for your nice batting. Yours, Akinobu
Dear Akinobu, Merry Christmas! was it a good year for you this year? was for me. Thankyou for your nice pitching and nice playing. I hope that you and she become a best couple. Sincerely, TomofumiBut also strange:
Dear Masado [maybe, can't really read his writing], 2006 was busy year for you, buy your new load was opened. And I hope you more happy. Now I hear it snows. This years getting colder. How I feel inside. Losing my concentration. I just need more time. Some how I'll make it there. I just need more time. You are nice gay. Hope you have Happy Holidays. LOVE
Thursday, December 07, 2006
What kind of robot do you want?
It's exam time here at Hikami Nishi, and that was one of the questions on the paper I made and just marked. The majority of kids wrote pretty boring stuff about cooking or cleaning robots along the lines of:
Also, the following one is EXACTLY what I would have written:
I want cleaning robot. Because I don’t like cleaning.
I want to creaning robot and cooking robot. Becouse my room is very mess and I can’t cooking. It looks like to small human. name is creaning love robot and cooking love robot. This robot is 1000000 yen.But this particular one caught my eye:
I want to destoroi macine. It can destoroi the city. I don’t like North Koria and USA. It looks like GUNDOM. Robote name is Destoroier. It is high quarity and very expenceve. Destoroier as storong as newclear weapon.Yeah, nice.
Also, the following one is EXACTLY what I would have written:
I want a “Doraemon”. Because he has very useful item. He can help me. He looks like cat. But his clor is blue. His name is “Doraemon”. He have a red tale. When it pull, what happen by Doraemon. I have not enough money to buy a Doraemon, but if made a Doraemon, I work hard and buy. What help to excite. I look forward to.I look forward to too. And finally the best one out of the lot:
I want the robot that can fly over the sky. Because I want to go near the cloud. The robot is lovely shape. The name of the robot is Riro. I hope that the robot is made sometime.That's deeeeeeeep. I was impressed by my kids.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Hupdate!
Just a little update seeing as it's been a couple of weeks since the last one.
So what's happened since last time? Hmmm. Just small things I guess. (On a music tip, found this amazing cafe with a friend in Himeji which played the entirity of John Coltrane's "Ascension" [if you know the album you know how unusual this is] followed by his album "Ballads" as a comedown. Could there be anything better than that? Good music good company good atmosphere makes life for sure.)
Had my Japanese exam last weekend which I am sure I failed (the clue was in the fact I studied only about 50% of the material)... But I'm so happy it's over, now Japanese can be fun again rather than just preparing for the test. I'm trying various new things, including keeping a diary in Japanese, reading my favourite artists' blogs in Japanese (it's amazing how much more you persevere when you actually want to know what they're saying), flashcard programs for the mac... let's hope it works a bit.
Sunday night after the test, popped into Osaka to try and find a particular magazine for Japanese learners, didn't find it, but did find Especial Records, a tiny little shop run by the Okino brothers (of KJM fame, see previous posts for mentions of them.) Found out about some tunes I'd wanted to know about from freedom time, theres an album coming out this week with that LOVE IS THE KEY tune on, yayayayayaya. And most importantly picked up some wicked selections:
and manning the shop was Yoshihiro Okino (deep house DJ again from previous posts.) Tried to speak some poor Japanese to him, to which he replied in English with a London accent. Oops! Anyway, talked to him for a few minutes which made my week/month/life then back home -- where incidentally it is OHMYGOSH cold all the time now.
Also, my taiko class finished. On the final lesson, there seemed to be a lot more people hanging around, a few housewives, a lady in an apron, a seemingly drunk old man (he'd actually been for the last few lessons, think he was an old teacher of taiko or something, he played with a sort of 'drunken master' style) - it was like they were trying their hardest to recreate the people who live in the village from harvest moon:
Turned out they were last year's class, and after we gave our final performance, they played a song: (apologies for the terrible sound, i recorded this with my mobile) -- oh and check the drunken master guy, he's playing the odaiko (large taiko horizontal on a stand) at the back on the left) --
Oh and also had my school's Bounenkai last week 'end of year' party (although apparently it literally means 'forget last year cos it was tough' party). It was really fun, times like this I'm reminded why I like my little school. Only about 20 teachers, all drinking together in a small old fashioned style Japanese place, with middle aged ladies in kimonos serving up the food and drinks. Everyone had a good laugh and as usual my Japanese ability went up 200% with the addition of alcohol - or rather my awkwardness in knowing that i need to sound like an idiot in order to get my meaning across went down. My teachers are too cute - after the first course (amazing sashimi, thats the raw fish, so soft and melty) we had a quiz - all about the school, stuff like 'near the west exit, above the noticeboard, there is a switchbox. what colour are the buttons?' and everyone had a little guess and won a random christmas present like a plate or cup or something like that. I understood most of the questions which was amazing (i guess being in school all the time you pick up the relevant vocabulary) and won some sort of tupperware rice container for knowing what a colour print costs the school. (¥13, fact fans.) Innocent fun, compared to the old pervs and bitter rivalries I hear about at some schools mine is like a blissfully innocent family.
I feel like with 2006 nearly over a new chapter in Japan is beginning. In fact I am pretty used to life here now, I used the sentence "I have to go and buy batteries for the remote control for my toilet" yesterday without thinking twice about it. Off to Tokyo this weekend (excited bout that), India in 3 weeks - time is flying. Hope all is good with you guys wherever you are reading this!
So what's happened since last time? Hmmm. Just small things I guess. (On a music tip, found this amazing cafe with a friend in Himeji which played the entirity of John Coltrane's "Ascension" [if you know the album you know how unusual this is] followed by his album "Ballads" as a comedown. Could there be anything better than that? Good music good company good atmosphere makes life for sure.)
Had my Japanese exam last weekend which I am sure I failed (the clue was in the fact I studied only about 50% of the material)... But I'm so happy it's over, now Japanese can be fun again rather than just preparing for the test. I'm trying various new things, including keeping a diary in Japanese, reading my favourite artists' blogs in Japanese (it's amazing how much more you persevere when you actually want to know what they're saying), flashcard programs for the mac... let's hope it works a bit.
Sunday night after the test, popped into Osaka to try and find a particular magazine for Japanese learners, didn't find it, but did find Especial Records, a tiny little shop run by the Okino brothers (of KJM fame, see previous posts for mentions of them.) Found out about some tunes I'd wanted to know about from freedom time, theres an album coming out this week with that LOVE IS THE KEY tune on, yayayayayaya. And most importantly picked up some wicked selections:
and manning the shop was Yoshihiro Okino (deep house DJ again from previous posts.) Tried to speak some poor Japanese to him, to which he replied in English with a London accent. Oops! Anyway, talked to him for a few minutes which made my week/month/life then back home -- where incidentally it is OHMYGOSH cold all the time now.
Also, my taiko class finished. On the final lesson, there seemed to be a lot more people hanging around, a few housewives, a lady in an apron, a seemingly drunk old man (he'd actually been for the last few lessons, think he was an old teacher of taiko or something, he played with a sort of 'drunken master' style) - it was like they were trying their hardest to recreate the people who live in the village from harvest moon:
Turned out they were last year's class, and after we gave our final performance, they played a song: (apologies for the terrible sound, i recorded this with my mobile) -- oh and check the drunken master guy, he's playing the odaiko (large taiko horizontal on a stand) at the back on the left) --
Oh and also had my school's Bounenkai last week 'end of year' party (although apparently it literally means 'forget last year cos it was tough' party). It was really fun, times like this I'm reminded why I like my little school. Only about 20 teachers, all drinking together in a small old fashioned style Japanese place, with middle aged ladies in kimonos serving up the food and drinks. Everyone had a good laugh and as usual my Japanese ability went up 200% with the addition of alcohol - or rather my awkwardness in knowing that i need to sound like an idiot in order to get my meaning across went down. My teachers are too cute - after the first course (amazing sashimi, thats the raw fish, so soft and melty) we had a quiz - all about the school, stuff like 'near the west exit, above the noticeboard, there is a switchbox. what colour are the buttons?' and everyone had a little guess and won a random christmas present like a plate or cup or something like that. I understood most of the questions which was amazing (i guess being in school all the time you pick up the relevant vocabulary) and won some sort of tupperware rice container for knowing what a colour print costs the school. (¥13, fact fans.) Innocent fun, compared to the old pervs and bitter rivalries I hear about at some schools mine is like a blissfully innocent family.
I feel like with 2006 nearly over a new chapter in Japan is beginning. In fact I am pretty used to life here now, I used the sentence "I have to go and buy batteries for the remote control for my toilet" yesterday without thinking twice about it. Off to Tokyo this weekend (excited bout that), India in 3 weeks - time is flying. Hope all is good with you guys wherever you are reading this!
Monday, November 20, 2006
Bunkasai, Vissel Kobe and JAZZTRONIK in Kyoto
My Bunkasai was excellent. My kids are so much fun, they all sang cute emotional j-pop songs in class chorus, had a little speech contest, had 2 rubbish but really enthusiastic rock bands perform, a taiko group. it was fun. Lunch was fun too, all the kids did the cooking (all the cool kids were making takoyaki - octopus balls- for some reason.) They had a fun quiz at the end of the day with surprisingly valuable prizes, folding bike, ds lite, sony mp3 walkman, and an elmo cushion (when this was unwrapped every single girl in the crowd cried KAWAIIII in unison.)
These 3 guys in the first pic of the next set crack me up. The kid on the left is the borderline bad kid of the school, but when he's together with these 2, they are ALWAYS laughing about something. I've seen them in a small conga line, wandering around the school trying to be 1 person, walking in step and speaking together in unison, lying on the benches in front of the vending machines staring at the sky pondering the meaning of life, and oddest of all last week, singing/humming at the desks outside the staffroom with their mouths closed but full of food, doing a strange sort of dance that i can most closely describe as what dick van dyke and his chimney sweep friends do on the London roofs in Mary Poppins.
Fri nite went down down to Kobe. I love random bar hunting, just popping in to places to see if they're the Best Thing Ever. We hit this one called Alco-Hall, with a cheesy name like that you'd think it would be a budget kinda place - oh no. We each just had a single made up with some water (it was a specialist Scotch Whiskey place - i remember thinking I wasn't educated enough about whiskey to fully enjoy the place, seemed to have every single one under the sun, just went with their recommendation) and I was kind of wondering how such a small place (maybe 7, 8 seats) could afford to pay the bills, and it turned out they can cos 2 small drinks like that comes to over 16 pounds. !!!!. Still.
Next place was better, we drank for over 2 hours for the same price, and it was very chilled, all couches, obscure knick knacks and freebie cake from the proprietor who's bday it was. Music was a surprise, along with standard poppy rock stuff (blech) they dropped in cool stuff like Brad Mehldau's version of Paranoid Android, the original of Runaway which Nuyorican Soul covered, Tito Puente's classic Oye Como Va, and Nitin Sawhney's Homelands. Nice.
Saturday, headed down to the football with my supervisor, stopping on the way at a French patisserie he recommended, called 'Bigot'. Hmm. It was supposed to be the crowning moment for Vissel Kobe. Basically we lost. But I wore my Vissel shirt! And I learnt the whole Vissel Kobe song in Japanese! And I bought Vissel Kobe little thing to tie on my phone! And I (re)learnt the phrase for "the referee is blind"! WHAT MORE COULD I HAVE DONE? It was supposed to be a perfect ending to a story as well - our coach, Stuart Baxter (he's English, hence the British flags in the picture below) had just returned from 3 months at his ill daughter's bedside in Switzerland as Vissel were top of the table, this was the game to show we were going to J-1! (Here, the first 2 teams are automatically promoted, and the third has a playoff with the third last in J-1) Yokohama FC were clearly superior though, winning 2-1, and the fact that our goal was an unbelievably good free kick doesn't really make it any better but meh. We all traipsed out of the stadium under a grey sky as the rain drizzled down. Depressing.
(I couldn't get a high quality pic, but check the fan club leaders with their megaphones and jackets. They are nuts.)
Next to KYOTO to visit Shivana where Jazztronik were doing a live set! Exciting times. In a club called Metro, which is in the old subway system. I guess with the train connection thing, the inside looks a little like cargo (raw bricks and stuff) but much more enclosed and intimate. Yoshihiro Okino (KJM) DJed for a couple of hours before the band started, and played some of the tunes he always drops at Freedom Time, also a few Jazztronik tracks (like the minimalistic Yoruba remix of Dentro mi Alma) to wet the crowd's appetite. There are some tunes I know just from him playing but have no idea what they are, but wish I did. Theres a really deep soulful house tune that goes,
Love
love is the key to my happineeeeeeeessss
it shines a light on togetherneeeeeeeeesssss
it is the peace in my liiiiiiiiiiiiiiife
which I would kill to know about, and another one slightly more broken on the chords talking about 'you give me that feeeeeeeeeeeever' that I'm almost half sure I should know what it is but maybe it's just from hearing it out. He also dropped a remix of Afronaught's Transcend Me, MASSIVE tune from way back, and I always thought the beauty of the song was in the beat (twisty broken rolling) but this one was all four to the floor bass kick, and you notice way more complex rhythms in the vocals when it's accompanied by a straight beat. TUNE!
Jazztronik came on about 1.30 in the morning and I was wondering how they'd do... I mean Jazztronik has done a whole bunch off different stuff, you've got deep broken dance tunes, but also sometimes almost a bit too light nu-jazz which isn't as good. First tune was okay, Livin' High, an old one, but I wasn't 100% convinced, but then the second tune was Nana, with the Sax guy KILLING it, absolutely wicked. They ran through a lot of their standard vocal tunes (couldnt do any of the ones heavy on production or requiring a brazilian vocalist with the band) - highlights were the version of Nanairo where Yurai sings lead vocals (I almost prefer her voice to Bebe and she's a lot cuter - theres a pic of her with Ryota [main guy] behind her) and a heavy version of Samurai. Finished up with a awesome version of Estar Com Voce, starting with the standard version (minus the brazian spoken word), letting it settle then BAM the samba mix. Same thing Airto's band did last year at Jazz Cafe, to finish on a high there's nothing like everyone grabbing some percussion and samba-ing out. Turned out it was Okino's bday, so they played a couple of songs 'for him' (not sure how they were special.)
Thing is, I don't doubt Ryota Nozaki's ability as a songwriter producer or DJ, but he was the only guy in the band who didn't take a solo the whole night. Some of the tunes are calling out for it... but overall still was awesome and he more than made up for it with his DJing later. After the band finished, Okino got back on the decks and more soulful jazzy house til dawn. He's fast becoming my favourite DJ - okay so its not eclectic, but he knows his specialism and he's a master at building sets. Jazztronik jumped up about 4 in the morning to DJ, took it a little more broken, including another Afronaught classic Golpe Tuyo Calinda - both of those tunes of his have such recognisable riffs that when you hear coming through in the mix just SOOOAAAAR, the twisty wah-wah chords for Transcend Me and the simple bleeps for Golpe.
Sunday just sleeeeeept til late in my friend Shivana's place, then had some sushi and back to Aogaki. Life is good.
Let me end this longish post with this. If you're feeling kinda tired or ill, it will make you better - well it did me so thats 100% success rate so far. It's my favourite music video, for the the classic UK hip hop tune. Only saw it once on TV years ago but just had the thought yesterday that of course it would be on the internet now in the age of youtube. Check:
These 3 guys in the first pic of the next set crack me up. The kid on the left is the borderline bad kid of the school, but when he's together with these 2, they are ALWAYS laughing about something. I've seen them in a small conga line, wandering around the school trying to be 1 person, walking in step and speaking together in unison, lying on the benches in front of the vending machines staring at the sky pondering the meaning of life, and oddest of all last week, singing/humming at the desks outside the staffroom with their mouths closed but full of food, doing a strange sort of dance that i can most closely describe as what dick van dyke and his chimney sweep friends do on the London roofs in Mary Poppins.
Fri nite went down down to Kobe. I love random bar hunting, just popping in to places to see if they're the Best Thing Ever. We hit this one called Alco-Hall, with a cheesy name like that you'd think it would be a budget kinda place - oh no. We each just had a single made up with some water (it was a specialist Scotch Whiskey place - i remember thinking I wasn't educated enough about whiskey to fully enjoy the place, seemed to have every single one under the sun, just went with their recommendation) and I was kind of wondering how such a small place (maybe 7, 8 seats) could afford to pay the bills, and it turned out they can cos 2 small drinks like that comes to over 16 pounds. !!!!. Still.
Next place was better, we drank for over 2 hours for the same price, and it was very chilled, all couches, obscure knick knacks and freebie cake from the proprietor who's bday it was. Music was a surprise, along with standard poppy rock stuff (blech) they dropped in cool stuff like Brad Mehldau's version of Paranoid Android, the original of Runaway which Nuyorican Soul covered, Tito Puente's classic Oye Como Va, and Nitin Sawhney's Homelands. Nice.
Saturday, headed down to the football with my supervisor, stopping on the way at a French patisserie he recommended, called 'Bigot'. Hmm. It was supposed to be the crowning moment for Vissel Kobe. Basically we lost. But I wore my Vissel shirt! And I learnt the whole Vissel Kobe song in Japanese! And I bought Vissel Kobe little thing to tie on my phone! And I (re)learnt the phrase for "the referee is blind"! WHAT MORE COULD I HAVE DONE? It was supposed to be a perfect ending to a story as well - our coach, Stuart Baxter (he's English, hence the British flags in the picture below) had just returned from 3 months at his ill daughter's bedside in Switzerland as Vissel were top of the table, this was the game to show we were going to J-1! (Here, the first 2 teams are automatically promoted, and the third has a playoff with the third last in J-1) Yokohama FC were clearly superior though, winning 2-1, and the fact that our goal was an unbelievably good free kick doesn't really make it any better but meh. We all traipsed out of the stadium under a grey sky as the rain drizzled down. Depressing.
(I couldn't get a high quality pic, but check the fan club leaders with their megaphones and jackets. They are nuts.)
Next to KYOTO to visit Shivana where Jazztronik were doing a live set! Exciting times. In a club called Metro, which is in the old subway system. I guess with the train connection thing, the inside looks a little like cargo (raw bricks and stuff) but much more enclosed and intimate. Yoshihiro Okino (KJM) DJed for a couple of hours before the band started, and played some of the tunes he always drops at Freedom Time, also a few Jazztronik tracks (like the minimalistic Yoruba remix of Dentro mi Alma) to wet the crowd's appetite. There are some tunes I know just from him playing but have no idea what they are, but wish I did. Theres a really deep soulful house tune that goes,Love
love is the key to my happineeeeeeeessss
it shines a light on togetherneeeeeeeeesssss
it is the peace in my liiiiiiiiiiiiiiife
which I would kill to know about, and another one slightly more broken on the chords talking about 'you give me that feeeeeeeeeeeever' that I'm almost half sure I should know what it is but maybe it's just from hearing it out. He also dropped a remix of Afronaught's Transcend Me, MASSIVE tune from way back, and I always thought the beauty of the song was in the beat (twisty broken rolling) but this one was all four to the floor bass kick, and you notice way more complex rhythms in the vocals when it's accompanied by a straight beat. TUNE!
Jazztronik came on about 1.30 in the morning and I was wondering how they'd do... I mean Jazztronik has done a whole bunch off different stuff, you've got deep broken dance tunes, but also sometimes almost a bit too light nu-jazz which isn't as good. First tune was okay, Livin' High, an old one, but I wasn't 100% convinced, but then the second tune was Nana, with the Sax guy KILLING it, absolutely wicked. They ran through a lot of their standard vocal tunes (couldnt do any of the ones heavy on production or requiring a brazilian vocalist with the band) - highlights were the version of Nanairo where Yurai sings lead vocals (I almost prefer her voice to Bebe and she's a lot cuter - theres a pic of her with Ryota [main guy] behind her) and a heavy version of Samurai. Finished up with a awesome version of Estar Com Voce, starting with the standard version (minus the brazian spoken word), letting it settle then BAM the samba mix. Same thing Airto's band did last year at Jazz Cafe, to finish on a high there's nothing like everyone grabbing some percussion and samba-ing out. Turned out it was Okino's bday, so they played a couple of songs 'for him' (not sure how they were special.)
Thing is, I don't doubt Ryota Nozaki's ability as a songwriter producer or DJ, but he was the only guy in the band who didn't take a solo the whole night. Some of the tunes are calling out for it... but overall still was awesome and he more than made up for it with his DJing later. After the band finished, Okino got back on the decks and more soulful jazzy house til dawn. He's fast becoming my favourite DJ - okay so its not eclectic, but he knows his specialism and he's a master at building sets. Jazztronik jumped up about 4 in the morning to DJ, took it a little more broken, including another Afronaught classic Golpe Tuyo Calinda - both of those tunes of his have such recognisable riffs that when you hear coming through in the mix just SOOOAAAAR, the twisty wah-wah chords for Transcend Me and the simple bleeps for Golpe.
Sunday just sleeeeeept til late in my friend Shivana's place, then had some sushi and back to Aogaki. Life is good.
Let me end this longish post with this. If you're feeling kinda tired or ill, it will make you better - well it did me so thats 100% success rate so far. It's my favourite music video, for the the classic UK hip hop tune. Only saw it once on TV years ago but just had the thought yesterday that of course it would be on the internet now in the age of youtube. Check:
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