Osaka / Reunite! Freedom Time

Went to Osaka this weekend. Here is how I feel about the place:



Love it, and it's actually nearer than Kobe for me so yay. Drove down with Dylan to Akashi (nearish Kobe) first on Friday night (I say 'with' - he drove, I ate snacks. I was supposed to navigate but there is literally one turn) and stayed there Fri night. Watched Lord of the Rings, which, much like Simpsons, is awesome in Japanese.

Saturday took the train over to Osaka, an area called Umeda. Wandered round some shops (Japan is BIG on department stores, they're okay but can't beat a little row of jumbled up little places), which was well cool, got a Porter wallet which I've wanted for a while. (Picked up a little freebie fashion magazine with an article

Oh! There are plenty of cool items. I can't choose it!
You got to find your own clothes.

which I thought was cool.) And had a couple of midday beers at little stands in the station selling like a plastic cup of beer for a quid. Loads of them were there, everyone drinking at 1pm with families, such a cool attitude. (Especially the businesssman who, looking busy in the middle of the day, rushed up, downed his beer in two gulps before rushing off to work again.)



Anyway, came out for this thing:

and we met up with with a whole bunch of other JETs. Went for a couple of drinks then split up as those guys wanted to go explore Shinsaibashi, the other cool area in town. I try not to force my kinda clubs on people (well I do but only when I know people well enough to know THEY DESERVE IT) so just me and Lena headed off to hit some bars before GILLESY P OMG. (i was a bit excited.)

We found the kind of bar which is what I love about going out in Japan. A TINY little place that only fits 9 people, all sitting round the bar, where there are 3 staff working! And shelves of spirits that would put a full size pub to shame. (No idea how they pay the bills, it wasn't even that expensive. Although there were two old drunk businessmen with girls at least half their age so maybe they buy them expensive shit or something.) Playing old school pop off of LP, some Commodores and Carpenters and stuff, dim lights - oh and Fred Astaire movies on a screen. Dude behind the bar had invented this watermelon cocktail which was amazing, and they gave us two minimal wooden spoons with just the briefest mouthful of food on, a piece of peppered meat on one and 3 mini dried fish heads on the other - good shit. This bar was making me and Lena drift off to a very cool very chilled place somewhere when my mate Tommi rang so we went to pick him up and get more uptempo for GILLESY P OMG.

Headed down to the club and had to queue for a bit. Massive bunch of flowers outside which was cool. Headed in, and my mate Tommi was cussing the broken jazz music that was coming up from the dance. I said NOTHING cos I knew he'd be loving it within an hour.



Thing I love about Gilles is the way he always wins people over. No matter what people are into, give him half an hour with an open mind and you'll find he connects to you through a particular tune - then you're way more open to wherever he goes next. He got my mate Tommi who"s into techno-y type stuff with heavy heavy brazilian house and got Lena who's an rnb girl with this HEAVY tune beginning with some twisted faith evans vocal from 'Be Faithful' into some deep dark soul.



And just as I was feeling all smug and knowing, falling asleep drunk on Lena's shoulder upstairs, he dropped 'Sombre Guitar' by Danser's Inferno. This is a tune I loved like craaaazy (all about the horns' runs) and haven't heard for about 3 years since I gave my ex my old radio recorded copy on MD. Jump up like I was on a chain. Then a couple tunes later he dropped a version of 'Another Star' (just like he did on my 18th bday at That's How It Is but a different one) into a funk tune with that same bassline.



So many new old tunes and new stuff I had no idea about he just mixed up, I loved it from beginning to end. And the follow up DJ dropped some classics - including a Jamiroquai tune (wouldn't have enjoyed it so much cold, but after being broken down by so many good tunes it was perfect) and Mishaps Happening by Quantic, a tune I never really thought would be a club one but hell yeah did it work, everyone went nuts.

Got a pic with Yoshihiro Okino (one half of Kyoto Jazz Massive), who is like one of my heroes, which made things perfect. He's such a dude as well, not like most djs out of there the minute his set's over, he spent the entire night hitting on girls in the bar. Got this pic at about 5.30 in the morning as we were about to stumble out, had to interrupt him hitting on 3 girls but he was such a cool guy.



Got the first train back and crashed out at Lena's. Rode back with Dylan in his car late Sunday night to his place where I'd left my car, and had MASSIVE TROUBLE again getting out of his drive, but didn't scratch up the car this time - but only cos he was precisely directing me again. I think I'm just a bit backwards at driving. Ah well.

Oh yeah and what kind of club has it's own lucky strike box sleeves? THE BEST KIND.



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JAPANESE EXCLUSIVE BONUS TRACKS

Lau's Car and House *
Akashi Bridge *

*Not on original album

DOWN get UP I get DOWN get UP I get DOWN

It's been an odd week... up and down.

UP
My students are awesome. An essay called 'Lets Stop An Impossible Diet' and this girl who shouts OI LAU HEY LAU HI every time she sees me in the corridor made me smile.

DOWN
Reading a book on Thursday, a fucking mukade (poisonous centipede) DROPS FROM THE CEILING onto it. How the hell do centipedes get on the ceiling? The following morning, having a shower, just turn off the taps, MUKADE NEXT TO MY FOOT. Shit. Shit. Shit.

UP
Wicked weekend at city. Three day weekend, and stayed with three different friends in Tarumi, Uozumi and Mukonosso. Did karaoke for the first time EVER on Friday, really didnt 'get' it at first, but after a few drinks the real depth and subtlety of this form of entertainment began to shine through. Was the only person in the whole room of about 14 who knew Master Blaster by Stevie though. For shame. Saturday found this little club in Sannomiya where we met some Kobe jets who seem pretty cool. Nice to bounce around to some deep bass again. Also gave insight into the Japanese clubbing groups - the girls at the back dancing by themselves, the guys dressed like extras from a music video executing perfectly practiced moves by themselves who don't look like they're having fun, and the one Japanese salaryman dancing around like a nutter with whoever is nearby - respect! Sunday went to a little wine party at a friends (wine not so popular here, in the off license every bottle was covered in dust) and watched the wedding planner - somehow this happened. Nice weekend! (I'm starting to talk like my supervisor - Nice XXX! for everything. Nice way to lose your language skills!)

DOWN
Come back and during the night cannot sleep at all due to hearing little noises which sound exactly like mukade falling from the ceiling. Also hear the same scrabbling noises that I heard a couple weeks back, and after jumping up every 10 mins, wacking the light on and seeing something scurry across the floor, finally I decided at 4AM i wasnt going to get to sleep and arming myself with mukade sprays for spraying, hi top dunks for stamping, and a big stick for poking, I opened up my cupboard in order to hunt down the bastards. After a while, I found out this: I HAVE MICE. Fuck. Oh and I found out what I thought was a beetle a while ago was in fact a cockroach so now I have three types of pests in my house. FUCK. Slept about 2 hours that night (and only due to blasting www.nuwaveradio.co.uk and thinking about other things) and was like a zombie in school the next day.

UP
Got my car. This was awesome. Drove to the next town and met up with Dylan, who's a JET at Kaibara High. Got the little iPod to tape adaptor thing for tunes and discovered my car's stereo sounds pretty good actually, nicely bassy. Went for dinner with Dylan and another local JET, Chris, at the curry place I think I mentioned before. This time made the mistake of having level 6 hotness (out of 10) - man it was hot. On your tongue hot, not in your throat hot. I can't imagine what level 10 is like. Anyway, afterwards, went with Dylan to check out the local sort of hypermarket place (Kaibara is like a big city compared to my place, even though those who live there would still say it's rural.) Then went back to his and discovered a shared love for Borat, and he showed me something really cool for the computer which helps you with Japanese websites (he's a bit of a pro at the old Japanese). Leaving his place, this led to...

DOWN
Scratched up my car. So Dylan's road is only JUST wider than my Honda, and he has a stone wall on both sides of the drive. Couple this with my average at best driving and of course I managed to get a large scratch on the door. In fact I managed to scratch the car AND get into the most stupid position so that there was practically no way I could move without scratching it again. Dylan came out to help me and with my phone's torch ran round the car directing me in the most minute detail for about 15 mins. Tomorrow I will have to drive the car to school where all the teachers - who have been telling me 'be careful' and 'don't make accident' all week - will see it when they come to check out my car for the first time as I can guarantee they will. Nice embarrassing situation!

UP
In one of the hypermarkets, got a stussy catalogue for about 4 quid which comes with a free Stussy tote bag and a shitload of stickers. This is immense, it's the equivalent of getting it from the Tesco you stop at on the motorway on your way up north or something. I can't get my head around Japanese youth culture and fashion stuff - it's all so widely available and this puts a whole different slant on things. I was trying to explain my thoughts to my mate Rob yesterday, stuff about anyone can 'choose' to be cool, certain things aren't so underground, but I'm not really sure about my theory yet, need more time. Lemme explore some more stores and clubs and shit and expect Lau's Theory of Japanese OHNOYOUDIDNT Style later this year.

DOWN
another mukade fell from the ceiling as I wrote this post. :o(

..........

So some random pics from recently: painting some hyotan things at school (like being back in primary school make and do type classes, fun), awesome jazz shop which had the concept of a smaller number of artists but having literally EVERYTHING they've ever done (picked up 'Our Thing' by Joe Henderson with Andrew Hill on piano, well nice), Stussy freebie bag which goes from small to large, limited edition gamecube I've never seen before (Hanshin tigers, baseball team, people in this area go NUTS for them) and my supervisor's girlfriends retro car - check the speedo!

Lau recaps the previous 2 weeks for YOU

So I haven't updated in a little while. Lots has happened, but I havent taken too many pictures, so I`ll explain through the magic of the written word. Weekend before last went down to Kobe area. Checked out Akashi Friday night and Okubo on Staurday (where I found the best Japanese english tee ever: spelling mistakes and shit are so unfunny but there was a tee that said in a massive cool font EXAMINATION PAPERS and underneath in smaller letters LOOK OVER THE EXAMINATION PAPERS... Something else) before Saturday afternoon going to a beer garden in Amagasaki. It's a cool little idea, on top of department stores on sunny summer evenings they have an all you can eat all you can drink dealie. Being handed an ice cold pint glass and being directed towards a row of beer taps to help yourself is a liberating experience. Anyway after that went to a place called Himeji, a city famous for it's castle, which is like a really old school looking Japanese building that sort of looms above the city. Went to a sports bar which seemed to be a meeting place for foreigners in the area, was fun, bumped into a few more jets.

After that we went to some little club with a cheesy name I forget that was playing some cool latin type music before your standard RNB stuff. Speaking of which, it had clearly been too long since I had been clubbing , as I found myself loving tunes like that Nelly and the girl out of Destiny's Child one. Oops. Maybe it was the deep loud bass I had been missing, maybe it was one too many Asahis, maybe it was the girls we'd met but either way I need to go to some decent nights. I've been checking out clubs online in Kyoto and Osaka in order to find some ones with good music, and some of them look SO DAMN COOL. In fact in 2 weeks theres a night called Reunite! Freedom Time in Osaka which I've always wanted to go to (seen it on the internet first time a couple years back) so definately gonna hit that.

Couple of other interesting things this week, firstly I started teaching properly and really enjoyed it, the kids, although bad by Japanese standards, have nothing on what kids used to be like at my high school in England. Only done introductory lessons so far, but looks like this could be fun. Also took the car I'm getting for a test drive! It's an old black Honda Civic, complete with tape player. Fun to drive though, and it has a button to change into sports mode, whatever that does. Sounds excellent though. My place is starting to feel like my own, got a playstation and some Winning Eleven (that's Pro Evo to you guys). I've been out of practice since the days I used to whip my housemate Hugh at it :o)

Sometimes you forget you're in a completely different country and it takes something unusual to remind you... like a CHEESE CURRY. Had it in this little chain curry place, and on the way out I noticed they were selling a playstation game where you could manage a branch of said curry restaurant.... surreal. Also got told by my class today reading from a phrasebook 'you look like Tom Cruise. Do you get that a lot?' I laughed and went to look at the book, and it was on a page along such phrases as 'do you have a condom because I'm not on the pill' and 'I think I'm falling in love with you'... it was a regular travel phrasebook as well. Sometimes it's nice to just be hit with the crazy japan feeling.
EDIT: It was boys who said this, just to make it even more surreal.

Oh also had the office welcome party for ME. Was pretty cool to see all the serious dudes from the staffroom cutting loose and getting wasted with each other (and taunting the fat teacher which was really funny, he didn't seem to mind). Got loads to do at school now, as well as my own lessons, essays and sheets to mark, other people's lessons to help out in and make tests and stuff. Hard to find time to study Japanese!