Things Wot I Like and Nara

Been a couple of weeks since I updated. Recently did a couple of my favourite things in Japan, possibly for the last time... saaaaaad.

WE ARE KOBE - My last Vissel match
Went to my final Vissel game weekend before last (J1 has a break in the summer, I think it's for the Asia Cup). Sad :( I think I only have two of my own 'traditions' in Japan, one is Freedom Time, the other is Vissel games with my supervisor and friend, Taro and his brother Yoji.

Match itself was immense, Vissel had lost 3 in a row so were getting kind of desolate, played awfully first half, second half completely different - went into added time at 2-2 and in the last 10 secs we got a penalty and scored! Place went nuts. Fittingly, it was scored by Okubo, who is one of the more senior members of the team, and shares his name with a place I used to go to more frequently towards the beginning of the year... Ah man, how can I be feeling nostalgic about my time in Japan already??



I love the vissel supporters song (and find myself singing it off key all the time)


Song kind of makes me sad, as it was like my third week in Japan I went to my first game with Taro and his bro, and Vissel and he's really been a good friend over the year and every month we've gone, it's been such a constant thing... aaaah sad!
I LOVE the lyrics. I can't tell if they're cheesy in Japanese, but they seem really nice to me (and I probably translated them wrong)

In this town, our town
You were born on that day
Whatever happens, we won't forget [these two lines refer to the 1995 earthquake]
Together, we were wounded
Together, lets get up
And from that, and forever
Lets walk forward
Beautiful port town
We want to protect you
for as long as we live
we want to love you Kobe!

Funfun.



NARA - Temples and Deer
This weekend headed off to Nara. Nara is the old old capital, home to a lot of temples and shrines, and deer! I quote Wikitravel: According to legend, the god of the Kasuga Taisha came riding a white deer in the old days, so the deer enjoy protected status as envoys of the god; however, based on their current behavior, either the deer have lost the job, or the god has taken an extremely passionate interest in biscuits from tourists (¥150), empty food wrappers and harassing shopkeepers. I can't believe it took me so long to go as it's much nearer to me that lots of places I've been, only takes a bit l0nger to get to than Kyoto, a 35 minute train ride from Namba. We rode a non JR train there, which was an alien and scary experience.



The feeling is different from Kyoto, the other famous temple town. Whereas Kyoto has the feeling of shrines tucked away, of things just out of sight, Nara feels a lot more open plan, with most things being in the main park, which spreads out over a large area with paths and roads in it.



We saw the Daibutsu, the largest Buddha in Japan inside the largest wooden building in the world, Kofukuji, a massive tall pagoda, a cute hexagonal building on Sagi pond, and Kasuga Taishen in the middle of a cool forest. Lovely town to wander round, and ate this really delicious little sweet snack, warabi mochi, from this cool guy running a little stall. One of those 'wouldn't it be cool to have his job' moments but it would probably be shit.

I know I always go on about Japan playing amazing music in normal places, but this one takes the biscuit. Trish wanted to pop into this girls clothes shop, just your normal cool looking little boutiquey place. On the stereo, though, was Gerardo Frisina's (Italian Nu-Jazz) version of Gods Of The Yoruba, the old Horace Silver jazz tune from 'African Ascension' which was the first time I ever met and played music with Dex, Curtis and Dom played too, when I was 14... biiiiig tune . Japan reads my mind! How? Everytime??

I'm going to miss taking weekend trips to places like this. Perhaps I'll take up an interest in home counties' churches...





I made some new friends (or was attacked by hungry deer, depending on how you look at it), then there was just time for us to pop into a game centre to play two games from my childhood, Twinbee and Puzzle Bobble (oddly seems to have been a whole bunch of nostalgic things threaded into this weekend) before heading back to the station to go back to Osaka.


FREEDOMTIME
You knows it. Nother little monthly session from the crew at Especial Records. Domu was the guest DJ (West London wooo!) and him and Yoshihiro Okino made the place feel good until early morning. In Yoshi's warm up set, he dropped some killers, some classic Mark de Clive Lowe, and with his decks worked an on the spot mash up of Seiji's awesome 3dom with Kaidi and Dego's 'Got Me Puzzled' - heavy. Also a nice house mix of Gigi's 'Gudfella' I'd not heard before - but then the biig tune to end his set before Domu came on, the big Kyoto Jazz Massive tune 'Eclipse', from the year 2000, seriously nostalgic, this tune just reminds me of the days of Whitmore and winter evenings sat messing around with Logic and playing the keyboard and jumping out of straight jazz and finding there was this whole world of music out there and wondering what the hell it was like... My ex brought it back on EP from Japan and I loved it. It's completely a product of its time and might sound a bit dated to some ears, but everything tied up with it means I'll always love it. Their other one from that time, Eclipse, was much deeper, but it's a classic and hit me hard back then. Can't deny the funk basslines and you got Hajime Yoshizawa on keys! Maaaaan I Love freedomtime.

Domu has produced a new album with the singer Pete Simpson who was there with him, and this guy's voice.... Wow. At first I thought he must be miming (although I doubt anyone in this kind of music would do that), as how could a guy just be standing there so casually in his baggy Rocawear t-shirt, looking like a friendly guy from down the pub, effortlessly improvising over Domu's beats, switching in and out of falsetto, following twisty chord patterns smoother than a released record? I am picking up their album for sure. You can hear a bit of a slightly deeper more laid back number here.

Pete Simpson stuck around for most of Domu's set, adding vocal improvisations to a bunch of tunes which was really cool - notably Soil and Pimp (can't remember which tune it was), sounded great. Only downside - there's a remix of the sublime Sombre Guitar by Danser's Inferno floating around (DJ Matzz played it at Tokyo Jazz Meeting as well) which uses the opening horns run (link is the original) - and that's it - for the entire housey track. I've nothing against remixes, but when you take something so good and just tease the crowd with the opening 4 bars looped around... it's kind of annoying. (One good thing though, searching for a sample of the track to link to I found that the compilation it's on, Jazz Bizniz 2, has been reissued. It's taken 5 years but I'll soon finally have a copy of this tune! Woo!) Domu also bizarrely dropped the gatchaman theme (???) and countless great tunes I had no idea about. Great night :)

Ah! It's fun being クロスオーバージャズシーンマニア.

Sunday just wandered round Osaka checking the Springtime sales and things. Wandered over to Orange Street, Southwest of Amemura, just beyond Minami Horie, and checked some really cool interior design places. Might pick up a knick knack or two for (hopefully) when I move out back in London.

Oh so sad leaving so soon...

TOKYO: Right Here On The Scene

I've just come back from what was probably my best weekend in Japan so far. Jam packed around Tokyo, lots of fun things, but mainly music, Music, MUSIC! And Ghibli museum! and Bape! and ramen! and Tsumori Chisato! Big fun.

Jumped on the earliest train I could and ran to catch the right Shinkansen at Shin Osaka. Headed to Shibuya, where we were staying in a cool little hotel right down the street from 'The Room' called Granbell. The rooms were very small, but really well designed, lots of things from the design shop ±0 that I was looking for last time I was in Tokyo but never found. I include a picture of the toilet's remote, not as this is unusual in iteself (even my home toilet has the same remote albeit without the nice silver finish) but that in addition to adjusting the seat's temperature and bidet stuff you FLUSH IT via remote. Amazing.


We ate ramen and gyoza in a tiny little cramped second floor noodle bar before heading out for

GROOVEMAN SPOT @ FAMILY, SHIBUYA
Club Bar Family is a tiny spot tucked away in Shibuya. The event was Cross, a monthly deep hiphop night. The crowd was pretty muted, more head nodders than dancers, (army style caps and fat glasses in full effect, myself included) but the music was wicked. Grooveman Spot spun his deep dark take on hiphop, some familiar songs, I mean within the set he dropped Pharrel (can't get enough of 'Big White Spaceship') Common, Kweli, Gagle, Mos Def, but these are just the classics, also a whole bunch of minimalist stuff I didn't know and occasionally a deep jazz number. Really good vibe. After his set there was a live set from a Japanese hip hop group called Full Member, they seemed quite good. Not Gagle good or anything, but way better than the poppy j-hip hop.





Saturday we got up and wandered through Shibuya up to Aoyama. Finally found the design shop ±0 (I think I must have walked past it before, it's really hard to notice) and though it was a bit smaller than I thought, the stuff was stylish in a minimalistic way. (8 inch CRT screens, retro style torches - and MD players!) Went for lunch at a Brazilian buffet which was good and did some shopping. After visiting a few Bape shops -no longer called Busy Work Shops, which I thought was a fantastic name- recently (Aoyama, Fukuoka, Kanazawa, Hong Kong, Shizuoka) I finally gave in and bought a pair of Bape roadstas, in the Osaka colourway (yay Kansai.)




We walked up to Harajuku station to take the train over to Mitaka to go to

三鷹の森ジブリ美術館
or the Ghibli Museum. This is in a western suburb of Tokyo, a short train ride from Shinjuku on the Chuo line. It's a wonderful place, although the museum itself is not massive (which is kind of nice, a huge Ghibli museum wouldn't feel right somehow) it's the feeling which is the thing, all the street signs, paths, buildings, staircases, staff (in their work uniforms) could have come straight from a Ghibli movie. There's a room which is like a love letter to the history of animation, with exhibits about projectors and film rolls, an amazing set of spinning models with a strobe light to give the illusion of motion and other bits and pieces from the past, all using the Ghibli characters.


There's a room with sketches from all the movies around, set in a very European style which is designed to be Miyazaki's ideal work environment (it looked surprisingly similar to my Grandad's house in Suffolk, which I loved!). It's interesting to see when European stuff comes back through the filter of what Japan likes about it, they pick up on some different points.

They have a nice little cafe, all in the Ghibli style, with pictures from Porco Rosso around. There's also a little gift shop, which is nice, but a bit small and VERY crowded. They didn't have any goods related to my favourite Ghibli movie, 海がきこえる.

There's a small cinema there, called Cinema Saturno, which was showing a short film featuring Mei from Totoro, and a small journey she goes on meeting many different catbuses (including a funny CatShinkansen). Cute.

We headed back to Harajuku to look at some shops, and wandered down the small streets running parallel to Omotesand. We stopped at the KDDI Design Studio (they are one of the big three mobile phone companies) , where you can see the latest mobile phones available, and on the third floor do some little fun things with cameras and such, like filming you for a sec and saying what type of person you are. I was 'the store employee who warms people with his smile.' Get in.


After wandering down Omotesando, wandered more up Aoyama Dori to the start of the road in Gaienmae, where two roads meet. The building on the corner here has some nice little places in it. We ate at a little gyoza place run by a little ojiisan by himself on the third floor overlooking the street.


Then headed for a coffee to a bar I wanted to check up two more floors called Office (really cool bar). Wonderful view, watching the night time traffic flow west down towards Aoyama and then away to Shibuya.



After this, time to get nerdy in the Sega game centre with an old school shooter (which we died in like 5 seconds) and a bizarre but fun Lupin the 3rd typing game, before heading off to

TOKYO JAZZ MEETING @ THE ROOM, SHIBUYA
This was AMAZING. I loooove The Room. Tiny tiny club, we arrived as the music was old school funk. (For the jazz fans, they do a great cocktail called a 'Love Supreme', hehe). Soon DJ Matz jumped up and took it straight up jazz with occasional latin flavours. (Billed as 'Quasimode Special Selection') Seriously, it was awesome to see a stylish little club jam packed with a cool crowd (jazz style hats on almost every head) dancing to straight up jazz, not housey jazz, not broken beat though I have love for those too, but Horace Silver, Chick Corea, and loads of horn led serious jazz burners that I would love to know about. Serious, serious set, and Matz was loving the vibe too. This alone would have been enough for an amazing night but it was just getting started.

There were covered instruments around the edge of the dancefloor, and around 2.30am they uncovered them, and the band Quasimode set up, right in the dancefloor, literally in the middle of people. (Very trusting!) Quasimode are a 4 piece, piano trio + percussion, but had guests from different bands so there were always a few horns (often three saxes and a trumpet - a serious blowing session!). Anyway, they started playing literally a foot from the edge of the crowd, and we were basically almost standing in the band.

The tunes were modern jazz in a hard bop-ish style, but free-er on the improvisation, and after every track the band's line up rotated, it was like a Tokyo jazz all star session, players from Quasimode, Slowly, Soil and Pimp, all that was missing were Sleepwalker, who were in Kyoto playing a party for their new collection LP. Beautiful sounds. Highlights included a version of Love Is Everywhere and the final tune, a massive version of Herbie's Maiden Voyage that became a funk jam towards the end.

This drummer turned up late and seemed a little drunk. Absolutely smashed it though.

The horns.

See how the crowd was basically standing IN the band.

Midori from Soil and Pimp sitting in on the session.

I want those glasses.

Still giddy from the music, we spilled onto the Shibuya streets which were now fully light. Jazz til sunup. BIG.

Sunday we rested a bit before heading over to Ginza. Looked at the Sony Building, which is their flagship store showing all their latest developments and history (including this TINY laptop which apparently dates from 2002), and is pretty good.



Tried to go to the GGG (ginza graphic gallery) but it was closed, sad. Looked at the Nicolas G Hayek Center, which is a unique watch shop where the large lifts are in the foyer level, like little showrooms, one for each brand, and if you like the stuff it whisks you away to the right floor. The Swatch one (all the others are ridiculously priced luxury brands) has a fascinating lift just entirely covered in watches.



Wandered over to Yurakucho, passing by Mikimoto's very interesting looking Ginza2.

In Yurakucho, there is Muji's worldwide flagship store. It's kind of the wrong way round, but Muji always reminds me of home as I always thought muji was cool in high school. Anyway this store has everything that muji makes and is nice to wander round (including Muji Meal, which is exactly as you'd expect a restaurant from muji to be.)



On the other side of the train tracks there's Tokyo International Forum, a really nice structure. Just had a wander through it and the little market that was going on outside before heading back to Ginza station.

Went over to Meguro for the final event, where just beforehand I picked up these CDs in HMV:

The aforementioned Sleepwalker collection CD (with a bonus disc), including a vocal version of Kaze with my favourite vocalist Yukimi Nagano, and Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Bubblers For Japan. The Peterson is already out in the UK but the Japanese edition has a whole extra CD with more songs (one that was on both is a great one from Benny Sings, the Amsterdam singer who EVERYBODY likes, seriously, everybody I've introduced him to loves him). Then over to

BOP CITY @ MEGURO SHOKUDO
Night called Bop City! We entered the small club as they were dropping Roy Ayers' 'Running Away' (always a good start) . Quickly the DJ took it broken beat, and the dancers on the floor started whirling and twisting - these guys are SERIOUS, doing a kind of mix of jazz dance, breakdancing, and free improvisation. There was a 'dance battle' which was the main event, in a jazz dance, Stax Groove style and people started warming up, doing all kinds of weird stretches and things over the floor.

The MC started the event. He was a pretty chatty guy (who liked making a few jokes) and he was like 'we're all regular guys. We've all got normal jobs. Even I've got a normal job. Even the DJs got a normal job. So this is our way to relax unwind.' And WHAT a way.





Video camera, let alone my little point and shoot digicam, cannot really capture how cool this dancing looks. I noticed when I was looking at the little screen then away to the real thing, how much better it is. Every little note in a run or ride in a bar can be interpreted with a little movement, and the crude overall lines the camera shows doesn't capture the subtlety in the midst of the fiery movement at all (and then youtube halves the frame rate making it even worse - although watching it on the actual youtube site [just click on the main area] seems to improve that, no idea why). But it does give you 4 minutes of baaaaaaad jazz. With all that said, here's a few clips edited together:



Then after, there was a live band I Three, to whom the scene's most well known dance crew, Stax Groove, did a performance. See clip:



Unfortunately we had to leave before the final of the battle, but this was Big Big Fun.

Back to Shinjuku to jump on the overnight bus back to Osaka and then train up to Aogaki and straight to work where I'm writing this. I'd normally feel bad coming straight back to work, like I was shortchanging the kids, but they're not coming in to school today as it's the school's foundation day so it's okay. Tokyo musical weekend was BIG.

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Today is a totally different feeling. The kids aren't here, so the school feels empty, it's grey and drizzling (but still humid and hot), the information about my successor has just come through and I'm talking with the office about dates to go back to London. Just beginning to hit home I'm actually leaving... Sad.