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...