"It's
Christmastime! Pull my finger!"
"Don't be an idiot, it's just Christmas decorations. Besides, pulling my finger will bring a rainbow."
Unfortunately, both Mikey and Emily failed to realize that finger pulling did not bring Christmas, or even a rainbow. It brought the hovering Santa of death.
I don't ever want to hear anyone complain about Christmas decorations going up too soon. They went up in full force here a few days before Halloween.
Some are nice, though. Even though this image is pretty blurry, I kinda like it.
The lines are forming already.
Actually, these people aren't Christmas shopping. Chances are, they're not shopping for anything in particular. There are just a lot of people here who have nothing better to do, and they form long lines outside any place that's closed a few minutes before opening.
...
No, really. I'm not kidding. The above photo was taken on a Thursday morning at 9:55. No special occasion. That happens every morning.
More birthdays. My roommate's girlfriend and her friend had birthdays close to each other, and we celebrated by forcing them to eat burgers the size of their skulls.
Apparently, Japanese women do not possess the ability to unhinge their jaws in order to swallow large prey after all.
That Lonely Planet guidebook has some explaining to do.
Speaking of food, beer is popular here. I know that sounds like saying air is popular, but really. Where Americans tend to stick to their favorite brews, there are new beers coming out here all the time, some with odd flavors. Case in point:
What do you expect from a country that can somehow integrate a hideous fire breathing dragon and the word "Joy" into the same facade?
OK, now that I've been here a while, I'm starting to get serious. I tracked down an Acid Mothers Temple show that was a bit, uh, different than the shows they tour outside Japan with.
Rather than have one set by AMT, the three core members decided to call it the "Japanese New Music Festival" and rearrange themselves into no fewer than seven distinct projects.
There's no way I'm gonna detail all the bizarreness that was on display, but there were a few highlights. Like the zipper duet.
Yes, they put contact mics on their pants and had a reverb-laden, call-and-response zipper song.
Which was followed by a love song to Nikon cameras. Complete with percussion supplied by a film winding mechanism.
Notice the giant radish. That came next, with a contact mic and a grater.
Then the doo-wop portion of the program.
This was led by multi-instrumentalist Atsushi Tsuyama, shown here making full use of his hair.
Things got a bit more serious as the evening progressed, with drummer Tatsuya Yoshida performing material from his band The Ruins, but solo, as "Ruins Alone."
Then AMT themselves took the stage. Well, OK, it's same guys who had been on stage all night, but they were actually performing as AMT this time.
Makoto Kawabata and his amazing trained hair.
But even magic hair couldn't help him when his guitar strap broke.
Naturally, they closed the show by explaining all the records they bought on their European tour.
THAT'S how you close a show.
If for some strange reason you want to see all of the 300 photos I took at the AMT show, you can find a gallery here.
OK, that's what I got this update. I'll leave you with the final solution to all those facial bodies that have been bugging you all these years.
Again, email me here. Until next time.
"Don't be an idiot, it's just Christmas decorations. Besides, pulling my finger will bring a rainbow."
Unfortunately, both Mikey and Emily failed to realize that finger pulling did not bring Christmas, or even a rainbow. It brought the hovering Santa of death.
I don't ever want to hear anyone complain about Christmas decorations going up too soon. They went up in full force here a few days before Halloween.
Some are nice, though. Even though this image is pretty blurry, I kinda like it.
The lines are forming already.
Actually, these people aren't Christmas shopping. Chances are, they're not shopping for anything in particular. There are just a lot of people here who have nothing better to do, and they form long lines outside any place that's closed a few minutes before opening.
...
No, really. I'm not kidding. The above photo was taken on a Thursday morning at 9:55. No special occasion. That happens every morning.
More birthdays. My roommate's girlfriend and her friend had birthdays close to each other, and we celebrated by forcing them to eat burgers the size of their skulls.
Apparently, Japanese women do not possess the ability to unhinge their jaws in order to swallow large prey after all.
That Lonely Planet guidebook has some explaining to do.
Speaking of food, beer is popular here. I know that sounds like saying air is popular, but really. Where Americans tend to stick to their favorite brews, there are new beers coming out here all the time, some with odd flavors. Case in point:
What do you expect from a country that can somehow integrate a hideous fire breathing dragon and the word "Joy" into the same facade?
OK, now that I've been here a while, I'm starting to get serious. I tracked down an Acid Mothers Temple show that was a bit, uh, different than the shows they tour outside Japan with.
Rather than have one set by AMT, the three core members decided to call it the "Japanese New Music Festival" and rearrange themselves into no fewer than seven distinct projects.
There's no way I'm gonna detail all the bizarreness that was on display, but there were a few highlights. Like the zipper duet.
Yes, they put contact mics on their pants and had a reverb-laden, call-and-response zipper song.
Which was followed by a love song to Nikon cameras. Complete with percussion supplied by a film winding mechanism.
Notice the giant radish. That came next, with a contact mic and a grater.
Then the doo-wop portion of the program.
This was led by multi-instrumentalist Atsushi Tsuyama, shown here making full use of his hair.
Things got a bit more serious as the evening progressed, with drummer Tatsuya Yoshida performing material from his band The Ruins, but solo, as "Ruins Alone."
Then AMT themselves took the stage. Well, OK, it's same guys who had been on stage all night, but they were actually performing as AMT this time.
Makoto Kawabata and his amazing trained hair.
But even magic hair couldn't help him when his guitar strap broke.
Naturally, they closed the show by explaining all the records they bought on their European tour.
THAT'S how you close a show.
If for some strange reason you want to see all of the 300 photos I took at the AMT show, you can find a gallery here.
OK, that's what I got this update. I'll leave you with the final solution to all those facial bodies that have been bugging you all these years.
Again, email me here. Until next time.