OMG! An on time post!

Yes, I am actually going to give keeping this sordid affair updated a try.

So this week was interesting. Mainly, want to talk about Tuesday.

I have started going to a bar. New School. It's a neat, trendy little bar around the corner from my dorm. One night, coming back from dinner, we passed the bar, and the bartender ran outside to give us free drink coupons, and so what the hell, we decided to drink there. I went back a few times, and got to know the owner, Takao, and the bartender, Mattchan. Takao speaks English, and I can understand enough of Mattchan's Japanese to get by. Now Mattchan was once a Waseda studnet, but dropped out to pursue his dream; music. He plays alto sax, and really well. His normal band is a funk band, Funky Headlights, but Tuesday night, he was playing a gig at a jazz bar in Akasaka called B Flat. It was a pick up band of Waseda students doing improvisational big band jazz. Knowing a few Europeans and Asian who are really into jazz, I got a little entourage together and went to see the show. Wow. Pretty freaking amazing.

Now I am not a huge jazz fan. I dig some Miles Davis and some Charlie Parker, but recorded jazz leaves me flat most of the time. Rather, I prefer live jazz, especially when it is just a few guys jamming out. This concert was pretty fucking amazing though.

So my New Year's resolution is to get out more and into the Tokyo music scene. I wanna find smokefilled, seedy little bars where great underground acts play. I am pretty lucky now, as one of my friends DJs in NYC and has made some connections at clubs here, and the other has met some prominent DJs in the Tokyo scene, and I ca usually get on the list if I want to go to dance clubs, so I am trying to do that more. Something about the big city makes me at the same time depressed and elated lol.

Here at least, I am letting go abit of my straight laced inhabitions and trying to "act a fool" a bit more, i.e. loosening up about drinking, and clubbing. Growing as a person has been easy here, and I intended to , as K-os put it, "Get back into the man I used to be."

Enough of that now, for now.

Next week みんなさん。

Keep reading!

It's been awhile

It's been awhile. I have been neglecting this blog like one neglects say, an unwanted cat. I specifically say cat as I have neglected cats on the brain, having just finished reading Breakfast at Tiffany's, which is an amazing story and truly puts the movie to shame.
Quite a bit has happened in the past few weeks, so I shall start with the most recent and work my way backwards.

Tanjoubi

This week, it was not one, not two, but THREE of my friends birthdays, so it was quite a week. First, on Tuesday, we had a nomikai for Martin the Swede. I like Martin, interesting guy. Heavy drinker, heavy smoker, but few urbane man with an interesting history and intelligent demeanor. So a number of us got pissed for his birthday with great aplomb. We have a group of Swedes here notorious for partying, thus Hessu the Fin named them the "Swedish Mafia." Hysterical guys, those three. They were there, along with Gaddy the French-Canadian, myself, Leena the Fin, Toby the Canadian/Hong Kongese, Noah the Jewpanaese Californian, Phil from Oxford, Takumi my good Japanese friend, Noellia from Spain and many many more. It was a great time until the party ended.
On the street, afterwords, some crazy girl from SoCal decided it would be fun to steal a pack of cigarettes in a foreighn country, not realize that the store employed a guard. After snatching said pack, the guard kicked at her, and our friend Hiro, drunk off his ass, went to defend her and ended up getting punched int he face. Phil and Hesus, being LARGE men, pulled the guard off of Hiro, and to prevent him from demolishing the guard, Hiro's friend spirited him away. I come 'roudn the corner with Takumi, see Phil and no less then four police, and send Takumi in to take care of it. An hour later everyone was free to go, much shaken and pissed.

Fun

Immedietly following, now stressed to the max, I had an all-night karaoke-a-thon for my friends Seojon and Mindy. Alot of tiring fun, and a good way to destress from a night negotiating the release of our friends from the local policia.

The next day was another party lol. I had organized a Nabe and Sukiyaki tabehodai for Seojon's Birthday, which was great fun. We stuffed ourselves silly, then went back to the dorm for a bit of Wii and beer. Not a bad week.

On Tuesday day time, my Japanese classs went on a field trip to a Japanese traditional confectionary factory in Akasaka, whcih was really very interesting. We were able to observing the candy being made, and sampled some Autumn candies. Traditional Japanese candy is seasonal; as with most japanese food, taste, colour and look are tailored to express the season. As many Japanese will proclaim, Japan and Japan alone has four season (which is quite a shock to we Northeasterners, because like myself, we could swear we have four, but are apparently wrong lol).

Kamogawa

This passed weekend, I went with some crazy Japanese guys to the Waseda Seminar House in beautiful Kamogawa, about two hours from Tokyo propper on the other side of Chiba. The House is set on a hill, with a comanding view of the local area and the Pacific. It was a week of drinking, Onsen, more drinking, and Baseball. Everyone had fun except me, as Saturday night I was bed ridden by an aweful migraine the likes of which I haven't experienced in years. Enter Matti with his wonderful Brittish Paracetamol, which cured my up enough to sleep. Despite the pain, it was an amazing weeked; the view was amazing, the onsen right on the beach, and the weather lovely. The food was provided with the cost of staying at the House, and was also amazing. For dinner we had a lovely sashimi arrangment, and an amazing meal of grilled chicken, salad topped with ray, miso, and all the rice we could eat.

Nikko

The weekend before that, I travel with a few friends to Nikko. My god. We stayed at a quaint but downtrodden old ryokan, which had a nice little onsen so wasn't too terrible, and spent our first day wandering the Toshugu shrine. Toshugu is a sight to behold. A sprawling complex that takes hours to get through, it is ancient and considered (for those who don't know) a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I was amazed and astounded by the sheer beauty of this hilly shrine, cut into the Japanese mountains, surrounded by pines.
The second day, we travel up the mountains to see a touristy yet pictauresque waterfall, and the beautiful Lake Chuzenji. The lake is almost at the top of the mountains, and it's crystal clear water shoun in the sun and cold mountain air. We saw Japanese monkeys parading around town, and spent the afternoon in a nice little sulfur onsen, watching the lake and the ticking clock. Truly a nice and relaxing trip.

The larger events are truly amazing, but most of my time is taken by the grind of daily life. Wake, class, lunch, coffee with friends, dinner, sleep. Perhaps take a walk, perhaps hit a bar, but usually boring, boring everyday sort of living.

I have a number of things to comment on, but will save that for the next post, hopefully not in a month but perhaps a week lol.

Untill then, keep reading!

Obama and Korean Soju

Obama won. Fan-fing-tastic I say. I have been a huge Obama supporter from the begining, and for the first time in my twenty six years, I am proud to be an American. That being said, most of the students here went crazy over the Obama win. Europeans, Japanese, Asian; everyone came together to celebrate this momentous day not just for America, but for the world. I was deeply impressed to see, first hand, the impact our fearless leader-elect has had on the world. Everyone here is so expectant that positive change will occur!

In other news, I went to a small nomikai for short time, then proceeded to drink in the local koen as always, but this time with a twist; Soju. Soju is awefull, and awesome. It's burns as it goes down, it perks you up fast (which is hysterical because the alcohol content is low) and drops you even faster. I have never been sicker in my entire life, and never woken up with a worse hangover. Be yee warned: Soju is dangerous stuff. Try some, it's fantastic :)

I went to Kamakura last weekend, with a friend, and while I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked, it was still a beautiful and serene town, quite different from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. I saw the main Hachiman temple, which was stunning, and the Daibutsu, which was actually a let down. The highlight of the trip was sitting on the beach at night, staring off into the Pacific until it got too cold. I love the ocean, and seeing the Pacific for the first time was amazing.

Thats it for now, I will post something else when I have something to tell lol.

This is one of my favorite Japanese songs, by a singer/songwriter named YUI



and this is the beautiful and amazing Utada Hikaru.



something to tide you all over until the next post :D

Sorry kids, been awhile

I owe all my faithful readers an apology. I have been busy, and alternetly stressed, so I have neglected this blog like a red headed stepchild for too long. This won't be a long post, but I hope to snap back into this once a week, starting　今.

Not much going on right now. Classes, classes everywhere, and no way not to fall asleep lol. Even my really interesting (in theory) Murakami class is dry as hell. So I get bored, do work, take a walk, and try to get out on the weekends.

On the flip side, the weather broke, and it's steadily getting colder, which is awesome. I love the cold, and am looking forward to freezing my gonads off this winter. Nice change from Arizona for a bit.

The other night, I was in the park contiguous to my dorm, and saw some young Japanese folks playing with those high quality lightsabers you can actually duel with. I asked them what they were doing, and it turns out they are a Star Wars fanclub who are making a fan film. So after telling them about my own fan film experiences back in Connecticut, they let me join in their practice. Hella fun.

So while I am bored and class-y most of the time, there are moments of pure, unadultered awesome.

I will post again soon, but right now, I need to work on a project.

Peace out.

Flavour of Life

I went to Shinjuku today. My first trip alone in Tokyo, it was an interesting experience.

My major goal was to find the Kinokuniya with the intent of purchasing books I need for my Murakami class, but it turned out to be so much more. I needed to see if I could handle this alone; being in a strange city, having a poor comand of the spoke of language, getting around confusing train stations, not being harrassed by the cops. I did alright.

For the past few weeks, I have been afraid to be alone. Perhaps it was the stress, the feeling of being an outsider, but I just couldn't bare to be by myself, as if I was afraid of my own voice in my own head. Today I got out, alone, and quieted my demons. I found where I need to be, got what I needed, even stopped to make a completley random purchase. It was nice, just me and my inner monolouge (and of course, my Ipod).

There have been setbacks. My visa status is still up in the air. My Japanese is non-functioning. It's incredibly difficult to meet people (more so then even I, the eternal realist, throught it would be), it's nearly impossible to meet women. But today, walking through the glass and steel towers of Shinjuku, and strolling past students and residents on their way home in Takadanobaba, I felt at peace despite it all.

My friend Ken gave me a compliment last night, possibly the best thing anyone has said to me in a long time. We were discussing why we came here, why various people come here, and Ken (who is half Japanese, half Chinese from Thailand) told me he doesn't feel like he belongs in Thailand. Then he said to me, "Anson, you belong here. I really think that you, out of all of us, belong here."

I like to think he is on to something.

This is Chiba from the Narita Express train



This is Taka, my guide
Dan and Jack, friends from my dorm
These are the last photos I will post here, because the system for picture posting is way to complicated. I'm going to start a Flikr photostream and just link to it.