Christmas in Japan, Part 2

It is now 9:30pm Japanese time, on the evening of that beloved day of some Lord's birth, December 25, commonly known by most Christian nations of the world as the eponymous holiday, Christmas. In Japan, however, being the Shinto Buddhist nation that it is, Christmas means little more than bad decorations and repetitive MIDI Christmas music at the grocery store. Students go to school, people go to work, and life goes on.

My day was essentially set to look much the same - when in Rome - though I was fortunately invited by the grace of my dear friend Kyle to join him and his wife Hiroe for a delightful noontime brunch of pancakes and sausages. I was reluctant to accept this offer - as Christmas is a couples' holiday over here, and celebrated in a romantic fashion - but Kyle, having spent Christmas drinking alone here last year, seemed particularly attuned to the subtle pitfalls of my plight, and insisted I come by.

So I set my alarm for 11:45, thinking that, if I'm awake and ready to go early enough for brunch, cool, and if not, I'll just stop by for a little while in the afternoon and say hi. At around 11:30 I receive a text from Kyle, but I don't get out of bed to check it - I'm still half-asleep. In fact, I can hear the chime of the incoming message in my dream, but when I go to check my mail in the dreamstate, it's a message from some chess club wishing me a Merry Xmas. Ok, I think to myself - more time to sleep! But in the dreamworld I'm already awake, taking in yesterday's laundry off the line and talking to Kyle via Gchat re: when to come over. But, being a dream, all is not quite as it should be -- I don't belong to any chess club, for one, I don't Gchat with Kyle for two, I'm at my aunt's house for three, and there's some weird '70s porn on the TV for four. These things won't strike me as weird until I wake up with my alarm 15 minutes later, though.

I wake up to the sound of Olivia Tremor Control's "Hideaway" playing very distinctly in my dream - dreams are so fascinating, I've woken up twice with melodies and words to songs in my head in the past week, neither of which previously existed (to the best of my knowledge). I immediately remember the text message, and after a brief moment of contemplation, I realize that I probably didn't actually get a message from the chess club, and that it was probably Kyle texting me to come over. Sure enough, this is the case. So I take in my laundry (for what feels like the second time this morning), take a shower and bike over to Kyle's, where I am so generously treated to a breakfast of pancakes, sausage and chocolate milk. We then watch Beavis and Butthead Christmas specials all afternoon, until I decide to stop intruding on Kyle and Hiroe's romantic holiday and head home.

It's about 5pm, so I stop off at MaxValu for a piece of chicken and a cup of sake for dinner (for some reason the Japanese think Americans eat chicken on Christmas - Kyle says you have to reserve fried chicken at KFC weeks in advance to get some for the holiday). But this proves to be too little food, so I take the English translation of the Lotus Sutra Kyle lent me and head over to Chorky's Diner for dinner.

Chorky's is the most American of diners - more American than American diners, without doubt. If it was in America it'd feel hokey, all retrofitted, Popeye cartoons playing in a corner and the best '50s rock 'n roll you've probably never heard (but think you have) coming in through the speakersystem. In other words, the most comforting place to spend Christmas night by one's lonesome. I take a seat at the counter, order a chili burger and a Heineken (they used to serve Rolling Rock, but sadly no longer...) and start reading. Every once in awhile I try to chat up the girl behind the counter, asking her if she's doing anything for Christmas and what not, but she can't understand anything I am saying at all, and keeps running to the guy at the grill for translations. This is somewhat tedious, but we eventually remove the middleman (or in this case, woman) and I get to meet the grillman face to face, who speaks English rather well. Turns out, he's the one and only Chorky! I am so pleased to meet his acquaintance, and gush over his wonderful atmosphere and music selections and food, and he helps me quite a bit in my Japanese - so much so, I've decided I may start going over there every Friday (although not always to eat a cheeseburger and fries, that's for sure!) I figure, if you're looking for someone who likes Americans enough to put up with the hassle of having to translate every little thing for you, Chorky's is probably the safest bet you can make. His diner is like the best of America, all ensconced in some bizarro time capsule that makes even me long for my homeland in ways that I so rarely do otherwise. If America was all Elvis Presley, Schlitz beer, Popeye and cheeseburgers, maybe I'd still be over there today (just kidding, the '50s probably sucked, but they don't in Chorky's diner - and that's the point)

Anyway, now I am home, waiting for America to wake up so I can creepily vidchat my way into people's Christmases and live vicariously through their joy. But really, it's been a much better day than I expected, and, while not particularly Christmas-y, as far as Fridays go, this one's a keeper.

Once again, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good morning!

Christmas in July...erm, Japan

It is Christmas as I type this over here in the East, though it's only Eve over there in the States. Funny, I used to always want to go to sleep before midnight on Christmas, even when I was older and it didn't really matter much anymore. But being over here, it's like, who cares! Feels kind of the same as every other day, only I know I have to get up at a slightly reasonable hour if I want to catch lunchtime pancakes at my friend Kyle's house. If I don't, it's not the end of the world, but that's about the only thing I've got on the agenda...

Anyway, I could update everyone about my life here, but I feel like I do that pretty regularly now, being connected to the internet and all. And my daily activities are pretty boring - woke up, exercised, watched half of the movie version of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, got my bike fixed, got some chicken and calamari for dinner, and worked on music for hours. Yesterday was very similiar, with a little less music, a little more movies, and gnocchi (ok, gnocchi is pretty noteworthy). But I do have something that I wanted to put up before Christmas, and that is all the wonderful (ahem...) decorations that are put up here in Japan. For being a mostly couples-centered holiday - everyone works and goes to school! - there sure are a lot of decorations put up by stores and what not. Here are a few of the examples of their wonderful taste:










Also, here are a couple other cool pictures I've taken with my cell phone. Expect more pics in the future - hopefully over break I'll be able to do more with this thing than I have been lately...

Exhibit A: what a craaaazy caterpillar (worm??)



Exhibit B: when I die, please carry my body around in this - or when I'm living, whatever



Also, another unrelated note: songs from my solo project are trickling out! Feel free to check one out at www.myspace.com/mondored and let me know if you like it. But if you don't, just don't say anything, mmk?

Merry Christmas!

What's flumpool !?

I don't know what flumpool is. But if this is any indication:


I don't think I want to know. But what's that, you say? It's probably just Japanese being all weird and Japanese with random English thrown in, and I'm just getting a cheap Orientalizing laugh out of something harmless? Maybe. But then how do you explain...

this?



It's Saturday night, and I am sitting in my apartment, having just eaten three sticks of beef jerky, a small bag of Haribo gummy colas, and eight pieces of sushi, fish type unknown. Dave Brubeck is playing in the background, and I am completely alone, more or less by choice.

Went out to Gifu last night - Jacob wanted me to spin records with him at a big party at the Treehouse. Said it'd go all night, it was really bumpin'. This turned out to be untrue. I show up and there's less than twenty people, but I suppose that's ok. Jacob is completely ignoring me, and in no way needs my help playing music - I'd spin one thirty-minute album all night. But I did get to play some poker - made a cool 17,500 yen, which comes out to about $175 US. Cleaned out the table.

Still, I was upset I didn't get to spin, which is the only real reason I went out. And everyone was kind of pissed at the young stranger who showed up and kicked their asses, which I guess is legit. And I was kind of drunk and pissed at Jacob (what else is new), so I ended up blowing that joint and giving my buddy Dak a call and hung out with him and, of all people, Scottie (this is why I hate going out).

Scottie wanted twenty dollars worth of chu-hi, which is like alcoholic soda, so I ran out and bought some food and all that chu-hi, though I learned the next day it was diet chu-hi and may or may not have been alcoholic (although it said alcohol 8%, so who the hell knows). Fortunately, they cut me a break since they did send the drunk kid who doesn't know Japanese out to buy it - what can you expect.

Woke up at 7:30am on Dak's floor. First words out of my mouth were "I'm just lying here listening to you guys talk," not realizing I had dozed off at all or that the sun was out (or was, you know, sitting behind a bunch of gray clouds). I was probably still drunk, and could've passed back out but decided to get up and go home and pass out in my own bed, in case the package from my parents came (it did).

So I gathered my records and walked five minutes to the train station, where I had fifteen minutes to kill - just missed one. Went to the Mister Donut on the first floor and had myself a pink frosted donut and a small coffee, then caught the train and biked home. Saw my boss leaving the apartment as I was biking in. It was funny, I'd seen him last night as I was leaving the apartment and he was coming home. I'm sure I looked like a drunken wreck, and there's no way he couldn't know I'd been out all night somewhere. But hey, ain't no law against spending the night somewhere else.

Slept til three. Did jackshit all day. Listened to a bunch of minitapes my parents sent me, all sorts of weird conversations and noises on them - gotta be selective about what I record over, half that stuff is sonic gold. Got a new plan for how to set up my recording sound, but it's a secret. Shouldn't be too long now, though - expect some recorded material from me in the near future.

I've also recently grasped the notion of space-time. I've always known about it and got it on a "smart people say this so it must be true" kind of way, but talking with Jacob this past week, it hit me one night that everything is eternally present and that there is no time, time is just the delay it takes for our mind's to observe the changes that are taking place around us. Everything is ever-present and ever-changing; the future exists at the same time as the present, but every action done at every moment ripples across the fabric and changes the rest of it, or what we conceive of as the "future." Then we experience it in an action-reaction-type cycle, with some sort of causality inferred. But everything is always changing, like a screen full of static all buzzing and shifting, the past and the present and the future and everything, it's all just one big thing that stretches to infinity and it's in constant flux, and we just perceive it on a delay, our consciousness can only interpret it as some sort of "time" taking place because we can never perceive anything in real-time, it's always formulating in our heads a little after the fact, and that's what we perceive as existence, as history, as ourselves. If we lived like animals, there would be no time. There is no time when you are a baby and you don't understand what's happening around you, your mind isn't developed enough to capture the imprints and mentally categorize it and store it.

Anyway, I'm blathering about stuff that everyone else either already knows or probably doesn't care to (after all, it's kind of weird to think of yourself as just a stitch in a tapestry stretching to infinity, constantly changing as it blows in the wind). I know the real reason everyone comes here is for my hilarious experencies with Japanese culture. So with that, I invite you to return to the beginning of this post, as I go record some music or watch a movie or something.

Peace!

December 2, 2009

So it's December. Still feels like fall over here, leaves are all colored and only just beginning to fall. Cold though.

Went to Kitagata branch yesterday. Kitagata always makes me awfully anxious, as it's nearly impossible to get there - there's one bus that leaves in the afternoon, and that's it. When I first went with Joanna, the bus schedules had just changed, and we discovered as we arrived that we'd missed the last bus for the day. Had to call the branch boss and have him pick us up.

One month later - I teach there every four weeks - I arrived in time to catch the bus, only to realize it was a holiday, which means the bus times are different. A quick glance at the holiday schedule confirmed my fears - I'd missed the last bus. Again. Had to call the branch boss and have him pick me up.

It's now two months and change later (Jesus!) and Kitagata day rolls around again. I managed to catch the bus this time - I go through the side door, take my ticket and sit down, to look for the kanji for "Kitagata Hashiramoto." This is always stressful, and involves me awkwardly getting out of my seat, walking to the front of the bus, and comparing my piece of paper with the screen above the windshield which displays the next location. In the meantime, everyone stares at me like I'm going to fall on them or something.

Anyway, I made it to Kitagata ok and, my fears relieved, my day immediately brightened - no small task, considering I bought a record player I can't seem to get functioning less than 24 hours before (also, a beautiful redyellowgreen tree next to the rainbow bridge near our apartment recently lost its leaves...I'd wanted to photograph it so very much, it makes me rather sad). But Kitagata cheers me right up because the branch bosses here are, in a word, hilarious.

For example, when I first arrive, one of them is sitting next to a young girl, one of their high school students. I'm just minding my business, preparing my lessons plans, when he assumes my attention.

"Sho-n!"

I look up. He motions to the girl - maybe he wants me to talk with her or something. They usually do. But no.

"She is very lonely," he explains to me. "She wants to have a boyfriend. She is always alone."

The girl protests loudly, but he just laughs. Do I laugh? What do I say? I say he's "hidoi" - terrible (only later do I realize that it might be inappropriate to call a Japanese teacher "terrible," but they seem to find it funny). That's pretty much how it goes around this place - everyone makes fun of everyone. Or at least the teachers do - maybe it's the Japanese way? Do teachers in America make fun of their students? When they were telling me all the students' names, they referred to various students as "fat," "Mr. Fart," and "Doraemon" (a pudgy cat-like cartoon character). It's all good-natured, but it's the kind of thing that (I assume) could only fly in Japan. Also, like I said, it's hilarious.

So yeah, yesterday was pretty good, though I've been getting sick lately. Woke up this morning feeling like someone activated a garbage disposal in my throat. And I've been staying up til 3am or so watching movies. But I've written a few songs in the past few days - take that writer's block! - and our practice Sunday went really well, I've got a song that's pretty much wrapped up, and we just added our friend Hiro on harmonica, who really brings the piece together. Maybe we'll record it this weekend - who knows? If the wave don't crest beforehand, and I can fend this illness off...

Just uploaded all my pics to facebook, btw. Will put some choice ones up here. Also have some from my cell phone that I need to get online. But shit, this stuff takes time! So uh, faithful readers, enjoy the glut of new content now, and hopefully updates will proceed more regularly now that...

I have internet in my apartment!

!!!!!!!!!!

Until the next time-

November 23, 2009

Went to Nagoya Saturday to look for records. Shop there had a great selection of most everything, except the "Garage/Pub Rock" section, which - though it made me very excited to see - only contained a few Nick Lowe albums, a Dick Dale and, shockingly, a 2006 album from the Black Hollies, who I've only heard of from a show they played at Reggies with the Pelts back in Chicago. I didn't buy it, but did pick up a Real Kids 7", the Sparks debut, and some other good stuff.

Went to Gifu after that, ended up spending the night at the Treehouse again. Met a conspiracy theorist who kept trying to tell us how the similarity of Obama/Biden and Osama bin Laden was no coincidence. Crazy old man, eyes shone like he was on something maybe - wanted me and Jacob to join a band with him. I was to play the accordion.

Played some poker with some belligerent Aussie and lost 20 bucks on ante - got wrecked on a lucky river - so I cut my losses there and just hung out listening to music the rest of the time, more or less in my own world. Dak stopped by for awhile, talked about going to Matt's band's show the next day, but I didn't end up making it. Sunday is my own band practice day - didn't go over particularly well, but that's ok.

More to come.