Full immersion

Band practice went splendidly today. We managed to crank through 3 songs without too much trouble. It's my first time playing music with a group of people since the beginning of August, and that my friends is far too long. Also my first time in a grindcore band, but it suits my fast and chaotic playing style well. I was showing my bandmates a riff I wrote with several 1 1/2 step hammer-ons and they said it looked like a spider crawling up the fretboard. Compliment?! Let the record show however that I do have freakishly long, skinny fingers. Also known as piano hands.

Probably the funniest thing that happened today (besides the two native Japanese getting lost trying to find a place in Shinjuku and not the foreigner for once) was some random guy coming up to us and making some kind or request I couldn't understand. Makiko translated for me that the dude wanted to take my picture with a guitar (I had my guitar slung on my back at the time), to which I responded: "Sure! Is there money involved?" Unfortunately this story has a sad ending. No paycheck means no free foreigner photoshoot, sorry dude.

On the subject of translating of my two bandmates the singer Makiko speaks impecible English, while Kana the bassist has O.K. skills - definitely impressive for a non-native speaker but still enough to create some language barriers. Today was a lot of Makiko re-wording what I said in Japanese for Kana and vice versa, which by the end I'm sure made all of our heads hurt a bit! Me trying to understand what I can in Japanese is a fun challenege, and I do catch a fair bit but often I lose the conversations. Makiko was nice enough to say I'll be fluent in a year! I somehow doubt it, altough I will suredly be improved. After all was said and done I felt like a part of the band for the first time, which was nice.

Certain bands came up, old local favorites of mine Evixxion being one of them due to their sticker on my guitar. Mike Dikk if you oppose let me know, but I thought I should share Evixxion's Joy Division covers with the world, since I ripped them for my bandmates upon request. Oh and you should totally put up those unreleased 7 songs on the net dude. Or perhaps some mp3s of that 7" I totally own but is my old basement in NY, that'd be HIFFY.

Side note: I tried Japanese Wendy's today and it wasn't too bad, besides the Spicy Chicken Sandwich being 2/3 the size of the American version.

Another Side note: After talking about it in some lessons, I have discovered that most Japanese people have no idea of the regular traditions that coincide with Christmas in America: having a tree in your house, putting presents under said tree, drinking egg nog, carols, etc. etc. Here they just kick back, maybe exchange some gifts and drink a lot.....

Wait. Maybe it isn't that different from our Christmas after all then.

And in closing, for no particular reason, here's Gizmo:


"They're closing in, they're closing in. Day in, day out, day in, day out, day in, day out..." - Joy Division

"There's something missing, there's something missing, no I can't name it I can't place it...I've tried girls and jobs, all that's left is drugs and god" - End of a Year