Official Hiatus

if you didn't see it coming already! Sorry to those who follow the blog regularly or were hope to see me reeling off the 'ole yarn of tangents for a few paragraphs. To fill the time gap, let me briefly state the last few months: sweat, hokkaido, more sweat, pased JLPT2 with an 80% (nearly 20% improved from last December), sweat again, finally it's feeling like Fall.

Lately my writing fuel has been going into poetry - I've got two readings this month, which I'm both very nervous and excited about. On top of that, work school and prepping for the JLPT level 1 are all quite time-consuming. Then of course there's my new left hand - I mean iPhone 4. Oh how it glistens. I used it to read H.G. Well's Time Machine, I play a scrabble clone with friends abroad as well as ex-pat locals, and I get near-hd streams of NFL games among other things (also getting big into NFL again this year... go Bills? :(). I'm enjoying being nerdy and on the techno-band wagon. Also been reading a lot as well, this "The Best American Non-required Reading" book Nick gave me is pure genius. I stuck a fork in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" around 800 pages in, its repetitive nature and lack of an exciting plot just got to me. Maybe I'll finish it, some day, but there are better things to read.

Exciting things on the horizon:

-Going to Thailand this Christmas. Going it alone. It's going to be a growing trip, for sure, assuming I come back with both kidneys intact. (j/kj/k, Mom, don't make that face)
-F.I.D. (my band) is doing something big, it's outside of Japan, and it's in January of next year, but I can't give details until everything is confirmed!!
-Several F.I.D. shows in Tokyo which are always fun
-Summer next year is the deadline for my studying Japanese formally at a "fulltime" rate - currently doing 200+ flashcards a day, 10 new words everyday, plus grammar workbooks reading activities and my two classes a week. I'll take the JLPT1 in December, and when I fail it (which I will, this is a benchmark kind of thing) I'll go for the gold in July of next year. But that's it. Because a year from now, fall of 2011, I will 100% definitely be enrolled in Grad School. The plan is to do on-line courses and score a Masters in TESL, while still continuing my current job, band, and lifestyle. Japanese classes will most likely come to an end, so I'll make the most of the next year to become a master of the Japanese language, or as close to a good imitation of one as I can manage.

One more thing. Your or I or both of us may wonder why I've put so much time and energy into the Japanese language (over 4 years now) - what's my goal? The truth is I still don't know. Translation looks interesting but very tough, and the gigs I've seen that I'd be eligible for next year with the right qualifications are 40-hour 9-5 office-type jobs (with an inevitable helping of overtime, probably unpaid if it's a Japanese company). I don't know if I'm cut out for cubicles, or the arguably worse Japanese equivalent, long, narrow community-desks. Shudder. I like teaching, so I might just stick with this kind of work, in one incarnation or another, for the long haul. But for every day I stay here, I wonder if I'll ever be able to make the plunge again, to start anew and submerge myself in a different international city, to learn about the language and the people while teaching English for bread, housing and booze. Beijing, Taipei, Seoul, Bangkok, who knows. There's so much out there in Southeast Asia that has little to do with Japan or it's culture, and I want to experience that too.

OK, that's the last of the report - and I'll be damned, tangential it did become. I think a break is good and spirits willing you'll see a new, re-energized "Escape From New York" in 2011. All the best my fellow netizens!

Nights like these won't be avoided, not by me

Sometimes everything just seems to fall into place. After the whole shoe fiasco, I was ready to expect nothing much out of my weekend, even though I knew it had potential to be something good. And how life does pleasantly surprise when you don't quite expect it.

Saturday night I randomly chatted with a former classmate of mine, Kaitlin, who happens to be living in South Korea as an English teacher herself. Through the magic of Skype, I was able to talk directly to her and see her lofty new apartment. It looks quite nice, although she lives in Gyeongsan, apparently one of the more conservative parts of Korea - meaning few foreigners. And not a few as in 1 in 500 like my town on the outskirts of Tokyo prefecture, more like 1 in 10000, to give a B.S. statistic. The kind of place where if you see a white dude, you do a double-take. The kind of place where you can only order Korean food from restaurants. The kind of place where little kids point and yell "FOREIGNER!" And Mommy doesn't smack them on the head, she says: "yes, that's right." And as it turns out, since Kaitlin was lovely enough to agree to house me for a week, AND the exchange rate is so sweet right now, AND I have 9 days paid vacation in the beginning of May, I figured I'd be stupid NOT to go there!

I actually just now (a week later) bought my ticket. Only $700 roundtrip, can't do much better than that. So I don't know much about Korea, really, besides some of its wacky laws: they can fire employees at will with no need for reason or explanation - same goes in Japan actually, but it has to happen within two weeks of employment beginning. And the fact that it's not as used to foreigners as Japan is. I do love Korean food, and the idea of going to a new country excites me greatly, since as much as I love Japan it's almost starting to feel somewhat normal to me. I need a good, cold slap in the face from my friend Culture Shock..

Anyways, more on travel plans as the time comes, April 29 can't get here soon enough! Or the 1st of April for that matter, when job contracts are renewed and I get to see what schedule changes (if any) have been made for the following contract year. Here's hoping for some closer schools, and still getting to keep my favorite classes!

Back in time, I knew Sunday would be a busy day so I also worked out Saturday night. Sunday morning I hit up band practice, always a good time. The girls were pleasant as always and overly complimentary about my apparent overnight improvement in speaking Japanese. Really, I've just been refreshed of what was in the dusty recesses of my memory and have had more grammar, speaking and listening practice lately, the kind of stuff I really need. We had a solid practice, and I was informed by our vocalist Makiko that she had done an interview with a Czech metal magazine about the band, making the first public announcement that "there's a white American dude named Ben playing guitar now." When asked about the implications of a once all-female band, such as feminist ideals or what have you, she simply put it like it is: "it just happened that we were all girls in the first place, nothing more than that." I really hope to get a look at the interview some time.

Also in band news, concerning our drummer situation (Tomoko, the currently MIA drummer just had her baby!) we managed to meet up with Ian later that day, and as it stands now he'll be playing drums. I am incredibly excited about this, as a real drummer means lives practices without having to follow recordings, and many more opportunities for writing music. Hopefully some shows will be coming by late Spring! I have been looking forward to playing a gig in this country ever since I got here.

Since my friend Koba, bass player for one of the opening bands agreed to take my guitar and put it in the backstage area, me and Ian were able to go straight to the show. It was awesome, and I wish I could have taken some pictures or something, but I was having too much fun. Crystal Lake put on a great set, and Shai Hulud played so many old songs and put on one hell of a show. Ian did the west-coast circle-pit thing and I did mine, it was really just an awesomely cathartic show, and left me feeling good the rest of the night.

Funny side story - we had put our jackets with my guitar, and later were hanging out backstage to watch the bands and avoid the slew of sweaty teenagers. So we find my guitar in the overly cramped space for bands, but no jackets. We started to get a bit nervous, and the headlining band (Parkway Drive, a generic snoozefest in my opinion) was playing so we couldn't look for our stuff. We tell Koba, and 2 minutes later I see him look briefly, then apparently go to the side of the stage to watch with everyone else. I figure he just gave up on our stuff and would help us later.

However, like a hardcore holyman, the dude somehow cannonballs into the crowd, and comes back mere moments later with both of our jackets, I have no idea how. Maybe you had to be there to appreciate it but it was random and really cool of him to do. I once heard a guy say that "Japanese friends are hard to make, but if you do, they'll stick by your side 100%." I've also always made the connection of music with people I've felt close to, so it's nice to know that even all the way out here, we can share that bond.

WOW this is starting to sound campy and lame. In much cooler news I met the "I wanna go to troy" guy (remember him?) he was drinking a bottle of jack all night, but i talked to him for a bit about cutthroat, that old Albany hardcore band he liked. I told him about the Swollen Shut CDs, and that I'd get him a copy. Figure he'd appreciate it - I've been listening to it nonstop at the gym (thanks Torn)

Monday was a typical down-day, but fine by me. I went to class, and studied pretty hard. I also ordered a book which has changed my perception of Japanese characters, one most students of the language probably already know about: Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji." Basically, you identify parts of the characters, give them meanings and make silly stories or other mnemonic devices to help you remember. It works a trillion times better and faster than rote memory (repetition) and has helped me learn and identify over 100 new characters in the last couple of days. At this rate I hope to hit the 2000 mark by the end of the Summer, at the latest. Couple this with the 2-4 hours a day of Japanese study I've been putting in, and I'm gonna get good. Real good. Like 10 levels up. And if I can continue this motivation, and keep up at this pace, I'll really reap the benefits (those benefits being the ability to understand shit around me, read comics and talk to people easier). It feels good to be working towards a goal out here, and not just wandering around aimlessly.

Speaking of Japanese, funny story about last week as well: I have Japanese classes not only Mondays but Wednesdays as well, which involves getting home from work around 11 Tuesday night, and getting up at 8:30 the next day. Sounds easy, but I'm bad at that. I usually set 2 alarms (cell phone and computer) for my job and other priorities, in case one fails. Skipped the computer one Tuesday night, and paid the price when I awoke at 10am. Why did my cell phone not deliver the goods? Because I dropped it off my bed, which must have hit the button on the side which turns off the ringer. Completely bogus! Not making that mistake again.

What else, what else. Saw Kylesa, and some other bands in Shin-Okubo on Saturday night. It's funny because, since I went straight from work I showed up in my suit, snoopy-tie and all, and the British dude I know who always wears the Dead Guy shirt just says: "I don't feel right talking to you now man! You should be wearing a punk t-shirt under that or something!" I'm glad I came early though, because I got to see TERROR SQUAD, maybe the Municipal Waste of Japan. "TOKYO! METARU! FIIIYAAAAA!" So fast and thrashy, I'm definitely going to see them again. And Coffins were great as always, like methadone for the ears. Things were thrown off the stage as well as people, and it was a fun time. Unfortunately I drank more ambitiously than I could handle and had to leave early.... not to mention having the first time experience of falling asleep standing up on the train home. That was weird and slightly disconcerting. I blame you:



I introduced a friend to my favorite movie ever in the history of the Universe, UHF. It's quirky, random and chock-full of Weird Al's special brand of humor. Always puts me in a good mood. I haven't done too much else this weekend but study, which is a good thing. I started reading Silence of the Lambs. Oh, and I almost feel stupid for owning 3 video game consoles and barely playing them... I mostly just play my DS on the trains! Although Mario Kart Wii has been happening on occasion. Again though, this is most likely a good thing, I'm feeling determined about learning and for the first time have the ability to focus all my efforts (outside work and daily life) on this language, so I will own it. No question about that.

P.S. Things I'm eating as of late: bean sprouts (because they're cheap), tantanmen (Chinese Ramen because it's spicy, cheap and delicious), and microwavable pizzas (because you can take the foreigner out of the country but...)

"Today we're teaching poodles how to fly!" - Raul's Wild Kingdom


"Something profound"

100 blogs later.

There is so much to say but so few words to say it with. I have everything to tell the internet but nothing really at all to say. Some things are just incommunicable through written language, and I cite my recent experiences as one of those many things... I will however do my best to shed some light on the scene, reveal a fraction of the details that engulf me in this massive and overwhelming madhouse of Concrete and Money that they call Tokyo.

Current events.

I've been overcoming a bout of some kind of sickness lately, with all sorts of icky implications like headaches, lack of energy, diarrhea etc. - I stocked up on vitamin C today and am trying very hard to get myself better in the next couple days. Kevin is arriving in what I thought was 2 days but is actually TOMORROW upon me writing this post and double-checking the date. Considering the man will be crashing on my floor, I really have to clean up the joint and make the most of the room.

Thence comes the other reason that I wanteth to invigorate mine spirits! Me and Kevin are leaving for Hiroshima on a night bus Christmas night, duration 12 hours. Need I reiterate that this is incidentally my first Christmas away from home? It'll be good to have some company though, especially an old friend at that. Mine and Kevin's history is an interesting one, possibly a touch too much personal detail for public blogging, but I'll go ahead and bite the bullet and say a few things:

I remember specifically that we did not get along well when we were growing up. Our families knew each other and I recall an occasion or two where I was calling my mom from Kevin's place because I wanted to leave. I was an anti-social kid (in a way I still am) so I'm not blaming this one on Kevin. It goes without saying then that we have both changed drastically since we were, uh 8.

I believe me and Kevin first ran into each other again at the local YMCA. We would often get into conversations about various philosophical subjects, of which we're both highly interested. I ended up hanging out with his sister Naomi a bit as well, me and Kev traveling down to NYC to hang out with her back in August (That post doesn't feel like that long ago, but it seems a world away, if that makes any sense). Anyhow we began to party and hang out a bit, often perusing several of the Capital Region's local Indian lunch buffets. Kevin is a Medical student and looking to become a Doctor. He has talked about doing volunteer work in 3rd world countries, which I think is an overly lofty and virtuous goal, but quite admirable nonetheless. I really do wish him the best in his efforts. Kevin's sister Kara is also an old friend from my High School days, and is currently the mother of a beautiful little baby girl.

EDIT: While I was in the middle of writing this some interesting and, er, unexpected things happened. I just called Kevin to verify his flight information. Turns out I woke him up 45 minutes before he was supposed to be taking off! Long story short after a few confused communications back and forth is that he made the all too easy mistake of going out the night before, and slept through his alarm. This is pretty out of character for the guy since he is usually 100% on the ball, but regardless it's pretty hilarious I woke him up (and I'm sure he'll think so too in hindsight).

He unfortunately missed his connection as a result, and will be coming in 2 days later (and with several extra hours of layovers and such) while I am at work! My last day of work for the year is December 24th (I'm currently writing this on the 23rd, which is the Emperor's Birthday hence a national holiday), the same day Kevin is coming in. What this means is that the poor guy is going to be squatting somewhere in Shinjuku station, jetlagged and most likely bedraggled while I am at work, until around 10:30. Our overnight bus for Hiroshima leaves the next night too!!! I only hope everything goes smoothly this time around, as there have been a few big snowstorms rolling through the States this week.

Did I mention I sort of miss the snow, but mostly don't? It hit 69 degrees on Sunday, completely absurd! While my Mother and Father are dealing with 14 inches of snow and below freezing temperatures, here I am experiencing fall weather. It just doesn't feel like Winter here, so strange. Temperatures are dropping back down to the 40s this week though, and it should be colder where I'm going, so I bought a nice jacket!

Let's talk band stuff.

Things with F.I.D. are going quite spectacular. They are fun to play with, I'm getting into playing their songs, but most of all they are cool people, and finding people you can actually get along with and play music with is really half the battle. The whole language barrier thing is pretty hard, and considering that my Japanese is at if not below Kana's (bassist) English, we usually just talk through Makiko, who is 100% bilingual. I thanked her today for going through what must be a bit of a headache, translating things back and forth.

Nothing else in the world delivers quite like that immaculate feeling, the release of pent-up hostility through an instrument. One feels a connection with the other musicians. I remember a former band-mate of mine saying something along the lines of: "When you begin to use music as an outlet for your emotions, it becomes such an empowerment, such a drug." I'd say that's about right. And even better than playing someone else's compositions (even though I'll admit they're good) is getting to mess around with my own, which we did today too. It's one of the few things that fills me with genuine pride, possibly the only thing to have such an effect besides teaching. I can't wait to play some shows here in Grind country!

Interlude: My Christmas in Japan







Hooked on Phonetics

Snaring the attention of my Junior High class is much like trying to catch a shark with a toothpick. While blindfolded and a quadriplegic. Although a seemingly futile effort, I do my best to get the few (maybe 2, sometimes 3 out of 10) students who do listen to me to learn something. What is supposed to be a group activity of Pictionary - one of my favorite in-class activities - is reduced to only me, showing off my horrendously amusing and base drawing skills. I still have fun with it. Anyway, the point of this story is that 1 of the 2 boys in the class starting singing some Beatles song, and transitioned into "When You Wish Upon a Star" while I was drawing a picture to elicit Karaoke. I promptly invited him to come up and show the class, but he declined for some reason.

I had a class with a high school English teacher the other day - yes, I taught a man twice my age who has been teaching for easily 30x as long as me, because many Japanese teachers of the English language are far from fluent in the proper conversational nomenclature and grammatical points. His English was impressive but he still made some very common Japanese mistakes. We discussed problems with the Public Educational system in both our countries. When I asked how he felt about working with ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers, what I would have been if I had gotten accepted into JET last year) he laughed and responded with: "I feel sorry for them. They are supposed to teach conversation, but they have 50 minutes to work with 40 students." Reflecting on this, perhaps working for a private company isn't such a bad thing after all? In fact I like most aspects of my employment and even enjoy it most of the time, due to the fact that I have enjoyable conversations, meet interesting people from various walks of life and even can see a clear evidence of students improving due to my own suggested ideas, memory devices and corrections. And even better, in a good class, there are a lot of laughs.

It had been a while since I had seen one particular Japanese English teacher who works for my company, and she is always very outspoken.

"Hello!~" She said from across the room.

"Hi!" I responded.

"You're looking very fine!"

I repress a laugh. "Thanks, you too!"

A non-native English speaker may fail fo find the humor in that discussion, but for the rest of us it's blatantly obvious. The usage of fine in regard to looks, especially saying "very fine," sounds like calling someone "handsome" or even "sexy." I explained this bit to my school boss and she laughed too, saying that Japanese are taught that fine and nice are perfect synonyms. Which, I suppose, they are on paper. Just another reason why, if anyone is still failing to grasp it, there is a huge market for native English speakers like me who want to teach proper conversational skills to Asians. I say Asians because I've had several Korean and Chinese students - even a Malaysian. Their languages, the sounds made in speech, the grammar, they just don't lend themselves well to the English language. But that's what makes it all so interesting.

Where I am, where I'm going

I don't think I can answer either of those properly. My living situation is pretty good. I'd sort of like a girlfriend. It's been over 2 years since I broke up with my last one, and while I've learned a lot from single life (and naturally it hasn't just been a 2 year dry spell, ahem) I would like someone with whom I could share my experiences. It seems that when I get tired of the old ladies pushing me onto trains, or the masses so saturated with people that full strides become impossible and brushing, bumping and knocking into strangers becomes an inevitability, all I can think is how much I want to get away from the throngs and tuck away in my own little world in my tiny apartment. Perhaps this is a misconstrued idea and I'd just like someone with whom I could to share the madness?

We shall see, time will tell, and other cliche' phrases like that. As you may gather I'm getting a little bogged down by this city life, it being my first time on my own and my first time in a city, and with the holidays things have become even crazier in Tokyo if that's possible. There are night-time illuminations, employees wearing santa hats and even live musicians at the local department store (see above picture). As for these frustrations I feel like some time outside of Tokyo is just what I need to recapture that spark, that magic and wonderment that was oozing out of everything when I first arrived. Granted it will be mighty busy and bustling where I'm going too (Hiroshima, Nara, especially Kyoto), but I'll have a travel companion and be on vacation seeing new sites, so it should be cool. Atomic bomb museums, famous temples, traditonal foods, all these things and more are right around the corner.

As for the New Year, well, it's just another year. January 1st is just another day. So just like I've done since I got here, I'll keep living day by day and doing my best to fight the good fight and grind my way through a life in Japan. I'll carve my niche, have my good days and bad, make new friends and so on. A Learning experience, travels, call it whatever you want. I'm just living and my location happened to change to some place more interesting...with notably cheaper comic books.






Thanks to everyone for all your support, I'll see you next year!!!

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

Act first, think later.

While not my philosophy, when I'm in a rush I sometimes suffer from this unfortunate ailment; My body sometimes acts quicker than my mind. And so, on what would have been an ordinary Saturday morning, I found myself locked out of my apartment, full suit on and bag in hand with no key, no wallet, no money. Sometimes I amaze even myself - maybe I just have a subconscious need to give my blog readers something interesting to look at?

So naturally I started panicking a little. Dayn, my upstairs neighbor and good friend has a spare key, but he had left for work already. I tried calling around to see who if anyone wasn't at work that I could bum 500 yen from for the train, but to no avail. I felt like such an idiot, but there was no time to be sulky about the situation, so I did the thing that I feared most: I called my job for help.

After responding incredulously to my situation, the guy said he would call me back in ten minutes. I looked out the window, wishing I knew more people in this town, or kept a spare bill in my work bag or anything, when a neighbor I have never met before walked past me to attend to his laundry. A lightbulb went off in my head. I swallowed whatever pride I had left and addressed the guy nervously in my best polite Japanese, fully aware of how rude it was to ask for 1000 yen ($10) from a stranger no matter what country you live in. I stumbled over my words and he seemed confused, until he said in English: "You need money?"

And so I was miraculously saved by the kindness of a neighbor. I was also saved from making one of my superiors take a 45-minute train ride just to lend me 5 bucks, which is an experience that i'm sure we are both better without. I promised I would pay him back tomorrow and sprinted out the door faster than I have ever ran in dress shoes. When I got to the station (usually an 8 minute walk, I cut it down to about 3) my train was already pulling in. I would have caught it on a normal day, except my Passmo card (swipe card) was in my wallet back at the apartment, and I had to print out a ticket from the machine. This meant another 8 minutes of waiting to see if I could somehow squeeze not getting to work late and salvaging what had been a trainwreck of a morning. Everything did work out though, and despite how much I stressed about my stupid mistake I was really grateful my neighbor (whose name I still don't know) was willing to help me out. I wonder if the same situation would have played out much differently in New York? Perhaps.

I was at a school I had never been to before doing a "sub duty a.k.a. twiddle your thumbs for 6 hours" shift, and it turned out the staff were very cool. It was a smaller school than the busy places I'm used to working at so I was actually able to talk to the staff, not just watch them working franticly and feel slightly guilty about my veritable hours with nothing to do. The school manager was a riot though, she kept commenting on the Japanese I was studying and asked me how to say Mendoukusai in English, a phrase that literally means "troublesome." Of course no one actually has "troublesome" in their vernacular anymore, so I suggested "what a drag" or "what a pain" on the vague recollection of an anime character who had that word as his catchprase.

After work Dayn was back at teh building and therefore unlocked the gates to the small room I call home, and made a move to Shinjuku where I was to meet Makiko the singer of FID! I found out a few things that night, firstly that if you walk out the wrong exit in Shinjuku station, re-enter and try to cut across to the other side without bording/coming from a train, they will charge you a 130 yen entrance fee. Highway robbery! But going around the station is like a mile walk and rather confusing, as opposed to 1/4 of a mile going through the meat of it, so what's another 130 yen anyway.

Secondly, Makiko is just as awesome as the rest of FID. She speaks great English so we were able to communicate with ease, and talked about everything from Neglect to their shows abroad to musical ideas to Mucopus etc. etc. That last one being that FID played with Mucopus, a death metal band from my area in NY that features the current singer of Skinless, in the Czech Republic at a grindocre festival. As it turned out I also booked one of Mucopus' first shows when I was like 16 and lost around $200 to a touring death metal band from Texas due to a low turn out.

It's a small world.

At any rate we got along great and we are all really pumped to write songs and practice soon. Things are a bit on hold because (as I may have mentioned before) the drummer is currently with child, but we should be able to start having real practices and playing shows in the Spring. Until then, it will be practicing to a pre-recorded drum track. Should be interesting. I've already got loads of ideas for writing anyway. I have to go get my guitar fixed at a shop some time this week though, I've got a few dead frets. (dead frets are when you get a buzzing sound on the fretboard) I also need to invest in proper strings since this band tunes to B.

And that's it, today has actually been incredibly uneventful and I am totally OK with that. I could have seen Melt Banana but the ATMs are closed on Sundays so no go for me. My sore throat is still coming and going a bit so I need to take it easy anyhow. Para el post de grande finale, here are 3 variations of curry-based foods I have made in the last few weeks + 1 Italiano. All delicious:

Curry Udon - Udon are those big fat noodles. It's cheap, easy and delicious!

Eating spaghetti in my underwear makes me feel like a man.

Simple instant curry, rice and veggies.

Todays meal: Tomato-curry with broccoli, carrots, red peppers, beef and a potato cake.

"M! A! D! We live in a MAD world. So they call this progression, feels like world regression" - Stigmata

"Welcome to the new dark ages, yea I hope you're livin right these are the new dark ages, and the world might end tonight" - Bad Religion

From spooky stuff to Santa-san / Grinding a Culture Fest

Just like in the States, the end of Halloween marks the beginning of the "Christmas season," where gleeful images of red and green that say "money = love" abound in the subways and on the streets. It really kicked in yesterday while I was sitting at Matsuya, a popular "fast food" joint that sells an awesome beef and onion rice bowl with miso soup for 380 yen. I heard Jingle Bells, and it hit me.

While I could go into the whole sphere of how I have gotten the occasional bouts of homesickness, and how it is a bit odd having my first Christmas away from my family, I have much more enthralling matters to discuss today. Like when I was at the Hub (an English-themed bar) last night and some guy kept chanting "Yankees suck!" after I told him I was from New York. I was at the bar with my future band-mate Kanako, but let me back up- no wait, before I even back up, let me go off on an extreme tangent that you've no doubt come to expect from my erratic writing style:

Japanese people and their reactions to foreigners speaking Japanese.

As my flatmate Dayn so notably pointed out to me the other day, Japanese people tend to react one of two ways when you exhibit any kind of speaking ability:

1) They say "Wow, that's amazing!" even if you only utter one word improperly. This kind of over-reaction is incredibly common, and while I do love being complimented on my speaking skills, let's not kid ourselves here: I've scarcely studied more than 2 years, and I have a long way to go. I would rather be corrected than given blind praise.

2) They stare at you blankly, perhaps feigning comprehension or in total disbelief, even if you use perfect grammar. I haven't gotten this reaction so much, but it does happen. Why you may ask? I really can't wrap my head around, but despite their immense fascination with English, some Japanese are not comfortable with the idea of foreigners speaking their language, especially older folks. Talk about a paradox.

So we have a dichotomy of innacurate reactions. Perhaps a good reflection on the indirect nature of the Japanese, and their tendency to avoid stating things directly? (For example: "your grammar is sucks?" or "Don't you dare speak my language you non-Japanese heathen?")

So on Sunday I worked overtime in Kawagoe, since it's close to me and I could use the cash. I've heard that it's a nice area, and there are some parts that look like Edo-era Japan, although I didn't have time to explore at all:

Just outside the station.

During my second to last lesson I started hearing some annoying voice on a loudspeaker outside, and sure enough on my way out of work I see one of those political trucks hanging out outside the station:

I'd vote for him.

All day I was looking forward to meeting the band I was going to try out for, the previously all-female grindcore act F.I.D. - or Flagitious Idiosyncracy in the Dilapidation. For obvious reasons, they refer to themselves as FID. Thanks again to Grizloch for telling me about them! They've played Maryland Death Fest in the States and even in the Czech Republic before, not to mention they're pretty damn good, so I was really excited about the possibility of joining a band with such prospects. I've also always wanted to play in a grind band, but the scene back home was lacking in this genre to say the least.

Unfortunately the singer who speaks great English was sick, so I met up with the bass player and the drummer, who speak good english and to little, respectively. For the most part though we were able to communicate between Japanese and English, and talked about stuff. Nothing is set in stone yet but things are looking good, we should be getting together to practice in the next few weeks, and I'll be working on writing stuff and learning their songs and all that.

Monday, I woke up hung over from the previous nights' drinking bout with the aforementioned bass player, and felt like doing something on my day off. It was also National Culture Day in Japan, where all colleges host Culture Fests on their campuses. I ended up meeting my Aussie friend Chris in Waseda, a university-town to check out the goings on. Things were inhumanly crowded by the end of the day, but here's an idea of what we went down:

Mother Africa in a can.

Between the signs and the throngs of people, it wasn't too hard to find.


First stop was the Art-section of the culture fest.

While it was pretty cool to see the exhibit, we were really just looking for the food stands the whole time.

Oh yes.







Chris and I decided to prove in the drawing room that gaijin can be good artists too - note the picture in the top was probably done by a 9-year-old.

Engrish or clever advertising against Anorexia?

The still life section. They handed us surveys, which we politely handed back and said "Muzukashi Yomemasen" ("too hard to read")


This lady was serving tea with jam!

This area of the festival was deceptively not crowded, and we soon discovered why - there were different areas of the 10k+ student campus housing the food stands, dancing and musical events. When we got there, things started to get tight, between the throngs of people on holiday and the various student club-run food stands all screaming to buy their stuff. In fact, two incredibly hyper dudes got in mine and Chris's face about their amazing yakisoba (fried buckwheat noodles) so we caved in and had that.

It was my first time, and it was really good!

Other foods I ate that day were gyoza (dumplings) and kind of potato cakes. There were also chocolate-covered bananas, pork wraps, okonomiyaki (a kind of pancake) - just about anything you could think of.

Not the most convincing Chopper costume I've ever seen.

Cultural.

It's hard to see, but his jacket says PHILADELPIA!!!!!!

What was everyone waiting for? (there were also hundreds of other people in queued-off sections just across the street)

"The Waseda Collection," a beauty pagent which lost our interest fairly quickly.

I don't have any more pictures, but around this time things started to get insanely packed, my upset stomach was catching up with me, and I thought it a good time to bail. This got me thinking about one of the things I do really miss from home - space. Unless one is in his or her own apartment, getting any kind of privacy seems damn near impossible. In public, the definition of ones' "bubble" or personal space is completely null and void here. People often bump, collide, push, etc. In fact, while boarding the train to leave Waseda, I was pushed onto the train by the throng behind me and almost rammed into 2 small children. Then a girl's oversized purse hit me in the balls.

So yea, I miss space.

The rest of the day was a quiet one, and I think I'll start drinking green tea instead of coffee, since I'm feeling a soreness in my throat on and off, and my job does require a fair bit of talking. And to finish, let me say I got my first celebrity comparison from Kanako of FID: "you look like Bruce Willis." HAH!

P.S. I used the word throng 3 times in this entry.

"I've got music and I've got friends, both always by my side. Convictions instilled in me, this is what keeps me alive" - Terror