Jeff Lang . Tokyo 2012

As I highlighted in my Djan Djan  post, Jeff has been a long time favorite of mine. After hearing him play 'Elvis is Dead' three years ago on the internet I fell in love with both his music and the Weissenborn style lap slide. I now thankfully own an entry level model and have been naively plucking away for own amusement for a year or so and always listening to Jeff's wonderfully disturbed folk for enlightenment. Nonetheless, I have never been able to see him live. Alas, as Japan's long-time guitar culture is alive and well, it comes as no surprise that the relatively commercially unknown Lang (even in Australia) is highly regarded as a fretboard aficionado in Japan. Deservedly, he held down a prime Friday night slot at Daikanyama's  UNIT for people willing to dig deep. And many where. The packed house were recipients of truly profound musicianship from both Jeff and drummer Danny McKenna, for a tick over two hours. I was seriously in awe, and along with everyone else I didn't hold back on letting out a couple of howls when Jeff was in full flight.

After the show I got to meet both of them, and the two local Victorians where refreshed by my Australian accent. I had thanked them sincerely and chatted about my own living and studying status in Tokyo. After they singed my new CD's, one of which is a live recording from Melbourne, Jeff said "Seeya Ryan!" as I walked out of the room smiling from ear to ear. I also yanked a gig poster off the wall on the way out of which is highly taboo in Japan. So that's about as rebellious as I get. Below is a clip of him a few years back.

Sapporo Snow Festival...and debauchery

While on the bus ride into Sapporo, I witnessed for the first time a proper winter. Layers of thick white snow covered everything. As many visitors to Australia endure heavy rains and piercingly dry heat, things we natives just deal with, the Sapporians live with powdery snow for as much as five months of the year. When it first snowed in Tokyo I genuinely was not sure how to combat it; what clothes? ride or train it? Until I asked my Scandinavian buddy C, whom just lives through it bicycle, normal shoes and all. 

After changing from the bus to the metro, we stepped out onto the street for the first time and where all surprised at the extremity of the snow and ice on the local roads and pathways. Locals where dressed accordingly with layers of duck down, snow boots, beanies, and thick gloves. The small children looked like puffed up ottomans that any moment would suffocate within a fluff and nylon abyss. We searched for our backpackers Ino’s Place. As we took our first few breaths of the open air we broadcast our appreciation for the crisp and clear air Alas, we found the humble looking Ino’s place and ventured inside with our bulky luggage. A kind lady welcomed us, whom I can only assume was Ino herself, I hello to a fellow Aussie on the road named Dale and then we made our way upstairs to the 10 share room. I was thoroughly impressed by the Ino’s fit out. Everything was well made, clean, and generously sized. The downstairs sitting and living area was well appointed with all sorts of pamphlets, cd’s, movies, books, things for sale, meals tables, couches and computers. What struck me the most was the elaborate array of acrobatic party trick paraphernalia for sale. Juggling pins, balls, spirally things, twisted do-ops, bits and bobs, blunt machetes and other stuff. I couldn’t quite work it all out to be honest. 

We chilled out for a bit, had a shower, and headed out for what we planned to be our one and only big night considering it was Saturday. After exiting the Tozai subway from Odori station, darkness had already begun to fall and the Sapporo snow festival in Odori Park was buzzing with life. The Sapporo Festival runs from Feb 6 to Feb 12, and this year was its 63^rd installment. Thousands, including ourselves braved the -7 degree temperatures to see what all the fuss is about. The sculptures ranged from big to enormous and from architectural icons to anime characters. The highlights for me were the Taj Mahal ice sculpture and the Brazilian meat stall…not an ice sculpture but a warm hearty meal. After we had seen enough, we headed towards the Suskino ice carving area. We stopped at an alfresco ice bar, drank hot wine, got cold again from not moving and quickly moved on. The ice carvings where skillfully created although the final one with frozen fish included seemed rather odd. I took photos nonetheless.  After wandering around outside for quite some time our next plan was to participate in the favorite past-time of Sapporians, drinking beer. We were not sure where to go but we stumbled across a bar on the corner of Lilac Street. As we approached, the door opened immediately and rather arrestingly, a middle aged Australian guy abandoned his conversation with others and invited us in, sat us down, quickly fixed us up with drinks and proceeded to talk to his odd looking mates. I was baffled, it came across as though he had no authoritative association with the bar but was broadcasting his identity as ‘I am a tragic alcoholic and foreign regular here, please come in fellow foreigners.’ He then barged over and assumed correctly that we were after a destination for a good night out later on. He handed us a map with basically all the places that Lonely Planet has recognised. At this point I didn’t want to take any ‘nightlife’ advice from this fella but there was no alternative. A lonesome New Caledonian named Aoyan then came over and introduced himself and we talked crap for a while about Japan and snowboarding. He was a really nice dude. The vibe was great and beers kept flowing, suddenly a random plate of nachos arrived along with a Brazilian guy. I didn’t catch his name as I was concentrating on other things. The conversation was loud and coarse; its subject quickly turned towards the plan for the evening. The Brazilian guy had been here a few years and offered to take us somewhere…

As we finished up, we hit the white streets primed to continue the partying. We were led to a place alarmingly named ‘Booty’. I feared the worst. However as it turned out Booty is great place with a comfortable and somewhat refined lounge upstairs and intimate dance area downstairs. We all had a fun and debaucherous night drinking tequila and beer, dancing and yelling. At one point a guy passed out and locked himself in the unisex cubicle so I clambered over and awoke him to let myself and the line of busting party goers liberate themselves. A large group of cheerful American’s became great company as the night warred on into the wee hours. When we had laid down our last moves on the d-floor a tick past 5am, we stumbled out to grab some cheeky gyouza near by and then grabbed a cab back to Ino’s place.

Heading to Hokkaido

Day one (10-02-2012) on what promises to be an adventurous two weeks in Hokkaido has followed through. Rising groggily out of bed after a long night of packing and googling, I eventually lugged my bulking gear down to Otsuka station. That giddy excitment of leaving for a vacation was substituted for an insular relief. Relief from the grey abyss that Tokyo can easily assume. My obvious backpacker/snowboarder image was vividly juxtaposed to the swarms of white collar salary men on the 13:13 Yamanote bound for Ueno. At Ueno I sorted myself out with a quick sandwich and milk then a ticket for the Super Express 35 bound for Mito. The train  sped North and within 45 minutes or so, the dense Tokyo landscape seemingly changed abruptly to agricultural property set around small mountains. At Mito I changed onto a small two carriage diesel locomotive to take me to the Oarai ferry terminal. At the station I walked through the back street's past various weathered homes, garages and a bustling kindergarten. I passed an elderly woman in a narrow path and her surprised facial expression was the evidence for me that not many gaijin walk Oarai backstreets, luggage in tow; And so the adventure begins. Through the trees I could a first glimpse of the Sunflower Ferry, and its massive size was a welcome surprise. I contacted Bojan and Dejan to see where they where at, and they had just arrived by bus (they took the package route, no snowboards allowed on buses!) I passed through the freight truck area, met the fellas, bought my ticket and waited to board. After stuffing my bag with beer and sandwiches we hustled in line to get jump on board. I couldn't remember the last time I had been on such as large boat, I think it may have been when I was much younger when Dad took me on a docked BHP cargo ship in Wollongong. We where escorted by the hostesses who where dressed impeccably in their uniforms to cattle class; which was a room of 30 small mattresses each with sheets and a pillow lined up against the perimeter of the room. I had read that most of the passengers will be truckers, and without fail we had about 8 haggard Japanese truckers with us. In order to make peace I introduced myself to a few of them and gave them some beers (superficial insurance against theft). They where quite the characters, in particularly a young fella with long dyed blonde hair and his rather plump friend who challenged each other to a one sided sumo battle. Entertaining to say the least. Then a pillow fight threatened to erupt, I threw a pillow and knocked over my beer in the process...damn. Things calmed down and it was time amuse ourselves for the long journey. So for the next 19 hours, we each attempted to sleep, played skill tester, braved the freeze outside, played dress ups and wandered around the ship sparking up conversations with other passengers - Yuta was a local Sapporan on his way home who laid down some of Justin Timberlake's top shelf lyrics in English (he had a skewed vision as to what would pull the foreign ladies). I headed back to the room where Bojan was sprawled out over three mattress in a deep coma, I managed to find some quality sleep for the next 4 hours or so. As the sun rose, the distant land began to appear. Stunning white rocky cliff faces pierced the overcast atmosphere and the extreme winter climate into which we where headed was now becoming a reality. Something very new to me. The ship docked at the Tomakomai ferry terminal and we transferred to the bus bound for Sapporo.

 

Vivek & Swaroop

Back in June on my first few days in Mumbai, Phil and I decided to hit up a local club called Blue Frog . Tabla and Hindi scat master Vivek Rajagopalan and his quartet teamed up with Indian Idol star Swaroop Khan. Here is some footage of both that night and Kahn exercising his well oiled Rajasthani pipes. The Total Recall like fit-out and the simple fact I was hitting the Mumbai night scene for the first time was just straight-up extraordinary.

A Social Thursday

I had a really great day today sharing Tokyo with new and old friends from back home. I had recently met R through my recent Melbourne visitor L and I offered to show her around Shimokitazawa today. As we archi kids from Melbourne town are into thrift stores and nostalgic repertoires, Shimokitazawa can be a dangerous place for the precious Japanese yen. I met up with R around midday at Shibuya crossing and we then head onto the Inokashira line bound for 'Shimokit' (as we and C like to refer). For the next two hours or so R and I wandered around a few shops admiring the plethora of interesting things. We had a pleasant drink at The Darwin Room, possibly one of the quaintest shops in the area and it is as it suggests full of botanic books, bugs and bits and bobs in the theme of Charles Darwin. The inbuilt benches against the large front windows made an ideal people watching setting. As I was due to meet B down the road at three, I showed R only the location of other great shops and left her to engange in come solid retail therapy. Reports are a few garments, shoes and collectable records are on their way back to Melbourne.

I then made my way down to Komaba-Todaimae station to meet up with my passionate Portugese maninho, B. The purpose of our exchange was that he is doing me huge favor and lending me his snowboard gear for my upcoming Hokkaido and Niseko adventure. As I waited on the platform  rekindling my love affair with Battles (see video) - some serious head bobbing occured - I was then amused to see B running down the street in a rage of energy with the gear on his back. We greeted like lost brothers and then B, a friend of his and myself boarded the train back to Shibuya. B and I discussed his upcoming Australia adventure with great excitement and then parted ways at Shibuya station.

Later that evening, a friend of mine Richard Stampton from Melbourne whom I used to both study under and work for organised to catch up for dinner.  http://richardstampton.com/

We decided to meet at a particular 'Starbucks above the concourse' in Shinjuku around 6:30. I arrived at a Starbucks above a concourse however after 20 minutes or so I began to think we had different Starbucks in mind (there are a total of 22 in Shinjuku). It was a wrong doing on my part as my past experience with L at a Shinjuku meet up point didn't go so well either. I ran around checking other Starbucks until I gladly found Richard still waiting for me at...a Starbucks above a concourse. We happily greeted and set off to find a place to eat. I had read up on a few places to eat before-hand however I wasn't keen on engaging in a needle in a haystack activity after my subsequent Starbucks "cluster fuck" (J.K Simmons, Burn After Reading). However amongst our healthy chatter and aimless wandering we incredibly stumbled across Touch of Spice a Thai place that I read up on so we headed to the third floor and were seated immediately. We chatted about his wonderfully hectic trip around Japan and the many oddities of Japanese culture. After our delicious meals, we decided to head to a gig at the Pit Inn live house which was not far. I had checked to see what was on beforehand and was intrigued by the combination of instruments on the bill. 

Michiyo Yagi Double Trio
Michiyo Yagi(20 strings&17 strings Koto,Vocals)

Todd Nicholson(Contrabass)

Takashi Sugawa(Contrabass,Cello,Electric Bass)

Tamaya Honda(Drums)

Yasunori Tanaka(Drums)

Michiyo Yagi, an innovative Koto player who has been overturning the conventional sense of Koto instrument, combined two leading rhythm sections in Japanese jazz scene into this unique group. Performing mainly Yagi’s original pieces that incorporated Japanese music, free jazz and progressive rock, the double trio played a range of pieces including the theme music from Seijun Suzuki’s monstrous film ’Branded to Kill’ (Koroshi no rakuin) and Nick Drake’s ’River Man’ with Yagi’s radical arrangements. As Richard pointed out, there were also epic moments that chanelled the Dirty Three. It was by far my most favorite gig in Japan. Here is some footage of Yagi's skills from the evening that I recorded.

Snowkyo

It was snowing last night in Tokyo town, a first for many of us.

Here is a view from my balcony with the Toden Arakawa tram going by

Oncenth Trio . Barrel House

C and I decided to head down to our nieghbouring bar and electronic mecca Ikebukuro. We where particularly in search of a live rock house called Barrel House which was hosting the Oncenth Trip and special Guess Hon (Guitarist) and Saga Yuki (Vocalist). We found it, walked in, sat at the bar and ordered a beer. The bar walls where lined with records and various posters of distant rock and blues idols such as John Lee Hooker and Jim Morrison. The audience of fifteen or so applauded the song that just came to an end, and by what we heard it was odd improv jazz ensemble. We where correct. Saga Yuki turned out to be seriously the most hyped up and whacky performer I have seen in a long time. She made all sorts of odd squeeling sounds that sort of worked and she sporadically used rattling toys as percussive accents. Each musician had strong talent and C and I where quite impressed with the Double Bass players solos. He went completely bananas at times. In the 'intermission' the band members seemed to be drawn to C and I, the only gaijins in the place, to say hello. We expressed our delight in thier entertaining performance so far. Yuki-San burst in greeted us with an explosive "hellllow!". What a lady. Soon, the band piped up again and played a few more tracks, more whacky than the first couple we heard. The encore performance is posted here. After the show, I purchased their CD and they all signed it. So cool. and we chatted a little more with the band members and received the details of their next gig. One of the highlights of the evening was when the bar owner (I assume) asked us in his best English "why Ikebukuro?". For those that know Tokyo, Ikebukuro is the black sheep of the satellite meccas of Tokyo (others being Shinjuku, Shibuya etc.). The countless backstreets of Ikebukuro are lined with pink salloons, whisky bars, darts bars, love hotels and alternative live houses. So seeing two gaijins in his bar must have seemed odd to him. We explained we lived within walking distance and he understood.

When our glasses where empty we stood up to say goodbye and the whole bar turned around to cheerfully wish us a safe journey home.Inspired by the owners odd question, we decided to do what did last time we where in Ikebukuro and that is scour the seediest streets looking for cool and interesting bars. It was a monday night of course and so we only found the seedy places so we headed home agreeing that Ikebukuro is underrated and that Barrel House is a great place.

Kyoto Bound . M&D day 7

It was time to travel South West to the cultural capital of Kyoto. We checked out of the Daiichi Hotel and headed onto the Yamanote line down to Tokyo station. The stunning 9:30 Hikari Shinkansen was quietly waiting for its passengers to board before it is shoots towards Kyoto at 300km/hr. We had time to grab a few snacks, take some snaps and get comfy. The 3 hour journey was pleasant and again Mum & Dad where genuinely impressed by a unique ‘Japanese’ experience. How can you not; world class land travel, delightedly courteous staff, views of snow covered mountains and of course delicious sandwiches. Despite the different social and economic contexts, Australia really does seem 10 years behind sometimes. We arrived at Kyoto station and our task was now to find the little Japanese house named Ojizoya we had rented for our stay. With a crumpled printed out map with directions, and with the help of the taxi rank man we arranged two cabs to successfully take us there. Maneuvering through a long and narrow residential street, the taxis were waved in by our Kyoto contact M who was waiting for us out the front of Ojizoya. The quaint house is best described as a long-standing townhouse with retrofitted discreet modern comforts. It is tucked down a narrow pathway off the street therefore it is not a pure Machiya style. Downstairs is the living areas comprising of kitchen, toilet, bathroom, meals/sitting, shower, and an entry foyer with a small desk. The meals and sitting room is sunken table with heating underneath. Upstairs is the main bedroom and small space for a futon for the third guest ie. me. Throughout the house the earthen wall finish, shoji screens, tatami, exposed timber framing and antique Japanese furniture exuded a somewhat genuine Japanese aesthetic. The steep staircase and small outdoor courtyard for clothes washing enforced the idea to mum and dad that this was something far from Australia. 

Our first destination after settling into the house was Shimogamo Shrine where the annual Kemari Hajime, a traditional ball game, was being staged. After getting our bearings, we hopped into the train and headed north, parallel to the Kamo-gawa (duck river). The walk to the shrine was engaging, and like Asakusa in Tokyo it was still heaving with people enjoying the New Year festivities. Food stalls lined the path to the main gate and upon entering a large and dense crowd had already gathered around the small playing field and finding a vantage point was impossible. Luckily where we stood happened to be where the players entered the arena. I could see a little of the game and it seemed to be hacky sackesque. After  few minutes bobbing up and down and holding the camera above my head shooting optimistically we then ventured through the rest of the temple complex, paused at the ceremonial bonfire and walked back to the station; by this point “flurries!” had begun to fall much to our amazement. Mum was giddy with excitement only to calm down once back in the underground train. Back in the center of town we decided to just wander around the bustling Kawaramachi dori shopping arcades during which we stopped for tea and refreshments at the Lipton teahouse. Later that evening we took a stroll down the majestic Pontocho restaurant and bar area and found a found a lovely tempura restaurant overlooking the Kamo-gawa.

From my last time I was in Kyoto (April, 2010)  I had quite the night involving two private karaoke parlors, many drunk Tokyo businessmen, liters of Asahi, a crazed magician and two Canadian female tourists…

In light of this, I was keen to hit the bar scene again and L and I had decided to meet up after dinner. I naively organized to meet up at Gion Shijo station, which happened to be a “business corner” for the ladies of the night. Oh boy…consequently I got many offers and witnessed just how casual the whole interaction is. I couldn’t help thinking that most of the men that quickly took the ladies arm in arm where regrettably married, depressed or lonely. Either way the “business” whatever it is seems to be openly accepted and not hidden from public view. L arrived and we briskly cleared the scene. Our first stop was a great blues bar which I went to last time in the Pontocho area. L had a G&T, I a beer and later a whisky. We left and headed to another close bar, which was honeycombe in colour and seemed to be built of heavy masonry. L had a beer and I another whisky. Our last stop of the evening was a tiny jazz bar at the top of a stairwell that was swelling with character; Records, gig posters, whisky bottles labeled with the local regular’s name, and all kinds of jazz and drinking paraphernalia lined the walls and ceiling.  After a couple of beers, we bid farewell and journeyed back on our newly adopted routes home.