Trick or treat
Just a fun photo you should see. It's Halloween week in Japan. Yesterday we saw the same two Halloween-themed TV commercials a couple of dozen times.
Halloween's popularity seems to be surging this year. I hope so. Out of all the fun holidays I imagine Japan would do better than any other country, Halloween is the main one. Much more so than Arbor Day or Take Your Kids to Work Day. Japanese horror has a dream-like quality I find superior to that of my home country, and this is the place where some genius or group of geniuses invented cosplay. Add in some of the frenetic qualities of Japan's homegrown local festivals and you're going to end up with something truly insane. Halloween as it was meant to be. A graveyard revel. Death made kawaii.
Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Here come the cherry blossoms: Cherry blossom forecast announced
Cherry blossom forecast announced
Looks like late March for cherry blossom season around our area. This means two weekends of fully-packed parks. Lots of blue plastic tarps spread out, drunk people rubbing their heads on trees, worn-out office workers using the relative inactivity of a picnic to take a nap (you would be surprised to hear how many people claim "sleeping" as their hobby in Japan, which must be one of the most chronically sleep-deprived nations in the world) and general fun times. If we have sun to go with the sakura.
Sometimes the weekends are sunny but a little too windy and cold for me, but I still like to visit the castle park here and get a buzz from all the good feelings. I find cherry blossom season a fine time to pick up on positive vibes and do what the hippies used to call "groove." Or something like that. Who the hell knows what hippies really called anything all these years later? The point is, as Japan's winter turns into spring (and spring is especially nice here), I shed a lot of seasonal drabness and feel recharged and refreshed. Getting a chance to see so many people having fun for a change really help intensify those feelings.
Of course, because it's Japan, there has to be a schedule for it and when the proper time comes around, just about everybody will do the same thing at that moment. Changing leaves are beautiful to see, but people read about the peak times in the newspaper then all hit the road to go to the most famous viewing spots which leads to traffic jams all up and down the highways. "What did you do last weekend?" you might ask a friend.
"Went to see the fall leaves."
"How was it?"
"Too much traffic. We stayed in our car for three hours."
"One way, or there and back?"
"One way."
This is why when the cherry blossoms peak, it's best to travel to a local park on foot or by bicycle rather than planning a shinkansen trip to some traditional location. If you're really adventuresome and don't mind a lot of travel hassles, there are famous spots in Kyoto and Tokyo that will be thronged on the best days. The picnics themselves can possibly make up for any trouble you meet getting to them. As for me, I prefer spending my sakura season locally and just watching the news for a glimpse of the more legendary locales. Maybe one day we'll risk it.
Hmm. I wonder what our hanami fare will be? McDonald's? Mos Burger? Hotto Motto? I've been to hanami with homemade treats and they were spectacular, but I'm not much of a cook with the equipment we have handy at home and I don't want my wife to have to knock herself out. I want her to feel as relaxed and at peace as I do under the cherry blossoms. So it's easier to grab a bucket of KFC or fill a bag with convenience store food and pre-packaged treats. We have our own blue plastic tarp and a couple of nearby parks we can reach on foot or by bus.
I'm very much looking forward to this.
Looks like late March for cherry blossom season around our area. This means two weekends of fully-packed parks. Lots of blue plastic tarps spread out, drunk people rubbing their heads on trees, worn-out office workers using the relative inactivity of a picnic to take a nap (you would be surprised to hear how many people claim "sleeping" as their hobby in Japan, which must be one of the most chronically sleep-deprived nations in the world) and general fun times. If we have sun to go with the sakura.
Sometimes the weekends are sunny but a little too windy and cold for me, but I still like to visit the castle park here and get a buzz from all the good feelings. I find cherry blossom season a fine time to pick up on positive vibes and do what the hippies used to call "groove." Or something like that. Who the hell knows what hippies really called anything all these years later? The point is, as Japan's winter turns into spring (and spring is especially nice here), I shed a lot of seasonal drabness and feel recharged and refreshed. Getting a chance to see so many people having fun for a change really help intensify those feelings.
Of course, because it's Japan, there has to be a schedule for it and when the proper time comes around, just about everybody will do the same thing at that moment. Changing leaves are beautiful to see, but people read about the peak times in the newspaper then all hit the road to go to the most famous viewing spots which leads to traffic jams all up and down the highways. "What did you do last weekend?" you might ask a friend.
"Went to see the fall leaves."
"How was it?"
"Too much traffic. We stayed in our car for three hours."
"One way, or there and back?"
"One way."
This is why when the cherry blossoms peak, it's best to travel to a local park on foot or by bicycle rather than planning a shinkansen trip to some traditional location. If you're really adventuresome and don't mind a lot of travel hassles, there are famous spots in Kyoto and Tokyo that will be thronged on the best days. The picnics themselves can possibly make up for any trouble you meet getting to them. As for me, I prefer spending my sakura season locally and just watching the news for a glimpse of the more legendary locales. Maybe one day we'll risk it.
Hmm. I wonder what our hanami fare will be? McDonald's? Mos Burger? Hotto Motto? I've been to hanami with homemade treats and they were spectacular, but I'm not much of a cook with the equipment we have handy at home and I don't want my wife to have to knock herself out. I want her to feel as relaxed and at peace as I do under the cherry blossoms. So it's easier to grab a bucket of KFC or fill a bag with convenience store food and pre-packaged treats. We have our own blue plastic tarp and a couple of nearby parks we can reach on foot or by bus.
I'm very much looking forward to this.
Monday, October 28, 2013
October is Spookey Month: A frightful day out in Kawasaki | The Japan Times
A frightful day out in Kawasaki | The Japan Times
This event was so cool even an idiot like me has heard of some of its DJs. Too bad we missed it. Actually, considering the weather last weekend, I'd be surprised if this parade happened this year. I hope it did.
Your day-to-day life here in Japan can be pretty boring. The Internet phenomenon of "Meanwhile, in Japan..." with some outrageous photo that purports to show that Japan is some kind of hallucinatory maelstrom of the strange and unusual is only so much bullshit. Exaggeration, cherry-picking, confirmation bias and all that. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu isn't popping through everyone's windows at night with her back-up dancers, there are no nationwide lotteries for students in junior high classes to kill each other off and most kids are too exhausted from school, club activities and cram schools to do much giant robot piloting or sword-fighting against demons from another universe. Trust me, most of the time you're not missing a whole lot.
But when things do happen here, you find that in Japan the fun is unlike what you'll find anywhere else. The live shows I've been to here have been by and large better than the ones I went to back home (although we tore it up on the dance floor every New Year's Eve in Athens, Georgia, and I miss that a lot every December). And there are these Halloween parades that, if these photos are to be trusted, look like a pure delight. So if you have a chance to take part in one of these events, you really should. There's Halloween done in your home country's style, and then there's Japanese Halloween, which must be the coolest of the Halloweens.
The rest of the time it's work and dinner with family and watching TV and going to the supermarket.
This event was so cool even an idiot like me has heard of some of its DJs. Too bad we missed it. Actually, considering the weather last weekend, I'd be surprised if this parade happened this year. I hope it did.
Your day-to-day life here in Japan can be pretty boring. The Internet phenomenon of "Meanwhile, in Japan..." with some outrageous photo that purports to show that Japan is some kind of hallucinatory maelstrom of the strange and unusual is only so much bullshit. Exaggeration, cherry-picking, confirmation bias and all that. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu isn't popping through everyone's windows at night with her back-up dancers, there are no nationwide lotteries for students in junior high classes to kill each other off and most kids are too exhausted from school, club activities and cram schools to do much giant robot piloting or sword-fighting against demons from another universe. Trust me, most of the time you're not missing a whole lot.
But when things do happen here, you find that in Japan the fun is unlike what you'll find anywhere else. The live shows I've been to here have been by and large better than the ones I went to back home (although we tore it up on the dance floor every New Year's Eve in Athens, Georgia, and I miss that a lot every December). And there are these Halloween parades that, if these photos are to be trusted, look like a pure delight. So if you have a chance to take part in one of these events, you really should. There's Halloween done in your home country's style, and then there's Japanese Halloween, which must be the coolest of the Halloweens.
The rest of the time it's work and dinner with family and watching TV and going to the supermarket.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Melt-Banana at Club Heavy Sick, Hatagaya, April 29, 2012
These are pretty awful but they document the last Melt-Banana show I saw with Rika on bass. This was a very nice weekend, everything going extremely well, perhaps even perfectly. Here's Heavy Sick, just a two or three minute walk from my hotel:
Let's see if we've come to the right place. We have--
Sold out! Oh no! But what's this?
I bought my ticket the day before because I've never been to a Melt-Banana show that hasn't sold out. It was nerve-wracking cutting it even that close, but the end result was I got to hang out with some really cool people and experience some music I wouldn't have under other circumstances while buying my ticket to the Melt-Banana show. So it pays to keep yourself open for new kinds of fun.
But at least one other couple had the good fortune of getting involved in a language mix-up with the door person and having Yako herself come out of Heavy Sick and add them to the audience list. That made everyone feel good. Added a positive vibe to an already ultra-smooth evening.
Heavy Sick is very small.
Here are images from the show itself.
And there you have it. I have no idea what Rika is up to these days, but Melt-Banana is a duo. We saw them next on Christmas Day the same year. They played most of the same songs from this set. Sorry my photos are so lousy this time around. I'd blame the camera but it was all me.
Let's see if we've come to the right place. We have--
Sold out! Oh no! But what's this?
I bought my ticket the day before because I've never been to a Melt-Banana show that hasn't sold out. It was nerve-wracking cutting it even that close, but the end result was I got to hang out with some really cool people and experience some music I wouldn't have under other circumstances while buying my ticket to the Melt-Banana show. So it pays to keep yourself open for new kinds of fun.
But at least one other couple had the good fortune of getting involved in a language mix-up with the door person and having Yako herself come out of Heavy Sick and add them to the audience list. That made everyone feel good. Added a positive vibe to an already ultra-smooth evening.
Heavy Sick is very small.
Here are images from the show itself.
And there you have it. I have no idea what Rika is up to these days, but Melt-Banana is a duo. We saw them next on Christmas Day the same year. They played most of the same songs from this set. Sorry my photos are so lousy this time around. I'd blame the camera but it was all me.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
October Is Still Spookey Month: "Three People Are Coming" and a couple more Japanese horror shorts...
That's a pretty lousy elevator. I don't think I'd enjoy riding that one, either. I rode some creepy elevators during my time in Japan, but I was lucky in that I never had that poor girl's experience. Nice job with those English subtitles by "montecristo73returns," though. What else can we find? How about this one?
Lesson learned? Cram school sucks! Again, great job on the subtitles. But if you stay out of elevators and cram schools, you're completely safe, right?
Yikes! That looks a lot like my old apartment! Nice job, KuljeetChauhan. I have no idea where these short films come from. Shown on television? From a DVD? They're pretty cool and there seem to be dozens of them. Now... here's a movie I made. You may have seen it before!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Melt-Banana's new album...
That's right, MxBx has a new album coming out. They haven't made the street date official, but the aiming point is spring, 2012. They originally wanted to release it to coincide with their North American tour this fall, but "things [haven't gone] smoothly," according to their newsletter.
Well, that's something to look forward to for those of us who probably won't get to see them live as they swing through the US and Canada.
Well, that's something to look forward to for those of us who probably won't get to see them live as they swing through the US and Canada.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
My new t-shirt design...
Shop other personalized gifts from Zazzle.
You don't have to buy it, but I'm starting a clothing line celebrating the fun aspects of modern Japan. I figured if celebrities can do this by slapping some letters on a bunch of t-shirts and charge ridiculous prices for them, then there's no reason I can't do the same. Probably with much less successful results. Anyway, this is my inaugural offering.
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