The Regular

Another one of those Saturdays .. you know how they are by now, but this one was particularly memorable so I'd like to record it. For the record.

Got home in the morning at 5ish after the first mixing day for the new Jungle Mic tracks, two out of three of which are now as good as finished, with the last one scheduled for next Thursday. Listened to the tracks at home for about an hour, then crashed around 7ish. Woke up at 12 to go teach dance at Ego. Which was fun! The team of beginners is really good with remembering moves, and they're all very excited. So intense dancing until 5, and then straight to Sanjo: another street jam with Jungle Mic. Jodie (percussion) and Saitou (tenor sax), our two recent support members (and on the new recordings as well) were there too, which always fills the band out nicely and makes the sessions that much more fun. But today was an exceptional day in many ways.

First, I've started calling it summer since a week or two ago, and today was a great, cloudy, warm day. LOTS of people out, and I mean LOTS. They even made the bicycle parking legal now at Sanjo! Wtf!? Though I think there is zero correlation, there was a HUGE load of bikes as well. More than that: as opposed to most of the time, many people weren't just there for meeting up with their groups before heading out, but tons of people were really there for the chillin'. Sitting & listening, dancing, singing along to our songs and jams, the vibe was great. But that wasn't all! Today we had an extraordinary amount of people join us in sessions as well. I just wanna list this because it was so sweet and I can't imagine this happening in, say, Amsterdam.

The random people that we jammed with today:

- A tapdancer from New York in the funkiest outfit ever, with afro and everything
- The chick who played sax on 'Party People' on a previous Jungle Mic recording (so we had 2 saxes today, pretty cool)
- some chick playing some gloomy blues/jazz on the keys
- a dude with a Kaossilator..fuck, that is one SWEET toy. Oh and he also played bass with us.
- a group of 5 MCs who were quite good and totally pumped up the atmosphere; all the chillin people loved it
- a chick with a beautiful rough, deep voice; did some standards with her.
- MOMO!!! Jungle Mic's substitute bassist from when Kim was injured, and who was the bassist at the time I joined Jungle Mic. He has a killer groove, and his technique is sweeeet ... we had a long session with him and I was completely lost in it ... I forgot about everything else in the world and was just rolling along on the groove with my clav.

Seriously, I haven't rolled this hard in a looooong time. I was running around between my keyboard & mic, the drum kit, Jodie's sample pad & percussion table, dancing with Ikeyan & a buddy of his who was over from Chiba for the weekend, and making all the people sitting/standing around join in (the 3-year old boy gave the djembe one hell of a beating! Lol that was hilarious). Just BEING! No thoughts, just oneness with the world...and FONK.

Also got to chat with the youngest Jungle Mic fan around, a 3ish-year old extremely cute girl who apparently follows our activities (together with her mom) like crazy! Checking the website, going to gigs (they were apparently there on my first gig with JM, back in the days when Tetchan was also still in the band and we did dance battles in the middle of each gig...wow, those were the days), etc.! Sooooo cute ... I totally hope to meet her again.

At 23:30 then, the generator ran out of gas just when I'd finished singing/rapping the first verse of my Saturday Morning Blues, and we called it a day, though we stuck around for a couple of hours more.

Tomorrow we have a gig in Shiga, so I'm off to sleep!

I love it here.

Different Rhythms

It's almost spring .. out with the old, in with the new! But lately I've only been in-with-the-newing. Had some physical annoyances which prevented me from blogging and kept me at bay for a while, but they're gradually being solved by my daily massage+electricity treatment. I was recommended this place by a girl I met in the club a couple of weeks ago, and what with insurance covering the majority of the costs, it's basically a 1-hour treatment, every day, for 100 yen per time. Holy shit, right!? Yeah, my body, mind and wallet are in a very harmonious relationship at the moment.

The talk of the month is organizing registration stuff for school and MUSIC! Jungle Mic (new songs in the making - they're FUN!), MSB (second gig last weekend, new songs in the making as well, trying to plan recordings for our first demo now), and more: I jammed with a band called Eric Mandala and the Tribe and fit in quite well, so they invited me to gig with them as well. Unfortunately but hilariously, the guitarist/band-leader recently broke his arm in an arm-wrestling contest (epic) so he's AFK for a month or so. However, I've been getting along well with the drummer of that band, a Canadian dude who's maybe twice my age and has been in Kyoto for a number of years now. He does drum programming/sampling as well, and he has a vision which we're trying to put into practice. If it works out, it's going to be something like 2 guys with their respective keyboards and laptops, plus an acoustic drum set and percussion set. Me all red, him all black, walking in between the different gear and creating dance music based on loops created in the moment, live sampling and live drumming!! It's very exciting, but the setup is quite difficult (we might need to bring in our own sound guy at every gig since mixing the computer stuff with acoustic drums is gonna need a finely tuned ear). Anyway, in the most optimistic scenario our first gig is exactly two weeks from today!

Dance, too. Got around to watching some vids Koki gave me a while back, and grabbed a large dose of inspiration from Brian 'Footwork' Green. Furthermore, dancer buddies have been coming back from vacation (Europe mostly), and everyone hanging out as much as possible before all the graduating people move out late March / early April. Events abounding, and I managed to squeeze in a little show on the 21st (at another Jungle Jamboree) with a 3-man-team consisting of Ikeyan, Yamaa and me - house only this time, been a while. I gotta get my part of the choreo done by next Wednesday... And I've started on my quest to learn what there is to learn in my circle: funking, locking, breaking (practically speaking, I just relearned the six-step, but hey you gotta start somewhere!). I'm planning to ride along on the dance bandwagon for a long while!

Music I've been digging lately - check 'em out if you've got the time:

Me'Shell NdegéOcello
Phat Phunktion
Ali Farka Touré

I'm also downloading the already-old-new Tenacious D DVD and quite excited about it.

On the love side of life, I finally managed to match schedules with a certain girl from the dance circle. Next Tuesday .. let's see how that goes. Then there was a cute Osakan girl from another band at last week's Metal Passion, where I performed with MSB, and I think I'll meet her again later this month. Small things but they keep me happy and motivated.

With mom back in Mozzy and new and old friends taking up the old place in Amsterdam, plus me getting all the documents finalized for starting the real studying in April (and getting somewhat of a perspective on what the Master's entails - not as bad as you might think), I'm feeling like a new phase of the universe is beginning. All the best wishes to everyone, everywhere - you'd be surprised at how much time I spend every day thinking about all the people I've ever met, though of course that doesn't justify my lack of communication. I've been meaning to buy postcards for three weeks now, can you believe it? Living the happy life of an egoist in the Far East, I still can't believe it.

Finally, check out Jungle Mic's video blog. We've only got 3 episodes so far, but are planning to post one weekly. Comments welcome! If you'd like any particular translations I'll give them to you (like, for example, the details of how Kim grew up on White Base).

Jungle Mic / The End of the Rainbow

I'm very happy right now! I'm listening to Jungle Mic's EP, recorded last May, which the guitarist gave to me after a pretty sweet jam session tonight. I ran into these guys when they were gigging by the river a couple of weeks ago, and dug their sound, so I went up to them for a chat, and they were very excited from the outset to jam with me. So today, it finally happened.

Briefly reflecting, it seems like I've had another of my super-awesome luckies. Check this out...

• they're funky!
• they mix funk, hiphop, jazz and pop
• keys would enter very nicely into their current sound (in fact, on the EP some songs have keys, though they have no keyboard player right now)
• they're semi-pro: regular gigs (which seem to be paid, but I'm not sure about that) and practices, everyone has their gear sorted out
• they're very friendly guys, and seem to be moderately crazy, in the good way
  
• they practice at a studio that has very, very nice rooms with great amps, double keyboards set up(! for now I'll just need to bring my laptop, which is great) and a lounge where it smells an awful lot like something that's not allowed and with a boxful of NES games for anyone to play (Street Fighter 2 YEAH!)
• one of the two vocalists has a car and is willing to pick me up and drop me off close to home (at least while I live in Oubaku)!
• they're definitely good enough for me to be able to learn a lot from them
• and not least of all...
• they seem to be excited to have me join them as a permanent member!!

I live at the end of the rainbow.

Fireworks, Funky Friends and that Fine Family Feeling: It's A Free-Fall Free-For-All Fantastic Fork !

Warning: Long.

Last evening, when I was walking to the local udon shop with Evans in the still-barely-bearable Kyoto heat, I told him how my entire stay in Japan up until now seems like one big vacation. Though my recent experience with the entrance exam reminded me that it's about time I started getting more serious focused, particularly with my physics efforts, it's hard to imagine a complete loss of this feeling of freedom and the wonder at being here. Still, I do think I'll sober up once I lose touch with most of my international friends and start hanging out in the lab for 8 hours a day. In any case, this is the middle of summer vacation, and whatever the future holds, right now it's that good old SUMMER FEELING!

I'll discuss the major activities of the past two weeks in chronological order.

On last week's Friday, there was the annual fireworks display at Lake Biwa. Though I had originally planned to go with the Ego people, I ended up going by myself and meeting up with Jesus, June and Jaa, as well as some of their friends and their friends. It was beautiful evening; Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake of Japan, and it was my first time to go there. The fireworks are launched from the water close to the shore of the southwestern part of the lake, which is closest to Kyoto; it's not far at all from the city. That part of the lake is surrounded by a 20-meter-wide strip of low vegetation and pedestrian boulevard, so the visibility is very good from a very large area on land. This makes it relatively easy to accomodate the 350,000 people that flock in, and provides for a very relaxed atmosphere with the insanity of Tenjin Matsuri and Gion Matsuri (see my respective posts here and here) being replaced by a quiet, giant picnic next to the water.

The fireworks were amazing, and the spirit of community that was all around us was very pleasant. On walking back to the station with my friends around 10, I stumbled upon Ikeyan and Nonchan, dancing in the street to the music of some girls and guys playing a bunch of rare instruments such as a jew's harp, metal thumb piano, all kinds of percussion, and a wonderful instrument I'd never seen before, called a hang (see this video for a somewhat monotonous example of play). It took me about .5 seconds to lose interest in my station-headed friends, and what ensued was a wonderful music and dance session in the streets of Ootsu. I got the contact info of the main music guy, and he was very excited to help me out with some sonic sweetness for my home-based music projects. By the way, the funky band I met at the riverside last week invited me to jam with them next Thursday, so I'm also looking forward to that. As far as music is concerned, things are going the right way.








The next day, I went to Kobe with Ikeyan, Nonchan and Misa. There's an annual event in one of the many clubs on one of the beaches around Kobe, and a bunch of Ikeyan's DJ/dancer friends from Osaka were to come as well. It turned out to be a really fun day, consisting mainly of bouncing back and forth between the dancefloor to the sea. Saw some really entertaining dance/music shows by all kinds of people - I've come to realize the Kyoto scene is really quite limited -, danced a lot, and felt intense satisfaction at being in the sea again (the previous time was before I came to Japan, on the Moz/SA trip). After getting back to Kyoto, Ikeyan joined Misa and me for nightly food and drinks in one of the cozy places close to both of their places, and the day was finished off in a relaxed, happy fashion. Also got an update regarding the status of weed among the youth in Japan - though it's not unpopular, it's quite a hassle, and in any case waaaay expensive (40 euro/g or so). We're all excited to go to Thailand's Full Moon Party and alter our minds there next year.







Sunday, then. Spent the day at Misa's place (watched Trainspotting for the first time - very cool) to take an evening train to Uji, where there was to be the annual Uji fireworks session. I underestimated the traffic and ended up in the fullest train I've been in in Japan so far (which is not the fullest ever yet for me, though I think the record might be mercilessly claimed by Tokyo next month), and once I exited the Uji station, the show was just about to begin. I managed to squeeze myself to a pleasant standing spot on a bridge 100 metres from the entrance to the station, and watched the show (which was less amazing than the one at Lake Biwa) by myself. When it was over, I met up with Tareq and Evans, who were around there as well, and spent the rest of the evening chilling with them.

Monday, I went to Nara with Tareq, Jesus and June, and we met up with Hibino, our assistant tutor of the past semester, who is from Nara, and he toured us around. I'll let the pics speak for themselves, just noting that this particular day was the lucky once-a-year that a large part of Nara is lit up by candles at night.
















On Tuesday, Koki arrived with a friend of his from Tokyo (who turned out to be a really funny guy - maybe the first person I have been able to practice my absurd humor with since I parted ways with Borgir). They were passing through on the way to their hometown Fukuoka, and had about 24 hours for Kyoto and Osaka. Meeting up (finally!!!) at Kyoto Station, the first thing they wanted to do was go to a public bath, because they'd been clubbing-not-sleeping for a couple of days. I hadn't been to one before, but there turned out to be one smack in the middle of central Kyoto, in a small alley somewhere inside a shopping district. It was a very pleasant first experience; hot and cold baths, a hottt sauna and a bath whose walls sent pulses of electricity through it every second, which I didn't find pleasant enough to enter with more than one leg. From this experience and the next, I gather that Japanese people spend about 20-30 minutes in such a bath, and come out very clean and very refreshed. It's great. I also witnessed a yakuza subordinate thoroughly scrubbing, washing and drying his aged boss's naked body, which was interesting.

Once we got out of the bath, Koki wanted to go to a temple or shrine, so we went to Fushimi Inari, where I'd been once before (the one with the thousand red gates - see this post of mine), walked around for a couple of hours, and took a train to my place, where they crashed out while I grabbed a ton of music and dance videos from Koki's hard drive. When they woke up, we headed to Osaka and met up with Kentaro, a locally well-known dancer who Koki knew, and who ended up being the dude I met at Eszteca's studio some 6 months ago - a nice coincidence. From the practice spot in front of Namba station through the showcase-packed club night, I got my first impression of the Osaka dance scene, and it's basically bigger and more exciting than in Kyoto, though Kyoto's relaxed vibe is certainly very pleasant as well. Unfortunately, DJ time was somewhat crap and the club very full, so there wasn't too much dancing on our side - in any case, not enough for to permit me to ask Kentaro for his number so we could practice together in Osaka sometime in the future, which he'd suggested in the beginning of the evening. I'll get there eventually. Anyway, after Koki and his friend took a shower in a manga/internet cafe close to the station, we went our separate ways around 6 am, and I headed straight for Sanjo, Kyoto, where I would meet Ryu (my tutor of the first semester), his friend/assistant tutor, Tareq and Evans, to depart for our two-day long "camp" trip.




This trip was something Ryu had invited us to a month or two ago, but until the day we left we didn't really have much of an idea of what it would be like. It turned out to most resemble the family gatherings I sometimes have with my extended family in Germany: people of 3 or 4 generations gathering in a comfortable house or two in the middle of nature, playing games all day and drinking and chatting the night away. In this case, the group we joined consisted of some three families, each spanning three generations, who have anually meet in this particular place (some 2-3 hours drive from Kyoto). In line with the strong contrast between insiders and outsiders, we were immediately accepted as insiders (since Ryu and Hibino, who have been doing this camp thing for a couple of years now), which meant that we really became a part of the family.

Spending two days and two nights with those people was incredibly fun. Among the three families' three generations were a ton of interesting, funny, crazy and friendly people. The program consisted of a lot of chatting (a lot of interesting stories about Jordan, Kenya and Japan), a lot of sports (outdoor baseball and soccer, indoor basketball, volleyball, badminton, tabletennis), games (cards, bingo with prizes for everyone), outdoor grilling, bathing together, lots of food and lots of drink. From what is probably the richest Japanese person I have gotten to know so far - a lady working in Tokyo who works at the top level of Toyota's hybrid program - to the grandpa who's funny as hell, knows how to hold his liquor and is extremely sporty, to the bikers and the cute small kids, a pretty lady who just returned from living in the Dominican Republic for two years, a Big Friendly Giant who's ghost-story-telling skills entertained the kids to no end (understanding them was a little tough for me, but it was a fun challenge, and I promised that next year I'll be able to tell my own stories) and the "Mother" of the whole big group (who embraced us as her children from the first minute), the group was fantastic. It was one of the most meaningful experiences I've had since getting here, and gave me a strong boost with regard to my attitude towards the whole integration problem: it is now clear to me that though it will probably be impossible to get accepted into society on the most superficial level because the differences in looks and culture are too obvious, it is very well possible to integrate into any of the endless subsocieties of this country, be it a dance circle, a university or a "family" in the sense of this camp.

I'm very relieved.