amesho

I am starting this entry at 11:30 Tuesday morning in the teachers room of my junior high school. Tuesdays are usually better days at work because I only have two classes and they are both over by this time of the day, leaving me an afternoon to lesson plan, study Japanese, or catch up on my correspondence.

Yesterday was kind of rough because the weekend preceding it felt pretty nonexistent. But that isn't to say it wasn't good. On Saturday afternoon Hylton and I left Naruto for western Tokyo, to the Setagaya district. Within Setagaya is an area called Shimokitazawa, which is known for its proliferation of bars, thrift shops (which here are really priced more like vintage shops) and live music venues. The latter was the object of our evening, specifically a basement called Club 251. Hylton opened for three Japanese bands, two of which were Shin Lu Chu and American Short Hair. Hylton played four of his own songs, and then played a cover of Bjork's Joga with Hideki, the lead singer of American Short Hair. Hylton always steps it up and impresses me in these kinds of things, but especially so this evening as he chatted a bit in Japanese between songs, and generally cultivated a good feeling amongst the audience.

After his set I could stop feeling nervous for him (he never really gets nervous himself), and enjoyed the following three bands, though my new-boot-clad feet hurt a bit from all the standing. I can't really discern this type of thing, but Hylton has consistently said that all the Japanese bands we have seen here play their instruments better than most American bands... even ones that are very respected. The Japanese are known for their work ethic (evidenced by the fastest board-to-fall-asleep time on trains and subways that I have EVER seen in my entire life), so it makes sense. American Short Hair, the band which Hylton started befriending back in September, is especially good... it is pretty amazing how tight and compelling they are for a band that isn't even signed.

Hylton and Hideki met together numerous times over the past couple of months to get their duet together and polished for the show. Through this they have gotten to be friends, and Hideki has divulged his fear that his band won't get a record deal soon. If they don't get a record contract then all the band members will have to give up music and be office workers the rest of their lives. Apparently his feeling is that you can't be an aspiring musician in Japan after a certain age; it would be looked down on. Though I am not sure the U.S. is completely unlike this, there does seem to be a sense of urgency spurring the band on to perfection.

Like I mentioned before, both Hylton and I have been impressed by the music scene here, and surprised that so many of these bands are completely unknown. Even if they were to get really popular here, it seems like Japanese bands would have a far more difficult time crossing over to an international audience because of the language barrier. It isn't even really that people wouldn't listen to music sung in Japanese, because all popular music is in a foreign language to a lot of people. But the fact is that the majority of people wouldn't be able to read these band's websites, and the Internet is by far the best medium for communication about unknown artists.

Something I've been impressed with about Japan is how, even though it is a "westernized" nation influenced by other cultures, there remains a distinct japaneseness in most things. The popular bands here aren't the same bands that are popular at home, like was mostly the case in Europe (at least main-stream). I was utterly disappointed with the lack of current German music when I lived there. I went hoping to find out about cool new bands and see them live, but the acts I ended up seeing where the same ones I could have seen at home. Most popular German stuff was either bad American stuff or a rip off of bad American stuff, generally sung in English. There went my hopes of bettering my German by listening to music. That hasn't been the case here, though. Of course, there are likely good reasons for this... prominent of them being most Germans I encountered had a good to excellent mastery of English, and, well.... Japanese and English are very different languages.

Japan is obviously influenced by western stuff, but interprets this in very different ways from other places I've traveled to before. More than that, Japanese media is one of the few that actually has an obvious influence on some American culture, notably anime and manga.

It is really interesting that Hylton and I have gotten to see some "underground" Japanese music. People we talk to after these things (concerts and the like) are always really surprised we've only been here a few months. I'm lucky that Hylton is willing to dig through everything to find new bands and to figure out how to see them.


After the show about twenty of us hung around at the club until 4am. For the shelter, drinks (like "melon milk") and hot-pot food we cooked ourselves we all paid 2,000 yen each. I tried to talk a lot to Eriko, the girl I met the last time we did a Tokyo allnighter with most of these same people. My Japanese has gotten better since I talked to her last (which really isn't saying much), but it was still kind of rough to keep a conversation going. However, it seemed like she is interested in hanging out again, so I'll send her an email one of the times I am planning on heading into Tokyo during winter break. Eriko is nice and it seems like she has more of a sense of humor than a lot of people I've met here.

Eriko, Hideki and I

Once the club kicked us out we all meandered through the quiet, narrow streets to Saizeriya, an "Italian food" restaurant chain. After our japanified spaghetti we rambled as a group once more, this time to the Shimokitazawa subway station as it was just opening for the morning. Hideki, ever the leader, gave some kind of a speech, and then we all stood in a circle and did this hand clapping thing that seems to be a tradition.

On the subway ride to the train station from where we would make our first connection home I had the good fortune of sitting next to a stranger named Yuki. She asked me in English if I was a student, and from there we had a good, clean conversation until we both disembarked, only after trading our contact information and promising to meet up sometime soon. I didn't ask her how old she is, but she seems about my age, and just got back a few months ago from studying in Canada. She has also studied in China, and said she has a lot of foreign friends... which would be the explanation for why she spoke to a complete stranger on the subway. I'm really glad she did, though, she seemed really down to earth and I am always in the market for friends. Just as I am quick-editing this I realize that it has been way easier for me to try to chum up with girls here than with boys. I generally have a lot easier time making friends with boys, but that really hasn't been the case in Japan. Hm.

Upon boarding our train from Tokyo to Chiba, Hylton, Mike, Mark and I all proceeded to pass out immediately, only to awake in a bright lit train station to make one more change until home. From Chiba to Naruto Hylton and I sat next to one another on the slow moving local train, watching the bright Sunday morning soak through the golden post-harvest fields and warm the dense hillside forests, for this short time the deep green complimented with accents of autumnal red, yellow and orange.

A six minute walk home, and then bed.