Coming Sooon...

Even in the dead of winter, this one's gonna be a scorcha.

The Rude Pressures 20th Anniversary Special
Featuring all kinds of wonderful acts and Djs!

The Dreamlets will be opening , and dear friends in Kyoto Kojima-san of Black Ark Records and Inoken of Caribou no Utagoe will be selecting some tunes.

It's happening on Saturday, January 9th 2010, at Club Quattro in Nagoya.

People get ready. Put on your skanking shoes.

Support Local

Natural Cycle just opened up a new shop on the 2nd floor of Daimaru department store. Look at the manager. You are a fool not to want to buy a bicycle from him.

I wrote about Niplets awhile back and they are playing at OOH-LA-LA in Saiin tomorrow night.

And last but not least, You got all dressed up in a Halloween costume and nowhere to go? Come see a Halloween-themed music extraveganza hosted by our friends Viva Sherry at Nega-Posi

Support our local friends and family!

Kyoto Loco 2009

Bicycle enthusiasts of the world unite! A special gathering is happening this weekend Sept. 12 – 13. This is one for bike messengers and people who want to know more about this culture. There will be a race around town with checkpoints, a minibicycle competition, virtual bicycling, and if that isn’t enough for you, people stripping on bicycles. Come on down. Kyoto Loco is held at Seibu Koudou from 10am to late.


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Fireworks in Summer Skies

Just before I left for SFC I saw summa summa this action around Lake Biwa in Shiga. We got on a crowded train and became one in the hordes of people, laid down a plastic mat on the grass and waited. Drank canned beer munched on snacks and waited. The sky grew pink and everything grew dimmer, and we laid down and waited and waited some more then KABOOOM!

Night Yogs with Yoko T.

Yo yo yo. Yo yo yoga. Summertime! You're sweaty anyways, stop tryin to look cool and dry and just let it all go!

One of the teachers at the studio also leads a class at her friend's clothing/gear shop called Chickennot. You really won't be able to miss it. It's got flourescent clothes with lots of dots on them hanging from the windows. The shop is owned by a bicycle lover who has friends who love bikes- you know those fast cool-lookin' hip ones- one of whom is Yoko sensei, and thus Chickenyoga aka Yoruyoga (night yoga) aka Yokoyoga was concieved.

In the evening, on the 3rd floor of the shop in a tiny tiny room, 8 students and 1 teacher cram together for a 90 minute sweat-a-thon. It's so squishy you might have a neighbor's feet by your face, or limbs might not be able to get their maximum extention on because of a wall, staircase, window or body. But anyhow, this class is lighthearted and fun! Another rad thing is that there are a lot of guys in the class trying out this female-dominted ...sport? ...excercise? discipline? whatever.

Chickennot is located on Tominokoji just North of Sanjo. Go to the store for more info. about reserving a very limited spot.

Here, Yoko adjusting

Beer with Geisha

Kamishichiken is a geisha district near Kitano Tenmangu shrine. We were invited to go to the beer garden there one night. Not just any kind of beer garden, but one where geiko and maiko come and sit with you at your table. Okaaay.

I imagined it to be lively and loud with conversation, but this one was quaint and low-key, like someone’s backyard patio. The geiko and maiko were not in their formal kimonos and wore simple white or pink yukata. No white face make up.
A geisha named Satoyuki sat herself down and tried to make conversation with us gaijin. Where are you all from? What do you do? Then another would come and another. They all asked the same questions and were not so excellent at continuing dialogue. Or maybe we were bad at asking questions… Anyway, it was awkward.

If you want to hang with some geisha and ask them those burning questions you’ve always had about their lifestyle, reserve yourself a table. 1800 yen for entrance, the first beer, and 2 appetizers.

Happy summer!

Jazzy Bread: Randy Weston & Alex Blake @ Kamigamo Shrine

Went to see a jazz show at Kamigamo Shrine last night! Randy Weston piano and Alex Blake bass. Dressed up and on the bus, walked umbrella in hand in the drizzle through immense torii gates on sandy soil beneath until reaching the illuminated tarp covered with signs for the show. The tent formed a kind of walk-way in and extended out to accomodate low benches. T-shirt and CD tables lined one side, and excited staff-members sold coffee, tea, and "jazzy bread" in back for the hungry. Water slid off the edges of plastic covering into tin buckets. The rain grew heavier, the light grew dimmer, the stars turned on one by one. I stood in line early and when they finally let us in, scurried shoeless over the ramp into the raised wooden structure to try and nab the best seats. The rectangular room was bare and simple save the Japanese pine tree painted on one wall. Square zabuton cushions made neat grids around three sides of the performance area. There was a sense of being incapsulated when the heavy wooden doors were slotted into position and slid closed from outside.

In came a towering Mr. Weston, like to the ceiling! He sat down, no introductions, no greetings to the audience or formalities of the like, introduced the first song, and began. His big hands on the keys commanded the thing, but they undoubtedly had the control of a professional, hitting high notes on the farthest right just so; stars in outerspace. He's in his 80's and wore an African hat. The bass player Mr. Alex Blake played like he was possessed and people were loving it by the likes of the applause and hoots after each crazed solo. While playing, both musicians made scatting and grunting sounds and periodically shot eachother looks like, wooo!... I'm feelin you! Mr. Weston explained, "The ancient Egyptians believed that music was the first and universal language." Then started that tune, and each one of us found ourselves clapping in unison to a rhythm, and I do believe the temperature rose a few degrees. Rain was pounding the roof but energy was flying everywhere in this intimate space: many eyes, hands, ears, pulses, one black piano and an upright bass.

Here is Randy Weston, and a taste of Alex Blake

Shing02 Waikyoku Tour

The Shing02 show at Metro was wall to wall. I’d never seen it so densely packed. Having very little choice in where to be situated, we squatted like adolescent hoodlums next to the lockers until the show started. When Shing02 finally took the stage, my stealthy and agile companion maneuvered us through the sea of people, up to a place where we could get a halfway decent view.

Shing02’s stage presence was intense, addressing the audience head on, leaning into us holding onto the pipe overhead. His delivery was at once solid like a well-built house and supple-ready to fly in all directions. He had a DJ, as well as live musicians- violinist, keyboardist, and drummer-all proficient and skilled at their craft. It was so sweaty! Thank god we got that bottle of water before heading into the crowd! We yelled and raised our hands in the air. Despite being compressed on all sides, we moved with the beat, and didn’t resist to the swaying of the wave of bodies.

This was no ordinary hip-hop show. It was the real deal-musicianship with integrity, sincerity, and class.

Antiques

If you like stuff, or antiques in particular, you might want to check out the Grand Antique Fair. It happens 4 times a year, and the next one is coming up at the end of October.
It's like an antique swap-meet in a huge indoor hall with vendor stalls crammed down long aisles. Stuff! Everywhere! Mostly Japanese pottery, kimonos, jewelry, trinkets and ornaments. Some things are affordable and somethings are ridiculously expensive!!
There's a little cafeteria area where you can rest your tired feets and have a beverage and some curry rice or udon noodles. They even have beer. woo hoo! We heard over the loudspeaker "There isn't much to say about my wife, but she sure makes oishii (delicious) curry rice. Please please try some!"

Free admission.
Take the Karasuma subway to Takeda station, go out the West exit, hop in a free shuttle right to Pulse Plaza.
10 am - 5pm, usually 3 days running.

P.S. Ask before you take a picture, because I got scolded and it made me feel like crap.

Thank You Teruteru

The forecast for Sunday read 50 % rain.

Waait! But our Ohanami (Cherry-blossom viewing) picnic is on Sunday!

The only thing to do is make some teruterubozu. Literally, shiny-shiny Buddhist monk, teruterubozu are ghost-looking dolls made of tissue paper. You hang them near a window to ward off a rainy day.

On Saturday night, roll roll roll, wrap wrap wrap, add faces for pizzaz. We dangled them from the indoor plants at our local watering hole and dusted off our hands.

* * * * *

And my what a glorious sun-drenched Sun day it was! On blankets looking skyward on our backs, we whispered a thanks to the teruterubozu.

R.I.P STT

Here lies Small Town Talk, beloved bar and hang-out spot.

My favorite bar in Kyoto run by a good friend has closed down.
It was not just a place where we got our drank on, but where we slipped in alone after work, brought our friends, sang, danced, dj'd, and made friends. Here we celebrated Christmas, new years, birthdays, bon voyages, weddings, anniversaries, trials and tribulations. Here you were served carefully prepared drinks with funny snacks, and introduced to music you were sleeping on (so that's where that hip-hop sample came from!) Here was our other home, our oasis.

We went out with a bang that last week. We blasted STT anthems (Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, Marvin, Stevie, Aretha, Michael, Zapp & Roger) into the dawn. We were mourning and celebrating at once.

At last, all good things, yada yada yada...

M.I.A

M.I.A on tour! In Japan!

Got on the train to Osaka in the afternoon and we had a few hours to kill so we went to the Apple store to play with the new iPods. The inside is like being inside one of their computers or that scene in the OG Charlie and the Chocolate factory movie where the oompa-loompas are in the TV. Anyway, the new touch iPods are caRAYzay and everyone was going nuts over them.

Club Quattro, which is on the 8th floor of LOFT. Weirdicles, I thought- A venue on the 8th floor of a shopping building. As expected, the show was raad! The energy was buzzing from the moment M.I.A came out with her big hoodie over her head holding the mic up to her mouth. It reminded me of LL Cool J in the Mama Said Knock You Out video. She would climb up on the speakers and climb on the back counter tables and tower over us. You could feel the floor undulating up and down from the every one jumping around. I had so much fun dancing and shouting and getting sweaty. Afterward we looked at the Loft stuff and tried on sunglasses.

Sayonara

Apparently, Natural Cycle (the raddest bike store in Kyoto) and Café Sarasa got booted out of their building by scary yakuza so they had a bye-bye party and it totally went off. It was a rambunctious mix of all types of people packed upstairs and downstairs spilling out to the street into the warm night. Where do they ever give you free food and 3 drink tickets with admission? Right on for letting loose! Yay for not being on your best behavior! We need more happenings like this in Japan.

Touki Matsuri

Aw yeah. I love going to the ceramic fair every summer to buy pottery for a little cheaper than normal. It’s takes place over 4 days on Gojo-dori, in the inteanse summer heat. Stalls of vendors line the strip like the farmer’s market, and you can meet and talk with the artisans or talk them down.

Last year my mom and I bought some of Nakamikado-san’s simple white pieces. The more we use them the more we love them. He was there again in the same spot. My mom went a little bananas and bought a lot of new stuff. It’s feels good to support great work.

Across the street, we saw Ogawa-san again wearing the same Ride for Rhonda shirt. He makes cups and plates with intricate patterns and motifs that look like kimono fabric. The teapots are the most beautiful with the snowflakes on them. He remembered me from last year and he asked for my address because writes someone a letter almost everyday because he “always needs to be holding a brush”. Hi. You are rad.

Add, Subtract, Change Shape

Pound
Push
Pinch
Pat
Smooth
Roll

Split
Dig
Smooth
Wrap
Scratch

Add
Wet
Smooth
Pierce
Scrape

Voila!




Japonica is a record store/cafe´/gallery and hosts fun events and classes like this one-day pottery class where I made a clay bell. I dunno if bell is the right word, it’s more of a decorative instrument- you can shake it and it makes a sound. It looks kinda phallic, I know, but I was going for an eggplant.

Feel the Burn!

What is up with Billy’s Bootcamp right now? People are obsessed with it, probably because they know other people are obsessed with it, along with the fact that Billy is currently visiting Tokyo. I guess his info-mercial is on like, every night. I don’t have a TV, and it took me forever to realize Billy = Tae Bo which was a big back when I was in high school.

We threw a little party at Weller’s with Okuda Satoko-san of Viva Sherry. Anyone in a tank top got in for freeee! (even though it was free to begin with). Ricky was the only one who actually came out in one. And tie-dye to boot. Hotness!

Anyways, we had Billy’s Bootcamp up on the projector on mute and no one could keep themselves still- you were mesmerized and you had to do it. Billy + booze + music = victory.