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Sunday, 13 July 2008

  • Two Words

    SHÖNEN

    KNIFE

    Yes, I finally made it to a Shonen Knife concert.  It was Amazing!  For one thing, I have never heard anything that loud before.  I have been to concerts, some of them were, I thought, loud.  No.  Until the Shonen Knife concert I had not heard Loud.  Allow me to reiterate: it was Loud.  We were, the crowd, about a hundred or so - difficult to tell exactly - in a little underground "theater" in which the stage had a whole like, you know, a railing in front of it.  So I was about 10 feet from NAOKO YAMANO - aka: musical genius - for the whole thing.

    They played a lot of songs, since this was a special Shonen Knife 712 day tour 2008.  It was grand.  And at the end of the concert, everyone  - okok, everyone was CRAZY at that concert... guys were jumping up and down (I was too) when they came out and pretty much all the way through the show.  I know you don't really appreciate Shonen Knife because there are three kinds of people who may be reading this post: 1. Those who have never heard the beautifulness 2. Those who have about seven Shonen Knife CDs and who are saving up for more 3. Those who have heard and could barely get through one song.  I know that about 98% of the readers of this post are in group one, 1% is in group 3, and the last person is me.  I still will continue, because everyone else at that concert was in group 2.  CRAZY!  When we got to the part of "Riding on the Rocket" that goes ukabu ukabu (float, float) everybody ukabu ! etc.. people were like, picking up those who were around them and everyone was jumping around and... man!   - yeah, so anyway, at the end everyone was still so pumped up that we just started clapping all in time and like, going "Shonen Knife!" "Shonen Knife!" etc. etc. and after about a minute or so ~ we didn't stop ~ they came back out!  YEAH!  and then they played two more songs, we clapped, again, they came back out, again, and did a last one and that was the end.

    (That last one was really only one sentence that had a long bit in the middle of it.  Examine the - - )

    EXCEPT that wasn't the end the end because after that they all three came out and signed the cd that I brought with me for that purpose.

    I had the perfect Shonen Knife experience.

    The ticket was pretty cheap too.  Only 3,000 yen.  But when I got there I found out that buying one drink was required in addition to the ticket price.  So I did.  I payed 500 yen for the tiniest cup of coke ever.  And when I got it, I wasn't even sure if it was coke or some off brand.  Anyway, it still wasn't that bad for an awesome party.

    BUT, and here's the point, for any of you who may still be reading, BUT, as I was there I realized that - I realized in the midst of all the celebrations and hands raised and jumping and all - it's really great to be at a concert, &c. and that this is a really good thing that people do, especially gathering around music that's, you know, pretty happy and up-beat and makes you want to take care of endangered animals and enjoy choco-bars and stop global warming and eat broccoli and take a bath and sing about barnacles and and andeverandever etc...  But really what hit me is this: we should be worshipping God.  I was kind of like, thinking, I miss a David Crowder concert because there it's almost scary most of the time how much people love Jesus and the way everyone gets into it.  Moments like that are why we are able to get all psyched up about something in that sort of group way.  So like, we should have been praising God and someday we will be and I got all happy about that.  Eschatology, yeah!
    I got a little glimpse.  See "Vision" for more of what I'm talking about.

    Anyway, I had a really good time, and God met me there.

  • American ... hygiene aka funniest question

    One person asked me, okok, I was staying over at a friend's house, and, well really I got to be friends with the whole family, but anyway this guy, he had a sister and she asked me (as she was holding one out to me around bed time) - she asked me if Americans brush their teeth.  Apparently the world doesn't know for sure if we do this.  Americans - *Stephen if you're reading this, you better get it* BRUSSSSH YOURRR TEEEEETH!!!!!

    At least in a more public way so everyone knows and doesn't confuse us with the English.  (She quickly added: "Because, you know, English people don't really so I wasn't sure...")

    Question: Who invented the toothbrush?

    Answer: The English!  Otherwise it would have been called a teethbrush!

  • Missing

    I have recently been missing home a bit.  I really do like it here - during my visit here in Japan I have met a wonderful group of people, everywhere that I've been, and it seems like, most everywhere that we've played, people enjoy the old time hymns...  I mean, ah, anyway - it's very nice and all, but I do miss home.  I want very much to see you all, and I can't wait to be back.

    I also realized that I'll be home soon, and summer will be OVER and all that.  Then I got to missing Japan.  Which is wierd becuase... well, I'm still here.  I miss my friends in Sapporo already...

    The score so far:  (in terms of living conditions) (in order of preference)

    Sapporo is: Super!

    Matsumoto is: Magical

    Nagano is: Nifty

    Kobe is: Cool (literally)

    Nagoya is: Nice

    Aomori is: A possibility

    Nikko is: Neat but a bit too far out of the way

    Fukushima is: For someone else

    Osaka is: Only for Emergencies

     

  • Denny's Tower

    I went to Dennys today for lunch.  (デ二ーズ).  It was an experience, let me tell you.  Apparently Japanese people will not pay ever-increasing amounts of money to eat gross American food.  So here they have tasty food that's reasonably priced for foreign food but more than fast-food curry or a bowl of ramen in a stand.

    It was good - for the first time in about *thinks* no - for the first time, I was really happy and satisfied and contented with my decisison to go to Denny's after the fact.  (Even I will admit that sometimes it seems like a good idea in America, but only before I go.)  The food was tasty.  I had a "bargain hamburger lunch" which came with french fries and rice and sizzling vegetables.  Also there was much tasty sauce involved.  Which brings me to the drinks.

    All 14 drink options at デ二ーズ are the same price: 1.60.  (Good, right?)  Get this: for only 2.60 you can get the same drink plus unlimited refills.  Man, America needs to get the picture.

    ...

    Another company which is better in Japan is Tower Records.  Apparently there is no more Tower Records company in the US, except in its online form.  Here however, it is the largest music retailer and quite a lot of fun to visit because there are about a zillion listening stations where you can preview (or pre-listen?) a WHOLE CD before you buy it.  And people do - there are chairs and desks even so you don't have to stand during the whole thing.  I love it.  Also customers get like between 2 and 5 percent back in gift cards if they get a rewards card (which is free so I got one).  Not like I'll get enough points for the gift card on this trip but... there's always next year.

  • Annoying People

    Wow, I didn't even realize (I mean, I knew the date but had forgotten the significance) that it was the Fourth of July when I posted that last post.  It didn't hit me until as I was riding my bicycle along the river that evening, enjoying the night and the view and the evening etc.  I saw some people by the river with fireworks, and thought to myself: "That's neat - I haven't seen people in Japan with little hand-held fireworks thus far" and continued riding. 

    BUT THEN as I approached my place of residence I was accosted by the cacophony and smell of a large gaggle of drunk Americans who also had fireworks and who were making loads of noise by singing (badly) the Star Spangled Banner and shouting "America americaaseihfnva rtfnh bleghtijonf" and so on.  I had to resist the urge to shout something like "うるせ! 行け! ばかばかしい、、、" out my window.
    *translation not provided*  : P

    But not to worry - I didn't say anything.  I wanted to though, gosh - they were going until about midnight.

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