Enough talking about Japan for a minute… back to what I enjoy most aside from food.

Here’s a little list of the albums and other bits that have soundtracked my time in the country and before in the last few months… in no particular order but most definitely all very much recommended.

Kode 9 & Spaceape - Memories of the Future - Hyperdub

Heavily recommended debut album from Mr 9. Floating somewhere on all its own, on a carpet of a sub bass.

Busdriver - Roadkillovercoat - Epitath

Busdriver teams up with Nobody and Boom Bip on production, resulting in something that is truly excellent. Hip hop like they don’t do it no more.

dDamage - Shimmy Shimmy Blade - Tsunami Addiction

Duuuurty French electro-crunk-hop-madness.

TTC - 3615 - Big Dada

More French electro-crunk-hop-madness.

New Vex’D bits - Planet Mu and unreleased

Dancefloor destruction…

DJ Krush - Self Remixed Best Of vol 1 and 2 - Sony

The zen master himself. The drum programming on these two albums is off the hook.

O N O - Six Months at Outside Staird - Tha Blue Herb Recordings

More Japanese instrumentalism…

Amon Tobin - Foley Room - Ninja Tune

I was never one for Amon Tobin before but this album is worth the repeated listens.

Teeko - My Soundstation - FourOneFunk

All that scratching was making me bored. This is making me nod.

Foreign Beggars - Stray Point Agenda - Dented Records

The first UK hip hop album to get me really excited since Skitz’ ‘Countryman’.

Trojan Records - Dub Box Set in 3 volumes

Wind up yu waist!

Clutchy Hopkins - The Life of Clutchy Hopkins

L.A beats.

Existereo & Deeskee - Hopeless Crooks with Hopeless Books

West coast hip hop with a twist.

Big up Trick and Waxfactor for hooking some of this up!

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written by Laurent

More photos and sets added on Flickr a few days ago. And more coming - I’ve paid for the pro membership so I’m gonna be making the most of it!

Flickr Saw You On The Flipside gallery

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written by Laurent

Those were the words our new boss said to Ella when they first met, in reference to most foreigners’ total lack of knowledge of the Japanese alphabets or spoken language.

And after nearly a month here, I gotta admit it’s pretty spot on as a statement of how it feels to try and lead a working life in Japan with little knowledge of the language, both written and spoken.

We did a ten week beginner course of Japanese a few months before coming out - which has helped not to feel totally lost and dumbfound when we got here. But it’s a long way from being able to feel like you can get by in any shape or form. 99% of written or spoken Japanese is beyond me at the moment, and my brain isn’t in the best frame of mind to be taking a lot of things in while I still get to grips with living here, doing a totally new job and generally settling in.

The most frustating thing for me has got to be the inability to do a lot of the little things in life without having to give it more thought than you normally would. Whatever you need to do is going to require some thought as to how you’re going to make yourself understood. As much as Japan has opened itself in the last decade to foreigners, especially English speakers, there still isn’t a lot of spoken English in most places, shops, train stations etc… Written English is a little more common in train stations and restaurants but probably not much more.
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written by Laurent

I left my mobile phone and woolly hat on a train on my way to work on Saturday. As I tend to do once or twice a year, I put them both next to me on the seat rather than in my pocket - I started reading something, saw my stop, got out, put my hand in my pocket and turned around to see them both pull away in the train…

Not the nicest feeling especially considering the phone is lent to me by my company until I get my gaijin card and can buy my own. In addition it’s kind of a life line as I’ve no other way to be contacted if I’m late for work or have any other issues…

A freak out later I get in to work and Miki, the receptionist at the school, kindly offers to try and call the number and try to locate the phone. I then remember that this is Japan and, as I’d read and been told, it’s very rare for things to be stolen in those cases. They’re generally handed into lost and found offices at the stations. Still after 5 or so hours I started to despair, and then thankfully I was told that they’d been handed in at Hoya station - two stops from where I’d got off.

There’s a lot to be said for Japanese society - both good and bad, but in that case I was pretty thankful for the general Japanese honesty. I can’t imagine leaving a brand new phone on a train in London and getting it back (and I found two on London trains and gave them back much to the surprise of their owners). Another nice touch was that you get the train journey from the stop you got off to where the goods are for free.

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written by Laurent