You’d think that having moved to Japan I would now be on a steady diet of fish - and you might be right seeing as I love fish, I love rice and I love wasabi. Which are all pretty important factors when it comes to sushi. But the thing is even though I love it, even though I only ever had access to the European version of sushi which is far inferior to its Japanese counterpart, I haven’t actually been on a complete binge yet. And I’ve been here two months.

Instead I’ve found a predilection for ramen, rice dishes and various other Japanese culinary delicacies such as gyoza (Japanese dumplings) and yakitori (bbq chicken skewers). But all is well again as I’ve started to eat sushi properly and regularly. Having found a couple of really decent (and in the case of one downright amazing) places which do a good sushi at a reasonable price. After all this is Japan - a country primarily known for its massive consumption of fish. If you go to the supermarket it’s Europe turned upside down - the fish is great and cheap as chips (see the joke there?) but the meat is quite expensive and frankly quite crap by European standards.

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written by Laurent

I upgraded the site to the latest version of Wordpress about 3 days ago and since then it seems I’ve had nothing but woes… Oh WOE IS ME indeed. Actually I’m only writing this post because I’ve realised I really like the word woe. I don’t know what it is about it - or maybe it’s because since becoming an English teacher I’ve rediscovered my affinity and love for languages and words.

Anyways, the upgrading itself wasn’t too tricky, but everything that came after it has been a bit of a headache - from weird changes like the handling of links (hence the change to the formatting of the sidedar) to a very weird way of treating div tags and other geeky things like this. All meaning that while Wordpress 2.1 is an improvement on the previous versions it’s also a pain in the neck, especially if you’re not too technically versed and start wondering what the fu*k happened to all the sensible things you were used to.

On the plus side the upgrade meant I got round to tidying things up and adding some nifty plugins like the Sidebar Widgets and brankspanking new gallery (see the link in the main navigation bar for that). I’ve also started tweaking the CSS and changing the look of the site - albeit very slowly and carefully. I’m still learning. Being a geek does have its good sides. And then it’s also got its downfalls like maybe you reading this and thinking ‘what the hell is he on about’.

Edit - I wrote this post and things messed up even more. I don’t know if I’m laughing more out of tiredness or desperation… :-S

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written by Laurent

I’ve missed the boat by about 30 mins… turns out 2/22 (or 22/2 in Europe) is Cat Day in Japan. Why? Well because each of the 2’s in the date can be read with the sound ‘nyan’ which is the sound cats make in Japanese.

Check a youtube.com video below of a news report detailing an exhibition of cat sculptures in Fukuoka to celebrate Cat Day, including a golden cat sculpture worth more than 3million Yen.

The information for all this comes from Japan Probe.

After a few months here it seems cats are quite common in Japan, though maybe not as much as dogs. One thing though, the majority of cats I’ve seen don’t seem to have tails. They’re either chopped off or totally cut… as far as I can remember cats also play another role in Japanese culture, though I can’t quite remember what right now and it’s way past my bed time so I’ll leave that for another time.

Anyways happy cat day!

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written by Laurent

One of my students told me that the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Totoro Next Door’ (also known as ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ in the US and Europe) anime film was a forest, called Totoro’s Forest, in the Sayama Hills near where I live. Well I thought it was near…

So on our day off last week we set out to find Totoro’s Forest - and then I soon realised it was much further from our place then I thought it was. So we gave up getting there and instead opted to just take various detours on our way to Tokorozawa, a fairly big town near us.

As with my bike trip the previous week, getting lost on the bike proved to be one of the most enjoyable things we could have done. In the process we found various interesting things including an amazing little bamboo forest, some farms, beaten up cars, a river, temples, shrines and much more.

Biking really is one of the best things you can do when wanting to discover an area - especially when it’s on the other side of the world and you’ve got so much to see and discover. We got lost on our way back and found more fields, forests and a shortcut back to our place. Pretty good result for a four hour ride.

We finished the day with some food and drink at a local izakaya - and with alcohol being soooo cheap in this country it was pretty funny having to then bike it back to our place at 2am, drunk, cold and somewhat tired. Don’t do it kids.

As usual I took a hefty amount of pictures on the way there and back, which you can see on this Flickr photoset:

Looking For Totoro’s Forest Flickr set

More info on Totoro’s Forest and the fund to save the Sayama Hills can be found here - http://www.jeef.or.jp/ASIA/japan2004/totoro.htm

And for those who haven’t seen the film yet I can only recommend you fix up and check it asap - My Neighbour Totoro

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written by Laurent

Back at BTC in two weeks - can’t wait. And two weeks later Mala Mystikz and Doc Scott are playing at DnB sessions. Should be a good month.

Come down on the 1st if you’re around - gonna be heavy again.

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written by Laurent

I don’t know what the crows in this country are fed on, but they’re massive. This picture is the first one I’ve managed to get of one and it doesn’t even do the size of the beasties justice.

I remember watching Japanese cartoons as a kid and there were always references to crows in some of them, generally when something comic had happened to one of the characters - and I now understand a little better why.

They’re massive and they’re everywhere - and they’re also quite scary in a way.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: crows, scary, Tokyo

Link courtesy of adickt! Looks crazy

Slinky folding chair

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written by Laurent

I bought a bike the other week… and put it to good use on my last day off by going on a ride to nowhere in particular round my new parts.

I headed off towards what I think is north of my house and spent about 2 or so hours biking around some decidedly weird parts, encountering amongst other things a US military base (they’re everywhere!), a sports centre, a crazy crocket ground, a motorway, an Onsen centre (Japanese hot spring baths), a Mitsubishi plant, what I think were some towns (they were lacking town centres though) as well as a cemetary and a pizza spot (that was literally in the middle of nowhere).

As night set I decided it might be a good idea to head back home before I get properly lost. 30 minutes or so later I made it back, freezing cold but pleased with myself.

It’s nice to be able to lose yourself and just go and look for whatever you might find. It might be handy to start learning the Japanese alphabets properly though so I can read the signs.

I took some pictures too… head over to the Flickr set right here

Road to Nowhere Flickr set

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written by Laurent

A couple of really funny Japanish moments… the first one captured on the tube and the second at some nightclub in Shibuya.

This one says: ‘To live better is to be dressed better’

As for this one… sorry it’s a bit blurry but here goes for those who can’t see too well.

- It fights regardless of the victim or the assailant and the damage is caused
- It is taken a picture without permission
- The medicine is brought in and it uses it regardless of legality and illegal
- Forcible Nampa and the solicitation act are done
- It invades the private room rest room by the plural
- Additionally it is not possible to get it according to the employee’s

Enough to make you feel dizzy before you even step in the club!

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written by Laurent

One of the things that really strikes you about Japan in the first few weeks of living here is the politeness… and in a sense you kind of expect it too especially if you’ve read up on the country and its culture, so it’s easy to have this assumption that politeness is a trait of the Japanese.

I got fairly pissed with my good friend Sam the other night and we had a lenghty discussion about this, seeing as he’s been living here for a few years and has more of an insight into the culture than I do. And some interesting things came out.

The main one is that while Japan is an overly polite society on the surface, this politeness is only really omnipresent in the service industry - but as a foreigner, chances are your main (and sometimes only) points of contact in Japan are going to be in the service industry - whether it’s a convenience store, train station, shop etc…

I know a few people here, foreigners and Japanese, but outside of that the most contact I’ve had with Japanese people is in those situations. And the thing is that while people are overly polite you soon come to realise that it’s not quite what it appears to be on the surface.

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written by Laurent

Last night was our first proper night out in Tokyo - and it was one to remember, as I was invited to play at Back To Chill, Goth Trad’s monthly session of Dubstep, Grime and Madrave.

The night was wicked, it was a pleasure to play down there and it felt good to be able to play some tunes after over 3 months of not having touched any decks or vinyl… The regulars, Goth Trad, Hyaku Mado, Ske and Kaji Peace all played wicked sets too - with new bits from Ske, Hyaku Mado and Goth Trad going down particularly well alongside a whole bunch of old and more recent tracks from a wide spectrum of producers and labels.

The venue was real nice too - Saloon @ Unit, which is a tiny little spot but with a system that packs a mighty punch. No messin’ about there, and the bass was exactly as you’d want it.

It was nice to see the impact the music is having in Tokyo - it’s still a fairly small affair, with a hundred or so people passing through during the night, but it’s been growing with every event and people seem to really be feeling the music, even if the crowd reactions are quite different to the UK. Not a lot of shouting or expression, just a lot of dancing and looking dazed by the bass and beats. The atmosphere is real nice too, feels like a proper family affair, with people lounging about in the bar area, chatting, drinking and even a little food table where you could get some curry after some heavy skankin!
And with both Mala Mystikz and Skream coming over to Tokyo in the next few months as well as Goth Trad soon to release his first 12″s on UK labels including Deep Medi, it should be a pretty good and interesting year for the Japanese massive and the spreading of the virus in Nippon.

Check the Flickr set below for more photos from the evening.

Back To Chill vol.6 Flickr Set

Also check some more pics and words from the boys at their blog

BTC blog

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written by Laurent