Crap Fact 'o' the Day

VW camper vans and Mini Coopers are apparently very popular with the retro hipster crowd here, despite the fact that they're a bit shit and keep breaking down all the time (the cars, not the retro hipster crowd).

By the way, is "Beetle Bus" commonly accepted nomenclature? It is here, anyway. I certainly hadn't heard it until a friend was explaining their popularity. I thought she was talking about Magical Mystery Tour or something until she drew me a picture.

While we're on the theme of Crap ___ 'o' the Day, Crap Album Cover 'o' the Day ("crap" in this case meaning more "lo-fi" than "bad") goes to Jap group Kabemimi for their new CD-R opus Yokujou Shita Inu (Desired Dog), see right, which somehow manages to be simultaneously cute, funny and downright creepy. Like a fair amount of Japanese culture, in fact.

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Year 3

Saturday marked my 3rd anniversary of being here!　　Banzai!

I have spent most of the last week at work translating a manual about off-road driving techniques. Which is about as exciting as it sounds. I enjoy translation though, and would kind of like to do it professionally even though it makes my head hurt sometimes. So it's all good. What's kind of depressing about translating for a big company though is seeing your handiwork go off to be run through several committees or what have you, who will no doubt have their evil ways with it, stripping the thing of the nuance, prose stylings and distinctive authorial voice I spent so many hours instilling it with. Honestly, these people just have no respect for the struggling artiste. Actually it's probably a good thing in this case since I stuck quite closely to the original Japanese for safety's sake and due to a lack of time, and Japanese manuals never seem to be written with brevity or readability in mind. Strange that.

So if you buy a Land Cruiser Prado next year and it has a manual about off-road driving, that's my handiwork right there! Well, some of it. In there somewhere. Perhaps. I really don't know.

I went a-wondering around Atsuta Jinja (a shrine in Nagoya) on Sunday and saw the statue pictured above. Frankly I'm none the wiser so I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions. The characters below seem to denote it as some kind of "monument to spectacles". Hmm. Nice tits though. And it would look bitchin' in my apartment.

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Shameless nepotism

Why not read my brother-in-law Gareth's music blog?

http://howlifeshouldsound.com/

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Hello

Well, I thought it was time to try and start this thing up again, so here goes. I won't go into the reasons for my absence since most of you know what's been happening and the rest probably don't care. And because the title is "Andy's Jap Blog", not "Andy's Blog 'O' Misery". Anyway whatever, I'm back to spew my creative juices onto the Interweb, so let's see what kind of wonderful mess they make.

While we're on the subject (of the blog name, not my juices) I really think I ought to change the name of this thing. Calling it my "Jap" blog seems somewhat constrictive in that I can only post about my life here in Japan, when, obviously, I have a whole universe of other thoughts and wisdom to share. But the only other name I can come up with is the deeply unimaginative "Andy's Blog", which, frankly, is a bit shit. Or there's "Taking it up the Archipelago", which I like but which might sound more than a little gay. So I'm open to suggestions.

In the meantime this blog is under construction as I fiddle with new templates and generally try to update it.

Sakura season is upon us once again! If only it was like this all year round. Hey ho. I did something slightly trainspotter-esque over the weekend for the sake of exploration...I travelled to the north-east of Nagoya (not a hugely taxing journey, considering that I live in the south-east of Nagoya) solely for the purpose of riding the Linimo train line. Linimo is a mag-lev (i.e. a train that is levitated and propelled by a magnetic rail, instead of using wheels). As I boarded I could tell that I was taking a ride...into the future!! Yes, it was next stop year 3000 as I glided (glid?) along on my cushion of magnets. Everything on board is completely automated and the train itself glides like...a thing...through...an analogy. Either way it was well swish, and hopefully I'll find an excuse to ride it again sometime soon.

Yesterday I went to see a live show by Doravideo, aka Yoshimitsu Ishiraku, a jolly chap who somehow looks like he should be a bouncer. He's also a kind of multimedia drummer who connects his drum kit to to some convoluted piece of technology which then projects video images onto a screen in sync with his drumming, accompanied by music. The use of video allows him to work in numerous political and pop culture references (many of which went way over my head), such as a song centered around an old commercial for a bathroom air freshner and another showing looping images of KISS. He played an enormously effective duet with Katsui Yuuji, a rail-thin electric violinist who somehow looks like he should be a science teacher. Really excellent stuff, none of the videos I found online really do them justice so you'll have to take my word for it I guess. I should point out that the above picture isn't mine.

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Still alive

I took some photos of the Christmas illuminations at Nagoya station, they're very nice, if usually a little crowded...

http://photozou.jp/photo/list/154073/681560

So...what else have I been up to? Hmmm...

Bought a new phone, finally...it's very swish...interested parties can check it out here. No, I didn't get an iPhone, I have my reasons, mostly financial...

Been going to some gigs...fascinated though I'm sure you all are by my gigging activities...most recent was last Friday when I went to the rather tiny KD Japon to see some young fellows with very interesting haircuts named Gegegege Quartet (they're a trio). I felt kinda bad, they were fantastic and energetic but there were about 15 ppl in the audience (due largely to the size of the venue)...one can only applaud so loudly. That's them in the photo...love the Wu Tang shirts! Also on the bill were two performance artists and a group of studenty types who had a naivete vaguely reminiscent of Maher Shalal Hash Baz (at least in my head they did).

Also went to see ex-Boredoms guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto and, in late Sept., a very enjoyable collaboration between Nagoya's own Acid Mothers Temple and Osaka noise legends Hijokaidan...a gig that was flimed and has since been released on DVD...will get my hands on it to check if I am at all visible! (I was down the front, hehe). I actually filmed the entire gig myself from the mosh pit (such as it was) on my little digital camera, only to accidentally delete the main chunk of video in a frantic attempt to make space on the memory card for post-show photos. Curse you cruel fate!

Sorry for the gig reports but I felt compelled to write something, and writing about music is much more enjoyable than laying my daily life bare for the Internet to peruse! So you can just go away.

Back in the UK 19th Dec - 2nd Jan!

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