Here’s a beautiful site dedicated to photos of found typography. This is something that I should’ve done when I was in Japan. There was so much fascinating variety in the typestyles used in public, on buildings, menus, flyers, etc., and an interesting interplay between the Roman and Asian characters that are mixed so often there.
As usual, via Metafilter, yo.
We made our way to Shinjuku again on Saturday night, and met Robert’s friend Alex, the Spanish Goth, who was sporting some ultra-styled Robert Smith-esque hair that evening. Then it was off to Roppongi by subway, for the Midnight Mess event. Once in Roppongi, we wandered down the main strip, which was filled with Gaijin looking for nightclubs, and stopped off at Starbucks for a quick recharge/hair and makeup session. I saw a couple examples of the Japanese trend towards trying to look like a California surfer: dark, dark tan and bleached blond hair on Japanese kids. It actually looks very unhealthy and unattractive. We saw the Tokyo Tower from a distance, down towards the other end of the main strip, as we left the Starbucks…
Around midnight, we left the main area of Roppongi and arrived at Midnight Mess, which was held in a tiny little bar several blocks away from the main action of the nightclub district, on a tiny little side street. I say tiny, but the bar was far bigger than either Mother or Kuraneko, thank god. There were quite a few more Gaijin in attendance here than at any of the other events we’d been to. We saw Shisen, who Emily had met at Gold earlier in the week, with his boyfriend Shibiru. They had matching “fashion” contacts in, and were having a great time dancing. We also saw two gothic girls who had been at the Head Power show earlier in the week. There were a few other interesting folks there, like Mike from San Francisco, or Spit, the large guy with the fishnet top. Or the girl with no pants and a ringmasters jacket, hat, and cane, who greeted everyone as they entered.
But the real life of the party was Maya, who showed up a little later on in a patent leather maid-style outfit, with a very short skirt, and very little else. She pretty much got the whole whipping part of the party started, using Yvonne the Gaijin’s whip. Everybody took turns flogging Robert and Spit for a while, and just generally living it up.
The party raged for quite a while. The music was actually an interesting mix for a goth club. There was a lot of the harder-edge industrial type of music, and also a fiar mix of early, poppier goth music, like the Cure, and even some decidedly non-gothic music, like U2 and the Buggles. Quite odd. Emily and I fell asleep on the couch at some point, and woke up around 7am, when things had pretty much wound down. At that point we caught the train back to Iriso, and watched all the lightly snow-dusted fields and roofs flit by.
We napped a bit once we got back to the house, then packed up and got the house cleaned up and gave Robert the money to pay the Ushio family with. It ended up only costing us 2000 yen a day to stay there! so only about $140 total! And that’s including all the times they had us over for breakfast, and dinner…They were such an incredibly generous family, and we’re lucky to have been able to stay with them.
We took an express train to the airport, and saw some beautiful countryside, and bamboo forests, on the way. The flight back was actually shorter than the flight over, apparently owing to the wind direction, and the fact that we were flaying against the Earth’s rotation this time. And crossing the date line during our flight meant that we left at 6pm on Sunday, and arrived at 10am, also on Sunday. Weird. But when we arrived back in California, we realized that we didn’t have a key to get back into our house, and both our roommates were gone! So we had my parent’s pick us up at the airporter drop-off in Petaluma, and slept at their house until Keith got home for the day and could let us in.
We then proceeded to sleep for about 20 hours straight.
The trip was way too short. But other than that, it was amazing. I can’t wait to go back sometime. I’m gonna miss the amazing transit system, the heated toilet seats, the hot drinks in vending machines….ahhhh!
More later. Japan report over. More pictures to come, perhaps.
So we decided not to hit the bookstore after all. But that’s ok….
On Thursday, we had our usual breakfast at the Ushio’s (eggs, ham, the most delicious apples in the world, green tea, and kiwi juice). Then, we trekked off to the train station again. We kicked around Shinjuku again for a while, while Robert was in class. I picked up some assorted Otomo manga at the Kinokuniya bookstore, and Emily picked herself up some more Gunnm and Trigun. I also got a coupe of t-shirts at Lover’s House, near the subway station, but upon arriving back home, I discovered that one of them was waaaaaaaaay too small, despite the fact that they were both labeled “Medium.” Oh well. I’ll have to find a tiny person to give the other one to. And I mean tiny…
We also went back to the department store where Emily got her boots earlier. She wanted to get some presents for people that she had seen but didn’t buy last time. They happened to be playing Operation Ivy downstairs, in one of the punk rock boutique areas on the first floor….pretty cool. I almost bought a pin that read “Dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians,” but decided against it. I did, however, pick myself up an FLCL shirt (on sale for 1000 yen). I tried on a really cool looking jacket as well, but it was too narrow to fit my shoulders comfortably. I tried all three sizes and nothing really worked quite right.
Next, we caught the subway up to Yoyogi, where we met Robert and changed lines to go to Asakusa. The main attraction at Asakusa is a large temple right near the station, with a long strip of tourist-y gift shops and stands along the way from the gate to the temple itself. We picked up a handful of little odds and ends there as well, and had a quick bite at a little yakitori tent outside the temple.
We rode back to Shinjuku after the temple, and had some more food at the Cafe Jr. Italian Tomato again, then just sat around there and read (or looked at, in my case) our new manga for a while. Then it was off to a little (and I mean LITTLE) rock bar around the corner, called Mother. Mother is somewhat similar to Kuraneko, except crowded and noisy. There’s a drinks menu as well as a music requests menu, and the evening’s selections were very biased towards gothic/industrial type music, although they did play a little Clash as well. We met a few of Robert’s friends there, but ended up leaving pretty early and heading back home. It was a little too crowded and overwhelming for us at the time.
Oh, a small correction: we’re staying in Iriso, apparently, not Tokorozawa. Iriso is a small suburb on the ouskirts of Tokorozawa proper. The Tokorozawa station is where we initially arrived on the bus from Narita, but we took the train a couple of stops down to Iriso then. Oops…my confusion.
Anyways, we had some drinks at the house and watched some Japanese TV for a while. There was this bizarre show on, that looked sort of like a talk show or comedy show of some sort. Basically, there was a guy who appeared to be the host, talking to two young women, and telling jokes. At one point they appeared to be discussing breasts, complete with hand gestures and amusing facial expressions. Then, the man put on a jacket, and one of the sleeves of the jacket had a plush fish sewn on to it. As soon as he brought it out, one of the girls got really upset for a moment, and started crying a little bit. Then, every time she said something, he would make some sort of joke involving the fish, or talking to the fish, or something, and this eventually cheered her up. Next, he had them put on a maid’s apron with hearts on it and act out some sort of scene. Very strange….finally, he went outside of the set (which was sort of like a sitcom-style living room) and had a conversation with a man in a large dog costume. And then the show ended.
This morning, we got up and went over for breakfast, while Robert was recovering from the night out at Mother. Apparently, he came back on the 6am train. So the Ushio’s took us, and Duc, another student staying with them, to the temple in Kawagoe. and the historic downtown area of Kawagoe. We got to see more of the countryside/town area on the drive over there, which was very interesting. The temple had a large museum section this time, based in a 350-year old building. There was a garden area to the back, which was very beautiful but must be 10 times more so in the Spring, when the cherry blossoms are out in force. This temple was home to a large and aggressive flock of pigeons. So aggressive in fact, that I saw a few of the sitting on a child near a statue.
Down in the town area of Kawagoe, we visited several shops that specialize in various types of cakes and sweets, on a narrow street with historic style houses. Along the main road were several museums and galleries. We visited one gallery dedicated to the street festivals that take place every year, with large “mountain cars,” sort of like vertically stacked parade floats. These mountain cars are pulled by a bunch of men, while actors in masks and costumes perform dances and act out mythical characters on the various levels. We also visited a small museum housed in another old house, showing the traditional Japanese lifestyle from the Edo era.
It was snowing very lightly when we woke up this morning. Not enough for the snow to stay around on the ground, but there were tiny little snow flakes looping their way to the ground and disappearing. I haven’t seen snow actually falling in a long time….It’s actually started to fall a little heavier now that it’s evening, but still not enough to cover anything. It all pretty much melts once it touches down. But it’s still very pretty.
Later tonight, we;ll be off to Roppongi, the infamous nightlife district of Tokyo, for an event called Midnight Mass, an all-night goth club. It ends at 6am, and our flight back on Sunday is at 6pm, so we’ll head back here for our bags and then catch the train to the airport. Some of our large bags are already there, so that saves us from lugging some of it around, at least. This trip has seemed way too short, even though we did get to do and see quite a bit while we’ve been here….
More later….
Yesterday, after breakfast at the Ushio house, we rode in to Shibuya on the train for some more shopping and wandering. We went to the HMV first, and browsed around the CDs, DVDs, and vinyl. They actually had the From Monument to Masses CD in stock. There was plenty of interesting stuff there, including Katsuhiro Otomo’s Memories on DVD, which I kind of wish I’d bought now that I think about it. I didn’t end up getting anything there though.
Our next stop was Mandarake, a manga/anime/colelctibles store about 4 stories beneath the ground. This place was even larger than Book Off, and had a wider variety of items. Whereas Book-Off had manga, DVDs, CDs, video games, etc, Mandarake was focused more on manga and collectibles, such as animation cels, action figures and models, vintage video games, posters, etc. The one thing I didn’t like about Mandarake was that almost all the manga was in plastic bags. I hate when shops, American or Japanese, do that. I was doing pretty much the same thing I did in Book Off, which was randomly grabbing things off the shelf on the basis of the spine alone. Again, I almost picked something up on the basis of interesting cover, but decided not to for some reason. Oh well….They had some pretty interesting stuff there though, like some animation cels from Evangelion and other major anime (about 20000-50000 yen for those), as well as other more affordable ones I couldn’t identify (anywhere from 5000 for a cel from Cowboy Bebop, 3500 for a cel from Inuyasha, to a bin full of cels from god knows what, for 100 yen and up.
Across the street was an American comics specialty shop, but we decided to go for food instead, and headed to a little Udon shop (also underground). We passed a Condomania shop on the way over, and of course, got some pictures of the sign.
Next we went back over to Shinjuku, and browsed at a department store aimed at the J-punk and Gothic Lolita subcultures. Emily picked up a pair of hardcore looking boots and I bought a few pins out of the ubiquitous capsule toy vending machines (similar to the trinket vending machines at a grocery store). We then made our way down to the main strip in Shinjuku, and looked around at some of the electronics shops. We were mainly looking for headphones (I needed to replace the foam padding on my iPod headphones, and Emily needed a new pair). There’s an amazing selection of Minidisc players available here. Whereas in America you can get maybe three or four different models, all portable, the Japanese shops have maybe 30+ different portable models, plus bookshelf stereo systems with CD/minidisc built in, and standalone component-type players.
We made a quick pitstop back at the Hub, mainly to kill time, then caught the train down to Seibu, and went to a tiny little place called Kuraneko. Kuraneko is a little gothic-themed bar on the fourth floor of a non-descript building, and it’s about the size of a walk-in closet. There are about 6 seats at the bar and one table in the corner, with a small curved couch for seating. We were the only ones there for most of the time we stayed, but the bar tender was very friendly, and kept making us different types of drinks that he had created. All in all, we probably had about 5000 yen worth of cocktails each during the night. I’ve probably spent more on drinks here than anything else. While we drank and chatted with the bartender, with Robert as our interpreter, the movie the Man Who Fell to Earth, starring David Bowie, was playing in the corner.
When we finally finished, and were getting ready to leave, we realized that Emily had lost the detachable robot that is the face of her watch. We searched all of Kuraneko for it, and figured it might have been lost earlier in the evening at the Hub. Robert was nice enough to ride back up to Shinjuku to ask them if they’d seen it there, while Emily and I waited on the platform at Seibu station. I bought a random manga collection from the newsstand while I was there, just to pass the time. There was a pretty mixed bag of comics in that….the manga collections that sell off the stands here are about 700 page anthologies, with all sorts of stories, including sports, romance. action, supernatural, high school drama, comedy, etc. When Robert arrived back at the station, we hopped back on the express to Tokorozawa.
After arriving and taking a quick rest (it was about midnight at this point), we decided to take a walk through the woods to the other side of town, Shin-Tokorozawa, where there’s a little used bookstore that’s open until 3am. Well actually, when we arrived, it turns out that it was only open until midnight, and Robert had been thinking of the other used bookstore, on the other side of town, that’s open until 3am. Ah well. We had a nice leisurely walk through the woods, and talked about the various woodland spirits and creatures of Japanese mythology on the way. After all, the best time for ghost stories is when you’re in the middle of a narrow road in a pitch black forest in a foreign country….
We were so tired and sore-footed that we decided today would be a day of rest, and indeed it was. We took it pretty easy after breakfast with the Ushio family, and just kicked around the house for a while. Emily read some of Robert’s manga and I leafed through it and read some of my book, and took a nice lnog leisurely shower. Later on, we came back to the Ushio’s for dinner. We had some sort of spicy soup with tofu, tempura shrimp and vegetables, rice, and beer. For desert, we had some cream-filled pastries and green tea. Now we’re just hanging out in Robert’s room. I think we miiiiiight take another trip through the woods to the bookstore tonight, now that it’s open. But maybe not. I’d upload some more pictures, but I left the camera back at the other house. Oops…
Much more later….
So we strolled around town this morning, then ended up running to the train with Robert, arriving just as our train to Shinjuku pulled in. We made it just as it was about to pull out. Robert gave Emily some directions to Harajuku on the train while I talked to a man named George from Turkey, who gave me a very long lecture on why Islam is the one true religion, and Allah the one true God. Robert left for class when we got to Shinjuku, and we were on our own for the rest of the trip to Harajuku. It took us a few minutes to get oriented in the subway, or, more accurately, for Emily to get oriented in the subway. and drag me to where we needed to go.
When we arrived, we went to the Meiji Jingu shrine, which is apparently one of the finest shrine in Japan. We walked through the main area of the site to the shrine at the center, and watched part of a ceremony of some sort. There were stands everywhere with various types of charms for sale, including charms for traffic safety, passing an entrance exam, and loving ties in a relationship, among others. There were also small poems, called ‘waka’, (of which 10,00 were written by one of the emperors, and 30,000 by his wife) for sale for 100 yen. We made our way through the shrine and back out the North entrance of the shrine site, then worked our way back up to Harajuku street, passing a Subway, an AM/PM, and several other oddly familiar yet unfamiliar sights along the way.
Harajuku Street is sort of a super-trash trinket/subculture-fashion-boutique shop heaven/hell. There are stores that cater to the Gothic Lolita set, shops for faux-vintage punk rock clothing, shops that are filled completely with pictures of pop stars and “visual kei” rockers (something along the lines of Kiss tribute bands). Emily picked up an Astro Boy messenger bag and a watch with a robot on it that unscrews and can be used as a pocket watch. I stopped for a quick bite at Cafe Noa and had a ham sandwich (which was delicious, and surprisingly, spicy) with a melon soda.
Next stop was right around the corner, at Book Off, a store filled with an unbelievable amount of manga for anywhere from 100 yen and up. There is nothing to compare with this store in the American comic book world. Here, there is a wide variety of subject matter, style, and genre, and comics aren’t viewed as collector’s items in any sense. I had no idea what I was even looking at, as it was all displayed spine out, with mostly Japanese writing on the spines. There were a few titles I recognized, and a lot of stuff that I randomly picked up off the shelf just to thumb through that looked interesting. I almost bought a book called Alien 9, the plot of which appeared to be as follows: Giant alien creature sits on school. Children with winged helmets try to move it. It eats one of them. They fly around and try to move it again….etc……
Then we met Robert back in Shinjuku, and had a quick bite to eat at Cafe Jr. Italian Tomato. We had a variety of spaghetti dishes, and I had a very delicious peach tea with my meal. And then we made our way to Head Power, a small club with tiny ceilings, where Robert’s friend was playing at a synth pop show. Robert was doing sound for him (which basically consisted of pressing “Play” in iTunes). We were on the guest list, but apparently, “guest list” in Tokyo means you pay 300 yen less than everyone else (so about 2300 yen admission) and you get a drink ticket. Hmm….There were a few bands playing that night. First up was a synth-pop duo, with female vocals. Kind of bland and structurally weak…eh. Next up was another duo featuring a vocalist and a key-tar player. They started their set wearing plastic hats emblazoned with the American flag. Between songs, they did a lot of talking, all in Japanese, so I was completely lost. They must have been pretty funny though, because they had the audience laughing every few lines. They had a third member join them on air guitar (yes, air guitar), for the final song.
Next up was Secret Secret, Robert’s friend. 80’s style semi-gothic synth pop duo. The frontman (Robert’s friend) was dressed like a Marilyn Manson clone, complete with fuzzy top hat, and gave white plastic roses to lucky audience members (like me and Em!). He was pretty entertaining, and the crowd had him do an encore. Then it was time for my favorite group of the evening, Plumsonic! Another synth pop duo, this time featuring a female vocalist and a keyboard player/powerbook jockey. The singer had great dance moves and was striking some insanely cool poses against the spotlights and fog machines. I got some great digital photos of her….Then the final band, the Soyuz Project started up. They actually had more than two members, including two powerbooks, a guitarist, a couple keyboards, etc. We left shortly after they started, and made our way back to Tokorozawa.
I’m at the Ushio house now, where the wireless interet hook-up is. We had tea with the Ushio family just now, and talked about the cookies and cakes they served (all of which have interesting stories behind them), various anime and manga artists, and the Edo era museum we’ll be visiting soon. Whoo! big day. Here’s some photos for y’all, as a reward for making it through all that….
At the Hub
At Head Power
Key-tar Rock
Meiji Jingu
Our House in Tokorozawa
Plumsonic!
More Plumsonic!
Secret Secret
Shinjuku at Night
Mr. Wasabi Fingers
More later….
I’m firmly set to my new time zone, 17 hours ahead of Pacific Standard time. The flight over to Narita was exhausting and uncomfortable, but bearable, up until landing, when I had a sudden bout of motion sickness when taxiing to the gate. Ah well, that’s why they put the little bags in the seat back pouches…
we’re staying in a little town called Tokorozawa, about 40 minutes by Express Train from Tokyo. The house we’re at is a beautiful little place, and every room except the bathroom has a few non-90 degree angles built into it. Also, the doors and ceilings are about a foot lower than I’m used to. There’s a broken piano in the living room, and a bidet in the bathroom. There’s also a heated toilet seat. Why has this never caught on here???? It’s brilliant!!!!!
We went grocery shopping this morning, and I almost bought a carton of yogurt, thinking it was milk. It was in a milk like carton, and had a cow on the front, so I was close, at least.
We met Robert’s host family and had a brunch-ish meal with them, consisting of egg, ham, kiwi juice, green tea, and the most incredibly delicious apples I’ve ever tasted. If there is a perfect apple, it must be here.
We then took the train into the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. We met Robert’s friend Alan and had dinner at Mr. Wasabi fingers, followed by a trip over to Gold, a record store stocked with a large selection of gothic, industrial, metal, punk, hardcore, britpop, and other assorted American and British records. I picked up a Mogwai 7″ for about 300 yen (about USD$3) and eyed some of the overpriced My Bloody Valentine bootlegs and Bjork remix 10″s. We then wandered over to an English-style pub called the Hub, and hung out and conversed for a while. Mango beer is quite good, but I mostly stayed with mixed drinks. Absinthe was on the menu, but I stayed away from that.
Tomorrow we’ll be on our own in Tokyo for a bit, while Robert’s in class. We’ll probably hit up a few music stores, some manga shops (some of which sell original cel artwork from various anime shows and movies), and assorted points of interest.
Much more later….
I’ve been under the weather for a while here, and I kind of slacked out on my already irregular blogging schedule. I would’ve been blogging about sitting in front of the TV drinking Thera-Flu anyways, so you didn’t miss much. I’ve still got a nagging cough, but I’m doing much better now.
Christmas came and went. My big prize gift was a Shure PG81 condenser mic (woo-hoo!). I also got a lot of good clothes, some music (Aphex Twin and the Velvet Underground), and some comics (I bought myself Otomo’s Domu, and so did Emily, so we swapped the second copy for Daniel Clowes’ David Boring).
Oh, Joey and I have a name now. We’re the Drama Club. Yes, it’s kinda cheesy, but it’s the best name that’s actually stuck so far. If it sticks for a while longer, maybe we’ll get a domain hookup.
Anyways…12 days til Japan. It seems so much farther away, but I’m sure it’ll be here in no time. I’m still figuring out what I need to pack. I know for sure I’ll be bringing my laptop, both my cameras, and some clothes and books. I don’t know what else I’ll need though…passport/wallet/etc, toiletries, obviously. That should do though, I think. I was thinking about getting myself an iPod, but the more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to get an mp3 CD player instead, and spend the rest of the money on mics. We’ll see…
More later….
I went to see Lost in Translation the other night, with Joey. Really, really enjoyed it. Scarlett Johansson was impressive…in Ghost World, she had this air of impatient frustration around her performance that really brought her character to life. Here, she’s playing a much more subtle, uncertain variation on similar ideas. And Bill Murray has become a really refined dramatic actor lately. The scenes between the two of them are understated and melancholy and tense and, above all, real. Oh, and the soundtrack is great (listening to it right now, actually).
I’ve heard some criticism of the film that focuses on what some people perceive as racist humor towards the Japanese, but i really have to disagree. The film is about people who are, if you couldn’t tell from the title, lost in a country they don’t belong in, in a culture they don’t understand, surrounded by a language they don’t know. If the Japan portrayed on screen strikes you as alienating, incomprehensible, silly, or exaggerated, it’s because we’re seeing it through the eyes of characters who are alienated, misunderstood, amused, and unsettled by their surroundings. The scene with Scarlett Johansson’s character sitting on the windowsill of her hotel room, as the camera pans around her, back and forth over the tiny Tokyo streets below, is the best and most visceral illustration of this in the movie.
Anyways.
I’m making it my new project to download all the Bends and OK Computer era Radiohead b-sides that I seem to have lost at some point. I still have somewhat low-quality versions on a burned CD, but I crave quality. Especially for songs like Talk Show Host.
I’ve also discovered the joys of .cbz and .cbr files for downloading comics. I’ve downloaded and read Grant Morrison’s entire run on New X-Men over the last few days, up to and including the big plot twist that has everyone abuzz. Fun stuff. Grant’s an interesting writer, and the only other thing I’ve read by him is the Filth (which just finished….see earlier postings about that title). This has made me actually engaged and interested in a superhero comic book again. Part of it is nostalgia triggered by the quality of the recent X-Men movies, of course.
More later…
