meeting the man who started it all.

weather forecast: accuweather.com

forecast for today from accuweather.com: "Mostly sunny and delightful"

haha.

lost in trains-lation

i had a terrible day i must say. no, not because i'm depressed ryan left (but it's sad nonetheless, especially since we didn't get to hang out that much)- but i wasn't able to laugh off what went on today, until many hours later i guess haha.

so i went to sleep at 5:30am. ryan was supposed to leave for the airport at 6:30am, but he overslept and left in a rush at 7:45am- i haven't heard from him so i assume he got to hong kong and now vietnam someway or another. i haven't been sleeping very well while i've been here, i'm not exactly sure why, but no matter how late i sleep i always wake up at 9:30am. this is not ok. so i couldn't really get back to sleep after ryan left, i kept waking up after just falling asleep- so i just gave up and woke up. a guy called me- the package delivery guy, i got a non-delivery receipt yesterday. the conversation went something like this:

moshimoshi?
moshimoshi, sumimassen nihongoga wakarimassen (hi, sorry i don't understand japanese)
moshimoshi?
sumimassen nihongoga wakarimassen
ehhhh..................................*click*

yeah he just hung up on me. i went downstairs to see if he was in the lobby but no one was around. so i had one of my housemates call the company- and after like a 10 minute conversation she told me that they'll delivery tomorrow morning but the guy will call me- hopefully the same thing doesn't happen again. so yeah, it was actually sunny out and 80 degrees, which made me excited- so excited that i did my laundry because you have to wait til its not raining to be able to dry your clothes. so feeling productive and hanging up my clothes i head out to catch design festa, a HUGE fest of all these tokyo artists- music, art, fashion, everything. looks crazy! so dripping in sweat i get to the post office to try to withdraw money from the ATM (my card kept getting declined yesterday at stores and ATMs- and when the sales people would call the CC company they couldn't give me a reason why). i pat my right pocket and there's not that familiar rectangular lump from my card case.... i left it at home? (i usually never take anything out of my pockets so i never forget anything... but somehow it managed to find itself on the floor). so i walk 10 minutes back to my house, get my card case. i decide to change because its so hot out and i was overdressed- and i set off again. i get to the station and then i realize that the flyer that had the map to design festa was still in the back pocket of my other jeans. frustrated, i just try to make light of the situation and tell myself- well i know the general area its in, remember the color of the train line, and i remember the station starts with a K- it'll be an adventure.

so i get on the right train, green line, going towards the right direction. i know it's past the station Osaki so i'm straight. on the railway map in the train, the greenline continues after osaki but for some reason they didn't label the stations- they just showed the a green line but that didn't phase me because i had an idea where i was going. so we past osaki, a station with K in the beginning comes up and i get off- i'm in like a factory town... ok maybe this exhibition hall is in a factory town- so i go up and i look at a map and the next station after it is yokohama... yokohama?! (yokohama is a suburb southwest of tokyo - i was supposed to be going to a place southeast of tokyo). so this would've been fine- cause i've been meaning to check out yokohama since i hear it has a lowrider culture and hiphop is much different out there compared to tokyo... but it started pouring rain (it's been raining ever since i got here, but not this hard). great.

so i decide to head home since the fest is going to end in 2 hours and if i actually knew my way there it'd take at least 45 minutes anyway. the next train to shinjuku... 45 minutes. so i wait. i decide to call my bank to try to get my card working again (i had tried to email them when they during business hours- even had mandy call them- they just told me to email these two people and they'd get it cleared up after they asked for some information- did they email me back? no.) i really needed my card to work since i only had 2000 yen in cash (~$18) which doesn't go that far. after 15 minutes of wading through automated menus i finally get a human being. she asks me all this information and i tell her my situation- she asks i'm in tokyo, my card is stopped, i've been making all these large purchases lately, but my card isn't stolen, etc. - then she asks me more information. so i ask her, well can you fix it? and she's like no, the office isn't open. (ok why didn't you tell me that 10 minutes ago? why are you asking me all these questions? i get really irritated because i'm paying $1 a minute to make this call). she says i have to wait until monday- i go off on how they aren't even giving me a reason on why they stopped my card and that i have no money and need to get money- she's like oh well you can call back in 6 hours when the members services office is open. what the hell. so i just hang up).

i get back to nakano- its still pouring out. so i walk home in the rain and get soaked- get home to my now soaking laundry. wonderful! so yes, wasn't a very pleasant day.

funny thing is, ryan and i got lost on the trains last night too. i don't know how that happened- as nakano is a station every express train except one stops at- we weren't on that express line because it stopped a mita, a station 5 or so stops away from nakano and not 10. apparently our train just decide to skip my stop. not to mention that the train wasn't very express at all- it left the station 20 minutes late (NOTHING is late here, i was appalled) and it was cruising at like 10mph for no apparent reason. i was getting worried because it was past 12am and most lines close at around 12... so i was getting ready to take the hit to the wallet. luckily we got off and there was still a train left going backwards to nakano *sigh of relief*. so we hop on the train back- usually there's a nice pleasant japanese woman telling you the next station and the direction the train is going... but this train had the devil as the conductor. a super low grumbling voice would mumble indecipherable things over the loud speaker- the first time ryan and i heard it our eyes widened and we immediately stopped talking. we both looked around to see if anyone else heard what we heard, but they were all absorbed into books, music, or knocked out. the voice continued and we decided that he sounded like the godfather- and it just must be some guy that's really bored and trying to make his job more interesting hahaha.

anyway now that it's a new day things are looking better- i was able to contact visa who was apparently trying to contact me (i'm not sure how- since they should know i'm in tokyo since all my transactions have been in tokyo for the past two weeks.. i think they were being brilliant and calling my house in michigan. go figure) to verify all the declined charges i was trying to make. so the automated man listed charges for about 10 minutes and i had to say i was aware of them- and things should be peachy now. $40 dollars in calls later... grrr. and i finally heard back from kyle cleveland, a professor at the temple university japan campus, who is doing research on japanese youth culture and hiphop culture. hopefully i'll go to the campus sometime this week and have a chat with him- get some contacts, meet some people, the whole deal. maybe even have an enlightening conversation or two- i'm curious of the answers academia gives to the questions i ask myself. i wish i took some soc/anth classes while i was at swat... ah well.

so hopefully i actually make it to design festa this time around so my $18 isn't totally wasted on the two day ticket i bought. it better be cool, it sounds amazing.

video games can make you money too!

i like my current "job" and all, but i think this is the dream job of every little boy (well maybe it's applicable all the way up to college graduates)- video game tester.

i wonder how they interview you. "how many games have you beaten?", "what is the secret code in contra to get thirty lives?", "what level is your character in world of warcraft?", "have you ever camped in an online FPS?" etc.

haha, but you never know what japanese companies are going to come up with next. the arcade games here are pretty ridiculous, there's one game where you "walk dogs"- you have to hold onto the leash while you walk on a treadmill haha. then there's the "shooter" game where you have a can of bug spray and you have to shake it to "reload". ah videogames, i haven't been in touch with them but i feel their call calling me back... :P

it's still raining :(

small happenings

i know y'all are worried about me, but rest assured everything is just peachy. i've been busy trying to get some spare cash so i can take dance lessons and go to all the shows i want to go to- so i haven't had the time to sit down and write something. some random events:

-dj krush cd release party- this man is old- or at least looks really old (but he's been around a long time nontheless). the line was around the corner and down the block- luckily i had bought my ticket in advance and skipped the entire line. i forgot to bring my digicam for some reason, but i did manage to tape about half the show before my arm got tired). he had some crazy painting up (that's part of his new cd artwork) behind him that i wish i could buy and hang up in my future home or whatever. but yeah, this guy held it down for 6 hours straight. he had no opening acts- just a few mc's that came up while he was spinning to spit a few songs. other than that- he was a machine, mixing old school hiphop, his own ambient stuff, some house and drum and bass even... shit was craaa-aaa-zy.

-miami - i emailed the people over at japanfiles.com - steve laity, an american guy whose trying to spread the wonderfullness and quirkiness of japanese music contacted me and offered to take me to see miami. i can't describe them really- electro-disco-punk-rap-sequenced music with a dose of violin-craziness-mashup. they had two indie/discopunkish bands open up for them, one of which- shoot my disco- did a freestyle rap that was pretty hilarious. i'll get videos up of miami later...

-i lost 20,000 yen or ~$180. i probably got it stolen on the subway during rush hour- you literally cannot move or breath- i though shanghai subways were bad during rush hour... oh no... tokyo is on another level.
-ryan and i went to see a day of the grand sumo championships. sumo wrestling is BRUTAL.. and no they're not just fat, some of the guys can do vertical splits- yes, that is a sight to see. a 400lb. man doing a vertical split.

-it's still raining. c'mon tokyo- show me some sun.


-signed up for dance classes at ida. i hope the classes are good, it's expensive out here... i might go take a workshop with Kadillac- a famous dancehall crew from jamaica. so hopefully i can update my knowledge of the latest dancehall movements since my previous connection, vicky, is not around anymore. haha.

pictures/videos coming soon!

china vs. the usa!

awhile back i mentioned break borders, a documentary made by a bboy i met ... well the saga continues. in said documentary there was hong kong bboys, macanese bboys and a bboy from the midwest, ManOfGod. just a week ago ManOfGod managed to get the whole Rhythm Attack Crew (HK), some other hong kong bboys, and Bboy Rock Lee (Macau) to come out to wisconsin to battle and to do a showcase. The first battle in the states to have chinese bboys representin'!

enough words, check out the battle and some more.
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it's been raining quite a bit here- the big block party @ yoyogi park got cancelled because of inclement weather- and it's been postponed til september! my luck. at least i will be seeing dj krush this friday. i walked around shibuya today and perused a few record shops (there are lots and lots...), i really miss going to the record stores in ann arbor and just listening to random music for hours- so i'm reliving that now- but its 1000x better since they have stuff that's hard to find in the states! ah so much music, so little time...

japan hates me.

the fall of the exchange rate

at least i got a prepaid phone (finally) with the help of rajiv, another guy i've met through fashion. he works in the corporate world here, and does some fashion design for the rock-themed label random. so getting a contract was out of the question because they're all for a year, and if you break it you pay something like a $200 penalty. but yeah, the process of getting a cellphone is pretty painless, you go to a vodafone store, tell them you want a prepaid phone, give them your passport and home address, give them money, wait for an hour and a half and you have a phone! the interesting thing is, i went to a store before and just asked how much the phones were (you only get to choose two) and they quoted me ¥4000 and ¥10000 (i've read accounts on expat websites that quote the same prices). when rajiv asked in japanese he got the quotes ¥2500 and ¥6500. i thought foreigner-pricing (or cannot-speak-japanese-tax) wouldn't happen in japan, but apparently i was wrong. oh and about the phones- the two phones that you can use with the prepaid plan are:

as if the cellphone envy wasn't punishment enough for being a 'gaijin' (foreigner), they give you the option of a crappy stick phone (no one in japan uses a stick phone, everything is flip or slide open) or a super bright yellow flip-phone... so everyone can point and laugh at the gaijin with their shitty cellphones. i'm not bitter haha... but it is funny.

i went to a fashion party last night at club garden in roppongi, it was quiet so some of us left early and ended up at a japanese parapara club, alife. so yes, parapara was entertaining for the first 10 minutes, but 5 hours of it was a bit too much for me. and i really don't like trance, sorry.

five dimensions

went to see five deez a few nights ago at unit. the line up looked pretty dope, dj akakabe (former japan DMC champ), dj haruo from the digital junkeez, and some other japanese cats. there were two floors, one was the big concert hall and the other section was the "saloon"- a bar area with a small dancefloor. i came in to one of the guys from conflict spinning, he was playing a lot of instrumental hiphop and a lot of (good) shit i've never heard.


the good hiphop continued with another guy, but this time with lyrics..


so the other half of force of nature stepped up to the decks and for the most part he played some sort of 4/4 electronic music that was super monotonous- maybe changed ever-so slightly every 64 or 128 bars. then he would play something random like a dj shadow break mix that would get the crowd hype, but then he would immediately go back to his shitty electronic music. i dozed off occassionally (standing up, mind you), the guy next to me sat down and played soccer on his PSP, and the rest of the crowd just stood there nodding there heads (not to the beat, but from sleepiness).

BOOOORING.

luckily fat jon and pase rock came to the rescue, yet pase rock was still courteous enough to thank force of nature for opening for them (i guess their boring performance made it all the more hype though). the crowd was jolted awake by pase rock dropping one of fat jon's signature dance-rap beats. i guess the rest of five deez couldn't show up, but fat jon and pase rock (dj'ing and mc'ing) held it down.


i was surprised that there were fat jon groupies. well two were white americans? (FAT JON WE LOVE YOU!!) and one was a very drunk japanese girl next to me that kept on yelling "jon come here!" for like half an hour and eventually she just gave up (thank god). there were a lot of females there actually, especially for an underground hiphop group from america (i don't think i've seen that many girls at a underground hiphop show before). oh so a little about five deez. they're outta midwest- cincinatti (aka kinkynasti, 'natti, etc.)- with a very diverse sound. they aren't very popular in the states, well they're hardly known.. but they have a huge following in japan apparently. so much so that they have japan-only releases (and fat jon specifically released a japan only album just to show his respect). ah, the japanese know good american stuff better than americans do (this goes for many things... especially american vintage clothes). but i digress...

there's a big block party going on in yoyogi park this sunday, amanojax but i think it's gonna rain.. i guess i'll go out and see what's up anyway... i really need to get a goretex jacket of some sort here. like a crazy north face that they don't even have in the US.

denim goretex! img's compliments of jeffstaple

mi casa, casa castania

I’ll spare you the details of my apartment hunt, but running around while having a bunch of really bad headaches wasn’t all that fun. But at least I landed a nice room in Nakano through the great people over at Fontana - a few stops from Shinjuku or only one if you take the express train. It’s on the top floor, so the entire guesthouse complex is surrounded by balconies. There's a baseball diamond next door (where they not only play baseball, but i saw a firefighting squad doing drills- dragging the hose back and forth and aiming the hose at a large tarp.) I’ve got a pretty big room that's actually carpeted (very rare, though it'd be cooler if it was tatami floor). Its also got a walkout to a balcony, internet so i can inundate you with all my ranting, and even a heated toilet seat! (note to self: when i get my own house i will import toto toilets and get a korean construction team to install ondol in my house- that is if i'm not living on a tropical island)

So if anyone wants to send me fan mail, cards, gifts, large sums of money, etc. you can send them to:

D-rock
Casa Castania 601
1-32-5 Nakano
Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0001

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Ryan again, another Watson Fellow doing a similar project who i chilled with in Hong Kong. He's a few minutes away and he won't be leaving for vietnam until may 20th, so in he's remaining days we'll take tokyo by storm. wooord.

So i've overcome obstacle number one, now to get myself a cellphone. I could go the easy route and rent one, but that'd be too expensive. Then there's prepaid, which I can take care of but i want to get a deal through Yahoo! Auctions... but they require a gaijin card (a certificate of alien registration, you need it to do almost everything here as a foreigner). Then if I have a gaijin card, I could get a contract and get a phone for free (a super-pimped out phone compared to the prepaid handsets). So it's complicated. I went to register for a gaijin card, but I won't get the actual card until the 24th.. maybe i can just use the piece of paper with my gaijin number on it though. we'll see... too bad they just don't use sim cards here like 90% the world. Aiyaaa...

tokyo, tokyo

Tokyo, tokyo. I’ve only been here for a few days and it’s been pretty crazy. The first night I got here I caught the limited express keisei train to Ueno and checked into the New Koyo Hostel. Small, clean, and one of the cheapest around (¥2700)- but it turns out I wouldn’t even sleep there. So right after I checked in I headed out to Nakai, which is on the west-siiiiiiiiiiiiide of town to check out a room in a guesthouse. Luckily I managed not to get lost on the daunting public transportation system here (so there’s actually something like 8 different companies that have rails in Tokyo, which makes pricing super complicated and there’s no one card you can use on all of them.). The place was a nice little house with 5 rooms, but it turns out that the big room is booked and one of the other rooms wouldn’t be available til the 16^th. But not all was lost, it just so happened that one of the tenants, Rah-nee Kelly, is here doing filmwork for a professor from Temple University- whose research just so happens to be Japanese hiphop and youth culture. What are the chances? I decided to stay in the vacant room for a few nights, since it was closer to all the places I would be looking at and they had wireless (the wireless in the hostel got cancelled for some reason or another). So I would move in the next day.

So we were off, Kimberly had some friends from University of Michigan here so we went to meet up with them in Shinjuku. Shin works as a finance person of some sort in a large company and Jeremy is a filmmaker who’s weaseling his way into film clubs at universities in the Tokyo area. Cool peoples. We met up, grabbed some food and drinks and went to relocate to a Karaoke bar for Jeremy’s birthday. I thought Korea had a big drinking culture (don’t get me wrong it has a huge drinking culture), but while I was there I only saw one person vomiting on the street. In my first night in Tokyo, I saw at least 3 people throwing up and trails of vomit someone left behind in the subway and it was a Thursday night! We spent the rest of the night playing darts and having good conversation to pass the time until the first train. Since cabs are prohibitively expensive (even for businessmen), Tokyo has lots of different things to do when you miss your last train- you can spend time in an internet café, which gives you a private booth and a recliner, you can play darts, sing karaoke, read manga, among other things. At around 4:30 we emerged from the dart bar and it was already bright out, damn the sun rises early (in the land of the rising sun, go figure). We went to McDonald’s to enjoy some egg mcmuffins while being surrounded by bunch of people passed out on tables.

hotel micky-d's

We walked to the famous intersection, shibuya crossing, the busiest intersection in Tokyo. People were slowly emerging from the bars and cafés, it was quiet and a flock of birds circled above.. very picturesque.

shibuya@ dawn

So that’s how Tokyo welcomed me. I didn’t sleep for another 24 hours (going on 48 hours with 3 hours of sleep).. just like a true Tokyoite. It's gonna be interesting here..