An American in Japan

I remember the situation well. There was this Paul Van Dyk song, "White Lies" stuck in my head. It seemed as though every time I'd walk to the train station no other song would do. And it was killing me. I knew I was totally overplaying the song in my head, but without a replacement I was powerless. Eventually, I forced myself to use the "Random Play All" setting.

And there it came. Out of nowhere, a great song. A happy song. A song with energy, the rare kind of song that you could listen to one time and like. I looked at the name on my mp3 player. "Three bags full," by Nu: Tone. It was perfect. I even liked the name. Unpronounceable, impossible to use on some file system types. It was modern and satisfying.

Listening to more of his album, Brave Nu World, I made a startling discovery. Back before I'd ever even moved to Japan, I had a song stuck in my head. The name of the song was definitely "Seven Years," but I could not locate the artist for the life of me. ATB had a "Seven Years" CD and track, but it wasn't the same song. Well Nu: Tone's Seven Years was that long lost track. Two points for Nu: Tone.

Then I was leafing through a flier from the Saloon/Unit, and this caught my eye.

Zomg! Nu: Tone was going to be here. I rounded up the usual friends of mine, and went. My god, he was amazing. It was like having a little slice of the Winter Music Conferences I'd been missing, right there in Tokyo.

After the show, while the party goers were getting their things out of the coin lockers, I noticed this guy sitting at a table selling CD's. Among them, Nu: Tone's newest. It was 2,500 yen ($25). One of the employees saw me eyeballing it and told me in his broken English that Nu: Tone would sign it if I bought it. I suddenly realized that Dan, the man behind Nu: Tone, was literally right in front of me.

So I bought the CD, had a chat with Dan, and got my first autographed CD, ever.

"You from the States?" He asked.

"Yeah, Miami." I said. I continued to tell him about how much I liked Seven Years and Three Bags Full.

"Which of my albums do you have?" He asked me.

"Um... well I download my music. But that's why I'm buying this from you now."

Needless to say the conversation kinda went downhill from there. But I had to blog about it. Not only because the music was so good, but because this is absolutely an example of downloading music that makes money for an artist he wouldn't otherwise make. Not just the CD sale and my ticket, but several tickets for my friends as well.

There's no doubt that the golden age of CD sales is over. But playing shows will never go out of style. Dan, thanks.

It's always good to return to the subject of mini skirts, isn't it? So I was at the train station when I saw this poster.

I just had to snap a pic! Because there was something in this poster that reminded me I'd forgotten something in my last post. The socks of course! Socks, stockings, pantyhose, whatever you call it. Those things that the ladies wear on their legs. I'd mentioned little about them, but they're an integral part of fashion in Japan today.

Pictured is your typical schoolgirl uniform. Yes, the skirts are short and the socks must be worn fully extended (I've always been one to scrunch my socks down). I have to take the opportunity to say that it gets very cold here in Japan. So cold I wouldn't be caught dead outside the house not wearing anything on my legs. Scratch that, I'd probably be found dead, if I didn't wear something warm over my legs. But the Japanese school girls take it in strike. It's their uniform, they have no choice.

In Miami the school system fucked with its students in the same, but opposite mannner. There, where the temperature is hot enough to literally kill you, skirts were banned. As were shorts. So it seems the schools, no matter where you are in the world, are intent on making you wear the stupidest, most uncomfortable choice possible.

But back to mini skirts. Because its the women of Japan that we're interested in. They tend to abandon the socks. I've heard that "short boots" are popular. But so are stockings. Black stockings.

I remember having a class in highschool where we were told that black stockings are innappropriate for business. That they are better left for Friday night. It made sense at the time. But here, I see ladies every day, clearing in business attire, wearing black stockings. And to call even more attention to their legs, the stockings are often ornamented. Lines, dots, patterns, anything to get you to stare at them on the train. More casual, punky stockings have holes cut in them. Like we used to wear our jeans in the 80's.

Maybe it was just the hot climate, but if a woman wore stockings in Miami, I wouldn't notice. Maybe thats because Miami women wear flesh colored stockings. Maybe its because Miami women show too much clevage for your eyes ever to get down that far. But I've even seen flesh colored stockings with patterns on them.

Oh Japan, you'll turn me into a leg man yet.

As for the poster, I'm told it has something to do with sexual harassment. "Don't molest girls on the train!" or something to that effect. If anybody out there can translate the thing, please do so in the comments.

Here are a few more pics from my adventures in Ame-Yoko. Yes, I happen to be a fan of "Taco Yaki," or Octopus balls. Everyone swears they're not fried, but they sure look fried to me. "Yaki," by the way, rhymes with "cocky."

So if you visit Ame-Yoko, you'll likely come across this Taco Yaki vendor, and his almost intentionally funny sign. To tell the truth, when I saw these signs, I was struck with deja vu. I'd almost swear to having seen them before.

When I was still living in the US, I went to all the big Japan blogs. Engrish.com, japundit.com japander.com, even ridingsun.com, when he was still blogging. But now that I live here, visiting such sights seems redundant. Since Ame-Yoko is a kinda famous place in Tokyo, I wouldn't be surprised if I had seen these signs before.

South Park was the original TV show to download. I remember my college days. I was too poor to afford cable, and I didn't want it anyway. I'd see enough TV without it, and I could download South Park, so why waste the money?

Bittorrent made things even easier. And so it was that anybody living in Japan would download their South Park via torrent. Even the creators have admitted to downloading their own episodes.

One of the major benefits to downloading a TV show is the lack of commercials. I don't know who is responsible for making these things available, but they ALWAYS edit out the commercials.

Which makes the recent trend of TV shows, putting their ads IN THE SHOW all the more gruesome. Product placement my ass. I have no sympathy for whoever loses out on the edited out advertisements. I feel sorry for the people who are watching double ads. The people who have to watch commercials and then see product placements. In the age of bittorrent and Tivo, there's no reason why you should be subjected to that kinda psychological trauma.

So when South Park put their entire library on their website, I took notice. Suddenly they were hosting their own shows, reaping the benefit and reward. The only downside was, they had commercials (at first, that is, since recently the commercials have been for their own DVD).

Combine that with some recent bad luck in the bittorrent department. Throttling on the part of major ISP's. Downloading episodes where the poster accidentally FUBAR'd the end, and I was going to not mind having to sit through the commercials. In exchange, you'd get to stream the video. And besides, it was just cool that someone finally understood what was going on, and was smart enough to cash in on it.

So when I first had the idea to write this post, I was gonna say to just stream them from southparkstudios.com. But then I watched tonight's episode. It had commercials. And it had that god damned product placement. What the hell is a popular fast food restaurant doing in the middle of the show! You want product placement, fine, but don't double commercial me buddy! I'll download your show faster than you can say "lost revenue."

I'm a bit late with this post. Hanami, which translates to "Cherry Blossom Tree Viewing," occurs at a different time each year. Whenever the trees bloom. This year it happened to be at the end of March/early April.

Ueno Park is one of the biggest and most popular places to go. It was beautiful. A true Japanese experience. A must do on the list of anyone who visits Japan.

The flower peddles fall like rain with each blow of the breeze. Alcohol, as always, is completely okay to drink in public. The government even puts down tarps so there's plenty of places to sit.

And from what I've heard, it won't last for long. Turns out most of the cherry blossom trees alive today were planted after WWII. And they're old. Word is in a few decades time, there won't hardly be any left. Nobody bothered to plant more. So enjoy it while it lasts.

Beer. Crown Royale. Bums. Tarps. Gaijins. Action shots capturing a falling pedal. Even a cute Japanese girl flashing the peace sign. What is it with the peace sign that it just won't die here in Japan. Some of my earliest memories including taking pictures while flashing a peace sign. We stopped doing that mid 80's. Get with it Japan, find a new thing to flash.

One of the things I like most about this blog is the ability to see what people typed into google to find it. I was surprised to see a large number of searches to the effect of "Japan mini skirt." I'm not sure why my blog would come up in such a search, but I'll give the people what they want.

We know that men come in three types. We love the breasts, the booty and the legs. If you happen to be a leg man, run, don't walk, to Japan. Lacking the former two qualities, Japanese women show off the one asset they do have. Legs.

If you're living in Japan, you'll be riding the train. You'll be surrounded by the general population much more so than at home where you drive around to your destinations. And that means you'll be seeing the "senioritas" of society, the "Hey 19's" and the "gyarus."

Mini skits are popular. So are tunics just as short. But most popular are daisy dukes. A common fashion trend is wearing leggings underneath. Truly I tell you, I never understood the phrase "Do those legs go all the way up?" until I walked around Tokyo.

One day I was walking through a train station with a friend of mine. These stations always have many sets of steps. In front of us was a woman wearing one of these micro skirts. She was going in the same general direction as us, and we fell in step with her. Admiring the view. When we came to one of those sets of steps, my friend taught me the advanced skirt gazing technique. He put his hand out in front of me, and stopped me from walking. "Look," was all he said. We both stood still and watched as she walked up the stairs, our viewing angle getting better with each step. And indeed, those legs went all the way up.