If ROBO-COP was a city...

It's only been about 6 days since we got here, but it feels like much more than that. I wouldn't say I'm used to the place, but I'd venture as far as to say I'm not as stunned by the crazyness that is Tokyo lights, transportation, fashion, music, and food. Now, when someone ISN'T wearing a shirt in some horrible Engrish (Japanese mistranslated to English), and some tight and/or ripped jeans, I'm not quite sure what the deal is.

Everything is a trend here. You see some Japanese guys with long blond hair, and really tan skin, totally repping the surfer vibe. There's the "homies" rockin' the jersies and fresh lids, but they're all comparing their new belts with one another, more in touch with the cost of Louis Vuitton than the bloods or crips...

The over-abundance of skin tight denim on both males and females is a monument to the Emo movement, "whatever..."

All this makes for one heck of a place to people watch. I can't help but snap photos of half the people that pass me by.

Anyway, today we met a possible translator for the project who's from Seattle. Fancy that. The two American people we've gotten to know are both from Seattle. Is there some kind of exchange program going on in Washington state? What's the deal? Hopefully he'll be coming to shows/interviews with us as soon as next week.

After the meeting, we shot the beginning of the first of a series of Webisodes for "Schmook's: It's A Travelogue". Besides the documentary, we're trying to create as many side projects as we can while we're here. These webisodes will take the form of short 3-minute episodes in which Eric's alternate persona (Schmook) is a Travel Guide writer who is traveling to Tokyo for work. He works for Harry Ju...ahem...and will have to deal with the cultural displacement in which he finds himself. If anyone is actually reading this blog, then keep your eyes posted later this week or next week for the first episode of Schmooks Travelogue. It'll be posted or linked-to on our main website, http://www.livefromtokyo.net/

Here we are at Shibuya Crossing shooting a part of Episode 1:

We're going for an approach similar to The Office...roaming camera, and cuts to interviews. You'll have to check em out when they're posted, should be a lot of fun.

Later in the day, we did some work on the documentary project. We saw Electric Coma Trio play a show at Club UFO in Higashi-Koenji. They were pretty cool. The drummer was jazzy. The bass was pretty heavy, and the keyboadist/violist guy made some interesting sounds. They were like a darker/scarier MMW if you will. Anyhooters, here's a shot of them.

Anyway, my ears are still bleeding from the three opening bands that played before Electric Coma Trio. They were mostly Scream-O bands, all three of which involved at least one member spazzing out and rolling around on the stage and banging his instrument or himself against something hard...I popped on some noise cancelling headphones, and enjoyed the show...

Alright, off to bed. Tomorrow...we'll watch footage/take notes on 'em, and organize photos. Crazy amounts of media being produced, now the arduous labeling process. Hot diggity.

Segoi! (Cool!)