Akihabara, O-Nest and Nuclear Classmate

Yesterday was a whopper. With all the toppings.

By which I mean, it was darn busy...

After a sushi breakfast, Lewis and I headed to Akihabara to film the electronics. Like I've said before, this place is insanity. There are more lights, wires, cameras, converters, and whatchamacallits than you can process. Little bodegas are selling not drugs, but XLR to RCA to VGA to COMPOSITE to S-VIDEO converters, and everything in between. Here's a few shots from the session.

There are huge HD TVs set up outside some shops where business men are lined up to play videogames. Old Nintendo games are set up for the casual passerby.

Manga, the Japanese Anime culture, is robust and thriving in Akihabara. There are huge multi-floor stores, packed floor to ceiling with this animated stuff. There is a definite odd sense of sexuality going on in the cartoons. The heavy chested females are all very young (like in grade school) and most are holding swords or casting spells. There were no female customers in the Manga store we went to, but there were a lot of middle aged dudes. Sketchy...

Afterwards, we headed to O-Nest, our home away from home, where we filmed, not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six sets of music. The event was a mix of American bands and Japanese bands, and mixes of different bands. Here are a few shots:

We saw the boyfriend of the drummer from the Tokyo Pinsalocks play, as well as part of Henry Tennis play with another group. Members of San Francisco based Deerhoof were playing with a few bands.



All in all, I was too tired and hungry to enjoy the second half of the event...so I headed out first, and made my way back towards Sendagaya, where I had a massive feast of ramen and gyoza. Ordering was next to impossible unfortunately, but the food was delectable and enormous.

After waking up in a daze this morning, we did some "house-keeping" and backed up a ton of files and photos from the project. We've shot over 7,000 photographs at this point, and it's my job to go through each subfolder and select the "keepers" so that we have a more concise way to find good photos to post on the website or elsewhere.

Early this evening, we went BACK to the ramen shop where I ate last night...double feature! Alright, bonus! It was once again, delectable and enormous. After that, we hit the road and saw Nuclear Classmate play a wacky and fun show at Marz, a club in Shinjuku.

The duo described themselves as suicide pop, which was fitting, because at moments during the poppy songs, the female singer would suddenly start screaming and convulsing. The crowd loved it.

After an interview with them, we headed home...one of our earlier eveings in a while.

So that's the whole ball of wax.

Ian

P.S. I need to describe to you something we've been getting a kick out of over here. The main street near our apartment in Sendagaya, called Meiji Dori, has been under construction since we got here. There are men working there every evening. However, it always seems like there are 5 times as many people as are necessary.

So, we started observing the situation. We noticed the following things:

A) While 2 or 3 guys work, about 8 people stand around and watch them.

B) There are 6 guys that stand around the worksite and merely tell you where to walk, as if the 200 cones lining the walkway were not sufficient.

C) Instead of one of the workers alerting traffic of the construction, they have placed a manequin at the front of the contruction site. This manequin is holding a flashing rod, and a sign that has an arrow sign, and is dressed up in the same blue jumpsuit and flashing vest that the workers wear. He also has fake hair and a helmet. The thing is ROBOTIC too! So it waves its flashing rod around, apparently to prevent an accident...hmmm....

D) The best part about (C) is that there is another worker whose sole job is to stand about 5 feet away from the robotic man doing his job, and watch the robot to ensure it doesn't malfunction. Are these guys serious? They designed a robot to replace a human for a job, but then they have the guy just stand there anyway to watch the robot. Something isn't adding up here.

P.P.S. - Ives, as to your questions, I have seen a few really cool cars. Besides the one Ferrari I saw ripping down the street, there are a ton of cars that don't exist in America. Lexus and Toyotas have models that I have never seen, and some models that are made in America are switched. Like a Lexus SUV may be made by Toyota here, or something like that. Some just aren't made Stateside...There are a ton of really cool compact cars. One guy we interviewed, the guy in the hat from Sexy Synthesizer - see post from their show- was all about cars. He talked about his "rice-rocket" for a while, and told us he'd show it to us at some point. He was all about Tokyo Drift. I was surprised he didn't consider "rice-rocket" to be a derogatory term. He was very proud of his car. And as of yet, I haven't taken any photos of crazy cars/motorcylces, but they are out there, so I will start to when I seem 'em...

P.P.P.S. - I also have heard that the Fall season is starting back on the East Coast, and I have to say, I am a bit sad that I am not there for it's beginning. Being up at Vermont for the past 4 Spring>Fall transitions has been an amazing experience, but I also love to witness this back in CT. It's still 90 degrees here most days. I'll be excited the get home and don a hoodie. Nothing beats wearing a hoodie in Fall. Except maybe building a bonfire to go with it.

P.P.P.P.S. - CHECK OUT LIVEFROMTOKYO.NET!!! The website is up! Although changes will still be made in the next few weeks, there is a working version up, so take a look! There's a little flash menu on the front page, that I designed...hope you like it!

Ok. No more P.S.es...that's it...I'm P.S.ed out.