Swimmin' & Studyin'

(King of my local pool... I own them lanes!)

These days my routine consists of language school in the morning from 9:30-12pm then hitting the pool in the afternoon before work; I'm working on my summer tan since I missed the last Sydney summer. School is going okay, most of the other students are international high school kids here to study japanese on their summer holidays. The teacher is hilarious so we have a good time and learn a bit too.

Also been watching a lot of Samurai Jack recently. I loved the Clone Wars series and this is basically the same, just with a samurai instead of jedi knights. I highly recommend. Got to go hit the books, but if you have time check out my Google Pages site, made some more hot updates. New albums from Pharrell, Dj Spinna, Bugz in the Attic & Quantic. Take it easy.

(Oh & thank you to Nat & Em for replying to my cry for attention in the last post's comments)

Holidays + Rain + Lazy = Movies

Due to school holidays and bad weather, I spent the majority of last week lying in bed watching a whole lot of movies. There was a predominantly Asian-theme running throughout the films; with movies like 'In the Mood for Love' & '2046' by Wong Kar Wai, Jet Li's latest kung-fu epic 'Fearless', the Japanese cult samurai film 'Azumi', the Chinese love tale 'The Promise' and 'Code 46' with Tim Robbins set in Shanghai; as well as some animation that my Japanese roomates could enjoy: 'The Spongebob Squarepants' and 'Powerpuff Girls' movies; and of course some American films such as: Michael Mann's 'Collateral', the Wachowski brother's 'V for Vendetta', Spike Lee's 'Inside Man' as well as Dave Chappelle's insanely awesome 'Block Party' directed by my favourite director Michel Gondry.

All the films were of a high standard, but I was particularly impressed by Wong Kar Wai's '2046' which is a film about love told in a non-linear Asian cinema style. You need to appreciate the Eastern style of storytelling, which is quite different. Wong Kar Wai's films are very beautifully shot by the Australian born Christopher Doyle.

I was also suprised by how good 'The Powerpuff Girls' movie was. Having never seen the show, i bought the dvd in Thailand because it was a Gendy Tartakovsky series; he is the Russian-born maker of 'Dexter's Laboratory', 'Samurai Jack' and my personal favourite 'The Clone Wars' series. As far as I am concerned Gendy is god and his cartoons have a cinematic feel which bring suprising depth and feeling to the animations. The Clone Wars cartoons easily trumped the new George Lucas films. I was pumped to find out that he will be making his own versions of two my childhood favourites 'Astro Boy' and Jim Henson's classic film 'The Dark Crystal'. I have very high expectations... "In Gendy we trust".

As for Dave Chappelle's 'Block Party' directed by Michel Gondry and featuring: Mos Def, Talib Kweli, The Roots, Kanye West, Erykah Badu & the Fugees, it could never miss. Dave solidifies his position as my favourite stand-up comedian who is alive (Bill Hicks R.I.P.) by just being himself and having cameras around. Nice editing to bring a narrative to this small story about a free concert. So much love and respect between all the incredible artists; this movie leaves a feeling of goodness after the credits roll. So good I watched it twice... and I'll do it again. In related news my favourite director has made a movie with my favourite actor (Gael Garcia Bernal) titled 'Science of Sleep'... can't wait to see it.

Otherwise everything's been fairly quiet. Spent some time with the girl, chilled a bit with the roomies, had to work on Sunday though because I'm taking off next Monday to recover from Fuji Rock... hell yeah. Things will be picking up soon though; I'm starting a Japanese summer course on Thursday, and I'll have vistitors in the form of Canadian Reuben (Rick's bro) who I lived with in Korea and young Tracey who should be arriving soon. Photo's next week of Fuji Rock I promise.

(P.S. - I've been feeling the new solo album from my twin brother Pharrell. Review on my Googlepages site)

Yokohama Fireworks Festival

Went to the annual Yokohama fireworks festival last night which was pretty sick. Over Yokohama Bay they set of a shitload of fireworks for about an hour. Crazy crowds, but not too uncomfortable. Went with Mai from work and met Haruka (who I met through Yoni) and her friends. Nice bunch, I enjoyed.

There were some nutso fireworks; they had ones which exploded into giant smiley faces, with different colours for the eyes and the half-moon mouth, others exploded into Saturn shapes, with a ring exploding out of a ball. But my favourite were the bright white ones that slowly drift down and fade out after they blow up, and they just keep shooting them until the sky is filled with a big white tree-looking thing.

Then my roomate Aska had a party in a little club in Shibuya. It was ok, these days reggae, hip hop, and drum & bass are popular. But the kind of cheesy/happy kind that Japanese people love to sing along too. It's not bad, but not my thing. The highlight for me was the dancing showcase that 2 girls put on. They were incredible, and by incredible I mean really really fine; and they could seriously shake what their momma's gave them. Otherwise I was pretty bored, wasn't in the mood and Eri (my woman) couldn't make it cause of work.

Otherwise, I finished working at the junior high school (chugako) for the next 6 weeks. The kiddies are on summer holidays so so am I. I'm looking at Japanese language summer courses to fill the time, also because my Japanese level has stagnated and it's pissing me off.

Also if you want to see some insane movies, check out these two starring the indie actor: Asano Tadanobu. He's like a Japanese Johnny Depp or something, only does interesting roles. I reccomend: 'The Taste of Tea' and 'Survive Style 5' both are crazy and quirky flicks that are very funny and interesting. Both could use some more selective editing of the last 1/3 of the flims, they drag on a bit but are very worth watching, especially if you enjoy trippy Michel Gondry-type films.

Token Update

Yoyogi Park (Aerial View)














So over the last two weeks I've been busy working my two jobs and enjoying my weekends. My new accomodation is somewhat depressing during the day so I try to spend as little time here as possible.

I tried my hand at teaching elementary (primary) school kids for a couple of days. The first day was disastrous, the second was excellent. I co-teached with a New Zealand guy who was funny; he started randomly doing a beatbox while we were chanting some numbers, the kids just stared at him in puzzlement but he kept going, good on him. The kids are more friendly when they are young. A lot of them wanted my autograph, and some wanted me to sign Ronaldinho's name.

I found a few good places to catch the soccer games in Roppongi, so I caught a few with my lady friend. We also went to a couple of summer festivals. One in Yoyogi park (Earth-garden) which was basically a mass gathering of hippie's selling incense, hemp pants, candles (etc) and some pretty decent bands playing (fyi - Japanese hippies are funny dancers). The other was a street flower festival (asagaya) with lots of great Japanese food like yakitori (bbq chicken skewers) and okonomiyaki (pancakes).

And last night I finally went to karaoke with the people from work for a staff members farewell. We went after going to an all-you-can-eat/drink bbq joint. Karaoke was good value, 2100 yen ($24) for all-you-can drink and entertainment for about 5 hours. We got pretty mashed and I exposed my coworkers to my terrible singing voice. But I killed it with the Black Eyed Peas: 'My Humps' & The Doors 'Light My Fire'. I was suprised by the music that was available; they have songs by Muse, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand etc. Half of the people there were Japanese staff so there was lots of J-Pop singing. I finally see why J-Pop is so popular; fun karaoke music is not necessarily good music and vice-versa. My version of Radiohead 'Just' was horrible.

So that's it. The only thing I want to add is that things have picked up with my special lady friend. She's been upgraded from 'lady friend' to 'girlfriend', we'll see how it goes. Take care.