Why Should I Care? October 7, 2009

That’s the title of a jazz standard. Good song. It’s probably about love or something.

Coming back to America has been an experience for me. Adjusting to the diet, non-public transportation, lack of daily exercise (unless provoked), and the total absence of Japanese, has been interesting, relaxing, sad, and frustrating.

Quick story. While I was in Japan, I essentially abandoned the history major within me and adopted what me and Greg call an “anti-intelligence tip.” My philosophies had led me to that point as a result of the question of ethics. How should I live? I would ask.  I’d answer Be happy.  Make others happy.  Be honest.  Make efforts to stay that way.

It’s simple enough right?  Too simple?  Maybe.  But that’s where I was in my life’s search for truth and meaning.  Is there intelligence inherent in my ethics?  Of course.  I must answer how I stay happy while positively influencing others.  And honesty cannot help but propagate knowledge and intelligence.  However, being “anti-intelligence” meant that I rejected the excess.  What’s going on in Iraq right now? Well, I’m in Japan; I don’t care; the few people around me that care aren’t hurt by me not caring; I couldn’t do anything about the situation in Iraq from my position; so fuck it: I don’t know.  I didn’t know because I did not care to know.  Is that so wrong?

Well, it may be to Americans.  Isn’t there this general promotion of staying abreast of current intelligence and current events?  Even these college kids who, to me, care nothing about <loaded>deep knowledge</loaded> read the university’s daily newspaper.  My parents’ generation watch CNN in between their daily-grind workdays.  Aside from these normal people are the real intellectuals: scholars, teachers, writers, journalists, politicians, etc. who really value awareness of current events.

Why, though?  I guess I shouldn’t be asking that, being an undergraduate history major.  Why should I care about intelligence and knowledge?? Right, why?  Personally, I haven’t figured it out beyond the scope of my personal pursuit of happyness.  But I am deeper into it by simply being here at UGA and having the academic responsibilities to do my work.

So I just left my African History professor’s office.  We were discussing a test grade and study habits.  For whatever reason he suddenly quizzed me, asking me to name some cities in Afghanistan.  I couldn’t.  Crazy, huh?  I recognized names he mentioned, but he was shocked and, yeah, appalled that I couldn’t answer his question.  Frankly it was embarrassing, but my questions lead me to avoiding such knowledge.

Question: Afghanistan. Okay okay, let’s see.  Osama Bin Laden.  9/11.  War.  Iraq.  Saddam Hussein.  Deaths.  Sad.  Bring ‘em home.  Partisanship.  War economy.  Seriously bring ‘em home.

Where is the capital of Afghanistan in there?  I mean, this is my point here: knowing city names in the Middle East is avoidable.  My answer to the question “Afghanistan” is what I pick up here and there.  And I’ve certainly read several news and wikipedia articles about the Iraq War but what I get out of those are details relevant to me.  I toss the rest (because I have a poor memory).

I was embarrassed, but more upset that I was insulted because I have no interest in certain current events.  Even if, as I might hear someone say, it affects me, why should I care about Afghanistan and the Iraq War? I’m not asking “what is there to care about?” or “why should anyone care for it at all,” but why should I (me) care enough to make efforts to remember things like–

Where’s Basra?

The answer, my teacher assumed, is something everybody just knows.  But everybody doesn’t just know.  Lots of people probably do not even care.  And I cannot find a reason to blame them.

So, why should I care?

Out of da club June 27, 2009

So I went clubbing again last night.  It marks my 3rd or 4th time clubbing in Japan, but also in my life.  I admit that I was prejudiced after my first experience at Pure, and I think there’s a lot of fun to be had at clubs, even for the modest.

We headed to Shinsaibashi to hit up LIFE, a club on the smaller side, but it’s completely free to get in (for a decent club, this is rare). Outside there was a sign. Michael Jackson’s Thriller was the background.  The text said “Free Memorial Party.”  I thought it was so cool.  This is how the world reacts to big news.  My dad has told me the story of where he was when he found out John Lennon had been killed.  Yesterday was like that for me.  Incidentally, I first found out about it through Twitter, but I ended up watching his music videos at a club, and later, a quesadilla vendor.

The music wasn’t all MJ, but it was good.  I was having a ball dancing, and was happy to receive 2 free shots.  But things went awry when a few avid clubbers decided LIFE was below their standards — which I still believe to be snobby — and jetted.  Their influence somehow trickled down to me (who probably cared the least about 3 of 15 people leaving) and I had no choice but to stuff myself into a taxi with 5 people and head to Sam & Dave’s in Umeda. I was kind of upset that everyone half-assedly decided to ditch a good free club for a crowded, expensive, shitty-music-playing one. So I saw my friends inside and dipped. I found some attractive places around the streets, then headed back to the club. I never went in. I’m glad. Eventually others showed up and I ended up chilling on the curb with Meiyou, Stephanie, Markus, and Lauryn until 5am. On the way home we tried to find the shrine dedicated to the characters (based on real people) of the Love Suicides at Sonezaki, a play by Chikamatsu.　We couldn’t find it… So we returned home.

The night was fun, and after a bit I stopped sulking in frustration, so it was all good.  Also, I’ve had some recent trouble with alcohol so I only drank those two shots, and ended up having a good night!

Friday Night Heights May 30, 2009

Friday night was fun–an example of why I am here and why I enjoy it.

For starters, Fridays this semester are class-free like I mentioned before.  I got up leisurely, chatted with Sarah, and ate…it was probably curry.  That’s all I eat now.

Work happened from 3 to 6.  It’s already a laid-back job (a la Cleveland Coin).  But now it’s even more chill because the English tutoring hours (my hours) have moved from the daycare to my boss’s house!  And all the kids are friends, so I’m merely a co-baby sitter half the time.  This time includes playing with a bunny, roaming around the house, getting awesome tea and snacks, and just chatting with my boss Tamaho about life (this week was “How to raise your children in both English and Japanese”).  The other part is actual tutoring, but it’s generally painless if you give the children a smidge of freedom.

From 6:00 I was on my way to see friends Erik and JD perform at a live house near Osaka.  It took a while to get there (and several different trains) but I spotted several other late comers at the last train station.  We enjoyed some McD’s sitting around a huge fountain, then headed to the hole.

Yeah, it was a hole.  I mean, narrow, nearly unnoticeable looks-like-it-leads-to-the-utility-closet-of-the-city staircase; which leads down into an ever increasing curry smell (there was no curry—-no food at all).  The live house itself is hella hella small, with very few seats.  But none of that mattered when the music was playing.  Tons of people were there (Trevor, Neil, Kana, Junko, Lars, Nela, Jessica, Anna, Carvahlo) and Erik and JD played a psychadelic and highly groovable electronic show with a drumset, a guitar, and a computer.  It was pleasurable as always.

The next band was a three-man rock group that had a bit of an original edge to them—-enough to make me enjoy them.  The lead singer had a surprisingly high and slightly shaky voice like Thom Yorke.

The third group was—-(haha, oh goodness)—-they were wild.  They were called 8 monkeys I believe, but they had 6 members.  The impressive setup led me to believe my shit would be rocked.  It wasn’t.  But I still liked them.  They said, like all bands do, “We’ll be playing for the next 30 minutes, so let’s have fun.”  But they seriously played for the next 30 minutes.  One long piece that flowed in and out of funk, always returning to a dull ambient nebulous foundation.  Who I thought was the lead singer was actually just the talker.  He walked around stage most of the time, and every once in a while he would start screaming stories into the microphone.  His mic was too low, but at one point the music stopped, and the story sounded pretty dull.  I thought it was awesome, though.  In short, I liked them because I’d never seen a band like them.

The fourth group, kacica, rocked my shit.  Hard. I’m listening to their CD as I type.  It’s amazing.  A 4-piece band, they played the four instruments you’d think they’d play, but they all had other shit going on too.  Mesmerizing electronic effects were manipulated with pads and pedals to really change the entire atmosphere of the venue.  Three songs, about 10 minutes long each, were all awesome.  The music was definitely heavy, but the minimalism is what made it mesmerizing.  The bassist would play like 3 notes over and over the whole song, the drums would give a driving beat that didn’t really change except that it got increasingly louder.  The guitarist/effects master would eff with ess until the speakers were absolutely full of fun.

[Update: I found some videos of kacica on youtube.  I plan on burning the CD I bought for all interested when I get back to the states, but for now enjoy a short-length version (along the lines of the album version) of "mosaic."  To be honest the extra 10 minutes of slamming drums really knocked my head off, but this version is great too.]

What minimalism does for me is, it gets me into a secure position with a secured rhythm.  I hear this played over and over, and I can get lost in it.  The final song, “Mosaic,” got so loud and driving that I was lifted out of my chair and onto the floor.   I couldn’t not move my body.  It was really moving.

So I talked to them after the show, told them I loved it, bought their CD and we exchanged “I hope to see you again”s.

We returned to the fountain to drink and talk about music for a couple of hours, then took the many trains home.

Me and Lars went to an absinthe bar at our train station.  It was my first time drinking absinthe.  Junk is strong and that ain’t no joke.  The bartender looked and sounded high, which is awesome because I’ve never seen that in Japan.  The atmosphere of the place was great, which is good because I’ll be returning there next weekend for a show.

And then I finally got some sleep

It was a beautiful night where I discovered new places, new music, new conversation, new thoughts from old acquaintances, and new drinks.  I hope I fill my next month and a half with great experiences like that while I’m here, and then carry on in America as well

School Break Words Brake May 17, 2009

Summer has begun for my bros and…ladies back in the US.  That’s really awesome.  But me?  I get next week off because of swine flu.  Seriously, I’m sick of breaks man.  I have a very light schedule and I’m not that stressed.  And I ain’t making up this missed class time at the end of July, I’m going the eff home.

Here it’s called shingata influenza, which means “new type influenza.”  We had a supposed first infection in Japan a couple weeks ago, but it was a false alarm.  Now, in the district of the city I live in, Chuo-ku, Kobe, there have been a number of infections confirmed.  More in Osaka.  I heard about like 3 yesterday, and now it looks like it’s over 30.  Sarah was right: diseases have potential to spread very fast.

But I think Japan is hyping up shingata influenza more than America is.  Am I wrong?  My school is cancelled for a week.  Kobe University is too, along with several other schools and universities in this area.  Have you Americans gotten holidays because of swine flu scare?  Yesterday (when I first heard of 3 cases of shingata flu) I was transferring trains in nishikita station like I do almost every day, and I noticed lots of people working in the station wearing masks.  You know, those white surgeon-looking masks (called masuku here) are super common here.  I don’t think I’ve gone a single day in Japan when I didn’t walk outside and see several people wearing masks.  It’s extremely commonplace here in Japan.  But, as I walked across the station to the other platform, I noticed, “Wait, bread salesman, station attendants, barbers, everyone who works inside the station is wearing a mask!”  I assumed then that it was regulation, not just coincidence.  Either way, fear is pretty palpable here.

And in my experience, holidays in Japan without travel plans quite suck.  It sucks being cooped up in this tiny dorm room with no fun to be had.  Especially because most people usually are travelling on holidays.  I guess everyone will be here this week, so who knows what’ll happen.  Friday I’m going to visit Akiko in her hometown.  I’m getting to stay in her parents house (if I remember, sliding traditional doors and shite) which will be cool.  But until Friday, what I’m gon’ do?

I guess I gotta game it out and study as much as I can.  The general Japanese fear is making think I should stay inside mostly, so I’m left to loneliness.

To change the subject, I’ve been thinking a lot about dialects and slang lately.  Well, for months now.  Studying Japanese has made me appreciate regional differences in a language.  In American English, there exist tons of different variations of the standardized version.  I used to try and distance myself from dialects and stick with standard English.  I don’t mean that I tried to change my accent (that’d be super hard).  I just wanted to speak perfectly grammatically as best I could.  It wasn’t because I wanted to be cooler than normal Georgian speakers (although naturally perfecter language sounds smarter), it’s just that I liked the thought of being perfectly understood on the first run through.

However, I don’t know what about Japanese made me like dialectical speech, but I’ve come to really enjoy the subtle and crazy differences between the speech of people from California and the speech of my extended family.  It’s so cool.  I just like that regions have tailored English to fit them.  Compared to England, American English generally uses fewer words to communicate right?  Then Georgia has “bless his heart” and “it’s high time” and “ya’ll” and so on–phrases that are used a lot in place of different words used elsewhere.  In conclusion, I’m excited about returning to Georgia and embracing the dialect there.

Tokyo! Asa Made!* May 9, 2009

I appreciate the fans of the V-logs, and that’s why I keep ‘em coming.  But I know you must be annoyed by the audio delay.  Again, it happens during the upload to Youtube, the very last step in the process (grrr!) and I don’t get the problem.  So I’m very sorry, but here ya go.

*Tokyo, aaaall night long!

Cheapskate’s Paradise May 1, 2009

I am positively glad I don’t have Friday classes this semester.

I finally get to experience the four-day work week for the first time in my life–that which GSU people already know well.  I work on every other Friday, but work doesn’t last long.  I can sleep in, and all day feel the freedom of not having classes.  It’s a different feeling thinking “Yup.  Gotta get up and go get paid to teach English.” than thinking “Ugh.  Gotta get up super early to go sit through lectures and junk.”

Today was my first completely free Friday of the semester.  Today began my personal Golden Week, which will last until May 11th if I only skip one day of classes.  I’m geeked of course.  But it’s also quite boring being cooped up in my dorm during holidays.  In other words, if I don’t travel, I’d rather have obligations that get me out of bed–classes, work, whatevz–than unchained free time.

My trip to Tokyo is looking iffy.  I still haven’t reserved my Shinkansen ticket, and I’m relying on someone else to book the hostel for me.  If I don’t go this week I won’t freak out: free Fridays allow for a 3-day trip to Tokyo any time this semester!

In local today’s news, I explored the kick-ass Book Off at nishikita again.  (“Nishikita” is short for “Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi” or 西宮北口, which is a big hub for the Hankyu train line in Nishinomiya city, which is on my way to and from school.  It’s got the biggest mall in Kansai plus tons of other great shops, restaurants, and bars within walking distance.  It’s very common for my friends to plan to “meet at nishikita.”)  Book Off is a 99% used book/music/games store chain that has ass-exploding prices.

• Ｄの食卓(D’s Dinner Table): an old shitty adventure game, is at Book Off–Special 3-disc edition, no less–for 250 yen.  At the mall’s Joshin electronic store, it was 700.
• Final Fantasy XII: any edition–regular, international, Zodiac system–1550 yen.
• Gradius V: 2450 yen (I gotta get this!)
• Suikoden II: insani-rare in US, 950 yen at Book Off (where’s the “For real though?” emoticon…).  I bought it in DenDen Town for around 1750.  Still worth it, but Book Off is just wild.
• Death Note series for 105 yen per volume.
• Bleach for 105 per volume (except for the newer ones).
• Samurai Deeper Kyo, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, Tenchi Muyo, Conan, most Naruto, etc. etc. for 105 yen per volume. These prices are SICK cheap.

Long story short: I’ve decided that I cannot to commit to a classic (in other words, long) manga series right now.  I don’t have the time nor the knowledge about quality of the manga.  So my plan is to buy the first volume of many series just to taste all the colors of the manga rainbow.  Right now I have 1 or more volumes of the following:

• 魔王 (Maou): Juvenile Remix
• D. Gray Man
• Bakuman
• Tenchi Muyo

(Yeah, not much manga.  And zero anime.  So much for my nerdiness…)

I like everything I’ve read in the world of manga.  So I think this strategy will be just fine.

After being awesome in Book Off, I crossed the street and be’d awesome in the arcade there, called “Game Navel: Play Station.”  This name, by the way, has made the origin of the console’s name clearer to me.  It seems by “play station” they mean “place where you play” or “play location.”   Anyhow, I saw that they’re holding a free Tekken 6 tournament soon.  I want to go and film the good players.  Also?  Check this, gamers: On the side of the Tekken 6 cabinets, there’s a huge widescreen TV broadcasting one of the matches being played.  Underneath, there is a shelf with two giant folders.  Filled with page-protected paper.  All meticulously filled with special moves for the characters in Tekken 6.  This is awesome to me for some reason.

Next, me and Lauryn went to kaitenzushi (回転寿司) which is a cheap way to eat sushi.  You sit at a booth, next to which is a conveyor belt rotating different sushi, drinks, and treats for customers to grab as they feel inclined to.  Plates are 90% of the time 105 yen each, and are counted by a waiter when you leave to determine your bill.  It’s cheap because the quality is low (the sushi isn’t handmade and it gets warm really fast rotating along that conveyor belt) but I’m not an elitist like Japanese people can be, so I love it.  Well, I also love it because it’s a totally Japanese experience.  Can’t you picture it?  Loud elevator-music reinditions of Utada blasting, businessmen drinking beer and turning red, families, girlfriends, all grabbing sushi–all types of fish, a billion types of squid, sea urchins, natto, corn-covered-in-mayonaisse, even hamburger sushi–drinking green tea, and only dealing with staff if you press a button on a touch screen menu that calls attention to your booth.  That’s, how do you say, fucking Japanese.

Me and Lauryn had good sushi, good tea, good sweets, and good talks.  I then came home around 11pm, tired as always, but happy that I got the fuck out of my dorm room.  I swear, you never run out of new places in Japan to just wander around.  It’s great.

Just thought I’d give you a more daily-life style update.

Jot-List April 25, 2009

• I’ve seen 3 incidents now, in the past few months, of old guys just peeing whereever-the-hell at my stop called Oji-Koen.  Like, how could they not pick a better spot?  Or wait until they find a restroom?  Admittedly, public restrooms are very hard to find when you’re just wandering around town (so are trash cans, for that matter).  But these guys just pee into bushes at 6-point intersections, or onto a 2-ft.-high concrete wall on a slanted walkway I take to get home, or in this little circle with little metal horse-kiddie-ride-things partially covered by concrete walls.  What the hell?  They look around suspiciously while they do it.  As well they should, you know?  As for the pedestrians that happen upon this indecency?  Well, they’re Japanese, so they don’t say a word.  They look down at their feet, walk around, and act like they saw nothing.
• Saw Akiko today for the first time in 3 years.  She was my language-partner-slash-jazz-mentor during my freshman year at UGA.  She’s now married, pregnant, and busy as crap.  She’s still the most down-to-earth Japanese person I know.
• I can’t bring myself to play any video games except Pop’n Music and shmups.  I feel like I don’t have time for anything but instant gratification.  HELP!  I started FFVI a while ago but I can’t turn on my Super Famicom these days!
• Planning on finally visiting Tokyo during Golden Week.  I’m gonna stay for 3 days, hopefully, which is enough time to hit the major shites…sites.  If I go, it’ll mark my first and probably only Shinkansen ride too.
• Currently reading Bakuman, the sort of new manga from the Death Note writer/artist duo.  It’s really good slice-of-life stuff.
• Going to a shinkan konpa on Monday for the jazz circle I entered.  Shinkan konpa is just a party to get to know new dudes.  I’m a new dude.  What I want out of this circle experience is interaction with Japanese people, notification about jazz lives around Japan, and practice playing jazz drums.
• Recently been inspired to really get into music performance after seeing a guy here named Erik who does solo performances with a laptop and a drumset, plus my boi Greg doin’ it big on stages across Georgia.  Can’t wait to get back home and get into live stuff.
• I’m very glad I have little homework here in Japan, because I seldom have time to do even the slightest amount of studying at home.  This is after all a once-in-a-lifetime exchange program.
• I put a few new photo albums on my Facebook profile.  Check them out at your convenience

Exploring Shukugawa April 22, 2009

Shukugawa is an area near my home that’s famous for it’s cherry blossoms (sakura).  I filmed this days before the sakura season ended  so there’s a bit of green bleeding into the pink (after the sakura blossoms fall, green leaves take over the tree).  But it was still fun to walk around and visit the snack booths that are always present at events, the people drinking under sakura trees (which is in accordance with tradition) and seeing the pretty river flowing through it all.  Enjoy!

Gameshow Clip April 15, 2009

Yeah.  Sorry.  I just can’t kick that audio lag.  It happens somewhere during the upload from my computer to Youtube.  But you all seem to have managed, so I won’t beat myself up.  It’s Youtube’s fault anyways.  Oh yeah, and as always, you gotta turn up your volume!  My bizzle!

Let’s Get Real April 5, 2009

I’m back in Japan for what will be a three-and-a-half-month semester.  I’m…excited about the opportunities I have here.  I am also excited about getting back to my life in Georgia.

Yeah: excited about Georgia.  I know.

My time at home was beautiful.  I got to see my friends, family, and girlfriend.  I got to watch a 100,000 channels and understand every word spoken on every station.  I got to eat Italian food and Mexican food.  I got to play video games in that had been queuing for, oh, 6 months.  I got to drive.  Most importantly, I got to have good conversation.

Honestly, I am far too hard-pressed to have a good conversation here in Japan.  I mean, it should not be as hard as it is.  Even though there are smart people and kind people here, in both English and Japanese, the conversation is unsatisfying.  Some contributing factors to this lack of satisfaction are: I play word games in English because it’s fun for me to almost randomly manipulate the less-important words of a sentence and see what happens (it’s funny to me 99% of the time).  Here, I get made fun of for putting “dotcom” at the end of sentences, or the listener is just too surprised to chuckle and move on.  Also, the only people here who talk about video games and anime are assholes, and I can’t be wasting my time with gangs of assholes.

Finally, I have trouble really enjoying conversation with anyone here because people at home know me and, just like players on all-star football teams play better at home, and jazz players sound better when playing with close comrades, I give and receive so much better at home.  Sucks for the in-Japan Chris I guess, ay.

However, I’m not down about spending more time in Japan.  Honestly, I needed to go home when I did.  Reports from someone here show that I was visibly sad all the time before March happened.  And coming back with fresh breath in my lungs helped.  Getting off the plane and onto the shuttle, and onto my home carrying too much luggage–I wasn’t drunk with excitement.  This is good.  My head is on my shoulders, not the nimbus 2000s.  Landing here a few days ago and walking through downtown Kobe was like visiting relatives: it’s not like you’ve ever lived there, but you know the place damn well.

These feelings and this awareness have made me want more out of Japan.  See, when I went home I was asked a surprising amount of questions to which I really didn’t know the answer.  How?  They were general questions that one might learn about a culture by living in it.  Well, it’s simply that I settled into my life as a student–my regular restaurants, my regular travel sites, my regular clothing stores, my regular train stops–and had little interest in anything beyond getting food and, and practicing Japanese a little.  That was all.

But having a clear head (I’m telling you, I feel so different) has got me thinking that I need to do things during my time in Japan that I can only do in Japan, right?  I feel like I should watch more TV here and try out more restaurants and travel to more places and make more friends and buy more clothes and so on.  Right?

Anyways, that’s what I’m gonna try to do–with an exception.

You see, long before arriving here in September, I knew that just being here would shove fluency into my brainzzz.  That isn’t true.  I’ve excelled in ways I never would have in Georgia, but I won’t ever improve my language skills without lots of work.  That’s what I realized after being here a while.  And after that, I realized that…well, I may not ever become totally fluent in Japanese.  I’m okay with that, but it almost entirely changes the reason I’m here.

I plan to befriend Japanese exchange students at UGA next year to keep my skills up.  Then, when I end up in Douglasville after that (or wherever in Georgia), I’ll be forced to hang around the Japanese restaurants like a skeevy dork to grasp any opportunities to practice Japanese.  Even though I used to be excited about getting a job helping Japanese tourists in Atlanta or something, I realized that with my 100% English/30% Japanese skills, there are plenty of perfectly bilingual Japanese/English speakers available leaving my choice of jobs to those where I can speak Amurican.

So I have had to think about what I’ll use my skills for.  Honestly.  And what I come up with has nothing to do with speaking or writing–rather, it’s entirely passive Japanese usage.

I believe I will use my powers to read Japanese texts, watch Japanese TV, and play Japanese games.  That’s all.  I would love to use the language for more than that, but it doesn’t seem reasonable unless I leave my normal American life for something totally consumed by Japanese.  And I’m not prepared to do that.

So to these terms I arrive!  And I will pursue Japan in unique ways, taking what only it has to offer, no longer with the idea that I’m failing at Japan when I don’t learn the language.

One more thing: I feel like almost everyone here is very excited about learning the language and honestly everyone is progressing at an impressive rate.  It’s exciting to penetrate a culture through its language.  But I’d like you to guess how many people will remember the Japanese they learn during this year after another year has passed; and after 3 years; 5 years.  Once again I think realism is hardly indistinguishable from cynicism, but this way of thinking has cleared my head.  So BAM!