Strangest thing I've seen in Japan since I've been here happened last weekend. I was in the bathroom at the train station and a guy came up beside me to take a pee as well. He pressed the button to flush as soon as he got there, once more during the middle of his pee, and then yet again at the very end.
3 times for one pee!
The flush at the end is a given, even the one before urinating is understandable, but a flush mid-pee is just crazy.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Dir en Grey
This past weekend I headed to Kyoto with my friend to see Dir en Grey play at KBS Hall in Kyoto. The show was all standing and KBS Hall isn't really that huge. There were probably about 1300 people and even though I had ticket 1253, being a foot taller than everyone else standing at the back was no problem. By the time Dir en Grey came on stage the crowd had packed so tight up front I could move halfway up no problem as well.
I'm not sure if this is correct or not, but I think this is the first Japanese tour they've done where they had an opening band. In Toronto, they had 2, neither which were really anything special. Interestingly enough, the opening act was an American band called 10 Years, and they were actually decent. Best song they played was called Actions & Motives, but it turns out it's from a new upcoming, unreleased album, so there are no samples to be found anywhere yet.
The concert itself was fantastic, mostly new stuff, but they threw in a pretty old song in there as well and it threw off the Japanese fans. See they have this thing, where basically everyone in the audience is co-ordinated. Everyone knows exactly when and how to move at each part of each song. This is also a little strange for me, but standing at the back I can just do my own thing and not attract evil eyes from the synchronised fans, not that I would really care, but whatever. So, when they threw in this really old song no one knew what to do. Many had probably never been to a show where they played the song, and for the few who had it had been to long ago for them to remember what to do. So I'm standing at the back, doing my own thing, and everyone else is standing completely still, just watching.
The encore was crazy. Non-stop rocking with everything cranked up to 11. It was during this part that I was hit on the forehead by a pick thrown by Die, on of the guitarists. I couldn't catch it, but I knew where it landed on the floor and quickly managed to step on it and drag it closer so I could retrieve it.
A couple of other random things:
I was surprised at the number of older women (40+) fans in the crowd. There was actually a lady standing right next to me who could be 50 and was wearing this crazy short, tight, leather dress. It was actually quite off-putting and threw off my mojo for a little bit.
After the show as we were waiting in line to get our coat check stuff back there were two girls who must have been boiling or just trying to draw some eyes, because they proceeded to take off their shirts, and wait in the line, wearing only their bras and short mini-skirts. Very nice, but also very strange. Completely throwing that shy, Japanese girl stereotype out the window.
All in all, an excellent night.
I'm not sure if this is correct or not, but I think this is the first Japanese tour they've done where they had an opening band. In Toronto, they had 2, neither which were really anything special. Interestingly enough, the opening act was an American band called 10 Years, and they were actually decent. Best song they played was called Actions & Motives, but it turns out it's from a new upcoming, unreleased album, so there are no samples to be found anywhere yet.
The concert itself was fantastic, mostly new stuff, but they threw in a pretty old song in there as well and it threw off the Japanese fans. See they have this thing, where basically everyone in the audience is co-ordinated. Everyone knows exactly when and how to move at each part of each song. This is also a little strange for me, but standing at the back I can just do my own thing and not attract evil eyes from the synchronised fans, not that I would really care, but whatever. So, when they threw in this really old song no one knew what to do. Many had probably never been to a show where they played the song, and for the few who had it had been to long ago for them to remember what to do. So I'm standing at the back, doing my own thing, and everyone else is standing completely still, just watching.
The encore was crazy. Non-stop rocking with everything cranked up to 11. It was during this part that I was hit on the forehead by a pick thrown by Die, on of the guitarists. I couldn't catch it, but I knew where it landed on the floor and quickly managed to step on it and drag it closer so I could retrieve it.
A couple of other random things:
I was surprised at the number of older women (40+) fans in the crowd. There was actually a lady standing right next to me who could be 50 and was wearing this crazy short, tight, leather dress. It was actually quite off-putting and threw off my mojo for a little bit.
After the show as we were waiting in line to get our coat check stuff back there were two girls who must have been boiling or just trying to draw some eyes, because they proceeded to take off their shirts, and wait in the line, wearing only their bras and short mini-skirts. Very nice, but also very strange. Completely throwing that shy, Japanese girl stereotype out the window.
All in all, an excellent night.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
違う雰囲気
In my town there is a main road that runs from West to East basically splitting the town in half. In the main part of town most of the shops, the train station, and schools lie north of the road. Once you get past that main section of town the north and south sides of that road are like two different towns.
Normally, I am heading to the main section of the town so I ride there on a street a couple of blocks north of the main road. Riding this road all you will see is small patches of houses in between blocks of fields. There's an electric substation on the way as well, but that's about it. It's a pretty quiet road and you can ride it straight into the city though so it's very convenient and easy for me to use. As a result, I had never really ventured into the area south of the main road until about a month ago.
Riding a road about an equal distance south of the main road as the one I ride on the north side I was very surprised to find that the south side of the town is like a completely different world. There are no fields, houses both new and old dominate the landscape. There are also a bunch of small shops, restaurants, and little bars all along the way. There are a couple of factories on the south side as well. It just generally has a much busier feel to it. The first time I was riding back home down the south side I was just blown away by how the atmosphere was completely different from the north side. It was if I had discovered a whole new town in the town I thought I had pretty much seen everything in.
Normally, I am heading to the main section of the town so I ride there on a street a couple of blocks north of the main road. Riding this road all you will see is small patches of houses in between blocks of fields. There's an electric substation on the way as well, but that's about it. It's a pretty quiet road and you can ride it straight into the city though so it's very convenient and easy for me to use. As a result, I had never really ventured into the area south of the main road until about a month ago.
Riding a road about an equal distance south of the main road as the one I ride on the north side I was very surprised to find that the south side of the town is like a completely different world. There are no fields, houses both new and old dominate the landscape. There are also a bunch of small shops, restaurants, and little bars all along the way. There are a couple of factories on the south side as well. It just generally has a much busier feel to it. The first time I was riding back home down the south side I was just blown away by how the atmosphere was completely different from the north side. It was if I had discovered a whole new town in the town I thought I had pretty much seen everything in.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Winter is Just Around the Corner
Within the past week it's become noticeably colder rather quickly. Monday I woke up to find the mountains snow-capped. While it had only rained where I lived, the difference due to altitude must have been large enough that there was snow up there. Even the smaller mountains closer to my school were fairly covered which depressed me a little. Fortunately, by the afternoon the sun had melted all the snow except for some on the peaks of the taller (1000m+) mountains off in the distance. So while it's not quite winter yet, it's clearly just around the corner.
Winter in Shiga is generally warmer than in Toronto, but it feels much colder. This is because all houses in Japan are built without insulation or central heating (although some newer houses now have one, the other, or both). Apartments like mine are also generally made with a large amount of concrete which makes is quite cold in the winter. Single pane glass on all the doors and windows doesn't help either. My space heater works fairly well if I close the door to my room, but once I turn it off the heat goes away generally in 30 minutes or less. It also sucks power like a beast and if I were to constantly have it on I can't even imagine what my bill for the month would be.
Winter does signal the coming of something good though. As the seasons change Japanese breweries release seasonal beers. The various winter brews are some of the best around, and really do seem to capture the essence of the season in a beer. How exactly they manage to do it I'm not quite sure, but it's lovely.
I've also recently be afflicted with what (according to some quick research on Wikpedia) I believe to be a stye on my right eye. It seems that they tend to go away over time by themselves and cause no harm. They just make it hurt to blink which is a bit unfortunate for me seeing as I tend to blink somewhere upwards of 1000 times on any given day.
Winter in Shiga is generally warmer than in Toronto, but it feels much colder. This is because all houses in Japan are built without insulation or central heating (although some newer houses now have one, the other, or both). Apartments like mine are also generally made with a large amount of concrete which makes is quite cold in the winter. Single pane glass on all the doors and windows doesn't help either. My space heater works fairly well if I close the door to my room, but once I turn it off the heat goes away generally in 30 minutes or less. It also sucks power like a beast and if I were to constantly have it on I can't even imagine what my bill for the month would be.
Winter does signal the coming of something good though. As the seasons change Japanese breweries release seasonal beers. The various winter brews are some of the best around, and really do seem to capture the essence of the season in a beer. How exactly they manage to do it I'm not quite sure, but it's lovely.
I've also recently be afflicted with what (according to some quick research on Wikpedia) I believe to be a stye on my right eye. It seems that they tend to go away over time by themselves and cause no harm. They just make it hurt to blink which is a bit unfortunate for me seeing as I tend to blink somewhere upwards of 1000 times on any given day.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
紅葉
Today I headed up to the elementary school in the mountains. This time I took my camera as well. It's not quite the prime season yet, but a good deal of the trees have changed colour and are in their full autumn glory. On the way home since I have to wait 40 minutes for the bus I decided to walk down to the nearby temple and take some pictures there. It's actually quite famous throughout the Kansai region and draws tourists from all around. There was even a tour bus there from Tochigi (maybe 700km away). Quite a haul just to look at the foliage if I do say so myself. I'm glad it's only a 15 minute bus ride for me.
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