Record Store Day 2013

In the spectrum of annual events that bring joy once a full earthly revolution this past Saturday stands amongst the heaviest of hitters for this writer. Record Store Day falls on the third Saturday of April since it first launched in 2008. Organized by a relatively small group of people, RSD was conceived around the idea of supporting independent record store owners whose business is conducted within a brick and mortar store with at least 50% of the retail pertaining to music, they must also NOT be a publicly traded company. All of which is to say, this event is meant for the music lovers and the remaining stores that still believe in the tradition of experiencing music on a personal level. Of course, there's money to be made out of it.

But what is Record Store Day really? Well in short, record labels from big and small make limited edition runs of albums, singles, EPs, etc, and ship them out to the indie stores who request things they'd like from their distributors. Not every store gets everything. Some stores will get many things, some will get only a select few items. And when I say limited editions, I'm not talk about 20,000 worldwide or even 10,000. Most of the pressings are around 5000 and fewer. One of the records I was most excited to pick up was Orange Juice's debut LP, "You Can't Hide Your Love Forever," which first came out in 1982, but hasn't seen a vinyl pressing since. There were 750 of those distributed across all the indie record stores in America.
 
This 6th year had an impressive list of releases, although I think I was personally more excited about last year's list overall. Still, apart from the Orange Juice album, I managed to pick up some very cool things including:

-Dazed and Confused Soundtrack (first time on vinyl and one of my favorites movies of all time)

-Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals by The Dave Brubeck Trio

-Cal Tjader Trio by The Cal Tjader Trio

-Entertainment single by Phoenix (the B side has the same song but sung in Korean!)

-Tomorrow Is Alright by Sonny & The Sunsets

-Fear Of My Identity single by Best Coast . . . and lots more

Speaking of Best Coast, oftentimes there will be in-store performances to help celebrate the day, and at one of the record stores I frequent, Best Coast stopped by to do a small set for the fans who bought their latest single.

More pictures later when I organize everything, but in the meantime here's a video I shot with some highlights of the performance:

(Youtube's shaky cam fix ruined the titles in the opening seconds, I'm trying to undo it now)


-J
 

Retrospective Post: Miyama (Revisited)

So in early November we had arranged to go with Mitsuko's landlord to his house in Hiroshima. Truth be told the arrangements were made long before then. Ever since he met the two of us, he had wanted to make said plans. Things came up here and there, and eventually everything lined up just right. We had our bags packed, and he stopped by early one weekend morning to pick us up.

Hiroshima is about a 3 hour car ride from Kofu, and tried though we did, there was only so much conversation we could come up with before silence dominated the trip. The view changed only in the last 40 minutes or so, when more city life appeared. Perhaps they did exist outside the boundaries of the highways that we drove on, but this was all we could see for most of the ride.

I must say that I admired how Japan's highways were accompanied by the EXACT same looking rest stops no matter what highway you were on or what prefecture you were in. There's kind of a nice uniformity and comfort about it. When I take a few seconds to think about that sentiment, it sounds as though it would be incredibly dull. Perhaps it reinforced a kind of orderly nature that Japan seems keen on.

After a while we made it into Hiroshima Prefecture, and we came to a lookout point (Hatsukaichi-shi, it could have been) where I snapped a pretty cool panoramic photo:

A nice overview of Hiroshima

After this we rode further up and had a nice dinner at Adachi-san's house. His wife made a great meal, and was worried that we wouldn't be able to eat Japanese food. We assured her that it wasn't a problem. Bad move. She then walked into the kitchen and cooked up even more food! She's such a sweet lady, but I felt bad for making her cook more. We rested soon after dinner, Miyajima was the next day.

The Miyajima Ferry

I was excited as ever to be going back to Miyajima. I went in 2007 and it was one of the best memories I had from all of Japan.

They really are friendly

Most of the ferry ride was filmed so I'll have to put that stuff up on youtube later, maybe one nice big video that puts everything I recorded together for this trip. After landing, a wave of memories went rushing to my head. I could have closed my eyes and led everyone around; it was that clear in my head still. I even pointed out the bench where 5 years earlier a deer had eaten a map from my bag - the very same one I had slung over my shoulder that day.

The world famous torii gate for Itsukushima Shrine

Exploring the island was much more enjoyable this time around, because I was not concerned with getting back to Fukuoka later on that day (That's far by the way). Our landlord's house was very close, and we had all day to explore various areas of interest, Miyajima being the principle one for that day.

There's no doubt it's a very touristy area, so that must be taken into consideration before going. I think November is about the perfect time to go exploring Japan, and amount of people there seems to agree with that notion. It's not too hold or too cold, very even tempered weather. There seemed to be as many Japanese people as well as foreigners (from all places) walking the island. The notable, Itsukushima Shrine, had an unavoidable line, but it moved at a swift pace. I hadn't actually gone through the shrine the first time I came. I wish I could have stopped and took my time to admire all the little details (and take a bunch of pictures, I will admit) but there seemed to be a natural flow of the crowd that was.. dictated, somehow... pushing us along. Regardless there was still much to enjoy, and it only served to fan the flames of my love for the island. I still haven't explored it all.

PICTURE DUMP!

Just in time

This was a pretty popular spot to take pictures to get an excellent shot in front of the torii

This was a stage for plays and various performances once upon a time ago

A neat picture towards the end of the "tour" that wrapped around the shrine

We continued our walk around the various shops and even had our caricatures drawn on a paddle-shaped plank of wood. The man who drew us was an old friend of Adachi-san. I don't have a picture of it -it's currently hanging on a wall in Japan- but I will ask for it. He drew my eyes very sparkly, more sparkly than Mitsuko's. Heh, still got it.

Also in Hiroshima are a very famous type of hand-made makeup brushes that people come from all over to buy. They're known as Kumano brushes, and are apparently quite wonderful to use if you are one who is inclined to apply makeup. Not being the kind of boy who does, I could only appreciate them for their hand-made qualities. For those of you who don't speak Japanese (myself included [rimshot]) 'kuma/くま' means bear, and the particle 'no/の' can be used to attribute ownership or an associative property between two nouns. So when I heard 'kumano' brushes. I thought, kuma-NO-brushes. Which, sounds like bear brushes rather than simply a name. So I spent a a good chunk of time thinking that somewhere, in a clandestine locale, women hunted bears for the fine makeup brushes they could make from their fur. This was sadly shattered by Adachi-san's wife who explained it to me.   

There they are

Among the many other things we saw were an amazing pagoda that was built entirely via pin and dowel. Absolutely no screws or nails.

It almost looks like a theme park from this angle

At the request of a dear friend, there will now be a photo that I'm actually in:

That deer never stopped staring at me so I figured he was the picture taking breed

This has been a photo of me. I will now return to the regularly scheduled blogging.

I don't have too many photos that I'm in, so they'll be a rare treat for better or worse. I usually don't like having my picture taken, honestly. But that's another story, another blog, another day!

Miyajima is very famous for the manjuu that they make, and we definitely stopped by one of the MANY places that make them. When you walk down any given street where there are shops, every other one will have boxes stacked multiple feet high, all stocked with delicious manjuu.

You can also watch them be made box by box

They're shaped like maple leaves!

While we were eating and taking a break, I noticed there was a small Japanese garden behind a locked sliding glass door. Of the many interesting and beautiful adornments were several bonsai trees. Bonsai being a hobby of mine, I could not resist taking a picture of the stunningly manicured pine tree that rested just beyond my reach.

A wonderful pine bonsai

Later on that day I also tried Oysters for the first time. They were grilled so I was worried too much about trying them, not that I'm ever hesitant to try new foods. It's one of the best things about being somewhere else, I've found. 

Fry my little oysters, fry

On the half shell

I really loved those oysters, Mitsuko was a little bit on the fence about it, and quickly passed hers to me after taking a bite. I put it in my mouth and ate it before anyone noticed, but I wish I would've taken my time. I'll be back for those, no doubt.

But as you can see from the long shadows in the picture above, it was getting a bit later on in the day. We still had more to do so we shoved off the island and pressed on. I'll keep this post to just Miyajima things, but the day definitely wasn't over. I mentioned earlier to Adachi-san that I wanted to try Okonomiyaki, and that's precisely where we went to have an afternoon meal.

-J

Songs I Listened To While I Wrote This:

"Lightworks" by Atlas Sound
"Troublemaker" by Beach House
"The Only Place" by Best Coast
"Linda Linda" by The Blue Hearts
"Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do" by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band
"Where I'm Going" by Cut Copy
"Satellites" by Ancients
"All I Want" by LCD Soundsystem

Short listed

There will be a post later on about going to Hiroshima and Miyajima (for the second time) but it's probably the right time to mention that I've officially been short listed by the JET program for this year.

Their terminology sometimes is a bit confusing, but basically that's the one you want to hear. Short listed is as good as "accepted". I've jumped through the all hoops, passed through all the screening and it looks like I'll officially be going to Japan as an ALT.

It's definitely a welcome feeling, especially after not even receiving an interview the first year I applied.

As much as I'd like to be boisterous and shout out the windows to those who might not care at all, I am reminded of the feeling that grew inside of me upon learning I was granted an interview slot about two months ago. I made a note of it in my journal and I'd like to share it here:

I'm definitely excited and happy, there's no doubt about that. I just think there's an element of humility that goes hand in hand with our successes as well as failures. That being said, I shall remember to always work hard regardless of which comes.

-J

Retrospective Post: The Day I Came Back

So, before I go on about other things I thought I'd mention something that happened on literally the first day I came back.

I was sitting around at the table, still being slightly estranged by the fact that I was not in Japan anymore. My brother's friend came over and they felt like getting some lunch. I came along, and we decided that we'd get some Mexican food from a place called Alazane's. They've got amazing shrimp burritos there. Well, along the way we came across a truck that had, dangling off the hitch, a pair of truck nuts.

If you're not familiar with them, a quick google search will suffice, however I imagine you can figure out what they are.

In that moment I felt as though I were truly back. I had a vision of us sitting in Doc Brown's time machine, flying back in from 2015 to good ol' 1985.

In fact it would've gone a little something like this:

I apologize for the crappy photoshop job in advance

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly how it went.


In my head at least.


-J

Retrospective Post: The Day They Cut My Cord

I promised I would be back with more postings, and this will be the first of them to get it all started. It's a pretty harmless one, so it should be a nice and easy way to get back into the habit of writing things here again.

Shortly after this we went to Korea, and that took a while to write down in its entirety via my journal, so I'll have to condense those thoughts before I put it up here. I will though, it was a pretty interesting experience.

So, this is from November 1st:

I heard someone call out from the genkan, and it was a voice I hadn't heard before. I got up to check (I believe I was writing in the journal that moment) and it turned out to be a man in a blue jumped with a white hard hat on. He asked if it was okay for him to talk to me about a certain thing going on in the area, and I had no reason to say no. He then proceeded to empty an entire speech on my way about how they were cutting the defunct cables running from my house (all houses in the area for that matter) and simply wanted to let me know what they were doing and why. I replied to half of what he was saying, while nodding to the half I did not get.

This is the problem with learning a new language, all it takes is a new situation for you to feel like you're not that good at it. But the "what to do when the electric company shows up and wants to remove old cable attached to the side of your house" lessons just don't come up in a formal setting.

Anyway, I walked across the street and talked to my neighbor Jiro-san about it, who explained it in a way that made more sense to me. I got up and took some pictures while they worked away on it. I love the way they do things like this in Japan. There's really not much traffic at all running through here, but they still coned it off, put up a sandwich board sign, and had a man to direct people should they arrive and need to know what was going on.

Enjoy!

There's the sandwich board! I wasn't lying.

Why do their cones look like toys?

Later on that day I cooked some small fish in the fish broiler that we have in our stove. No actual oven, so there's a real limit on the kinds of things that you can cook. Well, just the things that require an oven really. But still!

A little too long but it was my first time using a broiler!

 Anyway, that's the short one for now. Stay tuned for more.

-J

A New Look

It's been a while.

I was supposed to start putting up some of the things that happened while I was in Japan for all that time. I haven't forgotten! I've just been a bit occupied with other stuff lately, but I'm hoping to start posting retro-posts. As a kind of deposit on that promise I've already made a new banner for the blog.

Look at that!

Now why would I just go and abandon this place if I went ahead and made that?

Older posts coming soon. Fear not.

-J

What Happened To That Guy?

Well, as the title suggests, I have a bit of explaining to do.

There has been a severe lack of updating in recent weeks (months?) and that has been due to an personal effort that I made. I suppose when a person is in a position such as my current one, that position being living abroad and receiving unprecedented amounts of new experiences, there are a few ways to handle reflecting upon such exploits, if that is even something one is inclined to do. One way is to simply let everything come at you, full speed ahead, and simply savor this exposure to the world in the confines of your own mind. Contrary to this is the more journalistic approach, carefully documenting each new event. The former makes for an easier time no doubt, as little is actually required of you beyond remembering what happened, though that becomes considerably harder as time presses on I imagine. This is the route I chose for the first time I came to Japan, and though I definitely feel that I got quite a bit out of that trip, I always wish that I had made notations about places I went, jotted something down about what exactly I did at what place, and when. Even the smallest of notes would add a huge amount of depth to the experience. If I'm allowed to go on a tangent, this circles back to one of the earliest posts that I made on this blog about discovering two hand written pages in a spiral notebook with little other than a simple date, and my own words regarding two distinct moments on that trip. Something compelled me to write on those days and had someone asked me about them the day before I rediscovered it in that notebook, I do not believe I would have been able to recall them. After reading it though, a surge of memory came rushing back to me, and suddenly I remembered the feeling of writing that. Although a lack of entries compounded that one, which would have provided it with a bit more context, I still had something not only intensely memorable, but personal as well. Nearly all the memories of that first trip remain perfectly in tact still, or so I thought. Having discovered those two entries while searching for something else points out a glaring fault in my own memory. I did not remember writing that. All of this rambling begs the question, what else could I have forgotten?

I remember after returning from Japan, I had a fear. I was terrified that all of the trip would become little but a memory and as memories do, it would fade like high noon into dusk, slowly but surely. This is something that was only partially stemmed by the over four thousand pictures I took, spanning across four SD memory cards. Naturally there were things I did not take pictures of, and certainly most things I did not later write about. If traveling is all about the experience, and if experience is just a manner of quantified/qualified knowledge, then it would appear that by forgetting even those two small entries on paper that I had somehow or in some way lost a bit of that trip as well. This is, of course, a dreadful thought.

As I mentioned before, this was just one way to recount an experience. Quite opposite of that is to write everything down, posting thoughts, pictures and videos on places like this blog. To the few people that have an interest in my affairs I'm sure this is great fun. It provides a way of maintaining a connection from person to person, while also allowing others to experience (if only marginally) that which you as the traveler has done. The downside though is that you have to spend time that you would have used doing things to instead write about what things you did manage to get done. This is time consuming and if one is as neurotic about their writing as I am, it takes a while of figuring out exactly what I'm trying to say before I say it, correct it, edit it, and put it out for others to read.

Then as with most things, there is a middle of the road option. This is where I find myself now. I swore to keep a travel journal this time around, and so far I have successfully maintained it quite well. The idea is not to write about every detail that happens, but to recap on things that I feel deserve writing about. Unfortunately, this is where the explanation for the lack of posting on this blog comes from. For a period I was both writing in my journal and posting the same exact information here. Before I knew it, this became an increasingly painful chore, which took up even more time that I wanted to use for conversing with people, studying Japanese, just experiencing things, really. Because it came down to one or the other, I chose to write in the journal, since that one required no outlets, cables or internet.

In short, I'm still taking pictures and I'm still maintaining a level of agency on this trip, while taking a few moments now and again to write a few messy thoughts, opinions, or just statements about what goes on here. The hope is that in years to come I will not stumble upon this part of my life and wonder what happened to that guy on the page.

-Joshua