baa, baa, black sheep

[kyoto catch-up will be posted soon.]

april 8, 2010

kyoto trip day 1

uji (sakura, tea ceremony, famous place, omiyage place, green tea sofuto with hashi). dinner with ciee group. performance and tea ceremony.

april 9, 2010

kyoto trip day 2

walking tour. torture at small temple.

***

may 4, 2010

tried to go see "alice in wonderland," but really busy due to "golden week" so all sold out. ended up chilling in "starbucks" for a while, working on readings for class. checked out new "tower records." bought june 2010 volume of "ongaku to hito (music & people)" magazine because it had photos from zepp tokyo "the back horn" concert i went to.

may 5, 2010

adventure to "national art center, tokyo" in roppongi. took chuo line to ochanomizu. took photos of holy resurrection cathedral that i've been meaning to take photos of for a while. stopped for some lunch at "soup stock tokyo," tomato chicken curry. switched over to "tokyo metro chiyoda line" at shin-ochanomizu station. took "chiyoda" to nogizaka station and took exit 6 which connected directly with the museum. museum itself had really interesting modern architecture. saw exhibit "artist file 2010: nact annual show of contemporary art" featuring contemporary japanese (and one foreign) artists.

as i wandered around the exhibit, other people started imitating certain ways i was looking at the art multiple times. for instance, there were two large ceramic cylinder sculptures resting on the floor and i was curious as to what they looked like inside so i crouched down to see through. right after i moved away, a mother and her little boy crouched down to do the same. later on, i came across a piece that involved two long, waist-height cases each displaying a long piece of paper with abstract watercolor designs on them. and above each case was an animated video projected on the wall of the watercolor pieces as they were being created, without evidence of a brush or hand, kind of a slightly choppy stop-motion type animation. figured out where the animation matched up with the end of the watercolor and walked backwards switching my attention back and forth between the animation and the watercolor until i reach the other end of the watercolor. as i was doing so, a few people standing nearby followed my example. pretty entertaining.

after walking through exhibit, walked around the outside of the museum and explored a bit of the neighborhood. took lots of photos of the museum's exterior. would like to go back to museum to see "post-impressionism" exhibit at the end of the month.

may 6, 2010

classes. ran into george after class. had discussion about hair cuts (apparently he got a really cheap and really bad one) and told him about my museum visit.

may 7, 2010

teacher late to class this morning. as everyone was leaving, eyed very large spider over door, refused to exit from that door. teacher finally arrived and everyone herded back into class. later in class, spider fell on ben and mark. home for nap. met jamie and ashley for usual 7/11 ritual snack, then went to  tower records, marui department store, and mr. donuts.

may 8, 2010

"merry" concert today! met jamie and ashley at akasaka station. had lunch at "jonathan's." tried special akasaka sakura cherry blossom melon pan. lots of "merry" fans congregating outside of akasaka blitz, waiting for the show. many fans wearing "merry" t-shirts, many fans very punk in style. merchandise had name of concert on it ("merry or die ~xxxx~") and the usual sheep. bought "merry" sheep pins, one pink and one grey. had pretty good ticket (top of "b" section), but fan club very big (at least a thousand people) so didn't get that close up. show started with three spotlights crossed on  gara as he sang, interesting effect. watched drummer nero flail as usual, very entertaining. "para para" synchronized hand gestures not as daunting as i remembered them after doing so much "para para" at indies shows. and, to tell you the truth, audience not as violent and crazy as "the back horn" audience was. there were, however, a few annoying girls in the audience, one of whom tried to cut in front of me so i had to worm my way back in front of her. for some reason, audience not incredibly enthusiastic about yelling "encore" (sounds more like "ahnn-koh-reh" in japanese) so i did a lot of shouting to try and rally the crowd. unfortunately didn't play one of my favorite songs "katamichi kippu" ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=i91DMj… ), but made up for it by playing songs like "gesshoku" and "akai kutsu." highlight of the show was the first song of the first encore, an acoustic version of "kanaria," hope they release a recorded version of it. during the last song "gekisei," the concert hall filled with pink smoke and by the end of the song, when the smoke cleared, the band had vanished. then, a screen rolled down and played a preview for their new single "the cry against..." ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k2V-6… ). it was kind of funny because the music video uses some old black and white propaganda footage and the audience was like "dare? dare?" ("who's that?"). overall enjoyable and entertaining show. afterwards, chilled out at "tully's coffee" for some hot chocolate. then home.

***

"merry" setlist

kuroi niji
japanese modernist
atama ga zakuro
mado kara agate love song
gesshoku
akai kutsu
stupid x cupid
fukinkou kinema
enzetsu ~surrealism~
[human farm]
oriental bl circus
midnight shangrila
lost generation

encore 1:
kanaria (acoustic version)
nameless night ~namonaki yoru~ (acoustic version)

encore 2:
sweet powder
friction XXX
t.o.p.
yellow girl
violet harenchi

encore 3:
gekisei

***

may 9, 2010

sleep and homework.

may 10, 2010

class as usual. started reading "tale of genji" again in premodern literature class and talked about uji (where i went to with chelsea in kyoto). hilarious because there's a character exiled from the capital (kyoto) who has to live in uji (supposedly the middle of nowhere), but uji is actually only about a 40 minute train ride from kyoto station. "tale of genji" museum in uji as well.

may 11, 2010

class as usual.

may 12, 2010

went to harajuku to recharge cellphone minutes at "softbank."

may 13, 2010

class as usual.

may 14, 2010

after class, finally saw "alice in wonderland" and enjoyed it much more than i was anticipating. went to chill out in starbucks and read for class. went to "tower records" and saw boy band (singing about pandas) practicing for a special in-store performance. ran into laura at 7/11, which made my day.

may 15, 2010

chill out. homework.

may 16, 2010

went to shinjuku. ate lunch at "soup stock tokyo," kind of addicted to pumpkin soup and "french-style" curry. went to kinokuniya to by dazai osamu's "the setting sun" for class. also bought christopher isherwood's "a single man" to read in my spare time.

today, i was sitting on a low ledge in front of starbucks near south exit shinjuku station reading osamu dazai's "the setting sun." at some point, i was vaguely aware that passersby could probably easily see down the front of my shirt. at some point, a young businessman sat down nearby me. i thought it was strange because he wasn't looking at his cellphone or drinking starbucks or anything. a second later, he turns to me and asks in english "what are you studying?" to which i reply "eh?" he blurts out "i'm sorry" and flees.

may 17, 2010

classes. bad day. even harassed on campus by creepy old man trying to speak english to me.

may 18, 2010

trains horrible in the morning today because "accident" (mostly likely suicide) on the sobu line. after class, exhausted so long nap. some homework.