Japanese Rockabilly dancing

There certainly is an obsession with rockabilly dancing in Japan.

A well-known dance group, who dress as though they just walked out of the 50s, operate in Harajuku. They largely consist of rather old dudes, who probably were around in the 50s. You can find them twisting and shaking at the entrance to Yoyogi park on a Sunday. If you Google "Harajuku rockabilly dancing" you will find an abundance of videos of them, taken by surprised tourists.

However, as much of a novelty as these guys might seem to be, the obsession with rockabilly dancing is not exclusive to Harajuku. It is actually very common place in many parts of Japan. In fact, I'm starting to get the impression that most universities, institutions and towns in Japan have a rockabilly dance club. Almost every festival I have been to has had a group of rockabilly dancers. Just men, just women, men and women mixed, matching outfits, leathers waistcoats, petticoats, polka dots, sideburns....spend one summer in Japan visiting numerous festivals and you're likely to get your fair-share of rockabilly dance performances. I remember being very surprised and slightly confused to have found 4 separate rockabilly dancing groups at the Mito Matsuri last year. 

I don't know what has influenced this movement, or why it is so popular, but I do know that it is awesome!

Here is a short glimpse of some rockabilly dancers I saw at a beach party at 海の家 山形屋  (Yamagataya, Ajigaura beach, Hitachinaka) last night:

If embedded video doesn't work please click to watch it here

Next on the agenda Saturday July 25th

So, I have found a couple things happening which will more than compensate for the lack of my attendance at FujiRock. I was planning to go down to Tokyo that weekend anyway, as I will be meeting my cousin Jason on his first day moving to Japan on the JET programme......so, I figured I should find some fun stuff to go to. And, oh boy have I succeeded!

The opening party for artist Bunny Bissoux's exhibition....


Followed by:

A mad decent night
This night looks sweeeeet

I have already told Jason that I will be hung over on Sunday when I see him. He more thank understands. COUSINS RULE.

Fuji Rock 2015

I almost had a little cry about missing Fuji Rock for a second year in a row. Until I saw the line-up. What a pile of wank, seriously.

Here is the line-up for FujiRock this year.

Foo Fighters and Muse... seriously, I might as well be 14 years old and going to Reading Festival whilst puking in my tent from having downed too many cans of Fosters.

Come on Japan...sort it out.

Waver Waver

I will start this post with a short description of my current situation.

Over the weekend, the real heat of summer set in, and today is the first day of things being unbearable. To think I was able to do 3 x 5km runs last week.... However, as hot as it is outside, the temperature has been more than over-compensated by the industrial sized AC unit in the teachers room, where I have based myself for the past 7 hours, having no lessons today. This entire day has been a mixture of dipping in and out of extreme temperatures. Special mention goes to almost dying of dehydration during my 15 minute walk home for a cheeky lunch break only to find my illegal alien friend melted to the couch in my onsen of an apartment. But being stingy and cruel, I continue to permit the use of AC. Sorry Cas.

I will also mention that whatever music I seem to have stumbled across on Soundcloud, it is indistinguishable from what one is likely to hear playing out of an arcade Taiko machine.

What I'm listening to.

What an arcade Taiko machine looks like. 


Now to reflect upon the weekends activities....

Following our mission of infiltration into the Tokyo underground music scene, Rirey and Z-dog attended another gig. This time in Shimo-kitazawa, one of the more "trendy" spots in the city. This was at an underground venue called Waver. If it had not been for the happy coincidence of bumping into The Fin.'s lead man Yuuto on the street outside, we definitely never would have found the place.

Whatever impression I might have given or taken away with me, I was in a horrible state of exhaustion.

On the same day, after a late-night, we attended a Kabuki show at the infamous Kabuki-Za in Ginza. To get a cheap 1500en standing ticket to watch one interval of the show from the very very back, we had to queue in the heat for 2 hours. On the plus side, Kabuki was actually rather great. Not nearly as boring as I expected. This was followed by some shopping and a large tempura meal in Ginza.

We then took ourselves for a little stroll round Shimo-kitazawa whilst searching for a manga cafe. We booked 2 hours to "nap", however, I am physically and mentally incapable of napping in life, so I sat in a dirty manga cafe booth for 2 hours contemplating nothing of interest whilst being angry at my self-destructive mindset.

We had been invited to the sold-out show of band "She Her Her Hers" by the drummer Taiki, of whom both me and Rirey have agreed is very adorable and fits the traditional meaning of the word "cute".

By the time they played their set, we were both exhausted and couldn't stay for the whole thing as had to run for the last train to Inaka-ville, aka. Ibaraki. (I had work on Sunday).

I will not express my true opinion about their music as Taiki is our friend. But I will say, that I was very very impressed by the support band called PAELLAS. Serious, how Japanesey is that? their music was very 80's synthy and their singer had a manner reminiscent of Boy George. There was something marvelously camp about the whole thing. Listening back to their stuff on the internet, it really doesn't do justice for their impressive live performance. I will of course make efforts to infiltrate this band.

However, I still would prefer to keep my distance from the indie-rock scene. Apart from being very safe, as I have said before, it feels as though my music taste hasn't developed since being a teenager. If I wanted to start following indie bands around, then I would have continued to be a 17 year old in London.

I want to experience music that I would never be able to find anywhere else. I don't want to discover things which are too heavily influenced by British and other Western-based genres with which I am too overly-familiar with.

being productive is hard when you're......unproductive

I have the N4 exam on Sunday. Frankly I'm embarrassed by how poor my Japanese is after almost two years. N4 is basic level, and there's a big possibility I'm going to fail.

As the students have had exams, I had an entire week with no classes... but have hardly studied. I've had almost too much time on my hands. It seems the busier I am, the easier it is to find time to study, yet when the days are filled with nothing, studying Japanese seems impossible. Also, I'm not someone who is great at cramming at the last minute...sorry life.

Why is this?

Why is it, when we have so much time on our hands, productivity is the hardest thing to achieve?

I currently have a friend who lost his job and apartment, living on my couch - yes I harbour aliens...and what?. He has already been there a whole month.

In that time, he has accomplished almost nothing. He has done some flat hunting, and has found something in Tokyo to move into in the next couple weeks, but apart from that, he spends all day on the couch... reading, watching TV and chilling out. He's supposed to be studying Japanese and job-hunting, but I think he's finding it hard to keep motivated.

When I got home from work yesterday, he greeted me with an enthusiastic "I found someone in Tokyo who will pay me 2500 yen to shave off my pubes.." ...this was the only success of an entire days moping. Hmm, maybe trying to find a job on Craigslist isn't the best idea?

I'm not complaining, I actually love having Cass stay with me, I've been sneaking home from school and watching GTO with him on my lunch breaks. It's also nice to have someone to talk to, living alone has been quite a challenge these past two years - although its got positives (walking around naked.... playing whatever music/tv I want...), one thing I've learnt is that I definitely prefer a housemate.

Oh, yes, I was talking about productivity or something..... yea, better get on with some revision. In fact, I know I'm procrastinating when I've managed to write an entire blog post whilst supposedly taking a "5-minute fb-check break" in between doing practice listening exams. WHOOPS.

Japanese Beach Culture

Celebrating the summer solstice last week, or 夏至 (Geshi) means that we have finally made it to what I consider to be the best time of year, the summer! 


Japanese summers truly are great. Think Matsuris (festivals), yukatas (summer kimonos), soumen (cold noodles) and macha (green tea) flavoured ice cream.  
Living in Hitachinaka, a small seaside town,  I have had the privilege of spending this season down at the beach for the past two years. Here's a few things that I've learnt about Japanese beach culture.

At the height of summer, when the beaches are crowded, the are certain things that stand out on a Japanese beach.

Preparation
There is nothing casual about heading to the beach. If you think it is as simple as putting on a bikini, grabbing a towel and slipping on some flip flops then you are sadly mistaken.  A day at the beach is a meticulously planned event. Families turn up with wheel-barrows full of things. Tents, chairs, an array of garden furniture, massive ice boxes, 5 course meals,  games, toys and anything else that can be used to recreate the comfort and look of a living room, and of course all the products, accessories and make-up that can facilitate a bathroom.  There is nothing minimalist about enjoying nature.

One does not simply lie on the sand  -oh no. You might have noticed that people don't want to get tanned here. On a sunny day, it is very common to see women walking around with black umbrellas and long sleeves to avoid any exposure. This is no different on the beach. People bring special beach tents to lie underneath.  On a busy day, my local beach resembles a camping site.

Beach fashion
You are likely to see women getting on and off the trains in Tokyo wearing heels so stupidly high that they can barely walk. It is laughable and embarrassing as a woman to watch. This trend is actually more ridiculous given the context of the beach. Of course not everyone does it. Most people wear what I consider to be the most popular footwear in Japan - Crocs - or an even more ugly variation of them. However, and quite disappointingly, it is the norm for young women to wear high heels on the beach. This is accompanied with little-girl princess style bikinis. So much pink, so many frills.... what an eye-sore. Ok, sorry to get bitter... lets bring it back to a more positive note....

Sukiwari 
Sukiwari is an excellent Japanese beach game. The premise is simple:

1) Put a watermelon on a plastic bag or some tarpaulin (to catch the all the bits). Make sure not to place it close to where other people have set up their beach living rooms.

2) Blindfold a friend, give them a big stick, spin them around a couple of times, stand back and yell directions to where the watermelon is.

3) Tell them when to swing, and if they've succeeded you'll have a smashed watermelon to snack off.

We tried this for John's birthday last weekend at Ajigaura beach. On his first try, the stick snapped in half and the watermelon was barely scratched. On his second try, John successfully smashed open the watermelon and fun times were had all round.

Interesting fact; A smashed open watermelon looks a bit like human brains.

Well, that about sums it up!

If you get a chance to go to the beach in Japan this summer, then I strongly recommend it. It is a perfect chance to not only relax, soak up some sun and do all the other typical beachy stuff, but it is also a perfect place for people watching.

Techno is boring.

Riley and Zara are slowly infiltrating their way into the inner social circle of an up-and-coming Japanese Indie rock band. Let's call them band X.

Through pure blagging, charm and luck we managed to make a good impression as a friendly gaijin duo. After getting ourselves on the after-party guest-list for X's gig last night, we socialised our way through the ni-ji-kai (second party) and then onto the san-ji-kai (third party), which was effectively a free back-door entrance and a welcoming smile into one of Tokyo's swaggiest nightspots "UNIT".

My selfish thirst to seek out whatever cool underground shit Tokyo has to offer has only been marginally quenched. I am determined to get to the heart of it.

Indie rock is only one genre. As a teenager I thought it was the best; The Libertines, The Strokes, Razorlight, you name it, I pined for it. But not anymore. Band X are truly fantastic. As much as I love their music, I fear that their sound is stuck 10 years in past - in a static space of musical history if you will. I love it because it touches upon my musical memories of youth. It resonates with my nostalgia. But is this what I want? No, of course not, I want to get out of my comfort zone. I want to find the newest trends in Japanese music. I want to watch the conception, ride the musical movement wave into the future and be there to see new legends in the making.

Realistically though, this won't be able to happen until I move down to Tokyo proper. Get my head out of the dreaded countryside. But, mock my words,  IT WILL HAPPEN.

... or you know, probably won't...because I definitely won't have the time or money as a student to support a dream double life where I become the queen of the Tokyo underworld.