Today is my (belated) ode to Tokyo. I flew back through Tokyo last week and I had a 7 hour layover. Originally, I thought I'd be laying over at Narita, so I had actually looked up some stuff to do near Narita since it's too far to get into Tokyo and spend any good amount of time and make it back in time for the flight. But then it turned out I was actually laying over at Haneda, which means I was like 40 minutes from the city on a $6 subway ride. Which was perfect! So I went into the city.
I messaged a couple of friends, but didn't get to see anyone, so I basically spent the afternoon just wandering myself. With a couple of goals in mind. First goal - find ceramic coffee cups. I've been wanting some rough, unglazed ceramic coffee cups for a long time now, but have not found anything I liked. But I was sure I could get them in Tokyo. But sadly, I no longer live somewhere close enough to Tokyo to go regularly. I used to go like once or twice a year. But no longer. So this was perfect. So I had done my research and knew that I should go to kitchen street, which, as the name implies, is a street where you can buy anything for a kitchen. And I ended up buying 4 mugs and a bunch of chopsticks (cause I actually didn't have any chopsticks either, after leaving my old ones in China). So that was a complete success. Not to mention I started out with a fantastic coffee at one of Tokyo's best coffee shops. I know this because I have a wonderful website that ranks Japanese coffee shops (abccoffee.co) based on aggregated ratings and reviews online, and which has not let me down. And #1 ever since I found this website is a shop called Fuglen. Although, to be honest, the #1 shop is their Shibuya location, and I went to their Asakusa location. But still. So there was delicious coffee, followed by successful shopping for pretty things, and then off to Shibuya on the other side of town to have sushi at a little standing sushi restaurant a friend recommended. Again, it's exactly like it sounds. It's a sushi bar with no seats. You come in, stand at the bar, eat quickly, and go. I ate a ton of delicious sushi, and it was only like $30. You cannot get that anywhere else. Not that delicious. Delicious sushi is never cheap outside of Japan. But that's another wonderful thing about Japan. Even cheap things are super delicious. You don't have to spend a ton of money to do things, despite the fact that everyone thinks you do. Not true. Excellent, affordable times are also easily found in Japan.
So as I was wandering around, I was just grinning like a fool. I was so happy. I was looking at the buildings and they made me smile. I would see tourists and they made me smile. I would see tchotchkes in shops and they'd make me smile (and make me want to buy them all). I would talk to people and smile. I just absolutely love Japan and was so happy to be back there. It has been my favorite city since I first went there over a decade ago, and out of all the cities in the world I've been to since, nothing beats it. Now, I may not feel that way if I lived there, but as a visitor nothing can beat it. It's such a unique city, so full of modernity and tradition, all mixed up in a perfectly balanced little bundle. And anything you want you can find there. Not to mention that it's broken up into tiny neighborhoods, and all of them are unique and have their own flavor, so you could spend decades exploring that city and always find something new. I've always said I want to actually live in Tokyo (not just Japan), and I still feel that way. At some point, I need to.
Also, fun fact, I'm going to Japanese club tomorrow night! Wish me luck. I hope it's better than the Shanghai one.
Ok, but moving on. To music. The reason we're all (or at least I am) here. And, fittingly, today we have Japanese music. I found a list recently of "10 great albums you may have missed in 2018," and on that list was a Japanese band called Kikagaku Moyo. I didn't listen to everything on that list, but out of the ones I did listen to, this was one of the best. Actually, I think this is the list where I found out about Rubio from my recent post, and then in trying to find out more info about her I stumbled on that other list with the other 2 Latin American bands. Anyway, they make Japanese psychedelic art rock. Good stuff. Super wonderful. I've only listened to their 2018 album, Masana Temples, but I'm definitely going back to listen to the rest. And on that album, my favorite track is Nana. So that's what you'll listen to first today.
So then I basically spent the entire afternoon in Japan listening to my old Japanese music that I haven't listened to in years. I really don't know why I stopped listening to Japanese music. Somewhere along the line I just lost interest. But there's obviously still great stuff out there. And some of the old stuff I used to listen to I still find to be fantastic. Not all of it, of course. But some of it is still just as strong as it used to be. Case in point: ACIDMAN. These guys make rock. I'd say pretty standard, nothing fusiony or different. Just really good rock. Which is not at all a bad thing. And my old favorite song by them is still maybe the best Japanese song I listened to while I was in Japan. It's called 廻る、巡る、その核へ (Mawaru, Meguru, Sono Kaku he), which translates to Revolving, Revolving, Into the Nucleus. Those first two characters have the same meaning in English, but the first one is more like rotation, and the second one is more like things repeating in order, like the seasons. Fun languages, those character-based Asian ones! Anyway, this song is from like 2004. But still fantastic. Also it's like 10 minutes long. And you never get bored.
I messaged a couple of friends, but didn't get to see anyone, so I basically spent the afternoon just wandering myself. With a couple of goals in mind. First goal - find ceramic coffee cups. I've been wanting some rough, unglazed ceramic coffee cups for a long time now, but have not found anything I liked. But I was sure I could get them in Tokyo. But sadly, I no longer live somewhere close enough to Tokyo to go regularly. I used to go like once or twice a year. But no longer. So this was perfect. So I had done my research and knew that I should go to kitchen street, which, as the name implies, is a street where you can buy anything for a kitchen. And I ended up buying 4 mugs and a bunch of chopsticks (cause I actually didn't have any chopsticks either, after leaving my old ones in China). So that was a complete success. Not to mention I started out with a fantastic coffee at one of Tokyo's best coffee shops. I know this because I have a wonderful website that ranks Japanese coffee shops (abccoffee.co) based on aggregated ratings and reviews online, and which has not let me down. And #1 ever since I found this website is a shop called Fuglen. Although, to be honest, the #1 shop is their Shibuya location, and I went to their Asakusa location. But still. So there was delicious coffee, followed by successful shopping for pretty things, and then off to Shibuya on the other side of town to have sushi at a little standing sushi restaurant a friend recommended. Again, it's exactly like it sounds. It's a sushi bar with no seats. You come in, stand at the bar, eat quickly, and go. I ate a ton of delicious sushi, and it was only like $30. You cannot get that anywhere else. Not that delicious. Delicious sushi is never cheap outside of Japan. But that's another wonderful thing about Japan. Even cheap things are super delicious. You don't have to spend a ton of money to do things, despite the fact that everyone thinks you do. Not true. Excellent, affordable times are also easily found in Japan.
So as I was wandering around, I was just grinning like a fool. I was so happy. I was looking at the buildings and they made me smile. I would see tourists and they made me smile. I would see tchotchkes in shops and they'd make me smile (and make me want to buy them all). I would talk to people and smile. I just absolutely love Japan and was so happy to be back there. It has been my favorite city since I first went there over a decade ago, and out of all the cities in the world I've been to since, nothing beats it. Now, I may not feel that way if I lived there, but as a visitor nothing can beat it. It's such a unique city, so full of modernity and tradition, all mixed up in a perfectly balanced little bundle. And anything you want you can find there. Not to mention that it's broken up into tiny neighborhoods, and all of them are unique and have their own flavor, so you could spend decades exploring that city and always find something new. I've always said I want to actually live in Tokyo (not just Japan), and I still feel that way. At some point, I need to.
Also, fun fact, I'm going to Japanese club tomorrow night! Wish me luck. I hope it's better than the Shanghai one.
Ok, but moving on. To music. The reason we're all (or at least I am) here. And, fittingly, today we have Japanese music. I found a list recently of "10 great albums you may have missed in 2018," and on that list was a Japanese band called Kikagaku Moyo. I didn't listen to everything on that list, but out of the ones I did listen to, this was one of the best. Actually, I think this is the list where I found out about Rubio from my recent post, and then in trying to find out more info about her I stumbled on that other list with the other 2 Latin American bands. Anyway, they make Japanese psychedelic art rock. Good stuff. Super wonderful. I've only listened to their 2018 album, Masana Temples, but I'm definitely going back to listen to the rest. And on that album, my favorite track is Nana. So that's what you'll listen to first today.
So then I basically spent the entire afternoon in Japan listening to my old Japanese music that I haven't listened to in years. I really don't know why I stopped listening to Japanese music. Somewhere along the line I just lost interest. But there's obviously still great stuff out there. And some of the old stuff I used to listen to I still find to be fantastic. Not all of it, of course. But some of it is still just as strong as it used to be. Case in point: ACIDMAN. These guys make rock. I'd say pretty standard, nothing fusiony or different. Just really good rock. Which is not at all a bad thing. And my old favorite song by them is still maybe the best Japanese song I listened to while I was in Japan. It's called 廻る、巡る、その核へ (Mawaru, Meguru, Sono Kaku he), which translates to Revolving, Revolving, Into the Nucleus. Those first two characters have the same meaning in English, but the first one is more like rotation, and the second one is more like things repeating in order, like the seasons. Fun languages, those character-based Asian ones! Anyway, this song is from like 2004. But still fantastic. Also it's like 10 minutes long. And you never get bored.
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