Feb 28 - Bop English

For some reason, working on Saturday was not nearly as painful as working on Friday. And this is despite the fact that my friend came over last night and we put down 2.5 bottles of wine between us. You'd think I would have been in a terrible state, but it was actually ok. And apparently House of Cards Season 3 is now out, so that's even more good news for the day.

In other good news is the fact that Bop English exists. I don't know much about him, though I assume he's English. And he seems to have put out a his first single, called Dani's Blues (It Was Beyond Our Control). And I like it a lot.

Update: I just looked on facebook and found out he is not English, he is from Austin. I also found out that he is apparently a member of White Denim, a fantastic band you should listen to if you never had. I was sure I'd written about them before and actually wanted to link to my blog about them, but it would appear that I haven't. But you should. And then I should write about them, too. Ok, this is long enough. Enjoy the song.

Feb 27 - Emile Haynie

So remember how I was like "being back at work isn't so bad"? I changed my mind. Today was not fun. But mostly because I had to spend the entire day on a task that I do not enjoy. So that wasn't fun. I need a drink. Which would have been perfect, because today is Friday, but then we have to work on Saturday to "make up for" the holiday last week. Because that's how China rolls.

But I did have time to listen to new music for the first time in a week, and found a couple good new songs, one of which is Emile Haynie. He's a producer who's worked on all kinds of hip-hop albums and also on Lana Del Rey. And now he's put out his own album, We Fall, although I think he doesn't actually sing or anything. I think he just produced it and put his name on it, but it features all kinds of people who do the singing. One of whom is Andrew Wyatt, the singer from Miike Snow, who sings on the opening track (and the best track) Falling Apart. Don't expect anything hip-hopy or Miike Snowy, but do expect a good song.




That song definitely caught my attention, so I went and listened to the album, and it's just ok. Doesn't live up to that song. It's much poppier than I like, though there are a few great songs, like A Kiss Goodbye, which features Sampha, and Come Find Me, which features Lykke Li. Between Sampha, Lykke Li, Andrew Wyatt and a few of the other features (namely, Father John Misty) I did have high hopes, which the album did not live up to. But still worth a listen.

Feb 26 - Sugar Soul

I made it back to China today, and as usual when coming back to China from a trip, I was annoyed before I even got on the plane. Sometimes Chinese people have a way of doing that to me. Then my flight was delayed, and then I had to go into the office for a big meeting, so all in all it had the makings for a bad day. But actually, it was alright. Coming back to Shanghai is definitely much easier than going back to Beijing used to be, that's for usre. And now I'm going to my friend's birthday party. So actually, I'm not having as much of the vacation blues as I expected.

Since I actually managed to write (a lot) every day of the trip, I'll keep this short and give you links with summaries to my blogs from the week, all of which have many pictures:

Feb 20: Miyajima, which may have been my favorite thing this trip
Feb 21: Iwakuni, samurai costumes and Hiroshima castle. I repeat, samurai costumes.
Feb 22: Hiroshima Peace Park and our arrival at Huis Ten Bosch. If you don't know, you should read this, cause it's weird. And awesome. But more weird.
Feb 23: More Huis Ten Bosch, then on to Nagasaki, with a little side trip for a hamburger.
Feb 24: Battleship Island, then seeing the sights in Nagasaki, of which I was most impressed by Dejima.
Feb 25: Morning walk around Nagasaki, then the train back to Hiroshima. Pretty uneventful, actually.

And now it's February 26 and I'm back in China and don't want to be. But, next trip is coming up in just under a month, when I go to South Africa for a wedding.

Since I was still in Japan this morning, I'll make today the last day for Japanese music (in case you missed it, I went to karaoke in Japan and decided that while in Japan I should share Japanese music, which I used to be really into back in the day). And once again, I can't find the song I wanted to share. It's hard to find some of this Japanese stuff. But I did find a good one, anyway. At first, I wanted to share Soul Lovers, a funk/soul group that I don't think ever made it big, but that I loved. So you should listen to them if you can. But instead I decided to share Sugar Soul, because she's also wonderful and was a long time favorite of mine. So here's probably her most famous song, Garden, which features Kenji, one of the members of another great group called Dragon Ash, and one of this Japanese hip-hop godfather types.




This is a great song, but it's not my favorite by her, and not even the best version of this song. But it's the only version I could find for you. If you can find the album version, which is called the Final Version, I think it's better. But even better if you can find this album, うず (pronounced Uzu, meaning Whirlpool), even better, cause it's a great album. As is her first one, On. The song I wanted to share is 悲しみの花に (pronounced Kanashimi no Hana ni, meaning Into a Flower of Sadness), but good luck with that. Also, album version is better for that one. And then there are other wonderful songs like respectyourself, いいよ (pronounced Iiyo, meaning It's All Good), Cosmic Family, SOULMATE... The list goes on with her. Japan has got some great soul music, and Sugar Soul may just be one of their best.

Feb 25 - Utada Hikaru

Well, today was my last full day in Japan. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, it's off to the airport to fly back to Shanghai, then into work. Boo.

European houses with Japanese detail on Holland Slope

It wasn't such an eventful day, actually. We got an early start cause Rei had to leave early and there were still a couple of things we wanted to see. Yesterday we went to Dejima, which was the only place in Japan that was open during the isolation era. But once isolation ended in the mid-19th century, there were still only 3 ports open to the rest of the world: Nagasaki, Hakodate and Yokohama. So the European influence here is pretty strong, and because of the history with Dejima everything is still Dutch heavy.

We started out in a part of town called Holland Slope, which was the center of the European neighborhood post-isolation. There's more buildings similar to what we saw on Dejima, mostly Japanese in style with European embellishments, but then you also start to see some more European buildings as well. Whereas on Dejima it was Japanese homes with European details, it's European homes with Japanese details here, like roofs and fences in Japanese style.

The Glover House in Glover Park

Then we kept walking on to Glover Park. This is a huge park built up a hill slope (of which there are many in Nagasaki), which was purchased by one Mr. Glover post-isolation and turned into his own compound, which he then shared with other Europeans. Here you see proper European houses that some of the richest and most influential Europeans, like Glover, built. Glover actually had a huge influence on Japan, being one of the earliest and most influential European traders. In fact, he even started the company that later became Kirin Brewing. You also get fantastic views of the city from up here.

After the park, Rei and I had to split ways. I made my way to the prefectural art museum to see an exhibit of Gaudi's life interpreted by a famous Japanese manga artist. It actually turned out to be an exhibit of Gaudi's work - sketches, blueprints, models and the like - interspersed with manga styled storylines showing what was going on in his life at various points. It was really well done and a great exhibit. The rest of the museum was just ok, but I'm not huge on museums anyway.

Nagasaki from the hilltop

And that was pretty much it. After that, I hopped on the train back to Hiroshima, did some last minute shopping, at some last minute sushi, and now here I am. All I have left is sleeping and going to the airport. And sharing a song. And today's song is moving more into pop with Utada Hikaru. She's super famous here, and even crossed over into the US with a couple of English language albums (she's actually American born Japanese. Or went to school in America. Or something, but anyway she speaks flawless English), which had songs produced by the likes of Timbaland and everything. And you may know this song, Passion, which is a great one and probably her best, if you play Kingdom Hearts, because it was the theme song.


She does a lot of the poppy R&B stuff, and it's not all great, but she does have some excellent songs like this. Even some of her English language stuff is quite good.

This isn't actually what I wanted to share today. I wanted to share 愛の愛の星 (read Ai no Ai no Hoshi, meaning Star of Love) by the brilliant green, another song that is probably one of my favorite Japanese songs ever. Unfortunately I could not find it anywhere, despite the fact that they're super famous. You can go look for it if you like, it's great, they're great, I like them.

Feb 24 - audio safari

One more wonderful day down. But sadly it's my last full day with Rei. Tomorrow she's off to Tokyo, and I'm headed back to Hiroshima to fly out on Thursday morning. But we made it a good one.

Approaching Battleship Island

I want to go climbing around in those buildings

We started out the day with what may have been the thing I was most excited for: a trip to Hashima, also known as Gunkanjima (or Battleship Island) because of it's silhouette. Dejima is a very small island about 18km from Nagaski harbor that had a huge coal mine on it. Mining began back in the early 19th century and continued on until the mid 1970s, at which point there was less demand for coal and Mitsubishi, who owned it,decided to shut down the mine. Within 3 months, everyone had moved off the island, often leaving behind belongings, and allowing nature to have it's way with what remained. Now you can visit the island by tour, which allows you to step onto the island in very specific places and view some of the buildings close up, and then loops you around the island to take it in from all sides. Back in its heyday, there were only about 5000 people living on the island, but the population density was even higher than Tokyo because the place was so small. They had to bring almost everything in from the mainland, included fresh water. It's one of the eeriest, most unique places I've been, and I only wish I could have actually gone out onto the island proper and poked around inside some of the buildings. Next time I need to see if there's any sort of private tours that let you do that. But in the meantime, you can see the island on Google street view, or in the film Skyfall.

The main (read: only) road in Dejima

A clock frozen at 11:02, the exact
time the bomb exploded

Up next, it was back to the mainland for some sushi and a visit to Dejima, which turned out to be one of the more interesting things I think we've done on the trip. Dejima is a tiny island that was reclaimed in the 17th century in what was then Nagasaki harbour, in order to isolate the Portuguese traders when Japan decided to close its borders to the outside world. Then they decided to kick out the Portuguese, too, but they let the Dutch stay, so they were moved onto Dejima. There are only about 10 buildings there, but it housed all the Portuguese traders in mostly Japanese style buildings, which they added their own European style to, with things like wallpaper, western furniture and paint. They also built a couple of European style buildings to serve as a church and school, and as an international school. I didn't realize before coming that this was the only place in Japan that was open during the isolation period, a period which lasted about 200 years, and that all the Western education, science, influence and everything else only came through Dejima. Pretty impressive stuff. I actually wanted to buy a book on it, but the only English one they had was probably all the same information I can find on Wikipedia. So I'll read that instead.

The epicenter

And last stop for the day was WWII stuff. We started at Peace Park, which had some nice statues, then on to see the largest church in Nagasaki. There's a lot of churches here, it's kind of surprising. This one is famous because it was almost completely destroyed during the bombing, and at the time it was the largest cathedral in all of Asia. Then we visited the memorial hall, which is really nicely done, and made some cranes. We also went to the atomic bomb museum, which is mostly full of items from the bombing. Pretty heavy stuff. And I learned that the bombs were dropped after Germany had already surrendered and the war was over in Europe. Nagasaki was also the secondary target, apparently the bomb was supposed to have been dropped further north in Kokura. Just outside the museum is the epicenter of where the bomb exploded, which now has a memorial pillar marking the spot. Then the last stop was to see a torii that was half destroyed, but has remained standing on one leg ever since.

After a bit of relaxation at the hotel this evening, Rei and I went out for our last meal together, which was tonkatsu. Well, that was the meal. There were other snacks afterwards. We went for a walk to see the Spectacles Bridge again, which is one of Nagasaki's famous sites. It's basically just a double arched bridge, but it reflects in the water underneath forming two circles like glasses. And it's also the oldest, stone, double-arched bridge in Japan. Although when you add that many adjectives it's not so hard to be the best at something. Anyway it's quite nice, and they have it all lit up with lanterns also because of the festival I mentioned yesterday (which I found out is actually one of the two major festivals that happens in Nagasaki, so that's fun), so we went to see it again, all lit up. Then Rei and I meandered back to the big temple to see some more lanterns and eat some more snacks. And now here we are. Just a couple more things on the list together tomorrow, and then it's time for our farewells.

Megani-bashi, or spectacles bridge

As for the music, we're sticking to Japanese but moving into some more indie stuff. While I was living here back in 2007-2008, I found out Audio Safari, who make pretty chill electronic music. The singer's got a bit of a weird voice, but I really like it. And I got to see (and meet) them in Tokyo once, which was great. I think they only had the one album, Uru no Sora, which is unfortunate because it's a great one. I think my favorite song off the album is 十数えて (pronounced Tou Kazoete, meaning Count to Ten).

about this band

I'd recommend others, but there's only one album, so if you like this then just go listen to it all. It's on youtube. And the singer, Sakurai Mami, also put out at least one solo album, so you can try to find that too if you like.

Feb 23 - Do As Infinity

Huis Ten Bosch

Man, writing long blogs every day is tiring. I'll be honest, I don't want to do it today. So I'm gonna kind of bullet point it and give more general summaries.

Seriously, where the hell are we?

Anime boat, just to prove
that we are still in Japan

We were back in Huis Ten Bosch this morning. More of the same super weird European stuff in the middle of Japan. There are more attractions than rides at this place, but some of them are good. The best part is this "Thriller Town" area, where all the attractions are built around scaring you (sort of). Favorites included the zombie scavenger hunt type thing we had to do last night, where they set you up with a tablet that you use as you go through the maze to find clues and shoot zombies. Then there was this cool virtual reality concept thing, where they hook you up to a virtual reality headset that has a camera, and they mix video in with actual footage from your camera, so it flows really well together to make you think you're dreaming, which is the theme of the attraction. And, while mentioning virtual reality, we got to try out Oculus Rift also. Twice. The first one was a pretty short and kind of lame ski jump thing, that was only cool because you could see the fully immersive atmosphere. But the second one was a horseback riding thing where you sat on a horse machine, kind of like those motorcycle video game motorcycles, and it moved while you rode it. So it actually felt and seemed like you were riding the horse, and left you feeling pretty disoriented and somewhat dizzy afterwards. But it was awesome.

Oculus Rift!

There were other awesome things there, and some disappointing things, but overall it was great. And I want to know more about it and why the hell it's there in the first place. This is the 2nd place like this I know of in rural Japan. The other is a Hawaiian themed spa resort in the town I used to live in, Iwaki, but I know the story of that because they made it into a famous movie (called Hula Girls, if you're interested). It makes me wonder what else is hiding in this country. I kind of want to figure it out and make the definitive list. This could become a new pet-project/obsession. Oh! And I ziplined for the first time!. That was fun.

The place to get a Sasebo burger without actually seeing Sasebo

We finished up in Huis Ten Bosch about an hour earlier than we expected, so instead of going straight on to Nagaski we went 30 minutes in the other direction to a place called Sasebo. This place is famous for the Sasebo burger, which is supposed to be really authentically American. It's not, but it was good. It was actually kind of ridiculous because we went 30 minutes in the exact opposite direction of our destination, only to walk down the stairs and eat a burger while still inside the train station, then get back on a train and leave. We didn't even leave the station and see the town. We just ate a burger. But we're fatties and that's what we do. I have no shame about it. And actually, the burger was pretty good.

This lady with a cowboy hat made our burger. Very America.

Sasebo burger with fries and... oolong tea.

Lanterns in Chinatown

And now we're in Nagaski. I had a bit of a wander this evening, caught some lanterns in Chinatown, and now getting to bed kind of early. We have an early start tomorrow to go to what is probably the thing I'm most excited about on this entire trip. You'll be seeing what that is tomorrow.

So all that's left for today is to give you a song. Since this Japanese music sharing thing all started with karaoke, I'll share my go-to Japanese karaoke song. It's 真実の詩 (pronounced Shinjitsu no Uta, meaning Song of Truth/True Song, off of 2002's album True Song) by Do As Inifinity. Do As Infinity is another band I used to love. I think they broke up then got back together then broke up again? I'm not really sure. But this is my favorite song by them, and I love doing it at karaoke. And I love the use of erhu. They're another super famous band in Japan, also, so any Japanese friends you might have probably know of them.




If you like that, other favorite songs by the band include Oasis, Yesterday & Today, Tooku made, and We are. And there's also solo stuff by the lead singer, Tomiko Van.

Feb 22 - Sheena Ringo

Kanpai!

Children's memorial with
origami cranes in the
casings behind

Well last night got a little crazy. Remember how I said we were gonna go do that all you can eat and drink thing? We did. And actually didn't get all that drunk. Just the right amount of drunk. And I know it was just the right amount because we ended up at karaoke afterwards. We had joked about it the other day, how we should go do nomihoudai and then karaoke. At least, I thought we were joking. Rei took me very seriously though. So I agreed to go and do 1 hour of karaoke, because I intended to get up early today and go see Hiroshima Peace Park and all the atomic bomb stuff. Well, one hour turned into two, which turned into two and a half and then we had to stop ourselves. It was great. I love karaoke. And I'm glad I did it because what's a trip to Japan without karaoke?

So that was super fun. Plus it's great with Rei because she's one of my best friends so we literally don't give a fuck and just enjoy ourselves. And then I actually did manage to wake up and go see the Peace Park this morning. It had to be kind of early cause we had a train to catch at 11:30, so the plan was to be out by 8:30, walk over and spend some time before heading to the station. It was actually really close to our hotel, though, and not very big, so I made it back with time to spare and we went out for coffee at a famous local bakery.

Cranes are made into
framed pieces reading
"Peace"

The park wasn't all that nice because Spring has not yet sprung, but there are some great monuments in there. I really liked the children's memorial, which is surrounded by all of the origami cranes that we used to make in middle school. They actually do get sent to Japan, it would seem. It's really wonderful to see all the cranes and wishes from around the world. The only complaint with the park is that the dome, which is one of the most famous Hiroshima sites, is undergoing it's tri-annual stability check, so it's covered up in scaffolding. The building is famous for being almost directly under the bomb blast, which wiped out pretty much every building in the city center, with a few exceptions. This dome was one of the exceptions. So it's been kept in it's post-bombing state as a memorial, while the rest of the city has been rebuilt around it. That was another interesting fact I learned - apparently the bomb never hit the ground. It exploded above the city, and still managed to destroy everything. Scary to think what would have happened if it actually impacted with the ground. I'll find out in the next couple days if it's the same for Nagasaki, which is our next destination.

An old Japanese man trying (and failing) to use a selfie stick in the park

Hakata ramen

But before Nagasaki, we've arrived at Huis Ten Bosch. That train we had to catch at 11:30 took us to Hakata, which is famous for ramen. We spent an hour there to have some ramen (delicious), then hopped on the next train to our current location: Huis Ten Bosch. Huis Ten Bosch is one of the weirdest places I've been, and I love it. It's a Dutch themed amusement park in the middle of the Japanese countryside. God knows why it's here, but it was apparently built in the 80s and was super popular, then lost popularity and went bankrupt, and then was bought out and refurbished and made into it's current awesome self. And it is awesome, yet so bizarre. I'm not even really sure how to describe it. I mean, on the one hand, it's just an amusement park with various rides and attractions (nothing too big or scary, unfortunately), generally themed around the Netherlands, but not always. Like, for example, Thriller Town, which is all ghost themed. Or Adventure Town, which we haven't been to yet but they were playing banjo country music when we walked by. Tomorrow will be another full day of exploring this strange and magical place, so I'll spend more time talking about actual rides and stuff then.

The entrance to Huis Ten Bosch, in the middle of nowhere Japan

And until then, music time. My karaoke session last night found me pulling out some of the old Japanese songs that I used to love. Back in the day I used to be really into Japanese music, although it's probably been about 7 years since I've followed it at all. But I've still got a few songs up my sleeve. And so I decided that for the rest of my time in Japan, I'll be sharing some of my old favorites.

It lights up all pretty at night, which must have taken a ton of time and lead to a massive electric bill.

And they project Taiko no Tatsujin, only one of the best games ever, onto a building while you play!

Today is Sheena Ringo, who is like a Japanese rock goddess. She was one of my early favorites. In addition to making great music, she's known for breaking the rules and pushing the envelope of acceptability. Plus her kanji game is on point. ギブス (pronounced Gibusu if that helps, and meaning cast, like one you wear on a broken arm) is off of her second album, Shoso Strip, which came out back in 2000, and is probably my favorite song by her. Maybe my favorite Japanese song, period. in fact. Have a listen and see what you think.




If you like it, there's plenty of great stuff by her. Tsumi to Batsu, Honnou, Koko de Kiss Shite, Memai... the list goes on. Plus there's the work she did with her Japanese supergroup, Tokyo Jihen. Plenty of stuff for you to listen to.