とても たのしいですよ

Orright, make with the funny stuff.



"Joboob!" Plenny puerile.



"Fightin' Together, Lovin' Forever", at a severely under attended Nagoya Football Club match. They lost 4-1. There was neither a lot of fightin', nor a great deal of lovin'.



Japan proving they know something we don't about marketing (maybe).



A guy with a big-ass balloon on his head.



A guy with his head on a big-ass balloon.

There was a moment between these two shots that went (sadly) undocumented, in which his entire body was contained within the balloon, and the, um, let's call them 'technicians', neglected to provide air. The excitement never stops in J-Jackass, or whatever they were filming.

P.S. observe the two 'Nagoya-jo' (lit. Nagoya-girls) in the background of the first balloon shot (click to zoom). Quite a cultural phenomenon.

せんしゅうまつの おんがく まつり。

So, a couple of weekends ago we took two days off and went to Osaka for, Summersonic 2007, which was damn fine.

Here's photos:

OK Go rocking out.

Some guy not really rocking out very much.

um, Motörhead doing their Motörheady thing.

Bron and Laura and Yuki and Nicky.

Cansei de Ser Sexy, being about as fun as they look (which isn't sarcastic).

LCD Soundsystem being considerably cooler than they look (they were awesome).

The Polyphonic Spree looking dangerously like they'd become a little bit hardcore...

...until they changed into their old white garb, and looked all happy and wholesome and scary cultish again.

The Cornelius Group being as cool as they were at last year's Meredith, only with more Japanese people listening.

This is (a small part of) the (enormous) crowd for Cyndi Lauper.

Yes, Cyndi Lauper.

Cut Chemist...

...and DJ Shadow.

Very cool show. It's a new one (I don't think it's out on CD yet), called The Hard Sell. Wicked visuals too.

And they finished off by scratching 7"s on portable turntables.

Nice.

So, it was pretty much like the Big Day Out, or whatever other equivalent; 6 stages spaced out nicely, food stalls and stuff, except over two days. And, the venue being on a kind of island-ish area down by the bay, there were shuttle buses to take people back to the train station at the end of each day (music finished at 9pm, which isn't by any means unusual in Japan).

The bummer part was, it took (no exaggeration) 2 hours to wait for a bus, then about another 45 minutes for the bus to make it to the train station. We managed to get on the last train into the city; I don't know what the thousands of people behind us had to do.

So, as a result of the difficulties of transport logistics, we left earlier on the second day (also, we had to get all the way back to Nagoya that night). This is the reason that amongst the above photos you don't see the shining headliners from day 2: Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas, and Avril Lavigne.

So what I should have said is that it's kind of like the Big Day Out, only it contains groups that are even more alternative, and others that are considerably less alternative. Oh well, one does have to appeal to the masses, doesn't one?

All in all, a ripping good time. Made me realise weirdly I missed the feeling of breathing dust while being burned to a crisp in the summer sun.

あついです。

Blah. It's so hot here.



So, we've survived two typhoons and three earthquakes so far, but the heat's the worst thing.

Outside, it's pretty much like a sauna. The good thing about living in a small(ish) apartment is that when you crank the air-conditioner, it's pretty effective, pretty quickly. So we close the door, and have two cold rooms, and the rest of the place is a write-off.

Despite the heat, I managed to get down a lunch that included two packets of wasabi.

Whee!!!

しゅうまつ

So, the bummer is that Bron and I both work on Saturday and Sunday. In return for this, we get some time off mid-week, but all the cool things happen on the weekend. Notwithstanding this, we did get to a couple of events this weekend.

1. 岐阜花火
Gifu Fireworks.

As mentioned in the previous post, there were fireworks in Gifu on the weekend. Apparently the biggest in the country. Somebody told me there were around 30,000 separate rockets set off on the night, but I stopped counting after about 4. Unfortunately, due to a frustratingly frequent combination of bad luck, bad planning, and lack of resources, I was sitting on the ground, with only our 'happy snaps' camera, and didn't have a tripod. Nevertheless, here's a few pics and a video that look okay:

All week people had been telling me 'Oh, Japanese fireworks, they're better than fireworks in other countries'. I had remained cautiously skeptical, thinking that with modern communication, free trade and what not, that surely one country couldn't keep a secret like this from the rest of the world. Although you may not be able to tell from my photos, it turns out I was wrong.

I also wondered whether I might get bored sitting, watching fireworks for two hours (!) straight. Turns out I didn't.

Oh, and there was beer.

2. World Cosplay Summit

Cosplay is short for Costume Play, and it's basically kiddies dressing up as Manga characters. Apparently they came from several different countries this year, including Denmark. Anyway, the whole thing was crowded, and a little bit annoying, but I managed to get this photo and this video before the camera battery died :(



A crazy chick taking a photo of a crazy guy.



This was an entry from Korea. I think it went a bit awry towards the end, but there are some hella-cool moves still.

Yep, that was our weekend.

So, next time I might tell you a bit about what our daily lives actually hold (home, work, etc.), but, in order to hold up 50% of my bloggy manifesto, here's a funny picture (albeit a little puerile):



Nice Look Nice Life!

Puerile, no? It made me laugh.

See ya.

いらっしゃいませ

IRASSHAIMASE!!!

Welcome all to Joel's adventures in bloggy-land. Hope you're all well.

Sorry for not writing to anybody for, well, (ahem...) nearly five months. It seems kind of crazy, but I haven't had a lot of time to get around to it. First there was moving to Japan, then there was getting used to living in Japan, and then there was getting around to see cool things in Japan. Oh yeah, for those of you who are reading this and didn't know, I live in Japan now.

Japan's cool; the trains are efficient, the ATMs are inconvenient, the food's hard to decipher, and summer's in June. Oh, and everybody speaks Japanese.

So, the point of this blog is to periodically:

a) let people know that I'm still alive
b) let you know that I still care about you (again, apologies for the e-snobbery)
c) tell you what I'm up to in Japan
d) answer any questions you might have, and most importantly
e) post photos of weird Japanese crap that makes me laugh.

So first, respect (and explanation) where it's due, my friend Nicky found the eponymous photo (above). It works for me on a few levels: first there's the (unintentional) pun, second there's the complimentary look on his face, and third, the obligatory dinky little cute cartoon characters.

Cuteness figures highly in Japan's advertising policy it seems. Take this subtle little gem:



The meeting must have been something like:

Boss-type: "Now, what is our ultimate aim?"
Some underling: "Uh, to get people to drink Lipton?"
Boss-type: "Great. And what do we know about our target market?"
Insightful underling: "Teenagers want to be cute?"
Boss-type: "Nice work, Jenkins. Now, let's tactfully get from A to B..."

TV's funny too. Here's a still from my favourite kids' show:



Yep, it's a baby rhino, wearing underpants, a talking (kinda evil looking) toilet, and a smiling toilet roll holder. This is a regular segment, usually slotted in between a one minute segment of a kid (different kid each day) brushing his/her teeth, and the girl whose dance repertoire includes the 'let's be clocks' dance, the 'let's be bumblebees' dance, and the 'let's be [something that my lack of knowledge of interpretive dance methods combined with lack of comprehension of the Japanese language forbids me from knowing what] dance'. That was a good dance.

And then, of course, there's Hello Kitty. Here's just a few specimens I've picked up so far:



Take a classic, historic icon of Japanese art - then let Hello Kitty surf on it! Aloha sacrilege.



Raw fish, uber-cute cat. Why do I feel a bit funny about eating this meal?



And, oh yes, Hello Kitty fireworks.

Not Hello Kitty, but...



Kind of defies description, doesn't it?

Anyway, on the topic of fireworks, last weekend Gifu (the city where I work but don't live - more on that another day) had the first of its two summer fireworks festivals - the biggest in Japan, apparently. I went to a friend's house to sit on his roof and watch, until it became apparent that the mountain sitting conspicuously on the horizon, which I had a notion was going to be in the way, turned out to, indeed, be in the way. I then spent the next 90 minutes listening to fireworks. Not quite as entertaining.

The next night we went out to see Ratatouille - for once a film that opened in Japan sooner than Australia. I particularly enjoyed the fact that over here the title translates (inaccurately) to "The Restaurant Whose Remi Is Tasty". Guess Ratatouille is too difficult to spell in Katakana.

Well, as much as there's a lot more to say (trips to Kyoto, Tokyo, and the Hamamatsu Kite Fighting festival included), I don't think I'll bother saying it for now. I'll be contributing to this fairly regularly, with whatever minutiae I deem worthy of publishing, and, as this is in bloggy form (resisting, as I am, using facebook - the kids seem to be into it, but I just can't understand how to use it) then you can feel free to ignore it at your will. I'll be harassing you with occasional emails, to give you an update of the riveting headlines that will appear on this page, and if any of you can spare a few minutes here and there, it would be nice to hear from real life Australians.

Hope you're all good, catch you really soon.

ージョエル
(-Joel)