Drinking Ban on Public Transport

This is a response to a friend from Chicago's blog, Matt, early 2007 he moved to London. Back in May, London put an end to drinking on public transit, which lead to this post: Drinking Ban on Public Transport.

Even though the post and how the residents of London reacted was really funny, I still thought to myself, "man, that sucks." So, in response to Matt's blog, I just wanted to let everyone know, everything is okay in Japan. Laws here, still logical. Most train stations in Japan have little platform stores or something near by that makes it really easy to pick up a beer or sake for the trip home.Sometimes, a train beer, on Friday is really nice. Something you are not suppose to do on a train, epically the Shinkansen bullet train is talk on a cell phone. Not because it is illegal, just that it is seen as being really rude. On the Shinkansen, a voice comes over the PA and reminds to make sure your phone is set to manner mode. So, look at this guy:On the Shinkansen, not sitting in his chair, having a conversation on his phone while trying to hide it behind his hand. What a punk.

Moving to Nagoya... New Apartment

I have room for you to visit.

Of the 7 apartments I checked out, I have picked this one:It is located near the JR station Chikusa, which makes getting to work kind of easy. But it is also near three subway stations, a bunch of really cool neighborhoods, restaurants and bars.Above is the living room and kitchen.It is also on the seventh floor which is the penthouse. The balcony is huge, there are some hooks for hanging laundry and a garden for growing vegetables and herbs.Here is the best part, here is the first Tatami room.And here is the second Tatami room, so Japanese! A Tatami room is a traditional Japanese style room which are kind of multipurpose. You can sleep on futons, have tea or dinner, or simply entertain in here. I will have to figure this out later.Here is the bathroom. When the person showing me the property and I walked into here, she said "wow this place is huge, even you could fit in the tub."

Moving to Nagoya.. For Real

I'm moving to Nagoya and did my apartment search today. In total, I looked at at 7 places and narrowed my search down to two then one. Check these places out, here is the place I almost did not turn down.This place was cool, the first level was on the 7th floor and the second on the 8th. Nice modern layout, located on top of an Aston Martin dealership, near downtown and a train station, but I had to turn it down. Here is why:This is the view from the first floor balcony, that is a expressway right there and concrete everywhere else. This would normally be okay, but I kind of imagined the air around here to be like Georgetown in south Seattle, full of pollution and noise (albeit in this case, from cars).And here was my other issue. The shower and bath room has a window as a wall? This is on the second floor next to the bedroom and the toilet is first. Typically in Japan the toilet and shower is in two separate rooms, but not typically on different floors. Cool layout, but not quite right. This is still my plan B, just in case my first pick does not work out.

Sarapes

Look at this:This is in a basement resale shop in Tokyo called 'Chicago'. In the neighborhood of Harajuku. Not a big deal, but as I turned the corner of this 'L' shape store I noticed these sarapes hanging along the back wall, I was a little surprised. But then I looked closer and saw the this:That's right, that says Y10500, or just under USD$105. Within seconds, I realized I have more then a grad of blankets in my storage room back near Renton. In fact, the more colorful the blanket, the more it was worth in Tokyo. Soooooooo, I need a plan to visit Laredo and somehow need to figure out what the textile import laws here - are. People here must have no clue, if you can talk enough, this blanket only cost $6.

Never had one lesson!

So, this was an experience. Because of work, I ended up a little late to the bar, by the time I arrived everything was almost set up and ready to go. Our show started at 8:30, and there was a private party from 6:30 - 8:00, the rest of the band got to the bar a little early and took care of business.The amp off to the right is the I was to use. During the private party, we took off for a bite to eat. Right around 8:00 we returned to tune the instruments and get settled in. It did not take long for the bar to fill up.I was kind of not paying attention, plugging in my bass and making sure it would make noise, turned around and saw this. Then the person trying to level out speakers asked me to play the bass, I was not to excited about this, so many people. "When I push on this string, they can hear me, that is not cool."During sound check, I was trying to avoid everyone. In fact when we started to play, I stood facing James the drummer, with my back to everyone for the first few minutes. But the bar was enjoying the show, and after a few minutes I was facing forward and making a good effort to be a rock star.So, I can not play bass, but that's okay. The basic idea was to put me up here, try to follow the beat and the other three would simply play louder then me. This actually worked out, we played 10 or 12 songs, half of them I was able to learn a couple of key notes to hit. The other songs, I was able to watch where Noe, on guitar was playing and just kind of followed along. I had two bass' to work with, one was tuned a little different from the other and used for different songs. But it was really cool to put one down and pick up the other. I had no idea the amount of work it is to play a bass. To stand there and pluck strings for two hours really takes a toll. I had to use a pick, I tried to use my fingers during day 2 partice to strum, but then I got a blister on my index finger. Which put the kabosh on that idea, you can strum faster not using a pick.Everyone really enjoyed the concert, it's a really good that the rest of the band are really good musicians.There is one song that I think I played really well, Alice in Chains song Would.Towards the end of the night, I was walking around and dancing a little bit. This was a lot of fun, unlike Rock Band, no one boo'ed me off stage or even gave me a hard time. I actually got a lot of positive feedback, but I think no one really realized they could not hear the bass. Now I want to take a few lessons sometime in the future. I think next week, i will be getting some more photos, I will put those up too.

Band Practice Day 2

This was our second practice and everything went well.My bass sounds good, our show is tomorrow and as it sounds it will be a packed house (small house, maybe the bar can hold less then 45 people).So, this will be crazy, if anyone yells at me "you suck!" I'm going to stop the show and invite them on stage to show me how they would handle the same situation.

School of Rock

This is kind of difficult to explain, yesterday I was asked if I could play bass for this band made up of three co-workers who need a bass player. Naturally, I answered "no."They were not convinced, so after some discussion in the office, I found myself making noise on a bass in a small studio north of Nagoya station called Liverpool. And the noise I was able to produce was good enough to play live in a bar this Friday, at 8:30pm, at 10 Dollar Rock'A Beat Cafe near Fushimi Station.Between right now and Friday at 8:30pm, there is one more practice, where I will have an amp and three hours to figure this thing out. We are going to play some covers from Weezer, Green day, Nirvana... so on. I have a strap for the bass now too, so it is a little more easy to manage. The show will be about an hour and a half and should be crazy. They picked a bunch of songs where the bass is easy to play over, but I can hold the beat. No problem, I should also get points for stage presence. I'm kind of big in Japan! But if I enjoy this, I think I might take some classes. I think prior to this week, I have played Rock Star twice, let's see if I get booed off stage in real life.

The name of the band is Jyuko, which is short form of the Japanese word Jūkōgyō, which means 'heavy industry.'