Sexy Sweet Potato

This is my alter ego, Murasakimokkoli. He's a "genki" sweet potato man from Kyushyu. Enjoy!

Travels Down South

Greetings once again! I've finally gotten around to a new entry. Some news since my last entry... I've made the big switch from PC to Mac! So bear with me, I'm still trying to get the hang of it. My friend Paul, who is a seasoned Mac user, has been a huge help! But more on my new computer later...

During the past week, Akemi and I traveled to Kyushyu, Japan's island to the southwest of Honshu. We had a really nice, relaxing time. Our stops included Ibusuki, Kagoshima, Sasebo, and Nagasaki. All had their merits, but I really enjoyed Ibusuki for its "sunaboro", or hot sand bath, and Nagasaki. The sunaboro is amazing because it's on the beach, and the sand is naturally heated by all of the underground geothermal activity. Cool, but scary! The place is a ticking timebomb of volcanic eruptions! In fact, Kagoshima has an active volcano directly across the bay from it -- not unlike the geographic proximity of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius -- named Sakurashima, or "cherry blossom island". Sounds so innocent! The last eruption was about 10 years ago, which apparently was pretty small. If they ever have a Mt. St. Helens-sized blast, that city is history.

All of the local foods were incredible, including the unagi (eel), champon (Chinese-style ramen), Castella (pound cake originally introduced by the Portugese), and kujira (whale). Ooops! Yes, I tried whale. Now, I can't see making it a regular meal, and I feel guilty for eating it, but it was quite delicious! In fact, much tastier than I thought it would be. We had it raw, sashimi-style, and it actually tasted more like tuna than beef. Strange -- maybe whales' diet of seafood gives its meat a similar flavor. And, as you can imagine, it was fairly expensive. So, something definitely you need to try once, but something I wouldn't recommend picking up for your average backyard BBQ.

Nagasaki was great in that it's a very beautiful city with a lot of character considering its tragic past, and there's alot of sightseeing. We only had time to see the Peace Park and Museum commemorating the bombing, and Deijima. Deijima was a tiny artificial island in Nagasaki Bay built by the ruling shogunate in the mid-1600s which was the only port in Japan open to contact and trade with foreigners. This period of Japanese isolation lasted about 200 years, until the doors were opened to Western culture during the Meiji Restoration of the late 1800s. Deijima was initially occupied by the Portugese, then by the Dutch. The island is extremely small - only a few thousand square meters in size. But nonetheless, I think the European occupants led a relatively plush life there.

Below are just a few pics from our trip. I'll have to try to post more later when I learn more of the intricacies of using this computer. As it is, just to upload these took a really long time - probably something I'm doing wrong! Sorry -- no photos from Deijima since it was raining bucketloads the entire last day in Nagasaki. Later my brothers and sisters!!

I Am Alive

Hello all! It's me! I am alive and well, though you wouldn't know it from my lack of blogging. Since my last entry, the summer has cranked up the heat (which I love) and lots of new developments have taken place. First off, I hiked Mt. Fuji for the 3rd time on 12 July. It was great, but I think 3 truly is the 'magic number' and I don't need to do it again. Then, the next day, I found out I was passed over for promotion. Fuckers! Who needs 'em anyway! So I've been comtemplating my life's plans & goals quite a bit as of late. Also, I've attended several fireworks celebrations. You could literally attend dozens of them throughout various areas of Japan in the summertime. I would say millions of dollars (yen equivalent) are spent on explosives by this country every year!















I bought a Nintendo DS Lite along with four games -- Brain Age, Super Mario Brothers, Tetris, and Sudoku. Both Akemi and I are addicted! It's a great system. I highly recommend it; especially for adults who are not of the usual gaming type. Many of the games are geared toward a more mature crowd.

I finished reading "Scar Tissue", the autobiography by Red Hot Chili Pepper frontman Anthony Kiedis. Now, I'm not a huge Chili Pepper fan (not like Akemi anyway), but I do love autobiographies, especially of lives spent on the edge. And his book is certainly a firsthand account of a descent into a drug-soaked, selfish, decadent hell. I enjoyed it. Now I'm in the middle of Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation", a great account of the rise to power of the fast food industry and all the evils associated with it. It's such a detailed account -- everything from the life of Ray Kroc to what makes McD's french fries taste good. I'd say I've definitely cut down tremendously on the amount of fast food I consume during the past year, and this book makes me not want to touch it ever again. Anyway, a good read, and now I'm ready to see the movie of the same title which is due to be released some time in the next year.

Akemi and I will go to the island of Kyshu at the end of August, so I'll post pictures from our trip after that. We're looking forward to more travels this Fall, so I'll keep you informed! Peace out, mo' fo's!

Yankee-Hotel-Latecomer

Whattup yo! This post is about something I recently came upon, or I should say, was introduced to. My friend Paul played some snippets for me from the album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" by Wilco, and I was blown away! This album actually came out in 2002, while I was in the midst of my residency, and I didn't pay much mind to it since it was constantly placed under the heading of the much-hyped "alt-country". I try not to jump on bandwagons or follow behind trends, so I pretty much ignored all the fanfare. "Alt-country" is pretty much a hipster-doofus term for music that has a decidedly "country" perspective, but the band members wear cool indie T-shirts. Anywho, I downloaded the entire album from iTunes and now I'm hooked. Wilco has a style that echoes both Beck and Radiohead, while being completely original. What really grabbed me was the first track, "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart". There is a breakdown in the intro that totally reminds of the breakdown in the Beatles "A Day In The Life", my all-time favourite Beatles track. In the latter, Beatles' producer George Martin introduced the ringing alarm clock that rounds out the cacophonous symphonic meltdown and ties it into the "Woke up, fell out of bed..." bridge. There are hints of that beautiful chaos in the "Break Your Heart" intro. The rest of the album follows suit and is totally captivating in its folky-slacker-psychedelic bliss.

Sooooo... check it out! And by the way, check out my newly added links list over to the left side of your screen. These are some of my frequently visited sites. I'll add more later...

Enjoy, and don't believe the hype!

NerdFest 2006

Hello all! As promised, here's a review of the Belle & Sebastian show on Sunday, 04 June 2006. My friend Paul and I attended the Sunday show since the Saturday show was sold out (to my dismay). The concert was like an early-bird special -- it started at 6pm promptly (in Japanese fashion) and was finished around 8pm. Probably a good thing, given that it was Sunday night. It was held at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel Stellar Ballroom - not a huge venue, but large enough for this show. We arrived at Shinagawa around 5:10pm and found a nearby Italian restaurant to have a quick dinner. I've heard that the Prince Hotel chain is going bankrupt so it makes me wonder how many more shows will be held at this location.

The performance was excellent. There were NINE (!) members total in this incarnation of Belle & Sebastian (I hear that there are always members leaving and joining the band). Their sound was very true to the albums - they sounded great. A very talented group of people. They were very hip, in a geeky, awkward, Weezer-kind of way. They're from Scotland, so it was a hoot to hear the accents during the between-song banter. Their set mostly came from "If You're Feeling Sinister", "Dear Catastrophe Waitress", and "The Life Pursuit" (the most recent album). They did not play any cover songs, but they did have an audience member come onstage to sing 'Happy Birthday' to one of their sound engineers. The girl they invited on stage was Japanese and claimed to have a band of her own, though you wouldn't know it from how shyly she behaved about singing. She gave a very breathy, Marilyn Monroe-esque rendition. The band gave one encore. I was only disappointed that they didn't perform "Act of the Apostle", "Dear Catastrophe Waitress", and "Wandering Along" (from the "Storytelling" EP).

This concert truly was NerdFest 2006. The crowd was mostly Japanese art school kids and a smathering of ultra-cool Eurotrash expats and English teachers. The audience was almost eerily quiet. Between songs, the only sounds were one or two comments by rambuncious gaijin. Other than that, you could literally hear a pin drop! I could actually hear the sound of the air conditioner running! I have never seen a more uncomfortable, unrelaxed looking audience. Nobody could seem to get into the mood of it! They looked as if they were hostages, forced into the room at gunpoint. I think a fart in church would have had a more receptive audience!

That's all for now! Stay tuned for more interesting nonsense later!

Ragin' with Ben Harper

Hey kids -- Friday night Paul and I went to see the Ben Harper show at the Yokohama Blitz. It was an incredible show for an artist I know little about. After seeing the show, though, I'll definitely be paying alot more attention to his stuff. It's a great mix of acoustic folk, hard rock, and psychedelia. I'm always curious to see the bizarre cross-section of people that show up for concerts, and this show did not disappoint. In attendance were groups of Japanese hippies, stoners, and surfers, as well as a multitude of foreigners, including military (yours truly), baka-gaijin (crazy whities and ex-pats), and various other flower children and friends of the earth. Talk at you soon with coverage on the upcoming Belle & Sebastian show...

Dr. Slovin -- Diagnosis: Funkin' GoNuts

Pinocchio Boy -- Can his nose possibly get any larger??

Lazy Bastard

That's me. Sorry I haven't updated this for a few weeks. It's been a crazy last few weeks. Akemi is still out of town in L.A. completing her Bikram yoga training. My father passed away a month ago and I went home to Jacksonville. Work is hella busy (as always). I try to get out and do different things on the weekends.

This coming weekend I will attend two concerts. The first will be Ben Harper, who I know little about, but am curious to hear live. The second is a secret fave of mine, Belle & Sebastian. They're a Scottish combo of several musicians that play 60's-inspired pop/folk. I'm really interested to see how they pull off a live show. I'll post a review afterward.

I've been listening to the entire Ben Folds / Ben Folds Five back catalogue and have re-ignited my interest in him. What an incredibly talented and original musician! He truly is an idiot-savante genius of punk-avante-garde-piano rock. I highly recommend checking his stuff out if you haven't already!

Later mofo's!

The Ringleader

I bought the new Morrissey CD, "Ringleader of the Tormentors", the other day and have had a chance to listen to it a couple times. As with most of Morrissey's albums, it doesn't disappoint! I'm not sure if he'll win over any new fans with this one, but if you're a fan from long ago you'll really appreciate this one. The vocals are great, with some tracks using the signature-Morrissey "echo" effects. There are richly textured melodies as well which draw influence from many sources. "I Will See You In Far Off Places" has a distinct middle-eastern flavor. "In The Future When All's Well" could just as well be a T-Rex or Bowie track (both big influences on Morrissey). My personal favorite is "The Father Who Must Be Killed", which sounds light and boppy with children's choir backing vocals, but has some pretty gruesome lyrics. Morrissey may be getting up there in years but he still croons with best of them! Anyway, I highly recommend this CD.

Jack Johnson

Hello kiddies! On Saturday, 15 April, I went with fellow dentists and friends Peter and Marjie Barndt and ultra-hipster physician Paul Slovin to the Jack Johnson concert in Chiba. The show was great, but not only that, we had a great time before and after the show. Jack's performance was right on the money. We have all of his CDs, but I would be pressed to name off all of the songs that he played live off of them. Needless to say, the show sounded as good as if not better than the CDs. His music is probably best heard live anyway, especially on a warm, breezy summer evening at an outdoor venue (preferrably in a tropical location). We had to settle for an indoor venue just north of Tokyo, and unfortunately the weather still had an uncomfortable chill. But hey, the Lowenbrau was flowing like water (brought to you by the Asahi corporation) and everyone was having fun. We'll let the photos do the talking...

Just outside Shibuya station, the world's busiest intersection









Ticket in hand...












How kawaii!!! Me and the Barndts.










Beer it up a little bit...

Jack!

Me, the Barndts, Rachel (another dentist), and Paul (striped sweater)

Show's over folks. Nothin' to see here.

Oh, the afterglow!

How you hold the overhead handles on the train says alot about a person. Examples:

The polite two-fingered grasp

The "Birdie"

The Greedy American

The Drunken Canadian Stranglehold (by the way, we didn't know this jackass)

Rainy Days

Sorry I haven't posted any new entries recently. This whole last week was spent recovering from jetlag from Hawaii. The weather here in Yokosuka sucks right now. Winter won't release it's miserable grip, and it's raining to boot. I went to the Jack Johnson concert last night in Chiba and it was really cool. I'll try to post some pics if I can.

In the meantime, check out this blog site if you get the chance. If you're fans of 'Ren & Stimpy', you'll love it!

http://http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/02/calling-all-cool-girls.html

Here we go....

Like the Jane's Addiction song says, "here we goooooo......"! This is my first blog site, and in fact my first foray into blogging. Hope all of you find some miniscule aspect that amuses, entertains, or otherwise interests you! I'll cut this short, but hope to hear from you soon!