渋さ知らず - Shibusa Shirazu

As I was writing and reading my last post, I felt oddly uninspired. I'm sure it reads that way too. I mean, I've had a nice couple of weeks, but I was retelling the story because I felt like I had to, not because I really wanted to. Not that there were any secrets or so ... I just wasn't excited to share it.

But then I suddenly remembered something I did this fall and would really like to share, cause it was crazy cool.

I really wanted to go to a jazz club, get in the groove, listen and have a beer or two. I had looked at the concert lists for a couple places, and found one band playing that night that seemed interesting - they were called "Shibusa Shirazu" (渋さ知らず) (means something like "never know bitterness") and seemed kinda interesting. I couldn't convince anyone to go with me (well - at least not anyone that I wanted with me), so I went on my own.

It was outstanding. Rocking. Funking. Dancing. Crazy. They're a band of 20-30 people (depending on occasion and venue) who improvise most of the time. There were, in this small jazz club, three drummers, three guitars, two bases, a violin, trumpet and trombone and saxophone, a three person choir, a conductor and several others that I've forgotten for the moment.

When they started playing, they had this obviously rehearsed but really cool groove going within seconds. It was hard to stand still. Two unusually cool-looking girls come on stage and starts to dance. After a while, the conductor picks a couple guys, and have them improvise. Oh my, how it rocked. I really HAVE to see them again before I leave Japan... After a while actors came on stage too, and sort of acted with the music ... it's real hard to describe, but it was a jazz-funk concert and art happening at the same time.

The finale was the best part. The band is playing louder than they did before, the horns are blowing their lungs out, everyone is going for broke and everyone in the audience is dancing or clapping to the music, when the dancer girls, both at the same time, very slowly and deliberately steps up on the first row of seats, and then over the shoulders of the people sitting there, stepping onto the tables in the next row, while using their hands to support themselves on the heads of the audience. While the band is rocking and playing, the dancers slowly walks and dances over the audience to the back of the place ... the horns pick up their instruments and walk the aisles... oh boy. Damn.

I gotta figure out where they play next time. I considered buying the CD, but it so wouldn't be the same thing. I'm worried it'll ruin the experience.

I got this feeling there that I can pretty much only get from extremely good live music. I've had it no more than a couple times in my life. It's when the music just hits a string inside me, and my emotions and the music just reinforce each other, some sort of harmonious loop, until I feel so good I might burst. High as a house! Seriously ... it's a crazy feeling.

When I left, I had this ridiculous big smile on my lips that I couldn't wipe away... I walked down the street grinning like a fool. :-)

It was so worth it.

New Year, Sue's visit, more

I don't know how these things happen. I have the best intentions, always. And still ... things go wrong.

Take now, for example. I meant to keep my blog regularly updated, I really did. I was going to write something every week. I got stories enough to tell. But somehow ... other things took precedence.

I haven't even managed to upload those pics that I was going to upload with the last post. But I haven't gotten much complaints, either, so maybe it wasn't all that important. I'll try to get it taken care of though.

Ok, got that out of the way. Now...

Since last time, I've had Sue here visiting, it's been New Years Eve (that was something else, I'll get to it) and I've seen the Japanese Emperor and Sumo wrestling and played soccer for four hours straight. And gotten rid of a month-long cold! Whoo!

Now, Sue arrived two days before New Years which was not, as would soon become apparent, enough to recover from the jetlag before the Big New Years Party. Anyway, she did stay with us all night (good work, Sue!), even if she got a bit grumpy towards the end... :-)

The evening started with a group of friends at a Korean restaurant in Shin-Okubo. A lot of people in the extended group of friends are from Korea, so it was a natural choice - and the food is yummy, even if I have no clue how to spell the thing we ate. Sam-gyop-sai? Anyway, it is a dish where the meat is grilled on the table right in front of the guests, who then take a sallad leaf, put some meat in the leaf, some spices, some kimchi, fold it all up and gobble it down. Plus a number of beers with that, of course.

The plan afterwards was to either go clubbing or go sing karaoke. There was a silent majority (consisting of Japanese, Koreans and one slightly less silent Swede, yours truly :-) ) for karaoke, but a loud minority for clubbing. This created the impression that most of us wanted to go to the club (and it wasn't as if I was heavily opposed to that, either) but as we were leaving the restaurant it suddenly became apparent that most people in the group wouldn't join us to the club. That kinda sucked. So, a quick change of plans - no clubbing. We decided to first go to the square in front of Shinjuku station and wait for the clock to strike twelve (there are some huge public screens there, we figure there'd be a countdown or something). And afterwards, find a karaoke venue with "nomihoudai" (unlimited drinks) and a decent room, and so party the night away.

After some minor issues, like losing track of the french guy in our group, we got to the square by Shinjuku station. We had managed to get something bubblyish at a small store - we were all set. Ready. Staring at the big black screen, which was turned off. In anticipation, we assumed - surely it will soon come on, with big letter going "10 ... 9 ... 8" and so on. Right? It has to, right?

Wrong. As we were standing there, chatting and waiting, staring at the black screen, we suddenly noticed people shouting. I took a look at my clock - 00:01. There was another clock, much smaller than the screen, off to the side, which was looking a bit colorful and new-years-happy, but way more discreet than we expected. Guess that whole countdown thing is not all that popular here... Well, nothing to do except quickly open those bubbly bottles, empty them, and off to the karaoke club. Anti-climax, for sure.

And things just kept anti-climaxing. It wasn't easy getting a good deal on a karaoke room just after midnight on New Years eve, and we ended up in a room that was way too small for twelve people. I still had fun, but not as much as I normally would.

New Years day we mostly just slept and ate some.

The 2nd of January came, and it was time for action again. The 2nd of January is one of the two days of the year when the Japanese imperial palace is open to the public, and the emperor comes out and gives a speech (best speech ever - two sentences!), waves and goes back inside. So now I'm buddies with the Japanese Emperor.

We also managed to squeeze into a temple (crazy packed!) on that same day. And the following days we went shopping, touristing, what not.

The next memorable thing that I did was attend a Sumo competition. It's really impressive when those big guys clash together - it echoes throughout the hall. Our seats were high up, just under the ceiling, but it was still very easy to see what was going on. We were drinking beer, chatting, and watching the fights. Somehow it reminded me of watching baseball - things stand still for five minutes, then there's 30 seconds of intense action, and then it stands still again. Watching it becomes a very social activity.

Oh, I forgot to tell you the reason that we went there. Months ago, at the "Mental Health Weekend", a couple of us were chatting with this guy who is a vice president at the KDDI research labs. (It's here). Back then, he promised to take us to a Sumo tournament ... I thought it was just drunk talk, and from what we hear, so did he - but one of the younger Japanese guys who were there held him to his word. As it happened to turn out, the vice president got tied up in a meeting and couldn't make it to the actual fights, but he did come for the dinner though - and what a dinner, yummy! Apparently the restaurant was popular with Sumo wrestlers too, it was in the neighborhood of the fights, and pretty darn expensive, well, compared to what I eat here normally at least. And the VP paid for it, cool!

I think that was the main events of the last couple weeks. Sue, who knows about the blog but is too lazy to read it, could probably add something in a clever comment... :-)