Then one day I realized that my heart was withering and in it there was nothing but pain.

Last week, through the prompting of Sandra, I put together a YouTube playlist of Japanese xmas songs. Enjoy!

UNITE!

When I first arrived in Japan, way back in the day, I bought an umbrella, because the rain was, you know, pretty strong at times.  One evening, I went out to the bar, and took my umbrella as it was raining.  When I went to leave, my umbrella was nowhere to be found. Someone else had taken mine.  At the time, it bothered me a little bit, and I stewed about it as I walked home in the rain.

I bought another umbrella. This time, instead of a 1500yen umbrella, this was just a 1000yen affair, simpler, less flashy. Not one of those horrible compact umbrellas, mind you; this was a full-length, non-collapsible deal.  I used it to get to work for a while, went out to pubs a couple times, etc.  One rainy day, I had to attend a meeting at an office a half hour’s drive away.  I had been there before, and knew that parking was often quite dodgy, and I usually ended up parked far away from the office itself. So I brought my umbrella, and was glad of it when the rain got stronger and I parked even further than expected from the office.  I put my umbrella in the rack near the door, and attended my meeting.  When it had finished, and I was on my way out the door, I was dismayed to find that, again, my umbrella had been taken by another.  “You can’t just take other people’s things, it’s not right!” I moaned as I trudged through the downpour, soaked to the bone.

I bought a third umbrella. This time, a 300yen clear umbrella of the type convenience stores keep in their back rooms until an unexpected rainshower sends pedestrians scrambling for some sort of cover. This, too, was eventually nicked.

And that’s when I decided that I shall never buy another umbrella so long as I live in Japan.

It would seem to me that people are pretty fast and loose with umbrellas; that umbrellas are viewed as a sort of public property.  It’s like the penny jar at your corner store: have a brolly, leave a brolly; need a brolly, take a brolly.  It’s worked well for me these last few years.  One particularly rainy day, I took the cheapest, oldest looking umbrella from the “umbrellas of unknown provenance” bucket at my work, and used it.  A few weeks later, left it at the door of a shop while I perused their wares, came back to find it missing, took the cheapest, oldest looking one in the bucket and continued on my way.

I never take patterned ones, or ones that appear to be of particularly high quality workmanship; some people seem to think of umbrellas as fashion accessories, and may also have more dollars than sense (as it were), and spend big on a bumbershoot.  I don’t want to deprive them of their designer item (though I do often wish there were a way to make it so they’d never have purchased it in the first place), and so I always look for the cheapest one.

I really do think that some things ought to be public property, at least to a degree.  Umbrellas ought to be free for the taking, so long as you share alike; there ought to be public bicycles (though this would require a system different from the umbrella method I’ve described, what with bicycles actually being rather pricy); there ought to be community vegetable gardens where, provided you work a portion and share your produce, you can have some of other peoples’ harvest.

I’m sure this all makes me some sort of thieving commie pinko, but you know what?  I don’t much care.  Why is everyone so hung up on themselves and their own stuff?  Why can’t you share? Why don’t you open your curtains and let the sun in and see what your neighbours are up to? Why don’t you (gasp) say hello to your neighbours and help them out if you can?

My, my, I wish I knew.

Just 5 more minutes...

Right, so here’s the deal.  I hate mornings.  I hate mornings SO VERY HARD.  I’ve never been a morning person.

Well, I say NEVER. I suppose when I was a little kid, I was a morning person.  I’d get up at 5 am or something so I could watch the weird oldtimey cartoons that were only run in the very early morning.  Things like Hercules or that cartoon with people on a sub or something…? I don’t know, frankly.

But at some point, I stopped being able to wake up in the morning.  I’d sleep until 11 am or noon or later, no matter how early I went to bed.  Something about how adolescents need more sleep because their bodies and minds are working overtime on the growing, or something.

Now that I’m getting older, I don’t sleep that late anymore, but weekends, no matter when I went to bed, I’ll still stay in bed until 10 or 10:30.  On work days when I need to be up at 6:50am? Torture, sheer and utter torture.

If I had to wake up to an obnoxious BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP, the fucking thing would be out the window and I’d be back to sleep immediately.  Hate that shit!  I’ve found, though, that if I’m waking up to music I like, I’m less willing to hit the snooze button, and more likely to roll my ass out of bed.

I have a clock radio that my iPod can attach to, and I just set it to a playlist, and it goes automatically when the alarm goes.  I let it play for an hour, and when it shuts off, that means it’s time to hurry up my morning routine and get out the door to work.  It’s actually quite an effective system.

Some people, I’m sure, would specifically pick songs every night before going to bed that they wanted to wake up to. Me? I just set my iPod to my Top Rated playlist, and let it go.  I thought I’d share some of the songs I woke up to last month, so you could hear and enjoy. Check it out after the jump.

WAKE UP MUSIC:

One more time, one more chance, by Yamazaki Masayoshi.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/01%20One%20more%20time,%20One%20more%20chance.mp3" dl="0"]

どうして君を好きになってしまったんだろう by Tohoshinki.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/03%20Doushite%20kimi%20wo%20suki%20ni%20natte%20shimattandarou.mp3" dl="0"]

kanariya “H/\L’s Mix” by Ayumi Hamasaki.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/03%20kanariya%20%27%27HAL%27s%20MIX%27%27.mp3" dl="0"]

Endless sorrow “Natural Green Dub Mix” by Ayumi Hamasaki.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/03.%20Endless%20sorrow%20%27%27Natural%20Green%20Dub%20Mix%27%27.mp3" dl="0"]

Come Together by move.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/08.%20come%20togehter%20%28Bangladesh%27Mid%20East%27%20REMIX%29.mp3" dl="0"]

異国 by Miyuki Nakajima. (not a good wake up song AT ALL. Pro-tip!)
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/08.%20%88%d9%8d%91.mp3" dl="0"]

Tooi Timpani by See-Saw.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/09%20Tooi%20Timpani.mp3" dl="0"]

Under the Sea by Doping Panda.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/17%20-%20Doping%20Panda%20-%20Under%20The%20Sea%20%28Little%20Mermaid%29.mp3" dl="o"]

I Wish by Infected Mushroom.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/26.%20Infected%20Mushroom%20-%20I%20Wish%20%28Skazi%27s%20Brutal%20Remix%29.mp3" dl="0"]

evolution (DJ REMO-COM REMIX) by Ayumi Hamasaki.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/3.%20evolution%20%28DJ%20REMO-COM%20REMIX%29.mp3" dl="0"]

Beautiful World by Utada Hikaru.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/31%20-%20Beautiful%20World.mp3" dl="0"]

No Matter What by Boyzone.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/Boyzone%5D%20No%20Matter%20What.mp3" dl="0"]

This song… by… um… someone.
[wpaudio url="http://enhasa.org/x/music/wake-up/2009-10/Hybrid%20-%2003%20-%20Glorious%20%28Andreas%20Johnson%29.mp3" dl="0"]

Some of these were reasonable. Some were terrible as wake up songs.

How do you wake up in the morning? What type of music gets you out of bed?

[media id=3 width=730 height=548]

In my time in Japan, I have come across some pretty epic (as well as some hyper-annoying) product jingles on TV and in supermarkets, but this one really takes the cake.

Natto Angel, a natto jingle done in the style of turn-of-the-millennium Morning Musume. Think “Love Machine”, only about natto. (Only, the artist is actually AKB48, which makes it EVEN WORSE)

The tape player looping this song was on top of one of the coolers, and as I leaned there, holding my phone up to it to get good quality audio, pretending to look like I was interested in the vegetables there, but too tired to stand alone, I must have looked a right tosser. But I did it all for YOU!

NATTO BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAM!

Postcards

I collect and send postcards.  I’m a bit of a postcard addict.  I’ve always sort of liked looking at them, and flipping through them, but my own collection (and love of sending them) is rather new.

In winter 2004, while on JET, CLAIR sent out promotional postcards, for free, to JET participants.  The photos were all shitty amateur crap by people with dodgy camera skills, but free postcards man! Yeah, I’ll send those.

And I did! I hit up everyone I knew to ask them for their addresses so I could send them postcards.  When I ran out, that was fine.  But the following year, the same thing happened, and I leaped on the chance to send postcards again.

Fast forward to Winter 2008, and a friend told me about Postcrossing.  I started sending cards through it and that was fun.  It was a pain to always run out and look for individual postcards when I drew a new address though, and so I started to pick up postcards when I went places, so that I’d have some on hand.

Fast forward to today, and I have 180 postcards that I’ve received through Postcrossing and from friends, and I have nearly as many blank cards on hand to send to others.  I went to Loft in Shibuya earlier this month, and dropped 10,000yen on postcards.

I think I may have a problem.

In related news, Japan (as most countries, I reckon) often has special issues of stamps, commemorative editions, collectors’ shizzle, and whatnot.  Currently, I’m using these Naruto stamps when I send postcards.  Oh, how nerdy!

Do you do Postcrossing? What do you think of sending postcards?

Ken Miyake, Junichi Okada, and Go Morita

Me? I’m a big fan of music. All music.  I’m not tied by genres or what the cool kids are listening to. I know what I like, and that’s what I listen to.

I’m a bit of a Japanese boy band junkie.  I’m not ashamed to admit it!  Johnny’s groups make me happy. I like their songs.  My favourite group is V6, for no reason I can really explain. (shrug)  As with many of the larger groups, V6 is split into two sub-groups. Today, I’d like to share the new mini-album from the younger half, Coming Century.

Hello-Goodbye coincides with Coming Century’s first concert tour (outside of the main group) in six years. With seven tracks and three solo tracks from the three members (pictured above), I’d expect to love maybe two, kind of like seven, and totally hate one track.  This is how I tend to be with albums. Even singles.  The main track will be good, there may be one more that’s kind of okay, and then the rest are nothing too special.

With this mini-album though, five of the songs are excellent, three are pretty good, and the other two are alright, but not really my cup of tea. It’s because I like this album so much that I wanted to share it with you all.

My favourite track has to be “Forget it all”, a driving club track that will definitely make you want to dance.  At the risk of making myself sound older than I am, this track is just groovy.  Who cares about the lyrics with a chorus like this? Give it a listen.

The title track, “Hello-Goodbye” isn’t as much of a riff on the classic Beatles track as you may imagine from the title.  It’s there, but it’s not painful or obtrusive.

Ken Miyake from the "We Are Coming Century Boys" tour pamphlet

The thing I like about this song, besides the sing-a-longability of it, is that it really works well for the voices of the three guys.  Let’s face it: Ken has a squeaky voice.  In most V6 songs, he’ll get hidden in the harmony, because when he sings alone, it’s very jarring — not because his voice is unpleasant, really, but just the contrast is jarring.

In this track, though, he’s able to feature prominently and it fits. It fits good, boy!  The entire album is like this, though.  Whoever has been writing  their songs lately (in the case of this song, and “Desert Eagle”, which appeared on the V6 Spirit single, that would be Spontania) really has a knack for using his voice well.  I appreciate that, and it’s made this mini-album a joy to listen to.  Give “Hello-Goodbye” a listen.

Finally, there’s “手のひらのUniverse” (Universe in your Palm).  At first I hated it, but it’s grown on me.  I think, though, the main reason it grew on me is because I’m a geek.  It reminds me of the incidental music from The Fifth Element and BladeRunner, only with vocals added.  When I made that connection, suddenly my perceptions shifted and I thought, “Woo, yeah, this is great!”  I’m such a geek ._.  Anyhoo, give it a listen.

The rest of the songs are worth a listen too.  The solos are great (particularly Ken’s “4u” and Okada’s “Shall we Love?”; there’s also “Black-out”, a song sung entirely in English.  Admittedly, not great English, but it’s still good, and with great lines like, “God, please make believe the jerky heaven”.

Hello-Goodbye by Coming Century comes in three versions (as is typical for things in Japan): Version A comes with a bonus CD with the solos; Version B comes with a DVD with the PV for “Hello-Goodbye”; Version C comes with three badges (or perhaps the kids prefer to call it “flair” these days).  Prices start at 1886yen from Amazon Japan.

Behold!

Though I admit I may be premature in passing this judgment… I’m gonna do it anyway: This is the greatest flash that has ever been, and that ever will be made.  Watch!  WATCH!

[media id=1 width=500 height=375]