New Year finds

A bit late getting pics of these up, but the results of some down and dirty digging in Nagoya and elsewhere can now be seen.

Full story on my Flickr page

New Year Cinema Triathalon

In an enforced break with tradition, both due to the lack of anything worth seeing and as a nod to my incipient old age, we dispensed with the notion of three films in the same day and decided to go with three films over three days. Even so, we kept as closely as possible to the same rules of different cinemas, different directors, in different languages and taking different forms of transport.

First up was The Man From London at Image Forum, followed on the 2nd by Inglourious Basterds at the new cinema in Yurakucho Itocia and finishing today with Waltz With Bashir at Cine Switch in Ginza. We’d saved the Tarantino flick for this occasion as we knew so many cinemas were going to be closed on New Year’s Day, but even so we were struggling to find things to see on the other days. I think we did OK, though. The Man From London proceeds at a glacial pace, but is beautifully filmed and worth a viewing, and although Waltz With Bashir was a bit of a struggle for me, being in Hebrew with Japanese subtitles, it is also highly recommended. The Sight and Sound article on Inglourious Basterds concentrated on the role of language in the film and for me that was much more interesting than the usual games of trainspotting references you get into with Tarantino movies (well OK, I admit I was ticking off the Italian soundtrack music by Ferrio, Ortolani and Morricone). The scenes with changes in code and register and those that centre round the role of accents are skillfully handled, and given the way in which accent recognition is used in forensic linguistics these days, are also quite contemporary.

Gero beer

I was spoilt for choice in Gero as there seemed to be plenty of local brewing action and the amount of different sakes and shochus was daunting in the extreme. Settled for a bottle of rice shochu, which got seriously depleted on the first night, and these two beers.

On the right we have Hida Korikori “Harmony” beer which was a great disappointment. It doesn’t even measure up to the ersatz Black beers that the major brewers put out. Not even a decent head on it.

Moving swiftly along, after a couple of palate-cleansing Yebisus, one the left we have the award-winning Hida Takayama Bakushu Dark Ale. This is a beauty and has a rich taste not unlike Scottish microbrews such as Black Cuillin. Deinitely one to revisit, and if I’d known it was going to be this good I’d have invested in their Weizen and Pale Ale too.

Welcome to 2010

We saw in the New Year at my in-laws, where the snow was falling thick and fast and of a perfect consistency for snowballs. This snap was on our return from the local shrine.

Back in Tokyo now, and there’s a stack of vinyl to get through from the final digs of 2009 in Kunitachi and Osu (of which more anon), as well as some o-sechi in the fridge and a few extra kilos on the waistline.

Peter Brotzmann/Yagi Michiyo/Honda Tamaya @ Aketa no Mise

I’ve been a huge fan of Peter Brotzmann since seeing him in Nagoya back in 1995, but a disappointing set at Super Deluxe a few years ago almost made me give up on him. He was back on form last year at the Pit Inn with Sato Masahiko and Moriyama Takeo though, so I had every confidence that this show would be worth the trip to Nishi Ogikubo. After a quick dig in Fun Records I got to the venue to discover that not only was I early enough to get a decent seat but they had made it non-smoking since I was last there. They say that good things come in threes and to round it off I hooked up with the guy who runs the excellent Tokyo Jazz site and his pal.

The first set began with Yagi Michiyo getting busy on the larger of her two koto and trademark squalls from PB on tenor and, surprisingly, alto. Two lengthy improvisations later we all took a breather and by the time the musicians were back on stage my ears had adjusted to the storm. The second set began with Yagi-san coaxing sounds from the smaller koto that reminded me at times of the valiha from Madagascar. Honda Tamaya was proving a sensitive foil with some nifty brushwork and interesting use of his cymbals and from this point on they really kicked into gear and the next forty minutes or so really made me realise how much I’d missed seeing live Jazz this year. The penultimate piece was based around a guitar-like riff on the larger koto and the finale was a beautifully understated trio piece that spoke volumes for the empathy between the three. It was great to see PB still on form and to hear Yagi Michiyo in a small group setting (though I had to suppress a guffaw when PB told her that her koto was too loud), but Honda-san was the revelation for me. Especially in the second set he showed that he’s a drummer to keep an eye out for.

Happy 46th birthday!

No, not to me (not quite there yet) but to the Republic of Kenya. I was fortunate enough to get an invite to the Independence celebrations at the extremely swanky New Otani Hotel in Akasaka, where food (western, Japanese and thankfully Kenyan as well) was on offer and the beer (no Tusker, unfortunately) came round by refrigerated trolley. Music was provided by a four-piece band with Kenyan singer Were-san on vocals and I was able to meet some interesting people including the official Kenyan Tourist board photographer (great job, I’d say) and the son of the ex-Zambian ambassador, who had great taste in music and some good stories of the African music clubs in Tokyo in the early 90s. I was also there for work reasons, and our post reception meeting ended up being held in the bar on the 17th floor with its revolving restaurant. At least I think it was the restaurant that was revolving … maybe it was me.

Chiba Sharks 2009 Awards

The Sharks finished the 2009 season with a won 4, lost 6 record but that doesn’t tell the whole story. We made the semi-finals again and most of our defeats came on the lunar surface at Ageo. In any case, the Awards do is always a time to look forward to the season to come as well as dredging up the spilled catches, comedy runouts and general shennanigans of the season just past.

Cricketer of the year deservedly went to Prasanth in his first full season as a Shark, and there were awards too for various other club stalwarts in the Best fielder and Best Bowler categories. The food and drink at the Ashoka seemed to surpass their usual high standards and I think the collective team waistline will need some trimming over the winter. Just as well we’re competing in the Winter Indoor League out in Kashiwa.

Surgery this year put paid to my hopes of playing any games but hopefully I’ll at least be able to get to some trainings in the New Year.

IAWE Conference in Cebu

Spent a thoroughly enjoyable few days at the 15th IAWE conference in Cebu. Luckily, and for the first time in my experience of presenting at conferences, I was down to give my paper on the first day so I was able to get it out of the way and enjoy the rest of the conference to the full.

The schedule was quite forbidding at first glance, but the quality of the material on offer was such that it was perfectly possible to go to the majority of sessions and not be disappointed. It’s unfair to pick highlights, but Edgar Schneider’s two papers opened up a lot of new avenues for my own research and Jocelyn Pinzon’s look at the Filipino singer Yoyoy Villame was of great interest for my Global Issues Through Music course. One small quibble was the relative lack of representation for African Englishes, something which will surely be rectified next year in Vancouver, although one of the keynote speeches was by Dr Eyamba Bokamba of Uni. of Illinois, who spoke on Chinua Achebe.

Despite dire warnings of typhoons in the Japanese weather forecast the skies stayed blue for the duration and I was even able to fit in a trip to the beach on nearby Mactan Island, though I decided to pass on the conference tour to Bopol with its 0500 start. It was also nice to sample some of the local brews, with San Miguel’s Strong Ice and Red Horse Stallion being very much to my taste.

Oktober

Yes, October is with a K this year in honour of my oldest friend and fellow record fiend  visiting Japan (he’s the one on the right in the picture). We first met at a Hawkwind show near on thirty years ago and although he lives in Europe we still get together when we can.

Two weeks … a wedge of records from the dustiest crates in Japan … fine food and ale … a few late nights and even some films, too. Shame we couldn’t have gone to the Scotland-Japan game together, but the trip to Yamagata made up for it.

Haste ye back, sir!

Golden Edinburgh

Was most pleasantly surprised to find this in Niikura, my old favourite place for beer and wine in Musashi Sakai. This little beauty weighs in at 7.0% and is as smooth as silk. Truly a new standard in Japanese craft beers in my opinion, and a worthy successor to Tamanomegumi in my fridge.

I also picked up a bottle of their standard Edinburgh ale at 4.5% and was less impressed, though it was certainly highly drinkable. Looks like I’ll need to make a few more trips to stock up before the crowds cotton on to the goodness in store.

More info here