Favela Chic

Gang of Boys - Matthew Herbert
The Gigolo - Lee Morgan
Retribution, Reparation - Nate Morgan
Wind - Sleepwalker featuring Yukimi Nagano
Mama Don't Ever Go Away (Mama Digna Sara Ye) - Dee Dee Bridgewater
Favela Chic? - Orgatronics
Beaten Metal - Antibalas
Oscillations - The Souljazz Orchestra
Leave It All Behind - The Superimposers
Willing - Damon Aaron

Shoe shine ladies

Outside the west exit of Shinjuku Station, some elderly women offer a shoe shine and repair service. I wonder how many years they've been working there.

Hydrangea festival at Toshimaen

The rainy season in Japan is the best time to see hydrangeas in full bloom, and at Toshimaen in Nerima-ku there is the so-called annual Hydrangea Festival. Toshimaen is a large park-like space home to an amusement park, multiplex cinema and resort spa. Part of the park hosts a garden space full of hydrangeas (more than 10,000 blooms according to the flier) and you can either walk through on foot or take the miniature train.

A walk through the park followed by some sushi at a restaurant near the station was a nice relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Creeps

Beaten metal - Antibalas
Makoomba - Nuspirit Helsinki
Sticks and Stones - Connie Price & The Keystones
Cleopatra in New York - Nickodemus
I'll Be Your Wings - The Invisible Session
Equinox - John Coltrane
Ai No Umi - Sleepwalker
Creeps (Booty Cologne Mix) - Camille Jones
It'll Never Happen Again - Tim Hardin
All I Need - Damon Aaron

Tetsugaku Koen

Tetsugaku Koen (Philosopher's Park), situated in the north of Nakano-ku, is a great place for a stroll or to simply sit and relax. It's set on a hill and has some sports facilities near the top, a field that is used for hanami in the spring and a grouping of old-style buildings related to learning, (though I'm not sure quite what their history or significance is) and a riverside path and pond near the bottom.

The perfect place to sit and read ~ as long as you have your bug spray!

10th Anniversary

It's now exactly ten years since I stepped on the FinnAir flight from Heathrow to Kansai, marking my arrival in Japan. Quite incredible really.

When I first arrived, Blair had just been elected, and now he is preparing to move out of number 10. The Spice Girls were huge in Britain, and the nation's sporting heroes were Tim Henman and Damon Hill, with Glen Hoddle's England looking forward to going to France '98 with an exciting new striker by the name of Michael Owen.

On arriving in Japan I was totally thrown by being in a county where I was totally lost when it came to trying to communicate. Not only was I unable to speak the language, I was also totally helpless when it came to reading too, unlike in other countries I had previously visited. I was also surprised on entering convenience stores or izakayas (a Japanese style beer hall with food) at first, wondering if the staff were shouting out because I'd committed some heinous faux pas, completely unaware that it was a standard welcome. Nowadays I barely notice it.

Back in 1997, I remember that Ichiro was an exciting new baseball player and the football heroes were Kazu and Gon Nakayama, with some people thinking that a young midfielder called Nakata looked quite useful too. Namie Amuro was the pop diva of the moment and a girl group of teenagers called Speed were popular too.

On TV, you could see the boy band SMAP every Monday night, the comedian Sanma hosting various shows and a variety show called Hey! Hey! Hey! hosted by the comedy double act Downtown. Bizarrely ten years on, TV is still the same, and these celebrities as popular as ever.

The ten years to date in Japan have been great fun, and there is still so much more to see and do. Whether I'll still be here ten years from now or not is a different question all together.

Bar in Nakano-Higashi

Closed this afternoon. Guess I'll have to pop in another time.

Hydrangea season

It's June, and so many gardens have hydrangea bushes in full bloom. Riding around Nakano-ku today I was struck by the amount of blooms I saw. Also, for some reason, most of the ones I saw today were blue.

Hats! - 12

Simple black summer Kangol number

Street art in Nakano

Down by the side of the railway tracks at Nakano.

Fair trade in Nakano

A little north of the main shopping area in Nakano is a great little shop that I love to look browse around from time to time. Lampada is a shop selling mainly zakka, which is a term that more or less means odds and ends for the house. There are ornaments and furnishings as well as other knick-knacks from various parts of the world as well as a small selection of organic food, with the vast majority of products being labelled as fair trade products.

Recently I bought a tote bag there that I use for shopping. I was amazed at the amount of plastic rubbish I was throwing and realised that the majority of the rubbish was plastic bags from shops. Now I'm making a conscious effort to refuse plastic bags in shops and use the tote bag instead.

Under pressure ....

7th Feeling - indigo jam unit
Sad, isn't it - Karizma
Self portrait - Thief
Labalaba nfo - Adubiifa 67
Under Pressure - The Strange Fruit Project
Walking - Cornish Waters
Oscillations - Souljazz Orchestra
Jane Jane - Grand Union
Woman to man - Tony Allen featuring Ty and Damon Albarn
Slaughter suite - Soil & "Pimp" Sessions

indigo jam unit @ duo

Four months on from the previous Tokyo appearance last night saw another 'indigo jam room' event at Duo Music Exchange in Shibuya.

Again Takeshi Yoshimura was the warm-up DJ, and after the venue slowly filled up, it was time for the opening act, Native (bottom picture), to take the stage. They played a solid 45-minute set with songs from both new and old. The band play good cafe-style jazz and are a very tight live unit. This was the third time I've seen them and probably the best of the three in my opinion. 'Drum'n GO GO', 'Step it' and the set closer 'Diva' seemed to go down particularly well.

No sooner had they played their last note than the incredible percussionist Tsuji Kosuke started drumming up a storm at the back of the auditorium on bongos and djembes. For this event there was purely percussion rather than violin/effects accompaniment in January. Personally, I found that this set was much better, and the fact that he was playing down with the audience rather than up on stage made the atmosphere really electric. For the latter part of his set he was accompanied by Shimi of indigo jam unit on drums, and they worked the crowd into a frenzy.

Finally it was time for indigo jam unit. They opened with the superb 'Sakura' and kept the pace going, with a one of my favourites 'Scene-Cartaincall' coming a couple of tracks later. They performed a couple of new songs, and delivered strong performances of 'Giant Swing' and '7th Feeling' mid-set. Bassist 'BJ' was on form with his witty patter between songs and the climax of the set came with a three track segment comprising of 'Spiral Waltz', 'Alert' and '2x2'. After a short break they were back for an encore of 'Ka I Ka' and 'Palette'.

On the whole I enjoyed last night's event even more than the January one and will certainly be looking forward to them returning in September.

Just how badly do you need that doughnut?

It would appear that there is something of a dougnut war going on in Tokyo these days with different shops vying for first place. At the moment there appears to be a clear leader in the field, with Krispy Kreme being the doughnut of choice. You can see people wandering around Shinjuku with their de rigueur Krispy Kreme bags filled with dozen boxes of doughnuts. Though you have to be prepared to sacrifice part of your day to get your fix.

This was the queue directly in front of Krispy Kreme the other week, and there was a sign saying that it was an hour and a half from the end of that queue to getting served.
To get to the queue in front of the shop, however, you had to join the long queue trailing back over the bridge to Shinjuku station, as seen here.

Of course, the queue at another shop might be a matter of minutes, but that won't do, because it's not Krispy Kreme.

Now if only I could hit upon a sure-fire winner for the next food/fashion/gadget fad ...

Road map

Ordinary Joe - Terry Callier
Closer - DJ Day & Aloe Blacc
Shuffering and shmiling - Fela Kuti
Anytime, anywhere - Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu
Forty days - Sound Directions
The Grifter - Fast 3
Pluto - Soil & "Pimp" Sessions
Matsuri - Jaz'presso
Road map - Damon Aaron
Ridin on down - Big Bill Broonzy

Soil & "Pimp" Sessions at the Hibiya Park Open Air Arena

Just got back from Hibiya Park where I saw Soil & "Pimp" Sessions in the rain. This is the largest venue I've seen them at so far, and despite booking tickets online the day they went on general sale, I was quite near the back on the 3000-capacity arena.

Even though it was windy and pouring with rain at the start of the gig, and the stage crew had their work cut trying keep the plastic sheeting in place, the band gave a performance as lively as ever to an enthusiastic crowd almost all clad in plastic raincoats. There was a very strict no camera policy, with any transgressors quickly being stopped, so unfortunately I don't have any shots to share.

The two-hour set was a mix of older well-established songs such as "Suffocation", "Summer Goddess" and "Sahara" and a large part of the new album Pimpoint, with "We Want More!!!!" and "The Party" going down really well. As ever Shacho was on form with his chat between songs and the chemistry between the musicians electric. If you haven't seen them already, I strongly recommend them.

After they complete their Japan tour, they're off to Europe in June and will be playing at Glastonbury and also the Jazz Cafe in London.

Some pictures are available on the band's website a the following link:

http://blog.jvcmusic.co.jp/blog/soilpimp/

A wander around Daikanyama

With the fantastic weather continuing on Friday, I decided to go and look around the Daikanyama area of Shibuya-ku. Starting from Shibuya station, I stopped on the way at the Marble Cafe for some lunch. I opted for some spaghetti genovese style, but made with shiso (perilla) rather than basil which was pretty tasty. The cafe itself is a typical fashionable hang out with nice decor and murals on the walls (part of which can be seen below).

Outside the cafe next to the menus in the window is the following sign, which was without a doubt written with the (misguided) assistance of translation software.

After lunch I spent a couple of enjoyable hours looking around the various vintage clothing and interior goods shops dotted around Daikanyama. In the streets away from the main road it's difficult to imagine that you're in one of the world's most populous cities, as it's really quiet.

Street art in Daikanyama.

Is That Enough?

Is that enough? - Marvin Gaye
Feelin' good - Nina Simone
Barabajagal - Donovan
Lucien - DJ Day
Dancing girl - Terry Callier
Road map - Damon Aaron
Stoned Part 1 (session version) - Lewis Taylor
Accordion - Madvillain
Uprising - Antibalas
Vera Cruz - Jaz'presso

Shop in Koenji (downstairs from Ugly)

Is this a clothes shop or a butcher? Or both perhaps?

Shop in Koenji

You mean me? Ouch! That cuts deep.