I just wandered out of my apartment block to go and buy a yoghurt (blueberry) from the store across the street, and sheltering from the rain in the lobby of the block was Iain Lee (off the 11 O'Clock show). Now, I know that seeing Iain Lee is not exactly on a par with Tom Cruise or Hitler or whatever (sorry Iain Lee), but it properly wierded me out. I used to watch the 11 o'clock show pretty regularly, so suddenly seeing its presenter was a bit of a shock. He's tall as well, and has quite a fit missus (both of which added to the shock). He even appeared to be speaking a little Nihongo as well, to the guy who had been performing in Mandala (the live venue in the basement, which they had obviously been to see). I don't know what to think?
I guess it just wasn't what I was expecting on a rainy night in suburban Tokyo...
Last night we went to see Gilles Peterson at the Liquid Room. It was the third anniversary and they had a sick lineup including Jazztronik, Soil Pimp Sessions, José James, some of the cats from Kyoto Jazz Massive and Raphael Sebbag from U.F.O. It started with a DJ throwdown with Jazztronik, Kyoto Jazz Massive, the Soil Pimp Sesssions MC and then Raphael Sebbag. They all played some sick Jazz and house tunes, but for some (inexplicable) reason, the crowd weren't too into it, or at least weren't dancing much until Raphael Sebbag started to play some salsa. Then J.A.M. did a special live set with José James singing and scatting about with them. They made a really great, tight group - I really enjoyed it and the crowd seemed to get more into it. Next Gilles Peterson did a DJ set - a really sick set technically apart from anything else - I must find out what his first tune was...sounded a little like Bernard Herrmann, but I don't think it was. Then this new group called Kingdom Afrocks did a live set. I really enjoyed their set too, again a really tight band, with a sick keyboard player and brass section. Great stuff. The only problem for me was that the batteries in my flash died before I could use it and the Liquid Room staff wouldn't let me go upstairs and get my other one. Still took some photos, but not sure how well they are going to turn out. Hopefully the event will be broadcast tonight 4am-6am on J-Wave in Tokyo and then (I hope) on his Worldwide show in the UK next week. Click the flyer above to see some of the better photos I took.
After visiting the vaguely disturbing Yasukuni Shrine last week, my Dad and I wandered over the road to the Nippon Budokan to have a look at the cherry blossoms that were in tarty bloom. We decided to go inside to take a look at the venue (one of Japan's most prestigious, where the Beatles - amongst many others - played), where I had never been before. Just inside the massive stone walls, there were thousands of people, mainly mid 20s/30s men, queueing up. Figuring it might be some kind of heavy metal concert (there was a lot of black clothing on display), we had a wander to try to work out what was going on. It turns out that it was a concert by Yukari Tamura, a (possibly) famous anime & video game voice actress and Akiba-kei pop-star. The queue was not to meet her, nor to get into her concert, nor even to buy concert tickets, but just to buy the official concert merchandise, including cuddly rabbits, doilies and photos. Not having a video camera, I put my camera on rapid photo mode, and made this little animation of the (really a little scarily long) queue. The music you can hear is from her album. When you're listening, bear in mind that she is 32 years old. Any geeks / Members of her Mellow Pretty Fanclub /Rabid Otaku people who may want to just download it can do so here, otherwise, click the picture below.
