Tokyo Day 7 May 26, 2008

(goin' to work?!)
So! we are coming up to a week, my lovelies. How time flies! Monday, day 7 was quite an event. After a day of rest, it was gonna be a relaxing day to meander about town, particularly Harajuku and Shibuya.

(store front)

First place on the agenda was to check out Another Edition, a store in harajuku displaying some of my watercolor art pieces and selling three tee shirt designs I did for their spring/summer collection.


(one of three designs)

(sketches on watercolor papers)




(stickeratti'd pole is SO in this year...)
We were lucky that the day was warm and there were many things to see while I played tourist.

(Tsuruta~san)
We met up with Tsuruta San and I took some flicks.

(Big Up in TKO!!)
After our meet, greet and check out the shop, we went to eat lunch at a chinese restaurant, the son of dragon. Very befitting a new kung fu flick. I had tan tan men and some mabo tofu. It was a lunch time recommendation of a good friend of mine, DJ KOGEE of Hotcakes.
After food and wandering, one thing led to another and the next thing you know, I found myself traveling all over the shibuya~harajuku neighborhood, catching up with old friends and familiar faces and meeting new ones and new places.

(Where I get Homage? Shut?)
This particular day's road took me to a mini Phil Frost museum at Hectic Harajuku, right near the Wendy's at omotesando, Hectic's Tenjikai ( introducing the new fall/winter line),

(this how we roll! goin' surfin in tokyo, SUN!!)
Volcom's Danger Mini at Omotesando, Harajuku,

( Mister Sano!)

(Holla!!)
the top secret Burton Bowl, Uplink Gallery, An Art Bookstore near Uplink,

(what the...)
watching the installation of Kami and Cres's mural painting for Chanel's Mobile Museum in Olympic Yoyogi Koen,

(UFO?)

(Kress and Kami, Modern Art)
Yoyogi Koen's Super Floor Mural of Kami and Sasu, the SUPER ILL Gateway by Cres, Bel2 and Suiko.

(Bel2 and Suiko)

(Kress and Bel2)
After all that and getting ready to call it quits,

(not rush hour)
I found myself on a train ride to yokohama to yokohama's premier live spot, Thumbs Up! I spent the whole day like a tourist. I realize traveling brings out the essence of moment to moment interaction. I mean, when I travel, I find myself doing things that I usually don't do. Now, that sounds obvious but lets put things in perspective. Why is every moment so precious? There is a moment when I am gonna have to jump back on that vehicle that took me to where I came from. I won't be able to live that moment again. It is just accentuated when I travel because, I am physically involved in the moment of now as my mind is. At home, I am afraid I was taking an advantage of having been where I am from. I don't have to try to do anything, but sometimes in that process, I miss out on opportunities that might have beens. It's probably not possible to do everything all the time, but with a little planning and determination, I think we can all strive to do more, not because it is our routine, but because it is not routine. My day 7? I had a meeting, I sold a shirt, I talked to some random fan, watched a man being harrassed by a crow, skated up and down hills and ramps, endured a crowded train ride, reconnected with old friends and new ones and bathed in beautiful live sounds of,

The Badge,

The Electric Rainbow Band,

Saritah,

Ash Grunweld, in that order, ate an avocado cheese teriyaki burger and a mango beer. YEAH! That's traveling. I would especially like to thank for my day's events, Kumetani Satoshi of Dooor, DJ Kogee of Hotcake, Akeem of Hectic, Phil Frost, Koi Fish swimming upstream, Sano San of Volcom, Sakai san of Burton, Ichiro san of Thumbs UP, Shingo Wakagi for putting a roof over my head, Mi Asakita for putting up with me and the following bands and their members... The Badge (Noric/Guitars and Voice, Masaya/Drums,Dai/Bass), The Electric Rainbow Band (Otsuka Hiroyuki/Guitar,Chutney/Bass,Kanami/Bass), Saritah (Guitar/Lovely Voice/AppleBox) and Ash Grumweld (Guitar/Throat/Boom/BAP). If you have never heard any of these bands play, I highly recommend going. It sound kinda obvious, I will not steer you wrong. My jaws dropped. The Badge is ROCK! The Electric Rainbow Band is Psychadelic ROCK in the vein of Jimi Hendrix, ALOT. Saritah is hard heavy hittin' acoustic posi~funk with vocals that make you glad to be alive and ASH .. Damn, this guy is like three guys, three big guys that can build a log cabin in a day and clear the field AND play all night. Why are there so many great bands without gimmicks that we hardly ever get to hear all the time? Am I just going to all the wrong shows? Thank YOUSE!!


(I love Phil Frost.. when I stumbled on this, what?!)

One very important trip to Harajuku is to see Phil Frosts work at Hectic. Believe me, It s an installation that you can't even appreciate, unless you see the shop for your self. Phil Frost is amazingly prolific. He just released a new book. No trip is complete without a trip to this part of tokyo. Only in Japan. It really is a mini museum.

Tokyo Day 2 May 21, 2008

Day two began early morning. I ve never been a good one for traveling time zones. Even driving to another time zone, I am always stuck in new york time or wherever time zone I happened to be at the time. I do not really remember the details of this day so let me highlight and abridge. There was a meeting in the evening to discuss the greenroom festival.

(left to right. Yuri Shibuya, Jonas Kaku, Mikey of Dedication, Kumetani Satoshi, Mike Ming)
My partners, Yuri Shibuya and Jonas Kaku, and I thought about how we would like to finalize the action before we get to the festival to prepare for the show. We had two support members, Mikey of Dedication Studios in Kamakura, a long time associate of Jonas Kaku and Kumetani Satoshi of Dooor to nail down the final plans. We discussed our plans at the future location of '!!NEXT!!' show at Uplink Gallery in Shibuya. By the way, there restaurant/cafe is exquisite. Delicious blend of Euro/Asian/Middle Eastern. Please come and Enjoy! After the discussions, we all made our way back to get rest and prepare.
There was a quick trip to shibuya's Tower Records. They were selling our DYZUE Zine and art books!



I had my own personal agenda after the meeting which involved english pubs and futbol!

It so happened, the day after my arrival was the biggest futbol event of the year. It was the World Series of Futbol, as the European Clubs all competed to have the title of .. 2008 Champions. It happens that in this particular year, it was Manchester United vs Chelsea, two english teams. The first kick was scheduled for 3.45 am! Yikes! I went to bed and set my alarm for 3.15. Of course being jet lagged, waking up was not a problem. I was later to find out, the problem was a lack of standing room at the premier futbol pub in ebisu.



They even charged ¥1,500 including drinks but it was still too crowded. They were nice enough to suggest a different pub to go to though, and it was a short jog away. I was 4 minutes from kick off and all of a sudden, I got strange futbol fever and found myself running in a general direction to find a british pub somewhere in some building near the ebisu station on the 5th floor.


My heightened futbol awareness led me right to where I had to be, just in time to see the players lining up on the field and getting into position.
Unfortunately, this pub was not as crowded as the other pub. What I wanted was Futbol Fever and guys going nuts! But at least there was a place for me to watch the game. I ve never bent over backwards for futbol but well, I was not in my city any more. 3 hours later, as any news caster will tell you, Manchester beat Chelsea in a double overime, double penalty kick battle. Both teams played marvelously. Although it did feel like some of the referee's calls were a little bit questionable. I returned back to Footnik to see how the audience was and true to any sport lovers form, there was cheering, merrymaking and crying.


The fans wearing the chelsea blues were teary eyed and heads hung low.

(or just passed out from the booze)
The Manchester fans were very loud for 6.45 in the morning, kinda hecking the Chelsea Guys. Intense.



(hooligans?)