scan your food

Here in Japan they now have barcode scanners on mobile phones. These codes contain a URL, making surfing on cellphones easier. McDonalds has used this to make getting nutritional information very easy for their customers. But does this mean that you find out your Big Mac has 28g of saturated fat after it's in your hands??

mata himatsuri!

When I left Kamikawa in 2005 I promised everybody I would be back this year to play taiko in the 層雲峡火祭り fire festival at Sounkyo. And what do you know, I managed to do it, too!

They said that this year's festival was the best it's been in years. Everybody did their part, perfectly. I daresay I did a good job too, haha. Thanks so much to the Tokudas (in the picture) for teaching me taiko and fuelling my passion. I miss you tons. The festival on every year in July, I think everybody should go. It's a ton of fun and the fireworks are awesome!

Of course we had the afterparty at Romance, because Romance rocks.

gigglin'

http://blanktop.blogspot.com

now THAT's a pitcher!

They're having a beer garden here in Sapporo. The major breweries each have their own, all along Odori park. This picture was taken at the Kirin garden. Sorry it's fuzzy.

Japan!!

random the graveyard

I went to the most bizarre place I have ever been to in my entire life. It's a graveyard, but it doesn't look like one. It's called the 滝野霊園 Takino Graveyard in the south of Sapporo. They have replicas of world monuments, like Stonehenge, Greek statues, the Daibutsu (Big Buddha) at Nara, Easter Island stone heads, etc.

Apparantly the Stonehenge is aligned perfectly just like the real thing. But there are Buddhist altars and statues with incense in the middle of the stone circle. And if you look straight west you can see the flagstone between the two Greek statues.

It was the most bizarre place ever. I'm still wierded out. But what a place to bring visitors to, haha.

hanabi taikai

Today I went with my roomie and another couple to the 花火大会 Fireworks Festival at Sapporo's 中島公園 Nakajima Park. The Japanese know how to do fireworks. You can buy them at convenience stores and light them in your backyard or in the road if you want. But sometimes they have the big ones for all to see, as was the case with this festival.

I wish we had fireworks more than twice a year, and in a more accessible location. Last time I went to Canada Day fireworks, they were downright pathetic in comparison.

I got some cool night shots of the park.

drinkin' and singin'

So my roomie and I decide to go out to karaoke with a bunch of friends. We hadn't really been out together in a while, so we headed to Shidax within stumbling distance of the apartment.

We went for dinner first, okonomiyaki. Essentially a savoury Japanese pancake with flour, water, vegetables, and whatever fillings you feel like (meat, fish, veg, whatever). Topped with fish flakes, mayonnaise and Okonomiyaki sauce. Really delicious, and you cook it yourself. The grill is set into the table, and everybody just shares. I saw the drink menu had こどものビール Children's Beer on it!! It was like pop, but in a beer bottle. Looks like the drink training begins early here.

defenestrators renunion show

In Kamikawa last year I was in a band called the defenestrators (to defenestrate: to throw someone or something out of a window - thank you Pop-Up Video!). Boss on guitar, Erika on keyboard, Tomoe on piano, Mika on vocals, Kunihiro on drums and myself playing bongo and taiko. Our songs are 80% original (Boss is a musical guru). We played quite a few times last year, so this year we had another live concert at the Kamikawa Shinto Shrine Festival.

Things started out normally enough. I arrived at Kamikawa at noon, we set up the instruments and practiced at two, and we moved everything outside the Shinto shrine for five. The weather was raining a bit, but it was sunny by the time we started. And then within the space of ten minutes, it clouded over and started throwing it down with rain! Seriously, it was terrible, we were trying to play our third song and there were guys running around throwing tarps over the speakers and amps, and between songs we moved our instruments under this tiny tent we'd been provided just in case this happened. It was really cramped, but hey, it was a great time!

Our audience just pulled out their umbrellas and continued to hear us play. We all got soaking wet, but we finished our concert, put the instruments away, dried ourselves off and had a great time at the post-concert dinner.

And then Romance. Romance rocks.

taiko festival!

There was a taiko festival at the 北海道開拓村 Hokkaido Pioneer's Village, and Hashimoto was playing so I went with them. I watched six or so groups playing, it was awesome.

While eating lunch with the group, somebody joked that I should put on a 法被 happi coat and play one of the songs I know to open the afternoon show. At that point I pulled my bachi and tabi socks out of my bag, and everybody couldn't help but laugh. What can I say, I knew there'd be taiko, so I packed them just in case. We spent the rest of the lunch break practicing the backup parts for Ishikari.

The show was held inside an auditorium, so we set three drums outside the building and we played Ishikari-daiko (the one with three drums) for potential visitors to the show. After finishing, people came in in droves, there was about triple the attendence for the afternoon show.

Taiko rocks.

japanese marketing

Stellar Plaza in Sapporo Station, a high-end department store is having a sale. The "Blue Sale 2006". The motto - "Fight!"

They have a unique way of marketing it -- have an imaginary boxing match between two dogs, and have a scantily-clad American girl in a cowboy hat act as referee.

Japan...