Japan Blog Matsuri: Autumn

Since I write a lot about Japanese music and going to see shows here in my blog, I decided that my entry to the Japan Blog Matsuri this month, hosted by Cooking In Japan, and under the theme: An acrostic poem spelling out AUTUMN, was going to be band/song related! I will share one or two songs from a few of my favorite bands as well as a picture/link/some info on them! The link on the song title (italicized part) is the link to the MP3 download. The link on the band's name is to their website/myspace.

PALL MALL, a picture from the second show I went to see of them play: One More Time Vol 7; The Lions, Parkmates, Tin Soldiers, PALL MALL, In The Unknown (all fanfuckingtastic bands

 After The Rainbow; PALL MALL
LUck At Last Night; The Because
Thirsty Chords; Air-In & 少し泣く (sukoshi naku)
Undecided; FRAGMENTS
Make A Fool Of Me; ELMOC
TurNcoat; Sand In Hand & Theme Of Dead End

PALL MALL: (picture above) One of the first bands I was introduced to upon arriving to Kochi and some of my better friends here. From left to right, Kyohei (Mall), Kyosuke (Pall), and Dorami. They would fall into the Melodic Punk/Hardcore genre around here, because their songs are a bit darker, and there are a lot of screaming parts as well as the vocal melodies (vocals being both Mall and Pall). After The Rainbow is my absolute favorite song, and the have never failed to play it as their last song whenever I go and see them. I love these guys; they have dragged me along to shows, come to my house parties, and have been fun friends over my stay here in Japan.

THE BECAUSE: All I have is a picture of one of their 7-inch splits with One Reason at the moment because The Because had already broken up before I came to Japan this time around (also have yet to find video). I love their sound; it's more Rock than Punk, with a dash of folksy blues tossed in (like Balladmen). Their songs are feel good and I wish I could have seen them play a show once. Luckily! Their members are now in two other bands, "Balladmen" and "The Tiffs" both of which I've seen play shows a few times in Kyoto and Tokyo now.

THISTY CHORDS: I could not rant and rave about these three guys enough. Just in case you didn't get to see enough of them in my last post, here is one more photo for you featuring all three of them! From right to left: Daisuke, Atsushi and Yusaku. I fell in love with the first album I ever heard of theirs called "I Continue I..." and I only wish their other recordings were not out of press (although, now that I think about it, I could always ask Atsushi about handing over some MP3s....). They would fall under the genre of Melodic Punk but with way less screaming than PALL MALL. Atsushi, as I've mentioned in previous posts, is the drummer in the band I've been practicing with over the last 2-ish months.

FRAGMENTS: Another band that is no longer together but instead scattered around three of the four prefectures of Shikoku now! The bass player is Mall (left) from PALL MALL, the guitar/vocalist is Spalding (right) from WHAT-A-NIGHT's (another awesome Tokushima band), and the drummer is Ikawa-san (center) from Matsuyama (Ehime) who plays in about a million bands (I swear, every time I see him he's in a new band playing the drums amazingly for someone new), one of which is called "Conception" and has most of it's members based in Kochi (not a fan. hardcore/wall of noise type of music). I'd consider Fragments to fall into the alternative/indi category of music these days.

ELMOC: As I said in my last post, ELMOC are the three lovely ladies from Tokyo who we will be playing a show with in January! I've only recently been introduced to them and their music, so I'm still getting to know it a little... but I love what I hear so far!! They remind me of another, slightly older band called "Pear Of The West" that is also from Tokyo. Worth taking a listen to.

TURNCOAT: Turncoat is a supremely attractive band (hahaha). The female drummer and guitarist (Kiyomi and Sev) are the most beautiful couple I think I've ever seen. They are also amazingly nice and amazing at playing what they play. Once again, my buddy Mall plays bass in this band as well as some lead vocals. They are a Matsuyama/Kochi band and have been getting pretty popular recently, doing some shows in Kyoto and Osaka. They just put out an 8-song CD called "Raise Your Flag," which is what the two above MP3s are from. I also included the video below of them playing late last year!






Just as an added bonus, another amazing band called "Balladmen" who is made up of members from the infamous "The Because" and "Blotto," two great Tokyo Pop Punk bands that are no longer in existence. Instead, members from those bands are in Balladmen and another band called "The Tiffs." I'd share MP3's but these bands only have 7-inches out and my record player does not have one of those MP3 converter cords with it. :(

Hope that was an interesting view into my area of the sub-culture that is Japanese pop punk/melodic punk/indi bands. Obviously, there are more bands out there than I could ever think to have taken a listen to,and I've really only skimmed the top in my own region of Shikoku/Chugoku (though if I wrote out the list of bands from here I've seen/heard, it would be sickeningly long...). More importantly, these are the bands and people I've been going to see, supporting, making friends with, and playing music with over the past year. I couldn't be more pleased~

Throw Away The Book

Flyer for last night's show

Last night reminded me why I love being here in Japan, that not all people are as lame and shy as the people living around me, and that I know some really really awesome people.

My all-time favorites: Thirsty Chords with Atsushi singing in the background.

Me and Matto went to a show in Okayama City yesterday. Since the drive was only about 2 hours on the highway, we got there early and did the touristy thing for a few hours: saw the castle (which is special because it's black and not white), a gorgeous garden (which is a world heritage site and the 3rd prettiest garden in Japan), and walked around the city (which reminded me vaguely of Kyoto with it's square layout and wide sidewalks). We ended up heading over to Pepperland early (4:30 for a 7PM show) because Atsushi called us to find out if we found cheap parking. We were introduced to the (super sexy) guitarist/vocalist from the headlining band, "What's What," who had a really amazing Husker Du tattoo on his lower back (as Matto said, the boldest tramp stamp he's ever seen) and was only 22!!

Two of the three ELMOC girls. I want the one on the right to be my new best friend. She hug tackled me after they performed.

We ended up going out to dinner with the three girls from ELMOC and all three guys from Thirsty Chords. Let's just say, I'm really excited to play a show with these girls in January. If I hadn't had to proctor for the Eiken (English Proficiency Test) today in my city, I would have been indulging just as much as everyone else was (sucks being sober driver sometimes). I don't remember ever having seen Atsushi drunk, and it was hilarious. It was also just really nice to be able to hang out with him and the girls from Tokyo. If only Arase had been there, it would have been a nice band bonding moment. :)

Bass player from Short Story, a band with 3 guitarists and a singer who looked like he was going to explode.

The show promised to be pretty long... a 7 band line-up (Japan just doesn't know when to stop sometimes), but it all went by pretty fast, and I don't think I've ever had such an amazing time at a show before, honestly. The guitarist/vocalist from The Mad Wife came with all the members of WHAT-A-NIGHT's, we were introduced to so many different people from all over Japan who had come to the show because they had friends playing that night, and the atmosphere was just so much more friendly than any show I've been to in Kochi. It actually felt like a little community rather than a bunch of moody punks dressed in black, smoking outside. For once, people didn't get freaked out by the two foreigners joining in the conversation. No one even really batted an eye at our ability to speak Japanese. They just embraced it and let us join in! Seriously, such a breath of fresh air compared to how stuffy and alienating Kochi can feel sometimes.

Thirsty Chords played 3rd from last, and at the rate Atsushi and Daisuke were drinking, me and Matto were slightly concerned with their ability to play... but as usual they nailed it and were the only band that had everyone singing along to every song, getting rowdy, and even had some crowd dives (Daisuke threw his bass down for the last song and dove onto the crowd at one point, ahahaa). I was also concerned about my new besty from ELMOC, Hikko, because she was falling-over-drunk by the time their set came about. Of course, with a little water in her she pulled it together and they also killed. The show ended around 11:30 and we were back in Kochi by 2AM (with my expert driving skills). Wish we could have stayed over-night in Okayama to go to the after party with everyone, but that will have to wait until January. Or in the case of the ELMOC girls, December, since me and Matto have already booked plane tickets to go to Tokyo and they happen to be playing a show on the Saturday that we will be there. :) Can't wait~ Sorry for the photo spam, but here are some more of my favorite shots from the show.

11.11.11

I've never been superstitious, but ever since I started doing the "make a wish at 11:11!" ritual back in college, I feel like today should be the luckiest day in the world. Of course, if this really was the luckiest day in the world, it wouldn't be drizzling and weirdly warm/cold (I don't think the weather can make up it's mind down here in Kochi) but brilliantly sunny and perfect jeans and sweatshirt weather.

I've been aching to get into the studio recently. Three weeks without practicing with everyone makes me itchy and all I want to do is make some noise and teach the two new songs I wrote. Luckily, me and Matto are driving out to Okayama tomorrow (with my brand new ETC card reader!) to see a live at a place called "Pepper Land." Our drummer Atsushi's other band "Thirsty Chords" is playing and it's been a long time since I've gotten to see them perform (last time was actually when he asked me to start the band with him). Elmoc, a band that we'll be performing alongside in January will also be there, so hopefully it'll be a good night to make some new music-friends. :)

A picture of tsukimi lanterns feels appropriate for this magical day, haha

~Make a wish~

Just felt like I needed to share...

Just how amazing this day was. I woke up to a text from Atsushi, telling me we were invited by a band named "The Mad Wife" to play a show in Tokushima in January. I've seen them play before, and the one female guitar/vocalist is really bamf so it was super exciting to get invited by them to play a show!! We get to perform along with a band from Tokyo called "Elmoc," which is an all-female melodic punk band, "Four Tomorrow" who are from Tokyo, and "WHAT-A-NIGHT's" one of my favorite bands at the moment from Tokushima.

Then, once I got to work today, I found out that the photo I had submitted into the Aki City art contest on Sunday won a prize! And not just any prize (I won two last year that were really just recognitions), I won the prize where you get 1万 along with it!! Can't wait to go see the exhibit. There are always so many interesting pieces of art submitted.

Starts off as a huge pile and cooks down. Those lame-os were hiding behind the pile of cabbage.

Once it had been stewing for about 20 minutes.

And in addition to all that good news, Yukiko, Nat-chan, Ryoku-chan and I got to drive into the city and have some Motsu Nabe (which honestly should be added to the food post below). Mostu is intestines, and although I knew this, like I mentioned before I will give most anything a try if I hear it is made well. This was fantastic. I'm kind of in awe at how delicious intestines stewed in a pot with cabbage, tofu, dumplings, and green onion was. Not to mention how amazing the zousui was after (when you put rice and egg into the nabe and let it all cook and soak up the left-over flavors). We also went to AEON to get a birthday present for Nat-chan's older sister, and I was able to prep some gifts for De-'s birthday next week, and gather some ideas for Christmas gifts~ Gotta get onto making a design for my new years cards this year!

Although it's only early November and there are already Christmas trees and illuminations going up everywhere, I actually really love the early Christmas feeling and could care less that Thanksgiving hasn't come and gone yet. Who wants decorations of leaves and turkeys when you can have sparkly trees and lights?!

Day 06 – Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).

The thing about me and food and Japan, is that every time I've come here, I've started liking/loving a certain food that I hated before. I'm the type of person who will give food I find disgusting a second chance if I'm told it's been made well. I blame most of my preferences on the fact that I was never given/never ate/never bought the right thing in order to make me like that particular food. I hate octopus and will continue to hate octopus until someone puts some good takoyaki in front of me and it's not like eating a rubber band. :\

Thus far, Japan has turned me on to eating (which I disliked before):

• onions (all because of katsudon)
• mushrooms
• salmon (first cooked and now also raw)
• tuna
• leeks
• squid (never thought I'd eat this...)
• eggplant (Aki eggplants are sweet~)
• tofu (I used to be able to eat it when it was heavily seasoned, but now I crave plain firm tofu and agetofu when I'm hungry)

 On the other hand, I think I hate corn even more because of how many ridiculous places you'll find it (on top of pizza or in pasta with meat-sauce, for example), I don't like jako (those little dried fish with the ever-staring eyes), and I don't like fish that aren't cut into pretty slices for sushi/sashimi (like whole fish heads and bodies...).

GROSS

Don't let the cute flower carrot fool you. GROSS

 And speaking of food in general, I was never a terribly good cook/baker before coming to Japan. My mom and friends used to make fun of me because I'd find ways to mess up refrigerated cut and slice cookies. I'm not sure how that was possible... but now-a-days I bake when I'm bored and cook meals for friends and at parties (people actually say I'm good at cooking, which I never thought I'd hear in my life). Not that I could never cook, per say, but I just never made any effort to make interesting dishes when I lived on my own in collage. It was always easy stuff; stir-fries and sandwiches that just required whatever was lying around the house (except when I decided to splurge and go get bulgulgi beef to make bibimbop).

Curry Omurice

Best karage and miso soup ever

Soup with vegetables and thin-sliced pork

So yeah, I appreciate Japan for how much wider it made my taste-preferences and for taking soo much care in making food at restaurants. I don't think I've ever been dissatisfied upon going to a restaurant or cafe. If the place doesn't make the best whatever, it will still make a really good version of it and be reasonably priced. :)

Speaking of food, I made tempura with my Monday evening dinner buddies yesterday! My house smelled like an oily mess after, but the tempura came out really well (did tofu, mushrooms, green beans, eggplant, onions, and broccoli) and I made this interesting green onion dip with tofu, onions, and garlic~

Visiting Friends and Travel Plans

Nabe the first night with Yukine~

 The end of a busy weekend always leaves me a little sad and at the same time, a little relieved. I love being busy, constantly moving, and hosting people at my house whenever I can. If Japan has taught me anything, it would be that being around other people makes me a happy and healthy individual. But... I also really need those moments where I can flop down on my coach and just breath, play a Mixtapes song on my guitar, eat an unplanned meal made up of whatever is around my house, or toss my clothes on the floor (I mean, who doesn't?). Sometimes I like to think that I don't need those moments of reprieve and that I can be active 100% of my waking hours. But whenever I start thinking like that, I hit a small breaking point where I just get anxious about having to do something. Like last night. After driving Yukine back to the station to catch her 9:30 bus, driving against horrid traffic to take a practice test for the N2, and having dinner with one of my friends who was in "Saturday Night" mode, I just wanted to crash the second I hit home. But I couldn't. I had to call someone back and we ended up talking on the phone for over an hour. Not that the conversation was bad, but I ended up getting so anxious before calling this person back. All I wanted to do was ignore everything and fall asleep.... but for whatever reason, the overly-social part of me wouldn't allow that to happen and only brought on anxiety until I picked up the phone and completed the task.

Me with Yukine and Kiyoko in Ma'chama (as they used to call it)

However, other than that, I had a great weekend with one of my amazing college friends (my itoshii, Yukine) who is finally living over here in Japan too! Since she lives in Mie-ken right now, I showed her around Kochi (and she'll be showing me around Matsusaka around the New Year). We went to see some amazing views at the cape and the top of mountains (went to Katsurahama and Godaisan again, twice in a week!), and also went to visit a mutual friend we worked with who lives in Matsuyama. The drive there was kinda crappy because of the rain, but the misty mountains are always worth seeing along the way, and we got to have dinner with her and take Purikura. I also got my Personal ETC card in the mail on Saturday!!!

What this means is that I can take the highway throughout Japan for wayyy cheaper than I would without it. I may have mentioned it before, but just to get to the other major cities on Shikoku (like Takamatsu, Tokushima, and Matsuyama) it costs about 2900-3500 yen one-way. That's only about 1.5-2 hours driving (at 70mph)!! Ridiculous, right? Well, with an ETC card, I can get to those same places for about half (1200-1500 yen one-way). Still pricey, but with half of my band mates living in Tokushima, it's going to cut my costs down significantly. Which I need, because I bought two plane tickets this weekend as well. :x One to Korea for the holiday (going Dec 26-30) and one for Tokyo in early December (Dec 7-11th). Can't wait to get back to Tokyo for a couple of days! I'm planning on visiting IUC in Yokohama to get the feel for the school and the area along with a lot of soaking in the big city~

Hello Hello Halloween 2011

Kochi Bay

Katsurahama

 I've had the most unexpectedly busy last week of October! Last Tuesday night, my friend Goro, who is studying in Kyoto at Doshisha University, e-mailed my phone and told me he was arriving on a bus in Kochi the next morning at 11:30!! It was his fall break last week, so in an attempt to save money he came to visit me and another friend of ours who lives in Ehime Ken. I felt bad that I couldn't take Wednesday off to go and hang out with him... instead I had to book it to the city before Japanese class to pick him up and then dragged him to class with me. Luckily, my classes got cancelled Thursday so I took a half-day in order to show him around Kochi. We went to Katsurahama (beach), Godaisan (mountain), and I made him eat Katsuo Tataki (seared bonito sashimi) and drink a Yuzu chu-hai (yuzu are Kochi's famous fruit). I somehow worked a "boshi pan" (sweet bread shaped like a hat) into our diet as well, and he introduced me to "aisu no mi" (those annoyingly addictive pearls of frozen fruit). Friday I had to go to work again, so I took him into the city to Karaoke with some of my friends after work and then took him back to the bus stop to catch the over-night bus. :) It was a nice surprise visit~

Yasuda, Kagami, Kyujyomae, Shimoyama

Saturday night was Kochi's big Halloween party night. I was really excited to finally wear my mikan-chan costume out and do my make-up all dramatic. In all, four of us went as characters from the Kuroshio Gomen-Nahari line. It's too bad we couldn't get more people to join us, but I think our costumes looked good and it made people giggle when they saw our station signs. Me, Matto, and De- hung out in Chuo Koen the 3 hours before the party started (11PM) and talked while this KB guy kept stopping by and engaging us in conversation (he was totally into Mikan-chan, hahahaha). Once it hit 11, we headed over to Hirome Ichiba where the party was going on and hung out until about 1:30 when me and Matto went home. I got to kiss A-chan on the cheek and eat van burger before we left, so it was totally a successful night. :)

Me and Matto with two of the teachers from the international center where we take Japanese class. A big group of the teachers and students were dressing up like AKB48

Sunday, I had to wake up early to drive me and Matto over to Tokushima for practice. No new songs, but I'm starting to really love the four we have so far. The latest practice recording we have sounds pretty good, albeit muffled from my sweater, so I'm excited for the next practice! Both me and Matto have new songs to teach. I'm nearly done writing mine and just need a little help with the bridge and ending.

The most addictive dessert in Japan. Aisu no Mi

My itoshii from Mie Ken is coming to visit tomorrow morning (have to pick her up at 5:30AM from the station in the city...) and I'm very excited!! We're gonna do all sorts of touristy stuff and hang out. It's been over a year since I've seen her so, YAY!! Besty-reunion! All I have is one class today and a "farewell party" tonight with the BOE to go to before I have a four day weekend to look forward to. :)

Day 05 – Which, if any, Japanese mannerisms or expressions have you adopted?

I feel rather embarrassed admitting how many Japanese words and mannerisms I have ended up inserting into my everyday vocab/behavior.... Though, in my defense, I end up interacting with other people more in Japanese than in English so, how can things not slip in? Most of my friends are Japanese, and if they aren't Japanese, they can speak it extremely well. When my foreign friends and Japanese friends mix, all speaking is done in Japanese because that way, everyone can understand each other. Anyway, excuses aside, the things I use the most on a day to day basis.

1. Bowing on the phone
One of those funny things I started doing and didn't notice until a friend commented on it. I was calling my office to ask for a favor, and the friend I was with started laughing at me because as I said "thank you" etc, I started bowing as if I was talking to my supervisor directly.

2. Unko-suwari
Unko-suwari basically means "poop sitting" and is termed this way because it's the way you squat over a Japanese style toilet. Like many of my friends sit when waiting outside a venue for the next band to start, it's an easy pose to take when you're smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. I just find it comfortable so I often take this position to talk to them or drink my own beer when waiting.

3. Kousoku, uchiawase, enkai, undoukai
Even when talking to non-Japanese-speaking friends, these words often come slipping out with absolutely no barrier. They are words I use all the time and sometimes saying their English equivalent would take longer or not hold the same meaning. Luckily, once you've worked in Japan for awhile, a number of these words become familiar to you, whether you speak Japanese or not.

kousoku: highway (here in Kochi, I need to take the highway if I want to get out of the prefecture quickly)
uchiawase: business meeting (used when meeting with teachers about lesson plans)
enkai: drinking party
undoukai: sports day

4. kankei nai
For whatever reason I felt like "kankei nai" needed it's own explanation.  The phrase means "no relation" and in my opinion, it is the best descriptive phrase when talking about Japan (so very many things are kankei nai here). Because of this, I end up using it a lot while speaking Japanese and a lot while speaking English because, "it has absolutely no relation" is longer and doesn't hold the same weight to me as "kankei nai" does.

5. Gestures
Just like a true Japanese, I have found that I picked up the "shark hand" move for cutting through a crowd of people, the "come here" gesture that looks like I'm shooing someone away, covering my mouth when I laugh, and pointing at my nose when referring to myself. There is truly no reason that I picked these up other than studying Japanese and the culture for far too long now.... However, I think I picked up the "shark hand" gesture and held onto it because of the sign language club I was taking part in last year. Holding up your hand so that it makes a T with your face means "excuse me/sorry" in sign language, and I've always been one to remember physical movements better then verbal phrases.

Welcome to my world, Shinji

Weird effect added by the iphone.... it's just a black guitar with a red polka dotted strap.

Shinji the Squier Jagmaster came into my world Friday evening at approximately 7:30 PM....  I could not be prouder. :) But seriously, I was counting down the minutes until pay day when I could get my hands on a brand new ~guitar~ Up until now, I've been borrowing a friend's crappy electric that's way heavier then it should be and has thicker strings than I ideally want to play.... so the moment I was able to whip this guy out and start playing, it felt like pressing on air (especially to my poor calloused fingers). I got to play him for the first time in the studio on Sunday afternoon! Three hours of band practice later and I think I got the hang of how to play him. Plus! We have a really cool new song that Atsushi taught us (which brings the number to 4 completed songs) and I can't wait to get some lyrics written as well! This will be the first song I get to sing in Japanese. Quite excited. :)

Day 04 – What’s your favorite place that’s not in any of the guidebooks/lists of places to visit?

My favorite place that would never be in any guide book is a little place called "Chaotic Noise." Chaotic Noise is the name of a record shop/live house situated in the main shopping arcade of Kochi city called Obiyamachi. The shop changed locations back in August to a more central location in this main shopping strip, and since that time I've only been twice. Being the music-enthusiast that I am, I go to a lot of live houses around Shikoku. I've been to about 8 different ones within the four prefectures that span this island, which I feel is a lot considering the time it takes to drive between the major cities on this island. There are some that I like better than Chaotic Noise because of the music-scene in that particular city (Kochi hosts more hard-core shows at the venues I frequent, and I like indi/melodic punk better). However, none hold the same type of emotions and memories that Chaotic Noise does for me.

Little "hallway" outside the basement venue where everyone goes to smoke between bands.

Friends from a band called "Parkmates"

Firstly, Chaotic Noise was the first live house I ever went to in Japan. I've been to this country four times and I had never been to a live-venue before last year. Secondly, it's the place that really marked the beginning of something new and special to me. I've always loved music, been to plenty of shows and concerts in the US and have always played instruments my entire life. I've played the piano since I was three years old and during middle school and high school I played clarinet in band class. I search out new music constantly, and love singing along to my favorites anywhere I am, but especially the car. My car in either country (America and Japan) is my singing-safe-haven.

The sign they put out in the street. When it's out, you know what's goin down.

The old venue smooshed a live house with a record shop so, needless to say, it was crowded.

However, going to Chaotic Noise for the first time back in September of 2010 with my good friend Matto was the beginning of something for me. It sounds really lame to say, but going to that first live show changed my life a little. I can say without hesitation that my life would be quite different right now if I had never started going to shows at Chaotic Noise. The type of friends that I've been able to make, the trips I've taken, the slump I had at the beginning of the year, the late nights out, the band I was a part of and the new one that has just started... All of these things and more were only possible/happened because I started going to live shows at this venue.

Crowd surfing on a bass case. People like to stand on things and play music here in Kochi.

Actually, when looking through the photos I wanted to use for this post, I noticed that more than half of the people I took pictures of that were at the first show I went to are now friends of mine/we've had a few good chats by now. Bands that I was unsure about back then, I'm a huge fan of now (it always takes me two listens to give my initial like/dislike status). People that I was nervous to talk to back then, I can easily joke around with/have been on a road trip with/gotten drunk with/slept on someone's floor with after a show. While the place and people may change, what I appreciate about the original "Chaotic Noise" and what it means to me will always stay important and be a place I think fondly of when I'm no longer in Kochi.

A UK band came to the new Chaotic Noise about two weeks ago.

The new venue is a split basement place with a hall in between the live house and record shop.

Day 03 – Most interesting person you met.

Enjoying her first American-style party at my house.

It took me awhile to decide on who I wanted to feature as my "most interesting person" because I think that the lines between "most interesting" and "weirdest" have started to blur a little after being here this long. If this was a "who's the weirdest person I met" post, I could have easily come up with more than five answers. However! Since this is interesting I'm going to go with my dear friend Yukiko!

I met Yukiko in April of this year at the city office's huge "kangeikai" or welcome party. Nearly 100 of us stuffed into one of the dozens of banquet halls of the Tamai Hotel (the tallest, most penis-shaped building in Aki) to say "Howdy" to the new city office workers, and "Adios" to the ones who had served their time. The whole ritual of switching out public service workers come April 1st is an interesting and confusing ceremony that I'd like to elaborate on, but will do so in a future post.

Yukiko just happened to sit next to me at party. Just a few days earlier she had done her self introduction to our office and came to occupy the desk diagonal to mine in the island-formation I occupy in the BOE office (we have three "islands" of desks). She looked young, seemed relatively nice, and was surprisingly chatty for a new-comer to our office. I wasn't skeptical of her sincerity, but ever since a few unfortunate incidents have happened with information privacy in my office, I tend to keep to myself and wait for after-office times to get to know someone better. We finally got a chance to talk during this party and ever since she has held a place as one of my best friends.

Yukiko, master takoyaki maker

While Yukiko is 30 and coming to the time where most Japanese girls think they all need to "settle down," she was surprisingly relaxed about the whole thing and not ashamed to be single. I've met so many girls out here in the countryside that think they are doomed to be alone their whole lives at the mere age of 23! Along with that, she had majored in English in college, is one of the few adults I've met in Kochi that has gone to college out of the prefecture (in Kyoto), is widely traveled and has an extremely open mind when it comes to people, the world, and how we all fit in it together. When we hang out, together or with other people, we never run out of things to talk about. She loves hearing other people's opinions, has strong opinions of her own, and loves learning new concepts and English words (although she doesn't speak English very well, her writing capabilities are awesome so I love teaching her words like "hipster" "fratboy" and "silver fox"). She's also the most amazing "translator" for some of my heavily-tosaben-accented friends (she'll take something Nat-chan says and turn it into standardized Japanese hehe) and is just a blast to be around! I'm so glad I met her and although she is also only a one-year-contracted worker, I hope we can continue to hang out past this coming April~

We were Yosakoi "partners" this year, which meant that when we all paraded around, we stood next to each other in rows.

Endless amounts of gorgeousness

Sometimes, the sky rewards me for getting up at 6AM to go running.

Mixi

Ever since I studied abroad at Kansai Gaidai back in my junior year of college, I have tried to sign up for Mixi. For one reason or another, I've never been able to do it until recently. I think it was because at one point, Mixi required a cell-phone e-mail address from a Japanese phone and not until a year ago did I finally have that... Even while I studied abroad, I couldn't use my cell-phone e-mail because the pay-as-you-go softbank phone didn't have proper internet to play with on it. :P

Anyway, behold! Mixi! Does that link even work? Either way... I am having issues understanding exactly how to find people to friend and such, so, if you have a Mixi account, let's be friends! :) My profile name is: インディ