Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Stuck between 'We Japanese' and 'The Japanese'



There's a good article about opinions by Charlie Brooker in the Guardian; 'If there's one thing I can't stand, it's opinions' is how it begins,and that's
pretty much how I feel most of the time these days, and I don't think it's any coincidence that I live in Japan. A hell of a lot of westerners that arrive in
Japan will arrive here 'knowing' what Japan and Japanese people are like. Either that or they have come to 'discover' Japan and the Japanese, but they
already know. They may have only just got here last week, but they know and anything they experience will serve simply to confirm what they already knew
about 'the Japanese' and what 'they' are like. Seek and ye shall find. Especially up your own backside, and in your search your bound to be helped out by
people who are like you but from the other side of the fence and are keen to keep alive a sense of 'we Japanese'. As I said, if you go looking for it you're
going to find it and if you're interested in Geisha and the 'Japanese mind set' there are always going to be people to around to answer your questions, spout
off, have your cameras/microphones pointed at and let you stroke your chin infront of them. I mean Geishas? I'd love to see some travel books on Britain and
the bear skin guard communities of London. About as relevant. So whilst visitors/foreign residents, whatever, accuse people in Japan, with some
justification, of being overly concerned with Japanese-ness, the rest of the world is just as obsessed with pigeon holing this country. It's a vicious
circle, but great for publishers.

I'm no great traveller. I've lived in the UK, Japan and Spain without doing anything too exciting other than live in the 3 places. Comparing living in Japan
and Spain has always been interesting for me though, especially in how other non-Spanish/Japanese react to the two places, and so we get back to opinions.
The difference in the 'amount' of opinion in the 2 countries is massive. Your average foreign resident in Spain will have thoughts on this and that about
Spanish culture and life for sure, but here? Jesus. Have you ever seen Spirited Away? When Chihiro feeds the massive, bloated Kao Nashi (pictured above) the thing the
river god gave her, he starts to projectile vomit up everything he had gorged himself on over the previous few hours. That's more or less what it's like
listening to a lot of people give their thoughts on Japan. Except it's worse. I was always surprised at how what is surely the same thing, could be viewed so
differently in different countries. There are sex shops all over Madrid and hardcore porn is easily buyable (and in public view) at street Kiosks
(apparently, hoho). Sex and porn is highly visible here too. Noone talks about it in Spain. the Spanish male isn't inherently perverted and yet here...? I
once read that in America, in LA alone I think, 10,000 porn movies a year are made. that's around 27 a day? A mind boggling (amongst other things) figure.
Are white Americans seen as perverts? Never heard that opinion put forward before myself.
People seem very keen not to have their stereotypes challenged, after all that would have meant they were wrong and us westerners don't like being
interrupted in full glorious flow. I met a guy who'd been to Madrid a while back. He started talking about the easy going-ness, relaxed lifestyle *insert
general Spanish happy clappy stereotype that us anglos love* of the city. I had to say that my experience wasn't anywhere near as positive mainly due to the
racism my Japanese wife experienced on an almost daily basis.....slight pause, 'Yeah so like I say,, anything seems to go in Madrid...people are so relaxed'.
Erm, yeah, did you hear what I said? I'm sure his experience was very positive, as many people's are (I'm not trying to diss Madrid nor say the Spanish are
more racist than anyone else, that argument's for idiots, go, it's lovely in Spring) but my little tale didn't sit comfortably with the whole cuddly Latin
image.

The writer Alex Kerr pointed out (somewhere) the huge amount of right wing nationalist literature in Japan about Japaneseness. I would love for someone to
tell me about the flipside of the coin.....the book on Japan by the outsider. I have no factual evidence whatsoever, just a hunch that there's more of it
than say books about the French written by intrepid travel writers. Alex Kerr is a great example. A historian and environmentalist who writes very
interestingly on both subjects but just can't help himself and has to resort to 6th form American pop psychology and write about everybloodything else. I
read a laughable bit in his 'Dogs and Demons' book on animation where he makes some cack handed point about Pixar showing, I dunno, that Japanese animators
are stuck in the past, in that they were embracing computer techonology whilst Studio Ghibli were still doing things by hand. Whilst grudgingly admitting
that Miyazaki Hayao wasn't that bad, the point was there - CONSERVATIVE. Hey, Pixar make great films but I'm not going to be watching Toy Story anywhere near
as many times as I have already seen the aforementioned Spirited Away. And what a load of shite anyway. What lazy tabloid journalism. Is any animation head
going to go, 'Yeah the animation scene in Japan is just sooooo dull, stick on Nemo again'. There's another terrible section on Japanese mums. I like Japanese
mums, hmmm perhaps I should rephrase. I spend a lot of time with Japanese mums....doh! Well, I do. It's part of my job. One of the nicest things about that
is seeing the way they interact with their kids and other people's kids. The love, patience and plain fun of it all. To read Kerr on Mums you would come away
thinking they are all utterly shallow, obsessed with clothes and hairdos and only making friends with people who look just like them. Again, shoddy, shock
tabloid journalism. If you want to go to America and interview gun toting red neck neo nazis, you can, make a programme about it, and then an awful lot of
people are going to accept that as the way things are in the US. I've seen my fair share of 'documentaries' like that.
Japanese women though are amongst the first in the firing line. From Japanese men, foreign men and foreign women. The amount of shit that gets said about
women here as if that's the way 'they' are is shocking. And their 'sisters' from the west are amongst the worst offenders. There's no feminism in Japan I've
heard. Well, er, maybe there isn't the feminism you know, from a western perspective, in English, cos, come on, that's what you mean, I never say to women
who have said that to me. You're married to a Japanese women? -pause with surprised look- 'Are Japanese women who travel abroad different to Japanese women
here?'. Oh fuck off you patronising fucking hippy, I, again, didn't say. In my experience Japanese women are always ready to do things and carry them through
and are less about, yep! opinions. But again that's bull shit generalisation. At least I'm being positive though. I'm interested in music obviously.
Hiroshima is full of talented female DJs, artists, musicians and singers. I struggle to remember anywhere near quite so many active women in areas that men
usually dominate.
Here's a really shit blog - Gaijin Smash - The idea behind Gaijin 'Smash' is that.....oh I can't be arsed to type that wank out. Go here to find out the full
horror of immaturity
. It serves me well in my rant against knowing fuck all but claiming to know everything with a lovely tale of suppositories. Read it here
but in brief. Twat goes to doctor, gets medicine that goes up bum, has never heard of it before - THEREFORE everyone and everything else is STUPID and this bizarre medicine was invented by insane Japanese chemists. And going
back to women again, apparently the only women worth knowing are 'Americanised' women.... The kind of opinions expressed there are not in the minority. I had
to stop reading Japan Today because of the forums which ranged from mildy annoying to downright racist. In fact it's this kind of bollocks that finally
provoked me to get it off my chest in my own hypocritical opinionated rant.

I read this quote on this blog the other day -

If you want to live in Japan for a long time, then you must be reborn. You must forget everything you know and everything you believe in, and start over. You
must value age and experience over book learning. You must do as you're told and blank your mind to any other thoughts. You cannot feel resentment against
the system, not even for a single moment. You cannot demand fairness or equality, or even hope for it. You must learn to believe in a society that is based
on hierarchy. It is a completely different way of thinking, of living, of being. If you do not accept it utterly, into your soul, then you will not survive.

Its from a book called 'In search of Wa' by Karin Muller, and my god, doesn't it sound hideous. I'm going to have to hope it was correctly quoted and I have
no idea of the context. A quick visit to Amazon and, oh yes! It's got a geisha on the front. Here's what Publisher's Weekly says about it -
Having previously traversed the Ho Chi Minh trail and the Inca path, Muller retains an engaging freshness as she goes about "prying open the doors to
traditional Japan." She observes some well-known traditional communities (geishas, samurai), some less familiar (taiko drummers, pachinko parlors) and some
more recent (the criminal yakuza, the gay community). A keen listener, Muller lets an ensemble of voices speak, among them a swordmaker and a crab fisherman.
She's also a participatory learner, taking on tasks like harvesting rice. The diverse activities and excursions to far-flung places make this a fine travel
memoir, but it's the backbone of Muller's voyage that gives her book resonance and richness. The deterioration of her relationship with her host family is a
looming presence; even as it collapses, Muller acquires an intimate sense of customary values from the urbane Genji Tanaka and his conservative wife, Yukiko.
Muller's search for the traditional, culminating in her participation in a 900-mile trek to 88 sacred Buddhist temples, also shapes the narrative. Muller
went to Japan to find wa: a quality of dedication, inner strength and spiritual peace. Her memoir isn't an account of achieving those goals, but it is an
engrossing, rewarding record of her travel toward them.

Geisha, Samurai, taiko, swordmakers, rice harvesting, traditonal, sacred temples, conservative wife, inner strength and spiritual peace. FFS. Forgive me if I
won't be reading this one. Maybe it's excellent, I don't know, but from what I have seen of it I don't think I want to risk wasting the time to find out.
Personally I find that original quote from the book disturbing, and in many ways, racist. If I think of my family, friends, colleagues, guys I play football
with, people who sell me onigiri, and then read that quote, where does it tally up? Where do these mindless robots of which she is speaking exist and am I
destined to become one of them? Where's the salsa dancing Ojisan who gave me a massage last week? As Charlie Brooker said -

'If there's one thing I can't stand, it's opinions'

Next week, Windcheater racially profiles the Dutch. Part 37 in a 92 episode series.

Must go and make some music now...
League of Gentlemen - Herr Lipp in Royston Vasey

Just finished re-watching the excellent 3rd series of the League of Gentlemen. Here's a compilation of my 'favourite' character Herr Lipp....

Monday, January 29, 2007

Jehst - Nuke Proof Suit UK Hiphop Video

and some 'proper' UK Hip hop

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Just Jack - Starz In Their Eyes

Heard about Just Jack after reading a crap article on UK hip hop in the Guardian. Not hip hop as you can see and apparently number 2 in the UK and as such being played to death everywhere. First time I'd heard it though and my god it's catchy. Partcularly appropriate song with the wank-fest that is Celebrity Big Brother going on...

Friday, January 26, 2007

Cheer up!

Life is shitty and it's a bit nippy but not to worry, download my mix, stick it on your ipod (or whatever) and tap your toes to some UKHipHop and a lot of Breaks.

You can get it here.

Monday, January 22, 2007

3Klounge - Saturday 27th January - 10-3am - FREE


Myself, GHB and CA2 are all at Lotus again this Saturday for more breakbeats in Lotus' lovely lounge setting. No doubt there'll be the kind of hip hop that you don't usually hear on Saturday night too.

We'll be there from 10, it's free as always, come on down, the breaks are tight.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

After finally working out I had to pay for the software to download stuff off my phone I can get my Vlog up and running again. Hurrah! 30 second clips of random rubbish filmed on a keitai.

What did you do last saturday?

I,

Saw Nekomushi. As soon as Izumi Goto started singing I was transported back to the Haunted House in Odaiba. If you've seen Nekomushi, imagine being chased around an old shack by a child sized Izumi.

Then I enjoyed Nothing Face from Columbia. 8 bit bleepy tracks played on an MD player and tales of, well, just about everything I think. Many a time I wish I spoke better Japanese and this was one of them. He was really, really good. Very entertaining even though I thought one of his tracks was a love song. It was actually about losing a screwdriver.

Next up was....I don't remember their name unfotunately but they were also a lot of fun. Many costume changes, famicoms and a tiger.

Gig over, football in the form of Liverpool beating Chelsea, hoho, and then a hip hop night at Chinatown. The music was fairly poor, but they did have BMXers and dancers.

A fairly eclectic night allround I'm sure you'll agree.

edit: Just checking the stats on my Vlog. Most videos have been watched between 10-20 times. One has been watched 28 times, there's then a little jump......the Dancing maids clip - 130 times. Wonder why.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

My guilty secret


Omiyage, for those not familiar with the term, means kind of like souvenir. Most Japanese people after some kind of trip, will bring back Omiyage for friends, family and colleagues. After spending a while here you start to feel that you too should join in, especially when you've been stuffing your own face with other's omiyage. I kind of hate it cos, A. I often forget and B. It irks me a bit that I sort of 'have' to get them.

Anyway, this Xmas I brought back a few things (mostly of the sugary variety, I was in England after all) and for some of the kids I teach, decided that as it was now January, Easter Eggs would be in order. Got a a couple of bags of Cadbury's mini eggs to dish out. Thought I'd crack open a packet today to have one or two with my cup of tea. My god they are nice. Half a packet later, I'm deciding how I can ration them out so that each kid still gets some. 3/4 of a packet later, it's plan B and Friday's class is getting Japanese sweets from 7/11. Sod it, they don't care, do they?

Happy Easter everyone!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Time for a diet


Back and brrr it's cold, but what's that he says blinking in the glare....blue......sky? sun......shine? It was pretty damn grey back in the UK. Beautiful the day I left though.

From my last post on the trip I continued in a familiar vein of eating (mostly cheese), drinking, playing with niece, punctuated with the odd trip to Brighton and London. New Year was spent down on the coast at Bust the box which was excellent. An eclectic mix of music with a lot of drum and bass (old skool) and a fantastic chunk of old skool (old skool) for old gits such as me. It was also hilarious watching the men folk desparately search for their new year's 'mate'. After things wound up there we went to a party at Cakeboy's Brighton abode. Saw a lot of people I hadn't for a while and wound up the night infront of Trisha opened mouthed at the complete turds pretending to be human beings on it. Certainly made me feel better about myself.

Which leads me on neatly to Telly. Good god! Us Brits have a kind of fond nostalgia of TV at xmas time, all that great telly! Infact in general I think we like to think our TV is a cut above the rest. There are the gems ofcourse, I already mentioned Peep Show, but just turn on at any time and behold, the festival of shite that pours forth from the screen. Being away, I have thankfully avoided all the celebrity reality shows but the fact that I am aware of a lot of their names kind of lets you know how big they are. Over Xmas I came across all kinds of celebrity nonsense (mastermind, 15 to 1...) worst of all, in that it seemed the most popular; Celebrity come dancing. I think this was on prime time on xmas day. Jesus, Jesus would be spinning in his tomb. Or at the right hand side of god, depending on your viewpoint. Thank Christ Only Fools and Horses wasn't wheeled out, although a Dr Who special was one of the BBC's big players this year on the 25th. Eh? What year is it? Suppose it doesn't matter to the Dr.

So anyway, it's 2007. Hope you all have a good one. I'm going to try and get back into producing some tracks.....might just watch a bit of telly first though....

AARRGH!

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Pendulum - Slam

or perhaps this is a more appropriate example.
Wow

Happy New Year. This video should give you an idea of how I was dancing last night. More or less.