広島市民球場, Hiroshima Shimin Kyujo

I've always liked stadiums. Even despite the fact there has always been the distinction between the 'cheap seats' and the not so cheap and that in some modern arenas you have to pay a small fortune to get in, I have always find there is something egalitarian about them. Once everyone is in, you're all a -insert team name here- fan, you all want one thing and you all get behind -insert team name here- together. Aesthetically aswell, I just enjoy seeing a full stadium.

I'm also often depressed by stadiums, solely down to the fact that the team I support, Brighton and Hove Albion are still without a permanent home after more than 10 years of waiting.

Sadly another venue I have become attached to won't be lasting much longer as Hiroshima Carp's home, Shimin Kyujo, will be torn down at the end of this season and the Carp move across town to their new stadium.

Now, I'm not going to pretend to be a big baseball fan. I'm not. I have however, grown quite fond of the Carp, and the stadium has played it's own part in that.

For one thing, it's the atmosphere. Loud and passionate, it doesn't matter that the Carp are generally pretty shite, whenever I have been there the fans have been great. And it truly is for everyone. There's none of the overwhleming presence of men as in sporting venues in the UK. The whole family can go. And not in that horribly patronising way some places try and fit families in, much to the chagrin of the 'fellas'. That's just how it is. You can take your 3 year old kid and no one will mind if they climb over the seats. When I went last week there was a family of 3 generations sat infront of me with a small baby. It's the norm rather than the exception and the passion is not diluted for it.

Even after 5 years or so here I still am unsure on all the rules and I doubt I will ever develope a real affinity for the sport but I would definitely call myself a Carp fan. When I first got to Japan I thought I should atleast give Baseball a look in. I decided that I should obviously be a Carp fan, but how else could I try and involve myself in this game I was initially finding pretty dull. The key to my first stirrings for Yakkyu was infact coming across the Yomiuri Giants. The equation that lead to the result of me being able to get into my first Baseball games was quite simple;

Hiroshima Carp = My team + Yomiuri Giants = Manchester United = COME ON CARP!

Instant hatred, rivalry on tap. The underdogs versus the fat cats from Tokyo. Something I could understand and cling to like a, er, favourite hated teddy?

Anyway, the seeds had been sewn and since then I have always looked out for Carp results, stopped to watch when I see them on telly, and sometimes been to see at their home...

Which will very soon be no more. This is incredibly sad. It's always sad when a team leaves an old home but this is Hiroshima. The Carp's stadium is directly across the street from the A-Bomb dome. I doubt there are many other places in the world that have two such contrasting images of their city so close together. I hesitate to use the word beautiful, but on a warm evening, when the floodlights are lit, and people are streaming into the stadium, with the ruins of the dome in the foreground....it is some sight. One I never fail to appreciate. In the space of a few hundred metres you have the best and saddest of the city. It will be such a shame to lose it.

All is not lost though. You could never hope to better the location, significance and atmospere of the current stadium but, the new one doesn't look too bad at all. It is a proper stadium as opposed to one of those horrible dome things. More importantly though, unlike a lot of new stadiums that get built in the UK, this one is still in the centre of town. Not quite the centre like the old one, but next to Hiroshima station. They won't be any long out of town bus rides like there is if you want to go and see San Frecce play virtually out in the mountains and it's not, thank god, being built in some out of town 'development'. Infact, it's going to be easier to get to for a lot of people in Hiroshima Ken. It's never going to match it's predecessor for me, but it looks like it will stay very much a part of Hiroshima and is very much, in Hiroshima. It could of been a lot worse.

So what will go up on the old site? I am past caring really as I'm resigned to it falling way short of Shimin Kyujo and as long as it is at least architecturally interesting and not a shopping centre, it will have to do. For some reason City Officials seem to be ignoring my idea of building a stunning new stadium there for San Frecce. Hiroshima's two sporting representatives right in the middle of the town. Would be fantastic.

Why does nobody ever listen to me?

In the name of the father the son and the drum and bass

Haven't done a YouTube post for a while (not including my tracks) but this is a goody

My all new dance troupe

Not real, but then neither are Gorillaz are they?

Found this on YouTube taken from the game 'Audition' which my track 'Apathetic' was licensed for.

The two on the right don't look much cop.

3K at Lotus and a new mix

On September 6th 九月六日3K will be back at Lotus for one of our semi regular-ish nights. It is ofcourse FREE, starts at 10pm and will go on until 3am.

As a taster you can download the latest 3K mix FROM HERE

It's got a bit of reggae, a bit of dub step, some breaks, some hip hop and ofcourse some sounds from Okinawa on it. Watch your bassbins (I'm telling ya).

Fucking hell!

Excuse my French. There are a number of reasons for it. For example, last week I turned 36. Fucking hell. When did that happen? After work, (on a sunday, on my birthday. Fucking hell.) I went to Dove Pro Wrestling. I've blogged before about Dove Pro, the only other time I have been, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This time up, it was held in a kind of events hall and I'd wondered if I would enjoy it. It all seemed a bit too 'official' and well, wrestling-like to me, and I have no interest in wrestling generally. I shouldn't have worried. We got there late, just before the final bout, and I was surprised to see how many people were there and what a mix. Once again the music was great, a lot of dub, reggae and ska, and when the two local lads came out, one to the Dead Kennedy's - Holiday in Cambodia, you realise this is no place for hairspray and cock rock.

Next came the visiting fighters from Tokyo and everyone gets introduced by the MC.Before he's done though the guys from Hiroshima throw a punch, the drum and bass kicks in and within seconds, all 4 fighters are outside of the ring wading through crowds and chairs, apparently, taking no precautions about either. Fucking hell! My heart rate went through the roof at that. For the next 40 minutes I could be heard repeating the same thing every couple of minutes at the sight of some back breaking dive or nose splitting head kick. Two moments stood out. First, one of the local boys being laid out on a table on the floor and the Tokyo fighter climbing to the top of the ropes and then back flipping onto the prone guy, snapping the table in half. FUCKING HELL! Secondly, and bizarrely, one of the guys from Tokyo bringing out a load of fluorescent lightbulbs that were taped together as some kind of weapon, only to be holding it to his chest when his opponent ran straight into him. Chest to chest. SMASH! FUUUUUUCKING HELL! Glass everywhere and then a series of throws to the ground. A lot of very bloodied (real) backs. You should see me if I get a splinter.

Since I last went they seem to have taken things to new and, well, mental heights. What a weird hobby? But, again, brilliant entertainment. Highly recommended, it's underground Hiroshima culture at it's best.

Oh, and what is it with the wrestling grannies? Actually, it would be a bit unfair to call them grannies, but almost as entertaining as the fighting was watching some of the audience (female, over 40s) getting so worked up by it. Fantastic.

Wrestling aside, I have recently discovered Sub Swara. You could lazily describe them as Dub Step, but there's a lot more to them than that. Brilliant bass led music with an amazing mix of live and electronic percussion and Ragga influenced vocals. The production on their new album Coup d'Yah is superb. First time I heard it....fucking hell. If you like a bit of a heavy bassline check it out.

A question

If you were to visit a prostitute in Japan, after you're all done, do you think the young lady would say 'Otsukare samma deshita' to you?

I bet they would.

If anyone can shed any light on this, the comments section is open :)

New Track - Long Time Rocker

I've been posting this up in a few places around the net and even played it out on Saturday so why I haven't put it on my own blog until now I'm not sure. Here it is though. Windcheater fans (hello John and Derek) might have noticed that this 'new' track has exactly the same name as a slightly older track. This version did start out as a remix, or reworking, or whatever you want to call it but is so far removed from the original version I did plan on giving it another name. When I put it up on my MySpace though I didn't want to call it Work In Progress or anything so stuck with the older one. The previous version won't be seeing the light of day now anyway.

I digress, as my English teacher Mrs Welford used to say. You can hear it on my MySpace page, with all the sonic quality that the MySpace players provide. Comments, both cruel and kind are most welcome.

Campeones!

Never mind Spain's 44 year wait or England's 42 years of hurt, what about my 35 years of never getting to watch a major final that I have some connection with eh?

Finally, in the very early hours of Monday morning I got to experience one of my football dreams. The one about being a professional footballer unfortunately looks like it might need to be shelved.

Incase you don't know, Spain beat Germany 1-0 in the final of Euro2008 and thanks to my Dad deciding to go and wait on tables over 40 years ago from A Coruna in Galicia I was able to watch one of my teams win something.

I've only ever really liked one sport, probably in part due to my Dad's nationality (he didn't exactly have much of a passion for Rugby and Cricket) , but also just cos it's so bloody good. Despite the ridiculous money that sloshes around in it, the scandals, the sometime violence and the gamesmanship it still, usually, retains it's essence once the game is underway. It's the one true world sport, the game of the people, the beautiful game, insert next football cliche here. It's simplicity and skill are what I think people like. You can play football on your own, with a couple of people, without posts (Jumpers for goalposts....), without a ball even. And it's all at your feet. In the past I have read American pundits scorn football because you use your feet. Complete idiocy. Hand eye coordination is easier guys. That's why people get so excited when a player threads a ball through to a team mate, dribbles past 2 or 3 opponents or looks up and pings a ball perfectly to another player. That's why one goal is so special and why they are celebrated so wildly.

I'm going on I know but waking up on Sunday I felt like a kid, rushing out to buy a Spain shirt and then wanting to walk around in it, and I am still grinning when I think about it. For once Germany didn't wreck my dreams and, bias aside, by far the best team in the tournament won.

Now if only England could win something....

wait for that blog post! Or rather, don't hold your breath. It could be quite a while yet.

Wax on, Wax off

I was hoping to do this post in the style of the Star Wars introductions, where the text disappears off into the nether reaches of the galaxy. Came across a website the other day where you could put your own text in and it would do that for you. Visited it today and Lucasfilms have asked for them to take it down. Arses. The website in itself was infinitely better than Star Wars 3 - Whatever the fuck it was called.

:Sulk:

Anyway, on a shit movie tip, last week my sleeping patterns were very much disturbed by illness and on Saturday night/Sunday morning I found myself watching the Karate Kid. On Youtube. All of it! It was kind of fascinating in a couple of respects. Firstly, it came out when I was 12 and at the time was AMAZING. It obviously isn't amazing now but it really is incredible how BAD it is. For non-Americans growing up watching Hollwood teen movies, High Schools really are fascinating places. Are they really in any way like how they are portrayed in the movies? The 'popular' kids, proms, jocks, everyone driving their cars to school (or getting pulled behind them on a skateboard), everyone being really horrible to each other etc? It's a fascinating world to a 12 year old English kid. Then throw in Karate....OH MY GOD. He wasn't bad at football either. Interestingly all the women, or rather girls, are all really plain, and as for Ralph...I think he was as skinny as me. I never tucked my tops in though.

The other thing that is now funny is the Japanese bits of it.....cue mystical oriental pipe music, wind chimes and the like. Oh god. I suppose it's not even worth thinking about but it's all there bar the cherry blossom (Bonsai do the job admirably though). Just another little chapter (well more like footnote) in Western cultures mystification of Japan, with a bit of help from Japanese culture's mystification of Japan. Completely irrelevant but funny all the same, seeing it after all these years. Now, I wonder if Karate Kid 2 is on YouTube....

arrrgggghhhhhhhh! 2

Dunno what happened with the previous post. One great big copy and paste mess with a few typos for good measure.

Anyway, to prove I'm not incapable, here's another video of the same place and it even has English sub-titles. It kind of makes it look not that scary which is a shame. Don't be fooled though.

arrrggggghhhhhhh!

I once blogged about my terrifying experience in an Obake Yashiki (Haunted House) in Odaiba Tokyo - I once blogged about my terrifying experience in an Obake Yashiki (Haunted House) in Odaiba Tokyo - http://windcheaterblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/tokyo.html

I've often told people about it and how scray it was and then it occurred to me to have a look on Youtube for it......and there it is. There's actually a couple of videos. Anyway, If you sit there watching it and think that the girls in this are a bit wet and are screamig way to much, you really should try it out yourself. I've never sworn so loudly in my life.



I've often told people about it and how scray it was and then it occurred to me to have a look on Youtube for it......and there it is. There's actually a couple of videos. Anyway, If you sit there watching it and think that the girls in this are a bit wet and are screamig way to much, you really should try it out yourself. I've never sworn so loudly in my life.

Charlie Brooker

Charlie Brooker is always worth a read on Mondays in the Guardian. If you haven't heard of him, clicketh there, or here, or if you're pushed for time, just have a chuckle at today's description of British PM Gordon Brown;

Ghastly and nightmarish though Miliband may be, he's got nothing on gloomy Gordon Brown, who increasingly resembles a humourless, imposing old butler slowly creaking the mansion door open in a Frankenstein movie. Prime Minister Igor, the shuffling fun-free zone. No wonder the nation's fallen out of love with him. Imagine playing a carefree game of frisbee with Brown at a summer barbeque. You can't. That's why the poor bastard's doomed.

Drinking strong alcohol in city centres

Yesterday I stopped by the Sake Paradise event by accident after bumping into a friend who was on his way there. I'm not much of a Sake drinker and wasn't really enthused by the idea of lots of people drinking it in Alice Gardens but went along anyway.

One of my least favourite Japanese stereotypes is the salaryman, drunk or sober, I'm not fussy. Now, I say stereotypes because I ofcourse know many very nice salarymen but we all generalise, however enlightened we feel ourselves and when I'm in the mood to generalise, I like to generalise about annoying salarymen. For the sake of this post, let's focus on the drunk variety. Loud, obnoxious, thinking it's hilarious to chat to a Gaijin. I'm sure a lot of us have been there. The thing is, after being here a while, this starts to grate and more importantly, I forget about drunkeness back home. Last night however brought it back to me for a moment.

Now, I know there are beer festivals and the like in the UK but like this? Completely open to all, from 4 in the afternoon, Sake being downed amongst shoppers and school kids on their way home. Where were the sirens? Where was the blood? What's all this good natured drunkeness? Not tipsy or tiddly, but properly, commitedly, studiously drunk. I had wondered why my mate enjoyed this event so much but it quickly became clear. It was just really nice, and no one was fighting. As another friend commented last night; 'Beer gardens? Nomihoudai? At home? You must be joking.' (He's from NZ)

So it was nice. Nice to realise again, one of the finer aspects of living here. No doubt the next time a salaryman staggers over to me in an Izakaya I'll have forgotten, but I'll try at least, to remember.

3K@Bar Edge Sat 24th 10pm - ?am FREE

Sick of sitting on the door whilst people enjoy themselves and in an attempt to ride the wave of the moderate success we've been enjoying at Lotus recently, 3K have decided to book Edge for the night and throw it's doors open (not literally, the neighbours would complain) for free.

We'll be joined once again by the shy and retiring boys ;) from Sleepyeye. It shouldn't be a night for the wall huggers and head nodders.

Seriously though ladies and gents, we're hoping that this could be a bit special and more importantly, a lot of fun. Cos that is, after all, why we do it.

You can check out some of the kinds of tunes we play over at the 3K website or if that's just a couple of clicks too much, here's a DIRECT LINK to the last one.

よろしくね！

WC goes Pro

I haven't taken to hanging around on street corners under lamps yet, no. Today I heard that one of my tracks was commisioned to be used in an online game. 'Audition' it's called apparently although I am not 100% sure on that.

It's not much (it really isn't) but it's the first time I have really received anything like cash money for any of my music, so, I might have a beer tonight.

It's all thanks to Beatpick where you can stream either of my 2 E.P.s or indeed BUY them from my own little page there - HERE -

ah pareee

I've just watched the wonderful (going all language student on you there) movie (when did I stop saying film?) Amelie. It's been sitting in my drawer for over a year and I was in fact downloading Spiderman 3 when I remembered I had it, right here, to watch, right now, on DVD. Sake. Although I'm sure I will enjoy Spiderman too but, I am a man of many, er, what's the word?

Whatever. Really, really, lovely stuff. Loved it. Although it did make me feel very depressed at one point. Apart from it's cinematic qualities it was all so, well, French. What an accent. WHAT. AN. ACCENT! To think, I was also downloading 'This is England' and could have been listening to English skin heads (better music though probably).

And Paris. It really does do exactly what it says on the tin, and that's, be Paris. Yeah, hordes of tourists and miserable (Les Miserable?? Sorry.) shop assistants, but it's so beautiful. You might avoid the dog shit if you weren't looking around you all the while. And you'll shrug off that 4th slippy step of the day with a gallic shrug and a booooffff so what the heck?

Beautiful beautiful city. It gets a WCBlog 'Thumbs Up!'.

Who needs Michelin stars?

Toilets I have loved #1

There's been a few 'classic' Hiroshima toilets on the WCBlog before and it's high time we had another. This one has even got me in it which is unusual and a bit rich (winks at Kiwi chum).

This lovely loo is in Bar Toronto which is a new place (or at least under new management) and so doesn't have a sign yet. It's in the building next to Barcos. Somewhere.

It was the venue for last Saturday's secret gig by 3K pals Sleepyeye which we DJed at alongside DJ D-Vine and Monsieur Flip and ofcourse, the 3pi boys. Lot of a fun, great tunes and a secret room with sliding bookcase door!

End of May we are doing a free party at Edge with Sleepyeye. It should be massive.

British haute cuisine

Incredibly some people still labour under the impression that the UK lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to food. Well, feast your eyes on that Paris.

Jealous? I think so.

Full story here.

Can't help but think that Alan Partridge had some hand in the inspiration of this dish.

That video...

Wondering whether the video that had my music in had been re-uploaded without it, I came across the original one that some paint ball enthusiast had put up. God knows why, the link to the activity is tenuous. Anyway, if your desperate to hear Windcheater set to images.....there ya go ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZBqq9Z8J9c

An apology

Apparently the handsome fellow to your left was a bit embarrassed to be presented with a print out of the picture from this post at the beginning of a class last week.

Windcheater can only apologise for this violation of image rights and would like to assure the injured party that it won't happen again.

And talking of violating rights the youtube video in the post below this has been taken down. Beatpick decided it was a bit cheeky seeing as it did advertise their company and they didn't link to my site or to Beatpick's, which is fair enough. I imagine they wouldn't want their photo being used by all and sundry. Personally I didn't mind them using it but people like the guys at Beatpick work very hard making music available for free or at low costs and so it makes sense to do it properly.

So I suppose that puts me at the same level as Jamiroquai now.