Mixmaster Morris' Japan Diary
In December 2005, Orientophile extraordinaire Mixmaster Morris traveled to Japan on tour. While he was away, he kept The Forum updated as to what he was doing, seeing and hearing on this trip to Japan.Morris' love of all things Japanese resulted in a unique record of the trip - part tourist guide, part cookery lesson, part language lesson, and part personal diary. We thought it deserved a wider audience, so here it is, preserved in this feature.
You can also see some of Morris' photos from the trip in our photogallery.
mixmaster morris 13 Dec 2005, 13:56
Thought I had better keep you up to date with what's happening.
Arrived in Tokyo last Thursday morning (after getting my Visa through at absolutely the last possible minute - nothing like cutting it fine...)
First gig was in the port city of Nagoya, very provincial so I didn't know how many would turn out. Happily the venue was packed and it was a Saturday night stormer. They have the Idjut Boys and Richie Hawtin on this month, some heavyweight bookings for a small club.
Then caught a train up in to the mountains to play the Mancheez party in Nagano ... they advertised it as "Mixmaster Morris LONG set', so I gave them what was on the flyer - about 6 or 7 hours!
Luckily we have a good recording of this, so expect to hear it soon. Now I'm up way above the city (about 800m), and the snow is very deep. Going to the nearest shop means a hair-raising drive down a precipitous icy road packed with hairpin bends for miles, so I think we'll stay in tonight and cook up some traditional mountain food, especially as its minus 7 outside.
This is Soba country (buckwheat), so we're eating lots of it. The place we went for lunch serves soba tea to start with and then the soba water at the end of the meal. Last night we made a spectacular nabemono (hotpot) with many types of fish.
Also had a great breakfast on the train here of rice and eel, cooked kameshi style so that all the flavour drips into the rice.
Forgot to mention the name of the venue, it's called Club Mago
http://www.club-mago.co.jp/
Looks like we got a listing on the SeekJapan site
http://www.seekjapan.jp/page1.php?id=512
Then, on Saturday 10th, Club Mago will be getting blissed-out to the strains of Mix Master Morris. Or maybe not: this one's actually billed as "techno, trance and any dance music", which is odd seeing as how I'd always had Morris pegged as ambient. Well I never... Either way, he is emphatically not to be confused with alliterative twin Mix Master Mike. Don't go getting your wires crossed, y'all. Doors 22:00, ¥2500 adv (1d), ¥4000 door (1d).
The promoter was very keen to take us to a chicken wing restaurant, called Sekai no Yamachan ... this didn't sound to appealing but I trusted their judgement and in fact they were really delicious, served coated in spicy sansho pepper and in gigantic steaming heaps ..... as you can see here..
http://www.yamachan.co.jp/index.html
Chopsticks were out of the question as people guzzled enthusiastically and whith much licking of fingers.... this chain is growing fast,they now have six branches in Tokyo as well.
Here are some sites about Nagoya's food specialities, mostly unknown outside of Japan...
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/nagoya_food.htm
http://web-japan.org/trends/lifestyle/lif050719.html
Much more music and food to come, so look out for the next installment...
The onsen with bathing monkeys is Jigokudani, it's about 1-2 hours from here. We would have gone today, but luckily we checked and it closed early.
You really need to stay overnight if you want to bathe with primates...
Waraidake are out of season right now ...
>Have you bought new pair of shoes?
No but I have been given a most excellent jacket/coat. When zipped up I become a silver ninja.
I think right now we are about 800 metres, but in a few hours will be back in Odaiba, which as you know is reclaimed land, so minus altitude!
Next week I'm on the 55th floor of the world trade centre in Osaka, how high is that?
Mixmaster morris 14 Dec 2005, 04:42
I notice that supermarket food has a sell by TIME as well as date.
Now that's fresh....
Now I'm back in Tokyo for a few days... got my Minimac all running nicely!
Remembered to bring my camera, only I forgot to bring the lead. So I went and bought a lead - now I find I forgot to install the software!
And for some reason you can't download it (Konica Minolta Dimage).
Drat this tricknology...
Tried a windows trick, but it says 'unrecognized USB device' or whatever that is in Japanese....
Still haven't got any pictures for you, so here's a webcam showing the conditions in Togakushi (home of the Ninja village of lore) - where I had some tempura soba yesterday...
http://webcam4.vill.togakushi.nagano.jp/Vi...Move&Language=1
You can move the webcam around as well!
mixmaster morris 16 Dec 2005, 12:27
http://www.posivision.com/
Wow, just seen Posivision magazine...I’m on the cover! And a huge interview inside, plus a 'History of Chillout'
Just been down for a soundcheck at Cafe Kel, looks cool, playing 1.30-5.30 so another long one.
Shop downstairs is QQ shop , so called because kyu is nine in other words a 99Y shop - heaven for tightwad tourists.
It's amazing how many things you can buy for 99Y (about 48p). Even little packets of meat and fish ... socks...stationary... cooking pots!
Bought some delicious Asparagus Biscuits (!)
Another strange snack is Candied Chips, yes french fried potatoes dipped in sugar syrup and then left to candify... so wrong but right.
Very big at the moment is...
STRAWBERRY MILK FLAVOR FISH SAUSAGE
though I have yet to try one.
mixmaster morris 17 Dec 2005, 12:33
Gig no.3 was at Cafe Kel last night... it's a football club, and there is a fullsize pitch right outside the club windows! Soccer is huge here, and everyone is watching Japan in the World Cup draw, where they are in a tough group with Brazil, Croatia, and Australia.
Cafe Kel - http://kelnews.exblog.jp
Support was a guy called Kenji Williams who's done a few records including a recent DVD project with psychedelic artist Alex Grey.
His improvisations were ideal for this festival-orientated crowd, and later on he jammed over some of my tunes very nicely.
Kenji Williams - http://kenjiwilliams.com/index.html
I played about 5 hrs in the end, till the sun was up and I could hardly stand... I reckon about 80% were still going at the end....came home and crashed out, Just woke and the next party is only 3 hours away and it's a big one!
The crowd was definitely into more 'psychedelic' music forms than usual, and whenever I played something a little edgy you could feel the energy level rise... Psybient albums like Kaya Project and Blutech, Makyo and Gaudi:Testa felt right at home here.
More great equipment again, a new Allen & Heath mixer I haven't seen before, with switchable dual filters, and cute little blue lights too. I love the three-color LED meters they have, a simple but great innovation...
Mad cows spice up freaky fish sausage market
Fish sausages, once almost a staple of the Japanese diet, fell into decline around the '70s.
But the outbreak of mad cow disease in 2001 has seen the reemergence of the fish sausage, albeit with a variety of mad flavors that bring out the wurst in some food makers, according to Weekly Playboy (12/20).
Standard, artificial fish meat sausages of a pale pink color and wrapped in see-through orange were long an institution throughout Japan.
But production and sales peaked some three decades and, by 1999, Japan was only making 60,000 tons of fish sausage -- around one-third of the heyday of the sea-sourced snag.
And the most notable part of the fishy feasts is the freaky flavors that they have spawned, like strawberry milk, which is made out of marine life, but tweaked to taste like a sweet lactose drink.
"It's the kind of taste that makes your face screw up, but it's pretty good to chew on," model Sayumi Yano tells Weekly Playboy as she wraps her lips around a strawberry milk-flavored fish sausage and chomps into it.
Among the other recent additions to fish meat sausage flavors to go on the market in Japan are:
TUNA GRITS -- simply sausages made out of minced raw tuna;
CHILLI PEPPER -- not only are these fish bangers packed with mouth-burning chili peppers, 15 percent of the meat is pork;
COD OVUM the name hardly suggests a tasty treat, but actually these sausages are made of a delicacy better known by its Japanese name of mentaiko;
PORK -- not a taste unknown to sausages, except, like in this case, where the eater pigs out on mince inside that is made out of fish;
SARDINE -- not just the flavor, but the full creature that is added into the sausage; and,
FRUIT and VEGETABLE a really healthy fish banger with additional flavors including three fruits and 15 vegetables, like carrots and eggplant.
(By Ryann Connell)
mixmaster morris 17 Dec 2005, 13:03
I wish it were all Alex Grey animations, but it's not...it's a performance recorded in Berkeley in 2003, with Kenji improvising music underneath Alex's poetry & prose readings. It wasn't a 'planned' event but came together quite spontaneously, and it's powerful stuff in a very earnest LSD-activist tone that will knock 'em dead at festivals but probably have the hippiephobic running for the hills.
mixmaster morris 17 Dec 2005, 23:12
Well that's gig no.4 in the bag.... now I'm absolutely knackered and we have to be in Kyoto this evening so I'm going straight to sleep...
mixmaster morris 18 Dec 2005, 09:52
My pile of new Japanese promo cds continues to rise at an alarming rate...
I think we're up to about 20 now... last night got another pile from Flower Records whose 10th Birthday is just about now.
Flower Records - http://www.flower-r.com/
Still haven't picked up that Soil & Pimp album, though I notice they are playing in Tokyo on New Year's Eve....
Dinner tonight I fancied something spicy so I went to Little Hong Kong and had some of this...
Mabo Dofu, and very spicy it was too with Sichuan pepper and chilies.
This cafe only serves this one dish and nothing else, but they are the same family who invented this dish some 150 years ago...
INGREDIENTS:
* 2 silk tofu
* 1/2 lb ground pork
* 1/2 naganeki onion
* 1 chunk ginger root
* 1 chunk garlic
* 2 tbsp tobanjan (Chinese hot miso)
* 3 tbsp miso bean paste
* 1 cup water
* 1 1/2 sugar
* 2 tbsp sake
* 1 tsp chicken soup powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 tbsp katakuriko/corn starch
* 1 tsp sesame oil
* 1 tbsp vegetable oil
PREPARATION:
Cut tofu into small cubes. Mince naganegi onion, garlic, and ginger root. Mix water, miso, sugar, sake, salt, and chicken soup powder in a bowl. Heat oil in a wok and sauté naganegi, garlic, ginger, and tobanjan miso.
Add ground pork in the wok and sauté. Add miso mixture in the wok and bring to a boil. Add tofu and simmer on medium heat for 10 min. Mix katakuriko with 1 tbsp of water and pour into the wok. Stir carefully and pour sesame oil.
*Makes 4 servings
There is an established vegetarian cuisine amongst Buddhist monks called Shojin Ryori. I'm going to Kyoto tomorrow and that's the place for it....
Most dishes are made with fish stock (dashi) and you can use konbu (kelp) instead.
Vegetarians could always eat Veg Tempura (delicious) or Sansai Soba (buckwheat noodles with mountain vegetables) and white salad (very popular in the winter, turnip and radish with a white sesame dressing).
There are plenty of rice products - balls, crackers, 'sausages' and even Mochi - blocks of dense pounded rice, delicious on the bbq or wrapped in nori
Shojin Ryori
" In the 13th century, Zen monks from China popularized a form of vegetarian cuisine in Japan known as shojin ryori. The practice of preparing delicious meals with seasonable vegetables and wild plants from the mountains, served with seaweed, fresh soybean curd (or dehydrated forms), and seeds (such as walnuts, pine nuts and peanuts) is a tradition that is still alive at Zen temples today. Stemming from the Buddhist precept that it is wrong to kill animals, including fish, shojin ryori is completely vegetarian. Buddhism prescribes partaking of a simple diet every day and abstaining from drinking alcohol or eating meat. Such a lifestyle, together with physical training, clears the mind of confusion and leads to understanding. "
http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia2/sp04.html
It's -15 degrees C in Sapporo tonight so I'm glad we're not there for a few days...
mixmaster mori-su 24 Dec 2005, 05:55
Kyoto was excellent, played in Hati Hati same as last time but now it’s twice as big, and was full till 8am...
I think musically this was the best show so far, with a really exceptional opening set from local Dj Shinkiji well-known as leader of the popular band SOFT.
He started with an amazing jazz record the like of which I have never heard, so I had to find out what it was. It turned out to be a guy called Roland Young, and I recommend it! His second tune was the Jan Hammer track recently remixed by Kirk Digiorgio, but of course he had the original version....
Later there was a wild live set from a guy called Altz, very funky stuff on Ableton Live with much dubbing on the mixer, have to go and check this guys albums as well!
Tried to find a homepage for ALTZ, he gets a mention in this interesting piece...
Japanese Underground House Scene - http://www.jetsetrecords.net/columns/featuren/13.php
He's part of Flower of Life, who can be found at ...http://www.flower-of-life.org/
Food wise, had some fine Kyoto-style ramen, and went to a Takoyasu (octopus restaurant), where you can eat Octopus balls in many flavors -best was yuzu & togarashi.
mmm again 24 Dec 2005, 06:10
Then on To OKAYAMA ....in the western region of Chugoku. Confusingly the same word also means China!
As we went through Nagoya, we hit deep snow. In fact, the heaviest snowfall in 50 years in the area.
This was a problem for people driving to the show. One friend took 11 hours to come from Kobe, a drive which should have taken about 2.
Xmas is on the way, all the staff in the local convenience store were dressed like Rudolph with red nose and all...
Pepperland is a live hall where local bands play every night in fact it's been running since 1974 - which is a lot of bands.
It's small, capacity is about 120 maximum. As it's definitely not a dance club I played a more eclectic psychedelic mix that had the crowd rocking till 7am when we had to dash to the airport to fly, first to Haneda and then to Sapporo...
This venue puts on local bands from all over Western Honshu sometimes so many of them you wouldn't believe it. Over Xmas they had several nights with 25 bands(!) starting at noon and going till midnight in 30 min chunks. If each band has four members on average and the capacity of your club is about 100 it doesn't take much mathematics to work out that your club is going to be full even if nobody
else comes at all! The night after my show they have .. a Skinhead Rock festival, of all things. I wondered what a room full of japanese skinheads would be like, probably full of people politely asking each other where they bought their oxblood DMs ...
Pepperland - http://www.pepperland.net/
Looking forward to hearing the recording of this one....
mmm baka gaijin desu 24 Dec 2005, 06:17
Sapporo ("important river flowing through a plain" in Ainu language) is the capital of Hokkaido and Japan's fifth largest city. Sapporo is also one of the nation's youngest major cities. In 1857, the city's population stood at just seven people.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2163.html
Here are some webcam views of Sapporo
http://www.webcamlocator.com/cities/sapporo_jap.htm
Finally we reached Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido...and possibly the best place in the world to eat salmon, scallops and especially Crabs...... huge red ones from Kamchatka and the cold waters of the Sea of Okhotsk.
The party was in a huge conference hall called SPICA - with lots of live bands, including a Gospel choir!
This one is a shot of the actual venue, SPICA Media Centre
http://www.stv.ne.jp/webcam/en/spica/index.html
It finished with a live set from KOSS, who big chillers might remember as he played at Naxos one year I think.
Now at last I have a couple of free days, time to catch up on my beauty sleep and do some sightseeing.
The snow is falling fast all day, so a White Christmas is a 100pc certainty...can't remember the last time I had one!
MMM full of fish 24 Dec 2005, 12:22
WOW just had one of the best sushi spreads of all time!
The uni (sea urchin) was exquisite and the botan-ebi as well... a big pregnant shrimp served as a pair of sushi... the green roe served separately as a gunkan-maki (battleship shape)
The maguro was stupendous as well, red tuna - though japanese prefer the chuo-toro fatty tuna for some reason.
They also had exotic shellfish like mirugai and awabi (abalone) but then it really starts to get pricey.
Stayed in the Susukino Green Hotel, which as you can see is proud
to provide Defibrillators, presumably in the event of guests having a
coronary, on seeing the size of the bill after another seafood blowout...
http://www.do-shinko.co.jp/greenhotel/
MMM on xmas day 25 Dec 2005, 04:50
Strolled around Tanuki-Koji, a long covered shopping arcade of which you will find one in every Japanese city. This is where I took the photo of Nazi and German regalia that you can see in the photo album, but of course most shops were far more normal, selling household goods as well as the usual tourist tat (small carved bears, crab-shaped fridge
magnets, fake Ainu artefacts, tins of food for your marimo!)
Guide to Sapporo Food - http://www.global.city.sapporo.jp/convention/visitor/cuisine/cuisine.html
Sapporo Restaurants - http://www.sappororestaurant.jp/indexe.asp
Hokkaido is famous for its wildlife..... especially bears, foxes, raccoons and a very unusual creature known as marimo...its a green ball that lives in mountain lakes and bobs up and down in the water.... you can buy one for a souvenir if you have a spare Y40,000 .....
see them here... http://www2.interbroad.or.jp/naniwa/marimo.html
mmm replete 25 Dec 2005, 08:36
And a hippy xmas to you as well....
I just realised that I have an Xmas in my name, bet you can't match that!!
miXMASter morris
mikusumatsuru morisu 25 Dec 2005, 11:41
Wow! Now the snow is bucketing down - that’s what I call a white Christmas.
Now I'm at the SHIFT gallery looking at some cool art stuff.
Looks like we're going to see a gig by a band called SUN PAOLO about whom I know nothing at all but I'm going to check them out
They are at http://www.sunpaolo.com also playing is DJ Wada from sublime records http://www.sublimerecords.net
mmm again 25 Dec 2005, 17:51
Well I have to say that king xhmu is one of the most amazing clubs anywhere on the planet, simply unbelievable......
The mind boggles at the amount they must have spent on the decor it’s a weird hybrid of Mayan and Atlantean images.
The outside facade is a 60ft tall Mayan skull inside are huge bas reliefs, crystal skulls, twisting steel snakes.
One bar is inside a giant mouth with gleaming teeth.
The other is topped with huge concrete wings that must weigh many tones.
Can’t believe their crappy website doesn't have any pictures on it!!
http://www.king-xmhu.com/
mixmaster morris 26 Dec 2005, 10:05
Now back in Tokyo where it's pretty cold but at least it's not snowing any more.
Lots of flights are cancelled, as some airports are totally snowed in....
There was a nasty train crash today as well, 4 people died when a JR train derailed in a blizzard and crashed into a farm building... two fatal accidents in a year is absolutely unheard of, doubtless some rail managers will be forced to resign over this.
We bought a king crab goodie bag from Sapporo... several kilos of crab one each of three different species! So I'm gonna learn some crab recipes I guess...
mixmaster morris 26 Dec 2005, 10:07
Saw a drugstore today with a massive neon sign that said LOVE DRUGS...
Apparently there's a chain under that name, unbelievable...
mixmaster morris 26 Dec 2005, 10:50
Another gastronomic oddity I saw today... scallop sausages contain 88% Hokkaido scallops.... pricey though.
mixmaster morris 26 Dec 2005, 11:01
The No.1 single over here right now is by a band with a most peculiar name...
BUMP OF CHICKEN
What were they thinking of? Goosebumps?
http://www.bumpofchicken.com/
mixmaster morris 26 Dec 2005, 11:06
On the subject of the excellent SOIL AND PIMP SESSIONS
You can watch them doing their stuff here..
http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/soilpimp/ram/VICL-61696-03F.ram
I have mentioned them in a couple of interviews and I must say nobody over here seems to have heard of them....
A whole load more tracks and one more video here
http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/soilpimp/discography/index.html
mixmaster morris 26 Dec 2005, 13:15
Here's a guy who just films all the cool things in Japan and puts them
up for your enjoyment.... lots of relevant footage
http://www.brovision.com/
Check out film no.2 - odaiba - Tokyo Bay Island - that's where I'm staying
mixmaster morris 26 Dec 2005, 15:21
I notice that Christmas ends at 8am on Dec 26th prompt.
All the hotel employees were dismantling the tree, packing away the Santas and the twinkly lights...all gone by 9am
The only thing they left was a generic snow installation that was relevant for a large part of the year in this top snowboarding area....
mixmaster morris 27 Dec 2005, 11:01
They have a very interesting reality show over here
Four contestants have to live as cheaply as possible
And I do mean cheap, they have to prepare food every day and the lowest figure wins....
The leader so far is a guy who bought a sack of soybeans and spent the whole month making Soya milk, tofu, okara, natto etc
You can't get better value.... he also bought a live chicken to have a fresh egg every day.... he shares his dinner with the chicken as well!
His daily food cost is down to about 50p a day
Another guy decided to catch all his own fish, unfortunately for him he lives 30 miles from the sea so he has a LONG cycle ride to get fed....
They should license this one, sure would make a change from big brother....
mixmaster morris 27 Dec 2005, 18:13
Soil & Pimp played Dec 24th at Unit club here in Tokyo.
There is a LIVE in LONDON DVD just came out last week.
mixmaster morris 27 Dec 2005, 18:15
Just got back from a trip to Shibuya where I played a secret surprise gig at the Hemties bar, another Nagano posse here in Tokyo...
http://hemtie.hyponex.net/
mixmaster morris 27 Dec 2005, 18:19
(That website doesn't work for some reason)
They had two beautiful wooden tables by some hip designer inset were cut out shapes (lips, heart, labia) which were backlit so as to create a beautiful 3D effect, I have some great pictures of this....
Cooked my Marks & Spencer’s Xmas pudding, flambeed it with Courvoisier and served it flaming and all to the multitude here, with vanilla ice-cream...
Seemed to go down well!
mixmaster morris 27 Dec 2005, 18:20
Also just got given 2xCD recording of my set at SOS Party in Hakuba which took place 3 months ago and very good it was too...
Just played the CDs and it's a really good recording, will put this one up on Junglecats a.s.a.p.
mixmaster morris 27 Dec 2005, 21:33
Had a great dish tonight, Hokkaido-don.
A rice bowl Hokkaido style with tuna, scallop, salmon roe, crab and the expensive crunchy herring roe kazunoko rather like a luxury version of chiirashi zushi.
mixmaster morris 27 Dec 2005, 21:43
Haven't felt any earthquakes yet although there have a been quite a few
There was a 4.8 while I was in Hokkaido, and a 5.6 yesterday out at sea.
You can see the latest quake information here
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/last_event/world_japan.html
mixmaster morris 27 Dec 2005, 22:08
Been looking at pictures by mad manga don Takashi Nemoto
Some of them are way too graphic to include here, though!
mixmaster morris 28 Dec 2005, 08:26
Saw a sign that says BUILDING JOINT PROJECT
gizza job, mate! I could do that ....
mixmaster morris 28 Dec 2005, 08:38
>Have you had OKONOMIYAKI?
Not on this trip yet, maybe I have some in Osaka its better down there
Or even Hiroshima-style....
Do you like Monjayaki? That’s the most popular round here...
mixmaster morris 28 Dec 2005, 08:39
For the uninitiated look here
http://www.japan-guide.com/r/e100.html
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 12:33
shashin wa arigato gozaimashita ikue-chan!!
Well as you can see the Osaka gig was pretty spectacular...
The second tallest building in the country at 252m ... and a most amazing view of course.
At 252 metres, the WTC is the 85th tallest building in the world..... it's interesting that not a single building in Europe features in the top 50!
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001338.html
WTC on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_WTC_Building
Osaka viewed from WTC - http://www.xs4all.nl/~hnetten/osak03.jpg
We stayed in a very old house by Osaka standards, which means about 80 years.
Tatami mats throughout and sliding shoji doors....that make a scary noise which can really startle you if you aren't used to it! A big hibachi, a blue stoneware urn full of burning charcoal... also great for toasting snacks on. Something else I took a fancy too was the electric carpet - ideal in a land without chairs!
Anyway at the World Trade Centre I did two sets, a funky one at midnight and then a deep ambient one around dawn... the venue was full by midnight and there were 100 more queuing outside, waiting for people to leave!
Overall we had about 500 in, although half of them were gazing out the windows so it looked smaller from the DJ booth....
We didn't eat Japanese food that night, we went to a Tapas bar called Gozo which was surprisingly Spanish... they had real Jabuga ham for instance (at 1500Y a plate)
Had a lot of good tapas including Anchovy Banderillas... and finally a SAZAI which is a kind of oversized whelk the size of a fist, and doesn't seem to have an English name although sushi bars call them Turbo!
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 12:42
Wow I'm looking at an advert for mobile phone ringtones.
You won't believe some of the tracks you can get on your phone!
Akufen - My Way
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Derrick May - Strings of Life
Jeff Mills - Transfusion
Ken Ishii - Visionary World
Richie Hawtin - Minus Orange
Shpongle - Levitation Nation
are some examples, as well as the usual pop stuff..
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 12:43
Here is a cool record shop we went to in Kyoto (where I bought Soil & Pimp 12")
http://www.jetsetrecords.net
They do second-hand as well, and the site is bilingual...
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 13:07
Last night played in Shizuoka, at a tiny club right in the centre...
Zack played chillout upstairs in the lounge, followed by DJ Kikuta who proudly showed me a huge wallet full of psychedelic music CDs and more Timothy Leary albums than I have ever heard of... his set was really ambient, so quiet that I kept going and turning it up!
Drank far too many chu-hais (shochu and lemonade) and then went downstairs to rock the dancefloor. It was totally rammed down there and I launched into a long set - the promoter came and told me they would stay open for as long as I wanted to play. However I was pretty drunk by 5am - I desperately needed a psychedelic yodel and I could feel it coming, so I grabbed the only thing handy which was some poor guys plastic cd box...luckily it was empty!!
Then I chilled them all out till 7.30am by which point I couldn't continue.
So I finished with Fats Waller's "Reefer Man" and we all headed for the onsen.
I've picked up a good trick from the locals about Onsens...
You can hire a room in most of them for much cheaper than a hotel...and of course you can use the baths any time you feel like it. And believe me after soaking in 43 degree water you just want to lie down and sleep.
This Onsen was different from most I have visited.. It’s near the city so very much busier... there was no rotenburo (outside pool) or view.
The water was different too, very sulphurous and smelly, with little black particles floating around, you needed to take a shower afterwards!
Also highly alkaline with a pH of 9.4 ... so feels very soft, because the alkali reacts with oils on your skin to make what is effectively soap.
Even more vending machines than usual, with every type of hot and cold drink, including beers...also ice-cream vending machines
By the way, you never have to queue for a drink in Japan, there are beer vending machines everywhere including inside clubs (although sometimes they turn them off!)
There was a sauna too, and lots of massage types (Head, back, foot).
The place is called Bijin No Yu... maybe I can find it online....
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 13:11
Here's a good into to Onsens from wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onsen
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 14:06
Just had a lesson in how to make SHABU SHABU
Shabu Shabu - http://www.bento.com/tr-shabu.html
The dish originated in the 13th century as a way for Genghis Khan to efficiently feed his soldiers. In contrast to modern shabu-shabu preparations where each person cooks in their own pot, Khan's troops originally gathered around a large pot and cooked together. Thinly sliced meat was used for its short cooking time, which allowed the Mongolian army to conserve its limited supply of fuel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu_shabu
In the film Lost in Translation, actors Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson can be seen dining in a traditional Japanese shabu shabu restaurant. A small circular pan of boiling water is located in the center of the table. Both characters remark on the similarity of the menu items, which all appear to be identical plates of sliced beef.
One of the most well known dishes over here and popular with tourists too. Can't believe I've not done this one defore....
Basically the secret is to get very thin steaks of top quality beef when I say thin, I mean thin as fine-cut bacon at least
You are going to cook them in hot water in seconds so that’s why it needs to be extremely fine (a bacon slicer will do)
Beef is very expensive over here, the stuff we used for this dish was Y1500 for 100g... that's a whopping £75/kilo (about 6 times more)
Put a pot of boiling water on a burner on the table
Then put in a few mushrooms (enoki would be most correct) some hakusai (chinese cabbage) and japanese negi (which is like a small leek crossed with a spring onion) some shungiku (chysanthemum leaves) or use spinach or dandelions and some common beansprouts...
Cook your beef slices NO MORE than 20 seconds then dip them in a special dipping sauce which is Ponzu with Momoji Oroshi and spring onions
Ponzu is citrus soy sauce, and Momoji is daikon and chili grated.
There's a second sauce as well, of sesame seeds that tastes a bit like satay sauce, but we bought that in the shop so I don't know how to make it!
As you go on, add more and more vegetables to the pot and some glass noodles (shirataki).... at the end you could add Udon or Ramen and have a filling dish of noodles as well!
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 14:55
The year end also brings a greater-than-usual flurry of shopping. Extra cleaning supplies are always needed for oosooji, and stocks must be laid up of o-mochi and ingredients of special New Year's dishes. In many cases the only shops open for the first three days of the New Year will be convenience stores, so it is necessary to buy anything needed for those days beforehand. Shops and department stores are intensely crowded at this time of year.
The foods traditionally eaten at New Year's, called o-sechi ryoori , are prepared in the last days of the year. Made with strong seasonings so that they will keep for several days over the holidays, o-sechi ryori also give housewives a brief respite from their labors. New Year's foods vary from one part of the country to another, but generally include yasai no nimono ( stewed vegetables ), kuromame ( sweet boiled black beans ), kazunoko ( salted herring roe ), tai ( sea bream ), and ebi ( shrimp ), all attractively arranged in square lacquered boxes called juubako. Almost all o-sechi foods are chosen for the association of their names with certain meanings, virtues or fortunes to be sought. The name of the fish tai overlaps with the word medetai, " auspicious, " " propitious, " " joyous, "etc. and since its pink color, too, is close to the lucky color red, it is grilled and served whole with the festive dishes for the occasion. In recent years, younger people are increasingly uninterested in preserving the o-sechi traditions.
For the three days of New Year's it is traditional to replace boiled rice ( gohan ) with grilled o-mochi rice cakes and miso-shiru with a soup made of o-mochi and vegetables boiled in clear stock, zooni , to fill out meals centering around the traditional foods served in the juubako. O-mochi can be purchased in stores, but especially in the country, households often make a supply of their own to last the holidays.
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 15:46
It's now 2006 over here! All the ships in the bay started blaring their foghorns and a huge firework display that seems to be coming from Disneyland....
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 19:51
Just got back from HATSUMODE ...first visit to a temple of the new year.
The temple we went to is called TOMIOKA HACHIMAN GU
It is famous as the home of Fukagawa Hachiman Matsuri, one of Tokyo's big three summer festivals, which is a tri-annual water throwing festival! Suddenly I have a hallucination of Chris Tarrant on Tiswas ....
This page lists some of the more interesting Japanese temple festivals -
http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/festival.html
Who could not warm to a religious event like this?
KANAMARA MATSURI - Held every April 15th at Wakamiya Hachimangu Shrine in Kawasaki Japan, this festival is about as wild and pagan as they get. People of all ages participate in a parade in which most of the participants sport a gigantic penis, and a giant lingam is carried through the streets. Females ride a penis-shaped seesaw, and men, women and children get their picture taken embracing a phallic statue.
There is also a Hadaka-matsuri on Jan 14 in Kyoto at Hino Hokai-ji temple. In this festival, a loin-clothed wearing mob chants and according to the festivals organizers, 'rub against one another', whatever that means.
More on the Kanamara Matsuri here - http://www.dazereader.com/kanamara.htm
Some astonishing pictures here -
The streets are jammed with people going back and forth to temples
Outside there are hundreds of food stalls - barbequed meat and squid, toffee apples, candy floss, bean paste buns, takoyaki, yaki soba, oden - the usual panoply of street food....
Inside priests are doing strange things with bells and drums, while the public throw 100Y coins into a big wooden box...
shinto ritual is totally mystifying to the outsider, but it sure looks pretty. Took some fantastic pictures of shinto deities illuminatged by UV, and of a solid gold Mikoshi (shrine) topped by a huge eagle with big diamonds in the eyes.
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 19:51
Silly me, I forgot that all the shops are closed the next 3 days!
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 20:01
a Happy New Year for you all...
mixmaster morris 31 Dec 2005, 22:33
This is how to conjugate a Japanese verb....quite rational but very complicated
Plain (abrupt) form, present, affirmative: taberu (eat, will eat)
Plain form, present, negative: tabenai (will not eat)
Plain form, past, affirmative: tabeta (ate, have eaten, had eaten, did eat)
Plain form, past, negative: tabenakatta (did not eat, have not eaten, had not eaten)
Polite form, present, affirmative: tabemasu
Polite form, present, negative: tabemasen
Polite form, past, affirmative: tabemashita
Polite form, past, negative: tabemasendeshita
Te form, affirmative: tabete --used for a variety of forms, including progressive forms (am eating, was eating), polite commands (tabete kudasai), asking permission (tabete mo ii desu ka?), and many others.
Te form, negative: tabenakute
Imperative: tabero (don't use this; see the Politeness chapter)
Conditional, plain form, affirmative: tabereba or tabetara (if I eat, if I will eat, etc) -- the -ra form is preferable in cases where "when" is more appropriate than "if"
Conditional form, plain, negative: tabenakareba or tabenakattara (if I do not eat, if I did not eat, etc)
Conditional form, polite, affirmative: tabemashitara
Conditional form, polite, negative: tabemasendeshitara
Presumptive form, plain, affirmative: taberu darou (will probably eat)
Presumptive form, plain, negative: tabenai darou (will probably not eat)
Presumptive form, polite, affirmative: taberu deshou
Presumptive form, polite, negative: tabenai deshou
Volitional form, plain: tabeyou (let us eat)
Volitional form, polite: tabemashou
Potential form, plain, affirmative: taberareru or tabereru (able to eat)
Potential form, plain, negative: taberarenai (not able to eat)
Potential form, polite, affirmative: taberaremasu
Potential form, polite, negative: taberaremasen
Passive form, plain, affirmative: taberareru (is eaten) -- note same as potential form
Passive form, plain, negative: taberarenai (was eaten)
Passive form, polite, affirmative: taberaremasu
Passive form, polite, negative: taberaremasen
Causative form, plain, affirmative: tabesaseru (is made to eat, was made to eat)
Causative form, plain, negative: tabesasenai (is not made to eat, was not made to eat)
Causative form, polite, affirmative: tabesasemasu
Causative form, polite, negative: tabesasemasen
Causative-passive form, plain, affirmative: tabesaserareru (was made to eat and was adversely affected by it)
Causative-passive form, plain, negative: tabesaserarenai (was not made to eat and was adversely affected by it)
Causative-passive form, polite, affirmative: tabesaseraremasu
Causative-passive form, polite, negative: tabesaseraremasen
Exalted: otabe ni naru or otabe nasaru or meshiagaru
Humble: itadaku
mixmaster morris 1 Jan 2006, 11:44
Some new CDs I got today...
Ulrich Schnauss - Far away trains passing by with bonus disc
ulf lohmann- because
lunz - remixes
jon hopkins - opalescent
mixmaster morris 1 Jan 2006, 11:53
And this one... which was recommended by Shin at Global Chillage Tokyo
KILN - Sunbox (Ghostly International)
http://www.kilnaudio.com
http://www.ghostly.com
mixmaster morris 1 Jan 2006, 16:45
Vending machines are cleverer every year - now they can handle a fistful of bills at a time. Ditto you put multiple train tickets through the gate simultaneously
We saw an interesting cigarette dispenser with brands like Ecstasy Cigarettes and Cannabis-Free ....
mixmaster morris 1 Jan 2006, 17:18 IP: 58.98.173.55
You can also get Haagen Das in Green Tea and Black Sesame flavours...
mixmaster morris 1 Jan 2006, 19:21
We're off to Kobe tomorrow, and then come back to fly to Kyushu so I won't be able to post for a few days.... also my Lacie HD is giving me a lot of grief...
I humped my Mini mac and keyboard 10,000 miles to to this stuff so I hope somebody is reading it all...
mixmaster morris 4 Jan 2006, 14:14
Well we did the secret suprise party in Kobe..... at a primary school up in the mountains behind Kobe... like most mountain houses everything is made of wood, the entire building.
People had come from Osaka, Kobe , Kyoto and even Okayama which is 5 hours drive.....
Did the last 3 hours 9am till noon ... and then as the promoter was busy dancing like crazy I carried on for another 2 hours.
ended with a 15 min version of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and then ran straight to the onsen shedding clothes as I went.
I floated on my back in the rather shallow (for kids, remember) pool, thinking it can't actually get much better than this .....
mixmaster morris 4 Jan 2006, 14:16
Look I have personalised chopsticks!
mixmaster morris 4 Jan 2006, 16:36
The horsemeat is dense and chewy with no visible fat
It’s usually eaten raw as a side dish
It’s not bad at all,
Kobe beef is not eaten raw, and it always has marbled white fat
throughout the meat which means it cooks very well on the teppanyaki
It's also really expensive, see earlier comment about shaby shabu
The train station in Kobe today was selling omiyage packs
for 5000Y (25 quid) you got two big steaks, maybe about 400g each?
mixmaster morris 4 Jan 2006, 16:58
Places with (fake) platters of meat outside are often Korean BBQ restaurants
You order plates of beef, tongue, mushrooms... and cook them on a grill over gas before eating with stinky kimchee and Korean pickles
mixmaster morris 4 Jan 2006, 17:01
90% of eating establishments are tiny places that serve only ONE thing
So its ramen, or soba, or sushi, or tempura, or takoyaki, or yakitori...
If you want something else, you have to go to a different place!
Izakaya's are the exception as you can get a big menu in these
mixmaster morris 4 Jan 2006, 17:09
The place we stayed in Okayama had no hot water so we went to the local Sento, or public bathhouse.
Much more utilitarian (and cheaper) than a fancy onsen it had no outdoor pool or view and no mineral water!
But they compensated by heaving a sack of yuzu fruits into the bath with you....
mixmaster morris 4 Jan 2006, 17:49
yuzu look like tangerines but more yellowish and very fragrant they make a superlative marmalade as well as tea and soup even coca-cola sell a yuzu flavored soft drink over here.
The latest craze in Tokyo is yuzutinis.... you can probably guess...
mixmaster morris 4 Jan 2006, 18:16
Apparently Turtles are a specialty of Kyushu ....
mixmaster morris 8 Jan 2006, 04:40
had a good time in Nagasaki as well now back in Tokyo but need to sleeeeep as I have final two gigs tonight... so details can wait...see ya soon!
mixmaster morris 8 Jan 2006, 09:41
Caught a flight to Nagasaki Tuesday morning, the airport is on a small island on the other side of the peninsula, the whole geography of the area is very convoluted, with tiny islands everywhere while the city itself sits at the end of a long fjord which produces an outstanding natural harbour.
Was very tired on arrival, but we were whisked off anyway on a tour of the sights...The Atomic Bomb museum and the hypocentre of the blast, Peace Park etc.Not surprisingly Nagasaki is a centre of support for CND and other anti-war groups.
After that we went to a very old temple high above the city with an ancient fountain outside... and then to the Art museum and the (new) Court buildings.
Built in Edo-period style out of 100% wood with no nails or metal parts.
Dinner we had at a tiny bar run by two very sweet old ladies, where I had an Onigiri covered in Tororo Kombu - fluffed shaved kelp that looks like cobwebs....
Friday we headed out to the island of Ioujima, with a population of only 800 this was one of the places where Japanese Christians lived in secret for hundreds of years - you can even see a large church on the island. A round trip on the boat costs only 1000Y (£5) and that Includes a ticket for the onsen... I was expecting something very basic but in fact there's a whole luxury hotel complex with chalets etc and the onsen itself is very upmarket with jacuzzi baths as well as the usual; slate and cedar wood ones.... also four outdoor baths with a great view over the Harbor.....
Friday night we went to a restaurant called ZEN for another mindblowingly good meal ... sashimi of Hamachi was delicious.
But the best meal was on the Saturday when we went to a Squid place in Sasebo where the squid gamboled in a huge tank waiting to be selected and eviscerated.
Sadly they only had very large ones left (expensive) so I settled for sashimi of Aji (horse mackerel) served in the traditional kyushu style....with the fish still alive!
Also a plate of strange white meat which turned out to be a whale's tongue I am ashamed to say, surprisingly nice with a bit of salt sprinkled on it.
The main dish was Ishiyaki Unagi-don... grilled boned Eels on top of rice served in a big stone bowl that is heated to high temp, so that the whole dish cooks by contact with hot stone (hence the name ishiyaki).
I notice that this little island is home to this event ....
Reggae Japan Splash (last weekend in July): Held outdoors on Ioujima Island, at the mouth of Nagasaki Harbor. The ¥6,000 tickets include the ferry ride.
-------
On our last day in Nagasaki we went to GLOVER GARDENS, a bizarre
colonial enclave high above Nagasaki where a handful of Brits plotted to
change Japans history. Thomas Glover was a Scots merchant and Freemason who moved to Japan in 1861 and married a Japanese woman - the inspiration for Puccini's Madam Butterfly. He introduced the Railways to Japan singlehanded.... and also the Trawler which revolutionised fishing methods.
He built the first coal mine, started the first brewery (Kirin, still very popular today), and even founded the shipbuilders which became the giant Mitsubishi corporation.
He also played a key political role in helping to overthrow the shogunate....
The house is still stocked with Victorian furniture and belongings... including a very fancy Polyphon which plays five tunes including God Save The Queen...
mixmaster morris 8 Jan 2006, 21:01
Just done my last two sets in Tokyo and that's the lot!
Tokyo Salon was completely rammed, they actually broke the house record with over 500 through the doors, you couldn't move in there!
Played the last 2 hours after a live set from Puff Dragon... people were really digging some deeply chilled out tracks like sebastien tellier, m83, lj kruzer, cinematic orchestra
After that went to Wakyo party at Camelot which is a huge club and played a dancefloor set at 3am.... a lot of people came to both.
Got given another jacket, this one even better than the first! This one is iridescent Chinese silk with Peacocks embroidered on it...it's really rather special!
Also a nice set from US expat GIO MAKYO, who was one of my first friends in Japan back in 1993/4.... he has a new album Swara Mandala out now on Dakini http://www.dakinirecords.com/~English/DAK_listenings.html
Gio also runs DAKINI NIGHTS a very popular ethno-ambient party, and
you can hear that compilation on the Dakini site as well. Dakini have
built a solid reputation for quality music with some 20 albums so far, including the ambient wunderkind from cornwall... no, not Richard James but ISHQ.....
Tokyo Salon - http://www.vision.co.jp/tokyosalon/indexe.htm
mixmaster morris 9 Jan 2006, 07:36
Now my biggest problem is how to get all this stuff into my suitcase...
One good trick is to buy food at the airport so that it doesn't count towards your baggage allowance....
Wish I hadn't brought an audio interface that weights about 2kg every gram counts in this game!
mixmaster morris 9 Jan 2006, 14:39
Had my final dinner here, went to a stand-up sushi bar in Akasuka the same one I took Chris Coco to last year...had a wide range of exotic marine dwellers including some shellfish called Aoyagi which was yummy and the famed and pricy Uni (sea urchin) which was so fresh it has a texture rather like my tongue on new years morning...furry and yellow.....also ama-ebi - sweet uncooked prawns and enormous scallops (hotate-gai)
Also learnt that you count sushi as ikkan, nikan, sankan, yonkan not ippai or imai or iko or ichi or hitotsu ...counting in japanese is difficult!
Also that you always order 2 pieces at a time BUT they can be mixed.
At this place by the way there are no fancy ceramics, but the sushi is served directly on a big bamboo leaf, no washing up to do either!
This place holds exactly eight customers, and two sushi chefs were working flat out making customer’s orders... no stale sushi going round and round all day.... everything is eaten within 30 seconds of manufacture.
mixmaster morris 9 Jan 2006, 15:37
Actually there's something I haven't mentioned...
Sunday night I fell down a cliff in the dark!
I drank so much local sake and shochu I was really on another planet.
After finishing my set, I staggered out into the courtyard where lots of well-wrapped up people were torturing small fish over an open fire and then headed out into the darkness in the direction of the small traditional hut which was my private space.
Unfortunately I walked straight over the edge and fell about 15 feet into a bush..carrying my record bag as well.
I just sat there and laughed.. but next morning I found my trousers are ripped to shreds at the back I have scratches all up one leg and a big bruise on one elbow but I'm lucky not to have broken bones or anything.
mixmaster morris 11 Jan 2006, 10:39
Tuesday got up, rammed everything into my trusty Samsonite and jumped on the limousine bus for Narita.
Unfortunately got scalped for excess baggage by SAS check-in.
I had 31 kilos in my main bag plus 12 in carry on, so I had it coming...had to pay 5 kilos excess (about 35000Y) ...
Grabbed a big stone bottle of sake from duty free, and some mentaiko (fermented cod roe) for Yuki-chan... and ran for the plane
Who should be on the same flight as me? Ken Ishi, that’s who. Plus his friend Takuya Chiba ...poor bloke had a much longer journey than me as he went Tokyo-Copenhagen, then a taxi to Malmo and fly to Lisbon..to catch a flight to Brazil!!!
mixmaster morris 12 Jan 2006, 05:49
A note on costs... when I first went to Tokyo I thought it was expensive.
Of course, in those days there was only 120 Yen to the pound, whereas nowadays it’s more like 210.... also I was in the touristy area of Roppongi and I went to tourist restaurants etc.
You can of course spend a hundred pounds on the Ginza or by eating in a luxury hotel... but food in particular is a lot cheaper than you might think.
The most common everyday meals in Japan are noodle dishes ramen, udon, soba, somen, and other types and even eating at the best ramen house will never cost more than 1000Y (£4.50) .. You could have a beer as well within your budget.
Noodle houses often have a vending machine outside that handles all the cash. This is a clever idea that speeds up the whole process.
You choose from a pictorial menu, purchase a ticket from the machine (300-800Y) and hand it to the chefs, within a minute a huge steaming bowl of noodles or yakisoba or gyoza will be in front of you to be enjoyed with loud slurping noises which is not considered impolite but rather a sign of enjoyment rather like smacking the lips.... you also pick up the bowl and drink the soup from it, of course....
Oden is another very cheap food; up to 20 different alien substances all floating in kelp broth in your local convenience store...with pieces ranging from 50-150 Y you could eat a big bowlful for £3... Mustard is free!
Donburi's (rice bowls) are very affordable; the big Hokkaido-don in my picture cost Y1000 and was the most expensive item on the menu at the chain restaurant 'maguro ichiban'...a simple serving of tuna on rice costs about £3. The Yoshinoya chain is even cheaper but more beef-orientated
Other popular and uniquely Japanese meals like takoyaki and okonomiyaki, tonkatsu ,or omu-raisu (omelette), korokke and yakitori... all can be eaten for the cost of a big mac. Every train station sells a panoply of bento boxes and on the train girls push food trolleys up and down the aisle, with 'ekiben' (station boxes) often featuring local specialist ingredients. Sometimes these come in stoneware jars that you then keep as a souvenir.. ekibens cost around 700-1000, the more expensive one might have a luxury ingredient such as eels or salmon roe....
A big box of takeaway sushi for one, say 10 pieces, will cost about 800Y or if it contains Uni or Ikura a bit more. For the cheapskate, kai-ten sushi on the conveyor belt costs from Y100 a plate and though the quality isn't fantastic it's better than what you will be used to in the UK. And green tea is free!
I wouldn't eat Uni in a cheap place, I once did and it was not a pleasant experience.
Izakayas serve a wide range of dishes, almost all under 1000. Portions are small, it's food to accompany large amounts of alcohol.
Korean Barbeque is a bit more pricey, usually running to 2000Y a head ditto other 'show' dishes where you do the cooking yourself like shabu shabu.
In every cornershop, Rice balls (onigiri) are as ubiquitous as the bag of crisps in the UK, wrapped in seaweed and stuffed with umeboshi plum or hanakatsuo (bonito shavings) they make a tasty snack for 100-150 Y (50-70p)..small maki rolls about the same. And the basic canonical dinner - which is rice, pickles, miso soup...costs no more than £1-£2 even in a good restaurant... and you'll be eating a meal absolutely unchanged for a thousand years..
So, if you avoid expensive delicacies and over-fancy places you can eat extremely well for £5 a head anywhere in Japan.. and that's not so easy in the UK.
mixmaster morris 12 Jan 2006, 14:31
Things NOT to do in Japan
Don’t bother eating Western Food, its overpriced and not very good
Don’t get soap or shampoo in the bath, or even your towel...
Don’t peek through into the ladies part of the onsen
(even though there's a flimsy bamboo fence...)
Don’t laugh at anyone’s genitalia either
Don’t Stay in Business hotels when you can have a ryokan
Don’t Hang out with Gaijin all the time
Don’t ask for Ketchup with your sashimi
Don’t make physical contact of any sort with a stranger, especially don't kiss
women you have just been introduced to, a polite bow is much safer.
Don’t spend your whole trip in Tokyo or Osaka
Don't ask 'What happened to all the Ainu people?'
Don't stick your chopsticks vertically into the rice
Don't eat foods that are out of season, they are inferior and pricier.
Don't try to tip waiters, taxi drivers, barmaids, they will almost
always refuse..in exceptional circumstances put the money in an envelope.
Don’t try to travel on a national holiday or Golden week
(you won't be able to unless you booked well ahead)
Don’t plan an itinerary that’s too ambitious, you want some time in
each place otherwise there's no point...
Don’t Get Arrested or into any sort of fight, or go to gambling dens...
Don’t fly to Narita..if you can fly to Kansai international or Nagoya...
Don’t Drop Litter or fag butts - you can get a pocket ashtray for 50p in every shop
Don’t Wear Shoes in the house or anywhere with Tatami mats
Don't say to a big tattoed guy with a bulldog 'Are you a Yakuza?'
Written: 25th Jan, 06
Read: 6349 times