Just Another Day In Shinjuku

It was good weekend, but hardly productive. Friday, H and I met some friends near the gay bars and decided on a quick Indian curry dinner. Then we proceeded to this popular little bar (really more a street corner than an actual bar) where me met up with a friend we haven’t seen since last year (he had gone back home to London for a while). That was a drunken good time and I ended getting quite a bit of attention (well, for me, anyway), which is always nice. Saturday was worthless. Today, we walked to Shinjuku to run errands, basically, but H somehow talked me into seeing Dreamgirls (quite a gay weekend, eh?), which was OK, but really pretty boring, in my opinion. It just wasn’t for me. Oh, and it’s a musical. That American Idol girl is quite the singer, though.

Pizza Hut Japan Strikes Back

Every once in a while, H and I really like to trash up our bodies good with some Pizza Hut, and from the looks of their inventions, it seems like Pizza Hut Japan thinks heart disease is a some kind of joke. This is the new “cheesy roll” pizza, not to be confused with the “sausage crust” pizza H talked me into trying last year. Half of our “cheesy roll” was “gorgeous salmon”, and half was “gourmet”. I must say, the gourmet half was pretty darn tasty. For a closer look at the offerings of Pizza Hut Japan, look here.

Again

another, this time from the bathroom.

Chinese Food

from my favorite chinese place.

Beer With a Free Prize

There are sometimes wonderful beer promotions here which I can’t imagine interesting any beer drinker but myself. I must have more in common with the average Japanese person than I think. Last night (during the conbini run) I spotted some free miniature toys attached to the top of cans of Sapporo Draft One (a pretty nasty, not quite real beer, though), so I quickly snatched up a couple. The photo is of the winner of the bunch — it’s the torii at Itsukushima Shrine near Hiroshima. This series of toys, by the way, is themed around Chugoku, the region where Hiroshima is located.

conbini run

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first moblog post

impressed? i am posting this from my mobile phone (from my room). more to come…

Goodbye, Long Weekend

Ended the weekend by trying Sri Lankan food for the first time. Unfortunately, my cold has completely taken over my nose now, so I really can’t taste much. This was Sri Lankan food, though, so some of it was spicy enough for me to at least get an idea of its real flavor. A lot of the food was indistinguishable from Indian food to me (the curry, for one), but there was some unique stuff, too, especially the sambol, a sort of spread made of ground coconuts and various spices. I want to try it again sometime. And in case you were wondering, the photo is not from the Sri Lankan restaurant, it’s from the front of a coffee shop down the street that includes this statue along with a loudspeaker playing American talk radio shows (today, some kind of religious debate was on). I think it’s an attempt at giving the place some kind of “Americana” feel, but that’s where my understanding of it ends.

A Cold, More Korean Food, Techno, Etc.

Well, I’ve been slacking on the blog this 3-day weekend, mainly due to a cold and an extra bit of laziness that came with it. I somehow haven’t taken a single picture all weekend, either, which is another reason I haven’t posted. By the way, the photo is from a trip to Montana a few years ago. So, anyway, Friday night, H’s friend’s Korean friend introduced us and 2 other friends to an excellent Korean place down the street (if you don’t know yet, I live in Tokyo’s Korea-town, basically) where we feasted on just about everything on the menu. The food was seriously good, some of the best Korean I’ve had, and the 2 friends of H’s (who I didn’t know before) were very cool to hang out with. And then Sunday night was the biggest techno night of the season, no doubt. Lots of music, but Pheek’s set ruled the night, hands down (LFKASS was completely right about this). The music easily stood up on its own, but it was all that much better considering he played in great little underground club with a loud, clear sound system and for a crowd who had no problem waiting until 4 AM for his set to begin.

Acid House History Lesson

As a special treat, I give you quick transcription of the lyrics to Maurice’s ‘88 smash “This is Acid”. It’s pretty cool to hear stuff from this little branch of the Chicago acid house tree that never quite made it into the 90’s (well, at least not too far). It’s as much related to hip-house as it is to acid house. Incidentally, it looks like Maurice is now a Grammy winning remixer.

so many questions have been made
about this new dance craze (grade?)
called acid

what people really want to know
is how the story all goes
about acid

this is acid
i’m gonna give you acid
this is acid
i’m givin’ you acid

(synth tweaking hook)

acid is the latest sound
can you feel it all around
as you dance
acid has a certain groove
that makes your body want to move
when you hear it

when the acid hits your soul
it makes you want to lose control
of your body

acid sounds so unique
you just have to move your feet
when you hear it

this is acid
i’m givin’ you acid
this is acid
i’m givin’ you acid

(synth tweaking hook)

can you feel it
beatin’ on the floor
can you feel it
don’t you want some more
(woman’s sexual moans in background)

can you feel it
acid in the air
can you feel it
acid everywhere
(woman’s scream)

this is ?
and i want to make you rock your body
this is the ultimate acid track
and once you hear it
there’ll be no going back

everybody out there…
jack the house

(bridge with 909 toms and hip-hop loops)

this is acid
i’m gonna give you acid
this is acid
i’m givin’ you acid

(synth tweaking hook)