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recent
Just got home after another long weekend. Recently I seem to have gotten a life and it makes me tired. It was a great weekend though. Met Jon and his co-workers for dinner Friday, woke up at 4:30 am Saturday to go to Fuji and climb, got home from Fuji that night and headed to Shinjuku to check out the red-light district. (you'll never believe what you can get at some of those bars fro only 5000 yen). Found a resteraunt with quisine from Tibet in honor of the mountain climbing, wound up passing out in their hotel in Shinagawa. Today went to the Edo museum and just our luck, it is the first day of a Sumo tournament next door so got to check that out as well.
I just heard on the Barakan Beat that Olu DaraOlu's first solo album In the World: From Natchez to New York
will be coming back to Tokyo in July. I wont say Olu DaraOlu's second album Neighborhoods is my favorite artist... that honor changes hands on a daily basis it seems, but I will say that he is one of the few who I monitor waiting for a new album to be released and for any chance to see him live.
Tomoe and I saw him live in the Tokyo Blue Note last year. He is amazing... more than i can say for Japanese concert goers. During the concert we and about three other people (all foreigners) found it impossible to sit still so wound up giving up our seats to move to back of the club where we could dance without blocking the view of any of the Japanese statues sitting in their seats. (one guy was even asleep) . This of course happens at every concert I have been to at the Blue Note, so it is in no way a reflection upon Olu Dara.
Anyway, I did a search on Fresh Air for an interview and lucky lucky lucky... Terry Gross interviews Olu Dara. I also found another printed interview that despite the boring questions gives a little more info than the album covers.
Being in Tokyo everything seems kind of "normal" and I take it for granted. When I get visitors, I start to see the "interesting" aspects of Japan again, and that I actually know alot more about certain things than I realize. I tend to look at my experience in Japan as interesting, but not so out-of-the-ordinary, or even exceptionaly valuable for that matter. It seems some people would disagree. Whose right? Am I the only one who sees that living in Tokyo and simply speaking Japanese is not really any big deal? (after all, I've met many a looser who has more time in Japan than I do, and some who speak Japanese better... I sure don't consider them exceptional) It seems to me that this is just a tool, something that is only valuable if it compliments a real skill... often though I hear things like "with your Japanese skills you could get a job in xyz in a second" . This despite the fact that I do not have any experience in their core business? Is simply speaking Japanese ( a parrot can do that) so great? who is right?
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