Thailand - Day 1

On March 19, I left from Narita Airport to Bangkok with the ALT from Oyama High School. The next day, we took a tuk tuk, which is three-wheeled vehicle thing, to the Grand Palace. Here, you have to cover your legs to enter, so we rented skirts.

Tuk Tuk

Grand Palace

After we went to the Grand Palace, we ate lunch beside the National Museum, and then walked around this museum. The complex was quite old. I was really surprised that someone had just left their child sleeping on the busy sidewalk.

That night, I met my Thai friend, who lives in Tokyo. She took us to the Crystal Design Center, which is a really cool, modern shopping center. She took us to a Thai restaurant and picked out some Thai dishes for our group to eat.

Osamu Dazai

Recently, once a week, my friend and I meet and study Japanese. We switch locations between Numazu and Gotemba. When we study in Gotemba, we have been going to a place called "Zafe Cafe". Last night, I got hot chocolate. It had a super cute bunny on it, and my friend's had a panda.

I was tired of studying Japanese yesterday, so I started reading "The Setting Sun" by Osamu Dazai. I finished it today. I think it's sad because few Japanese authors are popular in the west. Actually, I found out about Dazai because one of my students wrote about him in an essay. After I read her essay, I decided to read one of his books, so I read "No Longer Human". After reading this and "The Setting Sun", he has definitely made it into my list of favorite authors. Usually, I don't like to read more than one book by the same author because I grow tired of their writing style. However, with his books, I just want to read more of them.

Actually, I watched the movie, "Pandora's Box", which is a movie based on Dazai's book. I think I will read this next. I thought the movie was really, really good too, so I would recommend watching it as well.

Chili Soup

This week I made chili soup. I thought that Japanese people ate chili, but apparently, they don't. I told my Japanese teacher that I made chili, but he couldn't understand. He thought that I made something with chili sauce, but actually, chili soup doesn't have chili sauce in it. Now, I will give you the recipe if you want to make it.

The Ingredients

1 chopped onions

2 chopped cloves of garlic

1 large package of ground beef

2 cans of chili beans

2 cans of water

1 jar of tomato sauce

3 chopped tomatoes

2 or 3 teaspoons of chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

Red pepper spice

Cheese

Crackers

The Steps

Step 1: Chop the onion and garlic.

Step 2: Put the beef, onion, garlic, salt, chili powder, and red pepper spice in the pot.

Step 3: Cook until the beef is brown.

Step 4: Drain the fat.

Step 5: Chop the tomatoes

Step 6: Add the tomatoes, water, chili beans, and tomato sauce (This time, I also added eggplant, and it was really good.

Step 7: Cook for about 30 minutes on medium heat.

The Finished Product

The Soup with Crackers and Cheese

Step 8: If you want, you can add crackers and cheese when you are eating it.

ATP I'll be your Mirror

On February 27, I went to Studio Coast in Shinkiba, Tokyo to see All Tomorrow's Parties (ATP) I'll be your Mirror. ATP is traditionally a music festival that takes place in England. Unlike most festivals, this one actually provides quality music. The vast majority of people attending festivals tend to not be there for the music but for the atmosphere, which is really tragic. ATP is special because the crowd that tends to attend the festival has a genuine interest in music. This was the first ATP to be held in Japan, so I feel I was really, really lucky to be given such an amazing opportunity to attend such an event. I went there with a group of 6 people, who all have similar tastes in music to me. I've been lucky enough to find people who have similar music tastes to me in Japan. I can't express how relieved I was to find this out when I came here. Not being able to discuss music with people is painful.

The concert started at 2:30, and the lineup was as follows:

Stage 1: Boredoms, Boris, Autolux, Buttons, Dirty Three, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Stage 2: Keiji Haino, Envy, and Melt-Banana

However, I just stayed at Stage 1.

The Venue

Boredoms

The first band I watched was Boredoms, which is a Japanese band. It has heavy tribal undertones, and it very drum-oriented. It at times verges on minimalism while at other times is pure noise rock. The six drummers were all positioned in a circle with a conductor-esque singer positioned in the middle. The singer was draped in white clothes while donning a straw farmer's hat. Singing in perplexing screams and grunts, this gave the band an even greater sense of minimal tribalism. The singer turned in circles holding up a neon blue effects pedal while given the drummers unrecognizable cues. This was a very heavy band to be the start of the festival. My friends and I already felt drained after the first band. I wish they would have been placed further up on the timetable.

Boris

The second band to come on was Boris, another Japanese band. Boris is totally bummed by Pitchfork, but I think due to their frequent concerts in Japan. The crowd was quite small. We took a position right by the speakers, which might not have been the best idea as I think I will have tinnitus by the time I'm 30 or at least in the ear facing the speaker. Boris was really brilliant though. The girl guitarist is really captivating. I don't know how anyone could not be infatuated with a girl, who can shred. The music is quite droney. I was really glad they played "Rainbow" because it's my favorite song by them. I've always thought of this song as really pretty, but it's quite eery when played live. The ending summed up into one word would definitely be "epic". There was maximum pedal effects going on, and then the drummer took his position for an amazing gong-inspiring ending. I have the video clip I took below.

Buttons

After this Autolux came on, but we took a break to enjoy some fried chicken and potato outside at the food stands. Following gorging ourselves, we went back in to listen to Buttons. Buttons is a 2 member experimental electronic group from England. I don't know why, but I felt it was a bit out of place at this concert. When I first heard they were playing, I was really excited, but when I went to see them live, it felt a bit off. I thought the performance was good, but maybe they just didn't flow with the line-up of the day. The crowd was quite calm throughout the day, so this may have been a contributing factor. The music hovers a fine line between being dancey and noise. However, no one was really moving at all, so the environment seemed a bit off.

Dirty Three

Next, the crowd began to grow again when Dirty Three came on, but I had amazing positioning. I was right at the front. I hadn't listened to the Dirty Three much before this concert, but I will definitely be listening in the future. As the name of the band suggests, the instrumental trio consists of three dirty old men. The man in the picture is the violinist, and he is quite engaging for the crowd. He tells jokes between songs and had the crowd humming the notes as you can see in the video below. He is quite the legend.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

The final band to play was Godspeed You! Black Emperor, which I'm pretty sure is why the vast majority of the people attending came. The attendance must have been near 3,000 people because the concert was sold out. I'm not sure how many tickets were sold. Unfortunately, the concert was running crazy behind schedule. Also, GYBE took ages to set up but for good reason. They have insane amounts of effect pedals and equipment. As well, I think there were about 8 people playing, so all the equipment for each instrument had to be set up. I was able to listen to the first two songs they played, which I was pretty happy with considering most of their songs' time lengths are about 20 minutes. I was right at the front, absolutely so close, but I was so stressed about catching the last train and bus that I couldn't concentrate properly. What I heard was amazing, but I can't really give a good review due to leaving early. My friends said they were falling asleep by the end though because they were so tired. Apparently, they played a two hour set. Sooo...I guess that pretty much sums up my experience at ATP I'll be your Mirror.