Rumours

Stupidest rumour about Sakevi I've heard recently: Sakevi took a bulldozer to the wall of an Osaka livehouse.


I mean, come on, please. This one is easy. Why the hell would Sakevi do that when Hanatarashi had already done it? Really, imitation has never been Sakevi's style.

(And that Hanatarashi did do this is easy to prove as Gin Satoh took pictures)

Women leading the charge to more tattoos in Japan

Tattoo by Hata of InkRat, Koenji

The Japan Times has an article [link] discussing the new gentrified face of tattoos in Japan. Much like tattoos are gaining a more mainstream appeal in America so too are tattoos in Japan started to become fashionable in circles besides punks, chinpira, and working class kids. Small 'onepiece' tattoos have for years been popular. About the size of a zippo to a pack of playing cards, these little tattoos can be easily hidden.

Traditionally the tattoo was considered associated with prisoners, yakuza, and prostitutes. In part, the kind of eroticism of one piece tattoos could easily be associated back to the geisha and concubines of the yawara and their hidden tattoos. I mean, there is power in tattoos and it's personally something I've often found erotic -- meeting some sort of boring salaryman to find he's totally hidden a body of beautiful tattoos. Women though in Japan still have it easier as far as the ability to get ink: most women still don't hold jobs as careers, are not the primary breadwinners, and are not perceived to be as threatening on a lease or loan if they're a little eccentric.

That said, the Japan Times article was nice to read. It features the artist who did my knuckles and hopefully my future work, Hata at InkRat here in Koenji, whose work is gorgeous and highly recommended. His quote in the article is both humourous and completely true:

"I foresee a generation of elaborately tattooed homeless in the future," says Hata from Koenji's Inkrat studio, only half jokingly. "It's hard to get bank loans and rental contracts with visible tattoos. Things haven't changed much."

It's a big problem that I've complained about in the US as well. If not the homeless tattooed, I actually foresee a situation where the tattooed are forced into a lifetime of wage slavery at the bottom level due to their visible body modification. It is very possible to make a good living and be heavily tattooed, yes, but it is a hard fight as there is no legal protection if your employer chooses to fire you for your modification.

Why I hate Japanese Pop

(besides the obvious reasons)

NeoJaponisme has an interesting article on why Johnny's has kind of retarded the entire Japanese music industry. The management group Johnny's Jimusho basically have had a stranglehold on the boy band market in Japan since the mid-1980's producing such attention whores as SMAP, Hikaru Genji, Johnny's Jr, Arashi, KAT-TUN and the like. Working at Johnny's is a lot of hard work and sacrifice that may or may not include being molested by their manager, working long hours for small percentages, and forgoing a girlfriend or a social life for fame. The scandals for these bands are also totally ridiculous, being things as little as caught smoking (tobacco), drinking, kissing girls or dating.

Teenage girls and creepy old women love Johnny's though. And Johnny's tightly controls the boy band phenomena in Japan, threatening to withdraw their talent from your TV shows, movies, and magazines if you don't do what Johnny's wants, like say, feature any of it's competition. And Japanese companies are notoriously pussy and comply because they really don't understand the power they have. If everyone told Johnny's to fuck off and supported the hot boyband talent from other agencies this whole charade would be over. Teenage girls are fickle, fickle creatures.

I did a TV show a few months back and for it I really wanted to torture a Johnny's boy. But as you can imagine, talking to a Johnny's boy if you're press is like trying to talk to George Bush if you're a pagan. Instead they gave me an interview with a tiny little 15 yr old girl and the image machine was no less severe. As her manager sat behind me scrutinizing every question that passed through my lips and every answer that escaped hers the interview was awful, boring as fuck, and to make things worse apparently her answers weren't GOOD enough and the whole thing was re-shot with more PC answers a week later.

Article: Tohoshinki Rages Against the Machine

Hooray success.

For a change I scored big at Disk Union and not my boyfriend, who passed up some choice American Japcore bootleg LPs of all things. One of them, 3/3's self titled is something I would've loved to hear, but at 6,000yen (~$60USD) for a bootleg I've got to say I understand why he passed. Rare record bootlegs are a rather interesting market, I think, and even they have their own pricing system on availability, sound quality, and album features with collectors as active on collecting different versions of bootlegs as all other things.

Anyway, my haul filled in some British anarcho-punk holes and then this. Along with the green version of the Stooges Sick of You (which itself looks pretty cool) for a few hundred yen I also picked up this USSR print Success 7inch. It's a 1990 1000 limited print, but honestly I bought it because the whole thing looks so damn cool.

This Weekend: Awa Odori

This Saturday and Sunday Koenji will host one of Tokyo's largest bon festivals. Bask in the cultural cultury-ness, feast your eyes on the ancient traditionally stuff... or uhm, come drink!

Actually, yes, there is a much larger reason to come to Awa Odori. Because Koenji is home to so many different subcultural groups, artists, and young people Awa Odori is just a big excuse for Koenji to turn into one big bar. Everyone comes out to drink on the street and in parks and make general asses of themselves and we are no exceptions.

Should you choose to come down to Awa Odori, Saturday is the day to come for drinking and I highly recommend going to JR Asagaya or JR Nakano station and walking to Koenji station as the place is a fucking zoo for the whole weekend. Our station is built for a small amount of traffic so one weekend a year it's just hell.

Events: Into the Atomic Sunshine

At the Daikanyama Hillside Forum this month until the 24th curator Shinya Watanabe will bring us Into the Atomic Sunshine: Post War Art Under Article 9. The exhibit features many native artists deemed too controversial for their Japanese kin who have found fame overseas and have been largely ignored in Japan.

It really highlights two points about Japan, which is why I would recommend it. The first: anything remotely political, subversive or controversial can never really rise high in Japan, despite what the west imagines. Culture here is broken into epic numbers of small little chunks any anything the west finds fascinating (namely that which is subversive or controversial) is never popular. Precisely the reason why I can say "I love the Stalin" to a businessman, and despite the notable achievements of the band get a totally blank stare. And no real understanding of the double meaning and the other famous historical figure.

The second point is a point applicable to anyone interested in Japanese culture: Article 9 is a lot more than politics in Japan. Article 9 represents a lot of mixed emotions about war, about post war occupation, and a kind of arrogant re-affirmation of Japanese isolationism in the world. Article 9 is a section of the Japanese constitution that was written by America during the post-war period that effectively cripples Japan's ability to have an armed presence in the world.

There are two big schools of thought about Article 9. The first, let's call it the "hippie perspective" held by a lot of housewives and young people is that it is good because War is Bad, Atomic Weapons Are Bad, and we should never have war. We don't need an army. War is Bad. When you look at the art and culture Japan selects to exude to the world this is the image it presents. It is the "PC" image, a wholly moral image and allows Japan to indulge in a kind of unique-ness Japan loves to indulge it on a national level. "See? We are unique. We are the only country who does this. NYAH"

The second perspective is that Article 9 cripples Japan's ability to truly enter world politics, defend themselves against the obvious issues with China and North Korea, and that it essentially forces Japan to be friendly with the United States and allow the US to continue it's quasi-occupation status. The US has naval bases in various areas of Japan precisely because of Article 9 and without that presence despite the self defense force it does have Japan would be fucked without allowing the US bases. But let's face it, anyway -- Japan is fairly gentile. Even if they kicked the US out I doubt they would be able to recruit enough men and women into the self-defense force to do any good unless they started a draft.


The point here, as it applies to punk is that punk in Japan is all from a post-occupation perspective. All children of punk are children of the occupation and Article 9, so any references you see to war, peace or Japanese nationalism is coloured with questions about Japan's 'masculinity' if you will in the face of Article 9.


That said, I probably won't go to this exhibit because it's 1,500yen for what I'm assuming is a very small gallery. RIP OFF. If anyone knows if the Hillside Forum has anything else to offer drop a line!

The Japan Times: Making Art out of Article 9
Into the Atomic Sunshine OHP

Koenji Gear/20,000Volts

This is all a part of a continuing series I plan to do (in my head, we'll see how this goes) of information about Japanese punk and punk-catering-to livehouses. Anyway, I wanted to start with a place near and dear so it's a double review on Gear and 20,000Volts.

Really, with these livehouses it's almost impossible to talk about one without talking about the other because the are, literally, on top of each other. Gear is in Basement 1 and 20,000Volts (pronounced Ni-man boruto in Japanese, or just Ni-man) is in Basement 2 of the same building. If you go to a show there you will mix and mingle with people from the other livehouse, and in some cases you might end up to going to shows at both livehouses on the same night.

That said, while they are very similar, there are some differences and for this reason to me 20,000Volts will always be more like home. To me, it's Koenji's punk living room and has a lot of good, bad, and wierd memories. 20,000volts is also named after (?) the infamous post-apocalyptic livehouse of Burst City fame, which automatically gives it a flame in my heart.

The differences between the two livehouses are not the price, not really the sound, and I don't think B1 or B2 makes any difference. The main difference is what kind of bands you're looking to see. GEAR especially on the weekend has a lot more rockabilly and psychobilly lives and 20,000volts has a lot more hardcore and experimental lives. If you're looking for a show and don't know what to do, either one of these places will give you a good show on the weekends.

SOME THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT GEAR/20,000VOLTS: Re-entry is allowed, otherwise people would probably die from the sweaty death that defines these livehouses on a summer evening at full capacity. However, loitering in front of the livehouse is a no-no and you will be shooed should you try to do it by the guy they pay at the entrance to shoo people. Yes, that is his job. He is the shoo-shoo guy. Instead, if you want to hang out there is an alley around the corner people go to as well as the 7-11 on the main street nearby. People also hang out on the stairs.


To get to these livehouses, take the JR Chuo/Sobu train for Koenji. On a weekend be careful; only the yellow line (local) train will go to Koenji! From Koenji station's single exit, you will make a right at the ticket gate. It will look like this:



It should be Koenji's South exit you're walking through. Next, you'll want to take a right and walk along the side of the station until you come to PAL street.



PAL is a kind of covered shopping arcade popular here in Japan. You will take a left and walk in this shopping arcade for a bit, passing Studio DOM on the left.



Studio DOM is both a recording studio and a space for small parties/gigs. Sometimes bands will put on small invite only gigs after the main events at Gear/20000volts. Sometimes people set up cheap events there for the locals. Good place to know about, anyway.

Anyway, you will keep walking until you see a Baskin-Robbins on your right. The entrance to 20,000volts/GEAR is right across the street from it. TADA!



The stairs to enter are on the left as you enter the alcove.

Gear
20,000 Volts

And should you see these people, buy them a beer. If they refuse your beer it's 7 years bad luck or something.

livehouse 101 - How To Live

In our continuing livehouse course, our fearless professor will give you more tips on how to embark on the strange and mysterious world of Japanese livehouse going... or something.

How To -- tickets

First off, it is a rare, rare thing for punk lives to sell out. Punk is not the young pony it was, the bands usually know their audience and pick livehouses accordingly, and , well, it just doesn't happen so often. In the time I have been here I think three or four lives have sold out before I got a chance at them and I have pissed and moaned about all of them because it's so rare.

That said, if you have your heard set on attending a show I highly encourage you to get a ticket or a yoyaku (remember those?) to prevent a tragedy.

Getting tickets are easy if you can push buttons like a monkey (or reading a little Japanese helps). All Lawsons are equipped with a magical machine that looks kinda like an ATM and will give you slips that become tickets when you pay for them at the counter. If you know the L-Code of the concert you want to go to, buying a ticket looks similar to this studio ghibli guide. If you're going to look up by band/person, on instruction 2 you'll push a different button. Which it is I can't 100% see from the picture but I would bet it's the second option down.

Far easier still, if you can swing it, is to yoyaku. Usually you can fire off an e-mail with 予約していいですか？ (is it ok to make a reservation?) with your name, telephone number, number of tickets (ie: １人、２人）and which concert you want to yoyaku for and they will set you up. From there, when you get to the concert say something like 'yoyaku shita' and they'll freak out 'cos OMG you're a whitie! (or whichever other colour you may be) and you'll give them your name. All they need for the yoyaku is your name, so if having a piece of paper with "YOYAKU -- JOHN DOE" on it is easier, do it. If you yoyaku'd through a specific band, giving that band's name as well will help them find it.

This is also the case with being guest listed. except you will want to make doubly sure that you mention the band's name and make sure they find your name. It is really common for livehouse staff to go searching for your name under yoyaku's, not find it, then try to charge you the yoyaku price assuming there has been a mistake. If you don't speak Japanese a piece of paper with "GUEST LIST -- {BAND NAME} {YOUR NAME}" is recommended to avoid confusion. Otherwise anything to the extend of you're on so'n'so's guest list will cut it. Be prepared though, you will still have to pay drink ticket unless you are staff passed.



If you say "fuck the tickets" then don't worry and just head to the livehouse. Some livehouses may ask you a question as you enter. This question is usually "which band did you come to see?" Exclusively punk livehouses never ask this, but for other concert halls this is how bands make their money. Usually I just pick a name off the list and it will save you trouble to do the same.

Another question they make as you is "what are you drinking?" for your drink ticket. Usually if you stare at them like a confused foreigner (or even if you don't) they'll say "beer? vodka? whiskey?" and you tell them whatever it is. Places like 20,000volts do ask this so be prepared for silliness.