Anarchy in the JP

Hooray for drastic mood swings that could only be described as manic!

I was uncontrollably enthusiastic at about noon today, still recovering from what I have chosen to label Best Weekend I've Had In Japan So Far. I didn't do anything extraordinary; it was the usual matter of going out with coworkers Friday night (see previous post), fucking around Saturday afternoon and then heading to Nagoya for an evening of punk/hardcore shows (I'd say good metal is hard to come by here, but I was able to find the new Between The Buried And Me album, which is good in a "holy shit I'm so glad I bought this" manner as opposed to that disappointment-denying "maybe I need to listen to it a few more times" manner), a club or two and finally a train back to Yokkaichi Sunday morning for an afternoon of sleeping and wandering around. But it felt so much better this weekend; like I wasn't doing it out of compulsion or the nagging urge to go out and socialize, but because it's fun. Plus, I'm getting to the point where I can have deeper conversations with people than I could when I first got here. A month ago it was mostly limited to "My name is ____, I live in _____ and work for _____," and now it's more like "my name is _____, I work for _____ but it's kind of fucking boring (which isn't even entirely true .. yet) so let's talk about something else!"

So I was feeling pretty good today, like I was sort of finding my place here without falling into a routine (which I'm afraid of, because it would make the time go by more quickly), and then sometime around lunch, possibly because I read a few more chapters of High Fidelity, which is funny yet mildly depressing so far, I started thinking about the several would-be relationships of my own that I fucked up in the past, and next thing I know it's 8PM and I'm still at work. So I came home, ate some curry rice, hacked in the park for an hour or so, and here I am drinking Lime Chuu-Hai, which isn't nearly as good as Lychee or Grapefruit. (or lychee grapefruit)

I had a lot more to say but was not able to organize it, so I'll just post a few (shitty) photos from this weekend, and explain them in whatever order they turn up in.

This is the new bike I got Saturday morning. It cost around 10000 Yen, and I like it so much I'm glad the last one got stolen. A bike is the kind of thing I don't want someone else picking out for me, anyway ... plus, red just wasn't my color. In order to truly replace the Civic currently being driven around in Texas by Cowboy Kobayashi (hahaha), and because I am such a fucking fanboy it is ridiculous, I added the FLUTTR sticker, and wanted to add a Watch Them Die sticker as well, but didn't have any that fit. Maybe if I run it into a cop car, it'll properly commemorate the old Civic.

This band is led by the mysterious Pink Ninja. There was also a White Ninja who danced in the crowd .. too bad these gimmicks were not enough to distract me from the fact that they played the most generic pop-punk I've ever heard, which is impressive considering Japan is full of generic pop-punk. At least 406, besides being hot, have a bit of an unusual edge to their music.

some of the crew .. these guys are all in their 20s, if you can believe that.

about half the Karaoke group. Aside from the occasional Offspring, Green Day or Sex Pistols song, they mostly picked poppy-sounding J-love songs, and I mostly picked SOAD, Slayer and Arch Enemy (the latter of whom are coming to Nagoya next month! warrrrgghh)

Kenji sends his regards.

Time to get up in 5 hours. Until then ...