Well, after having to scrounge around desperately for things to blog about, suddenly there is a deluge of blogability! I'm seriously loving being busy, it's definitely better than having soooo much time on my hands! (wait till a month from now though, I bet I'll change my mind again!)

Anyway, I biked to work today, via Tokyu Hands to get a bike pump which I'm apparently incapable of using (its lucky I just got it for maintenance and not to fix a flat!), and the library, - its amazing how not wanting to be arguing about fines in Japanese can spur you into getting your books back on time! I ended up at Weekender at about 11:30. I literally almost ran into Caroline and Helen on the way to the office, so walked the last few blocks with them, and discovered that my Lima Bean Blog is not so well buried as I thought (in fact, it's not buried at all - I had no idea that it's a direct link through my profile...ooops!)

Anyway, I got the Things to Do column basically finished (there is sooo much cool stuff on the Cirque du Soleil site when you register as media!), and then we went for lunch at Zest, after taking a good hour and a half to decide that's what we wanted to do! Back at the office, I typed up Bill's Movie Plus column, then started to try and figure out the diamonds article - in the end, Bill came through with a contact that I'm actually going to interview tomorrow, so while the thing still isn't done, at least it's moving in a better direction!

I finished up a first draft of the Hawaii article, and managed to trim it from 1130-930, but sent it to Helen to get rid of the last 200 words. I honestly don't care what goes, God knows Mom has slashed and burned enough of my writing that I don't get emotionally attached to it anymore, but that doesn't mean I don't have issues finding the fat in it - it's hard to distance yourself from writing I guess, but that's why they have those lovely editor types. Speaking of which, I really need to get moving on Crash, it was all going so well, and then kind of stalled out there for awhile :(.

Be that as it may, left Weekender at about 5:40, and biked down to Shibuya to meet Jordon for the Canadian Rock and Rule Concert at O-East. The acts were Jason Collett, Amy Millan, Bedouin Soundclash, and The New Pornographers. I was definitely really excited about all of them, but especially the pornographers, who turned out to be the best act of the night.

The beginning was kind of sad - there weren't too many people there at all! It hadn't been promoted well at all I don't think. Luckily towards the end of the event it started to fill up, which was good, we were feeling kind of bad for the artists! Randomly, Jordon's friend Mai, (who was in Metropolis Glitterball blog photos I think, and works in connection with Orbitune somehow) was there with her friend, and they were there with someone from the Canadian embassy that knows Peter... It's a small gaijin world after all! Jordon also knew someone else there, which seems like a rather high percentage given how ridiculously big this city is!

It was soooo crowded with gaijins tonight! Crazy how much English was being spoken, and just the number of North Americans in the crowd was nuts - I guess probably there were a lot of Canadians, including a fairly big embassy contingent, but it still seemed weird! In a gap between acts, we started chatting with this funny couple from just south of Tokyo. The guy was from Texas, and had a Japanese girlfriend. They were really friendly, but she was hilarious, as she's draped on him, she's going "I hate Americans, they're assholes". He didn't seem to mind, so there you go - it was a bit random!

We got lucky tonight in that Neko Case was with the New Pornographers - since she's also doing her own stuff now, often she doesn't tour with them, and she's a BIG part of the act, so it would have been a much different set without her. They're a great group though - very democratic in how they work apparently, and they make some great music! Jason Collett and his band were pretty funny - very laid back and casual about the whole thing, they had the air of having just rolled out of bed and into the club about them, but both Jordon and I commented that there was something really Canadian about their set. I can't remember what made me think of it, but there was definitely a moment where I was thinking 'yea, they really are Canadian, aren't they?'.
(Jason Collett)

Bedouin Soundclash was the act I was least excited about, mostly just because I don't listen to their music so much, but it was pretty good - certainly a different feeling to the other three acts. I don't think their whole band was there, but I'm not sure who they were missing or anything. As for Amy Millan, we were kind of in a bar area chatting with Mai and her friends for her whole set, so while we could hear her, we didn't actually watch her at all. I like her new album, so I'm sure it was a good set, but I'm not gutted to have missed it or anything.
(Bedouin Soundclash singer)

The concert finished at about eleven, its weird how early stuff finishes here, but all to do with those trains! It was still a good long evening though, since it started at 7, everyone probably played about 40 minutes and then they had the changing of drum kits, etc. in between. I though the pornographers could have done a longer set, but I'm not sure how it actually compared to the others in terms of length.
(New Pornographers)

After we got out, we walked around the corner for some ramen, which was soooo good! Also very efficient - you buy a ticket for what you want to eat in a vending machine outside the restaurant, and then when you go inside, you give the guy your subway ticket type voucher, and five minutes later, you have ramen, it's like magic! Really entertainingly, all of the water pitchers in the place were Little Mermaid themed. I have no idea if that was some attempt at being ironic, or cool, or if they just
got a sale on them - I didn't see any other Disney stuff in the place!
(pick noodles)
(press button, get ticket, get food - great system)

Rode home, after fighting with the locker to get my stuff out at the station - apparently I overstayed my welcome and had to pay another 300Y to spring my stuff, which required breaking a Y1000 bill, it was all a bit stupid, but luckily there was a guy having the same trouble who explained it too me... I thought I was going crazy and standing in front of the wrong locker!

Just this blog and then bed - have to be back near the Weekender office tomorrow at eleven to do the diamond interview, and then race over to Shibuya for 1pm to teach...

D