goodbye kashiwa

owari

school is donezo.
yappari, went by super super fast. really strange feeling.
although it still seems like ive been here for a million years.
i'm scheduled to fly home this sunday, but i'm not going to.
i've been invited to stay in Kobe, Japan (8 hours southwest, near Osaka and Kyoto) with my friend
Lena and her mom and grandmother. It'll be nice to spend a few weeks out of Tokyo in the Kansai region
where the people have the Japanese equivalent of a southern accent and its only 5 bucks to travel
to Kyoto. Which i've been hoping to do for a long time. Really grateful for the opportunity.
Crazy that my homestay is going to be over too. I'm really going to miss "home". And my "parents".
I'm so used to everything now..... its going to be very weird packing up and leaving.
Gonna be super sad seeing my new friends go home too, i've met some really awesome people.

I've only recently become a hit in my neighborhood as well... the little kids that live all around me wait for
me to get off the bus everyday and start yelling TOMU SANNNNN as soon as i approach. Then i get stuck
playing with them for an hour or so. Not that it's a bad thing though. Theyre adorable. and super funny.
bummer i didn't get to hang out with em more in the beginning of my homestay. hanging around little kids
seems to be the best way to pick up japanese as well. though i kind of hate the fact that 5 year olds are a million
times better at speaking then i'll ever be. duh.

this'll probably be the last entry of my journey in Kashiwa/Tokyo.
can't believe its been close to 4 months. unreal.

i'm on hold with Delta airlines now and it sounds like Kermit the Frog is singing.
it sucks.

Next time i post here i'll probably be in Kobe.

Oh yeah and i'm seeing Wilco at Zepp Tokyo on Friday. Oh god yes.

Alas...
all good things must come to an end...

but another chapter of my journey awaits......................

the last thing i wants ta be doing in japan right now is writing a 10 page paper
about a cult that released poison gas in the train i take every morning.
uhgguhgguhhhhhhhggug

detroit metal city

very unique experience on saturday night...
host dad invited me and a few friends to a metal show--
one of the bands playing was Chucky, who he used to be a member of.
The place was called Wild Side(?) Tokyo, a small grungy basement in a back alley
of Shinjuku. Nirvana opened for Sonic Youth there a million years ago. Sweet.
About 5 bands played. They all ruled. It was like glam-metal. or hair-metal.
kind of a motely crue kind of feel. but japanese, so it was super sick.
after the show we hung out and helped the musicians load up their gear,
and afterwards we went back into the concert hall where couches and tables had been set up
with food and drinks.
hung out all night and talked to the musicians, made some good friends.
hair metal friends.
Shall never forget that night.

花見

つぶあんパン

i didn't think april fools existed in japan,
so it didn't even cross my mind.
this morning my host mom told me a bomb
went off in the tokyo subway so i wouldn't be able to go to school.
after trying to keep a straight face watching my reaction, "USO!!! HONTO NI???? YABAI!!!",
she asked me what day it is. I said, "thursday?"
she cracked up and said, "no, no, what month is it? what day is it?"
i thought about it for a second, and then we both started laughing hysterically.
it was great.

then getting off the bus today, there were some kids playing outside. the wind blew my hat

off so they all laughed at me and ran over to me to let me know how funny they thought it was.

they asked me if i was american. when i said yes, one of the little boys yelled "AMERICAAAAAAN!!!!!!!" which sent at least 10 more little kids running over eager to talk to me (and jump on me). a few of the probably 8 year old dudes really wanted to know if i've ever kissed a girl before, and when they got the answer they wanted they looked at eachother and went "HEEEEEEEEEE!!!!????". then they asked me to take pictures of them. one of them thought it would be cool to pretend he was Buddha. i hope they let me hang out with them again soon so we can talk about girls and video games.

went to a baseball game tuesday night at yokohama stadium.
tokyo giants vs. yokohama bay stars.
i rooted for the home team, but only because they gave me free yokohama gear
and sat me right in the middle of the yokohama crowd, which went absolutely ballistic the whole
game. the cheers they came up with for japanese baseball are completely outrageous.
it was a blast. and i caught a foul ball.
and also, on the train to yokohama, which is about a 25 minute straight shot south from tokyo,
i finally saw mount fuji peeking out in the distance. i seriously bolted up out of my seat and yelled
MOUNT FUJI! the Js on the train thought it was pretty funny. i didn't get over it for the rest of the night.
beautiful sight.

長野

went on the school trip to Nagano to go skiing and snowboarding.
it ruled.
we took an overnight bus from tokyo. i fell asleep for most of the trip,
until i woke up around 5am. the first thing i saw when i opened my eyes
was a gigantic snowy mountain. the sun was just starting to come up.
i thought i was dreaming for sure, it was super boss.
had to rent all my stuff, even the jacket/pants.
they only had super 70s snow gear;
naturally i was all about it.
stayed in a hotel with a ton of kids from school.
hotel had a karaoke club/bar/room thing.
tried skiing for the first time -- almost died.
snowy mountains in japan are great. woo.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhm

joanna newsom - you and me, bess
tokyo jihen - 絶体絶命
gorillaz - white flag
nujabes - a day by different atmosphere
elvis costello - (the angles wanna wear my) red shoes
boredoms - super going
nujabes - under the hood
ween - someday
joanna newsom - in california
the pillows - funny bunny
nujabes - atoll moao
massive attack - paradise circus
king tubby - this is a natural dub stylee
the band - long black veil

neck all broke

on my walk back from the bus stop everyday i walk past a graveyard.
today it was dark and rainy.
getting closer, i took out my headphones cuz i could hear another source of music comin from a somewhere
else.
finally i made my way alongside the main courtyard,
and saw an elderly couple kneeled in front of a grave singing.
in the rain.
in japan.
goosebumps like never before.
i have 30 days left in japan, and now more than ever i need to make sure i
take every waking second to completely soak in every detail.
i don't know what it is about this place but i feel like i must have lived here
in a past life or something.
i'm looking around at various options re: staying for the summer, but its kind of
looking grim after all. i also feel like i owe it to myself and my family to go home
and actually earn a good sum of money for once. student loans will be the end of me.
i had lunch in harajuku with my good friends Gilles and Yumi Suzuki on monday, parents of Natalie Suzuki, my
other good good friend. Gilles not only highly recommended against being an english teacher, but also suggested
that i most definitely graduate from an american university. so transferring to temple is probably a bad idea.
the man speaks 5 languages and makes a killing at a japanese stock broking firm... he knows what he's talking about.
i just don't want to leave though. i don't want to go back to america and i don't want to go to school in america.
i dont really give a shit about depaul's hyped up international studies program.
my ideal life right now would include a shitty apartment somewhere in tokyo, playing drums in a shitty japanese band,
going to school, teaching english on the side of a good part time job.
but alas, i just dont know if its gonna work out right now...
i dont know why im venting like this.....................
I HAVE 30 DAYS IN JAPAN! HELL YEAH! LETS MAKE IT WORTHWHILE EH???????????????????????????????
going snowboarding in Nagano this weekend -- where the olympics were held whenever.
that'll make me feel better; i need to stop being such a sap.

mount fuji still beckons,
time to make things happen.
yer god damn right that rhymes.

alkjd;flaksdjf;laksdf

night night

fighter's holiday

Beat Laments the World

Though the event took place about a month ago, it's just hitting the news today that Japanese DJ and prodcer Jun Sabe, who went by the name Nujabes is dead at 36. He was involved in a traffic accident in Tokyo... right by my school... on Feb 26th. This actually made me really sad... he introduced a sense of beauty into hip-hop music unparalleled in the industry today.
Been listening to his music all day, of course, but damn, super sad. RIP.
His track 'Feather' has been my favorite hip-hop track for years, it shall be on heavy repeat in the coming weeks.

nononono

十分な時間があるけど、本当に帰りたくない〜

tokyo jihen

tsugou no ii karada

half way done with the semester.

i got a job teaching english.

had a conversation with some europeans i met at a club on friday, but after

having spoken only japanese for the previous 6 hours, i found myself having a hard

time communicating in english; the two languages (japanese and english) became a mashed-up form of speech and mannerisms and i think i probably confused the euros quite a bit. it was one of the strangest feelings i've ever had, but pretty exciting.

i'm hoping my job will pay me well enough to allow me to stay in Japan until mid-July or so.

i know i'm not going to be ready to leave at the end of April.

i'm only just getting started...

i've gotten a few connections with DJs and musicians at a few clubs and bars and am hoping to get a few gigs while i'm here... would be an incredible experience. maybe a few DJ sets, maybe TASRU stuff, anything would be amazing.

TASRU album should be out in a few weeks; get hyped.

Tokyo is still chilly, but spring is in the air and the sakura are beginning to bloom.

mount fuji beckons.

and these "mind your manners while smoking" ads all over Tokyo have to be one of the coolest things of all time --

kamakura and the pigeon hunters

speechless. arguably the best day i've had thus far.

no school today, so slept at the TUJ house in Tokyo, and got up

super early with some friends to go to Kamakura, the ancient

capital during the Kamakura period, home to the first shogunate.

It is a coastal town about an hour and a half south of Tokyo surrounded by mountains and ocean, rolling hills and forests

and also home to Kotoku-in, the great Diabatsu, which is the world's second largest

statue of the Great Buddha. Also lots of temples and shrines, some dating from

1052. Insane. Early in the afternoon, our friend Taka, who owns a vintage clothing store in

Harajuku also decided to show up to Kamakura with his parents who were visiting from Kyushuu. After his mother insisted she took pictures with each of us separately, they handed over their rental car to Taka who proceeded to drive us all over Kamakura, seeing the best sights and

the most beautiful coastal landscape I have ever seen. We met and saw all sorts of cool people -- surfers, seaweed harvesters, candy makers, monks, children who have mastered the art of catching pigeons (i mean it), friendly oldies and of course some J babes. The beach that stretches for miles along the coast we were told is one of the most popular, if not the most popular in Japan, and during the summer is flooded with surfers and beach goers. After seeing the sights we drove south to Enoshima, a small island connected by bridge to Kamakura, and ate at a boss place called Takoshima (Octopus Island). Best (octopus) sushi i've ever had.

Good good good good day.