Tag Archive for 'Japan'

Laptop Battle Tokyo Vol. 5

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Jason C. Romero
on June 21, 2009
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Laptop Battle Tokyo Vol. 5 at Super Deluxe was far more incredible than I was expecting it to be. There was a fairly wide range of interesting performances and music styles, such as Taishin Inoue and Back in Tokio. But more than anything, I got to hear some wonderful breakcore by JaQwa, so good that I would put it up there with Venetian Snares, the genius himself.

Unfortunately, JaQwa got beat out in his second round by the dance party antics of DJ Take. I felt pretty let down by this since DJ Take was just spinning other people’s music, like Chemical Brothers and Fat Boy Slim. It was a little interesting to see him sample himself beatboxing, then scratch it on his digital turntables, but this could have been executed much better, and the crowd was far more into it than they should have been.

Thankfully, DJ Take was beat out in the end by Plapla Pinky, with whose performance I was pleased. One of his pieces had a reggaeton feel to it and made my eyes watery (the second time of the night — the first by JaQwa), but I neglected to get a recording of it.

Tokyo Bicycle Race 2009-06-18

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Jason C. Romero
on June 18, 2009
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This my route from school in Takadanobaba to home in Sendagaya. The pictures were taken from a bottle top camera mount.

Daily Journal Entry #11861 06/20/08 Fri

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Jason C. Romero
on September 24, 2008
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Ni-chome

This young male kept pacing around Advocates. It seemed as if he wanted to come to the bar, but was too scared to. Some friends told me he had been doing that for hours. After a while some gaijin went to go talk to him, and then they all left together. I thought I overheard one of them ask if there was a love hotel nearby.

A friend told me that people were encouraging each other to vote for Kanako Otsuji or her party on a Japanese website that gay men use to hook up. He was using this to show how gay men in Japan are politically involved, and I said that it is very different for someone to cast a vote in an election, because they don’t have to make themselves visible the same way you have to do if you are coming out or participating in a pride parade.

Daily Journal Entry #11858 06/17/08 Tue

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Jason C. Romero
on August 24, 2008
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Minutiae

  • Saw a program on Japanese TV where someone would come up and other people would guess if they had plastic surgery.
  • I downloaded Firefox for download day and watched R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet (because I was journaling about 5/23 when I listened to a 5/9 NPR show that mentioned it).
  • I told Jeremiah, “This Mr. Oizo album is one of my favorite albums of all time.” (Analog Worms Attack, that is.)
  • Started using BrightKite and Ping.FM.
  • Shot a video about the place I am staying at.

Dallas Seemed Lamer Now

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Jason C. Romero
on August 17, 2008
in Diary
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I was going to write about how Dallas seemed lamer after some guests from Japan came to visit, but I figured out that it’s just lame for sightseeing.

They went to a lot of places that I wouldn’t have suggested, like downtown Dallas, The Old Red Museum, and The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

Some of the places they chose were okay, like Mattito’s and the West End Historic District, and my one suggestion, Reunion Tower, would have been great if it hadn’t been closed for renovations.

But it was, and still is, hard for me to think of any places that would have been much better for them to visit. Other than the Nasher Sculpture Center, all I could really think of were malls, like the NorthPark Center or the Galleria.

I don’t think it helped that they really wanted to be able to go somewhere and mill about on foot, like people do in Tokyo, since places like that seem to be rare in the United States in general, much less Dallas. If it had been later in the day, then I suppose I could have taken them to Deep Ellum.

At first, as I said above, this lack of good sightseeing opportunities made Dallas seem lamer to me, until I remembered that it isn’t the sightseeing that makes me love Dallas, but the people, shops, clubs, restaurants, theaters, and museums that I know there.

So, Dallas might not be so great for sightseeing, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still a great place. Right?