The Pall is Lifted

Two weeks ago, I went with Marisa to far away Waseda University to see an amazing concert. Three acts were playing: Eiko Ishibashi & (some other guy), mama!Milk, and the performer who we'd really come to see, Shugo Tokumaru. The concert took place in a campus hall that doubles as a Christian church on Sundays. The spectators sat in rows of chairs arranged like pews facing a small stage with a giant organ behind it. In front of the organ, a painting of a desolate beach dune; to the right, a bunch of twigs propped up to invoke a tree; and to the right, a number of glass vessels filled with water, illuminated by a strategically placed spotlight.

The first act was basically some guy using delay pedals and an electric violin to layer a sound that was mirrored in the desolate picture behind him. As he did this, Ishibashi blew into a flute to make the sound of the wind, played piano a little, and sang.

Tokumaru was on next. His 30 minute set was painfully short considering how mind-blowingly fantabulous the performance was. I was already a huge fan of his after last year's 'Exit', but now he's pretty much been elevated to the pinnacle of awesome. We were treated with compositions consisting of a percussion part played on overturned ashtrays, buckets, and wood blocks, and accompanied by one of those cans that when you shake it, bird noises come out. It was pretty much everything I like about music on display. Most mind-blowing part? When I learned that the intro to 'Parachute' is not played on multiple guitars, but just played by him. On guitar. By himself. It looked like his fingers were going to fall off.

Mama!milk, on the other hand, was just about the sexiest contra-bass and accordion duo I'd ever seen. In fact, I'm almost sure it's the only contra-bass and accordion duo I'd ever seen, but even still... The way the man kept smacking the bass and the way the woman would breath so heavily before arching her back to open up the red folds of her accordion... It was really bizarre.

After that amazing Sunday concert day, came Halloween week. I say "week" because I wore my costume 3 out of the 5 days. I was permitted to teach my classes dressed as Spiderman, and, of course, I couldn't resist. Here's a picture.


On Saturday, I attended two Halloween party. The first was at the house of the head of the PTA at my junior high school, Mr. Oogushi. Marisa came with me (dressed as Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction) expecting that it would probably be an adult costume party sort of situation, analogous to what you might see in the U.S. Not so. People don't really celebrate Halloween in Japan, so I guess I should have seen this coming, but it was actually a party thrown for the neighborhood kids, mostly my students from Gongendo Elementary. There was a costume contest, bingo, and Mr. Oogushi even set up the chance for kids to trick or treat at one of the other parent's houses. It was adorable.

From there, Marisa and I biked across town in the dead of night to our friend Lauren's party. Long story incredibly short: I fell asleep on one of her extra futons.

I rode home through the brisk morning air and later that day, by 7pm, my throat felt like sandpaper. Sandpaper lined with hot coals. I was sick through the rest of the week (luckily Tuesday was a holiday; Culture Day! You remember, right?). On Wednesday, they sent me home from work so that I could go to the hospital for a fever. Everyone's so H1N1 crazy that they can't take any chances, so the hospital it is. It was an educational experience. When the nurse moves to put a tiny q-tip like object up your nose and says, "This is going to hurt", you can bet that it's going to hurt. Luckily, I didn't have the flu. I use the past tense here to emphasize that I'm nearly cured! Huzzah!

Stay tuned for another update soon. (P.S. I embeded a video of 'Parachute' just in case anyone was curious about that intro I mentioned)