Houston Blues in Tokyo

Next weekend is Japan's Blues Carnival, I just found out today, so many blues musicians are in town. Houston blues guitarist, Little Joe Washington, is playing at Shibuya Club Quattro on June 16. That's right, the same homeless guy who gets up and rips on the guitar at places in downtown Houston and at the Continental Club, and who gets around town on bicycles he trades for at the Third Ward swap meet, and who hocks his guitars when he runs out of money, and who is known for collecting everything and creating a mass of filth where he ends up squatting (like the top story of the Continental Club), is going to be playing in Tokyo. For a measly 6,000 Yen ($56 US). I can't believe it.

Approaching 60 Days

I haven't updated the blog in a while. I've been too busy working and playing and not having visited anything where I took photos. I went to see that jazz show, which was really cool. But the two girls I went with, Noriko and Rei, were not expecting such rocky, jammy kind of jazz. They were expecting low key piano and horns or something. I guess they didn't know what jazz fusion was when I told them :D But they still liked it. It was really exotic stuff, too, there are three Africans in the band, the guitarist is Brazilian living in Austria (ok), and the drummer is from Brooklyn. I actually talked to him a bit after the show.

Then last weekend I went to look at apartments to get an idea of where I would want to live and how much I can expect to pay. Unbelievably, it's more expensive than Manhattan. To live reasonably close to work (within 3 subway stops or so) I will be paying 190,000 to 250,000 yen (divide it by 107 for US$) for a one-bedroom apartment. My company has a few real estate brokerages they use and I have two different brokers helping me. I was with one of them that weekend, Keiko-san. She picked me up at my hotel and we drove all over Tokyo. I hadn't been in a car since I got here, other than a taxi. I didn't think to wear shoes that would slip off easily because I had to remove my shoes to see each place. So Keiko-san made me wear some ridiculous sandals she had in her car. When looking again on Sunday, I made sure to wear my slip-on work shoes. It was cool to see some other areas that I hadn't seen yet, and I saw some things that I want to go back to see, like Ginza which is the Fifth Avenue of Tokyo and has an old famous kabuki theatre where they have headphones for foreigners to translate and explain what's going on. And I also want to check out some of Japanese hot springs, called onsen, that lie around the city. She recommended one in particular that is really nice and welcomes foreigners, which is not the case all the time because there are certain rules and protocol to follow which tourists often neglect. Like soaping off or shampooing in the hot springs, which is a major no-no. What igmo would think that that was ok in the first place? You basically just go and take a dip in boiling hot water and then they have masseuses and areas to eat and relax. Everyone walks around in funny robes and sandals.

Later last Saturday night I went to a house warming party for a colleague. He and his new wife are both Chinese so there was an ample amount of good Chinese food and my Kiwi manager-manager was grilling some lamb chops. But I couldn't eat too much because I was going to a birthday party of a friend of Noriko's. We went to a pan-American restaurant, and they had some awesome chili that tasted like home. Afterward we went to a dance club called Muse, which we have been to more than a few times. It's cavernous and has multiple levels. You enter through a little door and head downstairs to a dance floor area, a hang out area with tables and pool tables and there are little cubby-hole seating areas everywhere, then there is a lounge area further downstairs and even a large karaoke room and a vip room. I would expect to hear some Japanese dance music but no, it's all Western stuff and they love it. And of all people, we run into my manager who was there with another guy Pete, who is engaged to the head of HR. They had continued going out from the house-warming party and let their respective women head home. Pretty funny.

Then another week of work ensues.

This past Friday night, I went out with some colleagues after work for a small dinner and then karaoke for like 4 hours (oh noooo, ha ha). It was myself, Noriko, Ishimori-san (Belgian-Japanese), Florent (French), Marc (Brit), and some of Noriko's girlfriends, including one who was hmm puuurty nice. Annnyhoo, I rocked the house with my exquisite renditions of Mr. Brownstone by Guns N' Roses, Where Is My Mind? by the Pixies, the Rolling Stones, On A Plain by Nirvana, and then Marc and I did the Run DMC version of Walk This Way. Rock! The karaoke places here put everywhere else to shame. We were in a tall building overlooking the city and fully stocked with beverages and bits of food. You just pick up the telephone in the room to order something and boom it's there. The song selection was pretty impressive, Japanese songs, Korean songs, Chinese songs, and English songs. And they had everything from Top 40 to Iggy & the Stooges, which I would've sung but didn't want to scare anyone too much :)

Today the weather is really nice with a cool breeze, in the high 60's/low 70's. Well, that's it for now. The plan still is to come back to the US in mid-June, then probably move back here in July for a one-year stint.

Kamakura

Today I went to the town of Kamakura with my friend, Reiko, and two of her colleagues from Bloomberg, Takako and Luke (who was born in Taiwan, raised in the States, and attended college in Japan). It's about an hour train ride from Tokyo. It was nice to get out of the city for a bit, although the crowds were thick because of Golden Week. There is a nice little beach there and a group of old temples and the Great Buddha statue (above). We walked around the town to see the sights and stopped by the beach before heading back to Tokyo Station. Then we got some dinner at their office building where Bloomberg is located, across the street from Tokyo Station. We had last Friday off from work and this week we have off today, Wednesday, and Thursday. So it's a three-day weekend, one day of work, three-day weekend, one day of work, two-day weekend kind of week.

What's new with me. I had a telephone conversation with my manager in NY and my manager in Tokyo this week. The project I'm working on here has been extended in time due to the traders needing more time before they test the new software and code I'm upgrading right now, so I will now be here until mid-June before heading back to NYC for a couple weeks. Then, if my negotiating powers prevail and they pay me what I need to afford living here, I will be heading back to Tokyo for a one-year stint. But I can also leave before one year if I want to. I would like some time to travel around here more and, if my pocket book can handle it, Thailand and New Zealand and Australia and maybe Singapore and maybe Fiji and maybe China and and. Plus I'll need time to come back for a couple weeks over the Christmas holidays. I'm meeting with a guy in HR next week to go over the differences in Japanese benefits and the tax situation, then I'll speak again with my manager in NY. There are some trade-offs for working and living here. Working-wise, there is good comraderie within the Finance Technology team here and I get along well with my manager here, but then the team is smaller so I will be working harder and more hours. Living-wise, I think it's obvious, it's a foreign country which is exciting and hostile at the same time, for someone who knows little of the language. Hopefully next week I can also see some apartments.

Tomorrow night I'm going to see Joe Zawinul play at the Blue Note with my colleague, Noriko, and her friend, Rei. Should be fun.