Christmas & New Year

The day before her departure from Japan, whilst repeatedly kicking me, my sister said
"This time tomorrow, you'll be wishing I was here doing this."
The infuriating minx was quite right.


This holiday has seen us investigating the works of Bill Viola, whose exhibition "First Dream" is on display at the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills.


We've been to Asakusa, danced around the shiniest bits of Tokyo, and had, in total, eight hours of karaoke, a past-time seemingly conceived with my dear sister in mind...but perhaps most significantly, we re-created the Nativity using our sundry toys & things...sadly, my inability to find a friendly video hosting website means I can't cram all of it on here, so thusly, we present the final scene...



...close friends and family shall be privy to the full version just as soon as we get round to putting it onto DVD...

Having Liz here has given us a taste of home at a potentially trying time of year. In the spirit of New Year, we've formed a rough plan of action that will (one day) deposit us safely in Blighty, maybe even London, via bits of Asia & anywhere else we fancy...and in that same spirit, we went out last night to an all night event (we went home at three) in the heart of Tokyo, headlined by none other than the BOREDOMS, quite possibly one of the reasons I came out here in the first place.


To say that they rocked our socks off would be an understatement. Three drummers, going at it like the clappers, and their notorious singer fiddling with a variety of electronic squiggle boxes, shrieking down a microphone, and striking a tall totem pole contraption made out of six guitars. The Japanese ethic of "you can fit more in there" was once again demonstrated in vibrant colours, as surges of people anxious to get close to the performers thought not of those puny fleshy things in their path...Hayley & I retreated to a safe little haven on top of a recycle bin, where we could both stick our heads around the corner, and occasionally grasp an unimpeded view.

The rest of the night was a bit of a damp squib, (after seeing the headliners, how could it not be?) but I was only interested in the Boredoms. Two extremes of the DJ world were presented to us...if a DJ can surprise you with a skillfully executed blend of music and make you want to dance to it, then they're doing something good, and I doff my hat unto them. The other side of that coin is the DJ who poses, preens and peacocks about on the merits of his record collection, dress sense and attempts to rouse the crowd with a battery of hand gestures.

Present also were a troupe of "belly" dancers, but frankly, they were undeserving of the moniker (to quote one Andy Forster, inspiration for my recently acquired facial fungus, "skin and bone"), as an inflated abdomen is something I have become intimately familiar with, now that another Christmas has ended.