Running Blog 06: Musical Catharsis, Rainy Season Run / 音楽でカタルシス、梅雨 The past week has been challenging to say the least. 今週は苦しかったです。 I made an ill-advised financial deal, got sick, and was stressing pretty much 24/7 about mere survival and life in this rigged economy paradigm. お金の問題起きた。病気になった。毎日、一日中で、お腹が痛くなるまでに困っていた。この世の茶番経済は本当に人々に苦しいですね。 Finally, I forced myself to run — to this gem of an album: それでも、やっとランニングした、この素晴らしいアルバムを聴きながら： All the way through this thing is a winner.…
Observations from Nagoya: Dirty, Sexy, Colorful, Punk Rock Flavor Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, is a slice of "somewhere else" in the land of the rising sun, for someone coming from the vast rice plains, sprawling mountains and seaside, and often boring social circles of Niigata Prefecture. For Japan, Nagoya is unusually dirty, sexy, and colorful. More like an American city — in a good way. Let me explain. First of all, general fashion sense and demeanor. For those…
Haiku Contest — Win BitCats Heroes NFT #939! Hello AlternativeJapan readers, I'm giving away one Bitcoin Cash BitCats Heroes NFT (one with a pretty good rarity score and who looks quite like a hipster) for the best haiku submission in the comments. Here's the breakdown: Submit only one *haiku* (5-7-5 syllable/*ōn* pattern) or *tanka* (5-7-5-7-7) in the comments in English or Japanese. Haiku will be judged by an unnamed group of three judges in a completely subjective manner,…
Running Blog 07: Three Ambient Runs / アンビエント音楽でラン If you enjoy the outdoors and running, doing so with a nice ambient soundtrack can really take you to another planet — a "something else" experience. ランニングや自然が好きなら、アンビエント音楽を聴きながらランニングしてやってみた方がいいよ。それで、他の世界行けるようになります。 Ambient music can enhance the runner's high, the feeling of nature around you, and also the sheer loneliness and pain of distance running outdoors that some runners come to embrace as part of the challenge, and a…
Summer Hills, Sonic Youth Hot as a sauna, but still... Nobody out in the shiny-happening NOW summer streets??? What a fucking waste!
Heat, Swing, Bluegrass and Booze: Niigata Jazz Street 2023 Niigata, Japan's Duke Ellington Memorial jazz festival, known as Niigata Jazz Street, is two days of citywide jazz, folk, and bluegrass, and a day pass only costs ¥2,000, or about 15 bucks USD, and will get you into any venue in the city. I've been before, but this year I did it with unprecedented focus and attention. I ate it alive. I also drank it alive — most of the whisky sodas in the city! Maybe a *slight*…
Running Blog 08: Superchunk in the Rain / 雨でスーパーチャンク Rainy season just won't end this year. But at least there's bands like Superchunk to help power through it. 1994's "Foolish" is a wonderful album. I recommend. 今年の梅雨まだ終わってない、海の日の後なのに。しょうがない。Superchunkの「Foolish」でなんとなく元気出す。とてもいいアルナムですね。オススメします。 また！
Sumida Sun The mad heat of summer Sumida Sun The burning blue sky of a Tokyo summer I find a ramen shop with extra thin noodles The owner and I can't decide on English or Japanese but he's cordial and kind — I say the noodles are great The burning skin on my sunburnt shaved head from Niigata beaches with too much beer tourists now flood the streets of Asakusa after the big disease scam
Once again I cannot post links. This is really becoming a drag. Have another post I'd like to share, but it is a video so I can't share it. My friend and I just did our original, DIY running event once again, down some stunning Sea of Japan coastline called the Sasagawa Nagare. Please head over to AlternativeJapan on Odysee to check it out if interested. Cheers.
@AlternativeJapan