Enlightenment

The enlightenment are four guys from Tokyo, known for artistic expositions and many different manifestations, specialized in visual works. Theire website doesn't explain exactly who they are but is possible to have an idea about theire works: http://www.elm-art.com/.

The 1st of December the did a big show in a music festival in Osaka: World out. They use to work with Shinichi Osawa during his sets and releases presentations. During the set of the 1st that I assited to, they placed 3 huge screens behind the stage and presented a visual show related to the music that Osawa was playing.

It was really impressive, the images were going very fluid with the music, it was a sort of live music-video one hour long. The techniques used seemsed to be really futuristic and well made. So, the show was enjoyable and kinda new compare to the usual dj set.

So, do they rapresent Japan? In wich way? From my point of view I think they rapresent the new Japan era. In theire videos there was nothing about japanese culture (at least during the Osawa set), the images were futuristic as told before and I think the technologies used were at the level of the Japanese fame. The images were good, going fluid with the music, but there was not really a sense of them, many were stolen from old videos or famous artistic images, others were confusing because to much elaborate. The thing I didn't like the most was that in certain points the video was going to a TRASH direction. Skulls, white tigers, girls licking random stuff....we've seen this stuff in the 80's and is kinda trash now the use of this stuff.

Basically, is the syntesis of the image of Japan that I have now after 4 months: new technologies, really impressive ideas, different fashion, many lights and work hard on the thing you're working on! But sometime all this new fashionable stuff, new things that can be seen around, seems to me to be a copie of something that I have already seen, but with lot of more stuff added to it and with a big touch of trash. Isn't the Tokyo tower an example of what I'm trying to say? What about the name given to that Osaka area: america-mura. And all the music bands that try to imitate the american or brithish ones...don't they looks a bit pushed to look western and fall into ridiculus?

So....Japan is great, but I think Japanese lately should look more at theire past history and look less behind the ocean. But yes...I might be wrong!

Health care and hospitals in Japan

With this post I don't want to judge the japanese health care system, in fact I think one experience can't reflect the entire system, but......

Around 20 days ago a little red spot appeared on my skin, I though it was nothing, but since it was really itching I preferred to go to the closest hospital just to know what it was. The Hospital was the one close to Kansai Gaidai University. The building inside didn't looks so good, but the people were friendly and in few minutes I've been visited from a doctor. She had no idea what I had, and so she gave a cream just for itchiness.

The day after, the situation went worse, I had more red spots. I got a bit scared and decided to back to the hospital. Since it was saturday there was no chance to be visited. So I had to go to another hospital. There a doctor visited me after one hour (still good compare to Italy), but he really had no idea what was happening to me. He visited me for more than one hours, guessing random illness...finally he decided to give me another type of cream, some pills for the liver and some vitamins.

Monday...I was covered all over by big red spots, I was really scared and i couldn't sleep so I decided to go in Osaka to a dermatology hospital department as told by my japanese girlfriend. There the department semmed to be clean and competent. The doctor visited me but couldn't figure out what I had. She said different things, and gave me some medicines....nothing worked...so I went back angain some days later and she said that probaly was wong and I should try other medicines, this time for different illness. Nothing! I came back again and she was surprised and didn't know what to do...sh said that probably I had some bugs inside my skin!!!!!! I got scared and decided to go to another hospital....The hospital was in Temmabashi and looked very clean and new. The doctor that visited me seemed to be more confident but colun't figured out what I had....fortunally she gave me some medicine and this time it worked! In 5 days I could seen that I was getting better. In the meanwhile they took a pice of my skin in the last visit to analyze it. The day I went back to the hospital to know wich kind of strange thing I had, the doctor still wasn't able to explain it. Now I'm almost cured...after 23 days!! And as they said last week...tomorrow they will be able to tell me what i HAD!!!

At last, I can say that for my experience, healh care in japan seems to be not so good, some doctors couldn't figure out what I had, some others just gave me random medicine for different illness without be sre if it was the right things to do. For what it concern the price I paid I can tell that it was ok. I made a japanese insurance as soon I arrived in the country, so I spent few money just for the medicine. About 3000 yen every time! I can say that I wasted around 12000 yen since they gave me wrong medicine several times, but I think it wasn't too expensive.

Anyway...in my case, I can say that japanese health care is not very good as I thought. Hope nobody have similar stories to share with me, but if someone have please tell me, because I want to know if I've been just unlucky or it's better not to be sick in Japan!

The country of new tecnology

Since I've been ill the last two weeks and I didn't take any pictures around, I wanna talk about a problem that looks big to me here in Kansai Gaidai. I don't know if is related to japanese culture or just to this university, but since I didn't go to any other university in Japan I think it can be a common problem in Japan.

Basically this is just the half of the amount of paper that I collected in a month in the Gaidai. The other half I trown it away before thinking about doing this post. The thing that annoying me the most is that the 70% of the informations in the sheets is EXACTLY the same of the one we have in books! The teachers prints new sheet of paper every day with no reason. So, if you think there are about 500 international students and they collect about 3-4 sheets of paper every day just for the japanese classes, can you imagine how much waste of paper? Plus there are all the afternoon classes and all the waste in the computer lab. I've been told from a Japanese student that works in the CIE lab that students print 3000 sheet of paper every day! EVERY DAY!

This appens only for international students in Kansai Gaidai for what I know. But what if is he same in every school in Japan? So, what I'm asking is, do they do this here because is an amercanizated university or is the japanese system? Japanese people don't care about nature and trees? Are they just lazy?

When I left Italy I thought I was coming to the country of new tecnology, I thought that maybe they even didn't have books here, maybe they will use only computer I was thinking! Well, look at the pictures and multyply that amount of paper per 2 and than per 4 months and than for 500 students, how much paper do we waste here in a semester?

Blog essay 2

In the post Spiderman lives in Japan in the Willy's visual blog I founded interesting at the beginning the text about Kansai salesmans. It says in fact: "I was amazed at how I was assaulted by people wanting me to buy their product", and also Willy expained that Kansai salesmans are known to be the best or at least the most persistent. I experienced the same thing at the Kansaigaidai festival. I can't say that Kansai salesmans are the best so far, since I only been in Kyoto and Osaka, but between this two cities I don't really see the difference about shops and salesmans. What I can say is that what I see in Japan is a very hard competition in every spot of every cities in order to sell products and make money. It looks like a war sometime in the streets and in supermarkets. Sometime I get scaried when people in shops shout "Hirashaimasen!!!!" without any reason, just randomly while are cleaning or take care of the shop. I would like to know if this people that seems to want to make more money as possible, do it because they need to spend more money as possible in this heavy consumistic country, or just because is a cultural thing. As Willy says : "I understand that the money goes to their clubs, but I was just overwhelmed with offers for cheap food", so? They really need this money for their clubs? Or just they fell like sell more as possible because is the Japanese way?
In the second part of the entry Willy talks about his friend and how people thought he was a gaijin because he had a Spidermam's costume. He says: "Did they not think it possible for me to have a Japanese friend or for a Japanese person to dress up for Halloween?". I think often Japanese people tend to separate gaijin from Japenese people. So if u are a gaijin it's hard for them to belive you can be integate and have Japanese friends, that's why they think automatically that a friend of yours that they can't see because the mask must be gaijin too. I think they separate gaijin also because Japan has been always a bit far from others western countries, and the idea of integration in the Japan culture can seem too far for them. They use this word "gaijin" in fact, and they use it often, is a way to identify someone from a forein country but it doesn't mean forein person isnt't it? I think there is not even traslation for that word in Italian, Spanish or French...Correct me if I'm wrong!

Buskers

It seems very common in Japan to see people playing music in the street, everywhere. I saw lot of musicians and singers down the Kamogawa river in Kyoto at night. If the weather is good I suggest everyone to pass one evening by the shore and listen to random musicians. But it is also easly to find people playing in Osaka and also in smaller city like Hirakatashi, I met some guitar players down the station there really good.

So, it seems kind a normal behavior for japanese young musicians to stop in the street and play, with all the amplications and often with friends that help them. In other countries such Italy, playing in the street is related to people that beg for money. In England instead there are just few spots in the street or in the tube where is legally possible to play and only few people that registered themselve at the city hall can do it.

Japan looks more freedom for everyone that want express its art, at least musicians. Some day ago I passed by Osaka station and, over the bridge, there was a full band playing live in front of 30 people more or less. It was quite nice, they where playing J-pop while trains where running behind them. The bad was called KAEDE, formed by drums, bass, guitar and young girl as singer. They where selling and promoting theire new cd and the future live performance in clubs. The price for the cd was affordable, 1000 yen. So, I suggest to take a look on theire website for more informations: http://www.edeak.net/. If you also want to vote for them in a contest you can do it here!

I also discovered a really nice Japanese band, they are already really famous! The band is called Tokyo Jihen and the beautiful singer is Shiina Ringo.

Here are some links if you wanna have a look:

Video

Tokyo Jhien on Emi music

Official web site (under construction)

Mondo Grosso & Japanese clubbers

(Picture of Shinichi Osawa taken from his official myspace)

Mondo grosso means "big world" in italian, but it also means Shinichi Osawa, an artist rated in the Top 100 Japanese Pop Artists. Till some years ago, this musician was only known with the name of Mondo Grosso, taken from his ex music band. He was well known for house, jazzy, soulful and similar productions. But time has changed, and lately with his real name is producting different music such as electro, electro-rock, spank-rock and so on. His new album "The one" has been released the 26th of november, you can listen to the tracks HERE and also have a look to his official web site. I listened live to him october the 20th in the world club in Kyoto. Here is a short video of what it was about....fasten your seat belts before playing it!

Links: Official Shinichi's myspace

In this kind of event, such as Shinichi's partys, you may like or dislike the music, but you cannot feel the energy of the Japanese clubbers. Expecially in Osaka the crowd is absolutely amazing, and is different from any other part of the world. The young kids that go to specific clubs like Triangle (shinsaibashi) is really involved in the event, they know who is playing and they know everything about that kind of music. All the people dance looking at the dj, singing and jumping...I can assure and I have been told that there are no other better places in the world for a dj to play than Osaka.


Links: Triangle club

(Pictures from World club Kyoto)

The great gig in the sky

The 7th of october I went to the TEN-ON music festival: http://www.ten-on.jp/. Is a quite big festival of different kind of music: classical, swing, blues and so on. The event was based at the OAP tower in temmabashi, a building tall 176 meters with 38 floors. The view from there is amazing, is possible to see all Osaka, here are some night shots from a japanese website. I took a picture during the day while i was listening to different gigs around the 38 floors.

Inside the buildin there are also shops and restaurant, but mostly offices. That day there were also some second hand music markets. You can find there old japanese and international vinyls, books, clothes, and very cheap instruments!!! Is possible to buy a good acoustic guitar for 5000 yen (unfortunally I bought a small crappy one 3 days before for 4500!!!!).

The musicians were great! So I can definitely say that japanese people can play music, and they do it very well. I've been told that if a japanese want to do something is going to do only that thing, but really really good! I'm asking myself why there are not so many japanese famous musicians in the west countries. Is easy to say that the language can be a barrier, but I'm talking about music, and the guy on the picture below needs to say nothing but play! While he was playing (at the 38th floor!), the crowd couldn't belive of what was hearing. The pure blues that came out of his guitar didn't have a nationality.

Blog essay one

Cleaning up: Facial expression and gestures

I found this post interesting since as posted before, I was once trying to communicate with deaf people at the eisa festival. As write on the post in visual anthropology of japan, I think it's very bad too that the gesture system, known as teburi, will be discontinued, I don't really know much about that specific kind of sign language, but I'm sure that every types of sign language can't be usless. Since I don't speak Japanese at all (and it's been a month now that I'm studying it!!!), that day at the festival I discovered that in certain occasions is easier comunicate with hands and facial expression. Ok, every culture has its differences, and the italian way to express positivity moving the head can be different from the indian or japanese one, but interacting directly with people can be easier than write an email to a suomi o russian person....basically I think that you can read eyes!!! But first of all, whatever the situation is just SMILE, isn`t the smile the worldwide sign of positivity?

Deaf people at eisa festival

JAPANESE VISUAL

I DIDN`T TAKE ANY INTERESTING PICURES LAST WEEK, SO I`M GONNA POST COUPLE OF THINGS THAT I THINK HAVE A GOOD VISUAL IMPACT. I`VE BEEN TOLD BY A FRIEND ABOUT THIS PHOTOGRAPHER, I USUALLY DON`T LIKE VERY COLORED PICTURES BUT THESE ARE REALLY GREAT: http://www.ninamika.com/.



THE SECOND THING IS A MUSIC VIDEO THAT I SAW IN TV SOME NIGHTS AGO, THE BAND IS CALLED RYUKYUDISKO, ARE TWO BROTHER FOR OKINAWA, THEIR MUSIC IS GOOD, I WOULD COMPARE THEM TO THE BASAMENT JAXX. ANYWAY THE THING THAT HIT ME WAS THE VIDEO, REALLY GREAT! HAVE A LOOK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZPN7wXESCs

Someone noticed that the link has been removed from youtube, that`s a pity! Don`t know why...anyway here is another one...have a look, the way it has been filmed is really cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo_QVq2lGMs



HERE ARE TWO PICTURES THAT I TOOK IN THAILAND, I TOOK THOSE AT THE GOLDEN TEMPLE IN BANGKOK. IT'S ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT RELIGIOUS PLACES IN THAILAND. YOU CAN SEE MANY MONKS THERE PRAYING ALL DAY. MOREOVER, THE VIEW FROM THERE IS AMAZING AND AS YOU CAN SEE EVEN MONKS CAN'T RESIST TO STARING AT BANGKOK FROM THERE.

EISA FESTIVAL IN TAISHO

THE EISA FESTIVAL IN THE TAISHO DISTRIC OF OSAKA IS A GREAT OCCASION IN ORDER TO ENTER IN CONTACT WITH THE ANCIENT CULTURE OF OKINAWA. NUMEROUS SHOWS AND CONCERTS ARE CARRIED OUT DURING ALL THE DAY, YOU CAN REMAIN BEWITCHED FROM THE COLORS OF THE UNIFORMS OF THE MUSICIANS AND DANCERS, AND ALL THE PERSONS WHO PARTICIPATE ARE FRIENDLY AND SMILING. YOU CAN EAT FOODS TYPICALLY FROM OKINAWA AND DRINK FRESH BEER UNDER THE SUNLIGHT WHILE THE INCESSANT SOUND OF THE DRUMS IS THE SLOW RHYTHM OF THE DAY. YOU CAN ALSO FOUND YOURSELF LOST IN FRONT OF AN OLD JAPANESE WOMAN`S SMILE, OR FEELING CRY AFTER A LUNCH OFFERED FROM A GROUP OF OLD DEAF JAPANESE MEN, YOU CAN FEEL YOURSELF A BIT JAPANESE THERE, JUST FOR A WHILE.

Sleep walker live @ World club

THERE ARE MANY INTERESTING BANDS IN JAPAN THAT OFTEN ARE NOT WELL KNOWN IN THE REST OF THE WORLD. SLEEP WALKER IS ONE OF THOSE, AND I`VE BEEN LUCKY TO SEE THEM PLAY LIVE AT WORLD CLUB IN KYOTO ONE NIGHT. THEY PLAY AN ALTERNATIVE JAZZ WHICH IS REALLY FRESH, AND ALL THE FOUR MUSICIANS SEEMS TO ENJOY PLAYING LIVE. THE CROWD AT THE CLUB WAS REALLY INTO THE VIBE OF THE BAND, AND THE CLUB WAS REALLY UNDERGROUND WITH GOOD ACOUSTICS. FOR ANYONE THAT WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS GREAT BAND HERE IS A LINK FOR MORE INFORMATIONS: http://www.extra-freedom.co.jp/

NAMBA

I TOOK THESE PICTURES IN NAMBA (OSAKA), MY IMPRESSION WAS THAT THERE WERE TOO MANY FAKE COLOURS, SO I TOOK THE PICTURES IN B/W. THE SECOND IMAGE SHOWS PUPPETS IN CAGE, I`VE SEEN SO MANY AROUND THERE, YOUNG JAPANESE PEOPLE SEEM TO BE OBSESSED ABOUT THOSE THINGS, AND I`VE SEEN MANY OF THEM SPENDING LOT OF TIME IN FRONT OF THOSE CAGES FOR PUPPETS. AREN`T THEY IN CAGES AS WELL?