BRIAN MARTIN MUSIC NEWS (Chapter 31)

Chapter 31 – Friday 1st August – Saturday 8th August 2008

Now the Japanese love playing games and they spend time in ‘Ball Parlours’.
These places are very very noisy, smoky and flashy and I could not think of a worse place to spend my spare time but they love them. They buy trays of little silver balls and put them into ‘slot’ machines and play, not sure of the rules but it looks a bit like a cross between ‘pinball and slot’ machines. Anyway each to his own. (see photo taken from ‘outside’ through the window!!)
There are also other places (aimed more at kids) that have coin tokens and this looks a bit more interesting (looks like money so you feel you are winning!!!) Interactive Monopoly, a ‘push the coin into the slot at the right time and a whole lot fall down and pay you’ game. A game with fish and you shoot them using the coins in a slot!!! (That one actually looked like fun and the little girl playing it seemed really good at it! No age limit in the ‘coin’ place.)
Its funny who you will talk to just crossing the street (or maybe it isn’t for me………….anyway.) There are not many ‘Gaijin’ around so when we see another one of ‘our species’ we tend to flock together!!! We met these really nice people Cash (Canadian) and Michael (Sydney) crossing the street in Tokyo. They are filming a documentary and are only in Japan for 2 weeks before heading off to Taiwan……….what a life!!! Only poor Michael had to carry a very heavy back pack camera. He looked like a camel. (see photo.)

Went shopping (what’s new!!!) and found these really natty little usb flash drives (you know the memory stick thingys that go into the computer.) Not happy with the plain looking ones they Jappy them up and make them into food!!! (see photos) In fact I have purchased some plastic food to hang off my phone. They make all sorts of wonderful things to hang off your phone and there are many phones adorned with countless ‘dingles’. Brian even has one now………a very stylish silver keyboard and musical note!!!
“I think I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so da da dad a dad a da.”
Brian likes shopping here as they have really neat clothes for guys. Mind you a lot of them look a bit ‘gay’!! With teased dyed hair and ‘very ornate’ sandles. But Brian has taken a liking to their ‘man bags’ and we have purchased him a couple. Also their shoes are awesome. Of course Brian liked the blue ones in the window, we went in and all the shoes were from Italy and the ones with price tags started at $300 (The blue ones didn’t even have a price tag so we guessed they were around $2000) yep for a pair of blokes shoes!!!! We found a nifty equivalent though in a fantastic shop that had floors and floor of mazes and great stuff and bought him some funky shoes for a little less than $2000!!!! Hold me back!!

Brian had his last English class this week. He took over for Katie who was going back to America for a holiday. He has really enjoyed the class and they got to learn a song in harmony (bet that doesn’t happen in many English classes!!!) I am doing ‘group’ lessons now and having a great time. I went on the net to get some ‘hand outs’ and some reference material as this is new to me but if you are a native speaker you can get work just teaching pronunciation. That is really the hardest thing for them to master and even the seasoned interpreters have trouble getting around the Rs’ and Vs’.
Japanese is a vowel dominate language and they tend to miss the beginning and ends of words. Cant do that when speaking English as we end up eating ‘Lice’ instead of ‘Rice’!!! When you explain it to them they squirm too!!!!
They just don’t hear the difference and yet it is so clear to us. Very interesting!!! He also did a singing workshop with some mums and their kids and they had a great time – body percussion went over particularly well. (see photo)!
Went to a jazz bar the other night to listen to a violin player who is going to play in our concert with a pianist and singer they were really good though the singers English was really bad and I had to change my filter and just listen to the sounds rather than her funny English cos is spoils the songs otherwise. They were doing Jazz standards like ‘Blue Moon’ etc. Some songs I had not heard before and could not understand what she was singing about so listened like it was a new language and enjoyed the music. It is a shame though that most of the Japanese singers we have heard do not sing English very well at all. Now there is an opening for a ‘Singing Teacher’!!!!
Brian also go to sing one of his songs and played piano and then sang a bit later with the jazz singer it was great and they had a lot of fun together improvising.
We met the owner (really funny sweet man) he owns the bar for fun but he is a jewellery designer and has 11 stores.
I had been admiring a few rings in a cabinet that was at the bar, one ring I really liked $150 and a couple more that took my fancy. When he mentioned that he had designed them I said to Brian “can we buy the $150 one” so the guy went and got it out of the cabinet I tried it on and it fit perfectly he said he would give us musicians discount $30!!!!!!!! Are you sure I said yep only $30 so we bought all 3 rings for the grand total of $100!!!!! Bargain!!!! We will look at getting his jewellery to Australia as it is really unique. What a nice man I think he was being extra generous as he liked us!!!
He uses silver and semi precious stones my favourite is huge ring with spirals and zircons just gorgeous!!! Not a shy persons ring!! Very big and out there!!
That’s it till next time for ‘MARTINNNNNNS INNNNNNN JAPANNNN!!!’