Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri 2010 in EZO
2010.02.04 ~ 02.16
半年前に日本行ってきました。来週はまた日本行きます。やっと写真アップしました。
Six months after my last Japan and one week before my next trip, I've finally uploaded the pictures from my winter expedition to EZO.
4 Years
On July 6th, 2006, I first set foot in Seattle. In the four years since then I have become slightly more educated, joined a moped gang and have ridden bikes that are older than myself tens of thousands of miles all over the country (at about 30 mph), made a lot of great friends and bitter enemies (well... not really. just the one.), made slight progress on my own music, and I finally tricked my favorite person in the world into being my first legitimate girlfriend in a ridiculously long time.
But still, ever since I first left Japan 7 years ago, I've always said that I'll live there again someday. I've even gone back to visit 6 times since then. The whole reason I ended up in Seattle in the first place was so I could work towards that goal. So for a while now I've been saying that want to make it happen in the summer of 2011. Now I've decided to pick a date... July 6th. Seattle: please help me enjoy the hell out of my 5th and final year in this amazing city. Everyone else: come visit me in Seattle before I leave forever!
2010.07.09
Song of the Month 2010.04 - Portuguese Man o' Space
Song of the Month 2010 #4
Song title: Portuguese Man o' Space
Audio files: http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-Portuguese_Man_o_Space_(Gastrozoid).mp3 (plus version)
http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-Portuguese_Man_o_Space_(Pneumophore).mp3 (original version)
Date Recorded: 2010.04.30 (plus version) 2009.09.22ish (original version)
Equipment: KORG DS-10 Plus (plus version), KORG DS-10 (original version), KORG D888
Concept: Two songs this month! Sort of. Not really. The day after I got my first KORG DS-10 in the mail, Tagen and I drove down to Portland to meet up with our friends for Brendan's birfday weekend. I played around with it in the car, sort of creating sounds that I could play along with whatever we were listening to at the time. Since the DS-10 was still so new to me, I kept experimenting with random sounds and trying new things, creating completely different synth sounds in every pattern. Eventually I realized that I could keep all the madness and turn it into an actual song, so my first full DS-10 song was completed in this way. Nearly a year after I started the first song, I got the updated KORG DS-10 Plus in the mail. You can't use all of its features (including the ability to double the total number of sounds you can use by loading two songs at once) unless you have a Nintendo DSi. So I pre-ordered a DSi XL, and as soon as it showed up I decided that my first DS-10 Plus song should be an updated version of my first ever DS-10 song. Hence, this month I'm presenting both versions so you can hear the difference for yourself.
Process: Like I said above, the original version came together as I was playing around with as many different sounds as possible until I eventually found a way to cobble the various patterns I had created together into a song. Creating the DS-10 Plus version was a more logical process, since I was mostly using the added instruments to create transitions that would help tie the random-sounding random sounds together into some kind of a coherent song. Along the way, I discovered a lot of the strengths and weaknesses of the DS-10 Plus over the previous version. In particular, the song mode which was previously next to useless is now EXTREMELY helpful (especially when it comes to things like muting multiple tracks at once). It almost feels like cheating to use it, since it makes it much easier to program in a song to do some things that are hard to do on the fly, while still giving the user a huge amount of freedom to improvise. Too bad they didn't increase the maximum song length.. It was hard to squeeze this song into 200 measures.
Comments: Here's another "hard techno"-ish song... not quite the kind of music that I WANT to make, but I had a lot of fun doing it. My songs seem to follow a pattern... they build up the excitement to a quiet section, which is immediately followed by a loud section (or the other way around), then it sort of reprises the first part of the song before working towards an exciting conclusion. I need to work on not doing that every time.
Song of the Month 2010.03 - 別れ霜
Song of the Month 2010 #3
Song title: 別れ霜 ("wakarejimo")
Audio file: http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-wakarejimo.mp3
Date Recorded: 2010.03.31
Equipment: KORG DS-10, KORG D888
Concept: I'm not really sure when I started this one, but I think it was just something I randomly started one day on the walk to work when whatever song I was working on was starting to get frustrating. It has a decidedly more "heavy" sound than the songs I usually make, and at some point I decided that I kind of liked it, so I started working towards completing it.
Process: One of the first things I experimented with on this song were sounds that span multiple loops. I got about as far as the first "breakdown" thing, and it wasn't until I realized the potential of that one drum sound that lasts several loops that I decided what direction I wanted to take the song. The rest came together pretty easily after that, and I was actually surprised to find that I was doing a good job of conserving patterns up until the end. I finished this song before the end of March, but having very little time left towards the end, the final transition and last section could definitely use some work. Oh yeah, and I haven't done anything about stereo effects and placement. Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with how quickly I was able to whip this song together.
Comments: Another month, another DS-10 song. As I mentioned previously, my DS-10 family has motivated me to spend more time working on music. My main hope was that besides working on these songs, it would encourage me to work on my much fancier songs that utilize my Electribe and Triton at home. The song of the month for March was supposed to be one of those songs, but the first half of the month was spent re-learning how to play that song, and after that I had a hard time continuing it. I think with the DS-10's songs only having 16 patterns, filling them up is a clear goal to work towards, and I don't have that with my other songs. Oh well... this screws up my plans for the next few songs of the month(s?), but hopefully I'll either finish two songs in one month, or finish March's song for April and go from there.
Song of the Month 2010.02 - ezo09
Song of the Month 2010 #2
Song title: ezo09 ("ezonine")
Audio file: http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-ezo09.mp3
Date Recorded: 2010.02.28
Equipment: KORG DS-10, KORG D888
Instruments: broken jaw harp
Concept: I started this song last summer during the 5-hour wait in line to get inside Rising Sun 2010. I continued working on it occasionally when I had time to kill (the train to Nayoro and the bus to Shizuoka), and on the plane back home at the end of the trip. Because February marks the halfway point between Rising Sun 2010 and 2011, I decided that would be the best time to release it.
Process: I actually finished this song pretty shortly after coming back to the States, but something wasn't quite right. The DS-10 only allows you 16 patterns per song, and I had already filled them all up, but I didn't have a good transition to lead into the ending. At the "quiet" part at 3:20, I also had a quieter pattern. Unfortunately, you can't set a separate tempo for each pattern, which is sort of what I wanted there (so the tempo would speed back up slowly during the transition into the end), so I ended up getting rid of that pattern entirely in order to make room for the transition at 4:30. I'm pretty happy with that decision. The jaw harp was pretty spontaneous... I thought about adding one about 2 days before I started practicing for the recording. Unfortunately, the only jaw harp I had in the right key is broken, which made it hard to play. Otherwise... some other things I tried in this song were messing with effects (as they fade in and out) and messing with the swing setting, which does... that. Swing. Actually, messing with that was the first thing I did with this song, so it ended up being pretty integral to the whole thing.
Comments: I had this recording done before the end of February, and even posted it up on my diary on Mixi, but I didn't want to post it here until I finished my traveblog. It was a lot easier to record than January's song, but still, I could have used more practice. There are a couple of fade-outs that end too quickly, and one cymbol that I didn't mute fast enough, but otherwise it turned out more or less like I wanted it to.
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 11
I guess there's not really much to say about my last day, other than it sucking. After getting up and getting ready, Miwako and I ate breakfast at about quarter after 5 in the morning. I wasn't very hungry, but it was my last meal with her until summer, so I ate.
Mom came downstairs shortly thereafter, and we went to the train station around 6. We were actually pretty early, but with my terrible luck I wasn't taking any chances. We were on a local train (meaning it stops at every little stop along the way, though there aren't as many between Zenibako and Sapporo as there are between Zenibako and Otaru), but it turned into a rapid train in Sapparo. Still, it took over an hour to get to the airport. We attempted to stay awake, but the awkward silence of the train and our absolute exhaustion made that impossible.
The first time I ever left Japan after my year-long exchange program, Mizue saw me off at the very same airport. We were both crying, but she wanted to stay with me until the last possible minute. That turned out to be when they called my name over the speakers. Oops. The next summer, when she and I weren't officially dating anymore, but also weren't really sure of our status, she saw me off again, and this time, they sent a person out into the main terminal to find me. Miwako and I had a little time to say goodbye, but not wanting to repeat the past, at some point I said "well... I guess I should probably go". We were okay up to that point, but when we made the walk towards the security area, that's when we were suddenly both on the verge of tears. Then I heard the final call for my flight. Oops.
It was probably better that way... we didn't have a long, drawn-out goodbye, and instead of crying, we were laughing. I booked it to my gate, and though there were people sitting around and the boarding supposedly started 15 minutes earlier, there was no one to be seen at the gate itself. Eventually someone showed up, and they started actually boarding. Jeez. Then my flight left, and I sadly said goodbye to Hokkaido for the 8th time in my life.
In Tokyo, I immediately took the highway bus from one airport to the next, and had enough time before my next flight to call Miwako and talk for a while. For some reason I didn't have a window seat on my flight home (I ALWAYS have a window seat), but the aisle was extra wide, so that wasn't bad. I mostly slept, but I decided to watch this ridiculous (yet entertaining) movie. Miwako had also prepared a sandwich and an onigiri for me, which was nice. After leaving Miwako's house at 6am on Monday, I arrived in Seattle at 6:30am on Monday. Huh? I spent the only Americrainian money I had on a ticket for the Link Light Rail, only to discover that you can't use those tickets to transfer to the Metro bus (even though you can transfer the other way). Damnit. So then I had to wander around downtown Seattle carrying all my luggage all grossly early in the morning trying to find an ATM and then somewhere that was actually open in order to find change. Damnit. Eventually I did and I got on the bus. Finally, at about 9:30am I returned to my normal life when I reached my destination... my office.
Man, talk about a disappointing end to an awesome adventure.
2010.02.15
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 10
After checking out of SUPER HOTEL SUPER EARLY in the morning, we once again headed towards the train station to drop our stuff off in a coin locker. We then headed to the Morning Market to search for food. We agreed that uncooked seafood was in order, and found a restaurant that served a bowl of rice covered with raw things, only you got to select the raw things. I opted for squid, ikura, salmon, and tuna. Miwako basically had the same thing, except scallops instead of tuna. I had seen all kinds of touristy seafood places like this in Otaru a million times before, and being sleep-deprived, I misinterpreted the menu to mean it would be really expensive. It wasn't, and it was tasty. Walking around the maze of streets filled with seafood and souvenir vendors, we couldn't help but wonder how people living that lifestyle manage to survive when it looks like everyone else is selling the exact same things within a very small radius. Weird.
After breakfast, we took the street car thing past good ol' SUPER HOTEL towards the actual factual downtown-like area of Hakodate (which I had assumed was around the train station until we saw the city from above), and to Goryokaku Fort, which is (or was, really) not only one of the very few castles in Hokkaido, but also shaped like a star for some reason. We went to the top of the air traffic controller-like tower first to get a view of the park first, which has a fantastic view of not only the park/fort/star, but all of Hakodate. Off to the south east where the onsen we stayed at was was mostly clear, and there was a clear view across the water to Aomori. The area around Hakodate Station and Mt. Hakodate was visible at first, but then was devoured by a giant series of clouds that dumped snow on the city, while the mountains to the north of the city kept disappearing and reappearing in the clouds. It was neat. The fort itself looked HUGE when seen from space, and there were a million billion sakura trees, which probably means there are a million billion people there in spring. 
We then headed down into the park itself. Unfortunately, certain parts were blocked off, possibly because of some kind of winter festival, so we ended up getting trapped in a corner of the park near the winter festival of some kind. We were able to climb over a wall, and then down to the inside of the outermost moat, but at some point we hit a dead end and had to turn back. We really only made it about 2/5ths of the way around, but it was still pretty.
We took a break in a cafe at the base of the giant tower for some coffee and to exchange Valentine's Day presents before making our way back to Hakodate Station. We weren't at all looking forward to a 5-hour ride on the uncomfortabus back to hang out with Miwako's mom on our last night together, but the walk to the street car thing was awesome... the combination of ridiculously slippery sidewalks, lack of sleep, and our best inside jokes from the past few days probably made us look like complete idiots to people around us. I'm okay with that. When we got on the bus back to Sapporo, we lucked out and were placed all the way in the back where the seats are actually next to each other (seat-seat-seat-seat instead of seat-aisle-seat-aisle-seat). We alternated between enjoying the beautiful scenery and falling asleep until it was too dark to see anything outside, when we made our best attempt at napping. Stupid unfomfortabus.
Many hours later, we made it back to Zenibako, where Mom was patiently waiting for us with a steaming hot vat of nikujaga (literally "MEAT POTATO"). Although we didn't exactly want to spend our last night together with Miwako's mom, I do have to give her mad props for watching The Lost World: Jurassic Park. I didn't even notice until we were eating and all of a sudden I realized the sounds coming from the TV behind me were incredibly familiar. Man. Japanese voices dubbed over anything are so fake-sounding. Anyway, Mom of course hung out with us for a while, and when we realized that in order to make my flight in the morning, we would have to take the absolute earliest train possible, she offered to drive us to the airport. I straight up told her no, that was NOT going to happen. F'real, yo. Eventually she wandered off to bed, so Miwako and I had like... 2 hours together before it was time to wake up.
2010.02.14
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 9
On Saturday morning, we were sure to wake up at a decent hour so we could still enjoy the onsen before checkout. We made the tail end of breakfast in the dining hall, where I remembered that Japanese-style breakfast at places like this is always incredibly disappointing. I wish I could describe it better... it's always a collection of really weird Japanesey things that you don't see very often (a lot of mysterious slimy seaweed things), things that I wouldn't consider breakfast food (like one specific tofu dish I can't remember the name of which is good but would be way tastier as a side dish to a more substantial meal), or things that are just plain gross (remember when I told you about shiokara???). As a big fat Americrainian, I demand copious amounts of sugar first thing in the morning, and the closest thing I could find to something sweet was toast. Partway through eating, I started feeling kind of gross, and at first I thought it was just because of the disappointing breakfast selection, but then at some point I realized that I was incredibly dehydrated. Surprisingly, spending a lot of time in various bathtubs and drinking a lot of alcohol while drinking very little water will do that to you. I stocked up on fluids as best as I could (asbestos), because we wanted to relax in the tub in our room for a little while before it was time to check out.
After leaving the hotel, we had several hours to kill before we could check in to our next hotel, so we took a bus towards Hakodate Station. On the way, the combination of being dehydrated and the fact that the bus felt like it was a thousand degrees inside, I suddenly felt incredibly nauseous and we had to get off the bus. It turned out it wasn't a very long walk anyway. But that's when we discovered that even though there wasn't as much snow on the ground as there had been in Otaru and Sapporo, there was a thick covering of incredibly slippery ice on every surface in the city. We carefully made our way to the train station and stashed our stuff in a coin locker, then roamed around for a while checking out the town until I felt too gross to go on. We then found a cafe and looked at the guide book that Miwako had purchased and made a rough plan for the rest of our time in Hakodate.
By the way, at some point I took a picture of this alley because it was really neat looking. Then I realized what I was actually taking a picture of, and made sure to get a good shot of it. Can you guess what kind of meat the shop in the left side of this picture sells???
Don't worry, it's okay to hate the Japanese for the horrible things they do.
At some point in the afternoon, we were able to check in to our hotel, so we walked back in the direction from whence we came and checked into SUPER HOTEL. Considering it was incredibly cheap, it was actually really comfy, and had all kinds of good things going for it (like a wall of pillows in the lobby where you can select a pillow based on your personal preferences). The weird twin-sized bunkbed above our queen-sized bed was a little weird, though. After a much-needed nap, we headed back into the town. We took one of the street car things that prowl Hakodate and made our way to the red brick district. Like Otaru, there are a bunch of old brick warehouses that have been converted into shops and restaurants and such. Just like Otaru, most of the touristy shops were pretty ridiculous, but it was fun walking through the maze of buildings, and the night illumination was certainly pretty.
Miwako's guidebook had a number of recommendations for food, so we ended up settling on a place called "The Very Very Beast" (we both thought it was "Bistro", but boy were we in for a surprise when we got there. Miwako had omurice and I had hambagu, both of which were ridiculously tasty. Thanks, guide book! The restaurant itself had a weird 1950's America theme going on it, so I'm not sure what the "Beast" was all about.
After dinner we walked up a big hill with that was all lit up and had an awesome view of the waterfront, as well as being incredibly treacherous to walk on from all the ice, and made our way to the Hakodate Ropeway, which took us on a ride to the top of Mt. Hakodate. From here, we had an amazing (and cold) view of the entire city squished in between the ocean on both sides. Hakodate turned out to be a lot bigger than either of us expected. What was also interesting was seeing the lights of civilization spread along the coast for a very long way in either direction. It was also neat walking to the other side of the observatory and seeing the lights from Aomori across the ocean or channel or sea or whatever.
When it got too cold, we made our way back to SUPER HOTEL and relaxed, buying beer on the way (naturally). We even saw a little of the opening ceremony for the Olympics.
2010.02.13
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 8
It truly wouldn't be a trip to Japan or a trip to see with Miwako without some kind of fantastic adventure involved. When Miwako asked what I wanted to do in Japan, the first thing I said was "go stay in an onsen", which is pretty much my favorite thing to do in Japan. Besides karaoke. And eating delicious things. And drinking in public. And going to shows. And CD hunting. And... okay fine, whatever, it's one of many things that I like doing in Japan. We tossed some ideas around, and then settled on going to Hakodate. I was excited about this for many reasons. Hakodate is one of the bigger cities in Hokkaido (I guess), and along with Otaru, one of the most attractive cities in Hokkaido to tourists. Yet, I had never been there. In fact, looking at a map of Hokkaido, that weird dangly peninsula-looking thing at the southwest part of Hokkaido is about the only part of the entire island [with stuff in it] that I haven't been to.
So we woke up grotesquely early and took the train to Sapporo, and then a taxi to the bus terminal (there are like.. 8 bus terminals in and around Sapporo station, so this was the first time I caught a bus somewhere else). I would like to mention that the taxi driver hung pictures of his cat up next to his driver permit license thing. Ready for an exciting 5-hour bus ride, we got on the bus and discovered that it was the least comfortable bus possible. Seriously... one row consisted of a single seat by the window, a foot-and-a-half-wide aisle, another single seat, a 2-foot-wide aisle, and the third seat, by the other window. We had reserved two seats together, and since they have assigned seating on highway buses of this sort, they placed us together. On either side of the wide aisle. Miwako sat in the middle so I could have the window. Then they placed another woman on her other side. Once or twice, the bus stopped to let other people on, but for the entire 5 hours, there was no one in the aisle in front of us, and no one in the aisle behind us. Not only was it the least comfortable bus possible, it was also the least romantic. We couldn't even hold hands. Jeez. Oh well, at least the scenery was incredibly pretty when we were awake to see it. We drove through heavy snow most of the way through rolling hills and mountains and tunnels, with snow-covered trees everywhere. When the mountains opened up, there were incredible views of the ocean and small towns on the coast. Getting closer to Hakodate, there was a very impressive double-peaked volcano that was solid white and dwarfed everything around it. When we got to Hakodate, I didn't notice much of the city because the bus took us straight to our onsen. I did, however, notice an amazing view of the ocean where you could see across to Honshu (aka mainland Japan). Nice.
After checking in at Yu no Kawa Onsen, we went to our room to check out the highlight of the place: we had a private bath in our room. I don't mean a bathtub... I mean a bath that is kept at a very high temperature, and is being supplied with water from actual factual hot spring in the area that also supplies water to the large community bath in the hotel. It's also located on our balcony. Fucking awesome (sorry Mom, I know you read this thing, too, but I can't think of a better way to express myself than with profanity).
We immediately changed into our Yukatas (aka "those things I stole from onsens many years ago that I often wear as pajamas") and... took a nap until dinnertime. I mean, besides being the most disappointing bus ever, the seats were uncomfortable and hard to sleep on. Anyway, just like how IDIOTS will go to a place like this and get a room without a private bath (though... I guess for families and stuff... whatever, they're IDIOTS), there was a banquet hall for IDIOTS. We, however, had our own private eating area in the in-hotel restaurant thing. There was a hot pot filled to capacity with tasty things (we couldn't eat it all) waiting for us, as well as various kinds of sashimi (Hakodate is famous for squid, and the squid we ate was AWESOME), and crap legs. There were also other random tasty things. Plus we had a sweet view overlooking the courtyard of the hotel, which was illuminated at night. The best part, though, was that right next to our dining room was the self-serve boozeohol room... and it was a nomihoudai. Miwako was ridiculously excited by this prospect, and before we even tried to start eating, she went and got us beer, then went back and got TWO things of sake, then went back again and got a thing of shochu. She's so adorable. So we ate a million tasty things, and drank a million tasty things, and it was great.
After dinner, we took some time to explore the hotel, which is one of my favorite past times. Considering that the place was filled to capacity, it was a Friday night, and there should have been a wave of tourists in Hakodate, it was pretty empty. Or everyone was in the bath or eating after we finished. We found a ping pong room that had no paddles, so we played with our slippers.
Then there was a game room where we proved to each other just how unskilled we are at games like Go and Shogi by playing Othello on the Go board, and Miwako's version of Jenga on the Shogi board. After exploring a kind of creepy wing of the hotel that looked like a museum's rendition of what a night life street looks like where we couldn't tell if the various establishments were just closed, or actually part of some weird exhibit, we took to the streets to find a convenience store to stock up on booze, and then hit up the hotel's actual factual baths. I feel like a jerk and a half for not secretly taking my waterproof camera into the bath with so I could show it to you, the viewer, because at first there was no one in there. It was also really steamy in the room and hard to see anything. There were only about four different baths, one of which was painfully hot. But the real draw was (of course) the rotemburo. I spent most of my time outside enjoying the cold air, the hot water, and the fact that I had an amazing view of Mars from where I was sitting. We didn't spend too much time in the big bath, of course, because we didn't need to. We met up and returned to our room, opened the windows on the balcony, opened our bottle of sake, and enjoyed our own private onsen.
Fucking awesome. Times a million billion.
2010.02.12
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 7
While the main point of this trip was to see Miwakorn, what kind of a jerk would I be if I spent thousands of dollars to fly thousands of miles and didn't bother seeing my other friends? That kind of jerk. I had contacted a few people beforehand, but I talk to Kutchan on a semi-regular basis, so I let him know what was up and figured he'd do the work of organizing everyone else for me. Sucker.
Last summer, I spent a lot of time with Kutchan, and we traded girlie stories. While I was getting ever closer to tricking Miwako into dating me, he also had a girl whom he'd had a giant crush on for a really long time, Pigutan (don't worry, at one point after meeting her I learned her real name but immediately forgot it). He started dating she around the same time Miwako started dating me. I knew I wasn't going to be able to get Miwako to meet the whole Rising Sun gang, but she was at least up to the challenge of a double date with Kutchan and Pigutan (I had never met Pigutan, Kutchan had never met Miwako). But... because Kutchan was reliable indeed, he scheduled a get-together with 10 of our Rising Sun frieands, and not surprisingly, I couldn't convince Miwako to go along. DON'T WORRY, I did spend most of the day with her, though.
Once again, we took our time getting up, and for some reason her mom insisted on driving us to Sapporo, even though she's afraid of driving both in the big scary city and during winter. We went to one of my favorite music stores, Weird-Meddle Records, where I picked up the newest releases from my favorite Sapporo band qodibop (which is pronounced by saying each letter individually), and also picked up a CD by another Sapporo band that I had previously only heard of, olololop, which turned out to be totally awesome. We then went to Tower Records, where I picked up, among other things that I couldn't afford back in August, the latest by OOIOO to complete my collection of bands with weird names. Sadly, when we were looking for a guidebook to Hakodate, we discovered that the bookstore on the floor below Tower Records had gone out of business since last summer, which is weird because it was the book store I most frequently frequented in Japan since I was an exchange student.
After roaming around for a while, we ended up in Susukino, which was hosting its own addition to the Sapporo Snow Festival, the Susukino Ice Festival. Instead of big sculptures made from snow, the big sculptures in Susukino were made from fire. I mean ice. Whatever. Perhaps the most perplexing was the big ice sculpture of Gundam entitled, "Gundam in Odaiba". Why was it named after the life-size Gundam sculpture in Tokyo? Why didn't they just name it "Gundam", or "Gundam's 20th Anniversary" or something? Weirdos. Another awesome series of ice sculptures featured actual factual delicious sea creatures preserved in blocks of ice (see below). When I went to this thing with Mizue a million years ago, the weather was warm enough that the ice was starting to melt and the fish were starting to drip various fluids, but this time around all of the ice sculptures were intact.
After Miwako saw me off at the subway station, I randomly ran into one of my favorite people in Sapporo, Nao, in the subway station on the way to hunt down my frieands. We met up with everyone at an awesome yakitori place, where we ate many tasty things and enjoyed a nomihoudai (I already posted an informative link to that one, right??). It was weird not only seeing everyone only 6 months after the last time, but also in winter. Yet another thing that made me feel at home in Hokkaido. Among those present were Chihirock, Asami and Yochan (whose wedding this coming July I REALLY wish I could attend), Nishio, Natsu (minus Yusaku, sadly), Hiropon, and a girl from our Rising Sun group whose name I can't remember. Oops. Oh yeah, and Pigutan, who I met for the first time. It was fun catching up with everyone, but not feeling like I had been away forever. I got asked a million questions about Miwako, and everyone was disappointed that they didn't get to meet her, but we're all hoping that I can get my two friend groups to merge for the Rising Sun 2010.
After our nomihoudai time was up, Nao, Natsu, and Asami had to leave, but the rest of us went to karaoke. It was like a small version of my going-away party last summer. Once again, I stuck to the ol' standbys. I sang Unicorn with Kutchan and Yochan, and a million Fishmans and Polaris songs with Chihirock. This time around, I went all out with the high-pitched wailing on Yurameki in the Air and couldn't stop smiling the whole time. Alas, the kids kept trying to get me to stay, but I had to catch the last subway to the last train back to Zenibako. So I said goodbye, and drunkenly made my way back home. Next time I will trick Miwako into meeting my friends. Next time.
2010.02.11
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 6
Today was our day of rest. For lunch, we walked down to a soba restaurant that Miwako had a part time job at for several years. She had a cold soba dish, and I had udon, which was another item on my list of things to eat on this trip. Miwako hadn't been back to that shop for a few years (in spite of it being about a 5-minute walk from her house), so all of the staff that was around came out to say hi.
On the way home, we picked up a selection of weird flavors of Chu-Hi that I'll never get to drink in The Americraine (by the way, I disagree with many things in that Wikipedia article, but I'm not about to do anything about it), and we watched Hachimitsu to Clover, a movie I've been trying to find forever that features a bunch of actors I like and a million others that I've seen in other good movies.
For dinner, we gathered with Maw and Paw and ate Jingiskan, one of my favorite Hokkaidoian foods. After dinner, Mom and Miwako and I went to an onsen in Asari near where I used to have a part-time job as a bartender a million years ago. Going into an onsen by yourself can be a little boring, especially when the women folk are on the other side (because they take longer, what with having to dry their hair and reapply their makeup afterwards, of course). There were 3 or 4 baths of varying temperatures inside, plus a smaller cold water bath (my favorite), a couple of therapeutic baths (one has you sitting on a bench with two super powerful jets of water dropping from the ceiling onto your shoulders, the other has you sitting in a bath in a cubbyhole-like section with underwater jets spraying at you from all directions), and two kinds of saunas (or maybe one was a steam room... they seemed very similar). But the main draw, and indeed one of the main reasons I've wanted to go to Hokkaido in winter forever was the Rotenburo. It was everything I had hoped for. It was really cold outside, and it started snowing big awesome flakes. The snow around the bath was carved into some character, and there were snow candles like in Otaru. There was even a nice (well, dark) view of the mountain behind the place. After a little while, the wind picked up, so there was a nice cold-ass breeze that felt awesome when immediately followed by a dip in the water. My hair even froze a little bit. Fantastic. I love Hokkaido.
An interesting side note, I didn't realize it until trying to find a link to information on what a rotenburo is, but we went to the very same onsen that gained media attention (sort of) for being discriminatory against honkey crackers like myself. The weirdo who sued the place even has his own Wikipedia article. I guess in the back of my mind, I knew about that case, and that it was somewhere around where we were going, but since they let me in I guess I didn't really think about it all that much.
Back home, Miwako's Mom of course wanted to drink with us some more. She had seen some of the various drawrings and painterings and such that I had given to Miwako in the past, and wanted to show off the art that she used to do. It was good, but she drew people and fashions to be used for newspaper advertisements, whereas most of my stuff is abstract. Then she challenged me to a drawing competition, where we each had one half of a big sheet of paper and went nuts. It was fun because her best attempts at being abstract kept failing because it's not something she does. I, on the other hand, like to let my mind go blank and just see what happens. Meanwhile, Miwako was trying not to fall asleep from the combination of bathing and beer. Eventually Mom went to sleep, though, so we could actually spend time talking to each other.
2010.02.10
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 5
Until I landed at New Chitose Airport, I did not realize that Otaru's very own winter festival, Otaru Yuki Akari no Michi (Otaru Snow-Light-Street or something) was happening at the same time as Sapporo's big snow thing. I WAS NOT EVEN AWARE OF THIS!!!
Miwako and I left for Otaru in the early afternoon, and my host family came to pick us up at the station near their work. I guess I was never all that clear on what they do... and I'm still not. But we drove past their office building in some weird warehouse district of Otaru that I've never seen before (or rather, have passed by plenty of times but never realize it spreads so far out into the bay) that was like a big maze of warehouses and parked semi trailers and gargantuan snowdrifts. I sort of knew that Papa Ueno was in construction, but it turns out he actually owns the company, and Mama Ueno works there, too. I guess that explains why they can leave work at any time to meet me for lunch. Also how they managed to raise four children and still travel all over the place.
Anyway, they took us to the Otaru Ferry Terminal (a huge building that hosts a ferry once a day that takes at least a day to get to mainland Japan), where it turns out there's both a restaurant and an onsen in the building. Who knew? They knew. The Uenos know every restaurant in Otaru. Papa Ueno had actually briefly met Miwako before, but that was a long time ago. We ate lunch and they told us stories of their adventures, including the ridiculously awesome story of how they met, and how they were in a long-distance relationship between Osaka and Otaru for four years before they got married. I LEARNED MANY THINGS TODAY!!! I think it's pretty awesome that they've been married for probably 20 or so years and are still a very loving couple. Also, they're the nicest people in the world. Sorry, everyone else in the world, but we are all jerks in comparison!
I forgot to include our double date photo in the pictures for today's blog, so you'll have to imagine what the four of us looked like with a sweeping view of the Sea of Japan behind us.
After lunch, the Uenos dropped us off in Minami Otaru, and Miwako and I began exploring the touristy district. In between the thousands of souvenir shops, vendors selling sea creatures in various states of living, and swarms of Chinese tourists were a bunch of neat little snow sculptures.
Walking through the various shops containing glassworks blown in Otaru (oh how I miss the sign that used to say "It blows, glass blowing experience!") always makes me sleepy, and today was no exception. We needed to wait until dark so the candlelit street would make sense, so we had our first real date at a cafe where the two of us have had millions of playdates at in the past.
When we decided we were semi-awake enough to continue on, we went to the park that was built on top of the now defunct site of the first rail lines in Hokkaido. The Sapporo Snow Festival is a really neat thing to see, but Otaru's festival sort of puts it to shame. For one, it's not nearly as crowded, but the people who are there are all taking their time wandering around enjoying the sights. Being in the middle of a big city, Sapporo's festival is also surrounded by the lights of the city (and at night the illumination on the giant snow sculptures is pretty but they kinda don't look like snow anymore), whereas the little railroad park thing in Otaru is mostly dark at night, which makes the various lamps and structures built out of snow look extra pretty and romantic.
When we started getting cold, we took a break to enjoy some hot sake and meat-on-a-stick from the various vendors that had set up festival-style shops. We then moved on to the Otaru Canal, where the canal was all lit up with floating candles, and the sidewalk that runs its length was covered with a million billion more snow and candle creations. Miwako and I have spent a million playdates walking along the canal, so just like the cafe, it was pretty awesome to finally get to have an actual factual date there.
As we got closer and closer to the favorite spot of every tourist to Otaru ever, we started getting really cold, and I had to pee really badly, so we picked up the pace and headed to Hanazono to go to my favorite place in Otaru, Owl's Bar, where I finally got to eat soup curry. Soup curry was just first starting to catch on in Sapporo when I was an exchange student, so Mizue got me hooked on the stuff, and even with only visiting Sapporo once a year, I'm still very knowledgeable about the various soup curry shops in and around Sapporo. Remember: I was into it WAY before it became popular.
After visiting my favorite place in Otaru we then went to Miwako's favorite place in Otaru, Bar Modern Times, yet another place that Miwako and I have gone on a million playdates to. She hadn't seen the owner ("Master") since before she left for Canada about two years earlier, so they had a lot of catching up to do. Miwako keeps saying I need to move to Otaru and work as a bartender there, which would be TOTALLY awesome, except that I don't think he can afford to hire a second person. An interesting fact about Master (who probably has a real name, too) that neither of us knew... in spite of being an awesome and incredibly knowledgeable bartender, he doesn't drink alcohol! ANOTHER THING WAS LEARNED TODAY!!! Unfortunately due to Otaru being a small town, the last train to Sapporo leaves at 11pm, so we couldn't stay for long.
THE END...?
2010.02.09
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 4
Originally when I decided to go back to Japan in winter, I was planning on going for New Years. Besides the fact that I wasn't able to save up enough money in time, I would have had to meet her whole family, and that would have been weird. Oh wait, I guess I did that anyway. I found out that the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri (that's "Snow Festival" to you, Whitey) would be held from February 5th through the 11th, so that seemed like a perfect time to go, what with it also being half a year between Rising Suns. I had only been to the festival once before, so I was pretty excited about it.
We set out in the early afternoon after watching most of the rest of Ponyo (Miwako had taped it off of TV (what sort of weird futuristic technology is this?!?), but the tape cut out about 5 minutes before the movie ended). Today we took the 15-minute walk to Zenibako Station, which made me realize just how much I miss living in a place that gets buried in snow in winter. It was already starting to get dark out by the time we got to Sapporo, so we headed straight for Odori Park.
We followed the course of the park for about 4 hours, stopping at all the big giant snow sculptures and both being "too much shy" to ask anyone to take our picture for us after both of our cameras had a bad attitude of letting us do it ourselves. The sculptures themselves were incredible. They're made by hauling in big cubes of snow and stacking them up inside a wooden frame, and then carving the sculpture out from that. I didn't do a very good job of paying attention to what the various structures were... there was a Korean National something something, an American National something something, a Japanese something castle, and a really cool homage to the Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, among other things. There were also a bunch of different series S of smaller sculptures of various themes, and a section that featured sculptures in an international competition, with teams coming from Sapporo's various sister cities around the world (one of which is Portland, Oregon, by the way). The weather wasn't too cold, but a nice medium snowfall made it extra awesome.
I had a list of things I needed to eat on this trip to Japan, and one of those things was ramen. We hadn't eaten since morning, but were afraid that if we went somewhere to eat, we'd miss seeing things all lit up. Also we were hungry and too lazy to try to hunt down food. Since there were a million vendors selling various things right there at the festival, we found ramen there (mine had crab in it, which is unusual but also AWESOME) and ate outside. Before heading back to Zenibako, we went used DVD hunting (I have music DVDs on in the background pretty much all the time when I'm home), and Miwako bought me Love Letter, one of my favorite movies, which was filmed almost entirely within Otaru (specifically, the main character lives in Zenibako, not far from where Miwako lives). Sadly, there were no Fishmans or Unicorn DVDs to be found this time around.
Doesn't that make you sad?
2009.02.08
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 3
Because I originally planned my trip around Miwako possibly having a job, I basically scheduled my time so that we'd have the weekends to hang out, and during the week I would try to meet up with other friends when I could. Since she didn't end up getting a job, I kind of didn't really bother contacting other friends. But I still wanted to see other friends, so on Sunday night we decided to gather with our other Otaruian friends from our college days.
Miwako's mom drove us to central Otaru, which took longer than the train would have because she was freaking out over the snow. We met up with Erina and discussed what we should do. There's not much to do in Otaru. We came to the same conclusion we have every time the three of us have hung out over the past 8 years... karaoke. So we stocked up on drinks and snacks and headed out for Toraemon, our favorite place to hang out at in Otaru. And then we discovered it was no longer there. We didn't just lose our favorite hang out spot, Otaru lost an institution. Toramon always gave out coupons for 500 Yen (which used to be like... $5, but is now probably more like... $100000) for the first hour of karaoke, but was still cheap after that (or even without a coupon). Besides this, you could bring your own food and drinks in. If you didn't bring your own drinks in, the drinks there were cheap. The place was awesome. But now it is gone.
After the girls convinced me to not burn the entire city to the ground, we set out to find a different karaoke venue. The other main choice was Thriller Karaoke. For some reason, about 5 years ago there was a sudden boom of horror-themed karaoke establishments in Japan. Why is karaoke in a building filled with Disneyland-like horror-themed objects more fun than normal karaoke? Exactly. But that place was too crowded, so we went to Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Do, which none of us had been to since my going-away party as an exchange student way back in 2003. It was fun, though. Once again, I focused on Unicorn, Fishmans, and Polaris. Since I've tricked Miwako into liking all three of those, it gives us a lot of songs that we can sing together. I also found out that Yurameki in the Air by Fishmans (I posted a link to a video of sorts in my first entry for this trip), which is a 17-minute-long song, actually works out really well in karaoke form. Everybody wins!
After karaoke, we slowly wandered our way accross town through the shopping mall arcade thing, which was filled with a preview of the Otaru Snow Light Festival. By which I mean "snow and ice things filled with candles". Some students from the Otaru University of Commerce had a booth set up where they were selling coffee and homemade candles, as well as offering free purikura-style printouts of pictures taken in front of the various snow sculptures. At first, we we all disgusted at the thought that the three of us graduated from their school at least 4 years before they even enrolled, but then we decided to support whatever it was that they were doing.
After this, we met up with Miina and Yuki, and arrived at Maruta, another Otaru staple. It's hard to accurately describe the atmosphere of Maruta. The booze is cheap, the food is cheap, there's a million things to choose from, there's crap all over the walls (which is mostly a list of the things you can eat and/or drink), and you sit on the floor in a big room at a table surrounded by other tables with other people doing the same thing. They had recently moved to a new building which none of us had been to. It wasn't exactly the same (it looked a little too nice to be Maruta), but it still had the same feeling overall.
At some point, Erina and I were talking, and she randomly said that she was happy that Miwako and I were dating. I guess that she probably could have figured it out (actually, she probably should have noticed my giant crush on Miwako years ago), but it surprised me to hear her talking about it for some reason. But then the other two overheard us and went nuts, and it was like a moment from Friends or something. Miwako, being incredibly shy, got all quiet and hid behind me. That's when Miina (who is always coining awesome new psuedo-English phrases) created my new favorite phrase to describe Miwako, "too much shy". Earlier in the evening, Miina and Yuki asked me if I was dating anyone currently, and I sort of dodged the question because I figured that Miwako would probably react exactly the way she did. But eventually she got over it, and now that it was common knowledge, our friends were super excited that the two of us were finally together after all these years.
Because the trains in Japan are stupid, we couldn't hang out for too long, so the five of us took some time to take some ridiculous pictures on our way to the train station, of which this is but one:
Then Miwako and Erina and I rode the train together, and Erina spoke more of how happy she was that Miwako and I were together before we got off at Zenibako and walked through an awesome little park completely buried in snow on the way home. I owe Erina a great deal of gratitude for making too much shy Miwako be slightly less too much shy that night.
2009.02.07
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 2
When we woke up in the morning, Taisho made us a fabulous breakcast of curry yakisoba. The four of us hung out for a while and took some pictures. They charted a course to Haneda Airport for me, and said I had plenty of time when we left. Little did they know how horrible my luck is with that stupid airport. By the way, there was a tiny bit of snow left over from when it snowed in Tokyo 3 days earlier (something that doesn't happen all that often), which already got me excited about experiencing a real winter.
Anyway, Minako and I rode the first subway together, then I transfered to my next train. I swear that it said Haneda Airport. I SWEAR. I kept checking to make sure (though the trains in Tokyo are confusing because they don't always follow a non-branching path between 2 points like in places like Sapporo and Chicago). But sure enough, by the time I was in the Yokohama area, I knew something was wrong, and got off the train to ask for help. I found out that when I got on the train, I only sort of had the right one. Two trains show up at the platform at the same time, and only the one in the rear actually goes to the airport, even though they both say they're headed in that general direction. It was the same situation on the train going in the reverse direction. With only about 30 minutes left before my flight left, I figured I was screwed. So I emailed Miwako (even in emergencies, the staff on trains are freakishly stubborn about people not using their phones) and had her contact SkyMark Airlines. Fortunately, they were able to cancel my flight and refund my money, and there was space on the next flight. I know that I once missed a SkyMate Airlines flight to Sapporo by a few minutes, and they let me on the next plane at the same price. But for some reason I feel like this was at least the third time it's happened.
Then I fly, fly, fly through the sky, sky sky.
Then I arrived in Sapporo at the super-familiar and super-tiny luggage claim, and reunited with Miwako after the first 4 month stretch of our long-distance relationship. It turned out it was a good thing I screwed up and flew to Sapporo later... originally she was going to drive to the airport to pick me up, but the weather was crappy (aka awesome) outside, and the highway shut down due to snow. So we took an hour-long train ride back to Kotoni, and she drove the rest of the way. Holy crap, snow everywhere! Holy crap, it was cold out, but not unbearably so! Man, I love winter.
At Miwako's house (I had stayed there twice before in the past, but never met her family), I finally met her parents. Her mom was most excited to meet me, and had a million billion questions (and a LOT of stereotypes about Americrainians). Her dad is retired and spends most of his time lounging around reading the newspaper and watching TV and never talking to anyone. After we started eating (sukiyaki, something I haven't had in years), everyone started drinking and things got a little less awkward. Her dad only talks when he drinks, and as the night went on, he gradually changed into a completely different person. He also has an incredibly strong Hokkaido accent, which made it extra challenging to understand the extra challenging questions he kept asking me. 
So not only did I get to meet the parents, but the next surprise was when one of Miwako's two older sisters, Saeko, came over. With her husband. And their three kids. The kids mostly did whatever it is kids do, other than the youngest, Mi-chan, who was afraid of me at first. But Saeko and Naoya were awesome. Later on, the topic of arm-wrestling came up, so we took to the kotatsu. I've always been terrible at arm-wrestling, and Miwako used to always kick my ass. But after about a half-year or so of attempting to exercise regularly, I finally beat her. So after returning to Japan, Miwako started working out so that that wouldn't happen again. We were about evenly matched, but I still had the upper hand. What was really awesome, though, was hearing that Miwako's sister is comically weak, and then watching her lose to everyone, including her 10-year-old son. The kids all wanted to challenge me, and we all became friends after that. Mi-chan turned out to be adorable once she warmed up to me.
(Miwako is the one on the left, by the way)
(Also, the dog is An-chan)
Eventually, Saeko & Co. left, and Miwako convinced her parents that there would be plenty of time to barrage me with a fury of questions about my culture and such all week long. So we finally had some time alone, and we watched Ponyo until we fell asleep. And I immediately felt at home in Japan again.
2009.02.06
Road to Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in EZO 2010 → Day 1
Because my dear frieand Tarbus demanded that I write a day-by-day (bidet) account of my most recent trip to Japan, and because my Flicker account is now something like... 15 years behind, I'm going to start that today.
When I go to Japan every year during summer (except for 2008, that jerk), my goal is to travel around to see as many of my friends as possible, to go to karaoke a lot, to eat a million tasty things, to waste time and money hunting CDs, and to see as many shows as possible (besides Rising Sun Rock Festival). Every summer, I tell my friends that I need to come back in winter, especially to Hokkaido. This past summer, I told Aya and her parents that I would for sure come back to visit. Probably.
Then Miwako and I "officially" started dating after a million billion years. Not only does she provide the motivation I really needed to start working on a plan to moving back to Japan to live, but it made going back in winter seem not just like something I really wanted to do, but like something I HAD to do. Because the point of this trip was to see Miwako, I barely told my other friends I was coming to Japan. Some of them didn't find out until they got an email from my Japanese cell phone when I was on the train from the airport to central Tokyo. And yet, a million of them still did whatever they could to find time to hang out with me, and to remind me of how much I love that place.
Okay so anyway, there's the rambling back story. The side stories (main stories?) for each day probably won't be so wordy.
------------★--------------
I won't count the day of life I lost due to travelling to the future. I watched a Japanese movie called "Kaiji" on the plane (which was pretty good), and I already forgot the other one, though I think it was also Japanese. A big fat man sat in the aisle seat next to me and had his arm well over the armrest for the entire 9-or-something-hour-long flight.
In Tokyo, I reactivated my phone, called Miwako, and then called Takkun, since he was basically the only person in Tokyo I contacted. I met up with TAKMIZ and Tsukuru in Shinjuku, and then we went to an izakaya and met up with a bunch of other people.
Mi-kun and Sachikun were there (two old friends I first met on the gyoza tour of '02 where Mizue first met Takkun and I woke up one morning and realized I could suddenly speak Japanese), as well as Yukari, my first Japanese friend at WMU, who first introduced me to Mizue. Then there were some people who's names I forgot, Minako (whom I first met in the hospital last summer when I went to meet Mizue), and Taisho and his wife. I also first met Taisho at the gyoza tour, but he is always at Rising Sun without fail. I met his wife Hitomi for the first time at RSR09. Got all that straight?
After eats + drinks + catching up, I presented TAKMIZ with some souvenirs of Mizue's favorite American junk food, and then as we were walking out I said "so, uh, by the way... I don't know where I'm staying tonight". After some discussion, Taisho and Hitomi decided to take me in. Ahhh, I love that I don't have to plan things when I go to Japan. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to go with TAKMIZ to meet their cats, though. So when we got outside, everyone besides TAKMIZ and the people I didn't really know decided that karaoke was in order. Hell yes to that, I said. To that. To them.
So we went back upstairs into the same building and sang some karaoke. I pretty much eliminated everything from my repetoire besides Unicorn, Fishmans, and Polaris. Those are listed both in the order of number of songs you're likely to find at karaoke places (Unicorn a million, Fishmans a decent amount, Polaris very few), by the way, as well as the likelyhood that someone will sing with me. Everyone else sang a bunch, too, but Sachikun (she's a girl, by the way, even though "kun" normally indicates a boy) rocked out the most.
After getting drunk on cheap-ass-karaoke booze and singing until the last trains were in danger of leaving, Minako decided to join the myself and Taisho & Hitomi for a sleepover. So we went back to their place, where the former three of us (Hitomi was too drunk on cheap booze) continued drinking. Then I remembered that I was exhausted and that I get sick if I try to sleep while I'm drunk. Good thing the exhaustion took precedence over the drunkenness.
Okay I lied, this description was way longer than it needed to be. Maybe because I was drunk when I wrote it. Or maybe because I like typing, and it's way easier to do it this way than to email people individually.
2010.02.05
Song of the Month 2010.01 - VATLVA
First, some back story (I know right, words on my blog! weird!) to what you're about to experience. You being... wait, does anyone even read my blog?
My biggest dream in life (or at least longest-lasting one that I haven't given up on yet) ever since high school has been to make music. I'm really good at starting songs... but I suck at finishing them. I'm sure it's because I'm too critical of my own work. I'll be happy with a song, and then get stuck somewhere and refuse to move on with the song until I've figured out how I want to proceed. I'm also not a fan of letting people listen to anything I've written unless I'm completely happy with it. Which never happens, of course.
I spend so much time thinking about how much I want to do music, that I decided it's about time I actually do something about it. So my plan for 2010 is to "release" a new song, one per month, every month of this year. They don't need to be perfect... in fact, I'm sure they won't be. They just need to have a start, a middle, and an end of some sort. I would like to make a demo CD at some point, but the first step of that process is having songs. So by forcing myself to examine some of the old songs I've started and attempt to finish them, I'll be slightly closer to that goal. It's ridiculous how ambitious of an idea this seems to me... all I have to do is just make demo versions of 12 songs, and keep on working on them until I've decided they sound the way I want whenever I'm able to. 12 songs in demo form is better than 12 unfinished songs.
I already have a pretty clear idea of 11 of the 12 songs I want to unveil this year (and when I want to unveil them). I will give advance warning NOW so it doesn't seem like I'm making up excuses later... my song for July is both a gift, and has lyrics... so there's a pretty good chance I won't share that with the public. If I'm able to, I'll have a public-sharing song in its place, but it's very important to me that I finish that song, so I'm going to focus on it whenever I can.
So there you go. Please cheer me on, I could definitely use the support. Feel free to comment on any of the songs I upload, but please, be gentle. You all know how I pretty much never stop crying. Most of all, enjoy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Song of the Month 2010 #1
Song title: VATLVA
Audio file: http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-VATLVA.mp3
Date Recorded: 2010.02.04
Equipment used: KORG DS-10, KORG D888
Concept: I started this song on the Mosquito Fleet school bus on the way back from Atwater, California, where we had gone to witness the Polini Cup Finals. Travis had recently picked up a KORG DS-10 for his Nintendo DS, as had Alan of Landsquid fame. I brought both of my DSes and 2 copies of the DS-10 along for the trip, so during the 36-hour bus ride home, Zach from Portland and Travis and I played around with our music toys. I think this song started as a parody of that cake video that the Landsquids destroyed our brains with... but it slowly changed into a collection of me playing around with random weird things. Eventually I grew to like this song, and it became one of several songs that I would work on regularly while walking to/from work. The title is, like most things in my life, a reference to something that means nothing to anyone other than Chris Salmonson and Brian.
Process: As my first song for this project, I realized that it's not going to be easy, but it IS going to be great for forcing me to work on what I want to work on. There are a few little details I need to work on, but overall I'm happy with how things sound. Various limitations to the DS-10 (for example, fading out a single instrument while changing patterns around is nightmarishly difficult) made recording the song difficult, but I also just need to practice it more. There is one more part that I want to add that will serve to tie various elements of the song together and provide a more interesting ending, but I ran out of time to practice it, so it didn't make it into the January version of this song. I'm probably going to be saying that a lot this year.
Comments: I almost had this thing out before February, but for some reason the "noisy" part on my DS-10 didn't work the way it was supposed to unless I stopped and started the song. So there are some choppy punch-ins in the song where I had to repeatedly re-record the parts I kept messing up. I suppose knowing how to use my mixer and practicing the song more would have made things easier. Oh well, I'm happy that I got through the end of a song, and I'm excited to continue working on this year-long project!
登録:
投稿 (Atom)
