Interviewing Mamas

I needed some more material for the exhibition, so I killed two birds with one stone by interviewing my host mum and practicing with the video camera at the same time. It's my first time filming anything, so I was all worried and paranoid, but once it started up, it was cool. I just had it up on a tripod anyways.

My host mum is incredibly straightforward and open about everything. I didn't really feel like any question I could possibly ask her would be uncomfortable for her. So we just chatted. She has a lot of interesting things to say, and most of all, she's comfortable with just talking. I noticed this more later when I was trying to talk to the ladies in the English class. I suppose it's also a language barrier thing, since they have to try to speak in a foreign language, but last class, when we were talking about manga, everyone was talking over everyone else. They all had something to say. This time, it was rather hesitant.

I suppose it also has to do with the people who ended up coming. We were missing Te-chan and Takeda-san. Te-chan, once she interested in something, has a lot to say about it. Takeda-san is amazingly good at understanding things in context so she makes a really good conversant when the rest of the group has stopped with question marks popping around their heads.

They apparently had some sort of falling out, though, Takeda-san and everyone else. Te-chan was just busy that day, I think. She came to the next class.

One of the most interesting things I find among this group of women is how sensitive they are to everyone else's feelings. This entire group of women spent weeks discussing in person or talking on the phone and trying this and that and even holding meetings about how to tell Takeda-san that she wasn't wanted anymore. I think Takeda-san had a somewhat difficult personality and it was disrupting the group. In any case, for a couple of weeks, my host mum was constantly on the phone for hours, talking about this and that. In the end, they even tried direct confrontation, but I don't think that worked. Takeda-san just got mad at my host mum and stopped coming to English class.

Well, I don't really know how it all ended, but the hubbub is over and I haven't seen Takeda-san since the first time I met her.

Everyone always talks about how the Japanese ostracize people that are different and how unfeeling they can be, but among these women, I found a real, deep emotion over something as simple as not hurting another's feelings. Maybe it's because they are mothers, but when confronted with the choice of the group over the individual, they still don't want to hurt the individual. What might be somewhat distasteful for the American who is reading this might be the fact that the group was chosen over the individual. Or maybe all Westerners would feel that way. But it is simply a different way of thinking, and I have come to appreciate it even if I don't always agree.

After all, it is this way of thinking that allows them to so genuinely worry and care for a complete stranger who has come to stay among them for three months and then, perhaps, to wander away again and never come home again. I don't think I've ever felt more taken care of than while I stayed here, where my host mum will call every 3.5 minutes until I pick up when she's worried whether I'll catch my bus to Kyoto, where my host grandmum will come home from Sea World with a little present and an embarrassed smile for me, where my little host sister imitates my way of talking and her older sister patiently explains a word in Japanese that I didn't understand, and where my host grandpa starts crying when he thinks about me leaving for the States.

Yoyogi Park Take Two

So, here's a little wrap-up for those who wanna know what happened with all that Yoyogi Park band.

I went to Yoyogi with a friend of mine, since we both needed to take some pictures (me for a photo class, him for a communications class). This time, I actually went into the park instead of hanging around the street next to it. The interior didn't look too promising the last time I went, but that was a Monday. This, my friends, was a Sunday.

On our way to the park, there were lots of people performing: three man bands, a single person on the piano, a break-dancing group. They were all too close to each other the music blended from one to the next as you walked down the street.

When we got alongside the park, we had to walk down the sidewalk to get to the entrance; the same sidewalk where I had met Saturday Night Bremen before. This day, there were far more people on the sidewalk--lots of people selling used stuff and bands tossed in between. There were a lot more things to see than on a Monday. Well anyhow, as we walked down this rather long sidewalk, who should I see but Saturday Night Bremen. We kinda passed slowly along and I kinda waved and Chizuru-san kinda freaked out at the coincidence. Nice people.

We talked for a bit, I introduced my friend, the subject of their upcoming live came up (of course) and I decided on the spot that I would go. I wanted to go before this chance meeting, but I didn't want to if I didn't get anyone to go with me. So I admit it--I used the situation to try to coerce my buddy into coming along with me -.- Well, it worked, and it was off to the live we go ^^ But first, the park.

Right at the entrance to the park, there were the rock-a-billies. Middle-aged men with big hair, sunglasses, leather pants, tatoos, no shame, and some...incredible...dance moves.

If outside the park was for rock bands and hip hop, then the inside of the park was for indigenous musics. Not necessarily indigenous to Japan. Indigenous to somewhere. They had people on bagpipes. I'll leave it at that.



After that came Wednesday, the night of the live (yes, it was that close). Me and my friend headed out to Shibuya and promptly could not find the place for the life of us. Fortunately, Justin's got a good sense of direction so we finally sniffed the place out and got in at the last song of the first band. The live house was...small. Much smaller than I had expected somehow. Full of cigarette smoke and whatever blasting song was playing next, with a little space given over for people. The music was so loud that it really seemed like there was no room for anything else physically or mentally. It was loud enough that there were a couple of times that I got dizzy from it.

Saturday Night Bremen was the star of the evening--they played last. Before them played some group whose name I can't remember because we barely made it for their last song. The other group, Lucy Juicy, did mostly a pop-ish, happy sort of rock with a cutesy girl as their lead. What was interesting about their music was the variety. Just as me and Justin were saying talking about how it would be great if they had a sort of metal-ish, not so bouncy song, here comes the minor key. It was interesting, this band. The instruments played really well together. The singer, I think, could've added more to the music--in short, she needed practice. She does, however, pull off a great performance and does a good job as a front man.

Saturday Night Bremen really showed off at the end. The difference in experience was really obvious as soon as they started playing. Couldn't tell you what it was. Can tell you that it was good. Then again, everyone in that room had come to see them, not the starter bands.

Anyways, the live ended and me and Justin headed back home. We didn't get to talk much with the band members--expected, I suppose, consider that I'd only met them three times. We chatted with the lead singer and the electric guitarist outside for a little bit as they took a break from loading their van.

I probably won't run into them again, as I don't really have any further plans to go to Yoyogi. We'll see what happens. If nothing else, maybe I'll get to see them whenever it is that I finally return to Japan after this semester.

Interview with Te-chan

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Interview with Narita-san

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The Architecture Student Incident

So...
My original idea for this project had been centered around Koshigaya, which is why I put up the Noh interviews and whatnot. Then, we got the option in class to work with an architecture student (if they were willing). The catch was that you could only do certain parts of Tokyo. I really wanted to work in a collaborative project, so I jumped right on that and changed my theme to Japanese Indie rock bands. Hence, Yoyogi Park.

But, after the weeks of fuddering and meeting this teacher and that student, only one architecture student ended up pairing up with someone and that someone wasn't me. After a couple of more weeks of fuddering, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't have to struggle with going to Yoyogi all the time (waaaaaaay out of the way) and spend tons of money going to lives and buttering up band members. Instead, I could just go back to my original (and more interesting to me) idea: Koshigaya.

Of course, that means that I'm somewhat behind in the work and need to get caught up with all that. We'll see how this goes...

Yoyogi Park Take One

Last Monday, on I had a school holiday, so I took the chance to head over to Yoyogi Park in Harajuku. It was supposed to be my introduction into the world of indie music, namely indie rock, here in Japan. Well, I guess it was something of an introduction, since I got my foot in the door, but it was little more than that.

I only saw two bands there; apparently Sundays are the days to go, not Monday. I hear that they used to close the street next to Yoyogi Park and indie bands down line up all along the road and play. They don't close the street anymore--a sign of some change in the underground music world??--but bands still show up to play. On Sundays.

Well, when I got there, there were only two rock bands and neither was playing, so I took a looksee across the street where something was going on. It turned out to be a "Peace Festival" and there were hippies!! A little group of three were playing some music on some instruments I've never seen before. The people there really were at "peace" too. So at peace that some of them (if they weren't one of the girls lined up next to the street for god-knows-what) were asleep, blissfully unaware of a certain devious picture-taker sitting right next to them, using a yakisoba lunch as her cover.

Well, after lunch and a few pictures, I headed back to the park to see what I could see, or rather hear what I could hear, and lo and behold, one of the bands was playing-- Success!! I watched them play and at the end of it, I went up and bought their single and their mini-album. Since I was the only person buying anything, they of course took notice and told me that they'd start playing again in just a little bit. I was a bit shy, so I hurried off--a failure as an interviewer!--but came back and watched them when they started playing again. It was a good move, since after that, the band members and their manager (I think she was?) started talking to me during their breaks.

So the band is called Saturday Night Bremen (Samstag Nacht Bremen! cried the German girl who stopped to watch), and consists of a drummer, bass guitarist, electric guitarist, and acoustic guitarist/lead singer. Their music was not, perhaps, spectacular but their performance wasn't half bad. Every single one of them was very into their music. They managed to get a few people to stop and listen, but just a few. They have a live show coming up in October. I'll try to hit that and see if I can't cultivate a better relationship with the band members--the language barrier was a bit awkward. At the very least, I'll get a looksee at other bands and my first Japanese live house experience. Saturday Night Bremen might or might not be prime material for my final project, but they all seemed like good people, even if they are (as their manager swore) a little crazy. And anyways like I said, the expedition was just to get my foot in the door.

Calligraphy Interview

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