Continuing the series on Waseda University, I went for a Sunday morning walk on campus earlier this week. The trees were changing colors so I decided to head to high ground in Building 11 for an interesting angle on the fall colors that I will show you in a future blog entry.

I was surprised to see Mt. Fuji out the west-facing windows as well. This was my first sighting of Mt. Fuji before dusk from Tokyo.

If you make this image larger (by clicking on it), you can see a McDonald’s to the left–the same one as shown here.

Above is Building 11, where I teach two classes a week. Building 11 is home to the School of Commerce, Graduate School of Commerce, Graduate School of Accountancy, Institute of Research in Business Administration, and School of International Liberal Studies (SILS).

The weekend before I took a shot from the top of Building 11 looking down on the Waseda Festival. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice my camera settings were messed up, and the photo did not come out well. Students were doing a performance in front of the Okuma Auditorium. Thousands were in attendance. It was crazy walking through the crowds down below.

Here is a video of that performance:

Posted on November 20th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: mt. fuji, night photography, video, waseda university. Comments: None

In looking through my Hakuba pictures just now, for the first time in a few weeks, I realized that this is going to be about a 20- or 30-part series. I hope you don’t mind.

Our lodgings in Hakuba were wonderful. We booked them through a travel agent in Tokyo. After doing so we got an email saying that the owners of Mountainside Hakuba Jodel were going to throw in a free breakfast for us each morning as well. That’s not something that usually happens AFTER you book a place, but it was the first of countless bonuses the fabulous owners imparted to us.

When we arrived at Jodel (マウントサイド白馬ヨーデル) we were surprised to find no one there–no guests, no employees, no owners, nobody. We soon came to find that the Jodel wasn’t alone. Much of Hakuba had an abandoned feel to it, a most welcome contrast to Tokyo. A few minutes after we settled ourselves in the lobby the owners arrived. From the instant we met them I loved them. They were so kind. I think their names were Mr. and Mrs. Uozaki, but Mr. Uozaki asked us to just call him Uo (魚) for short.

Mrs. Uo cut the largest nashi (梨) I have ever seen and gave it to us. They came from her daughter, who lives in Kyushu, that morning. Mr. Uo showed us to our rooms. The above is an unaltered image of my first look out our room’s window. I could have cropped it, or shown you a better picture that I took later, but I like this one for a memory of the initial impression.

Mr. Uo then offered to drive us around town or pick us up (should we call) from any point in town whenever we went out. How is that for service? They fired up the hotel’s bath for us, even though we were the only ones staying there and could have just bathed in our rooms’ baths. The hotel could hold probably 200 or more people, and the bath can handle at least 10 or 15 people at a time, so we felt a bit bad that they should have everything running just for us.

We were served a breakfast of about a dozen courses each morning, freshly cooked by Mrs. Uo. The views were amazing and Mrs. Uo even decorated our table in fall colors in case we didn’t get enough from looking out the window. Did I mention that we didn’t even order or pay for breakfast?

The Jodel’s owners were so cute. They came out of the kitchen to take pictures with us and of the breakfast. She said she had never made a western breakfast before so she wanted to capture it with photos. Apparently most of their guests are Japanese and the few foreigners they get are from Australia (coming to Hakuba to ski), not the USA or Europe.

Here are Ellie and Ryan in the lobby of the Jodel. The place isn’t fancy or new, but for hospitality there is no better place on the planet. The price is extremely reasonable, and if you aren’t planning on staying on a Saturday night during the peak of the ski season you will likely have lots of elbow room.

Posted on November 19th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: drainspotting, food, hakuba, 紅葉. Comments: None

As I mentioned last time, O-EAST in the Shibuya area of Tokyo is an excellent venue. Nestled between about a dozen love hotels, don’t be surprised if you see Japanese business men (サラリーマン) in full suits and ties show up at weeknight shows. I saw several on this evening. They hadn’t even loosened their ties or taken off their suit coats to see Opeth. Perhaps Opeth shows should become completely formal in the future.

Getting to Shibuya was, by far, my shortest commute to see Opeth. It took me about 10 minutes on the train, followed by a 5 minute walk from the Hachiko Exit to O-EAST. Normally I have to drive all day to see Opeth. If you count the miles from my home base of Ashland, Oregon, rather than my current home in Tokyo, I have traveled over 21,400 miles to see Opeth. Of course I was already in Denmark when I went to Metaltown in Sweden, but even so, for the four Opeth shows I’ve gone to in the states, all included an overnight stay and, combined, logged more than 2,000 miles on my car.

I took one video which you can view below. It begins with Mikael talking and messing around with the crowd for the first minute and a half. The song Opeth then dives into is “Leper Affinity” off of Blackwater Park, perhaps their best CD. I apologize for the shakes during the first half of the video. The floor was vibrating. I adjusted my feet for a better foundation during the second half of the video so it looks much better. My TZ7 seems to take much better video (and pictures) when it is zoomed to the max. It has trouble focusing in low light for both photos and video when at a wider angle for some, unknown reason.

If you do not like heavy music, but still want to take a peek, then I suggest jumping in at the 5:10 mark. When it gets too heavy jump ahead to 8:50 to see the end.

Enjoy!

Posted on November 18th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: metal, opeth, reviews, Tokyo, tz7 zs3, video. Comments: None

Opeth was set to hit the stage at Shibuya O-EAST at 7 p.m. Doors opened at 6 p.m., and there was no opening band. Rain had been falling hard all day and didn’t let up before, or after, the show. I arrived at 6 to find that they were letting people in based on a number printed on the ticket. It turns out I was number 189. I don’t know if this is the case at all small venues in Japan, but it is good to know. If you aren’t in the first 50 numbers, who grab up the best spots, you may as well show up 10 minutes before the show so you don’t have to stand and wait for an hour.

Most people in the audience had an umbrella with them throughout the show, myself included. Afterwards I thought I should have opened my umbrella when Mikael mentioned “Watershed,” but maybe the mostly non-English speaking audience wouldn’t have made the connection.

O-EAST is a fantastic venue. The stage is large for the size of the place, and everyone in the audience is within about 40 feet of the stage. The sound was incredible. I think this was the best quality sound I have ever experienced at a concert. Maybe my earplugs were just in perfectly, or something, but the music was crystal clear. There wasn’t the normal distortion of music bouncing around like there usually is at indoor shows. I wasn’t even standing near the mixing board; nor was I dead center. Even so, the mix from my position in the crowd was perfect; every instrument, and the vocals, sounded just right.

Even though I saw Opeth on this same tour back in the states this past summer, the set list was extremely different on this evening in Tokyo. Only two songs were the same. “Windowpane” was probably the last song in the world I was expecting them to begin with. “Burden,” kicking off the encore, was also a shock. Personally, I’d rather hear “Demon of the Fall” and “Baying of the Hounds” instead, but surprises are good too.

Setlist:
Windowpane
Ghost of Perdition
The Lotus Eater
White Cluster
The Leper Affinity
Reverie/Harlequin Forest
April Ethereal
Hex Omega
Burden
Rudolf Schenker impersonation
Guitar Solo
Deliverance

I have a pretty decent video of “The Leper Affinity” coming here soon.

Posted on November 17th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: metal, opeth. Comments: 2

Tonight is the night for Opeth!

Between bands at Loud Park the above Opeth ad could be seen on the giant screen. I purchased my Opeth ticket before Loud Park so the Opeth show wasn’t news to me, but it was fun to see the advertisement anyway.

Purchasing concert tickets in Japan is a breeze (if you can read Japanese). Simply walk into any convenience store (we have at least a dozen within a five minute walk from our apartment), go to the ticket vending machine, type in the name of the artist, venue, or date, push a button to print your receipt, take it to the counter, and pay at the register. There are no lines to wait in, internet sites downed by everyone logging on at once, or $20 commissions to Ticketmaster like in the U.S. I was back home with an Opeth ticket in my hand less than 10 minutes after they went on sale.

The above picture is of the flyer for tonight’s gig that I received at Loud Park. The CD on the left I received at Loud Park for filling out a one-page survey (in Japanese) for Arch Enemy. Unfortunately, there is a guy talking (in Japanese of course) between the songs. He is interesting to listen to once, but I have no desire to play the CD a second time with the thought of having to hear him again in order to listen to the Arch Enemy tunes.

Arch Enemy, by the way, is using my photos on their website. It would have been nice had they asked first or at least linked back to the source. Better yet, they could offer me a photographer’s pass to the next gig they do near my location so I can take photos from less than a mile away. In fact, I will send Arch Enemy, or any other band, all of the photos and video I have of them (63 pics and video in the case of Arch Enemy) in their original, high-resolution, not-yet-resized-for-the-internet format with rights to do whatever they like with them for nothing more than a photographer’s press pass to one of their future shows I can attend. And I will give them, free of charge, all of the images and video I take at that show as well.

Posted on November 17th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: loudpark, metal, opeth, Tokyo. Comments: None

Our most recent Grutt Pass adventure had us at the Tokyo Sea Life Park on a Saturday morning. The place was empty in the morning but looked to be getting very crowded on our way out the door in the early afternoon. Live and learn. If you want to visit a spot like this in Tokyo on a weekend, get there at 9:30 a.m., not 1:30 p.m., and your enjoyment factor will go up tremendously.

Tokyo Sea Life Park (葛西臨海水族園) is very similar to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which we were members of about 10 years ago. They say Japan is expensive, but Tokyo Sea Life Park is a huge bargain compared to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The cost is only 700 yen (or free if you have a Grutt Pass). The Monterey Bay Aquarium costs four times as much.

Touching fish, sharks, and rays can be done at either location. Sometimes it is just as fun to watch the expressions on Japanese kids’ faces as they touch the sea life.

Here is a video of the large tank with Hammerhead sharks (シュモクザメ) and tuna (まぐろ). It seems the sharks were getting a bit frisky with their tank mates at this time of the morning.

Posted on November 16th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: grutt pass, museums, Tokyo, video. Comments: 3