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.

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 Off on An evening in Shibuya with Opeth (オーペス)

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: 4

Kids’ Trips in Tokyo: A Family Guide to One-Day Outings and Japan for Kids: The Ultimate Guide for Parents and Their Children are two books we reference frequently while living in Tokyo. Both can be useful, but both are far from perfect.

Neither one is very good at telling you what you can do in a certain area. For instance, let’s say that you will be in Shibuya for the day. Without going through each book from cover to cover, you can’t figure out what the books offer on just the Shibuya area. The index in Kids’ Trips is a mere three and a half pages in length and is not organized by area. Japan for Kids has an index of seven pages, but it, too, is not organized by area AND it covers all of Japan so seven pages means the index is nearly worthless. If you look up a place like Takadanobaba (where we live) or Roppongi (a popular hang out in Tokyo) in the index of either book you will find absolutely nothing. Of the two, Kids’ Trips is more useful when trying to look up a place since you can use the map inside the front cover to sort of see if there is any coverage of the target area.

Both books are dated. Kids’ Trips has a copyright of 1998, meaning the information is at least 10 years old and usually more like 15 years old. The second edition of Japan for Kids was copyrighted in 2000, but much of the content goes back to the first edition which was written before 1992.

OK, so the books aren’t great, but they are sometimes still useful. For instance, we wouldn’t have known about NHK Studio Park without Kids’ Trips. A video from NHK Studio Park can be found at the end of this post. However, we followed Kids’ Trips‘ advice too much and went to Maisen, a tonkatsu restaurant, on the top of Tokyu’s Department Store. We had a great time there, thanks to the lively conversation we enjoyed with the couple next to us who were celebrating her 60th birthday. However, the food wasn’t that great, and certainly not Tokyo’s best tonkatsu as the guide suggests. I’ve had better tonkatsu at other places in Tokyo for less than half the price.

The maps in Kids’ Trips are pretty good, and the directions are generally easy to follow.

Both books are useful references and fairly essential if you are going to be in Tokyo for an extended period of time with kids. If you only choose one, I would make it Kids’ Trips. Even if you are only going to be in Tokyo with kids for a couple of weeks I recommend bringing Kids’ Trips along.

Posted on November 14th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: book review, guidebooks, kids, video. Comments: 1

Some more scenes from the Kawasaki Halloween Parade 2009 today…

Actually, this second pic is not from the parade. Instead it shows how Halloween fever has taken hold of an ordinary Baskin-Robbins ice cream store. Everything goes Halloween in the store and the Japanese come in to buy more than normal.

Posted on November 2nd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: halloween, kawasaki, people, video. Comments: 6

The little, Japanese girl on the right, dressed as a witch, looked to be taking off when the wind caught her cape.

Ms. Krueger tried to take off my son’s face.

The “Up” movie float started the parade. There were two large nets of balloons coming off the top before the parade began. One they let go to kick off the parade. The other had to be pulled in tight so they could get by trees, etc.

These two, cute kids were doing some reverse trick-or-treating. They handed us candy and said “Happy Halloween” although it sounded more like ハッピーハロウィン. In any event, it brought a smile to my face.

What I eventually figured out, though, is that photos only come out well (with my camera anyway) pre- and post-parade when the subjects are still. During the parade video provides much better results.

Posted on November 1st, 2009 under Japan. Tags: halloween, kawasaki, kids, people, video. Comments: 1