by joostay
What I was up to last weekend – and the next few to come…
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Traditional Festivals • Tags: art, asia, blog, blogging, buddhism, design, japan, japanese, life, music, photography, photos, religion, traditional, Travel blogger, travel writer, video, writing
by joostay
Just like a soup in a pot we are what?! Bubbling Hot.
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: asia, blog, bubbling hot, culture, design, ikimasho, japan, japanese, music, nights out, pato banton, photography, reggae, shinagawa, tokyo, travel, uk
by joostay
If I ever move to Bangkok, I want to live by Lumphini Park. Music by Fabio Orsi – from his Just For A Thrill release on Home Normal.
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: ambient, asia, backpacking, bangkok, electronica, fabio orsi, home normal, japan, label, music, nature, netlabel, peace, photography, sound, tokyo, travel, Zen
by joostay
I went to the top of Mount Takao today to experiment with my camera and make a short video. This was the view of Fuji waiting for me at the top. All around me people were picnicking in the sun, enjoying the start of hanami. Spring has arrived.
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, backpacking, blog, electronica, fuji san, hanami, hiking, idm, ikimasho, japan, japanese, mount fuji, music, ovuca, takao san, tokyo
by joostay
From Northern Ireland to Nippon with one of the world’s leading netlabels From its humble beginnings in a room in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Acroplane Recordings – headed up by Paul Moore – has matured to become of the world’s leading netlabels. Boxcutter (Planet Mu) and Space Dimension Controller (R&S) put out their first releases on Acroplane, and over the years Paul has played alongside artists as diverse as Autechre, Scorn, Luke Vibert, Remarc and Surgeon to name but a few. Acroplane […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: acid, acroplane recordings, ambient, art, beats, blog, culture, design, electronic music, electronica, Himuro Yoshiteru, idm, japan, japanese, music, netlabel, street, techno, tokyo, urban
by joostay
If you’re a fool, you may as well dance… Once a year, 12,000 dancers pile out on to the streets of Koenji for the annual Awa Odori, Tokyo’s most energetic festival. Men dance in tabi (split-toed socks), while women wear sandals, their heels not touching the ground. They march through the streets in unison to music performed on the shamisen, flute, drums, and bells singing “Odoru aho ni miru aho; onaji aho nara odoranya son son!” (It’s a fool who dances and a […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, awa odori, blog, drums, festival, flute, ikimasho, japan, japanese blog, koenji, matsuri, music, shamisen, summer, taiko, tokyo, traditional, travel
by joostay
Joe Queer chats to Ikimasho! about Japan, maki rolls and writing songs for Joey Ramone. I love The Queers. Yet despite them touring my home country of Northern Ireland in 2004, 2005 and 2008, I always somehow managed to miss them due to me being in different parts of Asia at the time. Fast forward to 2013 and I was back in Asia again… only to find out they were playing not far from my house here in Tokyo the very next night. Finally, after […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: asia, asian man records, ben weasel, dangerous dave, japan, joe queer, joey ramone, music, pop, pop punk, punk, ramones, richie ramone, screeching weasel, sushi, the queers, tokyo, touring
by joostay
This is possibly my favourite Japanese song. It isn’t by some up-and-coming band, obscure electronica artist or even Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. It’s a traditional lullaby which originates from the village of Takeda near Kyoto, and one which has been sung among the Kansai burakumin for generations. Burakumin (“hamlet people”) were an outcast community at the bottom of the Japanese social order that had historically been the victim of severe discrimination and ostracism. These communities were often made up of those with occupations considered impure or tainted by death […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: feudal, japan, lullaby, Lullaby of Takeda, music, Takeda no Komoriuta, tokyo, traditional
by joostay
Me? You want to know about me? I dunno. What do you want me to tell you? Well, I’m Takuhiro. I’m from Kajicho. It’s in Kanda. Do you know Kanda? They have a famous festival there every year. It’s very traditional. But I guess my area is all office blocks now. There isn’t much to see. I’ve lived in the same house all my life. I’m nearly 50 now. Can you believe that!? My wife and I live with with […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, dancers, harajuku, japan, lebels, music, park, rockabilly, strangers, sunday, tokyo, travel, yoyogi, yoyogi park
by joostay
Nature entangled in concrete. Opaque skies. Silence. Every Thursday I make the trip to Saitama to hang out with the crows and the lonely vending machine who hasn’t been touched in years. He’s OK though. Content in stillness. The clouds above are grey, the roads below the same. A rusty beer tin hides in the verge, watching the people who pass him by day, after day, after day. No one notices him. The train station is unmanned, the bus stop […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, brian eno, crows, dull, grim, happy, inaka, japan, music, saitama, tokyo
by joostay
4 men. 1 album. 3 dimensions. After a sell-out (and computer crashing) run at the Tate Modern, Kraftwerk brings its catalogue retrospective to Tokyo: 8 consecutive gigs at the intimate Akasaka Blitz. It’s raining heavily in Tokyo. Outside a venue in one of the city’s central business districts, lines of people are waiting patiently, colourful umbrellas hoisted in the air. An almost fittingly minimalistic hand-drawn sign is taped to the door: KRAFTWERK. STARTS 5PM. Inside, you are immediately struck by the intimacy of […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: art, asia, bass, berlin, bizarre, clubbing, culture, electronica, germany, japan, kraftwerk, moog, music, ralf, south east asia, synths, tokyo, travel, urban
IKIMASHO!