Japanese ho-district: no fun.

man this fucking sucks. Ill apologise now: this is not a pleasant post, ok.

Tonight a few of us went out for a meal: great! then went for beers: great! Then decided to head across the city to the clubbing area of Roppongi: great, i thought.

So, having arrived at Roppongi, we got some beers at a cheapish pub and left 30 mins later. On our exit we got got dragged by some dodgy nigerian guy into a upper-class whore house. no shit.

The place was nice, but populated by japanese salary men, laced in an array of prostitutes spanning the globe over. my friends liked the spot; i did not. They were having fun, and didnt want to leave so soon, but the place was shit so i left early.

Cue a 20 minute walk around an alien metropolis, and the quite literal constant harrassment of people offering me free drinks at their bars, massages or more. Seriously, this section of tokyo is fucked up. Loads of fucking nerdy foreigners looking for japanese birds; loads of nerdy japanese salary men looking for whores. Man, this is notwhat i came here for. Roppongi is a fucking shit-hole.

anyway, i found an internet cafe thanks to myprimitive japanese skills and managed to get online. Gotta wait till 5am for train home now.

im pissed. end of post. sayonara roppongi, you fucking whorehouse.

Argh! It hurts!

Oh for fucks sake! Myself and 3 friends were just shaving before getting in the communal bath - a pleasant experince with 2 fellow brits and a german guy I thought! ;)

However, the german guy made me laugh, and as a result I've hacked a huge chunk of skin from beneath my lip - it fucking recks! So now I've a large wound that'll scab up like some gonorea ridden herpe patch. and i missed my communal bath in the names of all things sanitry.
anyway, just passing time while they have watery fun and soapy frollocks. Damn, i want to bathe too!

><,

The English Bar

ah yesterday was an emotional time! 3 of my good friends (wow thats bizarre, having good friends after 3 days?!) left the hostel in search for adventure: be it in their home town of Texas or the distant splendour of the ancient Kyoto.

Anyway, to bid them fairwell a group of 7 or 8 of us headed halfway accross the subway line to seek out an Irish bar that one of the group highly reccomended. The end result was, as expected, and irish themed bar, hideously caked in tacky shamrocks and sickly shades of green yet still offering a sense of genuinity to it! They seemed to fully pimp guiness, though the prices were definatly not Irish (no offence to those green shoed peasants), ie we're talking 900yen a pint: that's about 4.80 quid. ..Dan, you'd be screwed! :P

the bars here are pretty decent, but the western style ones are questionable: there's a few japanese integrations that bug me, for example people coming to your table to ask what drink you want..it's a pub, not a restaurant! and fish and chips here...my lord. I mean come on, we don't do sushi that bad in the UK!

We've got our tickets for kyoto ourselves now: the fruits of a 1 hour trek accross the city and a rather large confusuion on my behalf resulting in me buying the wrong tickets; but I easily corrected it..by going back and telling him he did it wrong, at which point my intended ticket to kyoto became my deserved ticket to hell..possibly.


Right now i'm in an internet cafe. It was a tough ordeal to get online though as the staff don't speak English and my Japanese is a bit shite...well ok, total bollocks ;) haha, but we managed! There's a pool table here too, and a few Japanese dudes/girls there too: I'll go challenge them on behlaf of england, show them how skilled we brits are at pool ;) booyakasha *clicks fingers*


no real plans for tonight though..maybe head out to one of the party districts of the city before leaving tomorow night for kyoooto to hook up with the lovely canadians and hopefully some Japanese friends too!

over n out,
-Ben

Japanese Weekend part 1

Argh! Excellent weekend!

Hmm where to begin?! it's been so eventful! ...ok, friday night: let's rock!

Firday daytime: Jet-lag was still kicking my arse, so I went to bed at about 6pm. I later woke at about midnight, and whilst brushing my teeth started talking to a Japanese dude amed Yoshi (well he's Swiss but has Japanese parents). Anyway, we got on well and decided to grab a beer from the local vending machine (yeah, Japan rocks, I know!) and headed out to the streets in search of a park. We hit the parks about 30 mins later, crashed out on the swings and chatted about shite in general. Good fun.

Saturday: Whilst sat in the communal lobby, I noticed 2 new arrivals at the hostel: a Canadian couple. Myself and my friend soon befriended them and decided to show them round the local sites and such, including a massive temple and a 100yen shop: Both spectacular in their own rights!

Saturday night: The jet-lagged Canadians bailed early, so I decided to hnag out with 3 Americans and a Japanese girl. We decided to ignore the pub in favour for a few rounds of vodka-and-coke. Needless to say, I didn't stand for long ><, Shortly after, we headed out to a pub in order to continue the drinking. Fun indeed.

Sunday: Myself, my friend, the 2 Canadians and the Japanese-Swiss guy headed out to the area where the Uni' is to check out the fashion-hotspots (we were curious, ok!). Man, it was heaving. The fashions there were so extreme: Literally everyone was dressed to impress; it was hard to believe that people would put so much time, effort and ultimately money into looking 'cool' on a daily basis! Though I have to say, all the fashions were a little strange in the sense that 95% of it are styles form the UK/America 5 or ten years back. We saw a few Japanese goths, too. Very cool looking actually! Though I cannot imagine how they endure the Japanese sun :/

Sunday night: Time to party! 8 of us hooked up and tooka subway to 'Roppongi': the party area for foriengers and Japanese alike. Excelent fun, met some really cool Japanese guys and girls! Will be sure to get in touch with them again for another night out!

Today we visited Tokyo centre to get bus tickets to Kyoto. We're heading out there on wed (or thursday?) and will meet up with a few friends, including the 2 canadians again! Cannot wait!

Anyway, gotta dash! Wish I could go into more detail on things, but no time sorry ><,

By the way! I love japan, but apples here are so expensive! ><,

konnichiwa!

Kooooooonichiwa!

Reached Japan! The flight rocked - met so many strange people on the way and had the pleasure of spending the 14hour flight next to a lovely Japanese girl! ^^,

There was also an old women who I sort of befriended by giving her water (she looked very thirsty). As a result, she harrassed me throughout the flight. I soon became intimidated, nay, terrified, of her inquisitive gestures and asked my friend iff he thought I was being stalked. The heartless bastard replied: "Dude, I told you not to give her any water".

The people of Japan rock. They really do kick arse, especially the older ones! Though they don't speak English, they seem to love me. Case 1: In the cue for train tickets I let a stray old lady past to join her pod of fellow oldies. She gestured thankyou, so I replied "daijoubu desu!" ("it's no problem!"). At which point I was engulfed by the entire flock of grannies and hammered by a rapid beat of super-fast Japanese. I used my skills (term used lightly) to describe that I was lost, at which point she legged it accross the station, shrieking, in a highly effective way, "Sumimasen, sumimaasen!" ("excuse me!") at a station gaurd. Very funny, extremly useful. So many similar cases, including asking some local punks for directions to a guitar store, recieving choclate treats for saying thanks in japanese at a local shop..the list goes on! Time permits not though sorry!


So yeah, Japan is really cool. though contradictionally extremely warm ;). I'm drinking so much water it's unreal. I really hope I can adjust to this climate, and quickly at that!

Havn't hit any clubs yet, though we've visited a massive shrine/temple which was pretty good.

Anyway, gotta dash!

Ja mata ne

Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head?

"I love it when a plan comes together" as spoken by Murdoch: how true are these words? Strangely, for once, they're very true. Infact, I can almost taste the bitter-sweet scent of a victory cigar right now. Oh yes.

I'm finally (almost) ready to depart the UK and to head East to the land of the rising sun.

I've spent most of today scouring the shops of scarbrough for a number of items to systematically cross off my 'Must Get!' list, including, but not limited to: a bag: to store stuff in; some Japanese Yen: you *can* buy happiness, but only if the currencie's right; toothpaste: a smile's worth a thousand words, so long as it's gilnty-fresh; a Japanese maple tree: for my brother. He likes trees; and so much more! My god, my bank's taken a right arse raping these last few days, but I can somehow justify it.

Yet amongst all this hustle and organised chaos I was somehow able to cram in one last jam with my beloved band tonight: All went well, we nailed a few songs before concluding with an 8minute version of 'Zombie'.

Anyway, the plan for the next 48 hours are roughly as follows:
* grab a train to Manchester. Do not forget bags, passport, tickets, toothpaste etc.
* emerge at Manchester, hook up with my bro' in law. Head out to his pad and chill with he and my older sis'.
* get up at some fucking gruesome hour in the morning on wed' (5ish). Head out to manchester airport, wait for our flight.
* fly to Paris. Admire the hairy-armpitted French babes. oh-la-la.
* fly to Tokyo
* get off plain. Ask oneself "what the fuck am I doing? Where am I? Which way to Takeshis castle?!" then scream "higai!" and charge for the nearest obstacle course.
* somehow find our hotel. Befriend the locals. Get some sleep and food. Head out to partay, and, as they say, the rest shall be history!

Should be interesting to say the least.

..and your thoughts on the future are, Ben?

I went camping last night up on the North Yorkshire Moors with a few friends - for anyone unfamiliar: the N.Y. Moors is a vast, vast area of mountainous valleys that are blanketed in heather and seemingly populated by nothing much beyond hordes of curious sheep. It's also bloody cold at the best of times.

Anyway, we got up there, set up camp and headed straight into the pub whos garden we were nested upon (coincidentally the only pub for miles. Good call). From here we ordered a meal and I had a moving chat with a stranger about mountain bikes. After the meal, we hit the sack (around 10pm). It was bloody cold and socialising wasn't really on the cards. I was slightly miffed as my viens were running with the urge for adventure of some sort as I'd just finished reading 'The Beach' a few hours earlier. So I went to sleep feeling unfulfilled to say the least.

Strangely I woke up at some unknown hour for some reason or another. I could hear the crackling of fire and the dull hum of distant laughter from the other end of the field. I checked my phone: it was 2:50am. I decided to get out and go see what was going on: there seemed to be a gathering of some sort, so I woke up my mates, none of whom were interested in exiting their sleep and ultimately the tent (and quite frankly pissed off at me for waking them up).

Regardless, it was adventure I craved and adventure I would have - I grabbed a few beers and cautiously mulled my way across the field and towards the flickering silhouettes of the unknown figures.

20 meters: A dark, blurred outline was all I could make out along with some faint chatter.
10 meters: The harsh outlines gained some features from the fire's illumination.
2 meters: Ah, the sickly-sweet aroma of weed hit me. Eyes squinted and arms stretched out, bearing the beer-themed peace offerings, I introduced myself:

"Hi, mind if I join you?"
"no man, take a seat"

Fucking A, I'd found the only hippies on the entire moors! Woo! Well I say hippies, that's maybe too strong a term, but they seemed to represent everything hippyish I knew, bar the dreads and so forth.

We had a pleasant chat about anything and everything - mostly of a forthcoming-doom nature revolving around what the future could possibly hold, or more to the point, what it wouldn't hold. Pretty interesting stuff. Regardless, I had a laugh and a good think, as I'm sure they all did too.

Time flew and the dark-sky was starting to light up as the sun apparantly answered its cue to emerge from beyond the horizon. And, respectively, the fire was on it's way out: It was time to hit the sack, again.

A decent night. Not quite an adventure on the scale of 'the beach', but certainly good to meet new people and shoot the shit in such unexpected circumstances.

Oh yeah, regarding 'The Beach': It's an excellent book. I strongly advise it to anyone who's not seen the film; and I advise it more so to anyone who has seen it and thought it was shite (like myself).

Sunshine Lollipops and,..

Crrent Time:
---------------
"Argh! Pain!It burns, it burns! Curse you bringer of life, curse you! "

Prelogue:
-----------
I got the book 'the Beach' on wednesday and decided to check it out straight away.

"Oh, the weather's nice, I'll go read outside" I decided. -Strike one.

Picture it: An unusally sunny and summer-ish day forms the backdrop to the story; a plump-looking patio decking chair offers the comfort; and 'the Beach' acts as the afternoon's host.

So, having got a few pages in, I decide it's a decent read and continue.

"shit, it's warm." I think. I engage shorts and continue reading. -Strike two.

Wow, the beach book really is a great read - extremely immersive: I could feel the Thai sun beating down on me.

"shit, it's so fucking hot" I remind myself. In response, I remove tshirt and collapse into a sprawled heap, hoping that nature will do the cooling for me. -Strike 3.

..anyway, I got hauled in by the books style. 3 hours later, realising that it was infact the UK sun beating down on my semi-naked self and not just a mental illusion from reading, I decided to retreat in doors to the less-hostile shade. It's at that point that I noticed my slightly pink looking knee, and slighly rosey looking breasts. I kid not, the sun had indeed crushed the glowing figure that is yours truly into a fucking pink-breasted clown. I looked like a strawberry mini milk, minus the wooden extrusion of course.

And now, 2 days later, my knees are still small red globes and my chest still resembles that of the aptly named robin red breast. Man this sucks, it's so painful and irratating,

Curse you bringer of life, curse you!

A Happy Byrd-Day Indeed

At 2.30ish pm the call came; it was the prompter of Joy, Luke J. Foster himself:

"Dude, it's Chris' bday, wanna come to the Curry house tonight?"
"shit, can't sorry, gotta band practice"
"argh.."

sadly, I had a band practice booked and couldn't bail on them (again), after slefishly cancelling in favour of exams and such for the past few weeks. And then it came, part 2 of 'the call':

"..we're off to a club or something after if you want to meet up?"

Team Ben: "Fuck yeah". I was in. The plan was set. The clouds had cleared; The joyous rivers of good-things-to come were flowing- and flowing nicely at that too!

So, I jammed and then got my arse to scarborough in record time. Arriving at about 11pm, I was greeted by a room full of people, including the drunken birthday-boy, Chris Byrd himself - at which point I presented him with the fine array of gifts I'd prepared: a huge selection of crisps and 4 cans of Fosters, encircled in several layers of velvety-soft kitchen roll.

Before heading out to a local club, we decided to chill at the Cave of Tom for a bit, allowing time for Chris to bask in the warmth of his close friends and delightful gifts - including a framed picture of his beloved Clair and, erm, I forgot her name, and an onion, I mean, 'Eric', who soon found refuge in his groinal region.

Shortly after we departed and headed straight for Vivas. Coincidentally, on this night Vivas happened to be host to a bizarre conventnion of cross dressers, the local female mafia, ex-wwf superstars..oh wait, it was fancy dress, sorry! Yeah, there were hordes and hordes of trollish monsters caked in makeup and tacky costumes. I loved it, it was like the most bizarre dream I could ever wish for: Hulk hogan to the left of me, Batman to the right, there I was, stuck in the middle of vivas. Fucking A my friend, fucking-A.

Anyway, regardless of the population of the place, we all headed for the bar and got in some drinks (and bday bonus for Chris, of course!). And with the first sip of Fosters, the night commenced (and my fate of drunkness-to-come was sealed!).

Just like every other event I write about, the night was pretty surreal: It just seemed so intense to be immersed in a the hectic scene of the club with the CIC posse, a sea of fancydressers, genuine shot-dispensing trannies, fucking cack karaoke, mortal kombat, chilled beer... ah the list goes on!

2AM creeped up fast; too fast infact. It was time to bail. So we dispersed back to Toms cave, minus the Byrdster who dissappeard off to who knows where ;) Returning shortly after, we sought the olde faithful N64 and it's bigger bro' the GameCube to help us through to the early hours, before finally hitting the sack at some ungodly hour in the morning :intermission of a couple hours sleep: wake up, greet the Fostz0r, bum around for a few hours and then finally grab a bus back to civilization.

Another gnarly night in the company of the CIC posse ^^, We gotta sort out one last CIC-night out before we all vacate scarborg (pre-may24th for me!)!

PS - this entry is dedicated to Chris who was 21 yesterday. And to Matt because he loves my blog.

Walking Dreams

I happened to watch this film by total chance at a friends whilst enjoying the sweet-yet-sour taste of the aptly titled sweet-and-sour chicken.

I could spend all day trying to summarise it for you and in turn would wind up spending that said day talking complete, utter nonesense. Instead, I'll turn to a scene from the film which pretty much summarised and indeed described itself (at least in my view it achieved this):

"I'm writing a novel"
"what's it about?"
"It's not about anything! It doesn't have a story! It just follows people..."

..only search a bit deeper than the loose, generic term 'people' and instead consider it's other addressed points ranging from the meaning of life, financial entrapment, the potential of thought and you've a pretty sound representation to the whole film right there. Then again, that's my view!

The presentation of the film is again strange. It's so unique and infact rather difficult to pin a definite "so that's how it's done" to it: The style appears to be hand drawn, at times, and at others it appears to be filmed. Almost to the point where it opts for very-realistic animation, or completey unrealistic filming; Surreal to say the least. But for the most parts it seems to be a subtle blend of the two styles, almost as though arguing the hazed feeling of being half-awake after a good nights kip. I think this must have been done by filming and then applying some effects to it later in the editing room - either that or some outstanding artwork within the art dept'.

A really, really strange thing about this film was the way it handled my focus: most, infact all, films seem to strive to grasp and hold your focus; this film seemed to do the oppostie: sort of get your focus, then hurl it to the other end of logic and thought and get you thinking about something totally unrelated, totally incomparable, totally unthinkable perhaps..the number of times I was paying close attention one minute then the next just dazed off in a conscious state of un-focused catatonia. I'm certain that's purposely done - it just fits the whole 'looseness' and expression of the film too well to *not* be that way! sort of ;)

There were a few more scenes, events, characters and quotes within the film that I wanted to comment further on, but as cliche as this may sound, I can't quite form a solid enough reccollection of each to do so! ><,

hmm, I've just realised that this review seems to be circling around a vague, distant point of some sort, yet it doesn't look as though it's due to start spiraling in at any time soon.. maybe I should just retire on the review with the statement "go watch the film if you're up for some thinking- passivley or actively. Just watch it. Live it. Dream it.". But before you do just flick the light switch a couple of times, I think I left it on...

You mean *this* colour?

"What you up to tomorrow?"
"shit all"
"wanna go bowling, get a takeaway 'n watch a movie?"
"sounds good yo!"

..and so the plan was conceived by the virtual intercourse that was MSN messenger.

Yeah, pretty decent day today, especially considering I planned to do 'shit all'. Myself and a few friends decided to meet up, jam on some random video game (and perve on the female characters, James), head out for a spot of bowling, catch an episode of the abysmal Dr. Who, dart off to the pub, get in a Chinese take-away and then proceed to watch a brain crushingly euphoric animated film about lucid dreaming. Top banana.

(I've chapterised it for easy reading. Is 'chapterised' even a word? )

Episode 1: King-Pins
Bowling was cool; I hadn't been in about 6 or 7 years maybe! I was the first to score a strike. I was also the first, and only, to fail to hit any pins. I was also the first, and only, to trap my finger in the bowling ball dispening machine. I came 3rd. Out of 4 players. And my lace was un-done. Bummer.

Episode 2: The Waiting for Who(?)
Time to return to the flat of Tom and co, where we passed a few hours of keen anticipation (regarding dr Who) courtesy of the gamecube. I'm shite at video games as I rarely play, but I managed to slay some mere beat-em-up peasants and have a laugh along the way. Cue Dr. Who: a pretty crap science fiction of almost spoof-like jestability, repenting for its sins only in the form of Simon peggs presence as an evil side-kick of some sort. And to think this tv program put a 2 hour wedge between me and my sweet 'n sour chicken?!

Episode 3: For fucks sake, use a fucking pen!
Anyway, dr. Who soon finished, meaning one thing and one thing only: time to get the Chinese in! Now, you'd think this would be a straight forward procedure, at least I would, but nay. Not amongst computing students. Instead, we collected together the groups orders on Jeffs lap top..then ran them through a program that would say them back to us (struggling on 'chow mein'), before realising that was no use and then printing the list.. at which point we added to it with pen by hand (why not a pen and paper from step one, why?!). Oh well, the cause somehow justified the means..in a prolongued, agonising half-hour long kind of a way..

Chapter 4: Trek to the Golden Dragon
Chinese ordered: ben 50% happy. Time to leave the humble cave of Tom and co and to set forth on the epic quest to the Golden Dragon (the Chinese take away). Of course this involved a stop-off at the local watering hole 'peppers' for refreshment and self-preservation purposes. Rather chilly outside in the beeer garden, right Matt? ;)

Chapter 5: Take My Food, Taste My Rain
..no sooner that we'd got our take away from the restaurant that the heavens opened up: almost like the scene form Indiana Jones where he rapes the temple of it's golden mascot causing the whole place to come crashing down in what can only be described as a self defensive mechanism. However, we were faced with getting wet as opposed to being mashed by giant boulders, impaled by thrusting spears and mobbed by a bunch of savage natives (bar the usual wave of chavs?). On a lighter note, I bought some chopsticks for just 80p.

Chapter 6: Salavating Over Chicken Balls
Chinese home, ready to eat. 'nuff said.

Chapter 7: Walking Dream
Ah, the title of the strange film we watched. I'd love to tell more about it, and indeed I shall in a future post! But to summarise it: It's about colour, man, you know like when you have all these colours, and some are the right one to use, but like, some aren't, yet equally they are, if you think, about that colour, that one colour, deep enough, that is, then its all ok as that colour, and not the colour that isnt that colour, is the right colour, the ideal colour, the only colour, infact no other colour will suffice.. It's all subjective, really.

Yeah, I'll review that film shortly I hope!

Gnarly day indeed ;)

The Monotonous Drone of the Undead Crypt

I paid a visit to the hospital today to try and fix some minor problem with my ear (too much metal). I was shocked to find a room, infact a whole hospital, 99% populated with the old. I understand that they're more prone to attempted visits from the reaper and such, but still, it made me coil back and think over the concepts of prolongued life..

It was really strange actually, surreal in it's own bizzare way, to hear a constant background droning of the chatter between the aged clients. What were they talking about? And to who? Or why, for that matter? Just meaningless streams of words to pass the waiting time?

I can't help but think what it's going to be like in a few years when the life-expectancy crawls way up past 100 - imgaine it: the whole UK will passivley drift into a state of waiting for the inevitable. Aged lemmings on the metaphoric cliff of one big seaside resort, if you like.

The constant drone of the undead crypt
Serving no purpose; following no script
Seemingly pointless, corrupting the peace
Onlookers wait for the waiting to cease
Waiting for nothing, expecting it all,
Willing to wait, not ready to fall.

Yeah, just a bit wierd that, got me thinking.


PS, happy startreek day! (especially Luke and CJB!).

Romeo Must Die

I saw this film about a year ago with a friend and decided to check it out again tonight. I was impressed. Very much so indeed!

It's basically a modern-day abstraction of the 'Romeo and Juliet' story: Two families; one impossible love. It's set in a U.S. city (shite, I missed which, sorry!) and focuses on the turf-war between the two clashing families: one of black origin and the other Chinese. Jet Li coincidentally plays a character from the Chinese family and Aaliyah plays the daughter of the head of the Black family; these two meet by chance and a bizarre love unfolds (though no tongues..seriously, no toungueage to be seen!). However, the story line isn't as simple as this and a whole network of plot twists and unexpected events unravel throughout...

The action scenes (read: Fighting!) are excellently done and make full-use of Jet Li's skills and the 'Chinese wires' that we've come to love him for. Further more, such scenes are enhanced by excellent camera work and the odd splash of CGI. There are, of course, a number of gun-based fight scenes, though old jetty-boy never makes use of such arms (as the ancient chinese proverb goes: "Guns don't kill people, Kung Fu does"..honestly! [Flora, can we get a translation on that?!]). There's also a number of car-chase style scenes which are visually pleasing and fairly origanal too!

Aalyiah portrays a convincing character throughout in her debut role, including a tag-team effort with Li to bitch-slap some slag that starts on him: "I don't know how it is in China, but here in the U.S., when a girls kicking your ass you don't have to be a gentleman" - Li's views are too strong and he decides not to hit her (..hence no chinese equivalent of Jerry Springer) , and so he employs the business end of Aalyahs boot/fist instead.

On a related note, I was saddened when my mate informed me that she had died since making the film - Her onscreen charisma, warmth and overall presence are so genuine and attainable that it just seems tragic that she no longer exists beyond the realms of celluloid. Very tagic indeed.

The end face-off between Li and mystery perp' X is fiery to say the least. The end itself is a little strange too in regards to Li's fathers actions - though I think it's some sort of twisted 'adaptation' to the climax of 'Romeo and Juliet', sort of.. watch it and see what you think!

Overall an outstanding film! It's unusual to find something that caters to each and every one of my diverse needs: A decent sound track (with kick arse bass: thanks Bootsy), martial arts, good camera/lighting work, crap one-liners and a plentiful supply of easy-on-the-eye chinese ladies - yet it manages it! ^^,


PS - I quit driving today. It finally got to me, I'm useless. Maybe after the summer, eh?