It Was Almost a Dirty Confession

This morning at NBC's Today Show, the unthinkable occurred - I happened upon the start of a song I did not recognize but figured it had to be Maroon 5 - and it sounded decent.

It sounded not bad.

If you could not tell, I am doing everything in my power to not say the "g" word because Maroon 5 never deserves to be called "gouhh...".

See? I can't even say it.

Perhaps the lapse in mental capabilities on my part was due to the fact that the sound itself was decent for twice (R.E.M. was the only band that actually had good equipment and well, it's R.E.F.R.I.C.K.I.N.G.M.) and also due in part to that one girl who was dancing her way out of the crowd with a ton of flava'.  She was having fun.  What can I say?

I had not forgotten that Adam Levine is a damned douche and that I dislike him immensely.  I am being redundant because I have to be to get this point in your head...that I almost went against every moral fiber in my brain to admit that a Maroon 5 song was guhh..guuh...  ...  more than decent.

However, I have good news to share because I just watched the performance online and Adam Levine still proves to be the jerk he is and I've decided potentially dirty confessions are out of my head.

I corrected myself for you lot.

In case you might still be reeling from something I may have implied, here, let me instead distract you by an awesome kid playing Taiko no Tatsujin.



That kid is a freaking Taiko DRUM MASTER.

Beetchie, you and I need to go back to the arcades of Japan.

Or alternately, we need lots of money for a purchase:

CLICK ME! You know you want to see the price...

Memories From Japan, Sullied In NY

To be more specific, it's really that my memories of the good times at the Japanese Arcades have been sullied in my living room here in NY.

I bought Taiko Drum Master today and completely forgot that games such as these when they come over to the U.S. are created to suit our 'tastes'.

So instead of all those cool-assed Japanese songs that I taiko-ed to in Japan, I get crap like "ABC" by the Jacksons and ugh, wait for a cringe... "Toxic" by the train wreck Britney S.

Of course, I am not saying that the Japanese didn't have some J-pop bullsheet in the Arcade versions but they also had traditional Japanese songs.

Powerful Logic:

This is Taiko Drum Master.
A taiko drum is Japanese.
A U.S. created song is not Japanese.
therefore, need I finish this equation?

Eh.

It may not be that horrible for the Powerful Logic reason described above but it certainly loses something hearing that type of drum over a regular trap set. It doesn't quite fit. Also, those drums were massive and the sound in the arcade was greatness for actually hearing the taiko drum.

That and I miss the cool Namco/Nintendo songs they had going down at the Arcades. Who knew that taiko-ing the Mario Themes and The Legend of Zelda Theme could be so damned hard?

I want to go back to Tokyo right now.

Ah, the memories...

The Tokyo-Ho Japan Chronicles - Day 3

Day 3 - Tuesday, May 29th



We'll call this day the Great Yokohama Piggyh Adventure.

Sure we did other things than this but this was by far the most memorable thing that happened to us that day.

And so the story goes...

We went out to Yokohama and before entering Chinatown there was this Arcade. It was the first real one we had seen, so we went in after 9 AM to hit up some Taiko Drum Master (which is my new favourite game and at least, the one that was most fun at the arcades) and to test our hands at some UFO Catchers.

For 100 yen, we managed to grab one pig from the second row of white and black piggies and out came tumbling that pig dragging 6 others with him! It was hilarious. There were pigs all over the ground! My head hurt from laughing so hard and we made our escape from the Arcade, with two bags of pigs, a previously obtained gloomy bear, and a monkey, with the girls working at the arcade watching us slink off like dirty criminals! But hey, Beetchie won those pigs fairly. Ah, they must have hated having to re-arrange that UFO Catcher Machine.

We then headed to the Doll Museum. It was cool yet scary as expected from a Doll Museum.



::shudder::

Also, I now have questions as to who "Licca" is (not that crazed scary betch in the picture above) as she seems to be the Barbie of Japan.

Our next destination was Chinatown. The problem with this Chinatown was that while it was the dirtiest part of Japan that we had seen and would see for the entire trip (yes, even the fish market was cleaner), it was still not at the level of NYC Chinatown dirt, taking away a vital feeling of what makes Chinatown what it is.

The other thing missing was the people on the street trying to sell you CD/DVD or Louis vitton on the sly.

As far as we could tell, there were no Chinese people in Chinatown but if they were, they were all speaking Japanese. It was very odd.

Also, the Chinatown in Japan has seen it fit to bastardize pandas. They've been exploited by trying to make them marketable. Save the Pandas! By buying some useless panda junk!

Here's that damned monkey in a panda suit:



But like our Chinatown, there's a tiny section in Chinatown that some Europeans have called home. It's not Italians but Ukkers. Ah, Ukkers. I was happy to see them.

Our last stop to that day took us to a residential area not far from a busy train station where we scared some kids and made them nervous as they hurried off to their parents. We were actually a little bit lost trying to find the Ramuen Museum.

Ah, Ramuen Town. It was shady and a re-creation of a dirty little ramen-serving town with multiple ramen shops. It was small but cool and quirky. Beetchie loved it plenty.



The WTF Moment(s) of the Day:

1. I don't know what's up with that Hokkaido Mascot and its relation to Ramuen but yeah. That thing was obscene.

2. WTF's up with the 'u' in 'ramuen'? I need to wiki that.

The Casualty Count:

1. The little sumo guy I bought Beetchie fell off her bag and almost lost to Yokohama. Fortunately, due to his large ass in red sumo undies, I managed to spot him on the grey ground but he, ::sniff:: sadly lost an arm.

2. Beetchie's virtual puppy that she could not walk and later was attacked by a larger dog. Let us all have a moment of silence...



Things We Observed This Day - Volume III

1. Those goddamned Japanese bicyclists are crazy! Many times did my life flash before my eyes.

2. Licca, unlike Barbie, has had many man whores. Ken's got nothing on her.

3. I can't slurp ramen. 10+ years of ramen eating habits could not be broken in 2 weeks, no matter how polite in Japan it is to slurp.

The Day's Eats:

1. That weird breakfast with a not fully cooked egg, kielbasa sausage, salad, seaweed, miso soup, and rice. The even weirder breakfast that Beetchie had. It's not the fact that she had grilled salmon for breakfast with rice, it was the natto that made it not so good. She has now deemed herself Nattofan. It was god awful but she says that activating it was fun.

Let us all be revolted by the following picture:



2. Pork ramen from Ramuen Town. Oh that was greatness.

3. Dim sum in Chinatown. It was not the same as dim sum here because there are no carts zipping around but there are set meals that have lots of dumplings, gyoza and shumai. I was not too impressed by those dumplings because I have to say curry should never be in a dumpling. At least they were nice to look at. Stupids! I'd rather have a happily filled stomach than happy eyes when it comes to food!

4. Shumai on a stick. Mmmm. Street shumai.

5. Absinthe and a 'cranberry'/vodka combination that actually turned out to be a 'grapefruit' juice/vodka combination. Much like the T-shirt and tie combination, it wasn't that impressive. I probably should have thrown a hissy fit but they were so sweet, how could I?

Currently listening to (as I revise the draft): Man of Mystery by MUSE.