A thought about live music in Japan:

Most popular music in Japan seems like it evolved from some imported type of music that was cross-bred with a unique Japanese sensibility to create something that sounds sort of familiar to a westerner, but still has that unmistakable stamp that says "Made in Japan." I suppose it's not unlike the feeling a person from France might get if they went to California and ate nouvelle-French food. Most of the key elements are there, but there is also some essential difference in execution that changes the final product, no matter how slightly. It's familiar, but changed somehow.

But it's not just the sound of the music that's altered, the reception of music by fans here is very different. The separations between styles seem to be more matters of fact and not sources for passionate disagreement or enforced separation. The differences in social situations between, say, punk rockers and rap fans in America in the 1980s just didn't exist here. And all the baggage that goes along with those differences is missing too. I am conditioned to expect that a person wearing ripped, thin leg jeans with a big belt, a leather jacket, boots and a shaggy haircut is probably a white guy. If it's in California, that white guy is probably from Anaheim. Or the kid wearing baggy jeans, basketball shoes, a sports jersey, baseball cap and a gold chain is probably Black, Hispanic, or a white kid from a well-to-do suburb.

But in Japan those aren't even options. Virtually everyone here is Japanese. And all the social forces, norms and tendencies that are carried with being a white guy from the suburbs or a Puerto Rican kid from midtown which would keep those two from hanging out together are non-existent here.

Here it is possible for a person to go to a a rock show one night, a techno DJ event another night, and see some of the same people at both places. Maybe the candy raver isn't moshing, and maybe the punk isn't getting that deep trance feeling of peace. love and so on, but they can cross over without too much trouble. It seems possible to like more than one thing here.

Of course, I am oversimplifying things, and have undoubtedly ignored any number of relevant societal factors. 'Cause I ain't a social scientist. I just happen to like being able to go to a rock show one night, and maybe a techno show another night, and not get hassled for not dressing like a rocker or a mod or a raver or a hipster or whatever. It's nice to have options.

Now, getting hassled for dancing like a rabid dog having a spastic fit... well, that's not gonna change no matter where you go.

One of the great things about living in another country is the chance to try new and interesting things. (And here you thought I just spent all my time in bars and complaining about politics.) For example, I recently had the pleasure of trying the Japanese culinary experience that is "kaiten-zushi."

"Zushi" being a phonetic change of "sushi," small pieces of seafood on vinegared rice, and "kaiten" meaning "circling on a conveyor belt."

That's right. I stayed still. The chef stayed still. The waiters stayed still. But little plates of sushi traveled around the restaurant on a converyor belt. If you wanted it, you picked it up and got charged by the plate. If you didn't want it, it kept traveling. And if no one wanted it, well, then that unloved little piece of sushi would just go around and around until one of the chefs decided to exercise a little mercy and send it to that great sushi bar in the sky. Or the trash bin in the back.

And to top it off? A set price per plate. You know exactly how much it's going to set you back based on the number of plates on the table. For you jokers still living in America and paying $3.00 a piece for marbled tuna that you have to wait for in a sushi bar crowded with west side yuppie scum, think about this: I could pay 100 yen (about 82 cents) for two pieces, and have it come to me.

Really low prices.
No obnoxious crowds.
AND THE FOOD RIDES AROUND ON A CONVEYOR BELT!
In your face, Santa Monica!

Of course, I am now an active and participatory contributor to the over-fishing of Earth's ocean resources. But at these prices, how could I possibly be a part of the solution?