Kanda River

Today was my day off. Went out all night last night with Chris to Hard to Explain and danced. Was fun. Chris fell asleep on the train and stayed that way for 2 hours. I caught the train after him and managed to make it home in one piece.
Before HTE, I went out with Kevin, his girlfriend Akari, Dave(drummer), and Kevin's friend Dai(hardcore J-dude) - oh, and Akari's friend Noriko. We went out for a 90 minute nomihodai and I had to do a double-take when I heard Akari mention the name "Rob Gilliam". I actually thought they were fucking with me at first, but it turns out that she and her friend had lived in the same house with that dude. I tried to refrain from offending either of them, so I didn't really talk any smack. They were both pretty cool, people though, so maybe we'll all hang out again. Noriko works for sony, and is down with Imamura(one of the few Japanese people i've met who has actually seen his films), which was really cool. She didn't understand why i didn't like ethan hawk(hawke?), though...

at the club, i found the night to be a success because we made it out of there without chris(as he has been prone to do as of late) pushing someone else for no reason. The setlist was exactly the same, but it's starting to become endearing, b/c everyone there has so much fun.

I've been really busy with Waseda recently, and it's actually been sort of nice. ALthough I teach about 50 hours a week now(not including preparation time), it's manageable, and I don't kill a lot of time when I do have free time. I almost feel like I get more done in my freetime now because I have less of it. Reminds me of how a lot of people who have lived in Tokyo their whole lives haven't seen a lot of the landmarks that people hit first when they visit because they can go anytime. makes me wish I had been more involved in a bunch of stuff when I was in college, as it might have had a positive effect on how much schoolwork I did in my down time.

Also, I've been biking a lot. Sam came to visit a couple of weeks ago and we biked all around tokyo one night. Although I'd already been biking a lot, that sort of gave some extra motivation to really try to get around and bike a lot. I've really grown fond of the tiny streets and juxtaposition of concrete and greenery. A lot of people have said this is one of the ugliest cities in the world, but i'm pretty into small spaces and giant concrete square things.

I had a new private model lesson today in Kichijoji so I biked up there along the kanda river, it was really beautiful all the way to Inokashira park. I think I might make that part of my weekly routine.

I also biked to Jiyugaoka yesterday - I took mostly big roads/highways(of course on the sidewalk...) and the car fumes were a little much for the workout, so I might try and trace an alternate route next time. If I really start biking a lot more, I'm oging to consider getting a "real" bike -



band is still going. we actually finished the music for one song recently(we've been operating with some sketches for what seems like forever), which was a big deal. progress, albeit gradually.

I got some giant headphones that look all cool and old school but they are kind of giant, so i feel a little self-conscious on the subway sometimes. I'm hoping that will pass.

listening to the new spoon album - seems like it might be better than the last one, but I'm going to need to give it quite a few more listens