Tokyo Travelogue – Tokyo Art City by Naked
Tokyo is never lacking when it comes to impressive art exhibitions at museums, galleries, or even shopping malls, but whenever the design firm Naked comes out with another light-themed artistic display, it’s usually something special. Their latest feat, dedicated to Tokyo itself, is no exception. Tokyo Art City by Naked is an amazing amalgamation of light, art, and music that creates a one-of-a-kind experience that showcases everything wonderful and amazing about the city it’s based on.
It’s also hella trippy. Continue reading
Sushi Arcade Games, Pretty Flowers, and Zima
Over the years I read a lot about “strange” Japanese arcade games. There was the one where you poke people in the butt, that’s a classic. And of course there was the table flipping one that I think a lot of people know about. But I’ve never been lucky enough to find either of them in the wild since I moved to Tokyo three years ago. I think the weirdest arcade game I had ever come across was a Typing Of The Dead style game starring Lupin The 3rd, which to be honest, was pretty damn weird now that I think about it.
But it’s not as weird as this! Continue reading
I Went To A Game Music DJ Show
West of Tokyo, about 10 minutes away from Shinjuku via the Chuo Line, is Koenji, a neighborhood called the coolest in Tokyo by many a magazine both foreign and domestic. This is thanks largely to the hood’s amazing bar and club scene. Take a stroll down any of Koenji’s dozens of sketchy-looking, but entirely safe, sidestreets and you’ll come upon any number of hip clubs and pubs, each with their own unique flavor and style. Want to eat hot dogs and down American IPAs? Koenji has bar for that. Want to watch YouTube videos of 80s hip-hop and play darts? Koenji’s got you covered. Want to dance the night away with otaku while rocking out to killer game music jams from the 80s to today? Apparently Koenji’s the place the for that now too. Continue reading
Game Music Revue – Sound Mario Bros.
- Credited Composer: 16-Bit Scrollers, Koji Kondo
- Released May 25, 1986
- Label: Japan Record
- VGMdb Information Page
- Discogs Information Page
Man, living in Japan in the 80s must’ve been dope as shit. Continue reading
The Second Version of The Mummy You Should See (After The 1932 One)
I’ve been reading a lot about the new Mummy film and how it’s a complete shitshow trainwreck that somehow shows simultaneously everything that’s wrong with Hollywood blockbusters, reboots, and Tom Cruise (which if you think about it, is kind of impressive in its own right.)
One thing I repeatedly see, in both the articles about the new film and in the comments that reply to it, is that the film doesn’t hold a candle to the 1999 Mummy film starring Brendan Fraser. I even saw an article that said, more or less, “if you only see one Mummy movie, make it the 1999 version.”
Fuck. That. Continue reading
Steve Winwood and self-realizations
Oh shit I accidentally bought a Steve Winwood album. I hate it when that happens. Continue reading
VHS Rip Success – Mario Paint Instructional Video
Just a few days back I was complaining that I couldn’t get my radical new VHS ripping machine to work properly, but that crisis is now thankfully over! I got it all up and running thanks to the magical wonder of DVD-RAM. Whatever problem I was having setting up my DVD rips to work in my computer was apparently not an issue with DVD-RAM. My computer read those files no problem at all, and I was able to convert them to a YouTube-friendly format with ease.
So enjoy the official Mario Paint Instructional Video. Continue reading
Game Music Revue: Famicom/Namcot Game Sound Museums
- Credited Composer: Various
- Released 2004
- Label: Scitron Digital
- Discogs Information Page: Famicom Series, Namco Series
When I moved to Japan a few years back, my game music collecting habit really kicked itself into overdrive. And whenever I would go out looking for CD soundtracks of my favorite classic titles, I would occasionally stumble upon these strange tiny CDs of Nintendo game audio. I would pick one up whenever I saw them. They were cheap, and many of them were for some of my favorite games of all-time, so why not?
Next thing I knew, I had over 30 of them. Continue reading
Tales Of Woe And Analog-To-Digital Conversion
It’s eight o’clock on a beautiful Sunday evening. I worked a long day, time to relax.
And by “relax” I mean “work on dubbing a VHS tape to a DVD via a VCR/HDD/DVD combo unit I bought last week, while copying a new record to my hard drive via a USB phono-preamp, followed by copying an obscure ambient audio tape to my computer via the same device. I’m also ripping a concert DVD to my hard drive so I can convert it to audio and then into individual MP3s.
Sometimes I wonder why I can’t just stream shit like everyone else. Continue reading
The Glory of Hard-Off
I’ll get the obvious joke out of the way now.
In Japan, software is just called “soft” and hardware” is just called “hard.” The suffix “off” is often used to signify sales. There’s an entire chain of stores that make use of that grammatical choice. They have bookstores called “Book Off” that are quite common in and around Tokyo. Their stores that sell figures and models is called “Hobby Off.” They even have a used housewares store that is named “Off House,” I’m not sure for the reasoning behind the flipped words there.
But yes, they do have a hardware store, and it is called “Hard Off.” I understand that’s funny and I will not besmirch you for laughing. Shit, I’ve lived here three and a half years and I still giggle sometimes when I say to myself, “wow, that Hard-Off is huge.”
By the way, they have a liquor outlet store called “Liquor Off” and I think that shit is even funnier, but I digress. Continue reading