the.[ED]ition

I was never any good at fighting games. The combination of having to remember… combinations and performing them all in a useful sequence was too much for me to handle so while I did like them, I could never play any sort of fighting game without being easy prey for my opponents. However, Carl is decent at this sort of thing so we decided to search for Street Fighter IV, which was released like a week ago. Unfortunately for North American gamers, I hear it will not be widely available in arcade form, especially since actual arcades have been in serious decline ever since online gaming via PC or consoles became mainstream.

Carl made it to the last guy with a single credit but as it is here in Japan or most other Asia countries, a week is enough time for a serious nerd player to master everything about it and he promptly had his ass handed to him in a neatly taped up bag.

The graphics and art look fantastic and the animations in the game are very fluid. This should be a huge hit when it comes to consoles later this year.

There are few things that make me wake up during hours that end with AM. Awesome concerts is one of them.

Summer Sonic is one of the two big rock fests during the summer in Tokyo each year, the other being the Fuji Rock Festival. I woke up early to get my ass all the way out to Chiba, which is about an hour away from my apartment or more depending on which trains happen to be running at the time.

I wasn’t the first one at Summer Sonic. By the time I got out to Chiba, there was already a decent sized crowd. I honestly didn’t expect the scale of the venue, which spanned two entire buildings, the Chiba Mariners stadium as well as a very large convention center. It wouldn’t be much of a problem except that there’s a highway in the middle which makes for a very long walk around and the shuttle buses between the two venues are perpetually full.

Before I go any further, I did not bring my DSLR to the concert. That would be like…carrying a child on your back all day long. That and security kept telling everyone not to take pictures anyways and were quite strict about getting in the way if they saw you take out a camera. I don’t believe in taking lame, shaky pictures with a point-and-shoot but I did manage to snap a few and get a good video at the end.

I arrived in time to catch the last half of The Ting Tings set that began at 11:30am. You’ll probably know them as “The Band That Does The Current iPod Commercial Song”, taking that title away from Feist earlier this year. Decent set, good but not great. The same could be said for Vampire Weekend, who are fun but don’t exactly fill a 60,000 seat stadium to capacity.

Then I had some time to burn. I really didn’t know what to do between Vampire Weekend and Justice, which was pretty much the act I said I had to be in the front of the crowd for. I thought I should probably get to the Mountain Stage, where they would begin just after 5, during the Junkie XL performance and stay there, inching my way forward as I could.

After grabbing a bite, I stopped at the Dance Stage, where I thought I’d go see The Teenagers. I really knew nothing about them but I read about them in a few music mags before as an up-and-coming French band so why the hell not. I did also catch the end of the set for The Shoes, which piqued my interest when I heard a mix of Daft Punk’s Robot Rock with LCD Soundsystem.

The Teenagers put on a good show. I can’t say I’m a fan of their music but whenever the crowd is really into it and the band performs well then you can’t help but get sucked in yourself. I just listened to a few of their tracks on YouTube…well, let’s just say they have a lot more energy live.

This is where Summer Sonic seriously started to rock. Junkie XL was incredible. I’m sure most people will remember Junkie XL for the remix of Elvis’ A Little Less Conversation but he puts on some CRAZY beats. I could barely hear by the end, perfect for jumping around with a few thousand sweaty strangers!

Right then, I expected to get a front row seat. I mean, who the heck were the next act? Boom Boom Satellites? Never heard of them.

HOLY #*%&. Japanese folks are usually polite, organized and rather reserved but…I quite literally got swept up in a freakin’ sea of people. A huge wave of bodies rushed to the front as soon as Junkie XL finished and about ten people left and about ten thousand rushed in. I was wedged in so tightly that I couldn’t even raise my hands in the air to wave them like I just didn’t care.

Boom Boom Satellites…well, when they brought out the DJ equipment, I thought it would be another DJ. But then some of the sound guys started setting up all these electric guitars as well so I was starting to wonder what was going on. The band consists of two guys. One is lead guitar and the other is the DJ…and also guitar. There’s also a crazy drummer as well. You can find some of their music online if you want but it doesn’t have nearly the same power as it does live. Well, maybe if you played it at 11…or 12. If you can find their live videos like this…that gives you a pretty good idea.

I really can’t tell but…I think they’re singing in English.

Ever been in a Japanese mosh pit? I assure you it is neither polite or organized. I had to hold back a tad since, well, there were a lot of girls in the crowd that probably were less than half my size and I didn’t want to seriously injure anyone but holy #%*&! The energy from the guitarists and the crowd was totally nuts. Although the convention center is air conditioned, I can tell you that doesn’t mean jack when you’re pressed up against thousands of other sweaty people. Even though I was wearing all Dri-Fit, by the time Boom Boom Satellites finished, I was just drenched in sweat. As I mentioned on Twitter, some of it might even have been mine!

Justice…well, Justice was EPIC. They put on such a great show. The lighting, lasers and with that big light-up cross in the front of their speakers…well, it was like being in church. That is…a very loud, sweaty, dirty, French church. If you’ve been the Daft Punk show where they’re in that giant pyramid, it’s quite similar except you get two greasy-haired Frenchmen in denim vests and leather jackets instead of robots. Whereas Daft Punk seems to have a robotic organization, Justice is dirty and grimy, with tempo changes and off-kilter distortion everywhere. Apparently Justice is huge in Japan as nearly the whole crowd knew the “lyrics”, since everyone sang along to We Are All Friends. If you want to see what the show is like, this video of their performance at Coachella is similar.

Since Justice started a little late, I literally had to run to see Alicia Keys and caught the second half of her hour. I maintain that she is probably the most talented vocalist in the world at the moment and damn, she’s gorgeous. After thrashing around for the last four hours, I just wanted to sit down. You don’t really mosh to Alicia Keys anyways, so I grabbed a seat, where I stayed for Coldplay as well. The crowd was getting huge now and I didn’t want to wade through the ocean of people since there was no chance of getting right to the front.

Coldplay was also epic. Say all the “You know how I know you’re gay” jokes you want but they are fantastic performers. They played some songs off their new album as well as old favorites. I still think their performance of Politik at the Grammy’s years and years ago is one of the best performances ever and it was just as good in person. They really go out of their way to put on a good show. Chris Martin learned a few Japanese phrases as well as a Japanese song, which the girl sitting next to me, who was a huge Coldplay fan, explained to me a popular SMAP song called Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana.

They also brought Alicia Keys back on stage to help Chris Martin play the piano for Clocks. The highlight, as I mentioned yesterday, is that they went into the crowd on a tiny stage and played The Scientist with acoustic guitars. A great moment in the concert that the crowd really loved.

Just a great concert. I really couldn’t think of a better way to spend 9+ hours.

I’ll write up a bit more tomorrow or the day after but Carl should be here any minute now so I don’t really have too much time.

Summer Sonic was a blast, though. People in Japan may seem polite and organized in everyday life but give them a rock concert and they’re crazy. I wish I had like…a motorcycle or something to take me between the venues since there were a few acts I would’ve liked to see but couldn’t due to time but I did catch The Ting Tings, Vampire Weekend, The Shoes, The Teenagers, Junkie XL, Boom Boom Satellite, Justice, Alicia Keys and Coldplay yesterday.

Here’s a video from the Coldplay set when they went into the crowd onto a little tiny platform and performed The Scientist with acoustic guitars.

The first voice you hear is the Japanese dude beside me. He doesn’t speak English and doesn’t know the lyrics so I told him if he wanted to sing along, I would post it on YouTube so he did with his terrible Engrish. The even more terrible “WOOoooooooO…” near the end is me, though.

The finale of So You Think You Can Dance was on Thursday…and other that naming the actual winner of season 4, we saw two poppers from early in the competition, Robert Muraine and Phillip Chbeeb, battle it out on the stage to Kanye West. I mentioned Robert Muraine earlier this summer but that isn’t to take anything away from Chbeeb, who I actually thought was better in the video below. What amazing talent…seriously, no one should be able to move like this.

F’n awesome.

One might think that eating underneath the train tracks is something strictly reserved for those who are a bit down on their luck but in a city that seems to shove stores and restaurants in every nook and cranny, I guess it isn’t all that unusual to find some great food where you wouldn’t expect…or wouldn’t be able to find without GPS aid.

Andy’s Shinhinomoto is a popular izakaya located underneath Yurakucho station, easily accessible via the JR Yamamote line. At first, you wouldn’t think much of it as the exterior doesn’t look like anything special. The interior doesn’t get much better. It’s small, cramped, and reminded me of some of the seedier bars I’ve been to in Hong Kong mixes with a bit of…and don’t tell me you don’t see it too…pirate ship.

The place is run by Andy, a very tall, very bald Englishman who I overhear speaking extremely fluent Japanese so I assume he’s been in Tokyo for awhile. I arrive at around 6:00pm and stumble through my usual routine of extremely poor Japanese and then speaking English like I would to a six-year old. Andy, hearing my vocal troubles, comes out from the kitchen to greet me at the front. Although he said he’s full for the night and I don’t have a reservation, he kindly manages to squeeze me in to the front counter.

The menu is available in English, although it isn’t bilingual so explaining to the Japanese servers what you would like might be a bit of a challenge. One or two of them speak passable English or you could always ask Andy for help.

Shinhinomoto’s specialty is fresh fish, which Andy buys from Tsukiji Market fresh each morning. The special of the day was John Dory, which I ordered along with a dish of sauteed Eringi mushrooms and a plate of garlic butter king prawns. I chose to forego the sashimi platter (which I hear is great since it’s fresh) since I had sashimi earlier for lunch.

I also ordered a bottle of Sapporo, which was huge! Twice the size of a regular bottle, I believe.

The mushrooms arrived first, served with a side of picked greens and a slice of tomato. I should mention that I love all kinds of mushrooms and these were no different. Simply cooked so that the natural earthy flavors and crunchy, slightly stringy texture shines. Fantastic.

My John Dory arrived soon after, a whole side fillet of the fish served with the same salad and a dish of hot sauce. The fish is cooked perfectly, with the skin side delicious and crispy as well. I’m not too sure about the hot sauce with the fish but maybe I just haven’t had too much spicy food since I’ve been in Japan.

My prawns arrived last, with three very large prawns under a bed of sauteed onions. The garlic and butter tasted great but the prawns themselves were slightly overdone. When you butterfly a prawn like this and cook it even a little too long, they tend to lose moisture and become a bit chewy. They tasted good enough but maybe a bit too long on the heat.

The draw of Andy’s Shinhinomoto’s is really the ambiance. The train passes by every couple minutes and the mixed crowd make it a very unique place to be. It is extremely popular with both locals and tourists and getting a seat without a reservation is unlikely so call ahead (03-3214-8021) to book a table. I arrived at 6:00pm but by 6:30, the place was packed and bustling.

Expecting the usual tiny izakaya dishes, I ordered three dishes but I was actually pretty stuffed after the John Dory. My bill came to 3,100 yen, a very decent price for the amount and quality of food. While it may not have the flair in presentation or perhaps the upscale creative taste of somewhere like Kaikaya by the Sea, Andy’s Shinhinomoto provides large portions of honest, delicious food at reasonable prices.