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Its a little known fact ( to all but my closest clubbing friends ) that I invariably succumb to temporal insanity whenever fed any music by Paul Van Dyk. Its like flipping on a switch inside me. His Politics of Dancing II Tour at Ageha in 2006 was one of best gigs I ever went to, so its utterly saddening that I had to miss his In Between Tour earlier in June this year due to work commitments.

I have only the album release on the 14th this month to salve my pain, but for my Singaporean friends, PVD will be spinning at Zouk on the 1st of September, you lucky chaps. You won’t be needing any booze; PVD’s music alone is intoxicating enough.

On planet Tokyo, people travel to work in elevators. I mean lifts. No I mean cars damn it. But cars are elevators. So are lifts cars too ? Or are elevators lifts ? I’m confused !!!!

I don’t ever remember seeing a Macdonald’s print ad as hip as this one in our ( Singapore ) Mac’s. Not even remotely close. Simple and clean, yet screaming coolness, its interesting how a mere Macdonald’s tray sheet can tell you about a country’s culture and fashion sense ( or lack thereof ).

I would like to take some comfort in believing that the jetlag suffered from the flight back to Tokyo after my annual Singapore holiday is the genuine cause of my recent bumming and inactivity in all matters big and small ( school doesn’t start till the 2nd week of April. I think. ), but a full week would be pushing it. even for someone particularly susceptible to disruptions in their circadian rhythm. Its astonishing how a mere 3 weeks of indulgence in convenient Singlish ( there’s virtually zero chance of communicating in english here in Tokyo, much less singlish for that matter ) and the all too familiar, snug comfort zone can do to one’s hitherto half-f**ked Japanese; it was as if my inner brain functions have been all this while waiting for the opportune moment to steal back, realign their native, singlish languaged neurons from the spots where the Japanese *once* occupied.

I was a tourist by the time I touched down in Narita; already I could foresee nightmarish days when school starts, awkward lost in translation moments, but we’ll deal with that as it comes along. Before crunch time sets in I think I’ll just catch up on a few more dvds, yes please.

Ok, the person in the bottom photo’s not me, but its going to be one day, I promise you that. (You just wait Jason. Ha. *green with envy*) Still not getting the picture ? Watch Iwai Shunji’s Love Letter.

The “Jerry Bruckheimer films” indent screened before the commencement of the film National Treasure served as the best caveat of what laid ahead ( read : explosions, car chases, more explosions; basically your usual taosiao capers ). Extraordinarily we registered only one single explosion in the early part of the film, but this Davinci Code + Indiana Jones mishmash of plot still fails to take off as it lumbered on languorously, bogged down by some stiff acting and even stiffer lines. ( another example of great actors’ performances suffering at the expense of lousy writing. ) Trevor Rabin’s music is woefully misused, incessant perhaps in an attempt to mask the film’s other shortcomings. To add to the insult the filmmakers usual undermining of the audiences’ intelligence quoto by means of a clown sidekick that tries desperately to insert trite humour makes all but see red. Why can’t for even once the supporting partner of the protaganist be given a little more intellectual credence ?

I’m starting to get quite numb to the mini quakes that come and go every few other week, nasty little critters that start by rocking the foundations and then everything else begins shaking in tandem motion, pretty much like a wasted you on a swell PVD night at the disco, only more real. These days I keep telling myself if its not capable of dethroning my stopclock off the top of my monitor there’s no immediate need to evacuate. Takeshi+Kojima ups the ante by saying if it doesn’t wake them up ( the last one, most powerful to date, came on a morning about 3, with only me still awake but they were obviously unperturbed, ), its trivial. For someone who usually doesn’t rouse from my sleep unless I’m stabbed in the heart, that’s so very comforting.

Anyway, a planned trip to the sea today with Takeshi+Kojima was thwarted by an impending typhoon, Takeshi conjuring up vivid and graphic descriptions of my gaunt and frail figure getting carried away by the gales and my molecular structure getting re-arranged in the process. Maybe next time. We ended up hanging around Ebisu, Shibuya and Ueno. Click here for Takeshi+Kojima’s post.

I read with a mixture of disdain, grate and insufferance on the part of the rearers the Straits Times ( online ) article : “Luohan no longer a prized catch now”, how the iniquited, ostensibly luck-bringing, great fengshui inducing fish is been abandoned in the truckloads by their capricious owners. To quote, “Oversupply killed their value and appeal. ‘After a while, they became so cheap, they had no value. So there was no point,’ “. How convienient for you buggers, but unfortunately the Flowerhorn’s fate was sealed the day some anonymous idiot thought it smart to meddle the fates with yet annother innocuous fish, as yet more other idiots bought it hook line and sinker.

Don’t tell me because people appreciate the Luohan for its intrinsic beauty; I know rearing fishes have some therapeutic merit but this fish justs looks…unsightly compared to his other aquatic brethren. This deplorable fad is just like the bubble tea boom a few years ago, only this time the precipitate is a living object and can’t be poured down your sink, but rather inundating the island’s freshwater bodies with new, befuddled inhabitants. You can imagine my incredulity when I last saw a whole school of them swimming along the bays of the Singapore River, no joke.

Let’s just hope no one decides next that some poor animal is really excellent for ushering in good fengshui, or woe, woe to their species.

For the uninitiated, learning the Japanese language is an exhaustive, detrimental exercise that hacks away at your english roots, enervate and debilitate, period. Its 3 form writing system, namely Hiragana, Katagana and Kanji ( chinese characters ), scares the bollocks out of non-native learners and make Japanese one of the toughest language to master. For english speaking folks, its the katagana form that carries the heaviest destructive payload. Katagana is used extensively to pronounce foreign names and subject matter, so for example “Tape Recorder” in english would translate as :

“Te-pu-re-ko-da”

1) Curtain – “ka-te-n”

2) Locker – “Ro-ka”

3) Mechanical pencil – “She-ya-pu-pen-she-ru” ( sharp pencil )

And don’t even get me started on the word “accessories”, or “whiteboard”.

For all its high tech gadgetry and advanced technology, Japan is in primeval times when it comes to international film releases dates. Only now are Master and Commander, Peter Pan getting ready to kick off screening here in Tokyo. New films are going to have to take a backseat here while I’m in Japan, the pricey tickets not helping either.

If there’s any consolation, the dvd stores here are really good; they stock titles you can never find in Singapore, and its probably a good time to catch up on good films that I have missed or simply haven’t been exposed to yet, and that’s alot. Going to be adding a new list on the side menu here under new dvds watched, so far, Soderbergh’s Limey and a totally unknown but fantastically shot film called Dinner Rush.