Alex Brooke

The Weekender 40th Anniversary party was a success. We had a great turn out at 57 and I think all had a good time. Keita, Ethan and I did a live set that wasn’t too bad although we were told to “play something a little more up tempo”. The guests were polite enough to not throw bottles and I think they even clapped at one point. Yes, even a bunch of reggae hippies can connect with the urban hipsters of Tokyo.

Guy Perryman did a great job on the decks and MCing the prize give away which at one point seemed as if it might get out of hand. All behaved however and the police didn’t have to be called.

I was interested to see that most of the party-goers were young urban hipsters in their 30s and 40s perhaps a little younger than the traditional demographic of the Weekender. Are things changing?

All in all I had a great time and I’m pretty eager to get another party happening. Any takers?

You can check out the Weekender Website here. Check out the latest 40th Anniversary issue. And here is the Weekender Facebook group.

I’ll write and update here when party pics are posted.

Brain Machine Workshop A Success

According to Karamoon, the Brain Machine workshop at the Tokyo Hacker Space was a success. Check out  some amazing pictures here. You can also see some pictures of Brain Machine workshop I went to at the make fair earlier this year here. The Tokyo Hacker Space run courses for anyone interested in tech, software, hardware and just about anything else they can think of. I’ll be going down there to check out what’s going on and perhaps make a video about it for Learn Japanese Pod.

Learn Japanese Pod

We’ve been getting back into the Learn Japanese Pod saddle after a long summer break. I was getting a few emails asking me what the hell was going on. Fear not, Waka sensei is back to teach you some new and useful Japanese phrases. We just put Fun Friday up and lesson #96 is almost ready to go up.

I’ve also installed moodle onto the Learn Japanese Pod server with a view to developing some Japanese language learning courses. Apparently it is quite a powerful system although I still need to study the documentation into how to use it. I started a thread on this topic for people to discuss and contribute to this project.

Tokyo Guitar Guild

The Tokyo Guitar Guild was a group I set up for guitarists in Tokyo to network, play together and teach each other a few tricks with their axes. The good news is I have managed to find a space in 青山一丁目 Aoyamaichoume where we could meet. If you are interested in coming, please send me an email @ mail(at)alexbrooke(dot)com or contact me here. The location is fantastic and I am thinking of using it on Saturdays.

I’m also thinking of doing some guitar tutorial videos. If you have any suggestions or requests please contact me.

Poster Competition

If you want to get your hands on a cool “Do it at home” poster from Japan Rail go to Japandra to find out more details. A big thanks to Sandra who appeared on last week’s Fun Friday.]

That’s all for now folks.