Guitars, Burritos and J-Rock
My life used to be an extended vacation. Now I’m working like everyone else it’s always a struggle to find time to do the things I want to do… In the meantime here is an update on the various goings on in this corner of Tokyo…
Guitarists I’ve been listening to
Recently I’ve been pretty inspired by Toronto based guitarist Maneli Jamal. He has a great youtube channel with videos of him playing his own original compositions.
I was intriguied to learn that he is selling MP3s and the accompanying music scores and guitar tab if you are up for the challenge of attempting these pieces. I was thinking of doing some online guitar tutorials. However I like the idea of publishing one’s own original works as opposed to just guitar lessons. It stamps one’s unique creativity on the whole endeavor.
Great stuff, check him out and watch this space for some original compositions.
Places I’ve Been Eating at
Thanks to the suggestion of my friend Kelly from Tokyo Weekender, I have discovered Frijoes, an awesome restaurant that does deli-style burritos and other kinds of wraps. It’s super delicious and they do cheap lunch sets which is pretty special for the Azabu-juban area. If you are a hipster I am told it is just “Juban”.
I got talking to the manager, a cool Japanese guy who had lived in San Fran for a long time. He came back to Japan and opened this place just recently. It’s a damn good wrap and I might go and stuff my face today.
Ch-ch-check it out kids.
Music I’ve Been Listening To
I’ve been listening to the Japanese indy rock band Natccu pronounced Nachew. Great energy, arrangements, melodies and guitars. I featured them in the last Learn Japanese Pod Fun Friday Podcast.
They’ve been touring all over the place in recent years including their UK Debut last year.
I managed to find these cats through my friend Ethan who writes the Tokyo Werewolf blog which covers the underground Tokyo music scene. Ethan also happens to be one of the masterminds behind Pongzilla which is Tokyo’s first beer pong event.
Wouldn’t be cool if Ethan could get Natccu to play at one of those?!
And…
No that’s it. I haven’t got anythign interesting to say. I guess when I can pull another 10 hours out of the day with my magic hat I will be embarking on changing this site to have a more guitar oriented feel. It should include guitar tutorials and my own original pieces.
Oh yeah, and then there’s my Flash tutorials…
Let’s slow the earth down so we can have more hours in the day…
