Saying No to Thorpedo and Yes to Outro '6

AM

Least: At about 11:05am, I finally had breakfast. Having had nothing substantial since lunch yesterday, I could've eaten a horse. Instead I opted for an onigiri internally rife with salty cured red salmon. It was delicious, yet somehow only served to remind me of the breakfast the could've been. Bacon, eggs, tomato and coffee in a cafe is essentially unavailable in any edible form here. At the Beekman Sports Palace down the road, it is possible to buy mile-thick bread smeared with jam (only just sweeter than the bread) but it could only barely be called a breakfast. It might just be more interesting to launch a search party for the best cafe breakfast in Osaka.

Most: By 9:30am, I was once again barrelling towards Wakayama. The only point of interest I could extract from the journey was the sighting of the Thorpedo softdrink at Hineno station. Because of its association with Yakult, I declined the voice telling me to buy it - yoghurty soft drinks are pretty far from refreshing. According to the website, there are several versions of the drink - I wonder why it has never taken off in Australia. In addition, the Thorpedo is perhaps the only Australian sportsman to make a blip on the Japanese fame-dar. Interesting - sort of.

PM

Least: Between exactly 12:15pm and 12:55pm, I battled through an English lesson with a student who was both out of depth and was infested with a dreadful cold. Every ten seconds or so he would either sneeze of sniff up mucous into his blocked nose. I swear I could feel the swarms of flu virus's impaling my every cell. The next few days will be telling. If I'm sick next Saturday, I might just blow my nose on the guy's shirtsleeve.

Most: At about 9:15pm, Rosie and I walked in the gates of the Freestyle Outro '6 festival down near the docks in Osaka. The primary reason for attending was to see Palm and Edge of Spirit but we gather far more than this. The performances were crushing and we spoke to some guys from Palm, and a wild Japanese woman from California. As a cultural spectacle it was amazing. A sea of non-typical Japanese metal, hardcore and hip hop fans were drinking hard and enjoying the music, graffiti and skateboarding Far from the norms of Japan's staid appearances, most people had serious tatts and were larking about in a very relaxed manner. It was so refreshing to see a non-temple/manga/salary man side of Japan. One of the best nights here so far.

Rice Paddies and Grindcore

Saturday 22 August 2009

AM

Least: By 9:13am, I was once again stepping onto the Nankai local heading towards Mikunigaoka then Wakayama. At Mikunigaoka - the station without romanji - I was mildly rocked by the fact that I could recognise the people on the platform, the station masters and the women crowing from behind the counter of their sweets shop. This increasingly well worn path has seemingly also seared a neural pathway into my brain to ensure that there's no interesting surprises.

Most: Just after 10:00am, my train was clack clack clacking through rice paddies and market gardens. The rice had changed from a few weeks ago and was now nodding with the weight of seeds. It is somehow comforting to see the incredible uniformity of the rice crop and its perfect green -civilisation. I also noticed that a few leaves were beginning to turn yellow and orange as I got closer to Wakayama. I think that in  month or so, the scenery will be be interesting enough to take a photo of. Despite seeing the same people, smelling the same smells and hearing the same sounds on this trip every week, the landscape is different every time.

PM

Least: At about 12:35pm, I ran into the crushingly boring problem of forcing conversation out of an adult student for the next twenty minutes. We both knew that we had exhausted all available small talk and had covered the usuals - holidays (he had none), movies (he didn't watch movies), food (he was too busy to eat out). I went into autopilot and thought about my onigiri in the fridge.

Most: Some time around 11:00pm, Rosie and I blurred into Hokage in Shinsaibashi so that we could be pummelled by some Japanese grindcore. We spoke to some people in bands and a few guys who we knew from their tours to Australia. The bandroom was deep underground and the bar was even deeper. As we watched Corvus, it was interesting to see and hear a female vocalist destroy the crowd in such a male dominated scene. I took some red-soaked phone photos and caught the next band, only to be driven out by a techno-ish outfit and sheer drunkeness. It didn't help that we'd already been to Jokerman and Tee's Kitchen beforehand and that Toshi from Palm gave us extra drink cards on entry. A wild night.

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Food Note: At T's Kitchen, we stood at the bar and ordered several snackish meals including, freshly topped pizza, battered octopus, edemame, tuna sushimi and doteyaki. The last item was outstanding. The beef from the toughest and maybe unsaleable part of the beast had been cooked for hours and steeped in a sweet sweet sauce. I ordered two.