Author: Jonathan

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Saying hello to Chris Martin

As I said I had really good tickets to see Coldplay in Kobe. Two nights of general admission tickets. It is very interesting how they handle general admission here. Or I should say at least at these venues / concerts. You queue behind a flag that has your general admission number. We were numbers 4 and 5 for Saturday’s show, and numbers 49 and 50 for Sunday’s show. They call you by number and line you up and SLOWLY move you through bag check and then through ticketing. Security leads you in to the venue, all the while people maintaining two single file lines. Once you are in the venue they lead you on to the floor, still maintaining the single file line. Slowly you approach the barrier in front of the stage. About 2 meters before the barrier security basically yells something and then it is a free for all. I had asked Tomo what our strategy was the first night and just followed him. Obviously with the numbers 4 and 5 we got front center.

The next night we had a bit of a communication breakdown. We agreed to go right, and then he darted left. Say what? He said he got caught up in the moment. Somehow in the midst of all that shuffle I ended up able to stand next to him on the barricade. Of course, more intimacy followed for the entire show.

I was, as far as I could tell, the only white guy on the barriers. The first night, Chris bounced a drum mallet in to the pit. I tried to ask security for it but no luck. At the end of the show, I got a gaijin cameraman’s attention and he handed me the mallet. Happy Valentine’s Day Tomo! So Tomo now has a “touched by Chris Martin” concert souvenir. I don’t think the Japanese liked the white guy to white guy bonding moment. Sorry. The next night we were right by the cameraman, so we chatted him up for a little while. He was from LA so we shared some common LA stories.

Here you can get an idea of the barrier and the edge of the stage. Pretty close, huh?

The barrier

 

Here’s a serious picture of Tomo and I at the concert, and the crush of humanity behind us.

Tomo and Jon and the concert

 

Chris moves around a lot, so I was only able to get a couple of non fuzzy pictures.

An almost still Chris

Grooving at the piano

 

Finally, here is an idea of the stage. They had these cool projection balls that I really liked.

Stage orbs

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The past tense of shave

Tomo announced this morning as we were getting ready to go out that he had “just shoaved.” I learned that “shoaved” is the past tense of “shave.” I had a good laugh at that, knowing that it sort of made sense but could not come up with a rule that would make shave go to shoaved. Of course, we have the ride/rode combination. Compare that to the hide/hid combination. Or what about the make/made combination? Pay/paid? Write/wrote? Strike/struck? Yikes!

I don’t know how anyone learns English. I can recall in my Japanese class that my fellow classmates wanted some rules to follow for certain patterns. Rules? RULES? Try learning English I bet. The only rule is the exception. Conjugation in Japanese is very easy – and except for one or two exceptions, rules are followed.

I caught Coldplay again tonight. Again on the front row, and again violated. We had a good time. Pictures coming soon I hope.

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A taste of Spring

I’m in Kobe this weekend, isolated around the port area and catching a couple of Coldplay shows here. We had great tickets last night (number 4 and 5 into the venue) so I was front row, center. SInce it was general admission though, there was much jockeying for space, pushing, etc. I felt violated and so did Tomo! I’ve been to some crazy, packed dance clubs in my younger days, but never have I become so familiar with those around me. I won’t get in to details, but it seems I should have at least learned the names of a few of the folks!

That’s not the point of this note though. The weather this weekend is amazing. Spring is in the air – you can feel it. It is warmer here than in LA. Unfortunately, it is going to get cold this week with a prediction of snow. But the hint of Spring is really refreshing and I look forward to changing to a light jacket or shirt sleeves. Heck, I am even sort of looking forward to the dog days of summer, the buzzing of cicadas, the oppressive heat. I can wait though and savour the anticipation – for now I want to enjoy the winter a little bit more. As much as I complain about the chill in my apartment, I am really enjoying have seasons.

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Sigh of relief

I updated my blog software tonight. I even created a test blog to make sure I upgraded correctly. All went well, I thought, except for a few extra commands I had to add to the config file. Well, it turns out some of those commands changed my character set and my kanji no longer showed up AND all my apostrophes and dashes changed to strange characters. Luckily, my coding skills helped me out – I had commented all the new code and understood that the character set had changed. I removed all the config file improvements and I think everything is fine.

If you notice any problems, please let me know.

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Starbucks contemplations

I stopped at my local Starbucks this afternoon for a hot chocolate and some ambiance to have a little reading time on my latest book. I had to return a textbook I had purchased at a bookstore in Nagoya station – it was a Korean translation of the Japanese. Not a lot of use for me. The weather today was clear and brisk, but not really cold. I thought I needed the 25 minute walk to the station just to clear my head, stretch my legs, and psych myself up for all the things I need to accomplish tonight. Part of my reward was stopping at the Starbucks and relaxing for a bit.

I’m not a big fan of Starbucks, but they aren’t so horrible. This one is especially big and comfortable with lots of windows, a large table for books and computers, and really feels like a neighborhood coffee shop. I was looking forward to sitting in one of the easy chairs by the window and enjoying my hot chocolate, my book, and watching the world pass by. Unfortunately, when I got there, there was only one table in the middle of the room available. Every premium spot was taken.

I felt like I was back in college at the library, and all my usual study spots were taken. It was very interesting looking around, there were high school age kids doing homework, adults working on their computers, adults reading texts or doing exercises. It felt like a coffee shop in a college town. I had chosen to go to get a bit of a change of scenery and also just be around other people instead of alone in my apartment. Looking around, I would guess that maybe the Starbucks was a place where some of these people could actually get away and get some space to focus on what they wanted to do. For the kids doing homework, maybe it was easier to do it and focus at Starbucks rather than at home. Maybe even it was the same for the adults.

I started thinking about the time I’ve had here so far, and I’m disappointed that I have not been more disciplined in my free time. I start my first Japanese class on Tuesday. That’s 10 months after I got here. I should be ashamed of myself. True, work has been incredibly intense, but I’ve wasted a lot of time as well. If I just added a little structure, discipline, and dedication maybe I could have started a lot sooner. So wish me luck as I try for that dedication. My apartment is sort of a mess right now, I have work that stacked up over the week that I need to get done (expense reports, tax preparation, as well as the usual work expectations in spite of 4 hours of email cleanup this weekend), and I have a stack of mail to deal with, and I would really love to change the style of this blog. Sigh. Well, here’s to getting my act together this week. Shoot, I even am disappointed that I don’t have a picture of the Starbucks to add to the blog.