Things I Miss About L.A. In No Particular Order

• Peanut butter - Preferably Trader Joe’s brand, unsalted
• Coffee beans from the sellers at the Silver Lake Farmer’s Market
• Red bean boba
• Swapping drinks at Tiki Ti
• Sabina parties
• Dinner parties with friends
• Rock Band nights at Maaron’s
• Eva and Esta
• Santa Barbara county wine
• Beer - Asahi/Sapporo/Kirin is great and all, but a little vairety wouldn’t hurt
• Cemetery Screenings at Hollywood Forever
• Midnight Ridazz
• Shows at Spaceland and The Echo
• Bacon hot dogs at 2AM
• Carne asada burritos at 4AM
• Chilaquiles with chorizo smothered in Cholula or Tapatio
• Pho
• Hangover brunch at Fred 62
• Leisurely brunches at The Kitchen
• A kitchen with an oven

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Clinton and Palin on SNL

I’m a few days late to the party on this one, but this SNL sketch was just too good not to post. I loved Amy Poehler’s impersonations of Hillary during the primaries and was delighted to see the role reprised, but Tina Fey just kills me as Sarah Palin. So good!

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From Buffy to Juno: A Series of Loosely Connected Tangents

In the absence of Netflix, I’ve recently been downloading a fair amount of television shows and movies via bittorrent to keep myself and Bronwyn entertained. Catching up with Weeds was our latest endeavor, but now that the season’s over I’ve started hunting around for other diversions. I’ve never been much of a comic book reader, but ever since Buffy and Angel took to the page I had been making monthly pilgrimages to Golden Apple in L.A. to read about my heroes’ latest exploits. Of course, that was interrupted by my move to Japan but through the magic that is the internet I can download scans of the issues. The first part of this week I spent my time getting myself up to date with Buffy Season Eight, Angel: After the Fall, and Spike: After the Fall.

Finishing the latest issues of those titles, I continued indulging myself in Whedon-y goodness by reading Joss’s run writing The Astonishing X-Men. Being a Whedon fan, I had purchased the trade paperback of the Astonishing X-Men a long time ago when buying my usual Buffy and Angel comics, but had never cracked so much as the shrink wrapping. What a shame. I’m not a huge follower of the X-Men oeuvre - I’m familiar with the major characters, watched the animated series back in the ’90s, and watched the first two live-action movies - but I still found The Astonishing X-Men very accessible, and, more importantly, entirely awesome. The story was rich and engaging, the writing was witty, fun, and full of self-referential humory goodness that is signature Whedon, and the characters textured and complex. This lead me to watch the third X-Men movie, X-Men 3: The Last Stand. Not nearly as… uh… rich, but a fun action and special effects fest nonetheless. I was surprised to see that the character Shadowcat, who had only a token appearance in the previous two films, played a principle role in the movie. Similarly, in The Astonishing X-Men she was the central figure.

Shadowcat’s super power is the ability to “phase” herself and anything with which she comes into contact, making her intangible and allowing her to pass through solid objects. It seems a very passive power. That is to say, it’s unlike many of the more aggressive powers that allow one to blow things up or shoot fireballs or move things with one’s mind. Most often, her power is used self-defensively - protecting herself from physical attacks as the assailant passes right through her - or for reconnaissance, or for search and rescue.

If we wanted to apply a gender to Shadowcat’s power, it would certainly fall on the feminine end of the specturm. On the flip side, you have characters like Wolverine, probably the most famous of all X-Men, who rips and shreds in a berserker rage and whose tenuously tamed aggression seems always on the brink of unbridling. While Shadowcat’s power is undeniably useful, she’s not really a “front-liner” (though correct me if I’m wrong, because again I haven’t really read any of the other X-Men comics). Even in The Astonishing X-Men, one of the super villains labels Shadowcat a “non-combatant.” So knowing Joss Whedon’s most common theme in his works (strong female characters, duh) it’s completely appropriate that he would opt to focus on Shadowcat and feature her powers front-and-center. I wouldn’t want to give up any spoilers, but it should be fairly obvious by the close-up framing of her face in the first frame after the title in issue one that Joss is going to turn the whole “passive, non-combatant” thing on its head and Shadowcat’s going to be the hero at the end of all this.

Anyways, that was kind of a tangent that I didn’t entirely mean to get in to. The point is, more or less, that I really like Shadowcat now. And who should play Shadowcat in X-Men 3 but Ellen Page. I didn’t expect that, because later that evening Bronwyn and I had planned to FINALLY watch Juno. We had yet to see the movie despite the fact that a couple of songs off the soundtrack played a very prominent role in our wedding ceremony music. At any rate, it made for a very Ellen Page-y day, which is not a bad thing because I think she’s friggin’ awesome. We first saw her in Hard Candy and her performance in that was remarkably mature and frighteningly intelligent. Her role in Juno was no less satisfying. She may not have won an Oscar this time around, but give it a couple of years and I think she’s going to be an absolute superstar.

So that’s what I’ve been watching and reading. Anything worth recommending? I suppose having gone the six-degrees-of-separation route of:

• Buffy comics
• Joss Whedon also wrote Astonishing X-Men
• X-Men 3 and Astonishing X-Men featured Shadowcat
• Shadowcat was played by Ellen Page
• Ellen Page was the star of Juno

The next logical step would then be… watching Arrested Development again?

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BFF Tokyo 2008

Continuing on from my last post about my trip to Tokyo, soon after arriving in Tokyo I met with my host, Gogo, a local bike messenger. He was a volunteer for the festival so he had to work that afternoon. I dropped off my bags and headed out to the “Bicycle Goods” fair which was happening as part of the BFF. While I’m sure the festival played a role in the concentration of bikes I saw, it was already apparent that bicycle culture, particularly of the fixed gear variety, was widespread in the neighborhood of Daikanyama. Track bikes adorned the windows of all sorts of fashionable shops, be they bike-related or not. Countless fancied-up fixed gears were locked to street railings, a change from the usual mama-charis one would see throughout the country.

The bicycle goods fair featured a number of local clothing and messenger bag designers, as well as a fair amount of imports such as Chrome and Bagaboo bags. Much like bike culture in L.A. or San Francisco, it was very much a high-fashion affair though this was taken to a whole new degree. Knickers and windbreakers sold for a couple of hundred dollars. Even t-shirts and hats were listed at the equivalent of fifty dollars or more. What I found surprising were that many of the things one would commonly find back home, such as Chrome messenger bags, sold for twice the price I was accustomed too. As I talked to more people, I learned that things like IRO or Surly or Soma frames sold for a similar markup. On the flip side, things like NJS track components and frames sold for half what one would pay back home. I had heard that this was the case, but didn’t realize that even in the explosion of fixed gear popularity this was still the casing. It left me wishing I had picked up a stack of merchandise from Orange 20 or some other L.A. store before leaving to sell here in Japan.

Being frightfully unable to afford anything that I saw at the fair, I left in search of food, finding a cafe where I enjoyed a meal of French onion soup served in a bread bowl and a well-deserved nama beru (draft beer). The cafe culture of sitting and people watching over a drink doesn’t seem to be very wide-spread here so it was nice to be in the “big city” where I could partake of some Western indulgences. I was about ready to leave when the founder of the BFF, Brendt Barbur, and his friend, Tora, passed by. I waved them down and they took a seat with me. We chatted over a couple of beers and more delectable cafe fare. Brendt was certainly a proud parent of the BFF and I learned a great deal about the festival’s history and the role it’s tried to play in coalescing and promoting bike culture. I also learned that word of my ride from Kyoto to Tokyo had made the rounds amongst the festival organizers and that for my efforts I was given a BFF weekend pass. Not a bad deal, though I found it amusing that even amongst bike people making a ride like this was seen as quite the accomplishment. For myself, I still envy and admire the folks who pull off month-long or more cross-country tours, or for the randonneurs who are able to do 1200km events like Paris-Brest-Paris.

After the meal, we headed to the opening night party of the festival. The evening featured music, a flatland BMX competition, and a bicycle clothing fashion show. I’ll be the first to admit that bikes have caused me to dress differently in ways that I would have previously thought odd, like my absolute love for knickers (or manpris or shpants as they’ve often been called), but some of the things they brought down the runway were downright humorous (others, however, I would rock in a heartbeat). Still, part of what defines a subculture is the manner in which its adherents dress so it’s unsurprising and understandable that a fashion show for said culture would take that dress to the extreme. Moreover, this is Tokyo after all and, though it may be a gross generalization, if there’s anything I’ve learned about Japanese trends it’s that they don’t do anything halfway. Take these folks for example. Not a part of the fashion show. I guess to be fair, L.A. also has its fair share of oddly attired folks sporty things like American Apparel gold lamé leggings.

After the party, Gogo had to attend a meeting with a group of the Tokyo messengers so I tagged along since I needed to know where I was sleeping that night. The meeting was to plan for next year’s Cycle Messenger World Championship which will be held in Tokyo and occur on the same weekend or the weekend before the BFF. For anyone thinking of hitting up any BFF in 2009, I’d strongly recommend heading to Tokyo. It sounds like it’s going to be a helluva time.

The films started the next day. I slept in a bit, something that was sorely needed (literally). Unfortunately, this meant I missed the first program block which was a shame because it featured a video about the Wolfpack Hustle drag races and, while you can watch the video online, I wanted to be there to represent my L.A. brethren. I did make it in time for the second program block which featured my two favorite pieces from the entire festival. One was Standing Start, an experimental short about the Scottish world champion track cyclist Craig Maclean. The other was Road to Roubaix, a feature-length documentary on the brutal Paris-Roubaix road race.

I reluctantly skipped out on the third program block as I had lost one of my bike gloves and water bottles the night before and needed to find replacements. On a recommendation, I headed to W-Base, a fixed gear and BMX focused shop located neary Shibuya and Harajuku. They didn’t have what I was looking for, but I hunted around and found a few other shops that did. Returning to the festival, I watched the remainder of programs, 4 and 5, featuring a wide range of shorts. Of particular note were the fixed-gear freestyler ones: the exquisitely shot Macaframa, and the local favorite Fumikiri (trailer available here). The riders of Fumimkiri came up afterwards for a little Q&A session, but I have no idea what was said.

Program 6 was just a repeat of things I had already seen, so I decided to pedal around and explore the city a bit. I grabbed a cheap curry dinner near the famous Shibuya crossing then headed to the evening BFF party. The entertainment included a BMX/break dance performance, and a set from the insanely awesome DJ Tucker. Tucker had a flair for the theatrics, juggling guitar, bass, organ, theremin, and drum kit which he would sample and loop to create his own one-man rock fest. For his grand finale, he lit the organ on fire and promptly drop-kicked it. I had my fair share of dancing as well as hanging out more with Brendt and company, before heading out for a late-night/early-morning bowl of noodles at one of the Japanese restaurants where you order by way of a ticket dispensed via vending machine that you then hand directly to the cook. Finally, I returned to my host’s apartment around 5AM.

Sunday’s BFF activity was the block party which was held at the Komazawa Olympic park, one of the sites of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. A trick contest and game of foot-down were held with prizes given out, but then a heavy rainstorm cut the party short and everyone that was left huddled for shelter in a nearby building (well, almost everyone). I wanted to get a skid contest going, but I didn’t have the bike for it and wasn’t comfortable asking to use someone else’s. The building basement had a cafeteria that served beer so people were more or less satisfied hanging around. The rain eventually lightened up and people headed their own ways. Brendt was kind enough to invite me to the BFF staff celebration dinner at an izakaya, so I joined them and enjoyed lots of really excellent food and copious amounts of beer, chatting with a number of the local bicycle-loving gaijin and English-speaking locals before finally heading back to my host’s.

Monday I woke up late, said farewell to my host’s roommate (my host himself had already left for work), then packed up my things. I wanted to check out Kalavinka’s shop, an NJS frame builder, but it was unfortunately closed so I headed to the central Tokyo train station to see about getting an overnight train or bus ticket to Kyoto. My original plan was to ride all the way back to Tottori, but truth be told I was still tired and sore even after a couple days of “rest.” My trip out here in five days carrying a touring load was a hustle that had left me worn out and the prospect of being home with Bronwyn was too appealing. Were I to do it over (and I likely will if I’m still around Japan for the 2009 BFF) I’d rather spend more time making the trip out, not overexerting myself by taking it slower and easier, and I’d rather have a granny gear on my bike. My compact crank is perfect most of the time, but not great for the very hilly terrain of Japan. So instead I thought I’d ride from Kyoto to Tottori by way of Lake Biwa up to the San-in coast along the Sea of Japan. Unfortunately, the overnight bus (far and away the cheapest option) wouldn’t take my bicycle, and the overnight train would actually be more expensive than taking the shinkansen or bullet train. Since I would already be shelling out lots of cash for a shinkansen ticket, I decided to pay the extra twenty or so dollars for the connecting train to Tottori. The bullet train was scheduled to leave in just a couple of hours, leaving me only enough time to ride around the Imperial Palace and enjoy some relaxation time in the park before departing.

Taking the shinkansen was kind of an interesting experience. Yes, it’s very fast, and this fact was made even more clear as I watched the landmarks I would spend all day cycling to pass by in minutes - like seeing my weeklong sojourn reduced to a list of bullet points. I made it to my connecting train in Kyoto with minutes to spare. Carrying my panniers in one hand and my bike in the other in its rinkou bukuro (bike bag) through a crowded station was a clumsy and awkward endeavor that had me sweating more than I had on the entire trip out. But I made it and by 10PM I was back in Tottori, pedaling to my front door just as Bronwyn was returning from a night out with friends. She was surprised to see me, especially since I had told her earlier that I was planning on riding back from Kyoto and lied in an email saying that I was currently on an overnight bus. I was sad that I wasn’t able to finish my trip “properly”, but seeing Bronwyn was proof enough that I had made the right choice in returning early.

I still have more trips in the works. Last week was a special three-day weekend for “Honoring Old People Day”, and Bronwyn rode out to Yonago and back which is 100km each way to spend the weekend with friends. I’d like to ride east along the coast sometime soon, maybe back down to Kyoto, to do the leg of my trip I skipped, and maybe in the summer make my way up to Hokkaido which is supposed to be a cycling paradise. While Tottori is no L.A., I think there’ll be enough adventures around to keep me satisfied - now if only I could find a job so that I can pay for these adventures.

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Jon Does Japan

As many people who have blogged have likely experienced, I’ve long ago reached the point where there has been so much going on in my life that the mere thought of trying to catch up on my updates has rendered me incapable of making the attempt. You’ve gotten the basic summary - got married, went to Greece, moved to Japan. There are volumes that can be written about each of those events, but as it were I’ll need to focus about blogging on the present or I may never get back into the habit of writing regularly, so I’ll have to assume that I’ll get to writing about the past sometime in the future.

My time here in Japan has, for the most part, been a rather simple affair. Being unemployed, I spend most of my time filling the role of househusband for Bronwyn, who is employed as a Coordinator of International Relations for the local government office here in Tottori City. My days involve more or less cooking, cleaning, shopping, and video games - mostly the video games. While spending one’s days playing video games may seem like a good way to pass the time, I can attest to the fact that it gets old very quickly. It’s leaving me antsy and lethargic, much like the later months of summer break in high school. Fortunately, I’m starting to pick up some part-time work here and there. Hopefully one thing will lead to another and I’ll find myself gainfully employed.

To break up the monotony and take advantage of my copious free time, I took a bicycle tour of Japan at the beginning of the month. The Bicycle Film Festival came to Tokyo the first weekend of September. Being busy with moving preparations in July, I missed the festival when it came to Los Angeles. So I took the train to Kyoto, Starbuck in tow, and began the approximately 650km ride to Tokyo. Photos from the trip are up on my Flickr.

I only had five days to make the trip so I kept a pretty strong pace for the load I was carrying. The first day, after disembarking the train, I wondered around Kyoto briefly, making sure to find Doshisha University where Bronwyn studied abroad for a semester, then headed up the eastern shore of Lake Biwa where I camped for the night.

Having started late with the train ride to Kyoto, I only rode 60km that day so I had to make up for it the next day. I rode 180km, over the mountain pass between Biwa and Nagoya in a heavy but refreshing rain, and then beyond. The mountains weren’t too bad, except for when I crossed the prefecture line and started my decent. The road suddenly narrowed, changing to a ridiculously steep grade with sharp switchback turns and shoddy pavement. Rain water was flooding down the road and strewing gravel all about. This made for a dangerous combination and my brakes were unable to bring the bike to a complete stop, forcing me to do a bit of Fredstone-style stopping and actually walk down many of the hairier bits. Once the road normalized, though, I flew down the rest of the pass, letting out a whoop of exhilaration and relief. The rest of the day involved navigating the outskirts of Nagoya so that I could make my way to a campground. I did get lost a bit in Nagoya, but eventually managed to find my way, and as if to punctuate that accomplishment, I passed a fellow bike tourist (presumably American) headed the other direction who raised his fist in greeting shouting, “Ride on!” That phrase is something of a Midnight Ridazz mantra, and raised my spirits.

I made good time, and though I reached the vicinity of my supposed camping accommodations well after dark near Gamagori, I was still feeling good. However, problems arose when I couldn’t find the campground in the dark. I had to ride uphill along an unlit forest road which was at times unpaved. I had to call Bronwyn to help me navigate via Google Maps, but I had apparently passed the camp completely while twisting and turning through the dark. I found myself at some sort of community nature center on top of a small mountain. On the plus side, I could see the Pacific Ocean to the south from where I was, which is where I was headed, but there was no way I was going to back into the dark to try and find the campground. So I decided to sleep on a nearby bench and hope that nobody from the nature center would object.

I didn’t end up getting much sleep at all that night, being very anxious about my surroundings. What’s worse, even in daylight the roads I had just traversed were twisted and confusing. I actually ended up going north down the mountain, rather than south, setting back my arrival at the coast several hours. Eventually I did find my way and I was able to relax a bit as I rode down the coastal bike paths (though the bike paths were interrupted at one point by a festival of drunken men in their underwear. I would have loved to have asked about the occasion, but I had to continue on my way). I decided to treat myself to a hot bath and a warm bed in a youth hostel in Omaezaki. I travelled 120km that day, but the last 20 were absolutely painful as I was feeling the fatigue from lack of sleep.

The hostel did help a great deal, though. They provided a delicious Japanese dinner, a welcome diversion from the usual fare of convenience store food I had been eating along the way, and I met a young Japanese woman who was touring the country by motorcycle. She was on the second month of her journey and had a lot more left to see. I was a bit envious, wishing I had my Vespa with me so that I could cover similar gorund. The woman had spent her working holiday in Whistler so spoke very good English, and I was eager to engage in conversation. I imagine a travel companion would be a good thing to have for future tours.

I slept in the next day (”sleeping in” meaning I woke at 7AM rather than 4AM) making the most of the comfort of my bed, but knowing that I had another long day of riding ahead of me, including more mountains in the evening, I scrambled to get ready and head out. I wanted to cross the mountains before it got dark. I headed up the coast of the Suruga-wan, past Shizuoka, skirting the coast of Fuji city. Unfortunately, I didn’t even get to see Mt. Fuji as it was obscured by clouds.

I reached the mountains at dusk, stopping at a gas station to ask for directions and confirm my route. As I climbed the mountain pass to the resort city of Atami, the sun set and I was beginning to regret not putting in a bit more hustle during the day. After the first big climb, though, I saw the man from whom I had asked directions on the side of the road. He waved me down and offered me a ride to Atami. I had only 15km to go, but it was going to be a rough distance. Knowing that this would save me a couple of hours on my trip, I happily accepted. He drove a large soccer van and I was easily able to fit my bike inside. The route I had selected went through a tunnel several kilometers long. The driver, who spoke very little English, commented as we passed through it, “Very dangerous.” I was indeed quite lucky to be getting the ride. We were soon in Atami, and the driver dropped me off. I was only 20km south of my campground along the Sagami-nada coast of the Izu peninsula just south of Odawara and I arrived shortly after 8PM. I clocked in 170km that day, along with the 15km in the car.

The last stretch of the tour was an easy 90km into Tokyo. The only trick part was navigating the traffic of Yokohama and Tokyo itself. Tokyo, however was surprisingly not bad and there were a fair amount of cyclists on the street (as opposed to on the sidewalk as most Japanese riders do), so I was able to comfortably mix it up with the cars just like the good old days of L.A. riding. I arrived in the Daikanyama neighborhood of Tokyo around 4PM just in time for the Film Festival.

More about the festival itself in my next post.

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