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.

Eye Candy: Justice and the Real Deal

Saw this on a graphic design community I frequent. Justice’s new music video is a tribute to a lot of the old motion graphics title sequences from the ’80s.

Very cool. But even cooler was this bit from 1982 showing how HBO actually pulled off a lot of the effects from back in the day.

I love to spread it on my toast like it’s f@#%in’ Nutella!

Bronwyn and I are nearly done putting together invitations for the wedding. While we sent out the Save the Dates to a printer, we opted to handle the invitations ourselves with a paper cutter and our inkjet so I managed to get a taste of the joy this guy feels:

Goings On

A lot has been going on lately, so this is just a broad update. A couple of weeks ago for President’s Day Weekend, Bronwyn and I went with a bunch of friends up to Santa Barbara wine country (as in where they filmed Sideways). We stayed in Buelton, and hit up a number of wineries around Solvang, Santa Ynez, and Lompoc. In the process, we spent far too much money, but at least now I have a closet full of great wines and more souvenir glasses than I know what to do with. I’m by no means a connoisseur, but some of the spots I was really impressed with were Ampelos in Lompoc, Artiste in Santa Ynez, Trio in Solvang, and Clos Pepe and Foley in… somewhere between Buelton and Lompoc. The days of tasting expensive wines were balanced out by nights of drinking cheap beers in a hotel room while dancing to “Quemados” and other jams. I regrettably have no photos to report as I haven’t gotten around to uploading anything on my Flickr.

Last weekend, I successfully conquered all ten hills of the “Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer” race. I think I even managed to snag 6th or 7th place overall, with a second place finish on the first hill. Not bad, if I do say so myself. An official write-up hasn’t been posted anywhere, and I’m still scouring the interwebs for photos, but here’s one someone snapped of me. Note the angle of the horizon in the background. That was the first hill, Eldred St., the one this article talks about. While going up the hills was agony (sweet, sweet agony), going down them scared the crap out of me. I had to walk down Eldred St. and a few others, and I think I wore out my brake pads slowly riding my way down the rest. Indeed my fears weren’t unfounded as one rider crashed going down Baxter at 40mph. He hit an unexpected bump at the bottom of the hill, flew off, and slid some 20 feet up the next hill, winding up with a fractured collarbone and a couple of broken ribs, as well as several patches of road rash. But to show you what kind of a manimal this guy was, he still placed fourth overall even though he only did five out of ten of the hills AND he showed up for the after-party at Pure Luck once he was done at the hospital. Insanity.

On Sunday, Bronwyn and I had our engagement shoot with our wedding photographer, Allana of Ars Magna Studio. We spent a few hours wondering around downtown in the Grand Central Market, the Bradbury Building, the Biltmore Hotel, Pershing Square, and a bit of Echo Park. She posted the results yesterday and they’re absolutely fantastic!Check out her blog or the online gallery to see more.

Finally, in completely unrelated news to anything, other than the fact that I’m Filipino, watch this video:

Donkey Lips Pushes It

On a lighter note, this was my favorite Super Bowl commercial.

Socially Conscious Shoes

My taste in clothing has been veering towards that of an old man as of late, in that I’m really digging lots of itchy wool clothing of the tweed, herringone, and plaid persuasion. As a result, I am totally enamored by this L.A.-based company I just discovered, TOMS Shoes. Check these out:

Love it. What’s even better is that the company is socially conscious. For every pair purchased, they donate a pair to a child in need. That is awesome.

I tend to be fairly cynically when it comes to the various campaigns many companies will put on to jump on the charity bandwagon where they might donate a couple percentages of their profits to causes while the goal is more to boost their public image. An example would be the Product(RED) project which feels like a thin layer of “altruism” is used to rationalize heightened levels of shopping and a branded self-satisfying conspicuous consumption. There’s a pretty good criticism of it by Robert Peston on the BBC site where he points out that while the campaign has raised $18 million, it has also spent $100 million in advertising and marketing.

The validity of a one-to-one matching donation is hard to argue. I could buy a shiny new $199 iPod and “give” to charity… actually they don’t even state how much they donate. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it’s 5%. So $10 goes to (RED)… all of which gets spent on advertising. Alternately, I could buy a pair of shoes which results in… a donation of a pair of shoes. Sweet. As an added bonus, I don’t get laden with annoying (RED) branding telling the world how good I am. Instead I get plaid!

The only important fact that I can’t find is where and under what labor conditions these shoes are made. I don’t care if they’re made in the U.S.A. (I expect them not to be), but anti-brand shoe company Blackspot Shoes makes a point of ensuring that their sneakers are made in a safe, union-controlled factory. I’ll have to shoot TOMS shoes an email or something to find out what the deal is.

New Toys (and old ones)

The concerts last weekend were, of course, good times. I picked up a decent amount of swag, including vinyl from both Saturday Looks Good to Me and Of Montreal. However, to listen to it meant I needed to get a new turntable. I broke my previous one when Bronwyn and I moved to our current apartment. I was hooking it back up, but accidentally used the wrong AC adapter and fried the circuits. I had been meaning to get a replacement, and the new records from the weekend were a good reason to finally get around to doing that.

I opted for the Numark’s USB turntable so that I could turn all my analog stuff into mp3s. Haven’t installed the software yet so I don’t know how well that works, but I’ll let you guys know once I’ve done a few records. I’m on a 30-day trial membership of Amazon.com’s Prime service, which offers free two-day shipping, so I ordered the turntable on Sunday, it shipped Monday, and arrived today. It would have arrived yesterday, but nobody was home to sign for it, so I had to stick around this morning to wait for the delivery. Not bad turnaround, though. If I ordered more stuff off of Amazon.com, it might actually be worth it to me to pay the $79 a year for that quick of service.

Now you know when you pull out an old coat, reach into the pocket, and find a $20 bill you had forgotten all about? I had something similar happen when I pulled out my crate of records that had been collecting dust since my old turntable broke. Last year, Of Montreal put out 2000 copies of an double LP full of remixes off of Satanic Panic in the Attic and The Sunlandic Twins called Satanic Twins. I thought I had missed out on getting a copy and was ready to pay to download the mp3s off of iTunes (they’re one of my favorite bands so I will happily pay to support them). It turns I do actually have a copy that had remained unopened because I didn’t have anything on which to play it. Score!

Another toy that I picked up two weeks ago (the reason I started my Amazon Prime trial membership) is a new point-and-shoot camera, the Canon Powershot G9. I needed an alternative to my DSLR that I could easily throw into a bag without having it take up the entire bag, and my old point-and-shoot - a 2.1 MP brick by Olympus, was ready for an upgrade. This camera is absolutely freaking awesome. Fantastically sharp and beautiful images, great color reproduction, and easily accessible manual controls. And with optical image stabilization, an f/2.8 lens, and a fairly usable 800 ISO (even a passable 3200 ISO) it’s a great low-light camera which is perfect for me. Plus it takes an external flash so I can share the same system for both it and my DSLR. Here’s a few photos I’ve taken with it:

“When I grow up, I want to be a web designer”

In the eternal words of Homer Simpson, “it’s funny because it’s true!”

And while we’re on the subject of designer stereotypes…

Speaking of work, my company has started an “Employee of the Month” program. One hard-working employee gets the privilege of a VIP parking spot, including first-class valet treatment, parking on P1, and a car wash.

Seeing as I ride my bike, I’m not feeling much motivation here. Maybe if I were selected, I could bring a bike rack to set up in the VIP parking spot and lock my bike to that. It would beat the rusty and recently-crowded one we have sitting outside the building, especially for the rainier months. I’d be happy if I could just bring my bike into the office to keep it from getting stolen but that is sadly against building policy.

One of my coworkers walks to work. He joked that maybe he could setup a shoe rack in the VIP spot.

Eye Candy: Street Fighter IV Trailer

Bronwyn and I were at a friends’ house a few weeks back where we downloaded the original Street Fighter II on to their Wii. It was good nostalgic fun, but who knew that Capcom was still at work on the Street Fighter franchise beyond the usual Marvel vs. Capcom vs. the invading Persian Hordes: Ultra Hyper Party Edition II? Check out this hotness for Street Fighter IV. Supposedly, one of the creators is Atsushi Inaba, the guy behind the visually stunning PS2 game, Okami.

Eye Candy: The Monster Engine

“The Monster Engine” is the work of Dave Devries who takes children’s drawings of monsters and illustrates them as full-colored professional paintings. This is one of those ideas that is so simple yet so brilliant that it’s a wonder it hasnt’ been done before. Kids, whose imaginations are less bound to convention than anyone else, will of course have the most fascinating and outlandish ideas about monsters.

Devries has collected some of his work into a book that combines his painting with the original children’s drawing and an interview with the child artist. Additionally, he does lectures and demonstrations at schools, asking children to draw monsters then selecting one to paint in front of all the children.

I really like the lecture aspect of “The Monster Engine,” as it’s both interactive and creative for the children, as well as encouraging. After all, the children are creating the nucleus of the final product and Devries does a good job of staying true to their original art. Additionally, I’m sure that Devries makes the painting part of his demonstration look easy so that all the children are inspired to try their hands.