The Opening of the Victorian Era

Testing, testing... Hello Nagoya? Hello Hobart? Hello Brisbane? Hello Osaka? Hello Melbourne!

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, we all evidently are ladies and gentlemen, here in the Victorian era. We've travelled forward in time until we arrived back at the dawn of the 20th century. The Victorian era: scones with jam and cream, unemancipated women, and a dower looking female monarch. Maybe? Maybe not?

We left Tasmania in a similar frenzy of activity as to when we arrived. Slammed the door on house-sitting and low level admin temping and pushed the pedal to the floor up the Midlands. Personally I couldn't wait to get out. The list of things I won't miss about Tassie is longer than the list of things I won't miss about Japan. 10 miles longer. Depressing vibe. High-unemployment. Lack of permanent jobs for a lass like myself. Ever-present threat of abject poverty. Crumby temp jobs. Over-priced food. Over-priced real estate. Over-priced utilities. Crumby weather. Parochialism. Stiflingly familiar. Lack of anonymity. Lack of freedom. Lack of culture. Lack of public transport. Lack of things to do.

Get me out of here now! Get me out of here yesterday!*

*However, I will miss Rachel heaps. I feel like such a douche for not hanging out with her more whilst I was down.

We sailed over on a haunting full moon on an almost glassy, calm Bass Strait. Loved the boat this time (because we had a cabin and I slept the whole damn way). Arrived at the new house, gob-smacked by its loveliness. High ceilings, wooden floors, modern kitchen, plenty of space. A great start to the second Melbourne mission. We're paying a tad more than we were in Osaka, but we're able to have band practice at home, which actually makes up the difference. Went to a few employment agencies. Had to wait a couple of weeks but within three weeks of arriving managed to secure a job for myself (Tom got a job first this time). It's hard, because we did lay down some cold hard to get here, I've had to live on the credit card for a while which never feels good and I'm just about to receive my first pay packet and start clawing my way back to $0. But I feel very optimistic about the beginning of the Victorian era. I'm getting paid exactly twice as much as I was in Tassie to do a job that is inspiring, conceptual, difficult, but over-all, pleasant and well-suited to my qualifications and temperament. There's a list of things I want to do as long as my arm, and I am about to get down and do some of it.

Concert-wise, so far, went to see Bastardfest and Coffins. The Bastardfest line up was Blood Duster (silly grind bastards), Mindsnare (slightly too serious about themselves hardcore), Psychroptic (blistering tech death), Extortion (thrashy heavy hardcore) and The Kill (not my favourite - can't really remember). Liked Extortion a lot. And really getting into some of the newer Psychro tunes. Awesome fun. Saw the perennially friendly Dan McKay, got to do some excited Tassie ex-pat chat. Went to see Coffins (who are wicked death doom from Tokyo) with support from Gospel of the Horns (Venom worship), Cauldron Black Ram (kvlt fat metal), The Day Everything Became Nothing (brutal death), Clagg (sounds like Electric Wizard with Phil Anselmo singing - unfortunate), and Ignviomous (death metal wearing BM pants). I was too late to catch Whitehorse and for that I am a dickhead. Got to see Rob McManus, Rob Mason, and arrange a jam with Nick Warren. Fun times!

Anyway, Mayhem (the very significant Norwegian Black metal band) are playing next week, and if all goes well, I'm gonna try catch that show too.

Thrall's been offered two shows already and looks like we'll be hitting the stage with Ruins at the Arthouse in early October at this rate. Awesome.

Get this:

- I am saving $50 a week so far on groceries because I am not in Tasmania. (Aldi, Victoria Street Richmond, Gangemi Fruit and Vegetable market, Mediterranean supermarket).

- I am getting home 20 minutes earlier and spending $20 less per week on transport because I am not in Tasmania.

- I have attended two concerts so far, seen more than 10 bands. I really enjoyed most of them (which is a pretty good strike rate for a picky bugger like me). Because I've been going out at night, I've not been hitting the turps too much, which also saves me money.

- We are paying exactly the same amount of rent as we were at Napoleon Street five years ago. Five years ago I was working that horrible call centre job with unfixed casual hours, Tom was a student, and our earning potential was significantly less.

Things are looking up! They really are!

On a sad note, Tom's computer got knocked off the table and the screen came off, so, much like when Snowy ibook died for me, Tom's in a similar state of computerless misery. On the upside, he's doing well enough in his job that he will probably be able to replace it very soon. Great things are about to happen, but like any bold move, you have to be brave for a moment first. It's not all worked out perfectly, but I feel pretty good about where we are right now.

To finish this post, I thought I would share my newfound aphorism for you all that I found in a news paper article.

"Look for opportunities to do something better. Accept risk as a necessary evil. It thins out the competition. Goals aren't enough. You need a plan. You need to learn from your mistakes and alter your plan as you go. Don't re-invent the wheel. Learn from others. Make sure the math works. If the math doesn't work neither does the business. Make sure everyone understands the mission. There will be difficult times, but you will work through them. Whining is a waste of time. There will be sacrifices. Work to find a balance. Don't be a financially successful loser. It's not about the income, it's about the outcome."

Off into the distance once more...

Slipstream

Gonna put out the washing in a minute...

Gonna put out the washing in a minute...

We're leaving. Again. Thought I would have mastered the art by now. But no.

Had lunch yesterday with Sallie B. and just felt like I was a whirlwind. Came in the door, threw the furniture about a bit in a torrent of quick catch up, and bustled out again within 30 minutes. Had tea yesterday with Maddy, Mindy and Hol's. Again, did feel a bit like the quick in-and-out, take-no-prisoners, bank-robber-type interaction rather than visitor. Everything turns into a swirl of colour and motion, some of it feels kind of stiff.

Gonna put the washing out in a minute...

The last week of being in a place is so hard. You have so much to do, and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE wants to catch up. People you haven't seen since Primary School come out of the wood work, acquaintances, avowed enemies, people you haven't even met, EVERYONE, I mean, EVERYONE. My sister suggested that maybe I should try just skipping town without telling anyone, but that would feel kind of cruel. But then again, catching up with people and being lame, tired and grumpy, is that any better?

Not sure.

OK, gonna put the washing out so I can actually explain how we got from there to here.

Right, washing out, next load on, where was I?

What happened was:

When we got back we said to people: "we don't plan to be here for long. We expect to move to Melbourne by September." Kerry and Dave (our repeat visitors in Japan and now good friends) had offered for us to crash at theirs when we moved over. However, their landlord had decided to start building something monstrous in their yard, so they decided they didn't want to live there anymore. So we suggested that we all go in on a share-house.

[I know, I know, shut up already... I haven't really enjoyed share-housing much in the past, but to get a foothold in a new town, I thought it'd be worth it, and who knows! It might be one of those terribly functional houses, like living with Emma and Adrian or something...]
Anyway, so Kerry and her sister Sarah (who will also be co-habiting with us) went house hunting. Found something they liked up in West Brun-ahs-wick. We popped in an application thinking "first application, probably won't be approved, but hey, you never try, you'll never know."

AND IT WAS APPROVED.

So then we were like: "Fuck! Better get cracking on the move, because otherwise we're paying rent on a house that we're not living in," and that's the kind of expense I can not afford.

So we called the removalist.

And the removalist took our stuff.

And we quit our jobs (effective tomorrow).

And we packed our car.

And on Monday we get on the boat.

While all of this has been going on, we've played a fairly big show with Psycroptic, Astriaal and Lacerta. It was a pretty good gig. I didn't feel that great about my performance. I was a bit sloppy, kinda overwhelmed by it all. We didn't get to sound-check (why is it always us that gets skipped in the soundcheck?) I mean, we brought the evil, but I would have liked to feel like I planted both of my feet in the landing a bit more, if you get my drift. Anyway, more people got to see us than at the gigs that we played before (metal shows are awesome) and there were quite a few people who came up and said "nice drums" so to all those people, hey, thanks... but I'm usually actually better than that!

Everything has a momentum about it at the moment. We're about to take off again (and after everyone was saying that the Hobart-gravity would catch us and we'd get stuck here again), the band has got some cool shows coming up (managed to wrangle that Zeni Geva support I've been angling for), and signed to Moribund (oh, yeah!), and we're finishing up these stupid jobs we've been stuck in Hobart (don't want to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I think I might be a touch overqualified for Admin Assistant/Reception roles). So over it. Ready for the next adventure. Cock the hammer, and... FIRE!

And so, here we are. Might vacuum the house now.

You can build so much momentum in your life, and you can feel so much inertia at times, and there was a moment there where maybe we might have not just packed up and left again. I mean, I love living in the bush, and I love the air down here. But I don't think I'm ready to admit defeat yet, and coming back to Tassie always feels a bit like back to square one. I didn't go all that way just to come back here! At least, not yet I haven't! Right now I feel like I'm being pulled out of here on the tide, caught in the slipstream of my own life. It's kinda cool, and kinda scary, but definitely feels like I'm getting some kind of direction happening here...

No Routine

It’s quite hard when you have no routine to find time to do things like update your blog. I apologise. It really has been a huge upheaval. We both have had our moments where we have struggled with our Return to Oz. Much like the “Journey of the Magi” - everything was as we remembered it, but somehow ineffably not. Part of going overseas and living abroad is that you end up with a set of experiences. These experiences are valuable, but cannot have a dollar value assigned to them. The more that you see, the less content one feels at home. Tom said to me once, “I wish I’d never gone away at all sometimes.” As we watch people in their twenties locked into permanent jobs paying off mortgages, whilst we are admin temping and living in the houses of our relatives and friends, I have questioned why we have ended up here. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I was never going to be one of those people who comfortably slips into a public service job straight after uni. I chose my destiny because that destiny was not mine. When life serves you lemons, export them to Japan for a handsome profit.

So, since arriving back in Australia in late April, we visited Jonathan and Denise in Sydney. Sydney is an amazing city. I love the surf beaches. The actual city itself has lovely historic quarters, and a recently rejuvenated rail network. So my overall affection for the place has increased in recent visits. I also had the pleasure of spending a night with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Rodney, both of whom are always fun to hang out with. Like most cities, money is required if one expects to enjoy one’s self, and being newly broke after living it up in our last three weeks in Japan, it felt a little like standing on the outside looking in.



From Sydney we flew to Hobart, into the waiting arms of our families. My mother put us up for the first couple of weeks. My brother put us in his shed for a couple. Then we came into this housesit at Pete and Shirley’s house in Kaoota. Two springy spaniels and wide-open spaces. Staying here really made us question whether we would like to stay in Tasmania. In Tasmania, we could have a bush house. We could make a racket and be outside of earshot of the nearest neighbours. But as always, in Tasmania, we could be stuck in temporary and contract jobs forever, and be paid half as much for the same work in Melbourne. In the end, the employment situation forced our hand. We have to leave again.

When I said I have had no routine, it’s not entirely true. I have had a routine that doesn’t involve being on the computer quite so much. Monday to Friday I’ve been working at the Public Trustee as an admin/shit-kicker. It’s a fine job, not challenging, but I do feel like I’m making a difference. It does require early starts and commuting. But I’m home by 6pm most nights, and still able to assemble dinner. On Saturdays I take the dogs for a big run down the hill. Then we water the plants. I do the shopping for the week. I take Tom for a drive. Do the washing. Play some drums. I like this life. I could definitely handle it being mine…

On the musical side of things, slowly but surely, a little bit of buzz is starting to pick up around the Away from the Haunts of Men release. I don’t expect that it will be an overnight success, but I do think it will sell out its run of 500. We had our first interview the other day in a blog called “Lurker.” The questions were mostly of a philosophical bent, which was an interesting challenge. I don’t really have a philosophical outlook that is set in stone, and it definitely doesn’t come from my university studies or sit neatly in some kind of “ism”. It sits somewhere between “try your best” and “don’t be an arsehole.” On a personal level, I am totally into the idea of progress, and bettering yourself, but on a political angle, I think the modernist project was an abject failure, and we are stranded here in a world governed in the “least worst” way possible. As a species, on our current trajectory, I don’t see any possible future beyond total annihilation on a planetary level at some point in the future. I despise the “green gestures of a dying planet – an endless debate only to be too late!” (Jaz Coleman) We talk the talk, but to actually curb our population and find some kind of balance to allow us to live in harmony with nature is beyond our ability. I find it deeply ironic that the first world might wipe itself out with its gluttony and over-abundance before the third world is wiped out by disease and famine. With medical science we cling to our lives for longer and longer. Be at one with nature! Surrender your resources! Compost! Go laughing into the abyss… don’t be an arsehole.

Easy to say. Harder to live.

We’ve played a couple of shows. First show home was really good. Tom and I were focused and fierce. The second show we recruited our old and good friend Leigh Ritson to play bass. The show was with KKNull, which is the name that Kazuyuki Kishino from Zeni Geva uses for his solo work. We picked Kazuyuki up from the airport, took him for a sandwich at Pete and Shirl’s house (I thought he’d like the opportunity to play with the dogs – turned out he’d been staying with a Jack Russell terrier in Melbourne!) and then got told off by the venue for picking him up. Apparently it is in a written contract that the venue owner picks up the talent from the airport. The venue-owner went to the airport (late, mind you) and of course, couldn’t find Kazuyuki. He knew that we were friends/fans of Kazuyuki’s, and could have let us know, but the same could be said that we could have let him know that we were going to get him from the airport too. I don’t expect Kazuyuki to pour though an English language contract and understand it all. Either way, we played the show on Friday, were asleep by 5am Saturday, we dropped Kazuyuki back to the airport at 9am and loaded out at 4pm. Bloody knackered, I was. And I wasn’t quite so convinced of our performance. Kazuyuki’s set was really interesting. He’s moved beyond solo guitar improvisation (which is what he was doing the last couple of times he came to Hobart) and has now moved into a sample based exploration of found organic sounds and inorganic post-production. The result is extremely cerebral, a rush of rhythm and squalls of insect calls, bird sounds, water sounds. Perhaps it was a bit too cerebral for the punters at the Brisbane. Most of them didn’t seem to get it. Off the back of this experience though, Zeni Geva have been booked to play at the Brisbane on the 30th of September, and we’re currently pestering everyone to make sure we get the support.



The tracking for the second album Vermin to the Earth has now been finished. The raw tracks just sound massive. The arrangements and instrumentation sit somewhere between ABBA and Avsky. Words that spring to my mind are “virulent,” “misanthropic,” “catchy,” “hypnotic,” “abrasive,” and “listenable.” It’s a very strange combination of adjectives, but that’s where we’ve ended up. Like fish-hooks in the mind, riffs get stuck in your head like a Lady Gaga song, but with a much darker, scarier aesthetic. I think Vermin to the Earth will be an awesome album. But for now, it will have to wait to be mixed and mastered, and after the almost three fucking years of waiting for Away from the Haunts of Men to be finished, I know that for now, some patience is going to be required.

1. Vermin to the Earth
2. Plague of Man
3. Oblivion
4. Disease’s Maiming Caress
5. Mass Extinction
6. Ecstacy not of the Flesh
7. Vita Vacuous Voluntas
8. Meius Quietus Nex

It will probably take us another couple of years to write the next album. We’ve got a couple of very rough ideas for the Aokigahara Jukai EP that we’ve been planning. I’ve written some lyrics, started playing with some artwork ideas. We’re thinking that EP would be a nice piece to record ourselves, using our own equipment, and release on one of the smaller labels that showed interest in Away From the Haunts of Men but missed out.

Killmister’s getting those final vocals that it needed from Rachel, and so we should have the album finished before the end of August, when the recording deadline will suddenly be upon us. Arrgh! Am I about to embark on another journey into oblivion? Seems I am.

Funnily enough, I have amassed about 2/3rds of the Fryktelig Støy album about 8 years before I said I’d be finished. I think I will self-press a limited run at some point. Listening to it, it really has those feelings of desolation/oblivion that I’ve been wanting to capture. It’s a very personal project, that’s constantly been relegated to my second, third, forth priority, and so to have the end in sight is quite exciting.

1. Black Mass
2. Sutra
3. Horsemen
4. I’m Happy in this Cave, Thanks
5. Somnambulist
6. Awaiting a Public Hanging

Well, at least I’ve not been idle. Ha ha, like that’s ever going to happen. It’s funny. The busier I get, the more I manage to cram in, the more I’ve got going on, the more I get going on. I used to think I was busy when I was at Uni. Now I know I wasn’t even 2% busy!

That’s my Sunday lie in accounted for. Can’t even relax in bed without being a busy bee! I’d best put on the onions for the French onion soup I had planned for lunch with Sam and Jess, wash the car, that kind of malarkey. We’ve made some plans for moving in with Kerry and Dave in Melbourne. If that works out, it will be awesome sauce for all involved. Dave’s need for a house where we can make noise is as pressing as ours, and that should ensure that we all get a house that doesn’t suck. The future is always popping up in these blog posts, because we’re such compulsive planners. I’m always happiest when I’m booking in the next bunch of plans, making things happen.

Hitting the ground... running

Well, here we are. Back where we started.

And yet, so far from there.

And now it is time to understand what it is that we have lost in all of the moving.

I have my allergies back. I am allergic to everything in Australia. Miserable, puffy-eyed, runny-nosed allergic. I can barely visit anyone without being allergic to their house.

The pertinence of these allergic reactions is that due to my allergies, the house-sit that we had been given through our friend Jeremy was impossible for me to stay in. It had a straw lined ceiling. No good for Little Miss Allergy me. No sir.

We stayed on the floor at my Ma's, and we stayed in the shed at my bro's, but after all that, we scored a house sit for June-August in Kaoota with two springy spanials on Umfreyvilles road.

Busy, busy, busy... started work a week after getting back to Hobart. Receptionist/Admin/Shitkicker at the Public Trustee. Work is workish, and I sway between finding it easy to deal with and maddening. Like any job, really.

It's good to stem the outward tide of money, as we've been struggling a bit since finishing up at ECC. Couldn't stand that job, but loved the holidays and the pay.

Played two shows so far. The albums didn't turn up in time for the album launch. Nothing seems to be selling. It's making me a little nervous, because I so dearly want Thrall to become something that can sustain itself - the money from selling the albums paying to make the next recording, the money from the merch going back into making the next batch of merch, that pays for the tours that sell the albums... but so far it continues to drain money from our jobs and our savings. It's hard. Anyone who hears Thrall or sees us play can understand that this is our passion, and that we make something amazing, but it's hard to get people to invest that first try, or pay money for music.

I'm at work, so I'll have to go now, but yes, I exist. We exist. We haven't stopped existing. I'll write more later. But yeah, Em and Tom are in the world. And we're making the next bunch of plans that will hopefully result in us being a little bit more in the world than we have been of late... if you get what I mean.

Arrived

Touchdown! Sydney. Now for the "reverse culture shock." Denise and Jonathan have been kind enough to let us ease into the day through their house.

I cried on the plane as we took off from Osaka. It has been such an eventful, hectic two years, I would never take it back. Osaka has been so good to us, and if we were in slightly different circumstances, I would never want to leave. But as it stands, I can never have the job I would want to have in Japan without being a totally different person. So back to Australia, hopefully to find a better balance.

5 days in Sydney, then off we go to Hobart to try and amass the collection of crap that we own, then head on to Melbourne. Will it be one month or six, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's definite.

More news soon...

Simulacra

Since ancient times philosophy has been preoccupied with the nature of, and the interpretation of, the "real." No where does this seem more pertinent than a place like Japan. The Japanese have a wonderful way of mythologising their nation, the characters of their cities, and their sense of insider and outsider.

Always an outsider... it's not such a bad thing, you know.

Travelling through Japan for the last two years, I have sometimes felt the experience of "Japanese-ness" must be quite restrictive. Many of the people I have met do not seem to feel or react to the societal expectations I have observed here. However, others seem hyper-aware of the imposition of being Japanese. Strict roles produce excellent rebels. As rare as they are, the Japanese misfit is one of my favourite beings to encounter. That said, many traditionalist elements sometimes surface in those who would seem to be out-and-out rebels, and even in those who appear to conform to their basic societal roles often have the misfit lurking just below the surface.



Part of the mythological "Japan" lies in the dichotomy of the traditional and the hyper-modern. These images are seductive and delicious. Camera lenses are always hungry for the sea of neon, or the gentle tilt of a temple roofline. For an outsider it is easy to enjoy this veneer, gliding over and past "Japan-land" in a glazed, sight-hungry tourist manner (see Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation). The closer you come, the more you hear the din: the pachinko parlours, the racket of competing stereos, the footfall of the march of the corporate commuter, the shrieks of children - the human experiences within the aesthetic exterior.

Is this the "real" Japan?



We finished recording the drums for Thrall 2 on the 7th of April, and went for a day trip to Yoshino on the 9th. Yoshino-yama is namesake of the Japanese floral emblem, the Yoshino cherry blossom, and has over 30,000 cherry trees in and around the village. The effect of the the masses of pink blossoms in different stages of opening, from the bottom of the mountain to the top was a lovely sight to behold. The sleepy little mountainside village was bustling with tourists, and is famously busy at this time of year, but for the rest of the year, Yoshino remains a quiet, authentic feeling town. The feeling of unity with the seasons, deep appreciation for nature... it is a truly beautiful country.

Japan's nature seems bounteous, inexhaustible and vigorous. Rainfall is high and one of the predicted effects of global warming is that Japan will receive a higher rainfall than it currently does. When I have explained the idea of Australia being a barren place that can barely sustain human life, timing showers, and water management, I have been met with vacant stares. The whole concept that something might be finite seems incomprehensible. Particularly something like water. People use strings of unfilled vegetable plastic bags to cushion their shopping over here, and "eco" bags are often only used as covers for plastic bags. The wastefulness of many people I've observed over here is quite boggling.

On the 11th we went to enjoy dinner with my ex-student, Eishi. He and his lovely wife Hanae put on a delicious spread of "do-it-yourself" maki-zushi. It was a very fun meal, and Eishi, being in one of his cheeky moods, teased Glenn, our friend who was also there for being American and terribly into red meat. It was a very tender moment, and I will miss Eishi. He is a scientist working on the human genome project. His English is pretty hot when he bothers to study, but recently he hasn't been coming to his lessons... naughty Eishi! I've always found Eishi to be self-effacing, intelligent, observant, and engaged with the world. I hope he comes to visit us in Australia.

Prior to dinner we went to Daigo-ji, one of the many UNESCO world treasures throughout Kyoto prefecture. Unfortunately it was too late in the day for us to see the top of the hill. The cherry blossoms were fading, and in comparison to the mountain-top beauty of Yoshino, something desperately inauthentic pangs me about Kyoto whenever I visit. Here, in the heavily touristed swarms of the ancient capital, we are in a carefully mediated experience, much like a theme park, a Disneyland dream-world. In Kyoto, the myth of Japan is presented to us in an imperfect fantasy, drab ugly city fringes blurring into temple grounds. But we are definitely in "Japanland" more-so than we are in Japan.

Is there a "real" Japan?

After a couple more days of sorting out boxes, sending guitars and LPs through the mail, we went for a brief sojourn to Tokyo. We were going to make a pilgrimage to Aokigahara-jukai, but on the day that we were planning to leave for Fuji-go-ko, we got some terrible news. The master CD for our upcoming album, Away from the Haunts of Men, has gone missing somewhere in the Bulgarian postal system. After news of such gravity we were paralysed with shock. We are still waiting for it to turn up. The $1000 master has gone missing... I really hope it turns up. We don't have $1000 to loose!

We arrived in Tokyo on the 15th and went to the Natural History Museum in Ueno. That was quite diverting. Our hotel was in Shiodome, just south of Ginza. It is one of those places in Tokyo that just feels like dust never falls on it. Huge cavernous, modern spaces, gleaming tiled expanses, scurrying salary-men and women, the other glittering fantasy world Japan, the hyper-modern, neon dripping glitz. The next day we ate a 6 course degustation menu at Kaishoku Michiba, rounding out our aim to eat at three Iron Chef restaurants before leaving Japan. It was truly delicious, delicate, and unmistakably Japanese. Wonderful that we chose Michiba's to do last, as it was a lot more affordable than Sakai's, but more satisfying than Chen's. We then missioned to the top of Roppongi Hills once more to take in an exhibition of emerging Japanese artists titled "Can there be art?" There were some ordinary pieces and some extraordinary pieces. My favourite was Aikawa Masaru's work, where he painstakingly creates oil painted replica's of CD covers, and then makes vocal tributes to his favourite music. The view from the Mori is always beautiful, and it gives the feeling of endless city, and endless possibilities that a place like Tokyo presents. Psychologically, it's either crushing or freeing, given one's own state of mind when taking in that view.



The next day we went to Koenji, in search of some record stores and a legendary punk scene. But apparently since the 20000V Club burnt down (four people died) the punk scene has shrivelled. We found a few clothes shops, but no record stores. Very disappointing. But perhaps that's part of the vulnerability of a place like Tokyo. A specialised scene can pop up around one club, but without integration, the scene is susceptible to a calamity like a fire to actually take out the whole scene, not just a venue. In that regard, the Punk/D-Beat scene in Osaka is safer than the Koenji scene was, and now, the Koenji scene will seek a new home. Earthdom is the temporary home, but Earthdom has it's own centre of gravity. We'll see. I hope next time I come to Tokyo, I'll be able to find some of the heart and soul of punk that I can access so easily here in Osaka. We then hooked up in the evening with Luke Ray for our final yearly visit. Luke was in good form, and was very sweet to us. I think maybe he'll miss our yearly visits... we ate out at the fierce, firey Szechuan place in Ikebukuro that he had introduced us to two years ago, and soon after I had to go home with a crook tummy. That said, if I had my time again, I'd do it all the same. That food's worth a crook tummy. It's that good. We went for a stroll around Harajuku/Aoyama before jumping on the train home again. It was Sunday, and I remember 5 years ago coming to Harajuku and seeing the cos-play zoku in all their finery. Now there are more tourists than there are cos-players. Change in Tokyo is so complete, so fast, so uncompromising, every time I come, there is a different city awaiting me...



By the time you understand it, it's already changed.

And so, that brings us up to now. We met up with Andy last night, had a drink or two. We'll miss him. Tonight we're playing our last Japan show in Kyoto. I'm feeling pretty tired but relaxed at the same time. So glad to have made the inroads that we have while we've been over here. It's been hard, bridging the language gap, and trying to make a name for ourselves, but I think we've done pretty well, all in all. We'll be going back to Australia with nothing. No savings. But we got lots of nice things whilst we were over here, so I suppose we'll be able to enjoy them for many years to come. At the end of the day, at the end of one journey, the next journey beacons.

Wild Zero Drinking Game

Wild Zero.

Guitar Wolf.

Bass Wolf.

Drum Wolf.

Zombies.

Ace face.

Aliens.

Transvestites.

Katanaguitar.

What's there not to love?

You must drink when:

- someone on screen drinks.

- someone combs their quiff.

- someone says "ROCK AND ROLL!"

- flames shoot out of something.

- a zombie's head pops.

At least 2L of non-happoshu beer recommended for consumption during game.

Thank you to Helen "Rock'n Reilly" for introducing us to this novel form of inebriation.