Yesterday, met up with Sekino-sensei, my Japanese language professor from Brandeis, who I had not seen in years. It was great to see her again, and to talk in Japanese, though I was quite cognizant of my stumbles, my grammar mistakes and such. The key thing, however, is that I was able to talk without really thinking about it; I wasn't translating in my head, and I wasn't even thinking out, preparing my sentences in Japanese in my mind, but just speaking as the words came to me, more or less the same way I would talk in English.

I regret that I didn't get a picture of the two of us...

Right now my mind is filled with images and impressions of the beautiful natural greenery of Dazaifu, the temples and shrines and historical sites, the traditional architecture nestled in among wide open clearings and fields of green. Also of a very different place - the fashions and atmosphere of Shimo-Kitazawa, a suburban neighborhood of Tokyo which I do believe is threatening to eclipse (if it hasn't already) Harajuku and/or Shibuya as the hip youth fashion neighborhood.

I'd heard about Shimo-Kitazawa for quite some time, and never made it out there before. Every time I've been to Harajuku this year it has seemed flat, declining. Where are all the punks and goths and lolitas? Well, they're not in Shimo-Kitazawa either. But something certainly is.

Far quieter and greener than Shibuya or Harajuku, Shimo-Kitazawa feels slower, more relaxed, and certainly far less crowded. In a way it also feels more real, for despite appearing in guidebooks and various other sorts of tourist media, it's further from the city center, from foreign tourist meccas and expat society. Definitively suburban, beyond a few blocks radius out from the station it rapidly turns into residential neighborhood, complete with full homes (not apartment buildings), some of them quite traditional in style, with tile-topped plaster walls and green gardens.

The area is full of jazz cafes and all manner of hip cafes and bars in more down-to-earth, wooden settings which convey an air of history, if not tradition. Shops selling the latest hip fashions, at the same absurd prices one will find in Shibuya/Harajuku, are on every corner, interspersed with more typical chains, everything from CoCo Ichi's (curry rice) to banks, eyeglass boutiques, bookshops, and karaoke.

I imagine that by the next time I come back (and who knows when that'll be) things will be completely different; I have missed my opportunity to get to know and experience Shimokitazawa at this particular stage in its popularity and development. Who knows what or where will be "in" when I get back here. If I ever get back here.


The Rules
1. Open your music player (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every 'scene,' type the song that’s playing. When you go to a new question press the next button.

+ Tagline: Morrowind - Death

An epic, dark, and dramatic film.

+ Opening Credits: El Hazard OVA theme

Appropriate for opening credits. Sounds like the kind of thing that would introduce our epic heroes. Maybe things start out with them running from (towards?) some great foe, the camera zooming in on each character, by way of introduction, as they engage in battle.

+ Waking Up: Arashi - Kimi no tame ni boku ga iru (I exist for you)

Ah, but the heroes and the battle was all but a dream. Awakening to the sound of annoyingly happy and energetic Jpop.

+ Working Song: Hikaru no Go - Get It!

This is apparently an anime movie. Working a boring, tedious desk job, but working at it, pushing, fighting towards a goal. One day I want to Get It!

+ Falling in Love: Chicken Run - Lift Off

After searching for so long, giving up numerous times on ever finding the right girl, there she is! Ah, miss, you've dropped your glasses. Here, let me get those for you. Oh, they really suit you. A good color. Listen, do you want to grab a coffee or something?

+ Sex: Dolls - Kimi no Hitomi ni Koishiteru (I love your eyes)

Very happy, fast, light music. The innocent, cute sex of a young teenage couple deeply crushing on one another, and rushing into something they shouldn't be just yet?

+ Lusting: Macross Zero - Arkan Part 2

A slow, thoughtful song. He sits on a park bench, thinking about her, wanting to see her again. She sits in her room, trying to fix and clean her glasses, staring out the window at the night sky, thinking of him.

+ Cooking Dinner: Batman Beyond - End Title

This is where the epic, dark, drama of the tagline comes in. A dark, dramatic, and techno-heavy song. What have our heroes gotten involved in now? Will they ever see one another again? What does any of this have to do with dinner?

+ Walk in the Park: FFVI - Troops March On

Having been captured and kidnapped while making dinner, our heroine finds herself brought by her captors to the park, the same one where our hero was just a short time ago sitting on a bench thinking of her. Troops are now marching through it. Who are these people, and what do they want with our heroine?

+ Working Out at the Gym: FFT - Shop

An energetic, light/happy and repetitive song. Our hero trains to rescue his girl from the clutches of her captors.

+ Fight Scene: Theme - Sealab 2021

Our hero busts into the captors' underwater sea lab, wreaks some havoc, and rescues the girl.

+ Breaking Up: Tarzan - Two Worlds Reprise

She reveals to our hero that she has not been fully honest with him. She is actually a member of a secret underwater race.. and is engaged to be married to the prince. But she breaks it off with her fiancé to be with her new love.

+ Secret Love: Nightwish- Kinslayer

An angry, dark, metal song. The Prince discovers his betrothed with another man - a surface walker, no less! - and vows revenge.

+ Life's Okay: Feist - Now at Last

Blissfully unaware of events below the waves, the young couple relaxes on the couch, watching a movie together, and just being in loving one another. Feist's soft, acoustic, slow, gentle song plays over the closing credits as the two kiss.

+ Mental Breakdown: Rurouni Kenshin - Testament

The Prince, meanwhile, is scheming and plotting, angry, furious in fact, smashing all around him in his rage.

+ Partying: Mamas and Papas - Monday Monday

The pair dance at a retro party with their surface friends.

+ Long Night Alone: Champloose - Hana ~ Subete no Hito no kokoro ni hana wo (Flower ~ A flower in the heart of everyone)

The Prince stews alone in his room, his rage having turned to sadness...

+ Final Battle: Idan Raichel - Siyaishaya Ingoma (Sing Out for Love)

Our hero fights the Prince for the girl, the scene continuing in slow motion as they let their emotions get the best of them.. the pair destroy one another, along with everything around them, as they forget what they are fighting over and simply allow the fight to continue... And the world goes on without them.

+ Death Scene: Samurai Champloo - YOU

The Prince lies dying, our hero badly injured as well. Our heroine looks over both their broken bodies and cries, mourning that such violence, such hurt should have been inflicted all over their love for her.

+ Funeral: BECK - Journey

Completely not the kind of music for a funeral. Rough, hard rock tune inspiring visions of motorcycling down a lonely desert road. Our hero, realizing what he's done, and seeking to redeem himself by starting over, disappears over the horizon even as the girl stands solemn, her Prince's ship, aflame, drifting out to sea.

+ Closing Credits: Tomoyasu Hotei - Upside Down

End with a nice dark but upbeat song by rock legend Tomoyasu Hotei. This is, after all, a Japanese popular summer blockbuster movie about young love, not some sort of art film with serious undertones or meaning.