Neil Hopcroft

…am I pressing reload? Everyone apart from Dilbert is in Whitby at the moment, and he’s already turned up today.

Anyone who’s there and reading this tell everyone I know that I say ‘hi’.

I don’t know whether to be impressed or depressed that KLF sampled Uriah Heap.

Today I went to the end of the Oedo line, its an unusual line in-so-far-as it only has one end. It also remains underground for the entirity of the journey. I emerged into an area of many many huge blocks of flats. This reminded me a lot of Munich, the area around the olympic stadium and BMW factory there. Howcome there aren’t really areas like this in England, we have flats in the same way, but they always seem to turn into scummy areas. Maybe its just that these other places get more sun, or that I see them through rose tinted glasses or something.

A quick wander around the park, overshadowed by what appears to be a recycling plant, and then back to the shopping centre next to the station. The whole area is infested with children, they were everywhere, running around, stopping randomly, riding bicycles badly, being scared of the big lumbering foreigner, skateboarding, you name it.

Back toward the city centre and I stopped at Nerima (which I always turn into Nermia in my head), which seemed to be served by rather a lot of infrastruture for such a quiet place. A few shops and a big road, but it seemed to have three or four stations and a bus terminal and nearly as many taxis as Tokyo station itself.

Onto the Seibu Ikebukuro line, which for some inexplicable reason had a warning notice on the window depicting someone sitting with their knees wide apart and a huge exclamation mark on them – I assume it was warning that you shouldn’t sit like that, but I don’t read enough kanji to understand it.

At Ikebukuro I found another record shop with a sale – this one tucked away above the Loft. It was unexpected to find two Foetus CDs (including covers of I am the walrus and Elected) and 1000 Homo DJs for 1000 yen each.

One year ago:

“Alright, this journal corresponds to a new chapter opening up in my life.”

A lot has changed in the last year. A lot more will change over the coming year.

Surviving his irony overdose, Morrisey seeks to take it to another level

“…he was briefly suspected of being a terrorist…doubt that’lll cheer him up much”

“Actually, I don’t think that was part of the entry criteria. In fact, if it were they would have turned me away at Narita. If I were trying to communicate with a local person that may require me to speak Japanese. As it is I’m trying to talk to another native English speaker, we’re both considerably more comfortable talking in English. Perhaps we’re being a little loud and foreign on the train. But theres nothing illegal or immoral about it.

Perhaps it would be better if I weren’t here? Maybe the economy of this country would do better without projects like mine, projects which give jobs to 200 local people, projects that couldn’t be run here without our experience, without our stupid foreign ways. Perhaps then you could have a nice life without having to hear this dreadful gaijin language, or look at our ugly white faces.”

Now that cyberpunk is dead, it must be replaced with something…I’ve heard a couple of people talking about the next wave of fiction, but I don’t know any details. Anyone know anything about it? Who/what should I be reading next?

Midnight Mess last night kicked off slowly, Torture Garden were holding their Tokyo event, also in Roppongi. Until about two there were only about a dozen people there, and the music, while quite listenable, was, to my ears at least, obscure.

Then Rome Burns arrived. It wasn’t the real Rome Burns ‘cos simonsatori had short hair and I’ve no idea who the guy with the mullet was supposed to be – have they gotten a new bass player, or has Stoooos beard gone really really wrong?

From then on there was a steady stream of people arriving from the Garden. There didn’t seem to be anyone in particularly fetish outfits, there was a little more leather and PVC than is normal for Mess, but not noticably more than a normal London night would have.

The influx made it seem quite crowded on the dancefloor – but that wasn’t going to stop me jumping around a bit.

The final TG refugees arrived just as the music was finishing, at last some real rubber, there was a girl with just her face visible from her all-over bodysuit/dress thing. No idea who she was, I tend to recognise people initially by their hair (which, admittedly, is a less useful differentiator here than back in Europe).

We all waited outside while the bar was put back in order after the music stopped. The rubber girl said my t-shirt was ‘kawai’ (or maybe ‘kowai’, pretty) – I’m going to this take as a compliment but I’m not sure if it really was – which seemed, somehow, the wrong way around….

Maya-chan lead the entourage to Trick or Treat, where she had booked the whole place for the post-Mess mess….we weren’t turned away this time for being gaijin, since we were a mixed group. Theres one large table for groups of 8 or 9 plus a few smaller tables for twos and fours, I ended up on a little table with Spit, seperated by a kind of negative crucifix partition from Yvonne and her ladyfriend (whose name I didn’t quite catch).

Somewhat incongruously there is an electronic dartboard in the middle of the gothic decorations.

The food, when it finally arrived (they’d been hit by a group of 20-odd ravenous goths arriving together) was OK, but the cheesy chips I was expecting turned out to be fried mozarella. But in conclusion, I think I’d rather go to Criston Cafe, where at least I feel welcome.

just testing if this really does work 40m underground

I noticed today how different shadows here are to those in Finland…it wasn’t something I really thought about until I was looking outside at midday while I was in Helsinki a couple of weeks ago, even with the sun at the highest point you’ll cast a long shadow, so the sun is often shining in your eyes. Here the sun is much higher in the sky for most of the day, so even though the heat is more oppressive the light is much easier on the eyes.

…this has been a displacement activity, brought to you courtesy of having a pile of washing up that *really* needs doing…