How to make friends in Japan (or anywhere) when you dont speak the language.

So the gods have conspired to dump you in a foreign land with little to no preparation and almost no language skills.

Bummer.

Now while you should be spending as much of your free time learning the language, there's very little point to being able to talk, if by the time you have become comfortable at attempting a conversation your isolation has turned you into a slightly schizo recluse. I mean after all, while you may love the food and the culture and just being in a different place, you're really here for the people, for the interaction right?

The best way to go about things is to figure out what your interests are and then just go out and find like minded people. Easier said than done for sure.

In the months that I've been here so far, I've been looking to get active in the music scene. No I dont play any instruments, at least not well, and I dont sing or rap. I do however do some mixing for some groups overseas from time to time. But I've found that "I do mixing" doesnt really get things going, since most people, many musicians included, dont actually get what audio mixing is. (Incase you dont know, in a nutshell, its how "recordings" turn into "songs" more or less.)

This, however, works like a charm:

singer/guitarist on bridge: - (singing rather well, very unique voice, playing well too)

me: - very good sound!

( the few musicians i've met so far seem to have a worse command of english than many other people, being musicians, they probably spent more time on technique than paying attention in english class, so i try and keep the english simple and familiar)

me: - recodingu wa arimasuka? cd?

singer/guitarist on bridge: - no nothing recorded yet ( paraphrasing what she said in japanese of course)

me: - ah, have you recorded before?

singer/guitarist on bridge: yes, myself, but not so good.

me: - i do recordings, can i record you some time?

singer/guitarist on bridge: yes please! here is my card.

From there we hooked up a week later and i started out recording a couple of her live cafe shows. one place in particular Ginrin, here in Nagasaki, is home to a number of local musicians, so walking in with a laptop and an audio interface raised a few of their eyebrows.

Its been a week or so now and the circle of people that i aurally abuse with my broken japanese has more than doubled in size. My japanese has also gotten a bit better since i'm forced to speak japanese.

Now, its early days yet, but i'm thinking of a little recording and mixing side business here. I've listened to the work of some of the local studios, and I reckon i can atleast give them a run for their money. Actually, if I'm being honest, the quality of local pro studios is abysmal. The musicians themselves could get the same results if they bought a lil' Mbox and a mic.

But yeah, how to make friends,...

What do you like to do?

Find like minded people.

And the key element to leading a happy expat life in Japan, or anywhere else for that matter, dont give a shit at how bad your language skills may be, chances are they know just enough english and you know just enough japanese to communicate. And if you're passionate about what you're passionate about, that in itself should help to foster your new found friendship.

Assjet, for all your insecticide needs.

The girl on the train.

Averagely average.

Neither stunningly beautiful nor hideously ugly, and yet of all the average looking people one doesnt give a second glance during ones day,..for some strange reason I just couldnt pull my eyes away from her.

She sat down right across from me in the train. Her hat, one of those fisherman's hats, but without the lures, sat low on her head, but high enough for me to see her eyes.

And they told me that she was pleased. Perhaps pleased with how her day has been, or perhaps pleased with her new purchase which was sitting in her lap. The small plastic bag read HMV on the side, and I could just about make out the little doggy logo.

She looked up, and I caught her movement in time to avert my stare. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her look around the train car that we were in,..... there was her, me, and a few other people scattered along the seats. It was a couple of hours before rush hour, so the passengers were mostly made up of pensioners heading home for dinner after a day in the city, and a group of young mothers slowly rocking their strollers back and forth, hoping to keep their babies satisfied and quiet until they got to their stop.

She looked down at her purchase, and I caught a slight smile as she looked at her purchase, in its little white plastic bag. Something no doubt that she has wanted for a while, I thought.

Then, just as now, I asked myself what it was about her that held my attention captive for so long. Ok so, I trained as a designer, I did A-level art, and while I like admiring the instances when DNA combine to produce the classicaly pretty, I find the quirkyly pretty to be more,.... "interesting", shall we say.

And yet she wasnt even that.

Sometimes eccentric clothes on an average or even ugly person can make them more attractive,... I scanned again, thinking this might be it,.... but no.

Black sneakers, they looked oldish, the kind with a big velcro fastener across the top. Dark blue jeans that seemed to fit well, in a comfortable sense.No print, nothing to give away who their manufacturer might have been, which in label obsessed Japan can be a rarity. She wore what looked like a darkish plaid shirt, the kind you find in Muji or Uniqlo. And her coat,... well it was just a coat.... some dark fabric that gave off a purplish glow when the afternoon sun hit it through the train window.

A little black handbag and her HMV purchase, and that was it.

See what I mean?

Averagely average.

And yet so pleased with whatever it was that she had treated herself to at HMV.

It was bigger than one CD, so perhaps she had been on a new music spending spree?

She glanced at her handbag, and then at her shopping. And I watched as she made a decision.

She opened her handbag, and then set it one side.

Then she reached into her shopping,.... pulling out what looked like a ten pack of blank CDs in clear plastic CD cases.

With her right hand she reached over to her handbag, put on her lap, and with her left hand placed the HMV shopping back to her side. She looked at the CDs and then at her handbag for about a second.

Then she proceeded to put it into her handbag. Only they wouldnt fit. The CDs were too tall for her little bag, and a little bit too wide. But she spent the next two stops rearranging the things at the bottom of her handbag, hoping that the the CDs would fit somehow.

And I spent the next two stops watching her.

It was hypnotic for some strange reason. I dont quite know why, and I dont quite know why almost 6 months later she pops up in my mind every so often. I also dont know why I find myself wondering where was she from, what did she do, was she on her day off, what would it have been like if I said hello or if I didnt have to get off before her.

Averagely average cant be that bad if you wind up sticking around in someones brain for so long.

Nagasaki Homage Ritual (field recording)

So I have an auditory fetish.

Pictures can show you what a place looks like. Videos can show you what its like to move around the space, but unless the audio (and the video of course) is really well done, you rarely get a sense of what its like to actually be in the space.

Audio on the other hand has the power to transport you into an environment and then immerse you into said environment.

So I'll be uploading field recordings from around Nagasaki (and beyond,...), and I hope you can get a sense of what its like to actually be here.

So this is your captain speaking, we will be landing in Nagasaki shortly so pop your headphones on, crank up the volume, sit back and close your eyes.

Around this time of year, representatives from each neighbourhood get together into groups. These groups go around to other neighbourhoods to pay homage and extend well wishes, while chanting and playing Japanese percussion. Some of them even throw a couple of flutes or trumpets into the mix.



I really should have taken a couple of pictures of this to go with the audio but this was a couple weeks ago, I had only just arrived, and I was rummaging through my luggage trying to find my recording gear.

Before coming to Japan, learn to use the force...

ummm,... what?

( found in the Nagasaki Brick Hall, the local concert hall, which obviously suffered from founders with no imagination when it came to naming the place )

Good Morning Nagasaki-shi!

Exactly 30 days ago today I landed in Japan.

Exactly 30 days ago today I spoke five Japanese words less than I do now,.... which brings the grand total to,... oh,... about five.

So yeah, this should be interesting.

I dont quite know how long I'll be here, but it's safe to say indefinitely.

What am I doing here?

I have yet to find out.

I could crash and burn out here, and spectacularly so at that.

Perhaps I will, but perhaps I wont.

Finding out which,....well, thats gonna be half the fun.


p.s.: I fucking hate japanese pillows.