Japan Gets Real
Along with new voices.
(updated: 13 September 2023)
I’d always known about Japan. From a very young age, I saw the Japanese characters on the back of soy milk cartons, along with Astro Boy on television. In 1988, I learned Japanese. My dad’s good friend had a Japanese wife. Also, we had some Japanese neighbours in the apartment building in 1987 whereby Mikito Fujimoto and a bunch of us would go to the Fun Factory and blow our coins on Double Dragon and Dragon Ninja.
Mikito was an only child and his dad was a hairdresser. I’m pretty sure their visa application was rejected and they returned to Japan. He brought over his Famicom and used it here and that was amazing to me. He struggled with English but we all made it work somehow and he was a lot of fun.
Back then, we had a Honda Accord and on my way to learning Karate in 1995, I learned Tae Kwon Do at the time too.
Yet mostly I dreaded Thursday’s Tae Kwon Do class because at 2 – 2.5 hours, it was so tiring and stressful. It was also a fair drive to reach the Camberwell Civic Centre. One time, the car ran out of petrol and literally rolled into the servo next door. And that’s the way the class made me feel so often.
But, under the guidance of Jack Rozinsky, I ended up with a yellow belt and two stripes before stopping. Karate in 1995 was with Sensei Joe, which I preferred.
I won an award “Most Spirited Senior” that year and was somewhat sad to give it up due to study commitments and a desire to change my physicality. I threw away the trophy recently due to it dropping, but should have a photo of it somewhere. I remember sparring competitively with another Jewish guy double my age (Jonathan?) at the second-floor venue in Cato Street.
One of my school friends Peter was doing Chikara style Karate at the time but at a different association and when he found out about the commonality on a lunch break, he played me Pantera in his walkman. He was into the game Street Fighter II a few years earlier and used to emulate the moves he saw and take on the whole theatrical effect.
I went to Japan in December that year too and for the first and only time, I bleached my hair with Tina in Greville Street for the school holidays.
[pic 4: Kobe post earthquake??]
That trip was with Jun whose immediate family lived in Japan and I knew him from Geelong Grammar, Timbertop (photo pending.) He slept in the bed next to mine and in fact, on about 3 occasions in the middle of the night I heard (and saw) him sit up and speak a completely alien language to me. No one else witnessed it, and he knew nothing of it personally. It wasn’t just a few words either, the monologues would go on for 2-5 minutes and were very fluent. They really should’ve woken up other people but did not. And Jun was often the last person to make the breakfast line-up, right after me. The lingo used for sleeping back then was “spine-bashing” and “departured” and it was a favourite pastime for many. So I had a massive download in a sleep in Jerusalem in 2005 – maybe that was his.
A powerful descendant of an ancient civilization? Whatever the case, another school friend Sascha (brown jacket below) and Jun’s cousin (pink jacket) also made it over as Jun is Australian/Japanese.
There was a lot to take in including skiing at Tenjindaira with incredible amounts of snow (compared to Mount Buller) and at one point Jun and I spent 45 minutes looking for a ski. I took a fall in the powder and somersaulted and the ski was at the top of landing spot, not down the hill where I stopped. I also recorded a video of me skiing to the base of the mountain, but the camera was on full zoom so it came out poorly.
Anyhow, in Tokyo, January 1996, I checked out the the Elvin Jones Special Quartet with Wynton Marsalis at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. I missed Jamiroquai by a few weeks light years.
But, by chance Prince came through a night-club that I was at with his massive entourage. I had last seen him in concert in April 1992 for Diamonds and Pearls. He played a number of shows in Japan also in January 1996. I’m not sure if he came through after his concert but I did see him from about 10 meters away despite me not trying to get a glimpse as he strutted across the dance floor to his next destination.
I bought a number of CDs as well: R. Kelly self-titled, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (on Sascha’s recommendation,) Jesus Wept and Back from the Raggedy Edge. All these albums came out a few months prior to me arriving. I really was very fortunate to be able to make the trip to Japan and am very grateful for it.
Continuing, I started Bagua and Yoga in 1997 and became vegan for a period of time. I also gave Pilates a few sessions.
But was I heading in the right direction with my menu? I was using a book to learn some of my Yoga poses. Was it enough?
I was still eager to find new voices, even if I didn’t understand them at first.
So via Sugihara, Japan provided a lifeline for my grandparents during the war on the way to Australia, so where was the next stop? Back to Japan?
TLC released great tracks in 1995, which I first heard in Japan, and I mashed up in Israel in 2013.
So is that where I would find flow?
The plot thickens: how do Israelis find flow?
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