Earth Song

Australian music is pretty awesome I think. I'm not actually sure which of the bands on GoldFM/oldies are actually Australian and which aren't, but right NOW I think Australian bands are good. Sometimes I wonder why they don't achieve more of a mainstream appeal in the likes of America but then I'm happy to have them the way they are. They can be our little secret. Even in Japan I sometimes like to stream Triple J so I can keep a vague grasp on what's happening down under but I don't expect I'll ever hear it (Australian music) on the radio.

(The plural in 'hits' confuses me a little)

In fact, when I actually turn on the radio it's rare to hear much English at all. Most of Japan's pop music is, like its TV shows, from Japan. 'J-Pop' as it is recognised around the world is pretty much only popular in Japan... and in the computer room of Japanophiles. I like Japan don't get me wrong, but I don't like Japanese music. It's not that I can't understand it (although that's definitely a factor) it's just the sound. It's like ... cheap pop.

Much of Japan's hit music comes from groups, more specifically, girl bands and boy bands. Pre-packaged for maximum enjoyment amongst teenage girls/boys. Mostly girls. Only girls. They are always dressed in accordance with each other, always amicable, sort of talented and charming. Every time a boy or girl band is on a tv show they smile and are fun to watch and usually they throw a performance at the end.

These are the bands that can feasibly fit onto a talk show environment, that is.

What could that slightly cryptic last sentence mean? Ladies and Gentleman, I'll dive straight in and introduce you to AKB48. AKB stemming from it's origin in Tokyo, AKihaBara ... and 48 referencing the amount of members. There are 48 performers in this group. Forty Eight. They have split the group up into 3 teams (Team A, K and B) so they can perform in several places and not over crowd each other. Further to this, factor in appearances on other TV shows with only a few members from each team and you literally have a military force to be deployed at a whim.

(Soldiers of DEATH)

This phenomenon of creating miniature armies is possibly due to EXILE, a boy band featuring approximately 14 members. The strange thing here is that only two of them sing, another two of them sing a little AND dance, and the remaining ten are exclusively dancers. Their songs are quite popular amongst teens and their concerts are usually sold out. It stands to reason that a band featuring ten dancers would put on a hell of a live show... but I'm still not convinced.

(You don't really need to waste your time actually looking at all of them)

Arashi (Storm, in English) only have 5 members so it's a lot easier to remember who they are. These guys are popular because there is only five of them and it's easier to manoeuvre them around... Also because of their songs. Despite their raging name they're extremely poppy and zero in on the 'girls that like pretty boys' demographic. Some of the guys are also stars in various TV shows and movies so they're pretty much constantly accessible. I remember seeing them on a show with the next group in the list, learning how to do the dance for the song 'Chocolate Disco'.

(Showing their versatility - Moody and happy. Nice job guys)

PERFUME is a group featuring 3 woman but with their powers combined they sound like an over produced pile of auto-tune. Originally all three members had a Chinese character in their name which meant 'sweet smell' (香), hence the name, but then one of them left and the replacement had a different name. Sort of ruined it but it was only after the swapping of people did the group actually become famous. I must admit though I have a bit of a soft spot for this group. They're just so cute! Part of their marketing ploy is that they dance (almost eliminating the need for singing) and it's just mesmerising to watch them. Go on. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaatch.

(Can't actually embed this youtube clip so I shoved a picture and a link in there.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W63nzvIoFJU

They wear the above clothing when performing this song live... I like the hats.

SMAP is another artist that demands capital letters. They're a very successful band that also have a TV show titled 'SMAP x SMAP' just in case once wasn't enough. They do all the things on TV that I mentioned in my last blog post about Japanese TV (minus the porn) and even have a wide variety of guests on it too. I showed a clip of SMAP performing with Coldplay to my students last year (as part of the last class with my 3rd year students) in a vain attempt to show the students that learning English can yield a positive result - results were varied.

It should be noted though that I think this is a wonderful demonstration of culture exchange. Chris Martin took the time to learn some Japanese songs when he performed here and SMAP did quite a reasonable performance of this popular song too.

Angela Aki is a popular singer songwriter who speaks and performs in both English and Japanese. She has a particularly famous song loved across the country as a graduation song. She is popular as I said, but I mention her on this blog because a friend of mine in Otawara looks a lot like her.

(Right??)

Hatsune Miku is different from the above stars in that she is not actually a real person. A voice actress had her voice completely recorded and re-programmed into some music making software that can then 'sing'. This proved to be exceptionally popular in Japan, because they're weird like that, and has resulted in a huge following. People have created songs using her voice and some of these songs have actually reached the pop charts here. This has lead to a live concert of her. The results are mind boggling.

(It's in equal parts mesmerising and terrifying.)

It's not actually a hologram, it's an image projected onto a screen. If you look throughout the performance you can see the screen I'm talking about. Still kinda weird isn't it? This has lead to several spin-offs with lots of disproportionate characters singing in their super high pitched voices. Splendid.

Of course all of the above examples are sort of the extreme side of Japanese music. It should be noted that there is quite a lot of 'regular' or 'standard' music in the Japanese music word, too. The kind of artists that don't feel the need to be odd in order to be interesting. These artists are quite good, but as I mentioned earlier, they sing in Japanese so I can't really understand them very well.

(and lord knows I am DYING to know what SHE'S talking about ...)

When my friend Brendan came to visit me last year he had a goal to buy some Japanese hip hop music. Being a bit of an aficionado with hip hop he managed to choose quite a good group/guy who I have since put onto my mp3 player. Eelman. That's the name of the guy. I like his song called 'Unity'. If you're interested you can look it up but I worry I have forced to much Japanese music on you throughout this blog so please take your time...... It's not on youtube.

In fact while I'm on the topic, there's this wonderful music place up in the nearby mountains that I go to with my accomplice Hayley. During the day it is small shop that sells silver-based jewelery and delicious burgers, but during the night it transforms to this cool little acoustic place for live music. The artists that play are actually fairly famous and have performed on the stage at some of the biggest music festivals around Japan.

(Exhibit A.)

It's a nice sort of feeling to go to one of these nights (they happen throughout the year at fairly common intervals) and even if we don't understand the music, it's still nice to go through the motions, if that makes sense. It's like when you walk in the doors they have the fireplace happening and the music is cool and the food is great. It's the sort of thing you don't really find so frequently in Japan.

Which I guess is where I want to finish this blog. If I think about it, the music that is considered pop music in Australia isn't actually super popular amongst my friends there. It's the laid back genre of music that strikes more of a chord and that's why I wanted to let everyone know that it's here. Japan has some weird stuff going on but at least now we know that at it's core, it's OK.

Japan is OK everyone.

World Go Round

Recently I went to a place called Korea, maybe you've heard of it?

(not quite THIS Korea)

I went to Korea because it is quite close to Japan... and frankly it's just not on the way to anywhere. Meaning if I didn't go to Korea now, then I would probably never go. I am interested in Korea though, don't get me wrong. I went with two of my friends so we arranged our accommodation and what not together. We did not, however, plan any kind of activity to do upon arrival so many days were severely under planned and uncoordinated - but that's way I like it.

We were able to visit a lot of interesting and beautiful places in Seoul. From huge market-like areas for shopping, to tall towers for viewing the city, to the quirky/chic areas for people watching and the nightlife areas for drinking. Seoul is of course a huge city but because of the wonderful subway system it's extremely easy to get from point A to point B without much difficulty.

I could probably talk about the city and what we did for quite a while but you can do all that yourselves if you're interested in going. Instead I'll point out some nice things that I thought of or learned along the way and maybe by the end you will want to check it out a bit.

(Because THEY certainly seem interested!)

One thing I experienced which hasn't so much been a problem lately was the language barrier. I don't speak Korean as you may or may not know, so my ability to communicate was unfortunately limited to saying hello, thank you, and gestures. A lot of people could speak English but it always makes me feel self conscious to have to rely on it - it makes me feel lazy. Like I should learn their language because they're learning mine.

The Korean writing system (Hangul) is extremely easy to get the hang of and because it is a phonetic alphabet, it means that anyone can read it and pronounce it even if they don't understand what it means. English is harder because of the language's history and therefore, it's many exceptions to rules. Many words can be spelled similarly but pronounced differently. Before going to Korea I didn't learn Hangul but by the end it was possible to read some station names just from picking up some of the common symbols on signs. It makes me wonder if I should go ahead and learn it now?

(I don't think I could explain this in any language)

Korean people put a lot of effort into their outward appearance. I guess we all do to an extent but it's particularly noticeable in Korea, I think. A kind of cosmetic surgery to turn 'single' eyelids to 'double' eyelids is quite popular (as it makes the eyes seem bigger), beauty products are quite cheap and effective, and of course the fashion in Korea is of a very high standard. Everyone there is just so beautiful!

Because Seoul is such a big city then it stands to reason that Seoulites are used to seeing so many foreigners. In Japan I live in the countryside where foreigners are not so common, which means the Japanese people here are more excited to see us (foreigners) and will often try hard to speak and include us in things. People in Seoul don't really care so much and I think find foreigners to be more annoying than anything else. I can't really blame them for that though!

(Foreigners. Annoying Koreans for YEARS)

The conflict between North and South Korea was not particularly prevalent in my opinion. We went up to the Demilitarised Zone (the area between North and South Korea) and did a tour around the various places. When we went on the tour we weren't able to go to some of the places because of the recent tension between the two sides but we were able to at least learn a little about the situation. You may know this already but the capital, Seoul, is actually extremely close to the border. The people of North Korea have had to go through a lot and will probably be stuck in famine for a long time more. Our tour guide was extremely bright and cheerful though (oddly so?) which meant we could learn a lot but not be dragged down too much by heaviness of it all.

All males in South Korea must join the army for 21 months. If you are born with one Korean parent but live in a different country, you must choose to either take part in the army or lose your Korean citizenship. If you are a celebrity you must still participate in the army. There are exceptions for the handicapped and (oddly enough) for those who bring national pride to Korea, for example, gold medal winning athletes. However the general rule is mandatory army service. The range for this service though is quite varied and soldiers can be stationed all over the country in any manner of job. Some could be lucky ... some could be forced to hide in the freezing mountain border to watch North Korea.

(or be forced to to this. I don't envy you chicken soldiers)

Kimchi is one of the most popular foods in Korea and is served with everything. It's like spicy, fermented vegetables (usually cabbage). Upon ordering a meal, several plates of various kimchi related foods will be served as sides. In 2010 there wasn't much rainfall so the price of cabbages skyrocketed in an event deemed a national tragedy by Korean Newspapers. They've solved the problem by importing cabbages from abroad, but it's an indication of how important kimchi is to Korea. I didn't mind the flavour... not the best thing in the world but definitely a nice addition to a meal - super healthy too.

Alcohol in Korea has all the standards plus some special Korean kinds as well. Soju is a distilled drink made from a rice base (or other starch based foods) and is both cheap and delicious. Sugar is added in the manufacturing process to make it sweeter so it can be drank by itself no problems. The other famous Korean-made alcohol is Makkoli which is basically a Korean rice wine. It's not very strong (6%?) but it's quite sweet and very easy to drink. It's usually served in a communal bowl in the centre of the table so people can ladle it themselves. Traditional, no?

Otherwise the rest of the food in Korea is generally quite spicy (not too bad though!) and is usually quite meaty in content. A typical Korean style restaurant will have many tables in a big room with a miniature barbeque built into each table. The rooms will often spill outside with plastic tents/annexes used to protect people from the outside conditions. It's a wonderful, lively environment where the positive atmosphere from one group can easily liven up the next group. Alcohol is plentiful and the food is even more plentiful.

(Korean dining = meat + kimchi)

The Korean entertainment industry responsible for the 'Korean Wave' across the world is by all means quite impressive. K-pop is becoming more and more popular and Korean drama's have been popular throughout Asia for quite some time now. I put K-pop up there with J-pop (which I will talk about in a future blog) but there are some big differences between them. K-pop is sexier, J-pop (Japanese pop) is cuter. I have only watched one Korean movie so far; Old Boy. It's a very good movie and has won many awards but is possibly not the best movie to use to gain an insight into Korea culture. It has ... heavy themes. Here is some K-pop for y'all!

(Korean amazingness)

I don't know many people from Korea but I have one friend who I was able to meet up with a few times there. It was important for me to experience the nightlife from a local's point of view and not just see the sights of the city. So this way I could learn more about Korea from a Korean person and see some of the better bars and nightclubs around town. Plus frankly, having a good time was probably higher on my list than learning about Korea's ancient history. I don't remember the names of the era's Korea has gone through - but I CAN tell you the names of the bars I visited...... sort of. Obviously the activities performed in a bar impair that sort of thing.

So all in all I had a wonderful time in Seoul. Aside from the DMZ up north we didn't really leave the city so if I go back again it might be nice to check the rest out. Down south there is a city called Busan which has been described to be a bit like Melbourne which sounds nice! As I mentioned before though, Korea is a little out of the way. I DO want to go to Mongolia one day though...

(Artists interpretation)