A little different than my usual posts, I wanted to take a minute and shout-out the rad blogs that help me pass my days. If you enjoy Same Hat, you simply must give each of these a look, and add them to your RSS for continued perusal!
1. KURUTTA [LINK]
Kurutta is hands-down my current favorite blog on teh internet. I can't recommend it highly enough! Run by Nicke, my gay Swedish brother-from-another-mother, Kurutta follows a great posting style: weekly posts chock-full to the brim of media/photos/details on one specific topic. It doesn't hurt that Nicke's interest match up exactly with everything I'm into (and that Same Hat is all about): Jun Togawa, GISM, rare Tezuka artwork, Masaaki Yuasa's Mind Game and Seichi Hayashi pin-ups (along with other oddities).
2. WASEDA RAMEN [LINK]
Nate (of Same Hat's Man in Japan posts!) is my best buddy from college and is currently living in Takadanobaba while working on his dissertation. He's been blogging extensively about all things Ramen while living near Waseda, (which is basically in Ramen Ground Zero in Japan). His mission is to document every shop in Takadanobaba (with numerous stops around Tokyo, in norther Japan, and even slurping noodles in mainland China).
On Waseda Ramen, each post is like a rad wikipedia entry of awesome, where he dissects the speciality at a particular shop-- often going into the nuances of the regional variety and noodle style served, ridiculous details on the store owners and clientele and lush, makes-me-so-hungry-I-wanna-bite-my-computer photos of the meals. Nate also peppers in lots of found photos, YouTube clips and keitai pics.
This is my go to site for all things Ramenology. I can't fucking wait to go visit him and hit some of his favorite shops.
Start with these posts: Yagura-tei (CRAZY SPICY!), Sado ga Shima (Niigata island ramen!), and Canned Ramen!! If you enjoy this: Check out Nate's newest blog, RICE BALLS, which features short 2-line reviews of Onigiri from around the world. It's actually open to any contributor-- you guys should check it out and start posting!
I've talked before about the greatness of Tokyo Damage Report, run by our buddy Schultz. TDR is my favorite in-country blog about Japan for a bunch of reasons, but the main one is that it's free from the self-obsessed, boring and often orientalist bullshit perspective of a lot of blogs about Japan by foreigners. Schultz doesn't forget that he's a white dude living abroad, but he's learned the language, lived there for years, been in Tokyo bands, and really knows his shit.
His blogging specialities include a guide to Tokyo (where I originally heard about Nakano Broadway!) metal and punk show reports, Japanese trade show photojournalism, fetish club and disco parties, and the occasional interview. He also created an unique Kanji-learning dictionary, which I recommend if you're past the intro levels in your studies.
Blonde Zombies is the most NSFW out of all the blogs mentioned here, but I assume that wouldn't scare any of you all away. "Crazy/Sexy/Cool Tumblr collection of weird shit" has become a major blog genre of its own, but Blonde Zombies goes a bit beyond that (and does it better than anyone else). One way to judge that kind of blog is by how much stuff you've already seen somewhere else before, and BZ is consistently showing me stuff I've never heard of.
Even the stuff I'm not into at least gets my synapses firing. Blonde Zombies' latest pre-occupations seem to be vintage porno mags, European horror comics and Russian pop album covers from the '80s.
Start with these posts: From the categories sidebar on the site: Zombies!, Euroterror!, and also early word processor Fangoria fanzines If you enjoy this: Check out the like-minded Spanish grindcomics scans goldmine ERO-TRASH (The book Muerde is the best!) and the collection of exquisite Showa magazines and dirty pin-up clippings at Tokyo Girl
5. Michael Kupperman on Twitter [LINK]
This is not a "blog" per se, but it's one of the most constant sources of delight in my daily drudgery. Kupperman is not only a genius cartoonist (Tales Designed to Thrizzle 5 continues that trend, and the collected Tales 1-4 is out too!) but suited perfectly for the short and spontanerous (retarded?) madness of tweeeeting.
His speciality lately is random meme generation, such as "Star Trek Facts" and "Cool bands made Uncool". It's like free 140-character nuggets of comedic gold!
If you enjoy this: Check out British writer/actor Peter Serafinowicz, who was on Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, and Look Around You (and was the voice of Dark Maul!?). Peter rocks the Twitter right.
[PS: If you're so inclined and into RSS, you can follow my shared items via Google Reader at this link.]
Got an email from Nate last night with the news that rocker/actor/leftist Kiyoshiro Imawano (忌野清志郎) died yesterday at age 58 :(
Kiyoshiro was a musician in the 70s band RC Succession, and later played solo at the Fuji Rock Festival and Free Tibet concerts in the 90s and 00s. Outside of his long music and activism career, Kiyoshiro might be best known to English-speaking audiences from his hilarious role as Richard in the Takashi Miike film, Happiness of the Katakuris. He also performed in another Miike film, The Great Yokai War.
Here is a clip of one of Kiyoshiro's finest film moments, in one of my all-time favorite movies:
This past weekend, my buddy Nate was in town from Tokyo and we had a blast catching up. In between eating burritos, drinking beers, and a metal show in Oakland, Nate handed over some amazing Shintaro Kago presents he picked up for me last Fall!
As you might recall, Nate met Kago twice last year- first at a gallery show/signing on Halloween, and then again at Design Festa. Between the two events, Nate managed to wrangle me a signed Shintaro Kago digital print, a bunch of postcards, and a copy of the Paranoia Street DVD!
As usual, RSS folks please click through to view the PictoBrowser galleries! Mouse over the gallery for captions.
(At my bequest, he was also rad enough to get Kago to sign a card for Johnny too!)
In addition to the goodies for me, Nate brought with him a present for our buddy Ben- a Kago self-published mini featuring a bunch of krasue gags! This book is en route to Ben right now, but Nate let me snap these photos before he dropped it in the mail:
I'm still figuring out the what & when, but plan to give away some of the postcards as Same Hat contest presents in the near future. I'll keep you guys posted!
Lots of news coming in from the interwebs regarding Kazuo Umezu's wonderful and incredible Makoto-chan House, located west of Tokyo in Kichijoji.
The first and most exciting order of business? Nate (Same Hat's man in Japan) biked over to Kichijoji on Saturday, and visited Umezu's house! The location he noted on the Same Hat Guide to Everything is accurate, and here are his photos to prove it:
(RSS folks, you'll have to click through to see them! Sorry!)
On another note, more stories about the housewarming and interior decorations of Umezz's house are making the rounds. I've gathered together photos from both Takekuma-san's blog and Variety magazine for your please, here:
(RSS folks, same deal here, sorry!)
Takekuma-san noted on his blog that his traffic spiked after he posted the first of his photos from inside the Makoto-chan house, and posted the above follow up for those new readers (like us!). If more photos make their way out, I'll continue to post and link them from here.
One more huge thanks to Nate for tracking down the house and biking over to document it for us! Dude, I will buy you some luxurious ramen and Japanese whiskey when I'm in Tokyo next time!
The map was right :) I just got this keitai photo from Nate in the middle of the night!
Today in Tokyo, Nate biked over from his apartment and was able to spot the Makoto-chan house easily. Tomorrow, we'll hopefully be posting his proper camera photos from outside the Kazuo Umezu's house of wonders. RAD!
The puzzle has been solved, thanks to Nate's sleuthing skills. For context, Nate is my best bud from college, and now living in Tokyo working on his dissertation. He also is the dude that covered the Shintaro Kago event on Halloween for Same Hat, wrote the hilarious photo-article "DEPARTMENT FOR IMPLEMENTING 15 KINDS OF VIOLENT DEATH" for Electric Ant #1, and runs the hardcore ramen-ology blog, Waseda Ramen (Your newest MUST-READ Japan blog, add this one to your RSS!).
But dang, Nate's newest and biggest claim to fame? He tracked down the location to Kazuo Umezu's Makoto-Chan house in Kichijoji! Using a combo of Japanese search terms, GPS, and deep-cuts google.co.jp skills, he found the spot. It has now been added to the Same Hat Guide To Everything Map!
Without further ado, here is the location (DUN DUN DUN):
Umezologists, we now have our Mecca. Nate is gonna go visit it in person soon and share pics here, and you KNOW this is at the top of my list when I get back to Japan later this year. FRESH.
[This is the first of hopefully many posts written by my good buddy Nate who is living in Tokyo. Nate is a grad student who helped me out on Tokyo Zombie and contributed The Department of Implementing 15 Kinds of Violent Death article to Electric Ant #1!]
Halloween is not a major holiday in Japan. Recently, people here have started trying to half-ass it with pumpkin decorations and a few chintzy costumes, but for the most part, it's not a big deal in Tokyo. This year on Halloween however, people who wanted to experience true thrills and chills hightailed it to the Flying Teapot Cafe in the obscure suburb of Ekoda for an evening of film and fun with the one and only, Kago Shintaro.
The main man himself was in attendance for the event, which was being held to kick off a mini-exhibition of his artwork at the cafe. There was a screening featuring a glut of Kago's live-action DV films, as well as just general fanboy (and about two-ish fangirls) hangouttage. There were about 15 souls in the house total, so it seems like Kago's fan base is bigger abroad than at home.
After a bit of coffee sipping, prog rock listening, and Jan Svankmeier watching to get the audience warmed up, the films hit the screen / cafe wall. Kago started off with a selection of short shorts (1 to 4 minutes each), including predictably Kago-esque (and hilarious) gags like poop coming out of phones, voodoo dolls hidden in birthday cakes, bloody feet in christmas stockings, and girls bashing strangers with baseball bats to the rhythm of an enka beat, among others.
Another fun one had a girl getting her fingernails pulled out, only to have them instantly grow back. The gangster torturing her keeps pulling faster and faster, until it becomes almost Chaplin-like; the story has a happy ending when the girl opens a successful fingernail boutique!
Next were a few longer films: Ekimae Setsudan (駅前切断, Stationfront Cutdown), Ekimae Hanayome (駅前花嫁, Stationfront Bride), and Paranoia Street (パラノイアストリート). it seems like these might be based on older Kago manga - maybe a reader who is a far bigger Kago otaku than I am knows? "Cutdown" featured an executioner for hire who roams about looking for jobs; "Bride" is a (literally) tangled tale of the threads of fate connecting lovers, as well as the severed fingers that result when those threads get rearranged; and Paranoia Street can only be described as Poop Overload (even for Kago!)
The final long film was perhaps the most "atmospheric" / creepy / Halloween appropriate: a girl's friends and relatives keep disappearing, leaving behind only notes saying "they'll be back later." Before she knows it, everyone else starts doing the same thing...and then she stumbles and finds a farewell letter from her left leg... To close, Kago let rip a few digital animation shorts (think cardboard cutouts, not anime) with goodies like car-carsh victim tossing as an Olympic sport and popular uses for post-circumcision foreskins (fried appetizers, hula hoops, Jesus halos...)
Several of the films are available on DVD (probably Japan region coded, unfortunately) through Kago's website.
After the film, there was more general hanging out and browsing the artwork:
If I had 300 bucks to spare, I would have bought this on the spot!
Kago had literally his whole back catalog out to browse (!!!):
Crying yet, fanboys?
He also had all kinds of goods for sale, from new comics to more of his ever popular crazy toys!
This is the "Old Man Sex Set" - it comes with tea and cakes to seduce the geezer, polident for his stinky gums, and most importantly, an L-bracket to hold up his uncooperative wilmo!
Other toys on hand included the "Anti-Nationalism Kit" with a mini-flag and matches, "Corpse-Fucking Set" (don't forget the nose-plugs!), and the ever popular "Curry / Poo Set" to trick your friends into eating your feces! (Also, see this old post for the Bullying Kit! -ryan)
I chatted with Kago a bit afterwards, and he revealed that his answer to the age-old question "Would You Rather eat poo that tastes like curry, or curry that tastes like poo?" is: poo that tastes like curry, which is perhaps unsurprising when one considers his oeuvre.
Did I just refer to the guy that drew these as having an "oeuvre"?!?!
Homeboy also confirmed that he is in fact doing a monthly comic in Vice mag. Perhaps the most shocking sight of the evening, however, was the wedding ring on Kago's finger - You can guess what I was pondering on the way home...
I picked up a couple of small Kago goodies for Same Hat readers as prizes for a future contest (contest TBA, stay tuned! -ryan), and Ryan is working on getting up a gallery link to post some more photos from this and future events in Tokyo. So keep yr eyes tuned to this here computer-box!
Posted on Shintaro Kago's site comes news that he'll be appearing at a opening reception and screening at Tokyo's avant-gallery, Cafe FLYING TEAPOT.
This event is the highlight of 2-week gallery show of works by Shintaro Kago. Kago will be in person at the Halloween night show, featuring a screening of new animated works, along with some ghastly figurines and toys. Entrance is 1000円, and doors open at 6:30pm.
Also, for sale at the event will be: Manga collections, new dojinshi, his dvd of animated films, post cards, prints, limited edition toys and original drawings and works.
My buddy Nate (who just moved to central Tokyo for a year, and authored the "DEPARTMENT FOR IMPLEMENTING 15 KINDS OF VIOLENT DEATH" feature in Electric Ant #1)) will be attending the event in my stead, and sending pictures and details over the weekend. Cafe FLYING TEAPOT is located in Nerima-ku, a little north of Nakano and west of Waseda. Full event details at Kago's site (link above).
Updated: SAME HAT stopped updating in 2013! For all new projects, please see Youth in Decline's sit and Instagram.
All fan translations of manga that you'll see in the archives are previously untranslated into English and range from comedy to horror to avant-absurd weirdness.
Same Hat is written & edited by Ryan. If you would like to contact me, please email: samehat @ gmail.com. Also, you can Ask me anything on the Same Hat Tumblr!
