Sons of Loki

I’m finally getting the hang of this Japanese thing! (How many times have I said that?) I’ve pretty much decided that I’m never gonna be an accomplished conversationalist in either Japanese or English, but that if I honestly do have a knack for the skills of reading, I might as well concentrate on that. I’ve started reading the news (almost) daily in Japanese, and it feels rather remarkable to be taking in a Japanese newspaper, getting most of the kanji to some extent, even if the overall meaning of each sentence remains murky and uncertain. Fiction, too – I finished the first story in Read Real Japanese and I ought to make a good start on the next.

You know, learning Japanese – it’s all about scrambling up the mountain using every means at your disposal. People will tell you “It’s better to do it with one hand behind your back,” or “You ought to use hiking boots”. Some advice you should listen to. Some of it you should ignore. The one true way to climb the mountain of Japanese is to do it whatever way works. For me, that’s making up stupid mnemonics and reading newspaper articles about minor party officials in funding scandals. I guess I’ll be alright.

I need to stop counting down my days left in Japan… though it be 72 days right now. Yeah, after a tense phone call with the JAL office in Tokyo (why do I find phone calls with strangers such an unmitigated terror?) I went ahead and changed my return date to the 2nd of August, so I’ll be with everybody else coming back on the 3rd of August at 4:35pm. (It’s cost me 15,000 yen to change, but then I would have had to pay 17,000 yen rent to stay here until the 10th (plus food and stuff) so it’s worked out fine.)

This is day 235, or thereabouts. It feels like a marathon, and part of me is glad that I didn’t go back at Christmas because the longer I stick it out here, the more insane it will be when I get home. Yeah, it will be insane.   I remember when I came back last time, after a paltry ten weeks, being blown away by the ticket machine on the London Underground. When I get back on the 3rd, it will be a whopping 308 days since I left. I’ll be a stranger in my own country.

Been listening to a couple of new good albums recently: Here Lies Love, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s unlikely musical/song cycle collaboration on the even unlikelier topic of Philippines dictator’s wife Imelda Marcos, has an all-star cast of female singers (including Florence “+ The Machine” Welch, Cyndi Lauper, and …er, Steve Earle) and some surprisingly catchy tunes on the subject of Imelda’s rags to riches to unparalleled embezzler and shoe collector story, some of the best being the title track, “How Are You”, “Please Don’t”, and “Never So Big”. Also, LCD Soundsystem’s new album This Is Happening, with a stompingly awesome first track “Dance Yrself Clean”. James Murphy has this really interesting half-spoken, half-singing style on tracks like “Pow Pow” that puts me in mind of the old Jonathan Richman. A good album for the summer, methinks.

Finally, interesting thing of the day: The Strange Case of the Electronic Lover, a insightful look into one of the very first internet chat communities with a male psychiatrist undercover as a woman.

I just saw a poster downstairs advertising the last party of the 00′s, and I realised – the noughties are ending, the Decade Without A Proper Name. It feels like we barely knew you. And yet everything exciting that ever happened to me happened in these ten short years. There’s a blog post in that.

But for now, I thought I’d just go over a few of my favourite songs of 2009. I’m usually two or three years behind modern popular music (have you heard of these Arctic Monkeys?), but this year I made a mild effort to keep up. Here’s what I have enjoyed:

Jamie T – Sticks ‘n’ Stones
I was vaguely away of Jamie T for a while, but it was only this year that my brother introduced me to him. And what a tune, of past dalliances and teenage frivolities.

University of Chicago’s Voices in your Head – Magic
Ben Folds recorded an a cappella album. Not usually my musical style of choice, I’ll admit, but when someone on Twitter (one of the RPS guys?) linked me to it on Spotify I was immediately hooked. This song in particular will always remind me of my time in Korea, and is possibly the most beautiful song on a fantastic album.

Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
You know what made me feel old this year? I looked at one of those “What UCAS didn’t tell you when you signed up for university” groups, and one of the things was “That people will play “I Gotta Feeling” at full volume 24/7.” And that’s when I realised there’s a whole year of new inductees who are just getting their first taste of university life and their soundtrack is a song that came out in the summer, a song that didn’t even exist when I started uni. (Uh, last year.) But still, a great tune.

Florence + The Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
There’s something about this whole song, the simultaneous power and vulnerability in Ms Welch’s voice in lines like “I must become the lion-hearted girl…” Wonderful.

Lazy FLow – Mambo Fever
There’s something about having a keyboard that makes a man go “whoop! whoop-whoop-whoop-whoop!” and “aarg, aag-agg” that appeals to something deep inside me.

Final Fantasy – Lewis Takes Action
I am very excited about Owen Pallett’s upcoming album Heartland. Even with his silly new haircut, he is still spellbinding in a way unlike any other artist. I mean, who else can reference “Be My Baby” and “Ashes to Ashes” (and even Spirited Away?) in the same song?