There are places in the city you pass time and time again. There is something about them that catches your eye each time you go by, and each time you think I should check that out. Then one day you go in, and your curiosity is rewarded.
There is a little side street between Kawaramachi-dori and Teramachi-dori. Down that street is a restaurant called Kaneyo in a wonderful old two-story machiya. It specializes in kabayaki
unagi (grilled freshwater eel). There is a window in the front beyond which stands an old man in a smoke-besmirched white chef's jacket grilling unagi over a bed of hot coals. It is a stage of sorts and although he is only doing his job turning the eels, sometimes smoking a cigarette, nothing more, he invariably gets a passerby to stop for a minute.
Inside is an open dining room with concrete floors and low tables and stools. The room is a warm nicotine-and-age stained amber. There is something about the space that reminds me of Phillippe's in Los Angeles or Katz's in New York - friendly, informal with some real history (Coincidentally they all started around the same time in the early 20th Century). However Kaneyo is much more modest in size.
Through the sliding glass doors in the back is a narrow rock garden where a bamboo spigot spills water into a little pond. It is easy to forget you are in the heart of the city sitting there.
I first ate unagi at a sushi joint in Culver City called Karen. There they serve it nigiri-style wrapped with a thin ribbon of seaweed and painted with a tare sauce. The grilling is done with a torch. This type of unagi exists in Kyoto, but it is more commonly served over a bed of rice in a bowl (unadon) or lacquered box (unajū). The long, butterflied strips of eel are grilled over coals giving it an amazing smoky flavor you don't get with nigiri unagi.
I have discovered over and over that if you have the courage to part the noren curtains, Kyoto will never disappoint you.
Below is an excerpt from a recent post on Marie Ueda's blog (http://blog.excite.co.jp/uedamarie/24160973/) where she talks about the song "Friday" and mentions me and director Atsushi Nakajima. There are also a couple of behind-the-scenes photos from the video. (Sorry, Japanese only.)
EとGとAとCとDの魔法
あとほんのすこしのC#mとBで
この曲は出来ている
FRIDAYという曲です。
まあまあ時間が経っちまいましたが
私のニュー曲を発表しました。
新しいアルバムを出すんです。
2015年2月25日
もうあと3日です。はっやいなあ！
「はなしはそれからだ」
というアルバムです。
インディーズ時代からいろんな曲を作って歌ってきました
どうしたら自分の抱えてる気持ちをうまく曲に変えられるだろう？と思って
たくさんのメロディや歌詞やコードを使って、
私の曲には難しいコードや転調したり変拍子だったりする曲もたくさんありますが、
最近はなんの心境の変化か、
なるべくかんたんなコードで
シンプルに曲を作って、どれだけ伝わるものにできるかなー？と思いながら曲を書いている節があるのです。
彼に守ってほしい10のことをギターで弾くときは
ギターを半音下げチューニングにして
GとDとAとCとEでほとんど弾ききることができる。
ザクロの実も、Fはほんのちょっと難しいけど、FとCとGとEでだいたい弾ける。
で、
FRIDAYに出てくるEとGとAとCとDに関しては
わたしがギターを練習しはじめたときに
いちばーん最初に弾けるようになったコードたちなのであった。
かんたんだよ。
ロバートさんという方にご出演していただきました。
監督は1st、2ndと同じく中嶋淳志さん。
グリコ コロンのタイアップでもお世話になっている1曲です
撮影でたくさんコロンを食べました
最近もたくさんコロンを食べていてハッピーです。
心をこめてアルバム、作ったので
ぜひ手にとってほしいです。
みなさんの生活に溶けこむ1枚になったらと思いながら、
いろんな人たちの毎日の中で
部屋で、
電車で、
外で、
車で、
お店で、聴いてくださるみなさんのことを想像しながらつくりました。
わたしが中学生のとき、さみしい夜を救ってくれた歌のように、
登校の朝に目覚ましにしてたCDのように
高校生のころにくりかえしくりかえし帰宅するたび聴いていたアルバムのように
私の中、奥底にしずかに沈んでいる音楽たちのように、みなさんの中までちりぢりになって届いて、残り続けますように。
そしていつでも蘇って、
みなさんのパワーに変わりますように。
そんな音楽の魔法を信じてつくった、
かんたんな呪文集のまずは初級編です。
よかったら手にとって聴いてみてください。
はなしはそれからだ。
http://youtu.be/4Okqfuk-yps
よろしくおねがいしましたよ！
Marie Ueda's official website: http://uedamarie.com
Stated in terms of practical everyday life, wabi is to be satisfied with a little hut, a room of two or three tatami (mats), like the log cabin of Thoreau, and with a dish of vegetables picked in the neighboring fields, and perhaps to be listening to the pattering of a gentle spring rainfall.
- from Zen and Japanese Culture by Daisetsu T. Suzuki (1938)
In September when I returned to Kyoto my friends gave me a 5 kilo bag of rice as a sort of house-warming gift for my new pad in Katsura. I was happy to get this. But at the same time I thought, 5 kilos? This will last me a year!
I just made my last bowl of rice from this large bag.
Japan's annual per capita rice consumption is more than 61 kilos. I don't think I'll hit that mark, but I am surprised how much rice I eat. Like any Japanese household it has become a staple for me. A day without at least one bowl of rice is rare.
I've had a few interesting/funny one-off jobs since I moved to Japan.
I did a voice recording in English which may or may not be used in a hotel elevator somewhere in Japan: "First floor. Second floor. Third floor. Parking Garage..."
I played Santa Claus for a Kindergarten in Minami-ku.
But the most interesting, most fun job I've had by far was playing a small part in the new music video Friday by Japanese singer-songwriter Marie Ueda (above).
How did I get this gig you may ask. My German modeling agent in Osaka, of course. True. I got an e-mail from him in early December asking me if I was free to do a music video the day after Christmas. He didn't tell me anything except wear a white shirt, dark trousers and boots if you have them.
He took me to the studio in Osaka where we met the director and the rest of the crew shooting the video. My agent speaks perfect Japanese. I obviously do not. So he stuck around for a while to translate and make sure everything was okay. Then he left.
I couldn't help but to think of Bill Murray in Lost in Translation when he is doing the whiskey commercial: "For relaxing times, make it Suntory time." At one point, following the second or third take of one scene, the director said to me, "More languid, please." I had to scramble to think what that meant.
I imagine it is always sort of strange and funny to act in front of a green-screen with no background or set to orientate you. It is even more strange and funny in Japanese. Because I was not privy to the concept for the video and my role in each scene could only be communicated in very simple English, I mostly had no idea what was going on. I graciously did what they asked me to do, and graciously did it again when they asked me to do it again.
Everyone, including Miss Ueda, who ended up styling my look in the video, were perfectly friendly and very patient. I could not have spent a more amusing and enjoyable 4 hours the day after Christmas.
For more info. on Marie Ueda and her new album はなしはそれからだ (Stories from the Body) which is released February 25th visit her website: http://uedamarie.com/index.html
Your average Japanese person will avoid speaking English if at all possible. It is the anxiety of making mistakes and sounding foolish that keeps them quiet. They will stand on a train rather than sit next to a Westerner for fear that person might engage them in an English conversation. This is commonly known as the "Eigo complex".
Then there is the older gentleman that suddenly asked to sit down at my table in a teishoku restaurant in Osaka. In broken English he told me he doesn't speak English but he loves the language. He studied it in Junior High School, but was a poor student. He wanted to try learning it again. I told him I worked as an Eigo Kyoshi (teacher) at an eikaiwa nearby. This excited him. He wanted to come with me. I explained that the school was only for children. Disappointed he left. But not before thanking me and paying for my lunch.
"Do you live in Kyoto?"
vs.
"Where are you from?"
