The Constorium of Greater Minds

something to relax by vol. 1 from alexindc on 8tracks.

my friend cole will be in japan next month and he recently asked for a few suggestions on what to do there – if you think this is overboard i should let you know i could go on. i always love the opportunity to impart my knowledge of places and experiences – it makes me excited thinking of the amazing time i had in tokyo and the opportunity to help friends and family have a similarly great adventure is always a joy – plus i get to reminisce a bit…bon voyage, cole!

Cole,

I love the opportunity to pass on the knowledge of places I’ve come to love – I know how much fun and excitement I experienced in Tokyo over my 27 months in the area and I hope I can guide you to experience the city in a similar manner! Here’s a version of my Tokyo Tour Guide – not at all comprehensive…I could type for days, but will definitely set you on the right path. But first a disclaimer: one of the features that makes Tokyo so amazing are its maze like streets and alleyways – you will quickly find it apparent that street signs are useless here and any sort of urban planning has been an afterthought for many years – but this is what makes every hour in the city such an adventure. Searching down narrow streets for a shop or restaurant, wandering through quiet neighborhoods to find cool boutiques or hidden bars is something I always loved about the city. So, the disclaimer – I’m not going to give any directions, you’ll have to do a little searching on the internet for maps, and you’ll inevitably get lost trying to find some of the more tucked away spots, but, hey, that’s half the fun. Enjoy!

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Finished up a new mix this weekend featuring some new vinyl pieces I picked up a couple weeks ago in Japan. It’s a rough mix, done live in ‘the studio’ with all wax. Thanks go out to Dam Funk and James Pants of Stones Throw and Beat Electric for putting me onto some of these tracks. Definitely check the links.

Nick Love Japan       (Right Click and Save As to download. Click to Stream.)

Track list after the jump….

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this is why i love music and why my enthusiasm never dies. every now and then you stumble on gold like this. japan is a gold mine for western music. towa tei has me chillin on the 90s club vibes. great stuff

started to read glimpses of unfamiliar japan by lafcadio hearn. hearn was the first foreign writer to really immerse himself in the culture of japan. moving there in 1890 hearn would never return to his home in america, but make a new one in his adopted homeland of japan, the country he loved so much. here’s a great quote of his in reference to yokohama – i think it pretty well sums up my feelings towards the city of tokyo.
“i could not, in those first weeks, resign myself to remain indoors and write, while there was yet so much to see and hear and feel in the sun-steeped ways of the wonderful japanese city. still, even could i revive all the lost sensations of those first experiences, i doubt if i could express and fix them in words. the first charm of japan is intangible and volatile as a perfum.”
–lafcadio hearn

Sometimes my mind wanders. I can’t move and I am connected rigidly to my chair – staring out the window at the apartments and the hills and the train track winding through the houses and disappearing behind the strip mine traveling down the peninsula. Ennui and bland contentment, a feeling of stagnation – nothing is happening. I pick up a book and read a few pages before tossing it down. I listen to my music – I feel as if I’ve heard each song a thousand times before. I pick up a different book – it bores me and I toss it to the floor. Moving to the couch I look out the window. A different view – more apartments but now I can see the bay and down the coast of the peninsula. Jetties and concrete piers and small fishing huts and phone towers. My mind is tired and my thoughts, languid, make me drowsy. This is the sickness I must fight. I change the song – I’ve heard it before. My mind wanders. I have seen the empty ocean and gazed upon the biggest sky you have ever seen, the Milky Way a brilliant streak across a canvas of midnight. I have in no way felt so marvelously alone as when I am on the sea with the black salt spray on my face and lips, the night never as immense and consuming as it is hundreds of miles from the closest human creation. I know what it is to feel insignificant, naked on Mother Nature’s blue canvas. Now I sit alone in my apartment a thousand miles away – a thousand miles away from what? I am only half the story, a man in suspended animation and I am slowly coming to terms with my longing. I need you woman. I need you to make me feel alone with you because I am tired of feeling alone without you. The city can mask my aching heart for only so long.

bud, justin and i took the shinkansen to kyoto two weeks ago…this is a video of one of the bullet trains speeding through shin-yokohama station. many more photos and videos to come.

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