Archive for October, 2004


Thanks to Zaibatsu Zombie from the for picking this one up. Okay, I don’t have much information, but it looks like it’s called Adultery arranged by Agent § Murder. Bands will include 2 Bullet, Agent § Murder, Aural Vampire and Seaside Suicide.

I like the Agent § Murder sound files – mixing harder-than-average metal with a bit of spook-synth (look, I’m a Goth tourist so I’m allowed to make up style names) and hope to see them sometime in the flesh, or it’s nearest equivalent. 2 Bullet is a new name to me, but if I was supping the Absinth of my inspiration, I’d call it gunmetal punk. This would kind of fit with the camouflage costumes and cracked-skull face-paint. Aural Vampire would be electro-shock, with a beautiful female lead and a guy in a Friday the 13th mask gurgling ominously in the background (hey, I’m up for that). Seaside Suicide looks undernourished bordering on death, except one guy who would (logically) be the drummer. I couldn’t check out the RM files, (I had an unpleasant experience after downloading Real Media a while ago), but look like they should be in the zone with the other bands. 2,000 yen for this dark night is definitely a bargain.

Event Information:
Event: Adultery from Agent § Murder
Place: Shinjuku URGA
Address: B1, 2-42-16, Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku, Tokyo (7 minutes from JR Shinjuku East exit)
Phone: (Shinjuku URGA) 03-5287-3390
Email: (Agent § Murder) info@urga.net
Date: Saturday, November 13, 2004
Start: 18:00 ~
Price: 2,000 yen (2,400 at door)
Lawson Code: L-33085 (Go to the Loppi station at your local Lawson)
Bands: 2 Bullet, Agent § Murder, Aural Vampire and Seaside Suicide
Web site: http://www.agentmurder.com/
Club page: http://www.urga.net

A nasty earthquake hit Niigata on October 23, 2004. At the time, I made a number of posts during the night and into the next day. I have decided to recompile them into a single post for the current site just so you can see what was going through my warped mind during that period.

October 23, 2004 :: 18:02 JST
Main quake hits
A weak 6 hit Niigata area (magnitude 6.8 according to the TV) about five minutes ago – could feel it in Tokyo.

October 23, 2004 :: 18:06 JST
Large aftershock
Another quake is rocking my apartment in Tokyo. Looks like another weak 6 in Fukui/Niigata area. It was big enough to wake one of the ferrets, but still only a four where we live.

October 23, 2004 :: 18:13 JST
Another aftershock
Just got another quake sluicing through. This is becoming a habit. Looks like it was a strong five. Probably a three in Tokyo.

October 23, 2004 :: 18:35 JST
More aftershocks
Quakes have been rolling for the last half hour or so. I’m just sitting here waiting for the next one. Another weak six (this is the Japanese system where a weak six is bigger than a strong five and it’s more of how the quake is felt on the ground rather than the magnitude) probably around Niigata way. This one would have been a four in northern Tokyo/Saitama way. Another smaller quake came as I wrote this entry. Looks like it will be a shaky night. No reports of damage or warnings…. yet.

October 23, 2004 :: 18:57
News appears on Google
Well, the stories are now being sucked up into Google’s news aggregator – Noogle earthquake news. Some of these articles are a little dramatic – Powerful earthquake rocks Tokyo. Well, I guess it is technically true, there were several strong earthquakes and yes, they did rock Tokyo somewhat, but since Tokyo is a long way from the epicenter it’s kind of misleading and will needlessly scare my mum when she sees it on the news tonight. What’s wrong with putting Niigata in the headline? After all this is where the quake occurred, not Tokyo which is about 250 km away. Sheesh, talk about encouraging fear. Oh, and there’s been another 5 on the Japanese system – didn’t feel it in Tokyo.

October 24, 2004 :: 13:36 JST
Sunday update
While I was working last night, I just kept seeing aftershock after aftershock being reported on the TV – over 200 aftershocks apparently. Usually you see little text messages at the top of the screen and they kept popping up. Today it looks as though at least 17 people have died around 1,000 injured and quite a bit of damage – houses collapsing, a village hit by a landslide, damage to rail and road, power knocked out for a quarter million homes and other utilities and communications affected. Even a shinkansen was derailed (looks like it had already stopped and no injuries). I actually got pretty angry with some foreign news services that initially focused on buildings rocking a bit in Tokyo (rather than Niigata, which is where the quake and damage took place) and even sent a couple of complaints out. Although there was not much rumbling in Tokyo, it makes you think how bad things will be when a big one hits the capital.

October 26, 2004 :: 19:57 JST
Note on inital dramatic coverage
On Saturday, Igor wrote:

Some of these [news] articles are a little dramatic – Powerful earthquake rocks Tokyo. Well, I guess it is technically true, there were several strong earthquakes and yes, they did rock Tokyo somewhat, but since Tokyo is a long way from the epicenter it’s kind of misleading and will needlessly scare my mum when she sees it on the news tonight.

Guess what? She called.

John, I’m only surfing,
It turns me on…

Looking for an interesting site minus the ferrets?

Japan for the Uninvited certainly fits the bill with a guy by the name of Jack lifting up the metaphorical kimono to take you on a quirky tour of Japan. Just scanning the most recent stories you got Japan’s Groping Problem, Enjo Kosai AKA compensated dating (hey, I learned a new word), Fugu (eat and/or die) and any other stuff that gets in Jack’s way…. and not a ferret in sight.

Worth dropping in for a snark or two.

Well, I guess I’m hitting around six months on this site. It’s the first time I’ve decided to do something like this for myself. Actually I lie, there’s a couple of other places lying in suspended animation, but I was just mussing around. But this is the first time, I thought to make an effort to make something that will get a couple of people dropping in and build a little journal.

It was quite fun writing stuff about stuff – whatever grabbed my mind. Then I discovered Blogger (thanks to an announcement by Google) and went blog-mad. Then I got distracted by slapping a quick board online. Then it was the joy of carving nooks in the page to put Google adwords. Now I’m tracking down Goth events. So, I’ve got things to keep me off the streets and I’ve been having fun. The ferrets aren’t quite so thrilled as it cuts into their entertainment time, but they’re fairly forgiving (or is it forgetful?). It’s also given me the chance to communicate with various people either in the biz, or into the scene – which is a big buzz.

However, what has really surprised me of late is that the couple of people coming here every day, has become a couple of dozen. Now that has really warmed me cockles and given me more motivation to boldly go forth. THANKS GUYS!! It has also made me worry that the design, navigation and etcetera (which is the result of my hodgepodge section building) is a little too homebrew. Don’t get me wrong, I love my little site, right down to the kludgy code written on notepad with my only aid being a bottle of shochu (oh yes, and the ferrets), but maybe it’s time to get another bottle and think about the next phase. I wouldn’t see anything too far from the current design, but maybe JP Goth will be a little better in a few weeks.

Thanks again for all your support and don’t be a stranger.

Igor :: Webslave
Assistant to Mr. Goth

Even in these early stages of exploration I can see the rabbit warren goes deep. The slick oiled surface of Japanese Goth has the glamor and flash of your chic coffee-table magazines… but this hides a veritable myriad of sub-cultures and offshoots beneath the waters. From caverns of blinding light to pits of ink-black darkness, the warren lies before me. The more I see, the more I realize how little I have seen (does this make sense?).

Happy birthday ya nuclear-infected freak!

Icon of a generation, Godzilla first took to the streets of Tokyo way back in 1954. The actors wrapped in rubber, roaring and stomping on a model set the standards of…. well actors wrapped in rubber.

I saw a couple of the old movies when I was a kid, wondering just what the heck was going on. I think one of them was the clash with Mothula and to this day I was not sure who the hero was. So the big, fallout-breathing hermaphrodite from the deep lives on. Even the combined talents of Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno (come on Jean, I know the accent’s fake), in callusion with Hollywood computer graphics industry could not bury the great one.

Godzilla’s very presence has even drawn a bunch of academics together to have a little conference. Wait around another 40 years or so and maybe you’ll see Pikachu conferences in academic circles.

And to top off the fifty-year celebrations, Godzilla will once again lead a dance of destruction in Godzilla: Final Wars.

It also reminds me of a little ditty performed by the lord of dark denim, Alice Cooper back in the seventies:
I’m nuclear infected
and I really don’t mind
I just show up, blow up
and have a real good time.

All hail Godzilla, King of Monsters!

And in commemoration of Godzilla’s 50th Igor has been drinking lots of canned coffee to score a toy or two. Here’s a few I picked up during a Godzilla promotion a few months back.

Godzilla at Tokyo Tower
Godzilla responds to his latest NHK bill.

Mechazilla at Roppongi Hills.
Mechazilla goes shopping at Roppongi Hills.

Mothula at Rainbow Bridge
Mothula doing something to the Rainbow Bridge…
I hate to think what

Yeah, I was a nerd playing D&D for several years in my life. My first character was a female rangre with fudged attributes – you know four 18s with a 17 and 15 for variation. My most beloved character was a thieving megalomaniac who managed to destroy a large part of a village he was trying to take over. Ah, that was a beautiful campaign. Pity the townspeople burned my character alive halfway through the game.

Of course, all that was before I discovered computers and could be a home-bound nerd all day playing role playing games. If anybody asks me, I have to say Ultima IV was the coolest RPG I ever played.

However, the die-rolling, real-life D&D hit 30 on Saturday and is still going strong. So dungeoneers around the world celebrated in grand style by playing more D&D. Noogle D&D.

Mad cow number 14 has surfaced. This batty bovine was initially found dead of unknown causes and hauled away for testing where it was discovered to be fruity of mind – Noogle it.

Okay, that’s #3 since May when a report estimated that another 60 loony-toons would crop up in Japan’s beef paddocks so there are more mad cows to come. Only 57 more to go between now and 2015.

I was mildly amused to discover unintended consequences of great Web marketing ideas.. While surfing around I discovered a funky little search engine ad service called Kanoodle. Okay I thought, let’s try this out and see what happens. Searching for a number of choice terms I discovered that Enlightenment, Captain Sensible’s underpants, and Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, could all be found on eBay.

Clicking through to the result page on eBay produced a reassuring title, Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction items at low prices. But, once again, it was to no avail as the page informed me that there were 0 items found for Iraq’s Weapons Of Mass Destruction.

A big thank you to Kanoodle for a fun little surf and I wish you guys the best of luck! Cheers.

Seems to be a bit of a trend of late, with a number of cases involving (usually young) people suffocating themselves in sealed cars or houses by using small cooking stoves to burn briquettes. The two events today each took seven and two people respectively in their 20s and 30s. According to various news reports, it is suspected that these group suicide participants meet on the Internet.

If you want to check it out, Mainichi has an interesting article. Otherwise you can Noogle the news. Event though stories churn fast through Google, I sadly suspect there will be more such suicide pacts to come.