Midaregami

She’s so small.

Through some kind of divine goddamned intervention, I scraped up tickets to the Yamabikari event at Chicken George in Kobe. I paid a scalper a certain premium for the privilege, but this is Yumiko we’re talking about, not some two-bit amateur. I’d’ve paid twice what I did, and happily.

How was the show, you ask? Well, I dunno. I don’t want to sound like some kind of idiot fanboy, but who am I kidding? I’m an idiot fanboy, and this was a religious experience.

Sometimes cell phone text message conversations between me and Jake can get a little bit out of hand.

Jake: If your package is lost, you are entitled to an indemnity with a max amount based on the weight of the package.

Paul: I hope not to lose my package.

Jake: Me too. It could set the infinity laser back years. Dr. Apocalypto would be furious with me.

Paul: Although I have his genius to thank for saving my life with the revivotron. Even if it did leave me with maddening, precognative visions.

Jake: Yes, but without them, I, your trusted sidekick, could not share in the exhilarating, sometimes horrifying adventures that result.

Paul: how true. I trust you were able to lose Madame Demona’s men before contacting me.

Jake: Yes. Her goons are no match for my obfuscating devices. However, there was another, not with Demona’s men, who was much harder to lose. Could he have been the one from your vision?

Paul: It is possible. if so, we may be in great danger. I can’t shake the feeling that this all has something to do with the Valerian Crystal that powers the infinity laser. Dr. Apocalypto was evasive when I asked its origin.

Jake: Yes, now that you mention it, I remember my plasmodic neutronium spectrometer was reading high. I thought it was just an anomaly, but what if it wasn’t? Perhaps we should report this to the doctor.

Paul: I will notify him via X-wave. Duty, honor, justice! Agent Farsight out.

Here’s the farewell speech I delivered to the roughly 700 students of Yoka High School, yesterday. If you speak a bit of the Land of the Rising Sun’s demon tongue, it shouldn’t be too difficult to read.

Update: English translation posted.

Today I gave my farewell speech to the students of Yoka Prefectural Senior High School.

This was the view of the sunset from my second-floor window. That is all I have to say about that.

I got though once, but couldn’t understand the directions on the phone sufficiently well to reserve tickets. They sold out in roughly 10 minutes.

Oh well. It was a nice idea.

Hey, Miriya. You wanted to see me be more fannish, since I was too contained about the Back Horn show?

Well, Tokyo Jihen is playing Kobe next weekend.

And not Kokusai Hall, mind you, but Chicken George, a live house roughly the size of my living room.

Would an “OMG!” be appropriate here? Perhaps a “Squee!!” No. I can do better than that.

I love my kids. I’m sincerely going to miss quotes like this: “Dear Paul, I think oral was very interesting for me.”

Oral’s usually pretty interesting for me, too.

The Japan Hierarchy got linked to by both Metafilter and BoingBoing, as well as a bunch of other weblogs, and as a result I’ve seen several thousand hits.

Thats is really, really cool. Welcome to Midaregami.

The people accusing me of ripping off L. Fitzgerald Sjöberg would do well to note the relevant weblog post, where I acknowledge his Geek Hierarchy as the direct inspiration for mine. They might also note Mr. Sjöberg’s link from his weblog to mine several weeks ago. There’s no foul play here, folks.

I think I may have to disable deep linking; the lack of context here is making me look like more of an ass than I actually am.

Not much else needs to be said, does it? The Unsinkable Miss J posted an account of the July 3rd Gackt show in Yokohama Arena, but I am here to give a slightly different perspective of events.

I like Gackt, but rather than truly getting into his wacky little world, I appreciate it from the outside. I don’t want to sound like some kind of detached, ironic asshole, but it’s true. You’ll have the excuse the following, because it will sound highly pretentious.

The first part of my abbreviated urban odyssey was a trip to Osaka, via Kyoto, to see the Back Horn with Bianca. She hipped me to the special one-off show in Osaka, “Yuuyaku no Mokugekisha”—“The Witness to Sunset.”

Now, I know some of you (hi, Gabe) weren’t particularly impressed with the Back Horn. Well, having seen them live, and given the matter significant thought and playtime, I have come to the conclusion that you are all insane. This is one of the most compelling acts in rock music. I feel very strongly about this.