“Hello friends.

Dogen here.

I’ve got good and bad news. The good news is that I went to a concert last night that changed my life. The bad news is that the good news couldn’t be any better.

About a month ago I was looking over my ‘things to do in Japan’ and realized, oh damn – I haven’t even began looking into concerts. Taking a cue from what I was listening to at the time, I did a quick search on bonobos and found a 3000 yen (about 30 bucks) show which happened to occur yesterday in Shibuya. “”Fantastic,”" I thought to myself. “”Cheap, close, and of course – bonobos.”" Truly, a great way to close finals.

For those of you who don’t know, I am an absolute music fiend. Every free moment I have, my shure 530s are blasting at 1040 kbps. Translation: GOOD. I suppose I should mention that when I say blasting, my iPod is actually at one fourth volume – yes, I’d like to be able to hear when I’m 30.

The longer you spend time with anything, the more significant it becomes. Tricking is valuable to me because I’ve invested half a decade in training. Obviously bonobos, who take up an hour of my life everyday, hold quite a major role in who Dogen is. Thus, actually seeing the band that defines me is not something I take lightly. I’d waited for nearly two years to see this band live. Yesterday was:

The concert opened with a great punk band called ‘Snowkel,’ who did the seventh season opening to Naruto. They were fantastic – classic emotional punk rock. The second band was ‘Mars Eurythmics.’ Also punk, but not quite as appealing as their predecessors, IMHO. After a quick intervention, the venue finally came to a quiet standstill and bonobos took the center (there was actually only one lol) stage.

The acoustics of the building were a bit off, so it made bonobos’ typical relaxed sound a bit rougher. But, by the time ‘Thank you for the Music’ (yea, they opened with THE CLASSIC) was over I was quite acclimated to the difference and eager to gobble up whatever else they were willing to throw out. The big surprise of the night was ‘Night Apes Walking.’ It’s a pretty indistinct track from their first album with a set of severely strange vocals. However, they completely rewrote the instrumental last night and lead vocalist Chung-Ho (yes, this is not a Japanese name) sat down at the tiny electronic drum pads set up in between Tsuji Bonbo’s standard kit and Matsui’s bongos. For the best minute of my life, a mix of 3 percussionists created an absolutely euphoric cascade of beats that had the entire audience wholly hypnotized. Other noticeable mentions were: Atarashii Hi – I don’t know where, but it took me there. Fantas Kiss – first time hearing it and already fell in love. AND the climatic finish, “”Someway”" Easily bonobo’s most ‘rock-esque’ song to date. It sat well with the acoustics of the venue and had everyone the club bouncing in bliss only bonobos could create. Overall the performance was even better than I had expected; it’ll be hard to listen to the CD’s after such an intoxicating show.

After bonobos was an incredible instrumental band, ‘The Special Others.’ Special indeed, I’ll be picking up an album soon. “”Laurentech”" was simply phenomenal.

Couple take away points from the show: felt a bit backward being in a building bustling with bonobos’ lovers; up until yesterday I’d never met someone who’d ever heard of them. Secondly, met a cool guy named Yuuma – cheers. Third,

Chung Ho : Vocals ::
Chuck Norris : Life

Fourth, today I bought bonobos’ newest album, PASTRAMA which cost me a hefty 3700 yen. Yes, that’s more than the concert was. sigh.

In a completely unrelated note, I had an interview with a modeling agency before the concert and ended up showing the entire office a bunch of tricking videos.

Nice.”

“

“Hello Friends. Dogen here.

Well, I just finished my first semester as an exchange student in Japan and I have to say I quite enthusiastically devoured my first 4 and a half months here. That leaves just over 6 months before I cry myself home on a 12 hour flight back to Seattle. About a month ago I thought, “”No, there is no way I’ve been here for this long already!”" But now, I feel like I’ve really adjusted to life here, and I can easily cope with the fact I’ve been in the land of the rising sun for more than a couple weeks.

Here’s the fun part – you guys are going to kill me when you hear this – from now until the end of March, I have no school. Yes, I have a 2 month spring break. in Japan.

You see, in Japan the school year ends now and begins at the end of March. In America, we typically get out sometime in June and start up in September. So, that creates a 3-4 month vacation. In Japan, this break is split up between the summer and spring. 2 months and 2 months instead of an epic, forget everything you ever learned, part-time-work extravaganza.

I’ll be doing a lot of CRAZY things during my time off, but before that, I need to give my thanks.

Since re-launching Dogentricks in September I have time and time again received messages that brought me to tears. Here are some of my favorites – to those of you who wrote these, know that they did not go unnoticed.

“”Your site offered so much information, but most importantly; reassurance. It made me believe that I could really go out and start tricking like a pro, and that’s what I think is so important about your site – it gives people confidence.”"

“”I typed in “”crazy asian hair”" in Google image search and a pic of that male model came up( it was in your nov blog i think)…well i read… and read and read. and what started out as being so bored that i was tring to find cool Asian ppls hair. about 4 1/2 hours later turned into me reading pretty much everything i could find on your site lol, it’s really well done and im into tricking myself, and japan has allways amazed me. so i just wanted to say TY for not only haveing awesome samplers up but putting things that pertain to life and the beauty of another country.”"

“”I love the site, it’s really helped me along. So, you have my gratitude Dogen.”"

“”Your tutorials and general attitude when it comes to tricking and life have also greatly impacted me and my life in such a positive way.”"

and most recently, the most moving was a blog flipcast beautifully wrote about the ‘my life video’. My heart just about stopped while I was reading this:

An Impressive Walk

Thank you. Thank you for everyone that’s ever visited this site. Thank you for anyone that’s sent me any kind of message. Thank you:

Akeem – for continually sending me inspiring and thoughtful e-mails.

Austin – for handling everything tech, being a great friend and an incredible role model.

Mom and Dad – for giving me the most incredible opportunity of studying abroad.

Every user on the forum, especially gullie, ATAandTruong, Psych, Yakri, MIAtrix, SupperSapphire, Yoichi, Natein, Strider-Hajime, Lonewolf4524, jkarate212, Bissen, Teemu, 4LAO, Shoes Magoo, RuKuS, Cicero, Zerocool, ryanlq, Kibs, Ish, sky walker, 0_Grav, and of course my great friend and incredible training partner Scottykins.

The friends I’ve made since coming to Japan – David, Rodger, Luke, Andrew, Chris, Loren, Keishi, Hiro, Andrew, Sebastian, Oka, Pansy, Gigi, Hirotomo, and Sei.

Friends from before who welcomed me with open arms – Ayako, Toshi, Mari, and Hitomi.

My incredible teachers this quarter – Ikeda, Sakai, Katou, IZUMI, Asayama, OTOKO NO IKEDA.

Risa – for changing my life.

and to everyone else – you know who you are. thank you.

Anytime someone has been inspired by this website, know that it wasn’t because of Dogen. You’ve simply been touched by one of the people listed above working their magic through me.”

I am exhausted.
I am done with my first semester in Japan.
I am going to bed

Heavy blogging to come.

“

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“

“ I’m quickly becoming an adult.”

“One of the most incredible feelings in the world is the first time you hear a song you later learn to love. The more you listen to any piece of music, the more it will lose its magic – it’s the first few times through you can lose yourself in the music the moment you want it, you better never let it go. or something like that.

“”Dear lord! This melody is TOO catchy.”"

“”Man, this song has SUCH an insane guitar solo.”"

“”I ABSOLUTELY love this song’s lyrics.”"

Lyrics, this is where the discussion really begins. For reasons unbeknownst to even myself, I have always been infatuated with Japanese music. Is it really different than American music? Is there something about the music I listen to that can’t be bought at the Border’s in Redmond Town Center, Washington?

Maybe, maybe not. There is too much music out there for anyone to draw cultural borders. But, Mr. Arbitrarily gave me a list of recommendations and I began listening to a wide spectrum of Japanese music when I started high school. Since then, I’ve developed a love for three artists in particular:

Shiina Ringo
Bonobos
THE BACK HORN

Of the three artists mentioned above, I own every song ever released. Moreover, every song by THE BACK HORN is directly from the CD’s that I imported from Japan (ouch, my wallet). Bonobos have been received from itunes, and Shiina Ringo from Kinokuniya in downtown Seattle. Purchased music holds a certain intangible value over the music you’ve downloaded illegally. You’ll be more inclined to listen to it time, and time, and time again. Yes, I am passionate about these musicians and I do not intend to cheat them for anything less than what they are worth. For years more than 90% of the time I’m listening to music, it’s one of the three ingenious artists listed above.

BUT. It wasn’t until this month I began to understand the lyrics. Of course I could look up the English translations anytime, but that’s a different thing entirely.

“”Anata ni atte, kodoku wo shitta.”"

and

“”I met you and knew lonliness.”"

just don’t hold the same ring. + there are many elements of Japanese culture often worked into these songs – things I could never relate to until recently. So, here we wrap ourselves back to the start.

I am listening to songs I’ve been hearing dozens of times daily, for years, but finally starting to realize the meaning behind the music. I’m having the surreal experience of listening to my all time favorite songs, for the very first time. Every sentence amplifies each song to a whole new, glorious level. The synergy has finally been activated – music with words instead of music and words. Now if that isn’t cool, I don’t know what is.

But then I wonder if it’s just my $500.00 headphones?

nah.”

Hello friends. Dogentricks.com here. Hope you’re all doing well. I’ve got a lot I need to write about, but a lot more I need to sleep about.

Finals this week – I’ll do my best to keep the site fresh.

Risa, thanks for tonight.

“New sampler from Teddy and his crew, my favorite tricksters. Prepare to cry. “

“Apple wins again.“