Yokohama’s Jazz Hub

As a jazz lover and a HUGE fan of “hideouts,” I must post Tomoko Otake’s (Japan Times) story on Yokohama and the roots of the city’s jazz scene. Yokohama will celebrate its 150-year anniversary this summer. With 79,000 people of overseas origin, including Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Brazilians and Americans, it truly is an international city. As pointed out in the story, Yokohama is a “place where people of different ethnic backgrounds have mixed. And it’s the music that connects them, because it knows no language barriers! What are your favorite jazz clubs?

As one of Japan’s longest-standing maritime gateways to the world, Yokohama has absorbed many cultures from the West over the last 150 years — not least its abiding love of jazz.

Indeed, many residents of this metropolis — known in Japan and worldwide for its friendly attitude toward anything foreign or new — take pride in the fact that Yokohama is truly the birthplace of jazz in Japan. Click here to read more.

First Friday’s Cocktail Hour

Henry Seals has invited you to the event ‘First Friday’s Cocktail Hour @ 57′ on Black Professionals in Tokyo!

Time:  June 5, 2009 from 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Location: Bar 57 in Roppongi
Organized By: Henry Seals

Event Description: Since we get our best turnout (in terms of quantity of people and quantity ) ,we will have our June Cocktail Hour at Bar 57 in Roppongi. We will start from 7:30 until people decide to leave.

Hope to see you all there!

See more details and RSVP on Black Professionals in Tokyo:
http://blackprofessionalstokyo.ning.com/events/event/show?id=778831%3AEvent%3A7403&xgi=6gig39g

About Black Professionals in Tokyo: 203 members

Enuf

Henry Seals has sent Black Tokyo a message from the Black Professionals in Tokyo message board:

Hello Everyone,

This is just a note to remind you about the show below.  It should definitely be a great evening.  So please come and join us on May 17th when M&U presents, Enuf’.  Come out enjoy good company; enjoy good food and watch a play for everyone by foreigners in Tokyo. 

• Date: Sunday, May 17th
• Time: 16:00-20:00
• Where: Studio Flower, Roppongi
• Price: 4000 yen with dinner &  3000 yen no dinner
• Jamaican Cuisine: Rice N’ Peas, Jerk chicken, festivals, ital veggie curry, Jamaican beef/chicken patties and Japanese style green salad.
• See the map to Flower: http://gmap.jp/shop-3889.html
• RSVP at www.manduentertainment.com
• Send us an email for ticket purchases: manduentertainment@yahoo.com

‘Enuf’ the family event of the year will showcase the talents of performers in Tokyo who will depict the lives of 7 women who use poetry to describe their exciting and sometimes twisted life experiences. The play will make you laugh, cry and want to write about your experiences. The original production, a novel and Broadway play called ‘for colored girls who considered suicide when the rainbow wasn’t Enuf’ is a series of monologues. The characters in the play all represent different colors of the rainbow. The event will also showcase the talents of Classical piano player, Shoko Egi, Senegalese drummer Ousman, The Tokyo Dream girls among other performances. 

‘Enuf’ Cast:

• Lady in Red  -  Eboni Monique Staton
• Lady in Purple - Pernais Morrison
• Lady in Yellow - Shatyia Henderson
• Lady in Green - Abbiola Ballah
• Lady in Brown - Michaela Chatman
• Performer in Orange - It’s a surprise!

Other acts include:
Senegalese Drummer – Ousman
Classical piano player (on Keyboards) – Shoko Egi
R&B Piano player – Naohiro Ozawa
Vocalist- Olivia Burrell, Bernadee McCartney and Monique Dehaney
Professional dancer- Diana Tsuruda
M.C- Daisha Hunter

Come and enjoy a magnificent evening!

What to do during Golden Week

Blue Lotus, who chronicles her “life in exotic suburban Tokyo,” recommends that you Go to Market during Golden Week. Be sure to check out her post, “7 Things to do During Golden Week” and let us know what your plans are during the holiday.

For a kinder, gentler sort of hunting, search out bargains at one of Tokyo’s many flea markets and antique fairs. There are too many to mention here, but we’ve narrowed down some highlights.

On April 29th Prism Hall in Tokyo Dome City hosts two large events: a regular flea market with 300 vendors and a special market run by and aimed at children. On May 2nd Shinjuku Chuo Koen hosts 200 vendors and on May 3rd a smaller market will be held in the same park; also on May 3rd is a flea market in Meiji Koen. May 3rd, 4th and 5th will see large flea markets near Akihabara station and at Shinagawa Intercity. Most flea markets start at 9:00 or 10:00am and run until mid-afternoon.

Japan manga publisher starts English version online

Japan Today reported: “Shogakukan Inc, in a rare move as a Japanese publisher, has started to allow people in the United States to read English versions of ‘‘manga’’ comic stories on the Internet at the same time as it publishes the original printed versions in Japan. The quick distribution of the ‘‘authorized’’ English version is aimed at discouraging wrongdoers from making illegal replicas of Japanese comics mainly in the United States and Europe, the publishing house said.”

You can check out Shogakukan’s ‘‘Rin-ne’’ by popular manga artist Rumiko Takahashi on the VIZ Media LLC based in San Francisco, here.

Metropolis Magazine’s Best of Tokyo

Everyone has their favorite spot in Tokyo but be sure to check out Metropolis Magazine’s Best of Tokyo. There are more than a few places that I will need to visit! Have any favorites on the list? Know of others? Let us know!

For Metropolis’ first annual Best of Tokyo poll (which appeared online from August through November), readers inundated us with thousands of responses on topics ranging from brunch to beer to books. The results clearly show that not only is Tokyo the world’s most populous city, but also the most exciting. So kick back and enjoy this, the first comprehensive snapshot of what English speakers love most about their city. But make sure you get back out there and hit the streets in 2008: we’ll need your help again for the 2008 Best of Tokyo poll, later in the year.—Eds

Roots Rock Reggae

Monique over at Black Professionals in Tokyo posted the Roots Rock Reggae event recently:

Time: April 25, 2009 at 10pm to April 26, 2009 at 5am
Location: Seco Bar and Lounge, Shibuya
City/Town: Shibuya, Tokyo
Website or Map: http://www.manduentertainment.com/
Event Type: cultural, event
Organized By: M&U Entertainment www.manduentertainment.com

Black Tokyo Blip.fm

Black Tokyo is now broadcasting music to make you groove via Black Tokyo Blip.fm. So what exactly is a blip?

A blip is a combination of 1) a song and 2) a short message that accompanies it. The way you create a blip is to first search for a song that you want to hear (or a song that you want your listeners to hear), then add a short message (under 150 characters), finally you submit it. 

Check out Zurui’s favorite music and if you are  “blipping” be sure to let Black Tokyo know via an @BlackTokyo in your reply! If you like what you hear give Black Tokyo props on Blip.fm. Props are tokens of respect that can be given from one DJ to another – say for blipping a good song or being a good DJ in general. 

If you follow Black Tokyo on Twitter, you can also receive Black Tokyo Blip.fm updates! Be sure to send me your requests!

Sponsered by Kimono Girl.

Kelsey in Japan and Hard Gay Ramen

Here’s a humorous video by Kelsey in Japan. She describes herself as “rather fond of having fun” and recently blogged about 25 Random Things About Me…in Japan, one of which is her being semi-obsessed with Hard Gay. Although he’s not on TV much recently, Kelsey really loves it when he does his dance thingy and shouts “Fu-hoo!”

Check out the video and please feel free to comment. There are probably a few scenes that would never make it on air in various countries. Also, be sure to show Kelsey in Japan some love and check out her blog. Fu-hoooooooooooooo!

Black Expat: Chuck Johnson – Kickin’ Butt in Japan

Black Expat Magazine has a great feature on fellow Detroiter, Chuck Johnson, martial artist and rising movie star. It would be great to meet Chuck and converse in Korean. I bet that would be interesting! 

 Movie Having lived in Asia, I know first hand how stereotypes Westerners bring with them (including myself) often obtained through the media can clash with reality. It is the things, and people, that you do not expect and don’t fit our perfect mold that make life interesting. Like the six foot North Korean on the opposing basketball team that slammed all over me in pickup basketball. There were many other excellent Chinese street ballers I tried my mediocre skills against. After a game, a girl walked up to me and told me “I thought I was going to see you play like on the ‘AND1′ video but I’m kind of disappointed.”

I am sure many people think of Chuck Johnson this way in Japan. An expert and national champion in the United States in Olympic taekwondo, Chuck’s swift kicks, skill, and discipline have shattered the normal stereotypes of Blacks being hip-hop gangsters or unruly soldiers in Okinawa. Chuck currently resides in Tokyo, Japan but has also lived in Seoul, South Korea and has visited 30 other countries as a volunteer. Not bad for someone who first started being an expat in 2004

Chuck originally hails from the home of Motown, Detroit, Michigan. After moving north to Okemos, Michigan with his family in his early teen years, he first started learning Olympic taekwondo at age 15 and began winning victory after victory in local tournaments. By age 20, he had won gold medals in the state junior championships and began traveling back and forth to Korea for more intensive training. “While I was in Korea, and I saw just how big the world really was… and how much opportunity there was out there for people who were willing to explore it,” he tells Black Expat about his first experience abroad.