Aug/090
Burning Leaves is Bliss
Arrived in Bali on Monday on my new favorite airline in the world, Japan Airlines - which fed me a full vegan meal and a snack and has free beer the whole way, and several options of subtitled Japanese horror movies to choose from. As we were landing I remembered a movie Ganja Queen that was on HBO where the girl was sentenced to death for bring drugs into Bali when she said they were planted. I sweated through customs, literally and figuratively, as it was easily 100 degrees on the line.
Got a cab into Kuta, the main tourist stop, and where the 2002 bombs were- and the place was PACKED, after stopping in to about 5 hotels I found a spot that was twice the price listed in the guide book. Its high high season, and the rates are up, and the place is packed. Kuta is much more seedy than I anticipated. Pimps are everywhere, I got grabby by a tranny hooker, drugs while hyper-illegal are sold semi openly. Most of the budget hotels are on what they call "Gangs." Small concrete alleys that become full of people and just become a compressed mess when you add scooters and cars.
The majority of people around are Australian and they are DRUNK. The sound of motorbikes and people yelling "Transport! Transport", "Massage, Massage" with the droning of beach rock cover bands in the distance is deafening. The surf is beyond anything I've seen before. The waves are gigantic... I thought for a second about taking a surfing class but all I had to do is see a wave break and splash 3x my height to pass on that idea.
The best thing about the place though is the people. Once you get past whatever someone is trying to sell you, young people are eager to share their culture and learn about yours. They are gentile and sweet... and very funny. When getting a 5 dollar massage, I was surprised to hear all of the girls cracking jokes on each other, the clients, people walking by... all in English so everyone could participate.
People speak freely have "Bali magic" and their mystical interpretations of Hinduism. Hinduism never really turned me on so much but these folks have a very tactile and empowering relationship with the divine... and its everywhere. Beautiful sculptures of Gods are EVERYWHERE. Even in the mall. Daily offering of flowers and food are left outside every business every day it seems.
On my second night I found a screaming kitten dodging scooter traffic in one of the gangs. I picked him up and waited for his mom - not know what to do I took him to my hotel and cleaned him up, and took him to the hotel desk and asked if anyone could care for him - only to find out the hotel itself was a refuge for lost cats in Bali and they take care of lots of strays. I put the kitten on the ground of the lobby and as it began to cry a momma cat from outside urgently ran inside to take care of him. After the mom started licking the kitten and the kitten was eating food I felt like it had as good a chance as it could be in a safe court with other cats where there was food.
Last night I thought I was going to go to sleep early, but one Aussie dude called from an alley "Hey Chuck D. Over here, want some Jaeger?" after seeing my Public Enemy shirt. Any invitation with Check D. in it was something of course I couldn’t refuse and I got a front row seat to the hedonism of Bali. Going from club to club was full of jacked surfer dudes and awkward drunk Australian girls with beer bellies thousands and thousands of them in different clubs with multiple floors and cheap drinks.
The coolest part of it was though the Balinese Gogo dancers who looked awesome with giant headdresses and choreographed moves. I hope to see some more authentic expression soon but seeing them half naked in a seedy club was ok too.
Today I picked up a scooter from the hotel that I negotiated down to a little over 4 dollars a day. It was so much fun darting around with all of the folks here, and when you get just half a mile from the tourist ghetto there are no white people around. Tomorrow I'm going to check out our family friend Dr. Dipper’s, business at Bali Scuba Masters and see if I can get a cheaper hotel near that area and hang out. Then to Ubud to see some art and the monkey forest!
Aug/092
Wrestling Nara
Now that I have only a few days left in Japan, I started to plan the next leg of my journey in Indonesia and figured out how darn expensive Japan is to travel after all (A large beer in Kyoto will rent you a bungalow for the night in Bali). Looking for some inexpensive day trips from Kyoto I found Nara, just an hour away, and home to the largest indoor Buddha as well as the largest wooden building in the world... all surrounded by dozens of deer that you can feed. The Buddha was definitely the coolest I've seen yet - he had more of a cosmic Alex Gray flavor than most of the others, and I think Buddha worked his magic a bit, because when I got off the train I found two kids from California with a Japanese Vegan guide asking information where a vegan restaurant was. The lady at the info information desk called to me and asked "Where do you want to go?" and I point to them and said "Wherever they are!"
Rachel and Jaime were sweet enough to let me tag along with them to a vegetarian indian place, and I hate to say but if I could have been transported me with Megan Crowley my girlfriend from college to these kids now who are in college the similarities would be spooky. He's a newbie filmmaker and she's a mathamatician. We went sight seeing together and we fed some deer who were extremely aggressive with the people feeding them... and each other! Check out this shot with two deers brawling outside of the ninja store. How awesome is that? Also note the "Welcome to Cool Japan" sign in the window. Couldnt have said it better myself.
I went to bed in Kyoto for the last time, woke up and got on the Shinkansen to Tokyo, the fastest train in the universe. I even got the fastest ticket on the Shinkansen by accident. It was cool. The train looked MEAN, but I couldn't tell I was going too much faster than the Long Island Railroad to be honest. Got off in Yokohama - where I was going to see my favorite hardcore wrestling federation Big Japan Wrestling! These guys are known for building a 3 story cage of barbwire and glass, lighting it on fire, floating it in a swinging pool, filling the pool with alligators, and piranhas and having twenty tough as nails dude fight in it. I was excited for weeks. Before the fight I toured Yokohama, just south of Tokyo on the water.
The coolest thing in Yokohama is that they have a theme park with a giant robot spider... but it was 25 bucks so I passed. Just knowing I was a stones throw away from a giant spider robot was enough. I arrived at the show an hour and a half early, and my heart broke to discover that the event was Big Japans minor league tryout division playing in front of 100 people. There was to blood, no glass, no piranhas tonight. But I can say I've seen prowrestling in two countries now, and thats pretty cool.
The last few days I was warned about the 3 day long Japanese day of the dead Oban, which was supposed to make travel miserable... it was busy, but Oban has got nothing on Yom Kippur in NYC. NOTHING.
I'm back in the capsule hotel for 3 days before I hit the laid back beauty of south east asia. Every time I wake up I listen for the sound of the waves... instead I hear blaring Japanese announcements and commercials. 2 more days until paradise.
Check out the last Japan pics on Facebook.
My Best Stuff List In Japan
10) Sleeping in random places is ok
9) beer in vending machines
Rubber Vaginas on every bloc
7) Bamboo forests
6) Fast ass train
5) Wireworks in the 711
4) Capsule hotels
3) Arcades (Muliplayer SF4, Sit down mario kart 2)
2) Mentally handicapped dudes get to hang out like everyone else
1) Drinking on the subway at 10am is LEGAL!
Aug/090
Kyoto
Greetings from Kyoto Japan! After finishing up in Tokyo I went to the bullet train and realizing it was 120 bucks I opted for the midnight 7 hr train from Tokyo to Kyoto which gave me another day in Tokyo and saved me a nights cost of a hotel room for the night. So I looked up something to do and found a place that has Tokyos largest shrine, and was the area where all the kids dress up in gothic anime and punk rock costumes called Meiji. It sits inside the city in a dense woods with secede chirping so loudly its deafening, adding to the electricity of the place. It was just awesome, and then I strolled around what seemed to be the Williamsburg of tokyo with cool scooter shops and punk stores. I met a guy who owned a heavy metal store and we talked about all of his favorite metal bands. I couldn't understand everything he was saying but it was just awesome to talk to someone here. I got on the bus and after 2 episodes of Star Trek Voyager I woke up at 6:45 am in Kyoto. I didn't even remember falling asleep.
The rain was thick, and from a first look, Kyoto was unimpressive, looking like a Japanese Syracuse, and I was pretty bummed (I mean Syracuse is the worst city in the world). But after 2 days of exploring I can tell you that this place is like alice in Wonderland - with little doors everywhere to complete magic.
Today I went to Fushimi Inari Shrine, originally made as for the god of Rice now it has deities of all kinds of business. Check out the pictures here. You wander down and industrial left turn around and stumble into an enchanted forest. I don't know if all of the holy places in Japan look like this or not... but this whole deal is straight out of the new Ninja Gaiden series. There are few places of worship that have really inspired me but in these Buddhist temples have a pull thats I cant quite explain. There is a serious electricity here.
Going to see some castles and some other shrines tomorrow and hopefully find some contemporary art. And going to do some research on my favorite Manga / Anime Kinukiman that you might remember from the 80's in the form of pink wrestlers. I visited the international Manga museum which was a real treat and brought back all of those memories of falling in love with Akira and Legend of the Overfiend when I was 13 and 14 years old. I resigned from Anime / Manga when all the silly kids stuff like Pokemon and Dragonball came out but there is a lot of cool adult work I'm excited to catch up on as well as revisiting some of the classics.
Aug/091
Capsule Hotels Rule
After all of the drama of the last 2 days not sleeping and calling banks in the states at night and banks in Japan during the day I just had to get the hell out of my old hotel and thought the idea of sleeping in a capsule hotel would be a good idea. I had absolutely no idea what I was in for.
Sitting across from a main train station and inside of what is Japans Times square Shinjinku, reads Green Plaza, that looks like any modern hotel in the states. You take an elevator up 4 floors to reception where you are greeted given a locker key and a set of Pajamas. You put your stuff in the locker and walk into a soundproof chamber of 200 capsules that look like they came out of 2001 space odyssey. It’s surprising to hear silence in the room, even with people inside - its a stark contrast from all of the noise of Tokyo and instantly relaxing. You have a tv - but its doesnt turn on unless you buy a card, a flyer inside advertises 5 dollar porn you can watch inside of the capsule. There is a radio and a light dimmer and an adjustable fan.
I walk back outside and see there are 4 floors of services and I walk to the first one to see a room of 6 men on the right getting massages with towels over their faces and to the right a restaurant where 3 dozen men sit in their pajamas eating and drinking beer barefoot watching a dubbed in Japanese night at the museum on a top grade plasma display. I then realize I need to put on my pajamas to join the party.
On the next floor is a spa on par with any luxurious gym with 2 outdoor hot tubs with more plasma displays, and a communal shower where men sit on a plastic stool and wash themselves with a hand shower. In the middle of a circle of showering dudes sits another bathing pool with 10 guys intensely watching women’s volleyball. They didn’t acknowledge me what so ever. Most of the men here barley look at each other. At first I thought this was a place for the destitute and for people who miss the might night train, but they have spa services that cost from 30-200 bucks and the food Isn’t cheap. In the show rooms sit ladies advertising massage and there are dudes everywhere getting work on tables on all the floors. I wish I spoke enough Japanese to know the stories of the guys who crash here.
After sitting in one bathing pool for a minute this guy got in scratching his butt with the craziest skin condition I ever saw. I took that as my cue to try my veggie passport application for the iphone at the restaurant, and it went quite well with a vegetarian yakisoba. You pay by scanning your wrist band which allows you to get beer, massages, coke and anything else out of a vending machineSince there are naked dudes everywhere I’m not going to whip out my camera but check out the shots this guy got.
Aug/092
Crazy, Crazy Tokyo
So many things growing up that I cherish come from Japan. Nintendo, MUSCLE (Kinnikuman, the pink figures from the 80's), Ninjas, Samuari, Anime, Manga, Hentai - I've been a fan for so long, but going to Tokyo and thinking you will love it because you like some of the culture is like eating 20 hits of liquid lsd because you smoked half a joint once and thought it was cool. There is only one word for this place... INTENSE.
I never realized how close to true life Japanese comics are... the entire place is a cartoon. Full of characters... regular workers dress in costumes whether they work at the 711, or are driving an ambulance or are taking tickets at the movie theatres.
There is stuff EVERYWHERE. Giant buildings upon buildings of electronics, figurines, capule machines of toys, dvds, games, magazines... No matter where you trn there is a big bold wacky ad selling something and its usually a point of purchase. It seems WAY less dense than NY, I dont know how they support all this buying stuff everywhere thing... but it is awesome... and like taking 20 hits of acid there are times when you just have to close your eyes and tell yourself this isnt really happening.
After being a WAMU customer for almost 10 years my account finally got switched to Chase last week, and when I landed my bank card didnt work - which caused quite a panic, since in Japan you CAN NOT get a cash advance on a credit card... and after being told any wire transfer would take 2 weeks, I found the only place in the whole country where you can wire cash from the states... just in time. By the time my hero J Fish got me my cash I had 20 bucks in my pocket. I never would have thought - in china you can get a cash advance at any bank and wire transfers are normal... but there is a strange kind of isolationism here - where it seems they want the foreign exports but are very careful about what money comes in. Even American credit cards are still very hard to use in anything but the finest restaurants and hotels.
There is NO western union, and there is one bank, that is Brazillan in Tokyo that can do Moneygram. After exploring the backwoods of Mexico and Panama - and seeing western union and Visa at every 3rd world bus station there is - I admit I didnt prepare well enough for Tokyo. I thought money would be easy and even though Chase has an office here they told me there was nothing they could do. I went to a dozen or so banks that repeated "Japanese Only" over and over again. I called banks that I read used to do money transfers, but no more. It was one the most fearful moments I can remember but with some help of my amazing friends I got the right info and made it work.
It was a huge insight for me as well - being in a place where people dont give a fuck if I'm on the street, dont really care much about what I do or dont do...and being in a place where I was completely vulnerable. It was a new thing - I was scared out of my mind. My entire adult life I've felt like a person of incredible privilege. Having an elite education, being born and raised in and around New York, having parents who nurtured me, and being white and a native born American - having a family who would be there for me no matter what. I could fuck up SO BAD and ill never miss a meal, ill always have a very comfortable place to sleep, and ill have access to things 99% of the worlds population will never have.
I think I've always been careful because I know of that privilege, and I think its kept me from fighting for things. But this experience being about 4 hours from homelessness just awakened me to the fact that i have a ton to fight for - for ideas that the world needs to hear, for people that the world has ignored. I dont know exactly what the connection is at this time, but it put a fire in me for my own survival that ignited a lot more. My privilege doesn't mean shit when gay people cant get married, when animals are being tortured, and half of America thinks cops cant make mistakes... My heart has an intensity that I havent felt since I was protesting fur at Macys when I was 17, which has opened up a freedom and so many possibilities for my work in the coming few years.
Side note - I don't know if you know my friend Jeremy Fischer - guy who wired me money from the states, but this dude is a great guy - the kind of guy that you can count on for anything, who will support you no matter what, and always has your best interest in mind. The kind of guy who doesnt flinch to give you his keys, and shares naturally. This guy has really inspired me to take on as a goal in my life to be awesome as fuck to my friends. I've aways had my goals very well clear in my life, but just seeing how Jeremy is around his people - is expanding what I want out of my life, and who I want to be to the people I love. If you havent gotten to meet him I suggest sending him a message at http://www.myspace.com/rockshowmusic and checking out his band on Long Island. I know you New Yorkers are jaded but really you wont see a more jubulant mix of make tans and tight ambercrome shirts. The guys at these shows dont dance tho so if you are a guy youll have 20 girls grinding on you, and if you are a girl you wont get and hair spray sweat on your dress from Joey Butafuocos son. I kid. I love long island. Check them out - Its a seriously awesome time you wont forget.
So I just checked into a capsule hotel. Its a 5 story complex designed for single men where you sleep in a capsule that looks like its from the space station. In it are elaborate baths, a room with astroturf and a 100 inch plasma display and a room of women to massage your feet. All for about 40 bucks. They give you pajamas to wear which everyone is wearing which I didnt put on. They prob think Im lame. So im going to go change into the Pjs, and take a bath. Check this place out at: http://www.links.net/vita/trip/japan/lodging/capsulehotel/
Thanks again to all of my wonderful friend who helps me out the last few days. Sorry I didnt call you dad. I really didnt want you showing up in Tokyo frazzled. I love you guys. Off to Kyoto tomorrow on the bullet train. Ill post pictures soon.
If you see a spelling error... I'm dyslexic, and I need an editor. Please apply.
Aug/090
The Best Advice I Got When Leaving for my Trip
From my friend, entrepreneur, and charity badass Ethan Ruby who you may remember from our my first time series on NBC:
"If you have any doubts about what you are doing just know there is one rule to life, and that is to LIVE it. And thats exactly what you are doing."
And it really is that simple. I recently signed up for the website 43things.com. On the site you list 43 things you want to do before you die. Now when I have a big choice I look at the list and think about which choice I have in front of me that will move me with the most velocity to one these options. If I'm at a place thats moving me slowly or not moving me towards a few of these things... It's time to take one of them on, and thats what I did.
A very cool site. A great idea. Check out my 43 things.
Aug/090
Party At Jeremy’s
So there is no way that this travelblog would be complete without somehow documenting the send away party that my friend Jeremy threw for me. Here are a few pictures - JUST a few to protect the innocent. It was a night like few others and I laughed harder than I have in a long time. It was the perfect Long Island summer night, warm and misty - In Jeremy's back yard we set up a slip n' slide, a trampoline, a fire pit - jeremy mounted a projection screen the side of his house and we played gremlins 2 the new batch and listed to Isreali Goa troop astral projection. I made a batch of watermelon mojitos to start of with and it went on from there. Thanks Jeremy for opening your house up to such an unforgettable evening. and Thanks to everyone who shleped out of the city to come be crazy with us. I have the best friends ever.
Ith Poses on the Vet
- Becca samples the watermellon Mojito
- The smokers by the fire pit
- Bouncey Jeremy
Jul/091
My Immunization Haiku
six viruses wow
make me barf bad every time
and hallucinate
So if you are going on a trip one thing you need is shots, and if you are going to India you need a whole friggin load of them. If you plan such a trip brace yourself to be messed up after you take the immunizations. Here was my experience with each.
Hep A + B - These shots are given together now in a formula called Twinrx. For the immunization to work you have to get this shot twice, spaced at least a month apart. From my doctor in NYC it cost about 100 bucks which my insurance covered. Once I quit my job and my insurance lapsed I went to the King County Public Health Center in Renton WA outside of seattle and it cost me 30 bucks.
I got the first shot in June 23rd - and my doctor in NY sent me on my way. Feeling fine I went to the health food store to grab a sandwich at which time I started heavily hallucinating while crossing the street. Time started slowing down and I almost got hit by a car. At the public health center they told me to chill out in the office for 30 mins after the shot. Good advice. For the vaccine to be effective for 10 years I have to go back and get a third shot when I get back in January.
Crazy Side Effect Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Typhoid - My mom who was a flight attendant for Pan Am in the 60's tells me everyone on the airline avoided this at all costs and would do anything to get out of getting a Typhoid shot because the effects were so rough. A series of pills have since replaced the shot that you take every other day for a week. My reaction to this was mild, until the end of the week when I got sick to my stomach and started to have a lung infection.
Crazy Side Effect Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
TDP - This is the tetnus shot - it also has a couple other vaccines Diptheria and Pertussis. This one I felt light headed for a few hours. I thought I had no reaction to this one, but the night after the injection I noticed a giant red itchy hot welt on my arm. The itching and soreness went away after a week but I had swelling the size of a golfball for 3 weeks, even now a month later there is still a hard spot at the injection site. But at least now I run on rusy nails in bali.
Crazy Side Effect Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Malaria - Actually there is no vaccine for Malaria yet. Some people recommend taking malaria pills, which you take so often that after a month in India you have consumed about 100 pills. Guess what - this has side effects too - not wanting to be sick my whole time there and after talking to some people who have done long treks in India and SE asia I'm going to pass on this one, and protect myself by covering up at night and using deet 100 mosquito repellant.
Crazy Side Effect Rating: ? out of 5 stars.
There are lots of others if you are going off the beaten path but to be honest I wonder if getting one of these diseases might not be worse than what all these immunizations has done to my body. It definitely has been a serious bout of ill and after being sick pretty often for almost a month, I don't think I could handle any more immunizations for the rarer diseases. But lots of people have much less of a reaction - but if you are going to get them I'd give yourself some space to be sick for a while.
Jul/090
3 Days To Go
Evan pulls some sound bytes for the Punk Jews work sample.
Its 3 days before I leave the country, and I'm first starting the travel blog, so I think I'll work a little bit backwards here. Its been a crazy few weeks - from moving my apartment and working with my producer Evan and finishing our ITVS Grant with a 5 minute trailer to helping mom with her broken ankle and throwing some crazy parties - there has been a lot of work and play to do - not to mention getting visas, a myriad of shots, and not to mention actually researching the places I'm traveling and getting my budget in order.
People keep telling me "You must be so excited!" and don't get me wrong I do - but mostly I've been concentrating on the work in front of me needed to get ready. I'll get excited on the plane!