TF Interview…..With Author Tim Andrewartha

Posted on November 22, 2012 by tokyofox

When he’s not eating pickled plums, grooming his sideburns or teaching the future perfect continuous Tim Andrewartha is a Tokyo-based writer who had his first novel ‘Vitality‘ published earlier this year. TF caught up with the man we call Tim Andrewauthor (see what we’ve done there?!) last week over an Earth beer or three and probed him deeply about his book.

 

Talk us through the process of how this book came about then. The idea of Vitality started off as a short story that I wrote many years ago. It was inspired by reading Philip K Dick and cynically speculated about the extent in which a giant soft drink corporation might be willing to go. Originally the liquid was black rather than purple. When I decided to write a novel I thought this idea was worth exploring further.

So how far are you willing to go to publicise your book? Well, only so far really. I certainly wouldn’t be prepared to change my answers so as to promote an interviewer’s website if that’s what you’re getting at!

‘Vitality‘ actually came out on Valentines Day this year didn’t it? Do you think many couples used your book as foreplay? Well, my publisher’s intention for releasing it on Valentine’s Day was to offer an alternative for those readers who aren’t interested in the fluffy mainstream fodder that’s churned out on this day and would rather open their mind to a mind-bending alternative reality. So I think it’s unlikely that it’s been used for foreplay, but you never know.

Do you have an idea in mind for a sequel, prequel or a stand-alone novel? I’ve written another novel which I’m now editing. It’s set in Tokyo and it’s about a missing girl who reappears in a comic. The protagonist sets out to rescue her with a machine called The Reality Converter.

Oh, so this could be an opportunity for me to expand my Tokyo film and book locations further? Actually I haven’t mentioned any specific places by name, other than some of it taking place somewhere in Shinjuku, so that might be a bit tricky.

I do actually think ‘Vitality‘ would work well as a film so if miracles happen who would play Stylo Green and Emulla? I reckon Edward Norton would be good as Stylo Green, the paranoid graphic designer, and Scarlet Johansson would be good as Emulla, the rebellious redhead with a sexy voice.

What kind of reader do you think would be interested in reading ‘Vitality’? I think it would mainly appeal to readers who enjoy dystopian sci-fi (such as Philip K Dick, Jeff Noon or China Miéville).

There’s some stuff early on in the book about dirty phone calls. What research did you do on this matter? I never really do any research for my stories actually. I think that’s one of the advantages of writing this kind of imaginative fiction.

What have you yourself been reading recently? Some of the best books I’ve read recently are Channel SK1N by Jeff Noon, The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, Railsea by China Miéville and Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr Fox.

Are you sure you don’t mean Tokyo Fox?! Look, I’ve told you already, I’m just not willing to sink so low as to shamelessly endorse your site in this interview.

Every Tom, Dick & Willy has a book out at the moment ready for the Christmas market so why would anyone want to buy your book?! So they could submerse themselves in a strange world where the hinges of reality are loose and about to come apart at any moment. If that’s not the ideal escape from the tacky lights and shopping kerfuffle, then I don’t know what is.

How would you describe your book in a single tweet? A man who works for a “life-changing” soft drink company starts to suspect the truth that lies beneath their marketing subterfuge.

 

Tokyo Fox Review: Anyone who has seen ‘The Truman Show‘ (1998) will probably be able to empathise with Stylo Green; the main protagonist in this debut novel by Tim Andrewartha. Stylo works for ‘Vitality‘ which is a soft drink company promising to change peoples lives but as he is warned about their evilness by girlfriend Emulla it seems that, like Truman, there is no escape once he discovers something peculiar going on regarding his colleagues behavioural changes.

Andrewartha’s first book offers a hint of horror but naturally it’s mainly a science-fiction story set in an alternative version of the present day and whilst the fairly original plot is a stretch of the imagination it’s not so far removed that you can’t believe it wouldn’t happen somewhere in the world.

The nameless city where the hero Stylo works is an interesting place full of strange characters reading like a scene straight out of the Cantina Bar in Star Wars. There are some interesting quirky references throughout such as a woman being able to get favours for the simple reason that she speaks or the barman of a bar being a prune.

As someone who is not exactly a bookworm this novel admittedly took me a while to get really into but once past the background half I soon lapped it up and it was a real page-turner and no I don’t mean I was thankful of flicking through the pages just so I could get to the end!

You can follow Tim on Twitter here.

‘Vitality‘ is avaiable now on Amazon. Don’t delay, order today…or something like that!

Posted in Books, English Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A New Addition To The Family #4 – Sioned

Posted on November 19, 2012 by tokyofox

Sioned Poppy Evans was born on the 13th November at 5.27am (Melbourne time) weighing in at 8Ib4. Congratulations to my eldest sister Ruth and her husband Carl for their third child and below are a handful of pictures taken with all their family present. The name is pronounced /ʃɒned/ and is Welsh (for that is where my brother-in-law is from) for Janet or Janey although my nephew Eifion seems to think she’s been named Sonic! My niece Anesta’s still not sure whether they should keep Sioned or not!

                   

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Dining Out: Croc-ing Out At A Cameroon Restaurant

Posted on November 16, 2012 by tokyofox

It’s fair to say that I have been to a wide range of international restaurants in Tokyo recently. Of course there are many, many French, Indian, Italian, Thai, Spanish restaurants among other popular ones but I have been seeking out the rarer ethnic places and one such place was ‘O Village’ in Ikebukuro which my girlfriend and I visited on one wet Sunday back in September. With CNN blaring out of the TV screens the very nice, chatty owner greeted us and was only too happy to answer our basic typical questions about the place.

  

O Village is actually a Cameroon and Jamaican bar & restaurant which serves up some very cheap 500 yen lunch meals such as peanut-flavored fish and chicken curry and staple North African dish couscous. And yes I do know that Cameroon is actually in West Africa.

  

Until they burst onto the football scene at the Italia ’90 World Cup Finals Cameroon were very much an unknown entity but boy did we know about them by the end of that tournament! Despite qualifying for many world cup finals’ since then they have never lived up to the exploits of Roger Milla, Oman Biyick and co in 1990. The Lions, as they are known, were a hit with the public at that tournament and will always have a special place in my heart too. Thankfully though they never quite made it past England in the quarter finals but they didn’t half give us a scare.

  

As you might expect the cheap-eats (there are four in all) are not so filling so we had a couple of other home-style cooking dishes of which one really stuck out! That was the Crocodile BBQ set (the menu also features a BBQ rabbit set) which seemed a little over-priced at 1500 yen but then again how freely available is crocodile in this country?! To be fair, it was very nice albeit a bit rubbery and quite chewy and I don’t really know why I never tried it whilst travelling around Australia which is perhaps the most famous place where crocodiles are concerned.

 

The bar is overlooking a street running parallel to the overly-crowded Sunshine Street and its 3rd floor location in the Dai-go Nakamura Bldg at 1-22-13 Higashi-Ikebukuro offers a nice respite from the hustle and bustle of the busy shopping areas nearby.

Posted in Food & Drink, Sport | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

New York Filming Locations: Black Swan (2010)

Posted on November 13, 2012 by tokyofox

‘Black Swan‘ won many accolades and even though its not my usual type of film I do sometimes make an effort to watch these hyped-up Hollywood award-winning films. The fact that Queen Amidala/Padme (Natalie Portman) from the Star Wars prequels was in it was another reason to see it and I was actually intrigued by the dark side (no Star Wars reference intended) of it all. Watching it was one thing but doing a location was another but as I was meeting a couple of people for lunch near the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts I thought I might as well kill two birds with one stone.

 

Nina (Portman) exits the Lincoln Center subway station between West 63rd and 64 Street and enters the Lincoln Center on Columbus Avenue. 

Posted in Movie Locations, Nth American Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Anthony Bourdain No Reservations: Japan Cook It Raw

Posted on November 10, 2012 by tokyofox

After nine seasons, one of my favourite shows came to an end this week with the final episode taking place in Brooklyn but my review is of an episode which aired way back in May. I didn’t actually watch it until a couple of months ago and this particular one offered an alternative to the shows usual format. Following his trips to Tokyo, Osaka and Hokkaido in previous seasons, Anthony was back in Japan yet again but this time it was for a gastronomic event called “Cook It Raw.”

The programme started with Anthony in Tokyo not so long after the big earthquake disaster where he met Ivan Orkin; a New Yorker who has become a very successful chef over here with his Ivanramen restaurant and instant ramen. However Ivan took Tony to a traditional eel restaurant (below) where the chef kills the eel and then breaks it down into all different organs and they inevitably discuss how Tokyo has changed since the disaster on March 11th.

 

Anthony then talked to one founding chef of the “Cook It Raw” movement and discussed signature dishes but agreed that they don’t like them as they dont want their biggest success to be all they’re remembered for.

Dave Chang is a “Cook It Raw” regular and his story from his younger days was the highlight of this show which is sad as he took Anthony to a Lawson convenience store (above) which used to be his main source of meals. As someone who regularly has to depend on convenience store food in-between lessons I can appreciate how good these places are.

Once they leave Tokyo behind its “Cook It Raw” time in Ishikawa-ken which held less interest for me. This is an event whereby 15 of the world’s best chefs are placed in an unfamiliar landscape to forage (this word was used frequently throughout the show’s duration) for local ingredients as they let their creative genius run amok before serving up the resulting dishes to culinary experts. As much as I have learned to appreciate food more and more in recent times its still very hard for me to get excited about these kind of creations whereby chefs seemingly just stick a mushroom, a leaf and a twig on a plate and the tasters rave about it. However, without these experimenters, the world of gastronomy wouldn’t keep moving forward.

If you’ve never seen the show then try one of the other Japan episodes as they’re far more interesting. This is one for the fans wanting to see something a little different from their favourite witty, sarcastic and profanity-using American chef/TV personality.

Posted in Food & Drink, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Music Videos Filmed In Japan #2 DJ Fresh – ‘The Feeling’ (2012)

Posted on November 7, 2012 by tokyofox

As someone who has never really watched music video television it’s not exactly easy to know about what has been filmed here in Tokyo and it was, by pure chance, that I came to know that this recent single (released September 23) was made in Japan’s capital.

Whilst I don’t listen to too much drum & bass I do love this tune by DJ Fresh (and lets not forget RaVaughn who features on the record as the main vocalist!) and it basically does exactly what it says on the tin in that it give you such a good feeling. The music video theme seems to be all about youth and fulfilment and the feeling of ecstasy whilst these young people ride around the streets of Tokyo on relatively futuristic mopeds.

 

This song will always remind me of the last few weeks of ‘The Chris Moyles Show‘ which came to an end in September after nearly nine years on the air at breakfast time. It was on the ever-important BBC Radio One playlist and really did fit in with the vibe of those final few shows as the show went out on a high.

As is the case with music videos its a load of scenes edited together. The areas that I instantly recognised were in Ueno, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Odaiba. The first one to appear is on 1.09 and is the Tonya buy & sell store on Ameyoko Arcade (Ameya Yokocho to give it its full name) which is the shopping alley running parallel to the JR Yamanote Line tracks in Ueno.

 

On 1.32 Takeshita Dori Street (below) in Harajuku is briefly seen but wasn’t instantly recognisable as the majority of people who go to this ever-packed famous shopping street take their photos from the top of the street looking down.

 

As with all the shots, they are very brief and Ueno features a couple of times (below) on 1.48 and 1.55 with the Sunkus convenience store on Ueno Naka-dori and Ueno station itself appearing.

      

Yasukuni Dori often features when international productions come to Tokyo to make a film or music video. The two shots shown (below) at 3.06 and 3.16 are almost identical to those used in Steven Seagal’s 2005 classic ‘Into The Sun‘ and the lower one shows the Don Quijote (ドン・キホーテ) store on the corner at 1-16-5 Kabuki-cho which could be seen in ‘Kill Bill‘ (2004) and The Killers ‘Read My Mind‘ video.

      

The finale sees Rainbow Bridge appear (below) on 3.19 whereby the youths drive their motorcycle’s over the bridge which crosses Tokyo Bay connecting it to the man-made island of Odaiba.

 

Posted in Japan Filming Locations, Music | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Dining Out: Yemen Coffee In Tokyo But No Salmon!

Posted on November 4, 2012 by tokyofox

Watching Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and co in ‘Salmon Fishing In The Yemen‘ on my flight to the USA in August made quite an impression on me though that was more to do with the idea, the scenery and the country of Yemen itself which, like many, I know little about other than than it is the only country which represents the letter Y when I do the a-z of countries in classes. Naturally, as a filming locations geek I checked out where it was shot and I can’t say I was too surprised to discover that it wasn’t actually done in Yemen. Instead, Ouarzazate in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains doubled up as Yemen. This place was also used in films such as ‘Lawrence Of Arabia‘, ‘The Living Daylights‘, ‘The Mummy‘ and ‘Gladiator‘.

 

Whilst researching ethnic restaurants in Tokyo I came across ‘Mocha Coffee‘ and I guess it stuck out as its the only one of its kind. I even went as far as telling quite a few people about the place (and its coffee prices but more on that later!) and when I had a long break in Shibuya the other day I thought I’d take the 15 minute walk to find the place at 25-1 Sarugakucho in Shibuya-ku. This greenhouse-style shop is intimately located in the artsy neighbourhood of Daikanyama and in a city of high-rise buildings it is so nice to go to a place at street level.

 

Now, this is a bit of a weird one for me as I don’t drink coffee, never have and never will! I wasn’t even planning to go inside when I found it but I saw they sold some cake and hoped they might sell some Yemeni or Middle-Eastern sweets inside. I was right as there was some fig mamool (dates cookies) and baklava (almond pie) on the counter alongside the cake which I sampled with slight embarrassment due to not purchasing any of the coffee which it is famed for! For that reason this entry just about qualifies to go under this websites ‘Dining Out’ section.

  

The shop is ran by Yemen native Hussein Ahmed and his lovely Japanese wife Maiko but only the latter was around on my visits. We talked for a while as I asked the usual dull questions just about every single customer probably asks! I mentioned the ‘Salmon Fishing…‘ movie (finally released here in Japan on December 8th) and she said she hadn’t seen it but was reading the novel (in English!) which it was based on. I’m still none the wiser as to why the film uses the ‘The’ in front of the country’s name though Maiko did say it may be because British people, for it is a British film, have traditionally called it that way.

  

I returned a few days later with my girlfriend who actually drinks coffee and most impressed she was too by the Ismaili brew which is the most traditional of Yemeni coffees and according to their website full of fruit and wine flavours. This coffee and cake place imports rare beans from Yemen and though they are on the slightly pricey side this is a great place to experience and relax whilst sampling some unique tastes.

Posted in Food & Drink, Middle East Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

A Spook-tacular Halloween (2012)

Posted on November 1, 2012 by tokyofox

Following on from the previous nights Halloween party in Ebisu I had to be up early to do a couple of kids Halloween Parties in Hibarigaoka with colleague and friend Lai-Keun. Last year we did a shattering three parties pretty much back-to-back but this year it was 33% lighter though with a similar amount of students.

 

The first party was for 90 minutes from 10am and was for the really young ones who this year were, on the whole, mostly very well behaved with hardly any tears. All a far cry (pun not intended) from last years one and this time the average age was even lower with most of my kids in attendance such as the three year old twins (below) and the boy in purple (also aged three) in the picture next to that.

     

Games and activities in this one included: pumpkin basketball; pumpkin sweeping using broomsticks to get the pumpkins into the goal (a box on its side) on the opposite side of the room; a simple craft activity making a halloween bracelet; pass the parcel and some other stuff which I’ve long forgotten about!

     

For the second round (12.30-2.00pm) Lai-Keun and I went our separate ways as there were 26 lower and higher elementary students in attendance and just not enough space for them all in one classroom. My class was all-female and as I was sole teacher I didn’t take too many photos as I was too busy panicking about how I’d fill the 60 minutes before the snack break and ‘hit the pinata’ finale involving both groups.

I shot off at frantic pace and soon wish I hadn’t as time flew but thankfully I was able to think on my feet and come up with a couple of extra games. Tenpin bowling (using water bottles with halloween labels on them) was fun but I think I put a bit too much water in some of the bottles. So much that the pumpkin had to be bowled at fast pace to knock them over. The biggest success was broomstick football I guess. A slightly more competitive format compared to the earlier lesson where they just raced side-by-side to sweep their own pumpkin (a papier mâché one rather than a real one) into the box. Instead this time the box goals were at either end of the classroom and they had to score first to win.

         

Overall, another successful days work and well paid too! I’d probably have to say that Halloween is fast becoming my favourite event of the year and I am already excited about next years festivities and what I may wear! Not bad for a boy who lived such a sheltered childhood where Halloween was concerned!

Click on the years below to see my ‘Spook-tacular Halloween’ blog entry for each one

2008     2009     2010     2011

Posted in English Teaching, Star Wars | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Darth Maul Joins In The Halloween Spirit

Posted on October 29, 2012 by tokyofox

Darth Maul may have been cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi at the end of ‘Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace‘ but that didn’t stop the writers of ‘Star Wars The Clone Wars‘ resurrecting the character at the end of Season 4 in a storyline straight out of the ‘Dallas‘ or ‘Eastenders‘ textbook of writing! This major Star Wars protagonist was probably the most iconic figure from the first prequel movie and since getting a birthday cake with his image on it that same year I have been a fan. With him back in the minds of the public since the 3D release earlier this year and his rise from the dead in the animated series I was determined to transform myself into the character once I knew I would be attending a Halloween party this year.

  

This year’s party at a local British bar in Ebisu was actually the first time I’ve ever gone out in fancy-dress for Halloween and it was fun. Halloween in Japan has its own style in that its basically just a big fancy-dress party where pretty much anything goes rather than the more typical ghost/witch/mummy-type costumes. As things go my Star Wars costume has a pretty close connection to the Halloween theme!

  

Despite seeing Darth Maul masks being sold in Tokyu Hands a few months ago I just couldn’t find one anywhere in the build up to Halloween so had to go online and having splashed out a few thousand yen on that I went cheap on the rest of the costume. A 100 yen shop provided me with the gloves, belt (actually a scarf), jacket and skirt which was just the bottom half of another jacket cut-off and turned upside down!

It’s not only Luke Skywalker who can construct his own lightsaber as I also did likewise using a 100 yen broomstick (minus the brush) wrapped in red colour paper on the ends with white paper in the middle part shaded grey using a pencil with the finishing touches being a few red circle buttons drawn on. All a bit cr*p up close but from afar it looks ok.

  

It wasn’t all about me, me, me though! Along with a load of my colleagues we all got dressed up on Saturday evening after work. All kinds of costumes were on display which can be seen in some of the photos above and below.

     

On the other hand the fun was taken out of the night slightly by some of the impracticalities involved in drinking with a mask on (I tried through a straw for a bit but it didn’t taste good), needing to go to the toilet, having pockets full of cameras, phones and whatever else. Furthermore, it was very hot in my costume and I sweated a lot in the jacket and mask but I saw that as a good thing in my attempt to lose a few kilos. I only had a few beers during my stay as I had to get up the following morning to do a couple of kids Halloween parties in Hibarigaoka which you can read about here.

Posted in English Teaching, Hentai, Japan Life, Quirky Japan, Star Wars | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Review: Films Set In Japan – The Grudge (2006)

Posted on October 26, 2012 by tokyofox

Just reading the blurb on the back of this films dvd gives you an idea of how lazy the storyline is and yet it somehow managed to limp on for a further sequel by way of  ‘The Grudge 3‘! On hearing that Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has been hospitalised following her failed attempt to burn the house down at the end of the first movie, her mother sends her other daughter Aubrey to Tokyo to bring her sister, who she hasn’t been talking to, back home. Aubrey then learns her sisters horrifying story and how the curse of the grudge has been unleashed. Very vague and lame indeed as is sadly usually the case with horror movies follow-ups in particular.

Whilst I felt Sarah Michelle Gellar was under-used in the first film (see that review here) she is only in this one as a cameo part (just over five minutes in total) designed to bring some connection to the two films. Or maybe she didn’t really want her name associated with such a production which is why she doesn’t stay alive for long in the movie!

The Grudge 2 focuses on her sister but doesn’t give her too much to do. As the film has three separate stories there just isn’t enough focus on Aubrey’s storyline. Instead we also get a couple of other subplots and with the story constantly flicking between them it is difficult to get attached to any of the characters and to have any or much sympathy with them when they inevitably end up being affected by the curse of the grudge.

Of course its not a complete lame duck and I actually didn’t mind some of the scenes with Aubrey and the journalist Eason as well as the story centring on the three International High School students who go to the grudge house (no lock on the gate or the house but just some tape preventing entry!) but the Chicago apartment building storyline seemed  isolated in the scheme of things and was ultimately more distracting than involving.

There are some chilling moments here and there but if you’ve seen the first one then its nothing original. However, if you haven’t seen the original one then you’re unlikely to be watching this second one anyway! Eason tells Aubrey all about the curse and says “I was hoping you can tell me something I don’t already know but you can’t” which is quite apt given that this film doesn’t really make too much ground on the mystery of the grudge and how it can be stopped.

We learned in the 2004 American original about the Japanese belief that a curse is left behind when someone dies in a powerful grip of rage. It leaves a stain in that exact place  lasting forever which is a little ironic given that this particular horror franchise, having rush-released this sequel on the back of a successful weekend at the box office for the original, did exactly that in the cinema’s showing it!

 

Tokyo Fox Rating 5/10

Click on the following links for the filming locations of each film:

The Grudge (2004)     Ju-on: The Grudge 2 (2006) 

Posted in Films, Review: Films Set In Japan | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment