iPOD CITY GUIDES

I travel. I photograph. I write.
And now I even share. Christ, I'm generous. So what are you waiting for? I've already done the ground work. Download a free iPod City Guide and find out where to sleep, eat, drink, and sightsee.

It's simple:

1. Download
2. Install
3. Read
4. Go
5. Donate

CITIES

Tokyo Download Now
Moscow Landing Soon
Shanghai Landing Soon
Bangkok Landing Soon

iPODS

Apple 30 GB iPod AAC/MP3 Video Player Black (5.5 Generation) iPod Video
30 GB Black iPods available now.

Apple 30 GB iPod Video AAC/MP3 Player White (5.5 Generation) iPod Video
30 GB White iPods available now.

HEAR

Super Best The Blue Hearts
Paired punk and politics to become Japan's answer to the Clash.

Wolf Rock! Guitar Wolf
Rockabilly meets speed metal meets jet engine.

Love Psychedelico - Greatest Hits Love Psychedelico
Their debut album. Frequently catchy. Occasionally English.

Kanjysei Outou Seyo Eastern Youth
Legendary Japanese indie rockers overdue for a U.S. breakthrough.

Cheap Trick At Budokan: The Complete Concert Cheap Trick at Budokan
The best live album of all time. Yes, seriously.

WATCH

Tokyo Drifter (Criterion Collection Spine #39) Tokyo Drifter
A pouting gangster wanders Japan to avoid being executed.

Stray Dog - Criterion Collection Stray Dog
A detective tracks down a stolen pistol in Kurosawa's classic film noir.

Tokyo Story - Criterion Collection Tokyo Story
Ozu's masterpeice regularly graces critics' All-Time Best lists.

Harakiri - Criterion Collection Harakiri
An ANGRY samurai enacts revenge over the needless death of his son-in-law.

Onibaba - Criterion Collection Onibaba
Chilling visuals and a macabre score intensify this tale of a cursed mask.

Blind Beast
A blind sculptor kidnaps a shapely model in this strangely erotic thriller.

Blade Runner (The Director's Cut) Blade Runner
Shinjuku provided the inspiration for Ridley Scott's futuristic LA.

Black Rain (Special Collector's Edition) Black Rain
Or how a puffy-faced Michael Douglas learned to stop worrying and love Japan.

READ

Araki: Tokyo Lucky Hole (Klotz) Tokyo Lucky Hole
Is Nobuyoshi Araki a dirty old man or a genius photographer? Have fun deciding.

Speed Tribes: Days and Night's with Japan's Next Generation Speed Tribes
A study of 12 Japanese living on the fringe of their conformist society.

Pink Box: Inside Japan's Sex Clubs Pink Box
A vivid, behind-the- scenes glimpse into Tokyo’s imaginative sex industry.

Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan Love Hotels
Tokyo's wildest and most outlandish by-the-hour hotel rooms.

Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan Tokyo Underworld
The rise of organized crime through the eyes of an American hood.

Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions Ugly Amerians
A true story of greedy expatriates and the millions they bilked from Asian financial markets.

MAVO: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931 (Twentieth-Century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power) Mavo
A critical study of Japan's avant-garde art movement in the 1920s.

The Dark Side: Infamous Japanese Crimes and Criminals The Dark Side
Japan's most infamous crimes. And you just know they're gonna be bizarre.

SPEAK

Outrageous Japanese: Slang, Curses & Epithets (Tuttle Language Library) Outrageous Japanese
All the slang, expletives and anatomical nicknames you'll need to speak potty mouth in a 2nd language.

Japanese I - 3rd Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive) Pimsleur Level 1
Load this course onto your iPod and begin learning Japanese simply by listening.

Japanese II - 2nd Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive) Pimsleur Level 2
Level 1 too easy for you? Here's more listening and more learning.

Japanese III - 2nd Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Language Program) Pimsleur Level 3
If you haven't paid a visit to Japan by this point, what the fuck you waiting for?

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Here's a photo of me taken back in the spring of 1980. Later that same afternoon, I boarded a Pan Am flight for Japan. It was my first experience abroad and I threw myself into research for an assignment entitled 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation'.

The three months of intensive field work took me from the pachinko parlours of Tokyo all the way to the opium dens of Bangkok. And when August finally began winding to a close, I made the fateful decision to defer my acceptance into Grade One. After all, there were more smarts to be gleaned on Asia's teeming streets than in any grade school library.

Instead of Mrs. Chadwick and Principal Henderson, I received my schooling from the likes of Suzy Wong and Pat Pong. My motto back then: Live fast, die young, and leave behind a wicked-cool hockey card collection. I even paid a visit to Khoa San to have this tattooed across my neck.

But I never forgot my promise to Mrs. Chadwick. So, here's my overdue paper...