some friends from home are visiting - james and bec. been takin' them all around, including a trip back to the old home town, fujiyoshida for a glorious day of fuji-gazing. nice to hear all the music goss from home - james is a veritable fount of gossip since he has his fingers in so many pies - including production of a new series for MTV australia (which is why he is here, and has just been in NY and LA). he also bought with him a million NY pirated films including kill bill 2 which i am planning to settle down in front of shortly.... we've been talking about the possibility of me working on some stories for the series - crazy tokyo adventures.... i think i might have a go. my uni major was film and it's been a long time since i dabbled.

actually i've also been talking to an aussie consultant based here, who is investigating a long term plan - with a local fella - to set up a touring circuit and a permanant regular venue for australian bands. it's all still very much in the planning stages and they may decide it ain't worth the effort but he figures there'll be a place for me in the plan if it does go ahead. nice.

please check out aaron farleys very excellent photography. james stayed with aaron and his girlfriend while in LA.

and finally, i told nicole that i would put out a call to japanese locals/old-timers who might know if there are any online telephone directories for japan - she needs to locate some old friends. sites in japanese are OK.