Category Archive for Visual Kei + Music
LA CARMINA & JIMI / ELEC OF CHEMICAL PICTURES & LAVERITE AT NINJA RESTAURANT IN ASAKASA, TOKYO. WORLD'S WEIRDEST THEME RESTAURANTS.
Could that be? It is! You fangirls call him Man Heaven (eeee!); the rest of the web knows him as Jimi or Elec of Visual Kei band Chemical Pictures. Last fall, we went to Ninja Restaurant in Asakasa to eat ninja-food and to shoot photos for my Theme Restaurants book (out now). Here are some of the outtakes.
Ninja’s entrance is hidden – it took us fifteen minutes to find the opening in the wall. The journey to the restaurant itself was equally convoluted (you’ll read about it in the book). With a “HAI!”, our ninja waiter unscrolled the menu.
Elec and I felt like we were hiding in a hidden forest lair. The ninjas were full of tricks; they’d leap out and pull out his heart from his chest!
They’re talented cooks as well. An appetizer was shaped like ninja stars, another involved dynamite. Here, our ninja is cooking stone soup.
While we ate dessert, a ninja came to our table and mesmerized us with card tricks.
There’s more to this adventure – much more. You’re going to have to read Crazy Wacky Theme Restaurants to get to the bottom of things! (Amazon lists it for an affordable $16.47)
The clock is ticking… get your contest entries in for the Gloomth petticoat-bloomer-pants and AllModern.com adorable sushi set!
Song of the Day #181: Gary Numan – M.E. (Ronan: “I was watching an interview with Gary Numan and thought of you”)
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BAAL, 13TH MOON, DEMONOID 13: JAPANESE GOTH BANDS PERFORMING AT KING OF EVIL 13 PARTY, SHINJUKU MOTION IN KABUKI-CHO. JACK SKELLINGTON COSTUME & MAKEUP.
BAAL, Demonoid 13, 13th Moon… here’s some live footage of Japanese Goth bands performing at King of Evil 13 club night party (Shinjuku Motion in Kabuki-Cho, July 11, 2009). Hello latex, facepaint, dark kawaii, big boot, 1980s Gothic hair!
I’m not exactly a fan of the Japanese Goth/experimental/noise/scream bands that perform at club nights… there are only a handful them, so if you’ve been to a few Tokyo Dark Castles, you’ve already surpassed your saturation point. Still, it was fun to see the crowd thrash and surf during 13th Moon’s Jack-Skellington-punk performance. The lead singer is quite the performer; as you can see, he ended the set by pretending to hang himself with his microphone cord.
Which band did you like best? And can anyone identify the dark synth track playing in the intro and ending of the video? I want to know…
For more Tokyo Goth nightlife coverage, check out this blog section.
Song of the Day #175: 13th Moon, Demonoid 13, Baal and the mystery song