Punchline Comedy Club, Tokyo

The Punchline Comedy club is presenting another line up of three stand up comedians on Friday 18th April.


I'll be going along for sure. Tickets sold out for the previous show in Februrary, so book your tickets soon and don't miss out!

I exchanged emails with John Moorhead, the promoter, about running a show in Seoul and he was definitely interested, but he has no contacts there at the moment. If you are in Seoul and would like to get a chance to see stand-up comedy, please contact John directly from the contact pages on Punchline.com. The greater the response the more likely he is to put on a show.

Akihabara, Mobile Phones and Rabbits

I went to Akihabara this weekend. My original intention had been to visit the transport museum that I had seen direction signs for on a previous visit. Foolishly I had not checked further into this institution, so when I followed the signs I was dismayed to see a large "Closed" sign and an explanation (in English) that the museum had shut in 2006. It has moved to a brand new site in Omiya, and it's the museum I'd already visited!

The day was not wasted as there a street festival on. The main road was blocked off to allow various artistes to perform. Hanger Man was very entertaining juggling on a unicycle and doing tricks with a tennis racket :


I've just discovered he's was at the Seoul Buskers Festival in 2007 and he was popular at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

This gentleman wasn't part of the entertainment, as far as I could tell, but I had to take a second glance to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Man and rabbit moved as one :

It's still not as good as Mike's Lady with an Iguana on her head though.

Akihabara is full of boys and men interested in all the technology available, so what better way of getting their attention than some scantily clad girls:


As you can see they were very popular, but I've got no idea what they were promoting. Does anyone recognise the figure in the middle?

There were a lot of small groups singing and dancing, but in general the quality of the entertainment was not as good as last week in Yoyogi park.

The Rock Bands of Yoyogi Park

Spring has finally arrived in Tokyo and the parks are now very popular places to be. On Sunday while walking round Yoyogi park, the sounds of loud music caught my attention. Along the path from Shibuya gate there were plenty of bands playing some really great music.

This group Majellyca were cranking out some heavy rock tracks.

H.U.T. were playing their heart out just a few meters further up the path:

This was my favourite band. The Chocolate Chip Cookies . I couldn't understand the lyrics, but the tunes were very catchy.
Benchmark Cafe put their heart and soul into their performance.
This is Hyper Kitty Hyper:
All the bands put on some great performances for those passing by. If you are interested in live Rock music, I recommend a walk along this path on a Sunday afternoon.

New features at the Korean Blog List

As long time readers will know, I am a big fan of Alan's Korean Blog List. Alan lives in Tokyo these days, but he still maintains the list very diligently. I went out for drinks with him, not that long ago, and he mentioned that he hoped to put some improvements in place on his site.

I got an email from him yesterday to let me know that he has implemented the first of the new features on his website. If you have a blog on his list you can now go to the site and change your blog listing. You can also declare your nationality and location. In the future, when enough bloggers have updated their details, this will become a searchable attribute. He promises other features are coming soon.

I took a quick look at some of the new blogs on the list and there are, as always, plenty of new and interesting blogs on Korea out there. The total number listed stands at 399 this evening.

These are some I liked, in no particular order :

Your Daily Shot of Soju An ESL teacher in Seoul with some amusing observations on life.

That One Moment Some high quality pictures from a lady photographer based in Seoul.

The Constant Crafter Becky has some amusing photos and stories of life in Suwon.

Lemon Soju Alan's own blog. Lots of advice on losing weight.

Mr. Glenn, Memoirs of a Geezer tag line : "0 hours : 0 mins : 0 secs until now". Glenn has just completed six months of Life in "The EnglishZone" in Incheon and seems to be surviving OK. (excellent photo there.)

Seen in Jeonju Dedicated to Korean Movies.

Gyopo Wife A recently married gyopo, who has moved to Seoul from LA, shares her tales.

Egg Bop "Exchanging thoughts about Korean food, craft, art, and culture".

Any many, many more.