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I just discovered this crazy awesome new radio App called Rio Radio, & I am completely obsessed with it! I am so in love with this App that I put it on both my iPhone & my iPad. This App streams popular Brazilian music (some straight from local Sao Paulo radio stations, complete with commercials), & also streams popular Bossa Nova, Jazz & Samba music.
Lately, I’ve just been on this extreme Brazilian everything spree. I have been practically binging on all things Brazil. For example, I recently bought the Blu-Ray DVD of one of my all-time favorite movies: RIO, & I have been playing this movie on repeat everyday. I’ve also been listening to Brazilian Pop music non-stop (even when I’m working out at the gym) even though I don’t understand a lick of Portuguese! Well, I do somewhat understand the universal Spanish words, but I don’t understand any of the traditional Portuguese words. Although, I do find the language very interesting (& sounds very close to French)!
I’ve also been dreaming a lot lately of visiting Rio de Janeiro. I’ve been playing around with the idea of visiting Rio for my honeymoon vacation…but the only thing that’s holding me back from taking the plunge to go there is the safety concern. I’ve been reading up on a lot of travel guides & tourism board websites, & all the resources say that right now is not really safe for tourists to travel to Brazil. I’ve even had a former boss that visited Sao Paulo in mid 2011 for a business trip, & he had to travel around town with a personal driver & a bodyguard. I know that sounds like a totally extreme case, but his experience really makes me think twice about traveling to my fantasy destination until the tourist safety situation improves.
Anyway…enough about my Brazilian obsession. I am also listening to my (usual) favorite Bossa Nova & Jazz music on the Rio Radio App. I really love this App, except for the tiny little bug in the App where it’ll sometimes shut-off by itself…but otherwise, I am smit-ten! Que é tão surpreendente. <— copied from Google Translate.
I’m a pretty ecclectic person when it comes to music. I listen to almost all genres of music, including: Pop music in various languages, Alternative-Rock, Top 40 Urban, Punk, Ska, Classic 1950s-60s Pop & Motown music, Techno/Dance, etc. Recently, I’ve really gotten interested in Jazz music. Well, I mean…it’s mostly Bossa Nova, Soft Jazz, Brazilian Jazz & some Verve Jazz. I’m not really familiar with Rythm & Blues, or the Bluegrass stuff. I just mostly listen to the tropical/Latin type of Jazz music…with songs like “The Waters of March” & “Corcovado“.
I’ve heard of Jazz music since I was a kid, but I never really knew anything about it until probably 2-3 years ago. I first kick-started my interest in Jazz music when a friend of mine mentioned that his favorite ‘crusing’ song was “The Girl From Ipanema“. I had never heard of that song before, so I decided to look it up on the Internet. Little did I know, that this would be the song that threw me right into the deep end of the Jazz genre. I was instantly hooked the moment I heard that song.
Now, I still don’t know a hill of beans about Jazz music… Some would still say I’m a “noob” (in Internet lingo), but I am excited to share this with everyone. It certainly broadened my musical tastebuds. These are some of the Jazz-type artists that I know of & like. I have included links, so you can sample their songs.
- Stan Getz
- Antonio Carlos Jobim
- orange pekoe (Japanese Jazz duo group)
- Joao Gilberto
- Astrud Gilberto (Joao’s ex-wife)
- Bebel Gilberto (Astrud & Joao’s daughter)
- Jazztronik (Japanese Electronic-Jazz DJ/Producer)
- Crazy Ken Band (a Japanese Jazz band)
- Clazziquai Project (Korean pop group that also makes some Jazz music)
- Black Bottom Brass Band (Japanese Jazz/Brass Band)
I hope you enjoy this music as much as I do! Curl up with a nice hot cup of coffee & gaze longingly out the misty-faced window on this brisk Autumn evening…
The last time I visited Japan was in December 2010, with my fiancee & my friends. These are some of the fun things I learned from my trip. Enjoy.
1. When you go to a cafe & sit outside and/or next to the window, you will be given a blanket to keep your lap/legs warm (only during Winter season).
2. Most restaurants/cafes have a designated basket with a cloth cover at each dining table. When you are seated, you can put your purse and/or shopping bags in the basket to keep your bags clear from the aisles & to keep them from getting dirty.
3. Hotel rooms will recycle your bed sheets & towels for 3 days unless you put the “change my sheets” card on your bed. This saves a lot on cleaning & water!
4. When it rains, all shops/stores will put a plastic cover on all of your shopping bags so they don’t get wet. (This is the one thing I wish our stores had in the U.S.)
5. Dudes are paid to drive big trucks with giant billboards around town while blaring the most annoying KPop music by the popular Korean boy band 2PM. (Do you notice that I don’t like the band 2PM?)
6. During Christmas time, even though you are overseas, you will NOT escape Western Christmas music…You will hear it EVERYWHERE. You will also hear “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” & Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” about 50 times a day, while not really sure if the locals even know what the lyrics mean.
7. If you go shopping at a major department store, the sales people will try to sell you everything & anything. They are insanely pushy, but polite as hell about it.
8a. I love the clothing brand A Bathing Ape, & I’ve noticed that ALL sales staff at every single Tokyo region Bathing Ape (a.k.a. BAPE) store are friendly & cool. Although they can’t speak much English, they can understand it & try to speak it to make you feel welcome. (I have also found that the sales staff at the BAPE stores in NY & L.A.(which is now closed) are also friendly/nice.)
8b. Every single time I go shopping at a Tokyo region Bathing Ape store with my fiancee, we will get special treatment, we will make friends with at least one sales clerk. I don’t understand this, but I guess my fiancee just appears to be outgoing & perhaps that is why others tend to gravitate toward him & can talk to him easily…even when there is a language barrier. (P.S. If you are ever in Shibuya, Tokyo….look up a guy named Saito at the BAPE store in Shibuya. He is one of the coolest store clerks I’ve ever met in Japan.)
9. You will see cheesy American restaurant chains all over Tokyo (eg. Outback, TGI Fridays, Denny’s, L&L Hawaiian BBQ, El Torito, Sizzler), but don’t expect crazy lines out the door. You will only find that mind-numbing queue at Eggs ‘N Things (which came from Hawaii). The whole Western food trend has come & gone already. (Plus, I’m a little biased & think that the Japanese spin on Western/American food tastes so much better than the way it’s cooked back home.)
10. You will hear Western Pop music everywhere compared to Japanese Pop music (which is not played nearly as much as Western Top 40/Pop). I couldn’t escape the songs “We R Who We R” by Ke$ha or “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz when I was in Tokyo.
11. The new latest invention in Japanese technology: Otohime. Every public bathroom stall will have a device that will make a running water sound for a more discreet bathroom experience. You just press the button on the device & it will make a flushing noise to mask the sounds. You can eve buy this in a handy pocket device for travel and/or public use.
12. Most public bathrooms will have a “regular” stall with squat-in-the-ground toilets or “Western” stalls with sit-down toilets. I thought this was pretty cool…that some rather old fashioned traditions still remain.
13. Fruits are not as expensive as you think they are. It’s not as if every grocery store in town will have that $40 watermelon you saw on reddit.com/ebaumsworld.com. Ok, so compared to American grocery store prices, they are pretty pricey ($6 for 2 apples). However, they are much more beautiful in color & shape, much more sweeter, & bigger in size compared to our U.S. market fruits. So, it’s almost like getting more fruit for your money. Plus, the only $40 fruits you will find are the organic ones, grown on some special farm, & comes in a fancy wrapped box that are supposed to be for gift giving. Those fruits you will find at super luxe department stores like Matsuzakaya or Mitsukoshi…or at fancy grocery stores that specifically sell organic goods.
Rabbits & Foxes 
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