>Yeah i made it up to Tohoku about
>6 months before the earthquake & tsunami. I don't know if you
>
>knew but last year they designated Hiraizumi & Chuuson-ji as
>World Heritage sites. I thought that was pretty awesome of
>UNESCO.

Esp. since Japan already has the entire city of Kyoto designated, and there are plenty of other deserving places there.



>There's also another place that was designated in
>Tohoku, but I can't remember the name...maybe Ooshima?

Looking on the website, I'm seeing the Shirakami range, which is just west of where I lived (I was in a valley in the Oou)... I didn't get to hike there since there was a ton of great hiking closer to home.

>I don't know much about the world rock scene. If you could
>point
>me in the direction of something you liked that would be cool.
> I'd
>love to check some stuff out.

An actual great place to start is the Rough Guide to Japan and the Rough Guide to Okinawa... both CDs have plenty of cool stuff. Starter guide for albums:

1. Must Have
The Boom 'Tropicalism'
Sayoko 'Peep'
Soul-Cialist Escape 'Soul-Cialist Escape In Lost Homeland'
Kodo 'Ibuki'
Shokichi Kina & Champloose 'Champloo! Live', 'Music Power from Okinawa'
Takio Ito & Takio Band 'Ondo'
Takashi Hirayasu - Kariyushi No Tsuki
Kazufumi Miyazawa - Afrosick

2. Pretty damn good
Shang Shang Typhoon '2', others also good but all sound very similar
The Boom 'Far East Samba,' 'Japaneska', 'Faceless Man'
Shokichi Kina 'Akainko'
Any early album from Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (not as much global/roots-rock as the rest but an awesome band, but you probably already know that)
Katsumi Watannabe 'Oyatsu' & 'Oyatsu 2' (both acoustic solo & duet pieces)
Kodo 'Sai-So' ( a remix album) and 'Kaiki'


3. Curiosities I love but may be acquired tastes
Kusu Kusu 'Hikari No Kuni No Kodomotachi,' whatever the next album is, with 'Sekai Ga Ichiban Shiawase No Hi'
Soul Flower Mononoke Summit 'Levellers Ching Dong' 'Asyl Ching Dong'
Bo Gumbos 'Bo Gumbos Radio Show: Gris Gris Time'
Soul Flower Union 'Kamuy Iprima'





>My taste is all over, but I'm
>always willing to pick up new stuff and give something new a
>try.
>Love the 70s Japanese folk stuff especially Hosono Haruomi,
>Happy End,
>Arai Yumi,

Never really got exposed to most of that stuff, a loss I keep meaning to correct but never get around to.


>and some of the offbeat stuff like Asakawa Maki and
>some
>of disco-y stuff like Kimiko Kasai & Tatsuro Yamashita.

No idea!

>Even
>newer
>stuff like UA or Yura Yura Teikoku.

Minor brush with fame: after my JET tenure ended, I hitched around Hosnhu for a month or so, and once got a lift with a songwriter who'd just gotten his first big break - he'd written UA's debut single.


>Have you been back since you left?

Nope. Would love to take the kids back to the village for O-Bon some year but it's $$$ and they're still too young... Always natsukashii though.