the blog is pretty much dead

but follow Hassle's life in Japan on my facebook page yall!

d.j. hassle is the name!

my new DJ room

Moved into the new house a couple of weeks ago, and my man Kane hooked me up big time, allowing me to use his Technics SL1200 MK3s! Superhyped and back in on the wheels o' steel!

club review: 'Bed' in Ikebukuro

damn it is dark up in dat biaatch. and my threads haven't smelt like ashtray this bad in a long while. The DJ is all the way in the back of the stage where they do live performances, kinda killing that DJ/crowd interaction. So much for the negative things about club 'Bed'. Well, it's called 'Bed'. Fuck a name tho.

It's about hiphop. Real fuckin' hiphop. DJs that mix dope beats in a proper manner. From Slum Village/Dilla joints to Das Efx. Alkaholiks. Biggie. Biggie. Big L. Show and AG. Biggie. My kinda thing. It's not some clean lookin' Roppongi style joint with that Vegas bottle service vibe. They deal with the real, and shut down the fakers.

I went there with ma girl Yoshiko AKA Yoppi-chan AKA Gori-chan. We had some gin tonics. I was the only western guy up in there, so random people start talking to you, peeps are really friendly in Japanland. So yeah, I found my club of choice; four outta five stars!

It was pretty crowded, the pics don't do the turn-out any justice, and darker than the inside of Darth Vader's helmet, but here's some snaps I made:

Japan got heat

I am getting into Jpeezy hiphop a little bit now. Bein a fan of drug-slingin-gun-clappin lyrics, the MCs don't come across that hard to me (yeah yeah, no homo), but Japanese producers got that heat! Feelin these joints right now.

hells yeah

So I am moving into my permanent place soon, where I can finally start DJ-ing again. I went cold turkey coming over here, from a couple of hours a day to none.

Since my set-up back in Holland is 220 volts and Japanland is 100 volts, I couldn't use my mixer over here. So I've been on the look-out for a good second-hand one for a while. No love, so I was already preparing to settle for a new one, setting me back at least 90.000 yen.

I hadn't considered gettin the same mixer I got back in Holland tho, since it's been outta production for a while, but it's an awesome machine. Yesterday I googled 中古DJM-707 (second hand), and one popped up at the DJ store in Shibuya where I go to a lot, and hang out with the staff a little. So yeah, 29.800 yen, that's about 220 euros off the top of my head. Excellent!!!! And of course, Japanese people take care of their stuff really well, so the thing looks and feel like new! I am so stoked.

YATTA!

ヨッピちゃん／ヘッス君

a day out with my man Keiji

I met Keiji last year, and he was kind enough to let me store some of my stuff at his place when I went back to Holland.

I hooked up with him again, he recently bought a big-ass Toyota truck, and he invited me to hang out and drive around a little bit to the outside of Tokyo, and do some fishing; one of his biggest hobbies. It was good to get out of the city for a day, Tokyo can get a little claustrophobic for a small-town-white-boy like myself.

Keiji-san's pride n joy



JP style reverse driving



We went to this big second hand store in suburbia, where they sell all kindsa shits.

I need to buy this robot sometimes



Firearm laws aren't that strict in Japan



Japan-steelo van tuning



Of course we didn't catch shit in the middle of winter




Big up to Keiji for letting me drive! first time behind the wheel in Japanland

would you get a haircut at this place?

reminds me of this scene from 'La Haine' (skip to 2:00)

Fuck a Super Mario warpzone

Doraemon's どこでもドア (doko demo door - door to where ever) is where it's at!





Doraemon and Hassle are fo the chidrun

Life is like a dice game

But I'm in it to win it.

Damn shame this one didn't make it on Illmatic.

yeah, on a daily basis

Fujimidai!

Is the area where I will be living for the next 2 months. Nice n quite area in the Nakano district, but still only 30 minutes away from the downtown craziness. There's lotsa small restaurants (way cheaper than the ones downtown), a big supermarket and a decent 100 yen shop, where you can get all the daily essentials (any broke-ass cracka's favorite shop).

Sakura Hotel is for the childruhn

so is Wu Tang

Back in Holland

well, sorta kinda. The embassy is technically Dutch soil. I had a meeting with Jan-Emile from the economic department. I have a business to run yo. JP = work hard, play harder.

This is the main office:



The ambassador's residence:



The Tokyo Tower is just a stone's throw away.



Oh yeah, I got the new Clipse album yesterday and I was rockin it on the train all day. It's funny how these albums grow on you. I hated Hell Hath No Fury at first, but it's pretty much a classic for me nowadays. The new one has some joints on it that made me head nod on the train.

Japanland: we back!

I flew into Narita Airport yesterday. It's good to be back. Imma mellow out the jetlag for a couple days, and then I'll be on a heavy grind. The blog is gonna pop off too.
'And I don't be around the way
Like I used to I don't have time these days
I keepin busy makin power moves
I don't fuck with them coward dudes' - Dilla

Sushi dinner with Yoppi-chan. Sumitomo Building, 53th floor. I can't believe how vast the TYO is...



Lost in Translation.



“The characters that I play are real. They are real so they have as much right to be portrayed as any other characters.” - Robert De Niro