Filming: Part I

Wow, this update is long overdue! I meant to create new posts several times, but I've been really busy with shooting and whatnot. I suppose it's better late than never. Anyhow, I'll be making 3 new entries tonight, one for each day of shooting.

On Friday, June 26th, I went out to shoot because I had finally managed to get people to go with me. Tony was M.I.A., so first I went with Shinya to the Shinjuku Historical Museum. When we got there we met up with Shiguchi-san, whom Professor Herrera had called about 2 weeks ago. However, he informed us that he was "not an expert" on Eastern Shinjuku, and he directed us towards the Shinjuku Ward Office. They in turn also said they were not that knowledgeable about Golden Gai and suggested we talk to Okuyama-san, the head of the Golden Gai Neighborhood Association. He wasn't there when we called, so I put Shinya in charge of contacting him for an interview/archival photos (he has as of yet not gotten in contact with him, and since the due date for the project is just around the corner, it's highly doubtful that we could interview him at this point anyway). We also got special permission to film/take pictures of the museum's exhibition, but it turned out to be rather paltry. When we called before, they said they had archival materials relating to Golden Gai, but I didn't really see any. I filmed some stuff anyway, but all in all it was a rather fruitless visit.

Later, at around 8, I met back up with Shinya and with two friends who were interested in going to Golden Gai because they had read about it in a guidebook. We headed over to the flamenco bar first, but when the prospect of getting an interview came up, we got a frosty reception. We then headed over to the Albatross per Professor Herrera's suggestion, but the guy we had hoped to interview wasn't in the bar at the time. We waited for him for a while, but I felt sort of bad for making my friends wait when it wasn't even their project, so we headed to another bar instead. We found a new bar called Aces, the front door of which displayed a sign that said "We love English and you!" We asked the bartender, Yamashita-san, for an interview, and he agreed! There were also several regulars who were very friendly - quite a relief. I conducted an interview with Yamashita-san in English, and then with Shinya's help I interviewed one of the regulars named Tanaka-san. I got some b-roll footage and photographs as well before heading back at 11:30 to catch the last train. Finally having accomplished substantial shooting really helped alieve the stress I had been feeling, and so lugging the equipment and my backpack up the very steep walk to my house at 1:15 didn't seem so bad as it had in the past.