Watch our trailer, it’s really cool. Promise.

We are happy to present the last in our series of timelapses in Tokyo– ironically the first we shot and produced. This shot began as an experiment to capture both the bustling frenzy of life in Tokyo, as well as our experience as solitary observers– outsiders with only enough resources to let the foot traffic of the city wash over us. What emerged were a set of three profound and visually stunning shorts that do more than any other single shots we captured during Season 2 to communicate our experiences in Japan.

I’ve been listening to Tettix for a couple of years now — since before he was Tettix, actually.  Probably since the first time I heard Technology Crisis I wanted to animate something to his music, likely with giant robots.  That never materialized for me and I always figured he’d say “no” when asked if a no-name could use his work uncompensated.

I think his music came up in conversation at the first ever Jet Set Zero production meeting back in Seattle and we all said “yeah, it would be rad to have that on the show,” then never did anything about it.  After our success with Space Captain in Season 1 though, I started seriously considering contacting him.  I thought it was going to be a difficult process of convincing him to let us use his music so when I got an immediate “sure, your show looks cool!” the next day I was left pretty confused with all my follow up arguments dangling in the wind.

Getting his music on the show has been great, but it was all seriously just a ploy to let me use Earth’s Assault on the Central A.I. in… something.  I didn’t care how or in what context, I needed to work with that song.  So thank you Judson, and thank you to all the other groups we’ve worked with over the past year. You’ve been a big part of making Jet Set Zero what it is today.

We’ll probably be using more of Tettix’s work in the future along with our ever growing roster of new musicians, so stay tuned and don’t forget to check out the artists’ pages!

Judson Cowan, better known as Tettix, graciously allowed us to use his music throughout our second season. Watch Episode 3: Things To Do in Tokyo When You’re Broke to hear how his song, “The Graves of Good Humans”, allowed us to communicate the surreal melancholy of our time in Tokyo.

When Jed first approached me about using my music for JetSetZero I didn’t fully appreciate the scope of what the guys were doing. I get a lot of fans wanting to use my music for this or that – and I’m always willing – but the majority of it thus far has been YouTube dabblers and first-year film majors. Needless to say: one season later I’m glad I signed on.

I’ve always strived to tell a story with my music. I usually insert subtle hints at what the story in my mind was but I mostly leave it up to the listener to interpret. I’m always curious to see different people’s interpretations too. It really gives me no end of joy. Some people apply my music in ways that hit pretty close to the mark. Others apply it in ways I never would have imagined. I cannot think of a more flattering application than JSZ’s adventures in Tokyo. A truly remarkable story. It’s a constantly evolving beast that I think has grown into something the guys never would have expected when they embarked but I’m sure all of you viewers – like myself – have been spellbound the whole way. And as much as I hate to end a sentence in a preposition, it’s a story I’m humbled to be part of.

I would never have the balls to sell my place and quit my job. To give up all the creature comforts I’ve amassed over the years. To fly thousands of miles from my home country without an inkling of what lay in store for me. All I can do is sit in the comfort of my studio, thousands of miles away, and type “absolutely!” whenever Jed asks to use a new song. I may have only contributed music, the other great bands who have been involved may only have done the same, the viewers may only have contributed their time, but we’re all cheering you on and we’re all thrilled to be along for the ride.

Ganbatte, fellas.

To learn more about Tettix, and for a full song archive, visit www.tettix.net. You can find “The Graves of Good Humans” on Technology Crisis II.

In episode 206 we saw what life was like on when you’re about as broke as is possible in Tokyo.  The experience of day to day life inside the cafe was just so surreal we had to go a bit deeper into it – and with that we present Internet Cafe Living.  A firsthand account of just what its like to try and make it in one of these places.

We hope you enjoy it. We know Matt sure did.

We interrupt our seoul protest coverage to elaborate a little more on the life of an internet cafe refugee in Tokyo…

The one glaring financial flaw in my little scheme was food.  At the guesthouse, I could enjoy our cheap diet of rice, eggs, bread, eggs, rice, and eggs.  In the field, sorta speak, I couldn’t cook, and the cheapest available food sat in the convenience stores and 100 Yen fast food menus.  But with what I was about to put my poor body through, I couldn’t justify living off corndogs, rice triangles, and McPork burgers, so I needed to get creative, which is to say, desperate.

Meal 1: MOCHINAKO – Mochi, Kinako, Banana (150 Yen)

Mochi balls were like a kind of dumpling made from rice instead of flour, and I dipped those into a bad of mixed fiber and Kinako, a super-cheap protein powder.  I splurged on the banana – I think it was the only piece of fruit I ate in 2 weeks.  This little meal had calories and some pathetic attempt at nutrition.  It was definitely one of my favorite meals…because they did get worse.

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I know I blogged about this a bit while it was happening, but I slowly descended into a sort of sleep-deprived mania madness, and I lost the ability to compose coherent posts about it.  So now I can explain in a little more depth and lucidity…

The Backstory: We were so broke in Tokyo, mid-April, 2.5 weeks away from departure, and one of our monthly leases was up.  Renewal would be $500 we didn’t have.  We were already living in poverty in one of the world’s most expensive cities, so why not go one extra step…Manga Kissas, Internet Cafes: Tokyo is peppered with internet/manga cafes, a cross between an internet cafe, a manga library, and a hotel that rented cubicles instead of rooms.  You can rent by the hour or stay overnight.  They seem to be used for 4 things, as far as I can tell. 

First, people who have missed the last train home and who don’t want to pay the monstrous cab fees to go home.  They’re either Japanese salarymen, stumbling out of a client dinner, or those damned denizens of Tokyo with money to enjoy the nightlife.  In the cafes, you could hear them throwing up or snoring drunkenly. 

Second, highschoolers who want some private time – they live with their parents and they can’t go to love hotels.  In the cafes, you could hear them…well, you could hear them.

Third, manga lovers and gamers. I was actually surprised that people paid money to go to a manga library and read manga.  What kind of manga people read or internet sites they browsed is anyone’s guess, although, in the cafes, they sometimes sounded like the highschoolers.

Fourth, the internet cafe refugees or “cyberhomeless” – people who can’t afford the outrageously expensive housing in Japan but who have enough money to afford a $10/night roof.  They rove from cafe to cafe, catching 7 hours of peace at night to recharge for a part-time job during the day.  It was in this fourth class that I fell.  So instead of paying $500 for another 19 days, I’d pay around $12/night for sleep in Tokyo’s central districts.  I’d save money on transit, because I wouldn’t need to travel out to exciting Kanagawa.  I’d also still be tutoring, so I’d be making a decent amount of money.  The cafes had free coffee and juice, and I’d enjoy internet speed we only wet-dreamed about back at our guesthouse.  I’d sleep in the cafes when I could and then just huddle up on one of the trains and sleep as it wound its way around the city.  So I packed my bags…

and set out with 4000Yen, about $45, to see where it would all take me…

And on the 8th Day, God realized that Jet Set Zero would crash-land in Tokyo, and that the days would be long, the food unhealthy, and guesthouse cold and lonely.  And so He sent a man to save them from despair, to teach them the ways of sushi and yaki soba, to watch wrestling with them late at night, ultimately to give them a reason to miss their trying times in Japan once they left.  That man’s name was Hiro.

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So Episode 5 and 6 are both currently in the works, but neither is ready for release today. There was an odd sequence of events occurring across the few weeks this footage was collected during, so it’s been difficult for me to sort it all out.

In the meantime check out our awesome new shirt designs, being printed as we speak!

Yes there were many strange things we encountered while trooping through Tokyo, and the odd signs were just the beginning.  Products and services that I had never imagined – and even still am baffled by.  Akihabara, ground zero for otaku – “super nerd” culture, oriented around manga and video games – definitely hit a climax. I wish so much I had seen someone sporting an Obama mask, screaming “yes we can,” standing next to someone in the mask on the right…Obama was heavily supported in Japan, and we found the paraphernalia to prove it!

Not all of the bizarre products we found were PG-rated though, and the girls in cute maid costumes handing out tissues on the sidewalk were just the beginning.

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