Canadian Embassy Rocks Japan

[Mulboyne]

"Sometimes the Government can be cool" said a woman from the Canadian Embassy at the bar. I went to this event last Saturday and it was excellent. Five bands playing for five hours for 5000yen. I couldn't work out how anyone was going to make money bringing over 30 band members and crew to play just two dates in Japan. It turns out the embassy underwrote the whole event. Credit to the Canadians.


Death From Above 1979
ChartAttack.com: Canada Wet

Japanese concert promoter Bongo...realized that Canadian music is becoming increasingly popular in their country...so [they] created their own Canadian music festival to showcase some of the best acts that the Great White North has to offer. Dubbed Canada Wet, the event saw Metric, Death From Above 1979, The Dears, Stars and Broken Social Scene spend this past weekend playing to packed clubs in Osaka and Tokyo...On an Embassy initiative, Nori Tsuzuki from Bongo attended CMW 2003...and began working with the Canadian Embassy on the shows last summer. Embassy Cultural Officer Kevin Canning feels that events like this boost the profile of Canada's music scene internationally. "The music scene in Canada is really coming of age and the world is taking notice," he said...more...

ChartAttack Live Review: Canadian Rockers Heat Up Japan

It seemed like a typical Saturday evening in the GTA. A large crowd of 20-something hipsters packed into a club to catch several fantastic sets of acclaimed music. Various Canadian music industry folks chatted throughout the venue. Heck, MuchMusic even showed up to film everything. The only thing different was that the GTA didn't wasn't the Greater Toronto Area, it was the Greater Tokyo Area...more...

[Ptyx]

Shit, i wanted to go, i forgot about it. How was Death from Above ?

[canman]

It seems the Canadian Gov't is great at using tax dollars for all sorts of fun and interesting things. Like sponsorships scandals and now underwriting a rock concert in Tokyo. I understand the necessity to educate the world's youth of our up and coming music scene, but when people are waiting months at a time for an MRI, I think the money is being misused.
FGL and Dimwit you are also Canadians, and other Canadians out there, how do you feel about the state of Canada's health care system. Sorry for changing the topic a bit, but I've wanted to discuss this for a while.
A little background info, my family is quite invovled in the medical field in Canada so maybe I have a different outlook than others.

[Mulboyne]

Shit, i wanted to go, i forgot about it. How was Death from Above ?

They got the crowd moving best. I think most of the Japanese in the crowd had come to see them. Stars were a bit indifferent and openers Metric haven't left an impression but the other three bands were great.

I think this represented a good use of taxpayers money. Governments have slowly realized the earning power of popular culture and Canadians will get it back from the band members when they pay income tax on increased earnings from music and merchandise sales in Japan.

[FG Lurker]

It seems the Canadian Gov't is great at using tax dollars for all sorts of fun and interesting things. Like sponsorships scandals and now underwriting a rock concert in Tokyo. I understand the necessity to educate the world's youth of our up and coming music scene, but when people are waiting months at a time for an MRI, I think the money is being misused.
FGL and Dimwit you are also Canadians, and other Canadians out there, how do you feel about the state of Canada's health care system. Sorry for changing the topic a bit, but I've wanted to discuss this for a while.
A little background info, my family is quite invovled in the medical field in Canada so maybe I have a different outlook than others.

I agree this seems like a pretty big waste of tax money. I wonder how people at home would react if they knew?

As for the state of Canada's health care system...I haven't lived in Canada since 1995, really not much since the end of 1992. So I don't really know what is happening with Canada's health care system. I guess even as an expat I should make more of an effort to keep up with what is going on though.

[FG Lurker]

[Samurai_Jerk]

[FG Lurker]

Man, don't even bring this crap up. I hate the fact that as an American I have to file taxes with Uncle Sam (and pay on anything over $80K, not that that's ever been an issue for me) even on foreign earned income. We are in good company though. It makes me feel solidarity with my Eritrean and Filipino brothers.

You could always become Canadian. Be careful though, if Uncle Sam thinks you have given up your citizenship to avoid taxes, the IRS has the right to tax you for 10 years AFTER you have given it up! Nice huh?

The day Canada decides to tax me while I am out of country is the day I start thinking seriously about a different passport...

[aquamarine]

Pardon me for saying so, but the Canadian embassy can suck my pink little balls. They made me fill out paper after paper after paper. Run up and down the street to get things signed, take photos, etc etc etc for an emergency passport just to get home, ONLY to tell me AFTER I was reamed by the consulate, that if I would have asked for my original passport (of which I had lost), they simply would have given it to me, but due to the fact that I filled out everything, they couldn't anymore.

I register with the consulate so that if I lose my passport, if I die, etc etc e tc, then they can get ahold of me and/or my family. Yea, I lost my passport in January (unbeknownst to me untill the day before I was supposed to go to Canada for a short vacation) and they knew where it was, they knew I had lost it, yet they never contacted me or mentioned ANY of this untill it was too late.

Canadian Embassy, fuck you.

[FG Lurker]

Pardon me for saying so, but the Canadian embassy can suck my pink little balls. [...]

Canadian Embassy, fuck you.

That bites all right... The Canadian overseas service really really sucks. And holy shit is it expensive!

[aquamarine]

No kidding. I had to pay (If I recall correctly) 20,000 yen to get my paperwork done THEN since I missed my bus to Narita from Tama Plaza, I had to take a fucking taxi (tack on another 25,000 yen).

[FG Lurker]

No kidding. I had to pay (If I recall correctly) 20,000 yen to get my paperwork done THEN since I missed my bus to Narita from Tama Plaza, I had to take a fucking taxi (tack on another 25,000 yen).

Ouch. Sounds like it would've been better to skip the trip. Hindsight though.

How is your new visa processing coming along?

[aquamarine]

Coming along slowly but surely. When I met with a couple of the other FG's, I was told that my company is no-longer ALLOWED to sponsor people for visa's. After checking with immigration (in english AND my J-Girlfriend and her mother inquired quite deeply), it was a load of hooey.

I'm expecting to be back in mid-July at the earliest.

Upside: I'll be home for my birthday
Downside: Everything I own is still in my room in Yokohama...
Upside: I like to think of it as "very very very expensive storage"

[FG Lurker]

Coming along slowly but surely. When I met with a couple of the other FG's, I was told that my company is no-longer ALLOWED to sponsor people for visa's. After checking with immigration (in english AND my J-Girlfriend and her mother inquired quite deeply), it was a load of hooey.

I'm expecting to be back in mid-July at the earliest.

Upside: I'll be home for my birthday
Downside: Everything I own is still in my room in Yokohama...
Upside: I like to think of it as "very very very expensive storage"

There are always lots of rumours flying around, especially about large English schools (not sure if that applies here or not). Most of it is BS of course, just like rumours everywhere. Stressful at times though.

Hope everything goes smoothly for you and you get back in country asap!

[canman]

I wonder if the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo can now make machine readable passports. When I was talking to a person working there, she said that they were only now able to make them. But I was reading on the Japan Today site about a Canadian who just renewed his and it was still the old style. It is getting to be a real pain not having a machine readable passport. But last month when I went to Guam, I was expecting some troubel, but not a problem, the immigration guy this big easy going dude just pecked in my number no problem.

[FG Lurker]

I wonder if the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo can now make machine readable passports.

I'm wondering the same thing about the consulate in Osaka. Might have to make a trip down the street to ask them sometime soon... My passport isn't up for renewal for another couple of years though.

I *really* wish that Canada would start issuing 10 year passports with a whole pile of pages in them. What is up with this 5 year bullshit!?

[canman]

I hear ya. That is pure shit. Most other countries have ten year passports. I guess they don't want to lose out on the extra cash they can charge

[FG Lurker]

I hear ya. That is pure shit. Most other countries have ten year passports. I guess they don't want to lose out on the extra cash they can charge

They used to notarize things for quite a small charge too. Now it's something obscene like 5,000yen.

Well, at least we aren't getting screwed with 14+% sales tax and crazy income tax rates. Sadly Japan seems set to follow in Canada's high-tax footsteps though.

[dimwit]

FGL and Dimwit you are also Canadians, and other Canadians out there, how do you feel about the state of Canada's health care system. Sorry for changing the topic a bit, but I've wanted to discuss this for a while.
A little background info, my family is quite invovled in the medical field in Canada so maybe I have a different outlook than others.

Me? I thought the Embassy Staffer comments about government being cool struck me as exactly the kind of thing I would expect them to say. Having spend more than a decade here I have laugh whenever I visit Canada. They are insane. I mean what other country would tolerate a scandal the magnitude of Adscam?

As for the embassy. God know what they are doing other than killing Japanese Princes throught overexertion.

I would say more but I have to get my passport renewed and get my ass moving on my son's citizenship.

[Mulboyne]

Not such a waste of money after all...

Guardian: Music mission bangs drum in Japan
Music industry executives are hoping to cash in on renewed global interest in British bands with a high-profile visit to Japan, the world's second-biggest market for music. The British Phonographic Industry group will work with UK Trade and Investment - a government body - and HMV to promote British artists. Many are already well known to serious music fans in Japan but are competing with local artists represented by powerful labels and talent agencies. Representatives of 30 British labels, including several independents, will take part in the trade mission, described by the BPI as the most serious bid to court Japanese record buyers for more than 10 years. While Canada, the United States, France and Finland actively promote their bands in Japan, British executives have traditionally taken a more laid-back approach. Nevertheless, the industry is waking up to the potential rewards of reaching out to Japanese consumers, particularly the key under-25 market.