Rhythm Method: GO!GO!7188 "ジェットにんじん"

It's a sly bit of an inside joke for me here, it's not naughty by nature, but how shall I explain it, I'll take you frame by frame it, as to not leave anyone out of the loop. Upon arriving in Japan, I had to make up for a lost day of running due to (time) travel and jetlag. First thing the morning after I landed, I donned an orange (pretty much my favorite color) running shirt and headed out the door for an 8 mile run with Yuko following me on her bike, to ensure I didn't get lost in my new neighborhood. Before I left the house though, it was brought to my attention by both Yuko & her mom, that I looked like a carrot. Verifying their accusation in the mirror, I concurred, whereupon I dubbed myself the にんじん外人 (Ninjin Gaijin), or, the Carrot Foreigner.

にんじん外人 (Ninjin Gaijin)
The Carrot Foreigner
in Rocky stance

Continue on, for more carrot shenanigans...

Along the Kyuu-Edogawa river
(Right across the water from Tokyo Disney)

The name stuck as if I had crazy-glued it to my forehead, and it became a self-fulfilling title when I wore my green long sleeve compression shirt underneath the orange T-shirt. Or, when I embraced it completely by replacing my head with a plush carrot at the overcrowded Ikea in Funabashi.  

Carrot Foreigner, for real!

So, I was compiling songs on my ipod nano for a Japanese ONLY playlist, in order to benefit from full language immersion whenever possible, and along comes GO!GO!7188 to surprise me with a song about a Jet Carrot; how serendipitous! This dual female fronted band has been cranking out punk-drenched borderline surf rock gems since 1998, and show no signs of stopping anytime soon. I had never seen the video for ジェットにんじん (jetto ninjin = Jet Carrot) before, but now I'm certainly glad that I have. It's amusing in mischievous way, and as a にんじん外人 (Ninjin Gaijin), I'm personally pretty pleased with how carrots are put to use amid the zaniness.