[Oslogal]

Hello, I'm new here. Just discovered this great site this morning and haven't done a bit of work since.

Anyway, I am going to Tokyo in March for about 3 weeks (approx. March 10-30) and hope I can get some advice.

I have lived in Japan (Tokyo and Chiba) for a total of three years but it was many years ago. I also worked for a Japanese company outside of Japan and therefore took many business trips to Japan. But I haven't been to Japan for over 10 years now.

I am taking a trip by myself just to visit old friends, reacquaint myself with the country in general, and to brush up my Japanese (I used to be fluent, even taught Japanese at Uni level)-- I am very rusty after not using it at all for 10 years. (I live in Norway). Still, I can get by in Japanese for all practical purposes.

I'd like advice on the following:

1) where to stay in Tokyo area --- somewhere decent but inexpensive-- does that exist?

2) Possibility of taking a short-term course (2-3 weeks) in anything like Japanese crafts or traditions-- I can do the search work if someone would just point me in the right direction...

3) How to find out what is happening on the music scene (pop, rock, jazz, experimental)

Any and all advice is very much appreciated!

-OG