Shinkōchō

The Chakra Shakers tour should have finished in Chiang Mai but a couple of messages to Joe's old friend Hiro resulted in a 10 show extension in Japan. A surreal, wasabi flavoured icing on the mango cake of our Asian tour. The delicious sour plum on top of the cake was that Vivienne (Joe's oldest band mate from High School) joined us as our drummer..... and the sweet tamarind ice cream was that Hiro orchestrated the entire tour. If that wasn't enough, the accompanying plum wine was meeting Joe and Vivienne's High School Exchange student friend, Hozumi for a Japanese immersion on our days off.
Hiro and Vivi met us at the airport and we discovered Hiro's foible, his inability to remember his car is parked. We are still travelling with the small bags that we packed at the beginning of December for sunny climates so we felt like we were in a walk in freezer as we circledthe car park. We went from 40°C to 0°C in a blink.
Dinner was the 1st of many from 7 eleven or 7i as it's known in Japan. There are many fascinating ready meals, noodle pots and packets of crazy things. Hiro lives in Kanagawa, a sweet town with a US naval base. He organised a 2 hour slot in a studio in a music shop which was our first introduction to the genuine, welcome extended to foreigners from older generations speaking incredibly polite English. So many things in Japan are tiny, cute and sweetly perfect. The people, the cafe's, the music venues, the meals, the snacks, the gardens. Imagine a carefully crafted model miniature kingdom blown up to not quite life-size. As an aside, travelling with 2 Americans brought up a subtle problem. 'Quite' in American English means very, while in English English it means a little... quite the opposite, oops, found an exception!
We had our 1st taste of Japanese food at a cheap sushi restaurant at the shopping mall. Having only previously had sushi at a Chinese buffet, I was impressed. I was delighted by the bright jingly sounds of ordering on the tablet at the table and the alert of the dishes arriving at our booth. In fact, Japan is an audible treat, it's like being at the Aldi check-out all the time. If you hadn't noticed why shopping at Aldi makes you smile, I guarantee you that it's the noise of the barcode scanner at the checkout.
Hiro welcomed us into his tiny apartment, barely big enough for 1 person. Yet he managed to find room to put down 2 futon mattresses for the 3 of us and then slept at his office or in his car. What a generous host. His apartment could be a rock'n'roll museum. A huge wall of vinyls. Handmade posters displayed on all the walls, including a Joe Mac 'Vegas Thunder' poster. It was a lesson in underground DIY rock'n'roll music for me. We spent a couple of delightful evenings huddled around the gas burner eating soba noodles, dried squid (smelt like old knickers on the heater), rice crackers, and wasabi, cabbage and apple salad (my contribution). We even made some s'mores. An indoor camping experience.
Our 1st show was at 'Rathole'. Wow, what an introduction to the Tokyo music scene. Our 1st lesson was that if soundcheck is at 4, then unless you arrive at 3, you are late! There is so much hanging around and kick off time for gigs is early, around 7pm. A 4 band bill means that it doesn't finish until 11pm. That explains why we've eaten so many 7i meals!
Hiro's band, 'Mule Team' kicked off the show. He brings the Americana energy and his female rhythm section of Nadcha and Etsko are so, so good, tight and adorable. Hajimi completes the line-up on lead guitar. These guys have become our besties, after we spent the weekend touring and rooming together. I'm singing along to their songs but confess that I don't understand the Japanese accented English lyrics.
The next band was 'Strange Moon' with some Japanese legends playing in a fun line-up. I thought that they rocked the joint but they were followed by 'Stompin' Riffraffs'. Wow, they were incredible. A male guitarist frontman, with female drummer, bass player and keyboard/theremin players wearing red flapper dresses and fishnets. The keyboard player was so alive, playing with her heels and elbows. What an uplifting experience watching those guys. It helped us turn up to 11!
We all piled into a van the next morning and Hiro drove us to Shizouka for the next show at 'Esquisitas'. Junk Wray shared the van with us and was a sweet, demure young man.... until he hit the stage like Elvis on his Come Back tour. We walked around the lake after soundcheck and found a beautiful zen temple. Very peaceful but not a welcoming spot to meditate or pray.
Our last stop of the weekend was at Osaka. A lovely metropolis with a small town feel. My favourite spot was a clothes shop called 'why are you here'.... perhaps they translated something like 'destiny'?
Our 1st quest was for pizza toast, the sort of thing that the older Japanese thought of as western food. We found a diner that fit the bill and were underwhelmed by pizza toast. Literally toast with ketchup, egg, bacon and cheese.
It was another incredible show featuring yet more female bass and drum players and unbeatable stage style. 'Bait Ones' even had their frontman in a gold suit.
We popped into a couple of teeny tiny restaurants after the show and ate some fried rice and some Japanese skewers. The spaces are so small that you leave smelling like a frying pan. That explains why all of the hotels have a bottle of febreeze in the room.
Japan is fascinating. I'll leave this entry here but there's so much more to tell you!Meer informatie