Kōraku

Breakfast has turned into a lovely Zen moment for the last 2 days. Miso soup, veggies, small bowls of braised pork belly, something they are calling Spinach dip, but it’s amazing dark green with stalks, seaweed, salad, rice with eel and clams (I like eel, clams, not so much). And again , as I was admiring the portioned plate, I realized I had again forgotten my phone to take a picture. Maybe that’s the universe keeping it for just me.
I have spoken very little on this trip so far. That’s easy when you can’t say more than a few words in the local language. It’s nice, I told my coworkers it was what I was looking forward to on this trip. Not having to talk unless I wanted to. That’s why I love this medium, I get to journal but get to be quiet at the same time.
I’m going to repack today, as my big bags need to be downstairs by 11 am for Yamato transport to come and pick them up and ship them to my hotel in Osaka. I’ll be leaving tomorrow and taking my 1st Shinkansen (bullet train). You can buy a bento box to take with you and eat on the train. I’m excited about that too. I have to reserve the seat on the train, so I will go to a train station and do that today too.
So funny story. I brought a couple of T-shirts I purchased on line. One of them said that it says “ColdPlay” in Japanese. I was going to wear it last night , but I wanted to make sure that it REALLY said Coldplay. I’d be horrified if I wore it and it said something in gibberish. So I tried to use google translate by taking a picture of it. And it didn’t compute. So then I looked up what Coldplay translated looked like, and it didn’t exactly match my shirt. So heck no, I’m not wearing it.
It’s been about 80 degrees here in the day. I’m also checking the weather for Taiwan and it’s hot and humid there. I bought a fan that goes around your neck to wear to the concerts. I have General admission floor tickets for both nights there. So I can move around, go pee, get something to drink. Assigned seats are ok, but last night, I felt that once you are there you don’t go anywhere. And I always seem to get a bit of vertigo in that kind of seating. Once could pitch forward pretty easily it seems.
Another hurdle for me today. I have to ship my luggage using the Japanese tried and true way instead of lugging it around with me. So I packed both suitcases up and took them down and the hotel staff were very kind and filled it out for me. As I was waiting, I was watching them. Watching them deal with their guests. All different ages, nationalities and levels of neediness. I’ve been watching all of the people I’ve come across who are dealing with the public. It’s been a good introspective excercise.
When I took down the suitcases, I also took the shirt I had questioned the translation. I asked one woman if she could translate it for me. She said it wasn’t bad, she just didn’t understand it. “What is a Radio Head?” Lol, I had gotten a shirt that said Radiohead (great band btw) in Japanese. Because that’s pretty cool. So I was glad that I worked up the courage to ask.
I had lunch in a small little restaurant. Once they brought it, I realized it was way too much food, but I was proud for doing it, and doing it scared.
The trip over to the Tokyo dome was easy and I got looking for my seat way earlier then last night. I had MUCH better seats, certainly not by choice, as I picked one that was a good price and didn’t worry about where they were.
I got to caught the entire set of the opening act, they were really good, and the crowd loved them.
This 2nd night of Coldplay was a much better show than last night. I left there last night feeling underwhelmed, and just couldn’t shake the feeling that they seemed off.
And boy, tonight certainly made up for it. They played a better set list, the crowd seemed more relaxed and responsive, and the people around me stood up the whole time. All in all making it a really good show.
So tomorrow I take off for Osaka. I have a 1pm train. And I’m really excited.Read more