Day 1
19th Saturday 7-30 fly into Tokyo Haneda
It's good to be here after a long but smooth flight. I'm looking forward to seeing Naoto my friend.
Coach ride into Shinjuku, it's pouring with rain, but not cold.
Walking to find vintage guitar shop, & getting soaked whilst looking for somewhere to dump the luggage.
All the lockers are too small....arrgghh .
Manage to find one to fit my case in just around the corner from the guitar shop.
So it's a coffee or two & a dry off....
Okay, so like I've just come into this guitar basement shop & there's like the best of the best that's ever been made by Fender, Gibson etc etc.
54 les paul juniors, 57 Strats, wall upon wall of the finest vintage guitars ever made.
It's Guitar Porn for the horniest boy (or girl for that matter)
So it's lunch & ramen shop, choose your meal, stick your 650yen in & vend your ticket, hand it to the nice lady & voila spicy ramen within 5 minutes.
Why can't it always be this easy.????
A coach journey awaits, as we are off to Shizuoka for the rest of the day.
Great views out to the sea, & my mind drifts to the Tsunami of five years ago.
Jet lag might be kicking in, so I'll sign off, safe in the knowledge we are off to the sushi highway this evening for dinner.........nice.
19th Saturday 7-30 fly into Tokyo Haneda
It's good to be here after a long but smooth flight. I'm looking forward to seeing Naoto my friend.
Coach ride into Shinjuku, it's pouring with rain, but not cold.
Walking to find vintage guitar shop, & getting soaked whilst looking for somewhere to dump the luggage.
All the lockers are too small....arrgghh .
Manage to find one to fit my case in just around the corner from the guitar shop.
So it's a coffee or two & a dry off....
Okay, so like I've just come into this guitar basement shop & there's like the best of the best that's ever been made by Fender, Gibson etc etc.
54 les paul juniors, 57 Strats, wall upon wall of the finest vintage guitars ever made.
It's Guitar Porn for the horniest boy (or girl for that matter)
So it's lunch & ramen shop, choose your meal, stick your 650yen in & vend your ticket, hand it to the nice lady & voila spicy ramen within 5 minutes.
Why can't it always be this easy.????
A coach journey awaits, as we are off to Shizuoka for the rest of the day.
Great views out to the sea, & my mind drifts to the Tsunami of five years ago.
Jet lag might be kicking in, so I'll sign off, safe in the knowledge we are off to the sushi highway this evening for dinner.........nice.
"O-Kaeri Nasai"
Sunday 20th Day2
Up at 4am for the car drive back to Tokyo for a four hour rehearsal at "Studio Penta" in Shinjuku (8 til 12-30.) though awake at 3am for some crazy reason
I don't know if I'm tired or fully awake, somewhere in the in-between I think.
Naoto's driving so I hope he's awake!!!!!!!!!
Time is starting to disappear in a fog, where I've no clue what part of the day we are on, suffice to say, it's dark.
Just for the record.......Fucking raining again
Another day wearing the mask as I forgot to mention yesterday, we have a serious influenza epidemic here, & the Singer (Me), isn't allowed to catch it, or we are all screwed.
Looking forward to seeing Tono San again (drummer) & Ken San (bass player), though a bit nervous, time to up my game amongst these experienced musicians.
"Step up Jonesy"
Okay, it's 12-45 & that was remarkable, these boys (Tono & Ken San )have been learning the songs for the last month or two, & I walk in & it's as if they've been playing these songs all their life
"Bloody Hell" !!!!!!!!
Although a cautionary note, as I nearly made a schoolboy error.
We all warmed up with a pretty bluesy ten minute jam & I went for it big time with the pretty sweet groove we dropped straight into.
And in my eagerness to impress, I nearly shot the voice to pieces in the first ten minutes of a four hour rehearsal . "C'mon Jonesy you dick". Have you learned nothing?????
Studio session over & I walk out into the bright Tokyo sunshine, & a blast of fresh air.
Back in Shizuoka & nap time to think about the preceding hours work
So, although this is my fourth time in Japan, lonely late night walks are where you really re-connect with a country,
It's dark, it's 10pm & it's time to observe the stillness. Though this has given me my most amusing moment of the day.
I popped into a corner 7/11 store & bought a beer, & the sweet young girl made me click this multimedia screen verifying that I was over 18, as she wasn't able to.
The last time this happened was in The Coopers Arms in Mansfield Woodhouse, in like 1983. You do the math
I smiled sweetly to the girl & chuckled.
An afterthought as I sit in my bedroom, (pic to follow) I hope I'm not boring the pants off people, you may want to click back to FB & let me know I'm not boring the pants off you
"Oyasumi"
Monday 21st Day 3
Okay, so like it was supposed to be a rest day today, & I'd planned on giving you all some kinda words of WISDOM & Musical Endeavour
But all I'm gonna be able to muster are "WHISKEY & WASTED"
"For good times, make it Suntory times"
So. anyone who's see the film Lost In Translation with Bill Murray will know exactly what I mean.
So anyway, I met an amazing famous japanese artist last night, Chuuta San, check this guy out on Facebook Naoyuki Nakano, he is a spray painter, but his attention to detail will blow your mind, it is photographic detail.
So he is my new best friend & he kindly let me crash in his studio last night.
Oh God.......last night, so I'm not gonna go into too much detail , but we ended up in the bar of the leader of The United Red Army.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Red_Army
Apparently he's killed like twenty people , & because I didn't have any desire to be number 21, I was forced to sing the Beatles "if I needed someone" & The Sex Pistols "God save the Queen", suffice to say, I duly obliged.
So I'm not able to type anymore as my head hurts, in fact everything hurts.
It's 10-15am, I'm going to bed, I don't know when I'll wake up, or if I'll wake up, but hoping to catch you all on the Flip Side.
Stay sweet & free xxxx
Okay, so like it was supposed to be a rest day today, & I'd planned on giving you all some kinda words of WISDOM & Musical Endeavour
But all I'm gonna be able to muster are "WHISKEY & WASTED"
"For good times, make it Suntory times"
So. anyone who's see the film Lost In Translation with Bill Murray will know exactly what I mean.
So anyway, I met an amazing famous japanese artist last night, Chuuta San, check this guy out on Facebook Naoyuki Nakano, he is a spray painter, but his attention to detail will blow your mind, it is photographic detail.
So he is my new best friend & he kindly let me crash in his studio last night.
Oh God.......last night, so I'm not gonna go into too much detail , but we ended up in the bar of the leader of The United Red Army.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Red_Army
Apparently he's killed like twenty people , & because I didn't have any desire to be number 21, I was forced to sing the Beatles "if I needed someone" & The Sex Pistols "God save the Queen", suffice to say, I duly obliged.
So I'm not able to type anymore as my head hurts, in fact everything hurts.
It's 10-15am, I'm going to bed, I don't know when I'll wake up, or if I'll wake up, but hoping to catch you all on the Flip Side.
Stay sweet & free xxxx
