Day 20

Friday January 30

You know, I’ve just come in here and have absolutely no idea what happened to Day 19. There were no notes, nothing. So no. I didn’t forget to put it in. I just totally forgot to even write about it, and at some unknown point in the recent past, I completely forgot about what we did that day. I’ve also just done what I often do when I’m not sure what happened on a given day and gone and had a look at my timeline on maps. This serves a similar function to going through any kind of Whatsapps for a certain day. But no. Nothing. We really did probably just stay in all day and then have an uneventful wander out in the local area later on. 

Back to today, and it just so happens that today is men’s semi final day of the Australian Open. To avoid a repeat of my comically aborted attempt to go out and see the tennis we do some research this time and find one bar that is showing it. Footnik in Ebisu, Shibuya. Advertising itself as a British football and sport pub, this one really is the real deal as opposed to the shallow shadow of a pale imitation that I found on my odyssey. The game is somewhat underway when we have the idea to check this out so we quickly come up with a plan. We’re going to head over there right now, and Matt can come and meet us when he’s able to get away from his own work. Then we’ll head off to a yakiniku place where Matt can experience Japan with someone who really knows their way around the language and the menus.

Into Footnik and yes, it really does do what we were hoping a place like this would do. They have a bunch of TVs and also just about any sports channel you can get and yes, of course they have the tennis. Not only that, they have a wonderful selection of beers we’ve not seen anywhere else in Japan, and they’ve augmented this with their very own creation. A half and half guinness. Yep. the bottom half lager and the top half guinness. And the two halves remain separate throughout. Although there really is a unique taste and texture sensation when you get to the mid section and they’ve very mildly mixed.

While ordering at the bar we get chatting to an English guy who soon introduces himself to us as Ben. Discovering we’re here to play and basically get to know venues, he suggests we check out a place called What The Dickens just down the road. He’s a regular in there and adds that the place is run by a Scottish guy called John. He’s had the place around 20 years apparently. And while we’re here we discover that although Ben himself has been in Tokyo for a good 15 years or so, he’s actually from Kentish Town. Oh wow. Yep. Lived about five minutes walk away from The Carrol, where I lived for six years, and where me and Maja started before heading off for the Irish adventure at the beginning of all this.

Matt joins us when we’re about an hour or so into a thrilling Zverev Alcaraz match, with us having missed the first hour ourselves. So we’re now deep into it. We all settle down for a while, not least because he simply cannot leave without at least trying the half and half. But the match looks like it’s going to go on quite a long time so we decide to be grateful we caught at least some of the tennis and head out. The next day we will discover it is the longest ever AO semi final at just under five and a half hours. So yeah, we really did have a yakiniku date to get to and staying for the conclusion would have totally banjaxed that.

Yakiniku is as spectacular as ever and, being a particularly posh one is a great introduction to Matt of the concept. This done, it’s time to go check out What The Dickens. I had come across the name in my Japanese venue research but hadn’t approached them as it struck me as a blues bar so not appropriate to us. But on seeing the place, we see that it really could be. Yes there is a blues band playing but there is very much a general rock’n’roll vibe and we fit right into that. It’s also very busy – well it is a Friday night – so we don’t get much more than a quick hello with John and a lady called Hiromi who Ben told us is in charge of the music here. Yes, we will definitely try to get ourselves in here again before we leave and have a bit of a better chat and introduction with them. All that’s left now is to get right into the vibe of the place and enjoy the wonderful band they have on tonight.

Day 21

Saturday January 31

We’ve made plans to meet Matt today in a place called Harajiki, one of the special areas. Something of a fashion mecca and with a quite wonderful central street that’s home to all kinds of sweet and cake and ice cream shops. And, as we discover, the long, longer, longest spirally fried potato kebab type things. Yep. The Longest Potato. And yep, we have to try it and it really is quite the experience. Like a superlong chip, but presented in a superlong spiral.

But before all this we’ve decided, with our first full length show coming up tomorrow, to book another karaoke box for a rehearsal. We could probably have rehearsed in our wonderful new apartment but we’re not yet aware that not only is it fantastically sound insulated, but we also have hardly any neighbours. But let’s continue with the karaoke box concept anyway. But oh wow. This one really is a box. Tiny tiny tiny. Like rehearsing in a cupboard with a TV screen in it. But in here today Maja tells me that people rent these for so many other reasons than karaoke, basically because of the cardboard walls and the preference in apartment living for virtual silence. So if people want to have a hang out, maybe do some work, or even sleep for a while, this is where they come. It’s a whole social structure in here, for which we’ve decided our thing is to use them for rehearsal.

This one is very nearby home, so afterwards, guitar gets returned and then it’s off to Harajiki and a date with a very long potato. And a wander round with Matt when he comes to join us. Among all this as we just take in the sights and sounds of the place, we come across a totally new concept for us. Yes we’re aware of animal cafes. Cat cafes and the like where loads of cats roam around. But what we find now isn’t a cafe so much, as just a whole animal hang out. The animals in question – miniature pigs. Yep. Pigs. Maja is completely overtaken by the possibility and we have to go in. All three of us. The whole bright lit and coloured room is its own advert from the street as people crowd round the window and take pictures of the people and the pigs inside. And soon it’s going to be our turn. In we go and take our place on the floor, leaning against the wall and with blankets individually around us, although as we will learn, these can slip all the way down and become all but nothing. So it’s you, your clothes and however many miniature pigs have decided to come and make you their cosy place. When I say miniature, I mean that the smallest pigs are the size of a shoe. And the biggest, not quite even quite being as big as a decent sized housecat – Maine Coons not included in this simile.

Day 22

Sunday February 1

OK. Here we go. We’ve done our thing at a few bars and played a couple of open mics. Now we’re ready to take on our first full show in Tokyo which will be at Music Bar Melodia. This is to be a five band bill with us on third in a five band lineup. It’s a 13th anniversary show for the venue and will be headlined by a solo act going by the name of King. Coming on dressed as an English king, this guy had quite a moment in the sun of Japanese fame, winning a Japanese Grammy or two along the way and being courted by LA producers and record companies. This was a decade or so back, but recent enough that when we mention this to some older guys in a bar a week or so later, they are hugely impressed that we played with him. He’s a bit more than a one hit wonder, but his (top)shelf life was by design limited, but groundbreaking in its era. He took famous rock and pop songs, translated them into Japanese, then brought them to Japanese audiences as a one man rock cover band. But not just translating them to Japanese. He adapted them lyrically to make them totally work for Japanese audiences where direct translations wouldn’t have done. He basically made his own market and cornered it. But with that market being somewhat open, cos it was in the end just covers and not his own material, I guess all the other corners remained available and got taken by everyone else.

But that still doesn’t take away from the fact that he got there first, remains the original, and retains the cachet of chart fame and success and Grammy and LA glitter. So it’s with some joy that we see him bouncing along approvingly at our soundcheck, out of his royal regalia and just looking like a regular punter. 

It’s also today that I get a look at what it can be like playing a Japanese bill as the venue owner pulls everyone in after soundcheck and we all stand in a circle, introduce ourselves and all bow to each other in a mark of respect and support. Even more, one of the organisers has gone out of their way for us and invited his Swedish girlfriend – and Japanese speaker – along to be introduced to Maja and to make Maja feel a little more at home. This girlfriend, who of course also speaks English, also happens to be called Maja and is a great support for us in this new environment. We are even more delighted when, also here to support us come our friends we met at Amaty. The Yokohama girls Susy and Tama. How great it is to see them walk through the door, and then to have them front and centre when we take to the stage.

Soundcheck has been great, and showtime is a fantastic success. Afterwards, while everyone was perfectly polite and proper to us beforehand, there now feels like an extra level of respect and acceptance as we’re welcomed as peers having proved ourselves in our first real Japanese arena. First Mexico, now Japan. We’re proving, maybe only to ourselves at this stage, that these songs work internationally to people who, in many cases, don’t speak any English at all. It’s also worth mentioning here that many of these songs have also been played across Europe. 

So while we do think we have really good lyrics with interesting and funny subject matters, hopefully with a hint of cleverness and intelligence in there as well, even when you take all that away, something about the songs and their rhythms, melodies and dynamics, and of course our actual performance, is proving to be universal. And I will also add here that this is among audiences, all over the world at this stage, who have never heard us or any of our songs before.

With our bit done we’re able to rejoin and become part of the audience, and yes, the highlight is indeed the star of the show, King. A quite wonderfully entertaining performance even though I can understand absolutely nothing of what he sings. He performs with a (really quite loud) guitar amp blasting from directly behind him, and backing tracks. And just a really great fun energy, not least on the cover of Van Halen’s jump, for which he Japaneses up by getting us all to ‘Pyong!’ instead. And within all that fun, he proves to be a quite wonderful technical guitarist, nailing all the rock solos, including the amazing genre defining solo of Jump. Or Pyong as we will surely now forever know it.

It’s also lovely that when we’re done here and all packed up, our Yokohama friends are still around so we head out into the relatively young night to go and have dinner with them.

Day 23

Monday February 2

It’s with some excitement that we receive the venue’s video of our show last night and I download it and prepare for first listen. Oh no. It’s absolutely terrible. Not our performance or the audience or anything. But through the sound desk, something very strange has happened to our guitar. While we didn’t notice this in the room sound at all, the overwhelming thing we can hear is just a totally dominant low string, like it’s chugging away with barely any chordal playing evident at all. Oh no. This is totally unusable as any kind of representative video of us playing in Japan. We will learn later that this is not actually the fault of any soundman or anyone else, which is what we’re thinking right now. But we’ll get to that.