Month: February 2026

Day 24

Tuesday Feb 3

We’ve been given a quite wonderful Ruby Room slot of 10:15. But we still arrive quite a bit earlier than that to be a bit sociable and to support a good few of the acts. And while we were warmly welcomed last week, that increases even more this week and we now feel almost like real regulars. As for the night itself, it just runs smoothly with no-one seeming to run it. Everyone has their time to go on and everyone just does it. The soundman is of great assistance in all this, but he’s certainly not chasing anyone or making any kind of announcement. Everyone’s just respecting the time they’re on, and the two songs they have. And when they’ve done their two songs, rather than just cram the next act straight on, the next act is just able to casually get ready, soundcheck, and then begin their performance at their allotted time.

Our two songs tonight – Talk About The Weather and Where Do We Go. 

Day 25

Wednesday February 4

We’re back in Harajiki today because the park was closed by the time we got there on Saturday and we weren’t able to get in and see the temple. Mission accomplished today. Then Maja just has to get back in for another session with the cutest pigs she’s ever encountered. This time there’s just us in there so we get double covered in tiny pigs. And of course we also have to do the longest potatoes ever again. After this, we’re kinda in the vicinity of What The Dickens so we decide to go there for an early evening visit when we think the place will be calmer and we’ll be able to introduce ourselves a bit more. This all turns out to be the case and we have a lovely little chat with both Hiromi, the music booker, and John, the Scottish owner who’s had this place for around a couple of decades. A great addition to all this is that John has remembered both our names from that chaotic Friday night we were in here.

We tell Hiromi we would like to talk about playing here sometime and she says, ‘Yes, but you’re tourists and we only book two months in advance.’ We then assure her that’s no problem as we intend to be back here again and again and again. Well that changes things for her and she says they would love to have us if we give them enough notice for when we know we’ll be around next. With that it’s job done. So, pint in here and then we’re off to find another local onsen place and then it’s dinner in the restaurant there.

Day 26

Thursday February 5

A quiet enough day today. As I said at the beginning, Maja is still continuing to work through all this so quiet days are going to happen at times. 

But there is one little cool thing to say that I see for the first time today when out at a local store, the 7/11 and yes, they do have stores here called seven elevens. At the counter is a total nod to the reality that few Japanese people speak another language and few non-Japanese people speak Japanese. This comes in the form of pictures for common things that might be asked for. They do lots of food at these places, so there are pictures of all cutlery including chopsticks. Oh, the pictures come with English captions too. And there’s a picture of a bag in case you want to ask for one of those. Then there’s something to point at if you want your food microwaved, or if you want to ask for a coffee. Then on the side, if necessary, you can point to yes or no. All quite brilliant.

Day 27

Friday February 6

Gig day again today. Not only that but it’s in Shimokitazawa which, according to Maja, is the Camden Town of Tokyo. On the way there we have to change at Shibuya Station which means having the chance to look down on the whole iconic Shibuya crossroads. What a wonderful vantage point from which to see the whole organised chaos thing unfold.

Then, when we get to Shimokitazawa, very quickly we’re like, oh yes. This is a twin for Camden Town alright. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many music venues in one place ever ever. If anything, it’s just possible that it’s the other way round and Camden Town is some kind of small version of this place. It’s time to say it. The size and scope of Tokyo is just totally bending my mind. And now here’s this incredible city. By the time we’re done today we’ve come to the thought that we should probably stay in or near this place next time we’re here. Online we’ve been looking all round Tokyo for venues, but seriously, with an environment as concentrated as this, this could really be all you need. And it clearly is the musical epicentre of Tokyo, and quite possibly therefore of Japan. It really does have the feel of get yourself known here and that could be enough to have got yourself known in Tokyo.

Every street we look down seems more spectacular than the last, and that’s before you factor in the vertical high street concept. What that means is that some buildings contain multiple music venues just on their own. By the time we get to the place we’re playing, we see that this building has two other live venues in it apart from the one we’re to be playing in. Oh, and this venue is the one that’s been getting people saying, oh wow, whenever we’ve mentioned that we’re playing here. So in a city of possibly thousands of venues, to be one of the ones that’s universally known without being physically enormous really is quite significant.

It’s called Rokudemonai Yoru. Rokudemonai basically translates as ‘Nothing but rock.’ And we’re here today as special guests. On essentially a punk bill.

Yep. We’re managing to get the kinds of shows in Japan and Mexico we haven’t yet been able to break through to getting on in London. That is that we see ourselves as an act that should be on the heavier bills, or bills of bands. We really think that in London we have something of an identity issue. We’re far too heavy for singer/songwriter or acoustic only bills. But yet when it comes to looking at playing with bands, we think that people look at us and think, but they’re a one guitar acoustic act. They don’t belong with us. In Mexico and now Japan, there’s no messing. The Diaries. Yep. Get them in with the rock, punk and metal guys.

So, into this venue, on the third floor of a six storey building, and the first thing you enter is a really cool bar and we immediately meet our contact, Kota, who couldn’t be more welcoming. To the left of the main entrance is another door leaving the bar, and this is to the actual venue. It really isn’t that big, but it is spectacularly appointed. The stage is huge and takes up about half the space in here. Then at the back of the dance floor is the raised sounddesk area overlooking everything. Our soundcheck is in about half an hour so we’re able to get ourselves sorted, which means going to the green room place. Which is outside the bar and up on the sixth floor. There we find one of the other bands chilling, and see that there’s a TV in here which shows what’s going on in the venue. What a great way of monitoring activity to know when you’re needed, or to know that someone is now on that you want to see.

When our time comes to soundcheck, we have a very big, very nasty surprise. Remember that gig we had recorded I wrote about where I said that all that had come across in the recording was the low E string of the guitar? That’s D string for us but you know what I mean. Well, the guitar has developed some kind of fault in the pick-ups meaning that that string rings out far louder than all the others. Oh dear. Moving forwards I will say here that subsequently I check out our earlier videos and see that it has been getting progressively worse but was more or less OK at the beginning, but still there now I know what to listen for. It didn’t show itself in the shop, and may not have even been there then. But it is here loud and clear now and this guitar is absolutely unplayable. We need to do something. Luckily we’re in Japan’s main music district and we’re told there’s a music shop just a few minutes’ walk away. By now our soundcheck has taken a long time because we were trying all kinds of different sounds, assuming it was some soundboard configuration issue and not the guitar itself. But we eventually discover it is actually the guitar itself. Our idea right now is to see if we can find a clip-on pickup for an acoustic guitar. We get to the shop, which really is just a little way down the road, and no, they don’t have one. So what to do now? Unless we accept the problem and somehow just limp through the gig, while knowing that no footage will be usable, the only solution is to buy another guitar here and now. We’re in a large second hand guitar shop, so that is possible, but what about budget? We can’t go crazy here. Well, what happens is crazy. First, we find an electro acoustic guitar for just over £100. In doing this, we’re just looking down the aisles, identifying all the electro acoustics then just looking at the price tags. Only two are below £200 and this is the cheaper of those two. Then we see that it’s actually an Ovation. Oh. Isn’t this kind of a semi expensive brand? Yep.It’s around £140 but comes with a hard case. We’re estimating the hard case as being worth between £20 and £30, so that puts the guitar at a little over £100.  And further research later shows that the guitar we’ve bought often goes for around £600. And that’s the second hand price as this is a discontinued model. 

When we walk back into the venue we’re met with disbelieving yet very respectful all round hilarity that we’ve had guitar soundcheck issues and have just gone out and bought another guitar. And the sound engineer very generously lets us back onto the stage to soundcheck again. Oh wow. I just love this thing. It feels fantastic to play and the sound is just right there. As soon as we begin soundchecking we’re like, yes that’s it. Not just the fact that our chords now sound like chords again, but that the guitar itself really sounds and plays fantastic. We have a new contender in town. This guitar is coming back with us to London and will become our new prime gigging guitar. 

On our way out to the music shop we passed a venue called Music Island O. I know this venue very well from what I was looking at and emailing from London. We just have to go in and say hello. What we find is a really cool, decent sized sophisticated looking blues rock venue. And we’re able to meet the main guy – or at least Maja does as she’s the one who does the Japanese thing. He’s very happy that we’ve dropped by and says he’s very sorry but he just never saw the email. But now he’s met us and seen we’re here and playing on the scene, he would very much welcome us to get in touch when we’re making plans for our next visit. And just like that we have another venue for our next Tokyo hit. You can email, email, email and social media, social media, social media. But there still is no absolute substitute for just being on the ground and getting out and meeting people. I’m convinced and will remain convinced that if we hadn’t come in here today, or at some point in a future visit, nothing would ever have happened for us here. But now it’s totally on our available venues list.

Now we’re back on track, and with a new venue in pocket no less as well. We’re on second to last so we just hang out and enjoy all the other bands before us. Then our turn comes and we’d said we would very much stay on the stage for this one. But when Sand Bang comes out with all its atmospherics, we reach out more and more from the edge of the stage and it just becomes the most natural thing in the world for Maja to slip off the edge and seductively and theatrically prowl the audience. Although well attended, there’s still plenty of room to move around down there and Maja totally makes it her own and, well, I just have to also drop down there and join her. The people are just enthralled and really don’t quite know how to act with us dropping in among them like this. But it’s clear they are very much into it. Yes. If there was one place we really had to hit and make an impression for this trip to Tokyo, this was it. And we really are. So much so that when we get towards the end and see we only have time for two more songs, the owner Kota calls out, ‘No. Play them all.’ And the audience calls out their approval. There you go. Something of a first. A pre-encore. A prencore? That word isn’t going to catch on is it? But we very happily claim our prencore. Come on. It had to be used at least once.

At the end, Maja tells the audience we will be back in Tokyo and will continue to be so, and this gets a huge cheer. And then she tells them that today happens to be my birthday. Another lovely cheer and then we’re clapped all the way across the dancefloor and out into the bar. It is a very cool hangout bar, and that’s what we do now as we have some time to decompress before the last band takes to the stage. It’s only now that I discover that in this band is our host for the evening, Kota. We’re special guests to the actual band of Rokudemonai. Very cool. 

But now the bar is very much observing my birthday and I’m made something of a guest of honour with an enormous two pint beer served in the famous mug of the classic Anime One Piece. Yeah, it’s around now that we realise that as well as being a place of homage to rock’n’roll and all the greats, this bar gives a very big nod to One Piece, an Anime juggernaut even I’m aware of. So it’s with great honour that I accept this enormous mug which I proudly carry into the live room.

And then on come Toodles. The main band of the evening and what a fantastic band they are. Super tight but super loose at the same time. Just real good time melodic fast hard punk with a female front person and a female drummer, the two of them dressed identically. Then on either flank of the stage, a wonderful pounding walking bassist, and an absolutely electric guitarist who just happens to be Kota, now having hopped off from behind the bar to come here and be total rockstar.

Once they’re done, the mood across the whole place is just jubilant and very much all together as a complete communal vibe takes hold across the whole bar which everyone is now in. Maja gets to know the Toodles girls and we buy T-shirts from them which we then promise to wear all around London and photograph ourselves in front of iconic sites. The Toodles’ very own proxy tour of London. And after tonight we really feel connected to this place and a part of it. And in Toodles, it’s just possible we’ve found something of a kindred Japanese band. We will very much be staying in touch. We stay, mingling all round the place, until we have to leave for the last train. When we do, it’s as if the whole place comes to gather round and say goodbye. As we’d got closer to this gig we’d started to get the idea it was and could be a significant one. We are now feeling every inch of that. And also, just as in Pata Negra in Mexico City – when we had our first baptism of headlining a heavy metal bill – we feel we’ve come right through the other end in triumph. And that send off. Just wow. OK. Let’s get back to our local area and settle in for a quiet evening reflecting ourselves in the glow of all that’s happened today.

Or so we think.

We’re walking through the backstreets of Kamata – now carrying two guitars – when we pass the door of a bar and someone all but springs out of it calling for us to come back. It’s the kind of thing you often ignore. The street hustle. The tourist trap. But this just feels so different, so organic and so honest. And just a little bit more of we really want you guys to be here with us rather than, hey, we really want your money. And yeah, this really isn’t a street hustle. That guy really is just a customer. Me and Maja look at each other and almost without even agreeing, just turn – independently of each other it feels – and walk back to the bar. We are very enthusiastically welcomed and made space for. Very necessary. Because what we find is just absolutely breathtaking. Not only have we just doubled the number of punters in the bar, but we’ve now made the bar just about hit capacity. Yes. It really is that small. One guy in front of the toilet door, then Maja then me. And that takes up the entire space along the main actual bar. There’s then the sharp corner of an ‘L’ into which the fourth person of our number is pretty much crammed. And that’s it.

Have we just stumbled across/been called into the world’s smallest bar? I’ve just got back from an admittedly cursory Google search of world’s smallest bars featuring a few shorts – really not meant as a pun – and this place is smaller than all of them. And I’m not allowing gimmicky one seat bars into this list. It’s my list. But this place. Oh my. I should get on with introducing our new friends, as that is what they very quickly become as we very much settle in here. Carochan – a Japanese American football player whose name I absolutely guarantee you I’ve spelt wrong. Then there’s the bar girl Ashley. And then Koki, the cheeky chappie who exploded out of the bar to get us to come in.

We stay till almost bar closing time and then as things start winding down, say we’re off to a restaurant down the street for post gig dinner. We’ve been settled in the restaurant for about five maybe ten minutes when there’s a bit of a bustle at the door and our three new friends come in to join us at our table. Now we have something of another party. Our third of the day. During this they say that we absolutely have to drop by again the next day and play. Well, yeah. OK. With that we have another gig added to our itinerary, and in the world’s smallest bar. Its name – Mum Stand.

Oh, and this dinner is the very first time Maja has ever gone into a restaurant after midnight.

Day 28

Saturday February 7

Today’s sightseeing day. Or at least it is until we open the curtains and see it’s snowing and the sky is grey. And the sky is grey.

The sightseeing was going to be up one of, or maybe even both of, Tokyo’s towers – The Sky Tree and Tokyo Tower. 

Instead we go shopping with Maja curious to see what clothes are around Tokyo she might not be able to find in London or Stockholm. 

By the time we’re all done and back home, it’s pretty much time to just pick up the guitar and head out for what is now tonight’s show. We hadn’t talked about any particular time and when we arrive no-one from last night is there. But we plough on anyway, introduce ourselves to the guy behind the bar, who this time is the actual owner, and tell him about last night. He and his friends are delighted to have us play and so we do. And yep. Inside the bar. With Maja to my right, I have to stand right in the entryway to the actual bar – you know, the gap bit that Del Boy fell through – and with that, the end of the guitar is actually almost touching the end wall. As I’m making my way through I observe, ‘I’ve never had to climb into a gig before.’ We do two songs, which feels just about right, but there’s a call for another one, so we do that as well. Then we join in with the general bar hang during which our studio recordings are played through the bar’s speakers. 

This leads to an absolutely magical moment. It’s all rock’n’roll and some of our big songs and all that and people are bouncing along a little, and talking away. But then Insanity comes on. Our quietest song. I think it’s going to get a bit lost in here. Instead, the whole bar falls silent with just guitar picking and accompanying weaving bass drifts across us all, then Maja’s voice begins. The guys have seen me play and heard us play and sing on these recordings, and expressed some level of admiration. But now they look at me as the guitar and bass flower on and say, ‘Is this really you?’ All I can do is nod. Then another level happens as Maja decides to join in with her own singing and this just knocks the guys over as they hear the same voice coming from other sides of the bar one of them live.

I really wish I’d filmed it. But then I would have missed the wonderment of expressions. And the guys wouldn’t have looked over and made their stunned and admiring little comments to me. In Japanese, but I can totally catch the meaning. And the sheer impact this seemingly small song is having on them. Again, even as they can’t understand any of the lyrics and there are no big rhythms to hang onto. None at all. 

Of all our big bombastic highs and triumphant nights, I think this is one of my favourite ever Diary moments. I’m glad I lived it rather than filmed it.

Day 29

Sunday February 8

Today isn’t a great day for a day out either. A bit cold with still some snow on the ground. But it’s been arranged and it’s the one day we’ll get to meet our Yokohama friends again – the two girls and the guy we met the day we arrived at Atamy. That would be Tama, Lucy and Dai. 

We had a really big day yesterday so we think we do very well to be out by one and in Yokohama by 2pm as planned.

Tama is the first to have arrived at the train station and is the only one there when we arrive. With a guitar. She asks why we’ve brought a guitar. Right. Well, here we go. This is the guitar we bought with the pickup that went a bit dodgy. But it’s still at least a perfectly good acoustic guitar, the pickup is surely a very simple fix, and we have the warranty. And we’ve already bought a replacement and that’s the one that’s coming back to Camden with us. Which means we have a guitar that’s staying here. We’ve decided it should stay with Tama, so here you go Tama. Yes, this is a bit of an emotional moment as she accepts what is, sorry modesty, a quite wonderful gift. This emotionalness is repeated a little when we meet Dai and Tama explains to him why she now has this thing on her back, and again when we meet Lucy. And now we’re out and about in Yokohama. 

So, what to do in Yokohama. It’s wonderful to just see them, but there are things that we really should see while here. Maja knows the main place. The Raman museum. Yep. A museum dedicated to ramen, this ancient Japanese dish and one of Maja’s absolute favourite things and something we often have in London. But yes, they do it so much better in Japan. The museum is enormous. Entering it you feel like you’re entering one of the world’s great train stations. You’re overlooking this huge concourse of people all swirled around down there. What’s happening is that they’re all in different queues for their chosen ramen. This is how it works. You pay the price of a ramen to enter the place, meaning you’ve obligatorily – yes that’s a word now – bought a ramen. As you go in, the length of the queues are given in time. Some of the queues down there are long, so no thanks. Instead we opt for a more basic option and a shorter queue which is not in the melee down there. Instead, we take a walk through the museum hallways which go round this thing in wide corridors and are set up as though you’re walking through Tokyo in the 1930s. The phone boxes they have which are very different to our red phone boxes, and the types of technology they had. And here, walking towards us, is an old style Japanese policeman. The guy really is part of the security team, or is at least working in some real official capacity. But role playing at the same time. Oh, and overlooking the whole melee as I’ve decided to call it, is a table from a restaurant selling only dessert. It’s a spectacular setting for a table so has to be booked and is totally not available for us at anytime. So on for the basic ramen for us it is. Which is still as good as anything we’ve had in London. 

After the ramen, the guys give us a few options, but there’s only one place we want to see. This place has an enormous Chinatown which absolutely dwarfs London, and we really want to go and have a walk round there. Unlike London’s version, which is very touristy and showy, this place, although I’ve never been to China, just feels more authentic. With small back alleys and just more day to day basic bars and restaurants. We will end our day in one of those restaurants later on. But first, I say that having had a walk round Chinatown, I would really like to go and have a look at the seafront.

Everyone’s up for this, so we go down and have a look at the spectacular night time harbour view which looks across to the Tokyo skyline. Then, as we’re walking along the seafront, we see this giant rocket shaped thing which points up to the sky. What is that? It’s the Marine Tower, our friends say. Oh wow. With that, we just have to go up it. All of a sudden we have a new activity. So in we go and once paid in, the first thing to enter is the lift from which you can actually look out and see yourself gliding into the sky with the ground rapidly falling away. Look down. Very much look down. Then we’re up and on the lower of two floors with windows all around with incredible night views over Yokohama and across to Tokyo itself. And also from here we can actually see the beginning and end of Chinatown, and damn is it big. 

In the centre of this first room is an opening to some stairs and they go up the middle of the two floors to take us up to the higher and smaller top deck. Up here the light is set at a kind of twilight, all the better to see the views all around. And to see the breathtaking view through the small glasswalks on the floor which are exhilarating to walk across.

Well, apart from our friends, we came to see Yokohama. And totally unexpectedly, we really have seen all of Yokohama.

Day 30

Monday February 9

After a weekend in which we have barely even had a chance to breathe since sometime early on Friday, which right now feels like about two weeks ago, we just do nothing today. Absolutely nothing. So much so that going out for a meal sometime early evening that is made up of mostly boiled and raw vegetables constitutes a significant and noteworthy activity. So yeah, we do that.

Day 31

Tuesday February 10

The obligatory return to the Ruby Room for another lovely open mic there. This really is one of the most lively open mics I’ve ever been to. Respectful and people listen to the acts, but not the cross legged silent reverence that so many open mics ascribe to. Which I totally get and respect and observe myself when in such places. But here, it’s more a lively bar vibe yet respectful at the same time. I think it helps that apart from single guitar singer songwriters, among which we have to be counted, there’s also the facility for full bands to play with drumkit and a full backline. And rather than the all sitting back and watching intently with chin in hands, what you have here is people milling around the bar area, standing at the bar, standing at the back, mingling in the semi private just off the main area area with its single large round table, you also have people standing – and dancing – in front of the stage, treating the whole thing like an actual concert. It really is an interactive, physical, lively event. 

The consistent level of quality is also hugely impressive. The locals yes – Japanese and other nationalities – but just so many musical tourists here as well, ourselves included of course. And people from New York, LA. Including an impressive rapper type act tonight who comes straight from the airport having just flown in from LA

And with us playing our own set at 9:30, we also get to have another go sometime past 11 to sign off our time here.

On our way back as we’re walking through our area to simply go home after another wonderful night, we just happen to bump into Carochan from Mum Stand. So of course the three of us now go and find somewhere for late dinner.

Having never done it before, this is now the second time in five days that Maja has gone into a restaurant after midnight.

Day 32

Wednesday February 11

We have two more days in Tokyo so Maja asks if there’s some area I would be sad not to have seen. I’ve been quite curious about the Imperial Palace area. Not so much to see the Imperial Palace itself, more to just see another of the areas of Tokyo that have a claim on being its city centre. If anything really would be, surely it would be this place. So let’s go and see for ourselves.

In the event it’s mainly a business district surrounding a series of parks, inside which sits the Imperial Palace, which we actually don’t manage to see as it appears to be set behind some thick treeline. Or maybe we approach by the wrong angle. What we do get to see and walk around is the old ruined area of the original fortress which was built sometime in the 1400s. And around all this are walls of a similar age giving you fascinating contact with this distant past. 

From here we go straight to the modern and to do one of the tourist things we’ve really wanted to do and which got scratched off when we woke to snow and grey skies, rendering such a visit all but meaningless. We’re going to Tokyo Tower. This is the red and white Japanese taller version of the Eiffel Tower. It was also the tallest building in Japan until Tokyo’s Skytree was built in 2012. Incidentally, Skytree then totally eclipsed Tokyo Tower and actually makes it look small on the skyline even as the Tower asserts its own dominance. Skytree is almost twice as tall, standing at 634 metres as opposed to the Tower’s 333 metres. Oh, the Eiffel Tower is shorter by just three metres.  We haven’t managed to make it up Skytree this trip and – spoiler before you read about our last day of tomorrow – we don’t. And even today we don’t go all the way up to the top of Tokyo Tower. We decide to keep that in the bank as something to pull out on the next trip, as will be a visit to Skytree. 

However, even a trip up to the two storey central platform is perfectly adequate to get views all over the city as, even halfway up, you’re still standing 150 metres up in the air. 

The mad thing is that even as the Tower looks a little ‘small’ on the Skyline as you’re nearly always able to visually compare it to the enormous Skytree, it’s still taller than The Shard, the tallest building in the UK and the second tallest building in Europe. This rises to ‘just’ 309 metres. And as a comparison to that ‘mere’ 150 metres we decide to ascend to today, that’s still just 10 metres shorter than the height of London’s so-called Walkie Talkie which houses the Sky Garden, my own personal favourite high spot in London. So yeah, 150 metres is perfectly good enough and we get a great overall view of this city of cities we’ve been calling home for the past five weeks; tomorrow will be our last full day here.

Day 33

Thursday Feb 12

We don’t feel any last day sightseeing pressure at all and just take it easy around our own neighbourhood going souvenir and present buying and just gently taking care of packing. But while sightseeing is of the agenda, what we do want to do is revisit as many of our favourite Japanese restaurant experiences as possible. And among that we also need to make one last visit to our local onsen – that’s the hot springs bath thing.

Early evening sees us mirroring our first night here as we visit the local version of the fish restaurant chain we went to on day one. 

Later is a visit to a skewers place which does everything deep fried in breadcrumbs. Everything. The expected things like beef and chicken, and the more unexpected. A large slice of ginger. Half large onion pieces. Bananas. 

The onsen happens after this. Then there’s one last visit we have to make. A trip to Mum Stand, the smallest bar in the world (possibly) that’s become our favourite hang in Tokyo.

The weird thing here is that this is now the third time we’ve visited and the people have been totally different each time. Except that tonight we have the same barman as last time – the owner, Keito. The other weird thing is that when we arrive we’re welcomed like regulars and instantly slip into the company as though we’re part of the place. While it is a tiny bar, it does make use of its outside area in a kind of narrow but well lit alleyway as people all gather out there as well. There is a table out there, but people are all over the place really. And although it’s a little cold, the main door is often open and the chat and vibe totally mixes between the outside and inside people. When Keito mentions to them that we played here and an amused shock reaction goes round everyone and they want to see videos. Which we show them. They love them, and now the clamour comes for us to go home, get our guitar and come and play again. I go and do that, accompanied by two of the guys and Maja stays back to no doubt continue to charm everyone. The  last time we played we were inside the bar. This time we play outside in the alley and our new friends go crazy for our performance which feels like an instant concert and an instant hit. We keep it short at just two songs and if we were welcomed before as regulars, we now feel firmly established as performers of the place. So much so that we now pretty much book a gig for our next visit as Maja gets chatting to one of the regulars. He has his own band in Tokyo and would love us to contact them before our return as he would like us to arrange a show together. This is an amazing further addition to all the bars and other opportunities we have opened up for next time. This visit is already starting to crystalise in our minds. Something like a two to three week trip with five to ten shows. Which we feel we have the contacts to put together right now.

When we say a fantastic goodnight to this last night out in Tokyo, we continue on ourselves just a little bit more as we head over to the nearby late night restaurant we visited the first time we came here. 

With that we’ve managed to have dinner three times tonight and after never having done it until Friday last week, Maja now enters a restaurant and orders after midnight for the third time in a week.

We’re not back home and in bed until 3:30am. We’re up at 5:30. Little more than a nap really.

Day 34

Friday February 13

We manage that quite brilliantly and are up and out by 6am.

Then as we take off, we fly low over the city and see the pure modern magnificence of it all with the new sun illuminating it perfectly. Then the final spectacular curtain call comes as we do a low level fly by of Sky Tree. I think this is one of those moments which even people on the ground may have seen and admired as quite a view, let alone people high up in the Sky Tree itself. 

The flight here was 11 hours. It’s only a few hours into this flight that we discover that not only is this flight 14 hours, but it’s going the other way to how we got here. Meaning we flew here from west to east, but we are now, rather than flying back the way we came, we’re continuing east. Something to do with prevailing winds apparently. We had no idea. What this means is that by the time we land in Paris we’ve essentially flown all the way around the world. The biggest shock of all this comes when we realise we’re flying over Greenland. Greenland. What the hell are we doing here, flying among the arctic? During our trip I saw Mount Fuji and the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Now I have another first as I look down and see snowy arctic wastelands as far as we can see, like a white, mountainous ocean. 

When we get to Paris, we have a five hour layover which we cushion with a lot of chocolate. Then it’s a simple enough hop of a flight over the channel before rejoicing that we are back in London. Heathrow. Of the main London airports, apart from I guess the newish City Airport, this is our easiest airport journey. Straight on the tube and just one change – at Central London’s Tottenham Court Road which is only a 25 to 30 minute walk from our place. 

We get back home at just around midnight UK time of Friday going into Saturday. I do the time altered maths and it’s 27 hour actual hours since we left our Tokyo apartment. We really won’t be getting much done tomorrow.