Category: The Tokyo Diary

The Kind Of Between Mexico City and Tokyo Diary

Day minus 10

Wednesday December 31

OK. Here we go. Finally getting back to this again. Yep, I hear it. Where is the Mexico City Diary? We’ll get onto that. For now, call me ambitious but I’m kinda hoping I can write it concurrently with this new Japan, well, Tokyo, Diary. We arrived two days ago at the time of writing. It’s possible we may get beyond Tokyo, but really, with this place being ranked by some surveys as the most populous city in the world at not far off the 40 million mark, I think we’ll have enough to be getting on with here. But we’re going to be here for five weeks give or take, so let’s see.

A bit of a cheat here before we get started on all that because we’re not going to write too much about London between Mexico and Japan so there’s no point starting an interim Camden Diary and this entry just would not make sense if we put it into the existing one. Maja was away in Sweden for a good chunk of this period, and before that she was too busy with, well, you’ll see below very soon. But I’m writing this in here now because a day or two after we got back, Ant asked us to play his new place Jam In A Jar on Haringay Green Lanes. But not just any old date. No. He asked if we could play New Years Eve for our first time out there. 

His idea was that we wouldn’t be announced on the bill and would just kind of float in and out of proceedings, which perfectly fit our own concept and the way we’ve always imagined we could fit into bills. I wonder if this show tonight could set something of a precedent. The idea is that we will just fit in between bands and also spend most of our time playing out on the floor rather than on the stage, which is also just how we do things. It’s also a great way to discover and decide how we’re going to spend New Year’s Eve. We speak to soundman Ben once we get there, who sometimes does the sound at Ant’s other place Ten To One which is where we have of course played so many Ramshackle nights and a few gigs of our own. He’s fully up to speed with how we’re going to do this and we’re able to set up very easily with him and are ready to go with zero soundcheck. We kind of know our settings, he’s happy to trust us with this and is confident he can make any minor adjustments on the fly which is exactly how it plays out. So when the time comes, we’re ready to go, band finishes, and we play a few songs while the next band sets up. We were thinking we may be getting three short sets but first off we’re here a tad later than might have been ideal; we weren’t told a time to arrive. It was just a case of get here when you get here and see how you can fit yourselves in. We also miss another possible between bands set when Maja gets unfortunately caught in a bit of a queue for the toilets at just the wrong time and a band ends a bit unexpectedly. So we end up with two slots. Two songs and three songs respectively. The second set should have been four but the band before that one got a very enthusiastic encore call. But three worked great and the two for our first set was also a wonderful introduction. And with a whole five songs to represent ourselves in here we feel we have left our mark on this New Year’s Eve and that was just enough original material to put out in front of this kind of party crowd. And with that second set ending around 11:30, we know that’s that for the night which also suits us perfectly. We can now get ready for midnight and relax knowing it’s job done. All that’s left is to get right into the spirit and enjoy the amazing Blues Band tribute act which brings it all home up to midnight and a little beyond. A great New Year’s Eve night and our gig list will now read Mexico City, London, Tokyo. Cos yep. That’s where our next gig is going to be.

Day minus four

Tuesday January 6

Now onto where that Mexico City Diary is. Well, it’s there. In note form at least. A few written, a lot as recorded spoken pieces. Because when we get to it, you’ll see that we really didn’t have a whole lot of time to write anything. Not even notes. We were barely even in the apartment – which belonged to our Mexico manager Richard, of Los Ekis – apart from to get back late from a gig – or gigs as we often did two in a day, and twice did three – sleep, then up and out to the next round of whatever we had to do that day. And when there was computer time to be had it was social media-ing what we had coming up to keep up with upcoming publicity for the amazing amount of gigs we ended up getting, and also social media-ing what we had done that day. Even in the car, any writing on the phone was done to keep up with social media activity around what we were doing that day or had done the previous day. In short, thanks the amazing work of Richard, the guys in his band Los Ekis and a few other people around the city – Team Diaries if you will – we arrived with nine gigs and ended up with a total of 17 performances in 15 days. And five radio appearances including a 45 minute interview and live session with the famous Maria Letona on her show Nuevocito on Reactor 105FM. This is the most important and prestigious radio spot for both Mexican and international bands. We were told beforehand to expect a ten minute tell us about yourselves, influences and what you’ve got coming up interview. In the days to come we were met with increasing incredulity at what the whole thing had become as Maria embraced us and our energy and just ran with us for a whole segment of the show. We even had two studio recordings played. Not only that, but while we were waiting in the lobby before going in, the head of programming came out to meet us and request two of our songs for rotation.

With all that, we were also trying to fit in at least a few days out and touristy things and basically having explorations of our own wonderful local neighbourhood of Coyacan and its town centre. And the occasional (date) night out when there wasn’t a gig going on. And there was another factor at play which has been a feature of the entirety of our diary writing; typing uses pretty much the same hand and arm muscles as guitar playing. So when you’re playing guitar as much as I was, and as intensely as our songs demand, that massively impacts on how much effective keyboard time can be spent. This is even more true when also considering whatever social media-ing had to be done with that time. So no. Diary keeping up was simply not a thing.

Before we get to Japan, there’s another piece of Mexico housekeeping to get in. A major twist of events that hit us almost the minute we arrived in London. We were still in the arrivals area and not even yet near passport control when Maja took a call from her office and discovered that while we had been away her company had had to undergo a massive financial rethink leading to widespread redundancies and yes, her department was next. So we basically arrived right into a firestorm with Maja having to deal with that fallout while beginning another search for a new job. There was a decent notice period involved so not an immediate chasm, but still. Not an environment or set of circumstances conducive to any kind of creative endeavour or atmosphere, including diary writing. A little bit of excusing in there? Maybe, but all the same, catch up didn’t immediately happen, and neither did much of anything else while Maja wrestled with everything the new reality entailed. If I’m to be putting any kind of excuse in here, maybe it’s that the whole habit of diary writing had been fallen out of and with all such things of regularity or routine, once fallen out of, it can be hard to fall back in again. So yeah, I guess more could have been done in here, but it just wasn’t so here we are. And of course Christmas happened between Mexico and Japan. And just before Christmas – the very last business day before it in fact to totally Hollywoodise this thing – Maja got a new job. So breathe.

Following that, another busy element was added to hold off Diary writing for just a little bit longer. I started learning Japanese. Although yes, with a bit more will to be fair, I could have started in here again, but I didn’t. As for that Japanese thing, it wasn’t so much to be able to get by on this trip. Don’t be silly. But because we’re seeing this as the beginning of actually taking on Japan and coming back again and again to try to develop it. So yeah. I’m now learning Japanese as a long term project for long term purpose. Maja, as you may know, already speaks it fluently. Which is a big part of why we think we can come here and at least have a real attempt at doing something. At the very least, we think we can put together a solid attempt at a fact finding mission while maybe building up some kind of contact base. So here we go.

Maja is in Sweden when she books Japan and we have our dates solidly confirmed. Although we’ve been planning on going for a while we really couldn’t know dates until it was booked, or really do any forward planning with venues. 

So here we go. Flights out on January 8 with a Paris connection and a return date of February 13. All fantastic, but we’re not able to work on actually contacting any venues until she gets back; we are definitely using our Ace card here of her speaking fluent Japanese and also being able to read and write it, and we need to be in the same room for that to happen; the way it works is that by the time she’s needed for this, research on venues has been done and initial approaches have been written in English. Then she can get on and do her thing. She gets back on December 30. We have the gig on the 31st, then after the New Year’s Day and recovery thing of the first, it’s Friday and she’s back at work. It’s then weekend and we have our own catching up and days out to do with her having been gone for a few week, so we don’t start to be able to get to this at all until Monday the 5th. She’s also working that day and understandably totally wiped after that, so we don’t get to it that day either, so the sixth it is. Up against it with us leaving for Japan a few days later on the 8th, but apart from possibly yesterday, we really couldn’t be doing this any earlier now than we are. But hey, we’re The Diaries. We have lots of experience of just turning up in cities, hitting the streets and being able to find places to play. But a little forward momentum here would be cool as well. We had originally hoped for quite a bit more forward momentum before heading off; we had been planning to do this in April and take some time to do some real homework beforehand, building connections, booking gigs and so on. But with the whole Maja redundancy and then getting and starting the new job in February it was suddenly do Japan now or put it off to who knows when.

We’re now ready to start sending. The thing here is that apparently English and Japanese really don’t fit well into each other so this is no quick job. Also, while Maja may have been made redundant as we saw at the top of all this, she’s still working out a notice period so isn’t massively available to this and doesn’t have a huge amount of computer time left in her when it’s time to do this. But we manage to get a few emails off. By a few I mean three. But that’s it. The first emails are out now. To be fair, we’re not expecting anything from them, especially not at this short notice, but it’s good to know you’re pushing things forward and doing what you can.

Day minus three

Wednesday January 7

We absolutely can’t believe it when we wake and see an email notification. At first we of course think it’s an automated reply. But no. Someone has actually already seen our email, checked us out and offered us a gig. This is mad. This. Just. Does. Not. Happen. We’ve been offered a 7pm 25 minute show on Friday February 1 at Music Bar Melodia.

We get a few more out today, including one very very speculative message to a particular radio programme that I’d identified as at least mildly approachable and contactable. Again, not many but like I said above, each translation is a job in itself as each email is personalised and targeted to that venue or person so this is much slower and heavier going than usual.

Day minus two

Thursday January 8

Well this is turning into something very quickly. Last night’s emails produce another reply and another booking. Roku Demonai have offered us a slot for February 6. Wow. With that it’s time to get this thing going. We’re leaving for Tokyo early afternoon today.

A little after mid-day and we’re out of the apartment and on the road. We’re on our way.

It goes like this.

5:35pm: Flight to Paris from Heathrow. We’re there in good time and our gate has a waiting for information sign about an hour before. This turns into a delay. Not ideal as we only have a two hour connection time. The delay turns into four hours. Definitely not ideal.

10pm: Finally on our way but against hope, we arrive in Paris to discover we have indeed missed the flight to Tokyo. We had been holding out the faintest of faint hopes that the Tokyo flight might just suffer its own delay but no, especially not a delay long enough to cover this anyway.

Midnight(ish): A bit of disconcerting airport chaos with no-one really knowing what was happening, although we’d been assured Air France would be taking care of this. Myself, Maja and a few fellow confused Japan bound passengers wander Charles De Gaulle airport being sent here, then there by staff almost as confused as us and not entirely knowing where we should go but sending us somewhere anyway, probably just to stop us being their problem. We do finally find an Air France representative who gives us a sheet which tells us we’re entitled to a generous refund based expense package based on taxi transfers, hotel stay and meal allowance. I find this while Maja holds back and monitors things online on her phone. By the time I return, she tells me our replacement flight has been sorted for 6pm tomorrow. Brilliant. Let’s go get that hotel. Chaos. We try a few different hotels, both online and in person. All full. Then we just about manage to get one of the last rooms in possibly the last local hotel within budget. OK. That’s that part of all this sorted. We can relax now and just get ourselves back on track tomorrow.

Day minus one

Friday January 9

No mis-haps. However, we are delighted to discover on finding our seats that we are in Economy Premium. Which means much nicer seating with two seats of our own at the window. We can settle in here very nicely for the 12 hour flight time. 

Day zero

Saturday January 10

With a flight that long and with Japan being nine hours ahead of UK time we’re very disoriented timewise as we arrive at 3pm local time. Friday and Saturday now feel like one single long day to us. We have no idea where one ended and the other began.

But out of the airport after a very long passport queue and this is where Maja’s local instincts suddenly kick in as she negotiates the train system and gets us a travel card each all topped up and ready to go. I doubt many other non native people – especially western – are able to arrive and get themselves on their way as quickly as us (well, Maja. I can claim to be no part of ‘us’ in this transaction at all).

First impressions of Tokyo? Well, from the air, incredible in its size and apparent organisation. Everything looks so ordered down there, even from height. It couldn’t be further from the experience of seeing Mexico City for the first time when it looked like some enormous hand had just scooped up whole fistfuls of houses and buildings, like so many grains of sand, and just thrown them randomly across the landscape until the place was fully covered and said enormous entity walked away job done. No. Everything here has been meticulously placed, tidied and organised. Down below, as busy and bustling as everything seems, and indeed is, there is also a different kind of order here. But still, I am like a little lost puppy as I just blindly and trustingly follow Maja wherever she goes. I have absolutely nothing to offer here in terms of direction or suggestion. Although I am surprised to discover how much is translated into English in the signs, and also to hear all announcements repeated in English. I have always been led to believe in media reports and anecdotal experiences that Japan was totally inaccessible to anyone not familiar with Japanese and that every sign said the same thing – squiggle. Not the case at all but all the same, wildly confusing and undecipherable in terms of trying to follow even the most rudimentary clue as to which line to head to in this seemingly indiscriminate twisting warren of trainlines and instructions that really don’t instruct me to do anything. But Maja has this, so for now at least, I totally don’t have to. As a first time visitor to Japan I feel in a very privileged position.

A few trains later and we’re in our new neighbourhood of Ikebukuro which boasts the third busiest train station in the world. So quite a significant Tokyo hub. We’re one more stop away from that main station, so away from the main bustle. Down a few more very quiet streets and we get the first look at the apartment we’re going to be staying in. We’ve seen pictures of course, but it is great to get the first real look. It’s tiny, but we knew that. The main thing is it’s our very own place for the time we have here. And it really is clean, tidy and pretty and very well appointed for all kitchen and bathroom and whatever other basic accessories you might want for a starter place. But we immediately become aware of one quite major problem that we’re probably going to be stuck with, will simply have to get used to and which couldn’t possibly have been deduced remotely. The floor wobbles. The whole place seems to be set upon some kind of floating platform. Oh this doesn’t feel comfortable at all. So nice to have landed and arrived, and now quite distressing to discover this, right in the middle of being so happy and thrilled to be in Tokyo. Come on. We’ll deal with it. We don’t plan on moving around in here so much, so as we go on during our stay, as long as we keep still enough we should be OK. We can make this work. We will make this work and we will not let this little (?!) detail set us back or tarnish arrival day at all. Let’s unpack briefly then get out and about and see where we are.

So that’s what we do as we set off in renewed high spirits towards central Ikebukuro. On the way we need to visit a shop or two just to get a few supplies, razors being top of the list as we only brought carry-on luggage and so couldn’t pack any. It’s now we discover that it’s just possible that every building in Tokyo has a little bit of wobble going on. What is this? Some kind of latest earthquake defence or mitigation technology that everyone just lives with now? Actually no. It would seem we’re experiencing what is known as disembarkation sickness. It’s not the apartment that was moving but us. A flight yesterday, or whenever that Paris thing was, 12 hours from there to here, and a fe train connections has left us with our own inner movement sensors. The first feeling is, what a relief. We don’t have a wobbly apartment. The second feeling is, please get us out of this shop. Walking down the street feels fine but as we discover a few more minutes down the street, the second we go into a building it all starts up again and it really is a horrible feeling. We know it will pass so we just get on and continue towards the centre. Which I soon discover is a city all of its own. Wow. This is where we live. Ten minutes’ or so walk away from this shining cacophony of wonderfulness. I now discover that while Ikebukuru may ‘only’ have a population of 300,000, its central area caters for a much wider Tokyo population which means it is its own city within the city. And here I discover another thing. While London is often referred to as a series of villages, Tokyo is a series of cities. 

Through these city streets we now wander looking for some kind of restaurant in which to restore ourselves before heading back. Maja has had a little websearch and has brought us to a seafood chain that she knows well and is delighted to have found. Yes. This place is very special and very lively. Raw seafood is brought to your table and you cook it yourself on your own mini table-top barbecue. And there’s a wonderful crab dish that everyone seems to be having that Maja is very excited for me to try. Yes, this really is amazing. Kind of like a sweet meaty crab soup with onions all set in a half crab shell. It’s only halfway through she tells me what it is. Crab brains. Oh. OK. Apparently I like crab brains now.

But as amazing as all this is, along with the feeling that we are now actually landed and in Tokyo, there’s something we can’t quite shift. Now and then we catch another wave of it and it’s another head in hands moment. Yep. The whole building is wobbling. Only it really isn’t. Oh dear. We really do hope this will pass before morning. 

Day one 

Sunday January 11

OK. Travel wobble gone. And when we get up we have the wonderful relief to discover that the apartment is indeed perfectly stable. And now, so are we. Well, when we eventually drag ourselves up. With Tokyo being nine hours ahead of the UK, when 9am rolls around here, our body clocks are still set at midnight. That and the disrupted travel and sleepless flight means that we’re basically forcing ourselves up so as not to just sleep the day away which would be so easy to do. But then we’d probably just stay on UK time and the whole jet lag/ time adaptation thing would just take longer and be more difficult as a result. So up and out it is. Also, there’s a whole Tokyo out there to see for the first time. Oh, but it would be so easy to just stay here.

Maja has a plan. First we go to Akihabara which she tells me is a prime destination for many people visiting Tokyo. This is the main centre for enthusiasts of anime, manga, video games and computers and also caters for many other cult interests. I just marvel and and try to take in not just the shops but the fact that multi storey buildings will often contain one shop specialising in a particular theme. If you’re looking to be immersed in detail and minutiae and everything in between, I can hardly imagine a better place to be. The options and options of options are just dizzying. Fortunately we’re not shopping for anything and can just pass through and have a wander through an odd shop here and there, stopping particularly to browse our way through a store selling a wide array and size of beloved anime characters and sci-fi figures. Oh, my younger Star Wars model collecting self would have been falling through the floor just to see this place.

We’re not trying to do everything all in one go, or spend all day in this or that given shop. We can come back here anytime, so we’re soon moving on. This time to the Asakusa Temple and the long and bustling market that precedes it. This is a first look at classic, ancient Japan in the centre of the city. When we get to the head of it all, the main temple is totally full so we don’t try to insert ourselves among the thronging crowds, choosing to hold back and admire it all from here. Besides, there’s plenty else around here to see and be photographed among, so we do that and then decide it’s time for a pitstop.

That means a nearby large sushi place complete with conveyor belt at our table. No, this is not dishes swirling around the place waiting to be picked up as they go past. Instead, the conveyor belts serve kind of as waiters. You order from a tablet on the table, then five or ten minutes later something just trundles along the conveyor belt next to us before coming to a sudden halt at our table. We arrive a little after 3pm. A bunch of sushi and a few beers in and we realise with a sudden weight that all the travel and time distance really has caught up with us. We can’t quite get our heads around the maths of it all but with this 2pm and nine hours ahead still being more like 5am for us and with sleep having been fitful at best, and even non existent at times in the past three days, we have the feeling like we’ve been up for something beyond 48 hours. During the world record breaking 100 hours non-stop blues jam at The Blues Kitchen in the summer of 2019 I stayed awake for a full 66 hours with plenty of stage time in there as well. At the risk of a tired pun, I know what the stages feel like. It’s time to call it for today and stumble our way home.

Day two

Monday January 12

Well I did not expect my first trip to Shibuya to come about because we just happened to have to go there, but that’s how it’s worked out. As with Mexico City and, before that a few years ago, Berlin for the start of our first European tour, it’s buy a guitar for the country we’re in today and we’ve identified a nearby music shop in Ikebukuru. But once there we discover they have no acoustic guitars. They direct us to a shop in Shibuya so I guess that’s where we’re going now.

Out of the underground and here we are. Right at the iconic crossroads surrounded by a forest of moving flashing billboards. A major location of so many movies, the most standout for me being one of the triumphal moments in the Anvil movie. It’s 17 years old now. I think I’m allowed to spoiler reference it.

We take our time to pass through this, one of the most famous urban features of the world. I don’t even feel self conscious about being a tourist. It’s like being at a concert but out on the street except we’re all on stage and part of the show but marvelling and being spectators of the show at the same time. So many people have cameras and phones out as we all cross the road when the green man comes on. With that green man, or men, as they’ve lit up all over the place, it’s like the football has just let out. If there were two stadiums facing each other. A wall of people moving in one mass towards each other and then melting through each other like a medieval battle scene, only the warriors forgot they were supposed to fight. And were slightly better dressed.

Onto the guitar shop and we do indeed find just the guitar for us and leave with a lovely semi acoustic Fender. Also while we’re there we get a message and it’s from the venue which had a possible gig for us on February 6. That is now confirmed. Fantastic. 

All done. Bar?

We find a chain place Maja knows well and is keen to visit again. It’s also a food place, but small bar things rather than full restaurant. Think deep fried tapas. We get asked where we’d like to be and we take the empty spot right here by the door. Which is fine until people keep coming and going and we start to get cold. So we move right down to the end to the only other empty spot which is next to a couple of older guys and we get on with our own little evening. After about half an hour Maja starts chatting with the two guys. In Japanese. This is going to happen a lot and I think it’s wonderful and will totally take it at the expense of often not being able to join in. The guys don’t speak much English but I still feel very included, even when things are totally flowing in Japanese. After a while Maja gives them our card. They’re very interested to see this and things carry on, but after a while we see one of them on the phone and repeatedly checking out on our card. As he’s doing this, Maja turns to me and says, ‘He’s trying to book us a gig.’ Wow. We have a wonderful time with these guys, including helping them with beer lottery, which they ask me to do. This entails shaking a box of straws until one protrudes and you take it out. A big cheer accompanies my innocent reaction and I discover I’ve won one of them a huge drink. That helps relations tremendously.

During all this, Maja mentions to them that I’ve started learning Japanese and can already read the Hirigana and Katakana alphabets. This elicits massive brownie points from them. Maja had told me before leaving London that my efforts in this really would make a difference in how people reacted to me and here is my first experience of that. 

A little about this, and I reserve the right to not get things totally correct here. Japanese is made up of three alphabets, or maybe two alphabets and one extra writing system. The two alphabets are Hirigana and Katakana which have 46 basic characters each. So before even beginning to get into Japanese – unless you just want a few basic phrases for form’s sake – you need to know this. But then those 46 basic characters morph into something else with 25 characters of each system subject to change with either a couple of little dashes – think inverted commas – or a tiny circle placed to the right of them. I’ve not quite got into this yet, so I’m still being tripped up when trying out my fundamental reading skills. There are also a whole bunch of combinations of two symbols – for both systems – that make yet more different sounds. While that sounds like an extra layer of scary, it’s really the equivalent of this example of the English system where an H after an S produces the sound used in squash. 

To these two systems you then have to add Kanga which is all over Japanese and can make an absolute mockery of anyone like me who thinks then can read this thing; you look at a string of the letters you know and suddenly see Kanga symbols interspersed among words making them impossible to decipher. Of course, while I can often read and form words in this way, I’m still of course right at the beginning so have no idea what they mean, but you really do have to start somewhere. Back to Kanga and there are around 50,000 of these symbols, but apparently you ‘only’ need to know 3000 to be able to comfortably read. Another apparently; even Japanese people don’t know all of them. Maja says she knows about 1000 and I’m told that to get to 100 would be a good start. So given that I’ve learned 92 with my Hirigana and Katakana combined, and am inching towards 100 with a few of those others I mentioned included, maybe 100 kanga could be within some kind of reasonable grasp. At least I can get my head around that. The basic concept – I reserve the right to be very wrong here – is that the first two writing systems are used to spell out words while Kanga is made up of symbols – Chinese style – that actually are words. However, certain combinations of symbols can also make up different words or context, or at least that’s how I currently understand it.

I should add here that the great thing about being a beginner with all this and now being in Japan at that beginner stage is that the whole place is basically one big flashcard. Everywhere I go I’m able to practice my recognition of the symbols and at times even look at a string of symbols on a building signage or whatever and be able to read out what it says. Sometimes they spell out English words like this, such as the convenience store chain known as My Basket.

Oh, and also while we’re here in our first bar, a little something on prices. Yes, it is a whole lot cheaper here than London. Depending on where you go, for restaurants and bars, food and drinks prices can be as little as a third of the price of what we’re used to, sometimes even going down to around a quarter of the price.

By the time our new friends leave, the gig they were trying to book still hasn’t quite materialised but they set up a contact with Maja and their friend. So let’s see if this follows through

When we get home we decide that yes we want to get onto the open mic at Ruby Room in Shibuya tomorrow. So we jump on and sign up for it online. Let’s see if that one follows through.

Day three

Tuesday January 13

It does. We wake to see we have a slot at tonight’s open mic at the great time of 9:45.

Although we’re on the bill so to speak, we still arrive at 7 just in case you have to show that you’re actually there. It’s right in the beating heart of Shibuya and off a side street. All confirmed and done and we leave to go and find food for the night. Practically across the street we come across a yaki niku place. We go to these in London all the time. It’s raw meat at the table and a mini table barbecue that you use yourself. The difference here is that we now go for the full wagyu which we would never do at London prices. My first experience of this and just wow. Yes. Believe the hype. Definitely believe it. This is simply the best and most tender steak I’ve ever come across. Just totally different level.

Onto the open mic and a really high consistent level and the place also caters for full bands with a great backline. The concept is you get two songs and 15 minutes. We see if we can do maybe three, as they’re all short. But no. It is two songs. As for the 15 minutes, this is your total allotted stage time including set up. Which is great because so many times you see open mic people take forever to set up and you’re thinking, they’re completely taking someone else’s slot here with all that time, and then they do their thing as well. Here, that simply wouldn’t happen. The two song thing also means that when someone finishes, rather than pull the next person on, they wait until the given time. Which means that this all becomes much more of a social event than many other open mics as there’s chance to chat and mingle between acts with music coming on in all the mini intervals. We really use this to hang with a lot of different people and find a very equal mix between tourists like us and regulars, many of both groups are English and American and the actual bar itself is very English language friendly and there’s even an English barman. But yes, also very much a generous smattering of Japanese people.

Through the night Maja runs through the cocktail list while I try the different beers, including ordering a Red Eye off the beer menu listed at the bar. The English barman asks if I know what it is. No idea. Half beer, half tomato juice. Do you still want it? Ouch. But the thing is, I’ve just cold come out and confidently ordered one. Not asked what it was, just ordered it. I don’t want to back down on this cos if he hadn’t checked he would have just gone ahead and got it anyway. So yeah. I have a beer and tomato juice. It’s not totally unpleasant and I manage it without issue. I even mildly like it. But no, I won’t be rushing to have another one.

Our turn to play and our Tokyo debut is here. And with it, Maja’s first onstage experience of commanding a room in Japanese. As usual we’re going to be doing our off stage all over the audience performing. We have very few good videos of this as it can’t be captured with a static camera and it’s not always clear who you could give a phone to when most of our shows are in places where we don’t know anybody. But we had a good chat with a guy from New York who is leaving for a few days. As well as a performing songwriter, he’s also a keen videographer so we ask if he wouldn’t mind. Oh, he goes far above and beyond and produces what is, we think, one of our very best videos, if not indeed our best. He really works with us as well as doing a lot of different framing and in and out zooming. His name is Bry and you can find him here on Instagram at @bry.paz and his art page is here: @artofbrypaz

And yes, this performance really goes down very well and we even have a lot of people clapping along to our opening song of Sand Bang. This is a slow, atmospheric theatrical song, so not at all our usual slam it down bombastic opening we often do. But wow it really hits. And a lot of the rhythmic clapping has started even before the vocals kick in. This is followed by us doing our bombastic thing with I Like You (Better When You’re Naked). Brilliant. With that, we have now broken our Japan seal.

An hour later and the last act plays and we’re hugely happy to discover that this open mic morphs into a total hang. So many finish and the people just dissolve into the night. None of that here. We leave for the last train around midnight having spent a good amount of time hanging with one of the last acts – Matt from Macclesfield who is in town for a few weeks having recently arrived just like us. We hear from him the next day. He stayed till 3am. It really is a proper after hang.

All this has meant that we’ve really been able to meet and connect with quite a few people, most through Maja mingling in Japanese to be fair. With that there are a lot of mutual follows going on. What, with the guys last night, we have Tokyo friends now. 

Day four

Wednesday January 14

We wake to see a message from the person those guys in the bar were trying to book us with. We’re on for Friday. Mad as.

It should be mentioned here that Maja is still working out her notice period while we’re in Japan so we’re not quite on holiday. Or, not really on holiday at all. Just continuing to do what we do in London but in Japan. Which means that gigs we get to do are also here, which is kind of the point. Which means we’re not pressed or always available for big nights out or whole rounds of sightseeing or getting round the place as much as tourists might. But we’re also here for five weeks so we’re confident we’ll get to stuff. There’s also the conversation that we intend to return, making it something of a semi, or quasi residence, so there really isn’t as much internal pressure to get out and about as much as there might otherwise be.

But having lived in Japan for a total of six years, there are things Maja has greatly missed and is keen to experience again and also by default, to introduce me to. We’re off to one of these tonight and I am completely befuddled as to what it could actually be. This is the concept of hot springs. I get it that you have a cold climate and a volcanic area and that hot springs emerge and could be pleasant to get into, but going out to do it as an activity as Maja is so set on doing today. OK. Let’s just go with it.

Right. I feel I could very easily essay on this for a thousand words or more, and could certainly get a whole newspaper or magazine feature out of this experience but in the interests of catchup and a few other considerations I won’t. But let’s get started and see how we go. It’s like this. The first thing you discover is that you can’t go in with your shoes on. They go in a locker as soon as you enter the premises. Secondly, you’re issued with some kind of Japanese pyjamas. These are for later. I will remain confused about this until much later. Thirdly, me and Maja aren’t doing this thing together, which only increases my apprehension. Instead, she’ll enter the female section and I’ll enter the other one. Fourthly. Once in there, I’m told there will first be a changing room in which I am not to change. Instead, I’m to get totally naked. Only then will I be ready to actually enter the hotsprings experience. OK. We part at our respective entrances with an agreement to meet back here an hour and a half later. An hour and a half? What am I going to do in that time? Sit in a hot bath and stare at the walls? Oh yeah. No devices or books or anything like that goes in here either. And you’re not supposed to talk. Not much anyway, and I’m told that some places insist on total silence at all times. Fun. Seriously. What am I supposed to do in here for the next hour and a half?

Oh damn this hotsprings thing is an incredible experience. I will learn that there are differences but we’re in this one for now. There are a few different rooms, each with a different kind of communal bath. They kind of look like small swimming pools and are of various depths. These can range from a few inches – you’re supposed to totally lie down in these – to something like waist height. But mostly you can sit comfortably and then be immersed either up to the shoulders or up to the chest depending on depth, and of course, size of your actual self. Oh, you’re not supposed to submerge the head completely anywhere. This is a hygiene thing, so no, this is not any kind of swimming concept. One of the warm to hot pools contains individual jacuzzi ‘booths.’ But rather than the gentle bubbles of a jacuzzi, these are full on power jets coming from different angles in different booths. A booth here is demarcated by a set of railings either side rather than walls. Wow this is an amazing massage experience. Onto other pools and you have a few different temperatures to choose from including very hot; the very hot ones are individual ‘pools.’ They’re more like cauldrons really, so you sit in them and make your own little stew made from, well, yourself. A whole new spin on the phrase, ‘You sit there and stew for a while.’ Other pools are milky in colour with this effect being made up of thousands of micro bubbles which apparently get into your skin and give kind of micro massages. Or something like that. Each pond, or spring area, is slightly different in temperature so each gives a slightly different experience. And then there is the cold pool which is kind of like a light version of an ice bath. Into hot, into cold. A great way for a full body massage.

Also, a few of these pools are outside, although the way they do this makes it hard to tell. All I notice is a massive drop in temperature. At the time I put this down to having entered a refrigerated room, but no. The slatted ceiling is actually a ceiling open to the elements. It’s just that it was night time when we went, so all I looked up to was darkness which I took to be an actual ceiling. The whole thing is incredibly relaxing as the different pools make your muscles go this way then that, not to mention the actual full on massage effect of the jet jacuzzi. And within all this are a sauna and a steam room. Also, if you want to pay extra, there are actual massages available but we don’t go for that part of it.

By the time the hour and a half is up, I feel I could stay in here a whole lot longer. Which you can; the payment covers a 24 hour period. But for now we’re done. And now I discover that this place has a wonderful restaurant which is where we’re headed now. But before that we have to get dressed, but not in our own clothes. Nope. For now we wear the almost robe like pyjamas we were given on the way in. So yep. Definitely a full on Japanese experience.