luckily i wasnt alone.
a guy was standing on the other side of the platform while i was waiting for a train in yokohama. i had kind of become lost there and was heading for a city called shimokitazawa, apparently famous for its nightlife.
he looked like a thug. he had a shaved head and was smoking a cigarette while wearing these huge black shades. he definitely wasnt japanese, but i also knew he didnt speak english cause he was talking on a phone in some incomprehensible language, at least for me. i couldnt recognize any bit of it at all.
he also looked like he was lost.
he eventually walked up to me and asked me if i spoke english, and i said yes. we talked more.
he worked in a shipping and exports business whos main offices were located in belgium. he spoke five different languages. he would be spending the next eight days in tokyo working in the tokyo offices for his company. when i asked him about his hobbies, he just told me that in belgium, people go to work and then they go to the pubs and then they go home for the night.
i told him things were a lot like that even in america, even in japan, even in the rest of the world.
he was surprised to hear that i was a vagabond like traveller, seeing the whole country by train and said he would never have the kind of courage to do that. i just told him i was crazy.
the train hit the emergency brakes just outside of shibuya station, the lights went out, and we were stuck on a hot train in the middle of the city. i told the man, antonio was his name, how to get where he was going, eventually the train started moving again and i was on my way.
all trains i have been on have signs posted letting everyone know where priority seats are located. for people who dont read japanese, they have these illustrations to let everyone know who exactly is allowed to sit in these special priority areas.
starting from left to right:
1. conjoined twins
2. the beer bellied or morbidly obese with shining stomachs
3. males with crooked genitalia
4. those with large socks
in shimokitazawa
i was looking for a music venue somewhere in the city. i couldnt read a map very well, so i just started asking around. i saw a man carrying a bass guitar, followed him, and he took he straight where i needed to go.
the problem with this city is that everyone tries to dress like a rock star, so its hard to distinguish the posers from the real deal. like the girls and boys of harajuku, everyone wants to dress to impress, and they do, all over tokyo.
it is considered to be one of the fashion capitals of the world, and you take a 15 minute walk in the inner city and you will see why.
the rock shows in japan are very much similar to the ones ive been to in america.
it was an extremely small venue, maybe big enough for a maximum of 50 people, but oh it was glorious.
i was able to see six bands for 2400yen. because the trains stop running in this city at midnight, things like this start and end early. while you might expect a show in america to end at 11 or 1130, this one ended promptly at 10 so that anyone that needs to get anywhere in the city on a train has a good two hour buffer built right in.it was so loud i thought my ear drums would rupture, but for me this didnt matter. i was experiencing something i have waited years for.
this was the tokyo music underground.
these guys were my favorite band i saw. they bass player looked like some kind of beatles and pee wee herman hybrid. i talked to them for just a bit on my way out and they helped me take one of the most awkward band pictures i have ever seen.two of them have their eyes closed and the guy next to me looks like he wants to have me murdered.
on the train after the show, i met a man who worked as a scout master in minnesota for six years. ive been considering lately dropping the guitar gimmick and doing something more worthwhile and fulfilling, so i talked to him about doing service work in the country while im not sightseeing.
yeah yeah, ill be honest, japanese people arent about tipping street guitarists, so that has been a bust for me. but also i didnt plan on making lots of cash either, im mostly here for the love of music and performance, but since the guitar is big and bulky and im not getting much fulfillment out of it, it might be time for a change.
when youre on an adventure like this kind of deal, youre allowed to do that kind of stuff.
the guy on the train gave me some simple instructions for carrying out volunteer things around the country and ill probably try to change things up a little bit.
ill be sure to keep you posted.
and stay cool.
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