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As The Great Tim Bisley said.

I can't be bothered to write about the rest of the time Paul was here. He is meant to send me some stuff about it but I have not got it yet. Basically, the next few days of the holiday I had were a bit of a write off due to "inclement" weather. It rained very heavily, and incessantly, for three or four days. But it wasn't a typhoon apparently. Well, I went back to work more tired than before the holidays but actually quite pleased to go back. Paul continued to go out to random places in Tokyo and we were back to normal - the default position it felt like he had been here for so long!

We watched a few films and stuff too. We watched all 26 episodes of the first stage of Initial D in three or four nights. Scarily addictive. Paul also watched a couple of Miyazaki Hayoo films - namely "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke" [US titles]. And was very impressed. He was visibly "blown away" by Spirited Away.

Paul being here was pretty decent. I was quite wary of spending such a long time with him (or anyone really). I think the quality of Radiohead was too high for anything to go wrong really. Maybe my opinion has been swayed by the lovely presents he has left me. A genuine surprise.

I was actually half expecting a present...of Paul still sat in my room refusing to leave^[B]. Instead I came in to a fairly tidy flat and two things on my desk: a card and a box. Rather excellently the box contained a "Neo Geo Pocket Color" (the name - they can't spell colour unfortunately). The card was even better as Paul had drawn it himself - a picture of Pikachu and Doraemon both saying some Japanese (kanji too so I cannot read it - "peace" allegedly). Inside he wrote some Engrish and, nicest of all, he had written "arigato gozaimashita". Which means "thank you" for things you have done in the past. I'd like to think that he meant "Thanks for everything" which is how it was translated in an anime we watched.

Well I ended the day pretty pleased but I do kind of miss Paul. We had some interesting chats and it was nice to be able to speak normal English at my normal rate with somebody that would understand me. So it^[C] begins...


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. By this, I think I mean the idea of having a more "genuine" experience without the influence of people that knew me. This was possibly the reason I made an instant, unfair judgement on John when I first met him - it was almost as if I was a little fearful of having someone see through me. I had a number of visitors over the years and the majority (with some notable exceptions - I fell out with a couple of people in ways that I had not done before or since) were very positive but I would definitely place Paul in the upper echelons. He wanted to see/do things but he was almost unfussy as to what they were and I think the country grabbed him in that time.↩

B. He returned to work in Japan himself and spent a similar length of time in the country which I think has to be partially because of the time we spent together.↩

C. The "it" beginning was really just my "real" time here - without the stabiliser of having a friend there - now I would have to make some new friends. Making new friends is a tricky business and I did not do too badly in this period of time - I would still count a decent number of people I met as friends - and some of them even "good friends". It was a good time and age to do it and I was massively more successful at forging new relationships in Japan than at any other time, especially university to which I can compare the times quite closely.↩</sup>

Is marriage confirmed?

I went down to Shibuya today because it was something to do. I got a mobile phone too. And it only took me a few months. Not that I have many people to contact.

Getting the phone was a true experience too. Basically, I knew what phone I wanted to get and just wanted to find somewhere cheap. Cheap being free in this case. The phone system here is pretty different from other parts of the world (theory one - the Japanese are "racist" and keep the best stuff for themselves) both technologically and stylistically^[A]. As far as I can tell, the fashions in phones have already been explored here quite extensively. The phone I got was with J-PHONE (guess what J means…) which is in the process of being rebranded as "Vodafone". There are so many pictures of David Beckham floating about to advertise them too. They also use Michael Schumacher and Hidetoshi Nakata but there is so much more Beckage that it is quite scary. Anyway, here, each handset is exclusive to the network so if you want a specific handset, you need to go on a specific network. I was not too bothered. They have some pretty nifty phones here too and they all have cameras and lots have video too. Mine can take pictures at a decent resolution (640 x 480) and store three mins of video. There is a really great one on DoCoMo, which rotates and has a 1MP camera. I never saw the point in cameras on phones before but it is useful to be able to take quick pics of info. I never send them though^[B].


Anyway, the shop I got it from was a "Yahoo BB!" shop in deepest Shibuya - not where I would expect to find it cheap but it was free and you cannot get much cheaper than that. And the process was well worth it. Now my Japanese is still pretty much non-existent but I can point and say, "How much is that?" [ikura desu ka] and then followed by "I'll have that" [kudasai]. So I did that, I wanted it in red and that was sorted out so I went to the counter. I got pretty deep into the contract I was signing and understood most of it vvia some hand gestures and face making. I even wrote some Hiragana and Katakana for my name and address. Which I am quite proud of! The attendant knew no English at all (fair enough) so there was a lot of pointing and giggling from both parties until she had the best idea ever. Being a "Yahoo BB!" shop they had a fair few PCs online (they use these shops to sell broadband and also to show how life changingly amazing it all is) so she had the bright idea of using online English <--> Japanese translation.
Pure Comedy.


I have used these translators quite often (to read Japanese sites) such as http://babelfish.altavista.com/ and they are not supremely accurate. Better than nothing and OK for gist I guess but the languages are quite quite different. She just finished the main thing and then typed loads in for the detailed questions at the end - asking me about call waiting and voicemail. I think. It took a long time to type it all in but I didn't mind too much - its difficult to mind when she seems so very nice, helpful and always breezy.
Then, she asked me something that I had no idea about. So she mimed it, which made Paul and myself crack up (and then her too afterwards). I had no clue so she just did it again. Basically, she put her right arm like a chicken wing and then flapped it in time to four notes she sang- "puh puh puh paaaa". It was hilarious and I just wanted to see it again. And again. It was even better because she knew I had no clue what she meant yet she continued to do it and smile whilst doing it. She loved it! Paul said it even surpassed Junko's b-boy impression - his previous highlight. After a few attempts at explaining, she sauntered over to the PC and did her translation magic^[C].

Is marriage confirmed?

She was simply asking if I was married. I personally would have done some mime based on the wedding ring and I still, to this day have no idea what her mime was^[D]. The tune was not a wedding song and I have never been to a chicken wedding either.

With that bit of fun over, I had to wait a while for them to activate the phone (and charge it up a bit for me and then I was away. And all connected up……….but to nobody.


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. For quite a long time, the Japanese mobile phone economy was quite different to the European one but there is a deal of convergence now with the smartphone. The "flip-phone" was hugely popular in Japan and internet usage was very common already at this point with almost all phones using e-mail instead of text messaging such that there were few problems communicating with other people either on phone or computer. Smartphones were not as quick to penetrate for this reason as many of the benefits of smartphones were not new to Japanese users and a major factor, in my opinion, is the typing of Japanese being quite well suited to a numerical keypad so the big benefit of a keyboard was lost. Flip phones were convenient though with portability and decent sizes available.↩

B. This is still true and I rarely use the camera which is, of course, ubiquitous on mobile phones now. I used to take pictures of maps and timetables when I went somewhere so that I could have that as a reference when I needed it. It may not be much fun (although many had fun at my expense for doing such things) but it was very useful and many people did also do it after initially mocking me. Of course, this was a time when online mapping was not so common but the timetables (and journey planners etc) were already commonplace on the walled internets that the phone companies provided. Mapping is seen as such a commonplace thing but it was at around about this time that Google released their "Earth" and "Maps" products and I do remember being amazed by them at the time. When I first provided instructions to how to come to my flat for some visitors, I drew the map out and labelled the relevant buildings by hand. I then took a photo of the map to put online and also walked the route from the station to my flat and took pictures of the junction so that the visitors would be able to find it. I put all of that stuff onto an unlinked page on my website to send to people when they came. Now, I guess I'd just provide the address.↩

C. Again, this was not a particularly well developed field at the time and machine translation was not really able to convert across the grammatical differences well. The questions would probably be trivially simple for a modern translation engine such as Google Translate which is also machine translation but is constantly adapting and learning in order to give decent output. 2003 was a strange time, technologically speaking, and it was the cusp of the truly pervasive internet. I can see that now.↩

D. Thinking back to this, I have a feeling they were meant to be bagpipes - it is the only common instrument that seems to have the heft. This particular story is one that I completely forgot (as, in fact, had Paul) about until I read it recently but, in hindsight, this was one of my happiest moments in my Japanese time. Everything felt so fresh, exciting and comfortable at the same time - and having a longer standing friend there at the time also made it feel more real.↩</sup>

"Monorail! MonoRAIL!! MONORAIL!!!"

I'd spent the last few weeks being told, constantly, that there was some amazing fireworks action happening every Saturday. But my working hours kind of preclude me from the joy. But not this weekend. Hurrah! Or so I thought…

Paul was blaming me for his dodgy stomach that he had got on Friday. He blamed it my chottomatte delivery but I reckon it could be the delayed jetlag mixed with his general incompetence. Or some other food. Well, this kind of impacted on Saturday as he felt like crap. Much like the atmosphere - we had a typhoon situation. Typhoon^[A] sounds so strong but I don't think it was so extreme in reality. Admittedly most of my clothes did end up near the bike sheds but still don't think it was enough for a "warning". And the Japanese warnings are really specific. They give a time for when it will hit each area. It is funny because they do the same thing for the passing of the seasons. The rainy season starts and finishes on particular days which are marked on the calendars. Not too accurately in my experience though.

Anyway, Paul's illness promoted his lethargy which meant that we got a bit delayed in leaving. There were meant to be fireworks in Urawa - the capital of Saitama. Pretty big ones too - 13000 of the bangs according to one report I read. It was going to be excellent I thought, note the tense.

Paul and me got to the station (where we had not been before) and walked towards the bright lights and sounds. Except there were none. So we walked in a direction. Until we heard some English chatter from some people on bikes. I say English but they were obviously American you could hear them from about a mile away^[B]. Paul shouted to them to ask where the fireworks were. Cancelled due to the wrong kind of rain. In Japan!! Everywhere I go, I always take the weather with me. Unfortunately. Paul felt rubbish but, trooper that he is, didn't want to waste the trip so we walked around for a bit. Then we went into an arcade. It wasn't too busy but there were a few players. Paul picked up the courage to have a go on a new game that is pretty popular here now (though I think "flavour of the month" rather than long-term) SVC Chaos^[C] - an SNK beat 'em up with some Capcom characters - an SNK riposte to the Capcom vs. SNK series. Within a few minutes, he was pretty chuffed with himself having beaten a real life Japanese person in the arcades. Quality. Had another look around and then went home to start another day.

And on Sunday, another day did start. With plans again. Plans to go to Odaiba which is an area in the south built on reclaimed land. The reason for these plans: A digital Arts Festival and more fireworks. I will see some! Now, the problem is that to get almost anywhere in Tokyo, I have to go via Akihabara (usually getting out to change trains, and lines). So we stopped off in Akihabara and had a "quick" look for a CD-writer and some arcades. Ooops. Too long.

We made our way towards Odaiba for the fireworks festival. To get to Odaiba, you take a new monorail^[D] thing which is very nice, but a little expensive. People seem very proud of it as they are so open, windowed and driverless. A bit like the DLR in fact.

Japan has been in recession for about a decade now and the government has tried, many times, to kickstart some regeneration by major public projects. Odaiba is one of them. A totally commercial place with no real reason to exist. Retail and leisure. Like so much of "New" Tokyo. The monorail is decent, if a little busy today. But there is a completely pointless (as far as I can tell) loop that the tracks make out in the bay. It just turns all the way round (can see it on the map) whilst going up. I thought that it was used to go up but I think there is a downhill bit before the next station. Totally pointless^[E]. But fun.

The Tokyo Bay Fireworks are supposedly some of the best in the world and, I think, the second biggest ones in Tokyo. The popularity definitely showed on our arrival. The great thing about the fireworks being on such a scale is that people can see them from all over the place. Even so, everywhere you can see them from is totally packed. We went to some fake beach and tried to find somewhere to sit. The operative word being tried.

After the explosions had started (accompanied by a few "oohs" and "aahs") we sat down on the path. There was a lot to see both in the sky and on the ground. The other good thing about festivals is that lots of people "make an effort" so there were a lot of very attractive girls floating about too. Quite a few wearing Yukatas but also a lot in "normal" attire.

The fireworks were actually very, very good. I'm not a massive fan of fireworks but big displays are usually better than the school type that we normally get to see back home. These are free, better and have a great atmosphere too. The quality of the fireworks was excellent and some real thought had been used for the choreography. My personal highlights were the huge ones that exploded, but you heard the bang a good few seconds afterwards as they went so high up, and the Doraemon ones. These were particularly impressive as they exploded into the shape of cat's faces - with whiskers!

As ever, the problem now was getting back. The station we were at was rammed so we walked through some of the shopping centres (one of which is called Palette Town pokefans) until we came to another station. This was also rammed but there was a smaller overspill so we queued. And queued. We got on eventually and the monorail guards had prevented the train getting packed at each station by buffering us through so the train was pretty spacious. And people could actually get on at the next station. Good organisation.


NOTE: The original blog did not have photos within posts (as it seemed too tricky to code it for me to bother) but sections for photos. I have put some of the relevant ones in the post.


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. I had a number of experiences of typhoons over the years and they are quite scary when they pass over. It does not happen so often but it will require the shutting down of the rail system which causes havoc as Tokyo really needs trains to operate. They also leave behind a trail of broken umbrellas (I say trail, but they are usually disposed of neatly in the bins) and the last time I was in one, I broke two umbrellas within about one hour and then just escaped inside.↩

B. The stereotypical, loud, American tourist is based on experience but they are not all, of course, like that and there were a number of annoyingly loud British people I encountered on my travels - and not just in Japan. My "favourite" was when I first went to Itsukushima jinja which is near Hiroshima looking out to a particularly lovely scene of the torii gate out in the water during sunset. It would be a wonderfully serene moment in photographs but in reality, there were a group of tourist loudly exclaiming how peaceful it was there. Repeatedly. And loudly. ↩

C. It was a pretty popular game but I am not sure it had legs to keep going and the 2D fighting games that seemed to have long lasting appeal over the years were Street Fighter, the actual King Of Fighters series and the Guilty Gear series.↩

D. This is called the yurikamome line (named after the black-headed seagull) and Odaiba, in many ways, was supposed to be a little like Canary Wharf but ended up very different↩

E. I guess it isn't totally pointless as the bridge it uses - the Rainbow Bridge - is elevated quite high above the water to allow larger ships underneath but it did feel like it could have been done less extravagantly. ↩</sup>

If looks could kill

I got the most evil stare that I have ever got today. I don't even understand why either…
Anyway, I went off with Steve (who also had to get his money from Head Office) and Paul who I had sent on a mission to find me RAM (PC whiz that he is) in Akihabara. I was gonna meet him there after for food and…stuff. Got the money and turned around to go back to Akihabara where we met Paul and grabbed some food in some isekaya style place. Akihabara is a pretty cosmopolitan place by Tokyo standards (there is even a Kebab van!) so a lot of the staff in shops and restaurants can speak, or at least understand, a bit of English. Anyway, the waitress came up and asked what we wanted to eat but we weren't ready so I said "chottomatte" meaning "please wait". And then it came. The eyes that could kill. And she had eyes only for me. And not in a good way. I was shocked and she totally ignored me after that when giving the food out. Dunno what happened^[A].
Went to Asakusa^[B] for a bit after that to have a quick look around but it was dark and so we just sat down for a bit.

---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. I do not recalling this happening again although I do remember being ignored a number of times when with other people which was quite frustrating. My level of Japanese in 2003 was not great but the years after, I could get by and travel around on my own without much difficulty. I may have said this in a more abrupt way than I should have, that is a possibility. Generally, my pronunciation was OK - not great but definitely better than most. When I visited in later years, I travelled solo quite regularly and cannot recall having any problems getting myself understood in any part of the country at hotels or even when renting bikes from people that had never met non-Japanese before. Yet, if I was then joined by a Japanese person, suddenly my Japanese became incomprehensible to the stranger and they would then ask the Japanese person to say again or direct all conversation to them. Even if that person they thought was Japanese wasn't and was actually of another East Asian background and couldn't speak a word of Japanese. This happened a few times yet I never stopped feeling frustrated by it. I loved travelling around Japan, and I loved travelling around Japan with some people but it was quite a different experience.↩

B. Asakusa is an area with a relatively well-known temple and has a more old fashioned feel than much of the rest of Tokyo. It was also on the same train line as Koshigaya and so I regularly passed through. The area is now home to the Tokyo Sky Tree which is a ludicrously oversized sky scraper which opened in the early 2010s. But, most importantly, it is the name of a very nice restaurant in Mornington Crescent.↩</sup>

"Aight, Ey Ey"

Well, I continued working for a few days and Paul continued to go out during the day. Actually, he spent a fair bit of time around Koshigaya just walking and stuff. I reckon he knows the place better than I do. I think the jetlag caught up with him too. About two days of solid travelling followed by an intense Radiohead experience has got to be wearing for anyone.
I finished working on Thursday and in the evening, I met up with Paul and we went to dinner in an Isekaya in Koshigaya, called Watami^[A]. I went with the receptionist, Junko, I have on Thursday (in fact she invited us) and I met another teacher (John) and another receptionist (Hiromi) who were both pleasant enough. Actually, Paul thought I disliked John and that I made that decision before I had even spoken to him^[B]. Maybe my friends know me better than I know myself? Anyway, the food was good and we had a decent enough time and even got to see a real Japanese person (Junko) do a b-boy impression. Worth the flight money on its own. I have to get my wages from head office again due to some errors. Not looking forward to the lengthy journey^[C] and not pleased at having to go again. Its expensive to get down there too.


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. Watami is an izekaya chain and they are everywhere. They are quite a convenient night out and place to eat as they have a good variety of food so most people are OK with it.↩

B. As it happens, I was very, very unfair on "John" which I will blame on my supercilious nature. As intimated, maybe I was predisposed to not liking him that evening and I am not sure why. I got to know John over the three years I spent in Japan and, although the feeling may not necessarily be mutual, I would definitely consider him a friend. In fact, my last (as in most recent and also, in all probability, final) trip to Japan was to attend his wedding which was a real joy. We had quite a strange relationship in some ways and although we shared a number of interests, we were not necessarily aware that we did. This is from 2003 and it was not until 2011, a full eight years later, that we both found out that we liked football as it had just never really cropped up. Later on, I used to see him in the mornings when he used to be in the area to see someone and we had a nice gaming friendship too.↩

C. The head office for Shane was in Tokyo (Nishi Kasai) and over an hour away. It was also not in a particularly interesting part of town so it was a journey with few positive side effects.↩</sup>

The come down from down

[cont...]

Sunday was amazing but I was definitely "feeling it" in a different way on Monday. I was shattered. The journey in was hard. Didn't help that I did not get much sleep the night before and NO sleep the night before that. My receptionist asked me about the gig though so it started OK. I just want to tell everyone about it. I was wanting to work it into all of my lessons too. Even the ones with very young children. I was spouting a lot of nonsense (I thought anyway, though the students said I was fine allegedly) and it was a long day. Fun though.
I got home to an empty house. Paul had departed but I didn't know where. He got home after 12 which is pretty impressive in itself with the trains here.

Everything In Its Right Place pt.3 and encore

[cont...]

We then started to make a move towards the stadium itself for the main attraction (and the ONLY reason we had come). I had wanted to avoid the Stereophonics (as had we all) but it was worth it if we could get near the front We got to the stadium to find a HUGE queue to get to the front, near the stage. We waited and waited while a cat died [the Stereophonics]^[A]. Actually, I shouldn't be so harsh as they weren't that bad And there was this one girl near where we were waiting who looked like the happiest person in the world. Seriously. She looked like she was going to explode with joy. Not the loud kind of whooping joy but the internal "rising up inside and I will not let it escape" kind. It was beautiful to see and so I have to have some kind of grudging respect for the 'Phonics. Which is a shame - I feel dirty and wrong. We got through to a roadblock in the queue. Some stewards were stopping people from getting any closer and we were lucky enough to be stuck with some other people who spoke English. They were knobs. They were constantly swearing at the stewards to let them through and acting all matey with us. I didn't want anything to do with them but Paul is a little more forgiving so he spoke with them^[B]. Eventually we worked our way to the pitch after the Sterophonics had finished. The back of the pitch. Better than nothing. But, not better than the front so we pushed and barged through til we could get to the little path/gate thing that allowed us there. And we got there. Nirvana.
We got there before The Strokes were on so we managed to watch them in the pit. They were pretty good but the lack of material was really apparent. Blitzed through the album in some random order. It's not even a particularly long album and its even shorter live. I enjoyed it a lot though. The crowd seemed to like it too. Not amazingly into it though, the problem with festivals is that you don't necessarily get a load of fans there of each band (1). And it is difficult to sing along in a foreign language I guess. They chucked in a few Japanese words. Well they said "Arrigato" (Thanks) anyway.
It was still light as we waited for the headliners to the accompaniment of some random muzak. Not the style of the new Beta Band album on repeat (like at South Park) but some other stuff. There seemed to be a bit of a buzz about the place. Craig had never seen Radiohead before and I had spent much of the time after getting the tickets building up his expectations about how they were life changing live. Not sure he believed me but he was obviously looking forward to it. Me and Paul had seen them a few times so we spoke about our favourites, speculated about the set list and what it would be.
And. Then...

Everybody went mental. And I mean it, not in some blinkered "cos I was excited" way, they went mad. Radiohead came on, played the beginning of "There There" and, well, I had no choice but to float. Thousands of people started moving and I levitated. Phenomenal. I was wrong (look at (1)). They had all come for Radiohead - this was a Radiohead gig with support. I can't even remember the details that well but it was like a totally different experience from not only every Radiohead gig I have been to but also anything else I have ever done. They played a lot of songs. A lot of songs, especially for a festival set. And the crowd were well into it. Singing along, jumping and, most bizarre of all, swaying in time to the slower ones. You know, like primary school girls. Except thousands of them. Bizarre but amazing. I was well into it too, obviously. I even started the shushing for "Exit Music (for a film)" Like at South Park. The band looked really pleased too, I don't think they can get that reaction for most of their gigs (no way they could be such grumpy muppets if they did!). Thom spoke more Japanese than the rest of the bands that I saw that night and the crowd were very appreciative of it. In fact they were very appreciative of anything they did. The setlist was really weird and highlights the breadth of material they have at their disposal now. They played a lot of new stuff and it was a bit like a "Hail to the Thief" touring list but they played a few older ones. I was shocked at the lack of "Street Spirit" and "Airbag" but the other stuff was "not bad". They played a decent rendition of "Everything in its Right Place" too to finish the first part.

The highlight of South Park (sorry to keep mentioning it but those that know me will recognise what high regard I hold that in) was the encore of Creep. Not because it is their best song (far from it in fact) but because it felt very special. They don't play it normally and they even set it up last time with a bit of trickery. They played it again as the finisher and again it was a bit of a surprise. But it didn't feel as special because it was just "normal". It even took the sheen off of South Park for me and Paul. It was still absolutely fantastic though and the crowd went mental yet again. It was so very hot too - everybody was drenched. The gig finished and there was the most intense ovation I have heard in a long time. And then the real finisher came. Knockout blow. Fireworks. In the sky. Perfection. I cannot explain it and I don't know if it was a Radiohead thing or a Summersonic thing but it was perfect. And took the whole night up that little bit more.
The lights came on and I found Paul and Craig (the pit was fairly "fluid"). And Craig's face was totally different. Honestly, he looked totally drained of "something" and pale. As if he didn't quite understand what had happened to him. Eyes WIDE open. "Rabbit in your headlights", if you will. He clearly loved it beyond what he had thought and it was really visible. Different to that girl I mentioned but visible nonetheless.

[tbc]

---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. I used to like the Stereophonics in a certain way. Their first album should have been excellent and it had some really good singles - but they worked as singles. They didn't seem to work within an album and I felt the same about the second album.↩

B. I do not seem to get on well with people at gigs - it may be an aversion to seeing other people have fun. Or it could be that some people become very selfish and entitled once they have had a few drinks and are surrounded by other people.↩</sup>

Everything In Its Right Place pt. 2

[cont...]

Not sure it was the greatest idea in the world to go without sleep but I am guessing adrenaline will keep me going for a while. Reminds me a bit of my friend who went to see Massive Attack and took some sleeping pills. And then promptly fell asleep at the gig. You know who you are!

Well, we got the train from the next station from me (Minami Koshigaya) all the way to Chiba Marine Stadium and waited outside the station for Craig (or Kuraigaru as we decided to call him that day).It was a fair walk from the station to the stadium so I needed a drink to cool myself down (sweltering to say the least - and this was no heat wave). I got a super-sweet coffee and an orange ice tea. Caffeine/sugar rush plus the most refreshing drink in the world^[A]. Nice.

We got into the stadium to hear some mad Japanese guy shouting on stage. The crowd were lapping it up and loving it. I didn't understand but he wore a dress so I think he was "wacky" or something. The crowd loved it but, to be honest, I was more worried about passing out due to the heat. Moved from the pit to the seats in the shade for the next (first) actual band...."The Polyphonic Spree". They were good, really got the crowd into it and the stadium was nowhere near full (it was 1030). There was also some crazy dancing from some of the crowd - it looked like they had honed it on "Dance Dance Revolution" with their four way movement. It was funny but also quite nice to watch. I reckon I might have to make their CD a purchase^[B]. I was also very close to the world of sleep which did not bode well for the rest of the day..... Standby beckoned.
We had to get moving after as the next band were not on for a while. And movement (usually) prevents sleep. Got some vending machine coffee - a wonderful mixture of caffeine and sugar. Just what I needed and always very close in Japan.
Made our way to the other stages and this is where the fact that this was a very Japanese festival hit home. The other stages were a fair distance away - crossing roads and such like, and they were in the Tokyo equivalent of the Birmingham NEC. And in no way was it dressed up in any other way. This was an exhibition centre and no mistaking. From the faux airport feel to the tacky posters and everything. Then we couldn't find the stages we wanted, just a load of doors and toilets - convenient but not required at the time (though caffeine is a diuretic). We found the stage, it was just beyond what I could generously describe as "stalls". But these stalls were like the ones you get at graduate fairs - orderly little compartments with little of the haphazard ambience of a festival. And it was indoors^[C]. We eventually worked out where the stages were and watched a couple of (to be honest AND fair) pretty non-descript acts: The Rapture and Mando Diao. We got some food and then watched a band called Interpol who were a little better. Paul actually managed to fall asleep in the gig - most impressive.

[tbc...]

---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. Chiba Marine Stadium is a baseball stadium, and I never had any interest in baseball or going to watch it as a novelty. I did return to the station a few times as the festival was spread over both the stadium and "Makuhari Messe" which is an exhibition centre. Tokyo Game Show was held here and I was fortunate enough to be able to attend in 03, 04 and 05 (also 2011 as part of a separate trip). I may also have gone to the Tokyo Motorshow but I am not sure. Each time, it was ludicrously hot and humid, and each time, I had an orange ice tea to cool down - which was a nice tradition.↩

B. I did, indeed make the purchase of "The beginning stages of..." which was a great album and a good album to prepare lessons by.↩

C. I returned to Makuhari Messe to see an actual gig a few years later - Radiohead again. The atmosphere was awful and the airport feel really did not suit music of that scale. The smaller acts I saw at Summersonic were OK in that environment but I was genuinely disappointed by seeing Radiohead there.↩</sup>

Everything In Its Right Place pt.1

Tired. Moist. And euphoric. That's how I was two years ago after seeing Radiohead and its the same again. The reason for moistness is different, where at South Park it was because the heavens opened, here it was all about Hell being angered by all the happiness being spread by some band from Oxford.
Summersonic is a newish festival in Japan which is twinned in Tokyo and Osaka. The headliners this year were Blur and Radiohead - probably my two favourite bands going.
It was very hot and ridiculously humid. And a very long day.....

It all started on Saturday. I went into school and whacked the air conditioning up to full and then found out that, although my last lesson was cancelled, I had been given another one. This was a little annoying as there was a festival in Koshigaya that I wanted to go to. Fireworks, people, fun (maybe). It was gonna be great. What was annoying about it was that he didn't turn up anyway and i was warned he might not aswell. Grrr.

I got to the festival a little later than I wanted and the fireworks had started already. And the streets were totally packed - such that moving was tricky. Paul^[A] was meant to be coming at night so I had to be home to take any phonecalls to direct. This meant I could not see much of the fireworks as they were a little far away and also because I had to get back. The festival seemed fairly decent with a nice family feel to it but madly busy. Fireworks display went on for about an hour and a half.

I got home and waited for some Paul based contact -his flight was meant to land in Tokyo at about 830. I got a call at 910: "I'm still in Osaka, my flight was delayed".

As I have explained, the trains in Tokyo don't run that late so there was a definite possibility he could get stuck. A definite possibility. And I thought that was what had happened....until about 1245 when I got a phonecall. Paul, being the jammy little blagger that he is, managed to get to Koshigaya on the four last trains on each line he needed. That's mighty impressive for a first train trip in Tokyo^[B]. It was definitely a high risk manoeuvre though.

Anyway, we grabbed some food^[C] and then went back to mine for we had an early start - Chiba is not that close. Obviously sleep was a tricky one so we went for a walk once it got light. I wanted to leave the house by 730 so we grabbed some food and then went back to get ready.

[tbc]


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. Paul was (and depending on what has happened since, still is) a friend of mine from secondary school that had, through an element of good fortune and sacrifice, managed to get a free flight from London to "Asia" - and he selected Japan so that he could visit me. I mean visit Japan and stay with me.↩

B. I am not sure that even he knew what trains he got but from Haneda to Koshigaya would require the monorail to the main JR network and probably two JR trains followed by the Tobu line. That is hard enough for a newcomer in the daytime but he managed this at night although he tells me that he was made to run a few times!↩

C. For some reason, this is quite a strong memory of mine - possibly due to still being a little woozy with the awe that I had that he made it. We went to Matsuya - a gyudon chain which I personally preferred to Yoshinoya. Looking back, it must have been a strange experience for Paul to find a chain restaurant open at 1am and the simple service and great food (for not much money) that we got. I have a memory of him putting a lot of pickled ginger on his gyudon and telling me how much he liked ginger. Another teacher also popped in (by chance) and so, I guess from Paul's perspective, I looked pretty settled. I might be wrong, but in hindsight, I think I did settle and find things more comfortable than I had when I went to other places in the UK, for example university in Southampton.↩</sup>

Parting Shots

Busy day. I had to wake up early (for me anyway) to walk down to Amalia's place to get a futon (to have while she is away) for Paul to sleep on. Rather harshly, she has to move out by 11. Her flight, however is on the next day so she has plenty of time to kill. She loves it down Roppongi (see first week) way so I, a while back, suggested she could spend the night there and get an early train to Narita. It was a joke. Some people take me too seriously. Anyway, she was meeting people in various places in Tokyo. I spent a bit of time with her, helping her move out and all that jazz. We met up with someone else (Manjit who I had never met before) and did some eating. I took the futon back and got me hair cut. This was slightly bizarre as I booked an appointment but had no real idea of how to get what I wanted. Sign language is a great thing but it is difficult for details. And doesn't help after the event!
I went in at 3 (after dropping the futon back home) and was invited to sit down. And then they left me for 15mins with a magazine with loads of haircuts in. They mainly looked a bit cack (for me anyway) so I thought I'd look for the closest to what I wanted and then get them to vary it. What I thought was quite funny was that they had a little black and white section on famous footballers' haircuts. I contemplated going for a "Maldini" but ended up with a "Michael Owen". See if you can spot the difference below.

Apparently. To be fair, I am quite happy with it as it is a lot more even than I thought. they try to use scissors as much as possible so it feels more personalised. Takes longer though. Then I met up with Amalia again who had gone shopping (under duress it would appear) and was waiting for someone else. Except she couldn't be bothred. So we grabbed something to eat and said oour goodbyes. Its a little annoying on a selfish level as she is the only other teacher I actually work with in my whole week. Its always possible that her replacement will become my best friend ever. Its also possible that he or she won't^[A].

I went and tried to buy a phone after that but I got a little confused and forgot about it. I did buy those trainers though. They are football types but in a beige and red colour scheme. Should be good for kickarounds. Trainers aren't too expensive here and these were on sale too. So its all good. Again, I'm pretty happy with them. Will need to be worn in but they are decent.

After that I just went and tried to tidy my flat a bit. Its a little tidier but not much. I did, however, work out how to finally play Playstation games on my PS2 so those cheap PS1 games can now be played. I reacquainted myself with Rage Racer and Ridge Type 4^[B]. MMmmmmm. Sweet. Though I am using the Negcon now which I am terrible with. Practice makes perfect.

(note: it was me on the right)
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. As it happens, I felt that I got on quite well with Amalia's replacement - a Canadian chap that had been in Japan for a while already. We had a number of interesting conversations and it was always pleasant - we went bowling for his leaving "event". He left to return to Canada not so long later but he did give me an NTSC N64 upon departure, so I can't complain.↩

B. I really loved Ridge Racer and what it stood for - as you can see in my games A-Z section where it is my "R"...(link)↩</sup>