Adventures in Japan

Aka Inu Again.

Good old Red Dog. They can be relied on to put on a good show. I really hope that the next time any of our friends visit us here in Japan (Come visit us here in Japan, we totally have a spare room!) I will be able to take them to see an Aka Inu show. It is an experience.

So I saw Aka Inu again last night. It was an experience. Carla did not make it out this time, she was a bit under the weather. So it was me, Ben and Jon. Wanna here a really gross story about Jon?


Kay! So one night Jon was out with Ben at Rock Rock. Since it was summer, Jon was wearing sandals. And since this is Japan, a lot of the girls at Rock Rock were wearing high heeled shoes. Nothing says "Rock!" like high heeled shoes. Do you see where this is going? The girls with the high heeled shoes stepped on Jon's exposed big toe and ripped the nail right off.

Yeah.

Luckily, Jon was very drunk. He said his goodbyes to Ben, caught the first train he could and bled all the way home.

Why do I mention this story, which happened only a scant few weeks ago? Because it's gross, sure, but maybe also because he wore sandals to last night's Aka Inu concert. The last time I went to an Aka Inu concert I wore sandals, and I came home bleeding from the toes. What will become of Jon's mangled big right toe?

We caught a few drinks at the Hub beforehand, seeing as the show started just as Hub's happy hour ended. We also stopped to grab a quick bite to eat. By the time we made it into the club, we had already missed one of the opening bands and the second support act was just winding up. I don't think we missed much. The people onstage were all dressed up and "extreme" looking. Meh.


The next act was... I don't know how to describe them. A cute Japanese girl who struck up a conversation with me helped translate some of the band's between song banter. This was their first ever gig, their first ever time playing in front of an audience. That explained a lot. There was a guy who played the cello, a cute girl who played the oboe, a guy who played the trumpet and fiddled with various feedback and reverb knobs, a dude who plonked at his guitar and two women who played on one drumset without the use of drumsticks.


Yeah.

Sometimes it almost sounded like they were playing the same song.


I would never, ever say they were a good band, but I had a fantastic time. The cute girl seemed very moved by their music. Then she fell asleep. I think Ben said it best when he remarked, "This band reminds you which country Yoko Ono came from."


Aka Inu was just as crazy as last time. Lots of costume changes. Lots of incomprehensible banter. Lots and lots of fun. But this time there was the added bonus of seeing some white Australian dude getting up onstage with them. Again, by the end of the show, almost everyone ended up in their undies. Even the potbellied Aussie.


I don't know what more to add. I blogged a lot about Aka Inu last time and I'm still in the middle of writing up Day Two of Summer Sonic, so I'm pretty much tired of writing about bands.


So here's a picture.