Adventures in Japan

Not the Last Part of the trip, But the Last Day of the Year

Sorry, ran out of time. Gotta catch a plane to Vancouver. There are pictures, but you won't get to see them until we get back

Bye.

Before I get to the New Year's Eve thing, I should also mention that at some point before New Year's Eve, Ben and I and a very energetic girl from California went out to karaoke. We never found a good karaoke place, so we ended up in a bar. A bar with overpriced drinks and people not dancing. Ben and this girl had no trouble making their own fun. I went on a walkabout.

So, New Year's...


I should mention now that we were staying in one of the oldest and most famous sections of Tokyo. There's a big gate and shrine and all sorts of loveliness. It was a great section of town to be in. It got a bit crowded at New Year's. Really crowded. The Asakusa shrine is one of the most famous shrines in Japan and easily the most popular one in Tokyo. So It was filled with stalls and shops and throngs of visitors. Throngs of throngs. Hundreds of thousands of people over the course of a couple days. That's where we were staying.


And we were staying there because our New Year's Eve plan was to take in an evening of music. Twelve hours of music bridging the two years. We weren't there for the full twelve, heavens no.

The reason we knew about this gig is Ben. Of course. He is the music man. A while back he saw a band called Asakua Jinta and he loved them. He raved about them to me. He found out that they were playing a New Year's Eve gig in Tokyo. He knew the group of us were going to be in Tokyo at that time. The rest is history. Nearly four month old history.

When we got there about 9, the show was well under way. We were the only white folk there, which is an odd occurrence in Tokyo. Seriously, Tokyo has too many white people, it freaks me out. Canada is going to be a bit of an adjustment.

I can't really remember the names of all the bands, but I know that as soon as each one finished their set, we ran out and bought their disc. And beer. It was an awesome time.


The first band we saw was just a girl singing and a guy with a guitar. It was pretty good, but then they kicked it up a notch: they added a tambourine! It sounds like I am being sarcastic, but I am totally serious. This girl rocked the tambourine! She made it sound like a full drum kit. Swear to god! The mic was nearly touching the tambourine, that helped I guess, but... I have never heard anything like it.


The next couple o' bands were also all sorts of awesome. Wearing their yukatas and bringing the rock and the funk. I believe one was called Samurai Dynamite. Their CD case was handmade, filled with original doodles. So awesome. I know I'm using a lot of awesomes, but that's the word I used over and over again that very night. And a lot of 'This rocks!'

Makes me feel bad that I can't remember more of the band names. But I remember the one that matters most, my favourite band of the evening who performed one of my favourite songs ever. A driving song. Meaning it has a driving rhythm. Not a good song to drive to. You'd probably end up gleefully running someone off the road while banging you hands on the wheel in time to the drums. The kind of song that makes you pause before you hit play, just to feel the shivers go up your spine. The kind of song that, if it comes up on shuffle, you stop it, crank the volume and then restart it. I love this song. It's name? Tree song. It looses something in the translation I reckon.


That was their first song. Matsuzaki Nao's first song. Just piano, bass and drums. Everyone slamming hard against their instruments. The bass player also slammed his foot down with every note, as if his furious playing just wasn't enough, as if he needed to add MORE SOUND.

They played like that for their whole set.


Asakusa Jinta took to the stage about a half hour before midnight. They are like some kind of klezmer ska band or something. Highly entertaining. Also entertaining: hearing Nate and Ben drool over the cute girl who played... some kind of musical instrument.


Midnight came, we all cheered and continued to party on. Some of us partied on longer than others.


The beers were not expensive. And you could toss in a shot off mango liqueur for free. It was really tasty. You could also get a boilermaker for the same price as a beer. What a great deal! I like both beer and whisky!

The boilermaker was a mistake. No, it's a mistake to even CALL the boilermaker a mistake. It was much worse than that. If a mistake got really plastered and had drunken 'relations' with a really bad idea, the fetid fruit of their fermented fluid fueled fornication would be the boilermaker I drank. And that's me saying that. I ingest stupid stuff all the time. Its nearly a hobby. I once did a shot of Bac O' Bits. It tasted of soap.

That was the beginning of the end of the evening for me, and the end of the drinking. Which was all right with me because the good bands had stopped playing and the loud ones had started. But I stuck around to the bitter end. The last band was called Jazz. But they were not a jazz band. They were only a jazz band in the sense that I didn't like listening to them.

Burn.

Except I actually like jazz. But not Jazz.

I wandered home at about... I have no idea what time it was, but it was well past the point where late becomes early. There were still heaps of people wandering around the shrine grounds.

That was our New Year's Eve.