Tokyo Japan tour part 4

Posted by Jef Stott / at 10:51 AM / /

Nov 7
Resting today, chilling out. Tonight we had the giant sushi feast! Everyone came out, Mila and her beau, Kan, Gio, a bunch of folks...it was a truly excellent meal. Scott got to discover all the squishy Japanese foods- slimy seaweed soup, fish fiox gras, fish uterus sushi, etc..
Good to push those boundaries. Oh and a lot of sake! We were a little tipsy on the train. Good times...

Nov 8
Headed down to Shibuya and the big shopping area of Tokyo. Saw the new Lumin CD on the shelves on a couple of big music stores, Tower etc. That was a nice treat. Makyo's label Dakini Records has released the latest Lumin disk, Ketri here in Japan and in the spring it will be available worldwide. It is so great to have it finally out after all these years, some really beautiful stuff on that album.
Cruised around all of the super trendy music shops, all specialized by genre-trance, ambient, eclectic/world, hop hop etc. Good to see so many cool music shops in Tokyo. The scene here is really really great, very strong interest in music, much more so than other Asian countries I have been to recently. Had an excellent meal with Gio and Scott and headed home at a decent hour, as always, navigating the labyrinth of the Tokyo subways. The station in Shibuya is like 10 stories below ground with multiple lines running above it. Each floor is like a small shopping mall with nice little shops everywhere. Very different than say BART here in SF which has zero amenities. Why is the US so barbaric to its citizens, not to mention the non-citizens?

Nov 9
A quick stop to the super trendy fashion district near Shibuya, to get a little shopping in before we head out to Sendai later tonight. Got a couple of really nice long sleeve printed shirts. I like the cut of a lot of these Japanese clothes, was looking all over for a G Star type of jacket and found one that was a bit too rock and roll, Gio said I looked like Bono or someone in it, it was a bit much, lots of buttons, zippers and gadgets. Saw some very extreme fashion among the kids here, apparently a trend these days is to dye your skin brown, kink your hair or wear an Afro wig, platform shoes, halter tops and hot pants and try your best to be a soul super star from the 70's. Very odd, very Japanese.
Strolled around all of the high-end boutiques and tried very expensive clothes.
Got back to the hotel, checked out again and headed out with Gio and Scott to the train station for Sendai a small city in Northern Japan, and another out of town show.
We arrived, got picked up again by another set of wonderful hosts and went right to the venue and got sound check out of the way. Nice little spot, no stage but a good sound system and cool vibe.
After a nice dinner with the hosts we are back at the venue waiting to go on. This time we are joined by I Chan, one of the Tribal Matrix dancers. Good thing too, cuz they all came to see her! The whole crowd it seemed were her fans and students. She did a wonderful set and joined us for ours. The crowd here was almost 95% women and they were polite but not totally into it. Anyway, it is all good, great set from Makyo, back to our nice hotel and out the next morning.

Nov 10
Rushed back to Tokyo for our longest day of the trip. We arrived back at our hotel around 2pm, checked in, backed our gear for the night met up with Gio and headed back downtown for our last gig in Tokyo, which promised to be the best. Great venue, great staff, pre-show stuff went well. Did an acoustic set with Scott and a young dancer early in the evening. Nice to play without the electronics for a change. But our set that night was thunderous; I just turned everything up to 11 and had a great set. At one point later in the set all of the super star dancers got up on stage with us and jammed out, it was so much fun! Mishaal, I Chan, Milla, Kan, all of them together. It was a very memorable experience seeing all of that beauty and expression together with us. Great night.

Onward to the after party! We all walked over in the rain, a motley crew of musicians, dancers in costume, dj's and other revelers along with us. This one was in Ripongi near the other club, kind of the North beach of Tokyo, frat boys, strippers, a bit seedy. But Gio had set up the coolest space for the after party, a tiny little spot that was at the top of what looked like an old hotel. The room itself reminded me of SF in that it was all dark wood and curved lines and the best part was the tiniest little balcony over looking the dance floor that had a ceiling of about 4 feet and two low couches, I hid out up there all night with some new friends and watched everyone pass the night away on the dance floor. Drum Spyder and Makyo did fine Dj sets and we all crawled out around 8am. Long night.... but one I will never forget.

Nov 11
Sadly our last full day in Japan.
I slept all morning and took a melancholic stroll thru Gio's neighborhood, Ekoda. Picked up a couple of things for my Mom and the house back home. I realized once again, I had connected deeply with another place and would be sad to leave. I guess that is the price for opening up so much when traveling, it is hard to leave and harder still when you get home. But thankfully we had one more night! A dinner was planned at an Indian friends house, named Shrini. Another great night together, this time with home cooked Indian dinner, great friends etc. These people we met are so wonderful, so open to their lives. It made me realize how jaded and smug folks are here in the States. Life is pretty grey there in the US. The dancers and I were talking about the stylistic differences between the Japanese belly dancers and the ones we have in the US and they mentioned with all love and respect that the women in US are "macho" and tough, and that the Japanese women are attracted to belly dance as it is an expression of extreme femininity, something they enjoy very much. I concur the dancers here are so beautiful, so feminine, it is really inspiring and refreshing to be clear of the convoluted gender politics and socio-sexual issues we have here in the Bay Area. Sorry but that is my take on it.
Spent the whole night together, play frame drums, ouds and singing, dancing on the tables and all the while feeling the slow creep of sadness coming in as I knew tomorrow I would be on a plane heading back to chilly grey SF and school, work, schedule and worst of all, empty streets. I always ask when I get back- "where is everyone?". Things are slower in the States.

Anyway, back "home" now and already making plans to go back to Japan in the Spring/Summer of next year. This time we are hoping to partner with a cultural organizer in Taipei who hope to get us out to Taiwan, Shanghai, Honk Kong, and possibly Korea as well as working with Gio and the Japanese distributors in Tokyo and other cities there.

The new album is nearly finished, we are mixing in December. It was great to give all of the tracks a test drive on big sound systems in the clubs in Japan.

So a big shout out to Gio (Makyo), Scott (Drum Spyder) Mishaal, Mila, I Chan, Kan-san, all the promoters and distributors, and everyone else we met along the way there. It was truly amazing. I felt we touched that moment when the timing on a new trend is a perfect match for your craft and everything resonates beautifully.
Thanks for reading this, where ever you are.

Have a wonderful new year,

Jef

photos up at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefstott/