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JAPAN, September 2005

Saturday September 3rd
New day, new tour. Herding Cats! We've all checked out of the rooms and Rodney has taken the hire vehicle to
store all the gear we don't need for Japan in his van. It's been military precision so far. Organizing accom, cars, flights, making sure we have been able to get in contact with the venues, phone interviews, chasing lost and left behind (or right behind) gear, blah, blah. I'm a bit worn out. The next part of the tour is all organized for us. We have done all the passports, visas, insurance, packing, printing of business cards, etc so we head to the international terminal in Brisbane for a 3pm takeoff. I am emailing last minute stuff and paying bills etc, thinking about buying a camera, so lots of stuff to do before we take off. We are all underweight so there is no problem with
excess except the alcohol type. It's a long flight, going via Singapore! We arrive at Changi airport in the late arvo and head to the pool at Terminal One to cool off. The prices of duty free goods are more expensive than Sydney and in fact the prices at some of the discount stores in Sydney are the cheapest. Sydney is 2 hours later than Singapore and 1 hour later than Japan, so we won't have any jetlag. Anyway, we are back on the plane headed for Nagoya ETA 8am, with hopefully, some sleep and a gig at 5pm.

Sunday September 4th
Good Morning Japan! Central Japan International Airport (Nagoya) is very modern, naturally... and Hamish, a very cheery Australian bloke is there to meet us in the early morning humidity. The wait in customs is a bit of a bore. Foreigners have the nomenclature of Gaijin (foreign devils, a hangover from the Admiral Perry time in the 1800's!) and we all queue to get through Immigration. Luckily though, we are here on Australian government business.
While Hamish, Garry, a girl from a roving act called the Compacts and I take the van with a mountain of gear, the others take a cab. It's just over an hour from the airport to the Hotel Associa Nagoya Terminal with several
tollbooths and $75 AUD in tolls! We travel through the countryside... well there are green fields of rice, power lines, freeways, houses and stuff everywhere. We enter Nagoya on a freeway about six stories above the ground. This metropolis is Japan's second largest and has a population of 14 million! That's nothing, Tokyo is about 20 million, the same number as Australia! Everything is low rise, why?... because of the earthquakes! It's also home to Toyota, the leading light in the economic recovery from the doldrums of the late nineties. The first time we were here, Koyozumi (don't ask me to say his first name) was PM and we experienced first hand some crazy Japanese electioneering. Very noisy megaphones, blokes in green tights, a lot of Domo Arigarto Gozimus. The Japanese Parliament is based on the Weimar Republic's Diet (that's the name of the house not a special meal!) and this time Koyozumi is having a snap election to get his reforms of the Post Office through the diet. He won by the way, which I think is a good thing as he is very much a reformer and Japan seems to be forging ahead. The corruption (forgery, pun eh?) seems to be under control and everything is going great. We get to the hotel, unpack the mountain of bags
and get a few zeds before our gig at the Expo site. Not everybody can get in the van, so John, Marilyn (Mendez, John's partner and great singer, who met up with us at Brisbane) and I catch a cab. We arrive at the west gate at
Expo and promptly get lost! It takes us 40 minutes for Kaiko, our stage manger to find us. It's hilarious! Herding cats!
Our gig is on the GC6 stage, but it's starting to rain! We want to play, we want to play! After all sorts of running around to get gear set up and sound check, we start and the after two songs the heaven's open! Bugger, bugger!
Paul Molloy, the boss of Expo pulls the pin about the same time we do. We all take our gear back behind the Australian Pavilion and spend the next couple of hours sulking! Paul is consoling and we head back to the hotel by
van, very tired!

Monday September 5th
On with the show! We have three gigs today and after we sort out buying train tickets (which is easy, by the way) we head to the site for three sets at the Sand Bar. The Australian Pavilion is a fairly relaxed affair and there are lots of people coming and going. Is it my imagination or does the Aussie accent become stronger when you are away from home. I noticed in Ireland that South Australians sound very English but I think everybody is bunging it on. I am so tired that I forget the names of all the people I meet immediately, not very good politically! We should really be setting up in the open, but there is slight problem with the weather. There is this typhoon see! It's being hanging around Taiwan for the last week and is heading towards Southern Japan. Luckily, the night is not a washout and Paul is there to introduce us in Japanese. He says the press has been very kind in describing the Australian Pavilion as full of handsome young men with big balls doing balancing acts. They are talking, of course, about the acrobats who have been working in Nagoya for the last six months, not us. Paul then goes on to say that the members of this (our) group are nothing to do with these comments but then introduce us as Australia's finest. The gig is unbelievable! The crowd goes nuts! A highlight is Rodney who gets a young boy up to play drums with him. We get some of it on video, which is just as fantastic! These are wonderful moments, making sense of some of the low points of our lives on the road, very gratifying for our egos!!! Oops, did I say that! The staff is vibed up as well, saying that we are the best thing in the whole six months of the Expo. Paul is loving it as well. On the dot of 9.30pm, the Expo site is shut down and by 10pm we are the only people let on site, ushered to the station by police. The train from Expo is the Linimo, a magnetic lift train with no driver, no rails and very smooth. The guard bows as we leave the station. We catch the train home, changing to the subway after six stops and get home in about forty-five minute.
I've been to Japan three times before, so the culture shock is not as great this time. It's hard to imagine as well an organized society being from a place like Australia. The trains run online, there is no litter, everyone is
courteous, everyone is punctual (unlike Aussies) and everything works... well I manage to block one of the toilets (don't ask me how!) and have to change rooms which is done within 5 minutes! The toilets are amazing, bidets and water jets...I remember last time I was here I got a wet arse pressing the wrong button. The rooms are small. You'd be amazed at how much things cost, hotel rooms $600AUD a night! Food is cheap, but everything else is expensive, $150AUD for a cab to the site! I love Japanese food. Since my first visit with pat Drummond to Osaka in 1988, I have become a real sushi freak. So much so, I even collected enough Sushi Train points to get a free? pushbike! What a Nippophile! Is that Japlish or Engppon?
After we get home, we bump into the girls from the Compacts and go out for a meal. Across from the hotel, right on top of the Railway terminal in Nagoya, there are streets full of restaurants. We pick one at random. It is the best noodle house I have ever been to and after filing ourselves far beyond capacity we stagger home and fall asleep.



Tuesday September 6th
More fun at the Office! The typhoon, which is a big as Katrina in the US, has crossed southern Japan leaving surprisingly little devastation and few deaths, totally unlike the US and of course with usual Japanese efficiency and humanity, everyone is helping out. No looting, no panic and few little fuss. They are used to this and know how to deal with these sorts of things. The typhoon is headed up the western coast of Japan (we are on the east coast) but the rain, humidity are full on. We have gigs today, the same as yesterday and we get a full video rig together to capture all the action. Clare, Mark, Keisuke (our Japanese friend from previous tours) and I go to Osu, a flea market two stops from the hotel and find all sorts of treasures. A fantastic toyshop and clothes galore. Most things are expensive, but some little Astro Boy action figures and other knick-knacks are definitely less expensive. In one
shop there some of the most elaborately embroided dresses I have even seen. Not that I ever take much of an interest, but these are definitely works of art and very reasonably priced! Did I say that? The Takoyaki stall (octopus
dumplings) is great and we have a relaxing time before heading back to the hotel to go to the gig. Everyone has gotten used to subway system. It's worth also mentioning that there is grid of different rail lines, which fan out to the burbs, and criss cross each other in the CBD...very efficient. We won't be able to go on the Bullet Train this time... bugger, still haven't done that, next year maybe. Keisuke is very surprised with how the group has developed and is talking about inviting us back same time next year!
It's hard to repeat the magic of last night but with a little audience manipulation from everyone we have another huge gig. Drinks are on the house, very nice thank you. One old couple ask for a CD. We aren't really allowed to sell them even though I've brought some over to give away which is what Rodney does with my instruction. What follows is pure Japanese theatre. The couple are completely overwhelmed and follow him around bowing continuously. It's a great sight if not slightly comical. The Japanese concept of giving is so totally different! I go through the Aussie Pavilion which of a fairly impressive audio-visual presentation with a lot of images of Australian landscapes and creatures. It's a good representation of what we are about, although perhaps a bit too condensed. I hear some of the other Pavilions are less impressive and far more crowded. The Sand Bar is a great attraction, typical, of course to have a pub as one of the main features of the Exhibit, but we don't mind. Japanese audiences love what we do. I think because they can see we are having load of fun. The language barrier is not so much of a problem and I don't try to be too clever.... anyway many people in Japan speak very good English and most signs are is English or Romanji (Latin Script translations of Japanese words). Japalish on the other hand is a fantastic hybrid. Brother Output Fantasy? Bugger Heck! Rooters Visit??? There are so many wonderful mistranslations. In Japanese the words Doji Buga (pronounced Dodgy Bugga) means crazy person, pretty close eh! and some beautiful names Bumpaka
Gaijo! That's the name of the Linimo station where the Expo is situated! I love the name of the Hotel Associa? Is that Italian or Japlish???? The gig is yet another one of those memorable things and it's going to get us lots of Brownie points down the track. Home to bed, 45 minutes and snoring away in less than an hour!

Wednesday September 7th
It's pissing down and blowing a gale (literally!) The typhoon is starting to be a real problem! Rain, rain. We have to get up early for our gig... and we all feel a bit slow today. We've been pushing ourselves for about a month now and the signs of exhaustion are there. No sooner do we have breakfast than the phone rings and Keiko informs us our
11am gig is cancelled. We still will go in to pick up our gear as we fly home tomorrow.... that's right it's a flying visit. Then Paul rings. He's trying to reschedule us back at the Sand Bar for this evening. It's gonna be tight as we have a 7am taxi to take us to the airport tomorrow, but we are all keen. He seems excited but says he'll have to move a lot of things to make it work, so don't get your hopes up. Now, I am confused but I hang in and go off with Garry, who's found a great department store round the corner... and up 9 floors. The phone rings again while I am buying a present..... I am so tired, not making much sense of things. Paul has been unable to shift things around and it's blowing a gale out at Expo, the weather is predicted to turn worse and everything is going to shit. We go
back to plan A and catch the train to the site. Things are looking pretty grim. The humidity has gone but the winds are ferocious! After collecting our gear, farewelling everyone, handing out presents to the staff, we catch a maxi taxi back to the hotel and take the gear inside. The wind is so strong it nearly blows us off our feet and I am getting a bit concerned about the flight tomorrow!
So what to do for the rest of the day? I'm exhausted and fall asleep for about 2 minutes before John suggests we all assemble in his room for a bit of a party. This is really the end of a fascinating tour, starting in FNQ (Far North Qld) and ending in a room in the middle of a typhoon in Nagoya, far from home!!!!!
The guys are getting a bit relaxed, but I am just tired. There is talk of coming back to Japan. There are lots of upbeat conversations. I'm feeling like sleeping for about a year. Rodney, who seems the most energetic, bursts
into the room as says he has us a gig downstairs in the restaurant. I am sooo sleepy, but after a bit of yawning etc we all assemble downstairs on the 9th floor and start playing songs around the piano. Marilyn sings, I haven't heard her since we both lived in Canberra 30 years ago!!! She's great. We all start to join in like performing seals. The staff start to poke their heads in to see what is going on. In no time at all, the general manager has turned up smiling and all the staff are cheering and... it's a party.
After an hour of taking photos and joking we all slowly disperse having decided to meet downstairs soon to find a place to eat. Well, that's not too hard. In the next building the whole top floor is devoted to restaurants, at least 30 of them. Take your pick. We go Teppanyaki for a change. Our last night. What a whirlwind (literally) experience. After dinner we go outside to check on the weather. The wind has died down and it's a beautiful night!!!! Bugger, bugger... oh well. What can you do? Sleep!!!!!

Thursday September 8th
Happy Birthday Garry Steel! Welcome to the world of no smoking! I haven't had a cigarette since January 26th 1980! That makes me very smug! It's also 7am and we are getting in a taxi with a heap of gear headed towards the airport (again!). Out of the city we go towards Central Japan Airport. On our left (we must have missed this on the way in) is a building that looks like a huge oval biscuit tin. It's the Toyota museum. I would love to have seen it. Oh well, next time. The other thing we didn't get to see is Kyoto. Beautiful city, full of temples. It's a city with a palace in the middle and hundreds of temples lining the hills surrounding it. I spent two days there when I went to Osaka in 1988. There will be a next time! At the airport, no dramas, the gear is all under weight, we get to do some emailing and eat some noodles, sushi etc and get on the plane for Singapore. In the back of my mind.. I remember now, seeing this airport on some science show (Beyond 200? or whatever). This is a man made island that is kept above sea level by jacks and things. Bloody hell. It is truly amazing. I must admit, though, when we went to Hong Kong on a previous visit we stayed on Lantau Island where the whole CBD is reclaimed and they were building a new Disneyland from the Ocean! That is going to be opened this year, I think. Anyway, it's goodbye to Japan for a while, hope to see you all next year!!!!! And it's back home for me, after a bit of a rest in Tasmania (Bridport actually) and back to Sydney and home for the rest of the year!
Bye all.