Holiday Blog

On the home straight of the trip, I didn't have any major plans - the next few days were a contingency for any logistical delays encountered during our ambitious visit to Hachijo-jima and Aogashima. However there were still a few interesting activities around Tokyo I'd been keen to check out. I started with a generous breakfast at a nearby cafe (still trying to bump up my weight back towards normal levels), and grabbed some extra snacks at a convenience store, incurring the wrath of the lady behind the counter by queuing in the wrong spot.

I took the train to Ueno, and then walked through some of the back street shopping areas towards Akihabara, grabbing some lunch on the way. It was a bit frustrating that many of the dining establishments offered free WiFi - but you had to be able to send an email to register to use it! I continued on and arrived at Akiba Fukurou, a cozy Owl Cafe. I hadn't booked but I was lucky that I arrived just before one of the session times and the queue wasn't too big and I was able to join in. The "Cafe" part of the name is a little aspirational; you are given a bottled water and that's it for refreshments, but I don't think anyone's there for a cappuccino! We were taken through owl etiquette ("keep hold of the cord on the owl's leg, otherwise- big owl, little owl, 'yummy'!") and then spent the rest of the session meeting our charming new buddies. I was introduced to a medium-sized owl called Negi ("Spring Onion" - a nice link to our Sado accommodation at Shukunegi), who posed for some pictures with me. The owls seemed pretty cool with the situation, and overall it was a lot of fun and social, albeit in a very quiet and calm atmosphere.

I grabbed a more substantial afternoon tea, perhaps starting to overload my system, and took the Chou line across town to Yoyogi for a quick look around the park. The last time I had visited I'd been amazed by all the activity, but today was a bit dreary so I wasn't expecting to see much happening... but I managed to run into a huge eisteddfod (I think?) called Super Yosakoi. There were lots of big groups of performers in very ornate and highly characatured costumes- miniature top hats pinned at severe angles, that sort of thing- but also fans, masks, kimonos, giant flags and so forth. There were two stages running performances, each of which was set to pumping J-Pop, and in the few minutes on stage, the many dozens in each teams would show off some highly dynamic choreography, costume changes and heaps of colour and movement, with grace and precision, despite the light rain. It was quite mesmerising! At first I thought they were all school groups, and some of the teams had lots of members that were in their mid-teens, but there also seemed to be a lot in their twenties and thirties as well. After watching several performances I did a quick lap around Yoyogi Park, and as expected it was very quiet; and then with Super Yosakoi finishing up, headed back to Yoyogi Station, partly to enjoy the surroundings, but mainly because I missed the entrance to Harajuku Station... I think I did that last time too!

I caught the train to Koenji, a few stations away, where a bunch of the tour buddies were meeting to watch the Awa Odori festival. There was a big crowd crammed in the narrow streets, and very helpful festival staff, but with only occasional trickles of WiFi available I gave up any hope of meeting up with the others. but it was fantastic to see the many groups of dancers and musicians. The tight spaces probably added to the intensity of the performances.

I then took the train back to Shibuya - there seemed to be some sort of performance happening in the main square (pentagon?) next to the station- it obviously was the day for it! Crossing back through the station I immediately took the wrong road, heading nearly south rather than east... all seemed fine to start with but after a few major blocks, things were not matching up with the screenshot of the map on my phone and I figured out my mistake. I took a punt on taking a shortcut through the backstreets which was quite educational - I really hadn't expected to see a fairly suburban enclave so close to major CBD-like areas. It was very quiet, and the streets were very twisted; I started to lose track of which way I was facing. I gave up trying to get anywhere meaningful on foot and found a concierge/security guard of an official-looking establishment; possibly an embassy, who was quite helpful despite having no common language. We figured it would be best for me to grab a taxi, and one appeared on cue. A few minutes later I arrived at Red Shoes (a trendy basement bar), and hoped I would still be in time to see a bit of Tomoki Sato's show. Tomoki had stayed at my place when performing at the 2014 Melbourne Ukulele Festival and I was looking forward to seeing him perform on home turf. I could see him in the crowd but the ticket guy said that he'd thought he'd just finished and I was a bit reluctant to pay nearly $50 to see a show if it was already over - on top of the taxi fare it'd make it a pretty expensive chat! After weighing up the options for a minute, I saw that Tomoki was about to start again so I paid up and squeezed through to the front to catch the final set. It was great to have a chat afterwards and meet his manager as well, and most importantly, to return his socks that he'd dropped in my car when I drove him to the airport after the Dandenong Ranges Ukulele Festival in May. It had been a bit of an ordeal to get there but very happy that the adventure had had a good outcome! On the train back there was a big crowd of people that, judging by their T-shirts, had just been to see the J-Soul Brothers. Incidentally it had been interesting to see that shirts with writing on them were quite the fashion throughout the areas I'd visited; the vast bulk were in English (usually with sensible phrases, but not always) with most of the remainder in French. There were often also big neighborhood information signs with a headline/title in English but all details in Japanese.

Monday

I'd had some provisional plans that had fallen through so I took the opportunity to squeeze a bit more value out of my JR Pass and take a day trip. I headed to Ueno Station and picked up a few brochures and set off for Nikko, a mountain town featuring lots of historic shrines and temples. I took the shinkansen to Utsunomiya, and found that I had an hour to wait for the connecting train; it looked like the late morning timeslot was very much off-peak in their timetable - oh well, early lunch at the shopping mall next door and a very quick look around the city. The Nikko train was kitted out with historical decor and it had a bit of a holiday feel to it. At Nikko station I joined the queue for information about what do in the few brief hours left, and the very helpful JR attendant efficiently guided us all to our best options in various languages with a big cheery smile on her face.

It was quite drizzly as I headed up the hill. The township seemed a bit like Warburton, nestled in a small valley with lots of souvenir and craft shops. I bought a ticket to cross the Shinkyo Bridge, which was quite nice but the grey weather left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. It probably wasn't helped by being quite worn out and creaky after a crazy few days. I crossed the river to the shrine precinct and started to get my bearings. I only had time for a good look at the Toshogu Shrine which had a number of intricately decorated temples and other buildings - a lot of which were dedicated to selling some incredibly tacky souvenirs. It was generally very nice but I didn't have much of an appreciation of the subtleties. A highlight was a demonstration of a 'sweet spot' in the Crying Dragon temple where the sound of a clap resonated for quite a few seconds; when the monk repeated the demonstrated a metre or two either side, the sound faded almost instantly.

I zigzagged through the neighborhood, past the museum and some other temples. There was a team of teenagers enthusiastically practicing Aikido in a large open hall. Heading back into town I was a little surprised to see some monkeys crossing the street via the overhead powerlines.

On my final Shinkansen journey of this trip, I ticked off another milestone - finishing the final episode of NHK World's Easy Japanese language app - it had been a great companion and highly useful during my trip. Joutatsu no kotsu! Back at the hotel I was just settling in to the quiet solitude of attending to a few emails when a perplexing call came through from reception asking me (a little accusingly) of whether I knew of where all the noise was coming from! I couldn't hear a thing...

Tuesday

After returning from Hachijo, many of the tour group had continued with other travels, meeting friends and so forth. Those of us in Tokyo had some ideas for activities but with reliable internet limited just to the hotel, I found it quite difficult to keep up with plans- I typically found out about gatherings a few hours after they'd occurred... next time perhaps I'll look at getting a local data SIM or perhaps WiFi might become more universal. I'd also tried to message a few of my Japanese contacts but they weren't available. However I was delighted to receive a message from Yuki, a ukulele friend that I'd met briefly at a couple of festivals; she'd returned home to Yokohama and was keen to meet up! I took the train through Tokyo peak hour and it was very crowded at times although not quite at the stage of people being crammed in. I alighted at Sakuragicho and had enough time for some quick souvenir shopping.

Yuki arrived and we set off into the rainy morning. It was fantastic to catch up and to revisit some of the places I'd passed three weeks earlier and explore further - coffee at the Red Brick Warehouse, lunch at Chinatown, and then to get our fortunes told at the Masobyu Chinese temple; apparently I need to be patient. We crossed through the Motomachi shopping area and figured out how to go upstairs from the subway station to get to the America Yama park that extended over the rooftop. We enjoyed the view from Harbour View Hill Park, and with Yuki becoming very popular with mosquitoes, we headed back to an exquisite cafe in Motomachi for a cake and coffee. It'd been a fantastic day - thanks Yuki! It had been great to get her perspectives on Japanese and English languages - she liked how in English, you get the sentiment early in the sentence (eg "I don't want another biscuit") where Japanese leaves you hanging until the end.

I headed back to Ikebukuro for the last time. Our accommodation from a couple of weeks prior was around the corner from Penguin Bar, which given my volunteer interests in Melbourne, I was keen to try. I had previously tried to dine or drink there without a reservation but had been not been allowed in - the Maitre d' had said that it was booked out even if it had looked like there was plenty of room. Regardless I thought I'd give it a final try; I had mentioned it to Yuki and she had booked for me. I was under strict instructions to arrive at 6pm sharp, and after the train journey of around 70 minutes and a dash to exit C6 (hundreds of metres through underground tunnels from the station) I made it with about 30 seconds to spare. There were three African penguins in the room and they were behind a big pane of glass with a pool just big enough to do a tumble turn in; so it wasn't nearly as interactive as the Fukurou, but all up it was kind of cool despite the passive-aggression of the wait staff. The food was actually quite nice - all slightly pricey but it was an interesting experience. There were only a handful of other diners, so it was about two-thirds empty.

I had a quick look around the shops to try to find some souvenirs & presents for all the birthdays I'd missed but couldn't really find much suitable amongst the huge range of shops in the area (but confirmed that I'd been one of the very last customers at a donut stall before they closed down... they were quite yummy!). I returned to the hotel in Minami-Senju to pick up my bags - it was quite close to the city (and very comfortable, a great price and friendly staff) but just far away to be a real pain to get there and back - a change of train, 5 minutes travel and 15 minutes' walk each way with a banged-up suitcase. At Minami-Senju station I faced a dilemma - I was following instructions to get to the airport via Tokyo station, requiring a little bit of backtracking, yet there was a train heading direct to Narita from the opposite platform... I decided to play it safe and stick to the original plan; but found that I had an interminable wait at Tokyo station, and it didn't have any trains to the airport anyway; at that time of evening they all stopped at Narita city nearby. (It looks like the other train would've taken around 75 minutes, but it took me probably around 2 hours.) There may have been fiddly public transport options to the hotel but by then I was getting pretty tired so I jumped in a taxi, figuring that the hotel was pretty close - it turns out it's only about 7km away but the fare was still around $35!

I checked in and calmness returned. Some of my tourmates had arrived earlier in the evening but they'd all headed to bed by the time I did a quick reconnaissance of the bars.

Wednesday

I'd scored a good deal booking the airport and made great use of the included buffet breakfast, as a last-ditched effort to get some weight back on. I was delighted to see a small souvenir shop at the hotel which sorted out my shopping needs and then jumped on the hotel bus for the short transfer - the hotel is only barely beyond the airport perimeter.

The new Terminal 3 has barely opened and there wasn't any signage about how to get there from where the bus dropped us off at Terminal 2, but a helpful airline employee pointed me in the right direction. Not wanting to bother with another bus, I set off on foot for the few hundred metres, somehow losing my booking printout in the process (though it was not required). I checked in - finally crossing paths with a couple of the others from our group; even though many of us had stayed in the same hotel the previous night we hadn't managed to meet up at breakfast or anything- I think I was less pessimistic about the time required to get to the airport so had slept in a tad longer. However, I didn't proceed through customs straight away as I was hoping to meet up with Nancy and Nic, my uke buddies and almost-neighbours from home, who were just flying in on the plane that I was to be returning on. I made a final call home for a birthday greeting - and then my phone started reporting all sorts of weird SIM errors - thankfully it had lasted to this point! Nancy and Nic dutifully appeared and it was great to swap a few quick travel stories and to exchange my remaining Yen for $AU. Then straight through the spartan terminal and various processing stages, to meet the rest of the group (Jenny P and Piers had new tattoos to show off) and find the plane had already opened for boarding. The pilot warned us that we had a long taxi ahead and this proved to be the case - it was around 20 or 25 minutes before we joined the queue of a dozen or so planes to take off. After that we enjoyed a very comfortable flight - it was only about 20% full so plenty of room to spread out, enjoy the views and do a bit of mingling with the other tourmates on board... though it wasn't quite the 'party flight' - we were all pretty worn out!

And then - home; it was great to have a fantastic welcome! Over the next few days I saw a bit more of Japan on the news as severe storms and flooding had hit some areas around Tokyo, in particular, Nikko; also I was also still getting updates from friends that were still over there.

Trip summary

Thanks to everyone involved with the trip, and shared the journey with me, either in person, behind-the-scenes or electronically... it was always nice to see Taiko Tour, Shome Shome, Earth Celebration or Aogashima Taiko shirts in a crowd. It was an amazing experience and will be hard to beat! Each day brought lots of new adventures and reminded me that there's so much interesting stuff happening when you just get out to explore - it was great to have a little bit of a digital detox as well, and find that the world continues quite nicely by itself without needing to follow the daily news media.

I'm keen to start thinking up my next big adventure but it'll be very hard to top this one! Meantime, for all my old and new friends from Singapore and Japan - you're very welcome in Melbourne, let me know when you're coming!

Hachijo, Aogashima - August 2015

Wednesday 26th August

After the short flight (around 40 minutes) we landed at Hachijo island, which had a real tropical feel about it - the airport and town were nestled between two volcanic peaks, there was palm trees and an extra burst of warmth. I grabbed a taxi, again showing the driver a screenshot of the map to the accommodation which required a conference with another driver, despite the destination being just a couple of km away. I unloaded at the holiday house which was deserted, but within a couple of minutes the rest of the group arrived and settled into a mad round of planning, coordination and instructions. My highest priority was a load of washing!

Keiko took us for a quick drive up to the shops; I was juggling a handful of provisions and a can of beer toppled from my grasp and rolled under the fruit and veg racks. I could see it just out of reach but decided that crawling underneath was not au fait. I tried to use a price sign to fish it out but it remained elusive - and I was a bit concerned about the pressure build-up. A couple of staff seemed patient with my efforts and then just ran off and grabbed me a fresh can. (The original can was gone when I checked the next day.)

In the evening we joined the local Hachijo taiko players for a BBQ and jam session - it was a very warm welcome & great to meet them! Later in the evening we headed to the Hachijo Botanic Gardens to see the luminescent mushrooms - it took a bit of effort to work out what was a bit of glowing fungus and what was moonlight filtering through the canopy. It was a cheery ukulele-accompanied karaoke session on the walk there and back with Gayle's performance a highlight.

Thursday

We headed across to explore the south-east side of the island in our rental cars. There was a bit of a surf beach next to Borawazawa Port and a number of surfers having a bit of fun, but the shore consisted of pebbles and boulders and swimming would've been a dangerous proposition. Some of the group decided to head up to the hilltop onsen, while the rest of us had a wander along the crumbling path. There were a couple of waterfalls which made for a refreshing shower. We had time to enjoy a dip in a seawater swimming hole that had been formed amongst the breakwater rockwalls, and spotted a few fish enjoying the shallows. One young Japanese boy was very excited by a close encounter with a bright blue fish.

We returned to town and then to the nearby Ohkataura Picnic Area where Yoshio and his team set up a couple of taikos for us to play. We spent most of the afternoon practicing, jamming and exploring the area.

Back at Hachijo Daiko's HQ for a gourmet meal that evening, accompanied by some delicious 25-year-old sake.

Friday

Today was a big day - it had been the subject of a great deal of planning and workshopping different scenarios - but early indications were that - despite many potentially problematic factors - our Plan A might actually happen! We dropped a bunch of our group at the port, where the ferry was being loaded. The ferry hadn't run for a couple of weeks due to rough weather (viz, the typhoon that had glanced past us at Wachi) and was heaving up and down quite a bit at its dock - as we drove away there were a couple of us saying "I'm so glad we're not going by sea!" The rest of us headed up to the airport, stowed our big bags in the lockers, and checked in at the TAL counter, having to declare our body weight. Incidentally I had lost quite a lot of weight on the trip so far - around 4kg I think, and had had to add a couple of extra notches to my belt. Some of this might've been due to the nausea and recovery from the Mt Fuji climb; I'd also had a pretty hectic and active time and often had had to grab meals on the run but probably the main factor was just a different diet from what I'm used to.

We headed out to the tarmac to our Sikorsky S-76C helicopter, with 2 pilots and 9 of us excited passengers (for a few, it was their first helicopter flight). I was a little surprised that we taxied out to the main runway and then headed skywards, following a trajectory similar to that of a light plane - rather than just launching vertically from the apron.

20 minutes and around 70km later we started our descent and gradually, Aogashima materialised out of the haze - unfortunately the murky atmosphere precluded any of the glorious photography that you can find online, but it was apparent that it was pretty spectacular place. We settled in to the helipad and I noticed a welcome committee - they had a big banner out and were playing a taiko! Kota and Satoshi and their friends and family took us back to their general store to get our bearings, before driving us a little uphill. (Meantime we'd received messages from our ferry buddies describing how they'd had to be craned onto the boat in a container due to the waves, but from there they were having a pleasant crossing.) From there we headed off on a hike up the slope through the tropical foliage, which topped out at the Otombu lookout at the crest of the crater wall - stunning! We could see back across the outside of the volcano, and the whole caldera was laid out before us - a couple of kilometres in diameter with a cone, Maruyama ("Round Mountain"), poking up in the middle. The caldera contains a few homes, farms and factories, and we could occasionally hear the sounds of industry. I decided that if I should ever become a supervillain, this would make a perfect base.

We then drove back down around around the rim, then down into the floor of the caldera and around to the other side, through a tunnel back to the outside of the crater to the main port. Before long the ferry sailed into view, and the rest of the tour group disembarked, none the worse for wear. We had expected that we'd be unlikely to get everyone to the island at the same time, so it was a real bonus the way things worked out - and in the process we'd increased the island's population by 10%!

We headed to Kota's family's party house just inside the caldera wall. We collected some eggs that they'd been cooking in a fumarole oven and settled in for a delicious lunch (and for many, a nap). During the afternoon, the locals showed us around their neighboring forest and market gardens, before leading a hike up Maruyama, where the venting fumaroles added slightly to the steamy conditions. We recovered with a visit to the volcanicly-fuelled onsen, with the best part being the air-conditioned lounge - and the expressions on the faces when people entered. After a quick visit back to the port for a quick look at the sunset, we headed back to the house for a fabulous dinner, lots of drumming and some Aogashima Odori. I had left my uke behind in Hachijo because of weight & size restrictions but was delighted that Arisa had hers handy and enthralled us with some of her beautiful songs, and delightful singing and playing. I may have managed to belt out a song or two as well and there was a bit of late night impromptu karaoke. Junko played some pretty cool solos on her nose-ocarina - a couple of us attempted to get a tune out of it but will need a bit more practice! Ayako ("Fabulous") and the local guys closed the evening around 1am with their rendition of "Shome Shome" - which seemed to be a bit of an improvised bluesy refrain - the chorus means something along the lines of "mixing waters" or "the boundary between seas".

Saturday

Our hosts had done a great job accommodating us, the sleeping arrangements were a little makeshift but effective enough. The first task of the morning was to locate Arisa's necklace which she'd dropped the previous evening - not helped by it being the same colour as the ground! Thankfully it was retrieved. With sun creeping into the caldera we loaded into the minibuses and headed back to the general store for a yummy breakfast. Before long it was time to head back to the heliport, declare our weight again, and head skywards.

Back at Hachijo, some of us managed to change our flight to the next one due, which still gave us a couple of hours spare. Yoshio appeared again and took us for a quick visit to Hachijo museum. Most of the information was in Japanese and was a bit hard to follow on little sleep, but it was still great to have a bit more of an insight into the island.

We headed back to Haneda on ANA (plenty of room on board again). It was a very long walk back to baggage collection, but it included an extremely short travellator of just a couple of metres. I farewelled the others and took the monorail and a couple of trains to my accommodation in Minami-Senju - a tiny bit out of the way & it required lugging my bedraggled suitcase for 15 minutes up the road, but it was quite a comfortable stay. I was super tired but took the train to Ikebukuro for dinner and to check out the planetarium film, "Island Healing", which was all about Aogashima and showed lots of spectacular footage of the island, as well as music that Kota had contributed to. I'm not quite sure what the film was about but it seemed quite popular amongst the large audience; I managed to resist yelling out "I was right there this morning!!!"

Hachijo and Aogashima summary

These islands were simply spectacular and it was a rare privilege to go to them - thanks everyone who helped make it happen! The language barrier again was a slight obstacle to fully joining in with all the socialising, but that is of course the situation for so many of my friends that travel to Australia from non-Anglophone places & as much as I try to pick up a few words of the local language wherever I am, it's mostly practical rather than social. Music helps break the barriers, but there's the occasional cultural divide there as well!

It'd be great to go back and spend a bit longer on both islands - in fact I'm now intrigued about the rest of the Tokyo islands as well! It would be nice to find a sandy beach though, they seemed to be lacking from Hachijo and Aogashima.

Wachi, Osaka - August 2015

Monday 24th August (continued)

From Wachi, Osaka - 2015

Back on dry land, we jumped in a small fleet of taxis to shuttle us to the train station; Toshi had worked out there was a train in a few minutes - but it was a little ambitious given the time required to purchase around 35 tickets (even in a single transaction). Peter had managed to get the earlier train, being sure that his JR Pass would work, and had presumably convinced the ticket booth people as well.

The local train took us to the Shinkansen back to Kanazawa where I reserved a seat for the Thunderbird high-speed (but not Shinkansen) limited express to Kyoto (in the reservation office queue I high-fived a Japanese lady also carrying a ukulele). It was around this time that the extendable handle of my suitcase gave way completely, meaning that I could wheel it around somewhat by pushing it, or carry it via the strap on the side, but it became quite a hassle. I didn't manage to reserve a window seat but whoever had booked the one next to me failed to show up so I had a great view of the countryside as the train made light work of the hundreds of kilometres.

At Kyoto we had an hour or so spare. Shuffling my case around, I topped up my cash levels at an ATM (easy to find this time), and found a cafe in Porta shopping centre, where neither the cafe's WiFi or Porta's worked. While I didn't get beyond the station precinct on this visit to Kyoto, it still brought back many great memories of my previous visits. On to the local train to Sonobe where we all swapped to an even-more-local train, which was more like a bus: passengers enter and exit the two carriages via a single door next to the driver's partition, and the driver also checked our tickets. Our ryokan at the tiny town of Wachi was just a few metres from the station; its structure reminded me a lot of an old theatre and it made for a comfortable and much-needed sleep.

Tuesday

From Wachi, Osaka - 2015

After a generous and partly DIY breakfast, we jumped in our minibus to visit the Wachi Daiko shrine, and then visit a local transport hub for coffee and a visit to the museum which had an exhibition about Yoshikazu Fujimoto who we'd seen perform at Earth Celebration Theatre.

We then headed to the Wachi Daiko training hall where a number of the group collected their special Wachi bachi, and we had a great day of practicing the Wachi routine under the supervision of the local instructors - "Dokkoisa"! It was quite warm but it was a battle to hold onto our bento trays in the wind, resulting from a typhoon that we'd caught the edge of.

At the end of our session we piled back into the minibus which promptly ran over the centre's soccer ball and burst it. Further along we received a phone call- the Wachi guys had found Jenny's umbrella and were bringing it back to the accommodation for us. All packed up, we headed across to the station next door and took the train back to Kyoto. From there the rest of the Wachi group were heading to a Haneda hotel but I was making a brief detour to Osaka. (The Wachi station showed an alternative route back to Osaka via Fukuchiyama which I thought might be quicker, but it looks like it would've taken a little longer.)

I was on the escalator descending to the Osaka-bound station when a scary situation became apparent - the platform was absolutely crammed full of people; presumably the trains had been disrupted with the wild weather. I was worried that me and my wonky suitcase would be jammed up against the crowd, with more people coming down behind! I spied a very small gap straight across to the 'up' escalator and bid a hasty retreat, as platform attendants started to arrive to sort things out. A moment later they'd thankfully barricaded the 'down' escalator to prevent more people having the same problem.

My original plan for the evening had fallen through, so I grabbed a quick meal (not that there were many good options on offer) and then took a slow train to Osaka - by this stage the crowds had dissipated. My battered case was quite a pain in the walk to Nishi Umeda which is all part of the same complex but could've just as easily been in the next suburb. After a bit of hunting around in the rain I found my hostel which was surprisingly comfortable and welcoming - I highly recommend it! They were just putting out a plate of scaldingly hot and delicious takoyaki and offered me some - yum! I had another plan though - a return visit to the Frame House Ukulele Bar a number of blocks away, and inconveniently not really aligned with any of the metro lines, so I set off for a brisk half-hour walk.

I arrived at around 10:30 so things were winding down but there were still 4 people there including the proprietor, Misu-chan. I joined them for a drink and a chat - sharing ukulele stories and showing them photos of my previous visits. They'd remodelled the bar a little but recognised a few of the people in the pictures. After a great chat I headed back to the hostel in time to redeem my voucher for a free sake in the bar downstairs - Kanpai!

Wednesday

From Photo album

Heading into Yotsubashi station and with a renewed interest in finding elevators to deal with my mangled bag, I experienced something a bit different - a lift whose exit door was side-on to the entry; it's quite common to see doors offset by 180° but it's the first time I can remember seeing one where they're 90° apart.

After grabbing some breakfast at Shin-Osaka I took the shinkansen to Shinagawa. This trip was memorable for a conversation with an older Australian couple who I offered to make room for, when they were finding a spot for their luggage: 'nah you're right, no need to put your seat upright, you really don't want a suitcase up your arse, do you?' They mostly referred to their bags as 'ports' which I think is a rare regional dialect. They are apparently doing quite well out of medical tourism at the moment - quite an interesting couple!

The journey continued via the Yamanote line to Hamamatsucho and then monorail to Haneda. I had time to hunt around for some vaguely acceptable airport food for lunch, and then wander up to the observation deck where I was impressed to see an excellent student orchestra performing, with planes taking off in the background - Strauss' Radetzky March was a great finale. From the departure lounge we had a bus across the tarmac to our waiting plane, which, in another first for the day, taxied across a bridge to its departure runway on its own island.

Wachi, Osaka summary

It was another great opportunity to discover another corner of Japan that most visitors - and locals! - don't get to. I felt a bit out of things at times when there was Japanese being spoken all around, but very nice to see Wachi & learn from the local teachers. And as much that it had been fantastic to enjoy the camaraderie of my Melbourne buddies over the last week and a bit, it was nice to have my own little excursion to Osaka and see some familiar sights there and do things in my own time. I was delighted that the hotel, which I'd booked in a flurry of reorganising a week earlier, turned out to be a fantastic refuge and a very comfortable base.

Earth Celebration Festival at Sado Island - August 2015

From Earth Celebration Festival, Sado Island - 2015

Thursday, 20th August

We farewelled the ryokan cats and fish and jumped in a small fleet of taxis to the port, just a few minutes away. We had a little while to wait, so I had a quick look around the terminal - it was several stories high and mostly empty and deserted. There was a great view of the Sea of Japan and our shiny new catamaran ferry, Akane, from the observation deck.

Once aboard for the 1hr40 crossing, I was delighted to discover that the boat provided WiFi (very handy) and once we set off across the sea at a cracking pace I took to calling it the Shipkansen, but this name didn't take off. There were a bunch of others heading to the Earth Celebration festival and I met and chatted to a few of them, in particular a couple of stall holders and a journalist that was planning to write a story on the festival. A couple of the group felt the effects of the slight swell but my constitution had been well tempered.

After we disembarked at Ogi, I joined Keiko, Gayle and Cyndy in loading our stuff into a hire car. The four of us had booked tickets for the Noh Theatre performance that night, and I for one hadn't realised at the time that the show was an hour's drive away, and buses and taxis were prohibitively expensive; so we'd all put in for the 24-hour rental, which turned out to be very useful. The GPS was, of course, difficult to figure out - in any language! But first, we dropped our bags off with our tour buddies in Shukunegi, for them to cart to the accommodation, which was still being sorted out. Gayle and I had decided that Shukunegi sounded like the sound a ruler makes when you twang it on the edge of a desk, particularly if you add a few extra 'negi's. There was a whirlwind of buses, people and luggage going to various places and amongst the flurry of activity, our carload made a relaxed retreat, intending to do some sightseeing and then make it to the afternoon workshop at Koto's taiko centre, Tatako-kan, which my car-mates assured us was at 2pm. Someone suggested heading to the taiko centre (about a 10-minute drive into the forest) just to make sure we could find it when we needed to - lucky we did because Ayako rushed out to grab us and shepherd us inside - the workshop was at 12 noon and we were half an hour late!

No matter - we were able to catch up quickly. We learnt the basics of tying an okedo and watched a great demonstration of tying a shime, requiring some hefty branches to use as levers and mallets for the ropes, and two experienced taiko players basically doing a tug-of-war to apply tension in between tying off the knots. Next we learnt "Shiroi Gohan", a fun piece based on being hungry and asking for a full menu's worth of food over 3 meals, and containing a phrase which became a warcry motto for the rest of the tour: "NAN DESU KA!!!" ["What is it?"] After the workshop we had a quick look around the complex which, in addition to the cathedral-like studio space, had a balcony with magnificent views across the island.

The Noh team had a few hours spare but given that it took us around 15 minutes to program Aikawa into the GPS (with no shortage of help & encouragement from the assembled crowd) we decided to head there straight from Tatako-kan. We set off... and in a moment of fine slapstick, realised after 200m that we were going in the wrong direction so had to do a U-turn and drive back past the cheering crowd. We started to trust our navigation to Google Maps instead. The drive takes and hour and featured some spectacular coastal views. A lot of the shoreline featured breakwaters made of giant jigsaw-shaped concrete bollards, pre-fabricated with odd protrusions so that if a tsunami or storm hits, they tangle together to form a solid barrier.

Once in Aikawa we found the venue without too many problems (thankfully! It hadn't been clear from the booking process) and headed into town for dinner. Back at the outdoor theatre - ticketing was still being set up so I headed over to the beach, pulled out the uke and had another quick run through - I was starting to get a bit nervous about the next day's performance! In particular, whether I'd have an audience - it sounded like many of my tour mates had booked excursions or other activities. At least on the beach, I had a couple of passers-by giving me some applause!

Getting a hurry-on from the others, we headed to the theatre - Gayle had provided a synopsis in English, which was quite useful, but much of the performance was quite mysterious. It was all very stylised, with magnificent costumes, silly voices and odd movements; sparse musical accompaniment (the choir was great), and to the untrained eye - very slow. It was often more interesting watching the attendants tend to their braziers.

Keiko dropped us back to Shukunegi where the others had set up the rooms for us.

Friday

From Earth Celebration Festival, Sado Island - 2015

The feature concerts over the three nights of the festival were held at Shiroyama (White Mountain) - a small table-topped hill adjacent to the port. Seating for the thousands of attendees was general admission on the lawns, but there was a queuing system for those keen to get up close. This involved lining up from 6am to receive up to 5 queue tickets each. A roster had been drawn up and along with a few others in the Shu-crew, I was in the first 6am shift - with Keiko happy to drive and the car available for just a few more hours, it was the best chance for us to do our bit. There was a slight obstacle when it appeared that we were locked in to our accommodation, but before we had to wake up the house to see who had the key, I discovered that I could untwist a flimsy wire securing a sliding screen door and we were out. I later discovered another door next to the bathroom which had a press-button lock that would have let us out, although we'd've all ended up with an extra coating of spider webs.

Keiko picked us up & dropped us over to the ticketing area where we met some of the rest of the group and set up camp in the queue ready for the 9am release of the Entrance Order cards. I tried to get a little bit of enthusiasm going for my Fringe show but was starting to get a bit disheartened... feeling the need to bolster the chance of having a few people come to watch, I hit upon the idea of dashing off a bunch of hand-written mini-flyers, and with my ukulele in hand, and a queue of a couple of hundred bored and sleepy people snaked around me, I proceeded along the line - handing out flyers and quietly playing a verse or two on request, and although I had a mixed response I was delighted that some of the people I spoke to seemed very interested. I'm not sure if it led to any additional audience members for me but it was a fantastic outlet for my frustration. Next time I'll think ahead to print off some flyers, but unfortunately this time my communication from the festival hadn't been definitive about if & when I was performing.

The next queue shift came to relieve us at 7:30. I headed over to the market which was still setting up, but the banana pancake stand was open for breakfast. At the information centre I tried to confirm my performance, but they weren't sure; but I did manage to join the morning's Sea Kayaking booking, joining Gerda and Jess (hobbling a bit with her sore ankle), and it wasn't long to wait before we were in the minibus heading the few kilometres to the dive centre. We were a very multinational group (I got to practice some French again), and I shared a kayak with Margaret - an experienced scout leader from England, who had been at the Jamboree. Gerda was keen on staying dry, and a bit of misty drizzle around, wore a plastic raincoat under her life jacket. This had limited effectiveness as the waterfights started! The kayaks headed out from the harbour and squeezed through a narrow entrance into a small network of sea caves - we could fit all the kayaks inside but it needed multi-point turns to navigate, and the walls of the caves were a mass of skittering bugs. Back out in the Sea of Japan, the tour guide declared that it was time for a swim and a bunch of us tumbled in to have a splash around- the water was calm and almost warm. After a while, Gerda gave up any remaining ideas of staying dry and jumped in - raincoat and all! Getting back into the kayaks took a little bit of strategy but Margaret provided some great direction and assistance. The group toured a little further down the coast and then turned back into the gentle swell for the run home. The tour was a lot of fun and it was great to meet some of the other festival attendees. Gerda and I headed back (briefly interrupted by my dash back to retrieve my hat & sunnies - but I forgot my suncream and needed to buy some more later in the weekend) around the corner to Shukunegi to get ready for the busy afternoon. We planned to catch the bus back to Ogi for lunch, but weren't sure of where the bus stop was, so we ducked into the post office next door which was quite a surprise - old fashioned and traditional-looking outside, it was a modern & well furnished multi-function business centre inside. There was one lady being served at the counter; it seemed to be quite a simple transaction but whatever it was, it involved an inordinate number of processing steps - we gave up the wait and ducked outside to see the bus rounding the corner, so we waved madly at it and it stopped for us.

Several weeks earlier I had seen that the Earth Celebration website had invited people to perform at the Fringe event, and - not discouraged by some of my tour colleagues who'd described that it was very difficult to get a spot - I applied to do a Brass Traps set, and was delighted to have been accepted! The 30-minute performance was at 3pm. I had invited people from our group to join in the performance and was stoked that Gerda had offered to play some percussion. I had wondered about how to deal with performing in English, if the audience was to be largely Japanese, and so I made sure I included all my 'visual humour' songs in the set; and also thought it would be good to briefly introduce each song and I asked Gerda to translate this introduction. I had scrounged around a little to find a drum for her to play, without success - but had the idea of grabbing a frying pan from the house as a makeshift shime - it was all a bit haphazard but I thought the it's sound wasn't too bad and it kind of suited the Brass Traps aesthetic.

With Gerda having lunch (and doubts, I expect!) I headed over to the performance venue - the local school gymnasium. Fringe performers hadn't been promised a PA but in fact there was quite an impressive setup. As the start time approached I was delighted and relieved to see quite a healthy audience of maybe 60 or 80 people, including a bunch of friends from Melbourne and that I'd met on tour (thanks everyone for your support - it seriously made a huge difference!) and I felt very much at home. I announced that Gerda would be translating for me and she proceeded to tell the audience "Bernard will introduce each song, and I will translate to Japanese for you"... only for our friends in the audience to remind her that she was meant to say that part in Japanese!

From my side of the microphone, the performance went fantastically well - I remembered all the lyrics (with one line of 'You Ask Too Much' out of sequence, but it didn't matter) and we received generous applause and had the little kids up & dancing. There was a bit of slapback from the gym walls but I quickly got used to it. It was an absolute buzz and was all over before I knew it (oops - went about 90 seconds over time - sumimasen!). Gerda absolutely stole the show though, her frypan percussion (in trying circumstances) was perfectly suited to the songs - and from what I understand, her translations of the song introductions were very entertaining- occasionally she couldn't quite find the right word in Japanese and it led to a round of impromptu audience participation for everyone to help out - and after the gig, her involvement was just about all people wanted to talk about. Thanks Gerda - you're a champ! I was also very chuffed to get some very nice feedback about the songs and my humble efforts as well. Thanks everybody!

With that part of the festival over (and with me on a real high now!) I watched a bit of the next performance, grabbed some dinner and then joined the queue for the ordered entrance to the evening's feature concert. There was a bit of time to wait so I got into conversation with our designated staff member - Noah, a young German/Japanese guy who was a lot of fun and very interested in this big group of Australians under his charge. Under his supervision, we headed up the steep slope and set out our tarps on the lawns in front of the huge stage. The crowd grew to a few thousand and we settled in for an evening of fabulous & spectacularly presented percussion. There were a few passing showers and our wet weather gear was only somewhat effective but I found that the frypan had further uses in addition to being a percussion instrument - it also made for a very handy rain hat. The MC at the start of the night was very shouty and addressed us with the fervour of a war general, motivating his citizens... I asked my Japanese speaking friends what he was speaking about, and they said "he understands that the conditions are a little difficult but let's all try to enjoy a pleasant evening!" It was a great show with great company, and quite inspiring to see how far taiko performances can go.

Afterwards the Shukunegi crew took the bus back to the accommodation - huge day! A lot of messages were flying back and forth on 'Line' to coordinate queuing and transport - a lot of people were getting very confused with trying to figure out what we all needed to do and I was quite relieved that my internet connection was restricted to the occasional WiFi hotspot, and didn't afford me involvement in what sounded like quite a perplexing discussion.

Saturday

From Earth Celebration Festival, Sado Island - 2015

Thankfully it was a much more relaxed start to the day and I got a chance to get my bearings around the house. It was quite modest & a bit reminiscent of budget scout camps I'd stayed at. There were some upstairs bedrooms and a downstairs living area that included a fire pit (repurposed as the boys' bedroom). A pebble-floored kitchen was fitted out with the latest in 1940s culinary technology - perhaps the fridge was a bit more recent. There was a tiny washing machine which (I hear) had been brought specially for us. Bathrooms were in a separate wing connected via a covered walkway and there was a single shower (and Japanese bath) room, for the 17 of us to timeshare. The house was a little primitive at times but I found it quite comfy & practical - I know that some of the others weren't too impressed with it though!

Gerda & I walked the 4km or so to town, past rice fields, gently sloping hills and small clumps of houses. I noticed that a few of the homes had external oil tanks, presumably for heating, which reminded me of my first childhood home. We met a bunch of the tour group who were heading to the "Fujimotomida" EC Theatre show so I tagged along. (Besides the Noh theatre, I hadn't booked any of the tours or activities beforehand because of the uncertainty about my Fringe theatre.) It was in Japanese & I couldn't really follow what was happening, but as far as I could tell, it was a retrospective of the performing careers of two top taiko players, Yoshikazu Fujimoto and Kazuaki Tomida, as told (and performed) presented by themselves. It was pretty entertaining as it was, but understanding Japanese would have been a big advantage!

After getting supplies at the Co-op supermarket (which became a bit of a ritual), lunch at the market, a visit to the cafe, and shopping for festival merch, Gerda, Jenny & I decided to rent some bikes to explore the region. Jenny had heard about a great bread shop in the neighboring town of Hamochi, which sounded like a good objective for the afternoon. We set off (helmetless!) around 3pm, following the main road east from the port. My navigation skills quickly came into question as the road headed inland and uphill, necessitating the use of the bikes' battery-powered booster motors & a check of Google Maps to confirm that we were a little off track. We replotted the course - the detour did have its benefits though - firstly we passed a garden nursery featuring some giant pumpkins, and then the shortcut back to Hamochi was a fun coast downhill past small farms and through the forest before opening out to stunning views across to the town. We picked up a bike path alongside the river for the last bucolic section across the river plain into Hamochi, and found the bread shop (although it was operating under a different name from what we'd been told) and its friendly West Indian(?) proprietor. Time was starting to run short and so we quickly picked up a variety of items for dinner and hit the road. There were a few moments of worry where we thought we might be late back but it was a straightforward run back to Ogi and we were in our allocated queue positions with a few minutes to spare.

The evening's concert was a different program and the weather had cleared up - another great night! Afterwards, Gerda and I made more use of the bikes, commuting back to Shukunegi, with Jenny attending a Miyake function. On the way back past the concert venue we passed a line of around 20 people already lined up for the next day's queue tickets - despite the official edict to not begin queuing until 6am.

Sunday

From Earth Celebration Festival, Sado Island - 2015

With a few hours left on the bike hire, I followed a route on the Ogi cycling map, along the south-western coast, passing several fishing hamlets and some nice views. There was a nice mix of historic buildings and some very modern infrastructure; in particular the bridges and tunnels featured designs and engineering beyond what the modest villages would seem to warrant. I passed the lighthouse (not overly noteworthy) and had a quick look at the coastline around the point - the shore was volcanic rock that had erupted underwater, resulting in some interesting formations and precipitous outcrops. It was a nice & peaceful excursion after all the noise and crowds of the big events.

Then back to town and another Fringe event - a big team of Miyake players, including quite a few from the taiko tour, put on a terrific performance, with Jenny nailing her role in the finale of the routine. I'd been a bit worried that there was a Miyake curse, as a number of the players had been hit with an odd selection of injuries - besides Jess's ankle, Winson had a mysterious foot & leg bruise and Corch had also rolled his ankle at the previous evening's concert (and was swamped by first-aiders eager to help), and Ami injured her hand during the performance itself necessitating a visit to hospital.

At lunchtime I went to the stall of the couple of met on the boat to try their chicken satay - a bit of a disappointment I'm afraid! I consoled myself with an enjoyable walk along the shore around Shiroyama; there were quite a few other people enjoying the summery weather. I returned my bike - it'd been great fun to have a bit of extra mobility over the last 24 hours, and to go sightseeing with Gerda and Jenny. It was warming up enough to take refuge in the EC Theatre again - this afternoon's show was Chieko Kojima starring in "Yukiai–Kiyohime" - a dance performance accompanied by some fantastic musicianship on shamisen, koto, piano, general percussion and of course taiko. There was also a giant & quite convincing dragon, operated by three puppeteers. Again I probably missed some of the subtler details but it was quite a spectacle, not to mention a nice break from the heat outside. I went to watch a few of the others try out Sado Island's distinctive tub boats - small round boats rowed with a single oar tied to the front. They were powered by wiry Japanese women who demonstrated the agility provided by the unusual arrangement.

Then - the final concert. The crowd was definitely in party mood - I even saw a couple swing dancing to the background music before the show started. A lot of the material was repeated from the previous night but there was a fantastic vibe and several encores (and a horrendous crack when someone unplugged a cable and it was amplified at full volume across the grounds). It was terrific to see taiko presented as part of such a huge production! Thankfully the bus waited for us to take us back to Shukunegi, where we had a great final-night mini house party.

Monday

From Earth Celebration Festival, Sado Island - 2015

Toshi had organised taxis to pick us up at 10am so we had a nice relaxed morning - no need to worry about queuing for concert tickets (huge thanks to those in our group who'd coordinated this though)! Leah and I had a final look around Shukunegi; amongst the historic buildings, one of the highlights was the vending machine which dispensed cheery greetings along with the drinks. We bundled all the bags downstairs (I found Corch's missing sunnies in the process) which somehow turned into an impromptu chin-up session, and I'm happy to say I gave a good account.

At the ferry terminal we still had a little spare time to join in a final drum circle at the foreshore and to swap email addresses and Facebook befriendings with some of the people I'd met along the way. It had been a terrific weekend! A few times there'd been a possible hiccup but everything always seemed to work out fine, and every time I started to feel at a loss with a couple of hours' downtime looming, another cool activity presented itself.

The ferry's departure was marked by Kodo members playing their farewell piece, Okuri Daiko, with big crowds gathered on the shore and on deck waving madly at each other. On board there were a few more farewells as some of our buddies were leaving the tour at this point. Thanks everyone!

Earth Celebration Overview

It was a terrific festival - fantastic feature concerts and events, and great to hang out with a bunch of friends and to meet some new ones. It was a huge buzz to perform at the Fringe and I hope that everyone that got a chance to perform had as much fun as me. There were a few flat moments, exacerbated by sleep debt and weather, but things always quickly turned around. Many people contributed to all the organising and making sure things went smoothly; thanks everyone - it was great to be part of! It was very nice to be away from big cities for a little while and see some countryside outside of Honshu. I hope to come along again one day!

Tokyo, Kanazawa, Naoetsu - August 2015

Sunday, August 16 (continued)

I arrived in Ikebukuro in the late afternoon and found my way through the labyrinthine underground corridors connecting the various railway networks, shopping centres and surrounding districts without too much difficulty. I found the ryokan that a bunch of us had booked into - it was quite charming although had a bit of a mouldy smell that some of the group weren't at all keen on. Most of the group was at a Miyake event, but I met up with Yen Wei and we found a nice place for dinner - it was great to compare notes on our travels so far, and it was great to have a Japanese speaker handy. Back at the ryokan, many of my taiko tour buddies started to arrive - one a little affected by the change of environment and looking quite wobbly and assisted by a few of the others. The weather was threatening - Lynette had just put out a load of washing when a tropical storm hit.

A small deputation of us headed out in the pouring rain for a fix of karaoke into the early hours - great fun!

Monday

From Tokyo - Kanazawa - Naoetsu 2015

Before the trip I'd messaged a few ex-Wadaiko Rindo members who were back living in Japan, to see if they wanted to meet up with us. I was a bit bleary after the late-night karaoke and a bit puzzled as my sandals from Kota Kinabalu - which were particularly useful in rainy weather - had disappeared, but I dashed off to the station and took the metro to meet up with the wonderful koto and taiko player, Yoshie. I arrived at Nagatacho on time and promptly exited through the wrong gate, and then had to backtrack above ground a couple of hundred metres. I had looked forward to being on time for my Japanese appointments and this wasn't a good start! My fault for not paying attention to the station information signs, which throughout the network, spelt out in great detail how all the platforms and exits are connected and where all the lifts and escalators are. Thankfully Yoshie patiently waited the extra few minutes for me and we had a fantastic catch-up. She had just finished up her job and was looking forward to moving to France.

Next, back through Nagatacho and its connected station, Akasakamitsuke (quite a hike! several hundred metres), to pick up the Ginza line to Asakusa for a Okedo workshop with Eva from Miyamoto Studio. At Asakusa metro station I stopped to check the "local map" information board, and noticed that I was standing beside our tour organiser Ayako - I was starting to feel very much at home, randomly bumping into people I knew in a foreign city! This continued as I detoured past the Miyamoto drum museum and store to buy some okedo bachi, as I bumped into some of the rest of the tour group exploring the area before their okedo session. I don't usually play much okedo but it was great to give it a try! Eva is rather petite and Leonore, Danielle and myself (in particular) seemed to inadvertently tower over her, so in reference to the local landmark, I designated our group "Team SkyTree".

I was keen to complete my truncated SkyTree attempt, so I left behind the others and made my way there - this time on foot! The heavy, grey skies meant that the views were limited but it was still great to check it out.

Then back across town to meet up with Emi, who was back in Japan after many years working in and around Melbourne. She took me for afternoon tea and, not sure if we would be rained on, I was able to share with her some local tourist attractions that she didn't know about - the free observation decks of both the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and the adjacent Sumitomo Building. It was great to meet up with Emi again, and hopefully we'll see each other again soon - she was thinking about moving back to Victoria.

Back on the other side of Shinjuku station, I joined up with our group booking for the Awa Odori Shinjuku restaurant. It was also my final reunion for the day as Midori had joined us for dinner - it was great to see her again as well! She certainly provided the glamour for the evening as the rest of us were looking very much like tourists. The food was great and there was a cast of musicians and dancers that gave us a great demonstration of Awa Odori - I have learnt the basics of this traditional Japanese dance at home but hadn't seen it in full flight; it was a lot bigger, louder and crazier than I had realised!

Later that night, Karaoke Kai reconvened - there was plenty of calls of "skipu" when song suggestions fell flat - but I had my most inspired choices occur to me as the last few minutes counted down, so I'll have to keep them in reserve for next time - I'm thinking "Send Me An Angel"...

Tuesday

From Tokyo - Kanazawa - Naoetsu 2015

The ryokan had been quite a comfy stay but with a couple of drawbacks - one became apparent this morning as the hot water service failed. It did get us a discount though. Another bonus was that I discovered my missing sandals alongside the sink in the shared bathroom, where I must've left them the previous morning.

Today was a big day of travel - I met up with a few of the others at an 'order breakfast by ticket' place and then on to Ikebukuro station where I bumped into Yen Wei in the queue to book our trains to Kanazawa. I allowed a couple of hours for some shopping, then took the suburban train to Omiya to pick up the Shinkansen there (after having a delightful time ordering lunch at a station cafe with a non-English-speaking mother and daughter (I think) involving lots of charades).

The Hokuriku Shinkansen has only been only open for a few months so everything was bright and shiny, and there were some fantastic views through the mountains. A couple of hours later at Kanazawa station, I bumped into Keiko who was keen on checking out the big city parks, and she helped translate for me when I was trying to get assistance from the information counter. My main objective was to find an ATM. I went in the general direction indicated by the lady behind the counter, not realising that I needed to pass through a department store to get to the machines. I proceeded around the neighborhood, finding a couple of banks and convenience stores, but none of them accepted my TravelMoney card - it was quite a surprise as the area looked like it was presenting itself as a big tourist destination but I felt like I wasn't able to get some basic stuff done. Finally back at the station and just about resigned to defeat, I tried to find the first ATMs that had been pointed out and this time managed to locate them, but they still didn't accept my card - I was able to use my regular savings account card but the transaction fee was about $30.

I took the local train to Matto. I had been thinking about buying something percussive to use at the Fringe festival show and saw an poster for a music shop, so walked a short distance to try to find it - no luck, but I did find a park containing (apparently) the ruins of a local castle, and a 'taiko bridge'. I took a taxi, showing the driver a screen shot of the location of Asano Ex, where we'd be having our workshop. He drove instead to the Asano HQ, around one-and-a-half km away (luckily I recognised these from the brochures) and while I debated with him about where we were (with no shared language), Toshi appeared and - in his usual style - sorted out the situation. I stayed put, as the guys that were at Asano Ex were about to return to join us for dinner. I just had time for a quick look around their shop - I must work up to investing in some taiko hardware one day!

We had dinner at a local restaurant and picked up some snacks at the adjacent convenience store, before heading to Asano Ex which was doubling as our accommodation - I joined the bunch that decided to walk. Sleeping arrangements were sorted and we enjoyed an impromptu performance by the Asano ladies, and the beers that their group had shouted us.

Wednesday

From Tokyo - Kanazawa - Naoetsu 2015

With an impending gig I felt like I really needed to run through my set so after breakfast I ducked into the courtyard and serenaded the empty walls (nice reverb!) - I had the occasional visit from tour members, but I think most of them are content to leave me to my indulgences! I did gain a couple of extra audience members though - there was a big warehouse next door and a couple of cleaners appeared in the upstairs window - they were wearing face masks so I'm not sure what their expressions were, but I gave them a cheery wave, and they waved back!

The rest of the day was a workshop conducted by Jige, a stern Japanese lady edging towards her senior years. Her English was very limited - mainly "relax! relax! relax!" and "You, no! You, NO!" - regardless, it was a lot of fun and we learnt a cool new piece, "Mitsu Uchi" ["Three Strikes/Beats"] and some new techniques involving lots of rim clicks (alas for Gerda's brand new Asano bachi which were soon covered in dints), and combining drumming and semaphore-style moves. We had organised bento boxes for lunch but somehow there was one short.

With the workshop done, the Asano guys drove us to the local station, Kagakasama (quite a buzz so see express trains zipping past) from where we picked up the shinkansen to Jyoetsumyoko Station. There was a bit of a debate about swinging the seats around so that we could sit facing each other; my suggestion was dismissed at first but then achieved consensus. We changed to another local train to Naoetsu. Our accommodation was very close to the station and also handy to the town's sights. By this stage, various other sub-groups had continued to meet up and we pretty much had the full complement of our tour for dinner a short walk away. Dinner was punctuated by collection of funds for the settlement of various bookings, presentations of the fantastic tour merchandise, and photo shoots. It wasn't far to return but with Jess having sprained her ankle just before leaving her home in Tokyo, I helped fill the taxi.

Back at the ryokan, the proprietors offered to provide a fridge for those that had bought supplies, and I got to lend some elbow grease to get it up the hall.

Tokyo->Naoetsu overview

It had been a whirlwind few days and it was amazing that all the social activities slotted together brilliantly. Incidentally I was becoming quite accustomed to sleeping on thin mattresses on tatami mats - I think I fell asleep pretty quickly and slept deeply, and as soon as I woke up in the morning I was ready to get up & about. The downside was that I think I was regularly waking up one sleep cycle too early - not helped by the early sunrise (around 5am) - and I think a few of us built up quite a bit of sleep deprivation over the next week and a bit.

Osaka - August 2015