Japan!
What a place on this earth! Well, where should I start. The food was outstanding. The weather was great. We went from winter in Australia to hot summer in Taipei to moderate summer in Tokyo. (I would comment on Taipei, but we were there barely 24 hours, and unfortunately I didn’t get to see too much ? we enjoyed tea from Taiwan’s highest mountain at lunch and all felt a little high after drinking it.)
First off, Japan is very proper, in many ways. When I got to my hotel room there was a folded Kimono on the bed, an origami crane on the pillow, and a white towel on the floor where your feet would be if you were standing to get into bed. I walked into the bathroom and was greeted by a highly technological toilet. Let me explain. On the side of the toilet was a little arm with buttons on it. One was a picture of a person sitting on top of splashing water, and another was a picture of butt-cheeks on top of a spout of water. I have enclosed a picture. And the amazing thing, now this is really amazing, is that if you pushed either of these buttons a little noise came from the back of the toilet, a sensor would come out, measure your location, and warm water would spout in the exact location you might need it to spout in. I mean, BULLS-EYE! It shocked me the first time so much that I screamed! That machine did not beat around the bush (ha, ha); it was serious about cleanliness! I thought it was a great invention and I cannot believe we don’t have these kinds of toilets in America. I have enclosed a picture of one of these toilets that was in the lobby of the hotel. But there was a special button on this toilet, seeing as it was in the public: a "flushing sound" button. I guess if you are going to make any noises while in a public toilet stall you can push this white-noise "flushing sound" and disguise all your sounds? WOW!
We played at the Fuji Rock festival right after the Beach Boys (who I must admit I enjoyed thoroughly).
The Beach Boys - Mike Love, the only orignal member, is up front.
This festival was absolutely amazing, huge and in the mountains 3 hours away from Tokyo. We went on just as it got dark. Cool right? Better ambiance? NO, not in the summer in the middle of nature in the mountainous countryside of Japan. Let me explain. At the first signs of darkness on a warm summer’s night the night bugs come out; I know this well being from a humid and hot summery place. And we have played before at a few outdoor festivals where I have experienced some of the flying friends of the night. Well, at Fuji Rock it began raining (coincidentally during the song Raining Again, the 2nd song of the set).
There were already a few visitors alighting on my keyboards, but when the rain fell all the bugs within a 9-mile radius found a haven under the bright lights on stage with us. I am not normally bothered by night bugs, beetles, moths, mosquitoes, etc., BUT there were more than I have ever seen in my life. The keys, being white, had attracted a regular zoo of insects by the third song. I cannot even expect you to imagine how covered the keys were. As I played I would blow on the keys and send many of the smaller ones flying in a cloud of wings. The beetles wouldn’t budge however. These beetles were basically the size of golf balls -well, no I am exaggerating, more like the roaches we have in GA and make them spheres instead of flat ovals.
As I played the keys, the beetles would bounce up and down, turning on their backs, turning right-side up, sometimes falling off and flying away. There were black beetles, brown beetles, gold beetles... and they would come in at high velocities making a plane engine-like sound, and skid into the keyboard or pelt my body. They landed in my hair, on my neck, on my dress, and each time they did it felt like someone had thrown one of those rubber balls you used to get out of machines for 25 cents. Powerful. At first I thought it was interesting, fun to dodge the bugs - I could tell the beetles were incoming when I heard their plane-engines, and I got pretty talented using my hair clip (which I had to remove promptly when the bugs started burrowing in my scalp) to pop the beetles and larger scorpion-like bugs off the keyboards.
But after a while as the swarms increased I realized these were not friendly bugs. They were biting! I had sprayed my arms and legs with bug spray, but several times I felt sharp pain on my torso and realized these monsters were actually biting me through my dress. At that point I had to become aggressive. This was mostly exercised by dancing wildly on my riser each time I was not two-handedly engaged with the keyboards, and swinging my hair madly when I was playing. I got sprayed again before Porcelain, and I had our drum tech, Randy, helping me swipe some of the droves off the keys and from beneath my feet so I wouldn’t keep smashing so many of them. Moths were my pets, mosquitoes were my enemies, and the stupid burrowing beetles were objects to bat away. Ahh, it was interesting, and what a workout! I’m not sure that was my favorite experience. But the crowd LOVED Moby and it was fun in the end! See the interesting pictures of Tokyo below and I’ll be back soon!
Love you!
Luci
Japanese crosswalk - notice how it is utter mayhem when the walk sign illuminates! They walk all four sides of the intersection, diagonally from corner to corner, and any other way they choose, so long as the walking man is lit. Notice the umbrellas some women are carrying. They reminded me of the lost glamour of parasols, ahh.
Traditional Japan (love it!)
Modern Japan (NYC, no?)
First off, Japan is very proper, in many ways. When I got to my hotel room there was a folded Kimono on the bed, an origami crane on the pillow, and a white towel on the floor where your feet would be if you were standing to get into bed. I walked into the bathroom and was greeted by a highly technological toilet. Let me explain. On the side of the toilet was a little arm with buttons on it. One was a picture of a person sitting on top of splashing water, and another was a picture of butt-cheeks on top of a spout of water. I have enclosed a picture. And the amazing thing, now this is really amazing, is that if you pushed either of these buttons a little noise came from the back of the toilet, a sensor would come out, measure your location, and warm water would spout in the exact location you might need it to spout in. I mean, BULLS-EYE! It shocked me the first time so much that I screamed! That machine did not beat around the bush (ha, ha); it was serious about cleanliness! I thought it was a great invention and I cannot believe we don’t have these kinds of toilets in America. I have enclosed a picture of one of these toilets that was in the lobby of the hotel. But there was a special button on this toilet, seeing as it was in the public: a "flushing sound" button. I guess if you are going to make any noises while in a public toilet stall you can push this white-noise "flushing sound" and disguise all your sounds? WOW!
We played at the Fuji Rock festival right after the Beach Boys (who I must admit I enjoyed thoroughly).
The Beach Boys - Mike Love, the only orignal member, is up front.
This festival was absolutely amazing, huge and in the mountains 3 hours away from Tokyo. We went on just as it got dark. Cool right? Better ambiance? NO, not in the summer in the middle of nature in the mountainous countryside of Japan. Let me explain. At the first signs of darkness on a warm summer’s night the night bugs come out; I know this well being from a humid and hot summery place. And we have played before at a few outdoor festivals where I have experienced some of the flying friends of the night. Well, at Fuji Rock it began raining (coincidentally during the song Raining Again, the 2nd song of the set).
There were already a few visitors alighting on my keyboards, but when the rain fell all the bugs within a 9-mile radius found a haven under the bright lights on stage with us. I am not normally bothered by night bugs, beetles, moths, mosquitoes, etc., BUT there were more than I have ever seen in my life. The keys, being white, had attracted a regular zoo of insects by the third song. I cannot even expect you to imagine how covered the keys were. As I played I would blow on the keys and send many of the smaller ones flying in a cloud of wings. The beetles wouldn’t budge however. These beetles were basically the size of golf balls -well, no I am exaggerating, more like the roaches we have in GA and make them spheres instead of flat ovals.
As I played the keys, the beetles would bounce up and down, turning on their backs, turning right-side up, sometimes falling off and flying away. There were black beetles, brown beetles, gold beetles... and they would come in at high velocities making a plane engine-like sound, and skid into the keyboard or pelt my body. They landed in my hair, on my neck, on my dress, and each time they did it felt like someone had thrown one of those rubber balls you used to get out of machines for 25 cents. Powerful. At first I thought it was interesting, fun to dodge the bugs - I could tell the beetles were incoming when I heard their plane-engines, and I got pretty talented using my hair clip (which I had to remove promptly when the bugs started burrowing in my scalp) to pop the beetles and larger scorpion-like bugs off the keyboards.
But after a while as the swarms increased I realized these were not friendly bugs. They were biting! I had sprayed my arms and legs with bug spray, but several times I felt sharp pain on my torso and realized these monsters were actually biting me through my dress. At that point I had to become aggressive. This was mostly exercised by dancing wildly on my riser each time I was not two-handedly engaged with the keyboards, and swinging my hair madly when I was playing. I got sprayed again before Porcelain, and I had our drum tech, Randy, helping me swipe some of the droves off the keys and from beneath my feet so I wouldn’t keep smashing so many of them. Moths were my pets, mosquitoes were my enemies, and the stupid burrowing beetles were objects to bat away. Ahh, it was interesting, and what a workout! I’m not sure that was my favorite experience. But the crowd LOVED Moby and it was fun in the end! See the interesting pictures of Tokyo below and I’ll be back soon!
Love you!
Luci
Japanese crosswalk - notice how it is utter mayhem when the walk sign illuminates! They walk all four sides of the intersection, diagonally from corner to corner, and any other way they choose, so long as the walking man is lit. Notice the umbrellas some women are carrying. They reminded me of the lost glamour of parasols, ahh.
Traditional Japan (love it!)
Modern Japan (NYC, no?)
posted at
8:54 PM
|
