09.36
Hotel Acceptable-ish, Osaka.
Acceptable buffet, reflective breakfast. New reading: Ways of Listening: An Ecological Approach to the Perception of Musical Meaning (Oxford 2005) by Eric. F. Clarke
This is also a result of bibliophiliacal tumescence at the University Bookstore in Seattle.
Bartok: the lento from the First String Quartet is sublime. This music held great power in my life around the time of the first major life transition, from estate agent to professional musician in 1967, and contributed to the shift. I have not returned to the Bartok SQs with the same intensity since, until now. And here I find the lento, waiting for me still. I feel this music is part of the unfolding future-sense: my sense is of time opening forward & backwards simultaneously.
12.36 Bullet Train Osaka>Tokyo.
Osaka Platform I…
II…
That’s our train!...
On board…
II…
III…
Always a wonder when traveling to & from Tokyo when this view appears: Mount Fuji I…
II…
III…
IV…
V...
14.53 Hotel Acceptable, Tokyo
The room is better than I was lead to believe it would be I…
II…
III…
Centre…
Left…
Right…
This is the first time I have stayed in this particular hotel, some 15 years old. It is quite close to the Hotel New Otani, where Crimson stayed on their first visit to Japan in December 1981; and the Capitol Toyku, where I have mostly stayed since touring Japan with David Sylvian in 1992, which is currently closed for refurb & about to re-open. But not today.
The view from my room is the opposite direction to the Otani & Tokyu, less spectacular but also a little quieter.
Now, an e-flurry.
20.17 An early performance, as is conventional in Tokyo: doors open at 17.45, support act on at 18.30.
Soundcheck of the top act I…
II…
Stage right monitor of stage action…
Rock Gods I…
II…
III…
Support act’s dressing room…
II…
Tonight, the Soundscapes set was 29 minutes: 1 minute short. What a terrible man - shortchanging innocent audients who handed over their hard-earned pay. The audience was generous, although some had difficulty with the Soundscapes. But, generous all the same.
This was the last of our 3 performances of this visit. I continue too jet-lagged to stay & cheer for PT, or go with them to the promoter’s farewell dinner at the restaurant Quentin Tarentino used to film Kill Bill – where the killer schoolgirl & hordes of assassins & Lucy Liu are all despatched by Uma the revenging hero.
So, back to the hotel.
"May we wish for others what we wish for ourselves."
