"Do you like trance music?"

Ok, I think that my brain is starting to fire-up again after Songkran. I spent the two days after Songkran basically just sitting in the lobby/restuarant at the guest house doing nothing but eating, drinking (water) and watching TV. I think that the most stressful thing that I did was to go to the 7/11 for Oreos and Sugas which is all of 20 - 30 seconds away. It was just what was needed -- that and a super greasey and cheese heavy pizza -- after three days of street doofing.

The Songkran festival for me started out with becoming engaged in the celebratory skirmish, where all particpants are armed with either high powered water guns, buckets of paste, or any type of vessel that will hold water. At first we didn't venture much further than the entrance to the guest house, going from dry to drenched in 10 seconds flat. People walk past and spray you, you spray them, they smear you with paste and then repeat. After a full day of this however I was pretty exhausted and went back into the guest house to lay down arms for a little while. Then on her way past in the lobby, this girl who I had spoken to briefly before asks out of the blue; "Do you like trance music?"

I say "Yes."

She says, "Cool there is this trance stage set up just across the main road. Do you want to join."

"Yeah. Why not?"

And thus began the schedule for the next three days.

When we get to the party -- it is best described as a party within this massive party -- I find that is not just any old trance but Psy-trance. After being a bit disappointed at the limited amount of psy-trance available at the Full Moon party, the last thing that I had expected to find in the middle of Bangkok is some awesome doofing.

You got the sense while simulateanously watching as well as participating in the spectacle of the entire party -- the one that was going on in all the major cities in Thailand -- was fueled by a good many buckets of vodka Red Bull, Sang Sorm (80% proof Thai Whisky)and Red Bull, Singha and Chiang Beer. There were people who were stumbling around on the verge of passing out at 4 in the afternoon who, some how managed to maintain that state and were still stubbling around at 9 at night.

The doof was insane, much more of an alcohol vibe than you would expect from a doof but the vibe was still amazing - a bit more raw as there were a few fights and that broke out, but they were usually between people who were just passing through the party -- some of these people are the ones who should have been passing out. On the dance floor there was a real sense of communal celebration and I think that it is this that held most of us up in states of massive inhebriation. Don't get me wrong though, there were casualities, and I think that on the morning of the fourth day (that is the day after) the entire city (or the area around Khao Sarn Road at least) woke up wishing it didn't exist with a ounding headache.

A few of us went for a walk to the pizza place the next day and the streets were still caked with white power which had settled in a film over the tarmac and filled in all the cracks. A few party casualties still stumbled in throught he streets, all the fight gone from them by now. Other people were out taking advantage of the chance to have a rare quiet moment on the normally busy streets.

The party was a like nothing else that I have ever experienced - I think that "raw" is a good way to describe it as "chaos" is a term that has been too over used. Moments of great eleation; of amazment; of incredulity; of unbalanced staggering (as oppsed of course to the balanced kind) and a swimming brain, of contemplation; of exhaustion and shock as they turned off the music at 10pm when everyone still wanted to keep going. Here the police made their presence felt, stepping in to pull the pin our little psy-trance corner of the New Years festivities. The music was stopped but the crowd would not budge. Yelling, chanting and clapping broke out. There was hope in the air backed by determination! ... Suddenly the crowd is sent scurrying as they whiff something strange in the air and a searing in the lungs. I guess in Thailand, at the toll of the pepper spray, the party is over.

We batted a retreat back to the guest house, me coughing uncontrollably, but feeling angry and confused at the use of such harsh methods. I am continue coughing and feel a bit panicky; later when I have recovered I feel like a bit of an idiot for it. Back at the guest house it is time to hang out which in Thailand is a constant unless you have to do something else to do like check email sleep, or go shopping, otherwise you just default back to the status quo. Bangkok daze, pizza and beer; what else do you really need?

---

Yeah I finally finished this post which has been sitting in my draft box for almost a month now. I will add some photos to this poat when I get a chane to upload them.

I have just arrived in Praha (Prague) today and still have to write about my time in London town. So far thought after only 4 hours Prague is amazing. There is art, sculpture and design ever where. It is psychedelic city in which it is customeray to get lost in the maze like streets where you, judging from your surrounding, you may just meet the Minotaur at the centre, or maybe just pass while heading the other way.

Songkran. Thai New Year! Holy F***!!!

Ok; I have survived Thai New Year. Battered and quite fried but I can say that my vital functions are kicking back in gear.

What a party!!!

Photos and more to follow.

Roskilde

The line for Roskilde is looking more and more insane, with some amazing artists who will be awesome to see, and whole bunch of exciting artists to discover.

I am still working on ways of getting there and things are very much up in the air, but will wait and see how things pan out.

On a second note, the offical days of Thai New Year are from the 13th to the 15th of April next week, but celebrations have already started with a massive parade yesterday and a few people already armed with water pistols. This will be the 3rd New Year I have seen in this calendar year which is pretty cool.

writing and memory and something being forged.

a while back i posted that i would still write about my expereince trekking through the jungle north of chiang mai. so much has happened between then and now, and much of which i have not managed to capture in either my blog or my journal, and as such i feel it already fading into that obscurity where memories begin to feel like events and stories that happened to someone else. as such i have been using this blog as much to communicate what i have been up to as a way of recording the experiences and thoughts for my own person documentation. however having said that, my experiences trekking have already faded somewhat and will be difficult to resurrect here without them seeming forced so i will settle for some very brief, mostly factual notes and some images, but what i will say, is if you are ever in the north of thailand, then trekking is must, and better to opt for at least a three day venture - but longer if possible.

• we had a small group, just 5 of us in total when there is usually 12.
  
• stopped at a market on the way up to the start of the trekking site.
  tried some beetle-nut from on of the local hill tribe woman selling water bottle holders at the market.
  
  the beetle-nut gave me the biggest head spin and i had swallowed too much of it which made the bumpy winding road to the site hell.
  
  it was appropriate however, as everyone else had had a big night the night before and, so i was now on a similar footing.
  
  
• got to the site, had lunch and then elephant trekking. i must admit that the least memorable part of the trek was riding the elephant, not because the beast was not majestic and regal in its calm sure footed-ness, but more that it seemed to have no purpose in the context ot the tour - at least for me anyway. the route we travelled was not lengthy and could have quite easily been navigated on foot. i think that if we had gone for a longer trek it might have had more of an impact. as it was i felt that this part of the trek was just to humour the tourists that we were and as such did not give the credit due to both the elephants, the guides and the farangs - or this is just my cynical side coming through once again.
  
  
• a long steep 3 - 4 hour hike up to the first village left us all exhausted upon arrival.
  
  
• had an amazing dinner of sweet and sour veg, rice and curry.
  
  
• sat with our guides around the fire on the balcony of the bamboo hut singing classic rock and folk songs from the 70's and 80's under a blanket of stars. our guide told us how once wanted to be a rock star between trying to remember the cords to the next song.
  
  
• next morning, left by 10am for more trekking on foot.
  
  
• had lunch in the jungle, pad thai style noddles, served off of leaves and eaten with jungle chopsticks.
  
  
• ended the day at village with a small water fall.
  
  
• finished up on the third day with white water rafting and then bamboo rafting in which time was both present and irrelevant, but we all knew that we would be back in the civilised much too soon.
  
  
• getting off the raft we were greated by our guides and their black taxi truck. how much is that doggie in the window was blarring on the radio. i don't know why but the oddity of it seemed some how fitting.
  
  
• the entire experience was book end by led zepplins, stairway to heaven as we rolled into our last lunch site with that pumping out of the back of the van. that had been the same track with which we journeyed to the first site three days before and one of the songs that we had sung on that first night sitting around the fire. wayne's world will no longer be there first that i think of when i hear stairway
  

Shelter for the first night.



Dinner beinging prepared.



Dinner beinging prepared #2.



Lunch in the Jungle #1



Lunch preparation.



Waking up on the second day.

the familiar

One of the things I got to thinking about in the darkest moments of homesickness when I was enduring my turn at a bout of food poising was what exactly is it that makes home home. Of course one can name family members (including pets), list particular items and reminisce over food and certain ways of doing things - but what is about these things? Put simply, it is that they are familiar, and most the familiar of these are found at home, so much so that they exist beyond the point of conscious distinction. The sounds and smells of home are something that are never noticed until they are no longer there; it is the place where we find those things with which we have the most affinity.

For me putting family aside for the moment, there are still moments now when I miss the sanctity of my own bedroom and most of all my bed, however after traveling once through Tokyo and then on to Kyoto, returning to Tokyo the second time was a kind of welcome return to the familiar. So I started to think what it is about particular places that make people want to move and settle there. Disregarding the person motivated by a need to escape for the purposes of this discussion, it seems to me that there must be some kind of affinity that is felt for the new location; something in the air or water that speaks to some inarticulate part of a persons being that tells them, this is like home.

As yet on my travels I have not found such a place, nor do I really expect to -- in fact I have come to appreciate Australia on levels I never quite imagined -- however, on the road there have been many other travelers who have at various points of my passing through told me of how they have stopped where I have found them, and now call this or that place home. At the moment, apart from a new understanding of my feelings towards the home that is Australia, I feel the most affinity for the act of leaving, of bidding a pace farewell, and perhaps when I return home that is what I will miss most.

I never did get to experience Sakura

All the while that I was in Japan there was a tension in the air, not just the usual stress of work, nor the nervous anticpation of the big one, but one where everyone was anticpating the arrival of the Sakura - the cherry blossoms. It has been a somewhat colder spring and as such it has been late in arriving this year. I was hoping that before I left I would be able to see the spectacle which for a foriegner is not so much the blossoms themselves but the mayhem that ensue around them. Apparently, once the blossoming has occured all the parks and gardens become packed with hordes of Japanese armed with Sake and Cherry Blossom liquor, picnic blankets and portable karoke machines. Each group sets up in a patch of clear space in the park and proceeds get sloshed belting out karoke favourites. Even if I get to witness and maybe even participate inI guess there are somethings I will just never understand.



Waiting for Sakura

A night in a ka-pu-se-ru ho-te-ru.

When looking into where the venue for the Suzanne Vega concert was going to be I had noticed that their was a ka-pu-se-ru ho-te-ru (capsule hotel) about two minutes, so I made plans to spend the night in there. Capsule hotels basically exist so those poor salary men who, after a big night of Sake, or Karoke, or just plain old work have missed the last train will have a place to crash. The capsules are like catacombs where each guest has there own small cell to sleep in.

Casule hotles are meant to be a cheap place to sleep as an alternative to the very expensive cab ride home, although when comparing it to the price of a dorm bed in a hostel it is slightly more expensive. I was paying about 3500 yen for my dorm bed at the Sakura Hotel in Jimobocho while my night at the ka-pu-se-ru ho-te-ru cost 3700 yen. It was certainly worth it for the experience, but due to its price and the particular rules, it is not practical for travellers who are planning a long stay in the city. Check-in is at 5pm and check-out is at 10am, so there is no chance of catching a midday nap after a long flight, bus trip or stint on the Shinkensen (the bullet train). Most capsule hotels are also men-only which makes things it for any female travellers wanting to cross it off their "To do" list. I did meet two girls from Germany however, who managed to find one that allowed women somewhere in Osaka.

On arrival you enter what seems like any other average hotel lobby, with a front desk and the attendant standing behind it. I approached the desk and asked if the attendant spoke English. He said "Yes, a little." which was a refreshing change from the usual paniciked run around which ensues as the person tries to find someone who I can communicate in English with. I said that I wanted to book a capsule for the night, at which point I was directed to a vending machine to the side of the desk which looked like something out of a 1960's sci-fi movie. I was told in polite but broken english, that I needed to select what sort of accomodation I wanted for the night from the massive panel of butons. The basic option was a single capsule at 3700 yen, while the other option was the deluxe which was called the Business Man; however, apart from the price - which was almost double - I couldn't read what the differences might be.

I fed my cash into the machine and with a much WRRRR-ing it spewed forth a ticket which I then turned and presented to the waiting attendant. He then presented me with a key marked 710, and proceeded to explain the rules of check-in and check-out, where the bathroom and the lockers and what were and floor my capsule was on. Reading that it all sounds quite easy but there was much to-ing an frow-ing and most of what he conveyed did not make sense until later when I was actually confronted with the item.

At first I pressumed that the key he had given me was for my capsule so I, noticing the shoes lined up at the edge of the carpet, went to continue on upstairs inmy socks.

"Sir!"

I turned back to the attendants as there were now two who where pointing to my shoes, to this I thought that they were asking if they were mine. I responded, "Yes." But there insistence and confused and bemused giggling told me there was more afoot here. After much dancing on the spot as I was not sure if they wanted me to move them, put on one of the pairs of slippers that lay next to them or just confirm ownership I managed to catch the words "shoe" and "locker" and looked to where they indicated noticing a series of small lockers next to the lift. I collected my shoes and went to the lockers with a collective sigh of relief from both the attendants and myself. I stowed my smell footware away eager to go upstairs and check out where I would be sleeping later that night.

I stepped out from the lockers ready to head up stairs when yet again I was called back to the front desk. Here through more confusion and bemused giggling by the attendants my shoe locker key was swapped for another key which comes securely attached to strap which looks like a mix between a watch band and those tags patients get in hospital. I guess there was no loosing this key.

Okay, now I was set to explore the rest of the establishment. I went up to the second floor where the lockers were located, and was glad that I had only brought my small day pack as the lockers, while being tall so that you may hang a suit are extremely narrow; so much so that I thought that if I put both my arms in there at once I would need the jaws of life to get free again. As it was, later that night when I got back from the concert I would have to unpack my day pack in order to have everything fit in the locker.

Next proceeded up to the floor where my capusle was. When you arrive it all feels very space age, glowing with a yellowish light to make it seem as warm and inviting as possible. My capsule was near the end of the corridor and looking in it actually looked quite spacious.



I guess this is how the series of capsules might look like through a space helmet?



My little hole in the wall for the night.

Happy with cleaniness of the place I went out for night. On leaving the hotel I had to swap my locker key (you don't need a key for the actualy capsule) for my shoe locker key - got my shoes and then had to return this key to the front desk as well. They made sure that I had my receipt so that I would be allowed back later that evening, and I was off to the Suzanne Vega gig.

Upon my return there was more bemused giggling and I was greeted warmly with a "Welcome home!" I said thank you and went through the ritual of swapping collecting and swapping once again. I went up to where the lockers and bath room was, packed my stuff away and then went to try and work out how the bath thing worked. There was a small foyer type area where a series of beige towels were stacked up on the shelves along with a collection of beige elastic waisted shorts. Still not overly sure what the deal was I poked my head through the door to the bathroom and realised it was a traditional communal Japanese kind of set up, where you have a number of seats set around the room in front of an extenable shower head. This set up in part explains why these establishments are primarily men-only. In the bath room are expected to soap and rinse your self first before hopping into the huge square bath tub. The tub is quite hot, but your body adjusts to it quite quickly. After a short sit in the tub I went to dry off and get dressed. At this point the purpose of the shorts became apparent; they were to put on over your regular shorts in a bid to maintain the cleaniness of the capsules.

I went up to capsule, and as it was already around 11pm the main lights were turned low. I clambered into my capsule, crashed head first into the back of the TV and then stupidly let down the heavy roller curtain which acts as your door which meant that I was fumbling around for the light switch in almost complete darkness. The plethora of switches on the wall far inside the unit meant that eventually I had to give into logic and draw up the curtain once more so that I had at least some light to make out what I was dealing with.



Major Tom to ground control... Err? Where is the ignition again?

For here am I floating round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do.

I finally managed to find the light switch and could settle into my cosy unit for the night. I let down the curtain and started to take noticemy surroundings. The structral components of the capsule is almost entirely plastic which gave it a look that reminded me of 2001: A Space Odssesy. Even the TV was encased in plastic. Overall the space was not as cramped as I had imagined, but I was a bit dissappointed that the door to the capsule was not like the doors that you get on washing dryers, as I had thought. It is probably jus as well that they are not however, as in the event of a fire or earthquake these cells would become sarcophiguy.

From examining my capsule I gathered that every capsule came with:

• 1 x Matteress (resonably comfortable)
  
• 1 x Pillow (filled with bean bag beans, not quite sure of the logic here but most pillows in Japan are of this sort.)
  
• 1 x Blanket covered in a sheet
  
• 1 x Light
  
• 1 x Television
  
• 1 x Radio / Alarm Clock with glowing green digital display
  
• 1 x Ear bud head phones
  
• 1 x Mirror
  

I began to try out the various switches and thought I'd check out what was on TV expecting a direct link to CNN Business news as I imagined that the salary men who used these hotels would probably want to check the market activity before going to bed and first thing when they woke up, instead I found that there was only one channel which carried Japanese porn. A bit of a shock, but I guess that that is another reason that these plces tend to be men-only. I then tried out the radio and accidentally ripped out the headphones from the jack which sent the radio program blaring out into the darkness. As these units are not sound proof, you can often hear the person below or even a few doors down snoring in the night, I received quite a few disgruntled groans as I fumbled for the off switch.

It took me a little while to get to sleep, reflecting on the concert and on the oddity of this whole experience, but when I did slept all the way through till morning. I awoke around 7:30 to the sounds of salary men getting ready for work and thought I would try to go back to sleep so I would not get in their way in their rush out the door, besides if I did get up and leave now I would be sure to caught in the morning peak hour commuter traffic at the station. I woke up again at around 9 and ventured out into the morning. Shibuya was only marginally quiter than it had been last night, although the working crowd had a very different vibe to the youth and party crowd of the evenings.

I got to Shibuya station at about 9:20 and waited for my train. The first train that arrived was completely packed, and even though a large number of commuters got off at the station it did not seem to make any differnce to the density of people on the train. I decided to wait for the next train, but it was the same thing again. This continued to happen for the next 30 minutes, until finally I decide to get on one of the trains that seemed a little less packed. Five stops later I was back at Jimbocho, Sakura Hotel and some semblance of the regular.

Back in the land of the Elephant

Ah Thailand, the country you love to hate and hate to love.

Well it is good to be back where the living is cheaper, however I think that overall my savings are dwindling much too quickly. I wasn't planning on being back in Thailand but despite getting three job offers without even trying to look for work in Japan --no seriousy, I didn't even leave the hostel coffee shop in Tokyo and work just seemed appear -- I decided after experiencing a bit of what life is like in Japan, that it is not for me. The pace and intensity of work will be equal or perhaps greater than that in Melbourne which is the reason that I had to leave in the first place. There were also issues to do with the culture that just didn't gel with me - the image we have of Japan in the west and the reality can be quite different.

So I am back in Thailand until I work out my next move, which may be back to OZ for a short bit just get things back on track. China is still an option, but I am trying to be honest with myself and listen to what it is I really want to do. Maybe I will just keep travelling until my funds run out and then start on a new career once I get back home. In the mean time I am focusing on learning as much as I can about how life works in the places that I travel through.

Anyone who has been to Thailand will know about the Tuk Tuks in Bangkok and some of the other major cities. For those who don't a Tuk Tuk is kind of like a cross between a rickshaw and a motorbike and they are basically one of the chief modes of transport for tourists here.



Me taking a Tuk Tuk for a hoon around town.

One of my friends who has been living in Bangkok for a while now said that Tuk Tuks are bad news, as they are quite visibly unsafe and the drivers are looking to make a buck in whatever way they can. So this usually translates into quite high chargers to go from one location to another - so much so that it is sometimes cheaper to catch a metered cab (but do make sure that they put on the meter). However, like everybody these Tuk Tuk drivers are just trying to make enough money to get by and once you get to know a little bit more of how the market works you can actually get some really good deals.

One of the ways in which Tuk Tuk drivers (and taxi drivers too) make money is through commissions. Often times you will be offered a tour around the sites of Bangkok for just 20 baht (about 70 Aussie cents), the thing that is not mentioned however is that apart from taking you to this or that Wat (the standing Buddha is a common one which seems to be only open one day of the year, which always just so happens to be this one) you will also be taken to a tailor shop, or gems stone store, or seafood place. The reason for this is that one, if the drivers takes you to one of these places and you show enough interest within the shop (often times the merchant will try to back you into putting down a deposit) they will receive a petrol voucher - and secondly, if you buy something they will get a commission on that sale. The cab driver who drove me in from the airport said that he would a 25% commission from a tailors and 30% from a jewelery store sale. Basically commissions are available to anyone who brings in customers on everything from crocidle farms, to body massage places, to Muay Thai matches.

So it would seem that all of Bangkok, even all of Thailand run on a basis of commissions, where everyone gets a slice of the pie. Now, if you are aware of this and want to see the sites of Bangkok for 20 baht, or indeed for free as I did yesterday, you need just have a friendly chat witha Tuk Tuk driver about taking you around the sites while also taking you to some of these other businesses where you will show enough interest so that the Tuk Tuk driver can get his petrol voucher. You will be amazed at how appreciative the driver will be, which gives some sense of the level of poverty here. It helps of course if you are interested in the items you are enquiring about and it is a good way to shop around to get the best deal. Do be careful of the gem scam that runs here in Thailand, where you are told that for one time in the year you can get jewelery with gems stones set in them at whole sale and tax free prices, which will be worth double what you paid once you get home. If you are lucky, you might get half your money back.

Overall it can be a fun and educational exeperience where you get to a bunch of the city; the smog is major negative aspect to the deal however.

A day in Kyoto Station

I spent my last day in Kyoto hanging around the huge grey cube like building that is Kyoto station. As I got to watch the the paricular movements of people through this space over a 12 hour period I started to notice the number of homeless people also hanging around. On yoru intial pass you can be forgiven for not seeingthem, perhaps even on your secod or third pass as they are quite inconspicuos. They do their best to blend in with background as much out of the way of the ebb and flow commuters as possible and wait out the daylight hours in whatever warmth they can find. At times the years of filth and grim do betray them however despite the super efficient air conditioning of this futuristic manga inspired megaplex. Mostly however they are invisible not entirely due to their methods of camoflague, for once you see through the veil they are there in bold presence. What realy makes they invisible at first and second glance is teh fact tat the comuters and shoppers just don"t see them. It is not that they don't notice, because that implies that they can be noticed - rather they will look straight through these ghosts who have been abandoned by the machine. I know that the homeless in any big city tend to be walked passed ignored, but in those cases there is still some level of acknowledgement even if it is only the acknowledgement not to outwardly acknowledge.



Kyoto Megaplex

The homeless n Japan don't or ask for money or seem to seek any form of recognition, they seem to exist as if behind a pane of gass, a seperate community unto themselves. Which reminds me how people find community among others in common circumstances to be endured.



Art in the megaplex



Inside the Megaplex



Outside the Megaplex

Walking around Kyoto and Tokyo, you might notice the occasional neat square bundle of stuff wrapped in a blue tarp. This is one of the few signs that you are passing someones home; it is just the case that its location is in such a public place that it has to be packed up for the day and rolled again at night. There are some more permanent structures though through the cities; little strectches of shanti towns made of tarps, tents, and some even with rice cookers, all very neatly laid -- meta-urban planning. The homeless here might have lost most or all of their possessions and status but they have not lost their sense of personal pride in their home.



Water front views (Asakusa - Tokyo).



The homeless in Shibuya (Tokyo).



View front Shibuya location (Tokyo).

So back in Kyoto station I watch as the homeless wait to get their homes back for the night, and I think how these men and women are the keepers of the secrets of this place as they watch its tide of workers, shoppers, officials and tourists flow n and out each day. These people are the ghosts of this place, their presence sometimes felt but never really chosen by the masses to be seen.

Leaving on a jet plane.

Just a quick update as I sit here in the free internet cafe at Narita airport.

Yep, folks I am on the road again, heading back to Thailand for a bit to decide the next destination. Japan has been great but I know that if I can help this is not the place that I want to spend a year working. There a few reasons why, things like the language barrier and differnces in culture are there, but not something that is impossible to work around - all in all it gets quite easy staying in Japan after a while. The subway is easy enough to work out and once you break through the initial barrier of being lost in a land of foreign sites and sounds you will learn which dishes you like and which ones to avoid. Just on this subject, if you are coming to Japan avoid Natto at all costs. I was lucky enough to have had suffiient warnings froms friends that this is a no go zone. Natto is a traditional Japanese breakfast which is rice, sushi and fermented bean curd. It is stired together until it resemblems a kind of clear ectoplasm seen Ghostbusters.

Well, I think my decision to leave Japan is based in part of the work ethic here which is very high, and I was wary of falling back into a very full on job again. While I know that in China the work load may not be much differnt, but I think that over all the approach to it will be differnt. I know that China will be really hard in terms of language as well the lack of modern convenience, but ultimately I feel that these (and all the other yet seen challenges) will make the experience much more rewarding. (Hmmm, that has the ring of a classic set of famour last words).

I am also thinking that I may head to India for a while if I decide that I don't want to work just yet, while heading back to Thailand might give me the chance to go to Ankor Wat before making any final decisions. There is also the possiblity as Europe starts to warm up, of head north n the Trans-Siberian Express and hanging out in Scandanvia for a while. A friend wants to meet up for the Roskilde Festival in few months. So who knows; I could even end up at Burning Man. I guess things will become more solid over the next few weeks.Any way better go, want to grab a bite to eat before the plane. Hmmm, Natto!

Suzanne Vega in Tokyo 2005

Travelling through Japan there are a few free publication for Gaijin with a few articles and gig listings. Scanning through one of these last week I noticed that Suzanne Vega was playing in Tokyo on the 31st of March and the 1st of April. When I was travelling through the US 2 years ago, I ran out of money at the end of my trip and could stay the extra week to catch her playing in New York. I was in something of a similar boat this time around having planned to hav already left Japan at this point - but I just couldn't miss this second oppourtunity.

So I did my research, trekked throught the chaotic neon maze of Shibuya to find out where the Duo Music Exchange was. I found but found out too that I had to call up to reserve a ticket. This was a truly comical undertaking as I got hand balled three times, and by the third time when I asked the person on the other end of the line if they spoken english, you could hear the entire office erupt in laughter in the background.



Flyers, Pod and Map

The decor inside the duo Music Exchange can only be discribed as something akin to a neo-jazz/funk club, with sections of padded orange vinyl on the walls and raw concrete pillars on the main floor. Seating is set out at dinner tables across two levels. The stage is actually quite big for such an intimate space which with its particular layout never feels too crowded. All in all you are very much in the prescence of the artist in this space, as the tables at the foot of the stage often mean that these audience members and the performer are only 2 meters apart. Then, while scanning through the flyer of upcoming events at the duo Music Exchange, I spy one of the only bits of english on it, it says next to his picture "Total Produced by Jay Kay (Jamiroquai)." An "ah" moment follows as the Jamiroquai horned silloheutte used as the venums logo suddenly makes sense.



Crowd outside duo Music Exchange

So last night waiting for the show to begin, the crowd sit there mezmerised by the digital projections of music video from Suzanne Vega's Retrospective DVD and CD which is about to be released here. Paul Kelly is playing over the PA, singing about how "...every fucking city feels the same." There is something about those lyrics that speaks to the traveller, in the same way that songs about leaving do.



I sit there and notice there are a handful of Gaijin here, maybe seven in all including me. I think, how I never expected to be here, both in the immediate sense of my current surroundings as well in the larger sense of the surprising places that life can sometimes take us if we let it -- but then again I don't know if I really expected myself to be anywhere in particular. I find myself wondering why it is that when you find yourself doing the most unexpected things that often get the strongest sense of de ja vu. I decide to order another Canadian Club on the rocks and think about good times shared with friends over CC and Asahi.

I can feel my excitement build; like most people I first heard Suzanne Vega in the mid 80's with the song Luka and Tom's Dinner, which most people recognise from the dance remix version from the late 80's or early 90's as the "Doo do, do do doo do" song. It has been 20 years since I first discovered the LP "Solitude Standing" back in the time before CDs, and Suzanne's catalogue has grown steadily since.

Eight-o-clock rolls around and Suzanne Vega is introduced to a very warm reception. No opener in this setting, we are all here for the one thing. Well almost, quite a few members of the audience are here too for the dinner available on the:


Suzeanne Vega Live at duo Music Exchange
Special Menu

Dinner Plate

sauteed chicken served with pancetta & truffe flavou sauce & caesar salad

2,500


Special Wine

Redwood Creek Chardonnay 2003

Bottle 3,900
Glass 900


Set

Special Wine & Dinner Plate
3,000

Special Wine & Dinner Plate

8,000



But then again, who can blame them, as coming straight from a busy day at work to a 6:30pm door call, there probably wouldn't be much time to grab a bite. Also I think this is the way that more gigs are done here, a sort of a jazz club feel. I had a very similar experience at the Kaki King show last week at the Blue Note Jazz club in Omotesando.

Suzanne walks on stage followed by her bassist Mike Visceglia. She is respectful but warm towards the crowd as she starts to gauge where the audience is at. She practices a bit of her japanese on the crowd which is met with great appreciation. She picks up her guitar and the duo rock straight into the raw openess of Marlene on the Wall and instantly draws the crowd away in the individual collective experience of travelling the emotional pathways into the many gathered personal histroies and relationships we have with that song. Next we stay with songs from her debut as she and Mike fall into Small Blue Thing.

The show contiunes with Suzanne engaging with the crowd in a bit of English and Japanese banter, at one point almost sending Mike hurrying from the stage by threatening to put him and his Japanese skills to the test. Suzeanne then performs a few tracks solo and it is amazing to notice how her vice just drifts out into space as little as air with lyrics that resonate so deep.

Suzeanne puts her guitar down and it just voice and bass for the pulse quickening vocal gallop of Blood Makes Noise followed by Left of Center.

The set list for the evening also includes a couple of new tracks; Anniversary written about the one year anniversary of 9/11, and Edith Warton's Figurines which she explains will have an appropriate translation for the Japanese release, while joking that one is needed for the American release too so that people can get what she is singing about.

For the encore Suzanne came out and asked for what the audience wanted to hear and was bombarded by a wide range of titles from her entire collection - yells came, *Solitude Standing* - *Language* - *Cracking* - *Rosemary*. Suzanne apologized for not being able to do some of the titles as they either required the entire band or they were tracks that she and Mike had not played in a real long time. So with that Rosemary was decided upon. After finishing the song Suzeanne was already to go but Mike was keen to stick around and grant one of the requests - "Cracking". They joked about whether they would remember the how it went but it went flawlessly as far as we were concerned which was shown in the insistant appluading that went on well after the house lights brightened in an attempt to coax a second encore from the duo.

A fanatastic and intimate show which lived up to expectation much more than imagined -- and we all know the problems with expectations, that they are so much more often dashed than upheld, much less exceeded.

Through some chance timing, I went over to the edge of the stage near the exit after the show. I noticed another Gaijin waiting there after having spoken to Mike. I started speaking to the guy waiting there about what an amazing show it was and while trying to catch Mike to say what an awesome show it was. It turned out that the Gaijin, a guy from Spain who had also missed his previous chance of seeing Suzeanne perform, had asked Mike if he could just say a few words to Suzanne. Two minutes later Mike appears and ushers us in - well what could I do but go with the flow. Standing just off stage where the performs enter and exit from i wait my turn, I have not rehearse anything to say, again I was not expecting to be here so I kept what I had to say as short possible. I settle for just saying "Thank you"; saying too much and you can sometimes get lost in the maze of language trying to convey too many thoughts at once.

An amazing performance in a strange land and place, but like the line in Scarlett Begonias "Once in a while you get shown or expereince (the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right." Hmmm, but then again, I guess it is always there, we need just be open to it.

---

Set list for Suzeanne Vega Live at the duo Music Exchange 31.3.2005

1. Marlene on the Wall
   
2. Small Blue Thing
   
3. Caramel
   
4. When Heros Go Down
   
5. Gypsy
   
6. I'll Never Be Your Maggie May
   
7. Penitent
   
8. Solitaire
   
9. Blood Makes Noise
   
10. Left of Centre
    
11. Queen and the Solider
    
12. Anniversary
    
13. Edith Warton's Figurines
    
14. In Liverpool
    
15. Luka
    
    Encore
    
    
16. Rosemary
    
17. Cracking