I’ve been keeping more journals lately, inspired in large part by Henry Rollins and his ‘Black Coffee Blues’ trilogy, where he brilliantly documents life on the road. Here’s a journal entry from the other day, after landing in Japan. Expect more journal entries to show up here from time to time.
9/19/08 6:30pm Tokyo, Japan It feels great to be back here. Been traveling about twenty hours. After laying down on the bed careful to stay awake, (must stay up till at least 10pm or risk being up all night), I get cleaned up, scoped out the area once again. I love it here.
While New York feels to me like the heartbeat of the world, Tokyo is like the pulse. The energy is flowing. Elegant, perfectly groomed women pass by like walking mannequins, some conservative and proper, others scantily clad and sexy. Throngs of business men in suits and ties blend with young hipster looking dudes, most of whom will done business suits one day. All of them are bathed in the electric glow cast by the colorful blinking neon signs in Japanese.
We’re getting taken to dinner by our record label in about an hour, so I decide to walk around a bit and stock up on snacks for my hotel at the nearby 7 Eleven. That’s right, 7 Eleven.
7 Eleven in Tokyo is much different than 7 Eleven in say, Dayton, Ohio. I’m ready to take the edge off a bit, so I buy a couple little sake bottles, which are located right there among the beers. I’m not sure what kind they are, can’t read them but they look like ones I’ve seen in Japanese restaurants back home. Try them both what the hell. Then I find a what looks like a mini can of beer, but it’s by Santori, the Japanese whiskey. I’m assuming it’s beer, but not sure. I throw it in my basket.
Later, some fans waiting outside the hotel, curious about my shopping spree, will inform me that this is actually a canned ‘whiskey cocktail,’ which brings to mind Bill Murray’s jaded character in the movie ‘Lost In Translation.’ I’ll hold up the can, smile and announce’It’s Santori time!!.’ to immense Japanese laughter.
I move on to the snacks section, which tells me we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Dried fish in small personal plastic bags. Cuttlefish, squid, things I don’t recognize. I settle on a bag of rice crackers with peanuts, a bag of shredded dried cuttlefish and this other bag which I know would freak out a lot of friends back home: tiny dried octopus legs.
I move on to the refrigerated area. There is an assortment of little triangle shaped rice balls. Each one comes with seaweed which is wrapped separately and there are different colored labels depending on the filling. These are totally hit or miss. Sometimes you pick one with wasabi or hot cabbage (yum) or sometimes you get one with egg salad (yech!). Undaunted, I grab one with a green colored label and add it to my orange basket of bounty.
On the way back to the hotel, I stop by the outdoor vending machine. It’s changed a bit. They used to have beer in this machine, something that came in quite handy at 4am when all the stores were closed. Now it’s mostly sodas and cans of coffee but they do have something which I love to get here and I was surprised they didn’t have at the 7 Eleven: ‘Royal Milk Tea.’ This is a can of perfectly blended British tea and milk, served cold which I imagine is targeted to British visitors. I buy four cans.
Dried fish, sake and now milk tea? These are everyday staples here in Japan. I’m extremely blessed that I get to step out of my cultural surroundings and come to places such as this and step into a whole new reality. I have a show tomorrow but am not thinking about that now. I’m ready to absorb Tokyo in all it’s glory.